Rudra

I fought a Devolved from the Infected, and aside from his X-Ray Beam, he just stood there doing nothing. I was being hit by a constant stream of attacks, so he was definitely attacking me the entire time, he just had no animations activating for anything other than X-Ray Beam.

I don't think the proposed set is redundant. Especially after the changes the thread has brought up. (And where does it say the devs can only consider one power set to implement? If you want an Earth-themed support set and it hasn't been proposed yet, propose it. [Edit: And even if one has been proposed, if you have a different take on it, even if only slightly, then propose that.])

The thing is, those weapons are designed to work with the animations of the power set. The weapons are designed so that when you use them, they fit what the animation does, like look down the barrel or through the sights when sniping. Even if they lack the features to use the powers available in the set, they can be plugged into the animation and work. A chaingun cannot and at minimum requires new animations. At least for the Sniper Rifle power. So it would be better off as its own power set in my opinion. (After all, isn't that basically how we got Dual Pistols? Probably not, but maybe?) This is what CO did, and it frustrated the hell out of me. (I like the idea of a character carrying multiple weapons, but I prefer different power sets for it. So I would still like to see the Sidearm power pool that was previously suggested by someone.) If that is people's preferences though? I don't have to opt into it. However, that also means I won't get to use the chaingun model without (in my opinion) breaking the set (either for the broken animation or for the weapon change from the single power set). (Besides, breaking AR up into different weapon models for different attacks will require an overhaul of the costume creator.) Hence why I proposed a minigun power set. If implemented, the animations for its use already exist (just need to use the one animation for different lengths of time, easy implementation), gives players a new power set option (particularly for those players upset about Beanbag still being in AR), and can still use the existing weapon models from AR in addition to the requested chaingun.

You do know that AVs can be turned off in the difficulty settings, and that makes them into EBs while soloing, right? Stock up on a full tray of reds and munch them. It's an option at least. (I'm inclined to agree with @arcane on this. When a temp power becomes a must have for everyone (per the chats I've listened to), it's too good a power.

Something like that could work. If you select the higher rate of fire, then your attacks do more damage per activation, maybe even have a faster recharge, but then you build up an overheat bar that locks out the power set for a set amount of time as the weapon jams until it cools off. What would the lower rate of fire do? Or are you proposing the set have an overheat bar/function regardless of selected rate of fire, but the bar builds up faster or slower depending on selected rate of fire? (Personally, I think just take the proposed rev up mechanic, and have the high/standard/low rates of fire change damage with a countering benefit/penalty to keep them all attractive, and just forego any concerns about overheat and jams.) (Edit: Maybe instead of the weird use of recharge I had for balance, make low RoF grant -DAM/+ACC and have high RoF grant +DAM/-ACC?)

Dang it, I finished my edit as you popped your response.... Edit: To continue my previous edit.... (Sorry.) A minigun with a slower rate of fire would put out less rounds per second, but could still be fired at the same rate. Since you're firing bursts with the minigun, not single shots (to the best of my knowledge), the recharge isn't really affected by the rate of fire. You can fire a short burst and a long burst over the same amount of time regardless of the weapon's rate of fire, but the number of rounds fired would change in each of those bursts depending on the weapon's rate of fire.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but "lower fire rate" means fewer attacks per second, and "higher fire rate" means more attacks per second. Giving the former more damage and the latter less damage would help balance that out, no? Yes, a lower rate of fire is less bullets per second, but unless you're changing the caliber of the rounds being fired to something larger as well, less bullets being fired in the same interval of time translates to less overall damage being inflicted by the weapon in question. So a lower rate of fire would translate to less damage whereas a higher rate of fire would translate to more damage, if done from the same weapon firing the same caliber of munition. So it should be a lower rate of fire using the same munitions from the same weapon would result in less damage per attack or a longer recharge for each power. (Because you aren't firing as many rounds in the same interval, so the total volume of fire is less, being represented by the loss of damage or the worsening of recharge, possibly both.) And a higher rate of fire using the same munitions from the same weapon would result in more damage per attack or a faster recharge for each power. (Because you're putting more rounds on target in the same interval, so the total volume of fire is greater, being represented by the improving of damage, recharge, or both.) Since our weapons can't overheat or jam, I don't see any way anyone would ever choose the lower rate of fire since it would be a flat penalty for game play, but everyone would opt for the higher rate of fire because it would be a flat benefit for game play. So my approach to make them both desirable is to have the lower rate of fire do less damage but enjoy the better recharge (presumably because you have to reload less often or whatever) while the higher rate of fire does more damage but suffers a worsened recharge (because of reload or whatever). Edit: Yes, I know giving the lower rate of fire a better recharge is counterintuitive and contrary to actuality, but for the sake of balance and making it so players will consider taking all the options, it is the only thing I can see doing since we aren't firing any larger or smaller rounds when we change our rate of fire. So I'm using damage to reflect the rate of fire and the recharge to offset whatever the damage does. You could do it the other way around, like you said, but it seems more accurate to me that since we are using a different rate of fire in a high-rate of fire weapon, representing it by the damage makes more sense, because our ability to use the weapon over a given set of time isn't really represented by rate of fire. Pretty much the damage is.

