So I'm brainstorming a mod that adds a Metal Gear flavored skill line. Since I haven't played all of the Metal Gear games, I need some help with Metal Gear culture items. I was thinking about calling the skill line something like: "Tactical Espionage Practitioner" or "Solid Sneaker" or something to that effect. I was thinking about including "Can love bloom on a battlefield?" somewhere in the flavor text or ability titles. Also, I don't think I can say "Metal Gear" so I might say something like "Alloy Cog" or "Metallic Widget" or something. I'm hoping to make a skill line that makes playing stealth a little more viable. Comments? Concerns? Ideas?
You should call it "metal construct" because the game does have those. That being said, I think i've played most MGSs, so yeah, i can help, i think. one of the skills would HAVE to be a tranquilizer shot, or the ability to make tranquilizer darts at the very least. Does not do any damage, but puts enemies to sleep after a few turns. If at all possible, you should have another ability that lets you then hump living or dead enemies for items (maybe only dead enemies, if living enemies are too complex. Ideally, you should be able to only hump sleeping enemies). As for sneaking, i feel that you should capitalize on "Octocamo" i.e a passive that increases your stealthiness the longer you stand still (a stackable stealthiness short duration (say 5-10 turns) buff) Then you need 2-3 skills dedicated to CQC-ness (outa include a crossbow booster, as well as melee booster)
Are you not saying metal gear because you want it to be steampunk, or are you afraid of copyright issues? As for items: A repeating crossbow? A musket? What about an ability that lets you eat animal corpses?
Great ideas! Here's what I've got so far: 1. Smokes: The starting ability would be cigarettes, as that's usually what Snake starts with. I was thinking "Diggle Strikes" cigarettes. The skill would be a no mana ability with a cooldown of maybe 10 turns. It would buff you with +2 (or so) and debuff you with -5 (or so). I figure it would last maybe 15 turns. I know it's similar to the old starting skill in Clockwork Knight. Maybe I can think of something else that would differentiate it. Maybe it would leave a haze of smoke/steam around your character. 2. Choke: The ability to choke a sleeping enemy silently. This would be a short range ability with no cool down, no mana cost, that would do exactly that. One shot a sleeping enemy. Perhaps I'll call this one. "I Feel Asleep." This would be a good synergy with Psionics. 3. Cardboard Box: I need some sort of Stealth/Escape skill that hasn't been done before. Perhaps a transmutation that severely debuffs you, but would render you invisible to the mobs. Putting in some new "Sneaky Cardboard Box" art so you would actually look like a shuffling box. There'd have to be some sort of balance to this skill. You don't want players sneaking all the way to DL 15. 4. Secret Information: Similar to the Krongian Ritual, I'd love to put in a skill that lets you hit up bookshelves twice for recipes. Don't you just hate getting the "You find nothing of interest." message when you check a bookshelf? (If this is even possible.) 5. SOMETHING ELSE!: The whole idea that I started with would be a tree that would make Burglary/Stealth builds more viable. Like Lewts said, perhaps some CQC here to go along with the Unarmed skill tree, and some bonuses to Crossbows. I was thinking that the last ability in the skill line would unlock a recipe to make a headband that would boost Bolt Recovery Rate, So of course, Names and balance, etc is still very much in progress. This is as rough a draft as possible, so everything might get changed. Of course, adding a "Metal Cog" boss in another mod would be awesome. I was thinking both for copyright issues (anyone seen Bethesda lately?) and to make the flavor fit the game.
I reckon both. Copyright issues can be a major pain in the behind, and the game is more accepting of steampunk-themed things. And I vote for it to be called "Brass Cog Commando". Because that will make it easier for people to get the reference. And adding a dummy item called "Control Key" or any variation of that name, that does nothing significant when you use it and disappears after that, seems to be a must. Perhaps making it toggleable with a permanent duration would work, with it giving you an additional bonus to trap detection for the price of decreasing your health regeneration (I think 2 trap detection in exchange for 3 health regeneration would be appropriate). That way you'd be able to smoke for however long you wanted, and the drawbacks will be noticeable, even if not outright damaging. Right now there's no way to make a skill that detects whether something is asleep or not. That being said, if you changed the name into "Silent Takedown", then it would be possible to make it into a skill that dealt some damage to an adjacent enemy, silenced it, and possibly stunned it for one turn too. Not the most powerful ability, but useful for rogues (and possibly warriors, too). That is possible, and I think will be very amusing. Though the skills will still be usable in this form (making it a good combination with the second skill in the set). Not possible right now. As I have no idea what to propose as a substitute (because I don't want to propose something that is wholly different), I'll go to the next one. Right now it's not possible to make any trees that aren't weapon trees interact in any specific way with melee weapons (so nothing outside of those skills themselves can add any bonuses to weapon skills, Dual Wielding, or Unarmed), but it is possible to give it some on-attack triggers and on-shot/on-throw triggers.
Just saying, there's absolutely no way you could get sued. This so obviously falls under fair use it's not even funny. It's a parody. It's a very obvious parody. Konami wouldn't even make it to court. I don't care how big of a company they are, the judge would just laugh at them.
Yeah, that's reasonable. I should still change the names of things to match the flavor of the game. Thanks for all the thoughts and info Kazeto! I'll have to let it stew and come up with a couple of more good abilities. (I'm liking Brass Cog Commando, by the way.)
Its always safer not to risk it - if they take you to court you will most likely need a lawyer etc. etc. and its more hassle than its worth.
