Content of this post:
A Fate's Tale (character background)
Abstract (summary of what the character is)
Abilities (ability list)
Background (of why I made this character and my inspiration and general thoughts)
A Fate's Tale:
Index is.. was.. your average conspiracy theorist: Ixia was not real, the outer planes was a front to launder government taxes, souls were just magic tricks to appease the feeble minded and corporations were secretly ran by deities not understood by mere human comprehension.
Disillusioned with society, they cut off ties with their family and spontaneously moved westward to rural New York, hoping to never see another human or hear that annoying, repetitive tune of society that they had longed to never hear again.
Index hoped that moving to the woods would bring them peace and calm, however it made them paranoid. They found themself fortifying their cabin with traps, modifying their crossbow and setting up a defensive perimeter. They weren't going to let it take them. They knew it was coming, they could hear it getting louder every day. The same tune that kept all these years, over and over again, creeping through the woodland and into their head.
Index could not take it any more. They had to stop noise that was haunting their dreams and their life. Index couldn't leave their cabin for fear of being caught alone and unprepared. They clutched their crossbow and stared down the rotting cabin door for as long as their weary eyes would permit. The sun never rose nor set, the windows showed naught but a purpleish grey sky.
They knew it was not coming after them any more. They were being toyed with. Hunted like prey.
Abstract
Index is a supportive character of unknown origin. They have 4 abilities with the third being passive (more in depth on how they work, the upgrades and variations in the "abilities" section.). They wield a slow firing crossbow which hits hard, but takes long to reload.
Their first ability is a bear-trap, that can be placed down in any location with a bit of delay. This is ideal for preventing enemies or alerting you of enemies farming in your spawn, or running through chokepoints.
The second is "hunter's sense". This effectively allows them to see the enemies through walls, but the further they are away from them, the less clear "where" the enemy actually is, only their general location. This is good for teamwork when tracking down a fleeing player and getting a general location of the enemy team.
The third is "paranoia". Like Shiv's rage meter, except that it only goes up when Index is alone without teammates, out of line of sight, touching cosmic veils, or with multiple enemies. This empowers Index's speed, spirit power and general abilities to be much tougher. This makes Index work excellently as a solo player, whilst their ultimate forces them to work as a team.
The fourth, their "ultimate", is "Piper's last call". It is essentially resurrecting fallen teammates with a lot of caveats to your teammate's wellbeing. I always disliked the fact that there was no hero aside from the item rebirth which can ressurrect you, so you are forced to wait 60 seconds to respawn and not participate in any form. This isnt neccessarily overpowered, as I mentioned, there are lots of caveats to make this fair. Please read the extended ability list below for more details.
Index would ideally have 3 stamina, and played like a solo until the team needs them to jump in resurrect them, therefore turning the tide from an enemy sweep into a rematch team fight again, just at a disadvantage to index's team as they suffer from the resurrection caveats.
Abilities
Ability 1: Bear Trap.
As a standard ability, the bear trap is no wider than a door entrance to one of the buildings.
It is clearly visible as a beartrap on the floor and deals some damage when walked over. Index is notified of the trap being triggered.
Upgrade 1: Index can now place 2 beartraps.
Upgrade 2: The beartraps are now invisible or camouflaged to the surrounding area to mask its presence.
Upgrade 3: If any enemy steps in the beartrap, they first take damage, then have to rapidly spam click a button or key to be freed (pulling themselves out of the trap), and take more damage when freeing themselves. I find this preferable to stunning because the stun feature has been overused. While snared, the enemy hero can still shoot, but they cannot move until they free themselves.
Ability 2: Hunter's Sense.
As a standard ability, this slows down Index to a near stop whilst being used, the screen goes dark and purple-ish but allows index to make out blurry outlines of all the enemy heroes on the map.
The closer to Index the enemy is, the more clearer the outline is. The further away from Index, the less clear and more blurry the enemy is. It does not show which specific hero and where, but only a vague indication that there is an enemy hero in a certain direction. Think of it like a predator vision.
Index can only last a brief moment in this state, perhaps half a second. Any enemy that is revealed in his vision gets their screen darkened slightly as an indicator that they are revealed.
Upgrade 1: Index can last longer in this state, it is more clearer which hero is where.
