Switching Between Primary/secondary Weapon Taking Too Long

[Qb3rt]

I'd have to say one of my top 5 feedback 'complaints' would be that the potential for synergy between Primary & Secondary weapons, and any interesting gameplay dynamics that could exist with such combos .... is lost due to the extremely prohibitive time delay from switching between the two. The swap is so slow that it is almost always wiser to simply reload the primary rather than swap, and simply treat the Secondary weapon as the backup weapon for when running out of primary ammo (Gorgon and Snipetron being rare exceptions).

 

The best arguments for actually using your Pistol(s) is using a Lex for long range in combination with a short-range primary (e.g. Shotgun) ... or using the Akbolto as your armor penetration weapon. However, in that 1-2 seconds it takes to swap to a Lex I can reload and sprint up to that enemy in the distance ... and instead of switching to my Akboltos I can mod any Primary to do Armor-Penetrating damage. It just feels like the traditional use of a pistol as a quick-swap weapon in lieu of reloading is not really prevalent at all in this game, and the gameplay functionality of the secondary weapon suffers as a result. I'm guessing that this might be an intentional design to encourage use of the melee weapon over pistols for quick-attacks, but I don't accept that justification given just how much more powerful melee weapons can be at short range even when pistols are in hand (e.g. Dual Vipers have to blow two clips on one enemy, while one charged swing of my Scindo can take out a whole pack).

 

My suggestions for improvement:
 

- Simply reduce the base swap time by 25-50%. [easy broad fix, easy to repeal later if the devs decide they don't like it]

 

- Add a Pistol Mod that reduces swap time significantly (50%+) [needs to be significant to warrant use]

 

- Add a Warframe mod that reduces ALL swap time significantly (to Primary, to Secondary, to Melee) [again, see above]

 

- Allow 1-handed pistols to be firable simultaneously with 1-handed melee weapons [as a sort of a 'gunblade' effect that gives an advantage to the relatively weaker 1-handed versions of melee/secondary weapons]

Edited April 29, 2013 by Qb3rt

[Calayne]

Wow. Totally awesome idea. I thought the same, and most of your recommendations, I think, could be viable options. But actually, the melee swings are nearly connected with the firing of weapons. It's just not at the same time, though it's almost immediately after.

 

Definitely agree with it in general, though!

[Mietz]

The strun has a 3 second reload so switching to your secondary is viable.

Boar 2.2

HEK 2.15

Boltor 2.5

Gorgon 4.2

Sipertron 3.8

 

Afaik only the Braton has a reload below 2 seconds.

 

Pistols except for the Lato, Viper and Bolto have reloads above 2 seconds.

 

Mods reduce reload by 30% (48% for pistols)

[Athros]

Number 1, 2 and 3 is acceptable (and awesome!), but number 4 is kinda... IDK, awkward to do and see? Even if the animation is alternated (one swing > one shot), is still weird. And a little useless because of different range between pistol and melee.

And did you ever felt that somehow the time to sheath your melee weapon is kinda way too long? You couldn't even do any action beside walking/running during that time.

Edited April 29, 2013 by Athros

[PhantomWay]

Agree only with the first point.

Ohter mods for "stealing" space for other thing is not welcome imo :p

[Slyver]

I think it should be a one way faster switch rate Primary -> Secondary 1 second switch where Secondary -> Primary is 2 seconds...

 

As far as the dual wield gun and blade this could be done by removing the alt zoom and replacing it with a normal melee attack or just leave the controls the way they are...I feel that this could be the resurrecting factor single blades need in order to compete with daggers, duals, and heavy weapons.

[Smoke39]

I'm all for a significantly faster switch speed.  The long switch time discourages swapping weapons based on context.  For example, it's often easier for me to chase down a distant enemy with my Bronco than it is to waste time switching to my Latron.  A faster switch speed would encourage a less monotonous and more exciting play style.

[Tetsmeha]

Making each individual gun have different swap times would actually be really cool as some people might use a single pistol over the dual pistol variant just because it works well alone and is fast enough to justify using it as a fast back up weapon.