Idea New Class Idea: Introducing the Kinetic

(Most recent concept change was Friday 3-29-2019 approx. 9:15m EST)

Hello Brawl community! I've decided to try my hand at suggesting a completely new CTF class so that players who have excess credits can spend them on something that is (what seems to me to be) a uniquely new concept:

Class Name: Kinetic (Premium class, naturally)

Class Icon: Diamond Boot

Play Style: As the name suggests, they're best when they're on the move, so they'd most likely be hanging out in the middle, but really they could prove helpful anywhere. Stealth and sneakiness would be problematic for kinetics so it'd be a very high profile class, but they could prove difficult to stay within melee range of and tricky to keep within aiming cross-hairs at close or medium range.

Purpose/Roles: Support, Disruption/Distraction, Defense, and Offense. They could effectively expose players who are taking cover behind obstacles, help separate opponent healers from their flag carrier, rescue teammates from melee onslaughts by knocking the attacker(s) back, redirect the aim of ranged attackers and could even run the flag to name a few.

Energy Meter: A bar which starts at 35% when spawned. While a kinetic is in their team's spawn area this energy meter remains unchanged (all other movement cases assume that the kinetic is not in their team's spawn). While effectively walking, the energy meter immediately increases moderately. While effectively running, the energy meter immediately increases more quickly. When moving while slowed, sneaking, swimming, or blocking, the energy meter remains unchanged for 1.5 seconds then decreases quickly after that (let's just say this delay in decreasing energy is because the kinetic retains an internal momentum). When stopped (or nearly stopped), the energy meter remains unchanged for 1.5 seconds then decreases very quickly after that (whether it be from terrain obstacles, a mage's ice block, an elf's vortex, a medic's web, a ninja's flash bomb, choosing to stand still, or having movement rate hindered by more than one of the following at the same time: slowness, sneaking, swimming, blocking). So in short, the faster and longer a kinetic moves, the happier the kinetic is.

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Note for developers: Having a kinetic knocked back or even falling a great distance may or may not also boost the energy meter a bit more if programming the class is easier this way. For example it may prove easier to check for a difference in location from one moment to the next rather than checking for whether or not the player is in water and checking what movement input a kinetic player is performing along those same moments as well as factoring in things like debuffs, webs, ice blocks, vortices, etc.

Also, the 1.5 second delay before the energy meter begins to decrease is a shared delay between moving too slowly or being completely stopped, so a stopped kinetic cannot reset this 1.5 second delay by sneaking forward. Only normal unhindered "nameplate revealing" movement can reset this delay and help to prevent constant energy depletion.
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Equipment:

Head: [None]
Chest: [None]
Legs: Diamond Leggings
Feet: Diamond Boots

Slot 1: Diamond Shovel with Knockback I
Slot 2: [Glass Pane unless energy meter is 35%+] ==> Kinetic Bolt (Fire Charge icon)
Slot 3: [Glass Pane unless energy meter is at a full 100%] ==> Kinetic Blast (TNT icon)
Slot 4: [None]
Slot 5: [None]
Slot 6: [None]
Slot 7: [None]
Slot 8: Compass
Slot 9: Nether Star

((in case anyone wonders "Why a shovel?" it's because I thought it fit best with the knockback effect. Smack them with a shovel and send them back a bit, ha))

Unique Concern "Energy Drain": If the energy meter is empty for more than 1.5 seconds, the kinetic suffers damage similar to the effects of Poison II (but poison damage would actually stack with this low energy damage). This means that ice blocks, elf vortices, and even medic webs and ninja flash bombs can be more of a major issue for a kinetic than any other class. It also means that camping in one spot wouldn't be much use (although running around while staying in the same general area would work just fine). The moment the energy bar begins to charge again from effective movement, the damaging effect is instantly removed regardless of any typical debuff timer. Another key difference is that poison alone typically doesn't kill, but the damage from this energy drained state could actually kill the kinetic. Perhaps the death text would read something unique and entertaining like "Dequoy was too slow to survive." or "Dequoy wasn't fast enough to survive against DequoyKiller." So in short, the slower and less a kinetic moves, the less happy the kinetic is.

