I saw an idea for Bastion a while back that incorporated a heat mechanic for Bastion’s gun(s), and thought I’d try to make a rework concept around it. Here’s my take on the idea, as well as some notes and details about some of the parts.
- Configuration Sentry
- Bloom added to weapon
- Initial spread of 1.25°, starts bloom after 0.2 seconds of continuous fire
- Reached maximum of 2° after 0.3 seconds of additional continuous fire
- Headshots added to weapon
- Critical hits deal 1.5x damage instead of the normal 2x
- Ammo increased to infinite
- Overheat mechanic added to weapon
- Heat meter is displayed as a resource meter similar to Pharah’s jet fuel on the opposite of his repair resource with ticks at every ⅓
- Heat is gained at a rate of 0.42% per bullet
- 12.5% per second when firing continuously
- 8 seconds of continuous fire (currently 10 seconds)
- Heat is dispersed at a rate of 25% per second
- 4 seconds from 100% to 0%
- Effectively a 4 second reload (currently 2 seconds)
- Weapon damage is dependent on heat level
- Between [0%, 33%) : 15 damage
- Between [33%, 66%] : 13 damage
- Between (66%, 100%] : 11 damage
- If the heat meter completely fills, Bastion cannot fire until it is empty if he stays in Sentry mode
- If Bastion switches to Recon mode to disperse the heat, he can fire again in Sentry mode when the heat is at 25% or less
- Bloom added to weapon
- Configuration Recon
- Reload speed reduced to 1.5 seconds
- Heat meter markings are at every ¼ in Recon mode
- If the heat meter is more than 25% full, damage is increased by 3
- Firing his weapon decreases the heat meter by 3.75% per bullet
- 20 bullets equates to 75% heat
- Heat is decreased even if the bonus damage isn’t applied
- Heat does not passively disperse when in Recon mode
- Ironclad
- Removed
- Self-repair
- No longer consumes resources when it cannot heal Bastion
- Healing delay reduced to 0.1 seconds (Currently ~0.5 seconds)
- Able to reload while repairing (Only affects Recon mode)
- Configuration Tank
- Completely empties heat meter on use
- No self damage
- Tread sounds reduced slightly
- Adds 150 armor
This rework is meant to give Bastion more incentive to swap to Recon more often. Since Recon can use the excess heat from Sentry mode to boost the damage slightly for up to 20 bullets (out of 25 in his clip), it’s a much better option than it is currently, and it also encourages more dynamic play, swapping between modes and managing heat. Sometimes it’s a good idea to purposefully generate a lot of heat so that you can use it in Recon where you’re more accurate, and sometimes it’s a better idea to manage your heat so that you can shoot in Sentry more.
The continuous fire time (8 seconds) was chosen because it’s a little more than he could do before his rework (6 seconds), and since his rework, 3 more shields have been added to the game (Orisa’s, Brigitte’s, and Symmetra’s). 8 seconds equates to 240 bullets. This attempts to compensate for that slightly. The “reload speed” (4 seconds) was chosen because that’s a little shorter than the time it would take to transform to Recon, shoot an entire clip, and then transform back into Sentry (4.625 seconds). If it were more costly than that, then there would be almost no reason to not use Recon mode, and that’s not what I was trying to go for. I wanted Recon to be a good choice, but not the only reasonable choice.
Most (legitimate) complaints I’ve seen about Bastion is players sitting in Sentry mode too long, which I can understand. This aims to fix that, while also giving Sentry mode some damage back to those who can manage the heat properly.
Ironclad is also removed in this concept, because I felt that having good Sentry mode damage and the damage resistance from Ironclad might be a bit too strong. Originally, I had kept Ironclad in (for Sentry only), and reduced the damage resistance as his heat increased, but I thought that might still be a bit much.
Another possible mechanic might be to lower the damage of Sentry mode as the gun heats up. So if you’re under 33% heat you do full damage, if you’re between 33% and 66% you do 13 damage, and if you’re above 66% you do 11 damage. This helps tame the whole “infinite ammo” part, and also helps prevent constant spraying while in Sentry mode. The only real problem with this idea is that it messes up his job as a shield breaker because sustained fire (which is needed for breaking the shields) makes him worse at breaking the shields… If this were implemented, I think a couple of hard drops would be better than a scale. By that, I mean drop instantly from 15 to 13 damage, and don’t treat it like damage falloff where it increases as you get further away. I think consistency is more important in this case, so it should be left as a drop at certain values. I decided to add this to the rework after some more consideration and math. If he fires for 2.67 seconds (the amount of time it would take him to reach 33% heat), he would do 1,200 damage, which is a considerable chunk of a shield and even breaks one of Orisa’s shields. When you also consider the fact that he’s building bonus damage for Recon mode at the same time, he should be able to take out a tank and shield in a reasonable amount of time.
Obviously, the actual numbers for the heat could use some work, but he should be able to stay under 33% with some practice (Although this does mean using a more burst fire pattern instead of holding the trigger). I don’t think having the heat meter fill faster than it empties would be a good idea, as that might put Sentry in a weird spot where it’s not as useful as it should be. However, he shouldn’t be able to have sustained fire for too long without consequences, which is where the headshot damage (and perhaps the base damage) reduction comes in. I would prefer to start with only one reduction (I like the headshot reduction better because it doesn’t detract from his job as a shield breaker), and only move to both if he turns out to be too strong.
I can understand people thinking this might be a bit too complicated because of all the numbers and such, but all it really boils down is more heat is bad in Sentry mode, but good in Recon mode. All of the numbers are only really there for clarity, and the heat meter should tell the player everything they really need to know.
