Spiral Knights - New battle sprite concept

New battle sprite concept - NOVA-5

17 replies [Last post]

Sat, 08/17/2013 - 13:18

Mechnexus

With the battle sprite update affecting the arcade, we could do with two extra battle sprites, using Valestone and Moonstone.
The Moonstone based sprite could use frost, but that's another thread - This one uses Valestone, and has no element tied to it whatsoever. It just does pure damage.

Lore:
The E-class battle sprite was previously only used for reconnaissance. After the Skylark crashed, a number of E-classes were experimented upon by the gremlins. They extensively modified the sprites, equipping them with an autogun, deflector shield and missile launcher, creating the perfect combat assistant. However, they were entirely unable to change Haven's initial programming. The bots continued to record their surroundings on all sides, and having been able to scan for major weaknesses in the Gremlins' quickly-thrown-together cages, were able to blast their way out, and proceeded to immediately test their new weapons on some nearby test subjects. It was concluded they work perfectly (blew up the lab). Between the recorded footage that gave way to intel on Project Roarmulus, and the newly bio-engineered bots with powerful weaponry, nicknamed Nova, the E-class battle sprites were considered a huge success!

Note:
NOVA-5 cannot deal normal damage. Instead, when you get Nova, you get a "blank" harness, which allows it to follow you around haven but not into missions. Talking to Riley allows you to pick out a Shadow, Piercing or Elemental harness for free, and the blank harness is consumed. If you already own one of these and is unequipped, it is automatically given to Nova. His food has the "cyber" prefix, and is obtained with a mission where you infiltrate a gremlin factory.

Appearance:
NOVA-5 resembles a E-class - but with a ton more upgrades.
>Evolution 1
Resembles a larger E-class, with a scope over the right eye and an autogun barrel on the right side. The harness is on the back.
>Evolution 2
The faceplate is more armored, rugged and generally more menacing. A small beacon is also added on top of him, and he grows small reverse-joint legs.
>Evolution 3
Gains arms, bigger legs and a scanner appears over his left eye. He also gains a mouth that can be opened and closed.

Abilities:
>Ability 1 - D4
Every Nova unit comes equipped with a mini-autogun. This ability simply fires an autogun volley. Upgrades increase the power per shot and pellets fired.
>Ultimate 1A - MD4
Nova gets a SECOND minigun. And minigun + another minigun = MORE DAKKA. That's right, Nova fires TWICE the amount of bullets! That's 100% more bullet per bullet! or something.
>Ultimate 1B - PD4
Nova's autogun is upgraded with more powerful rounds that can pierce targets, and i'm not talking about the damage type! Also slight damage boost. Spikes come out of his autogun and carries a sword.

>Ability 2 - B5
Nova creates a 90 degree shield in the direction you cast it in. This shield has a 90% chance to block projectiles (and projectiles only), and a 100% chance to block projectles of the element the sprite is using (i.e Elemental harness and Elemental bullet)
>Ultimate 2A - BR5
The shield now has a 50% chance to reflect projectiles. Beacon has electricity arcing around it.
>Ultimate 2B - B50
The shield is extended to 270 degrees. He gets two more beacons.

>Ability 3 - M4
Nova opens his mouth and three dumbfire missiles are launched!
>Ultimate 3A - M4X
You thought three missiles was crazy? HAVE FIVE! The scanner turns pure black.
>Ultimate 3B - M5
Nova instead fires two guided missiles with the homing capability of somewhere between T2 and T3 rocket puppies. The scanner turns into a scope to match the other eye.

Discuss this, anything that should be changed or added, etc.

Sat, 08/17/2013 - 13:22

Bonabopn

pretty cool, mech :3

Sat, 08/17/2013 - 13:27

Pipipipipi

I think it's pretty cool but

I think it's pretty cool but there is already a sprite for assulting

Sat, 08/17/2013 - 13:27

Alfiesr

I helped :D

Sat, 08/17/2013 - 13:28

Mechnexus

Drakon does not have enough

Drakon does not have enough dakka.
He also has damage over time, and Nova is too impatient for that, so he does more damage up front.

Sun, 08/18/2013 - 04:02

Alfiesr

I feel this is going to come

I feel this is going to come up a lot, so here's the difference between Drakon and Nova:
Drakon is all-around heavy fire (literally) that works no matter what you're fighting, in any situation, Drakon can always give you a hand with all 3 abilities because you'll always have an iron harness on hand to switch to, as is included with the pet.
Nova, on the other hand, is somewhat of a combat specialist. The inability to equip an Iron Harness means you have to be careful where you use what, or it's not going to be helpful at all save for a slightly boosted shield, and it's primary fire is more autogun than firotech.
However, in exchange for removing the ability to deal normal damage, you gain the ability to deal piercing damage if you so wish, and your primary fire becomes more of an "I need to deal lots of damage to this guy quick" attack, rather than hitting them with a fireball and watching them smoulder to death. Supplying you can hit them.

Drakon has after-damage, AoE and a single heavy-damage-in-a-single-hit attack.
Nova has more damage from his initial attack, a larger attack spread (which is just as much good as bad) and much less damage per hit, but also much more hits.

