224 réponses à ce sujet

[RedCaesar97]

@Abraham_uk:

While adding stealth/sneak mechanics to a Mass Effect game is not an unwelcome change, the series thus far has not really shown that it could handle it properly, if at all. This would have to be a very different game with different game mechanics to support sneaking. And I don't think it would support a 6-class structure very well.

Most games with stealth mechanics typically rely on several things to make it work:
- dumb enemies, or perhaps more specifically, enemies with no long-term memory
- near-deaf enemies
- technology or weapons that support the stealth mechanics (silencers, knives, swords, bows, garottes, poison needles)
- limited weapon ammunition to force stealth gameplay

A Mass Effect could certainly support stealth gameplay, but I feel that the 6-class structure would not work. Specifically, up until this point, none of the powers scream "this would be great for stealth!" except cloak. Abraham_uk, you have obviously given some thought to this and tried to come up with some suggestions. And I am not saying it would be bad. I am sure if I had access to the part of your brain where it showed your vision of how it worked, I think I would also agree that it would work.

Just on the surface however, it just seems like you are trying to add in stealth elements and it does not seem to fit. Particularly biotics. Kind of hard to make a sneaky Adept where you can make people float in the air. Lifting an enemy into the air does not close his vocal chords. It seems that sneaking will last only until you hit the first enemy.

It does seem like you are trying to add at least one stealth-based power along with the sneak mechanics, which is good. But it looks to me like the power is out-of-place alongside the other powers. But maybe it is just me with a knee-jerk reaction. I don't want to do that.

I want to take a look at your Adept and other mechanics more closely. It is just at the moment, I am spending so much time exploring this concept that I do not have the time actually play the games which is what I really want to do. But I like this exercise, as it is fun and I like reading Soja57's and your ideas and seeing just how diverse our opinions are on mechanics, gameplay and powers.



@Soja57: That looks like it took a long time to come up with those squadmate designs. Very impressive. It actually looks like Grunt is no longer useless. And Wrex with Charge... how is the entire galaxy not dead already?

[Abraham_uk]

[quote]Soja57 wrote...
_____________________________________________________________________

===============
Race Against Time Arc
===============

Ashley
Disruptor Ammo
Frag Grenades
Marksman (Unique) - Along with granting its traditional weapon bonuses, weapons can suppress enemies by shooting in their general direction. Suppression reduces enemy movement speed and accuracy.
Alliance Soldier (Passive)

[/quote]

This is a really nice character.
Provides powerful surpression, crowd control but most importantly hurts where it matters the most.
DPS.

The disruptor ammo is also very useful, since shields and barriers get in the way of power usage.


[quote]Soja57 wrote...
Garrus
Tactical Scan
Overload
Armor Piercing Ammo (Unique)
Turian Agent (Passive)

[/quote]

Another great character.

Hmm. I wasn't expecting tactical scan. Though given what we know about Garrus, it makes sense.
Being able to scan enemies makes a lot of sense since he is a character who calibrates the Normandy's main gun. So being able to use tactical scan is a walk in the park.

Overload provides shield stripping.
Tactical scan debuffs enemies.

Then there is the armour piercing ammo that allows you to penetrate light cover and deal damage to armour.


[quote]Soja57 wrote...

Tali
Combat Drone
Sabotage
Energy Drain (Unique)
Quarian Machinist (Passive)

[/quote]

Another great character.

Staying true to Tali in Mass Effect 2 and 3, she has her drone, her ability to make weapons backfire, dampen powers and hack synthetics. In addition she can steal shields from enemies.

Tali is a great tactical character who can ravage synthetics without a sweat.



[quote]Soja57 wrote...

Kaidan
Cryo Blast
Impulse
Arc Grenades (Unique)
Alliance Sentinel (Passive)

[/quote]

I do like this.
My favorite new biotic power Impulse has made its way into Kaidan's arsenal!
The arc grenades provide a great way of removing shields.
The cryo blast weakens armour.

This is a highly versatile character who can remove shields/barriers, debuff and outright damage foes.
Kaidan gets a lot of credit as an amazing biotic, but few people point out that he is also an amazing engineer too.
Kaidan was one of my favorite squadmates to bring in my squad, and somehow you've made Kaidan more awesome.

[quote]Soja57 wrote...


Liara
Singularity
Warp
Biotic Orbs (Unique) - Although I think the orbs floating look kind of silly, I like the idea of the power.
Asari Scientist (Passive)

[/quote]

Stasis is no more.

Still on the bright side we have Singularity which is my favorite biotic power in the single player game.
Then there is warp which is a great source of damage and debuffing.

Finally there is biotic orbs which is also damage dealing.

This is a more DPS focused Liara T'Soni. I like this concept a lot.


[quote]Soja57 wrote...

Wrex
Biotic Charge
Incendiary Ammo
Barrier (Unique) - Grants damage protection but slows down power use. Also grants power damage proportional to barriers remaining; max barriers gives highest bonus, no barriers gives no bonus. Can be purged to lift nearby enemies. Evolutions include lifting protected non-armored enemies.
Krogan Battlemaster (Passive)

[/quote]

So Wrex is invincible, powerful, has biotic charge and incendiary ammo.
You know what my squad for the first section of the game would be

Shepard
Wrex
[Interchangible third squad mate picked at random]

Wrex get's his permanent place because of him being a tank and having biotic charge.
This is just overpowered. But overpowered in the fun way. The set enemies on fire, charge into them then lift them into the air by detonating your barrier kind of awesome!

In other words I love it!


[quote]Soja57 wrote...


=============
Suicide Mission Arc
=============

Miranda
Warp
Stasis
Cryo Grenade (Unique) - Unleashes a cloud of cryogenic gas that snap freezes and damages enemies within the vicinity while weakening armor. The cryogenic cloud remains in the area for a duration, freezing and weakening the armor of additional enemies that enter the cloud. Damage only applies when the grenade is first detonated.
Cerberus Officer (Passive)

[/quote]

Oh you crafty Miranda Lawson.
Stealing Stasis from Liara T'Soni

When Miranda isn't freezing foes with her biotics, she's freezing foes with her grenades.
Then whilst enemies are vunerable (due to being frozen biotically or cryogenically) Miranda launches a warp projectile to tear those foes apart.

This is actually more interesting than the warp, overload, slam setup in Mass Effect 2.
Kudos to your imagination.



[quote]Soja57 wrote...


Jacob - Would personally redesign this character to be a Phoenix Operative.
Stimulant Pack
Lasso
Phase Disruptor (Unique)
Cerberus Operative (Passive)

[/quote]

Phoenix Operative. So we have a huge alteration to Jacob Taylor's character to set about changes in his power setup. Well if you have new dialogue interactions between Jacob and Shepard to take into account his specialised training, this could work.

Simulant Pack is a nice way of restoring the guy's health and barrier. (Very useful for a close quarters squadmate). My initial beef with Jack, Tali in Mass Effect 2 was that they were shotgun squadmates without the survivibility to make using a shotgun worth it.

Jacob didn't have this issue because of his barrier, however this slowed down his coodowns so much it made his pull power less useful.

What we have here is stim packs that will bring his barrier's back up.
Phase disruptor that will expend his barriers.
Then we have a close ranged pull that deals a lot more damage than regular pull and relies on cooldowns.

Great synergy.
Great concept.
Great powers.

Now I'm finally willing to take the risk, because the "priiiiize" is worth it!


[quote]Soja57 wrote...


Mordin
Incinerate
Cryo Blast
Neurotoxin (Unique) - Heavily-revised version of Nightshade Blades. Fires a single poison-tipped blade that deals direct damage and poison damage over time. Paralyzes any organic enemy (50% effectiveness against protected targets). Uses a consumable supply. Evolutions include multiple blades, and increasing effectiveness of fire-based powers.
Salarian Scientist (Passive)

[/quote]

So pretty much the same as Mordin in Mass Effect 2, except for a new improved ability that is half neural shock and half nightshad blades.

Also uses consumables so you can use your cooldowns for your two elemental projectiles.
Nice ideas. Neat concept.
Mordin is even more amazing than before!

[quote]Soja57 wrote...


Grunt
Concussive Shot
Incendiary Ammo
Fortification (Unique) - Grants the highest damage protection, can be purged to increase melee damage, speed, radius, and force.
Krogan Berserker (Passive)

[/quote]

I'm liking what I see.
It's pretty much the same as Grunt in Mass Effect 2, but with better buffs.
Much better buffs.

Is there anyway to make Commander Shepard a krogan (instead of human) and bring both Grunt and Wrex on the squad? No?
The modding community hasn't a solution yet.

Well. Till then, I have my imagination and your epic concepts.


[quote]Soja57 wrote...



Jack
Impulse
Shockwave
Lift Grenade (Unique)
Subject Zero (Passive)
[/quote]

A whole bundle of awesome right there.

You put impulse and shockwave in the same character and then topped it of with lift grenades.
This is a trully amazing character with some fantastic abilities.

Dealing heavy damage and rag dolling foes like nobody's business.
Finally the personality of Jack from Mass Effect 2/3 has been realised through the choice of powers.


[quote]Soja57 wrote...

Samara/Morinth
Warp
Throw
Biotic Sphere/Dominate (Unique) - Biotic Sphere should have a buffed radius to balance it for the Singleplayer.
Asari Justicar/Ardat-Yakshi (Passive)

[/quote]

I love it.
The standard warp + throw is good for your damage and debuffing.

Now to the really interesting bit.

Biotic Sphere (my favorite defensive power in the game) is in Samara's arsenal!
This provides damage protection to the squad and some offensive bonuses too!

Then there is Morinth's Dominate (I love this power!) The epic organic mind control power!



[quote]Soja57 wrote...



Thane
Warp Ammo
Pull
Shadow Strike (Unique) - ME3 version, but uses default heavy melee attack.
Drell Assassin (Passive)

[/quote]

All good.
This fits Thane much better than Mass Effect 2.

