Spiral Knights - Allow knights to obtain E-class battle sprites

Allow knights to obtain E-class battle sprites

14 replies [Last post]

Sat, 07/19/2014 - 23:07

Fehzor

I've always wanted to get one of the default battle sprites from the start of the game, especially given their relatively clean appearance. I think they could be a cool unlock for midgame players, preferably by playing the arcade and trading in a ton of each spark type (forge, primal, grim), or perhaps by being found in a rare scenario room that would only activate once.

For their attacks, I would expect something bland but helpful and standardized.... sort of a mix between cobalt gear and stat boosts/debuffs.

Skill 1 = a basic attack of sorts. A soundwave like attack that deals damage over an area, dealing less the further away.
Ultimates: No damage fallout over space, or more damage up front but more fallout

Skill 2 = gives everyone in the party a random stats orbs (attack, attack speed, speed, defense)
Ultimates: The stat boosts last longer or a chance of a second stat orb per party member

Skill 3 = death marks all monsters around you for ten seconds
Ultimates: Deals stun to all effected or grants the user 4 seconds of max charge time reduction and max damage (doesn't stack with existing ctr and damage from armor etc.)

But really, you guys at Three Rings might have something planned out for these. I really just want to have a white+default looking battle sprite to use alongside my mutated ones. Cheers.

Sun, 07/20/2014 - 00:00

Fe-Tarkus

hrm.
Only thing is how standard can you go?

1st skill is some weak ranged attack, 2nd skill is some mediocre AOE skill, 3rd skill is some major AOE skill. Ultimates are either utlitarian or direct damage increases.

Skill 1, both ultimates are damage oriented, perhaps one has increased knockback and the other has increased damage?
Skill 2, I feel this is pretty overpowered without mentioning the length of the buff. I think it'd work better if was attack and defense, and the upgrades increase attack-buff duration, or defense-buff duration, or Focus. Then the ultimates increase the duration or add a speed buff.
Skill 3, hrm... double charges though. And how would the upgrades function? Reduced time to deathmark? Increased deathmark duration?

Personally if there was a standardized "cobalt" battle sprite, I'd imagine there'd be a skill that calls in a knight for a short duration, and its ultimates are either the knight dealing full damage of the weapon its holding, or calling in a Recon.

Sun, 07/20/2014 - 00:16

Fehzor

The idea behind the skills was that the first was a standard attack, the second was a standard buff-the-party type thing, and the third was a larger AoE attack that can do serious damage to one or two waves of enemies every fight. The focus here is also on normal weapons, as they benefit the most from stats orbs and recon marks and what have you.

The length of the buff would be 30 seconds, just like all of the status orbs. I would see the long variant being 45 or 50 seconds. That sounds OP, but is it? Other sprite skills and ultimates drop these same boosts like crazy on top of lighting things on fire, increasing heart drops, or making you go invisible. Why would this one suddenly be OP? Compare just a stats boost to more heart drops, invisibility, or flame barrier (which grants defense, again), and it almost comes across as underwhelming.

The upgrades could function however they want to. I'm thinking damage and range for the first one, duration (starts at 15 seconds, goes up to 30) and effectiveness (orbs start out being half of the dropped orbs) for the second one, and then time effected (10 seconds would be after upgrades) and range for the third one.

What play style would calling in a knight companion be?

Sun, 07/20/2014 - 01:19

Fe-Tarkus

Eh... I don't know about your claim that it helps the normal weapons more... Orbs and Deathmark will always be helpful for the Acheron to get ridiculous numbers. And, I can see it now, people wrecking Royal Jelly with Blitz for lulz.

The thing about the orb buffs, is that 30s is a good portion of a fight unless you're running around with your tail between your legs in Grinchlin Assault. If the Knight using the sprite is reasonably competent, (s)he's likely to be able to get another orb drop or two from killing some monsters as 3/4 of the statuses are conducive to offensive manuevers. If the player then gets the double status ultimate, it's 100% chance of having a offensive-oriented buff and basically having no worse cases, as different combinations of the 4 buffs will at the worse case, have defense instead of another offensive buff.
Invisibility is for a single, powerful play. Flame Barrier is only for at most a few plays, as 8 seconds gives you some time to do things, but not that much time. Heart Attack does give the tactical advantage that one can let themselves get hurt a little more to deal more damage in some situations, ie FoV. But people don't really make those plays that hurt yourself.

I suppose calling in a knight companion would be best suited as a party-buff thing, so the 2nd skill. It assists the party by taking away some of the attacks coming from the enemies.

Sun, 07/20/2014 - 02:40

Fehzor

Well my point with heart attack was that when effective, it gives the entire party defense boosts in its highest form. Compare giving 1 random boost (or a 50% chance of 2 per player) to giving 1 defense boost and extra health. Sounds about even to me.

As for the knights- why not just have them spawn as a beacon that draws aggro from enemies and distracts them for a while? The knight companions can't deal any real damage anyway.

Sun, 07/20/2014 - 09:49

Fe-Tarkus

Oh..
I thought that was 100% for 2 boosts with that ultimate... yay for reading. That sounds about even.

I was thinking about that. Probably draw aggro in a small radius of a couple blocks, else it'd make too many enemies derp around hugging a knight.

