My Sentinel Reform Idea.

[bobingabout]

I actually first had this idea way back when the Deth cube was first released, and refined the idea slightly over the course of the development of the game.

 

Now, going back to before the game became open beta, I'm fairly sure Shade was the only sentinel, Wrym being released in U7, when the game went open beta.

 

Back then, I may be wrong, but I'm fairly sure both Revenge and Warrior existed, both for use on shade, Warrior causing shade to attack enemies as soon as they enter the sentinel's line of sight, the other being shade's current only attack mod, Revenge, causing him to attack only after he, or the player has been hit.

 

One of the things I'd like to see is a return to this style of sentinel attack precep: Every precep does something different, and can be equipped on every sentinel. With so many new sentinels being added since I originally came up with the idea, in Deth cube era, there are many more sentinel attack preceps, so coming up with a unique effect for each of them might be a little difficult, but here goes.

 

Each sentinel should still be supplied with the 2 default precep cards given when the sentinel is obtained as they are now, the only difference is the attack mods can be used on any sentinel.

 

 

Firsly, like Aura's on frames, and now Stances on Melee weapons, a sentinel would have a special extra slot specifically for the attack precep. Let's call it an Attack slot for now.

 

 

Shade's Revenge is fairly obvious that it should do what it does now, attack only if the player, or sentinel has been attacked first, a retaliation attack only.

 

Wyrm's Warrior is a form of beserk attack mod. The sentinel should constantly switch targets amongst those that are within firing range, the aim of such an attack would be to stun, knock, knockback, or apply any status effects available on the weapon to as many enemies around it as possible.

 

Deth Cube's Swift Deth mod should do pretty much what it does now, pick the first target that enters attack range, and don't stop shooting it untill it's dead, or can no longer be attacked (EG, left LOS or attack range).

 

that leaves Carrier's Striker, Djinn's Thumper, and Helios's Targetting Receptor.

 

The only thing that really sets Striker and Thumper appart at the moment is their attack range, Thumper being much longer, and Striker being much shorter (Which could actually be achieved by not leveling up one of the other mods very far, in fact Striker rank 5 has the same attack range as Thumper's rank 0).

 

And, Helios's attack precep is already unique in that it will allow the mini-glaive weapon to shoot more mini-glaive's at a time, so, that works, but it can only really be used effectively with the Deconstructor weapon, and since that can only be used on Helios, so can the precep. which is something I dislike, they change the logic to allow any sentinel to use any sentinel weapon, then lock the Deconstructor to Helios. There's no reason why it should be Helios only, except for the fact that in the description it states that Helios launches parts of itself, which could easily be changed.

 

Anyway, putting asside the Helios niggle there, lets move on.

 

 

Sentinels can currently actually have 5 preceps equipped at once. Their Attack precep, and other unique precep (Shade's Ghost, Wyrm's Crowd Dispersion, Deth Cube's Vaporise, Carrier's Vacuum, Djinn's Fatal Attraction, and Helios's Investigator), Regen, Guardian and Sanctuary.

 

now, Sanctuary is currently a D (Defence?) polarity, which kind of confuses the issue as to wether it is a precep or not, but it is, so I think the polarity of the mod should change to the precep polarity to match what it is, which brings us to 4 precep slot abilities, plus an attack precep.

 

With it set up like this, you can then start changing the polarity of the attack preceps, Aura/stance style, to tune them for different sentinels, to match what they do.

 

Shade's Revenge becoming a D slot, giving shade a D polarity attack slot.

Wyrm's Warrior, and Wyrm's attack slot becoming a Bar (Utility?) polarity, to match the fact that it has a more utility attack pattern.

Deth Cube's Attack slot, and Swift Deth mod, becoming a V (Offensive?) polarity, for the all out attack nature.

Carrier's attack slot and Striker mod also a V Polarity. (Though Carrier is more of a utility sentinel, it'd make sense for him to have a Bar attack slot, but the Sweeper weapon is a very offensive weapon.)

Djinn's attack slot and Thumper mod also gaining a V polarity.

Helios's attack slot, and Targetting Receptor mod gaining a Bar polarity, because they're more of a utility sentinel and ability.

