hieronymus.jens
New member
"hey, careful with that! I'm gonna take that later." - Xoda
Gameplay Fantasy:
Dash in, juggle enemies with spatial abilities, rewind out, then re-engage with cooldowns already ticking faster. Acceleration → Time Essense → Impact
Design:
As a former member of paradox they should wear something maybe mocking to the uniform paradox wear, maybe keep the coat, but with like frayed hem shorts and stains on their clothes. Maybe a more masculine build to counter paradoxes more feminine build, but still relatively neutral. I think a cool note could be that they have the same hour-glass type symbol in the mask, but its horizontal resembling an infinity sign instead. The name is also just something very flexible, I just reversed paradox and shortened it. They should feel more chaotic than paradox hence their pretty high mobility kit. They probably have hostile interactions with paradox, and interactions where for instance dynamo asks for more information about time travel and paradox refuses, they may be more enthusiastic to talk. The shopkeeper might say something like "Wait?! you're actually paying this time, dont you usually just steal it tomorrow?"
Gun:
I feel like a shotgun feels right for this character, something like Shivs gun.
notes:
Maybe they literally have Shiv’s gun—stolen from the future. Throughout the game, they keep a mental list of items they plan to take... I can totally see them saying like "hey! be careful, thats going to be my gun!" when someone disarms a shiv
1st ability:
- A 3-step spatial manipulation combo based on number of dimensions. Time between activations is fixed (not affected by CDR, but still affected by 2nd ability), with a maximum window to complete the combo.
individual damage should be low, so they dont essentially act as a character with 3 abilities level 1. Maybe a tier 2 upgrade can just add damage to all activations. The analogy of dimensions feels thematical and ties into the idea of time mastery quite nicely IMO
2nd ability:
- toggleable ability that accelerates the passage of time. Cooldowns pass faster (150%), eg. an ability or item with 3 seconds would come off cooldown after 2 actual seconds. This would mean it stacks with cooldown reduction benefitially. Also should probably increase, reload, stamina recovery, movement speed, or maybe even gravity. Seems a little busted huh? well it costs a resource gained by the 3rd ability, time essense at a rate of lets say 25/second
Upgrade ideas:
I love the idea of a character that can speed up how fast their abilities come off cooldown and potentially even pass this buff onto someone else.
3rd ability:
- Passive: whenever Xoda accelerates they gain Time essense (bar like shiv rage), this includes, jumping, dashing, zipping, simply changing directions, falling, going from stand still to moving, from moving to sprinting, using vents, heavy melees but also forced movement, like a bebop hook. Balancing this rate of gain and thresholds will need some tweaking. Max time essense should be like 100.
- Active: a short dash that increases in range with stored time essense (from slightly less than normal dash to something like twice as far. Does not consume Time Essense or maybe just a portion of it
Upgrade ideas:
The reason why im using acceleration to gain these stacks, is because acceleration causes time to move differently in General relativity, and I feel like this character might be able to harness that. I feel like I would like this character to be able to build melee items.
4th ability:
- Retrace your steps back through time. Xoda begins reversing their steps in time moving along the exact path they recently moved at a higher rate. How far back they can go is dependent of the amount of time essense they have. Something like full essense bar takes them back around 4 seconds in 1 second. Enemies they pass through in this time, get time slowed and take damage. Can be reactivated to stop early. Always goes at least 1 second.
Upgrade ideas:
should impart the momentum Xoda had at the point in his path they return to. There should be a trace of where they have been visible to enemies if they have vision on Xoda
I left out most specific numbers as I dont have a lot of experience balancing things and any numbers that are mentioned are simply suggestions/to explain what I mean
Gameplay Fantasy:
Dash in, juggle enemies with spatial abilities, rewind out, then re-engage with cooldowns already ticking faster. Acceleration → Time Essense → Impact
Design:
As a former member of paradox they should wear something maybe mocking to the uniform paradox wear, maybe keep the coat, but with like frayed hem shorts and stains on their clothes. Maybe a more masculine build to counter paradoxes more feminine build, but still relatively neutral. I think a cool note could be that they have the same hour-glass type symbol in the mask, but its horizontal resembling an infinity sign instead. The name is also just something very flexible, I just reversed paradox and shortened it. They should feel more chaotic than paradox hence their pretty high mobility kit. They probably have hostile interactions with paradox, and interactions where for instance dynamo asks for more information about time travel and paradox refuses, they may be more enthusiastic to talk. The shopkeeper might say something like "Wait?! you're actually paying this time, dont you usually just steal it tomorrow?"
