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22144418

Metal Gladiators
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Everything posted by 22144418

  1. It will be until season 10 where we get our new batch of balance changes. As for now, I would like to highlight and explain several factors and errors that make certain things either very broken or painful to play with or against. Some of these have remained for seasons counting. 1) Barriers having issues with intangibility (not airborne or invincibility!) phases (respawn and windrider special). Having played many games against Rampage and Icebringer, I can confirm that, for whatever reason, their collision hitboxes for the barriers will affect your machine, even when your machine or that Rampage/Icebringer should not be affected by anything. When you use a Windrider special, Rampage can use his speed boost to push you away in that phase. It won't deal damage, but it will still move you around as usual, which is enough to pivot team stances entirely (bomb possesion switches to enemy). Icebringer is not as bad, where the intangibility phase does properly work, but you will find that you can collide onto him when he comes out of rebuild. On top of that, with all the barrier related bugs... there's something about the barriers that really makes the game confused. Speaking of intangibility phases, some other machines have some weird loopholes around the weapon lock. Peacemaker can use his cannon in this phase, though I've never done it myself. I've seen players do it a bunch of times, though I rarely come across Windrider and Peacemaker together (or just seeing Peacemaker at all, since this intangibility phase also includes post-rebuild). Peacemaker can definitely exploit this. 2) Artificer. I get what they tried to do by weakening Artificer and slowing down her special buildup, but it won't stop people from using her as a transporter as always. Since she is small, has gradual self repair which cancels out attrition strategies against her almost entirely, has incredibly good reversal which makes her better at dodging than black lotus, has a weapon that can finish off enemies easily due to attack range and velocity, and a special that guarantees invincibility unless if your enemy has legendary marksmanship (a 1 out of a couple hundred players chance of encountering), nothing actually changed since season 5 or 6. If you won't take damage in the first place, then it really doesn't matter what you do to the health without breaking it even further. In a team game this is worsened even further, as teams can now shove three interceptors with Artificer and call it a day. If they do two supports, there is little ability to deal with the interceptors, as they are flooded with healing and the healers themselves saturating each other with heals, making it really hard to defeat either one of them (Artificer does have a high healing output, which does not require time, as it is burst heals that she does). In casual games, people who see bots more often than not will just play her until they're bored out of their ass for the game being too easy, therefore leaving the game for its "simplicity". Even new players can use Artificer with a lower chance to fail than Black Lotus or Rampage. Since death is still the best CC, despite all the things you can do to force drops and split teams, having nigh indestructible machines is a win condition on all fronts. Let's not mention the special being used as a goal forcer, and the counters to it are rather weak at best. It makes a situation where the game sits at the very end until Artificer gets her special, which becomes the most boring and uninteresting way to win. Want to do that three times? It makes sense that they would want to make Artificer a machine that can do all the things other supports do to some extent, but it would be more tasteful to make Artificer be just Artificer, rather than a mix of them all. One thing that is made distinct throughout all of her changes: her survival and her allies' status is almost completely seperate. This is great for a new player, as they get the most deliberate form of managing their survival and protecting her allies. A first and foremost change would be to reset her driving attributes to make her worse at reversing and enlarging her to a size where it's at least not reasonable to use her as a transporter. The really high quality rotation is passable, as Artificer is a drone; it would make sense that she has perfected the stability of the hoverbike over two hundred years. Therefore, the size needs to change; with the way she is now, she doesn't even need to reverse to evade almost everything. You can increase her health a bit if you do this. One thing about Artificer is her ability to chase; due to her first weapon, she doesn't need to try getting multi hits out of it, since it's good enough to chase; it's too weak for Black Lotus to use karma on, but they can't use their karma for just 75 damage. I would propose the idea of making it do 25 more heal and damage than its current state (or increase the special weapon charge by a small amount instead) at the price of a decreased initial velocity. This way, it makes more sense to use the weapon on more machines at a time and less on a single unit, though its ability to hit multiple enemies with its long lifetime makes it viable enough to finish off enemies somewhat. The health benefit for healing others with the first weapon makes it worthwhile to risk herself to heal others in places that could be lethal for her. Aside from that, the other weapons are rather reasonable; it is more on the machine itself that is the problem. I would probably improve the second weapon, since you ultimately get caught in the crossfire for trying to make use of it, but I think the output might pay for it. Until season 10 (unless if this goes on for even longer), she'll be much better than what Black Lotus will ever be. 3) Clunker. I won't say much about him, but I do think that he's been increasingly overbearing over the times. It does make sense that they would make the dash have some impact to give him more power, and decreasing the cooldown of the hook to make it a lot less of a coinflip on whether that one shot saves the game or leads to defeat. However, I feel that he deals far too much damage for the amount of cc he can do; given that it takes a whopping 17-20 seconds to come back to the field after death, being able to make the kill as well as holding off the enemy is just too much; you're adding even more time for Clunker to remove a player from the game, since he deals enough damage to kill in a combo. It was evident enough that Clunker would be added to team games, even without any of the aforementioned changes, due to being able to guarantee goals with the special (and also causes the game to stall at the very end just to wait it out, like Artificer). Like Dirt Devil's hook, I think that the hook should deal less damage than 200. I'd say 140 is a good number. While the dash from clunker is what deals the most damage to ensure that Clunker can kill enemies, it would make Clunker incredibly painful to use all around to have to resort to weapon 1 to deal chip damage; the timing and macro is a tall order, no matter how competitively viable Clunker is. I would suggest cutting down the damage from the dash by a small amount; I believe that Clunker should barely be able to deal 500 damage in a full combo. So Clunker would deal 140 damage initially, which pulls the enemy close enough to deal 100 damage from the circle shock. Then Clunker would dash into his victim, dealing more damage and