Weapons

This is a sub-page of Development:Duke Nukem Forever/1996 Design Documents.

Document outlining the weapons for the game, last modified on 20/08/1996 at 6:20 PM.

Weaponry#

Mighty Foot#

This is now the default weapon at Scott's request. This has unlimited ammo, of course. This automatically happens when Duke comes near a frozen or shrunken enemy. Duke kicks at things.
DRAWBACKS: Severly limited range and damage.

Shotgun#

This no longer has infinite ammo. Shots are invisible, just like in Duke 3D. Just see Duke shoot, and see where the bullets hit. Packs a decent punch (better than a single Chaingun bullet.) Also, holding down the fire button will only fire once. Must release the fire button, when we hear Duke reload and re-cock. Then he can fire again.
DRAWBACKS: Slow reload time.

Chaingun Cannon (aka Ripper)#

Good basic rapid fire weapon. Make the bullets invisible again. For this and the other weapons from Duke 3D, we should borrow Apogee's sound effects.
DRAWBACKS: Low damage per shot. Eats ammo.

RPG#

These slow moving rockets move in a straight line, but they pack an incredible punch. Good for knocking out boss enemies.
DRAWBACKS: Like the Grenades, their explosions hurt Duke. Also, they move slowly enough for an enemy to dodge them. (in theory)

AP Grenade#

A lobbed weapon affected by gravity. Will not detonate until it ceases to bounce, hits an enemy, or hits Duke. Packs a punch -even better- than the RPG.
DRAWBACKS: If it explodes with Duke nearby, the explosion throws Duke back and does damage. Lobbed weapon can't hit flying creatures very well, since it's hard to aim a grenade to the outermost corners of the screen.

Shrink Ray#

Just like the Shrink Ray in Duke 3D. Shrinks enemies down to pint size. Then if Duke runs across them he squishes them. Forget the ooze idea.
DRAWBACKS: Does no damage. Duke still has to walk over and squish them or shoot them with another weapon before they will die. They grow back in a couple of seconds.

Flame Thrower#

Man, you made this thing awesome to behold! Huge radius of terrible damage.
DRAWBACKS: Eats up fuel quickly. Leaves fires everywhere that hurt Duke and foul with the heat seeking missles. Some enemies aren't affected by the fire.

Nitrogen#

A large cloud of freezing nitrogen gas freezes the enemy in place and makes them brittle. Change to another weapon (except the Shrink Ray) and shoot them. Watch them shatter into a zillion pieces.
DRAWBACKS: Nitrogen does no damage itself, and the freeze effect wears off quickly. The cloud dissipates very quickly. The cloud doesn't move forward from Duke's gun hardly at all, making the range of this thing horrible. These two drawbacks mean that Duke has to be close to the target in order to use the weapon. A lot of pause in between shots. If he walks into the cloud, Duke can freeze himself.

Sonic Blaster#

This bizarre weapon screws up the computers controlling the robots, and isn't too good for organic brains, either. Ultra-high frequency noise confuses the target and causes him to attack other enemies on the screen. Also, the sound ripples bounce off of walls like SONAR, so you could actually get this thing to shoot around corners. If Duke hits himself with this weapon, it doesn't affect him (mainly because I'm not sure how we'd handle it.) The shots travel through enemies and keep on going until they are off-screen. Also, it's important to note that this weapon would be much much more powerful underwater. Perhaps to the point where it would flay the flesh right off of enemies.
DRAWBACKS: Duke must continue firing constantly for its effect to work. i.e. let up on the fire button or aim elsewhere and the enemy instantly gains his senses and heads for Duke. If Duke is the nearest target, they still go for him.

Heavy Barrel (Temporary Name)#

This is a very special weapon. It is broken into five or so pieces that can be found throughout some levels. If Duke finds all five pieces, then the gun is automatically activated with infinite ammo for about 30 seconds. See my goodies text file. It is a huge cutting laser with enemy seeking capability. It cuts through enemies like butter. The player can just hold down the fire button to sustain the laser (much like the flame thrower).
DRAWBACKS: Hard to find all the pieces, and the time limit.