We wanted to give you a look at some of the ideas for the Heavy Weapons upgrades scheduled for Publish 27 (Publish 27 is currently scheduled for January 17th, 2005).

When we bring Heavy Weapons back, we want to do it in a big way and here is what we are looking at currently:

"Location Targeting" is a new type of targeting method that casts a targeting reticle on the ground. You can aim the area targeting crosshairs and target an area to attack.

Some of the Heavy Weapons will use "Location Targeting" and some of them will use "Directional Targeting" (The specifics for each weapon are listed below). Directionarl targeting allows you to simply point your weapon in a certain direction without having to target a specific object.

All restrictions will be removed from Heavy Weapons and they will be available for all players to use.

Here are the three types of Heavy Weapons that will be added to the game in Publish 27:

Flame Thrower and all Flame Thrower Variants (Plasma, The Void, etc)
Target Type: Directional
Effect: Spews a cone of flames and sets the ground on fire. This will be an Area-of-Attack (AoE) with a Damage-Over-Time (DoT).
Acid Rifle
Target Type: Location
Effect: Spews cone of acid and creates a puddle of noxious acid. This will be an Area-of-Effect (AoE) attack that will deliver a blinding combat de-buff.
Launcher Pistol
Target Type: Location
Effect: Shoots small rockets into the ground that will detonate a short time later. This attack will deliver an Area-of-Effect (AoE) snare.
Please note that this list does not mention the rest of the Heavy Weapons (what we shall refer to as Class-2 Weapons for the time being). These weapons will be published after this initial release of the above listed Heavy Weapons. Special consideration to commandos has been given for the Class-2 weapons - more details will be revealed as soon as possible.

Some Additional Details

The Proton Rifle will no longer be classified as a Heavy Weapon.
Special Moves cannot be executed while using Heavy Weapons.
I'll be reading your feedback over the holidays, so please let me know what you think about this preview of the changes.

Thanks!