I support your ideas about the Ghost/Gold monsters, they'd make for welcome additions. I love the wave 17 idea, won't be a huge gameplay change normally, but once it happens it should be fun!

Power ideas:
Shoot a slow moving ball, that strikes out icebeams rapidly at enemies (Maybe lightning rod speed), damaging AND freezing them for a short while as well. This Power would allow you to both be on the offense and defense at the same time, something an AM could surely use, given it's fragile nature. Would also work great with Profeciency at enough kills.
Emit a thick laser-beam from your body for x amount of seconds, damaging and penetrating all players and monsters. A thick laserbeam with a large hitdetection, much alike the 'Odin Turret'
Tech-Mine Explosion - Basically summon a large explosion that emits a big amount of techmines, either at self or at targeted location (obviously targeting enemy monsters). Because they're mines, they will distract the enemies and will be damaging them as well.

Necromancer Ideas:
Mass Soul Drain - Basically the same attack as the Soul Wraith, but can hit an infinite amount of targets at once. Basically it will function like the Lightning Bolt - 'If the monster is within range and within eyesight, it will be hit by the Mass Soul Drain'. This artifact will deal small amounts of damage to many targets, alike the Lightning Rod, but it will return a % of the damage done as health back to the Necromancer. This will be an artifact with many uses, one of those in a moment where the Necromancer realises he is very low on HP, so he switches to this, uses it, and can live for some more time. (You can even re-use the Soul Wraith attack animation, those white things, but re-colour them to red).
Vampiric Shackle - Look at target, activate. Upon activation a red, healthsucking and damaging chain will be linked between the Necromancer and the Monster. As long as the target stays within eyesight, the chain will remain until it is dead or x amount of HP is drained. Upon leveling this power up, you can chain 2, 3, 4 etc. monster's at the same time. Upon chaining the same monster again, 2 things can happen: 1; 2 chains between you and the same monster,
2;the chain will hop to the next nearby monster, making a link between those 2 monsters. Thus, you will still be linked to 2 monsters, but one of the chains will be indirect, meaning once the direct original chain between you and the monster is broken, so are all the others. Have it so that you are allowed to lose eyesight with the monster x amount of second(s) before the chain is broken (Perhaps also a thing that increases with level-up of the power)

As for the new turrets, be it the SPMA or the Paladinturret I suggest the following: Give it 2 firingmodes.
1 Firemode should be intended as a splash, like the Paladin primary fire, and the other firemode should be intended as a singletarget firemode, against big targets. This firemode could be, anything fast firing with small splash, so lasers from the Manta, Raptor, Link Turret, Stingers etc. could work for this.

Having a zoom seems very redundant, as most of the maps are quite small and does not require it. And in the maps where you do require zoom, you can always summon a turret that does have a zoom-function available.

Edit:
Possibly the new AM Subclass could receive a new ability:
Magic Immunity: Upon each level-up of the ability, you will be granted immunity to a new 'Magic' (Status effect). So once leveled up fully - you will be immune to Poison, Burn, Freeze, Null Entropy, Knockback both by monsters and by yourself.

xscarlet wrote:
I keep posting, dang

So i got a pretty big idea that will change the gameplay.
It's a new menu! (one that works diffrent from the xp system)
I think the most logic key to bind it to is K (because that's next to the L menu)
It's a menu that has special features and challanges for players to try and beat.
Basicly you open the menu, you can open a list with challanges and you get rewards based on how much of a challange it was. (limited one challange at the time)
I actually made an attempt to include a 'mission system' as a tier-three thing for high level players for 205. I ended up scrapping it because it was difficult for me. Depending on how I feel and if I'm up for the challenge, I may try again. From this thread though, it already seems like I have a lot on my plate for 206. We will see.


nickgavran wrote:


Power ideas:
Shoot a slow moving ball, that strikes out icebeams rapidly at enemies (Maybe lightning rod speed), damaging AND freezing them for a short while as well. This Power would allow you to both be on the offense and defense at the same time, something an AM could surely use, given it's fragile nature. Would also work great with Profeciency at enough kills.
Emit a thick laser-beam from your body for x amount of seconds, damaging and penetrating all players and monsters. A thick laserbeam with a large hitdetection, much alike the 'Odin Turret'
Tech-Mine Explosion - Basically summon a large explosion that emits a big amount of techmines, either at self or at targeted location (obviously targeting enemy monsters). Because they're mines, they will distract the enemies and will be damaging them as well.
Ok, so now that I suggested Artifacts Proficiency, do we still need these higher end artifacts? I'm starting to double back on myself now. I can already see something like the laser beam and the ice ball being OP, and with a proficiency skill, definitely OP.

