Author Topic: Nominations for new Bonus Ships for the "Vengeance of the Machine" expansion  (Read 13984 times)

Offline onyhow

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 122
  • Nuclear powah!
^ That can still be easily overwhelmed if it's shot by many high power ships though...

Offline Lancefighter

  • Core Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,440
technically a shot can only damage one ship - modular forcefields are a ship of their own.. ish. So a 1 million damage shot could still only kill one unit.

Its an interesting idea, but you would have to have quite a bit of them to make an impact compared to a cap full of bombers or something.
Ideas? Suggestions? Concerns? Bugs to be squashed? Report them on the Mantis Bugtracker!

Author of the Dyson Project and the Spire Gambit

Offline orzelek

  • Hero Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,096
I seen this kind of mechanic in some TD games. It always makes things "interesting".

Offline KDR_11k

  • Hero Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 904
I don't think a anti-single-shot ability is actually all that useful. Think about it, how many units fire a single high powered shot in AI War? Most of the heavy hitters fire shotgun volleys of high powered shots for an extremely high total damage and there's nothing your ability would do against that. Also common single-shotters like Zombards still come in groups. Spire beams are rapid fire weapons. Maybe it'd work as a meatshield against a Wrath Lance. And overkill should already offer a similar damage reduction when using swarmers.

Offline keith.lamothe

  • Arcen Games Staff
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 19,505
Poll is now up here :)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games? Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline zleorg

  • Newbie Mark III
  • *
  • Posts: 25
[Edit] Well that's what I get for leaving a forum topic open while I think and not refreshing before posting.  ::)  I didn't realize the poll was up but they can be out there for the next expansion!

I actually just picked this game up a month ago and have been really enjoying it.  It's a nice change from all other games I play.  I really enjoy reading the forums and seeing such helpful posts from everyone.  I've learned a lot just from reading the AAR that people do.  Keep up the good job of making fun games! [/Edit]

Here's my list of ideas.  I put them up on the Mantis here.
 http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=11540

I'll just paste what I posted to save trouble clicking over.

The Doppler - It would be a medium range ship that releases a circle attack around it. As the attack passes over a 2nd Doppler that ship would release another circle at lesser power (probably much lesser.) That could happen once or twice at most I think. Think of ripples in a pond hitting a leaf and then having it come back. For balance it probably shouldn't do much to structures.

The Exchange - This ship would teleport over to an enemies location while bringing 1-5 friends with. But in order to do that 2-6 of the enemy would be swapped over to the original location. The friends or enemies that get added to teleport over should just be chosen at random so sometimes it's a really bad idea.

The Daisy (chain) - These ships would have a weak attack unless grouped together. In that case they'd start by shooting at each other to build up a stronger attack. Tough to explain but I imagine with 3 ships it would go 1 shoots 2 who then shoots 3 who then would shoot the enemy with a stronger attack. It would mean you could keep 1 and 2 out of range of enemies but still get a strong attack.

The Puffer - A melee range ship at when it explodes blows enemy ships away in a circle around it. I just thought that seeing the enemy blobs go *poof* and fly away would be fun.

Was a lot of fun reading the other ideas!
« Last Edit: May 17, 2013, 09:51:09 am by zleorg »

Offline Wingflier

  • Core Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,753
  • To add me on Steam, click the little Steam icon ^
The Spire:
1. Spire Carrier - As the name suggests, the Spire Carrier can house a small number of allied ships, healing them quickly, and sending them back out into battle.  The Carrier is expensive and has a low ship cap.  It can only hold a small number of ships (25) and automatically ejects them when they are fully healed (like the Neinzul Regeneration Chamber Structure).  It only has moderate health and is a big investment, so you have to defend it properly.  In addition to its healing properties, it fires powerful long-range missiles that are good against enemy Starships and Guardians.  It is ideal for long-range raids into enemy territory, to keep your fleet healthy and your army moving.

2. Spire Merciless - The Spire Merciless is an a very unique ship type.  Very expensive, fragile, and with a low ship cap, it produces an extremely powerful, never-ending beam weapon that slices through most enemy ships with ease.  However, in order to maintain its devastating beam weapon, it has to constantly eat friendly ships to power itself.  It can't eat allied starships and friendly ships that are immune to being devoured for obvious reasons.  The Merciless takes constant attrition damage when not in low-power mode, and can not be repaired.  When firing its powerful weapon, it hurts itself as well.  In order to heal itself, it must consume a healthy diet of nearby allied ships.  The amount healed is based on an allied ship's cost, not its total health, so you can't just feed it cheap but durable ships; keeping its beam going is an investment (as well as the ship itself).

