Rocker solves ranged specials

Burst: First bullet always hits. Every 500 skill adds another bullet to the burst.
Fixer/soldier: 8 bullets?
Adv: 6 bullets?
Normies: 5-6 bullets
When/why/where/what? Provides incentive to use supported weaponry in PVP. Provides damage improvement to incentivize increased skill. Provides burst improvement to "masters" of burst beyond recharge since all professions currently cap recharge.

Fullauto: First bullet always hits. Rest stays the same.
When/why/where/what? Provides incentive to use supported weaponry in PVP.

Aimed shot: Every 500 skill adds 1x multiplier (always hits max multiplier). Works in PVM with no caveats. Essentially like a more powerful version of burst since none of it can miss.
@1 AS skill: 1x damage hit
@501 AS skill: 2x damage hit
@1001 AS skill: 3x damage hit
220 Agent: 5x-6x damage hit?

Would need testing to see whether it should be just a hit, or a max damage hit, and whether it should be able to crit. This change does require that the Troa'ler pistol be totally removed also, otherwise pistol users get 5-6 bullet burst of which at least one bullet will hit as well as a 4-5x hit from Troa'ler. The other onehanded AS guns are too crappy to have to remove.
When/why/where/what? Extreme unlikelyhood of capping hit by non-agent discourages use by non-agents. Making the multipliers every 500 instead of every 95, so they are more sane, ends up making HP a benefit for all professions. Provides increased PVM damage for agents/traders without having to use strange weapons.

New! Shot in the back: Current AS mechanics (multipliers and whatnot) shifted to a ranged backstab. Recharge 30s, locks AS skill same as normal one above (is that even possible?)

Numbers may be a bit off due to my distance from the game.

Melee specials: Maybe next week pffff
P.S. Rocker for game director.

Sounds cool. But a "burst" by definition is three shots.

Not that any of this game conforms to RL by any means... but originally the special attacks held some credence to RL definitions.

Full auto, also, by definition, empties your clip.

Aimed shot... requires aiming... unfortunately, that's the only real poor derivation of real definitions, and it turned out to be the most important.

This wouldn't cap for Agents in general.
Make AS tier every 250 and we can call 'er a day.

Well, it's not necessarily meant to, not on everyone anyway. Hence making high HP good in PVP. It's supposed to reduce usefulness to non-agents while keeping it pretty good for agents. But rough estimate, 6x hit (2500 AS skill) is roughly 12000 PVM damage if we use the lowest option I mentioned here which would be 6x normal damage. If we use 6x max hit or 6x crits its way over 13k. Like I said it would need some testing.

Correct me if I'm wrong I don't have an agent so only guesstimating your damage at 2k per normal hit.

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Originally Posted by McKnuckleSamwich

Sounds cool. But a "burst" by definition is three shots.

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2 or more.

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Originally Posted by McKnuckleSamwich

a "burst" by definition is three shots.

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No it isn't, by definition a burst is just a predetermined number of bullets that are fired on a single pull of the trigger. It can very from 2 bullets to 100+ for large mounted guns. I don't think it's unreasonable at all to assume that the futuristic guns of AO's universe could have a variable-setting burst which would let you crank up the number of bullets fired as you got good enough to handle them without losing so much accuracy it becomes pointless.

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Full auto, also, by definition, empties your clip.

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Again not true by definition, full auto isn't tied to any number of bullets it just means that the gun will continue firing as long as you hold the trigger down. As I understand it most full auto guns are fired in bursts so as to preserve accuracy. They just represent it in-game as emptying all your bullets at once because that's a much easier way to implement it. It doesn't necessarily have to work like that, it just has to represent trading the accuracy of single-fire for the high fire rate (and thus high damage) of full auto. (also it's "magazine", clip refers to something that holds bullets together so you can load them into a magazine)

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Aimed shot... requires aiming... unfortunately, that's the only real poor derivation of real definitions, and it turned out to be the most important.

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The most logical way to interpret "aimed shot" if you ask me is simply someone aiming for the head/vital areas, as opposed to center-of-mass which is where (again as far as I know) most weapons training teaches you to aim. Still doesn't give us much to go on, but it does give us a lot of freedom to play around with the mechanics.

