TF2Forum - Weapon Design Contest

[OmegaBlade]

Lots of creative ideas already! Wow. I've got some competition.

My entry's going to stick with my usual style of simplicity. A few pros, a few cons, address a weakness, give up a strength. You know, nothing as complex as Necross's entry. I will, however, cover the in-depth details so you can better judge how balanced this weapon is!

By the way, if this looks like something you've seen before, please toss me the benefit of the doubt. Any resemblance to any idea you've seen before is purely coincidental, I promise.

With that out of the way, let's get this show on the road.



THE DEVASTATOR
Spy Weapon - Level 6 Knife

Pros

• 25% extra damage
• deals 30 damage over 10 seconds on hit
• can be thrown for a guaranteed crit

Cons

• cannot backstab
• no normal crits
• must be retrieved after being thrown

Description
Ever find yourself playing as a Spy, only to get caught like a rat in a corner? Here's your chance to prove that the rat bites back. Introducing the Devastator, an alternative knife that gives any Spy a "cutting edge" against the competition.

The Devastator is a sturdy knife with an edge sharpened to molecule-width. It's also been laced with a fast-acting poison that will harm the victim after the blow has been dealt. These factors combined make the Devastator a viable close-combat solution.

Enemies at range? No problem! The sturdy build of the knife makes it quite durable, so feel free to chuck it at 'em for massive damage. Of course, you'll have to fetch it to use it again, but you'll find that it's virtually undamaged afterward. Even the poison stays on! No other knife's gonna do that.

Now the bad news. The added heft of the Devastator makes it impractical for performing backstabs. Then again, if this seems like the knife for you, you're probably not the back-stabbing type anyway.

The best part is that the Devastator can be yours for just $19.95! =D

In-Depth Notes

• This weapon replaces the Spy's Butterfly Knife.
• Whoever this weapon hits will be damaged for 30 HP over 10 seconds. The effect is negated by any form of healing.
• The poison deals its damage at a rate of 1.5 HP per half-second.
• By default, the weapon is thrown with Mouse2. This effect overrides the Spy's cloak function when the knife is out. You can't cloak with the knife out, but if you're already cloaked you can uncloak without throwing the knife. If you'd prefer separate keys for cloaking and throwing, you can change the Throw key in the options menu.
• "Guaranteed Crit" in this case means 4x the knife's normal damage. So IF the knife normally deals 50 damage, throwing it would deal 200.
• The crit on thrown knives only applies to enemies significantly outside the melee attack range.
• Throwing the knife removes it from your inventory. You only get one shot, so make it count! Of course, given that you can reach it, you can easily pick the knife up again and go for another shot.
• Thrown knives will stick to whatever spot they hit from their flight. Throw it into the wall, it sticks to the wall. Throw it into an Engineer, it sticks to the Engineer. However, it will pass through allies entirely and continue on its flight as normal.
• Thrown knives have the same trajectory and flight speed as an uncharged Huntsman arrow.
• Since I compared it to the Huntsman: no, you can't charge the throw.
• Thrown knives are handled similarly to Sandman baseballs. If you threw your Devastator, you can pick up an enemy Spy's Devastator and use it as normal.
• As I explained, backstabs are impossible with this knife. Since the backstab is a defining trait of the Spy, this knife is oriented toward Spies who can't perform/don't need it.
• "No normal crits" is overridden by the critboost effect. In this case, normal attacks do the same amount of damage as if the knife were thrown.
• Since a thrown knife always crits, it's unaffected by critboost.
• Crits don't apply the poison effect. This also affects thrown knives.

[Necross]

(09-26-2009 11:35 PM)OmegaBlade Wrote:  You know, nothing as complex as Necross's entry.

I know it was kind of interwoven, but was my idea really hard to understand? I mean, I thought the idea sounded cluttered, but I tried to type it out as streamlined as possible.

As far as your idea goes, I like it, but you might want to elaborate on the "deals 30 damage over the course of 10 seconds" bit.

[Ticket Master]

(09-26-2009 11:35 PM)OmegaBlade Wrote:  [*]cannot backstab

What is this, I don't even?

Now seriously, besides my heart attack I received from the lack of a backstab, it seems like it's a sound idea. With a couple of drawbacks.

First: It would be very easy for a spy to come around a corner and throw a knife at a bunch of marauding enemies critting them for 200 and killing anyone except a heavy. This would destroy the "sneaky" character of the spy and make him more of an evil knife throwing bastard, as people could easily run to spawn to resupply their devastators and gain an unfair advantage over their adversaries by killing everything except a standing army of heavies.

Second: The already overpowered effect of a knife throw crit + the poison damage seems like the pyro's afterburn too much, though it isn't exactly an overpowered effect. It's a sound idea.

