Combat drugs that is

I'm not sure if this has been discussed before or not. A quick search didn't turn anything but I didn't look very hard so if this has been done before, then I'm sorry.

Anyway, I had this idea this morning. How about various combat drugs that provide various benefits for a short period of time? To balance them, they could have drawbacks too. I suppose they'd work like a "weapon". You select them, and "fire" them to use them. Perhaps they'd come in syringes and the "firing" animation would be your character injecting them into his arm... I'm not sure.

Here are a few ideas for combat drugs I came up with:



Speed/ close combat enhancing drug:

A mix of synthetic adrenaline, amphetamines, aggression amplifiers and god only knows what else. The affected soldier has lighting fast reflexes, increased strength and is driven to psychotic fury.

Advantages:

Movement speed is dramatically increased. The character can jump further/ higher, and all close combat weapons receive a bonus to their damage and rate of fire. The stamina bar doesn't drain as fast. Also, when double tapping the forward button (e.g dodge) the character performs a huge forward leap that can be used to bring them into striking distance of an enemy almost instantly.

Lasts roughly 30 seconds.

Disadvantages:

Chaos with ranged weapons is slightly increased, as the drug causes trembling and shakes in the user. The character is still perfectly capable of hitting targets up close, but shots from long range are much more difficult.

The comedown is a bitch. After the affects have worn off, the character's movement speed begins to rapidly decrease until they're moving at only half of their original speed. In addition, they suffer from vision problems (Imagine really bad motion blur).

The comedown also lasts about 30 seconds.




Health/ invulnerability drug:

This drug is comprised of a massive dose of painkillers as well as enough stimulants to keep a character fighting with wounds that would normally incapacitate them. It doesn't last though, and the side effects are severe and often deadly.

Advantages:

Instantly increases the health of the user by about 200 hitpoints, even above the normal maximum.

Disadvantages:

The character begins to rapidly loose health. The health loss continues until the character has lost about 230 health. This takes about 30-40 seconds. The player can use this drug no matter how much health they have at the time, but if they have less than 30 points of health they will die of an overdose before the effects have worn off.


Accuracy/ stability enhancing drug:

This drug suppresses the user's heart and breathing rate, as well as reducing the slight trembling that disrupts a gunman's aim. This drug allows a sniper to nail that perfect headshot, or a gunfighter to aim precisely even on the run.

Advantages:

Dramatically reduces chaos with all ranged weapons. Recoil is slightly reduced as well. When using guns with scopes, the scopes do not wobble or tremble like they usually do.

Lasts 30 seconds.

Disadvantages:

Because it lowers a user's heart and breathing rate, players cannot move as quickly while the drug is in effect, and the stamina bar decreases more rapidly as well.



Well, that's all I can think of for now. Post comments, criticisms or any other ideas for combat drugs that you may have

mmm...some good ideas...but maybe a better name

Heh sounds like the Plasmids of Bioshock...

nice idea maybe it could be implemented in the adrenaline system that is used now in ut.

Interesting, since they have disadvantages.

love this idea. Just slap the name Combat Stimulants on them to prevent confusion/angry parents.

Yeah would be a cool switch from the adrenaline system we know of.

This reminded me of "Stimpacks" for some reason

What you have suggested here sgnl05 could be the new BW bonus pickups. Replacing double damage and berserk with something more tactical.

They could easily be adrenaline induced abilities but in another thread I stated how I would rather see new pickups than Jak & Daxter dark eco magic.

I like how they have side effects, that should give the powerup timers something to think about

And yes call them "stimulants" or perhaps just make them technology. I would rather they did not remind me of taking Herion

Glad everyone likes them. Obviously a name change is in order, I just couldn't resist when I made the thread title I think that combat stimulants is an excellent name.

I hadn't really thought too much about how a player would actually get them. Making them an adrenaline powerup could work, but I don't think having them as a pickup is a good idea, because it means you can't choose when to activate them, and because of the disadvantages using them at a bad time could cause you to loose a firefight rather than win it.

