Blackfeather

October 22, 2021

23 hours ago, oedipus_tex said:

By the way, I have one other thought.

Given the theme of this set, you might think about the secondary effect being +Absorb on self. There isn't a set currently in game with that effect, and it seems to fit the thematics nicely. Absorb would also be highly desirable for Dominators, since they have few sources of mitigation to work with. Absorb is also something you don't have to worry too much about being overpowered, because it has a duration and any extra HP values quickly fall off. I'd say a 10 second absorb or something similar might be in the right ballpark. The idea isn't turning you into a tank, just providing a bit of buffer. It would be especially useful in a bread and butter AoE control to absorb a portion of the damage from stuff that didn't get mezzed. Dominators in particular currently have to just eat that damage.

Hmmm...I've got some ideas on how to change Barrier Control a little to limit those barrier summons somewhat, I'll describe them soon enough, but I'll keep that in mind. I could see myself leaning heavily into this in the form of indestructible summons that provide some absorption to the player, but any damage that is inflicted on said barriers is inflicted onto the player themselves. That might also be a very interesting way of reflecting how force field users in fiction can't indefinitely keep up their shields and the like. Thanks for the suggestion!

October 22, 2021

Hey @Cementi! Saw your post mentioning Ice Control, thought this thread might be of interest to you, would be glad to hear your thoughts on the suggested changes to it. 😀

October 22, 2021

15 hours ago, oedipus_tex said:

Gravity Control's attraction mechanic uses server code that was custom-created for the Homecoming server, so unfortunately it is not something anyone other than an actual Homecoming developer would be able to supply. The POWER defs I've shared come from the publicly available Ourodev version of CoX, which uses Issue 24 code.

You can access this info for any powerset in the game by creating an account on the Ourodev site and navigating the files here: https://git.ourodev.com/CoX/i2401-bin-server/-/tree/master/bin/serverdata/Defs/powers

To save you time I've attached the POWERs files for the Controller and Dominator versions of Gravity Control. Having worked on a few of these myself now, I recommend using the Dominator version first and then backending the Controller version, because its easier to backform a Controller set based on a Dominator one than the inverse (what I mean is if you don't start with the Dom version you can find yourself painted into a corner where you realize adding Domination won't be easy, where as converting to add Containment/Overpower is a very short process).

Keep in mind I'm not suggesting you have to create a full prototype on a test server and actually run it. The POWERS files may just be a convenient way for you to organize your thoughts and make sure the powerset looks structurally similar to existing sets.

Ah well, that's a bit of a shame, but there's not much that can be done in that case, I suppose! It doesn't stop me from potentially writing definitions for the other existing powers in the set either way. Thanks for those Gravity Control power files, I'm sure they'll prove to be helpful!

At the very least, it's a nice step towards potentially understanding how the game works behind the scenes a little bit - something quite interesting in of itself. A sort of extra step in imagining this concept in reality. Thanks again!

October 21, 2021

On 10/20/2021 at 10:16 AM, Replacement said:

If you wanted the shields to be much stronger and more persistent and didn't just want everything to have terrible small % chances to generate them, a combo system like Water Blast or even Dual Blades (careful on that road though) could work. E.g. All the powers you have listed currently as creating an energy barrier all instead build up stacks to become energy barriers. To make it a little more interesting, I'd have it build on enemies instead of building up points on you.

I realize this is unlikely except in the event of a near-total rewrite, but wanted to throw out the possibility as a novel way to play it more like a regular Controller while spiking an additional dimension of control on demand.

Control on demand...actually, that makes me think of another potential idea. What if instead of having a chance based likelihood of creating an Energy Barrier in T2: Razor Bubble occur all of the time, perhaps it could be altered to only be able to do so while the effects of T7: Barrier Empowerment last, but also guarantee it occurring? Stronger lockdown, but impossible to keep up permanently.

October 20, 2021

4 hours ago, Replacement said:

You're right that it doesn't need the shield at all. Also my suggested version is too powerful. But also also: I don't think mag 6.5 is going to fly anywhere but Cake. I understand why you're doing it that way, but I think a stacking variant is still going to be the way to go (and with shorter durations than I suggested earlier to boot).

Essentially, a mix of a moderate "on activate" hold and a small recurring hold tick + percentage of additional mag. Something like that could be tuned to guarantee a boss hold in a couple seconds, but allow them a chance to recover briefly every 4 or 6 seconds. It also needs a jumbo endurance cost, since it won't be slotting for acc.

Thanks also for the clarification on the Crush. I missed that it didn't require them to attack it.

Something like a single target Choking Cloud, by the sounds of things? That could certainly work as a way of reducing its potency somewhat. That being said, I do personally think that T3: Detain is in a good spot at the moment. That it can only affect one target at a time is quite substantial of a drawback given the game's crowd-heavy nature, in my opinion. I could maybe see it being ticked down to a Mag 3.5? But the intent was definitely to be able to lock down a single, relatively strong target at the cost of not being able to do anything else with the power.

And yeah! T8: Compression Field is mostly just a way of adding some extra damage to the set, along with making use of that vectored knockback tech a little in a way that'd fit with the powerset's theme. Its destructible nature's meant to build on the general idea of force field users in fiction sometimes losing focus or having to recuperate after too much strain is put on their shields - it's why there's several toggles in the set in the first place.

