Merc Concept: Epilogue

(Muddy Muddy Mud Nade) #1

“Now hiring Epilogue, a struggling author turned millionaire mercenary.”
Health: 120
Speed: 400
Class: Recon
Quote: “You can run, you can hide, but the last thing you’ll see will always be me.”
Full Name: Jacques Laferrière
Nationality: Haitian
POB: Port-au-Prince, Haiti
DOB: September 21, 1984

Summary

Origins: Born in the capital of Haiti, Jacques and his family lived in poverty for most of his youth. They eventually managed to scrounge enough money together using a grant from Jacques’s twin sister, Gabrielle, an engineering prodigy, to move to the USA where they settled in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They both ended up attending the University of Miami, but while Gabrielle excelled in their Mechanical Engineering program, Jacques struggled in his Journalism degree and eventually dropped out due to their “constraining expectations and rules.” His resistance to authority and social norms prompted him to start writing the way he wanted to. He churned out teen angst-esque sci-fi stories, comedic and satirical takes on the US’s norms (according to himself), and autobiographical memoirs. However, these books never took off, leaving Jacques in poverty once again. Meanwhile, his sister had graduated with her Masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering, and had began working at multiple tech units. Jacques’s parents had finally reached economic stability, and his sister was excelling in her life with her developments in aiding in counter-terrorism with her unique tracking technology. All the while, Jacques was descending into poverty and purposelessness. With the Dirty Bomb incident happening recently, Jacques did the only thing he thought he could do: Use his natural athleticism, and steal his sister’s tracking technology to become a mercenary. Though his sister was not too happy with her brother stealing her patented technology and using it for his own personal gains rather than counter-terrorism and militarism , Jacques lost no sleep over it. He had money, power, and stability. Furthermore, his writing career had rebounded with tales of his experiences and missions as a mercenary in irradiated London.

The R.E.A.D.: The Retinal Evaluation of Activity Device is a device that is integrated into Epilogue’s goggles that can track enemies. This is done by the R.E.A.D. scanning an enemy’s last known location within a certain amount of time, and then emitting a pulse from that merc’s current location that spots all the other mercs within that pulse’s radius. To do this, Epilogue activates one of the two charges that it has stored up (each on a 10 second cooldown, no cooldowns in between). The charge scans a decently sized area on the floor, and indicates to Epilogue a ping on his HUD if an enemy merc was in that area 5 seconds ago or less. Should he choose to activate that ping, the merc that that ping belonged to will then emit a pulse spanning about twice as big as Aura’s healing radius, detecting all the enemy mercs within that radius for 10 seconds, as well as outlining the merc that was tracked by Epilogue originally in red for those 10 seconds as well, but only for Epilogue. If you play Rainbow Six: Siege and know how the operator Jackal works, this is basically Jackal and Lion mixed together sort of. If you don’t, well I hope this wasn’t too confusing.

Weapons:

  • Primaries: Hurtsall 2K, SHAR-C, FA-FNL (FAL based assault rifle with heavy recoil, but high damage and fire rate, essentially the big brother of the Timik-47)

  • Secondaries: S&W, the Simeon, DE. 50

  • Melees: Beckhill, Kukri, Cricket Bat

I can see this guy being broken, garbage, out-of-place, I don’t really know how he would work out. I honestly just wanted to get this idea out and see what you guys think of it.
Spare no expense, if he’s overpowered or underpowered let me know!

(Press E) #2

It’s an interesting idea, but seems a bit too complicated for DB. A lot easier to just throw a heartbeat sensor and forget about it. That, and the fact that we already have so many other spotting abilities, means it would probably be better put to use in another game.

I’m also somewhat iffy of another weapon similar to the timik. A lot of the guns in DB behave similarly to it already after all. Plus high damage and high rate of fire would be a bit of a meme, no matter what the recoil on it is. DB is supposed to be high TTK after all, and a lot of combat takes place in close quarters.
Again, it’s not a bad idea, just out of place in DB’s current set of mercs

(AlbinMatt) #3

It’s an interesting idea, but putting Jackal in DB just wouldn’t work since in Siege, you’re mostly crawling through rooms or running at mach twenty through the map at the last minute.

Maybe the goggles could have a small “tracker shot” that requires you to actually have line of sight with the target. That way, the victim would either be forced to take on a team all alone or risk pinging their entire squad. It would be an interesting take on the spotting mechanic since Vas and Aimee are so similar and Redeye often hurts his teammates just as much as the enemy with his smokes.

The FAL might fit better as a Dreiss relative. Maybe more damage but less ammunition.

(k3endo) #4

The Ability is a nice idea, but having a recon use assault rifles is a big no no and would be really strong.

(AlbinMatt) #5

Why? It’s not like you’re a fire support too. Those ARs eat up so much ammo.

Snipers on the other hand have their kill/shot ratio quite simple, 1.

