[Merc] Barrage

(Mr-Penguin) #1

Barrage
Class- Fire Support
HP- 100
Speed- 430

Profile-
No backstory yet

Barrage is a lighter fire support Merc that specializes in skirmishing and setting up ambush spots with her Targeting Darts before launching her uniquely self-launched Rocket Barrage upon her darts, even when they are out of line of sight. Her Ammo Deck essentially turns her into a mobile ammo station for her team, giving her a great amount of team utility on both offense and defense.

Beacon Darts
Cooldown- 5 sec/dart, 3 darts max
Duration- Unlimited, 3 darts out max
Barrage shoots a single Beacon Dart from her dart gun. After hitting a surface, the dart sticks to it and becomes a target point to which the Rocket Barrage can be called upon. Darts can only be destroyed through EMP effects and explosives.

All placed Beacon Darts are highlighted though walls in colors depending on if the target area can be hit with the Rocket Barrage from your current position: Green if a direct hit can be made with all the rockets, shades of orange for varying amounts of splash damage, and red if no rockets can hit.

Rocket Barrage
Cooldown- 16 seconds
Duration- N/A
Barrage launches a volley of 6 low-yield rockets at the Beacon Dart closest to the middle of her FOV at a high angle. The rockets plunge towards the dart and impact in a 4 meter radius around the dart, destroying it and damaging enemies. Each rocket does a maximum of 25 damage with a large amount of splash damage falloff down to 10.

As a barrage is approaching a dart, it will chirp and whine at an increased frequency and speed the closer a barrage is. In addition, the rockets leave a trail in the air starting from the launch point, allowing astute enemies to spot a launch before they can hear it.

Ammo Deck
Cooldown- N/A
Duration- N/A
Passively resupplies ammo to all teammates and yourself within a 5 meter radius at a rate of 1 magazine/3.5 sec.

Weapons-
Primary- KEK-10, SMG-9, Hochfir
Secondary- S&W, Caulden, M9
Melee- Beckhill, Cricket Bat, Kukri

Notes
Alright, another fire support merc! As stated earlier, Barrage excels in ambushing and reacting to enemy pushes before they happen with proper placement of her targeting darts. Alternatively, Barrage can fire a dart and then immediately target it, though this is a predictable and lengthy process compared to the other Fire Support mercs.

Thanks for reading, and leave any feedback below!

[i]Made with @derpypenguinz19 's Mercenary Suggestion Form

(Naonna) #2

the ability seems quite complex. I’m skeptical, at best. It seems an indoor arty, with more warning and limited usage - all at a slightly smaller scale. I’d advise making it too spam-y. More darts means longer cool down, I’d assume. not like Fletcher’s stickies.

(HunterAssassin5) #3

okay, this is…different.

from what i understand, you shoot a targetting dart, which i’d guess would be about the same size if not slightly smaller than a snitch. it can stick to enviromental surfaces only, but deals 1 damage if it hits an enemy, after which its not specified if it falls to the ground or is destroyed.

for the cluster rocket, you need line of sight to target it, but otherwise there doesnt seem to be a limit to it’s range. when the rocket is fired, it will travel straight towards the targeting dart at an unspecified speed, and at an unspecified range it will split apart into an unspecified number of cluster bombs across an area(of unspecifed size) and damage everything within range.

one thing i’d like to ask, is it possible to make it so there’s an in-between for the targetting, like red if you cant hit where the dart is at all, green if you can get a direct hit on it, and various shades of orange for when the splash damage can reach the dart, but you cant inflict full damage like with a direct hit?

i dont know if the damage is more on the anti-EV side like arty and skyhammer or more anti-personnel like kira and stoker, but i’d guess it’s a nice in-between. is it possible to stick a bunch of darts onto an unrepaired EV/generator and fire a bunch of rockets once it’s repaired? then again, its probably not possible to stick stuff onto the EV, not even the stickies do, and theyre supposed to stick to everything.

(Fyrix) #4

Sounds like a mixture of all the current fire support mercs just using darts.

The delivery is very arty-esque.

Would prefer to see something new.

