[Suggestion] Skull Barrier Change

[Gumballtoid]

The general consensus I've found upon talking to folks about it is that the Skull Barrier change makes the weapon stupidly cheap, especially in things like Duel and small games of Deathmatch. But at the same time, the old Skull Barrier created a scenario in that, once you used it, all the other guy had to do was hold their fire until it disappeared. Plus, one could continue to eat up weapon energy capsules or constantly down W Tanks and effectively stall a Duel.

Let's find a happy medium.

The change I'm proposing is quite simple. When Skull Barrier is used, it will grant invulnerability for half the time old Skull Barrier did, using half your ammo in the process. While in effect, the secondary ammo bar will appear within, denoting how much time is left on that use, in kind to Oil Slider, Scorch Wheel, Mirror Buster, etc. During this time, the user cannot pick up additional weapon energy, but health is still fair game. Skull Barrier will have two of these charges in one clip.

Thoughts?

[Tengu]

To be honest, I would prefer if Skull Barrier was a toggle, but you can't pick up health and ammo while it's on. And the toggle has a couple seconds of cooldown time if that's a possibility.

Alternatively, have it block a certain amount of damage from each weapon type before it shuts off.

[Bikdark]

Sounds reasonable. I'm in favor.

Current skull is literally just BEGGING to be bound to a key for an easy get out of jail free card.

[CutmanMike]

It's on the list of things we're discussing, and is still open for ideas. Same with leaf shield.

[Myroc]

Current Skull Barrier is kind of silly and I really should have complained about it more during development. I am in favor of this change, although an alternative and quite simple method would to have the weapon drain all ammo when you toggle it off (in addition to being unable to recharge it while in use).

[MusashiAA]

I'm gonna trust Bik when he says it can be abused as hell with binds.

Gumballtoid and Tengu's proposals seems very plausible: a predefined short burst of invincibility, that comes with a non-movement-handicapping trade-off like not being able to pick up ammo while it's in effect.

[Magnet Dood]

I like GBT's idea for the weapon, so I'd support getting it changed to that. Current Skull Barrier is pretty ridiculous.

[Zard1084]

I can attest to old skull barrier's Ridiculousness!  5 wtanks + lots of ammo on the ground +picking up more wtanks with the skull barrier's effect on= ultimate stall fest!

[Magnet Dood]

I get what you're saying Zard, but current skull barrier would be even worse with that, since you can turn it on and off whenever you want- meaning you conserve energy and don't have to use the W-Tanks often. At least the old skull would've ran out eventually.

[andreasaspenberg]

i suggest something closer to megaman 4. this is my idea: the skull barrier is activated and absorbs a certain amount of damage before it vanish.(it also vanish if it hits a player, doing damage to that player.) that will make it useful without making it overpowered.

[Dr. Crasger]

I've noticed that we've got lotsa problems with the shield weapons.

[-FiniteZero-]

Mainly because they don't lend themselves to first-person shooters as naturally.

[andreasaspenberg]

maybe a solution is to switch to third person when a shield weapon is used.

[-FiniteZero-]

That's not what I'm talking about. It's about the difference in gameplay from a 2D platformer to a 3D first-person shooter.

[Russel]

A change was discussed in the v5 thread.

Current model [as of right now]
- Activate to render you free from one hit.
- This one hit can be retained between weapon selections.
- Upon being popped ONLY, there is a very brief period of full invulnerability. [Lookin' at a third of a second here]

I was originally gonna move this to closed, but I think I'll leave it here so discussion can be made. If no one has anything to say about it, I'll move it to closed before the end of the week.