Idea to make the LAW a bit better

[Tefaan]

My idea for the Demo is a gun that defends you as a Demo. The M4 is just nothing. Your only chance of killing a little group is shooting off the heads. But there is the recoil of the gun that makes it hard to shoot off every head. You can barely defend yourself against even a little group.
It could be a gun that weighs 4kg - 6kg which has no additional grenade launcher but has bullets in it which explode on impact.

 

[hunter_hunted]

Built-in penetration is interesting, but it could impact the usefulness of friendly commandos etc keeping the nearby area clear, and remove the ability to hit the clot dancing on a table in order to take out the husk hidden nearby. I'd say penetration should only apply before arming distance, and a maximum depending on the kinetic damage potential (with headshots it might penetrate two small zeds for example, but only one with a bodyshot). You can already take out a lot more zeds than a crossbow bolt; half the fun to me is deciding exactly where to place the rocket for maximum red mist.

As poosh points out though, the risk of instant death still outweighs the reward a fair bit as it stands:

• Slightly raise damage, so it could be possible to kill FP or SC with 2 rockets.

Agreed, otherwise I may as well be a support with a hunting shotgun for the amount of grenades I need to add in. Alternatively, make it safer for general crowd use as per point 3, and let it sit in that niche instead.

• Lower weight by 1 block, so Machete could be carried along with it.

Only problem is this'd encourage people to forget pipes as well so they can bring a 2-block sidearm. I like that you either need to have protection from others or be creative with aiming at ceilings etc when things get close.

• Prevent detonation in point-blank range, caused by other damage and add minimal damage threshold. It is stupid that even 1 damage point from Husk's fireball or teammate's flamer can detonate a rocket while it is still flying out of the LAW, blowing your *** up.

I'd say let husks turn the round into a dud, but still prevent it from insta-killing the user. You'd still take the husk hit damage, and still have the personal protection downsides of the LAW to deal with while you load another rocket. Same for pipebombs that aren't proximity armed yet - should be more like the siren negation than a full-on detonation. I can launch a rocket into a wall at point blank and it doesn't explode, but it catches the edge of a flame or 0% friendly fire teammate's grenade...



I also like Rhenna's idea for an IR scope, though it's very dependent on the map and could make some demos even more lazy with smoke placement.



TL;DR:
I find the LAW one of the most fun team weapons to use, precisely because of it's close-quarters drawbacks. However, it's safely in the 'never-use' category of weapons for the top difficulties for me due to it's massive risk of instant-death from husks etc.

 

[Zerginfestor]

The Harpoon Gun is also quite risky to use because you could always find yourself playing fetch with a gorefast or an angry Scrake.

Doesn't matter, at least the Harpoon will obviously show it to you as a "Yup...you f*cked up! -BOOM-". LAW? all you'll see is a sudden 'you're ded' screen and you hovering over the other players. Harpoon gun may have risks, but it's NOTHING if not, smaller than the LAW's demands and payback.

 

[ArcheKruz]

It's like what someone else mentioned, it should be set off by enemy Husks because they are a risk factor that should be taken into account. The LAW would have been too good of a weapon otherwise. Detonated by friendly fire? I agree, that should be fixed.

 

[RuMan]

"That scrake hiding behind a crowd of clots is less of a threat"

so you shoot scrakes with LAW rockets ... tell me again what other amaizing ideas you have for the game?

 

[Tefaan]

"That scrake hiding behind a crowd of clots is less of a threat"

so you shoot scrakes with LAW rockets ... tell me again what other amaizing ideas you have for the game?

What's wrong about shooting Scrakes with the LAW? It stuns them and other people can finish him.

 

[Althamus]

I thought that was the whole point of the LAW. Apart from that, I can't see any advantages for it over the M32.

 

[Tefaan]

I like the idea of penetrating LAW rockets. It sucks when you accidentally hit the Stalker instead of the target. But maybe that's part of the Stalker's job.

 

[|WC|Capt.525]

I thought that was the whole point of the LAW. Apart from that, I can't see any advantages for it over the M32.

Huge AOE, huge damage, one shots everything below a SC, < wave 7 you can fire with impunity (ie, not cause a wipe due to raging things/flying sirens), and can single handedly stop a side from being over run in an emergency. M32 is still amazing, and better in a lot of situations (FP disposal anyone?), but the LAW definitely has its place.

 

[Althamus]

Huge AOE, huge damage, one shots everything below a SC, < wave 7 you can fire with impunity (ie, not cause a wipe due to raging things/flying sirens), and can single handedly stop a side from being over run in an emergency. M32 is still amazing, and better in a lot of situations (FP disposal anyone?), but the LAW definitely has its place.

Huge AoE is lost a bit when it explodes on the front zed (hence this topic), and the other things IMHO are blown out of the water by the fact you can fire 6 M32 shots in a second or two. The LAW does better damage per shot, but 6 M32 shots scattered over a small area will take out pretty much anything.
Also, if you don't hit the scrake head on, you can rage it without stunning it.

It might be just that the M32>LAW so I've never really tried using the LAW, and never really seen it used properly, but when I see a pub using it, I assume they'll be terrible.

 

[|WC|Capt.525]

Huge AoE is lost a bit when it explodes on the front zed (hence this topic), and the other things IMHO are blown out of the water by the fact you can fire 6 M32 shots in a second or two. The LAW does better damage per shot, but 6 M32 shots scattered over a small area will take out pretty much anything.
Also, if you don't hit the scrake head on, you can rage it without stunning it.

It might be just that the M32>LAW so I've never really tried using the LAW, and never really seen it used properly, but when I see a pub using it, I assume they'll be terrible.

You just have to pick your shots, that's all. The few times that I have blown myself up with the LAW have been when I was using it off perk, and I know what I did wrong each time (shooting at a Husk while he is shooting at me).