3 years ago

New Abilities System for future Non-Legend Seasons

Firstly, the GUI needs some improvement as currently the ability screen seems very lazy and overly enlarged. A simple fix would be to have all of the abilities (and descriptions) listed on the legend screen. The descriptions should be more concise since you dont need to know a lot of waffle to understand the concept of the ability. This will allow for ease of use to see descriptions in less button presses and will look tidier.

Here is what we have in-game currently:

Some of the abilities that are currently in the game were altered due to them either not representing the class or to balance the legend.

Here is the list of changes:

Ash Tactical "Arc Snare" – Now controllable if ability button is held.
Catalyst Ultimate "Dark Veil" – Now gives an indication/scan when an enemy walks into it.
Crypto Passive "Neurolink" – Now renamed to 'Banners alert you of the amount of enemy squads nearby' whereby if there are any nearby teams the normal banners will update to instead show the amount of teams close. All of this can still be done inside your drone.
Lifeline Passive "Combat Revive" – Still the same except, when solo you are able to self revive with additional health.
Lifeline Tactical "D.O.C. Heal Drone" – Now able to move the drone similar to Newcastle's Tactical "Mobile Shield".
Lifeline Ultimate "Care Package" – Now acts like a replicator after the items are taken out of the care package. If there are any teammates that you have banner cards for, you also immediately respawn them on the call of the care package.
Loba Passive "Eye for Quality" – Now automatically ping items that the squad needs, and through walls.
Mad Maggie Passive "Warlord's Ire" – Now burns enemies when using shotguns. However, the temporal scan is removed.
Mirage Passive "Now You See Me..." – Still the same except, when solo you are able to self revive whilst cloaked.
Mirage Tactical "Psyche Out" – Now have 2 tactical charges.
Mirage Ultimate "Life of the Party" – Combines the first and second versions of the ultimate into one. When activated, decoys are sent out running in different directions. However, all decoys, including yourself, are invisible and gain a speed boost for 3 seconds to which you cannot shoot unless you unholster your weapon. This was done to make him more of a skirmisher legend than a support.
Newcastle Passive "Retrieve the Wounded" – Still the same except, when solo you are able to self revive whilst protected with your knockdown shield.
Newcastle Ultimate "Castle Wall" – Nearby enemies to the wall (when slammed down) get knocked back and damaged.
Rampart Passive "Modded Loader" – Gain accuracy buffs for LMGs and your Minigun.
Rampart Tactical "Amped Cover" – Cover no longer has an amped side and destroyable side. Instead, if you are Rampart or on her team, you can shoot through both sides of the amped wall, if not and you are an enemy, you can only destroy the walls.
Revenant Tactical "Silence" – Now applies to interactions such as healing and reviving whereby you cannot perform them whilst silenced. However, the duration of the silence is reduced.
Seer Passive "Heart Seeker" – Reverted to launch version however, you have a meter similar to Valkyrie's Passive "VTOL Jets" whereby it will be disabled if you run out of energy.
Valkyrie Ultimate "Skyward Dive" – Skydiving no longer reveals enemies.
Vantage Passive "Spotter's Lens" – Detected enemies are now scanned for your team. Also, you spawn with a 6x sight.
Vantage Tactical "Echo Relocation" – Scan enemies beneath echo to check if area is safe to launch to.
Vantage Ultimate "Sniper's Mark" – Gain the bigger bullet size and increased danage only after the first 50 damage shot. Scan is now trackable through walls. These Vantage changes were done to make her move of a recon legend than a movement/skirmisher legend.
Wattson Passive "Spark of Genius" – Ultimate Accelerants reveal the next ring location when used.
Wattson Ultimate "Interception Pylon" – When placed, it slightly moves the next circle towards the pylon.

With the introduction of the new class system in Season 16, which was partly thanks to you guys on my last post that did very well, some new class passives were added. However, there are clearly some that are underpowered and some classes have more abilities than others. There was also a discussion I had on reddit when I initially brought up an earlier concept whereby there was a suggestion of legends spawning with a survival item that fits their role, so I tried to implement that as well.

Here is the new selection of abilities and changes:

