Teleporting Specimen "Specter"

[9_6]

Equipped with superhuman reflexes and a teleportation device, spectres are designed to get close to and eliminate armed forces.
Their teleportation reflex is only being triggered by high velocity projectiles such as bullets, grenades, rockets or bolts and makes them teleport towards the direction the projectile came from, eventually leading to them being right in your face before you know it.

Here's a little scribble showing how they look:

Model made by VidGameDude
(yes, more boobs. Saggy boobs!)

What does it do?

It walks towards you a little slower than a clot.
If shot with bullets or bolts, it only takes a fraction of the damage and teleports a step towards you, jamming its giant carpet-cutters into your back in no time if you are foolish enough to spray a whole mag into its direction.
Due to the helmet, it is also resistant to headshots; headshots simply do the same damage as bodyshots: almost none.

The best way to deal with spectres is to get all close and personal and slaughter them with melee weapons since they are simply too slow to trigger the teleportation reflex.
They also can not react to fire so burning them down with the flamethrower is also an effective method to deal with them too.

Explosions, such as AoE from grenades and pipebombs make spectres teleport away from the impact, nullifying most of the damage.

Health and damage wise, it has about the same health as a gorefast, not all that much but most damage gets soaked up by teleporting, and deals a little less damage than a it.
It is supposed to be as common as sirens.

They're supposed to counteract everything that shoots bullets, especially the sharpshooter who can't really do all to much against it since headshots are treated like bodyshots due to the resistance.
Spraying commandos will also fall victim to this one quickly, looking what you're aiming at is key.

Thoughts?

 

[SMIFF]

Nice drawing, looks creepy and in tone with KF.

If it moves around like voldo from soul blade then its a perfect addition. lol

 

[Olivier]

That would be nice

Shooting it in the legs would also be a good way to kill it i suppose?

 

[CandleJack]

Hooooly sht.

The is the best idea ever.

I'm completely in agreeance with this, but with one question: does it get stunned like a scrake in melee?

The Spectre is an awesome idea that with a little tweaking is exactly the right thing KF needs.

 

[S3R4PH!M]

ok that thing is nice, it fits to kf and i would like to see it there soon.

 

[9_6]

I'm completely in agreeance with this, but with one question: does it get stunned like a scrake in melee?

It has the health of a gorefast.
That means 2 slashes and it's down so yeah, I guess it does get stunned.

 

[HaTeMe]

Gives sharpshooters something to fear, and makes berserker a little more useful.

Id fully support this.

 

[Badbloody]

Gives sharpshooters something to fear, and makes berserker a little more useful.

Id fully support this.

Same, the worst enemy for a M14's users (and i hate the m14 8D).

Nice drawning , great idea !

 

[Nejc382]

Epic idea and would be a great addition to the game

/sign

 

[SMIFF]

Id like to hear nutterbutter's opinion on this.

 

[HalfDemon]

Basically perfect for killing floor.

You deserve a medal for the picture alone, and several more for the idea.

 

[InDeX*]

100/5 simply perfect, with a few changes i would love to face this new specimen in the game.

 

[Drakonic]

Definatel 10 out of 10, would love to see new specimens in the game and this one gives me a challenge (yes I play marksman/sharpshooter)

 

[Sammers]

My thoughts are:
1)How would a bullet-heavy class be able to cope with them in solo mode? Unless the knife is incredibly effective too, might be a problem
2)There is no two.

All in all a very good idea, if a tad tough to implement. Reminds me of Houdini Splicers from Bioshock.

 

[[UIT] Akame]

@Sammers
I'm not sure what 9_6 thinks but it only have the health of a gorefast so it would see reasonable to kill it with the knife.

As for the general design, it seems to be one of the better specs that I have seen. Many of them try to be tough enemies that show up very little and would have little effect on the game. It also seem to be built towards the game once the balance update has been released rather than trying to be excessively polarized against SS.

Seems like a good addition and would have my support if TWI eventually decides to get back to KF after they are done with RO:HOS.

 

[9_6]

My thoughts are:
1)How would a bullet-heavy class be able to cope with them in solo mode? Unless the knife is incredibly effective too, might be a problem

Since you can't decap it, it's like killing a gorefast with knife bodyshots.
I didn't count the swipes needed yet but that might be a bit tedious so packing an ax, katana or a fattyknife to speed the process up might be a good idea.
Everyone has room for one of those.

Just shoot it to isolate it from the group and hack away.
Should be no problem if you know what you're doing. It might be distracting and leave you open though since you change weapons and stuff which is why you need to know what you're doing.

All in all a very good idea, if a tad tough to implement.

There are ways to make it easier if an insta-teleportation script is hard to do.
I can see how that might end up with specimens ending up in walls and stuff.

Making it completely invisible (leaving some "flash flash" behind), move towards you at high speed and visible again could pass as "teleport", for example.
It could also leave a trail behind so it is being a bit more recognizeable as "teleport" rather than "glitch".
I don't know, I have no idea of the inner workings of things.

