Suggestion thread for Force powers.

[Comatosan]

I don't post a whole lot, but given the amount of discussion over the patch and it's predecessors, I want to open a thread for force powers. They always seem to be bundled in with the gun/saber arguments, and I think they need to be discussed seperately.

 

Now I've been thinking about the game as a whole and how the force is applied to it and it's mechanics. There really are balance issues that need to be addressed, but I'm no number cruncher so I'll let the experts deal with that. I'm thinking strictly of a act/counter-act standpoint. I'll provide arguments for each point so it's understood why I am making the comment.

 

Speed / Slow : Slow is not currently a force power, but maybe it should be considered as one. Speed is not really a problem, but as a tactic in CTF games, slow would be as indispensible as speed. This would slow down the victim's movement by a percentage and could counter a speeder and vice versa. It also could be used to slow down someone travelling at normal speed.

 

Push/Pull : These two are natural counters to each other.

 

Mind Trick / Sight : These two are natural counters to each other.

 

Force Jump : Really needs no counter.

 

Lightning / Protect : I don't really understand why, but Absorb is currently used to protect from Lightning. It seems lightning is an electrical attack to me, and therefore physical, so why not use Protect to negate it?

 

Drain / Absorb : Move Drain to a beam and not a spread and tweak it up a bit and I think it will be balanced because it can be avoided easier. Thanks to Faze for this suggestion. Absorb is the obvious counter for this.

 

Grip / Protect : Drain as it is is too manipulative. It is used more to move around victims then to damage them. Grip should not allow it's user to sling around their victim like a rag doll. It's not easily countered because it is too difficult to push the attacker when being slung around. My proposal for grip : Slow the movement speed of the victim, not the attacker, but allow the victim to move freely. The attacker will still be able to have full range of movement provided he stays in range of the grip and can set up attacks appropriately. Grip, being a physical attack, should also be countered by Protect.

 

Dark Rage / Heal : I think these two should be a direct counter of each other. Dark Rage is fine as it is, but what if Heal was it's exact opposite? Heal would slow the user down, raising the health over time and causing the user to do less damage on attacks while it was active. It also would have a cool down period like Dark Rage.

 

Anyway, just some thoughts. I welcome any polite arguments.