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FDR's Think Tank
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Posts posted by FDR's Think Tank
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Considering that most people don't even use the I.D. description, I don't see a huge reason to have it be so limited. While Brevity is simple to read, I would prefer to leave that to each player to decide, especially since opening up the character count could see the I.D. Description used in a variety of alternative ways.
The main thing I would like to add to all this is simple: I want different I.D. descriptions with each costume... or barring that, an additional description space paired with each costume. This way, I can explain what each costume is or provide salient details to go with the look. If I am in my Civies, I might want to have a description of my characters alter-ego. If I am in my Artic Warfare outfit, I want to give a better description of the outfit than some dollar sign seeing executive who wants to make an action figure.
Brevity can be the soul of wit more often if we have more spots to exercise it.
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It would be neat to see a ranged damage/assault damage power set. It might not be totally a toon set in my mind, leaning more towards prank attacks that could go for a wider range of concepts. You could have the Bang Prank Pistol, an acid spitting flower, A hammer with a scissor-spring punch, classic cartoon fused bombs, and maybe a fake parachute that randomly drops a tire, anvil, or piano on an enemies head... But that's more of a Primary/Secondary set than a Power Pool.
On the other side of toon possibilities, it would be neat to see a stretchy melee set and an inflatable defense set.
An insanity mechanic would probably be timed power based, as fallout for some self rez or something very powerful. I don't think you will see a "power bar" mechanic outside an explicit archetype design. Along those lines you could always try doing something like "Dr. Aeon's Saturday Morning Platoon" about animated Holograms who have escaped and have their own sentience.
Of course, many people call their characters in this game toons already. So terminology wise, this could get really confusing.
Since they are already working on "Premium Power Pools" this would also be a good suggestion line to work with. The model for these is generally 5 powers, with the 3 power being a Travel power that is slower than the pure travel power pool powers, but has a built in hidden power you can use while the toggle is active. There is a lot of flexibility there to build a set anyone can take (provided they didn't take another Premium Power Pool Set already...)
Maybe a Toon Premium Power Pool could look like this:
Toon Brawl- A melee attack with considerable range. Hit your target from a distance, but apply melee defense values.
Toon Dodge- Activate this to have your character move in a goofy and unpredictable manner. Defense vs. Ranged +
Toon Dash- A Superspeed type power with a toon animation for movement. Something that looks like those spinning legs you'd see on Sonic the Hedgehog.
Toon Teleport- Teleports you behind to targeted foe and deals a melee strike. Can only use while Toon Dash is active.
Toon Taunt- Let out a cloud of obscenities so foul they can only be expressed with symbols. Chance to cause Confusion in Target.
Toon Rez- You can't keep a good toon down. Self Rez with debt protection, full health, and stamina... but suffer from lowered resistance to confuse and fear for a short time.
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If you are gonna do it Pacific Rim Style, then Villains could make someone a GM and Heroes could work to assemble a GM-battling Robot. It would still be interesting to see the initiation of the whole thing rest on the Villains side... forcing players to either join redside or rely on others to be bad guys. However, short of that brutal style, you can have the assembly of a hero Robot initiate a countdown, at the end of which, if no villain has transformed a GM to battle, the system automatically provides one.
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It seems really unethical for Heroes to knowingly turn themselves into a giant monster.... although I suppose it's just them being gullible?
It would be really neat if somehow Villains could do it to themselves, other Villains, or TO Heroes.... as opposed to a Hero just walking into it, he is literally tricked by Villainous Player character.
Of course, then the fight against the monster would give a Badge to all who fight the monster and cure the hero.... but if they fail, the "Rube hero/villain" AND the original scheming villain get a special badge.
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If you make the Defensive Powers Primary and the Ranged Damage as Secondary, I could see this class being more like a heavy gunner type... which fits with Warsuit. Other alternatives for set mechanics could revolve around heavy weapons type mechanics. This might help set it apart from the existing Sentinel set, which already has an "Offensive"/"Defensive" opportunity mechanic and it still has people asking for Archetype buffs. Here are some ideas for "Heavy weapon" mechanics....
Deploy- Character gets a significant bonus by sacrificing mobility.
1. The mobility can either force the character into take a speed debuff.... or fully lock the character down when deployed. This could be made to vary between individual power sets to help create playstyle variety.
2. The Bonus gained would be To-Hit/Range by default, but could also alter the attacks instead, giving a character large cones or mortar aim AoE, or even change the attacks to melee style PBAoE.
3. For especially big guns, your character could even have the gun/power strapped to his back, unable to use it until he deploys. This would be a very extreme application of the concept and need to only apply to higher tier powers. For his early attacks, his pop-up guns would need to still fire outside of deployed mode.
~This can be used to express a variety of mode alterations which really aligns with the idea of a "Warsuit", whether it's Magic, Technology, Evolution, or whatever. It might mean some sets would lose range in deploy mode and become dedicated "Self-Nukers". For Example: Ironman is usually ranged with armor, but if he gets into a critical close combat situation, he has lots of energy blast self nukes, for instance. Meanwhile Warmachine has chainguns, missle launchers, and even mortars that he can deploy at a reduced movement speed for additional range/accuracy. They are both classic Warsuits, but have vastly different ranged weapon systems.
Spin-Up- Character is able to shorten animation times between attacks but risks overheating.
1. The first way to express this is to give the character a built in or alternate aim power that activates a modified effect. While active, the animations for attack would be reduced/chained together to eliminate drawtimes an let the character unload a barrage of ranged damage. However, the character would experience a "crash" afterwards with increased cooldown times on all ranged attacks. (This encourages them to take some melee perhaps, or back off the main front of battle.)
