User blog:Willbachbakal/Co-Op Enemies: Sentry Splicer



So, new blog post! This time, only two months after the last one. This one's on another Splicer of my own, the Sentry Splicer, whose singleplayer version you can check out by clicking the link. The idea behind the Sentry Splicer was to have a tall, powerful elite enemy with enough stopping power to force the player(s) to cover, yet slow enough to be outmaneuvered. Moreover, the kit I gave the Sentry Splicer grants it the ability to harass players from behind cover, preventing them from staying safe for long. In a co-op situation (see here) the Sentry Splicer would be more easily overcome, and so would have to he able to better deal with multiple targets. Hopefully, this is what you'll see in this post:

Research Bonuses
Awarded at random:
 * +Damage against Sentry Splicers
 * Ammo Scavenger (Increased chance to find rare ammo types on corpses)
 * Stationary Boost (Increased accuracy and weapon damage when standing still)

Description: Stage One
Initially, I don't want to stray too far away from the singleplayer version of the Sentry Splicer: cosmetically, it'd be the tallest Splicer (and possibly the tallest enemy) around, at ten feet tall. It'd also be impossibly thin, and its limbs would be distended yet equally slender. On its back, it'd carry a Gatling gun, similar to Subject Delta's in BioShock 2 only fitted with a tripod. In combat, the Sentry Splicer would lay down the gun and fire, rotating round as its target moves. Though slow, as an elite Splicer the Sentry would be extremely tough (though not nearly as tough as a Brute) and would be able to spot targets from very long ranges as well as alert enemies to your presence of they see you. In addition to its weapon, the Sentry Splicer would be able to fire a Plasmid at the players which'd pass through all scenery, objects and entities between it and you and phase them, rendering them semi-transparent making it possible to shoot and move through them (shooting through enemies still damages them, though). Though it won't phase the target, if you're the one the Sentry Splicer's shooting for and your partner stands in front of the Plasmid, they'll block it, though they'll be phased as well. The Sentry could fire this even if it doesn't see you, though it'd do without knowing your actual location. The phase effect lasts for a short while before ending. When the Plasmid passes through scenery it only phases an oval-shaped area around it, to prevent entire walls (and possible entire structures) from turning transparent.

Tier One Mutations

 * Extra-Sensory Perception: Elite Sentry Splicer can see through solid objects. The Sentry's eyes would glow a bright red, visible even through cover to the players if within range.
 * Energy Wrapping: Elite Sentry Splicer creates a shield in front of it as it fires, reducing all incoming damage. Shield disappears once the Sentry stops firing completely, and refreshes to full potency once the Sentry Splicer resumes attacking.
 * Scenery Splice: Elite Sentry Splicer can summon phased scenery and objects as temporary cover, placing them on the battlefield. These stay until the phase effect ends, whereupon they disappear.

Evolution: Stage Two
Though powerful, Sentry Splicers would still be initially easy to counter, especially when alone, as they are incapable of quickly changing positions in a fight. To compensate for this, Sentry Splicers could evolve the ability to fire their weapon while moving. Though they'd still remain slow, they'd be able to follow the players around and hunt them down more effectively. However, their weapons would have a small wind-up time before they'd be able to attack.

Tier Two Mutations

 * Instant Fire: Elite Sentry Splicer can fire their gun instantly.
 * Hypermobility: Elite Sentry Splicer can move and adjust their aim much more quickly, to the point of almost being able to catch up to the players, and would try to strafe much more frequently when attacking.
 * Area Phase: In additional to its tunneling phase Plasmid, Elite Sentry Splicer has the ability to explosively phase everything in its vicinity, also damaging anything caught in the explosion. The phase effect only lasts for a few seconds.

Evolution: Final Stage
As a mobile powerhouse, the Sentry Splicer would remain strong in the latter stages of the game, but as the players upgrade their weaponry it wouldn't be able to have too defensive an attack pattern. Instead, Sentry Splicers should be able to hunt down the player more actively, with the power to phase anything they hit with their bullets: anything the Sentry Splicer attacks would phase after a few moments of sustained fire, including live targets. If the Sentry's target is out of their sight or blocked by cover, they'd be able to shoot the cover to open a pathway. Essentially, this'd work like a bullet-based version of their Plasmid. Obviously, this could lead to some pretty serious bugs, so this effect would only work on scenery that doesn't lead outside the level or into a locked portion of the map.

Tier Three Mutations

 * Intangibility: Elite Sentry Splicer can phase through scenery and cover, turning momentarily intangible in the process. While intangible it can still be damaged, however.
 * Phased Entanglement: Live targets hit by the Elite Sentry Splicer become temporarily marked, meaning all bullets fired at the target will phase anything they pass through until they hit their victim. Shots are blocked if they hit another live target first. Bullets cannot phase portions of the scenery that would cause gameplay issues.
 * Rift Generation: Upon impact, Elite Sentry Splicer's bullets don't phase whatever they hit immediately, but instead explode after a short delay, phasing a much wider area around them.

And that covers the Sentry Splicer! Feel free to comment if you like/don't like the idea, and thanks for bearing with me so far! If you're new to this, definitely check out my previous blog posts (though not all at the same time, that would take a while). Also, when I first presented the Sentry Splicer another editor by the name of Androyd09 drew an awesome sketch of it, which you can see here.

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