Roland

From Gigantic Wiki
Revision as of 08:37, 17 December 2018 by MtMB (talk | contribs) (→‎Gallery)
File:RolandIcon.png
Roland's early portrait

Roland, also known as “Gunner”, is an unreleased hero for Gigantic.

“The Bounty Hunter” was a Shooter type hero, armed with shotgun and gadgets. He was one the first heroes created for the game, debuting in its prototype – Raid. He migrated into Gigantic with slightly changed visual design but with the same skill kit. He first appeared in the Announce Trailer and was available to play in Pre-Alpha phase.

During Pre-Alpha Roland's abilities were changing often, to the point he was completely removed for a total rework.[1] After official release of the game, developers and testers mentioned that beside refreshed abilities Roland also got a new model.[2]

In February 2018 concept artist Devon Cady-Lee posted his Roland concept arts (as he appeared in Pre-Alpha before rework).[3] In July 2018 concept artist Vinod Rams posted initial and redesign concept arts,[4] while hero's gameplay (in one of the recent core test builds of the game) was shown at Farewell Stream.[5]

In much older (dated to 2016), but leaked in the same day with the stream, core test build Roland already uses new model (without textures) and set of animations, but has middle-Alpha skill set.

Abilities

<tabview> Roland/Alpha|Pre-Alpha Roland/Mid-Alpha|Mid-Alpha Roland/Rework|Rework </tabview>

Talents

Descriptions of talents are taken from leaked core test build, dated to 2016.

  • Explosive Bolas
    [RMB/LT]: Bolas now explode, affecting enemies in a larger area.
  • Winding Winch
    [Q/LB]: Grappling Hook has reduced STAMINA
    Special resource which allows hero to sprint, dodge, jump, and utilize powerful dodge and sprint attacks.
    By default all heroes have 100 points of stamina.
    While SPRINT and JUMPS consume stamina gradually when player is IN COMBAT, DODGE always cost 25 points (one segment of blue bar).
    Heroes OUT OF COMBAT slowly regenerate their stamina when they don't move actively.    stamina     cost and cooldown on environment hits.
  • Droning On and On
    [E/RB]: Scout Drone can travel farther and has double HEALTH
    Special resource which represents hero's or creature's life pool, measuring for how long they are able to remain in fight.
    The amount of health is varied between characters. One segment of green bar represents 500 health points. Additional to it resources are TEMPORARY HEALTH (dark green) and SHIELD (light green).
    Taking DAMAGE and using some of the skills reduce health. When health bar reaches 0, hero is defeated and returned to the Airship, while creature just dies.
    Health can be recovered from various sources, while being OUT OF COMBAT slowly regenerates it.    HP    .

Scraped talents, which were part of older talent system:

  • Scattershot
    [LMB/RT]: Blunderbuss sends out more shrapnel.
  • Big Shot
    50% faster FOCUS
    Special resource that is accumulated and stored throughout every match, and can be used to unleash a FOCUS ABILITY, or upgrade young creatures to powerful adults.
    Focus requires to build up FOCUS CHARGES (maximum 3) before it can be used. They can be accumulated by dealing damage to enemies, healing allies, taking damage, and sometimes after being defeated and sent to the Airship.    Focus     gain from Blunderbuss [RMB/LT] shots.

Lore

With game's official announce Roland gives an impression of typical bounty hunter with big game hunter aesthetic. His early quote description was: “Firing the first shot is good, but firing the last shot is even better.”

Over the course of development he slowly became a ‘gadget hero’, which of course affected his character: new Roland has a mechanical left arm, which can launch grappling hook, bolas or scout drone. It is unknown how Roland got it. According to concept artist Vinod Rams, Roland is an ex-cop from Sky City, turned bounty hunter.[6] At Farewell Stream Roland's short hero description was shown:[5]

  • He was just as hard-hearted before he lost the arm. Now he just has more reach.

Lore notes that appear in final version of the game:

  • The Adventurer VI:
    • He was relentless. If Beckett ever stayed too long in one place, she knew the bounty hunter would find her.
    • The bounty hunter didn't care if she was guilty. He had a job to do, and he was going to do it.
  • The Ruffian V:
    • “Ramsay isn't at the top of my bounty list... but he's pretty close.” – Roland

Another lore note could've be found on official web site under Imani's focus ability:[7]

  • Kill Shot: “I swear Imani can see through both eyes. She just wears the eyepatch to preserve her sharp vision for 'special targets.'” – Roland

Skins

In game's text file can be found placeholders for Roland's Fortune Cards (missing 6th card) and basic skins, all titled as “The Bounty Hunter”. Skin placeholders share same lore description:

  • “You can run if you want. Won't make a difference.” – Roland

Roland was planned to have at least 2 more sets of skins:

  • “Nightwatch”, which hints on his Sky City “police” past; its details are very similar to ones of HK's “Heavy Gear” skin;
  • “Demon Hunter”, which already had a draft model and obviously was planned to be released with The Infernal Hunt update, with 2 color variants being identical to ones of Ezren Ghal's “Opulent” skin.

For screenshots and concept arts see: Media.

Media

Gallery

Screenshots

Concept arts

Initial design used in Raid ; artist – Vinod Rams

Later designs used in Gigantic

Miscellaneous

Video

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Roland Leaves Gigantic’s Hero Roster for ‘Reinvention’
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 DrRabbito1 comments on Any of you remember Roland, any info or screenshots of his updates? (Reddit)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 my work on Roland from GIGANTIC! This version of... - Gorrem Art (Tumblr)
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 Vinod Rams — Gigantic > Roland
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 GoGigantic - [Gigantic] Farewell Livestream - Twitch
  6. ↑ ArtStation - Roland, Vinod Rams
  7. ↑ GoGigantic.com - Imani
  8. ↑ ArtStation - Good Old Roland!, Joseph Pikop
  9. ↑ Gigantic Datamining – Meet Roland Hero – Smite Datamining
Retrieved from "https://gogigantic.wiki/wiki/Roland?oldid=506"