Hello Survivors,
Last week we talked about the problems you’ll be facing on your missions. This week, let’s talk about the solution.
[h2]How weapons work in DRG:S[/h2]
When we kicked off the project, a key focus was figuring out a process for translating the weapons of DRG from an FPS shooter to a top-down one, with no precision aiming, while still being faithful to the original versions. At the same time, we wanted to make DRG's extensive arsenal of weapons enjoyable in the survivor genre. The unique mining element in DRG:S also opened up interesting scenarios where weapons could excel or struggle.
Each class has its own unique pool of class weapons available to them. With the opportunity to choose class mods, you can add to these pools by using access tags such as light, heavy, kinetic, fire, acid, cold, and electric to create your own build and playstyle. If you decide to pick the Driller and choose the Interrogator class mod, you’ll start with the CRSPR Flamethrower and gain access to weapons with the tags: Fire & Acid.
To throw in an extra spicy ingredient to this weapon smoothie, each weapon also has
overclocks. The first time you reach level 12 with a weapon in a dive you unlock the ability to overclock it, a way to upgrade and change the mechanics of the weapon. Once you unlock overclocking for a specific weapon you will be able to overclock it at levels 6, 12, and 18 in all your future dives.
While weapons start off balanced, reaching level 18 unlocks the
unstable overclock. This changes the weapon drastically, by giving it significant boosts in damage, and range (sometimes at a cost), or altering its functionality entirely - e.g. the Zhukov going from shooting in 4 directions to becoming a Beyblade of death!
[h2]Adapting DRG weapons[/h2]
Our biggest challenge was adapting the weapons to be fun to play in the survivor genre while staying true to their original design.
In cases such as the Cryo Cannon, we kept the damage type of the weapon but changed the shooting style from a single beam to multiple rotating beams around the player to better suit the genre and support positional gameplay.
Another challenge was implementing directional weapons. Targeting in a survivor game can drastically change how you play. Weapons like the M1000 will auto-target based on enemy health (prioritizing highest first), while the Zhukov shoots in a pattern spraying bullets in 4 directions around you.
The issue with making weapons that are restricted by direction is giving them a natural feel during gameplay, and after several iterations, we finally landed on a solution.
We decided that directional weapons should be build-defining and at the same time still feel impactful when the screen is cluttered with VFX from the other 4 weapons that are potentially fully leveled up and overclocked.
We made most of the directional weapons into starter weapons. When the threat level is still low, you can use the beginning of a mission to get used to a directional weapon playstyle. From there, you can create a build with weapons you feel synergize well together.
The Subata, one of the Driller’s starting weapons, fires in bursts behind you. This is a perfect match for the driller since he spends most of his time between rocks instead of the enemies.
[h2]Weapon R&D[/h2]
Management was kind enough to give us some budget for weapon R&D, thus we were able to make some new additions to your arsenal, such as defensive and offensive drones, multiple types of turrets like the Krakatoa Sentinel, Voltaic Shock Fences, and TH-0R Bug Taser.
In close collaboration with Ghost Ship Games, we playtested all the new changes and additions to make sure they keep the feel of the original weapons while also adding a new gameplay element.
Our goal was to provide a fun and unique way to complete missions, with variety and depth of weapons, allowing you to try many different playstyles. Expect more weapons to be added during Early Access.
That's a wrap for weapons. We don't want to spoil too much, so we’ll let you discover some things on your own. We look forward to hearing about all your epic dives as soon as you get your hands on the game. Stay tuned for next week’s post where we give you a glimpse at class mods.
Rock and Stone!
The Funday Dwarves