hooking the player for even longer, and then deal 100 more damage with another use of the first weapon. You can use that as reference. While one would point out the ultimate adding more damage to that, you also have to consider that he's not going to get his ultimate all the time, and Rampage and Killer J also could deal even more damage than they already do with it. 4) Wildfire and Stargazer's hitboxes for their weapons do not line up. For players with higher latency, this will really screw them over; they would have to rely on instinct instead of visual intuition to land hits. It is worse for Wildfire, as this also applies to the trail; players could take damage without any visual signs to show why. This shouldn't be that hard to fix, though I do notice that Wildfire has been the target machine for experimental tweaks to see what they can do to machines they may make in the future (referring to Wildfire being unable to use weapons when bomb gets scored like Peacemaker, Stargazer, and Vulture, while all other machines which came before can use weapons). Stargazer's is slightly better, maybe fixed, but I can still feel that near misses still happen frequently, especially for warping into ally machines. A good solution for Stargazer's entangle issue is to highlight the player that the player would entangle to from the cursor, so they can tell if their mouse is in the right location. 5) Vulture and Peacemaker are currently two of the most repulsive machines in the game; having new players gain access to them causes a lot of mishaps to their understanding of the game. For one, you would have to know a lot of things just to use peacemaker right AND have the skills to do a decent job. Considering the arcade feel of the game, Peacemaker has so much things that need to happen for a half decent player to come out where it will be unreasonable for a new player to ever get their hands on it. Due to the really bad mobility of peacemaker without any tricks, players will lose sight of the game itself to at least understand what the hell they're doing with the tank. If you've seen the lack of good macro from low elo players, having a machine that slow would make them even more useless than bots, and it is by starter's luck that they manage to do good things with Peacemaker. Vulture, being so evasive and damaging in the long run, is incredibly hard for a new player to fight against. Full Metal Judge is not nearly as bad, since he loses health and is not as nimble. If a new player encounters Vulture, the chance that they'll leave the game or have a really bad experience is higher than not; if they're too dead to do anything about vulture, then it's essentially the same as kicking players out of the game by some random sweeper. New players are very unlikely to eventually get to the thought train that they should beat the crap out of the player before they leave the game, as doing so could be recognized as bad sportsmanship. While Peacemaker can be solved by keeping him well out of the hands of the new demographic (though right now it's still pretty easy to get, due to the fame you get at the start of a season, and he's currently not so bad that he needs a balance change (debatable, as he currently could be too )), Vulture is certainly questionable for those youths. Right now he is ultimately Master Yi brought from LoL to HMM. I prefer that Vulture stays as is, but there's a sizeable chance of the need to reform(which I think causes more pain than gain. Despite how annoying he is to fight against, it wouldn't be good for him to change heavily; there are a good number of hardcore vulture players out there). 6) Lately, Photon has been exceptional. I probably shouldn't put this issue here now, since it's good for us, but she's been too easy to use. I would wager that you can definitely revert the range of Photon's Better back to what it used to be, since it's just that good (and it's very forgiving). It can't be helped, but she's arguably the easiest machine to use (most certainly the easiest supporter). One thing that I think could change, should she be found to be too good, is to lessen the maximum damage of Harder, since it's a 60-180 damage multi-hit, though the chances of her ever needing that much of a nerf is very low. However, due to the Photon + Metal Herald Combo, you may want to either decrease the firepower of Photon to make that combo less threatening when it comes to damage. or... maybe it heals for too much. After all, just one flick and your ally heals for 150+. It's strongly against the high risk high reward system that HMM runs today, so do take that into consideration. 7) The death consequence is massive. Right now, in every place, everyone strongly believes that death is the best cc, and that the ones with good ccs only really use it to do a combo kill, or ensure death. Those that can't are deemed as "unviable", and are hardly acknowledged in the competitive game. Given that there are a good number of one shots and that the power levels of machines makes the machines "volatile" in comparison to other mobas, it would be a good idea to reduce the death timer by a few seconds. This seems like a huge deal, but I think that you can cut it down with little consequence. Right now, dying in the halfway zone, just at the outskirts of damage hazards, means that the game transitions to goal defense if no one can slow them down. Sometimes you're not able to, due to the way the road is made to the goal. And I think we can all agree that being able to use other methods aside from death all roundedly makes a lot more interesting plays; icebringer is a proof of this. There's always some methods to make cc kill, should it be necessary, thanks to lava and acid. But I think that nerfing death penalties will make things a lot more fun. It also cuts down the issue where killing one by one is better than killing all in one go, as having a numerical advantage of machines throughout the entirety of the game is better than killing them all in one go. I'd like to dub this the kill cascade. Thanks to the kill cascade, aoe machines are worse than hunting machines, where they kill one by one. That's why I think that cutting a few seconds of timeout from death is a good thing. I think I've gotten most of the balance problems I see this season. Let me know what you think, and post here if you know of other pressing problems that you think seems unstable.
  2. I do think that the removal of the upgrade shop makes sense. An economy requires time to build up, but a game so fast paced has a chance of not being able to make use of it, or, worse yet, stalling the game far longer than necessary to get the good stuff. I can imagine an upgrade system where you get to upgrade one thing after each round, so you get an innate advantage over the rounds (and a difference to the rounds directly), which would make more sense, but it would be really costly for the dev team to make new machines afterwards (which is something that we're all twiddling thumbs for deep down). I do use a path indicator that is built in the settings. It's really useful. As for the pace of the game, I believe that damage flying everywhere would be a lot easier to manage if the death timeout takes less seconds off; earlier before seasons 4 or 5, death was not always the best cc, but now it is, even for icebringer. I really wish that they keep the victory sequences; it's good motivation and eye candy for new players, plus having something fun to see as you play more games.
  3. https://www.reddit.com/r/heavymetalmachines/comments/g7931t/guidewriting_questions/ I asked a few questions on reddit. I can't know everything!
