J.P.'s Game Design Challenge: FPS Bonus Challenge

[EnSanity]

What about the physical attributes of the gun itself? Vision Obstruction is a factor a lot of the time. In Halo, the Fuel Rod Gun is powerful, but it takes up nearly half of your field of vision, and I've lost count of how many times I've been blind-sided by a banshee because of it.

[SPECTER]

Originally Posted by EnSanity

What about the physical attributes of the gun itself? Vision Obstruction is a factor a lot of the time. In Halo, the Fuel Rod Gun is powerful, but it takes up nearly half of your field of vision, and I've lost count of how many times I've been blind-sided by a banshee because of it.

Amen to that.

[Slicer1138]

Gun atmosphere.
How a gun looks and feels.
A steel piece of metal is far different than an organic gun.
I.E. Prey
A grenade that is a "crab thing" that you break the leg off to arm, the severed arm of an enemy that had guns for arms, or the basic gun in prey that has an eye pop out and look at you if you don't do anything for awhile. Creepy but critical to the plot and the overall look of the game.

[EnSanity]

Continuing on my vein of the gun's physical attributes, I think scopes and other zoom and aim devices need a lot more attention than this thread has given them. Ammo is only important if you can hit what your aiming at, and there are a number of ways to do that.
Does the gun have something as simple as an aiming reticule (is that the right word?), and what is the chance for error based off of this target?
Can you zoom in, and, if so, how far?
Is there a way to "lock-on" to your target?
Does the weapon home?
If the trajectory of the bullet is not straight forward, in an arc through the air for example, how does the aiming have to change? Does the reticule do something like move along the ground if the shot is an arc, or does the player have to figure it out themselves?

Also, I believe recoil has a lot more design space than people give it credit for, but I'm still pondering how to utilize it.

[TimEdwards]

I think all these ideas are wonderful, but holy crap...

In my opinion (not reflecting those of James or anyone else for that matter) I'd say don't go too crazy with extras. Mind you more detail is never a bad thing, but just make sure you keep it on point.

I posted my ideas in the actual challenge forum, so feel free to burn me on keeping it simple! Anyway good luck to everyone and man this list could really be infinite... I mean... portal opened doors, so who knows?

Tim Edwards

I feel like this should/could have been a challenge all on its own!

[jshockley]

If this is in programming game terms

guns shoot either beam or bullet
recoil
bullet spread
falloff
damage
bullet speed
penetration value
Bounce/ ricochet (though bullets don't bounce in games)
Fire rate
Damage type

[TimEdwards]

Also don't forget, this is Sci Fi/Fantasy.

This sounds to me like a medieval place with magic, alchemy and science. I think weapons infused with magic, or just magic weapons. I almost suggested land deforming weapons... but then I saw the trailer for Fracture. If no one has seen the screens for that, I suggest you check it out.

Grenades that can grow earthen pillars, Guns that can shoot a vortex on a group of enemies... sounds like inspiration to me. Just a thought! Although for weapons like these, you'd be looking at things like bullet duration and rate of fire. Although it would be fun shooting 5 vortexes into a room!

Well good luck all and hope to see some ideas in the other forum soon!

Tim Edwards