FDR's Think Tank

April 17, 2022

What if you had more "Opportunity" types, but the larger the team the less opportunity types cycle based on team composition?

Offensive Opportunity - Damage Dealers (As before, when the team lacks damage dealers)

Defensive Opportunity - Tanks (As before, when the team lacks tanks)

Control Opportunity- Crowd control/Support (Sentinel gets boosted support effects on their abilities when the team lacks support classes)

If the Team is well rounded and has those bases covered, the Sentinel could unlock a different kind of Opportunity.... Interrogation Opportunity, which allows them to gain more points towards the related broker for the mission area they are currently in. This would result in more Mission generation... which allows a Sentinel to keep the team busy with fun missions.

This way, you are only trying to balance the damage a Sentinel is dealing when it's on a small team or soloing. If it's on a big team, then the bonus it gets is completely untethered from the need to ensure the Sentinel feels useful.... The Sentinel has a different contribution to the team.

April 17, 2022

If we are getting The Angel Summoner, I hope they can also release a powerset for the BMX Bandit. (

Really, you could tweak this a bit and make it a "Cultist" Summoner type. It could have regular lethal/toxic damage, but with Upgrades, you get Energy/Psychic Damage.

First off, you'd have the Acolyte Summoning for Tier One.

Your ranged attacks would be dagger/shuriken/boomerang throws.

Your Tier Two would be Bishops.

Your Minion Upgrades would be Rituals... granting your faithful that special damage type.

The "Angel" would be a top tier summon. As to whether it's actually from Heaven... or some alternate plane of existence, that's up to the player. It could just as easily be a High Elemental, a Dragon, or some sort of Reaver. You could even have a skin set with the Grim Reaper.

Of course, this takes time for the Devs to make minion costume sets that are generic enough to satisfy the players imagination. I think Power Proliferation is going to be their focus on expansions, but it would be awesome to see more Mastermind Sets. It's too bad there isn't a way to streamline creating Mastermind Powersets, because it's the hardest to do... Not counting what they did with Warshades and Peacebringers... which would theoretically be great for power proliferation for shape shifters, exo suit specialists, or other Lore specific Toon types.

January 12, 2020

There should be more "Search and Rescue" type missions in the game. Whether you are rescuing drowning civilians, dealing with burning buildings, picking up helpless NPCs and running them out of a combat zone, or even getting cats down out of trees for little old ladies... the game has a lot of nooks and crannies it can fill in with mini games and team challenges. I love the firefighting/arson challenge in Steel Canyon... it's a shame there aren't more events like that.

A good example of the gameplay to add might be Sim Copter. You have a bounty board with all sorts of missions. Some are hospital transport, some are crowd/riot dispersal... and while these things are certainly represented in CoHs in limited ways at very specific locations, I think there is a way to make solo mini games ramp up into team effort games where each team member has a different designated role.

Villains, on the other hand, should be able to fight for gang territory and direct "non-combat" minions to commit crimes for profit. They are bad guys, duh.

January 5, 2020

Which word refers to all the "Duplicator" summons, what word describes the vanishing strikers best, and what word describes each level of clone best? Simulacrum does sound like the best entry level term for clones, but Duplicate you have used all over While "Perfect Copy" and "Minor Copies" aren't unique, especially next to each other.

Once you figure out how you organize the words, I think this set will be clear and striking.

If the "Vanishing Strikers" are all shadows, I think that would work fine. The Pets are the ones people want to look like your character. The question is, how close do they match your characters details and color scheme?

In some ways, a duplicator Mastermind would be a good expression of a speedster.

January 5, 2020

Very cool. For clarity, does the "Improve Duplicates" only work on Duplicates as stated, or did you mean it works on all Doppleganger levels? If the word Duplicates refers to ALL the pets this Mastermind Summons, it might be prudent to change "Summon Duplicate" to something else. It would be different from other Mastermind sets if only one level of pet could actually receive upgrades... but there would need to be something to balance out the consequence of that.

Also, it's not a bad idea to vary terms when appropriate and unify terminology when prudent. So... lets list out a list of non-copyrighted Xerox terms that can be swapped in, possibly!

You used

Simulacrum

Duplicate

Perfect Copy

Minor Copies

We can also use

Clone

Doppleganger

Twin (Or Triplet/Etc)

Replica

Photocopy

Mimic

Dummy

Pod People

Mannequin

Puppet

Body Double

Facsimile

Effigy

And for description, you have lots of words too. Here are just a few.