(Muddy Muddy Mud Nade) #6

I chose assault rifles because I wanted him to be more of a brawler type, rather than someone who stands in the back and kills someone every 30 seconds. If he had SMGs, he would have a combat disadvantage in a lot of his situations in which he often goes off on his own to scan for pings. It’s not like Phantom, who already has the drop on people most of the time (I know the SMGs are really good, but I’d take an M4A1 or Timik over a KEK-10 or Crotzni in a 1v1, and this is coming from a guy who’s favorite gun is the KEK-10), Epilogue would have to be ready to do a lot of damage as quick as possible if someone gets the drop on him when he’s scanning.
Note, the only mercs out there, that aren’t medics, that use SMGs have an ability that can give them an advantage, or just straight up do more damage. Fletcher, Bush, and Proxy all have damaging abilities, Turtle has a shield that he can just shoot from from behind, Nader has her Grenade Launcher, and Phantom has his invisibility, which allows him to get the drop on people. Hell, the medics have a sort of advantage, too, since the Aura, Sawbonez, and Phoenix all have the ability to heal themselves. Yes, the mercs with assault rifles all have abilities that do damage as well, with the exception of Thunder and Guardian, but those are on longer cooldowns (and are meant more to suppress and destroy, not kill, except maybe Kira). Fragger is the only real exception to all this, but his job is to kill people, so it makes sense that he has a lot of damage that he can pump out. Epilogue’s only advantage is knowing exactly where his target is when he pings them, which is nice, but he can’t necessarily get the drop on them the way Phantom can, unless he executes a flank. I contemplated making him faster, so that way he’s more of a hunter and less of a brawler, but I don’t really know if that would work. We already have a flanking recon, with a playstyle that feels less gimicky, and if I were to make Epilogue faster, I would also have to make his weapons into SMGs, which would just make him feel like Phantom with a more complicated ability.

(k3endo) #7

While i already said, i do like the idea of having a recon be more focused on flanking the opposition (since phantom doesnt have a recon ability and imo should be in the assault category), what youve done is give the merc the strongest level of recon ability and the strongest level of guns. Yeah, you can argue snipers are one shot kill etc, but you dont need that when you are
1.already behind the enemy by requirement of the ability
2.know where they are without a sliver of a doubt.
3.using automatic guns, which are much more wieldy and more reliable to consistently gain value from than sniper rifles/single shot rifles most of the time.

So now imagine this on Trainyard Objective 1 (example because i play recon here all the time)
You are defending. The enemy is focusing on taking the mg for this spawn wave, but this is applicable to almost every map attackers or defenders

If i was vassili, id throw my heartbeat sensor at certain locations to get wallhack spots, giving my team intel, while i try to get a few kills shooting in the main mg window/side window. I would be reliant on my team to act on my intel, which also serves to encourage them to advance now they have wall hacks, while i myself is almost separate from the fight, able to gain a nice amount of kills, picking off the enemy while my team’s assault use their abilities to great avail and medics advance knowing where the opponents are. I cant jump in their and do work as i might get a kill or two with the moa before i die, especially with my team milling about in the same area, i am encouraged to stay back and get picks that assist my team in counterattacking. The same goes for aimee (even with grandeur), in which id use the ability to gain less intel but also the damage buff, then standback and get a few clean shots off while my team engages.

If i was hunter or red eye, i could hold the same defensive angle, but my recon abilities wouldnt be as strong. Their weapons and playstyle mean they can be in the thick of the fight, so i will run with my team into the main fight, using the recon abilities i have to better effect than if i was just spotting through the sniper sightlines. Its riskier to use their abilities versus the main 2 recons, but their weaponry (red eye was single shots and hunter has a hipfire crossbow and the machine pistols) mean its possible with help (this is how i play pdp/grandeur red eye most of the time). I quite literally dont have the spotting utility of the first 2, but still use their own spin on wallhacks for great success with the pay off being having to be in the fight themselves to get the same impact level (hunter could just spam down the widows, but thats a bit risky with no guarantee for any impact). Their abilities fundamentally demand a different playstyle from sitback and snipe, but they are designed purposely to limit what they can achieve just by running in.

Now im playing Epilogue. I sneak my way behind enemy lines, very easy with both timings, practice and assault rifles to clear any stragglers that find me, i go on the path i KNOW they have taken, i spot a good 4-5 of them with R.E.A.D, and i sweep and clear the rest with my automatic/rifles while my team advances with the intel ive gave them, comparable to what an aimee/vassili would give. It is, quite literally, the best of both worlds. You have the recon ability of the main recon pair which makes sure your team is strong going into the fights, while also being given flexibility in shorter range (well, not much shorter tbh) combat recons like red eye and hunter and consistently bring to the table both a powerful spotting ability and a strong frontline capable merc.

You have made a merc concept with a spotting ability that beats the best intel recons in the game, with the combat ability that outshines the ‘combat’ recons, and the only counter to him would be to just kill him in a gunfight or try and snipe him before he gets a flank off.

id never thought id say this, but this merc would be even better at flanking than a proxy shotgun-mp combo plopping mines everywhere while bouncing off the walls.

TL;DR Epilogue has the high tier spotting ability and the high tier combat potential at the same time, which would outclass both the intel duo and the combat duo at their own game

(Muddy Muddy Mud Nade) #8

I get what you’re saying. Guess I didn’t really think about it that way. Fair enough!

(Xenithos) #9

Um… why, I would prefer to have a reconnasaince in a close ranged game to be able to use weapons that ARENT marksman rifles. Real reconnaisance=/= sniper, we also already have Phantom so…

edit: read what you said, and I want to clarify something, I still would prefer an assault rifle on a sniper character, but with his ability working solidly the way you described I see the issue. However, if you do that with almost any other assault or fire support character you’ll get the same results, this time you just happen to know for a fact that they’re there. In fact, playing epilogue is worse because then the enemies KNOW they’ve been spotted and can likely react to the epilogue.

(LifeupOmega) #10

Can’t get stronger than a one shot no cooldown hitscan rifle, you make no sense.

Either way, spotting is a detrimental mechanic and DB really, really doesn’t need more.

(Mr.Cuddlesworth) #11

reminded me of this