Assault Perk 1 "Weaponsmith" – Access Assault Supply Bins for better weapon attachments. (No changes)
Assault Perk 2 "Bandolier"– Carry more ammo per inventory slot. (All ammo stacks upped by 33% from default instead of having different values)
Assault Perk 3 "Ammo Box" – Spawn with an Ammo Box survival item to distrubute ammunition to squadmates.
Skirmisher Perk 1 "Loot Insight" – Scan Care Packages and Deathboxes to reveal the highest-tier loot inside. (Now encompasses deathboxes)
Skirmisher Perk 2 "Skydiver"– You and connected teammates move faster whilst skydiving.
Skirmisher Perk 3 "Heat Shield" – Spawn with a Heat Shield survival item to protect your squad from ring damage.
Recon Perk 1 "Survey Beacon" – Scan to reveal enemy positions on your map. (Lasts 15 seconds from 30)
Recon Perk 2 "UAV" – Reveal and track enemies whilst skydiving.
Recon Perk 3 "Enemy Radar" – Spawn with an Enemy Radar survival item to reveal enemies on your console.
Support Perk 1 "Survivalist" – Access Support Supply Bins for Survival and Healing items. (No changes)
Support Perk 2 "Recovery" – Craft teammate banner cards at Replicators. (Price from 30 for all players to 25 per player)
Support Perk 3 "Mobile Respawn Beacon" – Spawn with a Mobile Respawn Beacon survival item to respawn killed teammates.
Controller Perk 1 "Ring Console" – Scan to reveal the next ring on your map. (No changes)
Controller Perk 2 "Mechanic" – Mend damaged abilities by interacting with them.
Controller Perk 3 "Portable Cover" – Spawn with a Portable Cover survival item to create a temporal crouch-cover wall.

Currently, there are a few legends that I would consider have multiple passives. Mad Maggie having her shotgun and scan passives and newcastle having his revive and fortified passives. I think in the future this could be expanded upon by giving all characters two passives. This would remove fortified but all large characters will get something instead.

Here is the list of new secondary passives for all the legends:

Bangalore Passive "Soldier's Last Stand" – When downed, disperse a small cloud of smoke.
Revenant Passive "Reaper" – Reap the souls of killed enemies to charge your shield.
Fuse Passive "Rebound" – Pick up and throw back thrown ordanances.
Ash Passive "Executioner" – Finishing enemies boosts your cooldowns and marks the target for potential respawns.
Mad Maggie Passive "Ring Flare" – Summon a Ring Flare after a squad is killed that deals ring damage to enemies.
Pathfinder Passive "Eyepiece Scout" – Whilst holstered, zoom in to get bettervisuals on enemies
Wraith Passive "Precognition" – Better predict enemy movements by utilising your sixth sense.
Mirage Passive "Holo-Tech" – Flicker when shot at to confuse enemies.
Octane Passive "Vamonos" – When your armor shatters, gain a speed boost.
Horizon Passive "Tridenteer" – Accustomed to tridents, you steer them better and boost them further.
Valkyrie Passive "Sky Control" – Fall slower whilst ariborne. Hover whenever airborne and holstered.
Bloodhound Passive "White Raven" – Occasionally see a white raven flying towards the nearest enemy.
Crypto Passive "Off the Grid" – Deflect scans back at the user whilst being undetectable if stationary.
Seer Passive "Emergence" – Temporarily highlight very near or damaged enemies.
Vantage Passive "Respiratory Trainee" – The longer you aim with snipers, the less it sways whilst acquiring a bullet drop indicator.
Gibraltar Passive "Fortified" – Reduced damage and movement debuff from bullets and ordanance.
Lifeline Passive "Combat Recharge" – Shield cells and syringes get consumed significantly faster.
Loba Passive "Thieving Tactics" – Steal from vaults and guarantee golden loot from loot features.
Newcastle Passive "Armor Deflection" – Incoming ordanance and abilities ricochet back at the enemy.
Caustic Passive "Adapted Immunity" – Reduced damage and movement debufffrom allegend trap abilities.
Wattson Passive "Rewired Circuits" – Whilst not getting shot, regenerate shields overtime.
Rampart Passive "Ramya's Extravaganza" – Get reduced prices for your squad in the Replicator.
Catalyst Passive "Piercing Spikes" – Throw out a patch of ferrofluid spikes to damage nearby enemies.

Lastly, an idea that I seen before on reddit was the concept of signiture weapons (weapons that legends are drawn to / know how to use well). Thus, I though it would be interesting if each legend had a weapon where if they picked it up, it would be fully kitted and automatically reloads itself upon successive shots

Here is the list of signature weapons for all the legends:

Bangalore – G7 Scout
Revenant – Longbow DMR
Fuse – 30-30 Repeater
Ash – C.A.R. SMG
Mad Maggie – Mastiff Shotgun
Pathfinder – Peacekeeper
Wraith – Hemlok Burst AR
Mirage – P2020
Octane – R-99 SMG
Horizon – HAVOC Rifle
Valkyrie – Bocek Compound Bow
Bloodhound – Charge Rifle
Crypto – Triple Take
Seer – Prowler Burst PDW
Vantage – Sentinel
Gibraltar – VK-47 Flatline
Lifeline – Mozambique Shotgun
Loba – Alternator SMG
Newcastle – M600 Spitfire
Caustic – Devotion LMG
Wattson – Volt SMG
Rampart – Rampage LMG
Catalyst – EVA-8 Auto

My final thoughts: These changes should not come in one swoop or update. These are ideas for the longevity of the game. For more seasons where there is no legend release, respawn could implement different abilities to all legends. It has worked very well in Season 16 so we could see something happen again in the future. Also, I included backgrounds to all of the characters and colourised the names according to their ultimate colour themes. Please let me know any improvements to this concept 🙂

Here is a visualisation of all of the changes: