Volt Speed -- tap/hold rework

[Densoro]

Some players love getting Volt Speed buffed; others beg him to stop. Being able to backflip out of it is an imperfect fix imo, because the duration on it is so low that the Volt will have to constantly recast it. Having to backflip every 20 seconds can feel intrusive. (He shares this problem with Limbo, and his version is even more restrictive.)

My solution: When you tap Volt's Speed, it still casts without an animation as it currently does, but it only affects him. When you hold it, it casts with a one (or maybe two?)-handed animation and affects the squad as it currently does. Maybe he exaggeratedly points forward like 'Chaaarge!' 

This way, if a Volt player is using Speed for themselves, it will be as seamless as it ever was -- but if they want to buff the group, they have to commit to an animation. (Otherwise players would just invert his tap/hold settings and continue tap-casting the group-buff as usual.)

[(PSN)Sentiel]

This will get annoying real quick and won't stop Volts from affecting their team.

Speed is very valuable in Defection and Drone Escort so they would get affected there.

Also, Speed affects Companions, which allows the melee ones to reach their enemy faster, and boosts the movement speed of Sentinel clones created through Duplex Bond.

As a Volt main, all this would result is pissing me off because I'd have now an annoying animation tied to Speed and wouldn't motivate me at all to use the other suggested version of it.

 

I appreciate your sentiment but the solution is for players to have direct control of which buffs they want to me affected by in the settings menu.

[Densoro]

I really appreciate the Volt main insight! 

Would it help if the tap-cast affected Companions, Escorts, and Specters, but not other players? And the only difference is that the hold-cast + animation does affect other players?

Other than that, I agree that a buff menu option would address this beautifully.

Edited February 18 by Densoro

[(PSN)Sentiel]

3 minutes ago, Densoro said:

I really appreciate the Volt main insight! 

Would it help if the tap-cast affected Companions, Escorts, and Specters, but not other players? And the only difference is that the hold-cast + animation does affect other players?

Other than that, I agree that a buff menu option would address this beautifully.

That would be amazing!

Honestly, I rarely intentionally want my teammates to be affected by Speed. The only exception that comes to mind is the new Laboratory tileset because it can have objectives hundreds of meters apart.

[Kainosh]

3 hours ago, Densoro said:

I agree that a buff menu option would address this beautifully.

Depends on how its made. 

If its hidden in the game Options menu and you have to scroll through ALL buffs there is to toggle them..... then its garbage.  People will quickly realize how they forgot what's on and what is off, and that there is no quick way to check it during the mission.

 

 I think that buff toggle should be right in the pause menu, front page.   Showing all squad mates and their buff abilities with toggle buttons next to them. 

 For example, you have 3 volts in your team.   But want Speed from only ONE.   So, you "mute" Speed for 2 other Volts.   Basically, it should be similar to voice chat "mute" function, but for abilities of the current team.    Option to "remember buff toggles" should be there in the menu too, so that you would not have to retoggle every run if you wanna.

[iHaku]

i cant even really comprehend what the issue is, since i've never been in a situation in which i wouldnt want volts speed. even on my high strength titania build, if i get volt speed, i just stop holding shift and its fine.

having more reload and movement speed is just a net positive to me, so maybe you should just start learning to use the speed better or something? the game has a bunch of ways to controll your speed, from zoming in, crouchtapping/sliding, bullet jumping etc.

[Densoro]

6 hours ago, iHaku said:

i cant even really comprehend what the issue is, since i've never been in a situation in which i wouldnt want volts speed. even on my high strength titania build, if i get volt speed, i just stop holding shift and its fine.

having more reload and movement speed is just a net positive to me, so maybe you should just start learning to use the speed better or something? the game has a bunch of ways to controll your speed, from zoming in, crouchtapping/sliding, bullet jumping etc.

Titania is one frame who really suffers from it. She already moves so fast in Razorwing that having her speed unpredictably tripled can smash her into walls at best, or throw her into out-of-bounds barriers at worst, especially on the Corpus tile for Mirror Defense where the barrier is an entire back wall for some reason.

[Fred_Avant_2019]

If you're gonna be in a pub squad anyway... you're kind of going to run into all sorts of disruptive stuff, people give Volt the funny look all too often when Wisp can do the same but will also have you empty your ammo in less time it takes the average man to flee to get milk when presented with a positive pregnancy test.

Jokes aside, pubs will be pubs, Limbo players are scarce these days, so are Slow-Novas, but players running Protea, Hildryn, Frost, Revenant or Styanax with their augments are the next level of disruptive for Chroma users trying to stack up their Vex Armor and they are not an uncommon sight, far from it actually.

Not bumping into walls despite the effects of Speed or Movement Speed mote is a skill you learn over time, someone using Mesmer Skin whenever you're missing a stack, now that's not something you can deal with, even with a respawn barrier zone, since it'll remove whatever buff you managed to get, if any, and more stacks could still be reapplied to you anyway.

Regardless, a thread about this a couple months ago had shown up and someone pulled out something from Pablo's twitter where he said about locking yourself off certain buffs wasn't going to happen because it would be too niche to even be worth the time and effort. I don't think this kind of stuff is going to happen.

[Binket_]

On 2024-02-18 at 7:55 AM, Densoro said:

Some players love getting Volt Speed buffed; others beg him to stop

As a Volt enjoyer myself _{(Something something 35.1% usage on his Prime alone on a 4279 hour account since Pyrus Project)} I do OFTEN try to avoid overbuffing teammates if they dislike it.
My main problem is that nobody seems to say anything, yet get snippy at me when I am simply unaware.

But regardless...

On 2024-02-18 at 7:55 AM, Densoro said:

My solution: When you tap Volt's Speed, it still casts without an animation as it currently does, but it only affects him. When you hold it, it casts with a one (or maybe two?)-handed animation and affects the squad as it currently does. Maybe he exaggeratedly points forward like 'Chaaarge!' 

I feel like this is a bit of a overdramatic fix. Hold-cast doesn't really need an additional animation, a particle effect to notify the user would suffice if all else.
... UNLESS you're saying it should give an enhanced version of the buff. Than I can see some use there, however you still run into the issue of people spamming that instead.

Instead, I think the Hold-Cast could instead add a short-term field that gives the buff instead. Allowing players (both user or ally) to properly organize this buff better.
It also helps players like me who do try to keep others in mind, since I can deploy it in a useful spot-- but not in the way should players find it irksome.

 

I do like the idea, some people just can't use their builds properly if something effects their speed.
I've been there before with Melee myself, I'm not keen on wildly spamming random attacks.
^{(Auto-Melee has not been helping here, though I doubt DE will ever bother to make a toggle for it.. Thanks guys, very cool.)}

Though, if we're talking disruptive and intrusive abilities? Can we talk about Gloom?
Damn thing does NOT need a 95% slowdown, since most people are using it for the Health Regen anyway.
Nothing like turning a 2 minute Defense into a 15 minute player-hostage situation because Timmy can't learn to live off their Gloom-Ketamine addiction. 
^{And certain Youtubers are NOT HELPING with that. I shouldn't have to say names, they're that infamous for it.}

16 hours ago, Fred_Avant_2019 said:

Regardless, a thread about this a couple months ago had shown up and someone pulled out something from Pablo's twitter where he said about locking yourself off certain buffs wasn't going to happen because it would be too niche to even be worth the time and effort. I don't think this kind of stuff is going to happen.

I'm still baffled that people at DE have the AUDACITY to say "Auto-Melee Toggle isn't worth the time, nobody would use it! Just don't Melee, 4head."
Yeah, sure. "Don't Melee" is the excuse they have. I swear, they collectively play 2 minutes of their game in testing every major update...

Like, come on. It's a TOGGLE for a system that came out so bugged that it could disrupt entire missions at any point until the player left.
You think I wanna use a system that does that? Much less encouraging the player to take every bit of nuance and fun out of the game?

Frankly, the "opt-out" for specific buffs seems more likely in them getting nerfed for more infamous cases. (See also: Gloom.)
... but it's things like that Auto-Melee Toggle where I have to stop and ask:
"Are you guys even doing anything over there? No, the lighting engine doesn't count-- I don't see a difference that warrants such a dramatic hype around it, not that I think it matters."
^{Seriously, I've lost track on how many updates have "improved the lighting engine" as if people cared the first time around. I'm not caring any more on the 7th+ time around.}