New Klingon Special!!!

[Anonymous]

posted on November 1st, 2009, 4:19 am

Last edited by Anonymous on November 1st, 2009, 7:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Previously Entitled "Give Borg Tactical Cubes Transwarp!!!" to be funny.   I figured I should change the title so as not to confuse too many people.


Acutally, I have a new idea for a Klingon special ability.

Whenever I think of Klingon strategy and tactics, I really look to Kurn in the episode "Redemption", when his ship was being chased by two other ships.  He didn’t care that he was going as fast as he could, nor was he worried about the risk of radiation to his crew for being so close to a star.  He saw an advantage and took it.  He then got drunk in the capitol city and smacked his head into some other guys for laughs and a good time was had by all while he chided his brother for worrying about stabilizers and other things no one cares about.  So when I dream up Klingon abilities to be considered, I’m always thinking about how a Klingon wouldn’t worry about the details, so long as he came victorious on the other side.

This is just one idea for an ability I wanted to share.

Engine Overload- Tax the engines past their recommended safety limits to gain the advantage.  Increased weapon damage and greatly increased speed due to intense reactor output.  Causes hull damage due to the tremendous stress the ship is under.

Essentially, this ability is a replace weapon that makes the ship go much faster.  Probably a speed of 140-150, enough to catch up to any ship trying to retreat or kite.  The increased weapons damage is optional.  I see it lasting about 10-15 seconds, just long enough to intercept its quarry and do some damage.  The catch is this ship will take damage over time to its hull using the drainer function.  The ship is literally flying itself apart (Fly her apart then! ) because its moving too fast, so it should do at least 50% hull damage.  The trick is, if a ship was at 49% hull strength when the ability started, the ship will explode.  I see this as fairly realistic, but not something that’s going to happen too often.  Since the shields won’t be affected, the ship can still go into battle, but each individual ship will be slightly easier to take down once the shields fail.  The hull will have a little time to recover while the shields are still up.  This would make it a very interesting tactical special that would be great if used at the right time.

I see this as a possible replacement ability for the K’vort.  It’s a nice cruiser to have if you can swarm the enemy, but its short range, average cruiser speed and low defensive value seem to make it more of a target than anything against fast, long ranged vessels who have nothing better to do than go after a free kill.  Interceptor units will change a lot of this, but I still liked this idea and wanted to see what everyone thought of it.

posted on November 1st, 2009, 5:25 am

What about a special that overcharges the weapon but if left on too long the subsystem will be destroyed?

posted on November 1st, 2009, 5:27 am

Great example of Klingon mentality.  Kurn is the best for this, (ok Kor might be a contender as well)

I like the special ability too.  I think it would go great on any small/medium klingon ship, though the K'vort, and B'rel, already being known as the speed demons of the Alpha quadrant, make most sense in my humble opinion.  This could be a good Avatar thing as well.

I think 50% hull damage might be a bit extreme though, 30% should be plenty in my opinion, enough to make the player say OUCH! if not paying attention, but not so much as to cripple the ship from being able to take even one hit.  Remember, this is likely going on a cruiser/destroyer with already limited hitpoints.

posted on November 1st, 2009, 5:27 pm

Ga(gh)! Couldn't find the post again because of the title

Sounds like an interesting idea to me . Probably putting that as an extension of "Last Ditch Assault" or maybe for a larger cruiser (Vutpa' anyone?) would be really nice

posted on November 2nd, 2009, 4:11 pm

would fit very well for them because: they're pretty fast, have anti destroyer weaponery and higher torpmiss rate, AND they are troopships. thisway you could aktivate the ability to break through the enemy lines and  capture a constructor or enemy ships in the midst of battle, or kill  some freighters with your pulses

posted on November 2nd, 2009, 6:37 pm

what about a modified special energy thing.  not only does it take special energy, but the ship could take hull damage constantly while engaged.  but with a "Safety mechanism that will auto dis-engage it when ships hull reaches 5%.

posted on November 2nd, 2009, 6:51 pm

When I first thought of this ability, I was thinking of something similar, but without a saftey mechanism.  Then I realized it needed to be idiot proof, because some poor sap would turn it on and get distracted by something else and come back to a neat fireworks display where his K'vorts used to be.

