General Gameplay Concept - I think a good way to make a hero feel unique is to give them resources that only they can acquire or take advantage of in a particular way. This is probably why we have a number of heroes who focus on gaining "stacks" for various abilities or stats. Generally speaking, however, these have been something a hero will always get to have - brief balance changes aside which played with the idea of heroes losing such things on death, currently no heroes treat these things as something that is spent for a momentous gain, only held. Thinking about this reminded me that every hero innately has a resource which rewards holding onto large quantities for a key moment in a game, with the risk of losing them if they died - souls. But what if there was a hero that could do more with souls than others, but this conversely encouraged them to hold on to them for longer and longer periods and running that risk of dropping a big soul bag for the opposition to take? This is the idea behind Bull, a hero who directly grows stronger the more souls they withhold from spending, but runs bigger risk thank other heroes in doing so.
New Mechanic - core to Bull's identity is a new stat for scaling - unspent souls (Soul Scaling). Every unspent soul currently held by Bull will contribute to this scaling.
Weapon - "The Bear". Double barreled shotgun. Solid punch to the damage of course, the spread and falloff comparable to Abram's weapon. Single round reload. 2 round capacity initially and both rounds can be fired almost immediately one after the other, however if ammo capacity is increased, there is a notable delay between each set of 2 rounds. Rounds reload, quite quick.
Starting Stats - On the slower side for movement speed, 3 bar stamina and average dash speed. Has Soul Scaling of x0.0006 on Movement Speed. Bull does not automatically secure unsecured souls. Any souls Bull acquires from hitting Soul Bags are automatically secured. Any abilities which refer to Bull spending souls or creating soul bags, pull those souls from his supply of unsecured souls and cannot be used if he does not have enough unsecured souls for the ability.
Ability 1 (Active): Big Tipper - Bull throws a soul bag, worth 125 souls. It causes direct True damage equal to the amount of souls, plus a bonus 25 spirit damage with spirit scaling (0.4x). If the projectile misses, the soul bag stays where it landed and can be claimed like a normal soul bag, but if it hits an enemy the souls will be returned to Bull's unsecured souls. 30s cooldown. Upgrades reduce the cooldown, add more bonus spirit damage, and finally increases the worth of the soul bag by an additional 125 souls.
Ability 2 (Active): Bailout - Bull launches 20m straight into the air, causing 80 spirit damage (1.5x scaling) in an 8m radius around him. For 1s after activating the ability he is invulnerable, but leaves a 50 soul (scaling up with Boon x5) bag on his original position, lost from his held souls. Upgrades include a flat spirit damage bonus, height and radius bonus, and at the final tier an immediate 4s CD reduction on his other abilities and recovers a stamina bar.
Ability 3 (Passive+Active): Dividends - Bull gains several stat bonuses with Soul Scaling: +%HP (x0.005), +Spirit Power (x0.007), +%Debuff Resist (x0.004). Additionally, any soul bags claimed by friendly heroes within 25m of Bull grant him bonus souls based on 15% of the value of the bag. The active, Divestment, is a 6s buff that spends 100 souls (scaling up with Boon x10) to grant +25% weapon damage for the duration and removes the delay between every two rounds fired with The Bear. Upgrades improve the Soul Scaling slightly, improve the weapon damage bonus, and the duration for Divestment.
Ability 4 (Active): Hostile Takeover - Short ranged attack that rushes Bull forward, dealing 120 spirit damage (x1 spirit scaling). If damage from this ability kills an enemy hero, Bull steals up to 500 souls from that hero as unsecured souls. Respectable Cooldown, around 2 minutes base. Upgrades increase the amount of souls stolen, increasing the spirit scaling by x0.2, and lastly adds the buff from Divestment on hero kill without having to spend souls.
Gameplay Concerns - This character would involve some very careful balancing. The numbers provided above are meant to give a general feel of the intended power scale for them, and would need to be considered heavily based on the drawbacks and strengths. Things that immediately stand out as problematic - this character is also a team economy character, gaining additional net worth for his team by acquiring bonus souls from existing bags and ult kills, then redistributing them to the rest of his team via the first two abilities. The hope is that the huge risk of Bull being killed and dropping even larger soul bags for the enemy team to steal, coupled with his inclination to hoard souls for using his abilities and gaining stat bonuses, prevents this from becoming an outright advantage for Bull's team over other heroes, though of course the opposite holds true - Bull should not be so weak or difficult to manage when holding a trove of souls that he just becomes a piggy bank for the opposing team. Ultimately this concept may not even work - the soul income from one player doing what is expected of them through the course of a match being so vulnerable to being leeched by the opposite team might be too transformative to the dynamic of a game.
