My Mechanic for the Locust should it return. posted a couple of times both here and on 343i.org, But I feel it needs its own thread as I now have planned full Mechanics for it, as well as the levels of damage displays to players.
General Weapon Mechanics
It’s weapons should be the Long Distance Beam, Which should have the DPS of the Warthog Turret, and have dual Plasma Cannons (Ghost DPS). also, each trigger activates a weapon, but they can’t be fired simultaneously. Pressing Y switches the Beam to Overcharge mode like it has in Halo Wars, Which drains it’s shields. In the same sense as holding the trigger in slightly gives the Ghost a slower boost, but it lasts longer, Holding the trigger in further increases the multiplier, Maxing at 1.6x (I will post shield drain rate/seconds below), but decreases your shields faster, and vice versa. Once your shields are depleted, you revert to the normal beam, and can’t use the overcharge until you have full shields again. there is an overheat for both weapons, while one is cooling, the other can still be used. to prevent a constant switch spam, the time it takes to cool-down should take longer than the overheat, so there is a skill gap with this vehicle. It has a potential Longer Range, when used correctly.The 3 Overcharge states
Regular Beam: Blue, 1x Multiplier, No Shield Drain
Overcharges, Y to switch to:
Trigger Held about 1/3s in: 1.2x Multiplier, 2/12s of your shields per second (6 seconds of continuous fire), Blue, thicker than normal beam.
Trigger Held about 2/3s in: 1.4x Multiplier, 3/12s of your shields per second (4 seconds of continuous fire), Purple, thicker than normal beam
Trigger Held fully in: 1.6 Multiplier, 6/12s of your shields per second (2 seconds of continuous fire), Red, Thicker than normal beam.
Shield and Health Mechanics
The shields would follow traditional Halo standards involving Covenant/Storm shields vs. human shields. The Locust would have shields approximately 1.3x better than the Mantis, and as such has 70% less overall health. Both vehicles have the same traits as players, where Plasma beats their shields, while ballistic weaponry is far better on vehicle health. Here are some damage ratios based on Halo weaponry we can assume will return and are often used on vehicles, apart from the Beam Rifle, which I included for the sake of adding all Sniper Rifle variants.
Rocket Launcher: the first removes 90% of the shields, the second would destroy it. If the Locust shields are less than 90%, the rocket deals corresponding damage to health.
Spartan Laser: One beam removes all shields, so 100%. then a second to destroy, same residual damage mechanics as the Rocket Launcher.
Fuel Rod Cannon: 4 Fuel Rods destroy the locust, each shot deals 50% damage to shields, and the 3rd shot leaves the Locust with 40% Health, the last destroys it.
Incineration Cannon: 1 shot leaves it with 25% Health.
Sniper Rifle: The Sniper Rifle would require a full magazine to break shields. Then, the Sniper Rifle takes two shots to finish it.
Beam Rifle: The Beam Rifle can deplete its shields in two shots, but can do no damage to health.
Binary Rifle: This can destroy it in four shots, with the same damage ratios as the Fuel Rod Cannon.
Damage Level 1, 5-20% damage: Slight panel displacement, uncovered wiring
Damage Level 2, 21-40% damage: Complete panel removal, sparks at wiring
Damage level 3, 41-60% damage: Sparks at joints, front panel damage, crooked areas
Damage Level 4, 61-80% damage: small fires, sparks from from panel and weapon areas,
Damage Level 5, 81-99% damage: large fires at joints and cockpit areas, front panel crooked, player visible in areas, warning lights.
Movement Mechanics
I took some long thoughts here. These are both mechs, and act as counterparts to one another, but they do need to have diversity among this. so I looked into the traditional aspects of Halo vehicles for these mechanics (not including the Mantis, as it is not a traditional UNSC ground Vehicle).
Traditionally, Human ground vehicles have had more health, faster top speed (Not including boost), no driver controlled weapons apart from the scorpions, but that’s a tank, and cannot strafe. As opposed to their Covenant/Storm counterparts. The Mantis screwed with that, by having no counterpart in Halo 4, being able to strafe, have shields and so on.
Now that we have these Mantis movement mechanics, changing them to fit UNSC tradition doesn’t really make sense going from 4 to 5, as you essentially remove its best/unique features. Toning down the weapons is a must. But, back to the Locust.
The Locust must now be Built around these mechanics, and I feel I have done this. The Locust Has faster Forward and Backwards speed than the Mantis, but it’s strafing is slower, However, as traditionally, most if not all covey vehicles have a boost of sort, the Locust is no exception. But its is handled differently. to compensate for it’s inability to stomp players nearby, and slow strafing, the Locust gets pond skater-esque “evade” that allows it to quickly dart to the side by about 12 meters. This can be used once per cooldown, and takes 15 seconds to be used again. It can use this to splatter flanking players or quickly dart in or out of cover. I feel this gives it the unique abilities in movement to seperate it from the Mantis.
Over All Features
There should be three versions for forge. the one I stated above, which is purple, and a blue one, that has a the regular beam , the overcharge is a instant drop of all shields, but fires a spartan laser strength beam (blue beam), and takes a full cool-down to use the beam again, and the last one is concussion rifle colored, it fires concussion rifle shots instead of plasma cannons (12 before reload) and the same beam traits as the purple locust, it is better at close range covering itself, but not very good for long range cover when beam is unavailable.The other thread was an accidental double upload somehow, when I tried to change something, so I deleted its contents and aske the mods to delete or lock it for me.
