PROPOSAL: Weapon & Gun organization by DVD

[mqole]

This PR is a .md version of DVD's google doc on weapon organization.

It has been adapted to convey a general overview of design decisions we can make in order to make what guns do and feel like more intuitive to players.

source: i know jack shit about guns and its bad in there for me!!!!!!! all of these black boxes with sticks and levers look the same

I'll let DVD edit this header post if he wants to give a rundown in his words:

The idea here is to make a "default roster" that most of these forks won't use. The intention is to work off of a minimal base composing of the basic entities anyone who has played a Wizden server knows and loves, as well as just a few entries that show basic weapon archetypes, as well as "proof of concepts" that make use of tech and tools that has been made for gun entities (which is why the Anaconda is there, and why the Echion weapons are included). I think of the role this roster provides as being a sort of Game Maker Example Game-- gives you a taste of what these entities can do, what a future downstream might like or dislike, and allow them to springboard off of these from there.

As for the final organization and how the .yml's are laid out, I fully intend to eschue Wizden's file formatting in favour of what I put together for the _Impstation directory back on our fork. I have separate .yml's for the base entities, as well as having archetypes broken up into separate .yml's themselves, either by ammo type or source (whatever makes sense for the weapon. The format would go as follows:

Ammunition -- boxes, cartridges, and magazines. NO projectiles, just everything to do with ammo itself.
Blasters -- projectile-based energy weapons
Disablers -- stun-based energy weapons
Fuel Guns -- anything that uses reagents or even gasses as ammunition.
Lasers -- hitscan-based energy weapons
Launchers -- storage-weapons, bazookas, grenade launchers
Machine Guns -- SMGs, LMGs, miniguns. I lumped these all together for ease of understand for non-gun folks, and because the latter two categories lack enough entries for their own folders.
Pistols -- Like it says on the tin
Projectiles -- EVERYTHING projectiles; sub-folders are Bullets, Effects (muzzle flashes/impacts), Energy, Launchers, Special.
Revolvers -- if it has a revolving cylinder it goes here
Rifles -- Assault rifles and DMRs would go here.
Shotguns -- Like it says on the tin
Snipers -- Yeah
Special -- Anything really exotic or obtuse that doesn't quite fit elsewhere (grapplers, force/tether guns, tesla gun). Admeme guns go here as well.

Included in this PR: i also just copied over the wizden feature proposal template

[mqole]

@portfiend may need your eyes on this idk how to add new pages.

[DVDPlayerOfDiscordFame]

Updated the header post for a quick blurb.

I also want to add that, in the event that this PR: impstation/imp-station-14#3773 is merged, it will mean that how ammunition/bullets are handled from the ground up will be changed, and I'll have a whole shpiel to explain how it's structured but the basic idea is that there's more or less one set of bullet projectile entities (ammo types like incendiary/uranium/etc.) rather than an entirely separate set for every ammo type. Ammo types would remain, but the brunt of damage would be handled on a per-gun basis. So you would only need a new entity if you want to use a different sprite, or if the damage type is something very different.

[mqole]

does this need any edits? could be a good image to use

[DVDPlayerOfDiscordFame]

does this need any edits? could be a good image to use

just needs to say "low ammo capacity" for the sniper one, as it's missing a word. Other than that it's good to use.

[mkanke-real]

Personally I like this organization a lot more than the standard one as you can actually find what you are looking for easier. That said under machine guns I would replace the high capacity with high fire rate so it would read like "Sacrifices accuracy in favor of high rate of fire and/or magazine capacity" if just because it will also cover things like small, fast inaccurate SMGs or the like

[mqole]

OKAY overhaul of the doc done. Please give thoughts and feedback. i assume we'll figure out a way of formalizing votes on design or whatever

[ThatOneMoon]

Something I am curious is how should weapon ammunition itself be handled, as in, should ammo work kinda like it does currently with specific ammo calibers or should it be more abstracted into wider categorised based in weapon types

I personally wanted to advocate for ammo abstraction as that just makes things easier design wise

[mqole]

yeah i think that was the general plan- each category having a distinct type of ammo that is accepted

[ThatOneMoon]

Nice to know, it's something Funky has also been considering a bit at least as well

Could probably also get added to the design document for clarification