Alternate fire modes

What I am suggesting is after every 4th successful hit with the same item your item receives an alternate fire mode. There can be some visual cue to when your alt mode is ready such as a gold border appearing around the charged item. Double tapping the item icon will store your alt mode until the optimal time for use where you can double tap it again to activate before firing. Items that activate upon tapping would get an icon to the left of the item to swap between modes. Alt modes would be accessible midway through item training and would receive a buff at the end of the training "tree" for that item. There could be two alt modes to choose from and you pick the one you like the most.
I feel this would add much needed variety to items and load outs therefore making the game more interesting.

Examples:
Standard Cannon -
1. Double Shot: Fires two parallel projectiles therefore dealing double damage.
2. Rapid Fire: Fire unlimited rounds at .5 damage for the next 10 seconds.

Blast Cannon -
1.Extra Powder: Projectile speed increased by 50% and damage increased by 25%.
2. Ammo Reserve: 25% cool down for follow up shot.

Explosive Cannon -
1. Combustable Shell: Deals full damage in AoE.
2. Volitile Shell: AoE radius is increased by 100%

Sniper Cannon -
1. Shrapnel: Deals bonus crit damage value to unfriends in an AoE.
2. Precision: Guerenteed critical hit.

Standard Mortar -
1. Bombardment: Fire 3 consecutive mortars to bombard the target area.
2. Payload: Drastically increases the target area.

Long Range Mortar -
1. Cannon Ball: Fire the projectile in a cannon trajectory.
2. Whirlpool: Upon landing creates a Whirlpool that draws in targets.

Big Bertha -
1. Capsize: Anyone hit by this mortar will take damage and capsize leaving them unable to move for a set duration.
2. Aerodynamic: Faster projectile speed.

Ballpark Mortar:
1. Heavy Impact: Upon contact pushes all unfriends to the closest edge of the mortar circle.
2. Airburst: Explodes midair raining smaller mortars over a slightly larger target area.

Big Torpedo -
1. Cluster: When reaching a set proximity to the target unleash a cluster of 5 smaller torpedos each dealing 40% damage of initial big torpedo.
2. Remote Control: Firing this brings you to the torpedos perspective where you can control it's movement and guide it to the target.

Swift Torpedo -
1. Seek - This torpedo will seek out it's target. ( Must have visual before firing )
2. Extra Speed: 4 seconds after firing speed increases by 100%.

Triple Torpedo -
1. Linear Fire: Fires all three torpedos in a straight line with a slight delay between them.
2. Hole in the Hull: Targets hit by this start taking on water thus slowing them down.

Carronade -
1. Choke: Fires projectiles in a much tighter spread ensuring all hit the target.
2. Pierce: Projectiles pass through targets also dealing damage to targets behind them.

Grenade -
1. Flashbang: Disorients enemies by turning their screen white for a set duration.
2. Cluster Grenade: Upon impact realease smaller grenades that detonate around the outside of the target circle.

Missiles -
1. Heatseeking Missiles: Ensures every missle finds it's target.
2. Massive Missile: Fires one large missile that deals area damage like a mortar.

Railgun -
1. Penetrate: Projectile can penetrate targets and cover/waves dealing damage to anyone it hits.
2. Rapid Rail: Fire three smaller rails that do 33% damage with no minimum range.

Mines -
1. Blockade: Fires a cluster of 4 mines each dealing 25% damage, used to quickly block passages.
2. Submerged Mine - A mine that lays just below the water so unfriends cannot see it.

Flare -
1. Full Burn: Deals full DoT damage upon hitting the target. No lasting burn effect.
2. Overheat: Causes targets cooldowns to take longer.

Napalm:
1. Flaming Wake: Ships that pass through the napalm leave a trial of fire in their wake.
2. Fuel for the Fire: Enemies damaged by this napalm add to it's duration .

Fire Bomb -
1. Burn Transfer: Unfriends hit by this firebomb can burn teammates that get to close.
2. Lasting Burn: Each time an enemy hit by this takes damage it extends the duration.

I came up with these on the spot so don't be too critical lol.
All numbers are hypothetical and would likely need to be altered for balance purposes.

 

Tesla Bolt -
1. Chain: Stun can chain to other enemies who get to close.
2. EMP: removes the HUD of the target for the duration of the stun whether it is broken or not.

Tesla Shield -
1. Reflective: Any damage done to the shield is also does 25% damage to the enemy who hit it.
2. Full Coverage: Also protects against torpedos and AoE.

Nitro -
1. Warp - "Teleports" you to a position 180° from the closest targets turret.
2. InstaCool - Allows use regardless of gcd.

Over boost -
1. Damage Multiplier - Projectiles fired while using deal extra damage.
2. More Speed: Anything speed related gets a boost while active. (Projectile speed, nitro, ship speed)

 

Repair Pulse -
1. Full Heal: This pulse also heals you at max value.
2. Reach: Extends the radius of the pulse.

Repair Bolt -
1. Invincibility: Grants the fixer invincibility for a set duration.
2. Leach: Hitting an enemy with this pulse deals damage to them and heals you.

Repair Box -
1. Surprise: Enemies who pick up this box are damaged.
2. Find and Fix: This box will seek to the nearest Ally.

Duct Tape -
1. Preventative Maintenance: This tape will heal you for the tapes full value even if it exceeds your max hp.
2. Rapid Tape: Time between heals is reduced.

 

This would also reward players for skillfully hitting their targets on a consistent basis.

Feel free to add any ideas you may have but please don't talk about buffs, nerfs or how an item may become op. If these ideas are implemented I'm sure they will be balanced carefully by our development team

 

But this would cause an imbalance because items like nitro and tesla shield take no effort to use successfully four time (because you can't fail to put up a tesla shield or fail to release nitrous oxide from your ship) but things like big torpedo and mine are much harder to hit tagrets with four consecutive times.

 

I agree, maybe just make it every 4 uses?

 

I agree with you. These were just random ideas to get the ball rolling so to speak. Items that are harder to get hits with would need more powerful alt modes to compensate.
Items like Nitro and TS could require more uses or different prerequisites to obtain the alt mode.

I made the thread just to get the idea out there and to get the support of the community to figure out a way to make it work.