Welcome to the discussion page for the Spy secondary-replacement, the "Informer". Here I will go into greater detail about the stats I came up with for this weapon. Feel free to cheer/jeer this, or add your own ideas to the pile.


Informer


Level 17 Dartgun

On Hit: Marks the target for death
On Hit: Targets are highlighted for you and your teammates
-83% clip size
-25% damage


This is a more conservative Spy revolver, favoring utility over damage. It provides information to your teammates, or debuffs critical targets to make them easier to take care of. The Mark for Death gives the Spy a means to defend himself, but this effect is somewhat delayed, as you need to make at least two shots count before you are doing any reasonable damage. As seen in the video on the main page, landing a single shot is rather tricky. If you'd like to know how it feels, try playing revolver Spy and only firing one shot between reloads. It's a lot harder than it sounds.


On Hit: Marks the target for death
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In order to discourage combat, but still provide some form of self-defense, the mini-crits provided by Mark for Death gives the Spy a way to both fight back against attackers when he has been cornered, or assist teammates against tougher targets without putting himself at risk. The initial damage output is tiny, but ramps instantly after the first shot. Due to the reload time between shots, it provides an offset in actual damage to the revolver. The revolver does more raw damage per six shots up front, but the Informer does comparable damage over the course of three shots over time. It all comes down to how many shots you can land and at what range. Speaking of which, damage ramping still applies for mini-crits, so sniping long range targets will still apply the mark, but barely hurt the target.

As a support weapon, this enables to Spy to perform a similar function to the Syndey Sleeper.


On Hit: Targets are highlighted for you and your teammates.
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The main feature of this weapon is the tagging of enemy teammates and structures. You are allowed a maximum of three targets of your choosing. These tags are Spy independent, which means you can have multiple Spies tagging three targets each. If you shoot another target after already tagging three targets, the oldest tag is removed, and reapplied to the new target. Tags would last from anywhere between 15-30 seconds.

The tag would appear similar to the bomb highlight you see during payload. A color-coded outline of the target.

Some other possible ideas:
-Tags can be removed by entering water.
-You can tag important friendly teammates like medics or dispensers.
-Tags can be turned off in the option menu, similar to the payload bomb highlight.


-83% clip size
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The original design of this weapon was styled after early twentieth century tranquilizer guns. There are a few deviations in the design from its actual real world counterpart, but it still uses a single-dart loader from the top. -83% of six revolver shots is one shot. Due to the tiny clip size, blind-firing this weapon is highly discouraged. It's also worth noting that the animations shown in the video of the reload are the exact same duration as the standard revolver.


-25% damage
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Even upon revisiting this idea, I'm on the fence as to whether or not this is actually necessary. A single shot from the standard revolver is rather low on the damage scale, and the time it takes between shots only further hinders damage output. I'll leave this in, but I highly doubt it's necessary to nerf this gun further.



As a disclaimer, since these stats helped influence the design of this item. There is no demand, of Valve or the TF2 Team, that they be accepted or implemented. All time limits and percent values are adjustable. I'm also well aware stats on items do not get accepted, this is merely here for community discussion.

Old Discussion: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/145414797/828939163734928721/