Using biotics to improve his weapon damage.
Pulling enemies from afar.
Using stealth to perform take downs.

All of this is so much more Thane like than Mass Effect 2 (which was another adept but with shredder ammo).


[quote]Soja57 wrote...


Legion
Disruptor Ammo
Remote Mine
Sentry Turret (Unique) (Combines Sentry Turret and Geth Turret)
Geth Infiltrator (Passive)

[/quote]

You know what my problem with Legion in Mass Effect 2 was?
Too much like Tali.

This resolves the issue I had.
Legion can now deliver powerful damage versus shields, barriers and synthetics.
He has mines that can deal heavy damage.

Then to cap it all off he has a turret that can be launched at choke points.

Soften up the foes with the mine and finish them off with the turret.
If any survive, the disruptor ammo + weapon will finish them off!

Great kit!
The Geth have reached a consensus.
They love it!


[quote]Soja57 wrote...

Kasumi
Sabotage
Overload
Flashbang Grenades (Unique) - Incapacitates and damages enemies, while increasing damage dealt to affected enemies.
Master Thief (Passive)

[/quote]

Shadow strike was given to Thane.

Let's look at Kasumi.
She can debuff enemies with both sabotage and flash bang grenades.

She can take care of shields and barriers with her overload.

Did you know I brought Kasumi to most of the missions in Mass Effect 2?
You know what? That epic squadmate is still epic, despite losing her shadow strike.

This is a great squadmate to have for adepts who want to reach the squishy health as quickly as possible.


[quote]Soja57 wrote...

Zaeed
Augmentation
Concussive Shot
Inferno Grenades (Unique)
Mercenary Veteran (Passive)

[/quote]

Zaeed rocks.

His augmentation improves his abilities and gives him the protection needed to give his enmies hell!
Add to thsi the concussive shot to throw enemies and grenades to devastate foes and you have an amazing character.

He's lost his ammo power, but you can bring Grunt or Legion to fill that void.

Zaeed + (Grunt or Legion) + Shepard = A really powerful team that will blitz their way through Mass Effect 2, especially with your concepts.

[quote]Soja57 wrote...

_____________________________________________________________________

============
Galaxy At War Arc
============

James
Frag Grenades
Concussive Shot
Cryo Ammo (Unique)
Arms Master (Passive)

[/quote]

Cryo Ammo! Finally Cryo Ammo!
In Mass Effect 2 & 3 I wanted to use Cryo Ammo on my Adept (who is the only cryoless class in the game).

So you can have this power as a bonus power, or just borrow James' squad ammo. Awesome! Okay end of review. He has cryo ammo! Just kidding. There's more.

Concussive shot and frag greandes are nice powers. But it's the cryo ammo that grabbed my attention!

I love this!


[quote]Soja57 wrote...


EDI
Snap Freeze
Decoy
Scanner Vision (Unique) - Basically Hunter Mode, but reduced HUD overlay, and reduced range
Unshackled AI (Passive)

[/quote]

Okay I think you can guess what I think of this kit.
If I really liked James Vega because of his cryo ammo, chances are I'm fond of SNAP FREEZE.

I love this power so much. N7 Paladin was one of my favorite characters online.

You seem to be inspired by that Alliance Infiltration Unit.

I like the decoy. It's nice.

The variation of Geth Hunter Mode is a nice enhancement power with some neat buffs.


[quote]Soja57 wrote...


Javik
Lasso
Warp Ammo
Dark Sphere (Unique) - Deals warp damage to enemies caught in the sphere, weakening them to biotics. Can be detonated for massive damage and force. Casting has a short cooldown, but detonating will activate a longer cooldown proportional to cast cooldown. Evolutions include warp damage priming enemies for a biotic detonation, or dark sphere detonation detonating biotic effects (Unsure whether to allow the power to detonate itself with the right evolutions chosen).
Vengeful Ancient (Passive)

[/quote]

Lasso. You know what I think about this power. It's a powerful yanking pull. Get over here!

Dark Sphere was a power I never got to use because I never unlocked the Awakened Collector. But it looks really amazing from what I've seen. Hadoken!

Warp Ammo. Sadly I can't use a beat em up reference for this power. Still. Warp ammo is a really good power, especially your version that involves hammer head rounds. Now I can fling foes across the battlefield like a boss!


[quote]Soja57 wrote...



Omega DLC: A missed opportunity. I thought the Omega DLC could have been better, and this is a great discussion thread about granting more choices for the final outcome of the Omega DLC. The thread also discusses the possibility of bringing along one of the temporary squadmates as a permanent squadmate.

Aria
Augmentation
Pull
Flare (Unique) - Evolutions include working through shields and barriers but at reduced effectiveness.
Biotic Boss (Passive)

[/quote]

Glad carnage has gone. I do love the power but it seemed a bit pointless when you have Flare, which is a giant biotic Hadoken. Okay. I'll stop with the beat em up references. Promise.

I love flare.
Augmentation is a really nice combat power.

Pull is a great way of bring enemies towards you.

[quote]Soja57 wrote...


Nyreen
Incinerate
Throw
Submission Net (Unique) - Wraps an electric net around the target, dealing damage while enemies are trapped. Unprotected enemies are paralyzed, while protected enemies are slowed down. Enemies that approach close to the target are also shocked but at reduced damage.
Turian Huntress (Passive)

_____________________________________________________________________

[/quote]

Incinerate is a very good power.
Throw is a very good power.


Submission Net is really nice. I feel like Spiderman whenever I launch it at my enemies.
Those electric effects are great. Nice reduction in movement speed too.

All good stuff.


I love all your characters.
You really put a lot of thought into this!


Finally. Thank for all your feedback on my adept.
Here is the improved version of the adept. My next kit will be the engineer.

Modifié par Abraham_uk, 16 janvier 2014 - 02:37 .

[Soja57]

This is indeed a great brain exercise. I am about to enter a Game Design and Development program at my University, and I plan on becoming a game developer of some sort, whether it be for indie games or possibly even joining bigger companies. I get a feeling that the discussion and content in this thread is great preparation for a future game developer, as it dives deep into game mechanics and also shows various opinions gamers can have on parts of a game.

Anyway, back on topic.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Abraham_uk, while I do agree with RedCaesar97 that stealth mechanics may not fit that well with many of the classes, stealth can be incorporated into the game much better than how it is currently handled.

Ever played Army of Two? It is a tactical third person shooter where you control a character and a squadmate. The game has a unique system known as Aggro. Aggro is similar to a threat system found commonly in Fantasy RPG's, where enemies will attack a character based on threat or Aggro. Having high aggro means you have most of the enemy attention, while your partner has low aggro. Your partner is essentially invisible and can sneak behind enemies to perform stealth kills.

You gain aggro based on your weapon, how visible you are to enemies, how close you are to enemies, and your current action. Shooting at enemies pulls massive aggro, while remaining hidden loses aggro. Using an example in ME3: Carrying a Heavy Weapon makes you a high target, but a mere pistol not so much. If a Vanguard charges at a target, the Vanguard will probably be the highest threat. You get the idea.

Incorporating this system into ME3 can combine a threat system with stealth mechanics. Though I am unsure on how good squadmates can stay hidden and manage aggro at your command, since Army of Two only has one squadmate, while ME3 has two squadmates.

Rather than make stealth mode a toggle option, you could simply combine it with a crouch button. Crouching reduces your footstep noise while making you harder to spot. I like the idea of preemptive strikes to reduce the amount of enemies in an engagement. Powers and weapons should have consistent noise, meaning that they always make the same amount of noise, regardless of a "stealth mode". This is too put emphasis on being a preemptive strike, rather than staying in stealth mode throughout a whole engagement. However, if you manage squad threat/aggro well enough, a skilled player can take down many basic enemies.

Melee takedowns (stealth melee) should be limited to an omni-blade attack, regardless of class. Sure the omni-blade is pretty bright, but compared to other melee attacks, it is the one that kills the fastest and most efficient without much noise or ragdolling targets. I feel that if done well without making the AI dumb, stealth can be a great addition to the series.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I am about over half way done with my Adept class. I have been very careful in making each power unique and making evolutions meaningful. I have also made the biotic combos very interesting, and allowing the Adept to create many different combos, offering a variety of playstyles. The trickiest part is the Adept's passive and specializations, which I haven't touched on yet.

Modifié par Soja57, 16 janvier 2014 - 03:25 .

[Abraham_uk]

Engineer:

Stats taken from Soja 57:

Health

-Capacity = 600 health (3 segments, 200 health per segment)

-Regeneration = 6 seconds (4 second delay, 2 seconds per segment)

Shields

-Capacity = 600 shields

-Regeneration = 8 seconds (4 second delay, 25% restored per second)


Heavy Melee: Incendiary Omniblade

An omniblade is slashed in a diagonal type movement. This deals double damage versus health and armour to a single target.

-Damage = 400 damage


Combos: The Engineer has 4 different types of combos. (The amount of damage for each combo are place holders)

Tech Burst: When overload is preceded or followed by cryo blast then a tech burst is formed that will only
impact the target in question. 

Damage: 250 points of damage to single target (x2 versus
shields and barriers)


Electric Fire: When overload is preceded or followed by incinerate then an electric fire is formed that will last 10 seconds. 

Damage: 25 damage per second to single target
Duration: 10 seconds


Steam Combo: When incinerate is preceded or followed by cryo blast then a cloud of damaging steam will emerge around the affected target.

Damage: 15 points of damage per second (x2 versus armour and health)
Duration: 5 seconds
Area of Effect: 2m


Despersion Combos: All physics based powers such as levitation, throw, biotic trap, concussive shot, whiplash, lasso etc can spred the elemental effects (fire, ice and lightning) across the battlefield.

Foes affected by despersed affects will take 40% of the damage/debuffs of the source power (overload, incinerate, cryo blast).

Damage: 40% of source power's
Duration: Depends on the power that desperses the effects.
Area of Effect: Depends on the power that desperses the effects.