  4. I've gotten about halfway for my idea... I want to hear others' thoughts about it, as the idea can pose to be rather conflicting. So I've been thinking that there's a scrap marsh at the east of Metal City, according to the lore. Considering that Cursed Necropolis is at the west, the north is really cold, and the people of the north can't handle HMM's competition well, and that the south is radioactive, their best bet would probably be to make an arena at the east, if they really wanted to. Additionally, it is said that the scrap marsh is a place for others to get their metal for their machines, so you can't just claim the land there. However, it would be really nice if you could get quick jolts of inspiration without it trickling away on the way there, where you may have lost that beautiful idea you just had. Looking at ColdHands's setting suggestions, another concept that I would find could make the game feel more like a racing game, and just feeling a bit off from the rather slow seasons, I figured that it would be nice to test the waters on how a one-way racing track would fare as a gameplay option, twisting the game's basic principles to become something that is different and the same, with various concepts on the track to add to it! The map is designed to feel like a race down the hills to the floor (or shore), where the audience and pilots witness the finish line in person together (though at vastly different angles). I also wanted to add a bit to it that would remind the people of their triumph against the wild beasts of the apocalypse, and the concept of bringing the bomb to the goal was a beautiful way to connect one and one together; the finish area is the circle at the top left corner, where whichever side that brings the bomb there takes the point home for being the team that completed the fight, while also giving the competition to be first in line. Given that there was a marsh west of the arena, I came up with the idea of a river, where the team flows with or clashes against it over certain moments of the race; I didn't want it to just go straight down, as it would feel rather unnatural. Bodies of water work like conveyor belts, but you can't use any weapons when in the water and have their weapons cancelled if they were to hit the water while charging up a weapon. There is a stream of water that not only shows its effects right from the get go, it will also guide the bomb to that whirlpool ahead; at the beginning, the bomb will fly to that swirl (it just pulls things to its center without much strength) at a speed that Black Lotus would need pixel perfection to get. I would imagine that the zeppelin that carries the bomb will drop it into a hole, where it will shot out from that tube like a cannon, and the machines fighting over each other to get it before the other. The water does not deal damage; only at the beach it will, but only of you go way too deep in there (and the waves to the shore naturally try to push you away a little. Think of it like a reverse Cursed Necropolis acid bank). The walls can seem oppressive, which is a rather difficult thing to adjust; I want people to race through this track (they're in automobiles, after all. pretty sure those round things on each and every machine isn't part of their body), but I don't want them to just skip ahead so far that they can wait for a while for the carrier to catch up and snatch it from there; that would be a really bad case of progress theft, and that wouldn't really be racing to those players at all. With the way the ultimate weapons work, jungling is just not a thing. The only case where it may be would be with the box shapes (actually just an obstacle of any particular shape (just needs to be a destroyable object) that can only be passed by jumping or by destroying them), as the allies can try to clear the way for them, if they feel obliged to; if they do jump over it, they would have to break it anyway, as the bomb would tether them in place, though it would serve as a potential means to get around the rather disadvantageous situation Dirt Devil and Little Monster would have to cope with (as they do not have the close combat tools to stand competent). The reason why there are the symbols of the sect near the little finish strips is simple: whatever team passes over it has all the droppers until the next finish line side with theirs. The Metal Sect symbol will open up, where a metal god emerges with spotlights of the team's color; there is a dropper zone nearby for one to understand how it works right away, though not entirely. At the top, I would like to add a volcano, or the lava pools it makes. Maybe even a geyser... eh, that's pushing it a little far. Either way, a volcano would definitely be there, and that's where I want things to get even more heated. I would wish to add traffic lights, but I think that's definitely best seen in the unamusement park. I think the map definitely does not favor damage machines all that much, and the volcano's definitely the best place for that... and maybe a conveyor and dropper at the end can make things more favorable for them, too. Not really sure how the spawn mechanics would work, but then my idea seems rather cramped; I think Hoplon could make it more spread out, so the camera for spawning in could get limited to a certain extent. If I missed anything, let me know; it is merely a concept, after all!
  5. Opinion on the map: The start is very interesting; I like it very much. It introduces the concept of pushing the bomb around and creates a fighting ground that is more than just space, makes the player have map awareness with traffic lights, and maintains a feel of things being closely knit together. However, it pays the price where you have to turn around by more than 90 deg. right at the start, which wouldn't feel quite right. There also comes the issue where you get a lot of stalling (as you can wait out what timing you want when you have the bomb), and getting blocked untimely can get infuriating, especially for new players. Something that you notice throughout the map is that it lacks chokepoints. All around the edge, there is no way to shortcut to them; even the temple of sacrifice gives players the chance to catch up to them. Metal God Arena has incredibly compact regions at both ends to compensate. Yes, there are droppers, but just having dropper circles at the side does not slow down anyone. The compulsory walls at the middle do not help, either. Newer players will inevitably be fated to be goalkeepers, in fear of leaving it defenseless and not being able to do a thing to stop that classy transporter. Even then, the goal is somewhat odd; machines like Peacemaker and Stargazer can easily cheese it with wall-passing skills, while other machines like Icebringer and Rampage, as the place is so awkwardly broad. broad goals are good, but not that good when there is nothing behind the finish lines. Slow machines (and peacemaker, only since the edges are wide and open) would be penalized harshly in that map, and Vulture would become even more imbalanced. I can't say that I like the map, but the concepts can definitely be inherited somewhat; I can think of a few ways to dance around the drawback myself. I'll see if I have the competence to design a map myself, where I probably can't due to sheer incompetence.
  6. A transporter, hmmm... this looks more like an interceptor in general. Would recommend looking at the 4 interceptors closely and see the rather similar features they all have.
  7. I think it would be a lot cooler if you could hold down Q to temporarily aim where the weapon would fire; it is a gunshot straight from him, after all. Looking further, maybe that aim can be his passive? It would work wonderfully with the aimed weapons. Maybe rather than probability, if he shoots down a machine twice in a very short amount of time, they'd get disrupted? I don't really see much synergy here, all things considered. The W could probably work as an ultimate, but is very similar to Clunker, so it's hard to say that I like that idea. But as an ultimate, tied with the passive, would be a nice idea. Maybe the location that he fires is based on where the mouse is? The E is a bit of an odd one. It doesn't really mesh with the other concepts... perhaps he gains horns and then charges, and then puts the horns back into the trunk? and then the damage at the sides of the car can deal damage, so he does get something out of his flank oriented build. The ult is a bit basic...hence the suggestion above. To make things a little more... idk, spicy? perhaps , as a secondary weapon, he can throw a flashing dynamite at the side of his car, which temporarily blinds the opponent for a few seconds when it hits someone (and with its own aoe)? I could see something like that.
