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[Kornel Kisielewicz]

Okay, here's an open call for exotic/unique item ideas. Before we all go crazy (like many did in the submission thread), here are a couple things to take into account to increase the chances of the weapon making it in:

• items that are references to anime shows, or games/shows/movies that are unrelated in style to Doom (basically joke items like Trigun, Cleaver, GCB, Anti-Freak Jackal) are more or less off the list - there's enough of those already. Items relating to Doom-like games however, are welcome
• if the item would require complex new mechanics (e.g. flamer), or a new sprite (e.g. a sword) it's also off the list
• adding at least a partial code definition for the item is a big plus, don't worry about the exact numbers, I'll tweak them
• in general I'm looking for weapons, possibly other items, that would fit the Doom theme

I hope people here are still alive, and not just waiting for JH :P

[Malek Deneith]

I hope people here are still alive, and not just waiting for JH :P

[Evilpotatoe]

We're still a few alive, and I guess many will awake, with some JH (or DoomRL) significant news.
(I must say I'm quite surprised to see this question on the DoomRL topic.  I thought JH was taking most, if not all, of your time)

Anyway,
I don't have a precise idea for a weapon right now, but before adding new stuff, I'd rather like to see the useless things improved.
Here are some of my biggest complaints about the current weapon set :

• I'd like some more useful melee weapons in the game.  Currently, except in Ao100, only BC is useful, and melee assemblies are useless too since you basically get them roughly... when reaching UC.
  I was really happy about subtle knife and Mjollnir when 0.9.9.7 was released... I've just been disappointed to notice that both were, in the end, useless since you get better weapons on every run (which is, of course, the real problem).
  While I hate melee anyway because of red screen, I'm really sad about this free chainsaw at dlvl5.  Seriously, except for some specific challenges (purity anyone ? ^^), missing CC and the free zerk packs never looked like a consistent choice.  UC is even worse, since anyone (even non-melee) with sufficient speed can do it damageless.
  I don't want to digress into balance and other issues, but I think it's important not to reproduce this in JH (Inferno mod had a better approach : chainsaw is in a real melee challenge level, and pointless if you don't go melee).  One suggestion about DoomRL would be to improve Mjollnir and Subtle knife so that they become comparable to BC in term of potential (I'd also advocate chainsaw removal from CC but... few would follow me, I guess :)
  
  
• I'd like some useful bullets weapons.  Maybe a snipe rifle ?  Hmm.. I'm afraid it would require a new sprite though.  Maybe a dummy-weapon object like "Night visions" then, which would give you +2/+4 sight range when used ? (Both graphisms and code should be easy to recycle from light amp/MCE)
  
• In the same idea, more findable useful pistols would be good (as a comparison, you get 2 great melee weapons, 2 missile launchers and BFG, but NO combat pistol or blaster !).  I think the main problem here is that pistol build is not well balanced, with terribly weak weapons balanced by insane skills, but I'm going to speak balance again, so I won't developp.  In short, better (or more frequent) pistols, please !  (The assault shotty from mortuary could also be replaced with some ego pistol, since it's completely useless right now)
  A few ideas :
  
  • Magnum (yup, firing 10mm xD.  And why not with the "railgun" perk, like in Goldeneye64 ?  It's already in the code base, and would create a funny / different item.  That's "emerging", I love it.)
    
  • Any semi-auto with large clip. Might be close to combat pistol, but burst fire might be cool, and more pistols would imply more chances to drop them.
    
  • Peashooter : crappy damage, like 1d4, but unlimited shots without needing any reload.  I would see it as a "UAC experimental prototype for hardly supplyable zones, which was dropped out because of high costs and questionnable efficiency".
    
  • Overall, "dual reload" should be a Doomguy command (usable only with pistols), not a gun alternate fire.  This is another gun limit, which should ideally be removed (not taking in account the complexity).
    
  • Overall, I would increase ego pistols drop rate. Anyway, if you don't use them, they won't bother you, and else, it will make SoG runs more variated; less boring.  Another alternative could be to make SoG increase those items weight, but I doubt it's the best approach, and it continues in the direction of making that skill balance the whole build's weaknesses.
    Note : if you don't drop it in the first few levels, finding a combat pistol will never make you choose to go the pistol way.  Looks like it'd a really interresting aspect (which I find in some other games, like Isaac or FTL), but is missing in DoomRL : you start your game thinking "I'll play a <insert mastery name here>" build, or "I'll hunt <insert badge/medal name here>".  You don't make your choices gradually, depending on the stuff you find / enemies you face / kind of area you explore.
    