Mirror

Forgery

Ditto

Parallel

For each of the "Duplicate Ambush" attacks, I recommend settling on a single term to describe the duplicates in this so it's clear when they are and when they aren't being boosted by specific powers. You could call "Flanking Strike" something like "Mirror Flank" or call "Ambushing Blow" something like "Parallel Ambush". There is definitely room to spice it up and really drive home the sense of many copies attacking.

Obviously, some of these terms might be too specific or not generic enough for the set to use, but that's all in what you want to communicate. I also doubt my list is comprehensive, so if you think of a Clone term that really fits and has flair, then please use it! For example: "Sudden Mob" makes sense in the context if you know they are copy-clones... but if you just say that phrase, it could also refer to the "Thug" masterminds Mob summon. This is really more of a wave of Being John Malkovich clones than an unruly mob about to commit vandalism... there is a certain single-mindedness clones have that should be communicated!

Another thing to consider with Duplicates- One of the key benefits would be hiding which entity is actually the prime/player character. While in PvP it would be distracting to figure it out at first, later, players would simply change U.I. settings so they can tell at a glance or by hovering over the character. As such, it might be prudent to include some sort of clone-swap ability somewhere in the set. Perhaps the higher upgrade for Simulacrums could swap places with the Player, if possible, on an alpha strike. I don't know what the cost or cool down for this would have to be to balance this... or if it's even worth getting into, but I thought I would mention it as an idea to help give this set character.

Other than that... I am very excited by the concept! You thought a lot of the angles out from tier one to nine!

P.S. It occurs to me that the Clone Ambush attacks are ranged from your characters perspective, but would ACTUALLY be melee. I don't know how that factors in for defense, considering some defenses are Melee/ranged specific. It might be good to talk about the intent.

January 5, 2020

Illusions are often products of Smoke and Mirrors... be it set up, science, or magic. Upgrades to illusions would be ways in which the illusions could be made more convincing or more shocking. As such, I have a few suggestions...

4. Enhance Illusion- Could be something focused on the Smoke involved in creating the Illusions... Visceral Smoke would be thicker and more mysterious, implying better survivability of Illusions upgraded.

8. Reinforce Illusions- A good focus here would be Mirrors, which are often central to a good illusion. Mirror Maze could be an AoE ability that specifically boosts the attack power of Illusions as stated. Or it could increase defense, making them more likely to dodge. It could vary by Pet type.

9. Perfect Illusions- The highest level of upgrade would likely involve three-dimensional emitters... perhaps this could be called Hardened Holographic Emitters. Illusions upgraded with this would have a qualitative upgrade to their damage.

I don't know if this helps, but I tried to keep the powers vague for broad application, but slightly more descriptive as well, inside the Illusion theme.

January 1, 2020

2 minutes ago, BrandX said:

Free to both brawl and origin.

You know what would be interesting? A sort of Zero-cost "Cantrip" sort of power pool. It would have various low/no endurance cost variants of your different basic powers. It would be the "Jack of All Trades" power pool. Or something.

I think with the current Tier one powers, if endurance is the major consideration, you can slot it that way, instead of for damage. If you make it zero cost, you are just reducing the variety of build strategies people can employ to suit their personal tastes.

My issue is that for the most part, players are majorly rewarded for slotting Damage and Accuracy. Making the power Zero cost just lets people have their cake and eat it too. I remember they talked about Enhancement Diversification for YEARS to the point where I had believed it was already implemented. Then they DID implement it and people were ticked off! THEN they made the IO enhancements and everything went out the window.

However, there is something you have picked up on here that I think is somewhat critical to game theory... to make a game really deep, whether you are pitting players against each other or an automated environment, Resource Management isn't the ONLY set of skills you can challenge players with. In fact, if you are clever, you can make an incredibly deep system by giving players OPTIONS about which system to commit to. I don't think it would be impossible to design an attack set that taxes a players risk management abilities more than their resource management ones. However, balancing that with existing archetypes like the Brute might be daunting. Their inherent might make risky playstyle TOO rewarding. It's something to ponder.

(I don't know if anyone here has ever played "Warmachine"... but they had a similar dual structure with "Hordes". The games were compatible and had the same sequencing... but the factions from one set focused on Resource Management based powers and the other set focused on Risk Management. In a purely ideal system, you would try to find a third management style so you could build in dual opposing pain wheels, which, with a computer game, doesn't slow down the action but leaves the tactics and strategy very deep. Maybe the third style could be a Bluff/Counter style with blowback for bad judgement...)