  8. Seems quite a lot like an interceptor more than a transport imo
  9. New content? Well... I imagine that a new machine is underway; one more season, and then the whole community would surely get angsty. I'd be in for a new arena (or an improvement to the old ones, for that matter). I was thinking of a way to make the bomb-to-goal tradition feel more like racing, and I came up with this idea: for one half of the map, which is generally a line, the teams will have to get through a racing track where the place is cluttered with obstacles (scrap overflow?), land hazards (polluted water, uneven ground, muddy water...), shortcuts, and aggressors that appear over time (miniature beasts of the apocalypse?). During this area, players that die will be sent back to the beginning, but the design of the map allows players to catch up, even if they mess up near the end. When a machine makes it to the halfway mark, where the bomb is, players can now spawn as normal (to lock the area, make the spawning cage auto correct to the start, but then this area opens when the first team member makes it there). From there, that place (which harbors a shredder space, by the way) has a more treacherous road, where the bomb gravitates to the middle of the road, which is a river that brings anything it catches moving to the bomb's starting area, but to a transporter would be considered the final sprint to the finish line, where the two goals sit at opposite sides of each other at close proximity. There can be an "overtime" mechanic where the river goes upwards if things take a seemingly long time; there is much you can do with new maps, all things considered! Lorewise, it could be hosted by maximatics, and located at the east of Metal City; with an agreement with the oddly less discrete sect of metal (see season 7 and season 3), it can be managed; maximatics can be seen to be trying to go all in this time around. I'd like to see lore back into the game. preferably unlockable through the use of metal pass; it was a lot of fun doing those, and now that it's much more possible to get to level 50, would definitely like to see it. It would be great to see some daily challenges specifically for ranked mode, where it requires people to play machines a certain way or do something really well with a specific machine. There would always be one challenge available for each machine; more can be done if you have more machines. If it's a statistical value, it would be cool if there was a leaderboard to show how well other people did on that as well. There are many other things, like public custom matches that can be configured to a player's favor, fame betting in custom or metal league games, and a better tutorial module, but just these is a good way to get things rolling.
  10. So the Robot machines are FMJ, WF, and LM, while the spies are SR, CK, SG, and IB... I would imagine that with this theme, there would be a new machine next season that relates to maximatics... no, is part of it. Looking at the robots, it would make sense for them to make a machine that can disrupt enemies without getting close to them; they are dealing with machines that gain their offensive reach with their q, and require a lot of integrity to fill their ult bar... having mastered making long lasting debuffs, far reaching projectiles (especially the capacity and frequency of bullets), and the ability to pull machines with air and give a monster truck lift, while also being able to accelerate machines while still maintaining a strong grip on the ground or the power to push a heap of metal, it would all add up. So here's my concept with what Maximatics can do. Additionally, they do have a reason to get in HMM: to settle with Rampage, and to redeem themselves from the bad reputation Rampage has given them. They could do this by sharing a pilot and its machine with "humanity" to prove that their project rebirth is not in vain, and this humanity could err, showing that they are not perfect beings, like their organic origins. It would only take one successful project to do it, too. Obviously, this project would be a natural enemy to Rampage, as well as FMJ, LM and WF (since they were literally duped this season). I think that she could get along with Icebringer, Artificer and Vulture, all with their own reasons. There are many signs that point to her being made to be a tractor outside of the arena. 600 Health, Medium-Heavy Weight, Slightly enhanced acceleration when going forwards (to compensate the weight), good rotation, Medium size, weak reversal Passive: Wherever she drives, the road cracks. Behind her wake will always be a trail of rubble and distorted land that forcibly rotates machines away from the trail, unless if they use their nitro. It does not deal damage. This trail has a 1 second lifetime. She also is noticeably harder to push or pull while this is active. Q: This takes 0.75 seconds to activate. During that time, she makes a vacuum from the flanks and front, dealing no damage, but not strong enough for machines to get stuck when at top base speed. This vacuum can absorb shrapnel as well. After the warmup, she fires a 100 damage bullet that does some knockback that travels fast, but slows down over time. It ricochets off walls and machines up to 3 times, and leaves shrapnel each bounce; the shrapnel heals for 100 over 0.5 seconds, specifically for her. It lasts for up to 3 seconds. If this is in almost melee proximity to an enemy and hits, it triples the damage and heals her by 200 over 1 second. 2.25 second cooldown, 0.75 if she successfully hits an enemy at contact range. She does not charge her ultimate from grabbing shrapnel. W: She immediately disappears from view entirely. She also removes any effects currently on her. Her allies are still able to see her with only an outline of her machine. She will also turn the bomb invisible, but only if she is carrying it. Her passive is no longer active during this ability. If she takes damage, gets collision, or releases the bomb, this immediately turns off; otherwise, it lasts for 4 seconds. 15 second cooldown, immediately after using the weapon. Her ultimate weapon gain is twice as fast in this state. E: 5 second cooldown. This weapon can take up to 5 seconds to charge before being forcibly activated. She accelerates forward at a strength depending on how long it has been charged. She deals 100 damage to herself and 200 damage to the opponent (while also doing considerable knockback) and comes to a complete stop upon direct collision to an enemy if she charged up the weapon for at least 3 seconds. If she has held it for less than 3 seconds, she can still rotate. You can time this with weapon 1 to make an incredibly fast bouncing bullet. Ult: The camera stops moving and pans out by two-point-five-fold. The screen now only moves if the machine nears the edge of the screen (by about 75% from the center to the edge). This lasts for 10 seconds, unless if she dies. She can tell if a machine is within vision distance with an overhead marker from her while this is active. Her W's cooldown is halved during this time. Enemies with their ult ready is highlighted in red, and Allies whose ult is ready are highlighted blue. Ideal Use: She requires a more calculative approach, compared to other machines. Her Q takes time, and needs time to make the most out of. She could use it to heal herself, but the slow pace of it makes it only worth it if she has to sit back without any interferences. Her W lets her dodge the tricky situations where one may need to aim the hook or when she needs time to think from a harasser. Her E allows for strong burst travel, with some push power, but is designed to be reliant for ally cover up when she does it; otherwise, she is almost a sitting duck. Her R allows her to be able to be the operator of the team, but the main thing is that she can focus on making more value out of her weapons, where it would be difficult otherwise. Offensively, her weapons are made to avoid hectic combat in general and dodge one-trick ponies with ease. Due to her accelerator, she won't be able to blitz through, unlike Black Lotus or Full Metal Judge; she can't steer when it pushes her, and she gets affected by collisions and aoe so easily, despite the stealth. The damage and control pressure from her is minimal to a duo or trio, but careful precision allows her to be able to live through it. Defensively, she is a stealth hunter that can catch burst damage enemies and happy campers off guard and potentially knock an enemy into the drop zone using either the E or the passive. Even then, she can engage in a team brawl with her Q and passive, and her ultimate can help others make strategic decisions as well. Big area-of-effect machines can make her suffer, as she needs the distance to ready her weapons or engage safely. To the meta, this would easily make other players have to use the shortcuts to stop her, and (for those that use her) to pay attention to the enemies' actions. It does not harm melee, as it would be easier to use the q at congested places and is tricky to use to potentially stealth kill an enemy (as contact range usually gets her stealth deactivated). She can't chase enemies, unless if the place has enough obstacles to bounce the shots to them. She will also be a good help for those that want to do team play, though driving would be a big focus. Good track coverage hurts her, as well as chasing. The sect machines, Wildfire, Stargazer, and Killer J come to mind right away. You would have to drive very well to use her, and she is quite slow paced for a transporter. I think she can do rather well in the meta, and would be a fun eye opener for people of all skill ranges.
