Thread for Talent suggestions

[fallen]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[Aesop]

Soldier, Swordsman or New Class Talent.

Praetorian Guard: On initiative
You have a 20% chance to intercept any incoming attack on a crew-mate on an adjacent slot. (Rolls as if the attack had been targeted at you instead.)

[Aesop]

Or maybe Quickness+wisdom/2 chance.

[fallen]

Job would be Bodyguard, on the list since the beginning.

[drspendlove]

Talent: Blind Spot (better name welcome)
Type: Ship Combat
Effect: Buff; +25% Defense, +15% Boarding, -15% Accuracy
Duration: 3 Turns
Cooldown: 3 Weeks
Restricted to Range 1 and 2.

Analysis: Used primarily for crew-combat focused teams. Allows the captain to avoid damage while attempting better boarding positions, albeit at the cost of potentially missing with close-range weapons. Alternative to using Evasive Maneuvers all the time. (This will become slightly more important when the high rank Pilot Talents are done.) Only being used from range 1 and 2 means it isn't just another defensive talent to dodge things in all circumstances.

[drspendlove]

Talent: Dirty Fighting (better name welcome)
Type: Crew Combat
Effect: Weapon attack that deals +50% damage when foe is below 40 morale (including Xeno), +10% Armor Penetration (always)
Usable at any appropriate weapon range.

Analysis: This would give lowering Xeno morale a purpose. While difficult, it could make a crew that focuses on morale loss not totally dead when facing Xeno. With the 10% Armor penetration bonus, it is better than a default attack, making it handy as an early-game talent choice for an attack.

[drspendlove]

Talent: Scathing Blast (better name welcome)
Type: Ship Combat
Effect: If any attacks hit this round, remove one buff from opponent's ship* and apply -5% Armor and -10% Defense
Usable at ranges 1-4
Cooldown: 3 Weeks

*Buff randomly selected, but won't remove buffs that would've expired at the end of this turn anyway.

[Aesop]

Pilot or Navigator:

With the style of ship being better differentiated in terms of speed. I thought it would be cool to have a talent that helped avoid contact with much larger ships and give smaller ships greater viability into the later game.

Talent: Take Flight
Effect: Speed rolled as standard dice to end encounter.
Cool-down: 8 weeks.
Explanation: When you come into contact with a ship, on the screen where you get to choose fight/surrender/bribe etc. The talent will be displayed as an option, "take flight". When selecting it you roll speed as standard dice against the opposing ship. Success ends the encounter with loss of rep (like stiff salute etc) and -2 fuel units. Failure increases the hostility of the ship by +2, -5 faction rep and -2 fuel.

There's a few variations on this theme that could be used instead if this doesn't work. I think it's quite immersive in that a Scout Cutter with more than double the speed and agility is going to be able to avoid engaging with a Broadsword before it comes into firing range.

Also: With the speed of ships it would be great to have on the ship stat screen "AUs per week". So we can really see how fast out ship is.

[fallen]

Aesop - cool suggestion! We've been toying with the idea of Talents that have ship requirements, such as a "Ships below X mass". Basing it on a comparison of engine stats sounds like a better sliding scale than having a cut off.

[athios]

You know, Aesop, you really should get a proper account here so we can give you Karma.

[athios]

Diplomat Talent (Job Rank 8) — Pulling Strings, or Extended Deadline
Smooth talking the Contact grants full pay for completing an Overdue Mission.
Possibly at the cost of -1 or -2 Personal Rep. Cool down long enough that you can't use it twice in the same mission run, maybe like 8-12 weeks?

Alternatively, you could have a weaker version of this Talent available at JR-5 instead. No Rep cost, but you only dampen the pay cut by 50%.

[drspendlove]

Talent: Sworn Enemy
Type: On Ship combat conclusion Draw or Defeat with a faction Pirate, Military Officer, Bounty Hunter, or Zealot. (excludes storyline combat)
Cooldown: 50 Weeks
Effect: Add a mission to your current mission list to exact revenge on your foe.

Mission would grant a rep boost with any faction currently opposed to the faction of the enemy, and a large penalty with the enemy's faction. It would grant an influence bonus with local contacts opposed to this enemy's faction. It would grant no money but could contribute to certain conflicts in play, if any. Finally, it would grant a large morale boost to all crew.

Inspired by a Steam suggestion.

[LordofSyn]

May 23, 2018 12:30:46 GMT -5 athios said:

You know, Aesop, you really should get a proper account here so we can give you Karma.

Agreed.

[PyreFox]

A set of talent ideas probably for bounty hunter, spy, and perhaps some future stealth melee class based around killing people who it would be perfect for?

On crew combat victory: The crewmember sneaky sneks through the enemy ship, dealing significant damage to an enemy officer (including the captain). The crewmember has a chance of taking damage as well. Or is guaranteed to take some.

In ship combat: Execute a boarding attempt which draws out an enemy officer into the fight. Idea is Brutus's.

On encountering hostile ship: Give up a set of intel records in your possession in order to bribe/blackmail the enemy ship into reducing its hostility. Perhaps more effective if the records relate to the ship's faction, or perhaps it's a requirement.

[athios]

PyreFox, the combat suggestions are powerful but dangerous. Remember that talents work both ways, so an enemy could also pull your non-combat engineer/mechanic/merchant officer into crew combat, possibly killing them.

I love your Intel suggestion though! Sounds like a good fit.