Special Passive Trait "Turbo-Charged": Kinetics, being used to staying on the move, have a permanent Speed I buff.

Special Passive Trait "Ground Impact Healing": Falling far enough to normally cause injury to most other classes will instantly heal the kinetic instead to a matching degree, based on how far they've fallen. If it's not done too often, the high velocity from these falls would be able to revitalize the kinetic upon impact. For every half-heart healed from a high enough fall, there is a half-second cooldown before the effect can heal the kinetic again. For example, if a kinetic suffered 5 hearts of damage, and fell far enough to heal back 3.5 hearts of damage then no more healing can come from falling a great distance until 3.5 seconds later. Any falls before the cooldown runs out are ignored much like when soldiers take big falls (so soldiers would no longer be the only class immune to falling damage, but soldiers would remain the only class capable of taking no falling damage while also having the ability to climb up very high as well). Note: If a kinetic had suffered 2 hearts of damage then falls far enough to potentially heal as many as 7 hearts, the cooldown would still only be 2 seconds because that would be how much actual healing the kinetic would receive. If a kinetic takes a great enough fall before this cooldown is ready, then perhaps a message similar to the medic's healing cooldown alert could pop up reading something like "You must wait X second(s) before falling can heal you again."

Special Ability/Item "Kinetic Bolt": When a kinetic's energy meter reaches 35% or higher, the kinetic can toss a kinetic bolt at the cost of 35% energy (so almost 3 can be thrown in a row from a full energy meter). The bolt would look like a fire charge, it would be affected by gravity like snowballs and eggs, and it could make a sword swing whooshing sound when thrown. Upon impacting an enemy player it could produce the sound of a log breaking (as well as the sound of the smack of them suffering damage). If it hits then it'd inflict 3 true hearts of damage and spin the target, instantly changing the target's left/right direction to a random value up to plus or minus 1 to 90 degrees and also instantly changing the target's up/down aim height angle direction to a random value up to plus or minus 1 to 45 degrees, keeping it completely unpredictable (and sometimes barely affecting the target's aim at all in the cases of small spin angles).

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Note for developers: If no randomizing is already employed for CTF, perhaps the "random angles" from the kinetic bolts can be dictated by a counter that applies to either the kinetic or a ghost player such as BattleBot?
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Special Ability/Item "Kinetic Blast": While a kinetic's energy meter remains full, a kinetic blast can be performed. The sound of this instant blast is the sound that withers make when they launch a bomb (not the explosion sound produced when they detonate...enough things in CTF make that explosion sound already, ha). Any enemy players within range hear the smack of suffering damage as well from the blast. This blast doesn't affect teammates at all, and it causes no damage to the kinetic but it does fling the kinetic straight up 12 blocks and it injures and knocks back nearby enemies based on how close they are to the blast point. I've discovered that the damage and knockback properties of exploding TNT blocks aren't quite what I envisioned for the kinetic blast effect at first, so I'm proposing these effects instead:

Enemies in a 5 block radius are flung up 1 block and out 1 block suffering no damage.
Enemies in a 4 block radius are flung up 3 blocks and out 2 blocks suffering 2 hearts of true damage.
Enemies in a 3 block radius are flung up 5 blocks and out 3 blocks suffering 4 hearts of true damage.
Enemies in a 2 block radius are flung up 7 blocks and out 2 blocks suffering 6 hearts of true damage.
Enemies in a 1 block radius are flung up 9 blocks and out 1 block suffering 8 hearts of true damage.
Enemies on the same block are flung up 9 blocks and out 0 blocks suffering 8 hearts of true damage.

