High risk, high reward abilities and weapons

[Omnires]

This thread is all about thinking up things for the game that are really powerful but also come at a cost. It is ok if the weapon or ability is over powered as long as the risk of using it can counterbalance it out.

I think it would be easier to show 3 examples of abilities I love in games that match my play style to give you better idea of what this tread is about. Rather then trying to make a wall of text about the guidelines for such at topic. Remember even death is an option when balancing out things.

• Super charging or redlining my weapon
  • This when I have the ability to hold and charge up an attack past 100% of normal. The basic attack is always 100% but when I hold the charge of the weapon and let the energy build up it goes over 100% with the longer I let the charge build the more damage it does when I let it go. Going by the type of weapon it is and the type of game I'm in the risk of using such an attack comes at a cost besides the charging time (because they extra charging time can be really short).
    • In some games it is at the cost of the durability of the weapon, meaning that after the attack it is more likely to be damaged itself and/or break, so I have use more time and resources repairing my weapon than other people.
    • In some games the cost is my energy and/or life force. Meaning that more I let the energy build in the weapon the more of my stamina and/or health it drains to power the attack. In this types of games as soon as your stamina hits zero or you HP gets down to one the attack goes off automictically to stop you from killing yourself. But in some game they will let you kill yourself doing the attack just to do some near godly amounts of damage. Although that tactic is best used in teams so someone else can revive you or if you can revive yourself you'll be debuffed for awhile. Given that such ability can be used to kill bosses in one hit that means that even after you are revived you are still tired and/or hungry going by the game.
• Berserker style abilities
  • This are the style of abilities where you get more powerful as you give up things like defense and health or let you grow more powerful as your rage builds or as you health drops.
    • For example of passive berserker abilities are things like. As your HP goes down your attack power and speed goes up by a #%. Meaning that as you get closer to death you become more powerful. in some games because of this extra attack power it worth the risk of dying for. Some player (myself included) has gotten really good at playing the game while always in a low health state (about 20% or lower of max HP) and fun of knowing that you can kill almost anything in one attack while also knowing the added risk that they can do the same to you helps to keep your reflexes up. This works best in games where you have lots of options to avoid and negate damage.
    • For example of active berserker abilities they are skills that often force you give up your defense or your health to give you more attack power. In some games you give up both defense and health to do ungodly amounts of damage within the time frame of the ability or until your HP goes down to one. Because of this often times players who use such abilities tend to glow and/or have fire-like aura around them showing that they burning through all their energy and lifeforce. For example...
      • Final Hit is a powerful skill effective for close-range combat. It envelopes your body in a battle aura that pushes the limits of physical capacity. Attack an enemy while the skill is active to teleport to their location and unleash a near-limitless flow of attacks, even when you're attacked back. While Final Hit is active, the durability of your melee weapons will not be consumed, and your attacks will knock down enemies less than usual, allowing you to squeeze in more hits. This effect is maximized when you wield twin swords, making it so that enemies don't get knocked down at all. Just remember that even though you may feel powerful launching so many attacks, you're still vulnerable to danger. Be careful not to get yourself knocked out when facing enemies who possess powerful attacks.
      • in Phantasy Star Online 2 the Fighter class was introduced. Fighter class specializes in gaining buffs when its conditions worsen, such as having low HP or PP. This idea is embodied by their Limit Break active skill. It reduces maximum HP to 1/4 to boost Striking damage temporarily. Triggers Halfline and Deadline Skills and counts as a status for Crazy Heart and Crazy Beat. Limit Break Photon Charge will instantly restore PP to maximum when Limit Break ends.
• Counterattacks and deflections.
  • As some of you know I hit blocking. I would much rather do a counterattack to keep the damage going out rather than absorbing the damage coming in. Because of this I love it when games let me counterattack to throw the damage back at the enemy. There are lots of examples of this many different games. But the ones that make me the most happy are the ones that make like the Full Counter ability in the 7 Deadly Sins. To get the most of out this in games you have to get the timing just right. It is a different take on the perfect parry system that some games have, but with the added effect that your parry throws the damage of the attack back at the enemy often times with more force that was used on your because you added some of your own energy to the attack while reflecting it back at them.
    

So what are some ideas can you come up with for this thread? Remember there is no such thing as OP as long as the cost of doing such a thing is high enough. Even if it means you have to kill yourself to save your friends.

 

[Pandagnome]

Abilities i would like to see are:


- Super armor where an energy field picks up fallen tsihu using that as extra layer of armor plating.

The down side to this is that energy and stamina can be affect and especially speedy you will be moving like a nice happy armored snail this could work well, however if the energy is depleted and stamina the ability ceases to work also leaving the Mek vulnerable


- Ram speed this ability is for vehicles, using this gives the pilot increased charge able to push/knock back or at least unbalance certain kaiju's. The damage is not so good it is used as a defensive option to push things away and even squish things that are squishy enough.

The down side to this is that acceleration will be slower after use to change its system path way to normal.
Also the reinforcement of the ram mainly putting it to the front and back would make the sides of the vehicle more vulnerable until this is normal again.

