Silverjack, the Iron Leviathan
Admiral Ernesto Silverjack, "the Iron Leviathan" and commanding officer of the SS Tim Ranger, is a hulking beast who desires nothing more in life than good booze and a good fight. His massive size is complemented by the improvised weapon that he’s often lugging around, typically a cannon he ripped off his own ship. He commands a large crew of loyal sailors who stand by on their vessel; while Silverjack runs headfirst into a battle, his crew supports him by launching a near infinite number of missiles into the fray. While a self-described Navy, Silverjack and his crew do not sail under a particular flag, instead opting to work as mercenaries – or pirates, depending on who you ask – for whoever needs them. In his eyes, it’s never about money; Silverjack is simply looking for a good scrap, and is more than happy to ally with a weaker army purely so he can fight the stronger opponents, whether the army wants his help or not. And his crew, consistently swayed by Silverjack’s limitless charisma and optimism, will sail to the Abyss with their Admiral and never shy away from any fight he initiates.
The ship his crew sails is nothing short of a technological marvel, capable of striking any position within seconds of launching their munitions. Some say his crew found this ship aimlessly wandering the seas, with signs of it being a Fire Capital vessel from the far future, perhaps sent to the modern day in some early attempts into traveling through time. In any case, the SS Tim Ranger serves her new captain with a neverending stockpile of missiles, with the side effects of her temporal situation allowing her to instantly launch them right into his position wherever he so desires.
It goes without saying that when he started hearing whispers of a larger conflict across the Land of Aether, Silverjack didn’t hesitate to find the nearest conflict and force himself into the fray. He may not be capable of comprehending everyone’s motivations for fighting, but all the Iron Leviathan cares about is that they *are* fighting, and they’re all strong, and perhaps a few of them can share a good drink with him when the conflict is over.
Silverjack is designed to be a slow, heavy, massive disjointed trapper who makes up his very pitiful movement speed with the ability to strike his opponents at insane distances. He struggles to lumber around the battlefield, his air mobility is mediocre at best, he lacks true gap closing capabilities, he is a large target, and his recovery leaves much to be desired. At the same time, he truly cannot care less, as he doesn’t need to be close to his opponents to unleash hell on them. His cannon-and-chain already gives him an absurd reach to hit his opponents with devastating power, but his resource-managed missiles allows him to truly hit his opponents from anywhere on the battlefield.
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Silverjack is slow and packs a heavy punch. However, he’s not going anywhere without support from the SS Tim Ranger firing its barrage of missiles at her captain. All these missiles are linked to Silverjack’s Specials as follows:
These precision missiles launch at a particular point in the battlefield, ignoring anything the missile comes across until it precisely hits the targeted area.
Raining from above, these missiles come crashing down and explode on contact, no matter what that contact may be.
Blasting from below, these torpedoes are solid objects that explode after reaching a certain height. This can serve as a good recovery tool!
All Directional Specials can be tapped to fire the missiles above, OR held to place their targets on the field!
To tie all the missiles together, Silverjack can use his neutral special to place targets on the field! Follow the command prompts to place these targets as you see fit.
– Attack places a Blacktip, Special places a Mako, and Strong places a Hammerhead
– Tapping the above buttons places the targets, but holding the buttons will launch the corresponding missile
– Jumping and Parrying allow you to jump or roll out of the state, respectively
– Taunt lets you throw the scope away
All missiles targeted on the field are able to be launched regardless of Silverjack’s state! You can launch everything at one time if you have the targets in place! Use this to lay some traps on the field and make your opponent second guess coming into your sights!
Perhaps you want to get rid of your targets. Taunt allows you to remove the targets in a first-in, first-out basis, using the same arrow key inputs as selecting your missile type for Neutral Special!
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A bonus quirk to Silverjack is that all explosives give him a bit of a boost, effectively letting the Iron Leviathan rocket jump! They still do self-damage, so be careful not to let this get too out of hand!
Down Air and Down Strong both feature explosive pocket Lantern munitions that he crunches into the ground, and are also tied into this mechanic!
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As one final bonus quirk to the set, Silverjack’s Forward Strong, Up Strong, and Forward Aerial can be angled! Moreover, Forward and Up Strong can be angled during their charge animations! They are still slow and weighty attacks, but the added height can help secure those kills!
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Some Ghosts – Permissions used for their song "The Wharf" as Silverjack’s victory theme. Massive thank you to these guys for letting me use their music! Please check out their Soundcloud[open.spotify.com] and their Bandcamp[someghosts.bandcamp.com] for more of their stuff!
Hemuth – Drew the portrait, which is honestly one of the hardest things I’ve seen in a long time, alongside providing some of the alt colors. Added as a contributor for this project!
ArtistOfSeer – Provided code tweaks for overall SFX and attack values, massive thank you for making the attacks sound and feel better!
Villains of Aether – Tons of advice and bugfixing help. There’s a ton of you over there, so I wanted to thank the overall community for your support across this entire project!
Rivals of Aether Extended Workshop – Also a ton of advice, bugfixing help, and support! Massive thank you to you all!
Free SFX taken from the following videos for the missile sounds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw6AvjAyFKs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsP90tACSh0
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Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
