While the Lucius Helbore Lasguns have a multitude of problems with them - poor sights, huge amounts of weapon sway, poor bayonet, etc. - the one that messes with me the most (and other people no doubt) is how the firing functions: the weapon begins charging on trigger press, and only fires when you let go of the trigger. This really messes with shot placement, especially when trying to pull off rapid shots, and results in far too many missed shots.
My suggestion for this issue is to tweak how the charge mechanic works. Instead of the user manually charging shots, the Lucius will automatically begin charging shots by itself. This means the weapon will always fire on trigger press rather than trigger release while allowing you to pick the charge level you prefer, and also lets you maximize the RPM of the weapon.
There’s other changes to the weapon that would naturally go along with this. To start, remove or reduce the visual charge effect as to not be intrusive when just walking around with it. It may be worth considering having the weapon not begin charging immediately, but after a very short delay (maybe 0.15s) with a similar reduction in charge time so you can maximize the RPM without having to spend extra ammo charging the weapon. Speaking of ammo, the ammo economy may need looking at since a higher percent of shots will be full charge - reducing charged shot ammo consumption from 3x to 2x might be a good place to start. Finally, the fire rate of each of the Lucius Helbore mark may need some tweaking, as currently they all have the same fire rate of 0.67 shots per second, since you’ll be able to take advantage of the full ROF more easily.
There’s various other problems with the Lucious Helbores that also need addressing before it becomes competitive, but I feel this change is critical enough that it would at least make the weapon usable for many more people.
Yeah its the gun I was most looking forward to but that delayed shot due to charge sucks. They also need to work on the actual individual weapon stats for each MK. For some reason the MKII does more base damage than the MKI and MKIII. The MKI just straight up isnt worth using at all when compared to the other 2 and the MKIII shoots too slow for its garbage base damage to be worth it. I find the charge up attack not even worth it, with how fast and chaotic the fighting is its pointless, leave the charge up attack for the plasma rifle if youre truly in need of a charge up weapon ( i despise charge up weapons personally )
At least the hipfire charge time on the Plasma Rifle is predictable, and when you’re braced it fires immediately on left click once you get to max charge. Infinitely more usable than the Lucius Helbores.
Fallout 4 and 76 have done this. Lets just say…it didnt work great.
Auto-Chargin would ruin this Weapon even more. You dont want to fire full power all the time and waste Ammo for trash. You want to fire Full Power to kill the Big Guys.
Also: Ammo Consumption is different for each of them.
Hellbore I - 4 per Shot, 9 per Charged
Hellbore II - 3 per Shot, 6 per Charged
Hellbore III - 5 per Shot, 12 per Charged
The biggest Problem is the Visual, or the Aiming overall. The Weapon is too big, sways too much, and the glow blocks view.
Fix those, then we can see again. I wouldnt mind having a Scope on it…
It’s still the draw animation that bugs me the most. I already gotta charge for the shot to be worth it, this isn’t the bolter why does it need an awkwardly long delay between drawing and firing.
It’s 3/2/4 ammo per uncharged charged shot for the Mk1/2/3 respectively, and 3x that for charged shots.
If I had to make a choice between spending more ammo, and being more accurate, I’ll take being more accurate every time. You’re wasting ammo either way, you might as well make it count.
This gun is basically a poor mans plasma gun that doesn’t pierce or collateral.
I really like the look of the Helbore, I gave it a good honest try. The fact is the plasma gun does the same job, but better.
As of now the charge is wonky, having to re-click hold to charge and if you hold for full charge it fires, then if you let go it fires and then if you tap it acts as a terrible lasgun. 3 different ways to fire on left click just gets frustrating and inconsistent with how much damage you are outputting. since it doesn’t have anything reliable about it the best practice I found is to NOT ADS and crouch, then pray it lines up. This is how you fire the plasma gun, except you don’t have to crouch, and the charge-to-shot timing is consistent and reliable.
I think a fix for the helbore maybe to make it deadly accurate, and always down the middle. If the Helbore was given a sight for ads, I could maybe see it find a use, maybe. probably not. I’m not sure, I really like the sound and punchy-ness of the gun. 1 tapping ragers and elites with a charge is satisfying. I hope they look at this gun down the road.
I like this idea. Maybe have a firing mode for it to toggle. By default its your typical lasgun pew-pew, but when you toggle the charge-mode, it actively charges while equipped.
Im not sure how they would rework, since bayonet currently has the alt button, and ADS is right-click. since ads actually hurts the aim of the weapon, because of design, maybe have right click be the charge or move bayonet to that, and then have alt fire be the toggle mode.
The charge mechanics are why I don’t use it. I don’t mind chargeable weapons, but the delayed uncharged shot combined with the miniscule window for holding a charge make this gun a liability to use.