I was developing a new class for my game, a class which I named Sentinel as a placeholder name, it’s main characteristic is that it can temporary deactivate a enemy’s ability
it only have melee range to combat its extremely useful characteristics, but i noticed a “element of surprise” ability would be good to make it have a fun gameplay
best ability I thought so far was it be able to be “carried” by allies, which would allow it to easily enter enemy territory while deactivating the ability and protecting their ally when being attacked
but they would be almost entirely invisible when carried, so i thought, it’s a movement shooter, people wouldn’t have time to check if a enemy have a sentinel with them or not, so this can be annoying for some enemies, as they would be caught by surprise and have half their abilities crippled for some time
how can I make sentinel fun? should I keep it like that and maybe do some changes, or discard this ability?
1 Like
What I understand in summary is:
- Sentinel class that can disable abilities
- Sentinel can be carried by allies and becomes invisible when carried
Well I don’t know much about your game so I can’t give a definite answer on how this will play out.
But I think this is a bad idea. Having the ability to disable other abilities is definitely interesting, I don’t know how it’ll affect the balance of the game.
But being able to carry the Sentinel I disagree with because it negates the Sentinel’s weaknesses and buffs the carrying player. Since the Sentinel can be carried by another player, who I assume will have a gun based on the info you provided, the Sentinel doesn’t have to worry about being outranged due to its melee range. The player carrying the Sentinel doesn’t have to worry about close quarters combat because they have the Sentinel that can just be dropped off and give them a 2v1 advantage, in addition to the Sentinel’s ability to completely change the balance of the fight.
What does the enemy team get to counter this tactic? What does the team using this tactic sacrifice?
Personally I think you should make the Sentinel a defensive class. Something like if the Sentinel doesn’t move for some time then they become invisible, but still visible if one pays attention. And the Sentinel just sits at important points and waits for the enemy team to approach them, then ambushing the enemy. This allows the Sentinel to be played independently (you don’t need an ally to carry you everywhere to be useful) and allows the other team to counteract the Sentinel (throw a grenade in the room, add in a class or tool that detects Sentinels, shoot into the room hoping you hit something).
that make sense, thanks for the feedback!
but just some more info, my game is a class based mobility shooter, kinda like titanfall 2 X team fortress 2
and Im thinking in making the sentinel show a small particle near to the carrying player torso or head
also the carry will be a ability of sentinel, which means it have a cooldown and possibly a max duration before he gets forcefully kicked out
also the sentinel is meant to be a mix between an attacker and a support
ok, i came up with these changes
1- sentinels get heavily stunned if their carrier get killed while they’re being carried
2- the carrier received a black trail if a sentinel is with it, the more dense it is the more sentinels are with them
3- sentinels cannot jump in or out instantly, it would have a wind-up time