Today, at work, I spent some time doing some expanding on someone I felt could use some more. Namely, in this case, Sally. I know, she's a secondary protagonist, she already gets a lot of insane upgrades relevant to other characters, butstill, this was a cool one so I thought I'd give it to her: Hornet Swarm.
Basically, homing missiles weren't something I'd thought of as being in her arsenal until now, but it makes total sense for them to be present, and this technique would be the ultimate extension of it: each missile would have variable warheads to it, akin to Ruby's trick arrows, except using Sally's elemental powers combined with a touch of real-life warhead types and some sci-fi ones here and there. Speaking of sci-fi, each warhead would be capable of shooting lasers, as a 'stinger'.
This, by itself, would be impressive, but it's actually a move learned fairly early-on. What makes the move impressive is when she combines it with ALL her attack multipliers: I'd have to look at my old blog post (never did get it into my notes) regarding what types of missile attacks I gave her, namely, whether she has missile massacre techniques, but regardless of whether she has them or not, she has others that would be sufficient ON THEIR OWN.
RPShotG (as in, RPG + Shotgun) is a technique I developed for her a while back, involving a blast of energy. Her quad-barreled assault (half attack power for four times the attack rate, optionally on both arms for eight times the missiles launched) is another one. If you combine them with them launching those homing missiles, suddenly, you've got a swarm of drones, for both attack and defense, each with massive utility.
On the attack side of things, you've got an attack which can attack from every angle, delivering laser shots, and then accelerating. You see this in mecha shows all the time: the attack will blast through unprotected enemies...and for those with protection, the missile accelerating into impact often punctures through whatever defenses exist, and then delivers that payload (which in Sally's case...can be any of her powers, from generic explosion to poison to acid to gas to power nullifier).
If that fails, then the sheer number of drones with their physical mass can be used to basically trap the opponent, doing anything from crushing them to carrying them off a cliff. (Mind you, Sally's still a rider, so whatever she does, it's nonlethal. It's just that if she has need for this technique in the first place, she's up against superhumans that are strong enough to survive that sort of punishment.)
On the defensive side of things, you've got the lasers able to blast most attacks out. If one laser isn't enough, use more laser. If that's still not enough to stop an attack, have a drone intercept. If that's still not enough, then have multiple drones in attack form intercept. If it's still not enough, then have the drones just form a massive wall using their combined strength to form a solid shield. And if the attack is capable of getting through that, use drone detonations and movement to subtly push the attack away from Sally.
...When all else fails?
...Sally just dodges. Because, unlike a queen bee, she can move from her spot freely. She's able to move continuously as she's doing this. Furthermore, this technique only requires one hand, leaving the OTHER hand free to use her thread-based abilities.
Her drones can also increase her movement speed and help her fly, by carrying her along. (She can fly at that point in the story anyway, but not easily.) This also doubles as a nice distraction: because it's expected the queen would be at the center of the swarm, she can just move to a remote location and let her drones appear to be protecting something when they're not.
It's very largely akin to a cross between Ruby's Arbalest Armor and her Archangel super modes, in that it unlocks Sally's powers at their fullest: all her rocket techniques, AND all her thread techniques, AND all her elemental powers, WHILE still at full combat strength, speed, and endurance (if not higher for all).
The only drawback?
Sally has to continuously produce new drones for this form to be at its most effective, similar to how Ruby needs to shoot wings in her Archangel form, but this is only a little more tiring than firing a normal rocket/blast/arrow technique, which they can do almost indefinitely. Even if not for that, Sally just so happens to be the rider whose element represents endurance (well, one of them, anyway), so this is not a serious risk. Her chance of getting magical fatigue is infinitesimally small.
Oh.
And back to the actual art part.
Last night, know how I said I wasn't gonna do anything?
Well, I didn't really feel like much, but I did do something, at least a little.
Basically, homing missiles weren't something I'd thought of as being in her arsenal until now, but it makes total sense for them to be present, and this technique would be the ultimate extension of it: each missile would have variable warheads to it, akin to Ruby's trick arrows, except using Sally's elemental powers combined with a touch of real-life warhead types and some sci-fi ones here and there. Speaking of sci-fi, each warhead would be capable of shooting lasers, as a 'stinger'.
