Please excuse the MSPaint. I just really wanted to do one of these

Name: The A808 Skrith "Tomahawk"

Background: Haven't really thought much about this. But I think it's enough to say that the Skrith decided they needed some heavy hand-held munitions, and in true Skrith style they stuck a lot of blades to it. I think that's a satisfactory description for now...

Basic Description: The weapon's design concepts are actually based on an old Middle-Age/Renaissance throwing axe called the "Hurlbat". Hurlbat doesn't exactly roll of the tongue, so I chose "Tomahawk" as the name instead. I could have also gone with "Throwing axe", but that's a little boring.

As the image above describes, it's a combination throwing axe and plasma grenade. Leave it to a Skrith to make a melee weapon out of everything...

Weapon Modes: This comes in two flavors - Hold mode, which basically makes it into a simple melee weapon, or release mode, which brings its explosive capabilities to bear, at significant risk.



Primary Fire: Standard melee attack. Chop-chop-chop in a whirling frenzy of axe blade.

Secondary Fire: Depending on the current situation, this can either be a standard melee weapon attack (hold mode), melee weapon attack with a twist, or a weapon throw function (release mode).

If the weapon is currently in "Hold" mode, it functions exactly as the secondary fire for all other melee weapons.

If on "release" mode, if an enemy is within striking range in front of you, you smack him. If he survives, you leave the axe embedded in his flesh. If he doesn't, you keep the axe and it doesn't explode, but that's fine since the enemy is dead anyway.

If an enemy isn't in arm's reach, it changes into a throw. Throwing is similar to the X3's knife throw, only you must charge the throw to get distance. Max throw speed is about 3/4 that of the pineapple, with charge time at one second to fully charge. There is a minimum velocity the tomahawk must achieve to stick to its target effectively. If it does not reach this velocity, it will simply do some impact damage and fall to the ground. The weapon can also be blocked by other melee weapons, causing it to harmlessly bounce off onto the ground. However, any significant impact (greater than a fall from 8 feet) while the weapon handle is released will arm the bomb and start the fuse. Better start running...

Change weapon mode: Toggles hold mode and release mode.

Weapon Special: Blocks attacks, like the Katana and A909. The block functions for all 3 weapons should allow them to absorb impact damage from grenades and deflect thrown knives and Tomahawks, as well as block melee attacks. It might also be fun to allow them to lessen damage from explosions, with varying levels depending on the weapon. The A909 would offer the best protection, and Katana the worst.


Other notes:

-As stated above, you can only carry four of these. That could even be decreased to three, actually.
-The explosion could feature some flying Triclonium shards from the blades for some good shrapnel action.


If anyone wants to criticize or contribute, I'd love to hear any suggestions.

EDIT: Idea modified to accommodate Yokel's suggestions.

Aha! Now its my turn to nitpick your idea logistics!






Just kidding.

I love hearing about more Skrith inventory and a throwing axe is a good way to bring "Skrith" and "Grenade" together. Thats some good thinking.

I wonder if the grenade aspect should be a little more prominent however.
Suggestion: Seeing as how hacking and slashing is already covered by the skrith blades I wonder if primary fire can be the powerful chop. Then we could make secondary the throwing action while special function is "pulling the pin" hypothetically.

With fire modes being long, short and auto throw. It would be a grenade with melee and not a melee that explodes

All up to you of course.

I can agree with the axe releasing shrapnel, just to put a little more distance between this and other grenades.

I like how you took the sticky-bomb and then turned it into a-world-of-misery-and-pain-bomb...

I loved this idea when he mentioned it to me earlier. This would seriously be something I'd use a lot.

I love axes and explosions are always fun.

I think this would be best as more of a melee weapon with the explosive factors being a secondary function, as being able to carry 3 or 4 of them, you couldn't just chuck them carelessly.

Really love the implementation of that persistant EMP/anti-vehicle idea that tends to pop up somewhat frequently.

Plus, this just feels skrith. If they were use explosives, this certainly seems like the way to implement it.

Awesome idea Kaboodles!

Awesome.

I would be better if the controls were a little simpler. Since it is a grenade, the throwing key should be easily accessible. I think something more like this would fit:


Primary: Charged slash. The higher the charge, the more likely it is to stick in people and detonate. Perhaps allow it to stick to walls as a temporary trap.

Secondary: Charged Throw. The higher the charge, the longer the distance. More charge also makes it more likely to stick to people and scenery.

Special: Primer. Press and release the trigger to arm the bomb.

Having a higher charge required to stick people would reduce spamming, as people wouldn't be able to run around and tap the attack key.

The way I have it set, you can't arm the bomb by simply releasing the trigger. It requires both a release of the trigger and a hard impact with the blades, to differentiate its function from the other grenades.

However, you could release the trigger, smack a surface like a wall with the primary fire to arm the bomb and start the countdown, and then throw it.

Requiring a charge for the melee attack is a good idea though. Added.

Excellent presentation and idea Kab, wonderfully done (could use some history but you've already stated why you don't have that).

My only gripes are with the 'Tomahawk' name and the grenade element to it. Reasons being for the first is that Tomahawk is way to of a human name, let the devs bother with the name (they always think up cool names, even though they are more like serial numbers). As for the grenade element, i think it should be flushed out more, i don't know how, but just flushed out more than is normal.

'Tomahawk' is merely what the humans call it, as they don't know that the Skrith call this weapon, much like their other weapons. I'm sure the Skrith don't call their weapons 'Skrith Rifle', 'Skrith Sidearm', and 'Skrith Wristblade'. Even then, there's no guarantee that the Skrith language could ever be comprehensible by man or can ever be vocalized by a human voice. For all we know, they might all converse via telepathy, with no means of aural communication.


I don't know about fleshing out the grenade aspects, as the Tomahawk should first and foremost be a melee weapon, by Skrith sensibilities. It just happens to be a melee weapon with explosive anti-vehicle capabilities.

Alright, i'm just obsessed with someday seeing a plasma/energy grenade weapon fielded by the Skrith or hell even UTC's Terrans

Im just wondering if we can perhaps cut down on some of the button pressing you need to do. Right now you need to reload to block an attack. Something you may want closer to other modes

Is there any difference between throwing the axe into somebody and stabbing it into somebody apart from the range?

If not, then you may not ever use secondary to imbed the axe into someone when a throw will have the same effect AND can still get them if they dodge away. So with that in mind, you could make release mode true for secondary and make it your throw key when release mode is on.

That free's up the special function which can then be block. Keeping it consistent with other melee weapons.

If you still want the ability to imbed the axe into something without having to throw, what about primary fire + release mode?

Unless embedding it causing it to explode after it gtes embedded as it i now no one would use throw, kinda like the knife

What are you talking about? The throw is by far the knife's best feature. Without it, there'd be no reason to choose it over the Katana's superior reach, unless of course you favor style over effectiveness (which I sometimes do ). I use the knife throw very often and it accounts for most of my knife kills, even in v2.1, with its throwing rate decreased (thank God!).

Anyways, those are good points there Yokel. Weapon idea edited to reflect suggestions.

Love this idea. We need more skrith weapons, and a heavy melee weapon crossed with a grenade is great! Good idea in my opinion. Only thing is: What will the requirements in Evolution Loadout be? May be difficult to get if it requires a good melee, and hazardous/grenade level

looks interesting, in my opinion it would be a perfect dual wield weapon!