If you hit things too much you are at risk of damaging the steering or at the worst case broken down.
This could be rectified with an engineer at this time cover or someone to help would be of great value.

- Ghost blade / Ghost Strike

As a stealthy unit you have the choice between ghost blade and ghost strike the difference is
Ghost blade is for melee and ghost strike for small/medium weaponry

The stealth generator can gain some of its energy back, the more you take down an enemy a small percentage is increased to the stealth generator energy pool. The draw back to this is that you have to keep an eye on the energy management and the weapon if it is below optimum the weapon can spark or cause some leak/spark if it is not fixed that will prompt suspicion to the enemies.

If energy is so low this would make the shields even more useless, and moving way too fast can cause energy. This ability is great with the right equiped setup otherwise you will be tracked a number of ways

e.g. from the sound, energy/heat output, foot prints, and efficiency of the tech e.g. coms lvl 1 with lower encryption and different wave frequency compared to coms lvl 2 etc etc.

 

[MattHunX]

Ha! I already wrote about one, in my 4th fan-story. Basically, the ability is tied a specific weapon, in my character's case, her energy-halberd. What she does is, a Tsi-Hu hops back, out of range of her forward lunging stabbing attempt. But, its not out of the woods yet. With an ability, we could have our character, though a fixed animation, use up the current charge on the energy-blades and channel them into a single energy-blast that could be devastating enough to one-shot shifted Beast-form Tsi-Hu and do some considerable damage to larger enemies, too. BUT...if you miss, you're gonna be left with a blunt, powerless instrument and you'll have to wait several long seconds, running away and shooting to fend off melee attacks.

A bit of risk and reward. Hit and deal with a problematic enemy fast. Miss and leave yourself exposed. Also, the return of your weapon's energy-blades wouldn't be the same as the actual cooldown of the ability to discharge it all, again. That would take longer. So couldn't just use it immediately after getting the power back to your energy-blades. More time would need to pass.

Admittedly, the risk is lower than the reward, because you can just keep yourself away from melee attackers, while you shoot them. That is, if we'll always have a ranged weapon, by default, that cannot be unequipped, as part of a mandatory loadout. But, that would be a bit restrictive in terms of roleplaying our own unique builds.

 

[Pandagnome]

Admittedly, the risk is lower than the reward, because you can just keep yourself away from melee attackers, while you shoot them. That is, if we'll always have a ranged weapon, by default, that cannot be unequipped, as part of a mandatory loadout. But, that would be a bit restrictive in terms of roleplaying our own unique builds.

Nothing to do with Em8er and was playing some Dc universe online and thought when you are a speedster like a tsihu surely they could leap to close the gap. Perhaps even use some cloak tech compared to their counterpart the ranged tsihu that can just blast things from far and not be as stealthy rather alittle more armoured.

I'd still like to see some trapper type tsihu they might not necessarily damage all the time it could be a way to show the other tsihu your location just like when you trip a laser beam and a silent warning is relayed to them!

 

[Omnires]

I also like games where there are a few team based abilities and skills. In some games there are some abilities and/or some classes that get more powerful based on the number of people in their team or just the number of friendly players around them.

• Auras
  • In some game there are both passive and active auras. This are abilities that effect the player in some way but also effect other beings around them in some way.
    • Example of passive auras are
      1. Fighting sprit - This person's fighting sprit is so strong that it boosts the effectives of the attacks of friendly people around them. This buff as no range limit on players in the same time. This effect is even greater for members of their team who are close to them.
      2. Mastery - When crafting items in a team the odds of getting higher quality outcomes are raised. More people in the group the higher the odds become.
    • Example of active areas are
      1. From Anarchy Online the Adventurer class skill Leader Of The Pack - When in the form of a Wolf, the adventurer is able to execute this pulsing nano program. Every 90 seconds all members of the adventurer's team will receive a beneficial enhancement to their damage output and evasion skills. Those members of the team that are also in the form of a wolf will gain additional damage and evasion benefits. This particular program increases damage by 19 points and evasion skills by 80 points. Those in the form of a wolf will gain an additional bonus of 24 points to damage, 96 points to evasion skills, 15 points to run speed and 20 points to general attack skill.
      2. From Guild Wars 2 - Vampiric Presence - You and your nearby allies siphon health with attacks. This effect increases while in Shroud.

And talking about Anarchy Online one of classes that had a great team based system was the Trader class.

Trader is the ultimate entrepreneur, getting more for less in every single transaction. Like others, they create and trade material goods. But in combat situations, they use unique nanotechnology which enables them to drain opponents of skills, energy and health, transfering those benefits to themselves or their allies. This frequently causes the most formidable opponents to wither to a cracked shell of their former self.

Meaning that even though they could buff themselves with their abilities often times it was best to buff one of your combat focused teammates. They could also give up some of their own stats to buff a teammate. So even if they become to weak to fight themselves their teammates can more than make up for it fighting with strength that they give them.

