The Weapon System

TCI Members and Fans,

I’m so excited about getting this opportunity to finally reveal the new weapon system for TFN. So many changes have been made from Fists to Flamethrower that I just can’t sit on it anymore, I need to let it out. In short, ALL of the weapons in TFN have been heavily modified, from skins and sound effects to stats and damage. I carefully went through each weapon with razor precision and rebalanced each one so that now every weapon serves a purpose.

In the original Bloodlines, one of my biggest complaints were the weapons. You could choose to go bare fisted, use a melee weapon, or go ranged. Now, anyone who has played Bloodlines will know that there were 1 or 2 weapons from the melee group and 1 or 2 from the ranged group that were reigned supreme compared to the others, and you would bide your time until you could finally get to the stage of the game where they became available. Once you finally got that weapon, it was easy to abandon all others because you knew they were less effective.

Well The Final Nights has changed all of that. EVERY weapon from the Baton to the .38 Special can be used from start to finish with effectiveness depending on play style, and will be a viable option throughout the entire game. Yes, you heard that right, weapons that you get at the beginning of the game CAN be used throughout the entire game with maximum effectiveness in relation to the other weapons available. No weapon is worthless as long as you fit your play style for that particular weapon. Not only that, but all of the weapons that were only available towards the end of the game are now available from vendors much earlier in the game. Imagine having the MAC10 in Santa Monica, and every weapon has been rebalanced for this purpose.

Now the fun doesn’t stop there, as I was rebalancing each and every weapon I decided that they needed a face lift as well. For those of us who are used to certain weapons performing a certain way, we’ve become hard wired to that type of thinking and it’s hard to think differently. So what I did was rename the weapons, reskin them, edit their models, change their sound effects, change their descriptions, item worth, damage, range, attack rates, clip sizes, accuracy, etc…  Though these weapons were obviously derived from the originals, they do not look, sound, or perform anything like the original ones which will help you “Let Go” of old ways of thinking.

Okay, now it's Q&A time!

Q: How is it possible that a Knife could be just as effective as a Katana, or the .38 Special be just as good as the Steyr Aug?
A: Every weapon now has an advantage and disadvantage, and sometimes even several for the same weapon. The larger damage weapons tend to be slower or less accurate, and the faster weapons tend to not do as much damage. In the case of the Knife vs. Katana, the Katana obviously does more damage but the Knife is much faster.

Q: Are advantages and disadvantages solely based on speed vs. damage or is there more to it than that?
A: Oh it goes way beyond just speed vs. damage. A lot of the weapons in TFN have stat modifiers attached to them, such in the case of the Ninjato. It’s a short straight blade similiar to a short Katana, built for stealth and assassinations. Equipping it automatically gives your character a +2 to Stealth. In the case with high damaging weapons such as the large Japanese Field Sword called the Nodachi, penalties to Defense occur when wielding the weapon because of its clumsy and cumbersome design.

Q: What are some of the new weapons introduced in The Final Nights, give some examples.
A: Obviously fists are fists, lol, but the melee weapons group introduce the Ninjato and Nodachi Japanese swords. The original Katana is still in the game but these other 2 have been completely reskinned, remodeled, and have new swinging sound effects. The ranged weapons have a far more extensive list of new weapons. Guns like the S&W Special, the new Glock 18 EKO Cobra which is an anti-terrorist version of the original Glock, the IMI Mark XIX which is a new version of the Desert Eagle, and the Patria SMG are just a few to name.

Q: You mentioned getting weapons previously not available until later in the game, are now available much earlier.
A: Yes, I hated the fact that you would have to wait until Hollywood or Chinatown to get your hands on a weapon that fit your play style, so all the vendors have been rebuilt to offer these weapons at a much earlier point in the game. You now can buy a Patria SMG (the old MAC 10) or the Fire Axe from Trip right from the get go, long before NPCs are wielding one, or a Steyr AUG A1 and a Remington M24 SWS as early as Hollywood.

Q: Do the NPCs have access to the same weapons the PC does?
A: The basic weapons like the Baton, Baseball Bats, and the S&W Special are carried by alot of the NPCs. The more "unique" or "advanced" specialty weapons like the Ninjato and the Franchi SPAS-15 will not be found used by NPCs and must be bought. Because many if not all of the NPCs don't carry such sophisticated weapons, you cannot loot these and will need to be purchased by vendors.

Q: What about ammo? Will the vendors be carrying the proper ammo for my unique gun?
A: Yes, though it may not be very realistic, I did add every ammo type to every weapon dealer so the PC doesn't have to run around town looking for bullets. While I was at it, I increased many of the ammo carrying capacity to many of the ranged weapons so you can buy a plentiful supply of rounds before going on a long trip. It always bothered me  that you couldn't "stock up" on ammo for your favorite gun so you always had to carry several even though you didn't enjoy using them.