 

[nutterbutter]

Id like to hear nutterbutter's opinion on this.

Well, I saw this last night and I wanted to think about it for overnight.


The Good

1) People have to pay attention while fighting.
2) Eliminates one shot headshot killings
3) Brings renewed importance to melee and flamer
4) Can put a specimen behind the team in a barricade


The Bad

1) Completely screws over sharpshooter, demo, commando, support, and possibly medic. The problem is that only melee weapons or fire can kill specter. That means a few different things.
1a) Every team HAS to have a firebug or berserker. And since specter appears as often as a siren, that firebug or melee has to be on specter duty all of the time because
1b) Only melee or firebug can kill specter. On hard or suicide, sharpshooter, demo, commando, support, and possibly medic are effectively useless against specter. All of their main weapons can't kill specter and they only have a knife. An unperked knife, in the middle of combat, is damn useless against a suicide level gorefast.
1c) A way to counter this is for every person in the group to carry a katana. So now specter has the effect of reducing every player's carry capacity by 3.
2) Can completely screws over the team if the specter is in the front of a group of mobs. For example, say the team is at the intersection of a couple halls. Now put a specter or a couple specters at the front of the group. There is no way to shoot the other mobs without hitting the specter first.
2a) If the team has a firebug, the firebug may be able to shoot the specter in the distance.
2b) So the team can try to pull the specter closer and have a melee (if the team has one go out and attack.
2c) The melee can go out at attack the specter, but the farther the melee has to go, the farther the melee is from the group. Yes, that sounds obvious, but when the berserker has to go 5 seconds away from the group, that means when a specter attacks from a different direction, the berserker has to make up the time to kill the specter, then the five seconds of travel, then the additional time to get to the new berserker. During this time, every projectile weapon can't shoot because if they hit the specter the specter gets closer and only melee weapons or fire can kill it.
3) There is nothing wrong with tailoring a mob to be more effective or more susceptible to a specific weapon or perk, but completely eliminating damage from every other weapon or perk isn't good balance.


Additional Questions

1) In the UK, wouldn't that be spectre?
2) What happens when two people shoot it at the same time? What about in opposite directions?
3) What "fraction of damage" does it take from a bullet? I'm guessing here, but I would think it would have to be much less than 10% and probably closer to 5% if not less. 10% damage means that the specter has an effective attack range within 9 steps. 9 steps is still very short range so I'm guessing it would be 5% damage and probably lower. With the 20 round capacity of the m14 and the 25 round capacity of the SCAR, a full magazine still kills specter unless damage taken is ever lower than 5%.
4) What happens to the bullets, bolts, or pellets after they hit the specter?
5) What happens to the mobs on the other side of the specter during an explosion?
6) With support, does each pellet count as a hit or does each fired single shell count as a hit? If it is a single shell counts as a hit, then support is really screwed.
7) This completely removes the last hint of the friendly fire cloak.
8) What happens when the specter is attacking someone and another player shoots the specter? Does the specter continue to attack or does the attack draw him off?


My Conclusions

Specter sounds interesting and I like all of the positive attributes. However, either forcing every team to carry a berserker or firebug or forcing every player on a team to purchase a katana and lose 3 weight spots just doesn't make sense to me. I can understand wanting to reduce projectile and demo damage, but completely nerfing (literally) every projectile weapon (what 90% or the weapons in the game?) seems a bit extreme.

 

[YoYoBatty]

If to people shot it at the same time the spectre would go to the one that dealts the most damage then the next and so on. Each bullet deals a random interval of damage based off the weapon.

 

[Sammers]

1b) Only melee or firebug can kill specter. On hard or suicide, sharpshooter, demo, commando, support, and possibly medic are effectively useless against specter. All of their main weapons can't kill specter and they only have a knife. An unperked knife, in the middle of combat, is damn useless against a suicide level gorefast.
1c) A way to counter this is for every person in the group to carry a katana. So now specter has the effect of reducing every player's carry capacity by 3.

Exactly what I was thinking when I asked how you'd kill it in solo. Knifing a Gorefast takes an assload of time, ESPECIALLY with no head shots. Sure it's not difficult, but If I knifed every Siren to death, It'll rape me for all the time I have and give everything else time to remove my innards. Like I said though it's a good idea. What about if the Spectre was given a lot of health and teleported towards a randomly targetted player when it takes too much small fire, similar to the Fleshpound raging? Only difference being that it would be able to do this multiple times without an equivelent of "Waiting for it to unrage before it can rage again".

Everyone has room for one of those.

Also, no they don't.

One final question too: How many waves until they spawn?

 

[9_6]

Dunno.
One wave after sirens spawn I supose, depending on game length.

Also, no they don't.

