Vedemin

Deepscanner
Jul 27, 2016
161
164
43
#1
Hello everyone!

While browsing Ember forums I saw an idea of custom weapons repeating over and over again. And since we will get crafting, that will be a very important part of the game, I'd like to propose how could weapon crafting look.

The most important part, there wouldn't be any rarities for weapons, weapon stats would be based on materials used to craft it and it's components. Progression in crafting could be done by unlocking better materials and new crafting options (like new ammo variants or calibers)

Weapons could be crafted from various pieces. Instead of crafting with strange components (like hyperkegs) it would make sense, so that you are crafting a series of components required for something specific. Making a chamber out of iron would work for small caliber ammo (5.56), but for higher caliber it would require a steel or better chamber. Also, if you'd decide to use better chamber on smaller ammo it would decrease damaging of the weapon while firing and improve some other aspects like reload time, RoF or range.

A full weapon would be modified at Workbenches at bases. You could swap ammunition type and alt-fire module. So for example you have an assault rifle. You mount a scope (improves accuracy while scoped, maybe some other things) for alt-fire and swap ammunition from full lead hollow point (max damage) to steel with sharp tip (lower damage, anti-armor and penetration is better). Instead of scope you could use other device (like a flamethrower or grenade launcher) as your alt-fire, but it would make you only hip-fire.

Basically, making a weapon would be made by choosing options that lead to a next option. They could be like that:
1. Element type - thermal (AoE, DoT), electric (anti-armor, stun), toxic (anti-infantry, DoT), ice (stun, blocking paths) and kinetic (anti-armor, penetrating, universal). Selecting one would bring a menu of designs for your weapon.
2. Design type - like rocket launcher, hand cannon, gatling, autocannon, bullpup and standard for kinetic, charge->release and constant electricity for electric etc. Would define look and designation of a weapon
3. Firing type - like for example napalm or explosive ball for thermal, firing mode for kinetic etc. Would make weapon have specific ammo just for that specific section
4. Ammo type - would define damage, RoF and things like that
5. Other things

That was just a poor example of a tree of decisions for a primary, secondaries would be different, those examples should present you a better view.
- I want to make an Anti-Tank rifle:
1. Damage type - kinetic (best for long range anti tank)
2. Design type - standard (quicker reload than bullpup)
3. Firing type - bolt action (unlocks very high caliber rounds, best accuracy except for hand-cannon)
4. Ammo type - 25mm (best caliber for anti tank that is not hand cannon, slower RoF than smaller ammo, but we want damage and piercing, not RoF, can also be unlocked as last caliber upgrade for semi-action, max bolt action is 30mm). I have to use let's say a titanium breech and titanium barrel, but I choose to use a better one (for example titanium+tungsten) for better stats. Such high caliber rounds make my mag hold only 3 bullets.
Now I see me weapon and select its components freely
5. I choose a long barrel to improve accuracy and range, increases weight, but it won't be a hit-and-run weapon
6. I choose a bipod instead of a foregrip, it decreases recoil while we are prone
7. I choose a muzzle-break for decreasing heavy recoil
8. I choose a stock, that decreases recoil
9. I add ammo counter, range finder, recoil controller and tactical rails
10. I choose a carbon fiber body, I select the look I want
11. I have my costs, for example:
- 2000 titanium
- 500 tungsten
- 500 iron
- 1500 carbon fiber
- 100 plastic
- 1000 steel
- 15 switches
- 2 lcd screens
- 15 circuits
12. I craft my weapon
13. I craft a scope as an alt-fire attachment, I attach it at a workbench
14. At a workbench I unlock (craft) 25mm AT rounds with depleted uranium, I select it as ammo in workbench

In the end I get a rifle that is great for dealing with heavily armored targets (like Amazon Juggernauts or tanks).

Another example, I'd like to get a Thermal Cannon for Firecat from 1.3 Firefall:
1. Damage type - thermal
2. Design type - explosive cannon
3. Firing type - here there are 2 options: semi-auto and burst. We want primary fire to be semi-auto
4. Ammo type - magma balls - makes bigger AoE than Plasma balls, has lower damage and leaves fire zones for a short time
5. I am making power adjustments and attach some gadgets and I craft my weapon (won't post costs this time)
6. I am crafting a burst mode attachment as alt-fire, it fires 3 smaller balls
7. I am selecting explosive ammo for primary fire and bouncing ammo for alt-fire

In the end I got a nice Thermal Cannon :)

In my opinion making weapon different just by swapping some modules would be hurting for constant need of resources. Crafting is fun guys :) We would still have tons of modularity while having a good value of materials.

That system would allow us to make nice weapons we want, some tweaks could be done to it, when I'll return from vacation I may post an example of decision tree, but for now I only have mobile phone :D

Yes, this was my post about weapon crafting :)

TL;DR: Read, too much stuff to fit in tldr ;)
 

Bl4ckhunter

Active Member
Jul 26, 2016
157
123
43
#2
In my opinion making weapon different just by swapping some modules would be hurting for constant need of resources. Crafting is fun guys :) We would still have tons of modularity while having a good value of materials.
Why? it's not like modules need to explode if you unslot them, rather than posting a long description i'll just point you at a working example of what i want

http://deadspace.wikia.com/wiki/Dead_Space_3_Weapons
 
Last edited:

Vedemin

Deepscanner
Jul 27, 2016
161
164
43
#3
Why? it's not like modules need to explode if you unslot them, rather than posting a long description i'll just point you at a working example of what i want

http://deadspace.wikia.com/wiki/Dead_Space_3_Weapons
Oh. That kind of thing. I forgot about it XD That is pretty similiar to what I proposed. I just think that crafting should be very customizable and should consume resources from time to time :)
 

Bl4ckhunter

Active Member
Jul 26, 2016
157
123
43
#4
Oh. That kind of thing. I forgot about it XD That is pretty similiar to what I proposed. I just think that crafting should be very customizable and should consume resources from time to time :)
Durability? XD, to think that we bashed red5 so much when it came out lol, it was a decent idea imo
 
Jul 28, 2016
77
78
18
#5
Crafting was awesome in .7. That model worked real well (if the material variations were dropped by about 50%). I never crafted much in other games before .6 and .7.
 