What if we split these into separate subclasses yet again. So we have artifacts proficiency where you focus on one artifact and do more damage with it, and they get the regular artifacts like AM and Extreme AM. Then this subclass will allow you to fly/teleport endlessly, and then you have the power artifacts. No proficiency though. So unlike Extreme AM and Proficiency, this class will depend on the map- is it large, is it fall off, is it small? And then choose your movement/power accordingly. So there is still somewhat of a uniqueness between the subclasses.

Still not sure how to proceed with this. It feels like there may be a slight overlap between this and the others.
nickgavran wrote:
Necromancer Ideas:
Mass Soul Drain - Basically the same attack as the Soul Wraith, but can hit an infinite amount of targets at once. Basically it will function like the Lightning Bolt - 'If the monster is within range and within eyesight, it will be hit by the Mass Soul Drain'. This artifact will deal small amounts of damage to many targets, alike the Lightning Rod, but it will return a % of the damage done as health back to the Necromancer. This will be an artifact with many uses, one of those in a moment where the Necromancer realises he is very low on HP, so he switches to this, uses it, and can live for some more time. (You can even re-use the Soul Wraith attack animation, those white things, but re-colour them to red).
Slightly similar to my idea for the Soul Drain artifact except mine has it functioning more like the beam (requiring aim) and yours is the bolt. I do intend on making the artifact drain health as if the monster were getting hit by lightning rod- small but quick damage. So very similar ideas unless I'm reading your post wrong.

nickgavran wrote:
Vampiric Shackle - Look at target, activate. Upon activation a red, healthsucking and damaging chain will be linked between the Necromancer and the Monster. As long as the target stays within eyesight, the chain will remain until it is dead or x amount of HP is drained. Upon leveling this power up, you can chain 2, 3, 4 etc. monster's at the same time. Upon chaining the same monster again, 2 things can happen: 1; 2 chains between you and the same monster,
2;the chain will hop to the next nearby monster, making a link between those 2 monsters. Thus, you will still be linked to 2 monsters, but one of the chains will be indirect, meaning once the direct original chain between you and the monster is broken, so are all the others. Have it so that you are allowed to lose eyesight with the monster x amount of second(s) before the chain is broken (Perhaps also a thing that increases with level-up of the power)
Overlap with the Soul Drain artifact, but with a twist. I do like the link/shackle feature. It forces the Necromancer to stay near its targets rather than put a drain curse on and run away, making it more balanced. Especially if the player were to put the curse on and immediately trans to a base- basically the concept is that the player must die to break the curse, much like how wave 16 sorcerers spawn immortal skeletons. This should help balance it. I can try and combine that feature with the drain artifact.

nickgavran wrote:
As for the new turrets, be it the SPMA or the Paladinturret I suggest the following: Give it 2 firingmodes.
1 Firemode should be intended as a splash, like the Paladin primary fire, and the other firemode should be intended as a singletarget firemode, against big targets. This firemode could be, anything fast firing with small splash, so lasers from the Manta, Raptor, Link Turret, Stingers etc. could work for this.

Having a zoom seems very redundant, as most of the maps are quite small and does not require it. And in the maps where you do require zoom, you can always summon a turret that does have a zoom-function available.
Yeah, wasn't going to include a zoom feature on those. It'll function as the regular vehicles, though SPMA might be a bit different. I might turn it into a two-person turret, one with the long-range artillery and the other for monsters that are nearby.

nickgavran wrote:
Possibly the new AM Subclass could receive a new ability:
Magic Immunity: Upon each level-up of the ability, you will be granted immunity to a new 'Magic' (Status effect). So once leveled up fully - you will be immune to Poison, Burn, Freeze, Null Entropy, Knockback both by monsters and by yourself.
Great idea, would probably be for Craftsman (or now Nali Priest) though.

nickgavran wrote:
Possibly the new AM Subclass could receive a new ability:
Magic Immunity: Upon each level-up of the ability, you will be granted immunity to a new 'Magic' (Status effect). So once leveled up fully - you will be immune to Poison, Burn, Freeze, Null Entropy, Knockback both by monsters and by yourself.
Great idea, would probably be for Craftsman (or now Nali Priest) though.


