Problem: grenades are, most often, used in a critical situations. Where you need quickly throw one to save yourself or teammate. You dont have time to press a button, watch swapping animation, press another button to throw and watch throwing animation. That’s too long.
Solution: Make a way to throw grenades with a single button and see that bad boi fly out instantly. Pretty much how Zealot knives work. I’ve been thinking on way to do it.
Developers can add another button for a quick throw. But that means extra button to have and regular grenades will be moved to number 4 on keyboard (1 melee, 2 ranged, 3 medpack/ammo crate/grim/scripture, 4 grende, 5 stimpack, 6 auspex scanner)
But that’s not really good idea from game design perspective. And also it’s not a good solution for console players. So i think we need a complete overhaul on how Blitz abilities work and used.
Implementation: Current button for blitz will have 2 modes. Press and hold. On pressing it instantly uses your blitz. On holding it performs a secondary option. We already have similar mechanic on Zealot’s Fury of the Faithful ability. When on press it just charges forward few metres. But on hold you can target enemy and charge into him on much further distance.
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All the grenades (immolation, stun, frag, krak, smoke, ogryn sized frag, box of hurt)
On press will be just thrown into aimed direction, while you have your weapon out (just like zealot knives). The distance wont be very far, as it quick action.
On hold it will highlight the trajectory of grenade so you can throw it further and aim where it lands, like we already have on holding RMB. -
Underthrow for a grenades, in my opinion, is a useless feature. We not playing tactical shooter, no point or benefits to using that. But, if Fatshark wants this so badly - it can be tweaked on holding blitz button. If trajectory of grenade is within 3-5m from player model - it changes to underthrow. If it’s longer than 3-5m - it becomes an arc.
Now let’s talk about other blitz abilities.
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Rock.
Unlike regular grenade it will fly as usual on quick throw. So you can dispatch distant enemies like you already do. But quick throw will have reduced stagger, so you wont be able to stun enemy ogryns and monstrosities.
Holding the button not only will allow you to aim, but you will now be able to knock down crushers, reapers and stagger monstrosities with headshots. -
Knives.
They already work fine as they are on quick throw.
On holding the button - zealot will pull out 3 knives and throw them in a fan. These knives wont pierce first target. But will hit several enemies. It doesnt sound very useful and exciting, so let’s balance it out with inflicted bleed on these blades. Like, each blade inflicts 6-10 stacks of bleed to it’s target. Which works amazing with Scourge talent that gives you +10% crit chance against bleeding enemies. -
Smite.
On pressing the blitz button it will unleash a quick zap of 3-5 enemies infront of you, staggering them for 1-2s.
On holding it will act as holding RMB currently. Spreading lightning between enemies and staggering them. -
Assail.
On press will work just like it already does with LMB.
On hold will charge one shard just like it does with RMB. -
Brainburst.
On press it should instantly pop brain of target you aiming at, at the cost of reduced dmg (by like 50%) and increased peril generation (like 10-20%). It’s just a way for psykers do not get squished by crusher or mauler. Since this brainburst will stagger them.
On hold it will work just as holding LMB on brainburst. Let’s be honest, nobody using RMB on brainburst anyway, especially since holding LMB currently no longer resets the charge if your target died, so you can switch to another and kill it.
I was thinking about something with this ability to select multiple enemies with brainburst and deal dmg to them at the cost of higher peril generation. But i’d rather have a talent on this blitz, that hits random mob in vicinity of your target if you kill it with brain burst (something like a Chain Reaction)
So with this overhaul you dont need to swap your weapon and i feel like it will make more players use grenades. I barely see players using their grenades and i assume that’s because it takes too much effort to pull them out and it’s easier to just shoot your gun.
Edit: people seems to be confused by what i mean. So here are few screenshots of how it should look like. It still plays all the animation. It still requiers you to dodge and move. It still forces you to take decisions whether or not it is safe to throw a grenade. All it does - removes the unnecessary swapping to the grenade by changing the “select grenade” button with “use grenade” button.
So here how it will look like:
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Animation for pressing G button. You clicked G, animation of pulling grenade out, pulling the pin and throwing grenade. With a single button press. Without swapping the weapon
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Animation for pressing and holding G button. You press and hold G, animation of pulling grenade out, pulling the pin and aiming where you want to throw it. With a single button press. Without swapping the weapon
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How it looks like when you threw your grenade while holding weapon
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Animation for pressing G to use Assail Blitz. You press G. The shard instantly flies out in aimed direction. While you still holding your weapon
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Animation for holding G with Assail. You hold G. The shard appears and you aim at somebody like you do with holding RMB. On release it flies out to kill that particular enemy
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Animation for pressing G to use Smite Blitz. You press G. The smite instantly zaps few enemies in front. stunning them for short duration
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Animation for holding G to use Smite Blitz. You hold G. The smite charges and you can use it as channeling lightning while holding your weapon. On release smite stops and you can use your weapon without swapping to it.
Obviously not all weapons are fitting for such mechanics. The ogryn gauntlet grenade launcher and shield, for example, require individual animations. But it’s not something hard to do.