7 hours ago, Replacement said:

One thing that concerns me about the shields being weak is the actual usability of the t9. It may become more or less impossible to get more than 1-2 different booms, unless you intentionally dump all your cooldowns at the same time. I also have a couple of implementation concerns for Kinetic Barrier when I think about how it would interact with Barrier Implosion. That t9 is a darling that may need killed.

As mentioned, the intent of T9: Barrier Implosion was to indeed provide some level of risk reward component, trading off some control for large amounts of damage. So if anything, this sounds more like a feature than a bug - if you want more damage, you can't just try and slowly stagger out your barriers to try and cheat the system, you'll want to do it fairly quickly.

Could you elaborate further on your implementation concerns? It's going to be an extremely hard sell for me to consider getting rid of it - it's an iconic way of using force fields destructively, and I personally think it's a great alternative to having a pet, something of a goal I also set out while designing the powerset.

8 hours ago, Replacement said:

Tuning suggestions version 2: C-c-combos?

If you wanted the shields to be much stronger and more persistent and didn't just want everything to have terrible small % chances to generate them, a combo system like Water Blast or even Dual Blades (careful on that road though) could work. E.g. All the powers you have listed currently as creating an energy barrier all instead build up stacks to become energy barriers. To make it a little more interesting, I'd have it build on enemies instead of building up points on you.

I realize this is unlikely except in the event of a near-total rewrite, but wanted to throw out the possibility as a novel way to play it more like a regular Controller while spiking an additional dimension of control on demand.

🤔 ...you know. I designed an Insect Control powerset some time back that used small magnitudes and faster recharges to emulate the feel of 'small but fierce together'. I might just. Look back on that and give a brush up on it. A version 2 perhaps. Thematically speaking, having a proper builder-spender mechanic seems more in line with gathering swarms of insects than manipulating force fields.

I've settled on having Energy Barriers having the health of a Mastermind's minion henchman for the moment - that should hopefully be a nice balance between being solid enough to stop some attacks while not being too persistent to keep them constantly up. Especially if their health is also enhanceable (still a little on the fence about that, but more slotting options do make sense).

But I think @oedipus_tex is probably right as well: testing this in-game would definitely make things much easier to get the actual feel of it all, to see how long these barriers might last, and properly tune up or down their health. I'm sure there's a nice sweet spot, but it's something that's better done hands on, I think.

Thanks again for all this in depth feedback! I did write up Barrier Control to purposefully work differently than other 'normal' Control sets, so I'm fairly happy with how the powers themselves function outside of sanding off any extreme power spikes or improving underpowered aspects.

...now all I need is to figure out how to write a powerset file, manipulate graphical textures, and get a CoH server to run this on. 😅

October 19, 2021

Oh! And in addition to that, getting rid of the "deactivate/suppress toggles" clause from those Energy Barriers in the process. As mentioned before, T3: Detain should be more than enough to handle them, especially since I imagine its Hold component as automatically hitting things, similar to Telekinesis.

October 19, 2021

Oh wow! Thank you for the in depth response, Replacement - glad you're a fan of the feel of it, which was definitely something I was attempting to keep in mind. You do have a stronger grasp at the specifics of the game, and it's reflected here. I'll try and address each part in chunks as best I can, along with trying to clarify things and the like.

Mechanics

2 hours ago, Replacement said:

While some of the hows of implementation would likely change, I feel like I can point to other powers that prove more or less all of this is doable. But that's as it is understood by me, a fallible human bean with 1.5th hand experience.

The one thing I would wonder about is the "forced attack." I know there are some things that do this already that don't seem to use Taunt -- either they actually do and I didn't notice, or they use some other mechanic that is foreign to me.

I was definitely rather vague with how Barrier Control might work specifically, because I myself am not quite certain of how its summoned barriers around enemies might function. One thing that potentially came to mind could be a debuff to an enemy's range, that keeps their attacks to within energy barrier striking distance.

Alternately, I do recall -Perception affecting players and enemies differently, causing the former to only be able to target things close by to them, and wonder if it's feasible to do the same for foes as well, potentially as another effect. I'm tempted to ping a powers dev and ask them about that sort of thing, maybe at another time.

2 hours ago, Replacement said:

Some specifics...

Energy Barrier - This is essentially a Hold that can be overcome with DPS. Not only would I avoid it canceling toggles just out of concern for being Hold power level, it's also out of scope for implementation (requires a new Suppress/Cancel event in every toggle - that's every enemy toggle and every player toggle for PvP!).

Kinetic Barrier - This is essentially a Contain/Phase effect over the area. Not the end of the world, but that's basically how this would work out: instead of a pseudopet summoning a phase region, the way Dimension Shift (Gravity) works, it would summon an ACTUAL pet that can be targeted and beat up so it stops pulsing the phase effect (and looking specifically at the Kinetic Barrier power, I think an outer radius of regular Repel would work).

Hmm, that's fair, I think! The intent there was to provide Barrier Control with some equivalent ways of dealing with toggles and the like, but T3: Detain can probably handle that easily enough, especially due to its own unique properties. It's not something that's essential to the feel of the powerset either, so I agree, it can be gotten rid of quite easily.