  11. My thanks. Feel free to point out any errors I make. It is large, after all; my eyes can only be so attentive!
  12. HMM Ch%r%cter Cobbler 750 he%lth, He%vy, L%rge P%ssive: Whenever he drives forth %t h%lf his top speed or f%ster, the ro%d gets ruptured for 3 seconds, which d%m%ges m%chines by 25 d%m%ge per second. It %lso slows down he%vy m%chines %nd c%uses sm%ll m%chines to h%ve trouble steering. This very tr%il effect c%n occur with his other we%pons. He is immune to the tr%il effect he m%kes, %s he is slowed by h%lf his top speed %nyw%y, while his top speed is double of % regul%r m%chine, m%king him the s%me speed %s %nyone else in gener%l. He does not t%ke d%m%ge from this p%ssive %bility, %nd th%t goes to %ll tr%il effects. This effect is m%de from the wheel design, completely met%llic, with lots of odd bumps on it th%t c%use the ground to cr%ck %s he drives over. We%pon 1: Fires two c%nnonb%lls %t the sides, h%ving strong knockb%ck %nd de%ling 120 d%m%ge e%ch. The c%nnonb%lls %re rolled on the ground, r%v%ging the l%nd %s it goes. 3.25 second cooldown. We%pon 2: C%n be toggled on or off %t %ny time, like FMJʼs W. Tr%nsforms the front %nd b%ck of the m%chine into % slope, where m%chines c%n p%ss over him, g%ining speed. If % m%chine uses % tr%il effect on top of him, he receives effects from it. He t%kes 50% less d%m%ge in this st%te. He will be immune to projectile d%m%ge from the front %nd b%ck. T%kes 0.75 seconds to tr%nsition through these st%tuses. The m%chine moves 60% slower in this ph%se. We%pon 3: Ch%rge method simil%r to R%mp%ge, though without the %bility to r%m enemies into w%lls or %ny recoil effects. C%n go through enemies with W %ctive. 6.25 second cooldown. If the W is not %ctive, Cobbler de%ls d%m%ge to %ny th%t gets hit by it. Ultim%te: Summons two m%chines %t the sides of the Cobbler. These summons %re immune to tr%il effects %nd fire l%rge c%nnonb%lls overhe%d, which l%nd %nd de%l 200 d%m%ge on imp%ct with high knockb%ck, %nd cr%ck the ground over % l%rge %re%. These will never st%y too f%r from the m%chine, %nd h%ve 350 he%lth; they l%st until de%th, which gives potenti%l for st%cking. C%nnot be he%led or gr%nted %rmor to. Bonus effect of ultim%te: the mini m%chines c%use the b%ckground music to ch%nge into % set of instruments pl%ying % song. The more mini m%chines st%cked, the more complete the song becomes, h%ving e%ch m%chine pl%y % cert%in instrument. The Oper%tor 700 He%lth, Little Monster sized but circul%r, Lightweight. Tr%nsporter. P%ssive: He%vily subject to t%king knockb%ck, even from %tt%cks th%t donʼt inflict it. (So things like the devilʼs hook %nd %rtificerʼs bolt would push him %round, %nd stingr%yʼs power w%ve would be the equiv%lent of % bull rush. The bomb is c%rried below the m%chine th%n behind it; so going into the go%l %t high speeds is gu%r%nteed consistent. Also, the m%chine c%nt even touch the bomb; will just go through it. The m%chine is h%rder to push off the bound%ries, however. The m%chineʼs rounded structure m%kes him immune to forced spinning %nd %fter d%m%ge effects. We%pon 1: Throws out % cylindric%l bouncer in front of the m%chine. This speci%l bouncer either reflects projectiles off of it, or even m%chines (includes %llies, but only enemies t%ke 100 d%m%ge for bouncing off of it. Its lifesp%n is for 2 seconds. 4 second cooldown. We%pon 2: Fires %n %rtillery c%nnon overhe%d th%t de%ls 140 d%m%ge over % circul%r %re% %t the crossh%irʼs direction. Any tr%il effects %re removed in this %re%. 7 second cooldown. We%pon 3: D%sh. If they m%ke cont%ct with %n enemy or get pushed %w%y by % knockb%ck we%pon, they become invincible for 1 second, bounce off from it, %nd de%l 100 d%m%ge to % m%chine if they collided into it. Ultim%te: Activ%tes bouncers %t its sides for 10 seconds. During this ph%se, the m%chine c%nnot p%ss through the bound%ries, but will bounce off from it %nd enemy m%chines or knockb%ck %ffecting projectiles th%t hits it by % lot. C%nnot t%ke d%m%ge, %side from sm%ll openings between the bouncers (itʼs % circul%r sh%pe %round the m%chine, but segmented into 4 p%rts; there is % sm%ll opening between them) or shield ignor%nt %tt%cks. Any m%chines hit t%ke 75 d%m%ge, but donʼt get knocked %w%y. Sh%dow 525 He%lth, Lightweight. Sm%ll Size. Interceptor. P%ssive: Invisible unless %t ne%r melee r%nge to %ny enemy. Visibility %re%s %re shown with circles %round enemy m%chines. Combo: After using % we%pon, the pl%yer c%n choose to strike %g%in with %nother we%pon, h%ving gre%ter effect, the gre%ter the combo, %t the price of the cooldown of the we%pon st%cking. The combo effect we%rs off if they either miss 2 times in % row or donʼt continue the combo. When the combo is %ctive, the m%chine t%kes 20% less d%m%ge. We%pon 1: De%l 100 d%m%ge in front of you. Combo (del%y of 0.4 seconds of e%ch %tt%ck): +15 d%m%ge e%ch consecutive hit, %nd slight knockb%ck. Cooldown: +0.6 seconds for e%ch swing of the combo. We%pon 2: Uppercuts the enemy in front of them, de%ling 70 d%m%ge while %lso stopping their movement for 0.6 seconds, %nd %lso j%mming their we%pon 2. Combo: If used %fter %n uppercut or %fter we%pon 1, de%ls 200 d%m%ge inste%d with % 0.5 second del%y before the %tt%ck, %nd knocks them b%ck. +1.75 second cooldown for e%ch swing during the combo. We%pon 3: D%sh forw%rd by % lot, length % little bit more th%n the di%meter of the close comb%t r%nge of the m%chine (where the m%chine is visible). De%ls 50 d%m%ge for gr%zing enemies or 140 d%m%ge for directly m%king front%l cont%ct to %n enemy, %nd incre%ses or j%ms their We%pon 3 for 1.25 seconds. 9 second cooldown. Loses %ny %cceler%tion %fter the d%sh, in pen%nce for the long dist%nce. Does not go through w%lls; just stops the m%chine %t where it hits the w%ll. Combo: If the m%chine h%s swung %t le%st two times, %nd if the combo h%s not been broken yet, this drops the bomb inste%d when it hits %n enemy; the m%chine is teleported to the opposite direction of the m%chineʼs movement (not the opposite side of the m%chine), %nd f%ces to the m%chine to %tt%ck it some more. If the m%chine kills %n enemy, the cooldown is reduced to 0, but if they dont use it %g%in, the cooldown ch%nges to 6 seconds. Ultim%te: (This ultim%te ch%rges for 50 seconds; de%ling d%m%ge does not %dd up to the ch%rge.) For 5 seconds, the m%chine %ccumul%tes energy from the %mount of times you hit %n enemy. The pl%yer then h%s 5 seconds to %ctiv%te the %bility %g%in to throw % single hit projectile th%t de%ls 100 times the %mount of combos th%t the pilot m%n%ged to hit in the prior 5 seconds
