Niches are pretty much subclasses within a subclass. They provide even more variation in play style, and will probably be 207's main feature. We already have some for the medic class as a prototype. As an example:

Healers have a "Guardian Heal" niche and a "Mass Heal" niche. The Guardian Heal lets you effectively heal one teammate by automatically setting off a healing blast on them when their health drops below a certain level. The Mass Heal niche conversely lets you efficiently heal the entire team in small increments.

While both niches relate to the overall Healer subclass, they differ in terms of how a player heals their team. I'd like to follow a similar idea for other niches.

So, what can we come up with for other classes and subclasses?

WM

Sniper:

Niche 1:

'Marksman'
Extra DB starts at 50%. Each succesful hit grants extra % damage (10%?) to a max of 125% (150%?)
Each shot that misses reduces your DB by 10% (5%?) Or resets the counter but that's too harsh.
Needs a HUD overlay to show your current DB.
//Heavier focus on singletarget damage.

Niche 2

'Chain-Sniper'
Extra DB is at 25% (or 0% depending on chances)
Each hit grants a chance for your shot to be chained, like Chainlightning.
Could follow a pattern like 50%,25%,12.5%,12.5%,12.5% Etc. etc.

//SniperNiche that focuses on dealing damage to multiple targets, weaker vs singletarget.



Tank:

Niche 1:
Slightly more DR. Perhaps a bit less extra DB, say 25% less.
Has a counter for Damage taken (or damage done, or both)
Once counter reaches its limit, you receive an inventory item. The item is the shield that the LinkTurret produces when shot (heavy damage resistance) for either: A: Limited time or B: Total damage resisted.

//More Tanky, can use the shield to protect teammates by negating heavy damage somewhat.


Niche 2:

'Juggernaut'
More DB, say 125%, but also furthermore reduced firerate.
Upsides are: Much bigger explosions. Upon killing an enemy, it will explode depending on its score with a formula like explosionradius = score x 10/20 whatever.
So smaller monsters will make small explosions upon death, big monsters will make big explosions upon death. An explosion caused by a monster dying cannot trigger another monster-explosion.


Weapons Profeciency:

Niche 1

You get an inventory item that is a "WeaponSelector". The weapon you use it on will be your ONLY weapon, all other weapons including starterweapons (you can keep translocator)
will be removed, and you cannot pick up any new weapons or superweapons.
The upside is that you gain more %DB per kill (current formula is around 3.3 kills / 1%DB) and you get a higher max cap at 150%(or more?)



Extreme WeaponsMaster:

Niche 1:
75% DB on all weapons. Downside is - No Adrenaline ever. Adrenaline will always be at 0.

Easy does it--we are starting to drift away from the core model of the game and adding too much RPG factors.

WM:

Sniper:

1:
"Headshot damage multiplier".
Basically theres a damage calculation based on where you hit the enemy's square hitbox.
Hit center and it's normal damage.
Hit sides or bottom (legs, feet, arms and hands) and the damage is lowered.
Hit top or near top (shoulders and head mainly) - Deal heavily increased damage. Inspired by a Unreal1 Mod I play - they made it work with all weapons, but obviously it should only work for the "Sniper" weapons.

Pros: Can deal a lot of singletarget damage if your aim is good.
Cons: Will deal less damage than a non-niched Sniper if your aim is not good.

AM:

Extreme AdrenalineMaster:

1:
"ICE"
Basically all your offensive artifacts will now deal 'Ice damage' instead. E.g. Fireball -> Iceball. etc.
Will also grant all of your offensive artifacts a chance to freeze opponent(s).
Exceptions:Icebeam is already ice. So, we upgrade it by giving it a guaranteed chance to hit an additional target(Like 'ChainLightning' for 25%? of the damage, if there is an enemy within a certain UU distance.
PoisonBlast will still Poison, but will also guaranteed Freeze them.

Pros: Can deal with Firemonsters more easily
Cons: You lose your Fireball vs. Icemonsters, and Icemonsters will be immune to your freeze.

