The mercs that weren't: What DB didn't become.

(Naonna) #1

Sadly, I was not in the alpha. Despite this, the legend of Dazzler still is occasionally referenced. I pose a very amusing thought: What if there were fewer mercs, but they all were amazing at what they did.

We know dazzler got the M-14 as a secondary with Fragger’s default weapon as his primary. Dazzler had both flash bangs and frag nades. This seemingly god-tier character was of course dis-assembled to his lower parts for the modern build.

What would have happened if he weren’t dissected? What would it be like if rather than nerfing Dazzler, SD had buffed every other merc? - Basically creating super-mercs who each specialized in their class.

Consider an engineer who had self-detonating sticky mines along with proxy’s normal mines and high speed.

Think of having a sniper class who had both the heartbeat sensor and the IR goggles.

A character for area denial with both the Molotov and the Bushwacker turret.

As a fun discussion I’d like to see what other ideas people have on non-existant mercs that would have been ridiculously overpowered in their field. The concept of EVERYONE being god-tier would be a fun game: leading to a very high skill ceiling, if not learning curve.

[spoiler] p.s. Also, phantom would still probably be comparatively useless as his cloak is now unless they gave the katana the pyro-treatment and had it near insta-kill at point-blank at the cost of his gun. [/spoiler]

[spoiler] p.p.s. For now, phantom can go sit in the corner with the dead ringer in tf2. - R.I.P. [/spoiler]

(Take a joke.)

(Captain_Forward) #2

Doublecloak for Phantom: he can use cloak while he cloaked to enter noclip mode.

(SteelMailbox) #3

A guy with m4, an LMG, nades, a grenade launcher, flashbangs and a minigun. fuck THAT.

(_Sniff_) #4

Alpha mercs were amazing. I really miss the ridiculously fast paced gameplay. Every action and inaction had a consequence.

Being able to focus solely on throwing sticky bombs to clear teams was nom nom nom nom nom. Having the 4th sticky too? Trapping was never easier.

(brennanfreak) #5

Phoenix gets assault rifles, instantly self-revives, and his healing pulse requires no charge and heals 100 health instantly.

(KattiValk) #6

Everyone gets frag grenades.

Oh and giving Rhino realistic spread and damage per shot (relative to the other guns, namely the 7.62 ones) on that minigun of his plus realistic heating rate.

(Jostabeere) #7

Point-accurate Minigun with no overheating. Nuff said.

(Drac0rion) #8

So combine abilities and turn mercs into classes like in ET?

Assault gets to choose one of the ability weapons through a loadout?
Medics got med packs and defibs.
Engineers got mines and a turret.
Fire Support has ammo packs, artillery and airstrike.
Recon got smoke and cloak.
And everyone carries nades.

ET 2.0… (I can only dream…)

(Naonna) #9

Drac’s avatar: about how visible phantom is while cloaked post-nerf.

(Potato_Ladder) #10

Concussion + molotov, activate on contact with the ground or player, armed with the current version of Remburg

(Naonna) #11

honestly, it would have been a load of fun if every player could select their own abilities and arguments - like a point-based system deciding everything from melee to primary to ability.

i.e. the revivr rifle would cost so much that you wouldn’t be allowed a primary. - would make the game broken, but everyone would be O.P. so it would be ok.

(Dieu-Sama) #12

For now, phantom can go sit in the corner with the dead ringer in tf2. - R.I.P.

Which is a good thing then, the Dead Ringnoob errr Dead Ringnoskill ERRR Dead Ringer was the dumbest, most ever broken item ever implemented in TF2, and it tooks them 6 years to properly balance it throw it in the trash bin, where it has always belonged

(TheAcidpiss) #13

[quote=“Naonna;123675”]honestly, it would have been a load of fun if every player could select their own abilities and arguments - like a point-based system deciding everything from melee to primary to ability.

i.e. the revivr rifle would cost so much that you wouldn’t be allowed a primary. - would make the game broken, but everyone would be O.P. so it would be ok.[/quote]

sparks has no primary as it is, she has two secondary’s

…

(zealousHumdinger) #14

Bad business model. The more is stacked in together, the lesser the demand. The more they are spread, the more is the flowing moolah.

