DesertMoonGW
New member
was a big time television producer for WNYC Channel 4, host to news, games shows, dramas, comedies, if you want it, they have it! When the first Maelstrom happened, he was quick to jump on the opportunity to get the supernatural involved in his shows. Although this boosted viewership for a while, conflict with the Friends of Humanity and underground dealings getting the attention of the OSIC has put the network in jeopardy. He tried to recapture the novelty by making a deal with a group of Fae, they appear on his show and in exchange get a set of new CRTs. They scammed him, took everything, his money, his property, even his name, voice, and body. It's only because the OSIC were tracking him that he survived, receiving an emergency soul transfer into the television sets he had planned to give away. Now he seeks one last resort to restore him and his viewership.
1: Live Studio Audience - Summons two Troopers around you that will follow you, attack nearby hostiles, and obey commands from Teleprompter. These summoned troopers are effectively the same as lane troopers with the exception that they do not drop souls. Upgrades: (1) Summoned Troopers have more health. (2) Summoned Troopers deal more damage. (5) +2 Summoned Troopers. [Essentially the idea of this is beefing up a wave, if no enemies are there using this will let the wave passively push itself, and if there are enemies this can apply mild additional pressure.]
2: Teleprompter - Control all Troopers within 25 meters. If targeting an ally or yourself, they will follow. If targeting an enemy, they will chase and focus fire on that enemy. If targeting an area, they will go to that point and stay, attacking anything that gets close by. All commands stop after a short period of time. Upgrades: (1) Increased speed when ordered to follow. (2) Increased damage when order to attack. (5) Passive health regeneration when ordered to stay. [The core of the character. Ways this could be used include telling troopers to go back while you freeze a wave, having them follow you or an ally into a jungle camp, or targeting one specific enemy laner instead of whichever is closest.]
3: Guest Star - Convert a target NPC to your side. If it is a Denizen, they gain the ability to move same as Troopers. (1) Reduced Cooldown. (2) Gain the souls from the NPC same as if you killed them. (5) Spawn an additional Trooper alongside them. [Another way of beefing up a wave that is more dependent on the early timer and what camps have or haven't been cleared. With the second upgrade it sort of becomes a weaker basekit version of Cultist Sacrifice as you can use it on a Tier 3 Denizen to both get a strong unit and the souls of having killed them.]
4: Stagehands - All nearby Troopers have the same effects of the items you have for a short period of time. On unlocking this, Troopers can be targeted for Active Items same as players. (1) Heals all affected troopers to full health. (2) All affected Troopers have increased damage. (5) All affected Troopers have increased health. [Where a lot of item synergies would come into play. Troopers with Leech or Siphon Bullets, Torment Pulse or Melee Troopers with Spirit Snatch, Ricochet and Lucky Shot for big bullet damage, Tesla Bullets paired with Radiant Regeneration to make the Troopers gain health regen, and so on. With Active Items, you could for example give a Melee Trooper Scourge, use Divine Barrier on your Health Trooper, or Rescue Beam to pull a converted T3 Denizen out of danger for a better fight. Obviously items affecting abilities could not be used by Troopers, nor could items that are self actives.]
I intentionally did not include exact numbers for most things as I imagine that would need to be figured out more in testing and I am not a high enough rank in-game to know what would be healthy numbers. I should also mention that I have not played other MOBAs, so if a character like this already exists in League of Legends or DOTA 2 I am unaware of it.
He lost his real name to the Fae, so everyone just calls him Producer. The abrupt start of his lore with "was" is intentional, as the idea is that his name would be there at the start, but it's gone.
Because he lost his voice to the Fae, he communicates by playing snippets of television programming. This would mean that he has several voice actors each recording as if they are on a show or commercial, think Sinclairs dual voices except it's up to 10 with a low quality television audio filter. PAYDAY 2 is a good reference point with how they do Jacket's voice as a series of tape recordings spliced for the situation. These would be from things like commercials, a cooking show, a game show, the news, a talk show, a documentary, a sitcom, a saturday-morning cartoon, a police procedural, or a channel bumper. In my ideal world it would be voices by the various members of Radio TV Solutions, as it would be extremely thematically appropriate and would have a wide range of different voices and voice actors. Examples of possible dialogue:
Select: (Talk Show) "Live from New York!"
Unselect: (Channel Bumper) "Thank you, and good night."
Generic Enemy Kill: (Police Procedural) "You're dead, kid."
Generic Assist Kill: (Cooking Show) "-goes great with our-"
Killstreak 4+: (Saturday Morning Cartoon) "We've defeated the evil-doers!"
Killstreak 8+: (Documentary) "-hundreds dead-"
Killstreak 12+ (???) "Like the rest of them."
This character could also tie-in very easily with other characters lore, as I imagine many would either know of the channel, actively watch something on it, or have even been on it. Example ideas could Dynamo remarking that Martha likes the soap operas they air, Ivy appreciating that they air campaign ads for the Arroyos, Mirage not appreciating the biased coverage of the Djinn's request for Wyoming, Kelvin being mentioned in a documentary about the astral gates, or Infernus mentioning that they play Channel 4 at Jezebels. Besides other characters it could also give good insights into the world in the same way the New York Oracle stand does, as what snippets are played could convey bits of lore.