2:
"FIRE"
Basically all your offensive artifacts will now deal 'Fire damage' instead. E.g. Icebeam -> Firebeam.
Will also grant all of your offensive artifacts a chance to burn opponent(s).
Exceptions:Fireball is already fire. So, we upgrade it by giving it a guaranteed chance to do a much bigger explosion (perhaps like the upgraded AVRIL pre-nerf.) as well as an overall BIG damage buff, now that you're losing your go-to artifact for EAM, the Icebeam. If the damage buff is not signifact, lower the cooldown to 0 like the IceBeam for EAM.
PoisonBlast will still Poison, but will also guaranteed Burn them.

Pros: Can deal with IceMonsters more easily
Cons: You lose your go-to artifact for EAM, the Icebeam (VERY big deal). FireMonsters are immune to burn, and have overall more HP.

//I guess there's also a potential for a Cosmic/Tech focused EAM, with explosions and techmines, but that would probably require new Artifacts entirely, rather than re-using old concepts.

Craftsman:

1:
"Team booster"
Your Damage and Invulnerability Boosters will now work like the "Mass Heal" niche where upon use, it will affect the whole team (Although these also affect YOURSELF)
Additionally you are granted more 'TeamBooster' Artifacts, such as granting Reflection, Sturdy, Protection, Null, Penetrating and more.
You will also be granted a "Boost my entire Team with the current Magic Weapon I am holding" Artifact. So lets say you are holding a Force weapon. Upon activating that Artifact, Force is granted to the Entire Team (NOT including yourself because you already have that).
However, your Safety Sphere and Damage Sphere will NOT be cheaper, it will be the normal AM cost. Furthermore, you will NOT have any specific WeaponMakers, E.g. "Gorgon-maker".

Pros: You can give your Team a bunch of unique boosts, no matter their location in the map (Granting you nice XP). You no longer have to have the whole team bunched in your Safety/Damage Sphere in order to effectively boost many players/protect them.
Cons: Normal AM cost on Safety and Damage Sphere. No specific WeaponMakers. Will rely on your Teamboosters quite a bit to also protect yourself. Very reliant on knowing which booster is better in different situations.


ClassicRPG:

SUBCLASS IDEA:

"The LightWeight"
Core concept is: Much higher Firerate, but lower DB.
Increased Movement by combining QuickFoot and Powerjump into 1 ability (as well as giving higher % per level to a much higher % overall), Extra Jumps & Dodges via an ability.
Also gets the ability to do jumps with DOWNWARD momentum, whereas the current game default is you can only do extra jumps with upward momentum.
Also gets the ability to INSTANTLY dodge when landing on the ground, rather than the current game default where you have to wait some time to be able to dodge again.
Also gets the ability to more DB and DR while airborne.

Pros: Takes good advantage of E.g. Ice and Heat weapons' extra damage, as well as Vorpal. Easier to hit targets, as you will be shooting faster. You get a lot of mobility, thus bigger access to pickups, and can dodge attacks more easily.
Cons: You burn through ammo FAST. You are forced to use a lot of different weapons, rather than the current meta of using only 1-2 weapons overall. You WILL rely on picking up ammo somewhat, rather than most classes nearly ignoring it.

dc_demonslayer wrote:
Easy does it--we are starting to drift away from the core model of the game and adding too much RPG factors.
My goal in making these, as with all other content, is to create something new but that doesn't change the gameplay or stray far from "traditional" RPG.

Gav, your ideas are good but some of them feel like they can be stand-alone subclasses rather than niches themselves. My idea for a niche is a slight buff in one thing - be that in an artifact, adrenaline cost, damage, etc.

I think I may have overdone the Healer niches and will actually be toning them down in 207 - so basically an edge in either the Healing Sphere artifact(mass heal) or Remote Booster artifact(guardian heal). Nothing that's completely new.

WM niches will probably be the most difficult to come up with because really the only thing that I can change easily is damage output - and there's not much room for creativity there. However, things like Marksman and Chainsniper like Gav suggested are possibilities.

For ENG niches:
Base Builders - Shield Heal niche, Defense Sentinel niche, or Link Gun/Link Sentinel niche.
Auto Engi - Drone niche, Vehicle niche, Autogun niche
Explosives - Trap niche, Laser Mine niche

Those should all be pretty self-explanatory, and I'm just tossing ideas out. I actually am having some thoughts too about removing Engineer Weaponry or at least changing it into another type of subclass.