The Best Super Chump Rework

[OnePotWonder]

A while back ProChara made a video covering three hypothetical changes to Super Chump, two of which were reworks.

The first idea was a simple damage buff from 70 to 80, alongside a few other changes.
The second idea was to allow chumps to locate nearby players, and also bombs, akin to Bomb Sniffer from Splatoon 1.
The third idea was to turn Super Chump into a recall special, sending the special user in with the chumps.

These are all decent ideas, but I have a better one. A fourth Super Chump change that makes the chumps actually do what they were originally designed to do. Bait enemies into camping their landings, then punish them for it.

Super Chumps will now act like Ink Mines. They will each have a detection radius roughly half the size of an Ink Mine's, and detonate in just over half a second if an enemy enters that radius (or is within the radius when the chump lands). Chumps cannot be destroyed when they explode in this way. The chumps' detection radii are visible to both teams once they land.
This change makes the area the chumps inhabit much more dangerous, as one wrong step could set off one of the chumps.

Additionally, super jumping to a teammate that's near a chump will cause the jump to target the chump. Chumps will hide the landing markers of any players that jump to them, so long as they remain intact; akin to Squid Beakons.
This gives Super Chump more utility in terms of getting the user's team in via super jumps, making it more supportive overall.

Finally, one chump will always land directly at the center of the targeting area. This should go without explanation.

As always, I appreciate any feedback you might have.
Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day.

 

[isaac4]

I would add more to this but I honestly don't have any other ideas to buff Super Chump in a way that hasn't been talked about already but still, the idea to make the landing spots dangerous to be around is really nice.
Not sure how good it'll make Super Chumps but I don't think the special needs a lot anyway.

 

[2Ws2Ls]

I think this could do without the instant explode on landing near players. The main goal with any super chump rebalance should be, imo, to make it so popping the chumps is worth your time. giving the chumps ink mine makes it so you HAVE to pop them before moving into their area, as opposed to the typical just ignore it, but having them explode instantly is making that counterplay harder. I honestly think that instead of an instant explode on landing, nearby players should rather get something along the lines of an extra half-second before exploding.

 

[OnePotWonder]

I think this could do without the instant explode on landing near players. The main goal with any super chump rebalance should be, imo, to make it so popping the chumps is worth your time. giving the chumps ink mine makes it so you HAVE to pop them before moving into their area, as opposed to the typical just ignore it, but having them explode instantly is making that counterplay harder. I honestly think that instead of an instant explode on landing, nearby players should rather get something along the lines of an extra half-second before exploding.

Fair point, and it is the secondary goal of the changes. The issue is that at least three of Sheldon's descriptions of weapons chumps are on describe using them as a way to punish players who try to be greedy. Chumps really don't do that. They might distract an opponent for two seconds, but they don't exactly do anything on their own until well after they've landed. The instant explosion threat fixes that.

To be fair, the instant explosions don't make too much of a difference, since the chumps would begin their half-second detonation timer immediately on landing if any enemies were nearby anyway. I'll cut it out for the sake of simplicity.

 

[OnePotWonder]

I'm also going to be scrapping the teammate targeting feature for now, as it doesn't seem too useful in hindsight. If I can find a way to make it feel meaningful, I'll re-add it.

 

[missingno]

It sounds like your design goal here is to make it much more difficult to move into the space they cover, making it more of a hard displacement tool. But considering how wide of an area Chumps cover, they kind of can't be true displacement, it'd just be too much if they were.

 

[OnePotWonder]

It sounds like your design goal here is to make it much more difficult to move into the space they cover, making it more of a hard displacement tool. But considering how wide of an area Chumps cover, they kind of can't be true displacement, it'd just be too much if they were.

I think we can all agree that chumps aren't threatening enough in modes other than Splat Zones. Their detection radii are meant to be fairly small, making them not very difficult to weave between. The change does make them better at displacing enemies, but the main intention is to make them easier to fight with, as well as giving Sheldon an excuse for labelling them as a way to punish players that try to camp super jump landings.

It's still a work in progress, but it seems about on par with Chara's ideas. I also generally like the idea of a special that creates a minefield.
I'm going to continue brainstorming a way to integrate teammates into the special's targeting.

 

[OnePotWonder]

I have figured out a way to make the special actually improve super jumps to teammates in the area.
I've also slightly nerfed the detection radius, clarified that chumps triggered by proximity become invulnerable, and made a chump land at the very center of the targeted area. Good changes all around, I think.