[Merc Concept] Shortstop

(Mr-Penguin) #1

Shortstop
Class- Engineer
HP- 120
Speed- 410

Profile-
Using a highly miniaturized and sophisticated version of the point defense systems normally found on armored vehicles and warships, Shortstop is a heavier engineer focused on protecting a wide area from all manner of explosive attacks and fire support abilities with his Portable Point Defense System. However, rapid attacks and concentrated explosive fire will penetrate the PPDS’s defensive area, and it does nothing to stop bullets. Use it to protect a plant site or the EV, or perhaps use it to stop enemy fire supports before they wipe your team out.

Portable Point Defense System (PPDS)
Cooldown- 17 sec, 2 charges
Duration- Unlimited
Shortstop tosses a PPDS device a short distance. After a 1 second deployment delay, it creates an area roughly the size of a Health Station’s radius that instantly intercepts any grenade or similar explosive device that touches it as well as negating all splash damage from the intercepted explosive. A PPDS can only intercept 1 incoming explosive before self-destructing. Up to 2 PPDSes can be deployed at once.

In addition, the PPDS also disrupts the targeting systems of Airstrike Markers, Orbital Laser, and Artillery Strike designators, rendering their operators incapable of using their fire support abilities if they happen to intersect or are targetted on an area protected by a PPDS. Lasers cannot cross the boundaries of the PPDSs sphere, Artillery Strikes cannot be targeted on a PPDS, and Airstrikes that have their bombing line crossing a PPDS will be interrupted and put on a 15-second cooldown.

Bullets and similar non-explosive deployables are typically unaffected by a PPDS (see Exceptions for more info). A few bullets are more than enough to destroy a PPDS before it can intercept any explosives.

Exceptions:
PPDSes do not destroy preexisting/deployed explosives or deployables.
Heartbeat Sensors and SNITCH Devices bounce off a PPDS’s area of effect and do not count as an interception.
If an enemy Health or Ammo station is placed within a PPDS’s AoE while it is active, it will be destroyed and count as an interception.
Enemy explosives thrown while inside a PPDS’s AoE will be instantly triggered and will deal normal damage to all people inside the PPDS. If Friendly Fire is on, allied explosives will do the same.
Molotovs and Smoke Grenades are detonated on contact with a PPDS, but the fire/smoke will still spread.
Concussion Grenades have a much-reduced effect when detonated by a PPDS.
If a PPDS is deployed after an airstrike has been called, it will not protect you from the airstrike’s AOE. Same goes with artillery strikes.

Objective Specialist
Being an engineer, Shortstop disarms, repairs, and plants C4 much faster than non-engineers.

Weapons-
Primary- Crotzini, Timik-47, Dreiss AR
Secondary- M9, Slebstadt, DE. 50
Melee- Beckhill, Stiletto, Kukri

Augment Concepts- (these are obviously quite rough)
Return To Sender (aka Pineapple Juggler Redux): PPDSes reflect enemy explosives instead of instantly detonating them. Doesn’t apply to molotovs and smoke grenades.

Signal Booster: Fire Support ability scrambling persists for another 2 seconds after a PPDS is destroyed.

Zap: PPDSes release a localized EMP burst when destroyed.

Notes
I’m back from my three month DB break with a vengeance and a new merc idea: Shortstop! This is heavily inspired by the operator “Jager” in Rainbow Six Seige as well as a discussion I had on alternatives to Turtle’s shield. In case things weren’t clear (and they still might not be clear, so post ay clarification you need below), the PPDS system intercepts and destroys incoming explosives before they can deal any damage, as well as protects you and your teammates from collateral damage from fire support abilities. Shortstop’s hard counters are bullets and any merc with rapid fire explosive abilities (Nader and Fletcher). Fragger and Thunder are gonna have a hard time with the PPDS, but there’s nothing a few bullets can’t fix.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to leave any comments, suggestions, or feedback below!