Of course, for the purposes of making CoH more of a Superhero Simulator, I don't see any problem with making all tier one abilities have lower endurance, but you have to remember, you only said the tier one attacks. It might be terribly unbalancing to make such a sweeping benefit to attack abilities, but tell players with defense tier ones that they get nothing. Since the game is mostly PvE some people won't even notice it. And what I understand about PvP is that it's all bouncing around with alpha strikes, so it's likely this wouldn't affect it at all. It's hard to predict what else might come of it.

I will admit, I am biased too... Trick Arrow Defenders have VERY little going for them right now... but when the team is wiped, they are one of the few classes that gets huge benefits in combat, what with reduced costs for all attacks. If my opponents and I are both low on endurance, my ability to economize and keep debuffing and attacking is where all my hope lies. Giving everyone another free attack for nothing isn't making me happy! Perhaps that's too deeply bitter, huh?

January 1, 2020

The Early Game should be for teaching players how to play the game. Endurance management is a skill people should probably learn in a game with a limited Endurance supply. While Vets can rocket past the early stages of the game, someone new to CoH or just new to MMOs might find those early days frustrating, but not insurmountable. This game is far from difficult, Unless you play a Trick Arrow Defender.

Is Brawl Zero Endurance Cost? What about the Origin Ranged Bonus Attack Powers? I think they cost a little bit, right?

December 27, 2019

On ‎12‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 8:40 PM, sacredlunatic said:

I’d say you’re taking this way too far towards the damage dealer side. It’s supposed to be a pure support archetype alongside defender and controller. Too complicated also, and no to confront. Confront is literally the least popular power in the entire game. And anyway they get build up they don’t need another damage buff.

The Scrapper Confront obviously needs to be tuned up anyway for scrappers. It's pretty simple, I think: Make it so it's a targeted taunt power that also placates everyone else targeting the scrapper. It's obvious the Confront is supposed to be a "call-out" one on one challenge power anyway. In solo, it would only temporarily placate, since mobs would naturally retarget the only player character in range. However, in group battles, it would bale the scrapper out when he bit off more than he can chew, giving him the ability to increase his survivability by shrugging off responsibility... a very Scrapper thing to do. Of course, this alteration doesn't have to be made to all confronts. Depending on the element, their could be other benefits/alterations snuck in. Like a Confront that also has a chance for fear proc naturally might work for cold or dark. Some confronts could even do small AoE DoT in the more fire/toxic based sets.

December 17, 2019

On ‎12‎/‎15‎/‎2019 at 4:05 PM, sacredlunatic said:

Now how about something like this: What if their Placate gave a 10 second buff to Heals, Defense Buffs, Damage Resistance Buffs, ToHit Debuffs, Defense DeBuffs, etc.?

Now this is something you can start to build an AT concept around. If you start to play with Placate having some sort of boost to buff/heals/debuffs then you can make this AT a class that thrives on picking up and dropping aggro. This also puts the class EXACTLY where you would want a character with Support/Melee abilities, rewarding them for being there. There is a lot of ways to play with non-stealth centered Placate in the proposed context and I would like to see a discussion around that possibility.

Of course, at this point the name for the Archetype would be more like Jester or Prankster than Guardian... but that's fine since there are already so many Guardian suggestions. I am personally VERY much in favor of New Archetypes and feel we need a set of five including the Sentinel to represent the "Goldside" Archetypes, even though, technically, there is no Archetype segregation anymore. It just feels right. Also note, this drifts away from the typical Paladin suggestions in a really Superhero themed way.

I think the real key is building synergy with this playstyle and the inherent. If the Bar builds up every time you drop aggro, then the AT also gets a benefit working on a team because their teammates can also provoke enemies off of them. Remember, fun to play isn't just about the individual experience... it's about how it meshes when working with others too. I see a lot of promise in this concept!

Oh... I know! Call it the Juggler, since you Juggle Aggro!

December 17, 2019

I have noticed when I log back in at the Mercy Island Arachnos Branch office that, while on Mercy Island, all mission waypoints lead you back to the Branch Office. You can leave Mercy Island or log off and log back on... but if you start in the Branch office, while you are on Mercy Island, your map waypoint will display correctly on the minimap, but mislead you if you follow the highlighted waypoint on the player view.

It probably rates pretty low on bugs since most Vets don't spend much time at the lower levels... while new players are unlikely to realize they can go into the unmarked Arachnos Branch office and log out for a badge/dayjob bonus... but if they did stumble into it, it would be a very frustrating bug to deal with.

I looked around the recent bug reports and did a search, but I didn't find any other similar cases of log out locations sabotaging the functionality of the world view waypoint system. Then again, people may have reported it using different terminology or in relation to a different log out place. I haven't found any other logout spot yet that does this same thing, but I will mention it here if I come across it.

