Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4842859-20141004014439/@comment-25178962-20141013001619

Here is a more serious suggestion on my part: revamp reloading.

When a tool is not selected, be it a pickaxe or crossbow, its reload should pause. This means that multi-wielding is not linearly better than using a single weapon because while multi-wielding does still give players an initial strike advantage, it is also expensive and time-consuming to maintain the weapons.

Additionally, when selecting a tool that is "Reloading", significantly reduce player speed, or force them to stay in one spot in the case of ranged weapons (much like foraging). This gives players an incentive to not rush into combat without cover in mind, and might add a new dimension to SFing in S303, where you avoid attacking unless you are sure the target can be hit.

Also, to counter the heavy debuffs of reloading a little bit, make reloading a non-automatic function for ranged weapons (barring the infamous Slingshot). After firing, you can go about with your ranged weapon as if it were loaded (ideally, you would use this time to find a place to take cover so you can reload). You can begin the reloading process by pressing R or clicking while you have no ammo in your ranged weapon.

Underneath the ammo counter could be a reloading GUI, that shows a progressing bar that shows how close you are to being finished with reloading. Like foraging, you can click the bar to cancel the reload.

And finally, animations tied to reloading. These can be simple things to indicate reloading (like the crossbow being held at a tilt, or a pickaxe arm remaining by your side).