Performing the blast instantly drains the kinetic's energy meter to 0%. This blast could be used in mid air, in water, and in lava as well (as long as the meter is full and the blast is performed before the slower movement begins to decrease the energy meter).

Special note: Although heavies suffer the true damage from nearby kinetic blasts, they are just heavy enough to be totally immune to the upward flinging and outward knockback effects from them (even though they are not immune to the Knockback I of the kinetic's trusty shovel). Heavies need some chance against a kinetic on the offensive, and using the shovel requires the kinetic to get within range of the heavy's sword.

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Note for developers: If a more elaborate "continuously variable" effect can yield roughly the same damage and knockback effects from kinetic blasts, that might be ideal. After all, the effective radius is a spherical radius which affects a limited height/elevation, it's not a cylindrical radius which affects every height/elevation.

Also, the upward flinging would only apply to enemies within the radius who are 0 - 4 blocks HIGHER than the elevation that the kinetic would be at when the blast is performed. For enemies within range who are 1 - 4 blocks LOWER, they would only be pushed outward but they'd suffer the same applicable true damage from their proximity to the blast. Imagine an outward-radiating sphere of explosive force that starts just below the kinetic's feet launching the kinetic and any nearby enemies out away from its epicenter.
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Note for game leaders and developers: It might be useful to have kinetics with a full energy meter display some kind of enchanted armor shimmer, or particle effect, or some other visual effect to advertise that their energy meter is full and they're capable of rushing in with a knockback blast like the warning that pyros advertise when they're at their most dangerous. Again one setback of choosing to play this class would be its high profile after all.

I'm not really thinking any visual blast effect is necessary since the sound and sudden player movement will be a major enough indication of that blast happening, but perhaps the smoke plumes that appear as a block of TNT explodes could do the trick. Or maybe some extreme creative license from the developer(s) can come into play if desired, such as particle effects, or a flash of light, or some other visual effect that melds well with the ability.
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Interesting dynamics to note:

Medics would have an increased chance to gain kills by the introduced ability to hurt kinetics with effective web tossing strategies if the webs can keep the energy meter empty long enough.

Kinetics would gladly follow soldiers down a high fall, but they wouldn't be able to get back up high as effectively if and when the soldier decides to climb up again (they'd only be able to launch back upward a bit if a kinetic blast is available from having a full energy meter).

Although there is no defense from a kinetic blast (aside from being out of range or safe in spawn), a kinetic bolt could be reflected back from an elf's active shielding ability while the elf suffers no damage or spin at all.

Heavies would be immune to being flung from kinetic blasts, so their main concern would be trying to catch up to a kinetic (story of every heavy's life, ha).

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How fast do I estimate the energy meter should charge and discharge based on movement?

If running nonstop without obstacles, the energy meter should take 14 seconds to fill up from 0%.

If walking nonstop without obstacles, the energy meter should take 20 seconds to fill up from 0%.

If moving nonstop without obstacles and one of the following applies to movement: slowness, sneaking, swimming, blocking...the energy meter should take 10 seconds to drop from 100% to 0%.

If standing still, locked in place, or if two or more of the following applies to movement: slowness, sneaking, swimming, blocking...the energy meter should take 7 seconds to drop from 100% to 0%.
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Thank you!

I agree that the armor is weak and for sure the damage output I had is laughably low. Especially against classes that have endless healing abilities, less than 2 hearts of damage (even as true damage) per bolt would be a joke even with perfectly aimed hits. I was envisioning a battle between a kinetic and a heavy, and how knockbacks are already a huge headache for any melee-only class (especially the one that has no way of slowing their opponent down). Poor skilled heavy players currently stand no chance against any skilled premium class player (except maybe assassins and ninjas - but even those classes can just escape), lol.

I don't think the armor level should be increased though. The fact that any great fall can heal a kinetic easily balances out their armor being on the moderately low side. If anything the iron helm might be removed, but I wanted to have the class easily spotted and identified from somewhat far away and currently the only other class that appears gray and blue at a distance rarely if ever moves fast (dwarf).