Ideally, I'd want some kind of way to just kind of break enemy and player line of sight while using T5: Kinetic Barrier, that is, restricting what one can target depending on what side of the field they're both on. Dimension Shift's a fine power, but it can be quite irritating to end up accidentally targeting something that isn't on the same side of the field, and I don't want enemies wasting their attacks on things that don't hit their mark either.

Balance

Another big thanks for looking at balance; I absolutely highballed Barrier Control, and figured that I could always scale it down easily enough - since most of its ability to control the battlefield is based around immobile summons, it'd probably be easy enough to just dial down their health accordingly.

3 hours ago, Replacement said:

First off, my biggest concern is AVs and other crazy-hard targets. These shields would ignore mez protection, yet (ostensibly) force them to waste attacks on them instead of on players, which is incredibly strong. Imagine stacking 2-3 Barrier characters to always render their attacks useless. If these are targeted via Taunt -- my understanding is Taunt is never blocked; just duration-reduced. And you really wouldn't want to start the precedent of AVs having Taunt protection, lol.

Also, if Taunt is the only way, that does mean AoE attacks will "leak" through. That's off-theme, but on-balance.

AVs aside, it's still very hard to see the Energy Barriers as anything other than mez-bypassing Holds. For context on how good this would be at soaking damage: energy fonts only lose 30 HP at level 50 relative to other pets. For context, this is 1040 HP at level 50, vs a Fire Imp's 1070, popping out all the time. That's enough for an AV/GM to continually 1-2 shot it, but most regular bosses will never ever break it before you've had a chance to reapply.

I absolutely envisioned Energy Barriers as functioning more as "forcing enemies to target them" as opposed to "keep enemies from affecting other things" in terms of balance. That being said, the latter would be quite interesting, depending on how much health they end up having; probably less to compensate.

One implementation that I think would be super neat would be to let damage somehow "overflow" to other things if I go the latter route - an enemy explosion is contained by the shield, but the additional damage could spread out if it breaks the barrier in the process, harming others nearby accordingly.

Keep in mind that of the three kinds of summons, only Energy Barriers and Kinetic Barriers have properties that can potentially stop enemies from attacking allies - Compression Fields mostly have health because the intent was to carry the theme along of having destructible shields, hence why the table on it doesn't have anything involving forcing enemies to target it. I could easily see making it a regular toggle that drops off after some time, similar to Sorcery's Enflame, and nothing would really be lost.

I decided on Energy Fonts because they were the most fragile pets I was aware of - hearing that amount, it certainly sounds like that's not quite enough; I wanted Energy Barriers to be relatively numerous and fragile.

3 hours ago, Replacement said:

Tuning suggestions version 1: A big HP reduction to the shields themselves.

- Lower the max HP of the Energy Barriers to something like 600 at level 50 (this should be enough that heavy-hitting melee bosses and LTs need to burn all their attacks to break it).

- I would go even further, dropping it to ~450 but allowing these powers to take +Healing enhancements. This not only makes slotting interesting and diverse; it helps cut into the power budget by forcing you to choose between better standard Control stats and thicc shields.

- Remove the +Max HP from Barrier Empowerment. It's redundant with the +absorb anyway. Instead, could consider making it so shield refreshes also provide a stacking Max HP buff.

HP reduction's easy enough - like I said, I overtuned things on purpose since I figured scaling things down would be pretty simple. Funnily enough, I actually considered allowing the set to slot in Healing enhancements, but figured that'd be a little redundant with T7: Barrier Empowerment providing that for players! I can definitely see that working well though, and it could certainly provide T5: Kinetic Barrier with some other forms of slotting in the process.

I did want buffs to transfer over to Energy Barriers whenever they replaced a new one, so I think that covers the whole +Max HP thing, but I'll certainly think over it!

3 hours ago, Replacement said:

- Detain should change to "chance for Energy Barrier" per tick. Even something like a 10% chance every 2 seconds would add up fast and keep it occasionally locking targets who are overcoming the Hold. On that note, it would be pretty interesting if the Hold effect it applies is actually weak (mag 1-2) but set to Stack. I could imagine it having a guaranteed Shield when you first cast, and then each standard 2-second tick would have a 10-20% chance to re-up the barrier, as well as apply a stacking mag 1.5, 10-15 second hold. That would hold Bosses in 6 seconds (at which point they would have no way to really recover).

Honestly mulling over it, I don't think T3: Detain really needs to summon an Energy Barrier at all! Being an auto-hit Hold in the vein of Telekinesis, along with it being a 6.5 Mag Hold is more than potent enough when balanced out by its single target nature. It should keep one enemy out of commission, and makes it less finicky to deal with (e.g. bring the power up, have it deactivated due to its Energy Barrier being destroyed, bring it up again after a few seconds).

That way, it also encourages players to take T2: Razor Bubble and T4: Suppression Zone for easier access to Energy Barrier summons.

3 hours ago, Replacement said:

- Compression Field doesn't need to also have the impenetrable exclusion bubble. The theme doesn't demand all of them be air-tight, and this is an example of an effect that fits the fiction while still being strong without it. Targeting the barrier just to break free is incentive enough (should be possible to give it an inherent very high threat multiplier so its naturally more likely to be attacked).

This was kind of addressed before, but the intent behind adding health to T8: Compression Field was not to force enemies to attack it, but just to make it temporary and destructible, to limit how long it potentially can be up. Indeed, I've already got another power in the set that has a passive, weak kind of effect in T4: Suppression Zone, and this is carrying out a similar trend.

