The British Bren light machine gun, designed and put to use by the British Armed Forces in 1935 and still kept in the country to this day. This LMG was used throughout the Second World War, the Malayan emergency, the Korean War, the Chinese civil war, the Suez crisis, the Congo crisis, anti-guerrila operations in Indonesia, the Gulf war, "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland, the Mau Mau uprising, the Arab-Isareli war, Sino-Indian war and the Indo-Pakistan wars.
YouTube - Shooting the British Bren MkII light machine gun
Nice, isn't it?
Compared to the bullpup, the Bren Gun is a highly iconic piece of British weaponry, standing with the Sterling and Lee-Enfield rifle. (To be honest all these weapons should be put in someday, or even already, in place of Incendiary M10 and M14, but I'm here to talk about the Bren Gun.)
Now how can this weapon be implemented and balanced? It's an LMG after all, and if we were using some compact belt-fed LMG like the M249 SAW, it'd be like performing heart surgery, except for the fact we're working on game balance. Instead, we're using a rather large magazine-fed LMG - the Bren Gun.
First off, we wanna talk about how the typical idea for the LMG looks at how it is held and used. Most people say that it should be deployed on a tripod, but the argument against it is that it can lead to an extreme campfest and will require a lot of dev work on making this brand new function. The other alternative is to say that it can be held like any other commando assault rifle and spammed. This is still disliked because the weapon itself will be overpowered (or plain useless if recoil is included) and people can say "Oh, I want to see a belt-fed M249 SAW in game" and while they refuse to back down on this, they're given the option of making the capacity of the weapon small, but since the weapon is belt-fed, logically it should have 100 rounds or above. Now look again at how the Bren Gun's ammo is fed into it. It's a pretty average magazine loaded with .303 British rounds.
Now lets talk about the Bren Gun's handling.
YouTube - MG34
Look at the beginning part of the video (no need to see more).
If you've played Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-44, you may have used the MG34 machine gun. It can be hipfired or deployed. For the sake of the LMG's previous arguments, the Bren won't be deployed.
The MG34 can be held in a non-firing position where the player can move at normal speed and can then press the "aim" button and then be reduced to walking speed with the barrel pointed forwards (the walking speed function already exists in KF, take heed, devs/modders). RO's gun can't be aimed at all when standing. We should do the same thing with the Bren Gun in KF. The Bren-User can't run around and shoot quickly, nor can s/he camp in one spot and take potshots.
Now the next thing is the stats of the gun. The original proposed idea of the LMG is to fire at the realistic fire rate, with high recoil, a little more damage than the SCAR (more acheivable with the recent nerf) and with at least 100 rounds of ammo as the base stat. The answer has always been "no."
My proposition for the Bren is to give it 40 rounds per mag base, which is then extended to 50 by a level 5/6 commando to give it a greater feeling of a heavy weapon than an assault rifle. The fire rate should be slower than the AK (the slowest commando weapon, correct me if I'm wrong) and there should be SCAR-like recoil accompanied with a screen-shaking effect to give both the effect of a powerful and frickin' badass weapon. The damage should be just a little more than the SCAR, which is more sensible when you look at the recent nerf, or it could be the same as the SCAR pre-nerf which becomes a little more desirable with the lack of mobility, the inability to properly aim, the weight of the gun (10 blocks, like the flamethrower and the old crossbow) and the slower fire-rate.
You can imagine the fire rate to be like this gun:
YouTube - Russian Maxim 1910 machine gun
It's slower than a modern assault rifle and it's as if the slower fire rate compensates for a powerful round.
Here's a summary for those too lazy to read:
Final question:
Will it be fun?
YouTube - Bren gun scene from Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels
You decide.
So what does everyone think? If there's anything anyone would like to add/change, post away!
EDIT: If you vote "no" please state your reason why. Let's see if we can both take your opinion and change the suggestion a little so you can be poked in the direction to a "yes."
YouTube - Shooting the British Bren MkII light machine gun
Nice, isn't it?
- The Good: It's a British weapon, there's plenty of them kept in the UK to this day so it would make perfect sense to make use of this fact in the unique setting that Killing Floor offers, which is in England. If I remember correctly, the last FPS to be set in london was Resistance: Fall of Man and that used super-high-tech American and Alien weapons throughout the game. The unique setting was hardly put to use, so we have plenty of chance to say something about it with KF and make it even more unique.
- The Bad: It's yet another weapon suggestion and that requires work and people willing to work on it; it's been said often that KF has too many weapons and no room for any more, or does it?