   
  
• I got no idea for any acid weapon, but it could be another funny stuff.  Hard to find doomish explanation for that, though.  Buffing Acid spitter so that it becomes useful (e.g. improve magazine size) could be great.  Adding a lava equivalent might be nice too, since I doubt lava set would be better than Malek's anyway (btw, doesn't everyone think this one should be nerfed ?)
  
• Or maybe some "grenade".  Oh yeah, stacks of grenades, like "Throwable bareels" !!  I love this idea, and they might be useful for angels of something.  What about this idea ? (Damnnnnnn... probably needs a sprite :'(  )
  
• I'm afraid weapons like Charch's pointer, tristar blaster or combat translocator are all useless.  The first mandatory buff seems to reduce their ammo consumtion, but they may remain useless if they add nothing the doomguy can need.  Translocator could have potential, I guess.  Can AoPc even use them ?  They should !
  
• In the same idea, I don't see any use to Revenant's launcher (1.4sec reload ?!), or even railgun (too specific).  I think such rare items should have more potential.  I don't want overpowered items (like a nuclear plasma rifle), but they should be worth using, at least
  
• Mega buster could have a nice potential too... if you could switch mode manually.  Having it deal acid vs group of barons, or fire vs revenants, and so on makes it really questionnable.  Does anyone find a use to this ?
  

[Tormuse]

I'm alive!  :D

My opinions of specials that need buffs:

Revenant's Launcher:  In theory, it's a potentially useful weapon for its ability to target specific spots, especially useful in Nightmare! for getting rid of that corpse in the middle of the room you would be otherwise unable to reach, but in practice, I find I never use it.  As Evilpotatoe said, it takes too long to reload and I'd rather have a rocket launcher which I can mod.

Acid-Spitter:  I think I'd like this weapon better if it didn't have to be completely full to fire and didn't discharge all of its ammo at once, like if it used one ammo at a time with smaller acid splashes.  That would make it more versatile.  As it is, situations where its useful are too rare for it to be worth the inventory slot.

Medical Powerarmor:  I've said it before, but I'll say it again:  If my health is below 25% and I have no other way to heal, I'm probably about to die anyway.  Also, if you've taken enough of a beating to be that low on health, it's unlikely that your armour will be in good enough shape to use its durability to heal you and the only way around that would be to switch to this armour only when you're low on health, but who's going to switch in the middle of a fire fight?  There's just no situation where this armour is useful, in my opinion.  I think it should, at the very least, heal you up to 50%.  (All of this applies to the regular medical armour too)

Megabuster:  As it is, there's too much randomness to make this a reliable weapon.  I like Evilpotatoe's idea of making firing mode manually changeable.  (It fits better with the theme of Megaman's gun too)  Another possible idea for your consideration:  What if you could switch ammo types that it uses too?  A weapon that could fire all four ammo types could be very interesting, though it would probably be overpowered unless it has reduced efficiency or something.  Maybe you could make it a kind of "Jack of all trades, master of none" kind of weapon, a good back-up to have in case you run out of your preferred ammo type.  (Side note:  I don't particularly mind the Megabuster being overpowered, since Megaman is basically one of my all time favourite games ever)  :D

Charch's Null Pointer:  What does this weapon even do?!?  :|  I've read the description on the Wiki and it sounds like it's supposed to slow enemies down for one second?  (Someone please correct me if I'm misunderstanding this)  But in practice, even with sustained fire at a single enemy, they keep coming at me, seemingly at the same speed.  (From the description on the Wiki, I would've thought that sustained fire would completely stop them from moving)  I get that this weapon was thrown in as a programming joke, ("The Demon crashes" is a funny line)  :)  but it would be nice if it had some usefulness too like maybe it could permanently reduce an enemy's speed, or at least use less ammo?  (p.s.  who is Charch, anyway?)

Mjollnir:  I like the idea of a melee weapon that you have unlimited ability to throw, (one of my favourite weapons to use in Nethack)  :)  but this one definitely needs a buff.  As it is, it does less damage than a bulk-modded combat knife, so I'd like the damage increased.  (with maybe a message like "Lightning strikes the Demon!")  :D  The current throwing range could be increased too; as it is, generally speaking, if you're using a melee build, and your target is 5 tiles away, you might as well just run over there and for any other build, you'd be better off just shooting them with a regular weapon.