 

 

And to top it all off, like Aura's and Stance mods, the sentinel attack preceps should probably have a +2 point "cost", which when matched in the correct polarity slot, doubles to 4, allowing both of the default preceps to be equipped by default.

Edited April 20, 2014 by bobingabout

[bobingabout]

As a point of history for this idea, the original idea was "Why do we even need sentinel attack mods? Surely the behavour should be built into the sentinel." but then that also removes the possiblity that you can just remove the attack precep to stop them from attacking at all.

 

I personally go with a sentinel unarmed more often than armed, but this is not because I don't want my sentinel stealing my kills, rather the fact that if your sentinel kills something, you don't get experience for it, making it an experience leach. I believe that the experience share should work both ways, your sentinel effectively working as if it was another player, if you kill something, it should give your sentinel 100% experience shared between the sentinel and its weapon (as it is currently), and if your sentinel kills something, you should also gain 100% experience shared between your frame and equipped weapons (The same as it is currently if another player killed something, currently if your sentinel kills something, you get no experience at all).

 

 

There's also the opinion that, especially if you're going to share the attack preceps with all the sentinels, there's not enough to set the sentinels appart, so you should give them yet another precep each, but I'm not going to enthasise on this at this point.

Edited April 20, 2014 by bobingabout

[Novocrane]

As a point of history for this idea, the original idea was "Why do we even need sentinel attack mods? Surely the behavour should be built into the sentinel." but then that also removes the possiblity that you can just remove the attack precep to stop them from attacking at all.

There's also the issue that without them, you can't prioritise other actions over attacking.

 

I do agree that the various attack behaviours should be available to all sentinels, though.

 

Between Striker and Thumper, perhaps the difference could be that one attacks the closest target, while the other attacks the furthest available target. Then Swift Deth could be used to attack the weakest target, and Warrior the strongest.

 

 

There's also the opinion that, especially if you're going to share the attack preceps with all the sentinels, there's not enough to set the sentinels appart, so you should give them yet another precep each, but I'm not going to enthasise on this at this point.

Not an opinion that I agree with, fwiw. Most of them barely show any difference when weapons are interchangeable, leaving special abilities to uphold each sentinel's uniqueness.

Edited April 20, 2014 by Novocrane

[bobingabout]

There's also the issue that without them, you can't prioritise other actions over attacking.

 

I do agree that the various attack behaviours should be available to all sentinels, though.

 

There is that... one of the most useful things about a sentinel is the Guardian, to refresh your shields, which is why it's usually in the first slot on all of mine. it would be annoying if it let you die because it was too busy shooting things. it is possible that with this new behavour, Attacking should always be the lowest priority, there's often very few instances when you'll want a sentinel to attack an enemy in range without using the other preceps if they're equipped.

 

Between Striker and Thumper, perhaps the difference could be that one attacks the closest target, while the other attacks the furthest available target. Then Swift Deth could be used to attack the weakest target, and Warrior the strongest.

 

not a bad idea with Striker and Thumper there, and I like the idea of something always attacking the weakest target.

 

Not an opinion that I agree with, fwiw. Most of them barely show any difference when weapons are interchangeable, leaving special abilities to uphold each sentinel's uniqueness.

 

That's why an extra precep unique to each sentinel would be a good idea, I just can't think of any right now.

[Bambilio]

This seems like it should already be a thing, it's a good idea. Though, for it to work they would have to set a limit on how many sentinals they make since it would get pretty hard to variate ways a little robot begins an attack and the methods it uses while using said attack. Just like how you can only make so many different sandwiches with different cheeses and meats.

[bobingabout]

Though, for it to work they would have to set a limit on how many sentinals they make since it would get pretty hard to variate ways a little robot begins an attack and the methods it uses while using said attack.

 

Well, the main reason why we need to come up with so many in the first place is because there are already several different mods. there's no reason why any new sentinels can't use some of the existing attack preceps.

 

There's also the possibility that some of the existing preceps could be merged, so Swift Deth and Striker for example could both become a new "Beserker Attack" mod for a sentinel. just an example.