Vessel Idea Thingy

[spare hollow]

Vessel: Great Rapid | Tension (Name is subject to change)
Time Traveler

This Vessel revolves around the Temporal Effector, a utility-focused tower that enhances and maintains other towers. While most towers from his kit focus on utility, the Effector ensures they remain efficient stat wise. The Nail mechanic requires you to balance between accumulating stacks for later detachment or quickly triggering detachment for immediate damage.

Full details on the vessel concept below

Heavily inspired by this post https://discord.com/channels/284425143076519936/1352214792114405447

Sentry

Fires nail bullets with limited ammo. Nails stack on enemies as values, enhancing certain effects and deal damage upon detachment. Ammo regenerates each tide and can also be reloaded by the Temporal Effector.

• Tier 2:

  • Piercer – Increases range, pierces through enemies, but no longer stacks nails.
  • Rapid Fire – Boosts attack speed.
  • Power Shot – Reduces cooldown, increases damage and range.

• Tier 3:

  • Ricochet – Nails bounce to a second enemy (stacking only applies to the second enemy).
  • Weighted Nails – Slightly increases damage and inflicts slowness.
  • Expanded Reserves – Increases ammo capacity.

• Tier 4:

  • Harpoon Nails – Significantly increases base damage but reduces attack speed. Temporarily boosts detachment damage on the enemy.
  • Searing Nails – Inflicts burn on enemies for a duration.
  • Shrapnel – Detached nails deal AOE damage.
  • Magnetic Pull – Gradually detaches nails from enemies in range, restoring ammo.

• Tier 5:

  • Final Seal – Massively increases damage but slows attack rate. Nails now inflict stun on hit.
  • Drill Core – Applies the "Drilled" effect, dealing rapid damage over time.

Temporal Effector

Creates a time field that rewinds nearby towers and units, reloads ammo, and detaches nails upon activation. Can be linked to other towers for automated activation (e.g., triggering when a Sentry runs out of ammo or chaining activations with other Effectors).

• Tier 2:

  • Pulse Wave – Expands range, detaches more nails, and reloads additional ammo.
  • Restoration Field – Reduces cooldown and restores health to nearby buildings.

• Tier 3:

  • Acceleration – Passively increases attack speed and movement speed of nearby towers and units.
  • Deceleration – Slightly slows enemies within range.
  • Efficiency Module – Significantly reduces cooldown and enhances reload effects.

• Tier 4:

  • Reset – Instantly revives nearby drowned towers to half HP upon drowning. (Cannot be revived again.)
  • Overclock – Temporarily accelerates affected towers after rewinding but increases cooldown.
  • Sustained Effect – Becomes fully passive, gradually restoring health to towers and detaching nails over time.

• Tier 5:

  • Time Freeze – Cooldown becomes tide-based. Temporarily freezes all enemies and attacks globally.
  • Unwind – Reduces range but allows you to toggle a slowdown mode for nearby towers to charge up. Charge level increases rewind and acceleration effects on activation.

Teleporter

A trap-type structure that teleports enemies back along their path upon activation. HP cost is equal to the enemy’s HP, meaning it fails if HP is insufficient. Can be reloaded by the Temporal Effector.

• Tier 2:

  • Extended Signal – Increases teleportation distance.
  • Focal Signal – Adds a cooldown between teleports but halves HP cost.
  • Expanded Storage – Increases max HP and passive HP regeneration.

• Tier 3:

  • War Zone – Enemies take damage while being teleported.
  • Dojo – Converts teleported enemies into temporary allies that attack enemies (excludes Focal Signal, costs triple HP).
  • Long Antenna – Further increases teleportation range.
  • Time Loop – Allows you to place and upgrade a "ghost" tower from the future. Must pay for it within 5 tides or before the final tide; failure destroys it and incurs debt. The tower cannot be sold or revived until the debt is paid. (One tower per teleporter per vessel)

• Tier 4:

  • Infernal Route – Sends enemies through a hazardous secondary path, applying burn and slowness. (Dojo-converted allies now inflict burn and will not take damage from teleportation.)
  • Orbital Station – Could also teleport nails in range onto a target for AOE damage. (Dojo-converted allies gain massive buffs.)
  • Delayed Return – Enemies take significantly longer to reappear after teleporting.

Tier 5:
- Void – Permanently removes teleported enemies. Costs five times the previous HP. (Dojo-converted allies return as Fractured units.)
- ??? – Summons the Omnicarp.

Lightning Rod

Targets a specific tile, continuously striking it with lightning. Can also damage ores. Casting speed scales with ammo count. Can be reloaded by the Temporal Effector.

• Tier 2:

  • Rapid Discharge – Increases base casting speed and ammo capacity.
  • Thunderburst – Lightning strikes now deal AOE damage.

• Tier 3:

  • Impact Crater – Increases damage and expands AOE.
  • High Capacity – Significantly boosts max ammo capacity.
  • Self-Sustaining – No longer scales with ammo, but gains a faster base casting speed.