Sorry to be so negative, but if we're going to argue semantics we might as well make an effort to get it all right! :D

As far as the "backstab-shot", it could be argued that aiming for someone's vitals is much easier when they're unaware of you, so aimed shot would have less accuracy and/or do less damage, but a shot from behind or from concealment could be more powerful since the target won't be actively dodging you.

I don't know anything about the actual backend of the game obviously, but it seems like most perks and actions are implemented as virtual "items" which lock a skill when you use them. I would assume a new special would work in a similar way, or could be implemented as such. It would essentially just be a matter of creating an "item" which requires and locks the "aimed shot" skill, which would lock you out of AS at the same time. I know there are some items that work like this, for example MA attacks which lock dimach.

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Originally Posted by Litestrider

No it isn't, by definition a burst is just a predetermined number of bullets that are fired on a single pull of the trigger. It can very from 2 bullets to 100+ for large mounted guns. I don't think it's unreasonable at all to assume that the futuristic guns of AO's universe could have a variable-setting burst which would let you crank up the number of bullets fired as you got good enough to handle them without losing so much accuracy it becomes pointless.

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Assuming futuristic anything, we could do $(surprisingly unbelievable action) with $(relative and quantifiable ease) at $(unprecedented scale with respect to action) because $(magical inventions). It'd be better, if you asked me, if we stuck to hard and fast numbers. A variable burst is called fully automatic firing. Having Burst and Full Auto sort of blend seems to be rather uninteresting, as well.

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Originally Posted by Litestrider

The most logical way to interpret "aimed shot" if you ask me is simply someone aiming for the head/vital areas, as opposed to center-of-mass which is where (again as far as I know) most weapons training teaches you to aim. Still doesn't give us much to go on, but it does give us a lot of freedom to play around with the mechanics.

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This seems to be the spirit of Aimed Shot. That is, Aimed Shot seems to imply attacking vulnerable spots moreso than lining up a shot that will not miss. In AO it happens to do both.

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Originally Posted by Waahash

Assuming futuristic anything, we could do $(surprisingly unbelievable action) with $(relative and quantifiable ease) at $(unprecedented scale with respect to action) because $(magical inventions). It'd be better, if you asked me, if we stuck to hard and fast numbers.

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The difference is the level of suspension of disbelief required. Yes we accept a lot of "BECAUSE NANOBOTS!" in AO, but things are still more or less jarring than others. Variable burst fire isn't far-fetched at all, it's a very realistic progression of technology. In fact looking it up, it seems like there are already some real select-fire weapons that have multiple burst settings for different numbers of bullets. Cost and weight seem to be the main things keeping it from being commonplace, and those are two things that are almost always improved over time with any product. Especially given the super-high-tech setting it wouldn't cause me even a moment's pause to accept a gun that has several burst settings without being cumbersome or prone to failure.

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A variable burst is called fully automatic firing. Having Burst and Full Auto sort of blend seems to be rather uninteresting, as well.

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Nah, there's still a pretty big distinction. Mainly that a burst-fire mode always fires a discrete number of bullets. In our hypothetical multi-mode gun, if you set it to three bullets it always shoots three then stops until you squeeze the trigger again. If you set it to four, then it always shoots four. This makes it a lot more predictable and thus easier to aim than a fully automatic mode where it will fire until you let off the trigger, both causing a lot more recoil and requiring additional input and attention from the user that might seem insignificant, but can make a big difference when you're aiming at a long-range moving target. I think this is represented decently in-game by burst being much more predictable and reliable, but full auto having the potential to do much more damage if it goes well.

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Originally Posted by Litestrider

In fact looking it up, it seems like there are already some real select-fire weapons that have multiple burst settings for different numbers of bullets . . . a gun that has several burst settings . . . a burst-fire mode always fires a discrete number of bullets . . . if you set it to three bullets it always shoots three then stops until you squeeze the trigger again. If you set it to four, then it always shoots four.

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These are settings for burst, but that would not be a variable burst. This is the source of my confusion, and so my second post can be ignored. I have re-read your first post and see you have stated variable-setting, so this was all my bad.

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Originally Posted by Waahash

These are settings for burst, but that would not be a variable burst. This is the source of my confusion, and so my second post can be ignored. I have re-read your first post and see you have stated variable-setting, so this was all my bad.

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I'm glad it was all just a simple misunderstanding! I see that I was a bit ambiguous too, I should have avoided the word "variable" altogether!