time gear
Eternity in an hour
On the topic of passive abilities, I do have some ideas as to how the Armageddon shield could be tweaked:
As I mentioned previously, it would be interesting and useful if it allows you to breath in a vacuum, but not underwater. I don't think Egg Rock has much in the way of water sections (Or any, for that matter) but custom levels could potentially make great use of this. As a tradeoff, perhaps the Elemental shield could lose the ability to let you breath in a vacuum, instead only preserving breath underwater. This could make for some interesting player choices built into level design.
Another idea is to make the player "radioactive" while they have the shield. Nearby enemies (But not bosses) that get too close to the player are marked for death, causing them to detonate after, say, five seconds. Still enough time for the player to take a hit if they aren't careful, but it would act as an assist in dealing with enemies.
Alternatively, enemies could be scripted to recognize that players have the shield, and try to avoid directly touching them so as to avoid destroying themselves. Some enemies could be an exception to this, such as the bees in AGZ.
Finally the last idea that comes to me is that it could be modified so that enemies that touch the shield actually stick to it (But not bosses or large enemies such as face stabbers). Using the shield on it's own has a fairly small radius, but for every enemy added to the shield the radius increases (Reaching max radius at about 15-20). As a bonus, ring and 1-up monitors can also stick to it. When you detonate the shield, everything stuck to you is also destroyed, and monitors take effect for the player. Eggman monitors also stick however, so the player should be careful.
As I mentioned previously, it would be interesting and useful if it allows you to breath in a vacuum, but not underwater. I don't think Egg Rock has much in the way of water sections (Or any, for that matter) but custom levels could potentially make great use of this. As a tradeoff, perhaps the Elemental shield could lose the ability to let you breath in a vacuum, instead only preserving breath underwater. This could make for some interesting player choices built into level design.
Another idea is to make the player "radioactive" while they have the shield. Nearby enemies (But not bosses) that get too close to the player are marked for death, causing them to detonate after, say, five seconds. Still enough time for the player to take a hit if they aren't careful, but it would act as an assist in dealing with enemies.
Alternatively, enemies could be scripted to recognize that players have the shield, and try to avoid directly touching them so as to avoid destroying themselves. Some enemies could be an exception to this, such as the bees in AGZ.
Finally the last idea that comes to me is that it could be modified so that enemies that touch the shield actually stick to it (But not bosses or large enemies such as face stabbers). Using the shield on it's own has a fairly small radius, but for every enemy added to the shield the radius increases (Reaching max radius at about 15-20). As a bonus, ring and 1-up monitors can also stick to it. When you detonate the shield, everything stuck to you is also destroyed, and monitors take effect for the player. Eggman monitors also stick however, so the player should be careful.