Gun:
I feel like a shotgun feels right for this character, something like Shivs gun.
notes:
Maybe they literally have Shiv’s gun—stolen from the future. Throughout the game, they keep a mental list of items they plan to take... I can totally see them saying like "hey! be careful, thats going to be my gun!" when someone disarms a shiv
1st ability:
- A 3-step spatial manipulation combo based on number of dimensions. Time between activations is fixed (not affected by CDR, but still affected by 2nd ability), with a maximum window to complete the combo.
- First Cast - Line (1D)
A piercing projectile that returns, slightly pulling enemies - Second Cast - Plane (2D)
A square field that knocks enemies upward - Third Cast - Volume (3D)
A cone blast that pushes enemies away and propels Xoda backward
- reduce cooldown
- reduce time between activations
- tier 3 could improve each dimension, like a higher pull on the return, increased size for the square or it could apply time slow at the apex of the knock up, extra damage for the cone
individual damage should be low, so they dont essentially act as a character with 3 abilities level 1. Maybe a tier 2 upgrade can just add damage to all activations. The analogy of dimensions feels thematical and ties into the idea of time mastery quite nicely IMO
2nd ability:
- toggleable ability that accelerates the passage of time. Cooldowns pass faster (150%), eg. an ability or item with 3 seconds would come off cooldown after 2 actual seconds. This would mean it stacks with cooldown reduction benefitially. Also should probably increase, reload, stamina recovery, movement speed, or maybe even gravity. Seems a little busted huh? well it costs a resource gained by the 3rd ability, time essense at a rate of lets say 25/second
Upgrade ideas:
- increase speedup rate
- small aoe damage every time Xoda uses an ability while active
- aoe aura that applies a diminished version of the buff to allies.
I love the idea of a character that can speed up how fast their abilities come off cooldown and potentially even pass this buff onto someone else.
3rd ability:
- Passive: whenever Xoda accelerates they gain Time essense (bar like shiv rage), this includes, jumping, dashing, zipping, simply changing directions, falling, going from stand still to moving, from moving to sprinting, using vents, heavy melees but also forced movement, like a bebop hook. Balancing this rate of gain and thresholds will need some tweaking. Max time essense should be like 100.
- Active: a short dash that increases in range with stored time essense (from slightly less than normal dash to something like twice as far. Does not consume Time Essense or maybe just a portion of it
Upgrade ideas:
- Increased gain
- gain heavy melee range after dash
- gain resistances after dash
- maybe changes to this characters gravity/air control
The reason why im using acceleration to gain these stacks, is because acceleration causes time to move differently in General relativity, and I feel like this character might be able to harness that. I feel like I would like this character to be able to build melee items.
4th ability:
- Retrace your steps back through time. Xoda begins reversing their steps in time moving along the exact path they recently moved at a higher rate. How far back they can go is dependent of the amount of time essense they have. Something like full essense bar takes them back around 4 seconds in 1 second. Enemies they pass through in this time, get time slowed and take damage. Can be reactivated to stop early. Always goes at least 1 second.
Upgrade ideas:
- Increased minimum
- Explosion damage aoe after stopping
- reset stamina, refill ammo
- heal
should impart the momentum Xoda had at the point in his path they return to. There should be a trace of where they have been visible to enemies if they have vision on Xoda
I left out most specific numbers as I dont have a lot of experience balancing things and any numbers that are mentioned are simply suggestions/to explain what I mean