Personally, I'm in favor of putting them in the grenades slot in loadout, and changing it's name to the equipment slot. That way there's an additional disadvantage to taking them, but if I was planning on running around slicing people up with a katana then I'd be prepared to sacrifice my supply of pineapples to get these, without question.





I don't think they'd make as much sense that way, and considering that BW is already a game about killing people in a myriad of different and fairly horrible ways, I don't think adding hypodermics full of drugs is really making it any edgier. Some people feel strangely strongly about these sorts of things though...

Anyway, if they did actually make them, it'd be Runestorm's decision to decide how they'd be portrayed in the game

Wow... More "Adreplacements" that I love...

However, I think the only use for these things are those long, grueling Conquest-type battles that require a player to stay alive for as long as humanly possible... In deathmatch, you'd be long dead before the side-effects kick in.

Unless you play like me: you die once, game over.

This thought just hit me. What about basically making the combat stimulants something like a souped up energy drink?

Just slap them in a can (Red Bull sized), give each stimulant type a different skin for the can, and call it good.

Make it like a weapon; primary fire, hold it in, you open it up, and begin drinking it. Upon finishing it off or releasing pri fire, you just crush the can and throw it over your shoulder. Longer drinks obviously offer longer durations and such, but if you're in a pinch, you might only have time for just a bit to drink.

Animations for you actually drinking it could get a bit messy, so I'd say the simplest solution would be to just have the opening of the can show up below your field of vision.

Alt fire for this could be a simple punch, or to offer support, throw it to a team mate to use. Maybe special function you could throw it, alt fire punches. The trow could basically be like an underhand auto-throw for the grenades.

Throwing it could also be fun to use at decoy grenades.

Also, this could easily be expanded upon, like regular energy drinks offering a bit of health and stamina, beer could offer some health but raise chaos and recoil, and maybe a concoction of healing stuffs for a regular health item. Be good if it has some drawbacks too.

Hmmm beer you say ?
Why would you just throw the used can over your shoulder? Why not acctually use it as a weapon , just throw it at your enemy's head ( the more there is left in the can the heavier , and the more damage )

You could make some of them in the energy drink form and some of them perhaps in a needle and seringe ?

The speed increasing ones as a drink and the health and related stuff in the needle form.

As far the throwing as a decoy that would be fun but that would give the advesarry a chance to pick it up and make it more tacctically.

I guess you could throw a partially drank can at someone... but it really couldn't do much damage.

Multiple types works too.

Yep, thats the thing about throwing one as a decoy. You could hope it scares the enemy, or they just get a free com-stim.

If we apply drinks here then make sure there is a cuppacinno available.

It can increase running speed but raises mouse sensitivity beyond what you are used too.

For the drinking animation just have the top of the can covering half of your view at the lower end of the screen. That should give the impression that you are drinking.

You can already press T to pass the can to someone so alt fire needs to be something else. I was thinking in terms of shaking up the can (if its carbonated) then throwing it as a small bubbly explosive

I like this idea, maybe you could implement a menu which would let you buy them. And you could earn money by killing people. Or points would work too..

You mean like a vending machine?

Well that would certanly be a new way of obtaining resources

Perhaps the coins can be pickups, 1 dollar, 2 dollars, 50 cents. These in turn can be spent at your nearest Coke dispenser at some corner of the deathmatch arena. Simply press (USE) on the vending machine and your menu appears, once you make a choice you see an animation of you putting the coin in and the can appears in your inventory.

But you are vulnerable when you do this so one must be careful and not spend to long looking at his options.

[edit]

Further ideas:

Coins can replace adrenaline pickups while adrenaline simply moves to the new adrenaline concept mentioned in a previous thread.

Coins can be collected from dead bodies so you can also gain cash from killing the money hog.

This sounds better as an intirely new thing, rather than a BW addition at this point.

Well I like the idea, but going too far isn't real fun.

Perhaps they can be added in Loadout as a sort of weapon, so you can choose 3 drugs (can be same) and then use them whenever you like.

And for the new patch... well, people that are beta testers know where these drugs should be fit in. ^^