Works for me!

If it could be implemented, that would be a good substitute for the proposed Special Munitions. Though the lower fire rate should reduce the damage and the recharge while the higher fire rate should increase the damage and the recharge. If the replacement for Special Munitions, then the set could have its default fire rate and the player could use Alter Burst Timing to select Shorten Burst (for faster attacks at the cost of damage) or Extend Burst (for slower but more damaging attacks).

I'm proposing a new power set based (more or less) on the Assault Rifle set. Like the title says, it would use chainguns, gatlings, and other miniguns for the player's weapon models pulled from the various factions already employing such weapons. The proposal is something like this: Tier 1: Short Burst (ST attack, -DEF) Tier 2: Long Burst (ST attack, -DEF) Tier 3: Spray Fire (Cone attack, -DEF) Tier 4: Focused Salvo (Cone attack, narrower than normal, -DEF, KB) Tier 5: Special Munitions (Change the damage type and possibly secondary effects of all other set attacks) -or- Alternate Fire (Change to Low RoF [-DAM/+ACC all set attacks] or High RoF [+DAM/-ACC all set attacks]) Tier 6: Arcing Fire (Long range TAoE, minor damage) -or- Precision Burst (ST, sniper attack) Tier 7: Piercing Volley (Narrow ranged cone [as per Piercing Rounds attack], -RES) Tier 8: Suppressive Fire (ST attack, Disorient or Cone, -ToHit) Tier 9: 9 Yards (From "the full 9 yards" from when WWII aircraft would deplete their ammo stores. As per Full Auto) The powers themselves and the order in which they appear on the list are subject to change. Damage not assigned because I'm not sure how to rate the proposed set's damage. This post is derived from: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/45106-chaingun-for-assault-rifles/

Just because players don't have to take a power doesn't mean the models/animations shouldn't match the available powers. And with the grips used in the animations for the Assault Rifle power set available to players and the grips used on the chaingun model animation, it wouldn't look a little weird. It would look completely idiotic. I'm fine with getting a chaingun model for players to use. The chaingun we can get as a Praetorian is one of the things I look forward to when I make a Praetorian. I just think it would work better as a new power set or something else needs to be made for the chaingun model to work with Sniper Rifle. Otherwise, you are just proposing a model for you to use and not considering how it would affect others that may also want to use it but also take Sniper Rifle on their Assault Rifle characters.

How would it work with the Sniper Rifle power? Completely different stance. And no, they use the Assault Rifle power, not the Assault Rifle power set. Minor nitpick. Without getting too much into the weeds on the issue, I'm not terribly concerned with what other CoH private servers do/have done... Agreed. More options are a good thing, I just don't get how the chaingun can be used for the Sniper Rifle power.

Well, a precedent could be found in air superiority, and presumably the -range effect would persist for a short while, so tagging an enemy with that would be yet another way to keep them close. Air Superiority has -Fly, not -range. (Edit: And @arcane was specifically referring to the -range part of the OP.)

*shrug* I'm not an expert on the matter. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Just passing on what I was told. (Edit: Hence the "Not sure" and "may" in my 1st post.)

I don't know about -Fly resistance working or not, but I have learned that if I stay more than about 10 feet off the ground, those web grenades don't do anything to me unless it comes from a Toxic Tarantula. (30 feet seems to be the safe point for TTs.) Edit: Also, Arachnos web grenades are flagged as unresistable. So -Fly resist isn't going to affect their web grenades. Just have to try to be high enough for them to not affect you. (Edit again: https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=v_arachnos.wolf_spider_web_grenade.web_grenade) Edit again: Maybe the altitude was 30 feet and 50 feet respectively? Not sure. I'm a terrible judge of distance. Especially in compressed scale like a video game.

I have not experienced this behavior when using taunt on enemies... If it proves to work the way you want, then great. I'm just saying that based on what I was told, it may not.

Pretty sure range is floored at 0. There's no such thing as negative range... Edited 6 minutes ago by Wavicle From the way it was explained to me, the -range component causes a target to move towards the character, but it has no floor. It triggers the move action on the mob every few (unknown by me) intervals, and is not a set 'move until in melee range' effect, but is instead a 'move this much distance towards triggering source' effect. So a target already in melee range with the triggering source, our character, the target will be triggered to take a move action for the set distance towards the character, but being already in melee range, have their move take them past the character. The example given to me was Singularity and how targets, including players if an enemy Singularity, will constantly be moving back and forth through the Singularity's space, even if it moved us farther away from the Singularity than when the movement started. Though since our hit boxes should prevent the move through effect, the target will instead move around and past our character in the direction of the source. (So the affected target, if triggered to move 10 feet per trigger for the -range power, was already in melee range, would then move 10 feet towards the triggering character, which would be past the triggering character. Now your character has to turn to face the target to keep attacking, each time the move to source proc triggers and the mob moves past the character.) Edit: So yes, range as in the distance calculated to see if a target can be hit with a designated power should be floored at 0. (Pretty sure that was fixed back on Live, because for a time we could have a negative range which made melees useless against certain mobs at the time. Spent quite a while screaming at the game that the target in my Scrapper's face could not be attacked for being at -1 feet away with me having no remaining yellows to pop before the fix was implemented.) However, the -range component from things like Taunt and Provoke are not range per se, but are instead induced 'move in direction of source' effects. And the direction of the triggered move does not change even if the movement takes the target past the triggering source.

