Procedurally Generated Firearms!

[whoishigh]

The basic idea here is that colonists would have to research and design weapons of their own instead of producing knock-off Glocks and M16s, and world generation creates a handful of companies or factions that also produce unique firearms.

I think this would suit the game fairly well because there's currently very little reason to use anything but the gun with the highest DPS or highest range - this is true even with mods that add more firearms. I see procedural guns as a way to force the player out of their comfort zone and create a more dynamic experience from game to game. It could also lend more use to the research bench once the player has researched anything!

With this, a weapon's stats and the materials needed to create it would be the sum of its "parts":

- Calibers, affects damage, rate of fire, burst count, range and ranged cooldown.
- Magazines, affects burst count, rate of fire.
- Optics, affects ranged accuracy, ranged cooldown, warm up.
- Frames, basically whether it's a handgun or a long gun. Affects accuracy, range, cooldown and warm up.
- Receivers, affects just about everything and determines whether the gun shoots bullets, pellets, grenades or lasers.

The way it could work is somewhere between the mechanics for art and research, maybe with a little DF-style 'taken by a fey mood' thrown in. For example: while crafting an item, Poopy has an idea for a new weapon and rushes over to the research bench with some metal and components. After a week of RnD he presents the finished product: a .50 caliber scoped revolver he's christened as "Lil' Debbie," a powerful, slow firing handgun with decent accuracy at medium range but poor accuracy at short and long range. The design is then available at the smithing bench and costs X metal and Y components. Alternatively, maybe he fails and doesn't come up with anything worthwhile!

Or, say a pirate drops a weapon or the player buys one they like - the player can order it to be disassembled and reverse engineered. The resulting design could be similar but not necessarily an exact clone of the original weapon, maybe dependent on the colonist's combined skill in smithing and researching. To prevent players from disassembling everything they find, maybe manufacturing and selling these knock-offs to galactic traders draws the original manufacturer's ire, lowering relations (and increasing prices) to the point they dispatch a team or hire pirates to put an end to it.

Alright, that's enough rambling from me. What do you guys think?

[mumblemumble]

so borderlands gun mod? interesting....but would take a ton of effort

[whoishigh]

so borderlands gun mod? interesting....but would take a ton of effort

Somewhat inspired by Borderlands, yeah. As for the effort involved, the game already has a lot of the procedural stuff down pat. I anticipate the most difficult aspect of this is balance. Open to suggestions on that issue!

[Daman453]

This sound awesome!

[Negocromn]

really good idea

[JonoRig]

Always wanted something like this, even if only a mod. Keeps things interesting in the combat side of stuff

[mumblemumble]

Procedurally generating guns is different than art, history, ect... guns need to be balanced somewhat while doing so.

not a bad idea, but not as easy as you think

[whoishigh]

Alright then, what do you suggest?

[Kegereneku]

Horrible idea.

So many people believe that procedural mean "infinite fun" but in practice it has to be reserved for extremely specific content.
A map can be procedural because the balanced-randomness is the quality researched.
But a weapon ? We already have enough trouble identifying which weapon are best with their stats, if we can't even count of the type of weapon it mean we would have to check every weapons to judge them.

[whoishigh]

We already have enough trouble identifying which weapon are best with their stats, if we can't even count of the type of weapon it mean we would have to check every weapons to judge them.

The stats menu is a mess, I'll give you that much, but I don't think it's that difficult to choose from the ten firearms available. Sniper rifle for the range, assault or charge rifles or LMG for the DPS.

But you make a fair point. Maybe instead of randomizing the stats we leave it at procedurally generated textures and names? It'll still be obvious whether it's a pistol or a shotgun or a rifle, but it'll be more interesting than the current offering.

[Negocromn]

I don't think the weapon information is hard to read in RW, the shooting skill and how the pawn performs in a given situation is kinda obscure, but the weapon info is pretty clear and straightforward to me

and you can do it random, it's just a matter of controlling the possible outcomes so the vast majority of weapons created are useful enough for you not have to create 10 useless weapons until you come up with something ok

ie, tynan just has to use the opposite logic of the character screen and we should be fine

[whoishigh]

I don't think the weapon information is hard to read in RW, the shooting skill and how the pawn performs in a given situation is kinda obscure, but the weapon info is pretty clear and straightforward to me

Yeah, it's really not that difficult to read, but it does make weapons more difficult to compare. That said, the specific stats aren't terribly important to the player. Choosing from the handful of weapons available to the player relies on little more than common sense. 

and you can do it random, it's just a matter of controlling the possible outcomes so the vast majority of weapons created are useful enough for you not have to create 10 useless weapons until you come up with something ok

That's my thinking as well. It'll take effort to balance, sure, but I don't see that as a valid reason to NOT do something. If there are specific technical reasons behind why this won't work, I'm all ears!

ie, tynan just has to use the opposite logic of the character screen and we should be fine

lol!

[BetaSpectre]

Starbound has this, and I support, though it might be more effort than its worth.

[Alistaire]

I would like this but rather than "this one company produces all kinds of variations on a type of gun" it'd be more interesting to me as "some guns spawn with modifications such as scopes and silencers".

[thestalkinghead]

i think variation in stats of guns would be a nice thing to have, it doesn't have to be as crazy as borderlands, but a slight % variation in damage, aim speed, and accuracy etc. would be a good addition.

and it would be plausible in the non factory perfect world of rimworld, eg. off center sights, sticking mechanisms, or just personalised improvements to a guns feel/weight etc.