TankHunter678

Well-Known Member
Ark Liege
Jul 26, 2016
369
311
63
#7
I don't think the ability to swap components would hurt the resource hunt, largely because you can use other areas to consume resources as well.

You could make turret weapon systems customizable, allowing you to build custom turrets that get called down by the ability.
You can make disposable temporary turret calldowns for those who do not want to invest/slot in a turret ability, light sources (for thumping in the dark), ammo packs, medkits, seismic generators (for those who just want to summon mobs), etc.

Utility things that can help with a thump, there is also using the resources for base construction.
 

Vedemin

Deepscanner
Jul 27, 2016
161
164
43
#8
I don't think the ability to swap components would hurt the resource hunt, largely because you can use other areas to consume resources as well.

You could make turret weapon systems customizable, allowing you to build custom turrets that get called down by the ability.
You can make disposable temporary turret calldowns for those who do not want to invest/slot in a turret ability, light sources (for thumping in the dark), ammo packs, medkits, seismic generators (for those who just want to summon mobs), etc.

Utility things that can help with a thump, there is also using the resources for base construction.
Hmmm, just don't make modules change your weapon from kinetic railgun to toxic sprayer. I think crafting should be necessary
 

Fac3man

Firstclaimer
Jul 26, 2016
34
16
8
#9
sry..but we are in such an early stage with first orthographic drawings und u think about weapon crafting etc... just wait for the first models/entities and go step by step..noone will read this post when its the right time to talk about weapon customization
 

Vedemin

Deepscanner
Jul 27, 2016
161
164
43
#10
sry..but we are in such an early stage with first orthographic drawings und u think about weapon crafting etc... just wait for the first models/entities and go step by step..noone will read this post when its the right time to talk about weapon customization
If something is bringed up early it is being focused on early and it won't be thrown in last moment.


When I will return from vacation I will give you guys a zip file that will imitate my idea of crafting tree for primary weapons. Don't worry, virus-free ;)
 

Fac3man

Firstclaimer
Jul 26, 2016
34
16
8
#11
well..i guess and that is tated that one of the biggest problems was to listen to the community to often...and the devteam has some experience regarding that stuff..but sure do what u feel like :)
 
Jul 28, 2016
144
137
43
#12
Well we seem to have an over abundance of crafting threads floating around. Let me copy/past my suggestion from a different thread.

I agree that the plethora of raw mats at various pureties was hugely irritating in FF. I'd like to keep it that way in Ember, at least at the actual harvesting stage. If inventory space is a problem at that point (it shouldn't be, the T.H.M.P.R. will be hauling everything back to base) then simply average out the purity. If you have 10 kg of raw McGuffinite at 25% purity, and 10kg at 75% purity you have 20kg @ 50%. When you get back to base you refine it, for a cost in money and quantity, to 90% pure. Now for crafting purposes you have a consistent yield.

You forgot about aluminum for the lower receiver in your AR-15 example. ;)

My take on crafting is this:
How does an engineer design something? Simple, determine the desired output/function of the device they are building, then build the last stage to deliver that output, then build the second to last stage to provide the input the last stage requires, and so on until the get to a stage with an input they can supply. I'll break this down with an example below for those who haven't designed anything.

How would this play out in Ember? What I would like to see is sliders for attributes. Say you want to design an Electric Arc Rifle. For the purposes of this we will determine that Electrical damage has the game effects of disrupting the nervous system (slow/stun/hold), and damage. The first choice you'll have to make is which effect is going to be the primary. Then take your slider and adjust it from 60%/40% on up, automatically reducing the secondary effect as you go. The materials required (at an assumed 90% purity) will change as you adjust the slider. For example, the slow/stun/hold may require complex frequency shifting algorithms, and therefore a heftier CPU built into your rifle, therefore amount of silicon/germanium (or the SciFi equivalent) will increase. More damage will require a higher voltage. Assuming your Omniframe is supplying the juice you will have have amplifiers built into the rifle. How wide an arc does this gun fire in, how long a range? Each slider as it gets adjusted will change the amount of crafting materials required. Adjust the weight slider downwards if the weapon gets heavier than you like, but this will result in rarer materials being required to save that weight.

Bonus: Take your 90% purity mats and pass them through a secondary refiner and come out with 95% pure mats. This can result in higher quality devices.

I know the above sounds complicated but it's not really. You adjust the sliders for how you want the device to perform, the system tells you what mats you need. You tell it to process and it tells you when to come back and collect.

It's still a fairly simple system, the game itself does most of the work. You just tell it what you want, and the game tells you what it needs to create (print) it. All of the complexity of the 5(?) paragraphs above is handled by the game itself and don't don't have to worry about it, you just play.