techamanoon

[guarshroom]

I can be normal about Random Crits in TF2.

[tf2workbench]

Group therapy

All of the Medic’s Ubercharges are seriously limited in that they only affect one target at once, and even swapping targets reduces their overall duration. I want to experiment with changing that, building an Ubercharge that affects every teammate in a radius.

Group Medigun Iteration 1 (*) Ubercharge provides 50% damage resistance and regular Medigun healing to yourself and all teammates in a radius

So, it’s kind of like the Battalion’s Backup, but more so. And like the Backup, it has upsides and downsides, especially when contrasted with the other Ubercharges.

Exponential utility It’s always good to have teammates supporting each other, but this Ubercharge takes it to the next level by requiring that teammates stick close to the Medic. Depending on how large the radius is (I’m imagining it roughly equivalent to the Amputator’s taunt), quite a few teammates can benefit from it at once. That can be a huge asset that a single Ubercharge target, no matter how invulnerable, might not be able to match. We’ll explore best- (and worst-)case scenarios further down in the post.

Exponential danger 50% resistance doesn’t equal invulnerability, and any time a bunch of players cluster up, they’re at increased risk of splash damage. Soldiers, Demos, and Pyros can output large amounts of damage against a clustered group despite the damage reduction. Moreover, because teammates can sometimes block their allies’ shots, there are real dangers to clustering up, just as there are advantages. This is a good thing; we want this weapon to have reasonable counter-strategies.

Communication requirements Because it requires that the team move and act as one, this charge’s effectiveness can be very different depending on how willing and able teammates are to play along. This will make it complicated to balance, since we need to account for the best- and worst-case scenarios.

On a related note, I’d like there to be a “forgiveness” period when you walk out of the resistance radius - say, half a second where your resistance stays the same, allowing you to move back into the circle without being penalized. This is just a simple anti-frustration feature designed to account for the fact that teammates won’t always move in the exact same way.

Healing through walls One thing that’s worth mentioning is that, for the Amputator’s taunt, it will continue healing a target within the radius as long as that target had line-of-sight to the Medic when the taunt started - even if they move behind a wall during the taunt. For the purpose of this charge, I’d like it to not affect targets behind walls. This forces the Medic to put themselves in danger and is more intuitive for both the users and the enemies.

Against other Ubercharges More than any other charge, this one can range between incredibly powerful and barely noticeable, simply because it depends so much on how many teammates are using it. But we’ll have to play out both situations to determine if and when the weapon is fun for both teams.

Against the stock Ubercharge, a well-coordinated team can’t outright kill the Medic/pocket pair, but they will almost certainly be able to survive the duration of the Uber with minimal losses. Classes like Pyros will have an easier time pushing the invulnerable duo around, too.

But in the worst case, this is just a worse version of the stock Ubercharge, since it charges no faster and doesn’t give total invulnerability. Barring an extraordinarily bad class matchup and skill differential, the stock Ubercharge will likely stall this Uber in its tracks.

The Kritzkrieg is probably the strongest charge to use against this. 50% damage resistance is a lot, but it won’t stop a sustained critical barrage, especially from area effects. The worst-case scenario for the Kritz pair is that they die prematurely, but they’ll likely be able to do serious damage to the enemy - and because they charge faster, they’ll be able to do it before this group-Uber is ready. Infinitely more so if the resistance Medic has few people to give resistances to.

The Quick-Fix runs into similar problems as the stock Ubercharge, but those are exacerbated because a coordinated team can easily put out more damage than the megaheal can recover. It’s very likely that the Quick-Fix duo would find themselves unable to kill any of the buffed team and be dead in short order. On the plus side, they do charge faster, but it can be hard to pick off a Medic while you’re using the Quick-Fix.

In the best case, most Medic heal targets wouldn’t be able to kill a Quick-Fix duo if they were all alone. There are exceptions, though, such as a skilled Demo or Heavy. I predict a two-on-two would be a roughly even fight depending on who each Medic was charging.

As usual, the Vaccinator would have problems facing a “real” Ubercharge of any kind. But even if they had all four charges ready, the Vaccinator Medic would have serious problems facing a coordinated assault with multiple damage types.

On the other hand, a good Vaccinator duo can easily pick off a Medic with an uncoordinated team, and three or four charge bars would 1) completely shut out most opposing duos and 2) charge considerably faster than this gun.

What does this mean? Overall, I think this medigun would contribute to a slower game where defensive positions are trickier to dislodge. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but for classes who do best as shock troops, it can be a little discouraging to be unable to push forward.

It’s also worth noting that, because of the relatively slow charge time and vulnerability of the Medic, this gun does have reasonable counters. A blitzkrieg (or Kritzkrieg) offense is a great way to deal with it. We’d have to playtest to make sure, but for now, I’m very pleased with how we’ve created a unique Ubercharge that can bring a lot of options to the game.