December 15, 2019

You have to build in a benefit for a support class to be in melee ranges so that the "Support" role makes sense there. Limited pain share with auras puts them right were you want them on the battlefield, without requiring them to harvest aggro from the other melee classes. If the team has no other melee classes, the class would basically defend/support other team members with the pain-share without drawing a huge amount of aggro. (Pain-share wouldn't knock you out, in case that wasn't clear.) Calling it a Tauntless Tank might have confused you... What I mean isn't a tank at all, since Tanks typically hold aggro. However, what I suggest is a damage sink class, which works primarily for the inverted reasons Defenders are highly limited in self buffing and self healing. If you take away those limits, Defenders themselves become too good, especially in solo, but paired with a melee focused class, you can probably pull it off without upsetting game balance and playability. In this way, the class DOES fill a tank role about as well or slightly LESS than a Scrapper. The way it gets there is different from usual, admittedly... but this is a great opportunity for people who, for example, want a sort of Green Lantern that does combat and bubbles... and this is where it would happen! Also consider, for Buff based classes, you might get double duty from your damage resist buffs on a pain-share from allies.... first on damage the ally receives after damage reduction.. then from the buff on yourself when pain share comes in. It creates a different balance for a lighter version of Defender Buffs that takes full advantage of the power.

Let's rewind to what you suggested for inherent: Stalwart: Resist to Sleep, Stun, Hold... and a shield that recharges as they take damage. That, combined with your suggestion they have Placate, to reduce aggro, and more HP than a Defender.... means you feel they are gonna take hits, but need to avoid that. There are a couple of gaps here:

First: Placate. The only class that currently has that is Stalker... and stalker gets dual, even TRIPLE time use out of the ability because they have always have a hide defensive power and they get backstab damage. You would only be getting the benefits of a Presence Placate out of the power, which makes it an very weak option. In order to consistently stay OUT of trouble, since the class is only slightly less squishy than a Defender, you either need to take Concealment (Which would be so good with your proposed version of the class it might be considered required, especially to take full advantage of Placates ability to return to stealth/invisibility) Or you would have to take Presence just to get another mini-placate to keep people off you. Of course, you could make the Secondary Power Placate recharge fast to make Presence Placate totally obsolete with this AT. You could ALSO make the Secondary Placate in this set give some sort of boost to the Shield bar.... but in the end, it still ends with Concealment becoming a required power I think. So... maybe consider making it a stealth class... if you really Frontline sneak support. It could really work, but you would need to sacrifice a support power to a Hide Toggle. Of course, if the Support set has an Aura Stealth, then it's all built in and functions very well! The problem is, of course, that Placate is an attack power and is much less useful without stealth. I don't know if it's possible to alter a single ability across a Secondary Set based on the Primary Power Set that is chosen. If it was, Placate could be swapped out or given a different bonus for non-stealth characters... other than getting left alone very temporarily. You don't need to placate at all if you simply reduce or remove aggro from the AT's Melee attacks.... but there needs to be a trade off there.

~That's why I like the pain-share.... it can put you right on the edge, but if you don't naturally draw aggro, then the AT's built in weakness is AoE Damage (and lone mobs noticing them) which makes the AT need to manage it's health, position, and defensive abilities for, but within what I would think is reasonable. Well, all that risk and the threat of a high accuracy alpha-strike from a PC Stalker... but lots of people are weak to that, naturally.

Second: Inherent that is partially based on taking direct damage. Assuming the shield is a separate function from the sleep/stun/hold resists, You are telling me a sorta squishy class only gets access to it's Damage soak/resist AFTER it takes damage? Wouldn't it make more sense to tie it to your teammates, like the Defender? The melee/support would be harder to eliminate as the team is wiped, allowing him to survive long enough to revive/ send heals/ emergency buff/debuff? Otherwise it feels close to a brute... you are either being rewarded for calling down trouble you personally can't handle or you are sorta forced to misbehave to gain the defensive benefit which is pretty critical on the frontline. I suppose I am not really clear on how squishy the support/melee AT here is. Obviously, they aren't as squishy as a Defender and they cannot tank like a Tank or Brute.... but how do they compare to a Scrapper? A Stalker? A Sentinel? If it's below a Sentinel, that certainly makes sense from a power standpoint, but remember, in your version, it cannot self target most of it's support powers... just like a Defender. It definitely won't be able to tank... but I am curious if a small health boost is the best way to make it able to support on the Frontline. It technically couldn't tank if it was as strong as a stalker either... but how you get to that makes a big difference. You can balance it with HP to a certain point, but then people start taking Combat Jumping, Tough, Weave, and such to turn it into a beefcake... and it really shouldn't be out performing a Scrapper on damage soaking as you suggested it.

