Siege Treads (Patreon)

The patrons have spoken , Siege treads are coming to Cogmind Beta 9! I like this one, good choice :)

They'll be fairly accessible, and probably lead to some new reliable strategies, although of course with that accessibility we'll need to ensure they're properly balanced and not overpowered.

A couple days ago I wrote a bit about the related mechanics, but let's go over some more details now that they're going to be a thing. None of this is set in stone yet, just my current thoughts, so feel free to offer up any opinions or ideas.

Again it's toggled essentially like overloading, which is nice because we have overloading in some form for several other types of propulsion already, but not treads. Currently I see one important potential difference in that it could take time to both enter and exit this mode, as opposed to normal overloading which is instantaneous. I'm not sure exactly how long, but it'd be enough to make this mechanic both tactically interesting and significant, while also serving as a point of balance.

So for example here you can see your updated movement value (immobile!) and a turn counter after having just started to activate the mode (which simultaneously activates for all applicable treads).

(Ignore other details in this image--it's not a game screenshot but just a mockup excerpt from my REXPaint HUD editing files.)

Then once the mode is fully active, the HUD movement value would appear like so, and you get the full benefits:

While activating/deactivating, the only effect is immobility, so it's a pure drawback, but once in siege mode several other effects kick in. I'm open to multiple possibilities here, depends on how far we want to take it.

I was originally thinking of a decent flat accuracy bonus for being in the mode, but then thought it'd probably be better if the bonus were a bit more dynamic, instead based on your current number of treads, so rather than say just a +20% to hit, it triples (?) your current total tread accuracy modifier.

Another "siege-like" effect I think goes along with this is greatly increasing the coverage of all of your attached armor and treads, protecting your other parts. That and maybe some other defensive bonuses--I'm open to suggestions here.

I do believe that another likely balance point here would be to allow enemies to have a significant accuracy bonus to hit you as well!

Note: While entering/in/exiting siege mode, relevant treads cannot be removed or swapped. You can, however, toggle the mode while in transition to reverse the counter and enter/exit the mode more quickly if you change your mind partway through.

What do you all think?