From here, an idea sprung out of my head.
(There is a big gaping hole where the idea sprung out. Does anybody know a good head-doctor?) https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,5266.0.htmlWhat if ammo types changed the gun a little?
Light Carronade - Heavy ammos causes knockback on the target and the shooter. Force of Nature(tf2) style. Knockback inversely proportional to range.
Harpoon - Lochnagar/Heavy/Heatsink ammos simply shoots harpoon as a projectile. No strings attached. Maybe it becomes a "rail gun", penetrating enemies to hit enemies behind it.
Heavy Flak - Burst rounds severely shortens or gets rid of arming time.
Beacon Flare - This is a fun one. Burst causes firework. Lesmok shoots very far, doesn't stop at the clouds, and distracts the enemy. Lochnagar kills the cloud. Heavy Clip turns flare into a linear projectile; when it strikes an enemy, it attaches and relays back the distance (that range finder is supposed to give). Heatsink turns the fire damage into heavy explosive damage, but the flare doesn't light up.
Gatling Gun - Lochnagar fires one strong impact shot. Heavy increases range (just for the gatling), bringing back the old gatling sniping. Maybe certain ammos (haven't decided which yet), reduces the number of tracer rounds.
Twin Carronade - Same as Light Carronade. Knockback on the target and the shooter. Perfect disengage gun.
Flamethrower - Heatsink fires steam. Burst fires tar (as people have suggested tar-guns). Incendiary turns the flame blue (blue flames look cool).
Artemis - Burst changes secondary shatter damage into explosive. Grease and incendiary changes secondary to fire. Lochnagar fires one impact missile that can knock the enemy off-course.
Mortar - Heavy clip changes the explosive damage to weak flechette/shatter damage.
Light Flak Cannon - same as heavy flak. Burst reduce/gets rid of arming time.
Banshee Carousel - This is another fun one. Greased let's banshee fire its entire clip at once, but reduces clip size (just for the banshee for obvious balance reasons). Heatsink changes the secondary fire damage into explosive damage. Heavy changes the primary explosive damage into piercing damage. Lochnagar fires two impact missiles before killing the gun; it's similar to Artemis effect, but two weaker missiles. Incendiary turns the carousel into flare. Two rounds that light up the sky (two rounds just for the banshee).
Mercury Field Gun - Lesmok changes the projectile from an arcing bullet to a straight missile. Heatsink increases gun arc (by like, 5 degrees).
Hwacha - Lochnagar fires two accurate, impact damage missiles. Charged rounds make the missiles arc up.
Lumberjack - Another fun one. Burst or Greased makes it fire several weaker scatter shots per shot. Heavy turns the lumber shot into an impact shot. Incendiary makes it into a three shot flare. Lochnagar increases the size and the payload of the shot (I mean, that little lightbulb is too small to have come out of the huge Lumberjack. Some Hollywood reality please!)
Mine Launcher - probably the funnest to brain storm for. Incendiary causes more flames than usual. Heatsink doesn't set off other mines when it goes off, but also make the direct shot more powerful. Burst creates a tar cloud when exploded. Lesmok spawns the mine with a propeller that flies away. The movement is linear, straight away from the point of origin (the shooter), and cannot be controlled.
Hades Light Cannon - Incendiary reduces/gets rid of arming time. Heatsink gets rid of arming time, but replaces secondary fire damages with more piercing or explosive.
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This would make gunning more of a profession than powder-monkey point and click.
Gunners would have to learn what ammo does what on what gun.
If the gunner ends up sticking to only one gun, these changes will make the three different ammo types worth while.
Some of these ideas are vastly overpowered. Again, these are thoughts that just occurred to me moments ago. Any modification are perfectly welcome and much needed.
If this is impossible to implement, just changing ammo stats per gun would increase the usefulness of an experienced gunner; as it stands, an engineer is vastly superior to a gunner.
Change the ammo stats from just boring percent increase/decreases into different effects on different guns.
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Thank you for reading this really lengthy brain-dump post.
Indreams,