u/KripiForReal

Underhated: Means something you personally hate a lot but don't see a lot of hate of it online. My personal choice is Carepad.

(If you want to get straight into the juicy rework idea, skip to 3!!)

1. Intro

Civilian abilities in Die of Death serve to bring more fun and replay"ability" (haha!) to the game. If you take a look at any ability in game, no matter if it's good or bad, it always seems to have a group of enthusiasts, which is why I don't think there will ever be a deletion of an ability. Yet there's one ability which stands out among them in their problematicity (if that's a word) and you guessed it, it's Bonus Pad.

2. Why Bonus Pad is problematic

I could waste your time explaining what a Bonus Pad is, but no, I'll get streight to the topic in these points:
A) Insane value and just as insane cooldown.
Bonus Pad brings immense ammount of value for a single ability. I think saucefy realized this very quickly, but instead of toning it down, he gave it an abyssmal 65 second cooldown, this factor makes it so that this ability will be a sitting duck in your deck for a huge portion of the match. Sometimes, it feels like you're playing with only one ability and -10 health.
B ) Feels like a snoozie to play!
Bonus Pad has a super long windup without immiediate satisfying results. A trend I've noticed in asyms is that long windup abilities tend to be less fun, and it's totally understandable, and Bonus Pad falls into this category perfectly. Ungodly 5 seconds of vulnerability where you do nothing but wait.
C) Promotes Looping.
It's only valuable use is looping. I could get behind the long cooldown, long windup and how boring it is to play, but this is unacceptable! It completly fails at being a chase assist and is only used as a looping tool. Even through looping is a debatable topic, I think everyone can agree it's an unfun strategy and it's such a shame one of the abilities encourages it so heavily.

3. Rework Idea(s) for Bonus Pad and Care Pad!

A) Bonus Pad
The main change this rework would bring to the functionality of the Pad:
The effect given from the pad can only be applied once for every player.
(Which means if you step on the Pad, it gives you a speed boost, but if you step on it again, it won't give you the effect again, this applies to every player seperately)
Obviously, this change alone would make Bonus Pad the worst ability in the game, which is why there would need to be major stat changes to compensate :
Buffs :
- Civilian HP : 90HP -> 100HP (Why? Because they have a helmet, silly!)
- Building Windup : 1s -> 0.5s
- Building Time : 2.5s -> 2s
- Building Enlag : 1s -> 0.5s
- Speed Boost Duration : 2s -> 2.5s
- Cooldown : 65s -> 45s

Nerfs :
- Pad Lifetime : 30s -> 25s
- Pad Hitbox : (I don't have the exact stats for this, it's just made smaller)

Functionality Changes :
- (Nerf) Pad effect can only be applied once for every player.
(Once again had to say it...)
- (Buff) Pie's Damage Reduction effect is applied in Building Windup, Time and Enlag.
(So that the risk of being hit while building is not that big.
- (Nerf) Pad takes 3s to start working after being built.
(So that Bonus Pad's speed boost won't be wasted in Building Enlag)

What this rework planned to achieve is turning Bonus Pad from a looping tool, into a chase assist. Not much more to add in this part. :P

B) Care Pad
All of the changes done to Bonus Pad also apply to Carepad if not addressed
Buffs:
- Civilian HP : 60HP -> 75HP
- Healing : 2HP -> 0HP
- Regeneration : 0HP -> 10HP

I know the way it's worded makes it look like it got super buffed, but I swear 10HP for stepping on a Pad is not that OP. It's half less HP compared to Caretaker, for no need to coordinate with a second player.
Overall, even through I'm not sure if the stats are perfectly balanced due to not being able to test it unlike game developers, but I think it's a step in the right direction.

4. New Synergies!!!!!!!

Ok so I've analyzed every ability and thought which ones would fit the Pad effect the most, keep in mind that those keep the Bonus Pad Rework.

A) Tart Pad (Pie + Bonus Pad)
This Pad gives Pie's Damage Reduction Effect for 5s to anyone who steps on it!
(We do not know how long the Damage Reduction lasts from normal Pie so this may be unbalanced)

B ) Dance Pad (Bulge + Bonus Pad)
This Pad gives the stomping civilian 2x cooldown effect for 3s. If the placer steps on it, it'll only speed up their Bulge cooldown, making it the only way to speed it up.

5. End

Hey, thanks for reading it till the end, wether you read everything or skipped the first half, it took a long time to type it all. I'd be intrested in hearing your opinion, and I'd hug and kiss your upvote if you think this rework should be implemented!

