The Energon Pub

I posted this the day before that crash that killed all the posts on the forum, I didnt get to see what you guys thought of my ideas.

I’m a noob to HMW and I’m sure people have posted similar suggestions (infact I know they have, I’ve seen some them) but this is how I see things working if certain things were added/changed.
Keep in mind these are only suggestions.
(and I'm only really posting this because I wrote it and keep thinking about it, so here it is)


Stat Changes:
SPD should be how often you get an attack off
CRG should be your accuracy
SKL should be your dodging ability
(this switch-around is because having your SPD influence your accuracy annoyed me a bit)


New Abilities:
I was thinking there could be some abilities learned for your robot mode, aswell as your alt mode.

Hyperblast- new alt ability, chance of a strong attack on one enemy, dmg boosted with FRP stat, represents a strong ranged attack from your alt mode,
"Megatron transforms into a Gun and launched a Hyperblast at Optimus Prime!" (think of it as a ram for guns, tanks, and cannons)

Critical strike- new alt ability, chance of a strong attack on one enemy, dmg boosted with SKL stat represents a strong melee attack from your alt mode,
"Cheetor transforms into a Land Animal and lands a Critical Strike on Waspinator!" (It's a Hyperblast for things that need to physically attack in alt mode)

Teamwork- ability gained with 8 RNK, ability triggers in robot mode only, chance of ally(s) of lower RNK triggering their next attack during your attack instead of waiting for their turn, their next attack will come at their normal attack speed from the teamwork attack,
Chances of more than one ally joining in the attack increases with Teamwork's stat lvl, but the chance that it’s more than 3 is rare.
"Optimus Prime coordinated an attack."
"Optimus Prime shoots Megatron with a Laser Cannon."
"Bumblebee kicks Megatron" (I wanted your rank to give you some command over your troops)

Taunt/Provoke- robot ability gained with 2 CRG, ability triggers in robot mode only, costs hardly any exp to upgrade, causes next 2 attacks to your teammates to be re-directed to yourself, exp gained based on the dmg received,
"Optimus Prime taunted the Decepticons." (cost hardly any exp because it's a risky move to learn, but I think it needed to be there)

Aimed blow- robot ability gained with 2 INT, ability triggers in robot mode only, chance of a strong attack on one enemy, dmg boosted with INT stat,
"Optimus Prime aimed for a vulnerable spot on Megatron." (It's a learnable Hyperblast, I wanted INT to do more)

Target: weakest- ability gained with 9 INT, only has one lvl of upgrading (on/off basically), you always attack the target that has received the most damage, target will be random if damage is the same. (wanted INT to do more)

Also guys like Mirage and Skywarp had special abilities in their robot form, perhaps you can add a list of moves like Camoflage, Holograms, Teleport, Speedburst, whatever. You will only be able to learn one of these moves, and so they are fair you might want them to replace one of your inate abilities.

Alt mode changes:
I’ve never understood why some alts get 2 abilities innately, some have to lean one through stats, and some only get one.
Most should get one ability innately and after spending 2 points in a certain stat you can get the second ability.

New ability Hyperblast, is for Guns, Tanks, Dragons, missile launchers, and anything that could do large non-rapidfire big ranged attack.

New ability Critical Strike, is for Land Animals, Swords, and anything that could do a slash, stab, or a strong blunt blow that’s not on wheels.

Bases and other things that are huge and have no obvious attacks (planets and stuff) get no alt based abilities, but instead get free point in STR (increasing their max STR to 11, this extra point has no effect on your lvl) But they have a slightly reduced recharge but not enough to equal a -1 of SKL.
(having huge guys quickly change into a giant base and strafe didn’t seem right to me, the extra STR represents their innate huge-ness)

also having no alt gives you no abilities, to compensate all stat upgrades start at 500 instead of 1000 and you get a bonus CRG point (increasing their max CRG to 11, this extra point has no effect on your lvl)
(I didn’t like that choosing no alt left you at a dis-advantage)

New alt type: Dragon
Abilities: Hyperblast and Strafe (dragons are kinda like cannons with legs/wings, plus saying you are an air animal when you are really a dragon doesn't seem right)

New alt type: Combiner
Abilities: when 50% power remaining turns into 2-6 bots with stats identical to the combined form except all damage dealt by these bots in divided by 2-6 (rounded down)
and all damage received is multiplied by 2-6, exp is gained from all the "parts" actions. Gets a bonus free STR point (increasing their max STR to 11 like Bases), all 2-6 components can be named in edit bio.
"Optimus Prime kicks Menasor."
"Menasor is unable to hold his form and breaks into Motormaster, Dead End, Breakdown, Dragstrip, and Wildrider."