This, by itself, would be impressive, but it's actually a move learned fairly early-on. What makes the move impressive is when she combines it with ALL her attack multipliers: I'd have to look at my old blog post (never did get it into my notes) regarding what types of missile attacks I gave her, namely, whether she has missile massacre techniques, but regardless of whether she has them or not, she has others that would be sufficient ON THEIR OWN.
RPShotG (as in, RPG + Shotgun) is a technique I developed for her a while back, involving a blast of energy. Her quad-barreled assault (half attack power for four times the attack rate, optionally on both arms for eight times the missiles launched) is another one. If you combine them with them launching those homing missiles, suddenly, you've got a swarm of drones, for both attack and defense, each with massive utility.
On the attack side of things, you've got an attack which can attack from every angle, delivering laser shots, and then accelerating. You see this in mecha shows all the time: the attack will blast through unprotected enemies...and for those with protection, the missile accelerating into impact often punctures through whatever defenses exist, and then delivers that payload (which in Sally's case...can be any of her powers, from generic explosion to poison to acid to gas to power nullifier).
If that fails, then the sheer number of drones with their physical mass can be used to basically trap the opponent, doing anything from crushing them to carrying them off a cliff. (Mind you, Sally's still a rider, so whatever she does, it's nonlethal. It's just that if she has need for this technique in the first place, she's up against superhumans that are strong enough to survive that sort of punishment.)
On the defensive side of things, you've got the lasers able to blast most attacks out. If one laser isn't enough, use more laser. If that's still not enough to stop an attack, have a drone intercept. If that's still not enough, then have multiple drones in attack form intercept. If it's still not enough, then have the drones just form a massive wall using their combined strength to form a solid shield. And if the attack is capable of getting through that, use drone detonations and movement to subtly push the attack away from Sally.
...When all else fails?
...Sally just dodges. Because, unlike a queen bee, she can move from her spot freely. She's able to move continuously as she's doing this. Furthermore, this technique only requires one hand, leaving the OTHER hand free to use her thread-based abilities.
Her drones can also increase her movement speed and help her fly, by carrying her along. (She can fly at that point in the story anyway, but not easily.) This also doubles as a nice distraction: because it's expected the queen would be at the center of the swarm, she can just move to a remote location and let her drones appear to be protecting something when they're not.
It's very largely akin to a cross between Ruby's Arbalest Armor and her Archangel super modes, in that it unlocks Sally's powers at their fullest: all her rocket techniques, AND all her thread techniques, AND all her elemental powers, WHILE still at full combat strength, speed, and endurance (if not higher for all).
The only drawback?
Sally has to continuously produce new drones for this form to be at its most effective, similar to how Ruby needs to shoot wings in her Archangel form, but this is only a little more tiring than firing a normal rocket/blast/arrow technique, which they can do almost indefinitely. Even if not for that, Sally just so happens to be the rider whose element represents endurance (well, one of them, anyway), so this is not a serious risk. Her chance of getting magical fatigue is infinitesimally small.
Oh.
And back to the actual art part.
Last night, know how I said I wasn't gonna do anything?
Well, I didn't really feel like much, but I did do something, at least a little.
Still okay, I guess.
I'm not sure I'm liking what I'm doing with Dale, but I quite like the drawing of Ryan. I think that it quite well captures that "he" is still Ruby, just...in a different form.
Soyeah. That's been my Red Hood Rider updates thusfar.
We've had our nap, so I need to get on to the actual pages and finish them. October 8th is rapidly approaching, and also pushing me is the wall we have up at work, where my goals for 2016 (Red Hood Rider among them) are prominently displayed.
I also have to avoid distractions. Including for things which aren't necessarily bad (Heroes of Gistou, the new novel, is among them), but which will guarantee that I don't make that date if I work on them instead of on bringing Ruby to life.
Soyeah. That's been my Red Hood Rider updates thusfar.
We've had our nap, so I need to get on to the actual pages and finish them. October 8th is rapidly approaching, and also pushing me is the wall we have up at work, where my goals for 2016 (Red Hood Rider among them) are prominently displayed.
I also have to avoid distractions. Including for things which aren't necessarily bad (Heroes of Gistou, the new novel, is among them), but which will guarantee that I don't make that date if I work on them instead of on bringing Ruby to life.
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