Cannon Feedback

[O_Atoba_Azul]

Cannon, as it stands, compared to other weapons, is pretty boring.
Unlike other weapons, it only has 1 (well, I guess 2 if you count the mortar) combo, and you're actively avoiding it instead of using it, which makes the weapon pretty boring, since you'll be exclusively using heavy/light (but 90% of the time heavy) attacks.

Which brings me to this post's suggestions: More combos (And a tweak to the existing combo)

Explosive Shot: 2x Heavy 1x Light - Shoot a single explosive shot forwards.
Light Shotgun: 2x Light 1x Heavy - Shoot 3 light bullets in a narrow angle
Mortar Jump: Light attack when firing Mortar Volley - Deals big AoE damage around the player and launches the player towards the target position instead of launching explosive shells. Having more than 3 ammo knocks you down on landing.

Now, a buff to the 3x heavy combo 'ground shot' - buff it's attack size a bit?

[-Nick-]

I agree with everything here. I love using the cannon but it doesn't have that much unique moves you can do compared to the other weapons. I always belived that there should be some kind of special combo if you alternate heavy and light attacks.

 

Ps: How do you even do the ground shot? I always do it on accident. 

[O_Atoba_Azul]

On 9/19/2023 at 7:20 AM, -Nick- said:

I agree with everything here. I love using the cannon but it doesn't have that much unique moves you can do compared to the other weapons. I always belived that there should be some kind of special combo if you alternate heavy and light attacks.

 

Ps: How do you even do the ground shot? I always do it on accident. 

3 heavy attacks in quick succession, or quick rising.

 

 

[Francis2000]

Definitely hoping for more action, although it seems a little late to reply now, but it just occurred to me recently that maybe the cannon could do a piercing attack (hold down left or right click), hitting targets in a line at once. Well I'm not very good at speaking English so I drew it↓

Another thing is that once you run out of ammo and get knocked down, it's easy to just take a beating and be beaten to death by the surrounding monsters. Because there is no dodge button, but I think there should be a remedy in this situation. Maybe roll to reload? 
After falling to the ground, press the reload button + left click, and the character will roll dodge while holding the cannon. It will have an invincible frame just like a regular dodge, and at the end, the animation of stuffing bullets into the cannon will be connected. Players can also decide the direction of the roll based on the movement keys.
I will add animation examples as soon as time permits.  Added example animation↓

 

[RisK]

I can't agree with this more. I really want to like the cannon, but the lack of proper dodge and combos make it unfun to play solo.

[Jellysauce]

I love ranged weapons period, but the cannon is a hard sell for me. I get it, it's a cannon; it should inherently be balanced for high-risk high-reward gameplay. It's heavy, bulky, and not meant to be graceful. It has a reload feature, so it needs to be "positioned" correctly for the user to not sustain damage while in the downtime. All of that makes sense. For me, the real issue is that the physics aren't played around with in the best ways. As the above animated video shows, physics can totally make it way more mobile than it is without sacrificing the inherent drawbacks of carrying around a 100lb tube of death.

As it stands, the minor self-knockback after use, heavy set-up times (2 seconds of set-up in a fast-paced battle is a LONG time!) and not-quite reliable distance of its strongest attack makes it a high-skill low-reward weapon. The light/heavy is reliable, but that becomes a stale loop. I am digging the rolling reload idea (could be balanced around a skill-check like normal reload). Taking some self-damage for greater point-AoE versatility might work as an alternative to the shotgun blast. Having an (additional, optional use) charge feature added to normal shots instead of them having to immediately fire (with a chance to backfire/self explode if over-charged), etc., etc. There's a lot they could do. I just assume, because of the nature of the dual-firing mode and the key-combos, they might have been worried about bloat/remembering it all. Reworking cannon to have more use for its negative features to turn them into a positive might be hard, though. Just a few ideas that came to mind as I played with it that could make it a tad better;

• (self-detonate) for strong aoe damage. Animation is like a reload-missfire (the one where you burn your hands and take some damage), used like hammer's shift ability. Damage is directly on you and in a blast radius around you; uses all ammo remaining in the weapon, with damage up (to self and monsters) based on ammo remaining. knocks the player/monsters down (can roll-recover with this). Player damage with full salvo should still be less than monster damage- would synergize with healing abilties (like roll-recover +50 health).
• (Charged shot/Aimed shot) similar to the idea above, but instead of piercing it does increased damage and/or has a chance to be a focus shot outside of remaining 3 in chamber, and can inherently AoE in a tiny radius. Charge can backfire if overheld, wasting the shot and/or damaging/knocking down the user; maaaybe it empties the remaining ammo as punishment? (a bit extreme, I guess?) The idea isn't to replace the shotgun feature, which has movement, but to iterate on the light attack having more versatility. It also adds an inherant extra ability to the shots without adding a new combo or needing a big redesign, per se; just functionality to the "base" attack. A good "stability" shot when facing monsters at long/mid range without shotgun's dodge and inherent spread.
• I didn't think of the roll-reload idea, but I support it! Strangely, the first time I saw the weapon it's exactly how I assumed it would operate anyway before using it...
• make the physics of being "pushed around" by the stronger attacks have less likeliness to leave you vulnerable after use, or make a successful bombardment volly have greater impact for its worth (as missing leaves you open anway). Make the risk worth it.

[Francis2000]

2 hours ago, Jellysauce said:

(self-detonate) for strong aoe damage. Animation is like a reload-missfire (the one where you burn your hands and take some damage), used like hammer's shift ability. Damage is directly on you and in a blast radius around you; uses all ammo remaining in the weapon, with damage up (to self and monsters) based on ammo remaining. knocks the player/monsters down (can roll-recover with this). Player damage with full salvo should still be less than monster damage- would synergize with healing abilties (like roll-recover +50 health).

In fact this has been added in this test. Try pressing reload + left click (light attack)

However, I feel that the current range of effects is too small and should be expanded.