New Plane: Cargo Plane ("engineer")

[e697]

So this is an idea for a new plane my friend and I came up with. Basically, it's a semi heavy plane with limited/no attack and moderate speed, but with the ability to place turrets on the battlefield.

Weapons (perk interchangeable):

Basic turret (similar to those in TBD)
Can be dropped anywhere, maximum of 1 (maybe 2) per plane at any given time. Takes a short time to place, and can be slowly repaired by the plane's secondary attack.

Flamethrower turret
Can also be dropped anywhere, same maximum limit. This turret has much shorter range but infflicts more damage with a faster attack speed, similar to the machine gun on a biplane. Ideal for cutting off entrances and chokes. Also repairable.

Support turret
This turret has a weak, limited attack wherein it fires a small missile at the target, similar to a single loopy missile. However, it periodicaally drops health and weapons powerups near it every few seconds for the plane's teammates. It can also be repaired.


The concept of the engineer is to encourage team play and create a more defensive or support focused class.

Thoughts?

[Mt.Vesuvius]

The placement of turrets would be over powered..
The game is pretty close to being balanced and I think this would offset it a little bit..

[tgleaf]

Originally Posted by Mt.Vesuvius

The placement of turrets would be over powered..
The game is pretty close to being balanced and I think this would offset it a little bit..

^^

New ideas are fun, but it's very unlikely that the developers will add a new plane to the game any time soon. There have been MANY suggestions for planes, including planes that drop power-ups or heal. Still, it's fun to think about.

[e697]

How exactly would it be overpowered? Remember, the engineer cannot attack normally and can only slowly repair the turret. Also, its not like the turrets are that hard to destroy. I forgot to mention that there would be a cool down period for building a new turret for the engineer.

In addition, adding turrets would force teamwork, always a welcome element in TEAM BASED GAMES.

[leggomyeggo]

Wouldn't it be fun to get the whole team in a 7v7 pub to go cargo plane and then place turrets by the enemy base? Teehee

[Mt.Vesuvius]

Yes that would be fun but i couldnt actually see the efficiency of using it in an official game..

[tgleaf]

Originally Posted by e697

How exactly would it be overpowered? Remember, the engineer cannot attack normally and can only slowly repair the turret. Also, its not like the turrets are that hard to destroy. I forgot to mention that there would be a cool down period for building a new turret for the engineer.

In addition, adding turrets would force teamwork, always a welcome element in TEAM BASED GAMES.

5v5 TBD: 3 engineers, an explodet, and an acid loopy. Explo and acid threaten the main choke point. Engineers quickly place three turrets there. Enemy team can't get past mid-map or wherever the engineers decided to place those turrets. You ever tried to destroy two turrets somewhat near each other? Tough business. Now try three next to each other. TA picks up bomb, casually flies over turreted area, drops bomb on base. Overpowered.

[[Y]]

Not to mention the degeneration of tbd games into an endless cycle of nuking and rebuilding turrets. On original Locomotion. Yeah.

[innerlyte]

What if the engineer planes were solely AI controlled? It may add an interesting dynamic to the game. Turret behavior is pretty one dimensional, and bots are more or less meant to fill in for (and therefore mimic) human players. Having an additional element to deal with could be fun.

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Now, I will respond to my own post:
There are no plans for substantial feature changes in the foreseeable future. Only balance issues and bug fixes will be addressed for the time being.

[wyclef]

i wouldn't mind seeing some more variation with the planes/perks