UAC Plasmatic Rifle

I guess I'll start the submissions

Information:
Name: UAC Plasmatic Rifle
Class: 6
Type: Projectile
Palette: PNG
Summon: UACPlasmaticRifle
Ammo Type: Cell
Altfire: No
Powered Mode: No
Added States: No

Credits:
Submitted: Fuzzyblaze, Infirnex
Decorate: Fuzzyblaze, Infirnex
GLDefs: Infirnex
Sounds: Fuzzyblaze
Sprites: Fuzzyblaze, iD Software, FreeDoom Team
Sprite Edit: Infirnex
Idea Base: DOOM 3 Plasma Rifle
ACS: No

Description:
Seeing the popularity of its Plasma Rifle, the Union Aerospace Corporation began to experiment with other applied forms of plasma. They discovered a means to propel gaseous plasma at higher speeds, which was quickly prototyped and developed into a new line of light infantry weapons. While gas discharge at the point of impact can result in injuries to the user when fired at point-blank range, the weapon's speedy damage output far outweighs this danger.

Sprite:





Download Link:

Interesting, gaseous plasma. This reminds me a lot of the Quake 3 plasma gun, mainly because of the sound and the explosive effect.

Only a couple suggestions:

• Gripping hand. Like the Shotgun. (Why not use the Shotgun's?)
• Maybe the projectiles should be faster. It needs a little extra balancing factor vs. the area damage.

NeuralStunner wrote: Only a couple suggestions:

• Gripping hand. Like the Shotgun. (Why not use the Shotgun's?)

Like this?

Yes, good.

Updated as a result.

• Now visibly grips the weapon.
• Speed was increased from I think was 20 to 30.
• Damage of projectile increased from 3 to 4. Felt a little too weak before.
• Trail slightly larger. Think it looks better this size.

Great! I think it looks pretty good now, though I'm unsure whether the A_Explode damage is doing what it's expected to: 4 damage isn't a lot, so perhaps boosting that would make the weapon feel a little more effective. If you bright it up to 8, there would be a slight advantage over the standard PR, without unbalancing it: ([1,8] * 4) + 8 vs. [1,8] * 5

Looking inside the wad, things seem to be in order, other than a slight INFO update (to the "Submitted" field).

And a Repository description, if you'd like:

Seeing the popularity of its Plasma Rifle, the Union Aerospace Corporation began to experiment with other applied forms of plasma. They discovered a means to propel gaseous plasma at higher speeds, which was quickly prototyped and developed into a new line of light infantry weapons. While gas discharge at the point of impact can result in injuries to the user when fired at point-blank range, the weapon's speedy damage output far outweighs this danger.

I fully endorse the Gaseous Plasma concept. The description has been used. Since there are no credits for Description...

Damage has been updated to 4d8 + 8 explosive. This makes the Plasmatic Rifle more consistent, but more risky with splash, and the Plasma Gun has higher DPS (theoretical, depending on how much the RNG hates you that day).

infirnex wrote: [...] the Plasma Gun has higher DPS (theoretical, depending on how much the RNG hates you that day).

Technically speaking only one "d8" is used and multiplied by Damage, so the Plasmatic is coming out ahead: The explosion is adding base damage, so while the maximum output is the same, the minimum (and thus the average) is higher. Plasma Rifle does between 5 and 40 (1d8 * 5); Plasmatic Rifle is doing between 12 and 40 (1d8 * 4, +. This was my reasoning behind suggesting the damage boost, this gun now gets a little higher average DPS in exchange for self-injury at close quarters.

Also, somehow I didn't notice the empty DECALDEF before. It's not hurting anything, so it wouldn't necessitate another file update, unless of course there's supposed to be something in it.

Since there have been no other objections, I'm going to go ahead an approve this for now. If you want to do something with that lump between now and addition that's fine, if you don't care then neither do I.

One more upload isn't anything to me.


The damage of the Plasmatic Rifle is higher than the Plasma Gun, but the Plasmatic Rifle shoots one tic slower than the Plasma Gun. So the DPS should be slightly lower as a such, since the theoretical max damage is the same.

infirnex wrote: The damage of the Plasmatic Rifle is higher than the Plasma Gun, but the Plasmatic Rifle shoots one tic slower than the Plasma Gun. So the DPS should be slightly lower as a such, since the theoretical max damage is the same.

I hadn't noticed the rate decrease... Perhaps the trails were creating the illusion of the same steady stream of energy.

It's OK, though. Another advantage of the two-part damage method is two different chances for a hit to cause pain. Overall it remains a great weapon for crowd or boss control.