It sounds good, but to be honest, this should be a new ability for all classes. in terms of lower level simular to energy leech levels.
(sorry if it sounds unclear ill use examples)
Example;

Craftsman.
Magic immunity: lvl 5 max

General.
Magic immunity: lvl 3 max

Weapon master.
Magic immunity: lvl 2 max

that one new subclass for melee only
Magic immunity: lvl 5 max

You get what i mean? this new ability is really strong and i think it should be added for Multiple classes, otherwise i have a suggestion that might make it simular to the "twin core" shield thingy.

then you have 2 options, don't make this new ability and add it to those ability's instead. or, make 4/5 new buyable options for all classes and have the same concept as the element shields. (you are only allowed to buy one of the immunity's)

then it would be:(i don't know them exactly out my head)
Earth shield: same as it was before but now added immunity to null entrophy and Knockback.

Twin core shield: same as it was before but now added immunity to Freeze and burn.

the last one (i dont remember the name): Same as it was before but now added immunity to poison.

I hope you aren't confused too much

cheers, Scarletlove :p

"Great idea, would probably be for Craftsman (or now Nali Priest) though."

Don't rename Craftsman to Nali Priest or anything alike. It really shares no resemblance whatsoever. I still think that the new AM subclass with the powers and movement options should be the Nali.

The Magic Immunity ability should apply only to the new Nali Subclass as it will need it. Flying around, getting knockbacked or Null entropied and you're dead. Getting null entropied while flying will most likely disable your flight, much like it works with Boots of Flight currently. Teleporting into firemonsters AND poisonmonsters will drain your HP/Adren so quickly, you need immunity.

Giving this ability to any other class or subclass would both be unfitting and too good in my opinion. The Nalis on the server are already immune to status effects, it makes little sense for other classes to get it, both balancewise and lorewise.
Gens are already status immune -> Go into a turret
Engineers are already status immune -> Go into a turret/vehicle
WMs have huge HP drain and giving them immunity will be OP.
Medics have huge DR and can selfheal, absolutely no immunity.

AMs, have; no way to heal beside booster, and if you run booster you are severely lowering your chance of energyshield to save you AND lowering your overall offense and defense by spending adrenaline on healing, slowly. AMs rely on adrenaline to survive and find it hard to deal with the Status effects. Craftsman can survive with Spheres, Extreme AM can survive by killing fast enough with IceBeam (most of the time). AM is already the hardest class in terms of survivability, keybinds required and most of the time, tactics.

Also, Hollon, you did misread my idea about the Mass Soul Drain.
It is a 1-time attack (1 press, 1 attack), that attacks ALL monsters within range and sight. Meaning it can technically attack an infinite amount of monsters at once. Low damage per target, but big HP return overall.

I support the idea about 2 new subclasses for AM. The Nali Subclass (and ONLY the Nali Subclass) will get the new powers and movement.
The Artifacts Profeciency, will basically be the normal AM, but boosted damage the more kills you have (like Weapons Profeciency) with that certain artifact. As for balance, you could make this a strictly offensive Subclass, meaning no Remote boosters or spheres. This would still allow for different playstyle, as you're now focusing on 1 Artifact only. (Btw, I think Fireball might need a slight boost overall, as spamming Icebeam is faster at killing Icemonsters, than it is with Fireball, which seems redundant. Even Extreme AM kills Icemonsters faster with Icebeam. For the Fireball I'd suggest lowering the cooldown on Extreme AM (like you did with Icebeam), and maybe slightly increasing projectile speed and slight damage buff for all.

xscarlet wrote:
It sounds good, but to be honest, this should be a new ability for all classes. in terms of lower level simular to energy leech levels.
I see what you mean. I don't think I'll be adding it for all classes though. Otherwise, monsters like Null Warlord and Poison Queen will become the simple-projectile monsters, which then turns into the inefficient use of resources: null warlord is then exactly like warlord.