Frag Shotgun:  Please reduce the firing time.  This could be a useful weapon if it didn't fire so slowly.  As it is, I'd much rather use a chaingun for my bullets, so the only situation I would use this weapon is if I was playing Angel of Shotgunnery, and even then, only if I was truly desperate and somehow completely ran out of shells, because having a weapon that fires so slowly is very dangerous.  The slow firing time completely kills any usefulness of this weapon.

Plasma Shotgun:  Just a reminder that you probably want to fix the full reload bug.  (As much fun as it is to exploit)  :D

Combat Translocator:  Only mentioning this one because Evilpotatoe brought it up.  There have been a couple of occasions that I've put it to use, like sending away a Cyberdemon I didn't want to deal with yet in Angel of 100, but it's true that it's very situational and in most cases, I'd rather use that inventory slot for something else.  I like the idea of a weapon that isn't "actually a weapon," (probably could do with some more, actually) but I'm not sure how this could be altered to make it fit in better.  (Come to think of it, it would be really nice to find this in an Angel of Humanity game to help me isolate troublesome enemies)  :)  I'd be tempted to just leave this weapon as it is.

As for new unique/exotic suggestions...  I've had the idea rattling around in my brain for a while of having "Boots of Butt-kicking."  (Doesn't actually have to be called that)  :P  Boots that double your melee damage for fists only and no other melee weapons.  (Doesn't have to be doubled; maybe just increased a little)  It makes sense to me that if Doomguy has some hardy boots on, he would probably be kicking his enemies rather than punching them.  (this doesn't mean I'm suggesting dialogue changes; "you hit the demon" still works fine and it would probably be too much trouble to change it to "you kick the demon")  I imagine this could work well as an exotic item to complement your arsenal, or as a unique, in which case it could possibly have a small speed boost too?  (10%?)  And when you pick them up, it could say something like, "You feel like kicking ass," or "It's time to kick ass!"  :)  (And if you want to call them the "Tormuse boots," I have no objection)  :D

[Thomas]

I also live. I agree with basically all of your opinions on specials, don't even know why I'm here posti

Medical Powerarmor:  I've said it before, but I'll say it again: it stinks
and medical armor sucks too >:(

oooh what the
where have you said this, I'm gonna fight ya

Your argument boils down to "what kind of lunatic is going to go down to critical HP without dying, finish the fight without using their HP pack(s) in their inventory as though nothing is wrong and then elect to heal themselves back up to 26% as though that's enough for ANYTHING?"

You see Thomas (Pointing to self with thumbs, almost dead)

Medical armor is fantastic, especially if it shows up early, and I'll hear no complaints - it has good stats for the early game (-5% movespeed compared to blue, but waayy better resistances) and heavily rewards my moronic playstyle. Squeezing out that extra 7 HP before I use the small medpack to put me back on 60% is so good.

But I do agree on medical powerarmor. I use it anyway because I can't help who I am, but it's just not as good. It shows up later when critical HP scenarios are harder to set up, and it has no resistances so it doesn't compare well to basic armor. It's a unique, and being on low HP is great, so instead of bumping the threshold up to 50% it should double down on the critical gimmick. When I put it on (or have it on already) and I'm on 20% HP it should do something nuts.

[Evilpotatoe]

I agree with Tormuse on this one, it only seems usable by berserkers to me. (and is probably not even good for them.  a red is better, and zerks should be vampyres anyway)
A stim armor, which gives you.. say +20% action speed with +3 damages and 2 bonus "adrenaline armor" when almost dead could be fun.  Kind of "live fast, die fast" double edged item.

Or make the medical proc only when at 25% health, but heal 50% (or full) at once.  Less fun, but more "medical".
I think there's a lot of cool ideas to exploit (not only about this one).

[Shoop da Whoop]

Hello and welcome back! It's been a while.

I'm really sad about this free chainsaw at dlvl5.

