ivy+calico
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Note: I posted a quick idea about a baseball themed hero a few days ago. I gave it a rethink and I decided, what the heck, I’ll try to flesh it out more and repost a more finished version. Going off the earlier idea, bullet velocity is now the main underpinning of the character; I thought it would make the whole pitch more unique. I refer back to the initial idea a few times (here if interested), but it shouldn’t be necessary to read it.
Tl;dr – Baseball themed character who throws off her enemies’ tempo with disrupting abilities at range then picks them off with a well-timed fastball; mechanically has a gimmick around building bullet velocity.
Lore Concept and Design 2.0
A new star, an old curse…
Theresa Diamond* is the new relief pitcher for a slumping Cursed Apple team, imbuing her pitches with spirit power. Discovering backroom deals to fix matches, all in service of a dark power at the heart of the ballpark that feeds on lost hope, she secretly investigates the Cursed Apple streets after practice, searching for a way to break the curse at the center of the team’s losing streak and the fans’ lost dreams.
- - -
Design notes: Rather than the pinstripes I suggested in the first post, I now imagine a solid greyish jersey with colored under shirt and trim, and long colored baseball socks would provide a nice contrast. (Looking at some older resources for teams like the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers, it seems like they went for grey in the 1920s and again in the 1940s).
An open baseball jacket for the occult themed in-universe team would add more to the character’s profile, and allow more personalized design elements such as sleeve patches and the macabre imagery of the Deadlock aesthetic.
(Older style dugout jacket)
The character designs in Deadlock are awesome, the designers know better than me so I will cut this section short. They would knock it out of the park whatever they go with.
*I went with Diamond mostly just because I think it would sound fine when other characters shout “I see Diamond!”. Theresa because of the Red Sox song Tessie (I actually hate the New York teams lol so I leave it to others to think of a more fitting first name that honors them)
Gimmick
Tl;dr – Building spirit power builds bullet velocity; bullet velocity adds bonus alt-fire damage and affects abilities
Pitching velocity is a big focus in modern baseball, so I thought it would be fun incorporating that into the character. But I hit a roadblock in thinking about how to design a Deadlock character that builds off bullet velocity. I first wanted the weapon damage itself to scale off of it, but the issue is that there is currently only one item path that actually affects velocity and it is only a 50% upgrade. You would just buy High Velocity Rounds and that would be it.
With no way of progression, I rethought the main weapon and gimmick. Certain characters like Grey Talon have a unique mechanic where building spirit power increases scaling in other abilities. Applying it here, Diamond’s spirit power increases her bullet velocity. This will in turn affect the weapon and abilities.
This way, buying the velocity items is still useful, but there is a way to build past the 50% increase it offers. And thematically, it ties back to a spirit-based character that charges their baseballs with spirit power in order to throw (or in this case shoot) faster.
Weapon: Ninth Inning
I’m imagining a retro-futuristic version of a pitching machine like this, mounted to a gloved hand.
Tl;dr – Lobs low velocity projectiles at a moderate rate. Alt-fire shoots a single projectile at a low rate with bonus damage that scales off velocity.
Ammo – 9 (same as Lady Geist, and an ‘immaculate inning’ in baseball)
Base Velocity – 42 (This is just under Paige’s 43.4, which would make it the slowest in the game. I based this off the actual average speed of a fastball pitch, and 42 also happens to be Jackie Robinson’s iconic number with the Brooklyn Dodgers)
Ditching the diminishing fire-rate concept of my first post, I went with an alt-fire mode instead. Like switching the setting on a real-life pitching machine, there would be a higher fire-rate mode with more variance, and a lower-rate but more accurate ‘fastball’ that deals more damage.
Main Fire: Shoots projectiles at a low velocity with a moderate fire rate. Has no bonus scaling.
Alt Fire: An accurate, more damaging ‘fastball’. Takes more ammo (I imagine 5, thus forcing a reload to use it again unless capacity is increased), with a very low fire rate (something really slow like 1 per second). Bonus damage that scales with velocity.
This way, early in the round it would play better to rely on the main fire mode with higher dps. As spirit power builds bullet velocity, it becomes more rewarding to switch over to the accurate Alt fire mode to deal higher, single shot damage.
Or, the alt fire mode can be neglected entirely to build the main gun and support its dps with the utility of the abilities.
