There is now a temporary copy of Nations for testing the new gun and cannon changes that are detailed below. Some of these changes may interest you; others, I suspect, may leave you aghast. All, few or even none of the changes may ultimately make it onto Nations. The purpose of the testing is to determine which of them are suitable for implementation on the main server.
Guns
Guns are organized into four categories: bolt-action rifles, carbines, sidearms and light machine guns.
- Rifles are accurate, high-damage weapons with a low fire rate. Their damage is amplified by headshots.
- Machine guns are rapid-fire, short-range weapons. Their main purpose is to inflict Slowness and Suppression on victims.
- Carbines are lighter versions of rifles that are usable on horseback and equipped with bayonets, at the cost of greater recoil and lower bullet velocity.
- Sidearms are short-range weapons best suited for close-quarters combat.
New weapons are listed in bold:
Rifles
- Mosin-Nagant
- Mannlicher M1895
- Gewehr 98
- Springfield M1903
- Lee-Enfield
Machine guns
- Madsen
- Chauchat
- Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)
- Lewis Gun
Carbines
- Carcano M91
- Mosin-Nagant M44
Sidearms
- Colt M1911
- Colt Single Action Army
- Mauser C96
Explosives
- Frag Grenade
- Concussion Grenade
- Panzerfaust - single-shot, explosive anti-tank weapon that only breaks concrete and terracotta
Melee
- Cavalry Sword - only usable on horseback
Changes
Bullet drag exists for all guns. This will be more subtle on weapons which fire high velocity projectiles. Even with rifles, however, you will need to compensate for drag at long ranges or if aiming for headshots.
Recoil is now smooth. The previous recoil mechanic instantly moved your view to the updated gun position, which was especially jarring on machine guns. Guns can now also recover from recoil.
Machine guns are a lot less janky, particularly for users with high ping.
All gun models have been retextured and improved. Most guns will have different models for their hip-fire and aimed states; some even have different models for reloads.
Bullets are now visualized using both items and projectile models generously created by PuR1Fy_exe, who has also created new ammunition textures.
Damage for almost every gun now varies by range. Some guns will be highly effective at short ranges and weak at long ranges; others will only excel at long-range.
Finally, guns no longer do knockback. This was an annoying issue that could not be eliminated with the previous plugin.
Damage Tables
The damage table for the guns below can be found here.
The table lists 'raw' damage values which are not useful by themselves. Here's how they translate to damage inflicted on a player wearing full P4 Diamond:
- 13 -> 1
- 19.48 -> 1.5
- 25.97 -> 2
- 32.47 -> 2.5
- 39 -> 3
- 45.45 -> 3.5
- 52 -> 4
For example, a Mosin-Nagant will deal 1.5 hearts of damage to a P4 Diamond player that is between 0 and 29 blocks away.
Suppression and Shell Shock
Suppression still amplifies damage that a player receives. However, it now increases all gun damage — not just damage from rifles — and suppressed players will glow to make them easier to identify. Importantly, you can no longer regain health from satiation while suppressed.
Shell shock has changed considerably. Unlike previously, there are no "shock" weapons whose damage is amplified by their victim having shell shock. Instead, shell-shocked players will be unable to heal from healing potions. This sounds (and is intended to be) quite powerful, but needs to be considered alongside the cannon changes — as we shall see in the next section.
Cannons
Land cannons have also received some changes. These were made in haste and I certainly wouldn't be surprised if they turn out to be entirely unsuitable for Nations. Nevertheless, I'm interested to hear your thoughts on them.
New Cannons
All land cannons have been consolidated into three designs that can be built in the Wilderness:
- The Field Gun (renamed Small 240mm)
- The Howitzer
- The Mortar
The Howitzer is an evolution of the Large 240mm intended for very long-range indirect fire. As such, it can only fire at vertical elevations between 60° and 80°.
It has a unique method of operation as it requires propellant (gunpowder) to be loaded alongside the projectile. The amount of gunpowder you load affects the range of the cannon — the more there is, the further the projectile will travel and the more heat the cannon will generate. You can overload the cannon with gunpowder at the cost of generating excess heat. If the cannon overheats, it will explode. It will cool down when not being used, but this process can be accelerated by right-clicking the cannon with ice. The temperature of the cannon can be checked by right-clicking it with a gold nugget.
The Field Gun (renamed Small 240mm) is largely unchanged. Its movement speed when piloted as a TowedArtillery has been significantly increased, and its maximum vertical elevation has been reduced. Note that that the gun can now only be depressed to an elevation of -15°. This change was made in hopes of eliminating the "sky cannon" phenomenon and requiring some more thought to be put into town defences (rather than just sticking all cannons on top of a tall wall).
The Mortar is the same design that existed at the beginning of N2 - one stone brick stairs block with a lever attached and a stone brick wall placed above it.
Shells
The Mortar fires Illumination and Smoke rounds.
- Illumination rounds make all nearby players glow.
- Smoke rounds give nearby players the new Darkness effect. Unlike their previous implementation, they do not make an obnoxious, laggy cloud of smoke.
The Howitzer fires HE, Shrapnel, Illumination and Smoke rounds.
- HE shells have been buffed significantly against blocks with HP.
- Shrapnel is the replacement for canister shot. It fires a single projectile with a fuse timer of 5 seconds. When the projectile hits the ground or the fuse timer ends, it will split into multiple shrapnel fragments that damage nearby players. By firing such that the fuse timer ends while the projectile is at a high altitude, you can create an airburst that scatters the shrapnel over a wider area.
The Field Gun fires Shell, Incendiary and AP rounds. They are unchanged from their implementation on Nations.
Testing
You'll first need to download the updated resource pack from here. You need to use this instead of the normal resource pack. If you don't use the resource pack, or you keep the normal resource pack enabled, everything will be broken.
Then head over to /server test. This is a copy of Nations as it was on August 23. Nothing you do here will be reflected on Nations, and vice versa. Think of it as a parallel universe. On this server:
- Upkeep is disabled.
- Sieges can be started on all days and cost no money to begin.
- Peaceful towns are disabled.
- Keep inventory is enabled at sieges, because we don't want you grinding gear for testing.
- The map can be found here.
The server will remain online until I have a good idea of your opinions on the changes.
Commands
- /wm list - see the list of guns
- /wm get - get a gun
- /wm ammo - type this while holding a gun to get ammo for i
- /ammo - get cannon shells
Sharing Feedback
I would prefer it if feedback was shared in the replies to this post.
Last edited: over 2 years ago x 2
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