  13. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1387107044 We've got a Steam Guide for HMM! It may not be fully complete (as of this post), but feedback can help contribute to this guide's further development.
  14. She needs a good team. Trust me, you will not stand a chance being a lone ranger. The weapons are not subject to obstacles blocking its path. This means that taking cover is basically worthless, and dodging very tedious, which puts machines like Black Lotus and Full Metal Judge in a crisis when against her. Stargazer is a weak machine, and relies on allied individuals to enhance her survival. Machines that specialize on taking out individuals are the best at this, so Stingray is her bane. Rampage can be an option, but the teleportation of hers and Rampage's slow recovery proves it to be ineffective. going against her with big machines gives her a huge hitbox to leech healing and entangling points off of them. smaller machines have it rough as well, given that her arsenal is perfect for taking the easy pickings. This leaves middle class machines. The best follow with Stingray and Wildfire, as their extreme payload (they are ultimately damage king and queen respectively) can resolve her when she can't warp yet, or that it follows her (wildfire's passive), forbidding quick recovery. Evidence has shown that you cannot warp away when affected by the magnet, and we all know that clunker's magnet will take away anything that it holds. Dirt Devil Killer J and Windrider are all dodgeable from the warp and the fact that the car is small. Artificer and Photon does not have a strong enough damage arsenal to deal with her quickly enough. Meanwhile, Metal Herald is probably the most effectve, given that he can deal 200 damage every 3.5 seconds or so, good at tearing apart any machine, even the toughest of them all. TL;DR the best choices against Stargazer are Stingray, Wildfire (this one may be a bit of a mix), Clunker and Metal Herald. Rampage and Killer J are too slow, Windrider and Dirt Devil have easy-to-dodge attacks, the rest have too little health or are too big, which makes them Ultimate fodder. I think that she may receive a nerf in the future, but we have yet to see two teams that can verse each other while knowing their friends and machines like the back of their hand. She's not exactly significant herself, because it's the allies that make her so strong. She is the true embodiment of a support character, and is definitely worthy of requiring 10000 fame to get. We've been having a lot of "absolute single role" characters lately... I wonder what the 16th machine could be...
  15. 100 Health, 450 Armor, Heavy, Medium Size, Slightly lesser mobility.Passive: Creates a Barrier of 300 Health around the machine that allies can pass through, but walls off enemies and their projectiles. (Nonagon shape that’s slightly shorter ranged than the thunder dome, making it still possible to go around them even when directly in the middle of the path, each edge having its own 300 Health.) Recovers health at 60 per second. Enemy Trail effects do mot affect the walls, but stop regeneration.The bomb can go through these walls, if they are encircling the enemy. Destroyed walls are reactivated by weapon 2. If the machine dies, any remaining walls stay put until destroyed. Can be healed or armor buffed by each segment affected by such weapons. Walls rotate 60° per second.Weapon 1: Charged weapon: Sacrifice X% of armor for X% the weapon is charged up, to fire a boulder of pure sect energy that deals damage equal to the armor expended. High range, ricochets off walls and machines if it hits any, at the price of dealing half the damage to the next hit victim. Can ricochet 3 times. 4.5 second cooldown. Low velocity weapon, slight knockback. Gives 50 armor to the machine for each enemy hit.Weapon 2: Sacrifices 125 health to restore all walls by the health sacrificed. They can die from this move. This also revives fallen walls, though at the expense of 25 more health each. 1 second cooldown.Weapon 3: the front two or 3 walls of the machine implode, dealing 75 damage to nearby enemies and the machine itself, which helps them boost forward. Any enemies they collide with take 100 damage and are pushed forward with the machine, even if they outweigh them, as they gain 200 armor for hitting an enemy (does not multiply for multiple enemies). 6 second cooldown. The opening has the machine itself covering it, as the barrier tries to follow with the machine.Ultimate: Relocates their entire barrier around the cursor (the radius of the barrier increases as well), including damaged parts and destroyed holes. Deals 100 damage to those that stood at where the barrier rises (and gets pushed inside). Any enemies inside the barrier are ultimately stuck inside, until they can break free. The obstacles last for up to 30 seconds. There is up to 2 seconds where the machine has no cover whatsoever, relocating and reviving their barrier.Ideal Use: This machine excels at self defense. While being able to wall of enemies, they can also keep them at bay with their q and e, which helps in confined spaces. His Ultimate can completely shut down the support of enemy to enemy, and block the way of the bomb carrier.Weaknesses: They need Metal Herald. Their Q demands for armor, and also the health sacrifices in all of their basic arsenal. One can easily go completely broke with his abilities, dying way too much. If they’re open, one could get inside, and can attack them directly, where they cant counterattack them well, if at all. Weapons that can hit multiple targets are very dangerous to them, as they could ignore the frontier almost entirely, rendering them close to death constantly. Lore: None yet; my brain hurts trying to make this... so yeah, your call. I was thinking of something tied to the sect, of an orthodox worker that got summoned to HMM by them. Something between a mix of a sect promotion and punishment.
