Star Captain Deep Dive!
Hey, this is ModusPwnenz from the design team to talk to you about the new upcoming Aspect, the Star Captain. This aspect showcases a mastery over lasers both big and small, controls deadly Sentinel Drones (with you guessed it, lasers), utilizes powerful team-wide auras, and harnesses the destructive force that is frost. Star Captains can chain damage between foes with their Chillazer or call in the big guns with Cryoclasm; an orbital beam that deals huge damage to an enemy and frostbiting anyone unlucky enough to be near. Their Mission Leader aura gives big buffs to allies while simultaneously calling in friendly Sentinel Drones ready to zap foes and trigger frostbite. Star Captains' excel as supportive team players, boosting friendly abilities and protecting them with shields. However, even by themselves they are a force to be reckoned with, building up massive frostbite or drone damage. In fact, any Binding that targets allies will give them a Drone, making it a natural fit for picking up any kind of team support Binding.
Let’s walk through the base Bindings. First off, Chillazer.
Chillazer can chain through waves of enemies, dealing light damage. Target tougher enemies with the initial hit to build stacks of Frostbite, making them easier to take down. Some of the augments include adding a Frostbite to secondary targets, increasing the range for easier bounces, and both hexing and shattering the primary target.
Next up is Mission Leader, an aura that can switch between giving ability power and shields.
Mission Leader starts in Offensive Mode, giving all allies +1 ability power. Using the Binding swaps modes to Defensive Mode giving +2 shields for the turn (any mode you actively swap to gets double strength for the turn). On the next turn it would remain in Defensive Mode and since it passively applies it gives all allies +1 shield, and so on. Mission Leader augments can give bonuses when using a specific aura such as increased frostbite damage in Offensive Mode or spiked stacks in Defensive Mode. One of the key synergies with Mission Leader is the passive: Drone Commander.
Any Bindings that hit friendly players trigger Star Captain’s passive summoning a Sentinel Drone to assist them. Sentinel Drones will attach to players and shoot at all the targets they hit with their next Binding, dealing bonus damage and triggering an extra Frostbite stack. If you’re playing with multiple Star Captains only one drone will be present regardless of how many Star Captain’s apply them, but they will add all of their damage together for a massive hit.
The final Binding in the Captain’s arsenal helps build up Frostbite for Sentinel Drones and bouncing Chillazers to chew through.
Cryoclasm summons a giant orbital blast from a nearby spaceship dealing high single target damage and applying Frostbite. Enemies near the strike are hit with the backdraft, taking light damage but also gaining Frostbite stacks. This makes them great targets for bouncing Chillazers, especially if there is a Sentinel Drone at your side. Cryoclasm’s augments can massively increase Frostbite by adding 8 more stacks to the primary target or 2 more stacks to secondary targets, and also help build up Sentinel Drone reserves by gaining one for each enemy hit by the secondary backdraft.
To develop the new Aspect I utilized several prompts to help guide its creation:
[h3]What is the goal of the Aspect?[/h3]
The general direction we started with was “Straightforward Support”; make a class that is simple to pilot at first while also highly effective at assisting their team. However, even with a straightforward play style we want to make sure there is a skill ceiling that is engaging to reach. Every time you play you should see ways to improve and optimize your builds. The Star Captain can be built to fill many roles, and with some creative thinking is a real powerhouse.
[h3]What new gameplay style can we support?[/h3]
When coming up with a new Aspect we seek to create new and fun gameplay styles, and part of that is often utilizing newer or rarer game mechanics. For Star Captain in particular, much of its kit was inspired by the “chain targeting” that is used by their Chillazer attack to bounce to multiple enemies, as well as the “frostbite” mechanic; a status effect inflicted on enemies that triggers bonus damage when they are hit. Chain targeting in particular helped with the concept of straightforward but with ways to optimize. It’s always going to hit multiple enemies, but changing the initial target can alter which ones are hit and what debuffs they get. Frostbite is also a natural fit given the main goals: it is useful in both solo and group play, it’s simple to understand but also very effective, and we can also help amp it up by making it interact with Sentinel Drones along with many of the augments and ascensions.
[h3]How can we make it fit the theme of our season story?[/h3]
Fortunately for design, having constraints is a key part of the process. Knowing that we wanted to do a Jules Verne-esque space theme helped drive many of the ideas behind the look and the core abilities. The name “Star Captain” also helps give the idea of a Star Trek style character, exploring worlds and zapping aliens.
[h3]How will it play with the other Aspects and Bindings?[/h3]
An essential part to the fun and longevity of an Aspect is to make sure it has exciting synergies to theorycraft and play. Part of this is giving obvious connections to mechanics such as Frostbite, but also giving it more open ended synergies like the Sentinel Drone passive that can be given to allies from any friendly Binding. We want you to continue to find fun new combinations of vestiges, augments, trinkets, and teammates to make satisfying and powerful builds with.
