Lost Launcher - Upcoming Changes

[WindHunter]

As part of our upcoming tower rebalance, Lost Launcher will be receiving the following proposed changes. Please note that all changes proposed here are provisional and as such as subject to change:

Iteration 1
1. Lost Launcher (r), Infused Rage
   A. Number of attacks required per stage of rage: 4 attacks --> 3 attacks
2. Lost Launcher (b), Blessed Ice Shield
   A. Ice Shield now refreshes every 40 seconds
   B. Ice Shield strength: 600 life points --> 500 life points
   C. New Description - "Every 40 seconds, tower is endowed with an Ice Shield that absorbs up to 500 damage and may restore its absorption capacity by 5 every second."

Iteration 1 Goal
A minor buff to Lost Launcher. As-is Lost Launcher(r) takes a very long time of 26.67 seconds to reach its maximum damage output. With this change, Lost Launcher(r) will reach its first rage stage of +25% in 10 seconds and its maximum rage buff of +50% (2025 dp20) after 20 seconds. Overall, this should allow Lost Launcher(r) to better fulfill its role as the damage affinity.

Lost Launcher (b) spawns with an Ice Shield but if it is lost it never returns. We have slightly reduced the total strength of the Ice Shield in exchange for allowing the Ice Shield to refresh itself every 40 seconds. While this is a long cooldown, towers are not always in combat. The result of this change should be to make Lost Launcher (b) slightly weaker if used for a single engagement but much stronger when used to defend a location over a long period of time. 

[JarodDempsey]

just to clarify for anyone wondering rage on this card goes 100% (1, 2, 3)[0+3.33+3.33]s 125%(4, 5, 6)[+3.33+3.33+3.33]s 150% (7+)[+3.33]s for a total time of 24 seconds to fire a 150% shot. The proposed changes would make this 100%(1, 2)[0+3.33]s 125%(3, 4)[+3.33+3.33]s 150%(5+)[+3.33]s which ends up being 16 seconds to fire a 150% shot. also im looking forward to testing the efficacy of the ice shield, i think it is a step in the right direction overall. 

[vonBoomslang]

Hello! I am new here, but I am the sort of player who shows his love for a game by thinking of additions. And in this case, I do like the Lost Launcher conceptually, but I wish it had a unique niche that isn't better served by equivalent mono-blue or even mono-purple towers.  Specifically, I wish it had something that feels Lost Souls in nature. Thus I would like to put forward this suggested addition:

Active ability: Revenant's Tomb - 50 power - Haunts the structure permanently. Once destroyed, instead of the power going to the void, a ghost of the structure is created in its space. The ghost cannot be targeted, doesn't provide ground presence, and it can fight (though it doesn't get its affinity passive and has reduced damage), and lasts for 25 seconds. Once that time is up, if you have ground presence in the area, the tower is resummoned, though without the haunting, and its HP depends on how much time the ghost spent not fighting. If no ground presence, the tower dies, and the void power is refunded.

Edited May 20, 2022 by vonBoomslang

[Cocofang]

Not possible, unfortunately.

I can't make a building automatically spawn at the place of recently destroyed building using the Revenant mechanic. It crashes the game.

However, what is possible is instead making a unit spawn where the building got destroyed. I could create a new unit that has stats like the tower (or any stats, really) and be immobile. Basically simulating a revived tower. For the purposes of combat at least, excluding things like being able to be repaired, receiving siege damage or being affected by building-mechanics in general. One affinity could spawn a beefy melee unit while the other spawns a fragile ranged unit for example. The unit would spawn at the closest free space, so if the exact position of the destroyed building is occupied, it would get displaced.

Also, I don't think I can withhold void power in the way you described. The closest effect is Willzapper, and that is global.

Mechanically, Revenants and their regular Lost Souls counter parts are actually completely unrelated, different units. Technically, any unit could be made to spawn. It was just made to be a timed replica. In any case it's a completely fresh unit being spawned. Spawning different units (i.e. one with a differing life percentage) after one dies.

Spawning an entity whose life percentage depends on some factors like in-fight time doesn't seem possible. I am not even sure total in-fight or idle time can be tracked. There is rage but its timer resets whenever it ends. Damage dealt can be tracked to some extent though. Like is the case for Batariel and its aura. But twisting that into a condition to spawn different entities, depending on the active stage, sounds like a giant pain, if not downright impossible to begin with.

Un-attackable entities that are still able to fight are possible.

As a general rule of thumb for suggestions: The more similar the suggestion is to something that already exists in-game, the higher the chances it could work. What we do is repurposing existing mechanics and adjusting their parameters to make them appear as if they are doing something different. But the underlying processes remain the same. What exactly constitutes a mechanic though is difficult to explain without looking behind the curtain. Almost all effects in the game consist of multiple individual mechanics working together. Sometimes you can cobble together something that seems completely new, like using the same building bricks that made up a car and instead constructing a jet with them. But you're still constrained by which bricks you have available.