raptor777777
Member
Bio: After finishing her PhD thesis on the outer planes, dr. Rena Carter, a powerful psychic, travelled the world visting astral gates doing her postdoc. Her research lead her to visit the Transantarctic Mountains where she expected to find an additional astral gate, but she went missing during the trip and has never been seen since, becoming somewhat of an urban legend over the years.
What actually happened was that she found it: Another astral gate, this one connecting to a dark and hostile world of unknowable horrors. Discovering that the gate was exponentially growing until it would become a threat to Earth, she used her psychic power to tie the gate to itself and keep it small and manageable, but the constant strain on her mind slowly drove her towards insanity and a split personality, roaming the dark corners of the Earth trying to keep the gate away from humanity. In a moment of clarity she decided to summon the Patrons, hoping they could close the gate forever. But when the patrons are summoned, which part of her will be making the request? Let's hope it's the sane one...
Roles: Support, healbane, grounding.
Appearance: Carter wears a ragged lab coat and has very long, dark, unkempt hair (both from the years of being a recluse), as well as dark rings around her eyes (from sleep deprivation due to constantly having to keep the gate small). Notably, she wears the same badge as Dynamo. She also has a relatively slim frame due to malnourishment. She wears a rebreather around her neck in those rare cases she gets pulled into the dark plane. Directly below her, on the ground, there is always a circular black portal that moves with her when she moves (even when she's way up in the air it's directly below her on the ground). There's also a couple of much smaller dark portals surrounding the larger one, some of which are used for ability/weapon animations. Her lower legs have a dark slimy 'corruption' crawling up them, originating from the portal beneath her, as do the lower fringes of her lab coat, where the corruption textures have a constant small movement about them.
Very bad sketch here:
Personality: Carter switches between a 'sane' and an 'insane' personality depending on what she is doing and who she is talking to. The sane one is good-natured, reserved, and cautious, whereas the insane one is destructive and welcomes the gate, frequently devolving into maniacal laughter.
Some of Carter's animations are simply the creatures of the gate doing their own thing without Carter having control over it, such as her weapon and some of her abilities. Of course, the player still has full control, but the animations make it look like it's the creatures of the gate doing it of their own volition.
Weapon: Her weapon is a ring of flying tentacled creatures constantly 'orbiting her'. Each shot is a creature leaving the ring and flying towards an opponent while simultaneously a new creature enters the ring from one of the smaller portals. Reloading consists of Carter pushing the ring of creatures back into the gate using her psychic powers, only for a new ring to escape from and encircle her. Shots are relatively slow but have a very slight horizontal 'homing effect' to it to compensate, as these are sentient creatures. Bullets don't move straight, but have a slight a sinusoidal pattern (left to right) to them. It is implied Carter has no control over the creatures (the player does, though).
More bad art:
Abilities: Carter's abilities focus on grounding enemies, heal reduction, and support/escape.
Lingering maw: Carter casts a circular trap at her crosshair which creates a column of 'downdraft' (enemy heroes directly above it, at any height, are pulled downwards (not too fast and not too slow)). This has no effect on horizontal movement and does not disrupt/interrupt. Enemy heroes touching the trap by walking onto or being pulled onto it spring the trap, which deals a burst of spirit damage. The trap is also sprung if enough time passes. The trap can be sprung as soon as it is set, so it can also be used as a grenade.
Animation-wise, Carter sends out one of the smaller gates, which then grows in size to form the trap, after which circular rows of teeth protrude from the edges indicating some large beast is hiding on the other side of this gate. If the trap is sprung, the teeth close.
More crappy concept art:
Unmentionable Intrusion: A large black tentacle appears from the gate under Carter, grabs her, and pulls her into the gate. A tentacle (without Carter) then appears from the gate and smashes the ground in front of where Carter was initially looking, dealing burst spirit damage and leaving a lingering puddle of black goo that applies healing reduction to enemies standing in it. Carter then escapes from the gate again. While Carter is in the gate, she cannot be hit or affected by anything, but she also cannot move or do anything. Casting a second time while in the gate causes Carter to be flung from the gate by a tentacle in the direction you are aiming, but at a small health cost. Not casting a second time makes her jump out in her original spot, without being flung.