Mon, 07/21/2014 - 16:49

Fehzor

No one wants an E-Class battle sprite but me? :/

And I wouldn't mind an aggro drawing barrier, it just wasn't what I had in mind for this sprite. A whole new sprite for aggro manipulation would be awesome though.

Mon, 07/21/2014 - 19:55

Kathrine-Dragon

I want one too Fehzor. I'm just too lazy to level up the Drakon I have. Also, E-Class sounds more support style with little to no offensive presence. Like maybe a little pew pew gun that's pretty much a shoulder proto gun. From E-Class it sounds like it'd be more informational though. Or storage. Oh, the reason I want one is for looks. I like your idea though so one vote for E-Class. Or upgraded E-Class. C-Class for Cobalt?

Mon, 07/21/2014 - 20:03

Fehzor

I didn't name them that, but I'd agree that it sounds surprisingly robotic for a pet name. E-Class Battle Sprite is just what the game calls them, so I used the official name just to be clear. They could have some kind of control over the map and be information based too, I guess. That would be kind of cool. Like maybe if Three Rings made new map icons for treasure boxes, individual blocks, even potential enemy triggers etc. the E-Class sprites could detect them with their second skill in an area around you? But they're battle sprites, not battle scanners or scanner sprites, so maybe not.

Like on the wiki, it calls them E-Class: http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Battle_sprite

Tue, 07/22/2014 - 05:46

Sonosuke

+10

I'd want one too.

In the files, it's called a Proto sprite. Then again, they call the Seraphynx "Cat" and the sprites in general "Pet", so...

Tue, 07/22/2014 - 11:43

#10

Melonfish

I'm stumped in choosing the order of the last two skills.

If we're going to give E-Class the attributes of a Cobalt knight, the thing that's the most consistent about Cobalt weaponry to keep in mind is knockback. E-Class would likely focus on keeping enemies at bay and offering players more window for reacting and acting in the middle of a fight. After all, Battle Sprites are designed from the ground up as a mean of active support to protect the player.

By the look of its artificial built, it would make clear sense to feed it Moonstone, a mineral widely associated with the artifice theme of Gremlins/Constructs and the crafting requirements for all Cobalt gears.

As for the attacks, Fehzor brings up some good concepts. I'll share my own ideas and expand on some of them.

Skill 1) Cover Fire
-A fast, single beam projectile launched forward from E-Class' eyes. Contact with it knocks back the potential targets, flinching them when preparing an attack. Comparable to a Blaster/Valiance charge shot, though quite weaker than a Drakon's Firebolt.
-Skill points will upgrade cooldown, the damage of the shot as well as its firing speed.
Ultimate Skill 1) Cover Spread Fire
-The projectile is significantly larger and stronger overall.
Ultimate Skill 2) Cover Halt Fire
-Grants a strong chance of inflicting Minor Freeze, holding the targets in place instead on the occasion.

Skill 2) Assault Scan
-Offensive Recon technology built into E-Class is employed to mark enemies around the player and exploit their weakness. The extent of the ability is significantly shorter than regular Recon Clock deathmarking, requiring close proximity to the targets.
-Skill points will upgrade cooldown, the defense drop potency as well as its duration.
Ultimate Skill 1) Blinding Assault Scan
-Targeted enemies are given a dire Attack debuff (25% - 50%), lasting down to the full duration of a death mark.
Ultimate Skill 2) Alerting Assault Scan
-The range is greatly improved. However, all targeted enemies will instantly shift their aggression toward the player who commanded the skill.

Skill 3) Scatter Blast
-E-Class emits a single force wave around the player, causing moderate damage and astounding knockback on all surrounding enemies as well as allowing a chance to get out of a pinning crowd. Comparable to an Energy Blast.
-Skill points will upgrade its cooldown, blast damage as well as its range.
Ultimate 1) Breaker Blast
-The affected enemies will be afflicted with a strong chance of Moderate Stun.
Ultimate 2) Booster Blast
-The affected players are granted a boost (Attack/Defense/Speed) for roughly four seconds. The effect can stack on more stat modifiers.

On another note, since we've talked about keeping E-Class basic, we may as well only give it access to the Iron Harness for good measure.

Tue, 07/22/2014 - 23:11

#11

Etharaes

Love the idea of a vanilla sprite. However I would really like it to be called proto sprite, since our other 'default' equipment is proto ___; they can rewrite the mission lore.

Also, +1 to the idea of only iron harness. Adding on to that, the other sprite could have access to only the specialised harnesses.

Wed, 07/23/2014 - 07:26

#12

Glitch-Incarnate

Ultimate appearances

What would the ultimate skills look like? In changing the sprite psyically, i mean

Wed, 07/23/2014 - 17:21

#13

Autofire

You are experiencing a PICNIC ERROR!

I will go into nitpick mode: All Sprites in the game are E-Class. Ours are just transformed.

Now, if there were I-Class sprites like Navi, then I would buy...

In reality, this is a cool suggestion.

Thu, 07/24/2014 - 01:18

#14

Fehzor

@Autofire

Sort of like how the humans call certain primordial ooze "cats" when they're furry and have four legs and are cats. Its just transformed a bit, and it certainly isn't fooling anyone- but they are still called "cats".

@dusk

That's a good question. I'm sure it could have like.. more robotic parts, perhaps lifted and duplicated from the recent slime receivers and node containers. It would be interesting to see what Three Rings would come up with.

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Allow knights to obtain E-class battle sprites