Dev Update: Czar 2.0! Heat and Fury (Patreon)

Howdy! SB here- We're back, and this update will be featuring our newest rebuilt character, Czar of the Crimson Brigade. A mercenary leader operating on the outskirts of Terran law, his work features around doing the dirty work of governments and criminal interests. Czar was a character that has been cooking for a long time, mainly due to the fact his original version was scrapped and rebuilt from scratch. 

Why? We had quality issues and unlike some of the other characters figuring out compelling gameplay mechanics for him was quite challenging. Due to the fact he's part cybernetic we wanted abilities centered around his piston arm.

The 1.0 model (Pictured above) was not bad but it had major issues regarding close up detail once we realized it would be seen in areas such as outros, potential future cinematics and other areas. It was also too low poly (This was one of the first few characters we prototyped alongside Vlad and Volley). Ever since, all the characters have been rebuilt and up rezzed. 

Czar's model was completely scrapped and rebuilt from scratch for this 2.0 build. With all the additional detail it's now up to standard with the rest of the roster. I worked with Cristian closely to get this model up to spec, and we spent the last few months finalizing it. 

Above is an example of a sample feedback pass as we were working on it recently. It was a very involved rework from scratch.

Mechanics:

During PAX East we had a breakthrough regarding Czar for his mechanics, and his abilities will now center around these tentative abilities:

HEAT: Czar will build up heat instead of ultimate charge which will increase his base stats over time, making him faster, stronger and more aggressive. HOWEVER, players will need to balance the heat levels to prevent an OVERHEAT- Which will cause Czar to slow down considerably if the player is too aggressive during a match. Czar will require balance to play properly. 

This is similar to Nagoriyuki's Blood Rage in Guilty Gear Strive, who takes major damage if he plays too aggressively. This could also be similar to Cho'gath from League of Legends, who grows as he consumes more enemies but his stack resets if he dies.

GROUND POUND: Due to Czar's slow speed as one of the heaviest characters, Czar will be able to use his piston arm to pound the ground to knock the disc up in his proximity, which will build up heat. Unlike other characters who can block and have a radius that does not extend past their player model- Czar will have the ability to defend areas.

We originally had a lot of ideas for offensive ultimates for Czar as we were focused on his piston arms, but we found that the idea of attacks that extend or stun the other player would not be fun- So that kept us brainstorming for a good chunk. 

For context, Czar was supposed to be our third playable character, he's now the 7th on our roster. However we're happy to finally have a direction for him! Next we'll be rigging up and