Vision Items

Alright, gamebreaking idea to throw out there, lemme explain then you can give me your thoughts.

It's a new item type. It is global (every ship gets one). I chose cyan as its color but this is open to the devs' choice. These items specialize in vision control and would give combat a lot more depth, and something to think about in the early stages of the match as well. I also think each ship should unlock this slot at Mk3 because the recent buff to Mk1 and Mk2 made the jump to Mk3 somewhat underwhelming (plus we don't want to overcomplicate things for new players). When tagging an unfriend, they are made visible to your entire team, as if you spotted them directly. Here are 3 items for this category that I have though of:

• Sonar
  • Works like a repair pulse
    • pulse is not visible
  • Base radius for common level 1 is 5 (same as repair pulse)
  • Upgrading increases radius (max legendary 15, 3x as large as repair pulse)
  • Duration 4 seconds (can increase to 7 seconds with +1 duration talents)
  • Applicable perks are global cooldown reduction, global hp, and global range (increases radius)
  • Cooldown 30 seconds
• Buoy
  • Deploys like a mine
  • Has no effect until armed, same delay as a mine
    • looks like a ball before arming
    • an antennae extends from the top and lights up when active
    • radius is visible with a circular outline
    • color for light and radius is red for unfriends, green for friends
  • When armed, pulses periodically (base radius of 3; can be increased to 6 with +1 radius talents)
  • Pulse rate is 2.5 seconds
  • Pulse effect grants vision for 4 seconds (cannot be increased)
  • Buoy can be temporarily deactivated via tesla bolt (does not display stun duration timer to either party)
    
  • Buoy breaks after 45 seconds
  • Upgrading increases buoy duration (max legendary 75 seconds)
  • Applicable perks are global cooldown reduction, global hp, and global range
  • Cooldown 45 seconds
  • Cooldown can be decreased to 30 seconds with talents (conflicts with pulse radius talents)

• Scrambler

• Buff yourself and your nearby teammates (repair pulse radius)
• Buff makes you immune to the effects of Sonar and Buoy
• Duration 10 seconds
• Upgrading increases duration (max legendary 30 seconds)
• No penalty for taking turns using the buff
• Applicable perks are global cooldown reduction and global hp
• Cooldown 60 seconds

​

So each ship can have just 1 of these items at Mk3 and above. The sidebar is already crowded enough as it is, so this new item slot should be its own seperate slot that can be moved and resized independently. In the shipyard the slot can be shown as a 9th slot off to the side instead of lumped in with the current ones.

Uh, I spent like an hour on this because I kept coming and going, so I possibly messed something up lol. Lemme know in the comments if you have any suggestions/objections.

 

YES.

 

What? No Tracking Harpoon? Makes the target visible to your team for xxx seconds.

While we're at it, how about some anti-vision items like something which reduces your radar visibility range. Ever since someone else suggested it I've wanted some sort of stealth. It'd have to be very limited to not be game breaking but in tiny doses it could add an awful lot to the strategy.

 

Like a smokescreen?

 

Now that's fascinating. I was thinking more like real invisibility just with very limited range and other handicaps. But a great billowing cloud of smoke that interfered with radar... wow.... now that would be interesting. You couldn't exactly jump the enemy team by surprise but you could sew chaos and confusion with it. Heh, that would take a lot of play testing to get it right and my guess is that the idea either rocks or sucks but not much in the middle.