Tripwire Interactive Forums
It always bugged me that only the Berserker gets much use out of the knife as a practical weapon, and I started thinking about ways to change that. Everyone has one, after all; why should only one perk get any use out of them?
inb4 someone points out that the knife is your last resort if you run out of ammo on all of your weapons. While I understand the importance of that, that doesn't happen often enough for the knife to see much use by the other perks. And besides, when you do have to resort to that, why not add a little flair to it?
I haven't fully fleshed out this idea, but what if each perk had a unique effect on their knife? These wouldn't be hugely game-altering effects, nothing that would throw off the balance, but they could be neat to try for fun.
For example, the Firebug's knife would ignite targets on hit. The only practical use for this would be getting just a bit more points towards leveling the perk when you're at a low level and in an early wave, but it could be fun nonetheless -- and that effect wouldn't be too hard to implement either.
I'm struggling to think of ideas for the other perks' knives. I could see the Medic's knife having a healing effect on hit, but I can't think of a way to make that not overpowered -- too similar to the basic syringe, anyway. The only thing I can think of for the Sharpshooter is a scoped knife, but that's just way too silly. For the other perks, I just have no idea.
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If that doesn't sound appealing, perhaps instead each perk could have a unique look to their knife -- a purely cosmetic trait, but fun nonetheless?
Support Specialist or Commando could have a trench knife.
Medic could have a scalpel.
Firebug could have a knife made of obsidian.
Demo could have a pair of wire cutters or something, I dunno.
What say you lot?
inb4 someone points out that the knife is your last resort if you run out of ammo on all of your weapons. While I understand the importance of that, that doesn't happen often enough for the knife to see much use by the other perks. And besides, when you do have to resort to that, why not add a little flair to it?
I haven't fully fleshed out this idea, but what if each perk had a unique effect on their knife? These wouldn't be hugely game-altering effects, nothing that would throw off the balance, but they could be neat to try for fun.
For example, the Firebug's knife would ignite targets on hit. The only practical use for this would be getting just a bit more points towards leveling the perk when you're at a low level and in an early wave, but it could be fun nonetheless -- and that effect wouldn't be too hard to implement either.
I'm struggling to think of ideas for the other perks' knives. I could see the Medic's knife having a healing effect on hit, but I can't think of a way to make that not overpowered -- too similar to the basic syringe, anyway. The only thing I can think of for the Sharpshooter is a scoped knife, but that's just way too silly. For the other perks, I just have no idea.
-----------------------
If that doesn't sound appealing, perhaps instead each perk could have a unique look to their knife -- a purely cosmetic trait, but fun nonetheless?
Support Specialist or Commando could have a trench knife.
Medic could have a scalpel.
Firebug could have a knife made of obsidian.
Demo could have a pair of wire cutters or something, I dunno.
What say you lot?