And with Wrangler, will follow the engineer.

I have'ta say though..
TEN METAL PER SECOND?
That's not gonna work.
And on infinite ammo servers,the rage,oh god,the RAGE!

For me: smilar to sentry, but 25% less health, -15% firepower and mobility (can follow engineer), this is best set for me

Im my own opinion, the best way to keep it balanced aside from a larger hitbox (and perhaps +20% damage for a propeller-hit) would be to remove any automation. Using an alternate mellee weapon to switch character control to the Rcat would be good. This leaves engie very blind and vulnerable while operating it.

level 1
movement speed heavy
level 1 sentry ammo
must go to respan to recharge
needs 300 metal to upgrade
slow fireing speed

level 2
movment speed demoman
level 2 sentry ammo
use of wrangler for manual control is now prohibited
can take in metal to recharge
medium fireing speed

level 3
movement speed engineer
level 3 sentry ammo
recharges with metal
can be equipped with despenser
fast fireing speed



on the despenser topic
you place a despenser on the bottom of it
and it gives out health and ammo
but it flies

-20% accuracy
-25% health
-30 second movement cooldown
able to be moved from one position to another without having to be picked up, using the wrangler.

dat level... *takes of glasses* IS OVER NINE THOUSAAAND!

With every weapon, there must be a stats discussion. Well...

When used with wrangler, holding mouse3 (wheel) will cause the sentry to follow the engineer for a distance up to 600 Hammer units. Releasing mouse3 will cause the sentry to hold its position. Will return to its original position when the engineer switches off the wrangler.

On autopilot, will pick a target and pursue it for 600 units. If a navigation mesh is present, the sentry will be able to pursue targets that are still within 600 units even after they walk around corners. The sentry will also stay on its target until the target dies. It has a sight radius of 1100 units around itself, but that radius moves with it, effectively increasing its kill radius to 1700 units. After pursuing a target, if the target dies or moves out of range, the sentry will hover in place for 5 seconds and search for new targets before returning home.

Follow distance increases with upgrades. Lvl 1 = 400 units, 2 = 500 units, and 3 = 600 units. Any more than that, and the sentry will become more of an overpowered, manhunting killing machine than it already is.

I posted in the comments, but the best way to avoid balancing issues is to make it a very minor change from the normal sentry.

Initial build time and metal cost should be the same as a normal sentry, but a sentry being destroyed activates a short (~30 second) cooldown before a second one can be started. This is prevents engies from building, sending them out, and then building them again in a safe area right after they are destroyed.

As for movement - no direct control. Equip a certain wrench (the one that enables this sentry instead of the mini or regular sentry), hold the right mouse button and aim the beacon for a certain point. Hit the left mouse button while the right mouse button is held to adjust the hovering height of the sentry. Movement causes the sentry to go into "travel mode" and prevents it from being able to fire until it reaches its destination and re-arms itself.

Repair/reload - If the sentry is too high up, the engy cannot repair it and must lower it. If you're trying to camp the battlements with it, you will find that it quickly runs out of ammo and becomes a sitting target.

Wrangler - works exactly as with a normal sentry. Yay balance!

To compensate for the fact that it is harder to hit with grenades - explosives that detonate directly underneath it should cause a thermal updraft, spinning the sentry and causing its guns to flail wildly for a few seconds. This gives the grenade-wielder a free pot shot at the sentry. before it can adjust (but only if they're fast enough to either destroy it or get back before it adjusts itself)

Also - you should make a wrench for this! I was thinking remote inside of a wrench with a tiny screen that shows ammo/health. It would have to be bound to a wrench anyway, as otherwise people could equip the gunslinger AND this sentry drone.

I'd say it is weak with shooting and health but when it is being attacked it sometimes has the Miss! sign on it's head

Originally posted by Coolfusis:

I posted in the comments, but the best way to avoid balancing issues is to make it a very minor change from the normal sentry.

Initial build time and metal cost should be the same as a normal sentry, but a sentry being destroyed activates a short (~30 second) cooldown before a second one can be started. This is prevents engies from building, sending them out, and then building them again in a safe area right after they are destroyed.

As for movement - no direct control. Equip a certain wrench (the one that enables this sentry instead of the mini or regular sentry), hold the right mouse button and aim the beacon for a certain point. Hit the left mouse button while the right mouse button is held to adjust the hovering height of the sentry. Movement causes the sentry to go into "travel mode" and prevents it from being able to fire until it reaches its destination and re-arms itself.

Repair/reload - If the sentry is too high up, the engy cannot repair it and must lower it. If you're trying to camp the battlements with it, you will find that it quickly runs out of ammo and becomes a sitting target.

Wrangler - works exactly as with a normal sentry. Yay balance!

To compensate for the fact that it is harder to hit with grenades - explosives that detonate directly underneath it should cause a thermal updraft, spinning the sentry and causing its guns to flail wildly for a few seconds. This gives the grenade-wielder a free pot shot at the sentry. before it can adjust (but only if they're fast enough to either destroy it or get back before it adjusts itself)

Also - you should make a wrench for this! I was thinking remote inside of a wrench with a tiny screen that shows ammo/health. It would have to be bound to a wrench anyway, as otherwise people could equip the gunslinger AND this sentry drone.

no there should be a secondary, { mini r cat}

Originally posted by ABlueBadger:

no there should be a secondary, { mini r cat}

Which would require a second model, animation, and new balance issues fixed. Not that I don't like the idea, but getting valve to adopt something gets harder when they have to sign on for a ton of work.

yea i guess your right

Originally posted by Electronic Fox:

Im my own opinion, the best way to keep it balanced aside from a larger hitbox (and perhaps +20% damage for a propeller-hit) would be to remove any automation. Using an alternate mellee weapon to switch character control to the Rcat would be good. This leaves engie very blind and vulnerable while operating it.

This would probably be the best option as Spys would have a hell of a time sapping this thing and they would instead have to hunt down and kill the engi controling it.

how about, this is just like a medium sentry, higher health than mini, lower health than big sentry, and just flies higher than an ordinary sentry, but not higher than a can reach. i suppose that it'll also only be buildable on places where ordinary sentries are buildable so that way you can't do anything an ordinary sentry couldn't do(as in shoot). of course, it would also be capable of slight movement upon encounter.