Time Anchor

[nesnl]

So I have been messing around with Time Anchor and trying to get a feel for its strengths and weaknesses. I think that fundamentally it's alright as a perk for Miranda but I think that there needs to be some changes in the way it functions in order to make it more viable.

First, I think you should change it so that the "anchor line" is always the same length. Instead of adjusting based on a certain time in the past it should just be a certain amount of pixels long. I find that there are too many times when you are traveling slowly that the anchor line is like 0.5 inches long and it makes it completely worthless. It's hard in game to always be gauging your speed in order to get the anchor in a spot that you want it.

Second, when you use the ability it should restore the speed that you had. As it is right now you go back to where you were but as far as I can tell you retain the speed that you had before you warped. This works in two ways, you are either traveling downhill in which you continually keep gaining more and more speed, or you are traveling up hill in which you keep losing speed and your anchor line gets shorter and shorter.

If you combine these together it will make this ability feel more manageable. You will know the exact distance you will travel backwards and you know what speed you are going to have when you get there.

[protest boy]

Originally Posted by nesnl

First, I think you should change it so that the "anchor line" is always the same length.

That would make the ability much more powerful. Not saying it's a bad idea, but it might be too powerful.

Second, when you use the ability it should restore the speed that you had. As it is right now you go back to where you were but as far as I can tell you retain the speed that you had before you warped.

I never really thought about it but I went into an empty map to do some testing and you're definitely right. One thing I would like to use time anchor for is to round a corner, take a shot, warp backwards, and repeat. The problem is that there's a limited amount of times you can do this without slowing down if the corner is in the 'up' direction.

Also, during experimentation I noticed a bug that needs fixing. If you fly straight for a bit, turn 90 degrees up or down, and then warp backwards, sometimes the miranda is then pointing in the direction you were in when you made the warp instead of going straight as it should be. It's fairly reproducible but doesn't happen each and every time. It probably has something to do with the timing of the turn/warp. It probably explains a lot of the times I've warped and crashed into a wall instantly thinking it was pilot error when it wasn't.

[nesnl]

Sooooo, any other thoughts? I really would like to see these changes in Time Anchor.

[Pillars]

Originally Posted by nesnl

Sooooo, any other thoughts? I really would like to see these changes in Time Anchor.

I very rarely see this perk utilized...both of those changes seem to make Time Anchor more intuitive / approachable for new players. The actual power level of the ability can still be manipulated using other 'balance knobs'.

[Triped]

Changing the length of the anchor from time to distance would feel more natural, as if the anchor were being 'dragged.'

Before I unlocked it, though, I imagined players would hit D to drop the anchor and D to warp back to it. To me, THAT's intuitive (and probably way too powerful.)

[DiogenesDog]

That was actually one of the iterations of the Miranda, which comes from a ship design from the mostly terrible Star Control 3 (and can also be found in Strifeshadow on the Wyverns, which I'm guessing stole it from the same place).