~This is also why I like Pain-share... it's a limited damage soak. It might turn off when the AT hit's the Yellow Zone of self hitpoints, the red Zone, or even the Flashing Red Zone... but once you are below your threshold its off, then you have to weigh the risks and consider a self heal or temporary withdrawal from frontlines. The class can do light frontline support, light damage soak, and moderate melee if you set it up as I suggest. Again, the closest analog to this is Mastermind, who can pain-share damage dealt to him with his pets. This has lead to Tankermind builds, but that's a real Aggro-holding Tank subbuild... not what I have suggested which is more a limited-context damage sponge.

Third: Nobody is gonna turn down Resists to Sleep/Stun/Hold... but I have to point out- The Defender typically are able to raise the teams resistance to various effects such as these. They can't always buff themselves against these things, since many of their buff powers can ONLY target teammates. It seems a real wasted opportunity for build diversity to simply blanket give the entire AT blanket resistance to these three instead of having self target support and letting the players decide what abilities they want to slot for resistances against for themselves. Of course, there is one large gap here, and that is Debuff heavy sets. For a Debuff set, you can't share that power with yourself or do double duty for defending... however, for dealing damage and such, you are reaping the benefits of dealing extra damage... provided they don't Nerf-Nuke the Debuff heavy set like they did to Trick Arrow. (I suppose the Trick Arrow Proliferation would be some sort of Utility Belt/Elemental Chassis set with lots of different Debuff Auras...)

I will say this: for a real hero style Firefighter... this AT would be the most promising powerset. You hit with Melee and support your team: rescue them. That sounds like fun. I just hope it can be balanced well.

Also, point taken on Dark, since it IS the Pet Set... you pair that with Illusion control for the most summons possible, after all. If you had a pain-share though, Would you tertiary pain-share TO The pet for this AT though? Then you could TRIPLE stack damage soaking. Could be neat, since you still can't implement Mastermind pet controls on it.

December 15, 2019

On ‎11‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 1:30 AM, malonkey1 said:

The Duo's partner is the equivalent of a Mastermind's final pet. The exceptions are for Ninjitsu and Hellfire Aura, which instead get the mid-tier pets from Ninjas and Demon Summoning respectively, starting with the first pet at level one, then adding the second at level 18. This was mostly because the final tier pets of those sets didn't fit thematically on their own (the final Ninjas pet for MMs is an Oni, and the final pet for Demon Summoning is an ice demon where the rest of the set is fire-themed.)

On one hand, I love the idea of variety among power sets. The idea that some Duos only get one summon... and some can have two is pretty darn cool. However, since it is a matter of one vs. two it might be tricky. If balance became an issue, you might need to side step the issue.

For an alternative to the Demon Summoning set, you could always use the "Girlfriend from Hell" the Hellions have to give the set a unique partner that isn't Ice Based. I can see a lot of people wanting to a Succubus build anyway! I think she has a green fire whip attack right now... I don't know if the whip can be colored differently. Also, not exactly a demon, you have those "Hordelings" the Circle of Thorns is always summoning, and sometimes seriously regretting... I don't know if it would be separate, or an alternate skin, but if there was a "Large" Hordeling, they would be an excellent Lovecraftian partner.

As far as the Oni goes, I have heard some people request an alternate "Shogun" style of the summon... but you are correct, for someone trying to make a Ninja theme, this isn't quite appropriate. Maybe a bare-chested Yakuza style Ninja would be in order? Other than the tattoos, you could give him Ninja Blade powers. Another option might be to use the Tsoo Sorceror model, but with Melee attacks... sort of a "Big Trouble Little China" Vibe, but without the Electricity all over the place. The game has lots of Martial Artist mobs, maybe playing around with other models is in order.

I know you have the nature set summoning a Dire Wolf, but is it possible to get a Big Lion, a Shadow Panther, An Elephant, or even an Ape partner in there? Some of these models exist, at the least! Maybe Elephant could be saved for a Persian Siege style set instead. I don't know, I am just riffing here. There are lots of themes one could do if the animal was able to be swapped in the set from a selection, like a costume change. I suppose attack animations might be tricky to translate.

It's too bad the Kheldian's are such spaghetti code. If would have been awesome if you could recolor them and make another sub-species of their kind that works as a Duo, not being quite as Symbiotic as their original cousins. Red Kheldians, for instance! They could be "Strifeswimmers" or something with a vaguely chaotic tint. They would seek to seriously aggravate escalated situations without changing the course of history.