Upgrade 2: In this state, Index can now see the healthbars of each hero, their stamina, and unclaimed souls attached to them
Upgrade 3: Index can now select an enemy hero to be their "prey" whilst in this state. Index now does 30% more damage and has 30% damage resistance against the prey. This state lasts for 1 minute or until index or the prey dies. The prey is notified that they are being hunted, and a tune or melody gets louder to them as index gets closer to them. if the prey is successfully killed, index gets a permanent buff (+5 spirit power?)
Ability 3: Paranoia.
Like shiv's rage meter, Index has a paranoia bar. The bar increases when index is not near their teammates, is near enemies, passes through cosmic veils (with a cooldown), out of line of sight, or invisible. The bar does not have a maximum limit, but increases in levels each time it maxes out. Each index death lowers the total level by 50%.
This means it is in index's best interest to stay solo, be sneaky and only attack when they know they can win.
The higher the level, the more spirit power and sprint speed Index recieves. The other abilities are also affected by it. Such as the beartrap can do toxic damage after level 5 paranoia, or the hunter's sense can see individual enemies more clearly after level 5 or perhaps the resurrection can give the allies more buffs.
Upgrade 1: When index is not within 50m of a player, gain +30% monster damage buff
Upgrade 2: When index is surrounded by others, gain spirit power. When index is alone, gain movement speed.
Upgrade 3: Witnessing an allied death increases spirit power temporarily and lowers cooldowns by 10 seconds.
Ability 4: Piper's last call.
A reference to the pied piper leading humans with him. This ability resurrects a fallen ally who must stay near Index to remain resurrected. I imagine the animation to be Index playing a spooky or eerie tune for the duration of the resurrected's death timer.
The ability takes 3 seconds to charge up and the ally will come back to life for the duration of their death timer.
The resurrected have half of their HP, half of their stamina during the duration of their death timer.
The resurrected must stay within 20m of Index during the death timer, or a stacking permanent health debuff is applied which may possibly kill them a second time (death timer remains the same if they die a second time).
At the end of the death timer, and if the resurrected are still "alive", their debuffs are lifted and they are allowed to fully heal and be independent of Index's AoE.
All resurrected heroes' kills are assists for index, regardless if they even damage an enemy killed by the resurrected.
The ability lasts as long as the longest death timer or until the last resurrected is dead.
Enemies killing resurrected teammates do not get souls per death, but recieve a non permanent health boost.
Upgrade 1: the resurrection field (for which the resurrected must be in to not recieve stacking damage) now provides healing and a speed boost this also applies to non resurrected, alive, teammates.
Upgrade 2: Resurrected teammates are now invulnerable for 1 second from being resurrected, and they are given some temporary shields.
Upgrade 3: Now able to resurrect multiple allies in line of sight.
Background
I personally love supportive characters in games which can turn the tide of a losing battle. I also like being very sneaky and pulling in a decisive kill against the enemy's overfed hero with skill. This is where I hope that character can come into play. This character is somewhat inspired by repetitive listening of that ghostly "The Lincolnshire Poacher" number station tune. It's scary, unknown, mysterious, and elusive. I thought it would be rather scary to hear that tune when all alone and overextended in your lane, knowing that the enemy Index is solely coming after you, hunting you down - hearing the volume of that tune creep up as they get closer and closer.
I also intended for Index to be more of an elusive character themselves - the paranoia ability made to hold them back and hide until its time to strike, encouraging the usage of hiding in cosmic veils and being underground. This will give the character more of a reputation that you might even forget that the character is in your match, but if you see them and you're alone - you're dead.
I also intended for the character's "A Fate's Tale" to be kind of elusive and open to interpretation (or for a fitting visual novel ending). What happened to them? Did they change their name to "index" when they moved to the woods and abandoned society? How long were they in the cabins for? Were they always being stalked by the unknown "it" their whole life? What happened at the ending, did they become "it", or were they killed and resurrected themselves? Was "it" a creature from the outer planes, or was it a patron trying to recruit them? Who knows.
Are they non binary? Yes. I felt like in a game of deadlock with mystical catalysmic maelstrom events happening every few years, your gender is the least of your concerns, especially if you are actively being hunted by an unknown entity your entire life.
I imagine their character design to be somewhat of a corrupted gremlin. A disshevilled human embued with incomprehensible and debilitating powers. Perhaps they were turned into a werewolf or some other anthropormorphic creature, to fit their demeanour of a poacher/hunter.
