[Weapon Suggestion] Grineer Anti-Materiel Rifle Jormungand

[MJ12]

Explosions are awesome. Everyone loves explosions. So why are there so few weapons and powers that create explosions? Here's a suggestion for a weapon that makes them. And it even keeps the Grineer legendary serpent theme-naming that the Grakata breaks. :(

 

JORMUNGAND

Type: Anti-Materiel Rifle

Description: A heavy Grineer sniper rifle, the JORMUNGAND fires high-velocity explosive shells, excellent against both single armored targets and large groups of light targets. With impressive recoil and a slow rate of fire, the weapon's main advantage is that its explosive shells will airburst when near enemies, allowing a skilled firer to bypass cover by shooting above or around foes and letting the foam-phase hydrogen warhead of the heavy slug do the work.

 

Damage: 140.0 (Blast Radius: 1.5m)

Rate of Fire: 0.75

Magazine Size: 2

Reload Speed: 3.0 sec

Critical Chance: 10%

Critical Damage: 1.25

Special Notes: Proximity Detonation Radius of 0.5 meters from enemy (if the round passes within 0.5m of any enemy during its flight, it detonates at that point), enemies in explosion are staggered, cannot headshot targets.

 

On one hand, it's got high damage and the ability to hit multiple targets, and it's easy to aim. On the other hand it can't headshot anything which means its damage is actually lower than you'd think. Even though it does 140 base it won't kill a Lv1 Grineer Lancer on Mercury (although Corpus and Infested are fair game). On the other hand, stick a whole bunch of upgrades on it and it becomes an absolutely vicious crowd-control beast, murdering entire groups of Infested or Moas.

 

I figure that's about as balanced as a gun that shoots explosions can get.

Edited April 21, 2013 by MJ12

[Exhack]

Would this theoretically be Puncture-compatible?

[Fenrisulfr]

+1 for idea. And + another 1 for name (Although would have expected poison :P)

 

I guess its not puncture compatible, but neither is boltor. I think we can live with that.

Also, 0.5 meters proximity detonation feels a bit too forgiving for bad aim. I think somewhere between 0.3 and 0.4 would be fine.

Edited April 21, 2013 by Fenrisulfr

[Haif]

Yeeeeeeeesssss.

The ability to literally rain death on my enemies.

 

I like.

[Jaon]

Sounds good, but the whole "excellent against both single armored targets and large groups of light targets"  doesnt make sense unless there is an impact. If the explosion is good against single armoured targets its good against grouped ones too. 

[Shion963]

I'd think an Anti-materiel rifle that shoots explosives would be set to explode AFTER it's penetrated whatever materiel there is downrange. Airburst shells would be more suited towards a something like a grenade launcher.

 

As it is right now it's more of an anti-personnel weapon.

[MJ12]

I'd think an Anti-materiel rifle that shoots explosives would be set to explode AFTER it's penetrated whatever materiel there is downrange. Airburst shells would be more suited towards a something like a grenade launcher.

 

As it is right now it's more of an anti-personnel weapon.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materiel

 

Materiel is just 'military hardware'. Like Moas. Or crates full of delicious ammo.

 

Also it totally is excellent against armored targets. High base damage + Piercing Hit giving an actually decent amount of AP Damage per level = Die Grineer Die.

 

Sounds good, but the whole "excellent against both single armored targets and large groups of light targets"  doesnt make sense unless there is an impact. If the explosion is good against single armoured targets its good against grouped ones too.

 

Originally it was going to be chargeable (tap-fire for proximity detonation, charge-fire like a Paris for impact fuse) for additional damage at the cost of blast, but I nixed that.

Edited April 21, 2013 by MJ12

[Shion963]

I wasn't arguing the definition of Materiel, more towards the use of an antimateriel rifle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-materiel_rifle), and airburst rounds.

 

An antimaterial rifle is used to take down heavily armoured target, and airburst rounds are more geared towards soft targets hiding behind cover/defilade due to the shrapnel radiating from the round's explosion tearing lightly armoured targets. A sniper rifle should reward direct on-target hits, whereas a rifle would benefit from over-the-head aiming due to the faster rate of fire or simply because it's a more logical choice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM25_Individual_Airburst_Weapon_System).

 

How the game is, it's obvious that putting AP mods on weapons would make it better against the Grineer. But if you have a rifle that could fire an explosive round with such velocity that it COULD pierce armour, and blow up after it gets inside an Elite/Moa/Jackal/Ancient/Cargo box, wouldn't it be odd to let it explode over an armoured target's head and let the shrapnel do the job? I'd rather have it stuck inside the Elite's helmet and explode, and then dealing splash damage to targets around him.

 

A 12.7mm explosive round fired from an antimateriel rifle would benefit more exploding INSIDE a target after it has pierced through the armour. A slightly larger 25mm explosive round in comparison, would have more explosive power and shrapnel, and is almost impossible to be propelled and pierce targets using something that's not a tank's main gun, thus a rifle that lobs them towards the general direction would be the preferred delivery method.

 

The way I see it, you could have a sniper that shoots explosions inside a target and blows him and some stuff around him, or a rifle that lobs/shoots airburst rounds that explodes over cover. But not one weapon that does half of A and half of B.

 

EDIT: Then again, we ARE playing a game with space-ninjas as the main character, so it's not exaclty The Real Life. It still sounds off to me, though.

Edited April 21, 2013 by Shion963

[PaperAlien]

I think it could keep its airburst function, but damage would be reduced by armour. On a direct hit, the shot explodes inside the target and does full (or extra) damage, and reduced/no AoE.

[MJ12]

I think it could keep its airburst function, but damage would be reduced by armour. On a direct hit, the shot explodes inside the target and does full (or extra) damage, and reduced/no AoE.

 

Well right now as I imagine it it's got either proximity airburst or impact detonation.

 

The original idea was that it was chargeable. Tap to fire a proximity airburst round, hold to fire a high-velocity armor-piercing round that also exploded. Base damage 125 for the airburst, 110 damage + 40 explosive area damage for the AP round, charge time of 1.0 seconds.

 

I wasn't sure if that would interact well with the current setup (since it actually has a magazine, instead of being single-shot like the Paris, so you can't cancel a charge by reloading) so I nixed it and just made it shoot explosions.

Edited April 22, 2013 by MJ12