/vr/ - Retro Games

>>6256305
It was originally going to spray out 40 plasma balls in a long burst, which A) doesn't actually make for a very good super weapon, and B), was performance intensive, this was not a particularly pleasing combination for what's supposed to be the most powerful weapon in the game, so it was changed.
Allegedly, Sandy suggested something different, paraphrasing him; "Instead of spewing a bunch of plasma, why not make it a single big projectile that explodes like a smartbomb?" and everyone thought this was a great idea.
I'm guessing Carmack just made a quick and dirty hack to alter the 40 plasma projectiles to instead be auto-aimed hitscans tracers, which actually ended up making for a very novel weapon that performs at its best once you learn its quirk.

The thing with the tracers from the BFG is that they will automatically hit whatever is possible to hit, and if there's less than 40 targets (which is usually the case), the surplus tracers will like to bunch up on whatever targets are available, hence why the weapon has such a ridiculously high damage potential (particularly for its low cost of 40 cell ammo per discharge). In fact, the collective damage of all the tracers far eclipses the direct damage of the projectile itself, to the point that it is frequently worth disregarding its damage output, sacrificing it to get better tracer hits.
A popular prostrat is to blast the ball into a door just as you open it, and thus having all the tracers scatter out and either blast numerous lower tier enemies, or obliterating a bigger one. Another is to get right up in the face of a big one to let him take every single point of damage it can put out, you can oneshot the spidermind reliably with this method.