Suggestion - New Merc: Copycat (has the ability to 'borrow' the abilities of dead enemies)

(ProfPlump) #1

Name: Copycat

Health: 100

Speed: 420

Primary weapon: Crotzini, SMG-9 or Hochfir

Ability:
“Mimic”

  • Whenever Copycat gibs an enemy player, a small Box drops at the body of that player (similar to how Looter works).
  • This Box, once acquired, allows Copycat to ‘borrow’ the ability(s) of that downed player - so if Copycat does this to a Skyhammer, she can then throw an Airstrike Marker and/or an Ammo Pack.
  • Copycat takes about 1 second to ‘acquire’ the contents of the Box - about the same time as it takes to pick up a Data Core/Drug Sample.
  • Copycat’s ‘stolen’ abilities can only be used a very limited number of times before they are ‘lost’ and she returns to only having her Mimic ability once again.
    - Skyhammer would only give her 1 airstrike and 1 ammo pack
    - Aura would give her 1 health station and 1 use of a Defib
    - Vassili would give her 1 motion sensor
    - Sawbonez would give her 2 large health packs and 1 use of a Defib
    - Fletcher would give her 2 sticky bombs and the Objective Specialist ability
    - Proxy would give her 1 proximity mine and the OS ability
    - Arty would give her 2 artillery strikes and 2 ammo packs
    - Bushwhacker would give her 1 turret and the OS ability
    - Fragger would give her 1 grenade
    - Nader would giver her 2 grenades in the launcher
    - Kira would give her 1 orbital laser and 1 ammo station
    - Sparks would give her only 1 shot with the REVIV-R and 3 small health packs
    - Phantom would give her the ability to go invisible with a FULL battery that is un-rechargeable
    - Redeye would give her 1 smoke grenade and IR goggles that (similarly) comes with a FULL battery that is un-rechargeable
    - Rhinos do not drop a Box - a sudden Minigun pick up would be a bit too overpowered
  • As was previously mentioned, once Copycat has used all up all of the ‘borrowed’ abilities, her Mimic ability is returned to her with a 5 second cooldown.

Bear in mind that this is a suggestion and is unlikely to be perfectly balanced by the stats I suggested - these are just the ways I would guess she would be balanced while still making a new and interesting merc to use.

Leave your comments with suggestions and whatnot - but try and be concise if possible.

Edit: it would actually be better if the Box dropped when the player gets downed, not gibbed. Otherwise when Copycat went to try and gib the player (so that the Box would drop) the player could just tap out and deny her that Box drop. Or another solution would be to simply make all players who tap out drop boxes regardless of how they were downed.

(SupahNin10doh) #2

I like it. I like it a lot. Maybe make her have 95 ho?

(ProfPlump) #3

Thanks, but I don’t think she needs a nerf to her combat capabilties - remember that until she grabs an ability, she’s pretty lackluster in combat.

(RyePanda) #4

Cool idea.

(DirtyMedal) #5

But what would happen if a copycat kill another copycat :scream:

(gg2ez) #6

No, Seriously, What would happen?

(dariodelvoije) #7

Well if a Copycat kills a Copycat, she gets the ability of the copycat that she killed. For example if the copycat kills a Skyhammer and a copycat kills her, she gets the airstrike and the ammobox. If the copycat that gets killed by the copycat doesnt have any abilities from other mercs, the copycat that kills her gets a reduced cooldown to her Mimic ability.

The minigun can be added, just without a cooldown reset. So one time use for like 5 seconds or something like that.
And with future mercs like Turtle she gets a smaller shield or an easier destroyable one.
and a molotov with Stoker and a self revive at half health or something like that for Phoenix.

Over all a great idea you have here, but I think the balancing would take some time.

(Samniss_Arandeen) #8

I like this idea a lot. Probably because (and I hate to sound narcissistic here) I had an almost identical Merc idea, but still. A Merc that relies on the unpredictability of Ability hijacking is an interesting concept, and one that sounds fun to fight against.

100 Health sounds a bit much for my liking, though.

(ProfPlump) #9

[quote=“Samniss_Arandeen;79969”]I like this idea a lot. Probably because (and I hate to sound narcissistic here) I had an almost identical Merc idea, but still. A Merc that relies on the unpredictability of Ability hijacking is an interesting concept, and one that sounds fun to fight against.

100 Health sounds a bit much for my liking, though.[/quote]

Consider that Phoenix has 100 health, access to the same guns and the same movement speed. So until you account for his abilities (healing pulses, revives and self-revives) he’s essentially got the same combat capabilities as Copycat. So imagine a Phoenix that isn’t allowed to use his abilities - would you still consider his 100 health to be too high? Because Copycat’s ability (as I suggested) would probably not be able to help in combat too much (unless she gibs and copies a nearby Nader/Fragger).

I really don’t think Copycat needs to have any less health. If anything, she should get more. But I really didn’t want to suggest a Merc that could be overpowered so I kept it at 100 to be on the safe side.