Overload, Incinerate and Cryo Blast do not have despersion evolutions.

In order to pull one off, make sure that despersing powers such as levitation/throw/biotic trap have been specced for despersions.


____________________________________________________________________________

Combat Drone: This drone has many roles in combat. It can stalk enemies to kill them quickly, or it can draw aggro away from the engineer, or it can restore ally shields or deal damage.


Type: Sustained (Pet)

Rank 1a: unlock Combat Drone

Deploy this attack drone to stun targets and draw enemy fire.

Every 2 seconds the drone will fire electric pulses that will deal moderate damage.


Drone Damage: 5 (x2 versus shields and barriers)
Drone Shields: 500
Cooldown: 10 seconds


Rank 1b: unlock Defence
Drone

Deploy a holographic drone to attack foes who are close to the engineer.


Recharge Speed: 4 seconds
Drone Damage: 8 (x2 versus shields and barriers)
Drone Shields: 300
Range: Will attack all foes within 5m of engineer
Cooldown: 10 seconds


Rank 2a:  Close Quarters Drone
Pulses will now gain a x1.5 damage bonus if the target is within 2m of the drone.


Rank 2b: Resiliant Drone 
Increases drone shields by 20%


Rank 3a: Rocket Drone
Every 8 seconds the drone will fire a rocket dealing 40 points of damage


Rank 3b: Flamethrower:
The drone will unleash a flamethrower on targets within 1 metre of the drone dealing 5 points of damage per second (x2 versus armour and health)


Rank 4a: Medical Drone:
Adds a number of effects to the Drone.

Effect 1: Every 8 seconds, the drone will a series of heat seaking pulses that will restore 20% of  all ally shields.

Effect 2: Regular Pulses from the drone will organic paralyze enemies without protections.

Effect 3: Boosts the drone's shields by 20%



Rank 4b: Explosive Drone: 
Drone Explodes when destroyed, dealing 75 damage to all targets within 5 metre radius. 


____________________________________________________________________________


Overload: Zap enemies with electricity.  


Rank 1a: Heavy Overload
Hit one target dealing heavy damage to their shields
Overload electronics with this power surge, stunning your enemy.

Damage: 100 (x2 versus shields and barriers)
Cooldown: 6 seconds


Rank 1b: Chain Overload

Hit one target dealing heavy damage to their shields
Overload electronics with this power surge, stunning your enemy.

Hit one target plus two additional targets, as a result of sparks jumping from one target to the next.

Damage: 60 (x2 versus shields and barriers)
Cooldown: 6 seconds


Rank 2a: Neural Shock
Incapacitate unprotected organic targets for 3 seconds.
Stun unprotected targets for 2 seconds.
Increase damage versus unprotected targets by 30%


Rank 2b:  Shield Disabling
Shield regeneration for targets will be completely disabled.
Increase damage versus shields and barriers by 15%


Rank 3a: Damage Over Time
The target will recieve 10 points of damage per second for 5 seconds.

Rank 3b: Combo Damage
All tech combos involving overload (except despersion combos) deal 20% extra damage.

Rank 4a: Shield Boost
Every time the engineer uses overload, they recieve the following bonuses: 

Shields Restored: The engineer recieves 20% of their shields back.
Damage Resistance: 15% for 3 seconds


Rank 4b: Damage
Overload gains 20% damage bonus


____________________________________________________________________________



Incinerate: Incinerate is the same as Mass Effect 2 & 3, except it deals zero impact damage and instead adds a
burning damage over time effect.



TypeActive (Damage)

A damaging missile that has a base damage of 20 points a second versus health. Deals 30 points a second versus armour and 10 points a second versus barriers and shields.



Rank 1a: Unlock Heavy Incineration

Send an incineration projectile that burns foe dealing heavy damage. Burns foe for 15 seconds.

Instant Damage: 100 (x2 versus armour and health)
Damage Per Second: 10 (x2 versus armour and health)
Burn Duration: 15 seconds
Cooldown: 6 seconds



Rank 1b: Carnage
The incinerate projectile will cause unprotected targets to fall and protected targets to stagger.
Instant Damage: 60 (x2 versus armour and health)
Damage Per Second: 5 (x2 versus armour and health)
Burn Duration: 10 seconds.
Force: 400 N
Area: 2 metres
Cooldown: 6 seconds


Rank 2a:  Damage and Duration
Increase the duration by 20%.
Increase damage by 20%


Rank 2b: Elemental Combos: 
Increases combo damage by 20%


Rank 3a: Intense flames.
+20% damage bonus to incinerate's damage over time


Rank 3b: Instant flame
+20 damage bonus to incinerate's splash damage.


Rank 4a: High Degree Burns
If the enemy is still alive once the burning effect has worn off, they will suffer 50% penality to accuracy and 25% penality to all damage output. 

In addition the damage of incinerate is increased by 20%.


Rank 4b: Dual Incineration

The engineer casts two separate incinerate projectiles. 

The damage output of each projectile will be reduced by 40%.
The radius of effect of each projectiles will be reduced by 30%.





____________________________________________________________________________



Cryo Blast: 
Cast a cryo missile that hits enemies in an arc. Same as Mass Effect 2 and 3 except for one major difference. Strickly zero damage output. Just debuffs. Cryo Blast also incorporates elements of damping (a tech power from Mass Effect 1).

Type: Active (Support)


Rank 1a: Unlock Area Freeze
Over an area of 2.5 metres, grind all unprotected targets to a halt and slow down protected targets by 20%

Radius: 2.5metres

Duration: 5 seconds
Vulnerability: Foes take +5% damage from all sources.
Cooldown: 6 seconds


Reduces the all % bonuses of Cryo Blast's ranks 2-4 by 50%.


Rank 1b: Unlock Heavy Freeze 
Freeze one target for a long period of time. Slow down protected targets by 40%
Duration: 10
Vulnerability: Foes take 10% damage from all sources

Cooldown: 6 seconds


Rank 2a: Damping.
Affected enemies will have their power cooldowns increased by 50%.
No foe is immune to this effect.

Rank 2b: Shield Weakening
Barriers and Shields take 20% more damage from all sources.

Rank 3a: Disruption
Disruption Removes enhancement powers from enemies such as adreanline rush, tactical cloak, tech armour, biotic focus and ammo powers. In addition, disruption completly removes an enemies ability to use biotic, tech and combat powers as long as the foe is frozen or chilled.

Please note that on insanity, the cooldowns of enemies are increased by an additional 50% instead of being flat out removed.


Rank 3b: Snow Blind
Reduces enemy accuracy for both weapon and power usage by 50%


Rank 4a: Elemental Combos 
Combos setup by cryo blast deal 20% extra damage.


Rank 4b: Deep Freeze
Armour and health take an additional 20% extra damage from all sources.
Chilled targets slow down by an additional 20%.

____________________________________________________________________________

Sabotage: 
This power hacks synthetic targets turning them into temporary allies. On organics, this power makes weapons backfire. 

Type: Active (Support)

The backfire no longer deals damage, but it does jam weapons for 20 seconds.
Sabotage also has debuffs to enemy damage output.

I removed the damage output of sabotage since the engineer already has 3 damage dealing powers (combat drone, overload and incinerate).


AI Hacking lasts x seconds and will work on any synthetic foe (but with diminishing rates of return, meaning if you use it on the same foe, they will only remain hacked for 5 seconds, then 2.5 seconds then they will be immune at your 4th attempt to hack them). Hacking requires shields to be down (but will work on armoured targets).

Sabotage will cause foes weapons to backfire and jam for x seconds.

Please note that many foes will have a secondary weapon which they will switch to (which won't be affected by sabotage). On insanity difficulty all enemies have at least 2 weapons (with boss enemies boasting a third weapon).



So is backfire useless? Not really. All enemies will have their most powerful weapon equipped by default (heavy weapon, sniper rifle, assault rifle or shotgun). Sabotage will cause the enemy to switch to a pistol or SMG greatly reducing the enemy's damage output.




Rank 1a: Unlock Focused Sabotage
Plague an foe with the affects of weapon dysfunction and turn a hostile synthetic into an allied synthetic wiht AI hacking.

Weapon Dysfunction Duration: (How long an enemy's weapon won't work) 20 seconds.
AI Hacking Duration: 20 seconds
Cooldown: 12 seconds


Rank 1b: Unlock Area Sabotage
Plague multiple foes with the affects of weapon dysfunction and turn multiple hostile synthetics into allied synthetics with AI hacking.

Weapon Dysfunction Duration: (How long an enemy's weapon won't work) 10 seconds.
AI Hacking Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown:[/b] 12 seconds
Radius: 2 metres



Rank 2a: Melee Sabotage
Sabotage will flat out break the enemy's melee weapon, be it an omni-blade, phantom sword or Krogan War Hammer. Biotic melee attacks are not affected by the sabotage.


Rank 2b: Improved Hacking
Hacked AI deal 50% extra damage.
In addition hacking duration lasts 15 seconds.


Rank 3a: Broken Guns
All weapons will deal 40% less damage after the jamming debuff has worn off.
The 40% less damage effect lasts indefinitely but cannot be stacked.

Rank 3b:[/b]  Durable AI 
Indefinite duration on AI. They will remain hacked till they are destroyed. Boss level AI however will merely remain hacked for 10 seconds. In addition the AI will have their shields restored when Sabotage has been casted upon them and 50% damage resistance.



Rank 4a: Chaotic AI[/u]
The hacked synthetic will draw more attention to themselves. The other synthetics will quickly turn on the synthetic.
When the hacked synthetic runs out of health, they will explode dealing 100 points of damage uniformly.


Rank 4b: Elemental Vulnerability
Fire and Lightning based attacks (from incinerate, overload, incendiary ammo, disruptor ammo etc) deal 20% extra damage to foes affected by sabotage.

____________________________________________________________________________


Tech Mastery: 


Type: Passive

Description: Improve the engineer's performance in combat.