This also brings up another request someone made with Titans- an ability to prevent you from bouncing and getting crushed. As annoying as the bounce is, I don't think I'll be doing these. It's a unique feature to Titans that should rightfully annoy us. The only sturdy ability now is for Tanks.

nickgavran wrote:
Don't rename Craftsman to Nali Priest or anything alike. It really shares no resemblance whatsoever. I still think that the new AM subclass with the powers and movement options should be the Nali.
I am renaming it, or at least certainly not naming the new subclass Nali Priest and leaving Craftsman as is. Craftsman is the most team-oriented, support-based, and non-aggressive AM subclass. It fits better with the Nali theme than the new subclass, which means we need a new name for the new subclass, and I need help coming up with one. It's almost like a magician or wizard since it can fly/teleport and make cool stuff, but try to stay away from those generic terms. Keep it UT-related: Agility AM? Power AM?

nickgavran wrote:
The Magic Immunity ability should apply only to the new Nali Subclass as it will need it. Flying around, getting knockbacked or Null entropied and you're dead. Getting null entropied while flying will most likely disable your flight, much like it works with Boots of Flight currently. Teleporting into firemonsters AND poisonmonsters will drain your HP/Adren so quickly, you need immunity.
Then for both subclasses! It will definitely appear for Craftsman since their niche is magic making. I wouldn't mind giving it to the new subclass too.

Edited first post to get a list of what everyone's suggested and what I think may be feasible. Will continue to edit that post when more suggestions come.

Weapon idea for sniper class. Getting the animation/feel down.

I'd like to bring up two issues that I've noticed both over the past years and just recently playing again as low-level characters.

First is "dragging," or when a high level player, especially on non-supporting classes like WMs and AMs, drags a low-level player through higher waves. I always cringe when people like me, Cancer, or Dragon play on these characters, and then a low level player joins and keeps dying wave after wave after wave. It's not a good first impression on the server at all. That, and it's probably more beneficial if the low-level player actually played alone, because then they could at least switch to the next map and start receiving XP rather than have to wait out until the high level player dies, usually waves 14-16.

A solution to this is is to add a freebie ability that reacts to the current wave. So, all low level players will get a freebie Advanced Damage Reduction ability. Waves 1-5 are designed with low level players in mind- so this freebie won't be active these waves. At wave 6, the freebie will start at level 5, or 20% reduction. At wave 11, it'll go to level 6 or 7. At wave 14, it'll go to level 8 or 9. So on and so forth. This setup will help alleviate that "dragging" problem, give low levels a better chance to survive, and keeps them playing and interested in the server. No damage bonus freebie though, this is just to keep low levels playing throughout the game, not get XP quickly.

Second issue is bots:
Jefe wrote:
Invasion monster counts are based on the number of players and is designed for a minimum of four. This is one reason we have bots. I know they can be annoying, but the game plays better with them. I've turned them off before and the result is the game being very difficult with just one player on.
xscarlet wrote:
my 4th idea wont happen either but i hope it will!
Add an option to kick the bots when you are solo, this allows players that are capable of surviving without them to have a more challanging match. so when you are with 2 players they will come back or you need to both chose to kick them again. I Always get annoyed alot by bots when im playing alone, it littarly ruins my fun
I also received a message on Steam from another player regarding bots taking kills in earlier waves.

I've also noticed myself as fresh characters that bots steal kills on earlier waves. The controllers most monsters use on the server is DCMonsterController which makes monsters go after higher level players. These would be bots if a low level player is alone. It's nothing too problematic; eventually you'll outscore them because bots just aren't intelligent enough. But waves 1-5 are prime time for low levels to get their XP easily.

So another solution to this is similar to the previous one- give bots an exclusive ability that will reduce their damage by a set % until wave 6. After that, do normal damage.

Any thoughts on these two ideas?

Another idea for the Explosives class- stick a grenade to any surface, select your 'detonator' artifact and activate it, and the grenade explodes. The grenades won't disappear, so you don't have to keep redeploying it. Add a timer to it so it can't be spammed. Got the idea from the Engi construction summoning with translocators. Might actually be a user-friendlier option than barrels, but we'll see. And of course, we can have different grenades too like Bio Grenades, Shock Grenades, Flak Grenades, etc.