I'm not exactly sure if it's possible to write in a safety mechanism like that.  The "drainer" function does X damage over a set amount of time.  So you can tell it to do 100 damage over 10 seconds, and it will do 10 damage per second for 10 seconds.  It's been a while since I've looked at it, so if anyone wants to correct me, go for it.   I don't think it's possible to tell it to stop doing damage if the ship only has a certain amount of hit points.

Also, I like the idea of it being limited to a handful of seconds, because I'm sure it could be abused, otherwise.

[Boggz]

posted on November 2nd, 2009, 6:59 pm

Last edited by Boggz on November 2nd, 2009, 7:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I like this alot.  I feel that a lot of the Klingon Specials lack basis in Canon stuff so this is excellent.

I also feel that this will work very nicely with the theme of what the devs said the Interceptor should be in the upcoming patch.  Some speedy B'rels armed with a booster and some damage increase would give them an excellent use even in late game where they can reach their quarry before the inevitable first shots from the enemy fleet annihilate their ranks before anything else.

   Clearly B'rels are the first to die in any fleet engagements as they are the easiest to destroy, but DO KLINGONS CARE!?  NO!!!!  They fly gloriously to their deaths in a direct and powerful assault.
   

    I dig it. 


EDIT:  Also I think this would make a very good researchable ability, not a passive or innate function.  B'rels are one of the best and strongest beginning destroyers and this ability too soon could be out of balance.  Making it researched from the Armory would put it in line to be useful right around mid-game when B'rels are replaced by Kvorts and the dreaded Sang's.  As we all know the Klingons will NEVER stop using the B'rel so they might has well have a good use!

posted on November 2nd, 2009, 9:55 pm

well, if the hulldamage damages subsystems as wel, as nrmal subsystems do, it would be quite balanced because of the klingo lck of repair ships. imagine usin the engine overload and ending up without engines/weapons/shields^^ that would really limit the possibilties of abusing the ability.

posted on November 3rd, 2009, 3:05 am

That just means that the fed's repair ships are going to be the target of every Vut'pa the Klingon Empire can deploy. 

posted on November 3rd, 2009, 3:13 am

"You!  Federation coward!  Get this tug moving!"

posted on November 3rd, 2009, 9:37 am

I also have to say that the b'rel is a good candidate for this, because it seems very cowardly to cut your opponents off at the knees which is what the current SP weapon does...

posted on November 3rd, 2009, 9:41 am

It's not cowardly, it's tactics...

Even if it can seem a little cowardly, not all Klingons are an example of 'Honor before Reason'.

posted on November 3rd, 2009, 12:20 pm

Cut your opponent off at the knees?  Not at all what it's doing.  Think of it this way.  Picture a Klingon commander, snarling on his bridge.  He spits out 'Launch the graviton mine!  We'll MAKE these p'taq stand and fight!'

That's the B'rel's special.  That it's not a Vor'cha or Negh'var doing it is a bit insane, but nobody except a Klingon would put 'stand and fight' with a ship as small as a B'rel either.

posted on November 3rd, 2009, 5:04 pm

Most early Klingon abilities revolve around snaring and trapping to get past the fact that they can be easily kited.  The Brel is slightly faster than other destroyers and has gravity mine.  The K'vort's officer ability has a chance to disable engines.  The Veqlargh has alternate armament that disables engines.  The mixed-tech Edjen has a probe that disables weapons and engines.  Notice a pattern here?

To be honest, I think it is very smart gameplay style that is unique to klingons and should make them very interesting and fun to play.  It also allows them to use mainly short ranged vessels, which are cheaper and therefore easily spammed.  However, in practice this style doesn't work as well as it should.  The brels are too weak, and sometimes the gravity mine will take forever to reach a ship, giving it time to escape.  And brels can still be kited for a while.  Against a smart opponent, I'm usually too busy to try and micro gravity mines because I'm trying move my fleet to keep up with my opponent.  And other reasons, etc. etc.

The K'vort requires that I level it up.  It's not a fast cruiser, and is very easily kited without support.  I really thought having a few veqlarghs on duty with my K'vorts/b'rels would catch an escaping ship and allow my fleet to swarm it, but that hasn't worked very well either.  Or I get sensor blackout on me and now my ships are the ones a runnin'!

If you can survive the early game and make it to the mid-late game, you get access to all sorts of goodies.  3 Bortas and the Moqbara station are game enders.  So it's been a really cool idea for a play style by the devs, but the execution just hasn't been enough for the Klingons in the early game.  The good news is they're getting their boost, and should be quite the terror after the patch.