New weapons system:
I didn't like having weapons forced on me, and the weapons that I wanted my chars weren’t strong enough or were too high up the list to use, also I hear battle blades are the only weapons worth using.
I think all weapons should be built custom.
Go to the Weapon Modification Shop and pick one of your guys.
From there you choose: Ranged, Melee, or Unarmed.

Unarmed makes your char only punch and kick, but here you can increase the dmg it does by upgrading your servos/motors/whatever
How far Unarmed can be upgraded is based on your STR and SKL stats. How much it can be upgraded in power is based on your STR, your recharge/accuracy on your SKL.
Everytime you upgrade it will cost energon (and could have a wait time, its up to you)
"Optimus Prime punches Megatron."
"Optimus Prime kicks Megatron."
Optional: Unarmed generally has the lowest attack power of the attack types but has the best recharge.

Melee upgrades the same as Unarmed but you can name it and it uses different battle script.
"Optimus Prime hits Megatron with his Energy Axe."
Optional: Melee generally has the highest attack power of the attack types but has the worst recharge.

Ranged upgrades similarly but instead of using STR to upgrade its attack power it uses FRP.
"Optimus Prime shoots Megatron with his Laser Cannon."
Optional: Ranged has no advantage or disadvantage compared to the other attack types.

Also you might want melee dmg to be diffrent than melee, like haveing some defencive moves counter only one of them.


Adding NPCs to unbalanced battles:
I'm a noob but I think its annoying and unfair when they completely outnumber you, and always thought this was a good solution.
NPC filler chars should even the odds in unbalanced missions.
Having weaker guys like bumblebee, cliffjumper, lazorbeak, and ravage join in and help the lowbies,
and Prime, Grimlock, Megatron, and Devastator could help in the higher battles.
Could also be used to compensate for lvl differences, say if one side has mostly 0s and the other has 1s in a 0-1, but that seems annoying to figure out what they need.

O.K., I saw this before the crash and replied to it. The teamwork is a great idea, but...Does anyone else want NPC's to get the XP that they would normally get in a mission. What if it was 6 Bots vs 1 Con and the Con side filled up with NPCs. Now say the Cons win. Is anyone gonna be happy they just lost to a predetermined setup? I wouldn't. No battle(real or fictional) is ever even. Look at Iraq. Sure it's a mess, but the U.S. troops went and decimated at the beginning. Only because the military were lop sided.
Just for thought. If everyone wanted to win, they would join the Decepticons. But, then this HMW would be over. Hey that's not such a bad idea. Megatron could then simply concentrate on universal domination without those pesky Autobots getting in the way.

almost all of this i dislike or don't see sense in having, why would courage affect weaqpon accuracy?

and why should speed not affect accuracy, anyone's whose ever shot a moving target or a target that doesn't move at a regular speed/direction knows that the speed and manoeuvrability of a target makes it harder to hit. Hyber blast critical strike just seem like renamed Ram tactics withought stun..

as for action masters getting cheaper upgrades; no way. action masters aren't less viable for their lack of tactics, ask anyone with a cassette. actionmasters gain levels slower, but are generally better; a top level 4 action master is going to have around 7 more stat upgrades than a tactical bot. it's easy to make an action master. it's alot harder to make a dual tactic. that's dual tactics need all the stats to survive at a level, the points in tactics, and the feeder stats for those tactics to be viable.

as for weapons; yes becuase the "ultimate uber nuclear powered death ray gun of total coolness can be wielded by a guy with no training at all[/sarcasm]. you're too weak to hold a decent sounding weapon, well yeah that's the whole point, you're not going to be allowed to have the heavy weapons until you're good enough to hold them. grunts get grunt weapons, ace's get ace weapons, naming weapons i don't like either becuase it will be just too over the top.

unarmed/melee combat; right in unarmed and melee speed plays a very big part. you need a hell of alot of skill to be able to make up for a small speed disadvantage.

FRP boosting Gun damage; hope this never happens, just becuase i'm real good with a shotgun, doesn't make me better at shooting spitwads. if i go into battle armed with a plastic tube and a cheek full of small paper balls, i'm not going to be as deadly as i am with shotgun, even though i have the firepower to carry one.


NPCs; i don't mind NPCs if the objective is to kill them, but having more than one per side in a mission is just stupid. there are a fair chunk of players who make their living off suicide missions, and alot of the cameradery, the friendship, the very socialitly of HMW comes from asking people for help, and the great majority of this is from missions. aslo part of the strategy of HMW is puting the right bot in the right situation, if your out numbered put a strafer, out leveled put an avoider, if you have a number advantage put in the rammer, if your sides full of burly looking upper levels then you really want to be a medic...having stock NPCs would kill that part of the game.

also Bumblebee's like level 5.