Zeta Changes

[Ood]

Well, I think most of us would rather see the zeta be a dynamic final boss, than have it be what it is now.

Possible changes:

Make the Zeta spin:
Make it spin, while giving it more passive weapons, and less powerful active ones.
Passive weapons being ones that are always firing, like the ion freighter's bombs, and active ones are ones that directly target a player, obviously.
This lets there be pockets of 'safety' within the zeta complex for a group of tanks to target specific structures while eliminating the 'hornet nest' strategy. This lets other tanks join the party (pally, predator, viking, fury, wildfire, and more suddenly become viable).
Does force a bit of skill into the equation, but that's not entirely bad for a final boss.

Make the Zeta have minions:
This would basically invalidate the current best method (hornet's nest) because the hornets wouldn't be able to so easily target a single structure.
Would allow for more combos (Hornet + herc) of tanks to be more useful.
Other than killing the hornet strategy, this really wouldn't make the Zeta into what I think most players want the zeta to be.

Make the Zeta have phases:
Similar to what was done with RotMG bosses. Invulnerability phases could be introduced to make the fight more difficult. Phases could be designated by a change in color?

Or. Instead of invulnerability phases, it could have weapon phases (or both) again similar to what was done with RotMG bosses. Have a phase that shoots only high range bombs with very little in the short range space, making everyone get close. Then have a mid-range phase, a close range phase, etc.

With any change it is going to be difficult to predict the player response, but nerfing a tank because it is good at killing a boring boss seems to be a lame solution.

Any other ideas?

[Kelsoo]

Adding an invincibility seems like one of the lamest ideas, especially when the Zeta has a hard enough time being killed, though as a way to signal changing of phases it could be implemented, though I wouldn't understand why.

If minions were to be added in my opinion it would be best to have them circle far outside the facilities, that way your crowd control tanks get a bigger purpose for making a constant path to the tower.

I like the idea of using a variety of tanks to ultimately push your way up to the main tower and have a battle with it that is then initiated by (as Rob has said) the breaking of a shield.

I think the Zeta has a huge possibility of being a literal "Epic" and constant changing/dynamic boss. Imagine your crowd control tanks keep a constant path open for Hercs to run in and bomb the outer and inner facilities stunning them for tanks to run in and do their part.

Eventually taking out the outer facilities with Hornets once you maybe open up some pockets? You can get in your Predators and Pallys for boosts while your corsairs tank some of the main lasers.

Maybe consider making it so the mines have to travel a certain distance as well? Not being able to just be thrown right next to the main tower?

The idea of having the main tower circle could work so Fury's and Phantoms and the likes can have their fun and such once the outer and inners have been cleared by a Hornets nest/ Herc tactics.

And what of the idea of removing/changing the timer on the Zeta? I would propose not having the timer start until the Zeta has been "activated" or having the main facility remain invincible until a majority or all of the surrounding ones have been defeated, thus starting a timer which is where you would go into..


Zeta's different phases, phases where it twists around, phases where it fires constant lasers and the such, anyone have ideas on phases for that?

[hypevosa]

Making the zeta spin sounds awesome and effective, it would certainly decrease hornet effectiveness. Depending on the spin speed, it would make multi target tanks much more effective since moving to stay on target would also mean moving out of the way of bombs.

[Ood]

Spinning Zeta:

Yes, the little arms are not exact, but you get the idea)

[gingerbear]

However, if the Zeta gets more difficult (and even invincible for short periods), then the available time should be increased, since the effective available down will fall.

---

I really want to see different weapon types implemented:

Bullets / Shells : basic tank weapon, this could have clips
Lasers : like the majority of weapons now
Missiles / Rockets : duh
Explosives : e.g. Herc mines
Particle arrays : Valkyre shotgun, trigger shotguns

Aside from this allowing a lot of different tank builds, I think this would also allow a great customization for the enemies, including Zeta.

Some ideas:
- Different ammo would behave differently at different structure materials, meaning it would differ in damage. This would mean that making different "composition" of buildings would require different tanks and methods to destroy efficiently. (As efficiency is a question since we have a time limit) This composition could be hinted for the players via color coding, if it is consistent it could be very well part of the basic system too, though.
- There could be active Zeta Triggers that affect this, for example "Initiate Anti-Air Defenses" would mean an automatical repelling of shells and rockets, while "Particle Defense System Start" would simply negate the effects of lasers and shotguns.
- In addition to the previous, there could be buildings that have similar effects as a passive ability, optionally embedded with other "player nerf" buffs such as decrease movement speed or trigger recharge. The structures could (and probably should) be destroyed too for success.

[renenutet]

Here's an idea.

The Zeta will be a lot bigger than it is right now. Like, a LOT. Like, level 8 city size.

The outer parts of the zeta will be a few orbiting laser towers, and a constantly moving massive ring of minions. This allows crowd control tanks to have a bit of fun while collecting tons of gridshards and opening up a passage into the area inside.

There will be a few layers of walls. These walls can be damaged. They also have guns mounted on them with lasers/rockets/particle sprays.

The walls will deal constant contact damage and be classified as a land minion, pushing the tank in contact with it. There should be a few layers of walls, each spinning at a different rate, in different directions, with different weapons, as determined by an RNG.

Inside the inner sanctum of the Zeta will be 4 towers and the core itself. The towers will shoot high-damage short-range bombs in a small radius around themselves. Air minions will swarm the inner sanctum, necessitating a variety of other tanks to take care of the minions. There will be 8 "landing pads" in different parts of the inner sanctum. Taking those out yields drill loot and stops the spawning of some minions.

The core, when damaged to 1/2 health, will let loose a sonic blast that carries all tanks out to the very edge of the Zeta. This prevents one person from doing all the work and being a TP anchor for the whole battle.

When the Zeta is dead, all players who have dealt a set amount of damage to any parts of the Zeta AND are within the minion ring get the full Zeta loot. Players who only meet one of those specifications get convoy loot.