Topic: Ideas for Syndicate ewar bot bonuses/roles/fitting slot count
(Disclaimer: This is a bit of a long text wall and this could trigger someone's OCD but however... I think the ideas I lay here are something that should be read and discussed as if the community and the devs to a certain extent agree or can come to an agreement on these ideas/concepts or some other similiar form, these could end up being implemented into the game as the Syndicate ewar robots. Empis and Callisto!)
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Now that the first few syndicate robots have been released, I imagine at least 1 ewar and the hybrid harvester/miner assault will be out next. With this I would like to just try and maybe theorycraft on potential ideas for bonuses and main ewar type of Empis and Callisto, the new syndicate ewar robots that will be coming out overtime.
Before I get into the ideas, I would like to say the following:
As we know from past and present experience and knowledge, yellow bots focus on Suppressors, blue bots on ECM, and greens on Neutralizers and Drainers. Both versions of the Zenith and the troiar MK2 wielded the themselves heavily as powerful tacklers as well with range bonuses to electronic warfare that gave their roles diversity to their main roll plus tackling, at least until the re-balancing patch of 2014 hit.
After that, ewar roles lost a little bit of diversity and the loss of optimal ranges blurred out which bots made the best tacklers which would become split between the Troiar, castel, and cameleon mainly, none of which really possessed any skills to really bring out the demob. Aside from that there is also the interference emitter which is severely underused. This is where my ideas come in.
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The concept of the smaller Syndicate bots having bonuses to surface hit size essentially making them smaller and harder to hit. As well as naturally superior detection and masking. Could quite possibly allow the Syndicate ewar bots(light ewar at least) to fill the empty dedicated niche of demobbing. (both S and L and Interference intermission as well.)
NOTE: the percentages are on a per level basis.
Empis bonuses/role/fit slot count idea:
- Demobilizer accumulator usage |3%|Basic robotics|
- Demobilizer optimal range ------|2%|Basic robotics|
- Demobilizer strength ------------|1%|Basic robotics|
- Surface hit size ----------------|-0.10|Basic robotics|
- Signal masking ----------------|2+|Electronic Warfare specialist|
- Firearms cycle time -----------|1%|Syndicate combat robot control|
Empis slots:
Head: 3
body: default
Leg: 3
Reasoning for idea/concept:
- With the naturally improved masking and detection plus the syndicate robot exclusive bonus of smaller surface hit size plus the masking bonus global to all light ewars. It could make for a sneaky little tackler that would be difficult especially for mechs and heavies to eliminate quickly and effectively which may be useful for giving allies time to move in and making larger bots use increased caution on the PvP field. Ideally it is more suited as a support tackler that is more efficent at tackling larger bots. Aside from the S-Demob, the strength bonus would also give an L-Demob a small amount more power against non-plated targets.
- The demobilizer strength bonus would not be too powerful but upgraded it would make the bot more effective in dealing with mechs running plate and frame fits and could be a sort of counter to the demobilizer resistance bonus on mechs.
- The idea behind having both 3 head slots and 3 leg slots comes with the fact that unlike the Troiar it does not have a particular use for its weapon and misc slots aside from the use of its factional firearm weaponry. the bot is a light ewar that is suited for getting near the enemy and demobilizing them unlike the cameleon and intakt that stay at range and use their ewar. Considering that the syndicate bots are the slowest and have lowest HP, giving the empis 3 head slots and 3 leg slots could give it a some fitting diversity for the role it is meant for as dedicated demober.
Callisto bonuses/role/fit slot count idea:
- Demobilizer accumulator usage |3%|Advanced robotics|
- Demobilizer optimal range ------|3%|Advanced robotics|
- Demobilizer strength ------------|1%|Advanced robotics|
- Interference emitter accumulator usage|3%|Advanced robotics|
- Interference emitter module optimal range|3%|Advanced robotics|
- Interference emitter strength ------|2%|Advanced robotics|
- Signal Masking ----------------------|+2|Electronic warfare specialist|
- Firearms cycle time ---------------- |1%|Syndicate robot control|
Callisto slots:
Head: 5
body: Default
legs: 3
Reasoning for idea/concept:
- Due to the default size of mechs altogether the signature Surface Hit size bonus that is exclusive to the syndicate, would still not make a noticable difference when applied to mechs or heavies.(all ewar mechs have default surface hitsize of 7.00m) To give a little edge to the Callisto the demobilizer range could be made a little higher then that of its Empis counterpart to give it that small amount of extra reach. The same concept for the demob strength as the Empis in the demob strength bonus stands with the Callisto.
- As it stands currently there are no dedicated bots for interference emission and only one extension that increases it's interference strength a little. Alongside the demob bonuses, giving it unique bonuses for interference emission would give it a little of the diversity between its ewar options like the Zenith had prior to the rebalancing patch of 2014 with its general range bonus to ewar. Except focused into two particular types of ewar, being demobilizers and interference emitters, leading to balance with a sense of diversity making the Callisto a fair all around ewar mech with respective roles for small gang and larger group fights.
- As for the head and leg slot layout, it is basically the same as the zenith and the vagabond. But since the types of ewar it would be focused in are more diverse in range and capability then ECMs and suppressors, it would make the player consider how they want to use their head slots to make their capabilities work and give them that sense of diversity in how they can fit to do their respective roles and role those slots to their style. Rather then just throwing on say... one sensor amp, 3 ECMs, and a sensor suppressor and just rolling that as the only meta for an ewar bot. Of course with this, leg slots only need to be 3 as the ewar for this bot is focused in the head like the Zenith and Vagabond rather then the Ictus.
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So yeah, here are the suggestions, and sorry for the text wall, please do make civil discussion and feel free to tweak the bonuses and slots I put down as they are a basis for how I feel the robots could roll while not being that unbalanced and having their own part in the ewar meta at the sametime. Be sure to put your opinion and +1 if you like the idea, at the very least the demob role would be a good way to go and this is the foundation and what I would like to see implemented best case scenario!
-BeastmodeGuNs