Hey friends. Opalium here. It's been over 5 months since the release of The Silencer, our community's exclusive T weapon. However, the results are not as great as I expected. The weapon in its current state is clunky to use and very situational - some would say useless. Due to this, I am planning to completely overhaul the weapon and change it into something more useful. This thread will detail the idea I have in mind, and I'd love to hear your opinions. =========================================== The goal: The goal of The Silencer is to both cause confusion within a group, and to lower the risk of being detected once you go in for the kill. The idea was to provide a tool that, when used correctly, can score multiple kills with relative ease to the Traitors, but requires careful planning and timing to avoid blowing the whole plan. Do it right, and you have an entire room of confused, silenced players unable to call for help or ask what happened, waiting for you to pop around the corner and mow them down with your gun. The problem: The main problem with the Silencer is that there's no reason to use it over actually attacking the target. The effort of correctly using it is simply not worth the results. With its current 5 seconds detonation time (like all grenades), by the time you throw it and wait for it to explode you could be easily spotted and killed. And even if not, it leaves enough time for the targets to spot it and react appropriately. And unlike other grenades, who do the job for you, the Silencer requires the user to follow up and kill the victims, which brings additional risk and possibility of failure. This puts the silencer in an unfortunate spot - it's effectively useless unless you're playing against completely unaware players or have a very lucky opportunity. And even if you had the golden move and landed the silence on a group, you still have to risk yourself by going in at them. This makes it even less worthy - so why use it to begin with? The solution: To solve the problem with the Silencer and allow it to fulfill its original goal, it needs to be improved in two areas. First, it needs to be Quick: it needs to be a weapon you can use in a moment's decision, when the timing is just right. Second, it needs to be more Surprising: it needs to be something that will leave the enemy unprepared and unable to react. The Suggestion: With these two changes in mind, I have redesigned the weapon: The new Silencer is not a grenade. Instead, when used, it charges up briefly and then releases a pulse of energy from your player's location, immediately silencing all nearby players. With this mechanism, the Silencer is now both more responsive AND effective. Instead of the clunky use of a grenade, you can simply enter a room, wait for the right moment, pull it out and blow it in everyone's face. Before they'll know it, they'll be silent as dead, and you can immediately follow up and kill them. Since this change reduces the risk of using the Silencer quite a lot, I added some better visual and audio indication to balance it out and compensate for the much shorter time it takes to activate it. Here's a quick prototype I put together: NOTE: This is just a prototype! The visuals are subject to change. The perk: In addition to the above suggestion, I am also considering adding an additional perk to the weapon that will make it stand better between the rest. I have a few ideas in mind, and I'd love to hear what you guys think: Total silence: using advanced technology, the Silencer creates a sound barrier that surrounds the affected area for the duration of the silence, stopping any sound from coming through. This completely isolates the said area from the rest of the map, preventing those outside of it from hearing anything that happens inside it (gun shots, explosions, screams, etc) Disruption: the Silencer releases a burst of energy that disrupts the magnetic field of everything nearby, jamming the weapons of nearby players. Enemies affected by the silence will have their fire rate and reload speed reduced. Supersonic: the Silencer releases a powerful Supersonic Shockwave upon detonation that tears the eardrums of its victims. The victims will be dazed, slowing their movement speed and decreasing their accuracy for the duration. I'm going to need your help here as well: What do you think? Which one can work? Does the silencer even need another perk? Please provide your feedback. =========================================== So, what do you think? Is this the right direction? Do you think this will finally make the Silencer a viable option in the Traitor's arsenal? Or is it not enough? Maybe it's too much? Your feedback is highly appreciated. Thank you for reading! I hope you're excited. ~Opalium
This sounds much better than the old silencer. I've tried to use the silencer in the past, however as you stated, it takes to long to use, and can get you killed easily. This sounds like a very good fix. Also, the visuals are a bit much for something that is supposed to be incognito.
looks sick, I feel it may need to be a bit quicker though because people will be quick to KOS the dude who's glowing brightly. It may seem fast but the traitor bind takes only a split second to press. also unrelated, but is there nothing that can be done to make the Hex Shield throw instantly, instead of having a weird delay with a clicking sound? I noticed it still has that problem
Honestly, I like being able to throw it more as you could throw it into another room you aren't in then kill them. As I said above, this will get you killed.
I think this effects will get you detected much faster than throwing a grenade but maybe it can be something like Flare Gun instead of igniting, it can silence people so it will be more effective and useful
I was reading through everything, thinking the whole time "Make it similar to the Jihad, it's not something you throw, something you simply proc on your person"... And what do you know, that's your suggestion. It's a good one, but there should be no flashiness or noise to it, if you want people to actually use it. Make it similar to holding a Jihad/C4 (place a small device in the person's hand that is using The Silencer).
Alright, I tweaked the effect a bit and made it less noticeable. How about this? Is this better? Or should I completely remove the red glow?
Is the animation just less noticeable or has it also been shortened from the OP? What's the time to detonate in seconds? * At full charge
Nope, it's still 0.75 seconds charge-up time. (Not final, just playing around with the value to see what works) What I did is to reduce the particle size to about 33% of its size, and remove the explosion effect at the end, leaving only the sparks in. EDIT: I see what you mean. Since the particle is smaller, it takes longer before you see it clearly.
In my honest opinion, T weapons should have a little more kick than normal grenades or weapons. After all, 1 credit is very expensive and if we look at the opportunity cost: A radar, an MP7, Death Station heal, teleporter the thing doesn't look worth it. I think the glow should be completely removed so the players around can't see if the T is using it, and only see it with the explosion(or sparks at the end: maybe make the sparks a special color?). This is primarily because if you think about the mechanism, you're gonne be in the middle of a group since this explodes outwards: the removal of the charge effect reduces the time the players have to react to being silenced. They'd be silenced without them noticing( maybe add a delay from final spark and actual silence) and not have too much time to kill you before you explode and switch to your gun: remember the time you throw and switch you're essentially just unarmed. I still think this is too much a niche technique and has an opportunity cost too high for any smart player.
I still see no point of using it over a disguiser, that mind you, is always available and lasts untill the end of the round or your death.
Alright. In addition to the above suggestion, I am also considering adding an additional perk to the weapon that will make it stand better between the rest. I have a few ideas in mind, and I'd love to hear what you guys think: Total silence: using advanced technology, the Silencer creates a sound barrier that surrounds the affected area for the duration of the silence, stopping any sound from coming through. This completely isolates the said area from the rest of the map, preventing those outside of it from hearing anything that happens inside it (gun shots, explosions, screams, etc) Disruption: the Silencer releases a burst of energy that disrupts the magnetic field of everything nearby, jamming the weapons of nearby players. Enemies affected by the silence will have their fire rate and reload speed reduced. Supersonic: the Silencer releases a powerful Supersonic Shockwave upon detonation that tears the eardrums of its victims. The victims will be dazed, slowing their movement speed and decreasing their accuracy for the duration. What do you think? Which one can work?Do we even need another perk? Let's hear you out.
As horse dude said, the silencer is pretty obselete since we have a disguiser that can be used for the entirety of the round
Out of these options total silence is probably the best option as disabling/slowing shooting people is a bit too strong and stuns are not good for ttt with such powerful 1 shot weapons already. Would be good to clean rooms silently using this. Quite situational anyways and not the most useful traitor weapon
I agree with this. The whole point of the nade is to be somewhat stealthy with it. How about just a noise instead of a flash.
I'll gladly give it a shot for you in at least 10 rounds in its new state. Perk would be god tier cause you know for a fact ima buy em all