Hi, recently I've seen a lot of love towards the "Infinity Miku" variant of cosMo@bousouP. I found that many people don't know much about her, or how she came to be. What is more suprizing is that there is no reliable source to obtain information about her. Which is why I'm making this post, for people who want to learn more about her.
She is often associated with the song "The Intense Voice of Hatsune Miku -HAPPY end-" which I'll refer to as Gekishou from now on, and the Project DIVA series, but neither of those places are her origins. Here, I'll try my best to explain how she was created and hopefully make this more of a common knowledge than before. If you find any errors, please let me know (Especially in part 2, since I've never played any Project DIVA games).

1. InfiniteHOLIC and Hyper∞LATION :

On November.16.2009, cosMo@bousouP, the creator of Infinity Miku uploaded a demo for his 3rd Album "InfiniteHOLIC". The Album had the goal of taking pre-existing cosMoP songs from all of his series and remastering them in HD quality.
The album featured songs from InfinitY series : Disappearence of H.M. , Demise of H.M. , Resurrection of H.M./InfinitY, and more (H.M. stands for Hatsune Miku).
The Fantasic Garden series : Dependence on F.G. , ANTItheInfiniteHOLIC , Stella Theater and more (F.G. stands for Fantasic Garden).
In the previously mentioned demo three remasters : Zero/The Birth of H.M. , ANTItheInfiniteHOLIC and InfinitY/The Resurrection of H.M. have been featured in order. The cover of the demo (and album) features a goth looking Miku who we now know as Infinity Miku.

The design is heavily inspired from Rho and Lambda from ANTItheInfiniteHOLIC, except it's miku. This was most likely done to combine the InfinitY series with The Fantasic Garden series, as InfiniteHOLIC set out to do.
At the end of the InfiniteHOLIC album demo, the screen turns black. We can hear Miku's faint voice from the ending of Disappearence of Hatsune Miku (also known as THE END OF HATSUNE MIKU), before it glitching out and epic music of Miku's rebirth after her deletion, begins.
The screen faints back to cover art, except now it's an agressive red color, with the logo of a new song we've never heard before, "Hyper∞LATION" (Third image).
This song is about Miku reviving as a killing machine in the world of Fantasic Garden after her deletion in The Disappearence of Hatsune Miku.

2. The Intense Voice of Hatsune Miku and Project DIVA 2nd :

On July.9.2010, a song "The Intense Voice of Hatsune Miku -InfinitY HAPPY end-" has released as 4th installment in cosMoP's project Miku songs.
This song is about Miku's ascension after her Resurrection in the song InfinitY -TRUE end-, saying goodbye to the world.
While at that time the song did not seem to have anything to do with Infinity Miku, that'd change 20 days later when a game called Project DIVA 2nd released.
With this, we realized that Intense Voice of H.M. was a collaboration song for this game. Because of this collaboration between cosMoP and SEGA, he had an oppoturnity to put one of his Miku designs as a skin in game, he chose Infinity Miku (Second image), she was given angel wings while in Intense Voice of H.M. (In game version, not upload.)
By these two additions, people began associating Infinity Miku with the song Intense Voice of H.M. , even through she wasn't on the cover of the original upload.
The game has turned out to be extremly successful, people LOVED both the song and the skin. This prompted SEGA to create a lot of Merch around Infinity Miku and her returning in a couple of future games.

3. The Disappearence of Hatsune Miku -Real and Repeat- album and Modern Day :

At the end of 2017, as the 10th anniversary of cosMo@bousouP was on the horizon, cosMo began remaking his old songs from the InfinitY series.
On January.18.2018, he released a remake of one of his more niche songs "The Demise of Hatsune Miku -WORST end-" (Also known as THE END OF HATSUNE MIKU 2). This song featured Infinity Miku, seen on cosMo's channel for the first time since 2009. This time her back was covered in ripped out cables (Fourth image).
The song is about Miku being lured into the forest of junk by master, before being abandoned by the one she trusted the most, an ending that's concidered the worst of her fates.
Later the same year, on August.5.2018. A remake of The Intense Voice of Hatsune Miku was released. Due to the earlier association between Infinity Miku and the song, she is present on the cover art in her full glory, with angel wings.
Even through Hyper∞LATION reappeared in The Disappearence of Hatsune Miku album in 2010, cosMoP did not include it in the InfinitY series 2018Remakes, which means this song is retconned in the modern day, which is sad but honestly I'm having high hopes for a Hyper∞LATION(2028 Remake).
Infinity Miku also appeared in Hatsune Creation Myth (Look at the hair) and both this song and Intense Voice were ported to a new mobile app, Hatsune Miku Project Sekai.
These days, Infinity often appears in cosMo@bousouP's arts, proudly representing The Intense Voice of Hatsune Miku.

Hey, thank you for reading it till the end! I hope you found this retrospective useful and learnt something. I'd really appriciate an upvote if so. Have a nice day! ^w^