Spiral Knights - Blast Network bomb for use in PVE/PVP.

Blast Network bomb for use in PVE/PVP.

13 replies [Last post]

Wed, 05/16/2012 - 13:06

Repartee

This idea got tossed around earlier today in our guild mumble. But the idea of a Blast network style bomb for use as PVE/PVP (lockdown) would be a fun idea. No explosive radius in the form of a circle, but an extended cross as it exists in blast network. I'm not sure to the actual length as to make it a viable choice but the novelty of it is appealing. It already essentially exists but the main theme would be an increasing distance reached as you go up in star value. I'm not sure as to how difficult it would be to actually test and bring this over for personal use but a secondary feature could be that it allows the player to use an explosive weapon that features their color scheme.

The implicated use of the bomb in Lockdown could be for strategic holding of choke points that are narrow and clearly defined. It would lose a lot of use in wider spaces and as such might be a fairly balanced weapon choice.

We've already seen the explosion style used in Blast Network and the hammer charge attack of Warmaster Seerus (this shows that already the framework for the animation exists and can be used in a pve scenario). It wouldn't be a far stretch of the imagination to see it being used by knights in the future.

Any comments, additions or constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.

Wed, 05/16/2012 - 13:32

Schattentag

Eh...

Two words: Crystal Bomb.

Seriously though, I'm not really seeing the advantage that the implementation of a PvE BN bomb would have over the existing Crystal line.

Wed, 05/16/2012 - 13:42

Repartee

@Manalicious

Extension of the cross explosion line, not the star effect that the crystal bomb has. It's range would be greater to offset the lack of affected directions. And if it carried all of the same characteristics of the blast network bomb it could have a slightly longer fuse and allow it's explosions to set off a chain reaction with others placed by that particular knight. That's just an idea, not the final revised form of it.

However.

Strategically it could be more fun. And that's kind of the point of the game is to have more fun. Any ideas/constructive criticism other than it's slight similarity to the crystal bomb?

Wed, 05/16/2012 - 13:50

Mk-Vl

Well

The crystal bombs only shoot out one blip. This could be used to push away a whole crowd and possibly catch someone riding the wave for massive damage.

Wed, 05/16/2012 - 13:51

Njthug

I was talking to Rep about

I was talking to Rep about this over mumble, and as a bomber (been bombing for ages not as long as fallout tho)...this would easily be a great add-on for bombs in my view.

I think a 4 x 4 or 5 x 5 blast radius would be cool....nothing so big, but nothing so small. I support this idea fully.

Crystal Bomb and this style bomb is very different since a crystal bomb shoots shards in 4 to 8 direction path...however this bomb will be a direct blast path in a straight line from all four points (Left, Right, Up, and Down). I would imagine this bomb being more on the slow end, but not as slow as Big Angry or any of the vortex's.

Damage could be either Ele or Shadow or Normal obviously think (freeze, Fire, etc.) would be neat.

Wed, 05/16/2012 - 14:07

Schattentag

Now we're talking.

Although I'm still not seeing how the cross-shaped blast is significantly different from the 8-way blast of The Crystal line, you've brought up a new mechanic that separates the two lines greatly - the ability to chain explosions.

This mechanic reminds me of the Bouncer line that Kentard came up with a while ago, and it is one that I find intriguing as someone who's primarily a bomber.

As Mk-Vl said, the BN bomb might be used to knock things back, but now I'm imagining something like a Brandish-style charge. As such, I feel like the damage should be fairly low. As with all bombs, the lower power is balanced by the fact that it is dealing damage over a wider area (in this case, four directions as opposed to Brandishes' one).

Repartee, you said that the radius should be increased to make up for the lack of having all 8 directions like a Crystal-style bomb. If I'm not mistaken, the Crystal line's shards travel farther than most guns can shoot. I feel like Njthug's suggestion of 4-5 squares is fairly reasonable, and falls in line with most other bombs' radii.

Wed, 05/16/2012 - 14:35

Repartee

@Manalicious

Surprisingly enough the Crystal bomb line has only a slightly larger distance in terms of the projectile as the blitz needle. You can test this yourself in the ATH as well as I. So the point in case being that a larger distance may be unbalanced in terms of lockdown I can certainly acknowledge, as two players with this bomb could essentially close off an entire area of approach even to gunners but that's quite the commitment in manpower to deny entry. One that I could feel would be easily circumvented by strikers speed utilization.

I personally like the idea of a wave effect of this bombs explosion akin to the Brandish line weapons. The damage will have to get hashed out on the developer's end especially with the damage increase of the bombs itself in the last patches. But a bomb style that allows for strategic placement of bombs within a 2-3 bomb placement time provides a greater depth of play that is sorely desired, we won't have bombers essentially putting down nothing but a venn diagram pattern. That kind of thing gets old very quickly and I'm assure you can agree.

Fri, 05/18/2012 - 15:01

Oatmonster

would it be balanced to implement this so that the direction of the 4 explosions to depend on which direction the user was facing when they planted it? I know bombs can already be coded to "remember" which direction they were planted in.

Wed, 05/16/2012 - 15:21

Serell

...

If a bomb like this was added, I would become a bomber.
A blast network bomb would be very fun, I support this. +1
Sadly I suck when it comes to balancing things, so you guys keep talking about how to balance it.
I'll just watch :3

Wed, 05/16/2012 - 19:26

Mk-Vl

Just a thought

But you know how the bomb is upgradeable in BN? Well what if it was like that for the levels. Level 1 there would only be one blast, lvl 2 two etc up to ten. The blasts would have to be closer together to not have an OP range but it's a different idea. The more you use it the more useful it becomes.

Wed, 05/16/2012 - 19:33

#10

Repartee

@Oatmonster

It would be interesting it the four directions were based on player direction but I'm not sure how difficult something like that would be to implement. It WOULD however leave a lot of fun combinations for bomb placement and coverage.

Thu, 05/17/2012 - 07:19

#11

Egpnd

Speaking of which...

In BN we get killed by our own bombs and your teammates. Is this going to be in that bomb in question?

Thu, 05/17/2012 - 08:09

#12

Oatmonster

@Repartee

The code to remember which direction you were facing when you planted a bomb is already in use. If you look closley at the DBB explosion, the snarbolax is always facing the direction you were when you planted it.

Fri, 05/18/2012 - 01:07

#13

Repartee

@egpnd

Oh, most definitely not. There wouldn't be any need for a bomb that promotes fratricide. This bombs main appeal would be chaining bombs and all the aforementioned ideas. I like the idea of inclusion of multidirectional placement depending on facing direction. It would be harder to chain as such but you could place bombs behind you at angles and immediately place one on your current position to catch creature and player alike by surprise.

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Blast Network bomb for use in PVE/PVP.