The animation implies Carter has no control over it and this is just something that sometimes happens to her (obviously the player still has full control).
If used while airborne, the tentacle will simply extend a lot further.
Dark Pincushion Can be cast on both allies and self. Without delay, several thin, sharp tentacles appear under the target, stabbing into them, and pumping, well, something into them, healing them and replenishing (some) stamina. The effect also stops momentum and forced movement effects. If cast on an ally, Carter sends out one of her smaller gates, whereas if cast on self, the tentacles appear from her own gate.
If cast while airborne, the tentacles simply extend a lot further. In the animation when self-cast, it seems Carter didn't expect the tentacles and didn't have control over them appearing. She apologizes when casting on an ally.
More bad concept art:
Minor Breach For her ultimate, Carter goes insane and the gate starts growing on the ground, pulling Carter and any ally/enemy heroes that touch it into it as more and more tentacles slowly start protruding from it and reaching up. Enemies pulled into the gate receive some (but not too much) burst damage before they appear on the other side. The dark plane is simply the same map as the cursed apple, except that:
-Textures have been swapped for blacks, purples, maws, eyes, and tentacles, and have a slight animation to them.
-Creeps, objectives, denizens, etc are not present.
-Some buildings have large black tentacles wrapping around them.
-The skybox shows colossal and ancient structures of impossible geometry, and instead of a sun or moon there is a giant amorphous horror in the sky consisting of many eyes and maws.
Implementation-wise what's actually happening under the hood is a clever use of Pyrovision from Team Fortress 2: Everyone is still in the exact same map, but players in the regular Cursed Apple cannot see and interact with players in the Dark Plane and vice versa (basically every player and player projectile has a boolean flag 'dark plane' and things can only interact if the flag is the same, and players only see and collide with things with the same flag as themselves.
While in the dark plane, enemies receive a strong healing reduction and lifesteal reduction, while for all heroes, gravity is increased (lower jumps, faster falls). The gate lingers as long as the ultimate lasts, after which all players are returned to the corresponding location in the Cursed Apple.
If Lingering Maw and Minor Breach are on the same surface, Lingering Maw is triggered first.
While in the Dark Plane, Carter does NOT have the gate under her. Instead, tentacles used in her abilities burrow up from the ground.
Sinclair cannot use Carter's ult in the Dark Plane, and Doorman's doors cannot connect between the Dark Plane and regular Cursed Apple.
Overall I tried to have some abilities that chain into each other. Lingering Maw can pull enemies into Unmentionable Intrusion and Minor Breach, while after getting airborne from Unmentionable Intrusion you can use Dark Pincushion to heal back the damage and replenish your stamina for more air dashes. Plus given how important it is to keep enemies in the right place on the ground, Dark Pincushion prevents them from moving you, so they have to come to you.
Interactions The ritual is the first time Carter appears in the public after her disappearance, so many heroes either don't know her, only know the rumors or story about her, or are quite surprised that she showed up again.
Patrons The patrons show a tiny bit of hesitancy as to whether they will be able to close the gate, and show that they have a common objective with Carter: Closing the gate.
Doorman Doorman is similarly hiding some unease. If Doorman uses his ult on Carter, instead of mocking her, she simply urges her to get out of the Baroness.
Dynamo Dynamo and Carter used to work at the same university until Carter went missing.
Kelvin Kelvin and Carter seem to know each other. Perhaps they were on the same expedition, or perhaps Carter followed Kelvin's footsteps after Kelvin failed.
Haze Carter and the gate seem to have a file at the OSIC.
Sinclair Sane Carter hates Sinclair's ability to copy her ult.
Lady Geist Oathkeeper is also uneasy about Carter's gate.
Viscous Carter's gate grows smaller while she's in the cube.
Drifter supports Carter's endeavour to close the gate, and seems to know more than he lets on.
Abrams Conversation with Abrams shows that the Dark Plane is hinted at in Ixian nursery rhymes.
