Let us throw the urn like a football. (Playable demo included)

[Mal_loc]

Instead of just tapping F to drop the Urn, you should be able to hold down F to stand still and charge up a throw. At full charge, any player (enemy or teammate) can intercept the throw mid-arc, picking it up instantly. If it hits a wall it will fall to the ground lamely and return to its normal channeled pickup behaviour.

This mechanic would naturally lead to new dynamics:

Pre-planned line-up combos with teammates
Counterplay opportunities when you see an opponent in a common line-up spot
Interceptions from lash/holiday/vindicta leading to dynamic surprises in urn fights
Hail mary urn throws with the chance to change the tide of the game

If you're really crazy you could also tie the urn throw distance to Ability Range (psycho)

I also coded up a proof of concept to illustrate the idea, here's a video showing it off!

You can play with it here.

 

[animal4826]

This looks fun

 

[van17ino6]

yES PLEASE

 

[nesrovlah1]

Maybe to catch it they need to parry, and if they dont, the urn risks breaking.

 

[come219]

if they let the urn through the portals, you can setup a super cool line-up for sure

like you throw the urn towards the bridge which has a portal to the other bridge.

I think a major use of urn throwing would be to throw it away (like out of the map) when you are doing a 'bait' play.

 

[Prime]

That looks really funny

 

[lolgube010]

cool!

 

[mikro236]

Deliberately throwing it at an enemy to disarm them would be an interesting strategy.

 

[pikokino]

This, mixed with abilities like the Doorman's portal, would make running the urn a lot more engaging. Great stuff.

 

[Ookidablobida]

if this is added there should probably be some mechanic to deny the throw, or limit the number of throws or distance. something to keep it from being overpowered

 

[Hosps]

love this idea

 

[bruhTeo]

I'd love this with interceptions. I'd also love for this to mean the superbowl is canonical in deadlock lore... urnbowl?

 

[rspearfish2000]

super amazing idea. I'd love something like this for the urn to make it more fun.

 

[Kinsou]

Bump

 

[nolangeo1010]

Instead of just tapping F to drop the Urn, you should be able to hold down F to stand still and charge up a throw. At full charge, any player (enemy or teammate) can intercept the throw mid-arc, picking it up instantly. If it hits a wall it will fall to the ground lamely and return to its normal channeled pickup behaviour.

This mechanic would naturally lead to new dynamics:

Pre-planned line-up combos with teammates
Counterplay opportunities when you see an opponent in a common line-up spot
Interceptions from lash/holiday/vindicta leading to dynamic surprises in urn fights
Hail mary urn throws with the chance to change the tide of the game

If you're really crazy you could also tie the urn throw distance to Ability Range (psycho)

I also coded up a proof of concept to illustrate the idea, here's a video showing it off!

You can play with it here.

looks fun

 

[wilsoncat.VS]

you thought of gold with this idea. Especially with the new quick drop mechanic I can see this allowing the team trying to play a comeback urn more chances of getting it. Fun idea would love to see it in game

 

[Flipkick25]

or have it replace your heavy melee so you press F to drop and hold Q to throw?

I'm curious about the best behavior for it, should it throw after the button is released? or should holding long enough trigger the throw (like current Heavy Melee behavior)? (I think it should scale off heavy melee range, not ability range personally)

Would it carry velocity? could i use a jumppad+dash to yeet it across the entire map to my lash?

 

['spakan]

Here are some of my suggestions to build upon the idea:

One way to make the urn more engaging is to incorporate a throw mechanic that has multiple trajectories without charging it like the CS2 grenade mechanics, where the left and right clicks can change the trajectories. The urn already disarms the carrier anyways so might as well use the mouse buttons. Having the throw be instant (apart from a brief wind-up animation to show that you are planning to throw the urn) can open up a great deal of skill expression in delivering the urn, apart from the current movement tech used in urn rollouts that may be difficult for new players.

I suggest the following ranges;
Left Click - 30m horizontal throw (same distance as Paige's Captivating Read)
Right Click - 15m vertical lob

Additional Mechanics:
- A throw happens on mouse click release.
- A successful throw consumes 1 stamina.
- Around 0-45 degrees upward yields the max distance for each type of throw; any more or less will shorten the distance.
- Aiming to throw gives you a ramping movement slow, capping at 4.8m/s (crouch walk speed) that recovers after throwing/canceling the throw.
- While aiming to throw, light/heavy melee cancels the aim.
- The thrower is still revealed on the minimap until the urn is grounded/received/intercepted.
- Parrying a thrown urn midair drops it straight to the ground.
- Urns intercepted mid-air dispel channeled non-ultimate abilities
- The throw distance is uniform for all characters.
- No catch backs, you must pass the urn to another person other than the person who passed it to you before you can hold the urn again.
- A successful urn capture still requires a player to be at the point with the urn.

This makes the urn a much more viable and fun objective to participate in, as it already mirrors the mechanics of other sports like soccer and basketball while keeping the current rugby football mechanics. This also helps in onboarding new players who are already experienced in playing these sports, but not the MOBA/Shooter aspect.

To ensure that a catch was intentional, you must jump or be mid-air and light/heavy melee so that you can not use it as a tool to disarm enemies/teammates who did not intend to catch the urn. Not catching with a mid-air melee leaves the urn on the floor, which takes the same time as picking it up from the start. Melee-type abilities do not steal the urn but drop it straight down, like how it works currently.

I chose melee because it already includes an action of reaching for something, whether through a kick or punch animation, which helps read the action well, and heavy melee helps you readjust your position to catch.

Melee to recieve or steal the urn leaves you open to a parry, which is also a similar "blocking" animation, and can be risky when an urn is thrown into a fight.

This also helps avoid the awkward juggle of who has priority to hold the urn at the start, like in this scenario:

Two teammates try to grab the urn to lock the drop spot, but the one who held it first has ult/abilities that can help fight while the other is on cooldown.

Currently, you would have to drop it on the floor and pick it up again, wasting a few seconds; now you can just throw it far or pass it to the nearby guy who is not ready for a fight, while the others help defend the urn.

This also opens up a way to be aggressive yet risky with the urn by predicting a melee by passing it to an enemy where they did not intend to catch, but because they meleed, they are silenced and disarmed. This helps you become less vulnerable during the urn by intentionally predicting a melee hit, passing the urn, and fighting back.

The urn weight must be thrown light up until the apex, where it becomes heavy and drops down fast to discourage throwing from a tall height, which can "cheat" more distance.

Drawbacks:

You can un/intentionally grief teammates by silencing them with the urn mid-melee.

You can still intentionally throw the urn at the enemy regardless.

The level of coordination with passing the urn from player to player with randoms may be hard to execute.

You can throw the urn in an unreachable spot for certain characters with limited movement abilities.