I should state first that this is not well thought through and would require a reasonably large degree of reprogramming on uberent's part not to mention a lot of balancing tests. When any character gets juiced they do one of a very few things - attack turrets, pros or the moneyball. Having all characters do the same thing doesn't seem in keeping with the game's emphasis on varied characters. I thought about the following: Juice to each character type means something different. For example, and these are off the top of my head: Tanks are a tough pro - so a juiced tank has a lot of health, but juice does not increase damage dealt or speed. assassin's are stealthy - so perhaps a juiced assassin remains visible even while attacking, but her health and damage dealt are as normal. gunners have the highest attack power - so juice increases that power, but not health or speed. I won't go on. I am certain people will have many ideas for what the juice could do. Importantly juice doesn't have to last for the same time duration for each character - to aid in balancing the ability it give in each case, it doesn't have to raise one stat only and of those stats that it does improve the increase doesn't have to be extreme. The mentioned character specific ideas above are only light suggestions to characterise this idea as a whole, any seriously considered ideas would require considerable play testing. Fundamentally changing the affects of juice in this way would eliminate an imbalance I see in the game, which is that it is more economic to spend money on offensive things - e.g. juice, annihilator than defensive, e.g. turret. More importantly it would introduce an interesting additional layer of complexity to game play. - Bez
There may be some differences, however I would argue that they are less pronounced than you make out. Having juice affect your character for longer durations, but offer less benefit per unit time would allow for the opposition the chance to to counter, providing they play correctly. I suppose my point is twofold: that the game would be more fun if juice benefits were less intense and that their is significant room for more variations and therefore tactics in the character play style.
why give tanks more health when they have the highest in the game. your version of juice should increase the lowest stat per class not their highest, same goes for the gunner your assassin scenario would basically mean juice does nothing for them. they are already visible while attacking and not increasing their health or damage would just make them glowing targets
That clears things up a bit, but a lot of the fun of MNC IMO is fighting off those juiced pros. There isn't much in this game more awsome then crowd controlling a juiced pro so it all gets wasted. Also, hitting juice at the right time has huge benefits. Unless I'm getting my *** handed to me, I never juice as soon as I get it. This game just wouldn't have it's "OH ****!" moments if juice wasn't involved or was nerfed too much.
Regarding the specific character suggestions I mentioned, I stated initially that they were ideas from the top of my head, I'm sure there are many possible ideas. For the tank I imagined juice lasting a minute or so, his extra health therefore allowing him to continually get stuck in for a long time and opponents having to ring him out or run. But it was just a quick suggestion. I imagined the assassin might be permanetly cloaked for a period, regardless of skill. I failed to explain that part. None the less I don't want to back too strongly any one of the specific suggestions here, just the idea. You (Billy) may save your juice for emergencies, however many people use it simply to damage the money ball, which presently all classes are very effective at. I suppose I was suggesting that some classes are good at other things, such as destroying bots, killing pros or reinforcing your own base. I see that my original suggestions were inadequate for that purpose.
Personally, I *LOVE* the idea of juice effecting every class in wildly different ways. I've thought the same thing would be pretty awesome to do with TF2's ubercharge But I'm not sure. As it stands, juice serves multiple purposes for all classes simultaneously and even though their weapons force differing behaviors on them juice effects all the classes in very similar ways. Think about it. Right now, juice in MNC is... -super mode -desperation attack -finishing move -the GTFO Express(be it for the user or target:except in the cases there's a huge skill gap) -health recovery -extra armor So what if we took most of those aspects away and gave each class wildly unique effects for juicing? How I could envision it... Assault: No consumption of the gauges for the flight and charge abilities, the charge lasts as long as the Assault holds the button down and flying charges do regular damage. Basically even more of a ring out machine with added resistance to his own strength(juice and only the damage from Ejectors will be a worry!). Tank: Move even slower, ignores speed endorsements(even bacon) but health recovery reaches "platinum" level and he has 600 HP(passive upgrades lose function during juice). That's triple the default Tank HP with no armor endorsement. Health upon juice wearing off is default health with current endorsement/upgrade, unless the Tank's health drops below that amount without healing during the juice. Support: Rate of fire on the Heal/Hurt Gun skyrockets, hacking and (un-)deploying a firebase occur instantly. Assassin: Causes the Assassin to be both cloaked and sprinting throughout the duration of the juice without affecting the gauges and without the cloak canceling, an assassination from behind instantly depletes the juice gauge but does increased damage depending on how much is left: up to a scripted insta-kill if 80% or more juice remains. Gunner: Massive, massive magazines(think like the Support getting an Ammo Mule magazine in one of the official MNC videos) that obscure the player's view a little bit and force deploying(sans headshot immunity), but make reloading both unnecessary and impossible while juiced. Sniper: Gives both of his weapons perfect accuracy without scoping in, using the scope grants the sniper X-ray vision to see through walls allows him to steer a single bullet in slow motion(at least for the bullet: everything else would move at normal speed) to hit as many targets as he can before running out of juice or the bullet hits a bulletproof surface. Any headshots made while scoped in the juice mode would slightly restore the juice meter, but upon hitting an impassable surface the bullet stops and the sniper's juice is depleted. Heheh, of course these aren't too feasible because they'd require massive reprogramming. Here's why I think each of these would've been fun if we'd had them instead of regular juice all along. Assault: All he gains is related to ring outs and movement-related. He's not more difficult to kill(for the most part) and will be fairly predictable, but an endlessly-flying mofo that is still a threat and could potentially ring out an entire team in some situations. Did I mention he's just as easy to kill as before? Tank: He's a human obstacle. His firepower is unaffected and he's slower, so...Makes the Ring Out Machine(Assault) more useful. Support: Healing/hacking machine. Briefly. Assassin: Let her live up to the name a little bit better. She's still screwed if someone with above-default look sensitivity and decent aim spots her or if it's a rare team that actually uses shaveice turrents, but hey: she can finally assassinate Tanks that load up on health! Oh, and the ability to attack bots without being attacked...That doesn't hurt. Her, at least :twisted: Gunner: More dakka! And that's it. Catch the juiced Gunner off-guard would be just as effective as normal, but everything in front of him? Buh-bye! It'd also make Assaults and Assassins more viable. Sniper: Greater emphasis of skill rather than spamming. If the rifle and uzi did the same damage as usual but were simply more accurate(plus that bullet curving idea I totally stole from Wanted and Jericho) spamming snipers would no longer be rewarded nearly as much as they are and the Sniper using his greatest power would leave him pretty much defenseless(more so than merely scoping since in actively changing a bullet's direction he'd be paralyzed and defenseless).