These are just some of the starting points for creating a new Aspect. But after that, equally important work happens through iterating on these concepts and growing the gameplay from there. New ideas come constantly from playtesting and building off feedback which results in many upgrades to the core kit. The Sentinel Drone in particular ended up having many different variations, in the end making it easier to use but more powerful feeling as well.
I hope you have fun diving into the world of Inkbound with the Star Captain! Let us know what you think, and what kind of Aspects you’d like to see in the future!
Let’s walk through the base Bindings. First off, Chillazer.
Chillazer can chain through waves of enemies, dealing light damage. Target tougher enemies with the initial hit to build stacks of Frostbite, making them easier to take down. Some of the augments include adding a Frostbite to secondary targets, increasing the range for easier bounces, and both hexing and shattering the primary target.
Next up is Mission Leader, an aura that can switch between giving ability power and shields.
Mission Leader starts in Offensive Mode, giving all allies +1 ability power. Using the Binding swaps modes to Defensive Mode giving +2 shields for the turn (any mode you actively swap to gets double strength for the turn). On the next turn it would remain in Defensive Mode and since it passively applies it gives all allies +1 shield, and so on. Mission Leader augments can give bonuses when using a specific aura such as increased frostbite damage in Offensive Mode or spiked stacks in Defensive Mode. One of the key synergies with Mission Leader is the passive: Drone Commander.
Any Bindings that hit friendly players trigger Star Captain’s passive summoning a Sentinel Drone to assist them. Sentinel Drones will attach to players and shoot at all the targets they hit with their next Binding, dealing bonus damage and triggering an extra Frostbite stack. If you’re playing with multiple Star Captains only one drone will be present regardless of how many Star Captain’s apply them, but they will add all of their damage together for a massive hit.
The final Binding in the Captain’s arsenal helps build up Frostbite for Sentinel Drones and bouncing Chillazers to chew through.
Cryoclasm summons a giant orbital blast from a nearby spaceship dealing high single target damage and applying Frostbite. Enemies near the strike are hit with the backdraft, taking light damage but also gaining Frostbite stacks. This makes them great targets for bouncing Chillazers, especially if there is a Sentinel Drone at your side. Cryoclasm’s augments can massively increase Frostbite by adding 8 more stacks to the primary target or 2 more stacks to secondary targets, and also help build up Sentinel Drone reserves by gaining one for each enemy hit by the secondary backdraft.
To develop the new Aspect I utilized several prompts to help guide its creation:
[h3]What is the goal of the Aspect?[/h3]
The general direction we started with was “Straightforward Support”; make a class that is simple to pilot at first while also highly effective at assisting their team. However, even with a straightforward play style we want to make sure there is a skill ceiling that is engaging to reach. Every time you play you should see ways to improve and optimize your builds. The Star Captain can be built to fill many roles, and with some creative thinking is a real powerhouse.
[h3]What new gameplay style can we support?[/h3]
When coming up with a new Aspect we seek to create new and fun gameplay styles, and part of that is often utilizing newer or rarer game mechanics. For Star Captain in particular, much of its kit was inspired by the “chain targeting” that is used by their Chillazer attack to bounce to multiple enemies, as well as the “frostbite” mechanic; a status effect inflicted on enemies that triggers bonus damage when they are hit. Chain targeting in particular helped with the concept of straightforward but with ways to optimize. It’s always going to hit multiple enemies, but changing the initial target can alter which ones are hit and what debuffs they get. Frostbite is also a natural fit given the main goals: it is useful in both solo and group play, it’s simple to understand but also very effective, and we can also help amp it up by making it interact with Sentinel Drones along with many of the augments and ascensions.
[h3]How can we make it fit the theme of our season story?[/h3]
Fortunately for design, having constraints is a key part of the process. Knowing that we wanted to do a Jules Verne-esque space theme helped drive many of the ideas behind the look and the core abilities. The name “Star Captain” also helps give the idea of a Star Trek style character, exploring worlds and zapping aliens.
[h3]How will it play with the other Aspects and Bindings?[/h3]
An essential part to the fun and longevity of an Aspect is to make sure it has exciting synergies to theorycraft and play. Part of this is giving obvious connections to mechanics such as Frostbite, but also giving it more open ended synergies like the Sentinel Drone passive that can be given to allies from any friendly Binding. We want you to continue to find fun new combinations of vestiges, augments, trinkets, and teammates to make satisfying and powerful builds with.
These are just some of the starting points for creating a new Aspect. But after that, equally important work happens through iterating on these concepts and growing the gameplay from there. New ideas come constantly from playtesting and building off feedback which results in many upgrades to the core kit. The Sentinel Drone in particular ended up having many different variations, in the end making it easier to use but more powerful feeling as well.
I hope you have fun diving into the world of Inkbound with the Star Captain! Let us know what you think, and what kind of Aspects you’d like to see in the future!