User blog:Willbachbakal/Co-Op Weapons: Tri-Barrel Shotgun

Back! Sorry for the long wait. Anyhoo, back to the co-op weapons, picking up with the shotgun weapon. And no, this one doesn't play music. The good thing with shotguns, unlike, say, machine guns, is that they're malleable enough to support different playstyles, and thus many more variations. Here, for example, I'm putting in a few additions that complement a more active (read: "suicidal") close combat form. See for yourself!

Description
Since this is a weapon made to suit a Big Sister, I figured it'd be a wrist-mounted, custom-made gun. Picture a gauntlet with a bicycle chain and a small mechanism wrapped around it. Attached to the chain would be three metal tubes, which would hold the ammunition. The firing mechanism would consist of a fork-like reticule on one end, and a hammer on the other. Firing the gun would cause the tubes to rotate with the chain, thus priming the next shot.
 * Clip Size: Three rounds.
 * Ammo Carry Capacity: 24/12/12

Apart from the extra shot inherent in the weapon, it would also have the ability to one-shot most non-giant enemies right from the start. However, its shots would have to be loaded individually rather than all at once.

Base Ammo

 * 00 Buck: The equivalent to all the 00 Buck types in every other shotgun-type weapon. No changes.

Rare Ammo

 * Solid Slugs: Like the Solid Slugs in BioShock 2, can pierce through multiple enemies, and have no damage falloff. However, in addition to its lack of spread, each shot produces a large amount of recoil, forcing the player to adjust their aim.
 * Kinetic Pellets: At the cost of reduced range (and thus a steeper damage falloff), each shot deals a fair amount of knockback to the target. These also have a blast radius, and so will still be able to throw enemies around without hitting them (but not dealing them any damage). In addition, firing these directly down while jumping will greatly increase your jump power, and can be used again for small bursts of kinetic energy in mid-air.
 * Smoke Pellets: Don't deal any damage, but are also undetectable (unless you hit someone directly with them). Upon impact, release a cloud of smoke, obscuring the vision of every enemy in the area. If the enemy's caught in the smoke cloud, they'll wander around in it, confused, their outline visible from outside. Otherwise, no-one will be able to see you through the cloud, and wading through it won't impair your vision.

Inventable Ammo

 * Phosphorus Pellets: Upon impact, after a short delay, explode and set their surroundings on fire. Only start dealing damage after exploding, and the fire effect is shorter than for most other flame-based attacks.
 * Grapple Hooks: Firing one of these at an enemy or physics object will drag them towards you at high speed. Upon impact, the enemy will crash and take damage proportionate to their initial distance to you (the farther they were, the more damage they'll take). Although this only deals a small amount of damage at close range, at mid-ranges this can take a serious chunk of health out of any enemy. In the case of a giant enemy, though, instead of pulling them to you you'll pull yourself to them, although they still take damage. If you deal enough damage by pulling them, the enemy will also be momentarily dazed, allowing you to finish them off. Firing at a point in the scenery will drag you towards it, allowing you to grapple to higher ground. However, each shot takes a short time to "prepare" before you can shoot it.
 * Acid Pellets: Upon impact these pellets burst, spraying their surroundings with acid. Enemies coated in acid will take damage over time, and bits of floor covered in acid will deal damage to anything standing on them as long as they remain. However, not only does this ammo type not deal any immediate damage, it can also hurt you if you touch any of the acid.

Upgrades

 * Six-Barrel Shotgun: Doubles the Tri-Barrel Shotgun's clip (which would make it a double-triple-barreled shotgun, I guess?), and halves each shot's individual reload time so that it stays the same.
 * Chain Motor: Allows you to fire the Tri-Barrel Shotgun full auto by holding the fire button, also granting it an increased fire rate.
 * Piezoelectric Charger: Allows you to fire shots charged with electrical energy, as indicated by a glowing prong. Incidentally, the prong's state of shinyness indicates when the next shot will receive an electric charge. In addiion, your auto-attacks shock the target enemy.
 * Modulator: When firing from the hip, the spread of your Tri-Barrel Shotgun is increased to no reduction in damage (so, in effect, it increases the total amount of pellets fired). When zoomed in, however, the weapon's range is roughly doubled, and your shots don't suffer from any damage falloff.
 * Adrenaline Pump: Grants you a powerful burst of speed while reloading the Tri-Barrel Shotgun. Moreover, if you built up enough momentum, you can knock over non-giant Splicers by charging into them.
 * Momentum Accumulator: Adds a meter to the Tri-Barrel Shotgun. Any enemy shot that misses you by a short amount (basically, any shot that's inches away from hitting you) fills up the meter. The more damaging the shot, the more it'll add to the meter. Upon firing, your shot receives a damage boost proportionate to the amount of momentum stored in the meter, resetting it to zero.

And that wraps it up for the Tri-Barrel Shotgun. Sorry again for the delay, hopefully the next article won't take quite so long to come out. But anyway, how do you find this humble blog post?

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