How about bringing in some of the Unreal2 / XMP weapons? Epic said they were going to try to make the learning curve less of a problem. If there were some weapons in the game that required less skill, such as the gas grenades or autoturrets from Unreal2 / XMP, that might help things.
I could easily see the gas grenades being dispensed from the canister gun. I don't know how they'd implement autoturrets, though.
I could easily see the gas grenades being dispensed from the canister gun. I don't know how they'd implement autoturrets, though.