Well since the blast drains the energy meter to 0% anyway, it probably should cause damage to all enemies, you're right. But part of the reason the kinetic is launched up at the same time is because a great enough fall would grant them healing so it doubles as a way for them to self heal regardless of the terrain as long as the area above them is clear. It also is meant to help them perform a single mid-air leap as long as they have the energy built up for it.

I personally think multiple blast effects would be far too OP though, but this new class idea is pretty much just a basis. If the game leaders decide that a more impressive or powerful blast is better balanced, then so be it!

Adding buffs caused by the blast would be a bit OP as well. If a battle begins by a surprise kinetic rushing in and blasting everyone in an area away, they're already forced to move somewhere else (and even the direction that certain players were knocked away toward was probably roughly planned by the kinetic). That's already a pretty strong advantage to start off with, and I'm changing it up to allow it to cause damage after all, so everyone in the blast area would start off injured from it too.

Yeah, again I agree about the damage output being way too low. I'll increase the damage output from the kinetic bolts to 2 hearts of true damage as requested for now and see what the community and game leaders think. I'm staying away from 3 hearts because with up to 4 bolts available with a full energy meter, it's unfair to others to have a kinetic run up and spam the bolts out all at once to near-instantly kill any player (besides, instant kills by surprise are already covered by assassins). However, spamming the bolts out at 2 true hearts each and having them all hit an unsuspecting player to deal 8 hearts of damage would definitely put them on their toes and keep them mindful of fast moving kinetics.

Instead of branching off to hit other targets to give the bolts their own character, I'm adding a twisting effect to help against ranged attackers (like mages and elves especially) when the bolts hit by randomly turning them around and skewing their aim. I'm also removing the knockback on them. Knockbacks from a distance already come from too many other classes, and kinetics don't need knockback on EVERYTHING they can do, lol.

I really like this idea exactly as you've suggested! And it makes sense for the class too. I'm going to have to change up how the energy meter charges and discharges because of it.

 

This is a possibility. I was starting off thinking of visually only, keeping some diamond without much and pairing it with one of the most easy to spot armor pieces: the helmet. I just didn't want to go too strong with the armor because the heals from falling could help balance that with surviveability, as long as the kinetic is able to climb up enough drop offs to keep up with the damage they're taking in battle. In addition to all that, most attackers would suffer falling damage if they directly chased a kinetic off ledges to help keep up. They'd likely be a pretty slippery class!

Yes, it takes 2 seconds of no energy before damage is suffered. On this note, I'm not sure if a full energy meter should have a delay from slow movement or standing still before the energy drops, but at the moment I'm thinking not...just because the most powerful attack (kinetic blast) should be something that should only be available in real time so ANY slowing down would allow opponents a better chance of avoiding having to deal with that painful pushing blast.

I haven't mentioned anything in the suggestion (yet) about a warning to the kinetic when energy runs low or even when it runs out. When the meter is at 50% or higher, the kinetic gets Speed I so suddenly noticing that Speed I went away could act as one warning (that it dropped below 50%), but with a chemist's buffs the Speed I wouldn't go away...so in that case either the player would have to stay mindful (like when steaks, potions, arrows, etc. supplies run low on other classes) or some kind of warning could pop up if the game leaders believe that's more fair.

This is also true, but the limiter here would be the time it takes to climb up that high between drops. If they're already that high, a dangerous fight against a ninja or soldier up there could offer the kinetic a quick recovery from one huge drop or several smaller-but-far-enough drops in a row, true, but it gives no unfair advantage in combat aside from an escape because climbing back up to that huge (let's say 15+ block) height to return to fighting after healing is much harder for the kinetic. With armor that is too much stronger, this kind of healing could easily become overpowered though, so that would certainly be a detail that would need testing I think.

