biostem

Well, my idea was more to fulfill a sort of hunting blind or sniper's nest effect. Maybe it could be a location-based power, where those stepping into it gain stealth? Maybe it grants a short duration damage buff, while inside of it? *shrugs*

How would persistent effects work, and how quickly can the change(s) be pulled off? For instance, if my base form was a shield tanker, could I click active defense, then change into my rad defender form, give myself AM, and finally switch to a blaster and just devastate enemies? Would all such buffs be dropped between forms? What about longer-lasting debuffs that you could apply? Would they cancel out as soon as you change forms? IIRC, and to use your example, didn't Cutey Honey have her combat form, and the rest were profession-centric, (like a professional racer form, a doctor form, etc)? Maybe focus on that aspect of the character instead? You functionally have the same powers across all forms, except for maybe switching out a few key powers. There would be 4 "forms" that you unlock at different levels/milestones throughout your career. Perhaps your base form would be one of these, or would be a very underwhelming one that only used some simply pistol or martial attacks, and you had to build up a bar in order to change forms. These forms could be named "brawler form" for the melee-centric one, "marksman form" for the ranged attacker, "exploiter form" for the control-heavy one, and "supporter form" for the buff/debuff/healing one. For instance, maybe you have various "expertise" powers, which translate into different abilities like this: Dark Expertise: 1. Shadow punch (brawler form), dark blast (marksman form), shadow binds (exploiter form), twilight grasp (supporter form)

I was thinking about that. Maybe have the set use a bayonet-equipped rifle, and have that be the melee attack instead...

The gist of this power pool is to provide some basic skills and abilities that would help one survive "out in the wild". It's intended to be fairly low-key, but useful. The powers are: 1. Survival knife - A simple, minor lethal-damage attack with a short bladed weapon, (would allow use of the 1-handed blade models for customization). 2. Basic marksmanship - A basic rifle attack, dealing moderate lethal damage. Has a chance to deal a minor lethal DoT effect. Can use the various rifle weapon models for customization. 3. Camouflage - A simple stealth power, only it provides a moderate damage and defense buff when you aren't detected. It would not provide any bonuses once you are detected, however. 4. Poultice - A mixture of medicinal herbs or compounds applied to oneself for the treatment of injury. A minor HoT effect that provides some resistance to sleep or stun while it is in effect. 5. Preparedness - A click power with a long cooldown, which grants moderate damage absorption and a 2-magnitude rating against knockback, hold, stun, and immobilize effects. Your thoughts? Thanks for reading! EDIT: Forgot the 5th power... D'Oh!

I wonder if the game can differentiate fall damage from other forms of damage. If so, then something like a buff with a semi-long cooldown which heals you if you take fall damage, could work, (or a highly specialized damage shield which couldn't be stacked with tough, weave, other defensive powers or IO set bonuses).

Well, one option would be to make SJ completely negate fall damage, but this would have other ramifications. Your suggestion, if implemented, would basically make SJ another "must have" power like tough or weave. Alternatively, just don't jump to the maximum height, use steam jump or the jump pack, or otherwise deal with the small amount of damage.

Flight will also "deal damage to you" if you fall too far. SJ simply increases your jump height; It doesn't make you immune to fall damage. As long as you jump and land exactly has high as the power permits, you won't take damage...

It'd be nice if they had a basic single pistol power pool, and maybe something like a hunting rifle or survivalist power pool. Maybe just a general "small arms" power pool with a knife attack, pistol attack, something akin to the body armor power from the APP, and a rifle attack.

I was having this issue, and this fixed it up for me. Thanks!

So there was some talk in this thread regarding "elemental Kheldians", or Kheldians with differentwith different forms and powers. I was thinking that something very close could be achieved via the Sentinel AT. My basic idea is this: > Bio Armor would probably be the best fit, as you could use the defensive adaptation for the dwarf form and offensive adaptation for the nova form, and maybe efficient adaptation for the human form. Alternatively, you could take boxing, kick, tough, weave, and cross punch, but only use them in the dwarf form, and either use your armor toggles in all forms, or just restrict some or all to said dwarf form. You could take assault & tactics to bolster just the nova or all forms, and it could sort of reflect the team-centric nature of true Kheldians. Beyond that, maybe take mystic flight or both hover/fly and teleport to round out the dwarf & nova travel modes. Presence may be useful if you want to better try and fulfill the tank roll while in your dwarf form, and unrelenting could kind of fake a light form-like ultimate mode. With some clever keybinds and costumes, I think you could pull this off. Your thoughts?

I think part of the problem is CoH's older design philosophy coming in contact with current players' mindsets. For instance, in many newer games when you gain new abilities, you can basically use them with reckless abandon; There's nothing really telling you to *not* use that new attack or armor toggle as often as possible. There's no in-game tutorial that suggests holding off on that big, costly attack if the enemy only has a sliver of health left...

