Spiral Knights - Spiral Drive

Spiral Drive

10 replies [Last post]

Sun, 06/26/2011 - 14:10

Starlinvf

Note: I only did a quick search to see if the idea was already suggested and found nothing of interest.

Anyway. What would you guys think of if they added the ability for a temporary, on-demand boost during combat? I'm nick-naming it "Spiral Drive" because I like the way it sounds.

The system charges up as you collect Heat (but doesn't consume it on use). Once primed, you can activate it to give a temp boost or effect that lasts a few seconds. The type of effect is based on your armor choices, and works with the armor theme. Most of the idea suggested below mimic monsters... but those are just sample ideas.

*As part of a general ability activation animation, the player becomes surrounded by a pair of semi-transparent gears in an X pattern around his torso. This is accompanied by the sound of a ticking clock speeding up.

I haven't decided if the effects should be based on main armor only (current idea), shield, or if having a matching set should boost its effects. Like charged attacks, the effect power and animation will improve as star rating of the armor increases.

Sample Effects:

Plate Armor: Player gains a universal damage reduction for the duration of the effect. Rev1: Visual effect is an image of a Trojan Knight superimposed over the player.

Jelly Armor: When activated, rows of spikes burst out of the ground surrounding the player. Damage and range of the spikes increase with each star rating. Visual effect includes the player summoning a jelly block from under his feet, then stomping down on it to send the spikes out.

Wolf Armor: The player is able to evade attacks (1 in 4 chance) by teleporting to a random, nearby location the same way Alpha Wolves do.

Emberbreak Armor: The player fires out a beam in front of him, followed by a series of detonations along the beam path (same effect as Retrodes beams).

Chroma Suit: The player tosses a glob of goo in the area in front of him. Any monsters in the area the goo lands will take damage and suffer a random status effect based on the color of the goo.

Vitasuit: The player (party?) is healed for 1/4 of his total life bars.

Angelic: The player is surrounded by a divine mist that deals half of the damage that player receives to all enemies standing next him. (debatable, the effect be triggered by damage taken to the shield)

Frost Break: Inflicts freeze status on all enemies in a certain range. Range increases with star rating.

Demosuit: The player tosses a large number of gremlin mini bombs into the air, which land in the area around him and detonate shortly after.

Magic: All incoming damage is converted to Elemental Damage. Visual effect is a shield made of grass and leaves circling the player.

Skelly: Summons a group of 3 Zombies to fight for you (should probably last longer the a few seconds, but die on their own after awhile)

Gunslinger: Summons a ghostly posse (2 other guys really) to your side and unleashes a hail of lead on enemies in front of you. (Debating on what type of gun to use)

Cobalt: Summons the might of the Spiral Order and focuses it into a large phantom blade that swings down and strikes the area in front of you.

Drake Scale: Emits a dragon's roar that knocks back all nearby monsters and stuns them.

Sun, 06/26/2011 - 14:18

Madadder

this sounds like a cheap

this sounds like a cheap move...... an instant "when $#!7 happens press this to fix it"

Sun, 06/26/2011 - 14:39

CrashFu

Legacy Username

I think it sounds pretty

I think it sounds pretty cool, actually, but I don't know about basing it on heat. I mean, the time you would most want to use a super power up is when you're engaged in some really intense combat, so maybe if it instead charged up by damage taken, blocked, or dealt. Basically as long as you're in combat and doing anything other than running away helplessly. Oh, also if the health you sacrifice to revive an ally counted as damage taken for the purpose of charging the meter, that would be pretty cool, too; you could have this moment of awesomeness where you revive a downed ally and then proceed to obliterate half the enemies in the room.

Also, the meter would have to deplete slowly. So if you don't use it when you get it, you wouldn't be able to just save it for whenever you feel like, but you'd probably have enough left over by the time you reach the next fight that you'd fill the meter again pretty quickly. OH, and to keep from making danger rooms and arenas way too easy, once you activate the boost it cannot charge again for a few minutes. No extending it with a really long killing spree or anything.

Preferentially, I'd also like to see boost effects for all kinds of equipment, that are subtle and can stack / work together in various ways, to open up the possibility of really interesting, personalized combinations based on different sets of armor. Example, say the Wolver armor gives you a dodgey ability, and the demo armor gives you an explosion ability; wearing both pieces of wolver would let you make bigger dodges, and both pieces of Demo would result in bigger booms, but if you had say demo armor and a wolver helm on, you'd instead do simultaneous dodge-explosions, while shields would also have some kind of effect when they block, and weapons would do more pronounced effects as well.

Sun, 06/26/2011 - 14:57

Vermilicious

Legacy Username

Interesting ideas. I don't

Interesting ideas.

I don't think they should add another meter though, and mixing it with heat might seem confusing too. Perhaps it could be triggered by how much of a stage you've completed or maybe limited to arena battles. I'm not sure.

Sun, 06/26/2011 - 16:27

Starlinvf

The amount of Heat needed to

The amount of Heat needed to charge it up could easily be scaled per strata like everything else. The intended limit was about once per level. But with the basic premise of an arena, its logically the perfect place to grant more opportunity to use it, and the results would be a lot more satisfying.

For those thinking "OMGWTFWIN button", you need to think about it the same way you handle potions. If scaled correctly, it doesn't replace basic tactics and team work. And like all items, if used with proper timing it gives the party a small window to capitalize on and take control of a situation. If your "already" dominating, then it at least gives you something entertaining to look at while your mowing through the enemy.

Thu, 10/13/2011 - 22:45

Solarnov

Nice Idea Actually

Thu, 10/13/2011 - 23:10

Cpt-Malashenko

Me like

what else is there to say? It does get a bit repetitive if you just spam right mouse click all day... so why not?

Thu, 10/13/2011 - 23:35

Leinhart

The wolf armor idea sounds

The wolf armor idea sounds cool, but implementation would probably be tricky. I prefer this idea.

Vog Armor - Player gains an aura that increases the attack speed of yourself and nearby players by "medium" for 10 seconds.

Skolver Armor - Same effect, but for damage instead of attack speed.

Fri, 10/14/2011 - 01:47

Starlinvf

wow... way to raise this

wow... way to raise this thread from the dead. But its not Holloween yet. :P

Fri, 10/14/2011 - 15:40

Brambleshadow

I agree with Leinhart, I

I agree with Leinhart, I like the wolver idea, but I also like the way his special would be. Also maybe like CrashFu's idea it could be based off damage, like how much you inflict

Fri, 10/14/2011 - 16:17

#10

Mohandar

All hail Solarnov, necromancer of light

I would say this is a case of a good thread necromancy. I love this idea, as cliched as it is (SK, Kingdom Hearts edition!). Obviously a decent amount of work would have to go into balancing, and maybe graphics and effects, but this is something to consider.

Once you accumulate a certain amount of heat, your heat indicator has a low-impact pulse effect to notify you; higher tier armors have much higher heat requirements. And I agree it wouldn't be an instant-win button. I really like the effects mentioned thus far in the original post- none of them are game breaking when limited to a maximum of 2-3 uses on a level, and all of them add interesting flavor.

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