Blackfeather

Hmm...at least when it comes to the easier sort options, I imagine it'd probably be done externally using the playerslot.txt file. Like for example, have the forums give a tool that lets you export a fresh file that contains all your characters on your game account, and choose the order with which you want to display your characters. Of course, for things like most recently played, that's probably a bit impractical, but plenty of other options could work just fine with it, so long as you're not creating a new character every week or something like that - even then it'd just be a matter of redownloading a fresh playerslot.txt file that included the new character.

Of course! Fleshing those ideas out into fully fledged concepts can potentially entail actually working on the game, especially with the code out there. And even without touching code, there's a lot that people can do to better realise some ideas, for example attaching tentative numbers to powerset suggestions, along with flavor text to go with them, etc.

It's a cool idea for sure, and honestly, I don't think it's really fair to needle suggestions for their potential complexity of implementation. This is, after all, the suggestions forums...we don't have some civic duty to make them easy to implement: all we can do as players of the game is suggest what we think is cool in some shape or form, and flesh those ideas out into fully fledged concepts. And then if the dev team ends up using some of those suggestions? All the better.

Hmm...this might be too early for me to participate in, unfortunately. Hopefully it'll have a good turnout!

That's actually how I imagined something like friendly fire would work - having CoT mages cast Earthquake and end up tripping as well sounds very funny. Alternatively, enemies that decided against AoE-ing players that were up close...that might be interesting, actually. I kind of imagined this suggestion as less of a 'difficulty setting' and more of a 'change in play dynamics setting', which might be fun for some people, so long as it were an option restricted to instanced maps or something like that.

As in, a Fire Controller wouldn't be able to stand in their own Bonfire with Hot Feet active, which is something I currently do - they work well together because the latter slows enemies down, keeping them inside the former for a longer duration, constantly being knocked down. With 'friendly fire' on, I'm assuming characters would also be affected by their own powers.

Building on my previous post, the kind of friendly fire that ends up happening might be a bit of a concern for characters with both a 'patch' power and an 'aura' power. I'll use Fire Control as an example. Two of Fire Control's powers work very nicely together at the moment: Bonfire and Hot Feet. With Sudden Acceleration slotted into the former, you have a knockdown damage patch that keeps enemies falling flat onto the ground. Hot Feet acts as a damage aura, as well as a means of keeping enemies from running too far by slowing their movement speed. Combined, I've found it very potent to land a patch of Bonfire into the enemy ranks, before charging in with Hot Feet active, rendering mobs not only knocked down the majority of the time, but also slowed and damaged a good amount. Such a strategy would be rendered fairly ineffective, or at least undesirable by the introduction of friendly fire (at least with Bonfire - I figure that damage aura powers would be exempt, per my previous post's reasoning), at least by default - you'd be damaging yourself in the process due to charging into the Bonfire, as well as being constantly knocked down without the right protection. This example can be expanded out to apply to most patch powers, come to think of it...on the one hand, the whole considering where to put your patch powers thing is interesting, and might lend to a bit of a shift in playstyle if enabled as an option. On the other, it does render characters that have both a toggle player-based AoE power and such powers as less effective than before. Needless to say, any implementation of friendly fire would require a lot of thought about how it'd be done: there'd definitely be powers that'd be exempt for example. Additionally, it'd probably be best used in map instances only - I don't think people want to visit a trainer just to be swamped with damaging effects, etc.

It does sound like an idea with a lot of potential - having elements like these help to make an often ignored part of the game more interesting: positioning! It's not for everyone, but I can see it having its appeal as an option at least. Plus, I imagine it'd mean enemies would also be affected by their own attacks. I can see viable strategies such as a Defender rushing in with Personal Force Field, getting the attention of all the enemies there, and having the mob damage themselves. Seeing Malta accidentally stun/drain themselves due to taking their own hits, or Circle of Thorns mages knocking themselves down due to their own Earthquake would be very amusing too. Though I imagine that's not the intent of the suggestion. That being said, I think if applied, the concept would only apply to some powers and not for others to work effectively. For instance: Buff/Debuff toggle powers such definitely wouldn't work well with melee characters trying to get in close, so it makes sense that they'd be exempt E.g. Darkest Night, Radiation Infection Aura toggle powers are similar in nature - it's not really feasible to make them work with friendly fire on. What if there are multiple Tankers/Brutes on the team? E.g. Venomous Gas, Arctic Air, Hot Feet Single target powers would of course be unaffected - I assume the whole friendly fire thing would only occur by accident after all In other words, I see this difficulty option as mainly affecting one shot area of effect powers. For example, AoE healing powers, most targeted AoE powers. Some complications that I can see with this are from powers that have a lingering effect, such as Ice Slick - a continual patch of slipping that also affects allies? It might be alright since melee characters tend to have protection against these kinds of things, and less durable characters tend to want to fight from a distance, but that's something to keep in mind.