Rank 1a:  Powerful Casting
Increases the engineer's power damage by 20%

Rank 1b: Rapid Casting
Reduces the engineer's cooldowns by 30% 


Rank 2a: Commando Training
The engineer can equip a second weapon in combat.
Weapons deal 20% extra damage to any target affected by: overload, incinerate, cryo blast and sabotage.

Rank 2b: Master Saboteur
Increases durations of all effects from Cryo Blast and Sabotage (not including AI Hacking) by 50%.


Rank 3b: Improved Defence
+50% more barriers.  + 50% more health.
Increasing the Engineer's hit points to 900 Shields and 900 Health.

Also, every time the engineer performs a combo, they gain 10% of their shields back.


Rank 4a: Puppet Master.
Improves the duration and damage output of Combat Drone, is improved by 10%
The duration and damage output of hacked targets is improved by 20% (both duration and damage)

In addition, the duration and damage of Geth Turret (should this bonus power be picked) will be improved by 20%.


Rank 4b: Combo Casting
Elemental combos deal 30% extra damage and gain a 10% bonus to radius of effect.

________________________________________________________________________

Modifié par Abraham_uk, 29 janvier 2014 - 08:52 .

[Soja57]

I've reviewed your changes to the Adept and your new Engineer. Reviewing these powers feels like it is taking longer than it should because all of evolutions are so sophisticated and add many new mechanics to the power. With these many new additions, many of the powers overlap too much, and with all of these evolutions, I have to consider how each evolution plays a role in balancing powers in terms of power synergy, uniqueness, and overall class power loadout, which you can tell takes awhile (and is why it is taking so long for my Adept class).

It feels like many of the evolutions are gimmicky features and make the powers overpowered. Also, there are many balancing issues that break the game, such as insanely long durations that can shut down crowds of enemies. Some of your explanations for the evolutions are overly complicated, such as damage multipliers vs certain protections. Something more akin to ME3 with short, concise descriptions for evolutions and simple yet meaningful evolutions would allow audiences an easier time learning the evolutions and powers and how each evolution interacts with the overall power and other powers.

That said, I'm done with my Adept class.

Modifié par Soja57, 17 janvier 2014 - 07:34 .

[Soja57]

Before I can begin on my Adept class, here are a few basic guidelines that I am going to follow.

1. Power damage uses both Incinerate and Warp in ME3 Singleplayer as a reference.

2. Cooldowns are similar to ME2, where weapons don't affect cooldowns, and uses a tiered cooldown system: 3, 4.5, and 6 second cooldowns.

3. Follows ME3 format for ranks and evolutions, except 6th rank has been removed.

4. Enemy protections reduce the force and duration of crowd control effects to 0% (meaning no effectiveness) unless stated otherwise.

5. Health system has been modified to have 3 segments instead of 5, making health more useful in survival while keeping medi-gel as the only way to restore full health.

6. All classes can carry a max total weapon weight of 100%, all classes start with 0% bonus, and can only carry 3 weapons with a sidearm being a requirement (Basic Primary Weapons weigh 50%, Basic Sidearms weigh 30%)

7. Physics damage is dealt when an enemy hits another object while ragdolled. The total damage dealt is based primarily on enemy velocity, therefore, the best ways to deal physics damage is to lift enemies very high up or push them with a lot of force.

8. All powers now deal some form of damage (30 damage for powers that don't have a native damage value). This is to counteract enemy shields that were regenerating while being lifted by Pull, which negated the force effects of Throw and other physics-based combos.

____________________________________________________________________________




Health
-Capacity = 600 health (3 segments, 200 health per segment)
-Regeneration = 6 seconds (4 second delay, 2 seconds per segment)

Barriers
-Capacity = 600 barriers
-Regeneration = 8 seconds (4 second delay, 25% restored per second)

Heavy Melee: Biotic Push
Push unprotected enemies away in a wide radius with massive force while dealing damage. Staggers protected targets.
-Damage = 300 damage
-Force = 900 N
-Impact Radius = 3 meters

____________________________________________________________________________


Singularity (Class-exclusive power)

Create a sphere of dark energy that damages any enemy caught in the field while lifting and trapping unprotected targets. Protected targets have significantly reduced movement speed while remaining inside the Singularity. Singularity remains awhile longer after enemies have been lifted away. Primes ragdolled targets for a biotic detonation; dissipates after a biotic detonation.

Rank 1: Singularity
-Damage Per Second = 30 damage
-Hold Duration = 5 seconds
-Singularity Duration = 1.5x Hold Duration
-Radius = 2 meters
-Movement Speed Reduction = 40%
-Cooldown = 4.5 seconds

Rank 2: Cooldown
-Cooldown +20%

Rank 3: Damage & Radius
-Damage +20%, Radius +30%

Rank 4:

a. Heavy Singularity
-Duration & Damage +30%

b. Wide Singularity
-Singularity gains +30% Radius, and grants +25% bonus to radius of combos and detonations when uses as a primer.

Rank 5:

a. Piercing Singularity
-Singularity can prime any protected target for a biotic detonation, but detonating on a protected target gives a 0.5x effectiveness. Does not lift protected targets. Can allow other biotic powers with piercing evolutions to deal full force vs non-armored targets.

b. Distortion Singularity
-Damage +50%
-Singularity now deals 1.5x damage vs Barriers and Armor


- - - - - - - - - -


Pull

Yank an opponent helplessly off the ground while staggering protected targets. Primes ragdolled targets for a biotic detonation.

Rank 1: Pull
-Lift Force = 300 N (Determines lift velocity of lifted target, benefits from force bonuses)
-Direct Damage = 30 damage (Deals only 0.5x of its Direct Damage against protected targets.)
-Duration = 3.6 seconds
-Impact Radius = 1 meter
-Cooldown = 3 seconds

Rank 2: Cooldown
-Cooldown +20%

Rank 3: Duration
-Duration +25%

Rank 4:

a. Heavy Pull
-Duration +50%
-Lift Force +100%

b. Area Pull
-Impact Radius +1.5 meters

Rank 5:

a. Piercing Pull
-Can pierce through shields and barriers but duration and lift force have a 0.5x effectiveness. Direct Damage pierces to deal full damage vs protected targets. All combos and detonations can also pierce, but have a global effectiveness reduction as well. Can allow other biotic powers with piercing evolutions to deal full force.

b. Pull Combo
-Pull grants +25% bonus to force and damage of combos and detonations when used as a primer.


- - - - - - - - - -


Warp

Rip your enemy apart at the molecular level, dealing massive instant damage while dealing minor continuous damage. When Warp is used on a biotically-primed enemy, Warp destabilizes the current biotic effect for a Warp detonation. Warp detonations applies Warp's effects in a wide radius, amplifies Warp's damage, and grants force capable of knocking down unprotected enemies while staggering protected targets.

Rank 1: Warp
-Instant Damage = 150 damage (1.5x vs Barriers and Armor)
-Damage Per Second = 8.33 damage (1.5x vs Barriers and Armor)
-Duration = 6 seconds
-Detonation Damage = 2x total damage
-Detonation Radius = 3 meters
-Detonation Force = 600 N
-Cooldown = 6 seconds

Rank 2: Cooldown
-Cooldown +20%

Rank 3: Damage
-Damage +20%

Rank 4:

a. Warp Primer
-Warp can prime any affected enemy, regardless of protections, for a biotic detonation (cannot prime if Warp was used as a detonator). Cannot be detonated by another Warp. Biotic detonations vs protected targets have a only 0.5x effectiveness.

b. Unstable Warp
-Warp detonations gain 1.5x effectiveness.

Rank 5:

a. Amplifying Warp
-Warp weakens enemies to successive biotic powers for its duration. Does not affect the currently-casted Warp, but can affect successive Warps.
-Biotic Force & Damage Bonus = +30%

b. Lasting Warp
-Damage & Duration +30%


- - - - - - - - - -

Throw

Toss unprotected enemies through the air with this biotic blast while staggering protected targets.

Rank 1: Throw
-Force = 900 N
-Direct Damage = 30 damage (Deals only 0.5x of its Direct Damage against protected targets.)
-Impact Radius = 1 meter
-Cooldown = 3 seconds

Rank 2: Cooldown
-Cooldown +20%

Rank 3: Force
-Force +20%

Rank 4:

a. Damaging Throw
-Deals +10% of Total Force as Direct Damage. Deals only 0.5x of its Direct Damage against protected targets.

b. Area Throw
Force +30%, Impact Radius +1.5 meters

Rank 5:

a. Piercing Throw
Can pierce through shields and barriers but at 50% reduced force. Direct Damage pierces to deal full damage vs protected targets. Can combine with other biotic powers with piercing evolutions to deal full force.

b. Throw Detonation
-When Throw is used on a biotically-primed enemy, Throw utilizes the current biotic effect to create an amplified Throw field. Throw detonations apply Throw's effects in a wide radius, throwing multiple enemies in a direction with massive force and dealing damage.
-Detonation Damage = Deals +10% of Total Force as Direct Damage. Deals only 0.5x of its Direct Damage against protected targets.
-Detonation Radius = +1.5 meters


- - - - - - - - - -


Impulse Grenade

Throw this grenade that generates a large but unstable shifting mass effect field that deals heavy damage to nearby targets. After a short delay, the mass effect field destabilizes to create an implosion that pulls unprotected enemies towards the center of the blast while staggering protected targets. Delay allows the initial damage to potentially strip defenses, allowing the implosion to pull in the enemies stripped of defenses.