- The Ugly: It's a LMG. People have been asking for an LMG mainly for the feel of it and the role it carries, while the others say "no" because of the huge magazine capacity and the fire rate and the camping it encourages. If you look at the short video and how its use is demonstrated in both a mounted position and hipfiring, perhaps you can understand how the design of the Bren Gun could satisfy both sides of the argument.
Compared to the bullpup, the Bren Gun is a highly iconic piece of British weaponry, standing with the Sterling and Lee-Enfield rifle. (To be honest all these weapons should be put in someday, or even already, in place of Incendiary M10 and M14, but I'm here to talk about the Bren Gun.)
Now how can this weapon be implemented and balanced? It's an LMG after all, and if we were using some compact belt-fed LMG like the M249 SAW, it'd be like performing heart surgery, except for the fact we're working on game balance. Instead, we're using a rather large magazine-fed LMG - the Bren Gun.
First off, we wanna talk about how the typical idea for the LMG looks at how it is held and used. Most people say that it should be deployed on a tripod, but the argument against it is that it can lead to an extreme campfest and will require a lot of dev work on making this brand new function. The other alternative is to say that it can be held like any other commando assault rifle and spammed. This is still disliked because the weapon itself will be overpowered (or plain useless if recoil is included) and people can say "Oh, I want to see a belt-fed M249 SAW in game" and while they refuse to back down on this, they're given the option of making the capacity of the weapon small, but since the weapon is belt-fed, logically it should have 100 rounds or above. Now look again at how the Bren Gun's ammo is fed into it. It's a pretty average magazine loaded with .303 British rounds.
Now lets talk about the Bren Gun's handling.
YouTube - MG34
Look at the beginning part of the video (no need to see more).
If you've played Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-44, you may have used the MG34 machine gun. It can be hipfired or deployed. For the sake of the LMG's previous arguments, the Bren won't be deployed.
The MG34 can be held in a non-firing position where the player can move at normal speed and can then press the "aim" button and then be reduced to walking speed with the barrel pointed forwards (the walking speed function already exists in KF, take heed, devs/modders). RO's gun can't be aimed at all when standing. We should do the same thing with the Bren Gun in KF. The Bren-User can't run around and shoot quickly, nor can s/he camp in one spot and take potshots.
Now the next thing is the stats of the gun. The original proposed idea of the LMG is to fire at the realistic fire rate, with high recoil, a little more damage than the SCAR (more acheivable with the recent nerf) and with at least 100 rounds of ammo as the base stat. The answer has always been "no."
My proposition for the Bren is to give it 40 rounds per mag base, which is then extended to 50 by a level 5/6 commando to give it a greater feeling of a heavy weapon than an assault rifle. The fire rate should be slower than the AK (the slowest commando weapon, correct me if I'm wrong) and there should be SCAR-like recoil accompanied with a screen-shaking effect to give both the effect of a powerful and frickin' badass weapon. The damage should be just a little more than the SCAR, which is more sensible when you look at the recent nerf, or it could be the same as the SCAR pre-nerf which becomes a little more desirable with the lack of mobility, the inability to properly aim, the weight of the gun (10 blocks, like the flamethrower and the old crossbow) and the slower fire-rate.
You can imagine the fire rate to be like this gun:
YouTube - Russian Maxim 1910 machine gun
It's slower than a modern assault rifle and it's as if the slower fire rate compensates for a powerful round.
Here's a summary for those too lazy to read:
- Makes the British gun-huggers finally pleased.
- Makes the LMG-huggers finally shut up.
- 40 rounds base, 50 rounds max.
- Not sure on no. of magazines. Should be big enough to still remain desirable.
- Slightly more powerful than the current SCAR, or could be same as pre-nerf SCAR. (Consider perk!)
- Player can hold the weapon in a lowered position and move at normal run speed.
- A "deployed" hip-fire position which gives walking speed.
- No ironsights.
- A relatively sluggish reload. (not too ridiculous)
- Have the slowest fire rate of all commando weapons.
- Weighs 10 blocks, counting as a special weapon.
- SCAR-like recoil, accompanied with screen shake.
- Disadvantages: Lack of mobility when firing, Slow reload, Slow fire rate, High weight.
- Price has yet to be discussed. How about the same price as the AA12?
Final question:
Will it be fun?
YouTube - Bren gun scene from Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels
You decide.
So what does everyone think? If there's anything anyone would like to add/change, post away!
EDIT: If you vote "no" please state your reason why. Let's see if we can both take your opinion and change the suggestion a little so you can be poked in the direction to a "yes."
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