Not sure the -range is going to do any good on a melee set. Since it may induce the target to move past you.

This post is not a refutal of the OP. However, except for other players, every flyer in the game will come to your character. You're in Terra Volta trying to take down flying Sky Raiders? Duck behind a building or hop on top of a roof. The fliers will typically drop to ground level and pursue you, or if you hopped on the roof, just fly straight to you. (Or just stand your ground and make rude gestures. The Wing Officers and Wing Raiders will fly to you even if you just stand there and wait. Sometimes the Sky Skiffs too.) Same thing works for every other flyer in the game in my experience. Longbow Eagles? Despite their coding to maintain range will fly right up to your character to shoot. Spirits and ghosts? Seem to prefer to be in melee range even for their ranged attacks.

I'm pretty sure that will never happen. I don't know for sure, but the devs seem to be trying to maintain the same basic approach as the Live devs did, and the Live devs were adamant about players never getting an autohit attack. Autohit debuffs? Yes, but not autohit attacks.

What would you recommend for new animations? (Please bear in mind that unlike the other pool powers, Sorcery and Experimentation are keyed to specific origins. So they were given animations to help convey their origin. Teleport on the other hand, is not associated with any origin, so was given what the Live devs hoped was a suitably generic effect, I believe.) Edit: The other 3 origins were also going to get their own power pools, but they weren't finished before the game was shut down.

@SwitchFade, I have to agree with @Akisan on this. Telling players to avoid Arachnos (who you can fight starting in Atlas Park as a new character and are available at every stage of character progression in the game, becoming progressively more common as you level up since they are the principle bad guy faction in the game), Freakshow (who form the majority of the missions I've seen recently starting at level 20, way outnumbering Warrior and Tsoo missions combined in my experience), and Crey (who are available at all times starting from level 30) doesn't make much sense to me. Those are the main groups you encounter blue side for their repsective areas/level ranges in my experience. So you are basically telling players to not do the story arcs, just do paper missions and cycle them until you get a Council mission to run. Or are you telling players to join a Council farm and just get to level 50 that way? Bear in mind, at least in my experience, Council are only available in a couple missions pre-level 10, maybe even pre-level 20. So the only way I know to just encounter Council is to go to AE and farm them or find a Council farm and join it. I don't have any comments about the team part though. As someone that typically avoids teaming, I understand that means my character with my chosen AT's power sets' strengths and weaknesses, some groups are going to be harder than others to fight. Price to be paid for playing solo. Look, no one is saying to get rid of autohit powers. They have a purpose. The perception being addressed by the OP is that autohit powers are becoming more and more common. High accuracy powers are a good thing, yes, but a plethora of autohit powers is not. Autohit powers should be made sparingly. And there are autohit powers that make no sense when you look at the same power as used by mobs in the same faction (like Arachnos) that are not autohit powers. That is the OP's complaint. Not that autohit powers are bad and should be removed, but that autohit powers are seemingly increasing in proportion to standard attack powers and the difficulties that creates for defense-focused characters. Especially since until you can get enough IO set bonuses and maybe Incarnate powers, your typical high defense character can't take a hit. (At least mine couldn't.) Even at +0/x0. Especially if pre-level 30 or so.

I'm fine with the suggestion, but seeing as I didn't even know there even was a /showtime command, I don't think it will be as helpful as you think. Still, the options would be helpful for those that know the command exists.

Or, you know, order your ranged pets like the bots to maintain distance and lock down the Super Stunner. Or if you slotted the pet IO procs, let your melee pets stay in close, use the heal most MM secondaries have to heal your pets when the Super Stunner rezzes, and laugh as the Super Stunner most often dies again before he has a chance to do anything other than get back up. (This is particularly fun with the that one unique Tank that has both the Super Stunner drain rez and the Tank chance for rez. Keep the pets gathered around him on aggressive, and enjoy the show.)

We do have weaknesses in this game. Every armor set has at least one hole in its defense. ATs that don't get access to armor sets lack those holes because they aren't as robust (HP) and lack the integral invulnerability (damage resist/defense). With IO sets, players can bolster their defense against attacks, but there are still weaknesses that can't really be overcome in the armor sets except with tactics, overwhelming firepower (to quickly get rid of the threat), or a team.