Rank 1: Impulse Grenade
-Initial Damage = 300 damage (1.5x vs Armor and Barriers)
-Impulse Delay = 1 second
-Force = 900 N
-Impact Radius = 4 meters
-Grenade Capacity = 2 Grenades

Rank 2: Grenade Capacity
-Grenade Capacity +1

Rank 3: Damage
-Damage +25%

Rank 4:

a. Heavy Impulse
-Damage & Radius +25%

b. Grenade Capacity
-Grenade Capacity +1

Rank 5:

a. Piercing Impulse
-Implosion can pierce through shields and barriers, allowing the implosion to pull in non-armored targets.
-Armor and Barrier Damage 1.2x (Multiplies base multiplier)

b. Detonation Impulse
-When a biotically-primed enemy is hit by Impulse Grenade's initial damage, the resulting implosion will now also deal damage along with an amplified radius.
-Impulse Detonation Damage = 0.5x Initial Damage
-Impulse Detonation Radius = 1.5x Impact Radius


- - - - - - - - - -


Biotic Mastery

Improve the Adept's abilities in combat.

Rank 1: Biotic Mastery
-Power Damage Bonus = +10%
-Power Cooldown Bonus = +10%
-Weight Capacity Bonus = +10%

Rank 2: Power Damage
-Power Damage Bonus +10%

Rank 3: Weight Capacity
Weight Capacity +10%

Rank 4:

a. Power Damage & Force
-Power Damage & Force Bonus +25%

b. Power Cooldown
-Power Cooldown Bonus +20%

Rank 5:

a. Unlock Nemesis Specialization
-Specialize in obliterating enemy targets with biotic fields.

b. Unlock Bastion Specialization
-Specialize in using biotics to bolster overall combat performance.

____________________________________________________________________________


Specializations:

- - - - - - - - - -

Nemesis Specialization (Unlock via Biotic Mastery)
Specialize in obliterating enemy targets with biotic fields.

Rank 1: Nemesis Specialization
-Power Duration Bonus = +25%
-Power Radius Bonus = +25%

Rank 2: Power Duration
-Power Duration +15%

Rank 3: Power Radius
-Power Radius +15%

Rank 4:

a. Power Bonus
-Power Damage & Force +25%
-Power Duration +10%

b. Primer Damage
-All duration-based powers deal +50% Damage Per Second (Pull now gains the ability to also deal Direct Damage as Damage Per Second)

Rank 5:

a. Power Mastery
-Power Damage and Force gain bonuses proportional to Barriers remaining, with a maximum of 30% bonus with full barriers. When barriers are depleted, no bonus is given.

b. Combo Mastery
-Completing a biotic combo or detonation gives the current power cooldown a 50% cooldown reduction bonus.


- - - - - - - - - -


Bastion Specialization (Unlock via Biotic Mastery)
Specialize in using biotics to bolster overall combat performance.

Rank 1: Bastion Specialization
-Health & Barriers Bonus = +20%
-Melee Damage = +25%

Rank 2: Weight Capacity
-Weight Capacity Bonus +15%

Rank 3: Health & Barriers
-Health & Barriers Bonus +25%

Rank 4:

a. Barrier Bonus
-Barrier Delay Reduction +40%

b. Melee Mastery
-Melee Damage +25%
-Heavy melee can work through shields and barriers, allowing it to push shielded enemies but at 0.5x force. Can stack with biotic powers with piercing evolutions for full force effectiveness.

Rank 5:

a. Barrier Mastery
-Health & Barriers Bonus +30%
-Barrier Regeneration Rate +40%.

b. Debuff Mastery
-Melee and Weapons deal 20% more damage to enemies affected by biotics.

Modifié par Soja57, 14 février 2014 - 04:33 .

[Abraham_uk]

Wow. Probably need to rethink my concepts for adept and engineer.
They're pretty terrible by the looks of things.

I'll come back to you on that.

_______________________________________________________________


Anyway, interesting take on the adept.
I love the return to the old specialisations.
Got some interesting ideas.

I like what you've done there.
Expect a review soon.

Modifié par Abraham_uk, 17 janvier 2014 - 08:04 .

[RedCaesar97]

@Abraham_uk:

I read your ideas for the Engineer. Here are my initial impressions:

1) I think you have some interesting ideas about the Engineer's powers, but I think you got a little too creative. I recommend scaling some of your ideas back a bit. You will see what I mean as I go on.

2) Combat Drone: Unless enemies have 10,000+ health and shields/armor/barriers, it seems like an Engineer can just cast Combat Drone and win. A lot of damage, shields, and potentially devasting evolutions at ranks 4 and 5 with ammo powers + two drones at rank 6? That is overkill.

3) Overload: Ranks 1-3 look good, but Combat Drone already deals more damage. Starting at rank 4 however, your evolutions get a little confusing with some of the combo multipliers. Some very interesting evolutions however.

4) Incinerate: All damage is dealt over time, which means no damage is dealt up front. At a glance, it looks like it would deal more damage per second than the Combat Drone. Personal preference, but I would prefer to see more damage up front, similar to how it worked in ME2 and ME3 where 75% of damage is up front and 25% is dealt over time; you have this in rank 5b (rank 5a is obviously superior however).

I think I am still a little confused about the combos. I do not think some of the evolutions seem worth considering/

5) Briefly about the combos: I think you are overthinking it with the elemental combos. For example, you say:
"When incinerate is preceeded or followed by cryo blast, this creates a steam combo" and
"When incinerate is preceeded or followed by overload this creates an electric fire that will last 10 seconds" and
"When overload is preceeded or followed by cryo blast then a tech burst is formed that will only impact the target in question".

Judging by this, you can have multiple combos and effects going at once unless I am mistaken. Again, I think this is overkill.

6) Cryo Blast: It does not freeze unprotected enemies until rank 2? What the heck?

Like you said, Cryo Blast is strictyl debuffs, but I am not sure why you need them on the Engineer when the Combat Drone is so overpowered in the damage output. Unless enemies have 10,000+ Health and Shields/Barriers/Armor, the debuffs do not seem like much up front.

And also this rank:

Rank 6c: Slipery Ice
When the freeze/chilled effects have worn off, a sheet 2 metre radius of ice will emerge where the foes thawed.

What the heck is in your futuristic ice power? When the ice thaws it forms more ice?

7) Sabotage: Starts out well, but it seems like you are stretching some of your evolutions a bit. It starts out as a tech disruptor, but by the end some of the evolutions are affecting organic health ("Myopic Sabotage" and "Circulatory Sabotage" for example). Keep your powers focused.

8) Tech Mastery: Not much to say here. I think it is very solid. I have an issue with rank 5a "Cover". Unless I misunderstand, this evolution basically says to keep at least one squadmate alive so you will never die. Other than that, the evolutions seem fine.

You also say "adept" a few times when I think you meant Engineer. Unless you did mean Adept which seems weird how an Engineer evolution helps another class.




@Soja57: I will review your Adept the next chance I get.
@Abraham_uk: I need to go back and review your Adept which I still have not done yet.

[Abraham_uk]

 I have some major editing to do.

First of all, some most of my evolutions are garbage.
I am not going to be nice just because I'm talking about my own concepts.

____________________________________________________________________________

I am changing the setup:

The trouble with the system I adpoted is that in ranks 1-3 you had to simply pick what you're given and they are only really barriers to the interesting evolutions.

Rank 1 Will be normally 2 very different versions of the same power.
(for example for levitation you'll have a choice between pull or lift)

Rank 1a: 
Rank 1b:

Rank 2: will normally (not always) be a choice between damage output and area of effect.

Rank 2a
Rank 2b

Rank 3: will normally be focused on combos (though not quite as overpowered)
This will normally be a question of do you want this power to setup elemental combos or dispersion combos?
You can't pick both.

Rank 3a
Rank 3b

Rank 4: will normally add a new feature to the existing power
An example being, adding the rockets to the combat drone or flame thrower.

Rank 4a
Rank 4b


Rank 5: Ditched
Rank 6: Ditched

Now I have only 8 evolutions to play with as opposed to 11.
As stated ranks 1-3 were merely barriers to the interesting evolutions (the ones that give you choices).

This will hopefully provide a meaningful choice at every rank.
If this doesn't work, I will try something different.
I am experenting with different ideas, so bare in mind that not all of them will work.

___________________________________________________________________________

About Combos:

Also I never made this clear but a target can only have one combo applied to them at any given time.

You will only be able to have 1 combo active at any given time.

So you either have a steam combo (fire/ice) or an electric fire (fire/lightning), or a sparks combo (lightning/ice) or a dispersion combo (dispersing elemental effects) or a biotic explosion active at any given time.

You can't stack multiple combos on a single target.

___________________________________________________________________________

About the stats of powers:

Stats such as how much damage a power performs will be greatly reduced.
Combat Drone for example needs it's DPS reduced.

___________________________________________________________________________

Not everything is going to work

Not everything I do is going to work. I am still experienting with ideas.
I'll try my best to improve on the ideas and remove terrible ideas.

Next stop is Soja 57's, concept.
He has some interesting ideas, and now I feel that I am in a better frame of mind to judge his concepts.

Modifié par Abraham_uk, 19 janvier 2014 - 01:04 .

[Soja57]

One of the issues that I pointed out earlier, but I don't think you caught on, is that you aren't clearly defining what the powers are at base (without any evolutions). For example, your Adept's Biotic Trap power is simply a pure damage mine, when the Adept is based around using Biotics as crowd control or debuffs.

Another power is Cryo Blast, which, like RedCaesar97 pointed out, doesn't freeze at Rank 1? Seems like Rank 1 is just another obstacle to a somewhat decent power. And the biggest culprit is Combat Drone, 250 Damage? That is an insane amount of DPS for a power based around crowd control, unless there is some other unknown information which balances the power (which ME3 tends to do).

For the earlier two powers I mentioned, only when you pick evolutions does it turn to a decent power, which many players will skip when taking a first glance at the power due to its inital state. Again, having the base power being weak, overpowered, uncreative, or perhaps too creative makes the overall power fall apart in terms of balance and the niche that the power fills in the class's power arsenal.

With your new evolution system (which is vastly improved, by the way), it still might fall into this trap of a vaguely-defined power due to its first rank already granting 2 evolutions. In other words, the power may fill many roles that it could be split into two powers and such. Your Levitation example between choosing Lift and Pull is great, but other powers may be more difficult. With careful designing, I think you can make the system work though.

