Secondary Fire

[Big Pája]

I had this idea since playing good old Fusion on PlayStation 2. Wouldn't it be awesome to have two firing modes in WipEout like You could have in some first-person shooters? Don't worry, I thought it through and I think it is feasible.

The first and most important thing is to fit it on the controller. The current functionality offered by the Fury expansion still has one button free but even if it hadn't, I'm sure we would not feel bad about dropping the "look back" button.

Now, let's talk about all the weapons and pick-ups that are in HD and how would their secondary mode look like:

FORWARD ATTACK WEAPONS:

Rockets - Primary fire is that You fire three rockets side-by-side like way back in 2097. For secondary fire, I would suggest firing the rockets individually so You would have three shots on Your hands. For example, if You decide to fire off just one rocket with SF (secondary fire) and then use PF (primary fire), You would launch the two remaining rockets like in Wip3out. If You fire two with SF, then the third would be the same both in PF and SF.

Missile - PF is that You wait for the lock-on and then fire a deadly strike. HD already has something akin to SF for the missile - You can fire it without lock-on and it will ricochet around the track. The SF could be either that or firing it in a straight line (kinda like the rocket in the original WipEout) but with more devastating power.

Cannon - This also has something akin to SF already. You can either hold down the fire button and dispense the whole clip or You can use burst-fire. However, at higher speeds, using the cannon is less manageable and I tend to prefer to just absorb it. Therefore, for SF I would suggest that the whole clip would be fired automatically but with diminished effect.

Plasma - PF is a devastating, often instantly killing, blast that has to be charged for a few moments. The SF mode is a no-brainer here - fire it without the charging delay but with less power.

Quake - Definitely my favourite weapon since it was introduced in 2097. I think You all love it as well. Devastating, efficient and easy to use. So what would be a good idea for SF? In Fusion, You could look behind You and actually fire a few weapons while doing so, including Quake. With the Fury expansion, You can turn around and do the same but only in the Eliminator mode. I have two ideas for SF here. One would be, of course, launching the Quake behind You but with a diminished range. The other idea, probably more manageable, is to halve the Quake's range and give You the possibility to use it twice.

Leech Beam - This one is tough. Leach Beam was not a standard weapon in Fusion. The PF is simply the ability to drain Your opponent's shield energy and slowing him down at the same time. An SF has to offer something more, while taking something away. Right now, I can think of this - once connected, the Leach Beam would not be disrupted by increased distance between the ships but it would either not slow down the opponent's ship or transfer less shield energy in total.

BACKWARD ATTACK WEAPONS:

Mines - With PF, You unload all the mines at once. With SF, You could unload them one by one. However, that would work only if five mines were the total amount. I never paid attention to how many mines there are HD but I think they're more than five. Therefore, how about unloading just half of the mines and have the other half for a second use. For example, You pick up the mines, unload half of them around one speed pad and the other half around another speed pad.

Bomb - This one is very annoying to be hit by. It can easily be the cause of not getting the 1st place in a Phantom speed class race. What would be a sensible, useful SF for the Bomb? Frankly, I don't really know. Maybe have it cause less physical damage but more slowdown or the other way around?

SUPPLEMENTARY PICK-UPS:

Shield - It protects You from every kind of damage (weapons, bumping walls, bumping ships) for five seconds. My idea for SF of the Shield would be to extend the time of the protection but make it protect You only from the bumping damage and not the weapons damage. Either that or just make only the front half of Your ship protected. That would be protection from bumping walls, bumping other ships from behind and backward weapons.

Turbo - I would suggest an SF similar to that of Quake - double use of decreased potency.

Autopilot - Here, I have nothing. The Autopilot reminds me that not everything really needs a secondary fire mode.


Of course, I am aware of the fact that introducing such feature would also require different game design, mainly longer tracks, but I wish for those regardless. So what do You think?

[abukii]

Ahh good call. I have been thinking about this one for quite some time. In wipEout XL, the missle had a "Rear Lock" feature. To use it, you simple hold DOWN on the D-Pad and fire. Imho, that would be easily adaptable to HD/Fury.

[Mu5]

I'm sure we would not feel bad about dropping the "look back" button.

