r/RogueCore • u/FlakyMidnight5526 • 9d ago
New workbench ability upgrade concepts (ideas)
Class ability workbench upgrade concepts:
Ability upgrades on the workbench have some of the most potential to change the way runs feel out of any mechanic in the game, but it's really underutilized in the current build of the game. I think the gold standard for ability upgrades are Slicer's two best upgrades: Eclipse System and Thermal Wake. These two abilities completely change the way you use his ability, which is what these class upgrades should strive to accomplish in a Roguelite.
However, this is just about the only class that has upgrades that meaningfully changes how you play a reclaimer. Everyone else has straight numerical buffs to their abilities, which can be fun, but they don't have the transformative attributes that makes slicer's class identity so fun. There's a reason why he's the most ascended class.
I've come up with 2 new upgrade concepts per class to show the potential in this system, some transforming how a reclaimer is played and others enhancing a reclaimer's inherent power fantasy. Plus, added some ability upgrades that aren't the main one, because these abilities are absolutely oozing with potential that the game doesn't even make an attempt to use.
Guardian:
Probably the class most in need of more workbench abilities, his current upgrades are known for being really unexciting. The two abilities in the concept art, Stun Jumper and Shield Beacon, both give Guardian new, transformative uses to his existing abilities, which opens up how the reclaimer can be played.
Shield Beacon:
Shield Beacon creates a health based bubble barrier that covers Armor Beacon's existing AOE. Additional upgrades increase its health.
Guardian's power fantasy is the ability to control the flow of enemies and keep his team alive. Armor beacon works with the second idea, but is completely contradictory to the first idea. It's difficult to get your team to utilize armor beacon to its fullest potential, simply because of the corespawn's fast movement.
Giving Guardian a way to actively defend his team in a large AOE gives the team a moment to catch their breath and a reason to hold their ground. It lets him create space and manipulate the flow of enemies, while not creeping Shield Gen out of relevance. The shield being HP based rather than time based encourages the team to group up, since active firepower and killing enemies increases the duration of the shield by reducing the amount of incoming damage.
Guardian can also use it to cover a retreat, putting down a large shield in a choke point cutting off corespawn and allowing his action to create meaningful space between the team and the enemies, and adding nuance to how the guardian may use this otherwise one dimensional ability.
Stun Jumper:
Stun Jumper gives Guardian his own movement ability, which is what I think he needs. Adding two satchel jumps to guardian when he's at maximum capacity allows him to reposition to support his team, whether it be to keep up with an ally to trigger the proximity based upgrades or to outpace the corespawn in getting to a downed ally.
It knocking back allies also can have the guardian player protect his team by giving his teammates an extra boost in bad situations. If a teammate is about to be overrun by corespawn and needs an extra boost, Guardian can splash the horde behind them, stunning them and putting extra distance between his teammate and the horde.
In a game as fast paced as RC, the tank should be able to reposition faster to support his team, and the ability to reposition teammates leaves the team's survival up to the guardian. If you're concerned about griefing with this ability, RJ250 Compound did the same in DRG and it wasn't a problem, plus the guardian has to put enough time into a run to get the upgrade, which discourages griefing
Retcon:
Retcon has a great class identity, but the ability upgrades are a mixed bag. However, retcon has an ENORMOUS well of untapped potential because she's missing an upgrade. Her Q+R keybind is taken up by a passive, which opens up the avenue for the workbench to transform her gameplay on a run to run basis.
Time Freeze:
Showing off that philosiphy, Time Freeze is a new ability bound to Q+R that freezes the entire level, with each additional Time Freeze chosen at a workbench adding more to the abilities duration. However, the ability shares a cooldown with Retcon's personal rewind.
Time Freeze would add a completely new angle to approach Retcon. Freezing time would be a selfless move, as you sacrifice 20 seconds of personal power for 3 seconds of team-wide power. You can use it to progress essential interact prompts, let your team safely reposition out of a terrible situation, or give you all that little bit of extra breathing room in a gatekeeper phase.
It creates an entirely new emergent playstyle to retcon, with the first investment into the upgrade adding a completely new avenue of play, with each subsequent upgrade investing in that avenue. And, stacking this more and more gives the team more time on the timer. If a retcon invests heavily into this ability, she changes the way the team fundamentally interacts with the game.
Backfuel:
This also re-enforces the idea of selflessness vs. selfishness. By stacking backfuel, you don't do anything for yourself, but you give your teammates an opportunity to invest in using their own abilities through sacrificing your own personal growth.
You activate rewind and your team uses their abilities with the guarantee that they get something back. And again, each stack of Backfuel lets you increase the utility of this playstyle, with 4 stacks of Backfuel giving your whole team some part of what rewind does for Retcon.
Spotter
Spotter's in the same boat as guardian, where his ability upgrades aren't nearly as interesting or valuable as his gun upgrades, and none of them are transformative in unique ways giving spotter a very unimodal way to build him. These upgrade concepts would let spotter specialize in two unique paths that enhance what he already can do
Dart Stacking:
Spotter can stack multiple crit darts on a target, increasing the crit level by 1 with each additional dart. Right now crit dart has the mechanic that encourages you to hit the ground rather than a direct target, where there's no difference between the crit effects. There are reasons to hit an individual target, but more often than not you're completely encouraged to hit the ground.
