Possible Solution To The Knockdown Issue: The Escape Plan!

[AnonymousArab]

The ability for an enemy to knock down a player for a considerable amount of time is usually a cop-out to add "difficulty" to a game. There have been numerous complaints about knockdown regarding the Grineer and now the Infested Runners. Although I, myself have not taken to discussing the issue directly on the forums, after the recent change with the Runners, something needs to be discussed. The bastards knock me down while I'm still in the middle of a knockdown animation ("Yo dawg, we heard you like knockdown...").

 

From what I can gather, a sizeable group of people think that knockdown on current and future enemies should either be less annoying or removed from some enemies. I don't think so.

 

Remember that time when you figured out that you could jump over the Shockwave Moa's stomp attack? It seems like such a trivial thing to do, but what the player has done in that event is avoided the knockdown. Avoided. Knockdowns can be avoided if the player does the right thing at the right time, but some knockdowns cannot be avoided, like when a group of Runners along with other infested now swarm a player. So, what then? Do we, the Tenno, just allow ourselves to fall to the ground and do nothing until we recover? If the answer is no, then what do we do?

 

 

****THE ESCAPE PLAN!****

 

 

***SCENARIO***

 

Say you're walking down the corridors of an infested ship and this ungrateful, indecent Runner explodes behind you as his fellow Chargers follow. If you fall to the ground, you will be at the Chargers' mercy until you get back on your feet. Luckily, you are a Tenno with ninja reflexes. As you are pushed by the force of the explosion, you quickly push with your feet, propelling yourself into the air and then proceeding to safely roll on the ground into your combat stance. You evaded immediate danger and will no longer be massacred on the ground. You then turn and face your enemy.

 

 

Digital Extremes, if you are going to implement a mechanic which deliberately takes control away from the player, at least give players a last resort option: The Escape Plan!

 

How you would go about implementing this is up to you, but here's an idea on how I think it should work:

when an enemy that can cause a knockdown successfully knocks the player down, the player presses the spacebar just as the fall begins. Then the player goes through The Escape Plan! procedural animation. The player still takes damage from the explosion and also loses balance, but The Escape Plan! allows the player to recover very quickly and also avoid immediate potential danger. I described a possible motion in the scenario above, but it could be a number of other motions, like a handspring for being knocked down from the front or back.

 

As much as I'd like to sit here and request this myself, I am Tenno, and the Tenno are more than just one. Fellow Tenno, leave some feedback on what you think of The Escape Plan! or even leave suggestions and comments of your own.

 

THE ESCAPE PLAN!

Edited July 11, 2013 by AnonymousArab

[RustyNaps]

I love the Tf2 reference "The Escape Plan".

 

Yeah man this would work perfectly. 

[Destro6677]

That's a really good idea to return control to the player. Especially if they're going to keep the chargers insane stagger around.

[_Rue_]

hmm... i think they made this mod to deal with this... what was the name of this again...

 

Handspring.

 

and there's also this sentinel that can help... which was that again?

 

Shade.

 

oh and this other sentinel can just kill them all before it even happens...

 

Wyrm... lol j/k Dethcube.

 

Let's not forget that thing that allows you to deal damage to the things that hit you with melee attacks?

 

Retribution.

 

Of course you can just do it the old fashioned way and just use...

 

Your guns.

 

 

There are so many ways to deal with these staggers and knockdowns. I would complain if you still get stun locked with most of these.

 

If you are ill equipped, then yes you will probably have more floor time.

Edited July 11, 2013 by _Rue_

[notlamprey]

hmm... i think they made this mod to deal with this... what was the name of this again...

 

Handspring.

 

and there's also this sentinel that can help... which was that again?

 

Shade.

 

oh and this other sentinel can just kill them all before it even happens...

 

Wyrm... lol j/k Dethcube.

 

Let's not forget that thing that allows you to deal damage to the things that hit you with melee attacks?

 

Retribution.

 

Of course you can just do it the old fashioned way and just use...

 

Your guns.

 

 

There are so many ways to deal with these staggers and knockdowns. I would complain if you still get stun locked with most of these.

 

If you are ill equipped, then yes you will probably have more floor time.

Defeating fake difficulty doesn't excuse the fact that it's poor game design. It might be a good idea to take some time and learn about these concepts before you resort to trolling and tryharding.

[DAWGUNITALPHA]

hmm... i think they made this mod to deal with this... what was the name of this again...

 

Handspring.

 

and there's also this sentinel that can help... which was that again?

 

Shade.

 

oh and this other sentinel can just kill them all before it even happens...

 

Wyrm... lol j/k Dethcube.

 

Let's not forget that thing that allows you to deal damage to the things that hit you with melee attacks?

 

Retribution.

 

Of course you can just do it the old fashioned way and just use...

 

Your guns.

 

 

There are so many ways to deal with these staggers and knockdowns. I would complain if you still get stun locked with most of these.

 

If you are ill equipped, then yes you will probably have more floor time.

yes lets just get a handful of rare mods that most people playing the game may never even see, and sacrifice slots and points that could be put towards mods that don't exist solely to solve an issue that shouldn't be this bad to begin with...

[TheHeraldXII]

hmm... i think they made this mod to deal with this... what was the name of this again...

 

Handspring.

 

and there's also this sentinel that can help... which was that again?

 

Shade.

 

oh and this other sentinel can just kill them all before it even happens...

 

Wyrm... lol j/k Dethcube.

 

Let's not forget that thing that allows you to deal damage to the things that hit you with melee attacks?

 

Retribution.

 

Of course you can just do it the old fashioned way and just use...

 

Your guns.

 

 

There are so many ways to deal with these staggers and knockdowns. I would complain if you still get stun locked with most of these.

 

If you are ill equipped, then yes you will probably have more floor time.

Ok, besides the fact that the game would be much better off just asking to use skill rather than mods to circumvent it, let's look over those options.

Handspring: Really shouldn't be a mod at all, too situational, nobody equips it because they know they can just avoid them. Taking this mod is like planning to fail.

Retribution: Electricity damage on melee to solve the only problem you face against the enemy most resistant to electricity. Yup, that's not gonna work.

Sentinels: Suggesting using Wyrm+Cube to kill enemies so they can't hit you is basically suggesting modding up their sentinel so that they don't have to play because the sentinel does everything for them. As for the Shade, that's the solution I use, but it brought up another problem. Infested can't kill me at all while I have the Shade. The Shade makes it so Infested can't attack you if they stagger you  basically taking away every single bit of challenge and insta-winning the mission. Besides defenses, I guess.

Guns: You know, I think that they might have been using their guns to begin with. It's just a feeling I have.

 

That aside, I like OP's suggestion, mashing crouch or roll to quickly get back to your feet would reward reflexes and timing as well as letting the players actually have some control over their characters.