Warden also seems to know more than the usual hero.
Well, that's everything. Everything is super-first-version-no-idea-if-this-will-work and everything is up for rebalancing and such, just a hero idea I had.
What actually happened was that she found it: Another astral gate, this one connecting to a dark and hostile world of unknowable horrors. Discovering that the gate was exponentially growing until it would become a threat to Earth, she used her psychic power to tie the gate to itself and keep it small and manageable, but the constant strain on her mind slowly drove her towards insanity and a split personality, roaming the dark corners of the Earth trying to keep the gate away from humanity. In a moment of clarity she decided to summon the Patrons, hoping they could close the gate forever. But when the patrons are summoned, which part of her will be making the request? Let's hope it's the sane one...
Roles: Support, healbane, grounding.
Appearance: Carter wears a ragged lab coat and has very long, dark, unkempt hair (both from the years of being a recluse), as well as dark rings around her eyes (from sleep deprivation due to constantly having to keep the gate small). Notably, she wears the same badge as Dynamo. She also has a relatively slim frame due to malnourishment. She wears a rebreather around her neck in those rare cases she gets pulled into the dark plane. Directly below her, on the ground, there is always a circular black portal that moves with her when she moves (even when she's way up in the air it's directly below her on the ground). There's also a couple of much smaller dark portals surrounding the larger one, some of which are used for ability/weapon animations. Her lower legs have a dark slimy 'corruption' crawling up them, originating from the portal beneath her, as do the lower fringes of her lab coat, where the corruption textures have a constant small movement about them.
Very bad sketch here:
Personality: Carter switches between a 'sane' and an 'insane' personality depending on what she is doing and who she is talking to. The sane one is good-natured, reserved, and cautious, whereas the insane one is destructive and welcomes the gate, frequently devolving into maniacal laughter.
Some of Carter's animations are simply the creatures of the gate doing their own thing without Carter having control over it, such as her weapon and some of her abilities. Of course, the player still has full control, but the animations make it look like it's the creatures of the gate doing it of their own volition.
Weapon: Her weapon is a ring of flying tentacled creatures constantly 'orbiting her'. Each shot is a creature leaving the ring and flying towards an opponent while simultaneously a new creature enters the ring from one of the smaller portals. Reloading consists of Carter pushing the ring of creatures back into the gate using her psychic powers, only for a new ring to escape from and encircle her. Shots are relatively slow but have a very slight horizontal 'homing effect' to it to compensate, as these are sentient creatures. Bullets don't move straight, but have a slight a sinusoidal pattern (left to right) to them. It is implied Carter has no control over the creatures (the player does, though).
More bad art:
Abilities: Carter's abilities focus on grounding enemies, heal reduction, and support/escape.
Lingering maw: Carter casts a circular trap at her crosshair which creates a column of 'downdraft' (enemy heroes directly above it, at any height, are pulled downwards (not too fast and not too slow)). This has no effect on horizontal movement and does not disrupt/interrupt. Enemy heroes touching the trap by walking onto or being pulled onto it spring the trap, which deals a burst of spirit damage. The trap is also sprung if enough time passes. The trap can be sprung as soon as it is set, so it can also be used as a grenade.
Animation-wise, Carter sends out one of the smaller gates, which then grows in size to form the trap, after which circular rows of teeth protrude from the edges indicating some large beast is hiding on the other side of this gate. If the trap is sprung, the teeth close.
More crappy concept art:
Unmentionable Intrusion: A large black tentacle appears from the gate under Carter, grabs her, and pulls her into the gate. A tentacle (without Carter) then appears from the gate and smashes the ground in front of where Carter was initially looking, dealing burst spirit damage and leaving a lingering puddle of black goo that applies healing reduction to enemies standing in it. Carter then escapes from the gate again. While Carter is in the gate, she cannot be hit or affected by anything, but she also cannot move or do anything. Casting a second time while in the gate causes Carter to be flung from the gate by a tentacle in the direction you are aiming, but at a small health cost. Not casting a second time makes her jump out in her original spot, without being flung.