3. Spire Scrambler - This bonus ship type is probably the most radical of all the ideas I'll be presenting; it's a huge departure from classical mechanics.  Only 1 can be built per Mark, these ships are designed to be "off" until its time to use them.  Unbelievably expensive, extremely slow moving, and fragile - it costs 100,000 energy just to activate.  When activated, these ships emit a powerful scrambling signal in a moderate range that causes AI ships in its radius to enter into a "bezerker" state.  The ships affected by this scrambled state begin attacking targets at random, including ships on their own team, but will attack your ships randomly as well.  Some AI units are immune to the "scrambler" effect.  AI Units will go out of their way to attack the Spire Scrambler if possible.  If a Spire Scrambler is killed or scrapped, it raises the AI Progress by 5.  Higher Mark levels of the ship increase its health and the range of the scrambling effect.

The Neinzul:
4. Neinzul Contagion - The Contagion is similar to a standard Neinzul fleet ship in most ways, except that it is significantly more expensive, and has half of the normal attrition time (so 2 minutes instead of 4).  The Contagion attacks by colliding itself into an enemy ship, which kills itself, but also inflicts a certain amount of (rising by Mark) "Virus Damage".  Virus damage does no actual harm to the target's health-bar, it instead marks the target for conversion.  Once the "Virus Damage" a ship has taken becomes equal to its current health, the virus activates, and the enemy ship is temporarily converted to your side (5 minutes).  The aspect that makes this conversion technique unique, is that it works on Starships and Guardians.  Converted ships can not be repaired, and return to the AI's control after 5 minutes.

Use:  The Contagion is a powerful Anti-Starship and Guardian unit.  Though it is expensive for a Neinzul ship, is much more fragile than normal, and has an even faster attrition time, if microed correctly it can be used to commandeer powerful enemy weaponry.  Unlike most Neinzul ship types, you can't simply mass produce/FRD these into an enemy system, as they will be killed extremely quickly.  They must be sufficiently micromanaged during their short lives to hit specific targets, and reach the specific amount of "Virus Damage" they need to inflict in order to temporarily capture the enemy ship.  The conversion effect also works on smaller fleet ships, but in general, it's not worth the investment to do so.  The "converted ships" are fully under your control for the duration of the ability.  The conversion does not work like a normal Parasite - it doesn't happen after an enemy dies, it's not permanent, and you can't repair a ship that's been converted.

5. Neinzul Broodmother - The Broodmother is similar to the Spire Maw in that it's expensive, has a low ship cap, and eats enemy ships.  However, it "eats" new ships at a much slower rate than the Maw, but digests them much faster.  When the Broodmother has fully digested an enemy ship, it releases a swarm of powerful Neinzul Broods that automatically go out and attack the nearest enemy targets (they aren't under your control).  It releases a new swarm of Broods for every ship digested.  The Broodmother's meal of enemy fleet ships also slowly heals her as well, and counters her natural attrition damage.

6. Neinzul Titan -
The Titan is an unusual Neinzul ship in that it has double the normal attrition time (8 minutes instead of 4), is somewhat durable, and moves quite slowly (instead of the incredible speed we're used to).  It has a small range and takes a long time to reach its target, but if these little critters can get in range they do massive damage with every shot and are effective against most ship types.

The Zenith:

7. Zenith Vindicator - The Vindicator is a short-ranged fighter/bomber that starts out doing very minimal damage, but is temporarily empowered with the death of each allied unit in a system.  The more allied ships that die, the more powerful the Vindicator(s) become.  If there have been a massive amount of casualties on your side, the Vindictator begins to do crazy damage.  There is a cap to how much damage it can actually do.  Scrapped ships do not count towards the Vindicator's power level (which is over 9000, obviously). 

8. Zenith Retaliator - A durable ship type with a relatively low ship cap (say 9), the Retaliator does no damage on its own.  However, when it has taken half of its maximum health in enemy damage, this Zenith ship retaliates with an extremely powerful multi-beam attack (think Warbird Starship or Heavy Beam Cannon) that is powerful against most ship types.  This feature makes it an ideal tank and frontliner unit, but you must have healers around to reach maximum effectiveness with it.  It is expensive and relatively slow (44 speed).

