Jetpack
The idea of the Jetpack came from when I was contemplating more movement options. The concept was simple: you fly around but your use is limited. Rather than using a cooldown, it used a fuel mechanic that allowed you to relocate yourself with ease. Now, in theory, this weapon would've been alright, who wouldn't want to be able to quickly travel, even if the fuel took a while to regenerate? The problem I came across, however, was that it was way too good compared to the other movement options; you had no reason to pick any other movement option other than Jetpack (except maybe blink dagger).
If I were to redesign how the Jetpack worked, maybe I would've made it cooldown based and it'd go on cooldown if you were attacked recently. I can't make the Jetpack give you a sudden boost forwards because Rogue Dagger currently does that and items shouldn't make another redundant. Personally, I don't think this tool could ever be in the game with its current theme.
Warp Point
My search for alternative movement options continued with the Warp Point. This tool was inspired by my love for the original gear it's taken from, the Telewarp. The Telewarp gear allows the player to leave a beacon behind after arming the tool. Once the beacon is on the ground, you were free to teleport to the point. The Telewarp is destroyed if someone walks over it. I was so inspired by the design that I wanted the tool to be in the game.
I wanted the tool to be used for juking players or to safely retreat. The tool would've taken time to arm, then drop to the ground. You were then given a button to allow you to teleport to the beacon, putting the tool on cooldown. This seemed fine at first but the tool proved to be too overpowered. Firstly, the ability to teleport across the map was way too strong; you shouldn't be able to disengage from someone and immediately travel a long distance from a single action. Secondly, if it were to be rebalanced, no matter how much you try, Blink Dagger made the tool redundant. The beauty of PFC is that each tool serves its own purpose where no other tool can take its place and this tool just didn't follow that philosophy, it was either useless or made something else useless. This tool just didn't have a place, no matter how I look at it, it won't ever work.
Fire Golem
Now, this is an ugly guy. Wow! He's really ugly!
Anyways, this one spawned from my love for Dota and the hat this guy is wearing, Lava Reactor. The idea behind this one was that it'd work like Warlock's Chaotic Offering from Dota where he summons a golem to fight for him. You would've summoned the large Fire Golem to fight for you. He would have run around and smash people as he pleased. I never really made this one but it was always in the back of my head at the time to make him and the reason I never went through with it should be clear: it's not worth the time to make it. Fire Golem was supposed to be summoned from some Ultimate tool and his duration would depend on many kills you had. The problem, though, is that any AI controlled Ultimate would be utterly useless in this game. Not only that, but this guy is huge! You wouldn't even be able to use him indoors or go through arches, let alone be able to navigate using ROBLOX's pathfinding at the time. It would've been work for something nobody was going to use. The idea of an Ultimate summoning an AI was always in my head but I don't think it would've ever worked. Rely on some AI to do damage and get kills? No thank you.
Falchion
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| Ignore the stupid thumbnail, I never made one. |
This was probably among the last weapons made for PFC. This one had a pretty cool, albeit stolen, mechanic: the tip of the sword dealt critical hits. The sword would reward the player with proper spacing and its weakness was pressure. Testing this weapon was fun and all but it suffered utility. Balancing the Falchion was impossible, you couldn't get a good balance between the tipper damage and the sword damage.
If I tried to make the tip do high damage and the regular sword low, its inconsistency was beaten out by any other weapon. While in theory, someone could practice landing the tipper and memorize the spacing, they wouldn't always be in a situation that allows you to have the right amount of space. Not only that but, with how the swords worked at the time, the animations that played per swing weren't consistent enough to make the tipper mechanic reliable. Plus, you could just pick up Mr. Slice and have a chance to crit; you had a better chance of landing a crit with Mr. Slice than a tipper with the Falchion.
If I tried to make the tipper bonus minimal and the sword damage decent, you had no reason to pick up the Falchion, even the Doppelblade would be a better choice than the Falchion. If its unique attribute is to deal bonus damage under a specific condition that's semi-controllable, you'd want that bonus to be worth the setup, otherwise, you'd just frustrate its user.
As a closing statement, I want to say that Blink Dagger has probably ruined most movement options. In hindsight, its inclusion made most of the other movement options redundant. They all had their niches but being able to teleport is just too versatile to give up. In the redux of PFC, I had patched Blink Dagger by cutting its teleportation range in half and increasing its cooldown. It's just silly how the coils don't work when others are near but Blink Dagger does. In all fairness, it was among the first three tools in the game so I felt obligated to keep it. Plus, it was made by my friend GearTitan so why wouldn't I keep it?
PFC was never really a game to start with, I simply put a bunch of weapons in a place and watched everyone beat each other up with them. I didn't expect to have to balance the original tools and it crippled the game's development. Despite this, I think I did a pretty decent job on making each tool unique and, at the very least, situational. Sure, some tools see more use than others, but I always loved how everyone had their own personal favorite tools and load outs.
Although I don't really work on this game anymore, it taught me a lot about game design and dominant strategy and I hope this article taught you something as well.