Suggestion - New Marine Weapon

Marines are the backbone of my army. Coupled with marauders and medivacs, it will be difficult to stop this combination. However, i still find something lacking with the Marine's weapon. Yes, it's the rifle. The existing model is great, but i it would love to see a bayonet attachment to the Marine rifle just for aesthetic reasons. It would definitely look better right? Also, Blizzard could implement a close combat animation for the Marine using his/her bayonet against zerglings/zealots, much like the Hydralisk. Also, the shield could be less bulkier and prehaps the front plate could use some redesingning too.

 

I can support all of the ideas you suggest. A bayonet, after all, would help underscore the existing Civil War themes in the Terran aesthetic.

 

Heh, yeah, after all if you have a shield, why not equip yourself with a sword or a bayonet?

 

Have you seen old screenies of the Marine from a couple years back Nova? They actually had bayonets that came with the shield upgrade, for aesthetic purposes. Now they have been removed, and I doubt it was without good reason. I don't think they'll come back.

 

Agreed Gasmaskguy. They did have a bayonet. It would be nice for them to have a bayonet, and use it. They are ranged attackers. Having a melee weapon would help them out in close combat. Why not have one if your going to have a shield. The shield is somewhat bulky if your trying to shoot something. It would be pretty hard to try to shoot something while using your shield to protect yourself. A bayonet would help with this.

I do have a theory about why they took it out. They could have took it out because they were having trouble having the marine use it at close range, and the rifle as long range. The marine could have been using the rifle as both, or not firing with the rifle and only using the bayonet. Or using the bayonet as long, and the rifle as close. It is possible.

 

No, the shield is attached to the side of the arm and hinders the hands or rifle in no way.

Dude, where is a bayonet located? The answer is under the barrel. If you can point the bayonet towards an enemy, the barrel is correctly aimed by default. And pulling the trigger is easier, as well as more damaging than thrusting the rifle back and forth.

Also, it didn't look very good...

Wait, what? Your theory is that Blizzard don't know how to program a game?

 

You realize that this is a contradiction right?

No unit should have both ranged and melee attacks in sc. That unit would cross to many lines as far as class, and usefulness. There would be little reason to use other units other then to support them just a little bit.

Imagine if zealots could throw their psi blades. Way op, they would just get in range, toss their blades, and retreat, since it would automatically make a new one anyway. There would be little stopping just a few zealots in the early game.

Bayonets were typically used in real life when soldiers were out or ammo, or for silent take downs. Something a SC marine has no place doing. Again back to the class lines.

 

darkone, giving marines bayonets and melee animations is similar to something Blizz already did with the Hydralisks. Having melee animations for Marines wouldn't change the game.

 

Hydralisks have melee attacks now? Seriously? Where the hell have I been?

If the unit is already ranged, it doesn't hurt as much then if the unit is melee then gets ranged. I still don't like it though. It blurs the lines between what units to use when.

 

Check it out dark. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtO5WSoLD6M&fmt=22

 

The melee attack for the hydralisk, and (I assume) the melee attack being suggested for the marine here are purely aesthetic.

When a starcraft 2 hydralisk is within melee range of an enemy it is attacking, it will use the exact same attack it normally uses in ranged combat, except that it will have a different animation to make it look like a melee attack. It's not a different attack, it's just a different animation for the same attack so you occasionally get to see hydralisks use those giant blades they have on their arms.

You can see at least one instance of a hydralisk melee attack in the second battle report, and it has been confirmed by a blizzard source though I don't remember the exact post that confirmed it.

 

Holy ****, that is awesome.

Does it do the same damage though?

Edit: Thanks necro.

 

Hysra's melee is just for the beauty of the scene, damage basically remains the same

 

I've been waiting for this ever since the first time I saw the Zerg victory screen in SC1, with the Hydralisk standing on top of the pile of skulls, flexing those big claws it would NEVER USE IN THE GAME.

Giving similar treatment to Marines via a barrel-mounted bayonet is a fantastic idea.

 

I agree with you JakeKessler. It's not a bad idea. There is nothing wrong with it. It's just a suggestion.

"Didn't look very good" is an opinion. You think it doesn't, but other people would, one of them is the person who made this thread. About my theory, I'm not saying the they don't know how to program. I'm saying they could have run into problems coding it. That's why there's a thing called beta and alpha test. Those things are to help fix errors in the code. Some one said that they were having problems with the multisks bounce attack, so they just used the sc1 code for it. We don't know the perfect coding. Our current coding languages have flaws in them. We are still working on fixing the bugs. The way your thinking is that every programmer programs perfectly. Go look it up on wiki. They don't, they just have the basics down, and explore the rest. New engines require more testing. This is a new engine. Do you understand what I'm saying now? Blizzard knows how to program, not perfectly (no one does).

 

It depends on what's being programmed. In this case, it's just implementing one animation used for melee and one for ranged, something that has already been applied to the Hydralisk, proving that Blizzard do know how to to code that.

And yes, I do know that's an opinion, that's why I also had some simple logic put in the paragraph before, something that you haven't addressed yet.

 

Because I haven't gotten there yet. I was talking about the theory. Anyways it was a theory. It isn't for sure. I'm saying this is possible to happen. I'm not saying it did. You seem to misunderstand or not know what the theory is. Again it is just a theory. It's possible. They could have taken it out because they think like you. It's pointless. Yes the rifle would be much better. Unless the unit had a bullet proof shell. Which is possible. Then the rifle would be useless. The bayonet might go through the shell. With the bayonet you could hit the heart instead of wasting ammo trying to hit the heart. It takes a lot more bullets and time to hit the heart and kill the creature instead of hitting it with the bayonet and saving bullets and time to kill it. But yes you do have some what of a point. But consider this possibility that I have just given you.

 

Its purely aesthetic? Well it seems to me that the Hydra doing melee on that building is doing more damage than it should.
I don't think they should add a bayonet animation because I remember the old one and it didn't look as good as Blizzard's standards. If anything I think they would add a shield bash animation every few seconds as to show their attempt to keep the big creepy enemies trying to tear you to pieces with their oversized claws, teeth and spines.
EDIT: also don't forget about glowing blades of death.

 

To put a good note in here as this has been discussed to death, resurrected, and then beaten to death again.

The bayonet was tried in multiple fashions and they tried to integrate it into the design. It promptly failed. The problem was that such a minor attachment to the marines added far too much bulk to them with the shield. The current marines are visually appealing, sleek, and are able to be identified in a crowd in game. This is what they wanted to have happen with them. I rather have units with those strong qualities than adding a graphic/animation that is meaningless. You have to remember this is Starcraft 2. It needs to remain true to the sleek design of the original. Leave the melee to the melee and the range to the range. Modifying the design of a range to do melee animations might as well allow the Thor to hulk out with its cannon arms on close units. These things are ranged for a reason.

 

You put it in a good way ShdwyTemplar. I have to agree with you. I was up for the bayonet. But with your reasoning, I have to say no to the bayonet. But it would help hold off other melee attackers if the terran had a melee attacker. The firebat allowed you to hold them off while your marines, siege tanks and other ranged units destroy the enemy army. All ranged just doesn't work as well.