Yes, we would feel very bad

I think the secondary fire should be voice activated

[mdhay]

WipEout shouldn't have a secondary fire - Fatal Inertia did, and that tanked, given that using a missile to boost your craft would eventually destroy yourself due to a missile's fuse delay - thing.

[Rapier Racer]

Leach Beam - This one is tough. Leach Beam was not around in Fusion.

That is not technically correct.

Team Xios like all other teams in Fusion had a Super Weapon, and theirs was called Shield Drain it worked in the same way only the animation was different, it damaged the ship and took a lot more energy.

I realize that post is over a month old but I can't just sit here and allow such a glaring mistake, just cannot.

[Lance]

Me either, the correct spelling is 'leech'.

[Koleax]

HD already has a secondary weapon use in a way, since you can absorb them for energy. Each weapon is worth a different amount of energy, with the plasma bolt being by far the most, so there is a dynamic there.

Remember how good autopilot was in 2097? You'd never drop it, ever. Not only could it get you around tight corners with a Phantom Piranha without nearing the wall, it would get you past the other ships. It's almost useless now except for the hairpin in Chenghou, at least by comparison. So maybe the secondary button could be 2097 autopilot for three seconds and primary could modern junk autopilot for five.

[abukii]

Seriously, the only secondary fire I can see is the rear- lock feature. Otherwise, youd have to literally re- design everything. However, random thought:

Obviously this would only work with kinetic weapons (energy based weapons would be tougher)-- Secondary fire could be the pilot literally dropping the live round on the track. Not firing it, just releasing it. This would cause the live round to act as a stationary "mine" but with the same damage as if the weapon were fired. Energy weapons could be dropped as well, but would make a small, stationary radius of ouchy instead. Mmmmm...maybe I'll incorporate this into Twin-Turbo...

[Asayyeah]

I realize that post is over a month old but I can't just sit here and allow such a glaring mistake, just cannot.

Me either (bis) for that 'BIG' mistake :

Remember how good autopilot was in 2097? You'd never drop it, ever. Not only could it get you around tight corners with a Phantom Piranha without nearing the wall, it would get you past the other ships. .

Piranha can't use any weapons
If you are full speed with the other 4 ships, autopilot slows you down when activating for half a sec or 1 and it's useless on most of the 8 tracks (except the S tunnel from Valparaiso or the dark one from Spilskinanke( left/right/left/right).

[Koleax]

Piranha can't use any weapons

Oh yeah, it must have just felt like I had autopilot sometimes.

If you are full speed with the other 4 ships, autopilot slows you down when activating for half a sec or 1 and it's useless on most of the 8 tracks (except the S tunnel from Valparaiso or the dark one from Spilskinanke( left/right/left/right).

With no ships around, I might agree, adding that exiting the pit lane is quite troublesome of a few tracks. However, it was near perfect at navigating around the other ships, saving shield energy and improving times around turns packed with other racers by several seconds.

You have to agree that autopilot had its fangs removed.

[Asayyeah]

fangs removed i agree and also current AP reacts as a mad dawg (dog ) for throwing you into dead walls sometimes

[Big Pája]

I realize that post is over a month old but I can't just sit here and allow such a glaring mistake, just cannot.

Me either, the correct spelling is 'leech'.

Edited and corrected.

Seriously, the only secondary fire I can see is the rear- lock feature. Otherwise, youd have to literally re- design everything.

Well, that is what I meant by saying:

Of course, I am aware of the fact that introducing such feature would also require different game design, mainly longer tracks, but I wish for those regardless.

As for this:

HD already has a secondary weapon use in a way, since you can absorb them for energy.

Yeah, I know, but I conceived this as being there alongside the absorption because the HD control scheme can have one free button for secondary fire. Therefore, there would be primary fire, secondary fire and absorption.

[Lance]

I was joking, BP. I would never insist on spelling perfection in any language that's not native to the poster.

[eLhabib]

Oh but you would

[Lance]

Possibly from you , but you're a professional writer in both Deutsch and English, yes?

[eLhabib]

Pfffffh yeah right. Sorry to disappoint, but neither is the case - though I'd very much like to be.