[SUGGESTION] Save the HLAC !

I have been hearing alot of talk about getting rid of the HLAC... I have even seen that G-23 replaced its HLAC with a second crylink ... (why?)

I do agree that at its current state the HLAC is pretty much an energy hagar, and that it is redundant... however I don't want to see any of Xonotic weapons go .... thats why I will offer my opinion.

make the HLAC awesome ....


here is how.....

1st the hlac bullets should not move at a constant speed... they should start out of the gun moving very slowly and then gradually speed up as they travel farther.

2nd the secondary causes all current HLAC bullets (shot by the player) to disappear. Then at any time (as long as the player has not died) clicking the secondary again will cause the frozen bullets to reappear (at their original position) and shoot out at full speed.

This could be useful for setting invisible remotely triggered traps. It is also useful in places where a mine would be too obvious or for mid air areas.

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its not perfect ... but here is an animation I used to help explain my idea

... i took the initiative to host the 1.5 mb gif externally

Why not secondary a kind of an small energy ball that sticks to a wall, and lasts around 5 secs emitting a deadly laser of... 5 meters long?

Or primary to place the balls and secondary to activate the laser, with a limit of 2 or 3 lasers.
In a corridor then, you could place 1 at the beginning and one at the end so that you activate them when a player is in the middle, you could then trap him there and kill him.

To remove them before 5 seconds or before the enemy activates them the other player would need a "plasma" based weapon [crylink, nex, etc].

Why not secondary a kind of an small energy ball that sticks to a wall, and lasts around 5 secs emitting a deadly laser of... 5 meters long?

Like that? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sehY_SkQkNs

Like that? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sehY_SkQkNs

LOL

i was thining more like mines in duke nukem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-aPxyiUOEM

But the laser would kill you, not make the mine explode.
The laser would only be like 5 meters long, it wouldn't be infinite
And it would only last 5 seconds active before disappearing.
Enough time to trap someone or stop him from running away.

Imagine the flag carrier escaping, you shoot a laser to the corridor were he will pass and then he would have to stop and fight or deactivate the laser with a weapon

Or in deathmatch someone is really fast and is running around all the map, then you see him jump from the top of the map to go though a corridor at the bottom and you shoot a laser there, he can't stop fast enough and dies split by it.

Mine launcher seems to do the trick for that.

My say is: wait for a new arc cannon, it may be just what the doctor ordered.

there is nothing you can do about it. nobody would listen to you anyway

My say is: wait for a new arc cannon, it may be just what the doctor ordered.

arc canon = lightning gun

But it still isn't clear what will secondary do (if there will be any in the first place).

My thoughts about the HLAC:

KILL IT WITH FIRE!

My thoughts about the HLAC:

KILL IT WITH FIRE!

All of the redundant weapons need to be killed.

IMO HLAC primary/quake plasma gun needs to be crylink secondary.

then we can kill HLAC.

I added a cheesy animation to help explain my point ...
(created in synfig ... people I made in inkscape for a different project ... used gimp to cut its size in half)

Also this isn't a HLAC Hate thread --- its a lets change it into something better thread

I agree with OP, HLAC is awesome, I don't get why do they want to remove it, it adds some variability. Like rifle, some people won't touch it, its nothing but a copy of xon. For me HLAC is more fun to use than crylink. Its the only weapon spewing fast moving particles and also being a strong shotgun. Crylink is not a substitute, its secondary is useless.
If you really hate that why don't you modify it to make more sense. Like OP mentioned, or adding time before it starts firing but it would fire more often. Like overkill machine gun.
And if you really want to get rid of weapons then, remove fireball, rifle ,TAG and Minelayer, all of them are useless/redundant/balance breaking shit.

My thoughts about the HLAC:

KILL IT WITH FIRE!

Better destroy it with lazers!

I <3 HLAC

Don't kill it I'm can't sleep without having a HLAC

Crylink is not a substitute, its secondary is useless.

Devs said they're not done with it yet. Thank God, because indeed it is pretty useless.

Like OP mentioned, or adding time before it starts firing but it would fire more often. Like overkill machine gun.

Confirmed. As a chaingun (reworked mg).

And if you really want to get rid of weapons then, remove fireball, rifle ,TAG and Minelayer,

Fireball - hell no, it is a superweapon, it is confirmed to be redone in power-up form like Strength or Defense.
Rifle - there are plans for consolidation of nex and rifle, not 100% clear, how exactly it will work - ongoing discussion in a topic below yours (like most of provided info here).
TAG - I would agree with that, or at least heavily rework it.
Mines - hell no, this is a trap laying device rather than actual weapon. Fun to trap some good items or near abouts of flags, assault objects, etc.

my view

Fireball - its a little over powered, but its the only fire based thing in the game right now
Rifle - very very different from xon/nex if you know how to use it (again read discussion)
TAG - is actually very good at taking down vehicles (especially the flying ones) This gun has to stay (and get an awesome model)
Mines - rafallus stated it perfectly



If the devs are determine to get rid of it... it should at least be moved to some unlisted weapon list so bots can use it in single player (once sp gets more mature)

However,
i think reworking it into a gun that is independent of time space would be pretty cool (and make the bullets something other than red)

For me HLAC is more fun to use than crylink.

The concern is that HLAC is too similar to hagar, not crylink

I didnt mean to say that those weapons should be removed. Its just that lots of weapons are WIP, so why remove it.

So, what about the HLAC do you want to keep and what may change?

Should the name change?
Should the settings change?
A different look and feel of the weapon model or projectiles?

The H.L.A.C. was designed as a Laser-Gatling. Spread for a Laser doesn't make much sense, but it was added for game balance reasons.

I like the idea of projectiles seemingly defying basic laws of physics. Disappearing and reappearing of projectiles might pose an issue to gameplay, but i'd love to see slowly-moving homing projectiles floating about the map. First, i thought the projectiles should be plasma, which would suggest a name change of the weapon, but on the other hand, since we're about to defy laws of physics, anyway, it might use some kind of "warp tunnel" to carry Laser beams. They would get slower and randomly disappear* to substitute for spread. (spread should only apply to magnetic particles or physical projectiles)

Secondary fire could be a magnetic grapple, specialized for stealing weapons.


(*If they randomly disappear they might just as well randomly re-appear. Did i mention they'd home in to follow the target? After respawn?)

my view

Fireball - its a little over powered, but its the only fire based thing in the game right now
Rifle - very very different from xon/nex if you know how to use it (again read discussion)
TAG - is actually very good at taking down vehicles (especially the flying ones) This gun has to stay (and get an awesome model)
Mines - rafallus stated it perfectly



If the devs are determine to get rid of it... it should at least be moved to some unlisted weapon list so bots can use it in single player (once sp gets more mature)

What about linking them into one, horribly powerfull weapon?
It'd be RifoFireTargetoMineball...

Ok. Mabye not

BTW I agree with the last sentence quoted.