Sorry if that shatters your tried and true strategies and makes different loadouts actually a viable option but you can still kite them and stab them to death once it's safe.
They're not supposed to move fast if not shot after all. Slower than a clot even.

1) Completely screws over sharpshooter, demo, commando, support, and possibly medic. The problem is that only melee weapons or fire can kill specter. That means a few different things.
1a) Every team HAS to have a firebug or berserker. And since specter appears as often as a siren, that firebug or melee has to be on specter duty all of the time because
1b) Only melee or firebug can kill specter. On hard or suicide, sharpshooter, demo, commando, support, and possibly medic are effectively useless against specter. All of their main weapons can't kill specter and they only have a knife. An unperked knife, in the middle of combat, is damn useless against a suicide level gorefast.
1c) A way to counter this is for every person in the group to carry a katana. So now specter has the effect of reducing every player's carry capacity by 3.

1a) Indeed. So they have a reason to exist.
1b) Pretty much, yes. Fortunately you only have ~30-40 specimens to deal with solo and can avoid them and take care of other enemies first, which means you can't camp, or you have a team and, hopefully, someone who will take care of those pests.
1c) It's the same thing as having a crossbow guy just to be able to deal with scrakes right now.
Also why every player, 1 is enough. Same as the crossbow guy.

2) Can completely screws over the team if the specter is in the front of a group of mobs. For example, say the team is at the intersection of a couple halls. Now put a specter or a couple specters at the front of the group. There is no way to shoot the other mobs without hitting the specter first.
2a) If the team has a firebug, the firebug may be able to shoot the specter in the distance.
2b) So the team can try to pull the specter closer and have a melee (if the team has one go out and attack.
2c) The melee can go out at attack the specter, but the farther the melee has to go, the farther the melee is from the group. Yes, that sounds obvious, but when the berserker has to go 5 seconds away from the group, that means when a specter attacks from a different direction, the berserker has to make up the time to kill the specter, then the five seconds of travel, then the additional time to get to the new berserker. During this time, every projectile weapon can't shoot because if they hit the specter the specter gets closer and only melee weapons or fire can kill it.

2a) And the day is saved.
2b) Once again, problem solved.
2c) Solution: Use its ability against it, don't have the berserker walk for 5 seconds, shoot the specter so it teleports towards you.
That also isolates it from the group and the berserker can take care of it while you keep the other mobs at distance.
Hooray, teamwork!

3) There is nothing wrong with tailoring a mob to be more effective or more susceptible to a specific weapon or perk, but completely eliminating damage from every other weapon or perk isn't good balance.

It's not elimitated completely.

1) In the UK, wouldn't that be spectre?

...yeah english ain't my first language.

2) What happens when two people shoot it at the same time? What about in opposite directions?

Idunnolol.
Is that even possible. The game system will sort out which player it targets then, probably a random one.

3) What "fraction of damage" does it take from a bullet? I'm guessing here, but I would think it would have to be much less than 10% and probably closer to 5% if not less. 10% damage means that the specter has an effective attack range within 9 steps. 9 steps is still very short range so I'm guessing it would be 5% damage and probably lower. With the 20 round capacity of the m14 and the 25 round capacity of the SCAR, a full magazine still kills specter unless damage taken is ever lower than 5%.

Do you even know how big one "step" is? Cause I don't.
How about 10 feet?
Being able to teleport over 90 feet towards you when shot with the strongest weapons sounds sufficient to me.
Also I was thinking something around 10%. Killing 10 gorefasts with bodyshots takes a lot of firepower so I guess that'll do.
Of course, no value is set in stone, it's just a concept after all.

4) What happens to the bullets, bolts, or pellets after they hit the specter?

They hit it.
It has a huge resistance against those and damage from those sources triggers the teleportation.
Makes no sense, probably, but this is a game about shooting zombies in the face and this seems to be the simplest way to implement it so who cares.
Bolts and pellets tend to pass through enemies anyway.

5) What happens to the mobs on the other side of the specter during an explosion?

The same thing that happens to everything during an explosion.
All the specter does is jump away from it real fast.

6) With support, does each pellet count as a hit or does each fired single shell count as a hit? If it is a single shell counts as a hit, then support is really screwed.

Each projectile counts as a hit but one shotgun blast can only trigger the teleport once anyway.

7) This completely removes the last hint of the friendly fire cloak.

What is that, is it important? Do we need it?

8) What happens when the specter is attacking someone and another player shoots the specter? Does the specter continue to attack or does the attack draw him off?

It teleports towards whoever shoots it.
You can play specter pong with your team that way.

Specter sounds interesting and I like all of the positive attributes. However, either forcing every team to carry a berserker or firebug or forcing every player on a team to purchase a katana and lose 3 weight spots just doesn't make sense to me. I can understand wanting to reduce projectile and demo damage, but completely nerfing (literally) every projectile weapon (what 90% or the weapons in the game?) seems a bit extreme.

Extreme circumstances require extreme measures.