(Aazhyd) #15

Phantom always cloaked. Skyhammer cooldown 5 seconds. Phoenix heal circle always on. Stoker has a flamethrower as secondary, and takes no fire damage himself. Nader martyrdom is a nuclear blast. Fletcher can repair from distance.

Etc etc.

(Dirmagnos) #16

Bushwhacker with upgradable turret, cross between TF2 and BL2. And a toolkit for secondary ability to perform those upgrades.
Nader with selection of grenades. Frags, incendiary, concussion, sticky proximity on timer, HE, stun, gas and smoke. And secondary ability to cycle thru them.

(Amerika) #17

[quote=“Sniff;123535”]Alpha mercs were amazing. I really miss the ridiculously fast paced gameplay. Every action and inaction had a consequence.

Being able to focus solely on throwing sticky bombs to clear teams was nom nom nom nom nom. Having the 4th sticky too? Trapping was never easier.[/quote]

I started playing back when the game was on the Nexon Launcher and things were very EXPLODEY back then. In fact, it was so crazy I only played the game for about 1.5 hours and didn’t plan on ever playing it again. There were explosions everywhere and the game was more about blowing people up than it was shooting.

Nader and Fletcher were the worst. Fletcher had stickies for days that were a lot more powerful in the builds I played. Nader was the worst though. She had crazy grenades that would blow up point blank (no arming distance) and do tons of damage and the explosion radius was monster. Also, an extremely valid and effective tactic back then was to rush into a spawn and use all of your grenades and then use Martyrdom to kill 1-3 more players that are nearby. The explosion radius was bigger, it was more powerful and it was instant so there was little chance of getting away if you killed a Nader at your feet. A friend of mine would get a still come out with a 3/1 KDR by suiciding over and over with Nader.

The only reason why I tried the game again was when the Steam build came out that removed all of the non-launch mercs and the game suddenly became all about shooting.

(XavienX) #18

[quote=“Incoming;123634”]Everyone gets frag grenades.

Oh and giving Rhino realistic spread and damage per shot (relative to the other guns, namely the 7.62 ones) on that minigun of his plus realistic heating rate.[/quote]

Everyone actually had frag grenades before in Alpha.

And slightly off-topic, I really wish the throwing knives merc would make a return.

(Reddeadcap) #19

[quote=“Xavien;123932”][quote=“Incoming;123634”]Everyone gets frag grenades.

Oh and giving Rhino realistic spread and damage per shot (relative to the other guns, namely the 7.62 ones) on that minigun of his plus realistic heating rate.[/quote]

Everyone actually had frag grenades before in Alpha.

And slightly off-topic, I really wish the throwing knives merc would make a return.[/quote]

Throwing knives was an Augment, the main problem was that after two knives were thrown there was an invisible reload timer similar to that of an ability with no explaination as to how long you’d have to toss another knife.

Knifes had a weird way of working as they went straight foward and maybe weren’t even a projectile or had ballistic trajectory, affected by gravity but that said they only did the damage of a Beckhill left mouse slash and couldn’t be used as a regular knife, so player’s were to sacrifice the practicality of a melee knife for a tossed one that one could use as a reverse Sparks to execute enemies at a distance or a very unrewarding amount of damage at a distance with 2 unseen charges with an unseen cooldown.

(XavienX) #20

[quote=“Redcap;123945”][quote=“Xavien;123932”][quote=“Incoming;123634”]Everyone gets frag grenades.

Oh and giving Rhino realistic spread and damage per shot (relative to the other guns, namely the 7.62 ones) on that minigun of his plus realistic heating rate.[/quote]

Everyone actually had frag grenades before in Alpha.

And slightly off-topic, I really wish the throwing knives merc would make a return.[/quote]

Throwing knives was an Augment, the main problem was that after two knives were thrown there was an invisible reload timer similar to that of an ability with no explaination as to how long you’d have to toss another knife.

Knifes had a weird way of working as they went straight foward and maybe weren’t even a projectile or had ballistic trajectory, affected by gravity but that said they only did the damage of a Beckhill left mouse slash and couldn’t be used as a regular knife, so player’s were to sacrifice the practicality of a melee knife for a tossed one that one could use as a reverse Sparks to execute enemies at a distance or a very unrewarding amount of damage at a distance with 2 unseen charges with an unseen cooldown.[/quote]

@Redcap Yea, they took place of the augment Quick Slash. Back in Alpha, there was a merc that soley depended on throwing knives.