Spiral Knights - PROBES!

PROBES!

5 replies [Last post]

Wed, 06/20/2012 - 20:47

Blandaxt

i suggest introducing security probes to the gremlin force of spiral knights. These probes are to be assigned to gates/levels that do not include a party button activation. They are there to alert the gremlins and the security systems in the gremlin base that their is an intruder/enemy that needs to be disposed of.

The probes will look like this:

- a large camera lens installed with a flashlight, and a scanner to identify intruders.

- the scanner will scan about 4 blocks of the direction it is facing.

- it will have an air propulsion engine like a jet to keep it in a hover like state like the bats in the game.

- on its sides, it be equipped with two guns that resemble the auto gun or the needle shot. it will fire on a 3 second cool down time.

- it can be destroyed before it notices the intruder.

- if it notices an intruder, it will not only open fire but also activate a siren that alerts and attracts any gremlin and robotic knights that are in a 10 to 20 square radius base on which tier your in.

- the probe will move on a set course like a drone but, if it notices an enemy, it will chase them.

- if the enemy gets away from the probe about 5 blocks or more away, it will stop its siren and resume its set course or security surveillance.

- if there are no forces that the probe can call for back up and it is low on health, the probe propel towards the enemy into a suicide missile collision attempting to annihilate the enemy. the homing will depend on the tier. (like the skull heads)

- the probe can still be destroyed while it is attempting this suicide attack.

- the probe is resistant to the sleep element and piercing attacks. it is vulnerable to all other elements.

- the probe is not limited by obstacles, it can fly over all blocks and walls like the phantoms.

* here are some examples to the probe features.

- http://www.infoniac.com/hi-tech/latest-invention-remote-controlled-spher...

- http://www.apaame.org/2011_09_01_archive.html

- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2015931/Flying-sphere-siz...

- http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/16/view/8708/parrot-ar-drone.html

This probe is to support the fact that the gremlin empire is a functioning force to be reckoned with and that they also have developing technology that oppose the space alien knights that crashed on their planet.

Some added factors:

- the probe will move at a speed that is slightly ( about 1/2 ) faster then a Lumber series. ( this will give the knights the ability to get away from the probes field of vision )

- the probe's field of vision will be homing as long as it is not initiating an attack. when it is about to commence its attack, it will only focus on the area where the enemy was and not where the enemy is. ( this factor will give the knights a chance to escape or flank the probes auto-gun attack range )

- the probe can be attacked from a far distance with vials or other throwing weapons, ( i'd like to call this scenario sniping ). as long as an enemy is not in the field of vision of the probe, it will not be able to locate the origin of the attack.

- the probe will have a search function to counter this situation. the search will stop the probe in its current location and it will attempt to look for the enemy for 3 seconds by moving its field of vision in a 360 degree circular motion. ( id like to call this the alert stage. )

- if the location of the enemy is not ascertain, it will then move directly towards the direction of the incoming attack in order to find the enemy. if no enemy is found after 4 seconds of moving in that certain direction, it will resume its route. ( this will be called going astray )

* side note: each of these stages can be used as a tactic against the probe to obtain a way to destroy it. but the opposite can also happen if the probe where to find you.

!!: i mentioned at the top that the probe field of vision is about 4 blocks in a squarish area, but i did not mention how far away the field of vision will be from the probes actual body.

so here are the factors:

- the probe field of vision will be located two squares away from its body in tier 1. the number of spaces away will increase by 1 for each tier, so for tier two it will be 3 spaces away and tier three 4 spaces.

* the probe will not be able to locate an enemy that is between the spaces of its field of vision and where it is. it can only locate an enemy that has entered its field of vision.

- the field of vision will be expanded from tier 1 - 3, but the expansion does not allow the probe to detect enemies right away that are not directly in the 4 squares field of vision. here are some pictures to explain what i am implying.

* i could not find an exact picture, so you will have to draw or imagine the pictures overlapping.

tier 1 field of vision:

- http://www.kidasa.com/images2002b/symbolMaker1.png

* ( so hard to find on google )
* tier 1 field of vision will be the triangle in the square area.

- http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/80000/80049/80049_grid_2_2_lg.gif

- http://www.caseswill.com/images/v/201107/2758-11332-red-pink-white-grid-...

* imagine taking one of the diamond shape and overlapping it with the 2 by 2 square area. in tier 1, it will only have the diamond area to use to look for enemies.

tier 2 field of vision:

- tier 2 field of vision will still be the triangle, but the outer sides of that triangle will trigger the probe to go into alert mode. in alert mode, it will stay in its place and in a 360 degree looking for the enemy.

tier 3 field of vision will look like this:

- http://qph.cf.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-aa0eac43e53b2c6629aab2bcb3ad4647

- https://wiki.engr.illinois.edu/download/attachments/193102153/layout.JPG...