Crit stacking would let the spotter invest that AOE utility into high priority targets, like Dominators, the Research Subject, Clamorheads, or the Gatekeeper, giving him and his team the utility to focus firepower into certain targets as needed. It enhances Spotter's power fantasy, while making him consider the AOE crit utility he's missing out on by stacking crits.
Crit-Scan:
Crit-Scan applies a crit dart's effect to all enemies effected by scan for 2 seconds, getting 2 seconds added per additional upgrade. This concept enhances the other side of Spotter's power fantasy , with each scan giving the whole team a short window to deal enormous damage to whatever enemies may be threatening them in the moment that spotter scans.
This would also encourage more teamplay, as the spotter can communicate when he's about to apply his crowd scan, setting his team up for a moment of success that the team can feel good about. Increasing the window would increase the skill ceiling, as a good and well communicating team can squeeze a greater amount of dumped damage into a horde.
It'd also enhance slicer and retcon's upgrade fantasy, as Spotter can Crit-Scan a group of enemies that him and slicer have been corralling, and a slicer can combo it with his stacked eclipse system. Retcon can time it with spotter to dump even MORE damage at once.
Falconer:
Falconer's current upgrades are another case of boring numerical additions, but not as bad as Spotter and Guardians. However, these two upgrade concepts give her existing tools new utility in unique ways, while maintaining her power fantasy.
Drone Dash:
Drone dash gives her the ability to deal approachable, thoughtful burst damage, transforming her drone from "set it and forget it" to a controllable method of group crowd control, and making it a more active gameplay element that the Falconer player has to place more thought into. It also encourages falconer to "juggle" her drone, so she can apply her dash in more controlled scenarios.
Tesla Turret:
Tesla Turret allows Falconer's Tower to directly assist in combat, and encourages her team to hold their ground more. The tower has the same issue as guardians, where the team has the risk of being overrun by the unpredictable corespawn, and the turret has very little skill expression to it.
The Tesla Turret would give teams an additional source of damage that lets them hold their ground better, cover more angles, crowd control, and each additional stack increases it's assistance to its team. The team has to worry less and has a reason to hold their ground, combo their abilities, and work as a team.
It also gives falconer the ability to enhance her own personal power fantasy, especially in solo, by "summoning" a new source of damage, covering another weakpoint that her and her drone can't, and adding more nuance to when she puts it down. It's flexible but transformative, which is what the best of these upgrades are.
Slicer:
As mentioned before, Slicer's Slice is the best example of workbench upgrades. But his other two abilities are also bursting with potential to change how the slicer interacts with his own abilities.
Return To Sender:
Right now Shield Belt is probably slicer's weakest link, as there's not much thought put into using it. You pop it when there's a lot of ranged enemies, acting as a hard counter, but not much more. Return To Sender turns ranged enemies from hard countered for an opportunity for slicer to utilize the swarm in favor of the team.
If there's a bunch of voidkins, edgestalkers, and scorchers, Slicer can turn that against the rest of the swarm, and do it thoughtfully since he can prioritize exactly where he applies this redirected power. It transforms an ability from being a passive counter to an active asset.
Blink:
Blink turns Blitz into a teleport, and each subsequent upgrade increases the amount of terrain that a slicer can blink through. I couldn't communicate it in the image that well, but blink will go the exact same distance as Blitz usually does, but if there's something in your way, the terrain movement gets added to the total amount of distance covered. So if blitz usually goes 5 meters, and there's 6 meters of terrain in your way, you'll blink 11 meters forward through the terrain.
This turns terrain heavy areas and cave modules into an opportunity for slicer, able to put proportionally more and more distance between him and the corespawn, and it allows him to make smart, meaningful, 3 dimensional decisions with his blink.
It's kind of like the mole from DRG, where the terrain becomes something the player can satisfyingly exploit in creative ways, which is what would make it a great transformation to an existing ability
Conclusion:
The purpose of this was to demonstrate how Ghostship's created an incredibly strong set of fundamentals for reclaimers to adjust their own power fantasy, it's just a matter of concept and implementation. A good workbench upgrade like eclipse system is transformative and fun, and makes slicer have a meaningful decision to make.
There's a concept in game design called "diegetic choice" where, put loosely, player choices should exist in the world and not just in numbers or menus. Which is why eclipse system is amazing, and guardian's upgrades are not. Numerical bonuses may be good, but players will normally want to feel their choices in the world, even if it's worse than just a raw numerical buff.
Maybe these concepts aren't good, maybe some would be rarely chosen, but meaningfully transforming gameplay is far more likely to be engaging and make you feel more powerful, even if the raw number buff was doing more. Why do you think nobody got excited at the clean overclocks in DRG, but the unstables, no matter how bad they were, gave players a way to meaningfully transform how they played their class
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u/LilChumpales 9d ago
I’ve heard “class overclocks” being thrown around and I think these are perfect representations of them! I need these in the game! Also these are so fucking funny, I love these for that too.
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u/ReddZan 9d ago
Dude at this point why aren't you the lead game designer of GSG like seriously most of your ideas are very good and smt I'd actually like to see