I've added my comments.  'Hope it isn't too hard to merge them in.

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BLOODY WEAPONS

Jay:  It seems like something is missing.  I think we need a low power long
range weapon (like a pistol), and one of the weapons just needs to be awesome
in power, appearance, and effect (the flare gun if that is possible) without
costing the player a lot to use it (like the shadow gun does).

Jay:  I like the order that the weapons come in.  If I were to change it I
would put a weapon in between the pitchfork and spray can that does little
damage but is still effective at a long range.

Jay:  The Guns Akimbo Power-up could be used to increase most of the weapons
rate of fire instead of just giving you an extra shotgun to play around with,
or we could create a new power up to do this.  (increasing the rate of fire for
weapons is one of the most popular modifications created by Dehacked for Doom,
why not give the players what they want within the game itself.  I think a cool
effect like that can throw realism out the door and the player will still love
you for it.  I would.)  I would like to see the dual shotgun power-up not be
such a short-lived thing.  It is just too cool.  I think we should consider
this as an actual weapon option and not just a temporary power up.

Peter:  I've made an important change to the way the auto-aiming works.  You
may love it, you may hate it.  I'm commenting about it here because I'm sure it
merits your discussion.  Specifically, the auto-aim point does not track
instantly, but sort of 'homes in' on a target.  If your target is standing
still and so are you, you should hit your target dead on.  If your target is
running a serpentine pattern you may miss him a bit unless you do a little bit
of targeting yourself.  The rate at which the auto-aim homes in is adjustable
in the code.  For some weapons, such as the tommy gun, the auto-aim point gets
updated while you are firing.  For others, such as the sawed-off, it doesn't.
What this means is that you will get a more accurate shot with the sawed-off if
you wait a tiny bit between each shot rather than just holding down the fire
key.  If you like the way this works, but want to visually see how the auto-aim
point is tracking (for tuning, not for actual game release), I could add some
sort of reticle.

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PITCHFORK

Jay: The range of this weapon needs to be extended.  You shouldn't have to be
right on top of somebody to hit them, even if this were realistic (like with a
punch), it is not playable.  Hexen is the first game that I've seen that really
fixed this.  The close range attacks of the fighter in Hexen have a good
playable range, his punch looks like it goes too far, but it also makes his
punch playable, which I think is much more important.  With the pitchfork we
have an excuse since it is about five or six feet long.

Jay:  I like the range now.

Jay: What if we gave it some kind of power up that electrified it. When it hit
someone arcs of electricity would course around the opponent, damaging them and
temporarily freezing them in place.

Terry-This is a cool idea.  It could be as if you had a device that charges
you, but the pitchfork acts as a lightning rod, attracting the energy to the
tindels.  Although you couldn't shoot the arc out, it's range could be extended
and it be very dangerous.  The victim would have a hard time getting out of the
shock, kinda like DOOM's chainsaw.

Kev-I like this idea

Jay:  I still really like this idea.

Jay:  The pitchfork should probably take 3 or 4 hits to take down a cultist
(see monster comments to see how much damage a cultist should probably be able
to take).

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SPRAY CAN

Jay: This weapon is pretty good.  It is very hard to see anything when you are
using it, and the fact that you have to use it in close quarters doesn't help,
but it is more the nature of the weapon.  I don't know how its damage works,
but it should have a pretty wide cone of effect so that when you are in close
it is hard to get away from.

Jay:  This weapon needs to be changed to truly be effective.  It has two big
disadvantages:  short range, and it limits your vision.  To make up for this
the spray can needs to pack quite a punch.  The way I'd like to see it do
damage is it should do a ton of damage that decreases with distance within the
cone of flame.  At this point it seems like the flame will only do damage if
the target is directly in front of you, but the flame has a wide cone and it
should burn as soon as the target is hit.  (BTW, I realize that the spray can
does burn time, and not actual damage, but it is just easier for me to say
damage).  A cultist should be running around on fire almost immediately,
otherwise why even bother with this weapon.  You can use the Pitchfork instead
and gain the advantage of vision as well.  If you can get close enough to hit
the cultist with this weapon without getting cut down by him or his friends
than you should get the payoff of taking him out.

Jay: When I was a kid there was always this myth about spray cans exploding if
you used them like a flamethrower, what if we used the alternate fire key to
allow you to light the nozzle on fire and throw the entire can.  It would
explode on impact using several explosions that expand out from a point (like
that bomb missile gun from ROTT).  The explosions themselves would do ok
damage, but the nasty part would be that it would act like napalm, setting
everything around it on long burning fire.  This weapon would be balanced by
the fact that it uses an entire spray can and would be incredibly dangerous to
use since it would have such a large blast area.

Terry-Totally cool.  I second this motion.  Kinda like a bundle of dynamite.