  16. 500 health, Medium (dimensions from side: 8:6 (no unit of measurement used here)), Heavy (paint is heavy), Great mobility. Interceptor, 3750 Fame. DIY looking machine; house rock. Passive: If an enemy entity is “fully” colored, it changes sides and becomes friendly. A fully painted machine must be painted at the front and back (front covers map ui and far distances from the machine, back covers other utility ui like the weapon gauge of a machine; fully colored changes the side of machine, and ui is revealed; paint effects lasts for 4 seconds (resets timer if effect is reset or augmented). Side hits cause both front and back effects to occur, though the ui is still partially visible); other items, like the droppers Q: Fires a barrage of high velocity paintballs, dealing up to 100 damage per second for 1 second for up to 12 meters (using icebringer as reference (estimate: 8 meters)). 2.5 second cooldown. Paints enemy entities by half. W: Sprays a whole bucket of paint in front of the machine, fully painting a machine directly in front of it or painting a machine by half from a distance, while also painting droppers that get caught in its area (machines can block out paint from painting droppers). 60° aoe or sole contact on enemy, 10 second cooldown. E: Rolls heated, corrosive paint with a paint roller in front of the machine while dashing, dealing 35 damage per second on contact while slowing machines that touch it by 20% until they activate autoheal. Distance and cooldown is same as Photon’s E. Does not paint enemies directly, paints droppers and nullifies any trail effects it makes contact of. Ultimate: Fires a huge paint cannonball that takes 2 seconds to fall down and explode, fully painting anything in a massive radius. For 4 seconds, the terrain affected is covered in sticky paint, so all enemy machines that make contact of the area are slowed by 90% until the terrain reverts to normal. Deals 300 damage if too close from area of impact (includes user) (or 100 if enemy is not directly under area of impact). Skin Progression: default: just a hue of blue, ^1: add shades of blue, ^2: add tints of blue, ^3: add mixtures of other colors (blue violet, turquoise). Certain color arrangements on other alterations of skins (blue skies, deep sea, j m w turner, etc.) (enemy uses red orange yellow) Lore: once there was this weird guy that believes in the old ways of art. Used to be a grafitti artist and carpenter of wooden objects (it’s bamboo, but no one really cares) with a metallic touch (because no one would care otherwise) until discovering (in the wastelands) several beautiful artworks preserved in a sturdy sapphire box (transparent like glass). Along the way back, he was wandering through a large building with several floors, and saw (at the top floor) an old man that was brutally shot to death (thanks fmj), but beside him was a painting that captured his eyes like nothing before (starry night). Beside these paintings lie a paper, which was the will of the man. On the paper wrote: “...Our blue planet is blue no more......Art and beauty an empty shell of what it was.....bring back our wonderful world.” He forgot the rest of it, which is a given, for why would one ever remember somethig so stupid anyway? He threw it away, of course. Later, photon came about, bringing the light to the arena. He just couldn’t help but follow in secret, like any fan, he’d say. He obviously cant get inside her base; all that was there was a panel in black with a yellow light at the edge. So he looked around, and found a primitive chip lying next to a lot of weird stuff next to it; he doesn’t fully remember everything, anyway. He doesn’t remember why he picked it up, but his best guess was that it looked familiar, which it did, since it matched with a piece of working junk from the clunker brothers that functioned like a really bad computer. He bought the computer because what he saw from it shocked him to the core. It matched with the vision of the will (he remembers it subconsciously) too perfectly, and went against the sect far too much. So he looked for how to start it. First was paint. He had so much paint from sprays that it wasn’t a problem; in a way, he made the idea himself. Then there was the issue with how to execute it... he made tools. But eventually, he realized that no one would even think of taking their time on their first sip of drinks, so he decided to go over the top. That’s how this machine was made; a wooden, excessively laminated machine with some of the oddest meshes of scrap from the Clunker brothers, and there it was. All around the city, beautiful graffiti of the old world had been leaked everywhere... in a single night. Images of a world of light to several suspicious dots and lines with odd lyrics at the middle of the conglomerate of oddities were scattered everywhere. The sect were thrown off by the irreversible controversy, and eventually found him and attacked immediately, only to find nothing. They received a note that reads: outwit me in the art of sight and hearing, and i will cast my life to the arena; otherwise, i demand you to bring back the earth long forgotten. He expected defeat, and it came to him quite effortlessly. And so he locked his soul to the arena. One would call this a bad move, but with what he did, he could still share his artwork in the arena; it was his weapon and machine, and there was nothing to be done against it. One day, he swore to create the masterpiece that would shape the way they think, to paint the lost glory, and the beauty of the primitive past. Ah... i went overkill. Eh, haha! I’ll just share it; it’d be waste to remove it all...