On a related topic:

It would be really neat to see a "Safari/Jungle Assault" set for this. It would contain Machete swipes, Elephant Gun Shooting, and other poaching/park ranger style abilities. For people who want a sort of Allan Quartermain or Gun Toting Jane Goodall type character.

December 15, 2019

If the game had tons of environmental hazards that knocking enemies into would deal extra damage, knockback wouldn't be so awful... but that's the sort of think that you had to have in the game in the first place. Technically, there are those Electro Zappers in DFB, for instance. It's hilarious to kill mobs with those, but DFB is too easy to require it.

Maybe you could make something in AE with more lava pits, bubbling vats of chemicals, spiked walls, Hamidon Psy Damage Zones, and such for characters to use knockback in. Remember that episode of the 1960's Batman where they bring back the villain's girl to the Batcave and in a fit of hysterics, she falls into the unprotected open-top Nuclear Reactor he used to somehow "fuel" the Batmobile? That's the sort of thing you want knockback for, not launching your foes out harmlessly into the lake so they have to run up to you again.

Isn't Knockback really more of a fun thing that a strategically useful thing at this point? I don't see many people who have knockback powers use it to herd mobs to the team tank.

It's probably easier to let people change knockback into knockdown. I always thought knockdown was conceived as the weaker cousin of knockback, but practical realities of gameplay made Knockdown far more useful for most people.

December 15, 2019

I have a Sentinel that I built around Super Reflexes and Hover... the idea being that, since I am flying, I can pretty much ignore any melee defenses. There aren't many flying melee NPCs or Player characters, even though you can technically use Hover to get closer to the S/L caps. Hover gives you EXCELLENT Positional defenses. The only places it doesn't work as well is tight spaces.... but you ARE a flying character, after all. They COULD superjump at me, but if I am zoomed out enough, I think you can side step them fairly decently.

However, I must note, on the topic of flying melee.... I really dig it for scrappers. There is nothing quite like flying over GMs and smacking them on top, while ignoring all the little guys whose ranged attacks are laughable.

But yeah, I guess they didn't make Fly faster than SS, and Hover isn't quicker than Combat Jumping. Considering the Utility of flight, it would make other travel powers, outside of Teleport, obsolete if they did.

December 15, 2019

On ‎12‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 7:18 PM, sacredlunatic said:

What you've just described is the Arachnos classes. The whole point of this design is to use the exisiting Buff sets.

Of course there is a difference between Epic Archetypes and Archetypes.

~The Arachnos Soldiers and Widows have aura buff powers (Teamwork), but they aren't varied by powerset proliferation as is being suggested.

~They don't have an automatic pain share from nearby allies. This is pretty critical, since it means Arachnos needs to focus on drawing aggro to fill a tank role... They have Conditioning to give them a higher base HP than other classes, but it's a pretty vanilla inherent.

~They have loads of options for ranged combat all mixed in with their close combat abilities... as opposed to focused melee options.

I think heal/rez/aura with no taunt melee and a pain-share inherent makes more sense that directly importing existing support/melee sets and giving the AT a variation of the Brute power focused on taking hits. However, you are correct. There is probably a way to balance either solution with numbers, the question is... does it make sense from an enjoyment standpoint?

Maybe our misunderstanding is that "Powerset Proliferation" doesn't always translate to "Pure copy pasting existing sets" over into a different archetype. For instance, if Dominator's were to get Illusion control, they probably won't get three separate pet summons like the controller version has. It will probably have some sort of mass illusion bind with spectral fading damage to swap out at least one of the pet summon abilities. My suggestion is that, especially for the PRIMARY power set Proliferation, you consider what the set should be made up of and what varied features might set it apart from other classes. For instance, Defenders can Rez people, but not all Defenders have that. They have buffs, debuffs, heals... They currently become highly endurance efficient when the team is in a critical state. It lets teams play more fast and loose and rewards more risky behavior. A team without a defender or two might need to pace itself more judiciously.

Since the "Support/Melee" is kinda like a Melee version of the Defender, I believe letting defender powers self target and giving them less range to deploy those powers is a sensible alteration to make to the power sets. Otherwise, aren't you actually making a melee version of the Corrupter.... which has a crazy glass jaw, but compensates by staying far back of the front lines of combat? How is a Melee character supposed to be fun if they have limited ways to support themselves, need to take pool powers to get self rez, and have to switch between close combat attacks and longer range debuffs? It almost doesn't make sense. You'd eat more floor than an uppity blaster, while playing it exactly how it's designed.

