Heroes

posted on August 27th, 2010, 7:26 am

In the MMM:Premenitions thread they go in-to a bit of detail how heroes will work "hero vessels will get a special rank icon. they will not be able to level up. the rank will be comparable to the 'regular' veteran level however with a different icon so that the unit can be better distinguished from non-hero vessels. a regular vessel can - of course - not reach this hero rank.
where appripioate, a hero vessel may have a modified or special model. we won't use the "blown up" model approach that stock armada had."

Gave me the idea - what if Borg Optimize get the Queen as their hero vessel with her nice specials whatever they are and Assimilation directive basically do a BoBW strategy - so sphere assimilates Enterprise preventing the fed from bulding another due to the borg now having picard (example) then the sphere gets a buff icon which goes next tothe Spy icon showing they have an assimilated Picard on-board which grants the vessel extra % damage and damage reduction against that species vessels. The idea was also that picard can be beamed to any other vessel as you wish, a cube for example which also enhances that vessel. The problem being when the cube's destroyed they get picard back and if the manage that then which ever ship he's on gains those resistances and damage against all borg ships. Like a double-edged sword but cool. What do you think?

posted on August 27th, 2010, 7:44 am

I guess this would have a massive impact on gameplay. Players would focus more on "capturing the Picard" than on aspects which are important now. FO could become Hero Operations.  Dunno... 

posted on August 27th, 2010, 8:13 am

The hero ship would be a vet-like ship, but with a small special. A single being may be good as captain, but wont be able to push the stats to an unlimited factor. So give it a special. If your hero ship gets destroyed, you lost your hero. So put your hero into a good ship. A factor could be, that the enemy wont be able to see, if it is a hero ship or a vet ship, so chasing it would be a risk.

At least, you need a vet-ranked ship in order to place a hero.

But I like the suggestion for the borg:

The assim and the opti-avatar should both get the borg queen. Maybe limit it to 3 possible ships:
sphere, cube and diamond

The special should also be the same for both avatars. For the borg, I think it could be a special like instant regeneration of special energy for ships in range. This IS a huge advantage if used right but wont be of any use, if you dont micro right. So you can spare to use dodecs or something like than. It wont destroy an enemy ship, you wont assimilate an enemy ship, you dont get extra resistance... these are all abilities that tow the balance to a place that couldnt be balanced.

Rommies:
Spy hero: You get the view over the map with cloaked ships, but wont be able to shoot on cloaked vessels in range, even if visible. It would be a good scout and intel ability, but wont give you any more firepower or defense or something like that.

Feds:
This hero may be able to to system integration between ships. So your sensor range will increase, the shield regen might increase, the hull repair rate might increase and al little bonus on system duration.
This will only be a very little bonus, but might help you if you are behind the frontlines. Something like a deep space hero that is able to support your fleet far away from any repair yard. It wont help you in real battle, because a higher shield regen-rate is only good in non-combat mode to re-engage the battle faster. But in the battle, you wont notice any significant difference.

Klings:
I only have the idea of offensive things... Maybe, we cancel the Moqbara station (the thing that gives you a bonus on firepower) and your hero will do that for you in the ship with a certain radius around it, but always. This IS the first real bonus you will *feel*. But I think, for klingons it is valid. They have weak defense, so it wont help you while retreating.

Dominion:
Well, wide range of abilities. Spy, defense, offense, economy... Dont know. Maybe shield holding boarding like the B-8 but for all ships within a certain range, without letting the own shields down. May be good in medium fleet encounters, but wont give you much in border clashes, because you need time to board a ship, must micro and the end effect might be little. But good, if you have faster ships and the upperhand.

So, only small abilities with certain abilities that wont influence the gameplay too much, but might be "nice" if used right.

posted on August 27th, 2010, 8:35 am

I could be wrong here, but wouldn't a tranferrable hero require new ODFs for every possible ship the hero could transfer to?  Even if it means limiting it to veteran ships only that still means more than 10 new ship ODFs for every race just to accommodate this hero.  I'm not saying its not doable, just wondering about the effort.

posted on August 27th, 2010, 11:16 am

i only want hero ships for the campaign, in fo we already have 6 ranks. we dont need more.

i dont want a picard being like the flag in ctf.

posted on August 27th, 2010, 12:12 pm

Yeah that's pretty much what I had in mind Shiva and the species specific bonuses are definatly more original and less op like the romulan leader granting the ship a large stealth detection radius vs only romulan ships. The game wouldn't really turn in-to a CTF for the hero just like I said the species ofc would have the choice not to build the hero ships vs assim avatar and done no risk but no hero bonus.  Would be a nice gameplay feature anyway