I remember one somewhat absurd proposition: making the Chained Court chainsaw into an unique powerup, separate from the exotic weapon. So, you enter the level, pick up an one-time/trial/theme park chainsaw (maybe, with a status of BLD to add to your usual brk), do whatever you do and then optionally get weapon-chainsaw in the end, all depending on your performance/challenge/Arena. The powerup runs out once you leave the level, which is a new kinda condition but I wouldn't say unimplementable. And if you run unarmed challenge, just don't touch the chainsaw then!
Also, chainsaw as a powerup wouldn't clutter exotics stats page anymore.

Medical Powerarmor:  I've said it before, but I'll say it again:  If my health is below 25% and I have no other way to heal, I'm probably about to die anyway.  Also, if you've taken enough of a beating to be that low on health, it's unlikely that your armour will be in good enough shape to use its durability to heal you and the only way around that would be to switch to this armour only when you're low on health, but who's going to switch in the middle of a fire fight?  There's just no situation where this armour is useful, in my opinion.  I think it should, at the very least, heal you up to 50%.  (All of this applies to the regular medical armour too)

Just found one in today's run, was quite disappointed.
What would be interesting and fitting for the medical armors family? I'd say, giving a free level of Badass trait HP-keep effect. It's a medical armor, thus it keeps you healthy! Whether those bonuses should stack up, is up to balancing decision.

Frag Shotgun:  Please reduce the firing time.  This could be a useful weapon if it didn't fire so slowly.  As it is, I'd much rather use a chaingun for my bullets, so the only situation I would use this weapon is if I was playing Angel of Shotgunnery, and even then, only if I was truly desperate and somehow completely ran out of shells, because having a weapon that fires so slowly is very dangerous.  The slow firing time completely kills any usefulness of this weapon.

It should be toned town to an exotic. I mean, much better plasma shotgun was a unique weapon back in the day and is just an exotic nowadays. And then, something better can take it place.

Now, let me admit: I am a shotgun apologetic. What kind of unusual shotguns can be implemented? Shotgun that allows you to fly with knockback ("rocketjump"). Shotgun that has close range and far range cones as alternate firing modes. Some kind of weird cornershooting shotgun (why cornershooting? Well, for example, because you can't aim enemies.)
Or, what is the specific tactic specific to shotguns? Radar shooting, isn't it? Why not make a "Radar shotgun", which increases your sight radius temporarily after being shot? It even has a ready pickup quote!

Well, if not for the sprite limitation, I'd propose a (stun rod), with a posiblity to stunlock. Or, maybe, it's chaisaw that should have stunlock, just like it does in the source game?

And, of course, there always is the rest of Quake weapon "family": Axe, Nailgun and/or Supernailgun and Lightning Gun.

Again, thanks for continued support!

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

While I see the benefit of balancing the existing Uniques/Exotics - adding more works for variety. OTOH, variety that just changes a stat or two isn't real variety. Is there sense in adding slight variations of the existing uniques/exotics? Like e.g. a pistol version of the railgun?

[Sereg]

Yes, because of the limitation challenges that make up much of the compelling gameplay in DoomRL.

If you have a useful artifact that is completely off limits to most Angels, it's a lot less useful, and it does make sense(if it also makes sense thematically - a Grammaton Cleric Rocket Launcher doesn't really make sense given its source material) to create variations of it that allow access to it during other challenge modes. That said, there are already good choices available for most weapon classes, so perhaps we benefit more from nudging the game in the direction of generating items that are useful during a particular playthrough. Finding the Pancor Jackhammer or the Butcher's Cleaver(or Dragonslayer) as an AoMr is utterly pointless, for example.

Additionally, there are some uniques that don't really seem to have a point. Acid Spitter, for example, is a cool concept, but I've never found a way to make use of it in practice. Charch's Null Pointer is one I've never even used - I pick it up to register the find, then put it right back down. Perhaps I'm ignorant of the tactical possibilities of these weapons, or perhaps they're just not a good fit for the way the game plays.

[raekuul]

Like e.g. a pistol version of the railgun?

Pistol base, shot type 0x07, and done.

I believe it's shot type 0x07, at any rate. Been a long time since I memhacked.

In any case, to answer the standing question: not really? I'd have to look at what's available but afair every weapon class has exotics that work well in most Angels (shotguns might be the only exception to that general rule simply because of the problem of balancing shotgun weapons without completely ruining what makes Shotguns work, and obviously you don't really want weapons in Angel of Pacifism).

Artifacts are a different story, but aren't artifacts restricted to the current Angel ruleset already? I can't remember if that was an actual thing or just a suggestion.

[Sambojin]

Gonna throw another run at the "Weaksauce".

A 2d3 shotty, standard spread, low drop-off, 3 round magazine (used like a tactical shotty), plasma damage. Its primary purpose is radar-shooting and barrel popping. Could just about give it a N mod equivalent for unlimited recharging ammo, just so it's a tool-weapon that only takes up 1 inventory slot to use. Fully moddable, just in case you want more reload speed/magazine/damage(?) (or want to use up a mod to free up inventory space). 1 sec fire, 0.8sec reload (not needed unless you have very good firing speeds). Uses shells or plasma, whatever, it's nano. Your choice Kornel. Maybe make it un-reloadable, but that does remove a use for it being a mod-dump tool-weapon. T mods for proper stuff, B for mag, Reloader traits, etc should still be useful, so slapping some plasma in shouldn't be a problem, even with free recharge on a small magazine size.

"This was the UAC's first attempt at a fully modifiable self-recharging plasma shotgun. Needless to say, it didn't go well. Useful for removing paint from walls or curling eyelashes at a distance."


Would 2d3 at a distance still pop barrels and radar-shoot with damage drop-off? Minimum 1 damage isn't it, at good range, with 5% dropoff?

In theory you could WK(1) it into a 5d3 nano-plasma shotty if you really wanted to, but no-one would spend 3 P mods to do so. I wouldn't mind if it was "Fully moddable" with five mods standard, breaking the "three mods of one type" limit beyond anything else possible, so a 5P mod/7d3 damage Weaksauce is possible. Without any WK requirements to do so. So any 5-mod combo is possible, on a tiny, weak nano-plasma shotty. Still, just a handy little tool-weapon that does a "thing" for anyone. Radar shooting without the ammo problems.

edit: 2d3 damage, and "Full Mod" blurb. It has potential. Kind of..... :)


-------------
So, the "Weaksauce":

2d3 nano plasma shotgun, standard spread, 5% damage drop-off, 3 round magazine (tactical).
1sec fire speed, 0.8sec reload.
Uses plasma for reloads, 5 plasma per shot, but nano reloads anyway (Shottyman problem?)
5 mod limit (without the 3-of-one-kind limit). No Whizzkid requirements for modding.

Description:

"This was the UAC's only attempt at a fully modifiable self-recharging plasma shotgun. It didn't work out well. Still useful for curling eyelashes at a distance though."

(I forget the text character limits on in-game weapon descriptions)

Easy enough to code anyway. Radar shooting flashlight, unless you put a lot of stuff on it. Could even up the damage to 3d3 if you didn't mind it potentially becoming mod-dump godly (and more vaguely useful). Might actually break walls if you did.
---------

[Evilpotatoe]

@Sambojin
I had this idea of a radar shotty too, and also read it already, maybe from someone else ?  Anyay, I kinda like the idea... but wonder it it would be worth a slot.
I'd forget about the "fully moddable thing". It breaks game rules, getting it to 7d3 is not the purpose, and finding 5*P is NOT guaranteed at all anyway.

I might completely remove the magazine (or give it 10 auto-reloading shots.. quite the same isn't it), and probably lower the damage to 1d1.
All in all, it would still require 1 inventory slot (and ideally, juggler) to be of comfortable use.  Not sure I'dd see any use to it.

I would rather see is as an assembly (shotty +TB ?).  That way, you can get it easily if needed.
Thinking again about the assembly thing...  I guess I wouldn't waste mods for that... so what ?  regular weapon ?  it doesn't look very "exotic" in term of efficiency.  After all, what matters is just that one can find it, so I'll just give it a significant weight (say, like tactical shotty).
And then, if it proves beeing really useful, I'd make it an assembly.


@Kornel
If I had to design or rework stuff, I would try to be sure it can bring something to the player.  To answer about the idea of a "railgun-like pistol", I have no idea whether it would be useful or not, but here are some clues :

• I don't think the railgun is of any real use in the current game.  I love the idea, the weapon is looks nice... but the rail perk seems useless 99% of the time, and the ammo consumption looks terrible.  I never used it more than for "testing" it.  IIRC, good damages and accuracy, but too much cell consumption, which basically means "useless in normal situations, and not as good as a BFG in exceptionnal ones".  Maybe it would be different if I could afford a mobile playstyle, and have fun creating alignments, but one word sums it up : cornershooting :(.
  
• Making such a pistol useful would probably depend a lot on it stats.  If it got the exact same stats as a regular pistol, people will try it.  If it can't, e.g., be turned into a speedloader, it might be put aside "just" because of that.  Same applies for damages : make it lousy to "balance" the AOE damages effect, and it might not be tried at all.  Give it great damages (without bad shooting/reload times) and everyone will at least try it, which will provide several different experience returns.
  
• Now, maybe the "rail perk" will be more a drawback than an advantage  (collateral 'call' of too much monsters at once when trying to isolate a single target, accidental bareelshooting bumping monsters close to player...)
  
• From my pov, the only way to know if it's too powerful / too weak is to put it in the game and let players experiment.
  Since I would like people to try it, I would probably make it a copy/improvement of the current regular pistols, *without* drawbacks (yup, speedloable too, at least for it's release, so that it is appealing). I would probably also increase damages a little, to motivate players even more (and make it worth its exotic value, *if* exotic).
  
  Then, of course, I would try it, (and more importantly, have other people try it) to see what we think of it.
  If it sucks, I'd make damages significant, and if it still sucks after that, I'd remove it.  If it's a blast, I would start out with the obvious nerf of removing the speedloaddy thing (which seems off topic for such a gun).  Nerfs like higher reload or shooting time cripple stuff really fast (and so would bad damages), so I would keep it as-is, unless it looks completely OP, which I can't actually imagine.  In fact, I wouldn't worry too much about it beeing "too good" unless it looks at least as good as a nuclear/laser rifle.  And I don't think anything can be that good :).
  

All this makes me think of a "gauss rifle/chaingun" ^^  Why ?  Not because I'd like it everywhere (I really don't care much about that perk, shotties are better anyway).  Just because the use could be different from current railgun, and therefore... may actually be useful.  If some chaingun could be as efficient as a plasma rifle (in its way), I might consider them again. (currently, I drop my chaingun once I got one of plasma rifle / chainsaw, and rarely pick one again).

[Sambojin]

The 2d3 was more-so storyline (and it not having "non-purpose-gun" as a weapon). A few shots will certainly take down a "marine" enemy, and maybe a few, but the bolt-ons really aren't available to everyone. No doubt real special forces of the UAC had their "Weaksauces" being very useful for their missions, modded to hell, and the self-recharging aspect made it reasonably deployable anywhere. But it didn't even match up to a decent shotgun in effect. In lethality or usefulness. So it was one of those research projects that just quietly went away to die somewhere. With enough examples laying around research bases to warrant its inclusion.

That it could be modded easily wasn't the problem. That the base weapon was shite, was.

The lack of WK requirements and the "super-moddability" is what makes it exotic beyond "just-another-shotgun". It breaks the rules. But it's still got an in-game purpose before you do.

You could up clip-size or damage easily. But as an exotic "oddity", that might just work for Doomguy's situation, I reckon it's alright.

And it's not that hard to code in either.


edit: removed the word "deployed" from the weapon description.

[Q2ZOv]

I have not played for quite some time, so I don't have useful ideas right now. But I remember that during donation campaign there was some kind of a form where if you donated enough you could offer design for items. I am sure I submitted several item ideas there and probably somebody else too. So if Kornel still has access to that form submissions he can check there.

[BaronVonMurderkill]

What about Assault Rifle, like in Brutal Doom, or new Doom? Common, 2d5 damage, accuracy +5, clip size 30(45?), 1 shot without TH(2 shots?), no Chainfire(I'd suggest Single Shot instead), probably add Former Private armed with it(after all, in the original game basic zombies had rifles in their sprites). And a slightly better version can be added as exotic AR Mk.2.
To avoid confusion, the AR assembly can be renamed to Marksman Rifle. BTW, it's really underpowered, if the original gun does N shots with dX damage, then:
1)It costs you Tactical Boots(A).
2)It does less damage per round than the original gun. (2d(X-1)+SoB)/2 instead of dX+SoB.
3)It spends more ammo per burst than the original gun. 2(N/2)+2TH(BTW, how it's rounded in case of Laser Rifle?) instead of N+TH.
4)It deals less damage: (N/2+TH)(2d(X-1)+SoB) instead of (N+TH)(dX+SoB).
IMHO, changing recipe to APB or something, and making shot cost 1 ammo, would be enough to make it useful.