Thanks for the response, namida!
@others:
I do think the Downward Builder has been officially discarded. However, as I said before, I think, the basic
concept of a Downward Builder could be combined with a constructive range skill:By implementing the L2 Roper with a fixed trajectory. (namida definitely stated there will be no "assign the skill, assign the direction", but a fixed-angle Roper would throw his projectile much like the Spear Thrower would, except there would be a rope attached to it that can act as a bridge. If the projectile itself is shaped like a spear, I proposed to call this skill "The Harpooner"
; if it's shaped like an "anchor" or hook, as in L2, I'd suggest to just stick with the Roper.)
The important part about this is that the rope can tear when the distance is too long, but the projectile (the anchor / hook) keeps flying. Thus, it could still serve as a thrown projectile, just like a (Spear) Thrower would. For example, to break falls by slamming the anchor by itself into a wall, or to make a ceiling that prevents a Climber from going up. Here the flat spear shape might come in handy, as IchoTolot pointed out earlier, because a spear could serve as a ceiling for a Shimmier. This is not possible in L2 (Climbers just climb through the spear), but it would be consistent with NeoLemmix physics.
Secondly,
I think there is a case to be made for the Laser Blaster being a "destructive projectile skill".The pairing is currently framed as "
one creative, one destructive projectile", but we could potentially interpret it more liberally as "
one creative, one destructive ranged skill".
The Roper would be a ranged constructive skill that indeed also uses a projectile - it's just much more flexible than a mere (Spear) Thrower, without being as broken as the L2 Roper that can single-handedly replace Builders and Platformers in many cases.
The Laser Blaster would be a ranged destructive skill. It could still achieve a lot of the purposes of an explosive, Bomber-like projectile (e.g. denting ceilings and walls to stop Shimmiers / Climbers, although some of those cases might require steel in order to stop the Laser Blaster at the right point). But it could also act like a Fencer at a distance or an upward Digger.
(Dullstar's comparison to the Fencer is actually a point in the skill's favour in my book, because in contrast to him, according to his own words, that is, I've been getting
a lot of uses out of the Fencer!
It's also noteworthy that Fencer tunnels are the only ones that are too narrow for Shimmiers. I'm pretty sure this wouldn't be the case with diagonal Laser-Blaster tunnels, since digging diagonally upward through the ceiling would of course lend itself very well to Shimmier interactions.
The problem for the Shimmier would probably not be insufficient height of the tunnel, but its steep increase. We were talking about potentially having Laser-Blaster tunnels with an altitude-to-longitude ratio of 6:1, i.e. just enough for regular Walkers to ascend over.)
Thus, my degree of support for the two-projectiles option depends heavily on what skills would count as potential candidates for these ranged constructive and destructive skills.If it's already predictable that the destructive skill will be some sort of
Bazooker / Mortar and the creative skill a
(Spear) Thrower, then I'd consider those too limited. I'd rather just have the Laser Blaster or Slider on its own, in that case.
If however the destructive ranged skill can technically also be the Laser Blaster, and the creative skill the hook of a Roper (with the option of having the rope attached to the hook), then I'm all in! This would be two L2 skills for the "price" of one, and two very flexible ones. That might actually be enough to make me drop my support for the Slider.
for instance, Slider>Jumper would have to be possible for it to be a worthwhile skill
Yes, that is definitely possible in L2, and I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be in NeoLemmix if the Slider were to become the skill of choice.