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

(Mr-Penguin) #2

A few adjustments I may add in the future:

  • Making the PPDS only cover a frontal arc of 180 degrees
  • Removing the ability to stick to walls and other surfaces
  • Reducing max interceptions to 4

That’d make the PPDS a bit easier to counter by mercs like Fragger and Thunder overall, as well as make it more vulnerable to gunfire as you could no longer stick it on a ceiling and make it immune to stray bullets.

Thoughts?

(JJMAJR) #3

1 - Nice weapon selection. I think it should have the M4A1 instead of the Dreiss though.
2 - I thought of this solution to rebalance existing engineers that are either too good at pushing (Fletcher) or are just terrible (Proxy).
3 - I think it would be better if such an ability was a permanent deployable like Bushwhacker’s turret at the cost of only neutralizing one grenade. This would make Nader able to counter this while keeping its role against Fraggers and etc.
4 - #3 however could have been a product of my idea in #2.
5 - Health/Speed ratio is too much. Nerf it.
6 - Preventing splash damage entirely isn’t something I am in favor of.

(Dysfnal) #4

5 explosives might be too many, DB is a very explosive heavy game, and you’d completely shut down a Nader or Fragger for way too long, I’m not sure about this though

(Mr-Penguin) #5

[quote=“JJMAJR;213030”]1 - Nice weapon selection. I think it should have the M4A1 instead of the Dreiss though.
2 - I thought of this solution to rebalance existing engineers that are either too good at pushing (Fletcher) or are just terrible (Proxy).
3 - I think it would be better if such an ability was a permanent deployable like Bushwhacker’s turret at the cost of only neutralizing one grenade. This would make Nader able to counter this while keeping its role against Fraggers and etc.
4 - #3 however could have been a product of my idea in #2.
5 - Health/Speed ratio is too much. Nerf it.
6 - Preventing splash damage entirely isn’t something I am in favor of.[/quote]

  1. Eh, I wanted Shortstop to have a weapon for every range, kinda like Redeye. Close ranged explosive removal, medium ranged EV repair situations and longer ranged defense. I can see where you’re going though.
  2. Not sure what you’re saying with this.
  3. Now that I think about it, a permanent turret would make more sense. I’ll change it.
  4. See 2
  5. Just noticed that now. A small mistake on my part.
  6. For me, it was a tossup between letting collateral damage annihilate the PPDS (since I intended it to be very fragile) or making it tougher but less readily destroyable with bullets. I chose the latter.

My intended rework is to make the PPDS a permanent turret, but you have 2 of them. Each can only intercept one grenade and retain the Fire Support ability scrambling in a smaller area. You could stack them on top of each other.

Thanks for the feedback!

EDIT: Changes made.

(BushWanker) #6

Would Phantoms EMP disable it, just to clarify can enemies walk into it?.
How much HP does it have.
Also an SMG doesn’t really fit into an AR loadout, so plz replace Crotzni with an AR.
Also I think it should protect only one or two explosions, maybe three, depending on there severity.

(Mr-Penguin) #7

[quote=“Bushwanker;213042”]Would Phantoms EMP disable it, just to clarify can enemies walk into it?.
How much HP does it have.
Also an SMG doesn’t really fit into an AR loadout, so plz replace Crotzni with an AR.
Also I think it should protect only one or two explosions, maybe three, depending on there severity.[/quote]

EMPs disable PPDSes, just like any other deployable.

PPDSes are point defense systems, meaning they have a little gun on them that shoots down incoming projectiles. So yes, enemies can walk into a PPDS’ radius and chuck a grenade in there.

PPDSes are very fragile and go down in 2 or 3 bullets from just about anything, unlike most other non-explosive deployables.

Like I said earlier, I intended for Shortstop to have an SMG, assault rifle, and battle rifle so he could fight at all ranges depending on where the player is comfortable, kinda like Redeye and his weapon selection.

Each PPDS intercepts 1 explosive device, and one only. I’d prefer to keep it simple instead of having a bunch of different variables based on explosive damage.

