Just doing a bit of research here.
What is everybodies ideal deathmatch weapons setup. [?]
Let me elaborate a bit more:
Whats your favourite weapons/weapon type?
What do you think is a good number of weapons to have?
What would you consider to be an essential weapon?
What do you think of weapons with alternate fire?
What weapons should there be less of, or that are are over used?
Realistic or unrealistic weapons?
If you have any other comments please add them. [:)]
Im no game designer and im certainly no game maker pro, but i am a seasoned FPS player so i hope my opinion helps :D
Whats your favourite weapons/weapon type?
Actually mr RL (rocket launcher). Not the shoulder mounted WW2 shooter panzer thing, the quake/UT fast firing version. Simply because i find it fun to attempt to judge distance and player movement to get the rocket to hit home.
What do you think is a good number of weapons to have?
its true if you have too many it can ruin the game (its harder to get familiar with for one), then again so can too little(gets old quick and too predictable). So id draw the line at 6-10.
What would you consider to be an essential weapon?
I suppose atleast one sub machine gun and one weapon which you could easily identify as the "heavy" weaponry (rockets, grenades, mounted guns)
what do you think of weapons with alternate fire?
Alternative fire is neat, it can be put to interesting uses (take UTs shock rifle, alt fire fires a shock ball, nail the flying ball with a primary fire lazer and its a shock combo explosion thing!! yay) but when it goes wrong is when a game has alternative on every weapon regardless of wether or not its any good. Simply because they implemented alt fire they make up one for every weapon (in sum if its no good, it dosent need to be there!)
What weapons should there be less of, or that are are over used?
Maybe its not so much that there should be less shotguns, rocket launchers and sub machine guns as much as if they are going to be there, make sure theres some additions of things that people havent seen before. or just plainly other weapons that are varied enough so your arsenal dosent look to much of the same.
Realistic or unrealistic weapons?
Depends on the setting really, i mean you couldnt put a lazer gun in call of duty and a bolt action rifle would like odd in Unreal. However what you can do is take for example your bolt action rifle and make a futuristic equivilent (in terms of fire power, reload time etc) for your futuristic game or vice versa (ie some sort of single shot lazer cannon etc) if you want to.
I'd love to see a deathmatch mode that had some cute and/or interesting devices that one could use, something that wasn't direct damage, but could be used to gain an advantage over the opponent.
I've played more of the 3 releases of UT than any other game (possibly even combined, which is very scary :) and two weapons stand out as quite inspired design to me:
* the shock rifle (my fave) with the ability (as Moonunit mentions) to combo the alternate-fire plasma ball to do high damage around the ball - a number of interesting tactics can be used with the shock - alt-fire as a decoy as though one is about to combo, but then use primary fire to target the opponent directly - or moving combos, where one deploys an alt-fire, move and burst it with the primary fire. (hope that makes sense to people reading this who haven't played UT)
* shield gun (aka impact hammer in the original UT) - can be used as a melee weapon, to protect yourself from incoming projectiles, to take shield from falling damage, and can be charged up to use to attain greater heights with jumps. Some of the best players use this in quite remarkable ways - getting to places one really would not have imagined possible. With the impact hammer, it was even possible to disarm rockets or redeemers (mini nukes) if you timed it right.
These are IMHO the two best examples of alt-fire. Giving the player more gameplay elements to use is a great thing!
I remember my old UT clan had a trick for the map FACE. One of our offence would run in and grab the enemy flag. He would either have the redeemer, or grab the opposing teams redeemer just before grabbing the flag. Then he would teleport to the top of the tower, jump of the front, and about halfway down to the next level, fir the redeemer point blank at the tower. Most of the time, this would result in the enemy's flag being blown all the way across the map and right into our own base for a quick and easy score :)
Another cool thing in UT was if you were 1v1'ing an opponent and he was trying to hit you with shock rifle combo, just continuously do primary fire at his gun barrel, he hits alt-fire, you hit his ball, and he gets a huge plasma explosion right in the face which usually was insta kill.
