As for now, every weapon has been reworked, their current state aren’t final, so they’re subject to change. Today I want to talk about Corn Shotgun.
As you can see, Corn Shotgun has 2 variables for dps progression — number of bullets and firing rate. Even though on paper, its dps progression seems smooth progressing, in practice it IS NOT.
It starts with only 3 bullets and ridiculously long (compared to other weapons) firing interval, which is 0.650s. At maximum power, it has 10 bullets and firing interval of 0.250s.
You can try it yourself and feel the massive difference between low and higher firepower, not only in sense of damage progression, but also its reliability and effectiveness. You will miss a lot of targets at lower firepower.
My hypothesis is this kind of progression is flawed. Because of long firing interval, low number of bullets and RNG involved that makes it less effective at lower firepower.
In order to fix this, I propose:
- Change all number of bullets to constant value (9)
- Change all firing interval to constant value (0.330s)
- Now progressing with projectile damage increase
With this change, it will have same performance at all level, in sense of area coverage and firing rate. What only changing is its damage, it should follow current dps progression *see note. Thus we will get these numbers for damage per kernel:
Formula: Current dps / 9 rounded up
257 — 342 — 390 — 488 — 567 — 681 — 813 — 949 — 1179 — 1347 — 1778 — 2223
For popcorn damage just reduce it by 40%
Formula: kernel damage –40% rounded up
155 — 206 — 234 — 293 — 341 — 409 — 489 — 570 — 708 — 809 — 1067 — 1334
I chose 0.330s for firing interval from its at level 8 and 9. It’s not that slow, but also not that fast. This is a shotgun, not a machine gun.
Let’s move to the next issue, IT NEVER OVERHEATS. First, this is not how I expected since I was who suggested popcorn mechanic. Overheat had become the iconic mechanic in Chicken Invaders since CI3. It limits your damage output, and it also makes you not mindlessly hold the fire button forever. Heat management becomes the skill required for this game, but since this mechanic introduced, if you don’t like to overheat, just use Corn Shotgun. I think this should not exist.
Also, when you touch the border between kernel mode and popcorn mode, you will get a sudden 40% damage drop. This is such a huge trade-off, and I think this could be better than as it is right now.
For this issue, here’s my rework:
- Change all time to overheat to constant value (5s)
- Every 10% of heat generated, 1 kernel is replaced by popcorn
If this change applied, Corn shotgun will be able to overheat again. It also won’t get a sudden 40% damage reduction when popcorn appears, instead it will smoothly drop by popping corn one by one per 10% heat.
In theory, you can get total of 16 shots before overheating by non stop shooting.
Here’s damage until overheat:
29868 — 39728 — 45240 — 56622 — 65828 — 79024 — 94322 — 110126 — 136806 — 156308 — 206262 — 257882
It’s a bit higher than Ion Blaster, but considering RNG of firing and slower firing rate, I don’t think it’s overpowered.
SUMMARY
- Number of bullet : 9
- Firing interval : 0.330s
- Time to overheat : 5s
- Now can overheat
- Damage progression by bullet’s damage
- Per 10% heat, 1 kernel turn to popcorn
2 and compensates by having over 2k DPS. So it’s at least a good option against bosses.