Battlefield Manipulation

[biostem]

This is basically a soldier/military-themed secondary for blasters.  Many of the powers would utilize an AR model.  With that in mind, here's my proposed set:

 

1. Pin-down: You fire a few shots from your assault rifle, with the intention of restricting your enemy's movement.  Deals minor lethal damage, slows the target's movement, and can even bring down flyers, perhaps also debuffing the target's defense.

 

2. Razor-wire:  You lay down a coil of razor wire, which deals minor lethal DoT, severely slows the movement of any enemies attempting to cross the line, and reduces their damage resistance.

 

3. Rifle butt:  Deals moderate smashing damage, disorients the target, and even has a small chance of knocking them down.

 

4. Site-in: Generic +tohit, +dmg attack, only with a slightly longer +perception buff.

 

5. Foxhole: You hastily construct a defensive structure, which provides some defense, damage resistance, and a bit of knockback protection, while you remain in it.

 

6. Combat armor:  Provides some defense to ranged and AoE damage, recovery, and absorb.

 

7. Auto-mortar: Somewhat similar to acid mortar, except deals some smashing and fire damage instead, with a chance to knock down targets.

 

8. Minefield: Somewhat similar to the trip mine power from devices, only spread across a larger area, with each mine having its own proximity, (each dealing less damage).

 

9. Artillery strike: You call in an artillery strike which, after a short delay, deals heavy smashing and fire damage in the targeted location, with a chance of knocking back any targets hit.

Edited November 30, 2023 by biostem

[Rudra]

Given the terrain our characters fight in (concrete, asphalt, and stone), the fact the surfaces in the game have no depth, and the likelihood of our characters getting caught in a bug trying to make use of a non-door hole in the ground, you may want to rethink the Foxhole power. Maybe a Take Cover power that does the same thing? Or a Light Fortification power to summon a sandbag wall? I don't know.

 

(Edit: And digging a foxhole in a building, CoX or real, could have very interesting results for the combatant trying to use it.)

Edited November 30, 2023 by Rudra

[biostem]

1 hour ago, Rudra said:

Given the terrain our characters fight in (concrete, asphalt, and stone), the fact the surfaces in the game have no depth, and the likelihood of our characters getting caught in a bug trying to make use of a non-door hole in the ground, you may want to rethink the Foxhole power. Maybe a Take Cover power that does the same thing? Or a Light Fortification power to summon a sandbag wall? I don't know.

 

(Edit: And digging a foxhole in a building, CoX or real, could have very interesting results for the combatant trying to use it.)

I imagine that the foxhole would simply be a generic flat hole graphic, surrounded by some mounds of dirt and/or sandbags, no need to actually dig a hole down into the terrain.

[Rudra]

19 minutes ago, biostem said:

I imagine that the foxhole would simply be a generic flat hole graphic, surrounded by some mounds of dirt and/or sandbags, no need to actually dig a hole down into the terrain.

I figured. What I'm thinking of is unless you're a super strong character with an adamantium trenching tool, you're not going to be able to dig that foxhole. So for realism, I have that hang up. On the practical side, there are already "holes" our characters can jump in, but those are doors. And a foxhole requires the person to be in it for it to do anything beneficial. So our characters would have an animation of digging the foxhole, then have a "hole" like the snake holes in Mercy Island appear at the target location, and then the character would have to jump in the foxhole. And with how buggy the game can be with terrain pieces and models clipping them, there is a good chance the character will be stuck in the terrain when using the power. (And you know, hopefully not fall through the terrain since the character is at least halfway through the floor already to fall beneath the map. Like how can already happen on fairly regularly on some maps just by using the instance map internal doors. [Founder's Falls jail comes to mind rather vehemently for me on that for some reason.])

[biostem]

37 minutes ago, Rudra said:

I figured. What I'm thinking of is unless you're a super strong character with an adamantium trenching tool, you're not going to be able to dig that foxhole. So for realism, I have that hang up. On the practical side, there are already "holes" our characters can jump in, but those are doors. And a foxhole requires the person to be in it for it to do anything beneficial. So our characters would have an animation of digging the foxhole, then have a "hole" like the snake holes in Mercy Island appear at the target location, and then the character would have to jump in the foxhole. And with how buggy the game can be with terrain pieces and models clipping them, there is a good chance the character will be stuck in the terrain when using the power. (And you know, hopefully not fall through the terrain since the character is at least halfway through the floor already to fall beneath the map. Like how can already happen on fairly regularly on some maps just by using the instance map internal doors. [Founder's Falls jail comes to mind rather vehemently for me on that for some reason.])

I think you're reading too much realism into the idea;  Imagine your character briefly carries out the "dig with shovel" animation, the flat hole graphic and some sandbags appear, and then for a short time afterward, standing in that zone provides the buff(s).  I mean, consider that our characters can call forth meteorites whilst indoors without totally destroying the building...

[Rudra]

12 minutes ago, biostem said:

I think you're reading too much realism into the idea;  Imagine your character briefly carries out the "dig with shovel" animation, the flat hole graphic and some sandbags appear, and then for a short time afterward, standing in that zone provides the buff(s).  I mean, consider that our characters can call forth meteorites whilst indoors without totally destroying the building...

Yeah, I get the bit about the meteor. Our characters aren't having to change where and how they stand for it though. If the character is going to dig a foxhole, the character needs to be in it to use it. If the character is just going to stand on the surface and not have to go into the hole, then it isn't a foxhole. It's summoned sandbags or other fortification you want to have with the fox hole. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against the power set. I'm just stuck on a foxhole being a hole the character gets in. If they aren't? Then it shouldn't be a foxhole. It can work like any other stationary buff, like Triage Beacon. A device that is placed by the character that grants some defense, damage resistance, and KB protection while within the area of effect. Like a summonable force force field generator that doesn't move and provides the character with those bonuses. Or the area is littered with sandbags or whatever denoting the non-mobile area of effect for the character and grants that effect. If my character has a foxhole power and digs a hole and then just stands outside the hole somehow being protected by it? ... I don't know how I would react. Not positively, I know that much.

[A Cat]

Maybe call it bunker or pillbox and have it be an above ground structure. Could be as simple as a ring of sandbags. 

[srmalloy]

8 hours ago, A Cat said:

Maybe call it bunker or pillbox and have it be an above ground structure. Could be as simple as a ring of sandbags. 

IIRC, the Gunslinger in SWTOR has an ability like this — 'hunker down', which sets up a defensive force field for the character to take cover behind; a loosely-similar visual effect should be doable in CoH, with whatever game effects are determined to be appropriate. There are already a number of powers that create an effect rising up from the ground; a mostly-static revetment should not tax art resources too heavily, with the existing 'stack of sandbags' objects in game.

[biostem]

9 hours ago, A Cat said:

Maybe call it bunker or pillbox and have it be an above ground structure. Could be as simple as a ring of sandbags. 

That'd probably work better!