Abilities
Tl;dr – 1. knockback, 2. AOE, 3. Dash, and 4. single target (sort of) ULT. Velocity related effects are unlocked at different tiers.
I kept the abilities mostly the same as the initial concept, but added ways to tie in to the character gimmick. I also switched the first concept’s 3 and the ult, as I wanted to emphasize the character concept more; a pitcher should have a ultimate that is centered around throwing baseballs.
Most of the tiers I threw together haphazardly, as a mockup.
1: Brushback
With her free hand, Diamond throws a cutting spirit ball that knocks opponents away on the angle where they’re struck.
I imagine this being used to create distance early on, then building to help protect allies or set up combos at crucial moments. This should be more of a disrupting skill rather than a pure damage dealer.
1 – Cooldown Reduction
2 – Arc increased with Velocity
The cutter is a curving fastball. I imagine the velocity tie-in here being adjusting the curve of the arc; don’t know how viable this would be in practice, but I picture this ability being extra tricky, allowing hits around the edge of corners or obstacles with a high enough arc/proper aim. This being a tier 2 unlock will hopefully be a fun early taste of the changing gimmick effects, with the other abilities having their effects unlocked on higher tiers
3 – Increased Spirit Damage
4 - Increased Knockback distance.
5 – Second charge
2: Batting Cage
Summon a spirit cage. Enemies inside the cage are briefly slowed and take increased spirit damage.
My intention here is that it would provide a buffer early on, then be used to boost allies in the middle of a fight. Late-game, it then can be strung together with the character’s other abilities for higher damaging combinations in their own right.
1 – Slow Duration Increased
2 – Cooldown reduction
3 – Cage Duration Increased
4 – Bullets that enter the cage deal bonus weapon damage based on % of velocity
I’m not sure how the damage calculation works in the game or if this can even be done. The intent here is not only to boost the character’s own gun/alt but those of allies as well. Characters with higher base velocity would thus deal higher % weapon damage.
5 – The cage casts Silence
3: Rundown
Diamond readies herself before dashing forward in a fixed sprint, tagging any enemy in her path and dealing light melee (?) damage.
This was the ULT of the initial concept, but I moved it to ability 3. On second thought it would be better as a useful escape skill given its speed, or to pick off fleeing low health enemies. My gut feeling is it should deal light melee damage to keep it relatively low, with the real value being its speed and repositioning.
Thinking of how Vindicta’s 2 emphasizes verticality, I wanted to have this skill be aggressively horizontal instead. The dash will be in a fixed, straight line. Players will need to take advantage of cross sections between fire-zones to avoid being left over-extended.
1 – Dealing damage provides a small heal
2 – Duration extended
3 – Speed increased by % of Velocity
Pretty straight forward. I am assuming if the velocity concept is worked in, there will be a maximum cap set, or the increases will be low enough to keep them from being too powerful.
4 – Bonus health to damage dealt
5 - Diamond gets a temporary boost to movement and bullet resistance after duration
4(Ult): Easy Out
Diamond focuses – becoming fixed in place – to pitch three spirit fastballs; the first two successively deal more spirit damage and debuffs. The last one explodes for higher spirit damage, also dealing splash damage and knockback to nearby enemies.
The version in the first post was a sort of stacking, potentially self debuffing, risky attack. I abandoned most of that idea for a simpler concept here.
The first two fastballs deal moderate damage and apply a spirit resist reduction, setting up for the explosion with the third ball (which deals higher single target spirit damage; the explosion being splash damage).
I imagine these can be telegraphed with the character calling their shots, shouting shortly before each shot is released like “Strike one! (throw) … Strike two! (throw)... And you’re gone! (throw)” ; combined with a visual spiritual flame trail left on the ground by the speeding ball.
(stock image when I googled 'baseball pitch on fire' lol)
With three shots, there’s the option of either hitting two enemies out of a crowd with the spirit reduction, then aiming to hit the whole lot with the explosion’s splash; or focusing the whole ult on one target (ex. trying to kill an ulting Seven, or flying Vindicta).
1. Additional Spirit Damage
2. Explosion is wider
3. Cooldown Reduction
4. Additional Spirit Resist Reduction
5. The third strike deals bonus spirit damage based on % of Velocity
Conclusion: I hope you enjoyed the character concept, because I enjoyed writing it! I would love to see a baseball themed character in Deadlock, whatever form it takes, and I hope with this gimmick it would carve out a niche in the roster. Play ball!