If anything, I'd want the field to have as low a priority as possible to keep it up for longer, while also taking some attacks on the side. Alternately, I could easily just make it a toggle that lasted a set amount of time, but I'd much prefer to keep it being a summon.

3 hours ago, Replacement said:

-Barrier Implosion - I think I would implement as a very large pbaoe minor damage + knock effect that also enables a mode on any barriers in the area to unlock a new power (technically 2 linked powers): their own boom+Knock, and a self-destruct. This should hit the effect you're after, but also keep it "waste" proof like Tex was saying.

It may have an odd effect that I would actually call a feature: the barrier collapses would likely be slightly staggered, booming in staccato instead of synchronized.

Oooooh. I was actually a little unsure as to how T9: Barrier Implosion might work behind the scenes, and I like what you're suggesting! I might take away the no effect clause in that case, and alter the description a little accordingly - something like sending a wave of energy outwards that deals minor damage to enemies before knocking them down, empowering shields around you in the process.

...so when they absorb said energy, they become unstable, and then collapse down to damage enemies that they're currently entrapping. It's very neat, and on theme.

Thanks for the detailed post, and looking forward to further suggestions! I'm going to alter my post a little accordingly - have Energy Barriers at about half the health of an Energy Font since they'll be quite numerous, and get rid of the Energy Barrier summon in T3: Detain. I'll alter some things about T9: Barrier Implosion as well.

October 18, 2021

Hey @Replacement! I've got a house made of energy barriers to sell you - would be interested in hearing your thoughts on it, and giving it a read. 😁

October 17, 2021

Also going to give @MTeague a wave - I know you've talked wanting more Control powersets without a pet in the past before, so this might be of interest to you! While Barrier Control does have 'pets' in its energy barrier summons, they're immobile constructs that are a core part of locking enemies down as opposed to being independent damage dealers. Would definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts on it, and whether it'd be something that'd appeal to your preferences!

October 17, 2021

9 hours ago, oedipus_tex said:

A lot of the older powersets were generated from an Excel export script. You can basically ignore that line though. You can edit the things in Notepad++ if you like, as long as you are mindful about spelling and formatting. They are just text files with fancy file extensions.

Alright, I imagine it shouldn't be too hard, hopefully at least. Out of curiosity, do you also have Gravity Control's powers file? I kind of want to see what they did for Singularity for the whole attract mechanism, or if there's a more general form of seeing the different kinds of things that the new attract tech can do.

October 16, 2021

On 10/15/2021 at 7:21 PM, oedipus_tex said:

I think if you have the skill level to write a post as in depth as this, you probably have the skill level to write the actual powerset. But, it's a lengthy process, and writing the set is only partof the equation. Unless you only care about having the set on your private server, you need to find a server to adopt them. So far I haven't found a server to house the couple of sets I've modded (on the other hand, haven't really advertised them either).

In general, not needing new particles cuts development time down by around 90%. At least that's my experience. What you're proposing here could probably mostly reuse existing particles, which means no creating and toying with FX and PART files. I don't mean to make it sound easy but since you seem to have a strong grasp of the game's mechanics, its certainly doable.

I attached a few sample DEF file from the public I24 code if you decide to bring your write ups closer to prototypes. DEFs are where most of the actual code definitions go in a powerset (but not graphics/animations, those are in the PFX files you'll see referenced in the DEF). Interestingly, if a power uses the exact same animation and powers as another power, you can keep the same PFX file and just change the DEF and get the same particles and animation but a new effect. Of course, its typical to copy and paste the PFX file with a new name, but that's where a lot of time savings occur.

Thank you, I'll think about it in that case! At the very least, it wouldn't harm to try and make something like this...and actually seeing the set being used in practice does admittedly sound very cool. To my knowledge, the power effects on display here are all things currently capable in-game, but I'm not too sure. Would definitely benefit from a dev checking through it and whatnot. And if it's a unique powerset that also doesn't require the creation of new assets, that sounds like an absolute win. Out of curiosity, what is the Generated by XLStoPowerDef.bat ver 57 annotation at the top of both files for? If there's a semi-automated tool to make these things out there, I imagine that'd make things a little bit easier.

October 15, 2021

On 10/14/2021 at 10:05 PM, Tyrannical said:

My take would be to go for similar wording to other existing powers. 'Explosive Force' and 'Anchoring Field' come to mind for the T1 and T2 powers.

As for the rest of the powerset it mostly follows the typical Control formula, but I'm a bit sceptical over not having a dedicated AoE Hold ability, and instead having a massive damaging power, which is uncharacteristic of powersets of this type.

I'd personally substitute Barrier Implosion for an AoE hold, and bring it down to a T8 power. I would also probably put Compression Field as the new T9 and rework it into a pet that functions much like Gravity Control's Singularity.

I think with those changes today have a pretty solid Control set.

Thanks for the name suggestions! I ended up settling on T1: Explosive Sphere and T2: Razor Bubble for now. I think they're more evocative of the flavour I'm trying to describe about how the powers function in comparison.

While it's true that Barrier Control doesn't have an AoE Hold, it does have a power of equivalent utility in T7: Barrier Empowerment with the same recharge time of 240s. This was quite intentional, as it's meant to serve a similar role: an emergency button whilst overwhelmed, buying time to survive further, just in the form of keeping your existing barriers alive as compared to directly holding down foes (also, AoE Holds are kind of meh, as @SeraphimKensai's post can attest to).

