What values would you guys suggest? I'd considered the same points (risk/reward being a function of the active time/cooldown), but hadn't spent much time playtesting these specific numbers.
Partly, I'm not a fan of huge cooldowns - anything that encourages "I'll just hang out out of range until this thing finishes, then dart in for a few seconds" seems bad. And, as was said, lower cooldowns help the AI by making it that much harder to make a really bad mistake.
Hmm. Wonder what it'd look like with a much lower active duration (1-2 seconds) and a much bigger damage bonus (say, 100-200%). The idea of converting the damage type to high explosive - which I think I saw somewhere around here - also has potential. It'd certainly make it a choice. You might not even need a cooldown, and it could go back to being a toggle, though its use would be rather formulaic (shields down? activate!). Well, bears more thought.
Mh, I see the problem. I'm afraid cooldown would have to be significantly longer to enable the "Is this really the best moment to use this? I could need it later!" thought process.
Maybe the combination of long duration/cooldown and HE damage could work. It would mean that
- There's no point in spamming the system
- Retreat, cooldown and attack would not work since the shields are in the way
- The decision would not be as simple as "shields down? activate!" because an enemy could fake it. To lower your shields, make your opponent activate HEF and then reactivate would be a potent tactic, since your enemy can only deal half damage to shields for some time now. As HEF wielder you can even embrace that risk and determine it is worth getting a few double damage shots in.
It would make the system much weaker, though. Maybe remove the increased system damage?
Sound works fine btw.
Author
Topic: High Energy Focus - auto-deactivate would be nice (Read 25299 times)