The animation implies Carter has no control over it and this is just something that sometimes happens to her (obviously the player still has full control).
If used while airborne, the tentacle will simply extend a lot further.
Dark Pincushion Can be cast on both allies and self. Without delay, several thin, sharp tentacles appear under the target, stabbing into them, and pumping, well, something into them, healing them and replenishing (some) stamina. The effect also stops momentum and forced movement effects. If cast on an ally, Carter sends out one of her smaller gates, whereas if cast on self, the tentacles appear from her own gate.
If cast while airborne, the tentacles simply extend a lot further. In the animation when self-cast, it seems Carter didn't expect the tentacles and didn't have control over them appearing. She apologizes when casting on an ally.
More bad concept art:
Minor Breach For her ultimate, Carter goes insane and the gate starts growing on the ground, pulling Carter and any ally/enemy heroes that touch it into it as more and more tentacles slowly start protruding from it and reaching up. Enemies pulled into the gate receive some (but not too much) burst damage before they appear on the other side. The dark plane is simply the same map as the cursed apple, except that:
-Textures have been swapped for blacks, purples, maws, eyes, and tentacles, and have a slight animation to them.
-Creeps, objectives, denizens, etc are not present.
-Some buildings have large black tentacles wrapping around them.
-The skybox shows colossal and ancient structures of impossible geometry, and instead of a sun or moon there is a giant amorphous horror in the sky consisting of many eyes and maws.
Implementation-wise what's actually happening under the hood is a clever use of Pyrovision from Team Fortress 2: Everyone is still in the exact same map, but players in the regular Cursed Apple cannot see and interact with players in the Dark Plane and vice versa (basically every player and player projectile has a boolean flag 'dark plane' and things can only interact if the flag is the same, and players only see and collide with things with the same flag as themselves.
While in the dark plane, enemies receive a strong healing reduction and lifesteal reduction, while for all heroes, gravity is increased (lower jumps, faster falls). The gate lingers as long as the ultimate lasts, after which all players are returned to the corresponding location in the Cursed Apple.
If Lingering Maw and Minor Breach are on the same surface, Lingering Maw is triggered first.
While in the Dark Plane, Carter does NOT have the gate under her. Instead, tentacles used in her abilities burrow up from the ground.
Sinclair cannot use Carter's ult in the Dark Plane, and Doorman's doors cannot connect between the Dark Plane and regular Cursed Apple.
Overall I tried to have some abilities that chain into each other. Lingering Maw can pull enemies into Unmentionable Intrusion and Minor Breach, while after getting airborne from Unmentionable Intrusion you can use Dark Pincushion to heal back the damage and replenish your stamina for more air dashes. Plus given how important it is to keep enemies in the right place on the ground, Dark Pincushion prevents them from moving you, so they have to come to you.
Interactions The ritual is the first time Carter appears in the public after her disappearance, so many heroes either don't know her, only know the rumors or story about her, or are quite surprised that she showed up again.
Patrons The patrons show a tiny bit of hesitancy as to whether they will be able to close the gate, and show that they have a common objective with Carter: Closing the gate.
Doorman Doorman is similarly hiding some unease. If Doorman uses his ult on Carter, instead of mocking her, she simply urges her to get out of the Baroness.
Dynamo Dynamo and Carter used to work at the same university until Carter went missing.
Kelvin Kelvin and Carter seem to know each other. Perhaps they were on the same expedition, or perhaps Carter followed Kelvin's footsteps after Kelvin failed.
Haze Carter and the gate seem to have a file at the OSIC.
Sinclair Sane Carter hates Sinclair's ability to copy her ult.
Lady Geist Oathkeeper is also uneasy about Carter's gate.
Viscous Carter's gate grows smaller while she's in the cube.
Drifter supports Carter's endeavour to close the gate, and seems to know more than he lets on.
Abrams Conversation with Abrams shows that the Dark Plane is hinted at in Ixian nursery rhymes.
Warden also seems to know more than the usual hero.
Well, that's everything. Everything is super-first-version-no-idea-if-this-will-work and everything is up for rebalancing and such, just a hero idea I had.
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