A practical Orcane puddle idea#176

I know it’s getting old but I do think its good for the devs to get as many ideas going as possible while they are actively working on this, and I think this one is a good synergy between some others as well as the timer in a practical way.

Take the idea of puddle acting differently after a certain range, but instead of Orcane being unable to teleport when out of range (which would hurt his deep edgeguarding) or teleport being more laggy when out of range (which could make teleport either always punishable or always unpunishable depending on the other character’s speed), make that be when the timer starts ticking down.

I could see the range being communicated with a blue (or the puddle color’s) line that reuses just the border of Olympia’s gem field that is only visible when Orcane is near or outside of it, and of course you already have the ui for the timer made. Then to make the timer ui not just a sitting duck for 90% of the match, it can reflect the state of puddle otherwise (black to represent the neutral b lockout, gray to represent there being no puddle out but able to be placed, and white when there is a puddle, until it ticks down when you are out of range of that puddle.

This solution should mostly keep Orcane’s normal gameplay in tact while adding the same solution of a time limit to counter the undesirable tactics (except maybe the fire capital stalling if the range is big enough to cover both plats, but that’s really because fire capital is a problem), and address other control feedback issues Orcane’s have had all while reusing assets. Also, the shimmering border from Olympia’s gem field and the conditions that make it appear could help sell the mystical/demigod power fantasy of Orcane to new players and make it very visually clear what’s happening (bonus for if some of the water swirling effects from Orcane’s getup special went over the puddle when the timer was ticking down). Unlike other solutions, this won’t encourage camping with puddle at mid level as long as the range is big enough.

The balance questions that come from this solution would then be how big should the puddle field be and how long the despawn timer should be, I think 5 seconds for the timer and the distance from the outer edges of the godai plats could be a good place to start balancing from. Then there’s also the concern of what happens when Orcane is inside the range, which I think should refill the timer at the same rate it drains. If it fully reset it it could mean just barely clipping the edge of the range would negate the timer which could undermine the whole point, but since it would instantly start filling that means that at least reaching it will let Orcane teleport, which gives new players a clear goal.

So to recap- have a set range communicated with assets reused from Oly’s gem field and when outside of that range is when a short timer ticks down before puddle despawns.

This does also alleviate the stress aspect, as the timer is only conditional and in certain situations rather than a constant looming threat

If he teleports from far enough away he should take some extra time to shake off some water :)