Generally, i think the weapons you have, and wether they work well can really depend on the level design. Rockets aren't so useful if you're always firing at each other point blank etc. So i think your level design is as important as your variety of weapons...
CYer, Blitz
Whats your favourite weapons/weapon type?
Sniper Rifles are a favourite, as are machine guns. Shotguns i've found are useful in Single player games, but not often in deathmatch, i've also never gotten on with rocket launchers.
What do you think is a good number of weapons to have?
Well, there are 10 number keys on a keyboard so i think this works best, any more and it gets complex, remember Blood II?
What would you consider to be an essential weapon?
Shotguns, Machine Guns and Rockets Launchers, after that you can throw in whatever, you'll find that most FPS's have these 3 elements
What do you think of weapons with alternate fire?
I like them, especially guns like UT's pulse rifle, and Half Life's Sub Machine Gun
What weapons should there be less of, or that are are over used?
I don't think any gun can be over done, as long as the format isn't used multiple times in the same game.
Unless ,of course, you're making bigger versions
Realistic or unrealistic weapons?
Well unrealistic weapons are fine, but it's nice to have a bit description atatched with some silly made up science to explain why they work
Whats your favourite weapons/weapon type?
I like most weapons the shotgun is great for close range damage and aerial combat (you would be surprised how much this happens). Rifles from fully auto to snipers are great for distance. But my favourite has to be the Rocket launcher because in the end it?s just the most fun to use. Have you ever played pong with an enemy solider in TFC? Now that was fun.
What do you think is a good number of weapons to have?
It depends does the player have access to all of them like Quake or does he only have access to a few like Counter strike. If it?s A then I would say around 8 -10 and a few grenades. If it?s B then go mad. If the player has gain access to them in some other way then just picking them up I.E purchasing them or maybe even unlocking them with kills etc they should have access to a whole heap but be limited to how many they can use at once like counter strike.
What would you consider to be an essential weapon?
The close ranged weapon, or a long ranged weapon that never runs out of ammo. In times of ammo droughts it?s the weapon we all fall back on.
What do you think of weapons with alternate fire?
The more things you can do with a single weapon the better chance you have that the player is going to like that weapon. I always liked alternate fire. Means I have to change guns less.
What weapons should there be less of, or that are over used?
That really depends on the game and where its set In my opinion there are never to many guns if you make each gun different allowing each person the ability to fight in different ways. Mind you every one has a bane. Mine are grenades and sniper rifles. They get me every time so would I like less of them not really that would be no fun.
Realistic or unrealistic weapons?
Again that depends on the game. If I?m playing BF1942 I want realistic. If I am Playing Quake3 I want unrealistic. I like both games but for different reasons. For instance I wouldn?t want to see the rocket launcher from Quake in BF. Nor would I want to see the sniper rifle in quake 3. Both games have a different tempo or beat. Quake 3 with its unrealistic weapon selection has a very fast Tempo while BF with its WWII arsenal is a bit mellower but never the less exciting to play.
Whats your favourite weapons/weapon type?
I've always been a fan of up close and personal weapons like shotguns or the flak cannon. I'm also a bit of a railgun fan though I don't have the patience for sniping.
What do you think is a good number of weapons to have?
Enough weapons with varying pros and cons to allow different play styles to develop. I think having a smaller number of interesting and well balanced weapons is more important than a great variety.
What would you consider to be an essential weapon?
No weapon in particular, it depends on the play style you want your players to use. For fast flowing skill games you'll want fast short range weapons that allow you to move freely such as the shotgun. For slower more strategic games you'll want your snipers, scopes, restricted movements while shooting etc.
What do you think of weapons with alternate fire?
If the alternate fire provides for interesting and different strategies then I approve.
What weapons should there be less of, or that are are over used?
Rocket launchers. Sure Quake DM is a particularly fun rocket fest but not every game needs to be like that. Weapons should be chosen to provide interesting tactical choices in the game environment rather than for their cool potential.
Realistic or unrealistic weapons?
Whatever suits the style of game. Realism is a useful tool for immersion however I don't beleive it should ever come before gameplay in a multiplay death match.
Hope this helps, what is it for?
:)