(Mr-Penguin) #5

[quote=“TheRyderShotgun;197515”]okay, this is…different.
from what i understand, you shoot a targetting dart, which i’d guess would be about the same size if not slightly smaller than a snitch. it can stick to enviromental surfaces only, but deals 1 damage if it hits an enemy, after which its not specified if it falls to the ground or is destroyed.
[/quote]
It falls to the ground after hitting an enemy.

for the cluster rocket, you need line of sight to target it, but otherwise there doesnt seem to be a limit to it’s range. when the rocket is fired, it will travel straight towards the targeting dart at an unspecified speed, and at an unspecified range it will split apart into an unspecified number of cluster bombs across an area(of unspecifed size) and damage everything within range.

Rockets don’t travel straight, they instead travel in an arc towards the target dart starting at your current position (I probably should’ve specified that…). LOS is not needed as long as a dart is still intact in the target area and you are standing in such a way that the arc of each rocket won’t meet any obstructions. You obviously still need LOS to shoot a dart though.

5 bomblets split from each rocket. Since each bomblet deals similar damage to one of Nader’s grenades, it’s hard to come up with an impact area for the bomblets. Too close together and this is basically a worse Arty strike, too far apart and you can’t kill anything with the bomblets.

one thing i’d like to ask, is it possible to make it so there’s an in-between for the targetting, like red if you cant hit where the dart is at all, green if you can get a direct hit on it, and various shades of orange for when the splash damage can reach the dart, but you cant inflict full damage like with a direct hit?

Good idea.

i dont know if the damage is more on the anti-EV side like arty and skyhammer or more anti-personnel like kira and stoker, but i’d guess it’s a nice in-between. is it possible to stick a bunch of darts onto an unrepaired EV/generator and fire a bunch of rockets once it’s repaired? then again, its probably not possible to stick stuff onto the EV, not even the stickies do, and theyre supposed to stick to everything.

Yes, it’s possible to stick a bunch of darts in an area and then proceed to rain death as soon as you know somebody’s there. That’s the whole point of Barrage, though you can shoot a dart and then immediately target it for a faster strike akin to Arty’s.

[quote=“Fyrix;197581”]Sounds like a mixture of all the current fire support mercs just using darts.

The delivery is very arty-esque.

Would prefer to see something new.[/quote]
It’s hard to come up with something new for the Fire Support catagory. Strafing runs have been suggested to death, railguns have been suggested to death, and Javelin already exists.

The only way to innovate is a different delivery method- hence the ability to pre-place these darts in chokepoints and then shoot a ton of rockets at the area as soon as people are around.

Thanks for the feedback!

(Dysfnal) #6

I like the direction, a bit more complicated than it needs to be, and it sounds a lot like how I’d imagine javelin, though not so simple

(Mr-Penguin) #7

Any suggestions on how to decrease the amount of complicatedness (not sure if that’s a word…)? A normal targeting system would just make Barrage a worse Arty, and a system like an airstrike marker would remove all shreds of originality.

My thought was to simplify the Cluster Rockets so that a single keypress would launch all rockets at placed darts as long as you’re looking somewhere in their general direction.

(Dysfnal) #8

@derpypenguinz19 Oooooo you are on to something, upon 1st press you launch a snitch-like device, which cannot be destroyed by normal means, but is easy to see (an EMP will completely destroy, however). Upon 2nd press you launch a swarm of missles at the target, which have some AI as to go over short walls and around corners. You would be able to stick enemies with this, though with difficulty, and it would be useful against the EV as well as indoors

(Mr-Penguin) #9

Changes made:

Targeting darts are now Beacon Darts. Pretty much the same, except they can’t be destroyed by gunfire anymore.

Replaced Cluster Rockets with Rocket Barrage. Lots of low damage missiles with a quick cooldown, and now they all launch at the same dart with a single keypress.

Basically, the actual launch sequence should be a whole lot simpler while still retaining the feel of the original concept.

(Dysfnal) #10

I do like this merc idea, a lot… It’s creative, new, and fairly balanced (I say fairly because we really don’t know). Unfortunately there could be a pace problem of done improperly; this merc requires 2 actions to perform 1, much like sticky trap Fletcher, and we all know how viable he is. That may not be a problem though, as cooldowns can be adjusted, and the core mechanics of this merc are not set in stone. It can be done I’m sure