Poltergeist Brainstorming Thread

[Raneman]

The Poltergeist is one of the most underused weapons in the game. I estimate that it's for these 3 reasons:
1. It's too hard to control/too random. The Poltergeist is hard to use well because it's so random and hard to predict it's more likely to go careening off a cliff then getting close to hitting anyone. That's what the explosions are for, but once most people see a Poltergeist, they get out.

2. It's too obvious. The poltergeist is loud and lets everyone know that there's a gigantic dumpster flying around smashing into walls, blowing up, and spending most of it's time up in the skybox where it can hurt no one. If only it were a little less chaotic...

3. It's ineffective. The props almost never hit anyone, and the explosions aren't strong enough to kill anyone that's not already wounded, considering you almost never get hit more then once. It does not have the capacity to effectively do damage.

My solutions:
Solution A: Give the user control of which direction the poltergeist goes in.

Solution B: Make the Poltergeist a trap: Rather then going everywhere, it waits until someone walks in front of it before it smashes into them with a single thrust.

Solution C: Make it more accurate, or make the explosions do more damage.


What are your ideas?

[Nasu]

The trap solution would be the best imo. There are no item traps yet in TTT so it would be a nice gameplay addition. A prop ontop of a lighthouse with a poltergeist trap that slightly damages and pushes people would be marvellous O:

Only limited ammo though and don't know how balanced that would be

[Charles445]

It can't be a trap that instantly kills the player, that's just cheap.

[Raneman]

The phammer would be visible on it, and it would have to have a limited angle. So, if someone can find and shoot the phammer off of the prop, then the trap is disarmed.

[Handy_man]

My suggestion would be something closer to a timer on the polter after shooting it onto a prop, as the main problem is shooting it and running away before being seen. So if you could shoot it with say a 5 or 10 second delay before it starts its explosions/ havoc i think that would be a better addition/ change.

[Darkest_97]

The polter doesn't really need to be more powerfull. Its situational and if you place it in the right spot you can get a lot of kills. I have done it many times.
Its not for shooting the dumpster on riches or anything else in the open really.

[GrayScare0]

The polter doesn't really need to be more powerfull. Its situational and if you place it in the right spot you can get a lot of kills. I have done it many times.
Its not for shooting the dumpster on riches or anything else in the open really.

This is true.  However, I remember one time being in the perfect position on Richland: My traitor buddy had a poltergeist, and the dumpster was between us and six innocents.  I told him to use it, and it appeared that it would kill them all before it decided instead to just barely jump over them instead.  This got my buddy killed and probably cost us the round.  I would agree that the poltergeist is far too random to be effective, though I'm not sure if it's worth fixing, as its main use seems to be getting people out of locations and generally causing havoc rather than doing significant damage.  Trying to kill with the poltergeist is almost always a waste of time.

[Cush]

Poltergeist is devastating, but its massively situational.

Sometimes I have gotten 4-6 people with it on maps with closed spaces, by either placing it on props near crowds of people or dropping it on top of bodies to get easy kills on detectives. If you use it properly then it can damage a whole group of innocents without giving you away.

[Meta-Stick]

Poltergeist is devastating, but its massively situational.

There you go. Got your answer. Exactly the way devastating weapons work in games. Just because you don't have the patience, of fail to see its uses doesn't mean it should be changed.

the explosions aren't strong enough to kill anyone that's not already wounded, considering you almost never get hit more then once.

Also this is 100% not true, those of us who are competent enough to use it, know that. Explosions hurt HARD, and have a good aoe, and can kill somebody in 2-4 pulses even if full health. I don't know where you got your facts, but you need to play ttt more.

[Cush]

There you go. Got your answer. Exactly the way devastating weapons work in games. Just because you don't have the patience, of fail to see its uses doesn't mean it should be changed.

I dont know if this was aimed at me but I was agreeing that it shouldnt be changed ;o

[Meta-Stick]

Agreeing, and adding on.

[Rectal Exambot]

The poltergeist is fine, it is most effective in buildings, making it any stronger means if used inside a building, it would be OP.