* using this grid i will attempt to tell you which letters the field of vision the tier 3 model will occupy.

core field of vision:

- half of F, G, J, K. (all triangles facing each other.)

inner field of vision:

- F, G, J, K. ( filing the rest of the triangles.) (the inner field of vision will bring it to astray mode.)

outer field of vision:

- half of N, O, L, h, C, B, I, E. ( the outer field of vision will bring it to alert mode.)

- it will be alerted if the knight entered the outer side of the triangle. if the knights were to be caught in the inner side of the triangle, it will automatically go into astray mode. it will move directly towards the location of that knight.

- it will only go into siren mode when the knight has entered the core of the triangle.

* i wish i could have found better examples. sorry, T_T

Wed, 06/20/2012 - 21:31

Schattentag

I'll be honest, I liked this similar idea much better.

Wed, 06/20/2012 - 22:42

Geregias

ive seen this before

well actually no not this exactly but i'd like to see stealth inspired elements
the idea manalicious-Knight referenced is excellent if a little to metal gear for my taste so i'd like to point out a rather old post about stealth traps of which this probe would be an absolutely excellent addition or just a new drone to face (since it seems to be focused on stealth a frontal assault should be discouraged by it giving no rewards)

Thu, 06/21/2012 - 00:46

Hexzyle

They should not drop anything

They should not drop anything in order to discourage alerting them.

Thu, 06/21/2012 - 04:11

Toxicblade

Derp

no weapon or enemy deals sleep status so this probe wouldn't need sleep status. It should also have different attacks per tier.

example:

Tier 1 Gun Puppy - Shoots 1 shot
Tier 2 Gun Puppy - Shoots 3 shots
Tier 3 Gun Puppy - Shoots 5 shots one after another, while rotating

also, will the guns also fire in the same style as an autogun? because if they do, knights would get shot RIGHT after the probe fires, making it hard to dodge.

PS - the "bats" are called greavers. the "robotic knights" are called mecha knights. the "skull heads" are howlitzers

http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Monster

Thu, 06/21/2012 - 07:23

Blandaxt

Well..

@Manalicious-Knight: i did not create this idea to emphasize on stealth elements, but i do agree with you that it could fit into that level's theme. i mostly created this idea because i thought going through the gremlin levels are boring because they don't have any security system and we could ambush each gremlin at a time without facing a mob of problems. so i thought this idea might let players see that gremlins are not pushovers.

@Geregias: i agree that it would be a good addition to the stealth theme elements. on a related note, i suggest inventing an item that is specifically or can be cohesive to being stealthy. the item will be coverage attention drawer. basically a smoke bomb. it will be a rare drop like the health extensions. there will be 3 levels of it, each level covering an amount of area. when a knight is caught in a security sensor, he or she can use this item like a pill to blind the sensor and use that time to get away. the first level of the smoke bomb will cover 4 blocks in a square area, and the later levels will cover more blocks as the tier increase.

@Hexzyle: i agree that it should not drop anything, but i think that if it were to drop an item, it should be like the health extensions or pill on a rare occasion. i say this because drones sometime drop these items and they may not be material items but could be very useful on that strata. i only suggest giving it a low percentage drop because players would in my opinion want to destroy these alerting devices just because it may be a potential threat to their life and because they are taking a risk to destroy it.

just giving the probe a risk factor that is greater then a normal monster because it has a risk of drawing all enemies to that players location would actually attract players to try and face it for the greater the risk, the more exhilaration the player would feel once it is destroyed. so to discourage players from facing, ( i did not want to suggest this because it might be over powering ) have the probes be able to spawn a consecutive number of bombs like the demo class in the gremlin family. this ability might give the probe a too great of a risk that players will feel discourage knowing that they can be hurt extensively just for destroying a probe that may drop nothing. this could be enough to make players avoid the probe and not want to face it.

@Toxicblade: i only referred to the sleep status for future references, because we know that sleep is still an element in the system and if ever their were to be a weapon created to induce sleep, the probe will be well prepared and not need an update in the future to come.

- about the guns: the probe will have a 5 second cool down, so it will not continuously keep fire-ring the gun. the auto-gun has limited range and area of effect. we all get a warning before a monster attacks because most of them have to charge their attack before activating them. if knight were to see a probe getting ready to fire, the knight will be able to dodge the fire by removing himself/herself from that area of effect. the knights will be able to dodge the probe because the probe does not have an automated homing system and not to mention the knight will have plenty of space to dodge because the probe will only be situated in the gremlin areas where party button are not included. these areas are wide enough to give plenty of space for the knights to dodge that attack ( hoping he/she is not surrounded by monsters ).

- about the monster names, i was feeling tired and very lazy to pen up the wiki and look for the names of the monsters considering it was 2 am and i need sleep. i apologize and will try to do better next time.

* i will include some new factors about the probe that will let knights be able to escape the probe detection field of vision.

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PROBES!