Modifié par Soja57, 19 janvier 2014 - 05:13 .

[RedCaesar97]

@Soja57:
I read your Adept concept. Here are my initial impressions:

1) I will not comment on your guidelines other than to say that it looks solid.

2) Not going to comment too much on the Adept health, barriers, and heavy melee either. Again, looks solid.

3) Singularity:
Damage per second: Does that apply to health, protections, or both?

Just looking at it and without crunching any numbers, rank 5 Piercing Primer seems immediately better than Distortion. I would probably need to take another look at Piercing Primer to see if the penalties make Distortion worth it.

Speaking of Distortion, does "Warp damage" mean Warp-like properties, or just a way to describe the extra damage?

4) Pull:
Rank 4 Radius has the same issue as Pull did in ME2 and ME3, namely it seems to be that much better than the opposite evolution. Maybe a reduction in Lift duration and combo power+force needs to be added?

Rank 5 Piercing Pull: -50% duration. That would bring the duration down to 2.5 seconds, but that would still be enough duration to combo based on duration and cooldown benefits from the power and passives. That being said, with such a low cooldown it is hard to make that type of balance.

5) Warp:
Warp detonation is now an evolution. Interesting.

Rank 4b Debuff bonuses seem small, although they increase the base bonuses from +15% to +25%. Still not sure it is worth it compared to the Warp detonation evo. Maybe it works better with Impulse?

Rank 5a Biotic Primer description makes it sound like you can prime on protected targets? Or am I reading that wrong?

6) Throw:
Cooldown listed as 6 seconds. Typo? (Should be 3 seconds?)

Rank 4a: Impact Damage. Deals 10% of Total Force as Impact Damage (benefits from both force and damage bonuses).
Does "Damage and force" mean any power+passive rank that says "damage and force", or are the calculations separate, as in add the force bonuses first to calculate the total force, then convert 10% of that total to damage, and then add 10% more damage? Maybe you meant just force bonuses?

Rank 5a Piercing Throw. Can bypass shields and barriers but not armor? Interesting.

Rank 5b Throw detonation. I find this a thoughtful evolution. Basically a detonation without immediate explosion damage, but an area throw on impact with a biotically-primed enemy. Just wonder if Rank 4b needs a force reduction if you take both b evolutions (+4 meter throw radius if hitting a primed enemy).

7) Impulse.
Actually seems very balanced at a glance. Maybe rank 4b Damage and Force needs a tiny reduction.

8) Biotic Mastery.
Rank 4 Power Cooldown is next to Power Damage and Force. Not sure if I would ever take the Power Damage and Force at that evolution. Maybe a combo damage and force bonus instead?

9) Nemesis:
The idea of increasing radius (or adding radius) is an interesting decision. Not sure you need more radius though; that may be adding too much.

Rank 4a squad bonus seems much too small to be a benefit compared to rank 4b Primer Damage. Or maybe it is because Primer Damage is just that good?

Rank 5b: Combo Mastery. Completing a biotic combo or detonation gives the current power cooldown a 50% cooldown reduction bonus.
How would that work? You can get up to +50% with both Biotic Mastery (+30% max) and power ranks (+20% max). Adding another +50% would be +100% so no cooldown? Or would that be 50% of the remaining cooldown (50% of 1.5, 2.25, or 3 seconds)?

10) Bastion:
Seems pretty solid to me.


Final impressions: At a glance, it shows a lot of thought and care went into making each power unique and evolutions meaningful without changing too much of the power itself. And some very interesting evolution ideas, particularly the Throw Detonation which is something I never would have thought of.

[Soja57]

@RedCaesar97

Singularity
Singularity can damage enemies regardless of protections. Warp Damage is just an easier way to explain its extra damage and modifier vs Barriers and Armor. Distortion is meant to strip Armor and Barriers so that the Adept can perform combos at max effectiveness. It can also be used to shut down a group of enemies while you focus on other enemies.

Pull
I can see why Radius may be better than Duration. One mechanic that perhaps I didn't clarify on is Lift Force. Lift Force determines the velocity of a Pulled target, higher values allow it to lift heavy enemies easier. Now that I think about it though, I'm not sure on how useful Lift Force really is. I thought on how useful Duration would be when used with Piercing evolution, since Pull's duration gets cut in half when used against protected targets. I may have to rethink on this evolution.

Warp
Biotic Primer Warp can prime against any target, regardless of protections. On paper, the Debuff bonus may seem small, but they can contribute to a biotic combo/detonation when Primer evolution is chosen. Since most biotic combos are multiplicative based, the detonations can be amplified greatly from even the smallest bonuses. Though I think a little buff to the evolution/stat won't hurt the power too much; the detonation evolution slightly overshadows it.

Throw
Oops, it is supposed to be 3 second cooldown. Going to fix it now. Regarding the Impact Damage evo, I was troubled on whether to allow it to be affected from both bonuses, or just Force bonuses. It is calculated separately, so Force first, then Damage; I thought doing this would reduce confusion, but reanalyzing it may have caused the opposite effect. I may be leaning towards simply gaining bonus from Force bonuses.

For Throw detonations, I wasn't sure if the damage should be done during the explosion, or after the target hits a surface. But I think Rank 4b is balanced, you sacrifice damage for stronger crowd control. Though perhaps the radius may be somewhat insane, when combined with Throw Detonation.

Impulse
I'm glad that this new power is fitting nicely with the Adept's power arsenal, judging from both of you and Abraham_uk's opinions. I'm confused which one may need a reduction, Rank 4a Damage and Force or Rank 4b Radius? I'm thinking that the Radius may be a bit much actually.

Biotic Mastery
Judging from the many bonuses obtained for Force and Damage, perhaps Rank 4 Cooldown may be the go-to evolution. There are various other ways to gain Force and Damage, but Cooldown is more difficult to obtain. Perhaps I will try to do something.

Nemesis
Too much radius is another flaw with coming up with class designs alone: there is no context as to how the powers interact with enemies and the environment. The only thing we have going off of is ME3 and the other ME games. But here is one thing that I would like to see: bigger environments where sniper rifles become more useful, thus powers would need a slight radius buff. That's just me though, extra radius does not fit the current context well.

Rank 4: I think both of your points are spot on. Maybe a little bit more damage and force, maybe a bit less Damage Over Time.

For Rank 6 Combo Mastery, the 50% cooldown bonus is correct for a total of 100% cooldown bonus. One thing to point out: Cooldowns don't work as how you think they do. I'm not sure how cooldowns exactly work in ME2, but in ME3, the formula is based around diminishing returns. Perhaps I will elaborate on this at a later point.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Thanks for the input, I wouldn't have easily spotted some major evolution conflicts and minor typos or content that requires clarification. I'll try to address some of the issues that you posed. Also, many people who review my concepts simply look at the big picture without digging into how everything fits together (such as power balance, power synergy, and power redundancy). I'm glad that you covered these points pretty well.

Modifié par Soja57, 21 janvier 2014 - 07:54 .

[Soja57]

Cooldown Bonuses

I think Cooldown Bonuses is a topic worthy of its own post, because the interaction between base power cooldown and cooldown bonuses can be a bit complex. This is discussing the Cooldown Bonus System in ME3 and my Adept class, I am unsure if this applies to ME2 and the first Mass Effect. Warning, lots of math and number crunching ahead.

For my Adept class, it is possible to obtain a 100% cooldown bonus when specced correctly. All of the Adept's powers grant a 20% Cooldown Bonus from Rank 2. Biotic Mastery can grant a total of 30% Cooldown Bonus with the proper specs. Finally, from the Nemesis Specialization's Combo Mastery evolution, a 50% Cooldown Bonus is granted on the detonator power when a biotic combo is achieved. These three cooldown bonuses add up to a total of 100% Cooldown Bonus.

A 100% Cooldown Bonus does not give Zero second cooldowns. That would be the case if cooldowns were based on traditional power bonus formulas, but cooldowns use a different, special formula. Manveer Heir, Senior Gameplay Designer of Mass Effect 3, provided the formula for handling cooldown bonuses. Here is a simplified version:

Final Cooldown = Base Cooldown * [1 / (1 + Cooldown Bonuses)]

Let's focus on Throw for this example. Throw has a Base Cooldown of 3 seconds, and with the proper specs and when used as a detonator, it has a cooldown bonus of 100%. In the formula, all percentages are converted to decimal format. 100% would simply convert to 1.0 in the formula. Plug in the numbers into the formula:

3 * [1 / (1 + 1.0)] = Final Cooldown

Simplify:

3 * [1 / 2] = Final Cooldown

The Final Cooldown is 1.5 seconds, not zero seconds as commonly misinterpreted from a 100% cooldown bonus. With this formula, the Final Cooldown can never reach zero seconds unless you have a cooldown bonus of infinity or a base cooldown of zero seconds, but you can get really close to zero.

This formula also presents the idea of diminishing returns. When you have very few bonuses, for example, only Rank 2 of Throw (20% cooldown bonus), the bonus is significant, deducting 0.5 seconds from the base cooldown of 3 seconds to obtain 2.5 seconds.

However, in order to deduct another 0.5 seconds from Throw to obtain a 2 second cooldown, you would need to add a 30% cooldown bonus (from Biotic Mastery), for a total cooldown bonus of 50%. As you can see, you need a more significant cooldown bonus to obtain the same amount of deduction.

Finally, to deduct 0.5 seconds a third time to obtain 1.5 second cooldown, you would need a 50% cooldown bonus (from Nemesis Combo Mastery), for a total of 100% cooldown bonus, just to reduce Throw's cooldown from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds.

