Disallowing weapon switching instead of reloading is a shame because it makes the game feel a lot more slow and clunky, and disincentivizes players from using a variety of weapons (especially since most ammo types are abundant enough that a thorough player can use one weapon only and never run out). The game would be more fluid and dynamic if switching between weapons in combat was actually beneficial. A player might think to use the flamethrower alt-fire to lay flames on the ground under a boss for extra damage while using another weapon as the main source of damage, but that combo is made pointless when the flamethrower has to be reloaded before another weapon can be used. It feels like the game's mechanics are working against each other, and against a player who tries to be creative with how they play.
If the worry is that players will end up cycling through their weapons in a fight and then having to wait around and reload them all (which is as detrimental to the gameplay flow as forcing the player to reload every time they exhaust the ammo clip), a possible solution is backpack reloading, where weapons automatically reload after not being used for x length of time, or after getting x amount of kills with another weapon, or with pickups spread around the levels, or when collecting ammo for the weapon while it isn't being used, etc. Regardless of the implementation, or even without backpack reloading, it must surely be more fun than using nothing but the machine gun/grenade launcher and having to reload when the player wants to be shooting (shooting is fun).
Also it's already possible to just leave 1 ammo in the clip and then switch weapons to avoid reloading, and it's possible to have run out of ammo in multiple weapons and then have to reload multiple weapons before being able to use them, so it's not as if such sitations have been entirly avoided anyway. And there's no implementation of allowing players to switch instead of reloading that stops players from choosing to reload their weapon before switching if that's what they want to do. Allowing more choice in gameplay just seems better overall, especially in a game of this genre.
it was done in this way because it felt more fun to have reloading
like the fact there is an extra factor to worry about made fights more interesting
and tbh not having to reload made some of the guns feel weird - but maybe it's just me 🤔
i'm not sure how I would explain the backpack reloading - some people will think it's a bug no doubt 🤔
for now I insist on keeping it the way it is - at least I can promise I won't be experimenting with making this part more difficult 🤔
Oh I was not talking about removing reloading completely. Just being able to use the current weapon or switch to another one. For example:
lets say we use the shotgun. This weapon holds 12 shells. When I shoot 12 times the gun is empty and the reload animation will start and I'll have to wait until all 12 shells are loaded into the weapon again. Only after that has happened I can either use the shotgun again or switch to another weapon.
What I was talking about it the ability to use your shotgun again when e.g. only two shells have been reloaded or switch to another weapon and when switching back to the shotgun again you would still have to load the remaining shells into the weapon to have it fully loaded again.
So it's more like interrupting the active reload animation of a weapon either through using the weapon or through weapon switching.
Ok I just noticed that you can indeed switch weapons before the shotgun is fully reloaded. What you can't do though is use the shotgun while the reload animation is happening. You have to wait until the animation is done before you can shoot again. Would be nice if you could use the gun again when at least two shells are loaded.