Character Background and Personality - Bull is a very stereotypical picture of US bankers and traders circa the middle of the 20th century. A self-made man and boisterously confident in defiance of a market crash from a decade or two prior (assuming such an event occurred in the world of Deadlock), Bull lives his life in the way he believes moneyed privilege demands: only accepting the best of quality, for the lowest price it can be acquired. Some characters will view this as disgustingly materialistic, others will find it a sign of reassuring competence. It should be no surprise that Bull is personally acquainted with other heroes also in the higher social circles of the Cursed Apple - undoubtedly he knows Lady Geist, Mina or possibly just her family, McGinnis and Pocket through a long relationship with Maximilian Fairfax, the Paradox Organization, etc. Potentially, he could have more involved background with the Fairfaxes, handling parts of their finances and even serving as a connection maker with groups or individuals Maximilian is better off not being seen directly involved with. In more personal interactions, Bull generally puts up the appearance of tolerating the less privileged provided he believes they can provide value. He would not hesitate to shake hands with Seven in spite of their reputation, because he knows he is powerful. He may even deal amiably with Krill and Maurice, recognizing kinship with their entrepreneurial spirit in spite of their criminal nature. On the other hand, given a choice between the likes of Vyper, Silver, or Calico as a gun-for-hire ally, he would treat the first two with unmasked disrespect for their unprofessional reputations. Physically, Bull is an older, broad man, smaller of course than any heroes granted with supernatural stature. His build tells the story of a man who spent much of his time in schooling playing for a sports team, then allowed his discipline in exercise to lapse slightly going into his middle and late life. His ethnithicty is unimportant to his identity, but he is born in the USA, at least one generation removed - the man genuinely believes in the capitalistic dream of the USA of his era because it has always been his home and cannot imagine another way of life (to a fault). Despite going into combat, he dresses himself well, with a handful of concessions to practicality - no suit jacket, suspendered pants and rolled up sleeves on his dress shirt, and perhaps he has decided a tie is a hazard in a fight he can't afford, or just wants a little more room to breathe by relieving the first few buttons at his collar. In a character-informing instance of hypocrisy, he has ignored this ethos for a few pieces of status embellishments - an expensive looking watch, crocodile leather dress shoes, some showy rings (perhaps a championship or alma mater ring he can't bring himself to stop wearing).
Thank you for reading!
New Mechanic - core to Bull's identity is a new stat for scaling - unspent souls (Soul Scaling). Every unspent soul currently held by Bull will contribute to this scaling.
Weapon - "The Bear". Double barreled shotgun. Solid punch to the damage of course, the spread and falloff comparable to Abram's weapon. Single round reload. 2 round capacity initially and both rounds can be fired almost immediately one after the other, however if ammo capacity is increased, there is a notable delay between each set of 2 rounds. Rounds reload, quite quick.
Starting Stats - On the slower side for movement speed, 3 bar stamina and average dash speed. Has Soul Scaling of x0.0006 on Movement Speed. Bull does not automatically secure unsecured souls. Any souls Bull acquires from hitting Soul Bags are automatically secured. Any abilities which refer to Bull spending souls or creating soul bags, pull those souls from his supply of unsecured souls and cannot be used if he does not have enough unsecured souls for the ability.
Ability 1 (Active): Big Tipper - Bull throws a soul bag, worth 125 souls. It causes direct True damage equal to the amount of souls, plus a bonus 25 spirit damage with spirit scaling (0.4x). If the projectile misses, the soul bag stays where it landed and can be claimed like a normal soul bag, but if it hits an enemy the souls will be returned to Bull's unsecured souls. 30s cooldown. Upgrades reduce the cooldown, add more bonus spirit damage, and finally increases the worth of the soul bag by an additional 125 souls.
Ability 2 (Active): Bailout - Bull launches 20m straight into the air, causing 80 spirit damage (1.5x scaling) in an 8m radius around him. For 1s after activating the ability he is invulnerable, but leaves a 50 soul (scaling up with Boon x5) bag on his original position, lost from his held souls. Upgrades include a flat spirit damage bonus, height and radius bonus, and at the final tier an immediate 4s CD reduction on his other abilities and recovers a stamina bar.
