You thought the Wristgun had the most ridiculous name of all time? Well think again, for here comes the Music Box Gun. Is it a music box? Is it a gun? It's both! And yes, that is probably the most far-fetched idea you've ever heard, but let me explain: this weapon, which serves as a replacement for the Machine Gun, is supposed to originally belong to a Big Brother, an enemy who specializes in an arsenal as varied as the players'. Another of the Big Brother's quirks is that he still has the mind of a small child, thus all his weapons are made from various different toys, and one of them happens to incorporate a music box. This is supposed to be the "lore" justification, and may or may not add a lick of sense to the concept. Functionally, the repeater-type weapons in the BioShock series have always been rather bland, so hopefully giving it musical qualities might make it stand out a bit more. And now, just in case you're still not convinced (most likely), the weapon itself:
Description[]
- Clip Size: Forty rounds.
- Ammo Carry Capacity: 280/160/160
Gameplay-wise, no big changes. The only thing I had in mind was to add a muzzle flash effect in the dark, so that it would illuminate the player's surroundings as they fired. In terms of appearance, the weapon would have multiple parts: the first would be a music box resting on top of the player character's weapon hand with a handle underneath. From the music box's spinning cylinder a rod with a cog would jut out and turn a case of ammunition on the outer side of the weapon arm and parallel to it. As the player reloads, they replace the ammo case along with the music cylinder, thus changing the tune if the player switches ammo types. The second part would be a very short, large, six-barrel Gatling-style minigun attached to the underside of the player character's arm, which constitutes the fixed portion of the weapon. Also, each ammo type plays a different tune on the music box when you fire the weapon.
Ammo Types[]
Base Ammo[]
- Lead Rounds: Equivalent to the standard Auto and .50 Caliber Rounds. Would play some sort of lullably based on the player character's theme (so it would also vary depending on whether you're playing as Eleanor or Allison).
Rare Ammo[]
- Anti-Personnel Rounds: Deal increased damage versus Splicers and enemies on fire, and reduced damage against armored enemies and machines. Would play Pop Goes the Weasel.
- Magnesium Rounds: Upon impact with an enemy or the scenery, these rounds would flare out for a moment before producing a bright flash and a bang, blinding and disorienting any enemy close to it. However, this ammo type deals reduced damage and the Music Box gun would require a short spin-up time before having to fire these. Would play the Circus Gallop from about 0:09 to 0:30.
- Heavy Rounds: At the cost of a lengthy reload time, these rounds push the target back, the intensity of the force varying according to the enemy type (non-giant Splicers and Bots would be pushed back easily, whereas giant Splicers and armored enemies wouldn't be affected as much) and the target's range. In addition, this ammo type's increased kinetic force would allow it to deal increased damage against frozen enemies instead of knockback. Would play a shortened version of Cohen's Scherzo no. 7.
Inventable Ammo[]
- Armor-Piercing Rounds: Deal increased damage against armored enemies, machines and shocked foes, and reduced damage versus Splicers. Would play a sped-up version of Beyond the Sea.
- Homing Rounds: As the name would indicate, these rounds home in on enemies to a certain degree, and can even hit enemies just around corners. However, this bonus comes with a slower rate of fire. Would play the theme from Swan Lake.
- Cryogenic Rounds: Progressively chill the enemy, reducing their speed and increasing their vulnerability to damage, until they freeze completely. Although these rounds deal a tiny amount of damage at first, it ramps up the longer you fire at the target. Would play the opening notes of Welcome to Rapture.
Upgrades[]
- Arm Stabilizers: Reduces the Music Box Gun's recoil.
- Rebounding Cases: Allows your shots to rebound after impact. However, there are two main differences between this and the Machine Gun's final upgrade in BioShock 2: first of all, the rebound wouldn't be completely random, and would tend to adjust itself so that it would impact with more enemies. Secondly, there'd be a guiding beam which would show the angle and direction of the rebound.
- Musical Mines: Firing from your Music Box fills the magazine with spent cases, with the number of cases indicated next to your weapon's icon. Can fill the magazine with up to 20 cases this way. Tapping the reload button twice or tapping the reload button while reloading will throw the spent magazine with all the used cases in it. The magazine will then play its specific music at double pace before detonating, releasing the cases around it. Each of those will inflict the ammo's damage and effects upon all nearby enemies.
- Mirror Lenses: Enables the use of a rudimentary cover system with the Music Box Gun: Hugging a wall or a part of the scenery and using the weapon's zoom function allows you to point your weapon out of cover as well as aim (thanks to the aforementioned mirror) and fire, while exposing yourself as little as possible.
- Harmonic Resonance: Firing the Music Box Gun at the same enemy as your partner will increase the bonus effects of the ammo type you selected (i.e. Anti-Personnel and Armor-Piercing Rounds deal increased damage versus their designated enemies, Magnesium Rounds blind enemies for longer, Heavy Rounds deal more knockback, Homing Rounds become more accurate and Cryogenic Rounds freeze enemies faster). If using Lead Rounds, their damage output increases when this effect is activated.
- Bullet Trap: Dead enemies will expel all rounds from your Music Box Gun shot into them, both before and after their death, when an enemy gets close enough to their corpse.
Alright, that's it for the Music Box Gun. So far, this has been the most excruciatingly irritating idea/suggestion thing, by virtue of there not being a great many interesting functions you can add to a generic machine gun-type weapon (especially since this is the third one I've done). As always, your opinion is welcome.
Also, credit goes to Maxxthewolf for the Musical Mines upgrade. If you check the history, you'll see that previously there was a vastly inferior upgrade in its place.