Thanks Cuervo and Mari!
I'm glad people read these posts and I'm glad it sounds thematic and interesting!
I'm happy that it is passed on to the team, I naturally cannot test any of my concepts, so I'm just brainstorming here, if something sounds toxic or OP, it might well be.
My primary reasoning for giving the satellite a laser beam was because I’ve noticed characters become very popular if their ability reliably does effective damage.
For example, Fuse was rather unpopular at first, but when they buffed his tactical, a long-range cluster grenade, he started to pop up in a lot of my games. While it is frustrating to have your location shelled by Fuse cluster bombs, it apparently did give people a strong reason to play him.
I suspect the same would be true for this character, doing recon with a satellite is fun, but most people get their dopamine from doing damage to other players. Yes, it is likely somewhat frustrating as you’re always under threat from above to get zapped if you don’t stay on the move.
But as the user I think it would be absolutely awesome, stalking people from above, waiting for the perfect opportunity to laser them.
However, this laser isn’t perfect, it can be obstructed by sitting under cover or simply by staying on the move. And Mila needs to be stationary on her laptop and aim specifically at you.
Moreover, I think a 30 second cooldown is healthy, it shouldn’t be so spam able that it overtakes snipers in harass potential, it should either be an opening tool to pest unsuspecting enemies or finish off weakened players that are unaware from the threat above. I suspect after a while players will get used to it and always play around it.
I considered giving the satellite scanning abilities, however that could make her too similar to Crypto, I specifically wanted them to effectively work together in a team. In this case, Crypto more effectively scans enemies, while Mila has more firepower.
The ultimate works the same way as it does in this clip: https://youtu.be/d8cFzrbvOwk?t=33
The player launches the missile, and becomes the missile, unable to stop or slow down, only having the ability to steer the missile around as it flies.
I know the original archer had a homing component; however, I don’t think that’s very fun. As not only does it remove any skill element from it, but it also needs direct line of sight and enables abusive strategies where you fire the missile and then continue shooting, significantly increasing your direct firepower without adding a skill or strategic element to the ability.
And I haven't even mentioned how much setup is required to launch the missile, as while you are driving it, your character is a sitting duck. It might do a lot of damage and be precise, but the character firing it is extremely vulnerable and needs to know where the missile is going to go before firing. More high-risk, high-reward, which players often love in games.