Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Everquest Next, gunpowder based weapons?
irpugboss
Member UncommonPosts: 427
How do you feel about gunpowder based weapons in the weapon choices?
From the little I know about Norrath is there is at least one item I found that points to these weapons existing in this universe in the form of cannons, and "Gnomish Handcannons". With that said, I am no EQ or EQ2 pro, or even remotely aware of the ingame realities, or even if this is nothing more than a promotional item for fun that is not based in lore.
Gnomish Handcannon
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=102974
Comments
You knew this day would come! http://muwhahaha.com/
My vote: I dont care either way...however I do care if they simply slap it in and dont cover it in the lore.
I am actually leaning more towards "No there shouldnt be any gunpowder weapons" simply because most MMO's now include them it would be refreshing to see a pure High Fantasy version.
If there will be guns (and they mentioned this in one of the panels) I think they should be early designs.
I'd love to see them designed around "Wheellock" (aka tschinke) rifles. These kinds of guns came around after Matchlocks, around the 1500's, before being passed by the Snaphance (mid'ish 1500's) and then the popular Flintlock in the 1600's.
You can see pics of wheellock rifles here, they looked quite good, many wonderful and artistic designs to them:
https://www.google.com/search?q=wheellock+rifle&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=X5IEUsDYC43lyAHToYG4BA&sqi=2&ved=0CDYQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=739
I think those sorts of designs and the "spark" the guns gave off would look fitting if they are going to have guns in the game.
Yes, primitive only, because nowhere in the definition of high-fantasy does it say "NO F-ING GUNS!" , in fact in one of the most popular high-fantasy settings, Lord of the Rings, there exists one very well known instance of the use of gunpowder:
I'm okay with guns but I would like to see them as some form of modified magic weapon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOKhfxwLokg
At 6:02, 3 rows down and 4 columns over...
Yep, looks like dual pistol style
Ardwulf's Lair | Ardwulf's YouTube Channel | Ardwulf on Twitter
We have been playing eq games for years and the timeline moves on so yes i think black powder weapons are fine and fit in perfectly.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
I am reminded of what happened in Fallout 3 and Fallout NV where you would expect gun combat to be the most effective form of fighting. However, once you learned how to build a melee / unarmed character right in those games you were playing in god mode. You could run through several streams of mini-gun bullets, rockets, and flame throwers naked as a jay bird and literally pop the heads off super mutants and death claws with one punch where using guns typically resulted in your character's swift death. It was totally senseless and killed all immersion and logical consistency making play seem utterly silly. I could no longer take the game seriously at all as the performance of melee and unarmed was completely OP for the post apocalyptic genre. I do not exaggerate how effective it was.
That's the kind of risk they run by introducing fire arms into EQN, a fantasy game where swords, spells, and plate-mail are supposed to rule the day. Guns become silly. They are either so underpowered you would rather have a magic wand anyway, or so overpowered you forget that you are playing a fantasy game, or so lamely and evenly balanced that they fail to meet your expectations totally killing any immersion or integrity of play. Its because we all live in the real world and it teaches us that if we shoot something with one bullet, even a small 22 through a car door, that it is liable to die right then. Leave high fantasy to high fantasy fixtures and the guns to other game genres.
Don't even try passing gnomish kevlar off on me man...
Oh yeah that looks like they may have pistols...well lol, if this poll is any indication there will definitely be some discussion about this since it seems most do not want these weapons in game lol.
Gotta love the "I want magic in my game to be jaw dropping, my swords look godly, but guns have to be primitive muskets."
I really don't understand the concept of magic and melee weapons to go through incredible stages of evolution, but guns always have to look like sidearms of Yosemite Sam.
Guns can be beautiful and highly advanced without looking looking outdated or RL modern.
then you might as well get rid of gnomes, tinker classes as well, OWAIT, they have been part of roleplaying since before EQ.
and was a part of high fantasy as well. and if any of you actually cared enough you would know the reason guns were not so prevalent., there was not much gunpowder use due to the fact that a caster could cast a fire spell at a guy carrying firearms, or gunpowder / bombs and explode the lot.
over 20 years of mmorpg's and counting...
To each their own. You will find some high fantasy without any guns (e.g. Tolkien) and some with (Steampunk based literature). These are all made-up worlds. BUT...
The main point is that it should all make sense. And if you have the technology to make effective guns, that is a level of sophistication that permits a lot of other things.
That's fine. You can model a world on 16th century Europe level tech or 11th century. There is no right answer. I merely stated my preference. We have TONS of fantasy games with Steampunk already but very, very few low tech fantasy simulations.
People always demand guns and robots and cars, so I realize its a losing cause. But there you have it...