Thanks! Having some increased level of finesse to Telekinesis regardless of implementation would be great for sure - it's definitely a fun power, but it'd be nice to properly control it, you know? Plus, dragging an enemy across the map sounds great. 🤣

Definitely makes sense - I'm pretty sure origins are designed IC as something that you register yourself up as: the FBSA probably wants at least some label to categorise heroes with. Or, going the villain route, have profile tabs on potential Chosen Ones, speculating on their origins. And if all else fails, just go with Magic: a wizard did it explains everything. 😉

Titled in the style of this post: Looking at the Issue 26 Page 5 patch notes, powers providing enhanceable resistance are meant to ignore outside buffs - it's why such powers were adjusted accordingly to no longer do so. Link Minds from the Dominator's Psionic Mastery ancillary power pool provides a boost to Defense and ToHit, along with a very small, unenhanceable boost to Psionic resistance (1.7% to be exact). However, it's unable to be boosted despite this. Given that powers were corrected one way to fix powers not working as intended, I think it makes sense for all powers to be corrected accordingly in both directions - Link Minds does not provide enhanceable resistance, and with such a small amount of Psionic resistance, even if it were enhanceable it would not do much at all. Therefore, I think it makes sense for it to be affected by external buffs such as Power Up, and so on, similar to powers of the same nature, such as Farsight and Deflection Shield.

I'll be happy to explain! Hopefully they sound distinct. Mechanically, Webbing is just an AoE Immobilize - target an enemy, and have silk burst around them. With its low magnitude (like others in Insect Control), multiple applications are required to trap foes, impacting its feel; insects on their own are weak (low magnitude) but tenacious (high duration), and that's how I decided to go about representing them. Graphically, I imagined it as similar to Traps' Web Grenade, webbing up enemies only at their feet after an explosion of silk. In contrast, Gossamer Trap is a location based Hold, similar in nature to Earth Control's Volcanic Gasses or Darkness Control's Shadow Field. Due to its weaker magnitude of 2, it'll only hold weaker foes (and higher in tandem with rapid applications of Blight), but recharges faster than either of these two powers, and comes with a few secondary effects: like most of Insect Control's powers, it reduces enemy damage - its way of staying safe before locking down the battlefield. Additionally, since it's of a lower magnitude, it makes sense to slow foes that pass across it, either to immobilise them inside it via Webbing, or to quickly hold them with Blight. Unlike Webbing though, it's definitely not meant to be applied multiple times - lay it down once to deal continual damage, slow, and control the battlefield. As for how it'll look, I envision it as layers of webs on the floor, potentially with some insects crawling through it. Enemies that end up being Held by the effect I see as similar in nature to Web Cocoon. That is to say, instead of webbing up just their lower halves, they'd be webbed up entirely.

Finally got around to making an alternative implementation to Infestation (per @Zepp's mentioning of multiple patches being graphically intensive): Gossamer Trap! It lays down static webbing (with maybe some insects crawling around them?) instead of conjuring up a mid-air swarm of flying insects. I also added a -Movement debuff along with the change in flavor, since I imagine webbing to be a bit difficult to wade through, especially webbing that's teeming with biting bugs. It'd also provide some means of hindering stronger enemies; they'll still need to be properly restricted in some other way of course, but this provides the Insect Controller with a better chance of doing so, ideally before they run up and attempt to engage in melee.