In the case of high jump sponges, they could certainly be exploited to keep a kinetic fully healed. That's a concern I hadn't thought out quite as thoroughly... But sponges could be a death sentence for a kinetic too. A medic could toss webs and stop the kinetic at the sponge and then place more webs to keep the kinetic's energy meter down. Even a single web and rushing in with the sword could give a medic a fairly easy kill for a kinetic who likes a high jump sponge a little too much.

I'll need to think about it a bit more, but perhaps a cooldown that directly relates to how much was healed could solve this problem. Have a one-second cooldown for every 1/2 heart that was healed seems reasonable and easy to follow. Huge drops would mean a longer delay, at up to 19 seconds if a kinetic took a huge lucky fall with only 1/2 a heart left to survive with.

Another possibility is to incur a ground impact healing cooldown timer whenever a kinetic steps onto a sponge. Perhaps 7 seconds (the time it takes to completely empty a full energy bar if not moving at all) so that the kinetic can't just easily take a sponge up and wait for the cooldown to drop back down and fully heal without a drawback.

Thank you! One step at a time.
I hope to see it in game someday too.

 

I've made a few changes based on what you've all pointed out, and I agree now that when compared to most other classes and what they can do to take down other players, the armor of the kinetic was laughably weak. I've decided on diamond boots and leggings, removing the helm altogether. This isn't a huge boost in armor, but it's substantial enough to at least be able to effectively react to an ambush from some of the heavy hitters in CTF.

I've simplified the Speed I boost by making it a passive Turbo-Charged status that constantly applies. This would likely make the server happier too by having one less thing to keep track of for each kinetic player in a match.

The kinetic blast concept has been made more powerful now, and the damage output idea for kinetic bolts has been increased to 3 true hearts as some of you suggested (and as I resisted up until now, lol). The cost has been increased to 35% so nearly 3 can be spammed, but a bit more movement has to continue first before that 3rd one can be tossed. If rushing in with kinetic bolts on someone who has very slow reflexes, the final blows can be delivered from the shovel. With Speed I being constantly active, even the Knockback I effect wouldn't keep the unsuspecting target too far away for a second or third whack to finish them off if need be. And by then, another bolt might be ready to unleash.

A cooldown on the healing effect from taking big falls (Ground Impact Healing) was added so that this type of healing cannot be easily exploited from things like high-jump sponges that lead up to treetops or clifftops.

Also, as of now the energy meter wouldn't begin to drop at all unless movement is stopped or hindered for 1.5 seconds. This also helps kinetics who would have latency/lag issues. The damage suffered from having no energy had its delay decreased from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds as well. Effectively moving in a conspicuous way (revealing the nameplate, and not being kited/hindered) immediately resets these delays. Intermittent sneaking would be possible without losing any energy, but it'd still be ill advised and trickier even though the 1.5 second delay would be easy enough to reset by taking a brief normal step or two. For one thing, the name plate would be popping up during the normal movement and giving away your location through the walls. For another thing, not much energy (if any) would be increasing even though it wouldn't be decreasing so if it's less than full it might've been able to be filled up in the same amount of time that was spent trying to keep it virtually unchanged while intermittently sneaking around.

I've clarified the phrasing on some of the details and abilities as well so hopefully there is much less confusion.

Lastly, for those who saw the voting/poll set to "Public" before, I've changed it to "Private" in case you'd rather not be known. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to remove the "Undecided, but just wanted to say hello." option, so you'd have to say hello in the comments for anyone (including me) to know who said it, ha.

 

LOL! Sorry for the late reply, I just now realized that although I stamped your message as "Funny" way back when, I completely failed to actually respond! I read over my idea again and I noticed that some of it needed to be phrased better, so I think as it's phrased NOW is how I'll leave it unless I'm approached with serious consideration, and if tweaks are strongly suggested for it, by the Development Team.

I'm glad you like the concept, and it's probably a good thing you didn't read it all because some of it (Kinetic Blast description specifically) wasn't quite right before the corrections I made to its description a moment ago...