Meatshield spider concept

[Deathmonger]

So we don't want to go to the bad old days of item-spamming, brick Tetris, etc. and we don't like basing as it is now. One of the problems IMO is that without rep whoring, guns and bomblines are overwhelmingly powerful in HS. Here's an idea intended to counter that and to create a unique basing style for HS with greater tactical depth.

 

The spider gets a special armor that absorbs 3/4 of all gun/bomb damage. The armor is a huge recharge drain and slows down speed/thrust. This turns it into a tank that goes to the front of the line and protects teammates behind it from gun/bomb/thor damage.

 

The counter is that an EMP hit shuts down recharge and the armor rapidly drains the spider of energy to the point where it is easily killed. This makes the weasel a REQUIRED part of a basing team because it's needed to take down enemy spider meatshields. Sharks can also use their EMP during a rush.

 

Spiders can have a high m!@#$%^&* so that they aren't bounced so much by reps, stabilizing battle lines (I believe this can be set per-ship; if not, ignore).

 

Meatshield spider tanks are then used to establish the front line for both attackers and defenders, while shooters fire and rushers rush from behind it. This contrasts with using bricks, rep-whoring, or sick gunlines/bomblines to hold position. They can also be used to rush or protect sharks behind it long enough for them to leak through; sharks can protect spiders by repping EMP bombs. They can also bounty if they manage their firing and energy carefully. EMP is elevated from novelty to an essential part of basing, and teams will have to use the full array of ships (shark, lanc, spider, weasel, +gunners) to base effectively.

 

Wouldn't that be a 10 on the fun scale?

[Matrim Cauthon]

just use a solid nut. it makes the gun/bomb dmg do very little and as long as u dont get bursted, u can meatshield a long time

[Deathmonger]

Solid nut is in the same ballpark but at $100K + sig it's pretty expensive, and it doesn't bring EMP into the game.

[Gar]

I was trying to figure out some idea to suggest along the lines of making Spider a good defender. This sounds cool, but it's overly complex, and still does nothing to stop sharks.

[Matrim Cauthon]

i think beam array=antishark weapon, cuse sharks either need aphasic to protect against bursts, or rush without aphasic which makes them take a ton of burst dmg

[Deathmonger]

This wasn't about anti-sharking, but here are some ideas in that department:

 

1. Make sharks so light that they really get launched by repels.

2. Implement an engine-shutdown weapon (e.g a field or brick) to slow them down

[vetta64]

my lanc made a pretty good meat shield yesterday, the downside is it cost me like 350k to go out and die like a lemming while everyone else gets free kills.