  17. 750 health, Large, Heavy, Sluggish. Large machine with a drill in front; pilot sees with x ray vision, removing need of a cockpit on the outside. Drill is adjusted to be able to rotate, allowing it to dig at certain angles for different situations. At the back of the machine is a vault of compressed minerals, which is the storage for his w and ult (visually changes according to ult levels). This vault can construct a wall or a clone of itself in a very rts-like style (zero k, sup com, planetary annihilation, etc) Passive: Wherever his weapons may strike leaves the area of impact into rubble; light machines are slowed and less controllable on this ground, while heavier machines are less affected by this, where the heaviest machines are fully immune to this. This machine is also immune to this effect by default. Q: Spins the drill, dealing 250 dps for 1.25 seconds. The drill can deflect projectiles that hit it. Deals double damage to armor. 3.5 second cooldown. Snares any heavy machine that gets caught at the tip (cant move or turn). The drill is angled to dig up some of the ground as well, activating the passive, though this stops upon ensnaring an enemy. Charges up ult by 2.1666...7% W: using half of the stored ult, create a wall behind the machine with health based on material used (max 2000 health, min 86). If over 950 health, becomes unmovable, 700 health as heavy as icebringer, 500 health average weight, 350 or less becomes ultralight. Movability based on max health only, i.e. if 1000 health wall reduced below 950 health, still unmovable. Cooldown of 3.5 seconds. Uses armor health instead of regular health because armor health depletes, cannot restore armor loss, can be jumped over unless wall is over 1200 health (if less can be jumped over). Makes passive effect if destroyed by an attack of more than 150 damage. Takes 1 second to be put into effect. E: Dig underground (keeps bomb with machine) (increased speed as much as windrider’s) (passes through walls if not holding the bomb) (Cant stop moving underground and cant reverse underground). Charges up vault by 12.5% in 2 seconds. Double Activation (or after 2 seconds): Emerge from the ground, dealing 50 damage on impact and also sends those machines flying, and may take 100 more damage upon hitting a wall/object/machine, 150 damage if the machine is lighter than the object that it hit. 7 second cooldown. Ultimate: Charge based on capacity of mineral vault. Cannot use weapons while this is in effect (cooldowns still take place). For 5 seconds, at half the movement speed, this machine constructs a weaker clone of itself (ai controlled (without the sudden turns), cannot respawn if killed) of only 80% of the strength of the original (movement speed, damage, size, weapon durations, wall health (max and min), ult accumulation amount) with one of 2 random ults: transfer all ult material to the owner (remaining ult stays with clone) or use all ult material to give 1000 armor to an ally. Lore: miner of metal. Since metal is absolutely overused in metal city, they ran out of metal to mine in a very short time. While they look for places to mine, their only option so far is to get metal to sell from other places aside from mining (metal is so goddamn profitable that there’s just no way they can stop; it’s literally all they have in life), so they takes all the metal they can get from other people; their machine scraps the metal out of machines so well that the tournament is beyond just profit. It’s only inevitable, being a robot with an installed adaptive miner mindset of a greater civilization lost from the beasts. They got admitted in with the power of the sect, though it shows that they’re being used as a toy instead of a partner. When they live up to the joys of the audience, they feel all sorts of things by looking at so many people, such as loneliness, remorse, and other discomforting feelings that they cannot understand. They fight in the hopes of recreating these feelings and finding out why they have them, and thinking what to do about them, though the sect is currently trying to make moves on stopping them. Do they know more about the things that he never asked, the things that he never knew?
  18. Heavy Support Hovercraft, does not need to turn to change direction. Will always keep moving; Gas and reverse keys are used for something different. Same movement speed in comparison to any machine. All effects have a 0.75 second delay before activating, to simulate clouds from high above. 750 health. Passive: Creates rain or snow at mouse location if you are holding the forward/backward button; if not holding either button, create mist. Rain causes the ground to be slippery and deals 5 dps that ignores armor for 5 seconds if a player is caught in the rain (not the ground) for more than 5 seconds, snow slows down area, mist helps charge of ultimate while blocking vision for whatever’s inside it. Not player specific; debuffs/buffs can affect allies/enemies, and even itself. Detailed desc of passive: size of effect = dirt devil’s w (x1.5 if mist is activated), follows mouse at 120mph (fastest person is 24mph, machines move 2.5 times faster at top base speed (60mph)(excludes nitro)), rain floor is like grab bomb status but machines move a little faster, snow slows by 40%, mist increases charge by 30%, snow slows machines and projectiles by 25% (instant touch or physical contact weapons do not apply). Cannot change storm type diuring the time a weapon is being used. Q: Intensify: Rain deals 40 dps that ignores armor, snow slows by double, mist covers details of map, weapons, and player ui. Overheat weapon, max 4 second use before 8 second cool down for overusing weapon. W: Conduction: Creates a thunderstorm inside the clouds, which deals 80 damage immediately and jams their Q for 5 seconds if raining, 120 damage (+30 damage that ignores armor if they have armor) in snow, mist increases movement speed of machines and decreases cooldowns of weapons by 50% inside of it for 2.5 seconds for 1.25 seconds while also damaging the machine by 50dps. 9 second cooldown. E: Blessing from Above: Heal 140 per second in rain, armor buff 280 per second in snow, or decrease damage afflicted and taken by 35% in mist and speeds up autoheal cooldown by 75% for 2 seconds. Cooldown of 5.5 seconds. R: Disaster: For 4 seconds, rain causes an acid whirlpool that deals 80 damage per second, Snow makes a hailstorm that deals 135 damage per second that freezes enemies for the amount of time they got caught in the hailstorm, mist whites out screen and jams their w and e for 3 seconds (prolonged if they are still in the mist) (if they do use their w/e the cooldown is doubled and they take 100 damage). Storm moves slightly slower by 25% during use. Whirlpool is designed to be able to catch and trap anyone while moving around (unless if they nitro out)(stronger pull than dirt devil’s ultimate). Lore: Hates the sect and patrons (sect required daily donations, and they really liked saving their water storage for their Cloud Satellite, patrons have taxes on water), enemy to dirt devil and icebringer because of stealing water, ally to lotus stingray and photon, likes wildfire for evaporating water (their collection method steals water vapor, though they also tries to acquire water in other scandalous ways), artificer hates them for ruining a lot of compatible areas for civilization. Known well for driving out the beasts of the apocalypse with infamous artillery tactics. Generally negative public opinion, but a great drinking partner (cant use alcohol for machine). Wishes for the days when the skies were clear so their satellite can save people instead of harming them. Blackmailed the recruiters to get in the arena, mainly to make use of their machine, but also to demand for the skies to be purified, which goes against the wills of the sect.
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