The existence and strength of shield bubble grenades in Elite makes for a very perplexing question; why doesn't everyone just spam shield grenades constantly?
Seriously, these things are nuts. They can block combined fire from an entire squad of enemies, they can block rockets and grenades(except for shieldbreaker grenades), and you can buy them for a few thousand credits. I have 100 in my SRV at all times, and it has way more defensive power than my SRV's own shield. But NPCs don't use them!
But then I got to thinking about what combat would actually look like if bubble grenades like this actually existed. It'd be pretty dang weird. Squads laying down defensive corridors of overlapping bubble grenades to push closer to enemies, with enemies forced to either allow them to close to melee distance or throw shield disruptors to attempt to stop the bubble spam, basically turning it into a war of who runs out of grenades first, because as long as there are bubbles up, the enemy is basically invulnerable!
This obviously wouldn't be very much fun from a gameplay design, which is why they limited your carrying capacity - as long as you don't bring an SRV along, of course. But if you DO, you can basically just be completely invincible with zero danger for the entire fight. So, this leads to the idea.
What if shield bubble grenades, on touching each other, MERGE into a bigger, stronger bubble?
This creates a fascinating and, as far as I can tell, actually unique style of fps combat for Elite! Combat now starts out with everyone deploying a bubble grenade, and shooting back and forth between each other. Bubble grenades at this stage are weak enough to be broken by shield disruptor grenades(let's imagine a disruptor is about strong enough to destroy a 1-strength bubble, or weaken a larger bubble by 1 strength equivalent), so combat becomes all about agility; moving around the battlefield to get a tactical means of approach on a bubble protected squad.
But there's another option.
Instead of directly attacking their bubble, you could actually REINFORCE their bubble...in the WRONG DIRECTION. You throw bubble grenades towards THEIR bubble, making it stronger, yes, but expanding it towards a point of vulnerability. If you had some cover inside, you could expand THEIR bubble until your own defensive position is suddenly INSIDE their shield bubble - and now their bubble is useless! Now they're forced with the choice between trying to force you out, or giving up their own position to find a new one themselves!
As the fight progresses, more and more bubbles would merge, growing larger and larger, until eventually they touch and trigger a chain reaction, merging into one massive bubble covering the entire battlefield, and now we're back to standard combat tactics, only while being fully protected from the attacks of outside ships. Those outside ships could attack the bubble, of course, and potentially force it down in size until the bubble grenade combat could once again take the fore.
This, it seems to me, achieves a whole bunch of things at once. Perhaps most importantly it protects the battlefield from aerial bombardment, a massive problem with the current system which isn't addressed. It also explains lore-wise why everyone doesn't just spam shield bubble grenades; in this system, THEY DO! It just stops being effective after a while! It also forces players to keep their jetpack usage limited, so nobody can take aerial control and just blast the battlefield. And more than that, this creates a system of combat which, as far as I can tell, is essentially unique in terms of FPS games! I've never heard of one that operates quite like this.
And personally, I find the idea of bubbles merging and popping and such strangely appealing. It's a fun, unique, and satisfying way to make Odyssey a fun experience.
So...what do you think?
Seriously, these things are nuts. They can block combined fire from an entire squad of enemies, they can block rockets and grenades(except for shieldbreaker grenades), and you can buy them for a few thousand credits. I have 100 in my SRV at all times, and it has way more defensive power than my SRV's own shield. But NPCs don't use them!
But then I got to thinking about what combat would actually look like if bubble grenades like this actually existed. It'd be pretty dang weird. Squads laying down defensive corridors of overlapping bubble grenades to push closer to enemies, with enemies forced to either allow them to close to melee distance or throw shield disruptors to attempt to stop the bubble spam, basically turning it into a war of who runs out of grenades first, because as long as there are bubbles up, the enemy is basically invulnerable!
This obviously wouldn't be very much fun from a gameplay design, which is why they limited your carrying capacity - as long as you don't bring an SRV along, of course. But if you DO, you can basically just be completely invincible with zero danger for the entire fight. So, this leads to the idea.
What if shield bubble grenades, on touching each other, MERGE into a bigger, stronger bubble?
This creates a fascinating and, as far as I can tell, actually unique style of fps combat for Elite! Combat now starts out with everyone deploying a bubble grenade, and shooting back and forth between each other. Bubble grenades at this stage are weak enough to be broken by shield disruptor grenades(let's imagine a disruptor is about strong enough to destroy a 1-strength bubble, or weaken a larger bubble by 1 strength equivalent), so combat becomes all about agility; moving around the battlefield to get a tactical means of approach on a bubble protected squad.
But there's another option.
Instead of directly attacking their bubble, you could actually REINFORCE their bubble...in the WRONG DIRECTION. You throw bubble grenades towards THEIR bubble, making it stronger, yes, but expanding it towards a point of vulnerability. If you had some cover inside, you could expand THEIR bubble until your own defensive position is suddenly INSIDE their shield bubble - and now their bubble is useless! Now they're forced with the choice between trying to force you out, or giving up their own position to find a new one themselves!
As the fight progresses, more and more bubbles would merge, growing larger and larger, until eventually they touch and trigger a chain reaction, merging into one massive bubble covering the entire battlefield, and now we're back to standard combat tactics, only while being fully protected from the attacks of outside ships. Those outside ships could attack the bubble, of course, and potentially force it down in size until the bubble grenade combat could once again take the fore.
This, it seems to me, achieves a whole bunch of things at once. Perhaps most importantly it protects the battlefield from aerial bombardment, a massive problem with the current system which isn't addressed. It also explains lore-wise why everyone doesn't just spam shield bubble grenades; in this system, THEY DO! It just stops being effective after a while! It also forces players to keep their jetpack usage limited, so nobody can take aerial control and just blast the battlefield. And more than that, this creates a system of combat which, as far as I can tell, is essentially unique in terms of FPS games! I've never heard of one that operates quite like this.
And personally, I find the idea of bubbles merging and popping and such strangely appealing. It's a fun, unique, and satisfying way to make Odyssey a fun experience.
So...what do you think?