Welcome to the Dead-ball Era!
Tl;dr – Baseball themed character who throws off her enemies’ tempo with disrupting abilities at range then picks them off with a well-timed fastball; mechanically has a gimmick around building bullet velocity.
Lore Concept and Design 2.0
A new star, an old curse…
Theresa Diamond* is the new relief pitcher for a slumping Cursed Apple team, imbuing her pitches with spirit power. Discovering backroom deals to fix matches, all in service of a dark power at the heart of the ballpark that feeds on lost hope, she secretly investigates the Cursed Apple streets after practice, searching for a way to break the curse at the center of the team’s losing streak and the fans’ lost dreams.
- - -
Design notes: Rather than the pinstripes I suggested in the first post, I now imagine a solid greyish jersey with colored under shirt and trim, and long colored baseball socks would provide a nice contrast. (Looking at some older resources for teams like the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers, it seems like they went for grey in the 1920s and again in the 1940s).
An open baseball jacket for the occult themed in-universe team would add more to the character’s profile, and allow more personalized design elements such as sleeve patches and the macabre imagery of the Deadlock aesthetic.
(Older style dugout jacket)The character designs in Deadlock are awesome, the designers know better than me so I will cut this section short. They would knock it out of the park whatever they go with.
*I went with Diamond mostly just because I think it would sound fine when other characters shout “I see Diamond!”. Theresa because of the Red Sox song Tessie (I actually hate the New York teams lol so I leave it to others to think of a more fitting first name that honors them)
Gimmick
Tl;dr – Building spirit power builds bullet velocity; bullet velocity adds bonus alt-fire damage and affects abilities
Pitching velocity is a big focus in modern baseball, so I thought it would be fun incorporating that into the character. But I hit a roadblock in thinking about how to design a Deadlock character that builds off bullet velocity. I first wanted the weapon damage itself to scale off of it, but the issue is that there is currently only one item path that actually affects velocity and it is only a 50% upgrade. You would just buy High Velocity Rounds and that would be it.
With no way of progression, I rethought the main weapon and gimmick. Certain characters like Grey Talon have a unique mechanic where building spirit power increases scaling in other abilities. Applying it here, Diamond’s spirit power increases her bullet velocity. This will in turn affect the weapon and abilities.
This way, buying the velocity items is still useful, but there is a way to build past the 50% increase it offers. And thematically, it ties back to a spirit-based character that charges their baseballs with spirit power in order to throw (or in this case shoot) faster.
Weapon: Ninth Inning
I’m imagining a retro-futuristic version of a pitching machine like this, mounted to a gloved hand.
Tl;dr – Lobs low velocity projectiles at a moderate rate. Alt-fire shoots a single projectile at a low rate with bonus damage that scales off velocity.
Ammo – 9 (same as Lady Geist, and an ‘immaculate inning’ in baseball)
Base Velocity – 42 (This is just under Paige’s 43.4, which would make it the slowest in the game. I based this off the actual average speed of a fastball pitch, and 42 also happens to be Jackie Robinson’s iconic number with the Brooklyn Dodgers)
Ditching the diminishing fire-rate concept of my first post, I went with an alt-fire mode instead. Like switching the setting on a real-life pitching machine, there would be a higher fire-rate mode with more variance, and a lower-rate but more accurate ‘fastball’ that deals more damage.
Main Fire: Shoots projectiles at a low velocity with a moderate fire rate. Has no bonus scaling.
Alt Fire: An accurate, more damaging ‘fastball’. Takes more ammo (I imagine 5, thus forcing a reload to use it again unless capacity is increased), with a very low fire rate (something really slow like 1 per second). Bonus damage that scales with velocity.
This way, early in the round it would play better to rely on the main fire mode with higher dps. As spirit power builds bullet velocity, it becomes more rewarding to switch over to the accurate Alt fire mode to deal higher, single shot damage.
Or, the alt fire mode can be neglected entirely to build the main gun and support its dps with the utility of the abilities.
Abilities
Tl;dr – 1. knockback, 2. AOE, 3. Dash, and 4. single target (sort of) ULT. Velocity related effects are unlocked at different tiers.