Also as the OP suggested, this class seems to be getting Pets in it's Primary. That certainly sounds fun, but I don't know if it quite meshes with the role of support/melee. While I realize there are Tankermind builds for the Mastermind class, they have special pet controls. Without that, doing support, fighting melee, and keeping track of pets you can barely command seems like it might be too much chaos? Then again, in a heavy firefight, who can even tell what is going on half the time... All the same, my preference is to imagine this class as a positional melee fighter who enhances the team by keeping themselves on the edge of the frontlines.

Maybe you think I am over obsessing about the precise details of this. You are probably correct, I have over a decade of thoughts on City of Heroes pent up in me. Most of them aren't even worth expressing now that we have the classic back, since they are focused on what a sequel should have been like. However, consider the Sentinel.

Sentinels were pretty simple from the first look of it... but there is a lot of ongoing debate on whether the class is good enough. It's hard to balance something that is specifically less specialized. They could have made it so Sentinel Defensive Power sets either focused on exclusively defending from ranged attacks or melee to allow for more specialization between Sentinel characters... but it's a little late to make a strange and sweeping change like that. Now people are stuck in a debate about how they are too squishy and they can't out DPS a Blaster. They also missed an excellent opportunity to explore damage reflection as a major power mechanic that would set the Sentinel apart from everything else. I just don't think these wild ideas can be quite implemented now that people's expectations have settled on what might be impossible to balance against expectations. While the Sentinels have some differences in them from the other Ranged and Defensive power set classes, I feel like the dissatisfaction people feel from them is they don't have any specialized tactics/abilities/strategies that really make you feel like you stand out. They fade into the background... but unlike stalkers, they don't do it in a intended way. Personally, I still have fun playing the class, but I understand why there are lots of debates over what just seems like it should be the best of both worlds for soloing. This is why I feel the best way to do an archetype is get the concept or power set concepts done first... then you know what you need to do to proliferate all those different powers over to the new AT.

December 14, 2019

You could always make the Inherent similar an inverted version of Mastermind Inherent. What if the support/melee is like a Tauntless Tank? They basically have automatic pain-sharing from allies in a certain range of them... it's giving an ally cover. They would have aura buffs they share that don't quite give them defense on the level of a tank, scrapper, or brute... but all of their buffs/heals/rez powers can SELF-target as well as be used on allies. You would probably have to deny the class any pet powers or debuffs that weren't some sort of self-aura, but I think this could be really fun having super flexible support abilities, a beefy HP, and simple melee.

I could even see a some of the support sets for this class being based on existing defensive sets too... The Shield Set would probably have some interesting differences as a support power, for instance. For sets like fire, you can modify the support powers to fit the new AT Profile, but even sprinkle in some defensive set powers where the support ability slips out of buff/heal/rez/self-aura debuff.

This side steps the issue of having a inherent that forces you to try to take damage when you are squishy and competing with tanks for taunt. Otherwise, you might drift from the team and main battle, trying to hunt down foes simply to hit you so your bar can fill up. A support class can fight, but they should focus on positioning themselves to assist allies. The scrapper, the brute, the stalker are the classes that can haul off on their own and stir up trouble on the fringes. They don't need to worry as much about the team formation.

For other AT names... you could try Champion or Warden.

December 7, 2019

Maybe I am missing something here, but since mobs can use inspirations, can't they boost their own accuracy in order to hit that which they are normally too clumsy to hit?

Why would there be a separate system to give the result of a to-hit buff outside of existing powers, inspirations, and enhancements?

Oh, right... Streak-Killer. But does it work in reverse too? Do attacks that consistently hit build on a counter towards a guaranteed miss?

What am I missing here? This seems very curious... It's strange the mechanics people use to sidestep a robust pain wheel.

December 7, 2019

It was much easier to find a team back then. Since I have come back, most people on are Level 50 and doing incarnate. However, more people were willing to get into the early game content back then. By now, there is a hearty class of people who totally despise early game content. They are totally focused on leveling up and the game doesn't reward grinding the old way. Of course it feels different. It's the difference of farming with a hand tool or farming with a tractor.

Farmers gonna farm.

December 7, 2019

8 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Woo, talk about taking a hell of a lot of time to get done, without any chance whatsoever of hard feelings! And then how long would each "elected position" last? What if I get elected and then annoy a few players, do they get to recall me?

They can impeach you, but all it does is send you to the country with millions of peaches. You'd still be the Mayor of them.

December 1, 2019

A lot of people don't seem to factor range or projectile speed as a factor in balancing powers, unfortunately. They can crunch the heck out of draw time, out of to hit, damage, defense, and resistance... but positional and timing of hits are so much more nebulous and hard to calculate.