This idea of 'equivalent utility' can be carried over to T9: Barrier Implosion which takes the role of a pet, in that it supplies a good amount of damage with a bit of control on the side. Along with this, I set out to make Barrier Control petless (immobile force field summons notwithstanding), given that at present, only Mind Control exists to fill that niche. Not to mention, imploding force fields is just plain cool.

October 15, 2021

20 hours ago, oedipus_tex said:

This an excellent concept and well written post. I agree that Force Fields are a rich area in Superhero lore with a lot of opportunities for set design.

Its hard for me to evaluate how a set will perform without seeing it built out in a prototype. The sets I've proto'ed have often dramatically changed between the whiteboard and development phases. The power I'd like to think more about is the T9, mainly because of it having both a long cooldown and an enemy flag requirement. In general, what I've found with control powers is that rather than include a conditional, its often more balanced to just let the power apply the majority of the effect itself, and only provide a minor bonus conditional. However, variation between the sets is also a goal, so it may turn out okay in context.

In terms of viability, most of what you've proposed here is very graphically doable, since Force Field already provides most of the particles. The Force Field set of particles in my experience tend to be among the easier to repurpose and recolor, which is a big draw. I'm not sure what process Homecoming uses to build particle systems, but the only method I've seen is brute force, which is challenging and time consuming.

Great post.

Glad you like it! I was definitely going for a very Invisible Woman kind of feel in terms of exploring the various kinds of things that Force Fields can do in fiction. And certainly I'm happy to hear that in terms of graphics, it'd be a rather easy powerset to implement.

Unfortunately, I'm not confident in my ability to actually turn these writeups into actual powersets in-game; it sounds like a rather complex process, not to mention the game server itself needs a Windows machine, to my knowledge. That being said, I'm thinking of writing up a 'strategy guide' of sorts in the original post, which should hopefully describe the kinds of ways in which Barrier Control could be used, to help give a better feel for the set.

T9: Barrier Implosion is supposed to be a replacement for a pet power, so its primary function is to deal damage, while locking down some enemies on the side. Since it causes all nearby barriers to detonate, it should be able to do widespread damage to a very large number of enemies, or stack multiple barriers down onto the same group to concentrate it a little. The bonus damage there was meant to try and encourage some choice between sacrificing most of Barrier Control's toolkit for a little while or sacrificing less for some respectable damage instead.

Perhaps I could get rid of the stronger stun depending on how many barriers were imploded in the process? There's probably no need for the extra magnitude, and Barrier Control is decently equipped to deal with enemies with Mez protection anyhow. Might emphasise the damage aspect of the power more that way.

October 14, 2021

On 10/14/2021 at 9:00 AM, Wavicle said:

It's a neat idea, but honestly I'd like them to make the current Force Fields better first.

That's fair enough! I want more Control powersets is all, and the Invisible Woman is definitely a Controller, so here I am. 😅

Have you checked out @The Philotic Knight's two posts on Force Field buffs? They're quite solid! Pun not intended.

October 14, 2021

12 hours ago, BZRKR said:

I very much like the idea, and really like the mental image of using force field textured spheres and shapes along with the various "bouncy" sounds.

I do have some thoughts about the power names T2: Cutting Shield and T1: Explosive Shield. I think that it might be confusing for offensive powers to have "shield" in the name. Are you avoiding the word "bubble"?

How about "Bubble Bomb" for the tier 1? or maybe "Unstable Bubble"?

"Cutting Bubble" for the tier 2 sounds nice and idiosyncratic, like a super power should.

Thanks! Glad to hear it's conceptually something you'd like to play.

Name wise, I'm mostly fine with the T1 and T2 powers here, but it is true that most powers in the game with the phrase "shield" in them are supportive ones in nature, so I see the point. I did consider T5: Kinetic Bubble as one of its initial names, along with T8: Compression Bubble instead.

It's certainly not without precedence either, with the Force Fields powerset having two of them named that way in Dispersion Bubble and Force Bubble. And of course, I did take some inspiration from its naming scheme. It does make me wonder though: if there's a Repulsion Bomb (low damage group knockdown power) and a Power Burst, (high damage single target knockback power) perhaps there's room for a T1: Repulsion Burst?

Along with this, I could definitely see T2: Razor Bubble as something that could work...I'm also lowkey considering reverting back to T2: Cutting Field despite the mention from @ninja surprise given the existence of Detention Field and how it's a single target power in Force Field, but it's nice to think more on the name and the kind of flavour it evokes. Thanks for the food for thought!

October 14, 2021

5 hours ago, GraspingVileTerror said:

"Shield" is perhaps misleading, and suggests something defensive.

Let's see . . .

Barricade?
Blockade?

Blockage?

Boundary?

Impediment?

Limit?

Obstacle?

Any of these seems like potential candidates, @Blackfeather?

Edit:

Explosive Obstacle

Cutting Boundary

eh?

🤔

Hmm...thanks for the suggestions, and I'll definitely keep them in mind! I think it's okay if the shield's behaviour is described offensively ('cutting', 'explosive', 'charge'), but it's true that they're very blunt and straight to the point name wise.

