Do you believe in destiny, soldier?
AR-32B 'Manifest’
Power Bar: A little lower than non-upgraded Paragon.
Firerate Bar: Same as Justice
Stability Bar: Same as Liberator
Range Bar: Same as every other AR
So far this looks terrible. Here are the important bits.
Upgrades:
- Bayonet: Greatly increases melee damage and range. So far this is standard.
- Extended Magazine: Increases the amount of rounds in both magazines from 15 to 25. Both?
- Tandem Fire: Both barrels fire simultaneously. What??
- Phosphorous Rounds: Shots set fire to enemies hit. What???
Flavor Text: An experimental and temperamental prototype that was deemed too unreliable for factory production, it suffers from severe recoil and accuracy issues. However, it is still fielded by certain Helldivers who appreciate the uniquely wide arc and long range of its fire.
Correct, this is an assault rifle with disgustingly fire-rate, mediocre damage per bullet with no armor piercing, awful recoil control, and pitiful magazine capacity.
It also has 2 barrels that fire in an alternating pattern without upgrades. When maxed out both barrels fire together, hurting recoil but effectively doubling the weapon’s fire-rate. And the bullets are also fire bullets.
Yes, like an itchy feeling where you can’t scratch that spreads across your whole back, it is the fate of Super Earth to bring Managed Democracy to the entire universe. This weapon will burn away the darkness; it is our destiny made real.
I imagine it looks kinda like these guns but with rifle stocks: https://www.forgottenweapons.com/furrer-m1919-double-barrel-smg/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villar-Perosa_aircraft_submachine_gun
So I conceived of this as one of the only combinations this game is lacking, in my opinion. A rapid fire, long range, incendiary primary. I’m not sure if it needs (or should even have) the bayonet. It doesn’t make much sense mechanically, since of how the barrels sit apart from one another. In my opinion, aesthetically, it’s extremely important that the barrels and clips sit exactly as they do on the Villar Perosa. The bayonet might hurt this look but, more importantly, I think it might need one more limitation in addition to the QoL stuff. I love bayonet dodging but I don’t want this gun to be too versatile.
I pitched this idea to Lein and a few others, my main concern being that if it had decent QoL stats it’d be far too strong. It is a support primary, like the Defender of the AR family. It still has plenty of killing power but, similarly to Paragon, you’ll want to spread your bullets among as many enemies as you can to maximize the effect of the phosphorous rounds. The damage I think is just about right. It’ll cut through your standard cyborg patrols about as fast as your liberator if you tap fire.
My only concern, aside from the bayonet, is that it might completely replace the flamethrower to players who want an incendiary weapon. The flamethrower is already criminally underused. It’ll still get attention from players who want a more powerful primary (any other AR, tbh) but utility-wise this gun would completely supplant the flamethrower, being able to light enemies on fire at any range.
Thoughts?
), which can then be finished off with conventional weaponry.
