Volt
Alert
Combat
Type
Power to Supercharge
Supercharges Attack Pods
As a leader, during combat, use this power to “supercharge” your driver. If your driver has 10 or less might, triple its might. Otherwise it “burns out”, dividing its might by three (rounding up).
Legacy: During combat, supercharge all drivers.
The Volts are beings of energy that believe in true freedom. In the best cases, it means they can charge a communicator in a picosecond. In the worst, they’ll blow the power grid and set their fleet ablaze.
Leader: Combat
Mandatory
Wild Flare
As a leader, after contact, if your opponent’s pod has a might of 15 or higher, you may discharge this flare to divide its might by 3 (rounding up).
Leader: Contact
Super Flare
When using your power, you may discharge this flare to triple the might of any pod with 14 or less might, instead of it burning out.
Leader: Contact
Modifications
- Changed the name of the original power “Tripler”, due to the lack of a strong identity. Framed it around the idea of supercharging its pods. The name “Volt” comes from “voltage” or the measurement of electrical potential. I wanted to evoke the imagery of overloading the pod with electricity, resulting in the pod either getting a super upgrade or burning out if it exceeds the maximum voltage.
- Increased the potency of the super flare to work with 14 or higher, as opposed to 12 or higher. This allows Volt’s maximum to be higher than the default strongest pod of 40.
- Volt’s legacy forces its pod economy onto everyone. 10 pods become the mightiest, while 40 pods are only average. 00, 01, and negative pods are still the weakest, and the 02 is more valuable than the 12. Original Cosmic has no legacies.
Tips
- Volt is capable of self-zapping to use stronger pods normally. Its supporters can zap it to accomplish the same goal. On the flip side, zapping Volt can also force it to play a weak pod with its normal might.
- Volt has its own personal pod economy, similar to Anti-Matter. The 10 pod is the most valuable, capable of playing them as 30 pods. Since 10s are fairly common, Volt has much easier access to such a strong pod than other aliens. The least valuable are negative pods, as these become three times as weak than normal. If Volt uses a negative pod, it’s likely it won’t end up with a viable brigade.
- When playing a morph against Volt, the aur value of the pod will be copied, rather than the raw might. This means M pods will be stronger than the enemy’s if Volt’s pod burns out and weaker if it supercharges normally.
Development Notes
- The original name of “Tripler” is my go-to example of an alien with a weak sense of identity. The number 3 doesn’t provide much to generate an alien design or backstory, with the original lore having a bizarre origin related to betting, dipping too far into Gambler’s territory.
- Volt makes for an interesting parallel to Virus. Virus has no pod-based limitation, and its upper limit is much higher than what Volt can generate. However, Volt’s condition is not as exploitable. It can use a 10 as a 30 regardless of ship count.
- An interesting point to note about Volt is that it would be perfectly balanced without the additional effect that divides strong pods by 1/3. If Volt’s stronger pods were played normally, it still wouldn’t even be that powerful. However, the provided weakness makes the power more interesting, which is tied with my #1 priority, along with theme coherence. Volt’s weakness gives it a personal pod economy in the same vein as Anti-Matter, which means Volt has to invert how it perceives the common 10 and the rare 30, especially when giving them away. Unlike Anti-Matter, the 40 isn’t useless. If it has a zap, it might even be just as powerful.
- Even though 11 is the lowest pod that gets cut by 1/3, it is not the least valuable pod for Tripler to have. It gets reduced to 04, which is still higher than a 00 or 01, even if tripled. It’s also much better than having a negative pod.