biostem

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.

You could save your costumes, create alternate accounts, create "throw-away" characters on them, and do a temporary multi-box, or maybe just send some friends the costume files and ask them to login with you for the group shot...

I'm not understanding; +3 SOs only give up to about a 38% increase. Are you talking about level 50 generic IOs? Hami-O's?

Perhaps you could clarify something for me; With ED, enhancement values drop off sharply around the 95% mark for schedule A, and 56% for schedule B enhancements. If we removed ED, and stuck with the value of IOs, then someone slotting level 50+ IOs, (or even IO sets), would far outpace someone with just SOs, even if you were no longer effectively limited to 3 of any particular type/value. How would removing these "soft caps" benefit the non-IO/set user?

It would be interesting, (albeit a tremendous amount of work), if they could make it so you could pick from practically any animation that you wanted of a given category, (melee animations for those attacks, etc), with the numbers being adjusted for the length/duration of the chosen animation; Shorter animations result in lower damage, longer ones get more damage.

I would prefer that siphoning power from the enemy be an inherent aspect of each attack, (basically -dmg to them, +dmg to you as KM's schtick). Perhaps the actual clicky could provide some minor endurance and/or health over time instead.

Generally speaking, (at least in my experience), it comes from games where you can allocate stat points; Let's say you wanted to be a mage in D&D - you put your highest stat in intelligence and "dump" your lowest points into things like charisma or strength; You maximize those aspects of your character that are the most critical to your performance, and minimize those aspects with the least impact. Another connotation is to simply play up your strengths and minimize your weaknesses; Perhaps, as a blaster, you take defensive powers to fill in any holes, and slot others to maximize your damage output at the same time. There are different uses of the term, so a lot depends upon context...

Which it was; After asking for some clarification, I said: "They *are* "another pool selectable from the other 4". I just don't think that you should be able to have 5 total power pools to pick from. Taking any power should come with an opportunity cost - and allowing even more selections just lessens that. Why should I be able to take speed, fighting, leadership, leaping and sorcery, but not sorcery & force of will?" Reread the thread.

As I have already stated, why not just allow everyone access to 5 power pools? Why not allow players to pick more than 1 origin power pool? Never adequately answered. Nice strawman. Choosing what powers to take or not to take is already a decision with very little weight. Such choices shouldn't be made even less impactful to a character. The OP has already admitted that they specifically want this change because they have taken the current max of 4 power pools, and is unwilling to compromise or rethink their build "because it's fun". As I stated before, they don't want everyone to be able to take 5 power pool picks, they specifically want to allow 4 power pools and the origin pool BECAUSE a power they want, beyond the other 4 pools, exists in said origin power pool. Changing a power within a set != changing how many power pools you have access to. Not only are you unable to accurately represent my stance, you fail to even knock down the strawman you've constructed.

More options FOR SOME PEOPLE OR PLAYSTYLES, but not for others. Why not just open it up to 5 power pools? Why not just limit it to 4 power pools like we have now? Instead of actually having a cost associated with making a choice, you just want what you want with no thought of cost or consequence.