Special cabs need lesser version of epic cab perks to be in any way shape or form viable in anything outside art builds. Why this was not even implemented in the first place I have no idea.
For example:
Bat: Increases the volume of additional ammunition by 50% from “ammunition” and “Microfactory” type modules
Pilgrim: Additional damage by energy weapons to heated parts increases by 50%. The more the part is heated, the higher the damage
Jawbreaker: Receiving damage temporarily increases the damage you deal. Max effect 15% at 500 damage
Because that’s extremely lazy and results in those cabins being direct downgrades of the cabins they go into. That’s not how the well balanced parts in XO are balanced.
I agree. The Special category seems half baked. I’m not a fan of perks, but they do need some kind of help. Maybe simply lowering their power-score would help? IDK. I think I use nothing from this category of cabs. I want to like the Bat in particular, but it’s just no good. I think it’s PS is too high for what it is. Same with the rest of them, probably.
Possible perk ideas:
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Bonus damage for passive melee, like hatchets and Shivs. I really like passive melee, and no module or perk buffs this, as far as I know. As power-scores climb higher, passive melee damage becomes a little irrelevant, I think. Passive melee is more functional at low power-scores and looses it’s potency as you get into higher power-scores with more impervious cabs roaming about with higher endurance, better movement parts, etc.
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Dog Repellent. It doesn’t do any damage, but when you push the button face-huggers and any villain too near bounces off and away from you like an explosive magnetic or sonic discharge. Maybe it could work to disarm Mines, and disrupt drones as well. It would probably need to have a prohibitively long recharging limitation, or it would create havoc like an OP Skinner.
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A built in Jack might be nice. It’s a pretty mild perk, but I’m thinking these perks need to be toned down for this category of cabs. Rocketeers might appreciate the perk. Also, if you didn’t even need to be upside down to activate it, the perk might help you escape the clutches of active melee and other assorted face-huggers; if it just tossed you in the air suddenly, like the Jacks do already (and good luck with your landing).
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A tracking beacon you can plant on any one player, good guy or bad guy. Maybe it’s launchable, or maybe it’s not and you have to make contact with the vehicle you mark. I like to keep track of certain players on my team for strategic purposes in PVP, but I loose them easy in the chaos too. Also, that one guy on the red team with the kill switch META might be nice to tag for later. It might encourage teamwork…or trolls. IDK.
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X-Ray Vision. It might be advantageous if you could turn off all the furniture on the maps for a moment to see where the bad guys are hiding. Especially at the end of a match when it’s just that one empty three-wheeled drone-boat fleeing from certain and inevitable doom, making everybody else wait in audience an extra two minutes for the match to just be over.
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Faction Synergy. If it’s from the same faction and tier as the cab (Special), it buffs it. You could restrict it to only certain features like wheels or modules too, I suppose.
I’m not sure any of those are good ideas, and maybe simply adjusting their stats would be better, like reducing their power-score. IDK.
They aren’t very amusing as they are presently, IMO. I always want to try and make the Bat work anyway, but I haven’t been very lucky with that so far.
If not perks, could the special cabins possibly become viable if the rest of their stats were buffed?
I would use the specials more if they were basically epic cabins with no perks.
Give Bat a higher top speed, a bit more power and tonnage, and it would quickly become one of my favourite cabins. I suspect the others would benefit from that approach as well.
Better stat’s could help. I pretty much stopped using Bat when they made it a light cab.
Special Cabs are pretty much useless right now. These is no reason to use them. You just get an epic cab instead.
I’m not sure what would fix this, but they need something.