The more cooldown bonuses you have, the more diminishing the effect becomes. Here is a chart showing how a 6 second cooldown power like Warp works with this formula:

Warp
Base Cooldown = 6 seconds

Bonus = 0%; Cooldown = 6.0 s
Bonus = 10%; Cooldown = 5.45 s
Bonus = 20%; Cooldown = 5.0 s
Bonus = 50%; Cooldown = 4.0 s
Bonus = 100%; Cooldown = 3.0 s
Bonus = 200%; Cooldown = 2.0 s
Bonus = 400%; Cooldown = 1.2 s
Bonus = 500%; Cooldown = 1.0 s

I hope with this post, you will have a better understanding of how the cooldown system in ME3 works, along with the cooldown bonuses for my Adept class.

Modifié par Soja57, 21 janvier 2014 - 08:00 .

[RedCaesar97]

@Abraham_uk and Soja57:
1) If I ever come across as harsh in my opinions on any of your ideas, I sincerely apologize. That is never my intention. When I review your ideas, I quickly read/skim through the post to get a general idea, then I re-read it more slowly with a more critical eye and write down my thoughts as I read it the second time.

2) I really should post a class idea of my own at some point so I can get the same treatment. It is really unfair of me to provide critiques of your ideas without posting any of my own. Both of you have provided some really fleshed-out ideas while I have contributed none of my own.

Part of that has to do with that I am unsure if I should follow my original idea of ME2's system but with 4 evolutions instead of 2, or Soja's system which is two choices of two evolutions each. The issue I am having is that I cannot always come up with four balanced evolutions for an ME2-style system, and I cannot always come up with some similar balanced evolutions for Soja's system.


@Soja57:
1) Okay, now I see that your cooldown system provides diminishing returns like ME3. That makes more sense now.

2) I don't know if there was any formula given for ME1 cooldowns, but it may be similar to the weapon damage/armor reduction formula found here: http://social.biowar...1/index/5026848.

There is no post on it in the ME2 forums, but I believe for cooldowns, all cooldown bonuses were added together, then subtracted from the base cooldown. For example, Overload had a 6s cooldown. Sentinel could get +30% cooldown from Guardian passive and another +20% from the Tech Cooldown upgrade. So:
a) 30% (0.3) + 20% (0.2) = 50% (0.5).
6s - 50%
= 6 - 0.5x6
= 6 - 3
= 3 second cooldown.

I provided a list of (max) cooldowns for each ME2 class in another thread here: http://social.biowar...5347/6#17770835.

Modifié par RedCaesar97, 21 janvier 2014 - 02:12 .

[Soja57]

I'm having trouble designing my Engineer class, primarily because of tech combos. Tech combos are more complicated than biotic combos in terms of gameplay and lore. Biotic combos revolve around mass effect fields and element zero, a fictional element, but tech combos are based on real life elements, and multiple elements at that.

Several issues include addressing on how to handle or prevent chain combos, make tech combos unique from biotics but a viable option, keep each tech power in their unique niche, and make the overall system simple to understand and lore-friendly.

Abraham_uk, your overall idea for tech combos is good, in that it requires proper evolutions to pull off and tries to be lore-friendly. But one thing about tech combos in general is that it somewhat mitigates the utility or niche of the tech power (cryo blast primarily for support and crowd control, but with steam combo it becomes a powerful damage source).

Who knows, I might entirely revamp the tech combo system or even remove them. ME2 worked well without tech combos. What are your thoughts on this?

Modifié par Soja57, 23 janvier 2014 - 12:13 .

[RedCaesar97]

Soja57 wrote...
<snip>

Who knows, I might entirely revamp the tech combo system or even remove them. ME2 worked well without tech combos. What are your thoughts on this?

One of the biggest issues with tech combos in ME3 was that a lot of powers, including biotics, could detonate them. And things like fire/cryo/electrical explosions could also be primed by ammo powers. And they could be primed and detonated on protections. And as you point out, you could chain different into several combos like fire > electrical > biotic, or fire > electrical > fire > electrical...

The way I see it, if you use tech explosions:
 - I think they should only be allowed to be primed and detonated on unprotected targets. The exception could be fire explosions on armor, but you could always have that as an evolution.
 - A power cannot be detonated if it already detonated another power. For example, you cannot detonate an Overload if that same Overload just detonated a fire explosion.
 - I would keep it restricted to tech powers, possibly even the base tech powers: Overload, Cryo Blast, and Incinerate, with maybe (Explosive) Drone thrown in. But that only really works if you have shared powers between classes, which you do not have in your class restructuring ideas.

And if you keep tech explosions, you are also left with a couple of options:
1) You can only prime/detonate with a tech power if you choose an evolution that allows you to prime/detonate a tech explosion.
2) Tech can prime/detonate starting from rank 1. You can then provide explosion bonuses in power evolutions, similar to biotics. And perhaps alternatively, provide explosion-specific bonuses to powers. For example, Overload could provide a +50% tech explosion damage bonus, or you could make it +50% damage bonus to tech bursts (electrical explosion).

[Abraham_uk]

My review of Soja 57's Adept:


_______________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for taking lead:
 
The descriptions of each power are actually quite helpful.
I will be copying and pasting some of the descriptions in my alteration of the adept.
The initial stats for the adept are very helpful too. 

_______________________________________________________________________________



Singularity: Straight forward biotic trap power.
Nothing much to say about ranks 1-4.
Piercing primer and distortion  are both very interesting evolutions.
Overall singularity is a fantastic power that can be used for crowd control and setting up biotic explosions.

_______________________________________________________________________________


Pull: Another straight forward power.
Once again 1-4 are what I would have expected.
Rank 5, is where it gets interesting. Piercing pull and biotic combos give the adept two very interesting choice.


_______________________________________________________________________________


Warp:
Ranks 1-3 are standard fare.
I really like what you've done for rank 4.
Biotic primer works well for internal synergy and synergy with other biotic squadmates.


_______________________________________________________________________________


Throw:

Rank 1-4 is also standard fare. Don't get me wrong, I really do like the evolutions. I just don't have a lot to say about them.

We have a theme here. Rank 5 gives a choice between "effectiveness versus protected targets" and "Biotic Explosions"


_______________________________________________________________________________


Impulse

This is the power that I was trully excited about.
A field that flings enemies away and introduces a new combo. A biotic implosion. When targets are primed they can be imploded. 

I love this power a lot. You brought something new and interesting to the table.


_______________________________________________________________________________

Biotic Mastery:

Ranks 1 -4 are (you know what I'm going to say).

What I really like about this power is the specialisations.

You get a choice between a full on biotic destruction specialisation (Nemesis) or a biotic commando specialisation (Bastion).

_______________________________________________________________________________


Nemesis:

Rank 4 gives players the choice between buffing the squad's power damage or improving lifting damage.
Rank 5 gives players the choice between faster cooldowns for biotic explosions or higher damage output for having greater amount of barriers.

I love how you introduce some difficult choices in each evolution. Kudos.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Bastion:

Rank 4 gives players the choice between melee damage and  faster barrier recharge.
Rank 5 gives players the choice between granting the team more hitpoints and barrier/shield regeneration and debuffing.

Another interesting bunch of concepts. Reminds me of the Sentinel's fitness passive from Mass Effect 3.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Final Word

Nice ideas you've got there.
If you don't mind I will be stealing borrowing some of your evolutions for my adept concept.
Really love what you've done with your class.

I don't think ratings are useful, though I will say this is a really tight set of ideas.
A very well designed class.

Well done. 


__________________________________________________________________________


I have taken advice from Soja 57 and Red Ceasar 97 to improve my adept.
Many of the evolutions and stats from this new adept concept have been taken directly from Soja 57's adept concept.

Check it out

Modifié par Abraham_uk, 24 janvier 2014 - 12:16 .

[Soja57]

Thanks for the input, Abraham_uk. Though Impulse doesn't fling enemies away, it instantly pulls enemies towards its center. Based on RedCaesar97's review of my classes, I've changed a few things on my Adept class. Nothing major, but balanced a few of the evolutions by changing quite a few values. Also clarified on a few things to reduce confusion. You can view the changes in the changelog near the beginning of the post.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Anyway, my review on your classes. Overall a huge improvement over your previous Adept, though I may be somewhat biased because some of the content is mine.

Assuming that each level grants a single talent point, I don't really agree with your new level system. A player at level 1 will only have 1 talent point to spend for their talents. So the player will temporarily be either a one-trick pony or powerless if they invest that one point into a passive. At least at level 2 and onwards, the builds start to get really interesting.

Also, ME2 never had a spare amount of talent points; you couldn't max out all of your powers. Unless you are talking about being unable to spend the last leftover talent points on a power evolution. This honestly doesn't bother me that much, but I can see where you are coming from.

For squadmates, I don't get how they only have 10 talent points at level 20. Probably means they won't earn a talent point at certain levels, but then that somewhat trivializes leveling up for squadmates. Squadmates should simply earn the same amount of talent points as the player (20 points at level 20), but each power rank would cost 2 points instead of 1. This way, squadmates can only max out two powers and pick two additional evolutions, which seems fair to me.

Now, onto the powers:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Warp
I'm not sure if the 1b Wide Area Warp is a viable option compared to 1a. A 1.5 meter radius isn't much, and isn't worth the massive damage penalty. I'd say buff the radius to 2 meters, and instead of a 50% penalty, only a 25% penalty (135 Instant Damage, 7.5 DPS). Or as an alternative, simply buff the radius to 3 meters.

The ideas for both of the Rank 3 evos are great, but are overall pretty weak evolutions that aren't worth the investment. For Reave Effect, 10% Damage Protection and Barrier Regen isn't going to make much of a difference in combat; bumping both of the values to 20% would be better. ME3's version of Reave already grants 15% DP at Rank 1, I don't see why 20% for a Rank 3 evo would be an issue.

Dark Channel can be an awesome evolution, but in its current state, isn't very useful. Warp's duration is very short, even with Rank 4 Damage & Duration, so even if it can jump to an enemy, Warp's effects on the enemy would be insignificant and short lasting.