A Fate's Tale (character background)
Abstract (summary of what the character is)
Abilities (ability list)
Background (of why I made this character and my inspiration and general thoughts)
A Fate's Tale:
Index is.. was.. your average conspiracy theorist: Ixia was not real, the outer planes was a front to launder government taxes, souls were just magic tricks to appease the feeble minded and corporations were secretly ran by deities not understood by mere human comprehension.
Disillusioned with society, they cut off ties with their family and spontaneously moved westward to rural New York, hoping to never see another human or hear that annoying, repetitive tune of society that they had longed to never hear again.
Index hoped that moving to the woods would bring them peace and calm, however it made them paranoid. They found themself fortifying their cabin with traps, modifying their crossbow and setting up a defensive perimeter. They weren't going to let it take them. They knew it was coming, they could hear it getting louder every day. The same tune that kept all these years, over and over again, creeping through the woodland and into their head.
Index could not take it any more. They had to stop noise that was haunting their dreams and their life. Index couldn't leave their cabin for fear of being caught alone and unprepared. They clutched their crossbow and stared down the rotting cabin door for as long as their weary eyes would permit. The sun never rose nor set, the windows showed naught but a purpleish grey sky.
They knew it was not coming after them any more. They were being toyed with. Hunted like prey.
Abstract
Index is a supportive character of unknown origin. They have 4 abilities with the third being passive (more in depth on how they work, the upgrades and variations in the "abilities" section.). They wield a slow firing crossbow which hits hard, but takes long to reload.
Their first ability is a bear-trap, that can be placed down in any location with a bit of delay. This is ideal for preventing enemies or alerting you of enemies farming in your spawn, or running through chokepoints.
The second is "hunter's sense". This effectively allows them to see the enemies through walls, but the further they are away from them, the less clear "where" the enemy actually is, only their general location. This is good for teamwork when tracking down a fleeing player and getting a general location of the enemy team.
The third is "paranoia". Like Shiv's rage meter, except that it only goes up when Index is alone without teammates, out of line of sight, touching cosmic veils, or with multiple enemies. This empowers Index's speed, spirit power and general abilities to be much tougher. This makes Index work excellently as a solo player, whilst their ultimate forces them to work as a team.
The fourth, their "ultimate", is "Piper's last call". It is essentially resurrecting fallen teammates with a lot of caveats to your teammate's wellbeing. I always disliked the fact that there was no hero aside from the item rebirth which can ressurrect you, so you are forced to wait 60 seconds to respawn and not participate in any form. This isnt neccessarily overpowered, as I mentioned, there are lots of caveats to make this fair. Please read the extended ability list below for more details.
Index would ideally have 3 stamina, and played like a solo until the team needs them to jump in resurrect them, therefore turning the tide from an enemy sweep into a rematch team fight again, just at a disadvantage to index's team as they suffer from the resurrection caveats.
Abilities
Ability 1: Bear Trap.
As a standard ability, the bear trap is no wider than a door entrance to one of the buildings.
It is clearly visible as a beartrap on the floor and deals some damage when walked over. Index is notified of the trap being triggered.
Upgrade 1: Index can now place 2 beartraps.
Upgrade 2: The beartraps are now invisible or camouflaged to the surrounding area to mask its presence.
Upgrade 3: If any enemy steps in the beartrap, they first take damage, then have to rapidly spam click a button or key to be freed (pulling themselves out of the trap), and take more damage when freeing themselves. I find this preferable to stunning because the stun feature has been overused. While snared, the enemy hero can still shoot, but they cannot move until they free themselves.
Ability 2: Hunter's Sense.
As a standard ability, this slows down Index to a near stop whilst being used, the screen goes dark and purple-ish but allows index to make out blurry outlines of all the enemy heroes on the map.
The closer to Index the enemy is, the more clearer the outline is. The further away from Index, the less clear and more blurry the enemy is. It does not show which specific hero and where, but only a vague indication that there is an enemy hero in a certain direction. Think of it like a predator vision.
Index can only last a brief moment in this state, perhaps half a second. Any enemy that is revealed in his vision gets their screen darkened slightly as an indicator that they are revealed.
Upgrade 1: Index can last longer in this state, it is more clearer which hero is where.
