Something that I've noted for a long time now is that gunning just feels good. It's more than it just being strong, it feels good to use guns in that the mechanic is very well put together and built. Aiming, shooting, taking cover and shooting from behind it; using solid positioning and reaction times to outwit foes and corner them for the kill. The mechanics behind aiming, shooting, reloading, the draw times on weapons, the time between pressing shoot and actually shooting from the hip... Gunning as a mechanic is well constructed. It's smooth. It doesn't feel clunky or have any overt problems. Furthermore, it's reasonably balanced and has a web of balancing factors and counters that give it depth. Let's talk about that a little.
When it comes to balancing a game, a straightforward way of doing this is to give your game counters and balances. For example, in melee combat, an attack beats a grab, a grab beats a block, and a block beats an attack. This gives each move a counter, so that no single move is too overpowered, provided they are all reasonably balanced to do their job no better than the other moves. Gunning follows this general idea, but the dynamics of the game allow this concept to grow out from just "A beats B beats C beats A" method. This is where we begin to see soft-counters (Where something somewhat beats an action but isn't a perfect counter) and evenly-matched moves or items (If used against each other, it's more about how and when it's used as opposed to one beating the other outright). This is how a game gains depth, and how the skill ceiling for a game grows.
That said, I'd like to introduce a diagram of sorts to display some of the counters and interaction within gunning that make it a balanced mechanic.
To put it into words, cover generally beats automatics, automatics generally beat dodging around, dodging around generally beats heavy/slow guns, and heavy guns generally punch through cover. Cover, however, isn't a hard counter in all scenarios. Thanks to the balance that is ammo, a metal desk would deter most from trying to break it with ranged combat since it has enough HP to waste all your ammo without hurting the player behind it - but a crate can be broken with just about any gun you shoot it with, provided you expend the ammo. Meanwhile, mixing up your movement options while dodging around can, if done correctly, avoid a lot of automatic fire, and timing your shots well can beat someone's dodging. There's a lot of interaction between all of these mechanics, and there are definitely outliers that bend these rules a little, but generally speaking these are the counters included within the gunning mechanic, and how they all interact with each other. I can expand these ideas into a large web of actions, but it would be too lengthy and complicated to properly make the list it deserves to be; though I will explain some of these outliers/softcounters in the next paragraphs. Remember that while counters exist, it's not that move A outright trumps move B, but how you use move A that allows you to beat move B. Do not just spam move A because it can beat move B, make sure that you're using the move correctly - otherwise you may find that move A doesn't just bail you out for free.
To expand on the idea of bent rules, outliers, and mechanics that can trump multiple options or are designed for multi use, let's take a look at the M60. Generally speaking, using strong cover like a barrel is a good way to get some relief from someone trying to spray you down with an Assault Rifle. However, the M60 deals boosted cover damage and has a huge ammo pool, allowing a gunner to easily chew through your cover. Barrels, from full health, can only withstand 13 shots before crumbling. Crates break in 5 shots! And since it's an automatic weapon, it also does a fine job of hitting players that are trying to dodge around. With it's multipurpose tools, high damage output, and huge ammo pool, it takes it's name as a power weapon.
Another fine example of a weapon somewhat outside of the rules is the flamethrower. It's one of the few guns that has a range limitation, not being able to travel indefinitely in a direction until reaching a wall. Instead, it travels through all objects and players, and also beats dodges. This is a weapon you want to get away from, giving it unique counters (area control, like mines and explosive barrels) and unique applications.
Then we have counterplay within guns against guns. Shotguns typically beat automatic weapons in a straightforward fight because of their ability to knock players down, stunning them and preventing them from firing upon you. At a distance, their spread prevents all of their damage from impacting enemy players - but now, you can use this spread to hit players with low health in an attempt to finish them off. Due to the spread and number of pellets, you're quite likely to hit someone if you just point it in their direction and shoot, requiring little accuracy. On the other hand, if the person at a distance has an automatic and isn't low on health, your shotgun won't knock them down and they can shoot you a lot more than you can shoot them. Many things play a part in how guns interact with each other (who has the high ground, how close together you are, cover, health) so it's hard to say what beats what outright without details.
But there is an area that guns do not interact well with. While guns are great for the environment (breaking cover with guns, using cover to avoid gunfire, destroying objects that drop big crates on players, blowing up barrels and other dangerous objects), and guns vs guns have great strategic depth, guns don't interact well with melee combat. We all know that one guy that was running in circles around us while we tried to hit him, unable to catch him as he turned and shot us once or twice. Or, we're using a shotgun/magnum and trying to shoot someone, but they keep blocking/rolling between all our shots, and we just can't seem to damage them. There's little more interaction to these mechanics, and they really don't play nice with each other. Adding throwing to melee helps alleviate this problem somewhat, but does not outright fix the issues these mechanics face when pitted against each other.
I believe the biggest problems that gunning vs melee face are as follows:
- Melee has no reliable way to hit someone that is actively hopping around near them/running directly away from them (Switching to throw mode makes you stop sprinting, and as such is quite obvious, making it easier to react to the throw. Can't be done more than once without rearming yourself so the advantage is shortlived.)
- Melee can only disarm a gunner when they are aiming or shooting, making it difficult to actually disarm a gunner.
- Melee is too slow to reliably reflect gunfire while attacking, and block cooldowns are too high to properly deflect gunfire without heavy losses.
- Gunning has no method of disarming a melee weapon or method of quickly destroying said weapon.
- The majority of guns have no "get off me" types of moves, which makes it hard to make space once someone starts to get on top of you. Kicks can do this, but require proper positioning and timing, making the move very difficult to land as a result.
To wrap things up neatly, I really like gunning. It may not be perfect, but as a general mechanic and how it all works out, I think it was done very well and is undoubtedly the defining feature of SFD. It interacts very well with itself and cover, with generous counterplay, balances, and smooth actions that feel good to use without problems related to clunkiness. As a whole, guns in SFD are impressive, and it's not very often you see a feature work so well with itself and with other areas of the game. With a little work in it's interaction between melee combat, I believe the game as a whole will become as well rounded as this mechanic.
Any questions about gunning balance or how to counter specific gun strats? Anything you'd like to add? Go ahead and talk about it here! Do leave ideas and suggestions for the suggestion thread, however.
