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New unit idea: Blink

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2 years ago
I have an idea for a sort of mine sweeper unit. The unit belongs to the cloakbot factory but does not come with its own cloak. It has a slightly larger radius than a Phantom and has the ability to "blink" burrowed units out of cloak. This ability is activated the same way that bombs can be detonated manually however this unit will not attack by itself and also has no offensive abilities to keep itself alive. The Blink unit will basically sweep the entire area within its radius and force any burrowed units to temporarily reveal themselves for around 3 seconds. The blink ability has a charge up time of 10 seconds within which the unit is not allowed to move at first but gradually regains its ability to move over the next 10 seconds of its recharge timer. Also its metal cost should be around the 300 to 500 I feel like (and the unit is also relatively slow, a little bit faster than a phantom).

This is purely a concept and since I can barely draw and also cannot create any models other people will have to do that should it be accepted into the game. If there is a unit already designed/used for this purpose please do tell me.

In a nutshell:
- Name: Blink
- Factory: Cloakbot factory
- Metal cost: 300 - 500
- Personal cloak: No
- Speed: About 5% to 10% faster than a Phantom
- Ability radius: Slightly larger than a Phantom
- Ability usage: Manually activated
- Ability charge up: 10 seconds with gradually reducing movement penalty (0% to 100% movement over 10 seconds)
- Ability description and usage: Blinking all burrowed units inside its radius out of hiding for 3 seconds.
+2 / -0
2 years ago
aoe disarm 50 strengh
+0 / -0


2 years ago
I don't see why you wouldn't want an outlaw instead.
+1 / -0
2 years ago
NeonSturm strikes again.

I think this would be an interesting idea if say, the manual fire did no damage but de-cloaked all units in a much bigger area than Outlaw AoE.

TLDR make it specifically counter cornea and the like
+0 / -0
2 years ago
Some counter to cloak that doesn't require copious amounts of squishy units or setting fire to everything would be great.
+4 / -0
2 years ago
Otherwise, just use Limpets and job will done
+1 / -0
2 years ago
In old times Athena had seismic sensor that let you "see" cloaked units. Red pings on map or something. Not sure if any unit have it anymore.
+1 / -0
2 years ago
Even if an outlaw does work there is nothing stopping the enemy from dropping bombs on top of your army with gunships so unless you want to add an extra combination of both long range anti air AND outlaws you're not going to have a fun time getting past minefields so I still think a unit that can sniff out burrowed units at a longer range in a more covert manner would be a very good addition to the game. Also just for clarification Blinks would not damage bombs in any way. They merely force all burrowed units within radius to temporarily uncloak.
+1 / -0


2 years ago
In what world are badger mines such a problem that you'd need something other than outlaw or some assault units?
+0 / -0
2 years ago
I wasn't talking about Badger mines. I was talking about units such as snitches. They pack a punch, are easy to replace, are fast, burrow and can be dropped onto an army as well if the enemy knows where you're about to push through since Outlaws have a rather short range.
+1 / -0

2 years ago
I don't really see a middle ground for this between "is useless" and "deletes the cloak mechanic from the game". Neither of those seems like a great outcome.
+1 / -0
2 years ago
Sure the idea might need some refining but the ability won't force every cloakbot to uncloak because I intended it to be purely for sniffing out sneaky burrowers. That is all I want this unit to be good for. Thus the ability should only uncloak burrowed units. There are a million other ways to force cloakbots to uncloak but that usually involves getting close, which is the exact opposite of what you want to do with a bomb. That is why the Blink will only force burrowers to uncloak. Any other unit, even if cloaked, will remain cloaked. If this unit were to uncloak EVERY cloaked unit within its radius I think it would be more fitting to make it a strider. Of course this would also be a late game unit then because getting this early game would just be too powerful since it indeed would defeat the purpose of cloak. But it is of course also possible to make 2 variations of this unit. The first variation that you get from the factory will only reveal burrowed units and after you've got enough metal you could perhaps morph it into a variant that DOES reveal all cloaked units instead of just burrowers (of course this would cost a good late game amount of metal). Just like how you can morph an amphbot construction unit into a literal teleportation device.
+1 / -0
Okay, rephrase: I don't really see a middle ground for this between "is useless" and "effectively deletes from the game the standard usecase of Imp/Snitch as currently designed". Neither of those seems like a great outcome.

[Spoiler]
+0 / -0
2 years ago
I mean its not my intention to either make it useless or to make it overpowered. Its more like a unit that creates an image of the battlefield without needlessly sacrificing units to achieve the same goal because I do think most of us will agree that it is annoying to consistently send cannon fodder out to expose such traps because its usually a waste of metal. But I think I'll leave it at this. I don't really care all too much what happens to my idea. Of course I do hope it gets added but its no big deal if it doesn't.
+2 / -0

2 years ago
Have you tried using Imp / Snitch? It's not so easy to make cost as you might think.

I've never found them overly frustrating. Area cloak on the other hand - where your opponent's entire army disappears on the frontline* - I could do without; but I don't think a special counter unit is the correct answer.

* I think it's a great mechanic for clever raids and strikes, much less fun when used to hide a defensive line.
+1 / -0
a cloaker and limpet is my fav anti cloak.. cant hurt own army and limpet is fast and tanky.. but a bit expensive.. main advantage tho is it goes through any shields
+0 / -0
2 years ago
If there was to be a unit, that can effectively (without using many apm) uncloak approaching units, it needs to have a trade-off. What about a unit, that would cover large swathes of land around it with a special (distinctly coloured, eg. blue) fire, that would deal very little damage (1 hp in 10 sec?) to all units, and by that I mean even allied units? So that you would prevent enemy from approaching you with snitches, but you would not be able to use cloak in that area either. And that unit would have to be fairly expensive.
+1 / -0
2 years ago
quote:
Area cloak on the other hand - where your opponent's entire army disappears on the frontline* - I could do without; but I don't think a special counter unit is the correct answer.
Maybe this go further away from the initial idea, but what if area cloak would have some cool-down (like stardust does). You do not get to cloak immediately, you need to stay 5 seconds (or something) in the cloak field. Or make the cloak time dependent to distance from the cloak unit (such that you can't appear/disappear at cloak field edge). Then cloak could still be used for infiltration/surprises, but not for "now you see me now you don't" (which can be frustrating).
+2 / -0
DErankVR2
2 years ago
How about a salvage unit?

You tell the unit the area to search for wreckage. (Like when building mass extractors) You then give it a rally point.
The Salvage unit will then hunt for wreckage and drag it to the rally point.

The idea is for the rally point to be in a safe location. Then you can either suck up the mass, or ressurect it in the comfort of your safe location.
+1 / -0


2 years ago
I must have missed this.
quote:
Sure the idea might need some refining but the ability won't force every cloakbot to uncloak because I intended it to be purely for sniffing out sneaky burrowers.

I'm not prepared to make this distinction as it would create a new category of cloaking.

The Salvage unit doesn't seem significantly distinct from reclaim to me. Hover, if it is much faster at pulling than constructors are at reclaiming, then I feel like it just reduces the contest over reclaim fields. This seems a little uninteresting.

Also you could resurrect a structure to 99% then drag it somewhere broken.
+1 / -0
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