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Real Time Weapon Change: Difference between revisions
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The ability to change your weapons in a video game without pausing or using a [[Power-Up]] to change them. Usually this is accomplished by using one or two buttons, for one or two way switching respectively.
This usually involves a tradeoff of convenience and versatility, since pausing gives time to choose almost any weapon, while this trope usually limits the weapons in order to save for time. The latter is of course necessary in many multiplayer games (especially online games), where pausing isn't even possible, so menus leave players vulnerable. That reason makes this trope ubiquitous in [[First-Person Shooter|First Person Shooters]] and [[
Also, in an FPS, the [[Stock Control Settings|most common forms]] are the scroll wheel and/or number key with PC games or the D-pad with home console games. Or just a single button if a character is only capable of carrying two weapons.
The name comes from the [[
Compare [[Changing Clothes Is a Free Action]].
Contrast [[Real Time with Pause]].
{{examples}}
* When they came on the [[SNES]] and [[PlayStation]], both ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' and ''[[Mega Man X|X]]'' added a function for the shoulder buttons to switch weapons (with the pause menu still there of course).
** ''[[Mega Man ZX]] Advent'' uses the touchscreen to switch forms without pausing. The original forced you to use a ring menu which paused the game.
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* The ''[[Naval Ops]]'' games put all of your ship's weapons (guns, missiles, torpedoes, etc.) on a menu on one side of the screen and you can go up or down in real time.
* To avoid exploits with macros, ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' puts a 1.5 second (1 for Rogues) cooldown on all ability use immediately after changing weapons in combat.
* Like any normal FPS, ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' only lets you choose from a set amount of weapon slots; generally 3 (a primary, a secondary and a melee), but 4 for the Spy (disguise kit) and 5 for the Engineer (build/destroy panels). The point where this trope becomes relevant is when you start getting dropped weapons to swap the default out with; they can be switched around through a less-streamlined menu, but only actually swap at a resupply cabinet (or after dying), while swapping between active weapons is, comparatively, this trope. Further, there is a button for switching from the current weapon to the next most previously equipped weapon, allowing a player to quickly toggle between a pair of weapons. Many players will cycle through their weapons after spawning to set up a pair of weapons that they expect to need to switch between most frequently. Some alternative weapons even include faster weapon switching as advantages of equipping them, encouraging the player to use them in quick combination with other weapons. For example, The Reserve Shooter is a shotgun that does bonus damage to aerial targets, but requires another weapon to get them airborn first.
* ''[[Cave Story]]'' allows switching weapons real-time or through the inventory.
* [[Jagged Alliance]] 2, which, though being a turn-based game (in combat), allows you to switch weapons on the fly.
* In ''[[Half-Life 2]]'', you can use the number keys or mousewheel to switch weapons as usual, but you can also hit G to swap between the Gravity Gun and your previous weapon - because you're going to be using [[Iconic Item|the Gravity Gun]] ''a lot''.
* In ''[[American McGee's Alice]]'' you can use the number keys to switch between weapons.
* The Strikeforce spinoff installment of [[Dynasty Warriors]] give the ability to switch weapons not only in the middle of combat, but in the middle of a combo. This is kept and improved upon in the seventh game.
* The first two ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' games let you select both beams and visors by means of the C-stick and d-pad respectively. ''Corruption'' instead had the player select visors by holding the minus button, hovering the cursor over the desired visor, and releasing the button; the beam selection system was replaced with a beam stacking system.
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* ''[[Escape Velocity]]'' had a key to rotate through secondary weapons.
* The ''[[Dead Rising]]'' games let you choose your weapon or health item by pressing the shoulder buttons.
** ''[[Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop]]'' lets you use the d-pad to chose which of your four gun types to use, while in aiming mode.
* ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' actually has ''three'' ways to change weapons: simply pressing A to select the next one in your inventory, holding A to choose from a HUD menu or pressing start to choose from the list in the pause menu.
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[[Category:Video Game Items and Inventory]]
[[Category:Trope Names From Memes]]
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