Idea to make k-drives worthwhile: pause abilities/combo

[(XBOX)KayAitch]

Nobody really uses k-drives. I try, I've beat all the races and levelled all 4 boards, but they're just never as effective as archwing. There's no way to make them as fast as archwing, and they're very much about travel and not fighting.

I have an idea for a feature that could make them worthwhile: when you get on a k-drive your abilities and combo counter all pause. When you jump off they resume.

For instance, play as Gara, build up your shatter shield, you have a set duration (say 20s) before you lose it. Go into archwing and it immediately resets, but with this change you could pause it in k-drive as you travel, get to your location and resume where you left off.

K-drive would be slower, but essential to some frames and gameplay styles. This would be pure buff, you don't need to nerf anything and would give a real valid choice to players: archwing fast but resets abilities, k-drive slow but pauses them.

You would also be able to use this with melee and sniper combos, which probably opens up some interesting Eidolon tactics too.

[(PSN)ImTheOx]

Not bad as an idea. and it would be easy to implement. 

 

My idea for Kdrives was to give them combat combos like Kick Spin the k drive into enemies, or fast run mount tham. 

[(XBOX)KayAitch]

20 minutes ago, (PS4)ImTheOx said:

My idea for Kdrives was to give them combat combos like Kick Spin the k drive into enemies, or fast run mount tham. 

They already have some mods that do something like this, like you can ram them for damage and the like. They don't really work.

I would map the melee button so tap is a swipe (like a cavalry sabre) and hold is joust. Then just apply the damage for the slide or forward combo for whatever weapon you're holding.

There's a lot of new animations needed for that though, so it probably won't happen.

26 minutes ago, (PS4)ImTheOx said:

and it would be easy to implement

That's what I'm hoping - save k-drives with the minimum of dev work 🙂

[(PSN)ImTheOx]

32 minutes ago, (XB1)KayAitch said:

They already have some mods that do something like this, like you can ram them for damage and the like. They don't really work.

I would map the melee button so tap is a swipe (like a cavalry sabre) and hold is joust. Then just apply the damage for the slide or forward combo for whatever weapon you're holding.

There's a lot of new animations needed for that though, so it probably won't happen.

That's what I'm hoping - save k-drives with the minimum of dev work 🙂

yea no i tought about the ability to straight kick the Board into enemies impaling one enemie on the wall, or kick spin the board trashing a group of enemies around. 

 

The run mount would be start running and double tap sprint to MartyMcFly jump on the board.

also using the kdrive on any planet in any mission type would be good. 

just make it a bit slower. 

[(XBOX)KayAitch]

10 hours ago, (PS4)ImTheOx said:

yea no i tought about the ability to straight kick the Board into enemies impaling one enemie on the wall, or kick spin the board trashing a group of enemies around

Which sounds cool, but unless that does monstrous damage why wouldn't you just shoot the enemies?

10 hours ago, (PS4)ImTheOx said:

also using the kdrive on any planet in any mission type would be good. 

Yes, we need this too. Players choose, and while it would work on some maps, trying to navigate Kuva Fortress on a k-drive would be funny.

[Colyeses]

I had a different idea, back when the Itzal blink nerf was proposed.

 

[(XBOX)KayAitch]

That's a good idea, but also a lot of code and implementation. It would add extra utility, but also hard to balance - the Vallis is the largest area by a large margin, so a battery balanced for that map will be impossible to max out on the PoE (as it's ¼ the size).

I'd scale it back - board is charged in 1km or so, effects are instant bonus things like overshield, a stack of energy orbs, health orbs or ammo.

Or, maybe simpler: just recharge energy/health/ammo while on the board.

[ImWithDerp]

This could be nice for moving between Profit-Taker's pylons without losing buffs like Vex Armor or having to recast Scarab Swarm!