ME3's Dark Channel has a duration of 30 seconds, I would say make Dark Channel evo grant a 50% or greater Duration buff, but that may also mean changing the Rank 4 Damage and Duration evo. Otherwise, most of the evolutions look good to me.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Lift
I don't really see why one of the Rank 1 evolutions grants a faster cooldown than the other. Perhaps a typo? Also, why does Rank 1b Lift have a Slam Force?

Rank 2a Duration might me an underwhelming evolution compared to cooldown, but I guess the issue with Lift/Pull was that duration bonuses were always outclassed by other evolutions.

Rank 4b Double Levitation's cooldown penalty seems somewhat overkill, I would probably reduce it down a bit. Evolutions that incur cooldown penalties, especially one as heavy as this one, would probably turn off quite a few players, considering how cooldowns play a big factor in power use.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Throw
Rank 1b Injuring Strike: How long does the damage and debuff last? Throw's damage per second seems too low depending on the duration. Rank 2a Duration: How does this evolution affect Forceful Throw, since it doesn't have a default duration?

Even then, I don't think it will be that useful compared to cooldown bonus. For Rank 4b Double Throw, the cooldown penalty may be a bit too much. Otherwise, the power looks pretty good to me.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Biotic Trap
Repulsion Field: I'm guessing that this pushes away enemies that enters its radius. But does it ragdoll unprotected enemies?

How does it affect protected targets, besides its movement speed reduction? Does it stagger them?

How exactly does it detonate physics combos? Does it simply gain a force bonus vs lifted targets like Throw? Also, be careful when using the term "detonate" and "physics combo". The two are very different things, yet you seemingly use them interchangably.

Rank 2b Damage and Radius must be a typo, as the description states that it increases Duration and Radius, but what about Damage?

Rank 4a Implosion seems good on paper, but I personally think the radius should be a bit wider. When taking Rank 2b Duration and Radius, the actual Singularity is wider than this evo, which somewhat trivializes this evolution. I'd say buff the Implosion radius to 3 meters.

Rank 4b Warp Effect: What are Repulsion's biotic detonation effects?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Biotic Focus
I think having it limited to once or twice per battle is a very vague and presents a random variable, as battles can last very long or very short. I would simply make it how it works in ME3, having a limited supply or even sharing a consumable pool with grenades. If you are following this route, I would reduce the duration to at least half.

Rank 1b Quick Cast seems like an overall better evolution, because cooldown bonuses are rare, and it also adds other buffs, whereas Power Boost grants a damage boost that is rather easy to obtain. Rank 2 evos are really awesome and balanced, I like the idea of combos restoring barriers. Rank 3 also presents excellent evolutions.

Rank 4a Duration and Capacity, an overall good evolution, but I would change the base power first and scale the duration of this evo accordingly. Overall, a great addition to the Adept's power aresanel.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Biotic Mastery
Rank1b Duration Caster might be underpowered compared to its counterpart. Health and Shields is somewhat difficult to obtain, whereas Duration can be obtained from power evos. Maybe give it a power damage and force bonus as well?

I also think that the passive should revolve more around the Adept's powers than what you currently have, particularly Rank 2 evos. Otherwise, this is a great passive for the Adept.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I'll admit, this Adept class is a dramatic improvement over your previous version. Well, I did help a lot by presenting my own class, and allowing you to borrow some of the content. Can't wait to see what you do with the Engineer class. Unless you are waiting for my Engineer?

Modifié par Soja57, 24 janvier 2014 - 07:29 .

[Abraham_uk]

Today I'll be editing my adept according to your suggestions.

I have to admit, my concepts are much better when I'm pinching your ideas.


I shall also be changing my engineer.


My Sentinel concept. Coming soon...

Just to let you know. All of my following concepts are on their way.
I have plans for all 6 written down on a piece of paper.
However I will be releasing them slowly, to enable helpful feedback from Soja 57 and Red Ceasar 97.

__________________________________________________________________________



Changes:

Everything change you suggest is going to be taken into account. (With one exception)


Your questions about my repulsion field:

Does it send unprotected foes flying? Yes
Does it stagger proteced foes? Yes
Can it detonate biotic explosions? Yes

I shall get cracking on my adept.
Then I shall make some serious changes to my engineer.


__________________________________________________________________________


Consumable Powers and Grenades

Consumable Powers use a separate consumable to grenades.

Grenades are ammo that can be found on the battlefield.

Class Specific Consumables using the same consumable as grenades is a little bit odd to me.
It also forces players to choose between a set of buffs to their class or lobbing a grenade. The buffs will trump lobbing a grenade in combat.

In multiplayer it made more sense since you didn't have a commando who had both stim pack and grenade.


However, I am willing to increase the "Class Specific Consumable" capacity to maybe 3 (which can be increased to 5).

Modifié par Abraham_uk, 24 janvier 2014 - 04:15 .

[Soja57]

I've been extensively testing my Adept's powers using Mass Effect 3's engine. This is done by heavily modifying the powers to match my values, and modifying enemy health to a specified value, along with a few other things for controlled, easy testing.

Most of my current balance changes have been based on this controlled testing. I'm thinking of nerfing the 2x vs Lifted Targets for Throw and Impulse to 1.5x.

This is because with Throw specced for max Force, it throws enemies ridiculously far with its biotic combo (not detonation). Consider how even more Force can be obtained from passives and squadmates. This also makes Force upgrades more important for overall biotic effectiveness.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Impulse is currently the most difficult power to test, but I have been able to somewhat replicate its implosion effect using a heavily modified Concussive Shot. All I did was give Concussive Shot a negative force value (-600 N) in order to pull in nearby targets.

I tried doing the same for Flare, but Flare has such a huge visual effect that I was very tempted to buff Impulse damage and radius. Flare is simply a badass power.

So far, I think Impulse could use a radius buff. With its Impulse Detonation, it has a decent radius, but as a standalone power, the radius is laughable at best for a 6 second cooldown. The idea was for Impulse to also have utility outside of biotic detonations, such as clustering up enemies to set up Singularity combos. To compensate, its Impulse Detonation would have a reduced radius modifier, or perhaps no radius modifier?
I probably have to test things out some more.

- - - - - - - - - - -

I'm thinking of posting videos on my empty Youtube channel to showcase my redesigned Adept class. The videos are going to show most of the biotic combos, both physics-based and detonations. I'm also going to show the damage output of powers vs very basic enemies. I'm probably going to need both of your help to achieve this.

Any thoughts?

Modifié par Soja57, 24 janvier 2014 - 07:21 .

[Abraham_uk]

I love your ideas Soja 57.

Seeing them on Youtube?
Sounds too good to be true.
That sounds fantastic.


Ugh. I am having difficulty editing my posts at the moment.
The computer crashes every time I try.
I'll come back tomorrow.

[Soja57]

The thing with the class consumable power is that you didn't elaborate on how it works. Is it limited to 3 to 5 per mission? Per Battle? Or can it be restored via pickups like grenades or is it restored over time? This was also an issue with your previous Adept class, in that you didn't elaborate on things which was why RedCaesar97 and I were skeptical about a few things.

The class consumable power is very similar to grenades in that both bolster the player's performance in combat, which was why I suggested for both to share a pool. Also, a consumable buff power is not always better than grenades. Grenades allows the player to deal massive spike damage regardless of cooldowns in conjunction with the player's traditional cooldown powers.

I don't like the idea of throwing a class consumable as another variable to keep track of in-game. I'm not saying that you should change the power, but just keep in mind of how all of the powers work in conjunction with combat. Reason is because I'm thinking there are a few things that I would like to add into the combat to help relay information to the player, and adding a class consumable and cross-class grenades on top of these additions means a bit much to keep track of in-game.

1. A new aggro meter, showing the amount of "aggro" of the player and each squadmate

2. Showing the powers that are currently affecting the target or the squad, which would be useful when setting up biotic combos or showing the debuffs used on the enemy

3. Increase the player's control over the squad such as in creating advanced squad tactics both during and outside of combat.

4. Show squadmate health and shields, making Shield Boost and Medigel more helpful as squad support.

Of course, all of these additions make the combat more complex, which isn't necessarily a good thing. But I think having a greater connection to the squad during combat would make the squad more useful, and I think these 4 suggestions would enhance squad combat. This is a little off-topic, but I think is helpful in shaping the context that we are working with.

Modifié par Soja57, 25 janvier 2014 - 08:00 .

[Abraham_uk]

I will have finished my changes to engineer by tommorow
I have made some changes to my adept though.

[RedCaesar97]

I am finally sitting down and hammering out an idea for the Adept. It is a slightly modified take on the ME2 system where each power has 4 ranks, but you can choose one of 4 evolutions at rank 4. The exception is your class passive (Biotic Mastery) where you choose one of 2 evolutions, but that evolution unlocks a second passive (Bastion or Nemesis), which also have only two evolutions at rank 4.

I will post the idea later this week for mocking feedback.

I may try a second attempt using Soja57's idea of 5 ranks, but with ranks 4 and 5 offering a choice of two evolutions.

Modifié par RedCaesar97, 28 janvier 2014 - 02:10 .

[Soja57]

RedCaesar97 wrote...

I am finally sitting down and hammering out an idea for the Adept. It is a slightly modified take on the ME2 system where each power has 4 ranks, but you can choose one of 4 evolutions at rank 4. The exception is your class passive (Biotic Mastery) where you choose one of 2 evolutions, but that evolution unlocks a second passive (Bastion or Nemesis), which also have only two evolutions at rank 4.

I will post the idea later this week for mocking feedback.

I may try a second attempt using Soja57's idea of 5 ranks, but with ranks 4 and 5 offering a choice of two evolutions.

Cool, I can't wait. I'm very busy right now, but with my free time, I'm creating a video revolving around the revamped biotic combo system. My priority is to show the new Pull + Throw combo, which is physics-based like in ME2 unless the proper evolution has been taken. I'm also planning on showing how Impulse would work, along with its and Warp's unique biotic detonation.

If there is something specific that you guys would like to see of my Adept class, I may be able to pull it off via modding the game.