And this concludes the new Weapon System for TFN, hope you enjoyed this program.

That's incredible! I'm seriously impressed (Though I think my love of bush hook/fire axe/sledgehammer stealth kills makes me biased towards them...)

WOW! Thanks 8people, you're not an easy one to impress so that's a huge compliment. I've always felt that charts and graphs really allow a person to see everything in front of them clearer. I couldn't have done the balancing without Excel, it really helped me see all the weapons laid out so I could fine tune them.

PS: Believe it or not the S&W Special (.38) is probably my favorite gun. It's not very accurate and fires pretty slow -BUT- it does pretty good damage, the ammo cost is cheap as dirt, and you can carry a crap load of rounds so you never run out. It makes for an excellent main or back up weapon. The Glock is really good too because of it's high rate of fire and it has the best accuracy of all of the hand guns, but also the least damage, though bullets don't cost too much either but still not nearly as cheap as the S&W Special. Before TFN I had never played a ranged character before because the weapons were so jacked in my opinion. Now it's equally as fun playing either.

For melee I prefer the knife. The bushhook stealth kill looks good, but it takes too much space. Often you throw your victim through walls or other obstacles. Until I get to Chinatown I usually never use anything but the knife and the Glock. Both are low damage weapons, but fast and accurate.

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Sounds like a tasty little morsel.
No, seriously, this is awesome. I'm a huge fan of ranged weapons in VtMB, especially the Glock and the Steyr AUG, and hearing that even the .38 is more balanced now makes my mouth water. Santa Monica always sucked when you were playing a ranged-orientated character because the .38 really is less of a weapon and more of a suicide approach - and if you invested your XP and starting points in social stuff, you were screwed if you didn't cheat.
I can't wait to try it out.

Levelled out weapons huh? I guess I'll have to test out a few upon release. It's true I normally default to certain guns or blades in the game, it'll be nice to play around with a few others for once. Still I must ask, is there any bonus for crossbow? I always found it's silence useful for first shot tactics but it was always too slow otherwise..

I OBJECT! Ninjato ain't curved. You mistake it for wakizashi, the short samurai sword. Ninjato, the weapon of the guerilla fighters (ninjas) is straight.

Jad.3 wrote:

I OBJECT! Ninjato ain't curved. You mistake it for wakizashi, the short samurai sword. Ninjato, the weapon of the guerilla fighters (ninjas) is straight.

Otaku detected!

Otaku not needed... just a sword fanatic, like me. He's rightl; ninja-to is straight. I didn't catch that part.

Jad.3 wrote:

I OBJECT! Ninjato ain't curved. You mistake it for wakizashi, the short samurai sword. Ninjato, the weapon of the guerilla fighters (ninjas) is straight.

I don't know why I posted that, I just pulled out the Ninjato and I modeled it straight, not curved. It's been awhile since I've played with the weapons so I'm not sure why I posted it as being curved. Thank for catching that, I updated it in the Q&A.

What more can I say?

Jad.3 wrote:

What more can I say?

You really went Jack
And yes, swords of the ninja were straight.

Feral wrote:

And yes, swords of the ninja were straight.

And those of the Samurai gay?

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Nah, there were nothing joyous about them.

Jad.3 wrote:

Nah, there were nothing joyous about them.

Unless you wanted to loose your head. Making fun of a samurai was sort of effective method. Poor Japanese pesants...

Feral wrote:

Unless you wanted to loose your head. Making fun of a samurai was sort of effective method. Poor Japanese pesants...

Did you guys know that lose is the most mispelled word in the English language?

Why would I care? I'm not a native speaker, so I'm allowed to make some mistakes...

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Zer0Morph wrote:

Feral wrote:

Unless you wanted to loose your head. Making fun of a samurai was sort of effective method. Poor Japanese pesants...

Did you guys know that lose is the most mispelled word in the English language?

Sorry...

LOL, I'm just giving you sh!t

Zer0Morph wrote:

Did you guys know that lose is the most mispelled word in the English language?

Yeah, and because of a comic, I'm never ever going to spell it wrong again. Just look at this here: [Klick me, I'm a link]

their, they're, there....
Oatmeal for the win

Just added a new website to my 'Favorites' list. Thanks, Eliza.

Zer0Morph wrote:

Feral wrote:

Unless you wanted to loose your head. Making fun of a samurai was sort of effective method. Poor Japanese pesants...

Did you guys know that lose is the most mispelled word in the English language?

Next to "misspelled".

Sorry, man.

Zero got OWNED!

Feral wrote:

Jad.3 wrote:

Nah, there were nothing joyous about them.

Unless you wanted to loose your head. Making fun of a samurai was sort of effective method. Poor Japanese pesants...

That's not a typo. He's obviously making a Keujin reference.