@up
I don't like the "non-switching weapons while reloading" idea, I think it should be up to player when he reloads his guns.
And is the bullet a ray (like in railgun) or a ball? What's the idea?
Something more wall-penetrating than grenade launcher would be a good idea, anyway.
@topic
I like merged some of the ideas here, in this topic, about energy guns, added some my own ideas and YAEG is what was created! Tadam!
Yet Another Energy Gun
Concept image:
Features:
* 10 ammo, like in other weapons
* doesn't recharge (that sucks imho, pistol should remain as the only rechargeable weapon)
* projectiles are energy (psi? plasma? whatever) balls, which you can make bigger by generating
* until released, energy ball stays at the tip of your weapon
* just pressing fire button gives you small ball (let's say 1/4 ts (teesize)), which does 3 damage and takes one ammo
* after holding it for 1 second you get medium-sized ball (2 ammo, 6 damage, 1/2 ts)
* another 1 second, big ball (3 ammo, 9 damage, 1 ts)
* after another 3 secs without releasing the fire button your tee can't hold the ball anymore and it's shot in the direction you were aiming atm
* shooting mid and big balls recoils (I don't mean the crosshair, but the shooter)
* should have the same (or a bit longer) reload rate as grenade launcher (so slow), no matter which ball was shoot
* smaller balls are faster, bigger slower (just a bit)
* balls aren't affected by gravity in any way, they fly in a straight line
* range of projectiles is the same as pistol's (so long)
* if you are out of ammo (like 2 ammo left) you still get the 3 seconds for aiming after generating the biggest ball you could.
+ maybe being hit by mid and big balls should also knock down a bit
+ maybe the big ball should explode a bit.
I think that's a good replacement for the boring rocket launcher met in almost every FPS game.