So this is a very vague concept, (and I'm sure others have proposed similar/better/worse ideas), but here's my attempt: What I think differentiates this idea from others is that it'd make use of your other costume slots in a way that sort of "locks" them out from regular use. There would be a few categories of types of shapeshifters and then a separate method of selecting powers. Some rough categories would be: 1. Size changing - your costume remains the same across forms, but you get a larger form that gets better defensive powers and a smaller one that is faster. 2. Beasts/monsters - you get a slower/stronger form and a faster/stealthier form. When you pick the form change power, you are brought to the costume creator and are either restricted to the various beast/monstrous/alien pieces only, or must create a new costume that is sufficiently different from your base costume. The powers each form get would be something like claws/feral attacks and armor sets. 3. Aliens/ghosts/mutants/robots - these are more energy-focused creatures, and you'd get a larger melee-focused tank for and a glass-cannon-like ranged form. 4. Elementals - You'd get a tougher, slower, melee form and a faster, higher-damage ranged form. Whether you could mix and match the forms, or they'd be consistent across both forms is up in the air. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading! EDIT: So to provide some further clarification on how I see this AT working, here's a quick walk-through of one such character: 1. You select the shapeshifter AT. 2. You choose to be an "Alien/ghost/mutant/robot" shapeshifter. 3. You select "radiation" as the power category. This choice sets both your primary and secondary sets. 4. This is where I think I'd need the most help with the concept. One thought is to make the primary your human-form powers, while the secondary is what grants you your forms and abilities relating to them. For instance, the T1 power in the secondary is the tougher form. It has a few basic abilities, and other power picks in the secondary further enhance it. Maybe one power gives your forms better end recovery or regeneration. Another gives a tohit bonus. Another increases power recharge of each form, etc. 5. Since you are forced to take 1 form at character creation, you must create a costume for that form, (if you had selected the size-changing shapeshifter, this part would be skipped). That costume must either use parts from a restricted selection of costume parts, or must be different from your current costume, (perhaps just have the costume editor check that the current costume, if saved as a file, is different than your base one, or just let people keep the same costume if they really wanted).

Honestly, perhaps a more generalized shapeshifter AT would be better...

Choosing enhancement slots and what to put into them are just as much a part of the game as creating a character's costume or choosing power sets. Why is making use of the tools and options already available to everyone not a valid solution? Maybe I missed it, but did someone actually tell the OP that "suffering=good"? It's quite a different thing to say, "Do you find that you are frequently running out of end? Maybe try X, Y, and Z in order to avoid doing that..."

Welcome home! Do you happen to have any screenshots of your old characters? Maybe we can advise you if we had a few pics to work off of...

From my understanding, all current Kheldians "remember" having nova and dwarf forms, (or just being a light/dark empowered human for those that don't take those powers). Theoretically, a Kheldian could have visited some star system where there were fire or other elemental-based creatures, whose forms they "remembered" instead... Roleplay-wise, there's no reason you couldn't roll another AT and make clever use of different costumes and binds to simulate them. For instance, a sentinel + fighting + mystic flight could mimic both nova and dwarf forms pretty convincingly...

They can also be referred to as "Ancillary Power Pools". Frankly, it is difficult to rationalize many powers as being "natural", (unless you reason that your character is of some race the can produce those effects as a result of their biology/physiology). As for tech, well characters such as Iron Man have all the kit built into their suit/equipment they wear/carry, and not necessarily guns.

Don't run all your toggles 24/7. Don't spam your attacks as soon as they're ready. Don't be afraid to take a few hits to allow yourself to recover some end. Slot end reducers and lean toward powerset that include additional forms of end recovery.

I present, for your consideration, "Slashtronaut":

Yeah - it'd be hard to play a sniper that has to dig themselves in, in a game as fast-paced and mobile as CoH. How about this: The AT has a special personal transporter/blink device. You start out stealthed. You fire your first shot, get a crit, then activate the device. Depending upon what other abilities you use, you may leave a decoy in your previous location, or maybe a bomb, a trap, or possibly even a gun turret. Basically, you are encouraged to rapidly move around the battlefield, leaving traps, debuffs, or other effects in your wake. It'd basically be more of a "hit and run" style of play instead of a dug-in sniper...

I feel that having to dig-in and setup some concealment and defenses would suit a sniper better. The problem is that it makes it much less compatible with the faster pace of team play. What if you could do something like throw a holographic emitter that created a decoy, which taunted enemies and put you in stealth, thus allowing you to get in some crits? What if you could throw down a sort of "instant sniper's nest", which granted you stealth and some other buffs for a short time, while you were within its AoE? Maybe your actual sniper attacks could be more like target designators - you construct mortars or turrets, mark out targets, those constructs do the attacking and get the aggro, while you remain safe...

This one is really nice!

Since outright killing any enemy with a successful sniper shot is kind of out of the question, what if you played up the uncertainty and disarray that would be caused by receiving fire from an unknown attacker. Maybe some sniper shots will cause enemies to "break" and cower in fear. Maybe some will cause them to become confused and attack randomly, possibly hitting their own allies. In addition to those effects, why not leverage how real life snipers might prepare their position to both conceal and protect them. How about giving the AT a very strong stealth ability, but have it be a, (possibly interruptable), location-based click or toggle, (i.e. any ally in the area of effect benefits from the buff). Other buff abilities could follow a similar pattern. Maybe this AT could deploy decoys that distract enemies or setup automated mortars which they can call upon for support...

A interesting read. Thanks!

One of the sci-fi boots just has a bead/trim around the top, which may be just enough detail to breakup the red, without being too much. There's also a boot, I think it's the Imperial Defense or maybe Praetorian Police, that basically has a solid shin/calf piece and a differently colored foot section, but it is a little bit wider, so may break things up as you wanted.