Ability 3 (Passive+Active): Dividends - Bull gains several stat bonuses with Soul Scaling: +%HP (x0.005), +Spirit Power (x0.007), +%Debuff Resist (x0.004). Additionally, any soul bags claimed by friendly heroes within 25m of Bull grant him bonus souls based on 15% of the value of the bag. The active, Divestment, is a 6s buff that spends 100 souls (scaling up with Boon x10) to grant +25% weapon damage for the duration and removes the delay between every two rounds fired with The Bear. Upgrades improve the Soul Scaling slightly, improve the weapon damage bonus, and the duration for Divestment.
Ability 4 (Active): Hostile Takeover - Short ranged attack that rushes Bull forward, dealing 120 spirit damage (x1 spirit scaling). If damage from this ability kills an enemy hero, Bull steals up to 500 souls from that hero as unsecured souls. Respectable Cooldown, around 2 minutes base. Upgrades increase the amount of souls stolen, increasing the spirit scaling by x0.2, and lastly adds the buff from Divestment on hero kill without having to spend souls.
Gameplay Concerns - This character would involve some very careful balancing. The numbers provided above are meant to give a general feel of the intended power scale for them, and would need to be considered heavily based on the drawbacks and strengths. Things that immediately stand out as problematic - this character is also a team economy character, gaining additional net worth for his team by acquiring bonus souls from existing bags and ult kills, then redistributing them to the rest of his team via the first two abilities. The hope is that the huge risk of Bull being killed and dropping even larger soul bags for the enemy team to steal, coupled with his inclination to hoard souls for using his abilities and gaining stat bonuses, prevents this from becoming an outright advantage for Bull's team over other heroes, though of course the opposite holds true - Bull should not be so weak or difficult to manage when holding a trove of souls that he just becomes a piggy bank for the opposing team. Ultimately this concept may not even work - the soul income from one player doing what is expected of them through the course of a match being so vulnerable to being leeched by the opposite team might be too transformative to the dynamic of a game.
Character Background and Personality - Bull is a very stereotypical picture of US bankers and traders circa the middle of the 20th century. A self-made man and boisterously confident in defiance of a market crash from a decade or two prior (assuming such an event occurred in the world of Deadlock), Bull lives his life in the way he believes moneyed privilege demands: only accepting the best of quality, for the lowest price it can be acquired. Some characters will view this as disgustingly materialistic, others will find it a sign of reassuring competence. It should be no surprise that Bull is personally acquainted with other heroes also in the higher social circles of the Cursed Apple - undoubtedly he knows Lady Geist, Mina or possibly just her family, McGinnis and Pocket through a long relationship with Maximilian Fairfax, the Paradox Organization, etc. Potentially, he could have more involved background with the Fairfaxes, handling parts of their finances and even serving as a connection maker with groups or individuals Maximilian is better off not being seen directly involved with. In more personal interactions, Bull generally puts up the appearance of tolerating the less privileged provided he believes they can provide value. He would not hesitate to shake hands with Seven in spite of their reputation, because he knows he is powerful. He may even deal amiably with Krill and Maurice, recognizing kinship with their entrepreneurial spirit in spite of their criminal nature. On the other hand, given a choice between the likes of Vyper, Silver, or Calico as a gun-for-hire ally, he would treat the first two with unmasked disrespect for their unprofessional reputations. Physically, Bull is an older, broad man, smaller of course than any heroes granted with supernatural stature. His build tells the story of a man who spent much of his time in schooling playing for a sports team, then allowed his discipline in exercise to lapse slightly going into his middle and late life. His ethnithicty is unimportant to his identity, but he is born in the USA, at least one generation removed - the man genuinely believes in the capitalistic dream of the USA of his era because it has always been his home and cannot imagine another way of life (to a fault). Despite going into combat, he dresses himself well, with a handful of concessions to practicality - no suit jacket, suspendered pants and rolled up sleeves on his dress shirt, and perhaps he has decided a tie is a hazard in a fight he can't afford, or just wants a little more room to breathe by relieving the first few buttons at his collar. In a character-informing instance of hypocrisy, he has ignored this ethos for a few pieces of status embellishments - an expensive looking watch, crocodile leather dress shoes, some showy rings (perhaps a championship or alma mater ring he can't bring himself to stop wearing).
Thank you for reading!