I kept the abilities mostly the same as the initial concept, but added ways to tie in to the character gimmick. I also switched the first concept’s 3 and the ult, as I wanted to emphasize the character concept more; a pitcher should have a ultimate that is centered around throwing baseballs.
Most of the tiers I threw together haphazardly, as a mockup.
1: Brushback
With her free hand, Diamond throws a cutting spirit ball that knocks opponents away on the angle where they’re struck.
I imagine this being used to create distance early on, then building to help protect allies or set up combos at crucial moments. This should be more of a disrupting skill rather than a pure damage dealer.
1 – Cooldown Reduction
2 – Arc increased with Velocity
The cutter is a curving fastball. I imagine the velocity tie-in here being adjusting the curve of the arc; don’t know how viable this would be in practice, but I picture this ability being extra tricky, allowing hits around the edge of corners or obstacles with a high enough arc/proper aim. This being a tier 2 unlock will hopefully be a fun early taste of the changing gimmick effects, with the other abilities having their effects unlocked on higher tiers
3 – Increased Spirit Damage
4 - Increased Knockback distance.
5 – Second charge
2: Batting Cage
Summon a spirit cage. Enemies inside the cage are briefly slowed and take increased spirit damage.
My intention here is that it would provide a buffer early on, then be used to boost allies in the middle of a fight. Late-game, it then can be strung together with the character’s other abilities for higher damaging combinations in their own right.
1 – Slow Duration Increased
2 – Cooldown reduction
3 – Cage Duration Increased
4 – Bullets that enter the cage deal bonus weapon damage based on % of velocity
I’m not sure how the damage calculation works in the game or if this can even be done. The intent here is not only to boost the character’s own gun/alt but those of allies as well. Characters with higher base velocity would thus deal higher % weapon damage.
5 – The cage casts Silence
3: Rundown
Diamond readies herself before dashing forward in a fixed sprint, tagging any enemy in her path and dealing light melee (?) damage.
This was the ULT of the initial concept, but I moved it to ability 3. On second thought it would be better as a useful escape skill given its speed, or to pick off fleeing low health enemies. My gut feeling is it should deal light melee damage to keep it relatively low, with the real value being its speed and repositioning.
Thinking of how Vindicta’s 2 emphasizes verticality, I wanted to have this skill be aggressively horizontal instead. The dash will be in a fixed, straight line. Players will need to take advantage of cross sections between fire-zones to avoid being left over-extended.
1 – Dealing damage provides a small heal
2 – Duration extended
3 – Speed increased by % of Velocity
Pretty straight forward. I am assuming if the velocity concept is worked in, there will be a maximum cap set, or the increases will be low enough to keep them from being too powerful.
4 – Bonus health to damage dealt
5 - Diamond gets a temporary boost to movement and bullet resistance after duration
4(Ult): Easy Out
Diamond focuses – becoming fixed in place – to pitch three spirit fastballs; the first two successively deal more spirit damage and debuffs. The last one explodes for higher spirit damage, also dealing splash damage and knockback to nearby enemies.
The version in the first post was a sort of stacking, potentially self debuffing, risky attack. I abandoned most of that idea for a simpler concept here.
The first two fastballs deal moderate damage and apply a spirit resist reduction, setting up for the explosion with the third ball (which deals higher single target spirit damage; the explosion being splash damage).
I imagine these can be telegraphed with the character calling their shots, shouting shortly before each shot is released like “Strike one! (throw) … Strike two! (throw)... And you’re gone! (throw)” ; combined with a visual spiritual flame trail left on the ground by the speeding ball.
(stock image when I googled 'baseball pitch on fire' lol)With three shots, there’s the option of either hitting two enemies out of a crowd with the spirit reduction, then aiming to hit the whole lot with the explosion’s splash; or focusing the whole ult on one target (ex. trying to kill an ulting Seven, or flying Vindicta).
1. Additional Spirit Damage
2. Explosion is wider
3. Cooldown Reduction
4. Additional Spirit Resist Reduction
5. The third strike deals bonus spirit damage based on % of Velocity
Conclusion: I hope you enjoyed the character concept, because I enjoyed writing it! I would love to see a baseball themed character in Deadlock, whatever form it takes, and I hope with this gimmick it would carve out a niche in the roster. Play ball!
