[SUGGESTION] Weapon: Ice Burster

I agree with Taximus, I'm too not saying it will improve gameplay 400%, it's just an interesting idea.
so, why not implement it -> setup a test server -> some of us gather on that server at a specific time -> try different gamemodes with it -> get feedback -> rebalance it based on feedback -> retest -> loop until we get a good balance -> decide whether it should be included in final release or not.

The only problem here is that we can't _demand_ developers to implement this, I mean they may not have the time to code it, or may not think it is worth it.

That's why I was talking about thinking about it first. I mean: what are the pros, what are the cons, what could it possibly bring to gameplay, and general teamplay if well implemented.

Having such a "list" would make us save time later if we decide to implement to make some tests.
For exemple:
Pros:
1. Could be interesting to have slowdown effect or something
2. Could bring something new and interesting to the game if well done
Cons:
1. A badly balanced weapon (high refire, high damage, high range, to strong effect would make such a weapon unuseful) ->Tip for improving #1: Slow refire, very minimal damage (damage is really not the main purpose of the weapon anyway...), short to medium range (how about a beam or something that would disappear after a few meters?), and not extreme slowdown (you must still be able with skills to take down an enemy) that's why 2/3 of normal speed as been suggested.
2. Annoying freezing effect. This game is about speed, skills, movement and shooting everywhere, if you can't move at all (few seconds, lets say 2 or 3) it's just annoying and nobody will ever want to see such a weapon -> Tip #2: no freeze on long time...
3. Annoying for FC. -> Tip #3: FC could be immune to it or something. This would then allow for some teamplay. For example: player x take flag, player y and z are following and slowing down people/fighting them. Also the FC would be able to slow down some dangerous enemy.

etc... etc... etc...

Actually, what nifrek said. Let's sort out the current weapons we have, what will happen with them in changes and basic gameplay stuff and balancing before we make something else and test it.

I'm not going to quote every single post, so I'll do the conclusion here with my own words.

Considering the posts in this thread people want to test this weapon, or more closely freezing effect as a mutator first. This could be such a good idea, so we will notice how does it affect in gameplay.

Of course I knew that this weapon isn't "perfect" when I described it in the first post, so obviously it needs tweaking. If the freeze mutator seems nice, one happy developer could start to make this weapon and use it in a test server, where people can give feedback so the weapon itself will be nicely balanced and doesn't ruin the gameplay - it just gives an interesting aspect to the gameplay. If/when this weapon seems finished, it could be officially published in normal game.

So, is this what you want?

Well that's basically what some people were saying.

1. Know what we are doing with actual weapons
2. While this is done, we can still discuss ideas about such a weapon
3. Then somebody could implement a prototype (why not me? I'm not a great coder, but I could try/help...)
4. Make some testing on a server... (mine could be open for this if needed/if we got no other server... please note that my bandwidth is really crappy, intended to play with people near me, but played with a guy from New-York once (far enough from here, I'm in canada) with pretty good performance and 15-20bots)
5. Make some tweaking
6. If the weapon is interesting in real life, get high quality stuff for it (model, textures...)
7. Make it accessible in a release as mutator.
8. Make it accessible in normal game.

Could definitely be an interesting mutator. I was just thinking about a freeze tag game on skybox maps. Here are 2 examples I thought of:

Regular Freeze Tag.
1 player for every 4 gets the freeze gun, the rest get lasers. The player with the freeze gun is obviously trying to freeze everyone, and the other players are trying to get away. The normal players get a laser. This can be used for 2 purposes. 1. Thaw frozen players (requires like 3 hits or something to unfreeze) 2. used as knockback and/or stun against freezing players. Could possibly even the odds a little bit by giving freezing players some slight transparency to make them harder to see since there is a discrepancy in team sizes. Points are earned for not getting frozen, knocking freezers off maps, unfreezing players, or for the freezers, points are earned for freezing players, and a nice bonus for freezing all players within a round.

Fire & Ice.
Teams are even, All players have a laser and a freeze gun.
If you get hit by freeze gun, you take a little bit of damage continuously, Your movement speed is slowed.
If you get hit by the laser, you take an initial burst of damage, and a medium amount of damage from then on. Your movement speed is NOT slowed.
Both effects can wear off over time. Also, being hit by a projectile from the opposite weapon (frozen person gets hit by laser or burnt person gets hit by freeze gun), the effect ceases.
Players earn points for the points of damage they cause to players on the other team, and for removing effects from teammates. Players lose points for damage from team shots. They can undo those effects before they lose too many points though.

The only problem I'm looking at is with the second one, and that's players shooting the ground beneath them, which would undo the effects placed upon them by others (like when you use the laser as a portable jump pad, and you take damage. This wouldn't be an issue on the first because the players are completely frozen, and not just slowed down. This should be able to be remedied somehow for the second one though...

Just ideas for mutators or as a new game type. I do not believe however that the freeze gun would be a healthy addition to normal game types. On its own, or with the laser though, I think would be interesting.