9. Zenith Vanguard - Similar to the Munitions Booster and Armor Booster, the Zenith Vanguard simply increases the ranged of affected allied ships in its radius.  A powerful frigate on its own, it increases nearby allied ships' range by a significant amount as well.  The range increase is 20/30/40/50% for MK Levels 1 through 4, respectively (Core gives 60% range increase).

10. Zenith Hero - The Hero does very little damage on its own (seeing a pattern here?), however, as more enemy ships enter the area, its damage increases.  When surrounded by a huge number of enemy ships, the Hero does massive damage with each attack.  There is no cap to how much damage it can do.  This makes it ideal for defending wormholes or against enemy waves.  It has a short-ranged multiple shell attack.

Somehow I missed this thread until it was too late. Oh well, I'm adding these just in case anybody is interested.

Here is the Mantis Report: http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=11555
"Inner peace is the void of expectation. It is the absence of our shared desperation to feel a certain way."

Offline keith.lamothe

  • Arcen Games Staff
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 19,505
Somehow I missed this thread until it was too late. Oh well, I'm adding these just in case anybody is interested.
Good to have on hand for the next time an expansion rolls around :)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games? Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline TIE Viper

  • Full Member Mark II
  • ***
  • Posts: 160
Can we carry over the powerslaver to the next expansion's bonus ship list...pretty please?
May the Force be with you.

And the Triforce too.  :D

Offline keith.lamothe

  • Arcen Games Staff
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 19,505
Can we carry over the powerslaver to the next expansion's bonus ship list...pretty please?
I actually did put it on my next-expansion list earlier today because of the lamentations raised here, interesting timing :)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games? Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline TIE Viper

  • Full Member Mark II
  • ***
  • Posts: 160
Can we carry over the powerslaver to the next expansion's bonus ship list...pretty please?
I actually did put it on my next-expansion list earlier today because of the lamentations raised here, interesting timing :)

My spidey sense apparently was tingling...  :P
May the Force be with you.

And the Triforce too.  :D

Offline LaughingThesaurus

  • Master Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,723
I am now going to make up ships inspired by Pathfinder class names.

Assassin: A bonus sniper-type very low cap ship. It's immune to force fields, is cloaked (but blind), and has infinite range on its high damage weapon. Assassins don't fire automatically. Instead, you give them a target. They spend 20/18/16/14/12 seconds lining up a shot, and BOOM. That would have been a headshot, if only that ship had a head. While lining up a shot, the Assassin is decloaked and can be attacked. Good thing too; Their attack hurts like nothing else, but they have extremely low HP (I'm honestly thinking 1000 or less). While you can assassin-proof your planets, nothing stops the AI from picking off your starships with em. ;) The AI, ideally, perceives assassins as an extreme threat and will automatically get any kind of tachyon beams it can while releasing fast ships to attack assassins of yours. Prepare for a heavy defensive response.

"Rogue" Sapper: These ships are self-destruct attack type ships. As simple as can be, these ships don't really do much on their own. They're easily destroyed and don't really do much damage. However, these are designed to take advantage of enemies that are caught off-guard. Their attack does absolutely massive damage against any ship that is actively reloading (and thus, is likely engaged with ships of another fleet). A distracted opponent is a dead opponent with this ship around. Again, this is a ship that is extremely frail. Any fire directed at IT should kill it straight-away. It can only really attack if it actually sneaks up on ships that are firing on things that aren't the Rogue.

Stalwart Defender: This ship is a 1-cap bonus starship with weak to no weapons. Instead, it is equipped with every defensive ability in the book. High armor is a given. It's got some kind of obscure rarely-multiplied hull type as well. It can teleport, draws all enemy fire, and maybe even has a huge array of tractor beams, weak translocator ammo, or both. If this ship is managed correctly, enemies can be knocked into complete disarray at its supportive abilities or an AI attack can be seriously delayed. Higher mark levels should get more defensive abilities, rather than higher stats.

Poisoner: This is a fleet ship that prefers to spread its damage out as much as possible. Poisoners deal very high damage for what they are, but the damage takes hold as a temporary attrition effect over time. Effectively, these ships aren't so great at direct combat, and are fantastic at hit-and-run enemy softening run-by attacks. They should probably be fast, and most things probably shouldn't be immune to the poisoner. The damage over time effects of different marks count as different effects, and will stack. Any damage over time effect caused by the same mark will not stack with itself.

This is me at like 4 AM. Goodnight.