Engineer base idea

Could a pad be made that grants special abilities?
ex: An engineer could spawn one of those bases that health spawn at, but instead of health it does things while a player is standing on it.
The base could have an overlay just like the weapons get, and the ability could be randomly selected just like the magic weapon maker.

To prevent abuse maybe the bases can have a limited use and require a recharge time. Some examples:
Regen Base: Regenerates players health at .01*maxhealth/sec. The base has a health inventory that only recharges 1hp/sec (or longer) and can hold a max of 50 hp.

Sturdy Base: Prevents player from being knocked off. Limited to 2 mins. Player needs to wait 20 seconds for it to fully charge again.

Protection Base: Same as protection weps, and limited like the sturdy base.

Coffee Base: Regenerates adrenaline like the Regen base but at a slower rate.

Null Base: Nullifies the pawn that steps on it for (modifier*spawnerslevel) seconds. Pawn has to step off of base before it reactivates, and only one pawn can be on it at a time. This would be fun for DM too.

Infinite, Piercing, Rage, Poison, Energy: Adds the ability to the players weapon while they are on the base. If needed, the base could have a limited shot inventory similar to the regen base. It would also need to check that the current weapon is not already a magic weapon. If it is, then it won't do anything. (We don't need any infinite piercing weps out there.)

I know this would take time to add, and could introduce some new bugs. Maybe this could be something for after the engineer class is released to the public.

like the idea but I'd start with Ammo, shield , health
or even better a (dang what are they called) rack of weapons from onslaught

rack of weapons.... WANT!!!!

Weapon's locker and one problem with that would be balance in team game...

The weapons rack would take away the WM uniqueness

you could limit what is "on" the locker by engineer level
one weapon per level of loaded eng (non-magic weapons only)
as well as how often it spawns weapons, and how much ammo
not sure about destroyability though

wow sounds like a coding nightmare

RoadKill v3.4 wrote:

wow sounds like a coding nightmare

I think that will be.
I think it would be easier to code to have a time limit on it...say 1 min.

Personally as an engineer I don't have much use for other weapons. Just my trusty link.
I don't see other engineers use other weps either...mainly because we don't put many points into max ammo.

Or...
Something for all classes: make an ability to spawn a temporary weapon locker of just the currently selected weapon (as long as that weapon could be replicated). Ex: a WM has a piercing mini, instead of finding the mini spawn and handing it out to everyone that walks by for 5 mins, he could just spawn a piercing mini locker and just say where it is...everyone who wants it can go get it while the WM is doing his own thing...saving the world..blah blah
Something like this would not interfere with class balancing. just improve teamwork.

Lots more good ideas coming up - which is good. Sorry if I sometimes come over as a bit negative. I am just trying to assess how these things balance at an early stage.

The problem with lots of bases is that they start to take away from the abilities of other classes.
Druid would never agree to a healing base, as that devalues medics (and makes engineers not dependent upon medics)
Likewise, allowing engineers to be able to spawn weapon lockers takes away from the benefit of the WMs Loaded Weapons skill.
And the ammo resupply - currrently only some player types can buy resupply - would this work for just those player types? So not the engineer?

The idea of all classes being able to spawn a weapon locker to share a particular weapon is possible. But I actually like the fact that the player has to currently hand it out - taking time and losing points, and possibly getting killed. Just spawning a locker is a lot more impersonal. So, I am not convinced.

Fair enough.
What about the null base /Bear trap?

And can you shed some light on how to make the Toilet car useful or is it just a novelty thing.
It looks like it has a huge engine with no umph behind it.

greg11 wrote:

What about the null base /Bear trap?

I quite like this idea. It does no damage as such, and since anyone can kill the nulled pawn it doesn't just help engineers. Would have to make it so it doesn't null flag carriers. The only question is will it make engineers even more powerful?
An alternative, which would help keep the balance better, would be to implement the base as a sentinel, similar to the lightning sentinel. Very short range. This would still null the pawns as the base would, but it would come off the sentinel count.
Implementing it as a wall, like a paladin shield wall, would be another possibility - nulling people as they walk through it.

greg11 wrote:

And can you shed some light on how to make the Toilet car useful or is it just a novelty thing. It looks like it has a huge engine with no umph behind it.

Druid put that one in the configuration. I didn't see much point. I don't think I have ever spawned one. To be honest, I would rather it wasn't there.

I think the sentinel would be better than the wall. The wall sounds like it could cause problems. how does one destroy the wall...when a pawn is released how would it keep from re-nulling the pawn...etc. Plus the sentinal idea could be sub-classed easier.
The range should be shorter, but it should be enough to utilize it as a ceiling sent. The delay between zaps should be alot longer...maybe base it on the engineers stats (wep speed or level)...The delay should be long enough so that it can stop the first rush of monsters but not the second.

An issue I can see though is if multiple null sents were within the same range. A pawn may never be able to leave the area without being nulled repetitively.
Could a range check occur when a null sent is spawned? Have it check for a nearby null sent...then synchronize its trigger with that sent so effectively all you are doing is increasing the range. Or just not allow a null sent to be spawned within a certain range of another null sent.

The CTF issue is interesting. I don't think I have spent enough time in CTF to answer that question.
Maybe prevent nulling a flag carrier now, and look into possibility of allowing it later.

What about vehicles? Should vehicles be immune?

what about a repulsion one similare to the adren masters skil repulsion that noks back monsters when they step on it. this way it could be jumped over and wouldnt give total protection but still be usefull

AM's already have a 'repulsion' artifact...
Also I thought RPG only worked in DM, DTM, VCTF and ONS not CTF....

-Jason_x- wrote:

Also I thought RPG only worked in DM, DTM, VCTF and ONS not CTF....

I know that engineer abilities work in CTF

Eh?!....Since when?!..
Am I the only one who experiences that..>_>..?