Y
YourNeighborNat
I think it'd be nice if the pillar was changed to have stats equivalent to the cube, just with a different form factor. In addition to just making pillar statistically stronger (pillar is generally considered pretty weak from a fundamentals standpoint), this would allow for things like holding a pillar in one hand, throwing out a disc with explode on it (which I've found is easier to do with a pillar compared to doing so with a cube due to the shape difference) to un-ground an unmoving wall, and then send that pillar piercing through that wall. Currently, unlike the cube, if this is done with a pillar it would result in a net-zero.
On the flip side, giving the pillar cube stats would purportedly throw off railgun set-ups. However, as far as I'm aware, railgun behavior is an unintended consequence of some left-over debug code. To make the pillar with cube stats not break railgun set-ups, to integrate railgun behavior in an intentional manner, and to maybe add a bit of spice, I suggest a Railgun Stone be added that does the following:
  1. Pillars spawned while the Railgun Stone is equipped could have the same stats as they currently do (instead of having those that a cube has), with the exception that these pillars pop out of the ground even faster than a cube. Perhaps this could be framed as them being lighter or perhaps it could just be a magic shift stone thing. I figure this may help with getting multi-pillar railgun set-ups done faster, in addition to other benefits.
  2. When a structure breaks through more than one of these special pillars in a short amount of time, it gains a buff to structure velocity and a +1 to damage, which scales with how many of these pillars after the first one are broken within that timeframe. Alternatively, it would stray a bit from current railgun behavior, but I kind of think the boost to structure velocity and damage could even start upon breaking through just one of these pillars and scale from there.
  3. Both the person spawning them and their opponent can utilize these pillars and they spawn as visually distinct from standard pillars to help cue the opponent that something is different about these pillars.