Overall, the weapon is very original, though the numbers may be slightly skewed. Quite good!

[OmegaBlade]

I understood your idea for the most part, but this confused me:

Quote:Pyro
Default damage is done, but bodyshots have the default rifle's crosshair, so the Sniper has some means of defense against an ambushing Pyro.

So please explain, if you will.

And as for the 30 damage over 10 seconds bit? It happens at a rate of 1.5 damage per half second. I'll squeeze that into the in-depth notes, if that's alright with the judges.

[Necross]

(09-26-2009 11:53 PM)OmegaBlade Wrote:  I understood your idea for the most part, but this confused me:

Quote:Pyro
Default damage is done, but bodyshots have the default rifle's crosshair, so the Sniper has some means of defense against an ambushing Pyro.

So please explain, if you will.

And as for the 30 damage over 10 seconds bit? It happens at a rate of 1.5 damage per half second. I'll squeeze that into the in-depth notes, if that's alright with the judges.

What I meant by that was that the Skullbuster can't really bodyshot well, due to recoil and the lack of a crosshair. My idea behind this trait was that if a Pyro was bearing down on a Sniper, the rifle's accuracy for noscopes is increased, so the Sniper can defend himself, somewhat.

Now that I look at it, that does look kind of weird. If the judges allow a bit of rewording, I'll change "bodyshots" to "noscopes".

[OmegaBlade]

Oh, okay! That makes perfect sense. Thanks for elaborating. =D

[Ticket Master]

Fine. Only clarifications are allowed when editing these, nonetheless, they should go through moderators. We don't want anyone changing their ideas drastically, anyways.

BTW, OB, the fact that your knife can kill people from one side of 2Fort is my main problem with it. It's slightly overpowered. It changes the spy from "The sneaky class" to "0mg the noob spah thru a knif at me from teh batlement" class. What I'm saying is, the spy is a difficult class to play well, with this new weapon, that's not the case anymore.

[OmegaBlade]

(09-27-2009 12:05 AM)Ticket Master Wrote:  Fine. Only clarifications are allowed when editing these, nonetheless, they should go through moderators. We don't want anyone changing their ideas drastically, anyways.

BTW, OB, the fact that your knife can kill people from one side of 2Fort is my main problem with it. It's slightly overpowered. It changes the spy from "The sneaky class" to "0mg the noob spah thru a knif at me from teh batlement" class. What I'm saying is, the spy is a difficult class to play well, with this new weapon, that's not the case anymore.

That's not how I see it. What I see is a slightly stronger knife with a less powerful super-attack. You can either break the enemy's offensive/defensive power in half, or you can kill a pesky Sniper at the cost of your melee weapon.

In the end, it depends on how you wanna play the Spy. There's definitely room for both kinds in TF2. Sneaky saboteur? Butterfly Spy. Frontline warrior? Devastator Spy.

[Necross]

(09-27-2009 12:05 AM)Ticket Master Wrote:  Fine. Only clarifications are allowed when editing these, nonetheless, they should go through moderators. We don't want anyone changing their ideas drastically, anyways.

BTW, OB, the fact that your knife can kill people from one side of 2Fort is my main problem with it. It's slightly overpowered. It changes the spy from "The sneaky class" to "0mg the noob spah thru a knif at me from teh batlement" class. What I'm saying is, the spy is a difficult class to play well, with this new weapon, that's not the case anymore.

All right, thank you.

There's also a bit of redundancy in my post, but that's somewhat negligible.

[Ticket Master]

(09-27-2009 12:19 AM)OmegaBlade Wrote:  

(09-27-2009 12:05 AM)Ticket Master Wrote:  Fine. Only clarifications are allowed when editing these, nonetheless, they should go through moderators. We don't want anyone changing their ideas drastically, anyways.

BTW, OB, the fact that your knife can kill people from one side of 2Fort is my main problem with it. It's slightly overpowered. It changes the spy from "The sneaky class" to "0mg the noob spah thru a knif at me from teh batlement" class. What I'm saying is, the spy is a difficult class to play well, with this new weapon, that's not the case anymore.

That's not how I see it. What I see is a slightly stronger knife with a less powerful super-attack. You can either break the enemy's offensive/defensive power in half, or you can kill a pesky Sniper at the cost of your melee weapon.

In the end, it depends on how you wanna play the Spy. There's definitely room for both kinds in TF2. Sneaky saboteur? Butterfly Spy. Frontline warrior? Devastator Spy.

Hm. I still think that the Devastator makes the spy more of a frontline warrior, like you said, and it defeats the spies roles as a reconnaissance unit, who takes important enemies down, destroys sentries at chokepoints, and can turn the tide of battle with a single flick of the knife.

The idea is sound, but it might be better for another class that does not have a role of reconnaissance.