Revamp Shock Weapons

Cattle Prods:

Alter Cattle Prods to have there shock effect tied to an "activity based battery". The idea is basically that each day a player is online they keep their cattle prod charged and can use it to their hearts content, but when they stop coming online they wouldn't be able to charge it anymore. The cattle prod's charge for a player who has gone inactive would last for a certain number of attacks (10-25 as a suggested range) after which point the shock effect would be null and only the 1-2 listed damage it is capable of would remain. 

Tasers: 

Alter Tasers to have lasting effects similar to blowguns. When successfully hitting your opponent with a taser they are shocked and a small amount of damage is dealt. On the next turn the damage and the shock chance would be halved. On the third turn the damage and shock would again be halved dealing 25% initial damage and shock chance. The shock effect would last 3 turns in total and firing the taser again would reset the effect.

I have edited this idea and while I feel it still serves the same purpose in the interest of transparency I have added a screenshot of the original post here for any interested parties.

Contributors: 

AutumnKome [2752611]

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1. Bump only when off page 1

2. Stalemate is better than lose. After wasting attack due to cattle prod just throw speed temporary in next one, or, better invest in parry weapon.

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1. See above

2. I feel like this isnt fleshed out enough. Theres no values to "How active someone needs to be" is it if I go online it full charges and declines over time? How is that metric going to put load onto the servers every time that person is attacked? 

Is it a quick maths, User last online 4 days ago, reduce "Charge" by 40%? What does charge even do? If I have 60% charge does that mean I only do melee damage without the shock effect? Then I also see the metric of hit chance causing a huge bug when working together that no one will notice for 2 years.

The battery item you suggest. Is it the consumable here? Where is it coming from? Do I travel, is it sold in the ammo shop, can I use car batteries (Item that already exists), only purchasable at the tech store? Whats the base price? What item type do they fall under, ammo, consumable, or electronic?

3. GIVE ME MORE DEETS

Perhaps charge was the wrong word, the idea was simply that cattle prods would loose there shock effect after 2 weeks of player inactivity. It would still be able to do the 1-2 listed danage and if a player came back online it would just reset the 2 week timer. The hope is to avoid potential growing energy inefficiency in the mission system, so it would mostly be geared towards affecting inactive players. The idea of a battery could also potentially work, but I didn't have any good ideas for how to make it work and so personally I abandoned it.

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While I completely dislike this idea, I could also like to see it fleshed out.

Perhaps it could use a Taser cartridges that has charge depletion with use rather than instant depletion? Perhaps 1 Taser cartridges would be used per 25 hits or 1 per battle?

Which brings the question..

If Taser cartridges become a usage item rather than an ammo type (instant depletion) item, could this perhaps give multiple hits for each Taser cartridge (say 2 or 3 hits per cartridges or battle, whichever comes first)? Add this to the suggestion and I'm sold, much as I hate the initial premise.

If you use this idea I think it would be good to change the title to something like "Expand Taser cartridge uses".

I looked into real world info on taser cartridges and they are a one use, loadable cartridge more similar to ammo than not. A cattle prod would not be capable of using something like a cartridge as it has a rechargeable battery instead. Another part of my reasoning for avoiding ammo as it didn't quite fit the game aesthetics of melee items. I suppose my idea was that an individual actively carrying and using a cattle prod would be that they would just keep it charged. However as a potential alternative to try and address some of your concerns what if activity was still the "charging" method, but rather than time being the determining factor in loosing its shock effect it is number of attacks.

 An example of how it would work under this proposed system would be that each day you are online your cattle prod is charged, so by being active you are free to use it however you see fit. By going inactive your cattle prod would no longer be recharged and it would be limited to 10-25 attacks before the battery runs dry and renders the shock effect unusable until the player returns online again.

From what I'm reading on taser dot com, once the Taser darts are in the victim, electrical pulses can be delivered 2 to 3 times (depending on charge and battery type or something, I didn't read too far). 

However, considering the cartridge is not merely the charge but also the projectile, I have to concede your main point which is that the cartridges wouldn't be compatible with the cattle prods.

On the other hand, if Taser cartridges were given additional pulses (given the initial fire hits the target), revamping Taser cartridges could be a gateway (in terms of coding) to implementing multi-use "ammo" (batteries for the cattle prod). 🤔

The opposite argument (that implementing cattle prod batteries could be used as a gateway to revamping Taser cartridges) holds true, too, though, so you have my vote 🤷‍♀️

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This is a neat idea.  I think tasers are weak enough though.  I would like to see your idea applied to a completely new weapon like maybe something that has an accuracy or crit bonus based on activity streak. 

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