The Superpower Wiki is definitely a great place - there's quite a few entries there that I've never even heard of; going on Random walks is quite the trip. That being said, a lot of the inspiration for the powers and 'feel' of this suggestion came from another wiki - more specifically, a certain insect manipulating character.

Thanks! That was definitely part of the reason why I wanted to make it PBAoE, along with it being thematic - who wouldn't be terrified of you with insects swirling around? 😈 The lack of Containment for Fear definitely was a factor for why I went with that instead of another status effect. Since Insect Control already has an easy (and deliberately slower acting) means of Containment in its AoE Immobilise, it made sense to go for something a bit softer. Basically, the aim was to make it more of a backup control - Insect Control in general was focused on fighting at a distance, holding/immobilising enemies before engaging. But if some enemies slip through the cracks, or there are too many, having Bug Burst could help reign them in to some degree, and regain that advantage.

I like it! It's definitely nice to know that there's a lot of potential animations that could be used to make an Insect Control powerset work. The Devouring Earth's Swarm underlings were definitely my 'inspiration' (AKA copy with added tweaks) for the Insect Colony power as well - looks like we were thinking along the same lines! Making a webbing alternative implementation of Infestation might be interesting; add a slowing component while also being a bit less graphically intensive as per Zepp's mentioning of the current implementation being potentially taxing on low end systems. I run a slow computer myself!

Come to think of it, a Giant Insect Mastermind set would be pretty awesome to design too. Tempting, tempting... 🤔

Thank you! Glad you like it, definitely had fun making this. 😁

Just plain old image editing that! I started off on the Paragon Wiki's Power Icons Legend page, and recolored them accordingly. Trim out everything from the border images, recolor the desired inner symbols, then slap on the border. ...that gives me an idea for a guide. Sit tight, I'll bring something up for you soon! 😉

Bug fix update Page X: Insect Control. 🤣 I'll admit I'd totally be fine with the reapplications with the tradeoff of a much longer duration once it does stick - it's why I suggested in the first place, hahah. But I can definitely understand it feeling less potent to others, hence the first part of the post, about sacrificing immediacy for being able to lock the entire battlefield down. Being able to split up the magnitude of the holds does mean that it'll take about 2 seconds more to hold a minion compared to the norm without enhancements...but it does come with the benefit of a much longer duration. The swarming concept with a chaining power sounds interesting...though it'd be nice if it went the other way, 'building up' potency as time goes by rather than starting out strong and reducing in power - expressing strength in ever congregating numbers, you know? "I'm trying to help you!" *SMACK* 🤣

I concede defeat! 🤣 Maybe by default the effects could be similar to smoke? No need to see the trees for the forest, since they're all tiny and so on. Infestation could also be something like a patch of webbing, that can eventually fully web up enemies as they stay there. The creepy crawlies could be implied by the damage being taken! Thanks! I enjoyed the process of making this a lot. The Paragon wiki makes for a really neat format which I ended up copying - makes things very neat and presentable. Writing the power descriptions in the theme of the others was fun too, if in some ways more effort than figuring out the actual powers! 😅 And that makes sense - I'm not exactly the best at the whole numbers thing. I thought that the higher potential to lock down the entire battlefield given time (via a higher duration) would help make up for their lower magnitude, with damage and range debuffs helping to weaken enemies before this happened. If there were a mechanical alternative to magnitude that could convey the whole "weak individually, strong in numbers" idea better I'd certainly consider it. Perhaps some kind of counter mechanic that builds with different power uses that results in bonus damage when released? That being said, I do like the whole "lock down more things at the cost of speed" idea. Plus, the magnitude 1 effects also make for some neat interactions. For example: being able to selectively immobilise enemies by their rank sounds like a fun way of drawing only stronger opponents near. Well...I guess the powers never said there were any. 😉 But yeah, I definitely don't blame you on that. Poisonous, painful biters and just not fun...millipedes are nice though, they're cute and help with the decomposition process.

No worries...puns are beyond reproach.

You might even call it...buggy! Eh? Eh? 😉

I am all for being able to run around with a Butterfly FX version of Insect Cloak.

Hahah! Embrace the buuuuuugs. 😈 But come to think of it, I'd be down for a tinted butterfly FX theme for this powerset if it ever got implemented. Would be really colorful and fun.