Sun, 08/18/2013 - 11:39

Mechnexus

Bump.

Why is nobody replying to this? ._.

Sun, 08/18/2013 - 12:37

Tampolo

Awesome!

This is an amazing idea! But there are a few small problems thqt you need to fix:
1. You forgot to name the food... Yes its small but im going to touch on EVERYTHING.
2. You need to understand something: when you choose an ultimate, it changes the "pet". You need to explain how each ultimate change him. Some are self explanatory, some arent. Again something small but still
3. The back story really reminds of the shadow like pet... But hey thats metters less.
4. Get rid of the "no" iron harness. Ye i get it, for balancing and stuff, but the point of the iron harness that its good for everything. And new players dont need to have the problem to get even more money to buy more harnesses.
5. How will players get it? A new mission? And what with players that already got a pet? Well ye, that will be a problem with the next pet too, but still you need to think about it. But i think thats something that three rings got to solve, but i still wanted to bring it up.

Mon, 08/19/2013 - 01:57

Hearthstone

@Tampolo

1. His food has the "cyber" prefix, and is obtained with a mission where you infiltrate a gremlin factory.

@ OP

Mon, 08/19/2013 - 02:51

Alfiesr

@Tampolo The lack of the iron

@Tampolo
The lack of the iron harness is both balance and part of the pet's niche, and you can pick one of the 3 harnesses for free for the pet when you first get it.

As to how you'd get it, gremlin factory as in OP, and multiple pets are going to be a possibility in the future so those who already have a pet simply need to wait if they want it.

Mon, 08/19/2013 - 04:06

#10

Mechnexus

@Skye I added that because he

@Skye
I added that because he pointed it out.

Mon, 08/19/2013 - 23:11

#11

Likal

Food

I feel like this should use food made from Moonstone, not Valestone. By the in-game lore, Valestone is a manifestation of nature (which this isn't), while Moonstone is akin to crystallized knowledge (which I think a robot would find more tasty).

Tue, 08/20/2013 - 05:12

#12

Battlegrinder

Pretend I wrote something clever here

I really love the idea behind this, but I question how much it will be used. Drakon is already known as the assault/aggressive pet, so I'm not sure if people would pick up on the slight difference between the two sprite's chosen method of assault.

Skills
Autogun: Sounds a lot like the maskeraith's first skill to me, minus the poison effect. The second ultimate is of dubious utility, since if you want to hit something behind another target, you could just dash around the first thing and get an angle. The skill sounds like an anti-healer skill, but again, maskeraith has that covered pretty well (and I imagine Drakon could pull it off as well).

Shield: We already have a shield, and it blocks everything, all the time.

Missiles: I can see people getting frustrated when their tracking missiles veer off and hit a target other the one they were trying to kill (maybe add some kind of lock-on/laser designation?), but other than that this skill seems ok.

Suggestions: Tweak the 1st skill a little more to differentiate it from quills, replace 2nd skill with something else entirely (maybe a flare shot that stuns/shocks enemies, or a hacking attack that disables constructs).

Tue, 08/20/2013 - 05:19

#13

Merethif

I agree with Likal. Moonstone is related to knowledge and technology thus it fits well with reconnaissance-class high-tech sprite (reconnaissance = knowledge gathering).

Also, since you've mentioned frost sprite, although both, Valestone and Moonstone, are required to create Freeze themed gate, Valestone (green mineral) is more connected with Ice, since Green Shards are used in all recipes that produce Freeze related gear. If any Freeze/Ice themed Sprite will eventually be introduced, it rather be eating food made of Valestone, not Moonstone.

Tue, 08/20/2013 - 09:27

#14

Alfiesr

@Battlegrinder Maskeraith's

@Battlegrinder Maskeraith's quills deal poison, Nova's miniature minigun deals damage. Is that not a difference?

Tue, 08/20/2013 - 09:39

#15

Quaquonfaes

+∞

This is PERFECT.
I luv everything on this suggestion, and also, we all know that we have now are the 3 STARTER sprites, this sounds like an amazing suggestion since, out of the 3 I always though the E-CLASS was the cutest, also, it introduces a new sprite strategy, since no iron harness, I guess it would be a pro sprite since new players won't do well with understanding damage types weaknesses and strongesses, I really wish nick sees this.

Tue, 08/20/2013 - 11:18

#16

Battlegrinder

@Alfiser

It's a difference, but it doesn't feel like enough of one. What I like about the current sprite perks are that all of them are unique and different (mostly), both from each other and from weapons. There are a lot "Just like X, except it also Y" items in this game already ("Just like a Prismtech, except it also does fire/shock/stun/etc"), and I think that sprite skills should be as unique as possible. One of the things I don't like about quills is how similar they are to the blight needle, and I feel this suggested perk is the same way. If you want an autogun, you can get one (or several). If you want to cloak/have a range of AoE attacks/shoot laser beams/etc, you have to pick a sprite, instead of grabbing one of dozen other weapons that can also do that. Do see where I'm coming from?

Sat, 08/24/2013 - 09:42

#17

Mechnexus

Bumping this because I won't

Bumping this because I won't let this die >:U

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New battle sprite concept - NOVA-5