Jay: Thanks!  I'd like to see it have an even greater area of impact than the
bundle of dynamite though, but do less short term and more long term damage.

Kev-I like this, too.  It wouldn't take much new art, probably just one frame
for the qav and a rotating spraycan seq.

Jay:  I'm still really big on this one.  I think it is one of the better weapon
ideas.  I think the area of effect should be pretty large (many explosions
expanding out from ground zero), but the explosions should not do damage but
rather effect burn time.  I don't see any reason why the spray can graffiti
can't still be an option, just hit the key for the spray can again to make the
lighter go away, and there you go.

Peter: Adding a radius explosion that burns everything shouldn't be too hard to
program.  I'm for this.

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TNT

Jay: Ouch.  It's almost impossible to hit anything with these which makes this
an unlikely weapon to use.  It's cool looking, but not functional.  I think the
problem is with the way that it is thrown.  Nobody throws dynamite and grenades
underhanded in an arc unless they are aiming for a distant immobile target.  I
think the way that we could solve this would be to have the dynamite thrown
overhanded, like someone would throw a knife, directly at the target.  We could
use the proximity detectors to allow the dynamite to go off on contact.  This
could be the dynamite's alt.  fire mode, allowing for more accurate and
dangerous throws with a loss of distance, we could also increase the range of
the underhanded throw to counter balance the two modes.

Jay:  I still feel this way.  I realize that we can't change the art but
something needs to be done or this is doomed (no pun intended) to be the weapon
that is never used.  I've given up ever trying to hit anything with this
weapon.  I won't repeat my suggestions to improve this one since they are
already here, and still apply.

Terry: Agreed.  I think that your strafing velocity and angle should NOT be
added to the throw, because then you'll never be able to hit yor target when
circling them.

Jay:  Amen Brother!!!

Terry: Another way to account for distance would be to implement the way Dark
Forces handles thermal detonators: the longer you hold down the mouse button,
the further you'll throw it.  Of course, if you wait too long, it'll blow up in
your hand, ignting your inventory and taking you with it.

Terry: I had a dream.  Actually, I did.  The cultists were throwing sticks of
dynamite overhanded, so I gotta go with my subconscious.  I'd like to see it
changed to over instead of under.  Would there be a reason for keeping under if
there were an over?  Will the cultists have a delay time like the player for
switching to dynamite from their preferred weapon?

Kev-The problem I have with changing the throwing from under to over is that it
will require all new art.  First of all, I would have to redigitize the cultist
doing an overhand throw, which is very difficult due to the way the figure is
made which is why I made him throw underhand in the first place.  This includes
touching up the frames and remaping him again.  Second we would have to do an
overhand throw for the players view and clean those frames.  If we want the
dynamite to travel faster or be more accurate why don't we try changing the
angle that it's

Jay: I, of course, agree with this, but I would be happy if you could throw in
a much lower arc that travelled directly at a target (like an overhand throw
would).

Peter:  Here's what's about to be added:  Throwing of stick or bundle.  Bundles
should do a much larger radius of damage, so that should take care of the
accuracy a bit.  You'll be able to hold the stick in your hand until it blows
up, so you can "burn-off" the TNT if you want.  You'll be able to control how
hard you throw it a la Dark Forces.  You'll be able to drop/throw the sticks
with the fire/alt fire keys.  When you throw proximity bundles, they will
explode on impact.  When you drop (place) proximity bundles, they will arm in 5
seconds, so you should definitely leave the area.  You'll be able to place
multiple bundles to be triggered with the remote detonator.

========================================================================
FLARE GUN

Jay:  This weapon has to be our powerhouse.  It doesn't look very impressive so
it needs to have some big and spectacular effects.  The bigger and more
powerful the better.  If I thought we could do it I would even suggest changing
the flare gun completely to a much more impressive and faster firing weapon
(like the rotating gas cannister gun in Terminator 2, imagine this thing
throwing off flares at high speed!).

Jay: Needs more starting ammo.  I like the ideas we spoke about for this one,
the napalm, star, and explosive flares, and once the auto-aiming for it is in I
think this could be the weapon to have.

Jay: Electric flares that freeze the target like a tazer (see Pitchfork).

Terry-How about heat seeking flares?  Like DOOM2 dudes, except these won't
smash into you, they'll STICK into you and burn you out.  Kinda like me.
hahahaha

Kev-I like both of these ideas.  Maybe we should replace the old flaregun
powerups with these.

Jay: I don't really like the idea of heat-see

Peter:  Having more than one type of ammo per weapon is to be avoided according
to the powers that be at Apogee.  Two is pushing it, three is right out, and
we're already complicating things with all the TNT options.  Is there anything
we can do with the existing ammo or fire modes without adding new ammo types?

I think one shot with the flare gun should be enough to cause burning death in
all but the most hardy creatures.