If I were to change them, I'd probably think about something along the lines of "Sphere" or "Globe" (e.g. T1: Explosive Sphere and T2: Cutting Sphere), maybe. But I'm open to more suggestions - might ping @Tyrannical to ask for help in this case, given their experience with creating powersets and likewise naming their powers, I'm sure they might have some name ideas as well (plus would be interested in hearing their thoughts on Barrier Control too).

October 13, 2021

2 hours ago, ninja surprise said:

Looks pretty cool! My one nitpick is "Cutting Field" sounds like an AoE but is single target. Maybe "Cutting Barrier"?

With good sound effects it would be a fun set to play. It looks so complex though it has little chance of being developed.

Thanks for your viewpoints! I changed it to T2: Cutting Shield along with adjusting the flavour text a little to match. That should give it some pairing with T1: Explosive Shield name wise without repeating itself too much (there's three powers with "Barrier" in their names already).

And glad to hear it'd be something you'd like to play - I definitely tried to imagine myself using the set in-game whilst designing it, so I'm glad that reflected well in the proposal itself. Out of curiosity, which parts of Barrier Control do you think would be the most complex components to implement?

October 13, 2021

2 minutes ago, GraspingVileTerror said:

You've caught my curiousity, @Blackfeather, but it's a little difficult for me to imagine how such a Set might play out exactly. It certainly breaks from conventional Control models, and I am entirely okay with that, but it does mean that it's hard to really wrap my head around what it would feel like. Maybe someone like @oedipus_tex can work with you in making a demo version of the Set for use on personal virtual servers, and get some feedback that way?

As ever, though, thank you for your continued efforts to enrich the game and this community with your top-tier quality posts. It's very much appreciated.

Glad you like them, and thanks! They're definitely fun to properly flesh out.

From a broad perspective, I was aiming to make a powerset that could demonstrate the wide variety of ways force fields have been used in fiction, and wrap it up in a way that translated well into the game.

The elements that I did identify, along with how that affected how the powerset was shaped are as follows:

Force field users are versatile and powerful => Barrier Control has a broad toolkit that can deal damage, reposition enemies, and lock them down
Force field users need to focus => Barrier Control has multiple toggle powers to represent them concentrating on keeping their force fields up
Force field users can be overwhelmed => Barrier Control's shields are all destructible, and combined with multiple toggles, leaves the set vulnerable if they are all broken

Barrier Control is made up of many powers that summon immobile, damage-less 'pets' in all of its shields that do a variety of different things. The most lockdown heavy of these are its energy barriers, with T6: Mass Detention being the standout in that regard, trapping a group of enemies in separate, destructible bubbles.

The idea of multiple, destructible constructs was something that began in my Ice Control buff thread, and further elaborated on by @Vanden here - essentially occupying enemies by trapping them in something that they needed to break out of.

This was something I decided to apply to basically the entirety of Barrier Control, not only because it seemed to really fit the powerset, but it also provided a nice way of making it rather unique.

Barrier Control Scenarios

At the lower levels, I envision Barrier Control relying on T5: Kinetic Barrier to split groups of enemies up, while T3: Detain takes out a single strong opponent, heavily reducing oncoming damage. Occasional energy barriers from T4: Suppression Zone could also occupy your foes as well.

Once T6: Mass Detention comes online, Barrier Control has its bread and butter alpha-strike breaker; useful for most regular encounters. T7: Barrier Empowerment is Barrier Control's emergency button, akin to how AoE Holds are in other sets, bolstering what force fields there are to allow them to hold out for longer under enemy fire.

T9: Barrier Implosion is basically a stand in for the pet summon power that's usually found in Control sets, trading that for immediate, widespread damage and control, with the caveat that it's reliant on the other powers in the set to work at maximum efficiency - the more shields destroyed, the stronger it is.

Hope this helps a little!

October 13, 2021

Will also give @GraspingVileTerror a nudge - as it turns out, Barrier Control is indeed petless, so thought this might be something you might like to take a look at. Or at least, not reliant on a pet T9, and the summons it does create are just constructs that don't really behave like pets. Would be interested in hearing your feedback on it!

October 12, 2021

Going to give @ninja surprise a wave - hey there! Noticed you made a Control powerset based off of Force Fields as well, would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this proposal. 😄

October 11, 2021

Hello all! Now that my proposal for Light Control has been properly drafted out, I decided to move onto another obvious gap in the Control powersets: one that involves force fields, but in a ways that disable or otherwise occupy enemies rather than supporting allies like Force Fields currently does.

I was also inspired by the deadlier applications of barriers that the Force Fields set doesn’t really explore, heavily alluding to the main four ways of exploiting energy shields for fun and profit (which powers correlate to which I’ll leave to the reader to decide!), namely:

Popping: “A shield rapidly expanding over you hurts, but be glad it’s not expanding inside of your head instead.”
Cutting: “These barriers have rather sharp edges...move a muscle and you’ll get sliced.”
Crushing: “I could squeeze you into a fine paste, but I won’t.”
Internal Blockages: “If I can stop you from passing through, imagine what I could do with your bloodstream.”

Additionally, I wanted to avoid too much overlap with the sorts of control that already exists in the Force Fields powerset – as such, I tried to refrain from providing any functionality that it could already potentially provide. There might be a potential Barrier Control/Force Fields player out there, after all!

