Xargus - Weapons - Theoretically considering the relationship between Shots Per Charge vsĀ UsefulnessĀ Of Weapon (controlling for shots per second equivalent)
Preliminarily playtesting the (limited number of unfinished) new guns Iāve implemented in the game recently, I came to a realisation that makes sense, but that I hadnāt properly considered before:
Weapons with more shots per charge, but the same shots per second equivalent, are much more useful in-game.
E.g. a weapon with a 1 second recharge time and 1 shot per charge is less useful than a weapon with a 2 second recharge time and 2 shots per charge.
There are a number of reasons why this is the case, and the main ones are as follows:
There are gaps in the game where there are no enemies on screen
Between waves, and when enemies have just died and new ones are coming in, there are gaps of a few seconds.
Comparing two theoretical guns: one with a 3 second recharge time and 3 shots per charge, and another with a 1 second recharge time and 1 shot per charge, both are going to have an opportunity to completely recharge every wave/when an enemy dies.
However, the weapon with 3 shots per charge will then be bringing in 2 additional shots that can be used up in that wave, and these will be replenished by the time difference later. This is a massive advantage.
Strategy: Attack - Dodge Cycles
With 3 shot per charge weapons, there is the opportunity to adopt an Attack-Dodge cycle strategy, which essentially involves staying as far away from the enemy as possible while the gun is recharging (so as to have more time to get out of the way of bullets), and then moving close to the enemies (to increase the chances of the alienās bullets successfully hitting), shooting as many shots as the gun allows, and then quickly moving back away from them in order to be able to dodge their bullets.
This way, all the alienās bullets have a high chance of hitting, having been shot close to the enemies, and yet the alien spends the majority of its time far away from the enemies, therefore being able to dodge their bullets.
This strategy would not be possible with a 1 shot per charge weapon - instead, the alien would have to adopt a middle ground, staying marginally away from the enemies so as to have time to dodge their bullets, whilst staying close enough that the alienās bullets hit.
Essentially, this means that with a 1 shot per charge weapon, the player is likely to incur more damage, and less of their attacks are likely to hit the enemy, compared to a weapon with more shots per charge.
Time Wasted Switching Between Primary + Secondary Weapons
Switching between the primary weapon and the secondary weapon currently takes 0.5 seconds, during which time neither gun can be fired, but both guns will still recharge at their usual rate. I may reduce this to 0.3 seconds however.
Scenario 1 - Primary+Secondary - 1 Shot Per Charge:
Theoretically, if the player had two guns equipped that both had 1 shot per charge + 1 second recharge time, it would be very difficult - impossible even - to utilise the maximum potential of both guns. The player would have to shoot Gun 1, instantly switch to Gun 2 (taking 0.5 seconds), shoot Gun 2, and then instantly switch back to Gun 1 (taking 0.5 seconds again) in order to get back to Gun 1 by the time it had finished recharging.
In practice, this is ridiculous. The player is not going to bother with this. Instead, they are likely to just use one gun in this situation and not bother using the second one whatsoever. One gun will go entirely unused.
Scenario 2 - Primary 1 Shot Per Charge, Secondary 4 Shots Per Charge:
In this situation, the player is likely to use up all 4 shots of the secondary weapon, and then switch to the primary weapon, and continue using the primary weapon until they feel the secondary has charged sufficiently, etc.Ā
They are likely to use the secondary weapon to its full potential, and their primary will experience some wastage (due to the fact that it will likely reach full charge and not be being used while the player is using the secondary weapon)
Scenario 3 - Primary+Secondary - 4 Shots Per Charge:
In this situation, the player is likely to use the primary weapon until it is out of charge, then switch to secondary and use this until it is out of charge, then switch back to primary (which will not have fully recharged yet) etc.
In short, both the primary and secondary weapons will be used to their full potential.
Essentially, due to the interaction between primary and secondary weapons, weapons with a low shot per charge rate are likely to not be used to anywhere near their full potential, in stark contrast to weapons with a medium/high shot per charge rate.
Optimising Use of Special Effect Weapons
Special effect weapons (freeze, poison, instadeath, etc) are affected in even more ways. All of these weapons do varying amounts of damage depending on the number of enemies on screen, health of enemies, etc, or other factors. Essentially, their powerfullness is varying, whereas most of the weapons in game have fixed, unvarying powerfullness.
This means that it is very advantageous to be able to fully prioritise when these weapons are shot. For example, in a round where there are a whole bunch of low health enemies, followed by two high health enemies, it would be advantageous to poison both of these enemies at once using the poison gun - poisoning a high health enemy does more total damage than poisoning a low health one.
In short, having more shots per charge is even more advantageous in special effect weapons.
In conclusion, weapons with a low shot per charge rate:
Lead to the player getting less total shots per wave
Lead to the player having to adopt riskier play strategies, taking more damage, and having less accuracy in the bullets fired by the player
Lead to the player not being able to fully maximise both guns full potential
Meaning that they are likely to be significantly less useful in game than weapons with a high shot per charge rate.
Now I need to figure out a way of quantifying this, so that I can plot the usefulness of weapons on a graph, to help in balancing the game... which is likely to be difficult.