Well, here's my attempt at making LG a fair weapon.

Let's assume that the damage, fire rate and overheat rate either stay the same or are adjustable in further versions of BW. None of these are affected. It's the physics of the gun that gets changed.

So, here it is point by point.

1. LG's primary fire is a whip of lightning similar to the Link Gun's secondary fire - even if the gun isn't locked on a target, it keeps firing instead of spawning a bunch of electric arcs around player (the way we have it know).

2. This whip of lightning is not tracking or self-guided until it hits somebody.

3. After somebody gets hit by that, they get sort of tied to the attacker with a string of lightning. The arc becomes partially tracking - it sticks to the victim as long as the distance between them and the point the gun is actually aimed at doesn't exceed a certain value. Let's say 10 feet. As long as the victim stays in a 10' radius around the point where the LG is actually aimed at, the lightning locks on the target and continues hurting them (self-adjusts its trajectory, so to say). If the victim manages to escape this circle, the link is broken and the attacker has to catch the victim with the lightning again. The attacker is free to aim his LG like any other weapon though, so escaping the catch radius should be rather difficult.

4. The victim neither suffers any slowdown nor gets paralysed while struck by the lightning, they retain complete freedom of movement; but as long as they're affected by lightning, they suffer from a considerable physical (or call it EMP or something) impulse which drags them in the direction of the attacker. They are free to fight against this impulse and move in such a way that might help them to escape the catch radius.

5. LG has a certain reach for the primary fire. No-one ouside of it can be hit... but when you hit somebody with the lightning and it locks on them, and they try to run away, the tracked arc can stretch up to twice the usual reach. If the victim manages to escape the lightning and break the link while being outside the standard reach of LG, the attacker will have to get closer in order to catch the victim again while they're inside the standard reach.

6. If a victim caught by lightning manages to run away for a distance greater than twice the standard LG reach, the link is broken.

7. The lightning whip acts much like a rubber string: the farther you victim is, the stronger the physical impulse is. The farther your enemy runs, the stronger he is pushed back towards you. However this impulse is not completely irresistible - it's just like sailing against the wind.

8. By moving the crosshair around, the attacker can toss around the victim caught by lightning. Introduce side impulses, to put it nerdly. Much like the present LG. But every time the attacker does this, he risks the victim getting outside the 10' catch radius and breaking the link.

9. If some physical obstacle gets between the victim and the attacker, it breaks the link. If I'm not mistaken this is true for LG as of now.

10. Anyone in a 25' radius around the victim caught by lightning get tied to them and each other by lesser tracking arcs. These are completely self-guided, however they have a much shorter range and deal only about 50% of normal LG damage.

11. People caught by secondary lightning arcs are pulled towards the main victim just the same way as he's pulled towards the attacker. Secondary lightning arcs can stretch up to twice the standard catch radius, that is 50', and work much like the main lightning whip. Though just like the damage, they have a slighter physical impulse applied to the secondary victims.

12. When the attacker tosses the main victim around, all the secondary victims also suffer from it, because they're "linked" to the main victim. Increasing the distance between him and them is likely to increase the secondary impulses which push the secondary victims towards the main one, so tossing the main victim also causes the rest of the people caught in such a chain of lightning toss around, too.

13. If somebody crosses the whip of lightning between the attacker and the main victim, they become the main victim themselves. However if the distance is sufficient, the previous main victim becomes a secondary one (remember the 25' radius). If not, they escape happily.

14. The secondary fire of LG is a long-range, non-tracking chain lightning. If it hits a wall, nothing happens. If it hits a player, it may jump to another player, then to another one... (I've added this chain lightning capability to the secondary fire in order to get it more popular and maybe as effective as the primary fire).

15. Anyone struck by secondary fire is pushed back from the attacker, unlike the primary fire.

16. Combo attack. When an attacker catches a group of people with the primary fire, any moment he's free to perform a combo attack by activating the secondary fire simultaneously to the primary fire. When doing so, the blue tracking arc turns into a red one, and the secondary fire effect is applied instanteously to everyone caught in a lightning chain: the main victim gets pushed back from the attacker and all the secondary victims are pushed back from the main one and each other. However, after performing a combo attack all the links between the attacker and his victims are broken.