Gameplay
Producer is a character based around Troopers, making them, empowering them, and primarily at his strongest in lane and out of jungle. His gun is a burst fire short range series of electric zaps from the top television, sort of like Sevens gun. Mechanically he is vaguely inspired by Pikmin if the Troopers were your Pikmin and you had more direct agency, or the early missions of Brutal Legends.1: Live Studio Audience - Summons two Troopers around you that will follow you, attack nearby hostiles, and obey commands from Teleprompter. These summoned troopers are effectively the same as lane troopers with the exception that they do not drop souls. Upgrades: (1) Summoned Troopers have more health. (2) Summoned Troopers deal more damage. (5) +2 Summoned Troopers. [Essentially the idea of this is beefing up a wave, if no enemies are there using this will let the wave passively push itself, and if there are enemies this can apply mild additional pressure.]
2: Teleprompter - Control all Troopers within 25 meters. If targeting an ally or yourself, they will follow. If targeting an enemy, they will chase and focus fire on that enemy. If targeting an area, they will go to that point and stay, attacking anything that gets close by. All commands stop after a short period of time. Upgrades: (1) Increased speed when ordered to follow. (2) Increased damage when order to attack. (5) Passive health regeneration when ordered to stay. [The core of the character. Ways this could be used include telling troopers to go back while you freeze a wave, having them follow you or an ally into a jungle camp, or targeting one specific enemy laner instead of whichever is closest.]
3: Guest Star - Convert a target NPC to your side. If it is a Denizen, they gain the ability to move same as Troopers. (1) Reduced Cooldown. (2) Gain the souls from the NPC same as if you killed them. (5) Spawn an additional Trooper alongside them. [Another way of beefing up a wave that is more dependent on the early timer and what camps have or haven't been cleared. With the second upgrade it sort of becomes a weaker basekit version of Cultist Sacrifice as you can use it on a Tier 3 Denizen to both get a strong unit and the souls of having killed them.]
4: Stagehands - All nearby Troopers have the same effects of the items you have for a short period of time. On unlocking this, Troopers can be targeted for Active Items same as players. (1) Heals all affected troopers to full health. (2) All affected Troopers have increased damage. (5) All affected Troopers have increased health. [Where a lot of item synergies would come into play. Troopers with Leech or Siphon Bullets, Torment Pulse or Melee Troopers with Spirit Snatch, Ricochet and Lucky Shot for big bullet damage, Tesla Bullets paired with Radiant Regeneration to make the Troopers gain health regen, and so on. With Active Items, you could for example give a Melee Trooper Scourge, use Divine Barrier on your Health Trooper, or Rescue Beam to pull a converted T3 Denizen out of danger for a better fight. Obviously items affecting abilities could not be used by Troopers, nor could items that are self actives.]
I intentionally did not include exact numbers for most things as I imagine that would need to be figured out more in testing and I am not a high enough rank in-game to know what would be healthy numbers. I should also mention that I have not played other MOBAs, so if a character like this already exists in League of Legends or DOTA 2 I am unaware of it.
Aesthetics
Visually he is a stack of three or four old box television sets, about the height of Ivy or one of the Fairfax Crates, being wheeled around on a trolley cart. For things like riding the zipline or climbing rope, he can produce a static spectral hand from one of the televisions. What is on each screen changes based on the situation, flickering with more static at low health, playing action shows in combat, doctors commercials while being healed, etc.He lost his real name to the Fae, so everyone just calls him Producer. The abrupt start of his lore with "was" is intentional, as the idea is that his name would be there at the start, but it's gone.
Because he lost his voice to the Fae, he communicates by playing snippets of television programming. This would mean that he has several voice actors each recording as if they are on a show or commercial, think Sinclairs dual voices except it's up to 10 with a low quality television audio filter. PAYDAY 2 is a good reference point with how they do Jacket's voice as a series of tape recordings spliced for the situation. These would be from things like commercials, a cooking show, a game show, the news, a talk show, a documentary, a sitcom, a saturday-morning cartoon, a police procedural, or a channel bumper. In my ideal world it would be voices by the various members of Radio TV Solutions, as it would be extremely thematically appropriate and would have a wide range of different voices and voice actors. Examples of possible dialogue:
Select: (Talk Show) "Live from New York!"
Unselect: (Channel Bumper) "Thank you, and good night."
Generic Enemy Kill: (Police Procedural) "You're dead, kid."
Generic Assist Kill: (Cooking Show) "-goes great with our-"
Killstreak 4+: (Saturday Morning Cartoon) "We've defeated the evil-doers!"
Killstreak 8+: (Documentary) "-hundreds dead-"
Killstreak 12+ (???) "Like the rest of them."
This character could also tie-in very easily with other characters lore, as I imagine many would either know of the channel, actively watch something on it, or have even been on it. Example ideas could Dynamo remarking that Martha likes the soap operas they air, Ivy appreciating that they air campaign ads for the Arroyos, Mirage not appreciating the biased coverage of the Djinn's request for Wyoming, Kelvin being mentioned in a documentary about the astral gates, or Infernus mentioning that they play Channel 4 at Jezebels. Besides other characters it could also give good insights into the world in the same way the New York Oracle stand does, as what snippets are played could convey bits of lore.