 

[Omnires]

I remember long ago I played a game where I had one of 9 legendary weapons. I was an sword that was able to cut through anything and was able to kill most things in the game with one attack. Even the hardest bosses in the game couldn't take more than than 5 or 7 hits from the sword. But at the same time although I always had the sword with me I rarely used it because of how it worked. The sword used the lifeforce of beings around it to grow stronger. The reason why it was able to kill most things in the game in one attack was because when it cut them it would try to absorb as much of their lifeforce as possible killing them. Sounds great to have but the thing is that when I held the weapon in my hand(s), it was a sword that could be used one handed or two handed, unless I was always attacking enemies with it the sword would start to drain my lifeforce. Because of this just holding the sword puts a constant strain on the one holding it as it keeps draining their lifeforce until they let the sword go. So unless I was fighting a hard boss or fighting a large army of enemies by myself I couldn't use it to keep it from draining my health away. I forgot the real name of the sword because it was so many years ago. So when I think back on the memories now I just call it things like the Hungry Blade or Soul Sucking Sword.

Pros - The sword could kill anything in only a few hits. As the power it had was always equal to the beings that was near it combined (the user and enemies around them).

Cons - Because the first owner of the sword was a god who made the sword to fight other gods. And beings that don't have an endless energy are always at risk of dying just from holding it. In other words, as soon as you hold it, it starts to drain your HP and only stops draining your HP when you hit an enemy with it drain their HP but the moment they are died it goes back to draining your HP. For a mortal to keep themselves from dying while holding the sword for a long time they need to constantly being healing themselves as fast as, if not faster than, the sword could drain their health or be constantly attacking and hitting everything around them.

 

[MattHunX]

I remember long ago I played a game where I had one of 9 legendary weapons. I was an sword that was able to cut through anything and was able to kill most things in the game with one attack. Even the hardest bosses in the game couldn't take more than than 5 or 7 hits from the sword. But at the same time although I always had the sword with me I rarely used it because of how it worked. The sword used the lifeforce of beings around it to grow stronger. The reason why it was able to kill most things in the game in one attack was because when it cut them it would try to absorb as much of their lifeforce as possible killing them. Sounds great to have but the thing is that when I held the weapon in my hand(s), it was a sword that could be used one handed or two handed, unless I was always attacking enemies with it the sword would start to drain my lifeforce. Because of this just holding the sword puts a constant strain on the one holding it as it keeps draining their lifeforce until they let the sword go. So unless I was fighting a hard boss or fighting a large army of enemies by myself I couldn't use it to keep it from draining my health away. I forgot the real name of the sword because it was so many years ago. So when I think back on the memories now I just call it things like the Hungry Blade or Soul Sucking Sword.

Pros - The sword could kill anything in only a few hits. As the power it had was always equal to the beings that was near it combined (the user and enemies around them).

Cons - Because the first owner of the sword was a god who made the sword to fight other gods. And beings that don't have an endless energy are always at risk of dying just from holding it. In other words, as soon as you hold it, it starts to drain your HP and only stops draining your HP when you hit an enemy with it drain their HP but the moment they are died it goes back to draining your HP. For a mortal to keep themselves from dying while holding the sword for a long time they need to constantly being healing themselves as fast as, if not faster than, the sword could drain their health or be constantly attacking and hitting everything around them.

Perhaps it's only partially an example of risk and reward, but...

Borderlands games have some examples of weapons with effects that can hurt you just as much as the enemy (sometimes the negative effects coming from the weapon hurting you directly or they debuff you in a way that lets them enemy hurt you more easily). Like the "Amp" shield effect, that leaves you more open by draining your shields to give your shots extra damage, but if you're not careful you'll be left without shields and potentially effed. There are weapons where you need a very specific combination of gear to use them, so that you can mitigate their drawbacks or leave yourself as screwed as you're attempting to make your enemies.

 

[Omnires]

That thing about having gear to support the usage is a good idea. it kind of reminds me of my Armored Core days when I would put in a high energy output generator / reactor along with a radiator with the highest heat output possible. Only because I loved using that massive back mounted long range energy cannon along with the Moonlight Blade energy sword. Both weapons do a ton of damage with each hit but they also drain a ton of energy and make a lot of heat. In Armored Core games letting to much heat build up in your mech was bad thing as it would start to damage parts and even hurt the pilot. So by having my mech built only around high energy output and high heat output it would let me spam my attacks much more than normal without killing myself. Because if another person would try to use the same weapons I did and tried to attack non-stop like I did without having the same mech parts I did, they would overheat after like 2 or 3 attacks and got into a force cooldown mode or they can try to keep pushing it and watch their health drop as the heat damages them.

Also, note that in Armored Core game there was some weapons that did mostly heat damage and little in the way of physical damage. Like the flamethrowers as well as rockets and missiles that only did things like spread fire and heat up the air within an area. Because of my cooling system in my mech those try of weapons didn't effect me as much as other people. It also meant that I was hard counter to the firebug players who use a lot of heat weapons to bypass the heavy armor and shields of the super tank players.