Spiral Knights - Combat mechanic upgrade: Counterattack with shield

Combat mechanic upgrade: Counterattack with shield

6 replies [Last post]

Sat, 01/19/2013 - 17:19

Aumir

Why?

With the advent of Battle Sprites, we will most likely be introduced with harder content. As difficulty and number of mobs increase, we may be relegated to just kiting enemies instead of fighting them head on. This suggestion is to make head-on attacks more inviting, and make a better use of our shields.

Basis?

Basic Gremlin units know of a few counterattack measures: Thwackers ready a heavy blow when we leave an opening, and Demos will throw bombs to our face or dodge our attacks swiftly. Even Menders have that secret "wand-fu" technique that seems to have been lost recently. As we keep battling in Cradle, our skills should sharpen to fight our rivals.

What and how is the Shield Counterattack?

The Shield Counterattack would be a "desperation" move that could give us the upper hand on a high stress situation. It would sacrifice all minus 1 HP from the shield's current life to let us make an action depending on the type of weapon we use at the current time. Taking advantage of the situation would help the player come up victorious on such situation. The activation would be as followed:

- The player must be shielding already.
- When hit by any*(a) enemy attack, press the attack button at the same time the sound of the shield being hit is heard.*(b)
- Shield life will be reduced to 1 and the Shield Counterattack will trigger:
1. If Sword type weapon: Small dash towards the monster that made the attack + sword attack using the last attack from the combo.(*c) That means most heavy knockdown/knockback attacks.
2. If Gun type weapon: Backwards mid distance dash in reverse direction of what attacked you, increasing space against the enemy that made you trigger Shield Counterattack. It can be followed instantly with free movement, or shots from your gun. Also, if against a wall, you would move the according distance around it, cutting corners if one followed.
3. If Bomb type weapon: Very small dash/jump backwards independent of anything, followed with a bomb instantly planted in the ground - it still has to detonate with the ring timer, of course.

*a: Projectiles won't trigger Shield Counterattack.
*b: If Shield Break happens, you aren't able to Shield Counterattack to avoid Shield Break.
*c: Invincibility frames from Shield Counterattack would be really low, so you would have to mind that depending on the Sword.

Shield Counterattack and Guardians in Lockdown (optional added bit)

Shield Counterattack may also be triggered by Guardians in Lockdown, but instead of plummeting the Guardian Shield's HP to 1 directly, it would halve its current value until 25%, where it will then take it to 1 HP. That means up to three Shield Counterattacks chained, and would help against Striker class. *a and *b still would apply.

And that is it, hope you like this!

Sat, 01/19/2013 - 18:42

Spold

I love it.

This might inspire me to be a guardian more in Lockdown.

Sun, 01/20/2013 - 09:07

Aumir

First note

As stated by Juances in Spanish forum: Maybe lag would cause issues in the timing, so maybe it would be best to be able to activate the Shield Counterattack since when you are hit and the shield makes the sound until you are able to move again with the shield - so Shield Counterattack may be activated when "locked".

Also, maybe Gunners would enjoy a more active counter, so while automatically dashing backwards maybe you could be able to already shoot your weapon, allowing even Magnus and such weapons to be fired that way only when Shield Counterattacking - so it is a "counter" and not just a "defense".

And thank you Spold ^^

Sun, 01/20/2013 - 10:04

Draycos

I love counterattack mechanics in games like this! Perhaps instead of outright crippling the shield on use, it could hurt it less or more based on how good your timing is? For the laggier among us, perhaps there could be an option to turn that timing mechanic off, so it always triggers the 'average timing' effects.

I'm not so sure the reactions should be restricted universally to the last hit of a combo. This could be a great way to give certain items more use or diversify existing items, like having a different attack for a Barbarous Thorn Blade compared to a Final Flourish. For instance, the Flourish could have a lunging attack, and the Thorn Blade could trigger it's projectile charge attack.

Sun, 01/20/2013 - 11:36

The-Rawrcake

This sounds like a great

This sounds like a great idea.

What is brilliant is the idea of sacrificing shield health (all but a tiny bit left) for damage.

What I see is, rather than attacking with our weapon as a conterattack, we could just do a simple swipe with our shield that stuns the enemy (very minor, maybe a second or two stun), cancels their current attack, and deals a moderate to high amount of damage.

Like a shield bash.

For the counterattack part, we don't necessarily need to let the monster hit us for it to activate. It could be a self-activated shield bash that occurs very quickly in order to interrupt an attack that is being used against you.

But that's just my idea.

Sun, 01/20/2013 - 12:01

Zeyez

just one doubt at moment:

is possible try counter the mace of Vanaduke or the bites of alpha wolver by this way?

Mon, 01/21/2013 - 08:19

Aumir

Nice alternatives there too!

@Zeyez: As stated, "melee" attacks would be able to get this move working when being hit by them, but as I say in *a: "Projectiles" won't trigger it, the lava zone that Vana spawns wouldn't allow that if that is what you shield. Same with Vana's fireballs when tackled. The "projectile" issue may mean that attacks should have a hidden variable to allow them being Shield counterable or not, but basically "shot things and traps" what wouldn't be able to be Shield countered.

Also, in *b and what you mean most likely: These two attacks you mentioned are very strong and blockable with a small array of shields, if you used a weak shield and it breaks with that kind of attack, you can't avoid the shield break with a Shield counterattack, because you wouldn't have any health remaining in your shield.

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Combat mechanic upgrade: Counterattack with shield