Upgrade 2: In this state, Index can now see the healthbars of each hero, their stamina, and unclaimed souls attached to them
Upgrade 3: Index can now select an enemy hero to be their "prey" whilst in this state. Index now does 30% more damage and has 30% damage resistance against the prey. This state lasts for 1 minute or until index or the prey dies. The prey is notified that they are being hunted, and a tune or melody gets louder to them as index gets closer to them. if the prey is successfully killed, index gets a permanent buff (+5 spirit power?)
Ability 3: Paranoia.
Like shiv's rage meter, Index has a paranoia bar. The bar increases when index is not near their teammates, is near enemies, passes through cosmic veils (with a cooldown), out of line of sight, or invisible. The bar does not have a maximum limit, but increases in levels each time it maxes out. Each index death lowers the total level by 50%.
This means it is in index's best interest to stay solo, be sneaky and only attack when they know they can win.
The higher the level, the more spirit power and sprint speed Index recieves. The other abilities are also affected by it. Such as the beartrap can do toxic damage after level 5 paranoia, or the hunter's sense can see individual enemies more clearly after level 5 or perhaps the resurrection can give the allies more buffs.
Upgrade 1: When index is not within 50m of a player, gain +30% monster damage buff
Upgrade 2: When index is surrounded by others, gain spirit power. When index is alone, gain movement speed.
Upgrade 3: Witnessing an allied death increases spirit power temporarily and lowers cooldowns by 10 seconds.
Ability 4: Piper's last call.
A reference to the pied piper leading humans with him. This ability resurrects a fallen ally who must stay near Index to remain resurrected. I imagine the animation to be Index playing a spooky or eerie tune for the duration of the resurrected's death timer.
The ability takes 3 seconds to charge up and the ally will come back to life for the duration of their death timer.
The resurrected have half of their HP, half of their stamina during the duration of their death timer.
The resurrected must stay within 20m of Index during the death timer, or a stacking permanent health debuff is applied which may possibly kill them a second time (death timer remains the same if they die a second time).
At the end of the death timer, and if the resurrected are still "alive", their debuffs are lifted and they are allowed to fully heal and be independent of Index's AoE.
All resurrected heroes' kills are assists for index, regardless if they even damage an enemy killed by the resurrected.
The ability lasts as long as the longest death timer or until the last resurrected is dead.
Enemies killing resurrected teammates do not get souls per death, but recieve a non permanent health boost.
Upgrade 1: the resurrection field (for which the resurrected must be in to not recieve stacking damage) now provides healing and a speed boost this also applies to non resurrected, alive, teammates.
Upgrade 2: Resurrected teammates are now invulnerable for 1 second from being resurrected, and they are given some temporary shields.
Upgrade 3: Now able to resurrect multiple allies in line of sight.
Background
I personally love supportive characters in games which can turn the tide of a losing battle. I also like being very sneaky and pulling in a decisive kill against the enemy's overfed hero with skill. This is where I hope that character can come into play. This character is somewhat inspired by repetitive listening of that ghostly "The Lincolnshire Poacher" number station tune. It's scary, unknown, mysterious, and elusive. I thought it would be rather scary to hear that tune when all alone and overextended in your lane, knowing that the enemy Index is solely coming after you, hunting you down - hearing the volume of that tune creep up as they get closer and closer.
I also intended for Index to be more of an elusive character themselves - the paranoia ability made to hold them back and hide until its time to strike, encouraging the usage of hiding in cosmic veils and being underground. This will give the character more of a reputation that you might even forget that the character is in your match, but if you see them and you're alone - you're dead.
I also intended for the character's "A Fate's Tale" to be kind of elusive and open to interpretation (or for a fitting visual novel ending). What happened to them? Did they change their name to "index" when they moved to the woods and abandoned society? How long were they in the cabins for? Were they always being stalked by the unknown "it" their whole life? What happened at the ending, did they become "it", or were they killed and resurrected themselves? Was "it" a creature from the outer planes, or was it a patron trying to recruit them? Who knows.
Are they non binary? Yes. I felt like in a game of deadlock with mystical catalysmic maelstrom events happening every few years, your gender is the least of your concerns, especially if you are actively being hunted by an unknown entity your entire life.
I imagine their character design to be somewhat of a corrupted gremlin. A disshevilled human embued with incomprehensible and debilitating powers. Perhaps they were turned into a werewolf or some other anthropormorphic creature, to fit their demeanour of a poacher/hunter.