17. A combo attack is mostly useful when the main victim, driven inevitably towards the attacker, decides to rush upon him before getting fried alive and smash his head with a katana or a well-placed, point-blank shotgun shot. A combo attack both pushes the berserker back, deals him a considerable amount of damage and saves the attacker from death. However, everybody caught (or 'linked') by lightning gets free after the attacker performs a combo attack.

I hope these points will help to make the LG a weapon that requires skill. It'll be as devastating as before, but it will require really skilled handling. Each unsuccessfull attempt at tossing the victim around will result in their escape. LG will require aiming to keep the victim inside the catch radius. Etc., etc. LG is unfair not because it's too powerful, it's unfair because it's too easy to use. You press fire and everybody in front of you are cooked. No aiming. No skills required. Hope this solves it.

P.S. Please don't mix up the reach and the catch radius. The former means how long can the lightning travel between the victim and the attacker, the latter means how far away can the victim stand from the actual point at which the LG is aimed for the lightning arc to be sticky, that is to track the victim. In other words, the actual aim point is one thing, and the current trajectory of lightning is another. If the victim is in the catch radius, the lightning self-adjusts its trajectory and tracks them.

Hmm. . .Fascinating. Very well thought out. I like it. Not sure yet if I'd want it replacing the current LG, but still very good.

Current LG does not depend on the user's skill, thus arousing a lot of complaints. The one described above does depend on skill, keeping the same damage and fire rate. I'm sure it'll please everybody.

Well. . . I don't know about that. I see skilled players getting a lot more kills with the LG than unskilled players. I don't think it takes any less skill than other superweapons like the minigun or redeemer.

And by "a lot of complaints", I think you mean "complaints form Baklajan".

Regardless, I do like the idea. But I'd have to try it before I made a final judgment call on it.

No, I mean a lot of complaints in earlier threads, not only just by me. Just look here http://runestorm.za.net/pl/forum/forum_ ... .php?34024 and read the whole thing.

P.S. I'm surprised to learn that LG is a superweapon I thought it was a regular, but unfair gun. If it's used as a superweapon in a regular BW match, that's ok. But in Loadout, it's a bore when somebody picks an LG and gets an unfair advantage. I mostly play Loadout...

How about this, if a player has armor, they ground the lighting gun's charges making them much weaker and potentially creating a feedback loop that would hurt the owner of the lightning gun.

Yeah. . .that's why I don't have the LG seectable on loadout, but I set it to still spawn as a superweapon where there are normally Redeemer/Ion painter/target painter pickups.

The former idea is ok, the latter one would be ridiculous.

Hmm. . .

Dune-style sheild feedback, anyone?

Well, I decided to revive the thread. The new concept received some positive feedback and even a dev liked the idea.

The new LG has none of its parameters nerfed, still it's harder to use and it makes more of a fair weapon.

Hope this will be tested out and implemented in future versions.

Agreed. That or have it so that your not tossed up into the air when you have shields. That could potentially balance it a bit.

Your new LG wont be forgotten Baklajan

It has been added to The Idea Registry

Some how, i wish it was.

I hope you know how a holtzman shield works... It distorts space to deflect fast objects, but slow objects pass through. Lasers make it explode, so you'd just use the aiming laser from a sidearm to make a target sub nuclear explode.

Now that sounds cool.

Wait,that's like what the Gaoul(spelling?) from Stargate use, isn't it?

Its more like Gao'uld I think.

And those guys have bubble style barriers of light from what I remember, although that type of shield appeared rarely so my memory might serve me wrong. Heavy armour was more common.

Yes. It can deflect bullets and energy weapons in that show, but in one episode, someone threw a knife and it went through.

But what does this have to do with the Lightning Gun?

A certain shield concept that could protect from lightning reminded Xavious of the TV feature.

Seeing as how this LG concept extends to defence, we may as well discuss protection elements