Platform Gun
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| “ | It does what it says on the box. By firing a combination of highly volatile chemicals at a nearby wall, the result is a rapidly solidifying concrete-like foam that can support several tons of weight. Do not ingest! |
The Platform Gun is the Traversal Tool used by Engineer. It is a massive, long-barrelled cannon that fires a unique material composite called Plastcrete. During the reload animation, the Engineer is presumably mixing the chemicals by spinning the cylinder.
The Platform Gun fires Plascrete as a spherical projectile and morphs into a semi-oval shape with a flat top upon impact against terrain, creating a makeshift piece of terrain that has many potential applications. Plastcrete is bright yellow and vulnerable to destruction such as mining and flame. While the Platform Gun remains consistent in firing accuracy, the accuracy will become significantly skewed to the left or right when a player or object is too close to the front of the player.
Using the Laser Pointer on a Platform will display whether it is equipped with the Plastcrete MKII upgrade (fall damage reduction). A Platform without the mod will have "PLASCRETE FOAM" written, while a Platform with the mod will show "PLASCRETE FOAM MKII".
Mechanics
Platforms cannot be suspended in midair. The projectile will fly until it comes into contact with a surface that it can build to. Upon impact, the projectile visually expands to become the resulting platform; this process takes 0.25s and the platform is intangible until the end of it. The resulting platform has a radius of ~4m and a thickness of less than 1m, and always forms a consistent shape as a horizontally oriented circular disk with a rounded bottom and flat top. The plastcrete material can be mined like any other terrain, and has a hardness of 1.
If the supporting surface that the platform is connected to is destroyed, then all platforms attached will also be destroyed.
If a platform is placed in a space currently occupied by a player, a small circular cutout may automatically form in the resulting platform to avoid intersecting the player. However, in some cases, the platform may form normally and the player will be forced out of it, sometimes resulting in clipping through terrain.
Platforms can be built through many objects, such as a Gunner's Zipline.
Restrictions
There are multiple terrain objects and stationary enemies that platforms cannot be built on. If a platform is connected to one such restriction, it briefly expands before disintegrating. In other cases, the projectile will travel through the object as if it was nonexistent.
Modifications
There are three tiers of modifications and each tier has one to three upgrades. Only one modification can be equipped per tier.
| Engineer Upgrades | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mod | Effect | In Game Description | Price | |||||||
| Tier 1 |  Supercharged Feed Mechanism |
+1 Rate of Fire | "We overclocked your gun. It fires faster. Don't ask. Just enjoy. Also probably don't tell Management, please." |
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 Expanded Ammo Bags |
+8 Max Ammo | "You had to give up some sandwich-storage, but your total ammo capacity is increased!" |
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 High Capacity Magazine |
+4 Magazine Size | "The good thing about clips, magazines, ammo drums, fuel tanks ...you can always get bigger variants." |
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Tier 2 4
|
 Plastcrete MKII |
Reduces the amount of Fall Damage
taken when landing on Platforms |
"Shock-absorbing compound reduces fall damage" |
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| Tier 3 8
|
Expanded Ammo Bags |
+8 Max Ammo | "You had to give up some sandwich-storage, but your total ammo capacity is increased!" |
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 Repellant Additive |
+Bug repellant | "Enemies will avoid walking on the Plastcrete Foam whenever possible." |
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 Disabled Inertia Inhibitor |
+Disabled Inertia Inhibitor | "This tweak ensures that the user's velocity is transferred to the projectile. Useful in high-speed applications but it requires doing more math in your head." |
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Unique Modifications
| Unique Modifications | ||
|---|---|---|
Plastcrete MkII |
Plastcrete MkII increases the Plastcrete material's velocity threshold for Fall Damage from 10m/s to 15m/s (See Fall Damage), which increases the safe jump height from 5.1m to 11.48m and effectively negates up to 87.5 damage that would otherwise be dealt normally. It also causes the CRSPR Flamethrower to melt the platform material, similar to how it melts snow. | |
Repellant Additive |
Repellant Additive will affect most grounded enemy types (including Dreadnoughts and the M.U.L.E.); Rival Tech and certain ground enemies such as Glyphid Acid Spitters are unaffected by repellant. Repellant Additive causes the enemy pathfinding system to increase the cost of paths over affected areas, causing a tendency to route around the area as if it were a natural terrain obstacle. The affected area includes the platform itself as well as a limited, uneven area of terrain around it, out to a distance of very roughly 1-3m from the platform material. It also does not apply instantly, as the navigation system takes up to 4 seconds to update.[1] The repellant effect can be removed by digging away most of the platform material.
The repellant effect is not infinitely strong. If the path required to avoid repellant is much longer than a direct path through the repellant, the pathfinding cost of the latter may still be more favorable, causing enemies to walk through the repellant. This often happens when the targeted player or destination is located within or very near a repellant area, or if a line of repellent is sufficiently long and thin. A common rule of thumb is that a single line of platforms can reach a length of about 4 platforms before paths crossing the line become more favorable than the long route around the platforms. | |
Gallery
Trivia
- In an earlier version of the Update 21 Experimental Branch, there were two experimental modifications, one of which would cause the gun to fire cubic platforms, the other doubled the radius of the platforms. Both were removed before release for unknown reasons. Relatedly, the Plastcrete MKII platform modification made the platforms very similar to Deep Snow in function, with snow particles and being melted by fire in the neighboring experimental update.
- You can use platforms to see through the world to find buried Cargo Crates, Machine Events, and more by shooting a platform at eye height while in a pit or wall. More platforms added above or below can increase the size of the window and it can even make you fall out of the world in which you teleport back up or somewhere else with varying amounts of fall damage.
- Sticky Flames can melt Plastcrete MKII platforms with a heavy amount of smoke. This is likely due to their similarity to snow piles. It is unclear if the melting is intended or if it is a side effect of inheriting the properties of Deep Snow.
- Platforms can be used to mine terrain that requires more than 1 hit faster, such as the Ommoran Heartstone Beamers. This is because the area carved by a pickaxe strike can extend beyond the platform, into the other material.
References
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