New Red Modes

[Sarah Palin]

Proposal

Currently some Red Modes are played very little, if at all. Dogfighter is the most prominent example while Dumb Bombs, Director and Tracker are also little-played by experienced pilots.

These could be rebalanced. OR, they could be entirely replaced by fun new red modes. This would add more variety to the game without needing quite as much programming work as introducing a sixth plane.

These are seeds for ideas: of course an idea would be implemented in different ways if it's made as a new red mode for Bomber, or for Biplane.

Idea List


Aileron Roll.
Secondary weapon = aileron roll maneuver:



For 1 second the plane spins very quickly on its axis. During this time, it is unhittable but cannot turn left or right. Takes little energy but has long cooldown. Unhittable means any weapon that needs to collide to do damage (loopy missile) will pass it harmlessly, while AOE damage (loopy acid) will still take effect. Might make the Bomber a more interesting bombrunner plane.

Stealth cloak.
Secondary weapon replaced by stealth mode. Takes a second to powerup (plane glows), then the plane becomes invisible until D is pressed again or it runs out of energy. Plane cannot fire. Plane still takes normal damage and tracking weapons still track it.

Grapple Maneuvering.
D shoots out a short-range grapple cannon which sticks to the first collidable object it hits (environment, walls, base, turrets). This causes the plane to swing in a tight circular arc until D is pressed again and the grapple is released. In the right hands, grappling can make the plane incredibly maneuverable. In the wrong hands, say hello to a face-first collision with the wall...

Chaff.
Secondary weapon replaced by chaff. A cloud of chaff shoots out the back of the plane and hangs in the air for about a second before dissipating. Chaff is team-neutral and autodetonates any weapon that passes through it with the exception of bullets and lasers. Fun addition to most planes, might be a little too good with Biplane.

Self-Destructor.
D causes the plane to self-destruct (after a few seconds of glowy powerup to warn planes), damaging any nearby planes (friends AND foes) with shrapnel. Self-destruct cannot be activated if the plane has at least 1/2 health. Thus sometimes you will activate self-destruct and be killed before your plane can explode (in fact the enemy SHOULD be trying to kill you fast).

Farsight Radar.
Pressing D creates, for 1 second, indicators on the map edges (like bomb/ball indicator) showing the locations of each enemy plane. Ten second cooldown. Useful for bomb escorts.

[Tank]

AWSOME. good ideas. i've seen a lot of them already mentioned in other posts, but there are some great ones that i've never seen. they are all great, and i would love to see some (or all) added to the game.

[spc]

i love the idea for the aileron roll. there should be more perks for defense techniques like this one. A while ago i posted a thread for the chaff but i was ignored :/ but i still believe its an awesome idea . also, the self-destructor would be hilarious to use in game. hopefully at least one of these ideas is implemeted in the game.

[Haxz]

Agreed.Isnt the roll thingie in wingnuts?It might be copyright...However all of these ideas are great.Hope they come in a update!

[Ajuk999]

Awesome. I like it, there is something similar on wingnuts though, might wanna check it out before we make this real.

Maybe add something to the move.

[evilarsenal]

doubt a new plane will be entered in the game...ever

[Tank]

Originally Posted by evilarsenal

doubt a new plane will be entered in the game...ever

It doest have to be a new plane, just a new perk for an existing plane

[nesnl]

All these perks, while the sound interesting, would replace a weapon, which in my opinion would make them kinda useless. Why would I want to have something that was on cooldown when I could just fire a weapon?

[Jayfourke]

All (self-desruct excepted) these perks seem defensive, so how about making a new colour of perk purely for defense?

[Flyngbanana]

I do think the original loopy tracker missile is a bit useless now that no demos are playing..

Would the aileron roll be stopped by mines?

[Jayfourke]

I have original loopy tracker set as my #6 setup, the tracker range is excellent for streaming rockets on open levels such as hills.

[Wintegral]

Farsight radar might actually be a good addition to tracker, but as a standalone it's still awesome.
Stealth is good.
Grapple is really interesting.
Chaff sounds a bit off. Laser 'randa and Bip would be totally unaffected by it while a flak tailgun bomber or loopies would be hit pretty badly. The effect should be a bit more consistant across planes.
Aileron roll sounds good and will be visually interesting.
Self-destructor seems a bit hard to balance to be useful but not overpowerd but it'd be worth the try.

[Sarah Palin]

doubt a new plane will be entered in the game...ever

There's no need for new planes. One of these ideas could be slotted in to replace a red perk that very few play, such as Dogfighter.

Originally Posted by Jayfourke

All (self-desruct excepted) these perks seem defensive, so how about making a new colour of perk purely for defense?

I like this idea too - a fourth red perk to each plane? This would replace the secondary weapon with some defensive maneuver. Chaff, aileron, stealth, farsight, and one more.

Aileron and Farsight would be pretty useful in TBD games, while I can see Stealth having some neat applications in Ball.