I was practicing a bit with the grenade launcher today. It’s pretty exciting to have a rocket-type weapon, I have a long history with Tribes games, so anything that takes lead-prediction rather than aim-precision is intriguing.
Physics
Momentum or none? Right now the projectile doesn’t take on any of your speed. That is if you’re strafing along with an opponent and your crosshair is dead on, you’ll still have to lead significantly. If you’re the only one moving, you don’t need to lead.
Right now the grenade behaves like a Quake 3 rocket. It doesn’t matter how fast or slow you’re moving, the grenade travels at the same pace. That is if you have your crosshair on a stationary target and you’re jumping/strafing/sprinting, it will hit right where you aim. In other games, like Tribes, the projectile moves with you. I made a video on this.
In Quake 3 you’re traveling at super high speeds, so if the rockets took on your speed you’d end up shooting them ridiculously fast, or even backwards in some cases. It just wouldn’t work.
In Extraction the speeds are relatively low and consistent, and mirroring enemy movement is often part of a firefight. It might be worth a try to have the grenade conserve the players momentum. It would also increase the skill ceiling slightly, and could feel more intuitive. It’d allow for more controls on ricochets as well.
Variables
The grenade should definitely pack a punch, but it needs to be well delivered. There are a lot of variables to consider: Projectile speed, projectile arc, projectile hitbox (often overlooked), arming time, splash damage, splash radius, direct hit damage, bounce.
My ideal grenade? Much faster than the current grenade, with about the same arming distance, but lower arming time. A higher direct hit reward, and a larger hitbox for the projectile itself.
It might be nice for a direct hit on a player before the arming time to do a little bit of damage, drop and explode, rather than bounce wildly off the player.
Essentially this pushes it closer to a rocket launcher behavior, with mechanical behaviors closer to current weapons. Also reduces spammy spam.