The Tankermind Build is kinda specialization of Masterminds though. As they were designed, they were primarily support classes with lots of pets to support, allowing them to solo better.

Maybe if there was some way for poison powers from a Secondary Set to stack on mastermind's Primary ranged strikes, you could balance the set better. Unfortunately, that would be exactly the opposite of what I am hearing you ask for, as far as getting up close and personal. To me, it just makes sense that, for instance, a Ninja Mastermind with Poison would probably poison his arrows. However, that's going off concept, rather than function.

I have heard a lot of people complain about how weak poison is. What strikes me deeply about this is that Masterminds complain far less about Trick Arrow. Perhaps it's much better balanced for Masterminds than it is for Defenders, although it's more likely only some Ninja Masterminds actually use the set. Defenders all know Trick Arrows is definitely weak. I am starting to think the real reason it doesn't get fixed is because of how limiting the archery animations are for concept. If they added alternate dart/boomerang/ninja star/crossbow/prank gun animations and titled the set "Trick Shot" the entire community would probably demand the set be repaired. Once that happened, we would get a better idea of exactly how badly poison needs love too.

December 1, 2019

On ‎11‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 9:36 PM, Haijinx said:

It will never be fixed.

We've been arguing about rage for too long to give it up now.

It's also a source of endless inspiration for new power sets. Fixing it requires them to essentially explore every possible solution to the issue before ultimately settling on the LAST solution to be tackled/fleshed out well enough to address the concern.

It's a painful topic because there is what was intended with the mechanic and what the company allowed to become expected... Without a pain wheel, there is no way to satisfy anyone. It's very hard to balance a game with only two choices. You either do a build that was probably not supposed to be allowed, but became accepted... or you try to make something competitive that doesn't rely on well established cheese. Some people resent how aspects of the game were nerfed, possibly inappropriately, in response to the flawed mechanic... where other people, in invested years into this style of build see no reason to have it taken away now... preferring to find a different solution to balance what they basically want to KEEP. If PvP was more viable in this game the pain wheel would solve all the bickering outside of the forum and on the battlefield. Since this is more of a cooperative game, people are more prone to argue about the rules and whether or not they are being implemented correctly.

For a Pain Wheel, I would almost consider building in weaknesses to Pool Powers for specific Archetypes. That might be an alternative angle to increase meta viabilities. However, this would only really affect PvP and wouldn't change the rest of the game.

Of course, I can't get enough of the Irony of all the Rage arguments, still blazing hot all these years later. It really shows how much City of Heroes meant to so many...

Why haven't they made "Rage" inspirations? They could be Superdine themed, even.

December 1, 2019

This is pretty basic as a request, but I don't know how complicated it is for coding/implementation. However, it would be tremendously helpful for people "LFG"

Simply put, Color our text based on alignment in LFG. Heroes stay Blue, Villains get Red. If necessary or simple, Make Vigilantes green and Rogues purple. As far as I know, Goldside LFG is already Yellow and a separate chat log.

Then, when someone says starts forming a group, it's easier for players to understand if they can apply. For the most part, this doesn't affect Heroes, since Blueside is already very popular. This just makes it easier for Villains to recruit.

~On a Separate but related note, if someone is in LFG Chatting and not part of a group already, it might be helpful for their status as "Not LFG" be automatically changed to ANY... if they want to get specific, they can go in and change it to the task they want. If they are already looking for something, it wouldn't change their status.

December 1, 2019

I am definitely for making more sets capable of precision targeting.... but I don't need the actual intent of the set powers to change or be given a secret bonus for targeting myself. I just want to use my trick arrows like a huge variety of Disco Lights/FX for clubbing. Since there is no way to switch between targeting modes right now... they could either add one... or just give Trick Arrow the ability to zone-target all multitarget arrows, rather than mob-centered targeting.

And poison too, sure, without giving it self-heals that didn't exist before. If you need another self heal, Medicine Power Pool is good and it can improve all heals as well. Of course, if the self-heal is built in and it's a matter of positioning and tactics, I am not sure how to balance that. Short of heals being more potent near foes or out of combat, I suppose you just shrug it off. It's not gonna hurt the gameplay tremendously if they could run up to their target and get splash healed anyway, since the existing Heals aren't especially broken in the current format. If players are trading out damage and debuffs for pure self healing, it's not overthrowing game balance.

December 1, 2019

Would Marcus Cole Boulevard always be in a bad neighborhood?

Sign In

Profiles

Forums

Store

Articles

Patch Notes

Posts posted by FDR's Think Tank