A welder idea...

[Breadsticks_]

This idea only occurred to me after a post I saw asking about the Support and what uses the welder has. It really does make me wonder why the welder isn't more of an exclusive item to the support.

WHY CAN'T THE WELDER REPAIR ARMOUR? (Obviously Support skill) Like the ammo bag, it is only used once per round per player.

How it would work is that there is an icon above a player's head similar to the ammo bag or grenade pouch, indicating if a player has received your ability. With the welder equipped at full charge, you expend all of your welder charge that you would normally use on a door to give the targeted player 25% of their maximum armour (by approaching them and pressing the weld button). Like healing with the syringe, you are rewarded dosh for providing the skill.

It gives Armour longevity that it so desperately needs
You increase your synergy with SWAT, Field Medic and Survivalist
Your welder can actually be used on maps that have a lot less doors
The Support actually stays true to its name, a SUPPORT.

Obviously the Ammo Pouch upgrade at level 20 gives armour, since instead provides 20 armour + a magazine and a half. Perhaps a skill to challenge ammo pouch is an improved armour supplier; providing two uses of the welder per player per round.

 

[Patros]

Yeah, sounds good. If I understood correctly, that you want to remove the armour from ammo pouch and make it an active skill. That would increase welder use and you could decide who benefits from your armour charges the most.

BTW: Wouldn't it be fun, if you could unweld rioter, E.D.A.R and boss armour?

 

[Breadsticks_]

Yeah, sounds good. If I understood correctly, that you want to remove the armour from ammo pouch and make it an active skill. That would increase welder use and you could decide who benefits from your armour charges the most.

BTW: Wouldn't it be fun, if you could unweld rioter, E.D.A.R and boss armour?

That would be very fun, but very useless hahah
I like how we are going full ham on the gimmick side of the welder

 

[Aleflippy]

That's actually an idea that has been thrown around since the early days of KF2 ha ha ha.

I personally believe that it would be better for the SWAT to give out some armor similarly to the extra grenades and ammo of the Demo and Support respectively, but we already discussed about that too.

If I remember correctly, Aze said that the main issue would be to cheese the game that way... Something I kinda half-agreed. I mean, I'm almost certain some teams would go as far as keeping one Cyst alive, running around the map only to get everyone to max armor before the Trader Time begins. Saving 300D per teammate, PER WAVE sounds like a great bonus indeed.

I honestly believe a one-off would be better rather than something that can be abused. But then, the problem still stands...what should we do about the welder?

Maybe it could also be some sort of limited ability. Like let's say you can give back 33% armor, three times a wave... unrelated to the actual "charge" of the welder (and limited to either the support or SWAT). That way, you could either grand a full armor to one of your teammate, or split it. Maybe even increase it to 50% (as it tends to get chewed on pretty easily on harder difficulties). I'm not sure. But while I believe it should be more interesting, I also believe that having heavy limitations on it is a necessity. I don't exactly know how you would explain it in-game, but at least gameplay-wise it could bring a new layer of strategy. Should we give back the whole armor to the zerk so he can go back to soak the damage for the team? Should we save it for the badly-wounded teammate? Maybe give it to the teammates who bought a new gun and couldn't max out their armor !

I guess that "armor-injection" idea is a bit unorthodox, but that's the best way I can think of to make it work without breaking the game.