• Tier 4:

  • Energy Conversion – Inflicts "Infused" status; defeating enemies grants Aura.
  • Storm Barrage – Periodically unleashes 7 consecutive lightning strikes.
  • Power Redistribution – Stops striking but instead buff nearby Lightning Rods.

• Tier 5:

  • Endless Storm – Greatly increases max ammo capacity. Continuously striking the same tile leaves behind a persistent fire zone (non-stackable on the same tile).

Notes:
- Sentry will stop firing when they're out of ammo.
- Nails are stored as a value on enemies, similar to Blaze. Detaching reduces this value.
- Nails "Enhancing certain effect" like Slowness, Burn, Stun, Drilled, Infused, etc from this kit. Perhaps they could enhance status effects of other vessels' kit too.
- Shrapnel will automatically trigger for all nail stacks when the enemy dies.
- Teleporter is a trap-type structure, meaning it cannot be destroyed, similar to Buster’s Speed Pads.
- Teleporter will increase their HP through their tiers.
- Lightning Rod serves as the economy tower in this kit.
- Acceleration may have decreased effects on other vessel's tower for balancing.
- Time Loop functions similarly to a bank, allowing you to "rent" a tower without immediately spending your current aura. The rented tower will have a cost of five times your current aura and can be upgraded within that budget. Until fully paid, the tower remains in a "ghost" state and cannot be sold, destroyed, or undrowned. Once paid off, the tower becomes real and can be sold as normal. After that, you can rent another tower from the same teleporter.
- Selling a Time Loop portal will cause immediate debt depending on the "ghost" tower that disappeared with it.

(excuse me for the broken hierarchy, idk why they do that)

Test

Alright uhhh feel free to give ya'll thoughts here :D

@pseudo hawk

[pseudo hawk]

I feel this is separated enough to be a different idea ngl.

both can exsist

though I feel I should point out the very obvious flaw

you have no eco tower

[spare hollow]

Lightning Rod is the econ tower

[pseudo hawk]

needs to be clearer

[spare hollow]

alr leme edit rq

[pseudo hawk]

as I did not get that impression at apl

[spare hollow]

yeah that's fair

[pseudo hawk]

anyway, yeah seems interesting

the niche being the ammo idea

however a reload over time I think works as a nice idea

like I said, different enough to be unique from my idea

have one kindred emote

[spare hollow]

Thank u 🙏

[pseudo hawk]

I feel there are a few too many upgrades at some points, on top of some upgrade paths impeding upon others. The T-3 teleporter had a damage teleport and an enemy conversion, both fit the niche of 'non damage tower to damage' and I think just the dojo would be cooler. Have it directly do 0 damage but offer it via enemy aggro

ita also worth noting that things seem a tiny bit complicated in effect through most T-4/T-5 upgrades, which is fine, but likely need to be made easier to read. Especially the effects scaling on nails. I think having the base nail towers effect 'fire limited ammo nails that stick to enemies, applying additional effects' then just having 'nails apply burn' and removing the note of scaling with nail stacks would be easier

[spare hollow]

ok so I do want to elaborate on this part a bit

[pseudo hawk]

Also how will the power balance of mining work when its both a dps and mining tower. As both yellow aura being used directly for dps and using mining towers for non mining will feel different

[spare hollow]

I didn't want it to be be too complicated so I only made one type of nail stack, so there's no other types of nail stacks that you would need to keep track off such as fire nail stack, harpoon nail stack, heavy nail stack, etc. So instead I grouped them into separate debuff that apply to the whole nail stack as a whole to simplify stuff

[spare hollow]

I do think there is alot of upgrade yeah, but there is alot of unmentioned branches that limited this upgrade to another upgrade. Just taking sno sno's kit range as a reference point rn. The Dojo path does alters a lot of what some of the later upgrades do, so yes, the contradiction between damage and ally turning will be solved by this (although i should make this clearer)....

[pseudo hawk]

anyway, ill have to rewrite my one at some point, as got a few clearer ideas after feedback

[spare hollow]

The idea is to have the tower serves fully as an econ tower but can also switches to offense if needed, I also wanted to implement the "infused" thing somehow and that's where I placed it

The flexibility to redistribute econ into offense in end game tides basically

[spare hollow]

Alr good luck!

[spare hollow]

I just understood what you meant 😭

mb

[pseudo hawk]

lol

[spare hollow]

hmmmmmmmm

Alright I got it

There we go

[mighty osprey]

on initial read through, its very well thought out! ill comment more in abit, same w engies idea

i like the lightning rod econ, very fun

[spare hollow]

Yipee!!!

[pseudo hawk]

wait for me to update mine first

XD

[spare hollow]

Added a bit more notes (semantics is a really scary thing 😨)

[mighty osprey]

2nd read through:
It's a very fun concept playing with the projectiles/ammo as their own little game! I also like how simple some of the upgrades are while the overall kit feels very interactive.
Also, the 'Wall' defensive trap thing having ammo (health) aswell is a good tie-in to this
I guess If I HAD to relate things, sno sno's sno does play a similar role? But I think theres enough differences (and can have more) and my immediate thoughts were definitely not that

again, I like this resource tower

Good stuff!