(Herr_Hanz) #8

reminds me of the trophy system from CoD, and i think that thats a better adaption for it.

nice idea, JJMAR’s idea of making it a deployable isntead of a grenade is needed. would like to add 2 second setup time before it activates.

destroying healing/ammo stations is a no go, make it only usefull for grenades.

(Mr-Penguin) #9

[quote=“Herr_Hanz;213441”]reminds me of the trophy system from CoD, and i think that thats a better adaption for it.

nice idea, JJMAR’s idea of making it a deployable isntead of a grenade is needed. would like to add 2 second setup time before it activates.

destroying healing/ammo stations is a no go, make it only usefull for grenades.

Eh, I like the whole “deployable grenade” concept, as you can quickly deploy PPDSes in different areas without having to hike all the way there. They also only shoot down 1 explosive, and the ability to throw them is essentially what balances the limited defense abilities of the PPDS.

Setup time was added, a thing that I kinda overlooked the first time around.

Thanks for the feedback!

(Terminal_6) #10

[quote=“derpypenguinz19;33510”]Augment Concepts- (these are obviously quite rough)
Return To Sender (aka Pineapple Juggler Redux): PPDSes reflect enemy explosives instead of instantly detonating them. Doesn’t apply to molotovs and smoke grenades.

Signal Scrambler: Enemy Fire Supports that have their abilities canceled gain a 5 second CD on their fire support ability.
[/quote]

Can you elaborate on these? I assumed Return to Sender would effectively turn the enemy explosive into a friendly one (no team damage), but that seems really powerful if the enemy is stupid enough, because they could kill their teammates. Alternatively, keeping them as enemy explosives could kill your own teammates.

Also I’m not really sure how Signal Scrambler works. Seems kind of strange in that it’s a debuff to every enemy fire.supp rather than an advantage to Shortstop.

(JJMAJR) #11

This idea is not new by the way.

(Mr-Penguin) #12

[quote=“Terminal_6;213602”][quote=“derpypenguinz19;33510”]Augment Concepts- (these are obviously quite rough)
Return To Sender (aka Pineapple Juggler Redux): PPDSes reflect enemy explosives instead of instantly detonating them. Doesn’t apply to molotovs and smoke grenades.

Signal Scrambler: Enemy Fire Supports that have their abilities canceled gain a 5 second CD on their fire support ability.
[/quote]

Can you elaborate on these? I assumed Return to Sender would effectively turn the enemy explosive into a friendly one (no team damage), but that seems really powerful if the enemy is stupid enough, because they could kill their teammates. Alternatively, keeping them as enemy explosives could kill your own teammates.

Also I’m not really sure how Signal Scrambler works. Seems kind of strange in that it’s a debuff to every enemy fire.supp rather than an advantage to Shortstop.[/quote]

I said they were rough, but I suppose it’s time to actually work on em’. :confused:

Return to Sender is basically the old Pineapple Juggler, but actually useful in that the deflection is automatic. Obviously, the return angle wouldn’t be to the point where if, say, a Fragger threw a grenade, it’d bounce back and kill him. Of course, it’d be really powerful against stupid people and another incentive for people to stop chucking nades everywhere and actually pay attention to the noise and light a PPDS produces.

Signal Scrambler was kinda a random idea that flew out my head. No worries, it’ll be changed…

This idea is not new by the way.
[/quote]

Really? I’ve seen dome shields that protect from fire support suggested in the past, but never a device that shot grenades out of the sky. If you could find the thread(s) in question that suggested a device with the same aesthetic and function as the PPDS, then that’d be a big help!

(JJMAJR) #13

I mentioned an active denial system as an idea for Fletcher/Proxy instead of their explosives in the past. I also mentioned a crossbow of sorts as another alternative, as well as barbed wire.

Also, the PPDS is simply a targeting scrambler and an active denial system strapped together.

It’s not new, but it’s easily mentioned quite a bit.

(Naonna) #14

Going to go through every post since I’ve been gone. My main issue with this idea is that Rhino sitting on this makes him nearly immortal, as even Nader or Fragger becomes unable to do enough damage to kill him: excluding any medic support.