I’ll start off by detailing the different kinds of summons that are available to Barrier Control and the general logic behind the powerset before delving into each of the different powers separately.

Looking forward to feedback as usual. Is this a powerset that you’d be interested in using? Is it relatively balanced? Any clarifications required about how any of the powers might work? Hope to hear plenty of responses from people!

Barrier Type Table

Type	Created By	Properties
Energy Barrier	T1: Explosive Sphere* T2: Razor Bubble* T3: Detain* T4: Suppression Zone T6: Mass Detention	Durability = fragile (similar to a Fire Imp pet), tougher with Domination Target = single enemy Effects: Immobilizes enemy in place (high magnitude) Enemy within can only target/affect the barrier If summoned over an existing barrier, replaces it instead (can’t be stacked, but transfers buffs) *Requires Barrier Empowerment, works once per use
Kinetic Barrier	T5: Kinetic Barrier	Durability = several Energy Barriers worth of health, tougher with Domination Target = specified area in a dome Effects: Keeps enemies from entering or exiting (allies pass freely) Enemies and allies can’t target/affect things that aren’t also inside or outside the barrier with them
Compression Field	T8: Compression Field	Durability = several Energy Barriers worth of health (less than Kinetic Barrier), tougher with Domination Target = single enemy along with nearby foes Effects: Brings enemies together by gradually shrinking Can’t bring in more enemies than the initial group Deals some damage over time due to compressive force

Something that’ll be quite noticeable about this powerset is that it actually lacks any form of AoE Holds. The one Hold that it does have ( T3: Detain) is a toggle, meaning only one enemy can ever be Held by this powerset at a time (it’s a rather strong Hold to compensate though).

This was quite intentional – Barrier Control is heavily focused on soft control, with its ability to split up a group of enemies to reduce damage coming their way, and numerous (albeit destructible) summons to keep them occupied.

Borne from this is its rather unique final power, in T9: Barrier Implosion. Instead of a pet summon (that’s pretty much covered by the rest of Barrier Control’s powers), it sacrifices all nearby barriers for a stun and widespread damage, inflicting more damage for each additional barrier surrounding enemies at the time.

Barrier Control also uses a good amount of toggle powers; once deactivated, they’ll take a while to come back online. This was meant to both emulate how a force field user in fiction may sometimes lose focus and need time to recuperate, and to add a risk-reward element to T9: Barrier Implosion.

Barrier Control

Quote

“You can create and manipulate solid barriers of energy to entrap and restrain your foes. These barriers can do a variety of things, such as creating cover, and hindering movement. However, they are not immune to damage, and can be destroyed by enemies in a few hits. While these constructs cannot be naturally healed, they can be replaced with new barriers, and they can be buffed like any teammate.”

Power Table

Power	Level	Effect
Explosive Sphere	1	Ranged, Moderate DMG(Smashing/Energy), Foe Knockdown, -Fly, Summon Energy Barrier (*)
Razor Bubble	1	Ranged, Moderate DoT(Lethal/Energy), Foe Immobilize, -Fly, Summon Energy Barrier (*)
Detain	2	Toggle: Foe Hold, Moderate DoT(Smashing/Energy), Summon Energy Barrier (*)
Suppression Zone	6	Ranged (Location AoE), Foe -Movement, Chance to Summon Energy Barrier
Kinetic Barrier	8	Toggle: Ranged (Location AoE), Foe Repel, Summon Kinetic Barrier
Mass Detention	12	Ranged (Targeted AoE), Minor DoT(Smashing/Energy), Foe Immobilize, -Fly, Summon Energy Barrier
Barrier Empowerment	18	PBAoE, Barrier +Absorb, +Regen, +Def(All), +Res(All), +MaxHP, Special (*grants Energy Barrier charges)
Compression Field	26	Toggle: Ranged (Targeted AoE), Minor DoT(Smashing/Energy), Foe Attract, Summon Compression Field
Barrier Implosion	32	PBAoE, Barrier Self Destruct: Extreme DMG(Smashing/Energy), Foe Disorient, Knockdown

Powers

T1: Explosive Sphere

You create a tiny, spherical barrier that rapidly expands over an enemy before dissipating, dealing moderate damage to the target and knocking them down. This power can bring flying foes to the ground, and can deal bonus damage when used against targets inside your barriers.

Damage	Moderate (Smashing/Energy)
Recharge	Moderate (6s)
Duration	10s
Minimum Level	1
Effects	Ranged Foe Knockdown, -Fly, Summon Energy Barrier (needs Barrier Empowerment)
Enhancements	Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Knockback Distance Enhance Range Enhance Recharge
Set Categories	Ranged Damage Knockback Universal Damage

T2: Razor Bubble

You create a razor sharp barrier around the lower half of your target, keeping them immobilized to avoid further harm, and gradually damaging them over time.

Damage	Moderate DoT (Lethal/Energy)
Recharge	Fast (4s)
Duration	27.94s
Minimum Level	1
Effects	Ranged Foe Immobilize (Mag 4), -Fly, Summon Energy Barrier (needs Barrier Empowerment)
Enhancements	Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Immobilize Enhance Range Enhance Recharge
Set Categories	Immobilize Ranged Damage

T3: Detain

Encases a single foe in a sturdy barrier, rendering most targets completely helpless. Even if the target is powerful enough to resist this power’s hold effect, the surrounding energy field will still inflict Smashing and Energy damage over time as the barrier crushes against them.

