Gameplay: MAX abilities (common and ES)

[Kail]

    Playing the last few days of beta, I think the MAX still needs a little work, but its extremely close. Whatever they tweaked for durability I think was spot-on, and I feel what needs polish on the class is their abilities (and to some extent, their weapons).


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Ability - Common - Charge

• I think this should be a hold-down ability, like Jump Jets. Right now as an all-at-once shot, its extremely cumbersome to use in doors.

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Ability - Common - Gate Crasher

• Disables the right-arm weapon and raises it defensively to create a shield (I'm thinking almost exactly the engineer turret-shield) for a few seconds
• Can be activated while sprinting
• Useful if you want to be a door-buster
• Short duration. The point is to break into a room safely or sprint down a hallway, not to clear out a room while shielded.

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Ability - TR - Assault Mode
The Terran Republic is the professional army. As such, I feel they would have powered their MAX to alleviate it's major drawback: mobility

• Toggled mode. Its either on or off
• 2-3 second transition time when toggling
• Disables the right-arm, redirecting power and processing to torso and leg servos; increases speed and turn rate
• Speed could be the same as normal infantry. I'm not sure turn rate would need to go that high, but higher than standard for sure
• The idea is that a TR MAX can follow / pursue targets easier at the cost of firepower while it is doing so. The transition times helps make sure it can't follow you into a room then quickly go into full firepower mode again.
• Possible drawbacks, if needed, could be a reduction in accuracy or rate of fire

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Ability - NC - Shock Trooper
As a rebel / guerrilla force, the New Conglomerate I think would favor something that taps in to the raw power possible with a mechanized exo-suit infantry.

• All-at-once ability like the current Charge
• Increases rate of fire, and practically removes reload time, for a short duration
• The idea is that as an AI, an NC MAX walking into a room and hitting this ability can lay waste like no other MAX can. As AV/ AA, they could also inflict some heavy damage very quickly
• Possible drawbacks, if needed, could be a reduction in turn rate / movement speed

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Ability - VS - Nanite Armor Infusion
The tech-geeks, the Vanu Sovereignty would wanted to have put something cool and useful on their MAX that showed off their technical superiority.

• Hold-down ability, like jump jets.
• Rapidly regenerates the MAX's armor while held down (basically, it is the medic heal, just not AoE)

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&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;I think those abilities have a good shot at being balanced against each other. I don't think a shield works as empire-specific, but definitely is worth having as a choice. And I think having 3 good choices per empire would go a long way towards making the MAX feel like the package deal.

Edit: Names of abilities I just picked to get across their intent; real names can be thought of by people much more creative than I.