Spiral Knights - Sequential Timers for Bombs

Sequential Timers for Bombs

9 replies [Last post]

Thu, 02/17/2011 - 18:08

Shoebox

Instead of individual timers for each bomb, I propose sequential timers.

This way, people can drop more than one bomb at a time again.

It will also be a lot easier to balance DPS by changing how long the timer ticks down for.

Sequential timing on bombs means that if you placed three bombs, the second one wouldn't start counting down until the first one exploded, then the third one wouldn't start counting down until the second one exploded.

Because right now, bomb usefulness is pretty much defined by blast radius.
Every other weapon deals more damage per charge attack.

And I realise that bombs can hit as many monsters as you can fit inside their blast radius, but that doesn't really change that killing that group of Wolvers is a lot easier and faster with a Gun or a Sword.

I mean, my 3-star Autogun cleared a Tier 3 danger room, but my Super Blast bomb couldn't even clear normal rooms in Tier 2.

And aside from that, bombs are the only weapon in the game you need to actually equip any specific bonuses to actually use effectively.
You know your weapon is gimped when you need at least three ULTRA charge time bonuses to even use it.

Anyway, that's just how I see things.
Post away.

Thu, 02/17/2011 - 21:21

Cromendi

Bombs does indeed need some

Bombs does indeed need some tweaks, I was thinking giving bombs a special charge system instead of the existing one.

A full charge would make the maximum blast area and so on, maybe even a over charge for a special attack.

Thu, 02/17/2011 - 21:43

Shoebox

I think an overcharge would

I think an overcharge would be cool. It would be like cooking a grenade and if you hold it for too long it booms in your hand.

Thu, 02/17/2011 - 21:51

Cromendi

It would be pretty awesome if

It would be pretty awesome if you could do a kamikaze in pvp.

Thu, 02/17/2011 - 21:55

Shoebox

Well I think it would be good

Well I think it would be good if you could pick up a bomb once you've charged it and then throw it as well.
Like, throwing it was optional, but useful.

Fri, 02/18/2011 - 13:24

Kneiss

Legacy Username

I find it annoying that i

I find it annoying that i have to hold down a key almost all the time while charging a bomb. It's much more fun for me to use a sword or a gun.

Fri, 02/18/2011 - 18:58

Pupu

Legacy Username

Ash of Agni is OP

Also, bombs would be more awesome if the charge animation was this one instead of holding them over your head: http://wiki.spiralknights.com/images/f/f1/Style.png
It was the result of a graphical glitch.

Fri, 02/18/2011 - 19:02

Shoebox

That was what they used to be

That was what they used to be back in the last previews.

Sat, 02/19/2011 - 10:41

Pauling

Replying to comments

Shoebox, I've gotten very effective use out of bombs with only 1 charge time reduction bonus (the one the bomb gets out of level 5). Add on a single piece of armor, and they're excellent weapons if used carefully. You may be experiencing problems if you view them as sword replacements rather than as support weapons. I use a fire or poison bomb to soften my enemies up, and only then do I go in for the kill (using a sword as a primary damage weapon).

Pupu: Strictly speaking, it's not the ash of agni that's overpowered- it's the fire status in general. The actual damage radius of this bomb is much smaller than the area of the "status effect cloud", so almost all the damage you see is coming from the status effect. Fire weapons are vastly more common than the alternatives, and the lack of perfect snowballs/thunderballs isn't the only reason.

If anything, I think that the lower level bombs should be given larger blast radii to make the change in upgrades less dramatic- the 4* bomb is the first one in the series that isn't annoying to use, and yet the blast radius on the ash of agni makes it look like a children's toy. I like the radius- this is a 5* weapon we're talking about- but fire is simply too good at killing things, no matter how you choose to inflict it.

Sat, 02/19/2011 - 18:09

Shoebox

I wrote the book on Spiral Knights. Oprah hasn't read it yet.

You may be experiencing problems if you view them as sword replacements rather than as support weapons

Except that the offensive bombs, like the Big Angry Bomb and Nitronome, are severely gimped compared to the status effect bombs, just like the last preview.
To the point of being borderline useless compared to just using a sword.

The only bombs people used were the Vaporizers or the Graviton Bomb.

And that's still how it is now.

Besides, bombs aren't support weapons, they're supplementary weapons as it is right now because they effect a static area.
You use them to increase your DPS in a burst, something which most bombs are also failing to do, aside from the status support bombs.

And in the last preview, fire actually spread between monsters to characters, meaning if you set something on fire and then it hit you, you got set on fire as well.
Something that is sadly absent from this preview event that made fire more of a double edged sword than just easy to apply DoT.

Don't forget that the game is also meant to allow you to use just one kind of weapon to clear stages, something which bombs are no longer suited for because you need to charge them.

Hell, even the stages that seem like they would be perfect just for bombs, aren't.
Because bombs just aren't effective enough to capitalize on the huge amounts of monsters all grouped up in one area.

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Sequential Timers for Bombs