Some people here are mentioning more grenade launchers and that is good, but what of the rocket propelled kind?

Heres my input on an additional rocket launcher.

Keep in mind that im trying to avoid the "rocket goes forward, rocket goes boom" mentality

CODENAME: PLETHORA

Rocket Shotgun experimental device

Manufacturer: Unknown
Main use: Unknown
All information on this weapon has been classified by the company or induvidual that produced it, what is known is that the weapon was uncovered during a raid on a pirate stock depot on Earth. The weapon was clearly stolen although there was no claim for it made by the original owner.

However if the owner reclaimed the weapon they would have been arrested for constructing unsolicited firearms of such magnitude anyway. If it was made by a registered manufacturer there would have been some clue yet it appears to have been the work of a mysterious yet well organised and well funded band of induviduals.

The weapon was then sold to Envarion who codenamed it The Plethora

The weapon is large and bulky but constructed mostly of lightwheight metal alloys. If features 7 barrels that hold one small anti-personnel rocket each. The user loads these rockets with shotgun style pump action. A small window shows the rockets been mechanically revolved into position when the handle is moved. None of the rockets need to be handled by hand. All rockets are kept in a single large ammo container attached to one side of the weapon. The rockets are very small and about 21 can be kept in one container

The rockets also do not do as much damage as conventional types but travel fast and can turn on a dime.

Primary fire launches all 7 rockets at once, they spread out and cover a wide area. Some curve and turn unpredictably but none ever travel in the same direction. Recoil is awful if the user is not stable.

Secondary fire Fires only a single rocket but each rocket still travels in an innacurate and unpredictable spray. They rockets can be fired very rapidly however and 7 can be exhausted quickly. Secondary fire has both semi-auto and full auto fire modes.

For every 7th rocket the weapon must be cocked which takes 1.4 seconds. And for every 21st the weapon must be reloaded which takes 2.4 seconds.

Weapon special When the special mode is activated the weapon fires a laser that paints a target for the rockets to home in on. (Think Cicada) The laser can be fired rapidly but not held to guide the rockets, you must also paint a new target for new rockets. The weapon will make sounds to indicate if it is locked on or not. The laser requires no ammo.

Balance factors:

In comparison to other shotguns, The rockets are fast but easier to avoid than the bullets of other shotguns.
But the bonus comes due to the fact a direct hit will not only gib your opponent but can easily damage nearby opponents also.

Precision is something this weapon lacks, the laser aims to correct this but only against stationary targets like turrets and slow vehicles. The rocket shotgun is less effective against a single fast-moving target but against a crowd of people the rocket shotgun can get you easy multikills.

The rocket shotgun is deadliest when attacking from above. Targets against walls will have trouble with the explosions. It also Is effective against power nodes.

You cannot paint players, only walls and game objectives.

What do you think?

I don't think that a rocket shotgun that randomly hurls rockets will be a preferred weapon...

If it was very sensitive to wind or something like that, I think it would be better.

I like it. It's kinda like the PepperPot from the WoE weapon set. Random flying missiles that are pretty drunken, but can turn like hell and can be targeted onto an object. Except this can shoot one at a time if wanted....

Wow, OC says exactly the opposite. Maybe I had to vague of a view of what crazy missiles looked like...

As soon as I saw this I thought of the PepperPot. Sounds like fun!

This weapon would be as effective in-game as emptying a glass of water over the opponent's head.

By the way, this made me laugh:
"Keep in mind that im trying to avoid the "rocket goes forward, rocket goes boom" mentality"
My question is, why do you want a rocket propelling weapon if you don't want it to travel forward and go boom? I don't get it at all.

Sorry Bjossi perhaps I did not make myself clear.

Thats a reference to Rise of the Triad which had one very boring rocket launcher; an ordinary bazooka whose discription even said simply: Rocket goes forward, rocket goes boom*

This is not to suggest the PLETHORA fires rockets that dont move, rather it follows this formula:

lots of rockets spread out over a wide area and go BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM

So you see the mentality I was avoiding was extreme rocket simplicity

BTW: Its a rocket shotgun my friend. Emagine firing the tactical shotgun at someone and they burst into 7 grenade explosions all around them. Im sure this weapon will be alot more than a glass of water, maybe a glass of soda perhaps.

Anyway to OCAdam: It was actualy the pepperpot that gave me the idea of a shotgun that fires rockets. However in my previous thread I was told we wanted to see ballistic weapons for BW so this idea of mine should not resemble already existing guns.

To Kylin: If you expect a single rocket that hits where you designate a rocket should, then go with the G5. This weapon is not intended to replace the G5 in any way, which still would be a better choice for vehicle and lone target assault. The PLETHORA is for multiple targets and wide area attacks.

But remember you can also paint a solitary target with the laser, all rockets will hit that spot with precision. So that stationary turret in the distance is not safe from the PLETHORA. Otherwise you can use it to make your own arial strikes.

*(By saying this I mean no disrespect to ROT, It had plenty of other cool rocket launchers at your disposal)

[edit]

updated the balance factors, hopefully that elaborates a bit more.

It sounds like a powerful weapon when you put it that way, but don't you think firing many rockets at the same time will rip the arms off the wielder?

Well if we consider that the rockets are smaller in bulk, hopefully the knockback wont be so extreme, not like shooting multiple G5 rockets. Still 7 rockets will give a bad kickback even if they are small.

I can emagine the weapon jumping up and forcing you to take aim again. For this reason im thinking the stock of the weapon should feature dampeners to absorb the shock. Kinda like gun suspension. The guns handles also allows tight grip underneath the weapon.

We can also assume that the weapon has a special exhaust system that safely reduces the reaction of the launch

This is meant to be a well designed and innovative weapon created by clever people so we can use our emaginations here.

[edit]
Just one other thing; in UT99 you could fire 6 rockets simultaneously without any ill-effect. And that gun was not designed to be safe to the user, unlike the PLETHORA. It appears the average tournament athlete is not fazed by such extreme forces. Hell they can take a flak shell to the face and keep walking.

I dont emagine this to be a seperate situation, is it?