Yeah, the key to this is the balance of it of course. Have the penalty play too much of a role and it will get frustrating, have it too little and it might as well not even be there. The talent tree working to remedy this will help and having a "beneficial' chance defect "Burst" will hopefully serve to balance it out a bit. I figure the "flinching" will be quick and sharp in combat lasting less than a second (mechanically behaving like an interrupt), in cinematic and story it will be a persistent subtle pain that slowly diminishes as the plot continues forward. The pain may never fully disperse for the Inquisitor (like a burn with the very occasional sharp spike), but my hope was the harshness of the scenario was partially because its like they are fighting after essentially "just getting out of surgery" when the tattoos were put on.
It seems you're tipping more toward the "too little" side with this. But I think I have posted all my disagreements I have so far. So I think now I will post some ideas to encourage yours.
Here are some ideas for practical costs of the Architect.
1. A five second period of pain and flinching that that slows movement speed and attack speed.
2. If a spell or combat ability is used in this period, then it will cause damage to the (x)In's health bar.
3. Guard is broken.
4. Focus is decreased.
Here's an idea of how the tattoo malfunction could work.
A lyrium bar, similar to health, in which using combat abilities increases the bar. If it hits full, it causes the five second period of malfunctioning. Standing still decreases the bar. Basic attacks reduce the rate of decrease. Using movement abilities such as dodge or combat roll do not count against you because they don't use the arm, but they do count as movement (same as basic attack). Also, using the arm for basic attacks won't increase the bar, since it is just basic use. But being still is better.
If the cost worked this way, then perhaps making the abilities unavailable for three seconds would be acceptable.
Later abilities focused on the arm might use the lyrium bar in different ways, either by increasing the bar to get better attacks, or passives that decrease the bar more rapidly to focus on fighting.
Some passives might work to mitigate the cost of the arm by decreasing the rate at which the lyrium bar increases toward full. A more reckless path would increase the bar more rapidly, but also launch attacks that cause a serious impact to enemies. This way, the more reckless (x)In could time the cost periods just right to where he recovers as enemies are knocked down. Or an ally could intervene and protect the (x)In while the period expires.
I think this would introduce the kind of strategy required to make the combat challenging yet fair for the players.
Yeah your right the tattoos were meant to be what facilitates the improved mobility and dexterity of the prosthetic, but I guess I never really considered the sharp spike of pain would be sufficient enough to make the Quizzy drop the weapon and would act more like a stutter. The Inquisitor gets hurt from external factors all the time in DA:I and rarely drops their weapon after all.
Depends how painful it is. The mark was dropping him to his knees there toward the end.
Maybe the arm can have a "default" state in which it closes to make a fist. This would mean any weapon would be clutched upon the tattoo/arm malfunction. It would take a little suspension of disbelief, and probably some exposition, but it could work.
The pain comes from the idea that: 1) The tattoo's have just been applied, and 2) The unpredictable consequences of shoving Lyrium (even a minor amount) directly into one's skin to create a tattoo causes problems, hence the sharp occasional spikes in pain. Your right though cutting out of the connection could be a problem, though I suppose a fail-safe from the mechanical components could suffice for it. Rather then letting go the hand merely gets stuck in whatever position its in when the connection goes out (something rudimentary like a gear-catch on a bike).
I thought of something similar above. But it should be a clutch action. Some weapons require the hand to open and close again quickly, like a dual dagger rogue switching the blade from a slash position (upward), to a stabbing position (downward).
If it was gripping a sword at the time it continues to grip that sword. If it was in the shape of a fist, it continues to remain a fist... at least until the connection is restored. Though this part may not even need to play a factor.
You could hand wave (no pun intended) the loss of control, and just say that the tattoos still function to give control of the arm even while dealing pain. Like... using abilities with the arm causes an overload. Not using the arm for abilities allows that energy to cool down.
As for mages using it ... hmm, thats the problem. Outside of the benefits of just having another hand to do things with (even if its not proficient enough to do everything a normal hand can) there really isn't a reason outside of something to take hits with or help hold a staff for a Mage Inquisitor to need it in combat, but I based the design more off the idea that because a Mage Quizzy was the "Only" class/specialization that shouldn't really be effected by the loss of the Arm in the first place. Nothing was really stopping them from fighting on with or without the arm (especially my Rift Mage for example)
Right. There's also the question of what having lyrium tattoos on a mage will do to them. They aren't supposed to be exposed to it in that way, I don't think. Vivienne talks about mana displacement or something like that from using lyrium too much. Also, could these lyrium tattoos fail if certain enemies used magic negating abilities on the (x)In?
I mean I did have an idea for Mages in regards to "Architect" ... that wouldn't take too much additional effort to implement, but I thought it was perhaps a wee bit ridiculous so I didn't mention it. Rather than the Inquisitor continuing to use of a Staff, "Architect" would be the Staff. My design did include a few lyrium runes/nodes to help the arm move anyway, one of them could be in fact a Staff Focusing Crystal centered in the palm or on the back of the hand (the aesthetics wouldn't be that much different tbh). To upgrade it the crystal would just need to be replaced as the game progressed like any weapon would. DONT HURT ME, I KNOW ITS SILLY BUT I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE COOL LOL!
It's a good idea. I like it. Seems two "staffs" would be better than one though, right?
But if we were to just use the arm and no staff, it would be similar to how Solas doesn't seem to use a staff anymore. So it could be kind of a parallel with him.
Another option for a mage, or possibly any (x)In, would be to have Dagna... since I think we all agree that she would be the creator of the "Architect"... to actually use the broken fragments of the orb to craft it. She might be able to restore functionality to those pieces and incorporate them into the arm.
Or maybe only mages would be able to use it since they no longer have the mark, and the orb is a mage relic.
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