(Samniss_Arandeen) #10

[quote=“ProfPlump;80099”][quote=“Samniss_Arandeen;79969”]I like this idea a lot. Probably because (and I hate to sound narcissistic here) I had an almost identical Merc idea, but still. A Merc that relies on the unpredictability of Ability hijacking is an interesting concept, and one that sounds fun to fight against.

100 Health sounds a bit much for my liking, though.[/quote]

Consider that Phoenix has 100 health, access to the same guns and the same movement speed. So until you account for his abilities (healing pulses, revives and self-revives) he’s essentially got the same combat capabilities as Copycat. So imagine a Phoenix that isn’t allowed to use his abilities - would you still consider his 100 health to be too high? Because Copycat’s ability (as I suggested) would probably not be able to help in combat too much (unless she gibs and copies a nearby Nader/Fragger).

I really don’t think Copycat needs to have any less health. If anything, she should get more. But I really didn’t want to suggest a Merc that could be overpowered so I kept it at 100 to be on the safe side.[/quote]

That’s why I gave Mimic a bow/semiautomatic rifles, and made her a Recon. You’re not supposed to use an ability-stealer in direct combat, in my opinion.

(ProfPlump) #11

[quote=“Samniss_Arandeen;80115”][quote=“ProfPlump;80099”][quote=“Samniss_Arandeen;79969”]I like this idea a lot. Probably because (and I hate to sound narcissistic here) I had an almost identical Merc idea, but still. A Merc that relies on the unpredictability of Ability hijacking is an interesting concept, and one that sounds fun to fight against.

100 Health sounds a bit much for my liking, though.[/quote]

Consider that Phoenix has 100 health, access to the same guns and the same movement speed. So until you account for his abilities (healing pulses, revives and self-revives) he’s essentially got the same combat capabilities as Copycat. So imagine a Phoenix that isn’t allowed to use his abilities - would you still consider his 100 health to be too high? Because Copycat’s ability (as I suggested) would probably not be able to help in combat too much (unless she gibs and copies a nearby Nader/Fragger).

I really don’t think Copycat needs to have any less health. If anything, she should get more. But I really didn’t want to suggest a Merc that could be overpowered so I kept it at 100 to be on the safe side.[/quote]

That’s why I gave Mimic a bow/semiautomatic rifles, and made her a Recon. You’re not supposed to use an ability-stealer in direct combat, in my opinion.[/quote]

Huh, that is a pretty similar character! Guess I wasn’t as innovative as I thought =P

But, I have to disagree with you on making her a non-combat merc. If Copycat wants to reach a downed player to grab that player’s ability, she’ll almost always be making herself highly vulnerable and will quite likely run into more enemies as she does this - so she needs to be able to defend herself in these close ranges. That’s why she should have SMGs (or possibly shotguns now that I think about it).

I like the idea of having a bow in this game that encourages stealth gameplay, but frankly the maps in Dirty Bomb will never support such a playstyle. The only map I can think of that a stealthy bow and arrow class would do well on is Trainyard (due to the long, open expanses with flanking routes to get behind your enemies). On Underground, Terminal, Chapel and Bridge it’s very hard to get behind your opponents and, once there, it’s pretty obvious for an opponent that you have tagged with your bow as to where you shot from, since most of the time there are very limited directions they can get shot from due to the large amount of cover and limited flanking routes. It MIGHT work a bit more effective on Dome, but it still wouldn’t be very viable.

If Phantom has trouble flanking the enemy team while he’s got a bloody invisibility cloak, think how hard it would be for your perfectly visible merc to do so.

And your suggestion to give her semi-automatic rifles also seems strange to me, because if she has weapons that are better at medium to long ranges, she’d be better off hanging back at those ranges at all times and just ignore the abilities of her dead enemies in the distance. Furthermore, if she risks it and goes in to grab that ability, she’s putting herself at a MASSIVE disadvantage whereas if she had an SMG she would still be able to survive pushing up close to the dead player (and his nearby teammates). Remember that in Dirty Bomb, players almost always stick together (unless they’re idiots), so with a semi-automatic you’d basically have to completely wipe the enemy team before it would be safe to go out and scavenge from their bodies (since you don’t want her to be a combat merc), and having an ability that can only be used AFTER you’ve wiped an enemy team is, for lack of a better word, a dogshit ability. In Magic The Gathering those kinds of abilities are referred to as “win more” abilities, in that they don’t help you when you are fighting against your opponent - they only help you to win MORE once you have already turned the tides in your favour. It’s unnecessary. [Bear in mind that it would not be a ‘win more’ ability if she had the combat efficacy to be able to grab abilities in the middle of a firefight].

(Samniss_Arandeen) #12

All of those concerns are valid, and food for balancing, but does your iteration of the Ability stealing let her steal dead friendlies’ abilities? It wouldn’t be a win-more ability anymore. There’d be teamplay in pinch-hitting for someone else while they respawn, and it would be a “starting point” of sorts for a chain of Ability thefts.

I honestly see a lack of close-range self-defense while grabbing an Ability (my iteration involved pressing Use on a corpse, much like an objective) as one of the downsides of being able to use absolutely everything against your enemies.