Damage	Moderate DoT (Smashing/Energy)
Endurance	0.33/s
Recharge	Moderate (8s)
Minimum Level	2
Effects	Toggle: Ranged Foe Hold (Mag 6.5), Summon Energy Barrier (needs Barrier Empowerment)
Enhancements	Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Hold Duration Enhance Range Enhance Recharge
Set Categories	Holds Ranged Damage Universal Damage

T4: Suppression Zone

You surround the selected area in a weak, suppressive field of energy. Any foes that pass through the Suppression Zone will have their movement dramatically slowed, and cannot jump or fly. Additionally, the surrounding energy may sometimes solidify into a fragile barrier around them, which they must break free of to move or target others.

Recharge	Slow (60s)
Duration	45s
Minimum Level	6
Effects	Ranged (Location Area of Effect) Foe -Fly, -Jump, -Speed, Chance to Summon Energy Barrier (2%)
Enhancements	Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Range Enhance Recharge Enhance Slow
Set Categories	Slow Movement

T5: Kinetic Barrier

You create a dome of energy that prevents enemies inside from escaping, and enemies outside from entering, while letting you and your allies pass through freely. The Kinetic Barrier prevents foes and allies from targeting each other unless they are both inside or outside the sphere respectively. It can also be destroyed by enemies after sustaining enough damage, or deactivated prematurely, ending the effect.

Endurance	0.45/s
Recharge	Slow (30s)
Minimum Level	8
Effects	Toggle: Ranged (Location Area of Effect) Foe Repel, Summon Kinetic Barrier
Enhancements	Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Range Enhance Recharge
Set Categories	None

T6: Mass Detention

Traps a group of foes inside separate barriers of energy, dealing minor damage over time as they are slowly squeezed within. While inside them, they are unable to move, and are only able to target their restraints until they are destroyed. Enemies can remain immobilized for some time after breaking out of your energy barriers.

Damage	Minor DoT (Smashing/Energy)
Recharge	Slow (90s)
Duration	27.94s
Minimum Level	12
Effects	Ranged (Targeted Area of Effect) Foe Immobilize (Mag 3), -Fly, Summon Energy Barrier
Enhancements	Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Immobilize Enhance Range Enhance Recharge
Set Categories	Ranged AoE Damage Immobilize Universal Damage

T7: Barrier Empowerment

You reinforce all nearby barriers with further energy for a short amount of time, bolstering their maximum health, regeneration, defence, and damage resistance. The extra layers of energy also allow your barriers to absorb some damage. Additionally, the next uses of Explosive Sphere, Razor Bubble, and Detain will summon an energy barrier around your target of choice, and the chance of Suppression Zone generating an energy barrier is increased for some time afterwards.

Recharge	Very Long (240s)
Duration	30s
Minimum Level	18
Effects	Point Blank Area of Effect Barrier +Absorb, +Regen, +Def(All), +Res(All), +MaxHP, Special (grants Energy Barrier charges)
Enhancements	Enhance Defence Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Heal Enhance Resistance Enhance Recharge
Set Categories	Defence Healing/Absorb Resist Damage

T8: Compression Field

Surrounds a group of enemies with a barrier of energy that begins to constrict them together, inflicting minor damage over time as it shrinks. The Compression Field can be destroyed by enemies after sustaining enough damage, or deactivated prematurely, ending the effect.

Damage	Minor DoT (Smashing/Energy)
Endurance	1.04/s
Recharge	Slow (60s)
Minimum Level	26
Effects	Toggle: Ranged (Targeted Area of Effect) Foe Attract, Summon Compression Field
Enhancements	Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Recharge
Set Categories	Ranged AoE Damage Universal Damage

T9: Barrier Implosion

You send a wave of energy out around you and into your nearby barriers, dealing minor damage to nearby enemies and knocking them down as it passes them by. After a brief period of invulnerability, these barriers violently collapse onto themselves before expiring, knocking enemies down again and dealing a high amount of Smashing and Energy damage that increases with the number of barriers surrounding your targets at the time.

Damage	Extreme (Smashing/Energy)
Recharge	Long (180s)
Duration	14.9s
Minimum Level	32
Effects	Point Blank Area of Effect Foe Disorient (Mag 3), Knockdown, Barrier Self Destruct
Enhancements	Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Knockback Distance Enhance Recharge Enhance Stun Duration
Set Categories	Melee AoE Damage Knockback Stuns Universal Damage

October 9, 2021

This tool looks like it might be useful in the meantime:

Should hopefully be a good way to look through them!

October 2, 2021

5 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

That strip got me thinking, maybe we need to give out badges for stopping purse thievery and other "street crimes".

There are Tour Guide missions now at least, which are gained via street sweeping:

Each one leads to an exploration badge within the zone map, which is nice for people who want to find them without relying on a third party tool.

October 1, 2021

Oh, that reminds me - if we're going for motorcycles, maybe having bicycle paths would be neat, get cyclists and bicycles around the city and so on. Got to keep our Mumen Riders around the place! 😋

October 1, 2021

Well, we've got a monorail: how about usable bus transits? Just for the kick of it, hop on, watch the ride to a specific point, kind of like FF14's chocobo rentals, except without the cost.

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Barrier Control

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