2. The Second method to express this is for them to have a charge up bar like brutes. They would charge up faster than brutes, but being hit by enemy fire would remove charge, rather than add it. When fully charged, they could activate a power that would reduce cooldowns and keep all weapons deployed for rapid fire/no draw animation for a set period.
~With the pop-out weapons you are suggesting it would look really hardcore to be in "Spin-Up" mode, like when the Mask pulls out a bunch of heavy weapons all at once. Characters could move around freely, but all pop-up weapons would be locked in activation for the duration.
Another aspect to consider with Warsuits is that since they are armored classes, whether you make it primary or secondary, they don't need the long range as much. However, you can toy with Deploy or Spin-Up giving them longer range when they are in mode.... with decreased armor. Meanwhile, while out of mode, they can tank... but where is the TAUNT? Consider giving them a defensive ability, even.
Overwatch- Character automatically defends his teammates. When they are attacked, he has autofire cannons that retaliate and draw aggro from the offender.
1. The first way this power could operate would be as an early teammate target toggle. This would provide a very FOCUSED defense of critical team members. You could defend the team healer, defend a blaster, defend a Controller, or play petty mindgames with the team tank by trying to steal all his aggroed mobs. This may have an ammo count before being exhausted or have a limit to how often it procs... but it's definitely an Defensive style autocannon.
2. The second version of this would be a Defensive Toggle that creates an AoE around the Warsuit where Mobs are damaged when they attack an ally. Like the first method, this doesn't defend the Warsuit at all. It purely defends teammates. However, it lets you play zone defense for multiple teammates, as opposed to option one.
Covering Fire- Character launches a hail of bullets to provide cover for allies and draw aggro.
1. This can be a Cone taunt. If in a defensive set it would have weak damage with some debuff on affected mobs. If part of the attack set, it would likely do more damage and require a longer cool down.
Any of these ideas could be used... separately or in combination even. But it might help outline a really strong case for a tankish character with ranged attacks. I think a ranged scrapper is a hard sell, since we already have Sentinel and it's fairly controversial right now. I hope this also doesn't collide with the Guardian AT which I didn't realize already has a drone/pod mechanic.
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I am curious... Does DPA translate to Damage Per Action? If you are saying overall DPS is low, but the Damage Per Action is high, you could give the Battle Axe a benefit for dealing finishing blows. Maybe a fear proc, which would tie into the beserk nature of the combat style?
Every set doesn't need to be a speed farmer set. You can build in other benefits and give melee more situations they can create/handle.
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16 hours ago, biostem said:
That's not a "need" per se - it's a "want". Very important distinction.
As Destroyovich once told Captain Liberty- "You aren't NEEDY... You are WANTY."
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I will never voluntarily skip a cut scene. The minor annoyance is worth how much the cut scenes add to the mood. Otherwise the game is just a grind.
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5 minutes ago, Kismette said:
So, I can create a character named Hoarder (currently available in Excelsior), write "I like to hoard" as bio and not play log/play it again makes me invested in the name? 🧐
I think backstory should be a factor, but not the sole determining factor. Most people don't even write anything in their character bio. Think about that. Everyone has Google. You could do a quick search for Benjamin Desraeli quotes and just pick one if you didn't feel strongly enough about anything else. You can't go wrong there.
But if you don't even log into your account after, I don't think you are long for keeping a name. If you lose the name, you can move to another server and take it when you return. If you didn't level up, you probably aren't even in an SG that needs your character yet.
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1 hour ago, dragonhawk777 said:
I dont agree with you and I disproved your whole paragraph about a new set being less work than changing one power in an existing set. Also there is no lore for power sets and no decades of existing structure. The game was not even active for 10 yrs and I dont count the years it sat buried in a vault as time with existing structure.
There IS lore. People have built countless characters around the self nuke. You want to change the mechanic to punish people who use it as it was originally intended... And you draw a false conclusion that range doesn't have a cost factor or bearing on the set as a whole.
Did you know there were equally popular threads that asked for all T9 powers to be self nukes? The Devs explained that the electric and ice sets had a range because after hours of playtesting, they realized the best way to take advantage of their elemental advantages required distance between the player and foes. This topic is 15 years old and you brought not a single new argument to the table. You stubbornly refuse to admit your concerns have less intrusive and more positive and productive solutions.
You even admitted that you felt you would be better off making a water blaster than playing the sets with self nukes. I didn't make you say that, I didn't even suggest it because I don't agree... But that's how you FEEL. You are arguing with YOURSELF now. How can anyone have a rational discussion with you?
What is wrong with a new fire set or rad set that uses new animations and adds creative options to the game... While addressing the _core mechanics_
issue you are bringing up? You haven't even tried to explain what the issue is and you falsely stated it would take more work. Work done going BACKWARDS and erasing established mechanics without improving game balance is redundant and effectively wasted. Work done making something new is far more valuable, because it advances everyone without punishing anyone invested in the original system. There are limited programmers, reverse engineers, and devs. You have proven the counterpoints against you more than you have advocated for a worthy investment of currently limited programming resources.
That being said... You should check out Thunderspy Gaming/CoX. While they have gotten into some frankly petty conflicts with the Devs of this game, they have, as I understand it, fundamentally rebalanced all the old sets. I haven't heard if it's good, but it very well could include the very things you are talking about. We now live in a world with multiple City of Heroes versions. Their version has wind power proliferation and some other things.
Homecoming is focused on keeping the existing classic, only making necessary balance changes and adding _new_ features. Not core set function changes, unless it's brokenly OP. You haven't described anything broken. Just mildly inconvenience from what might actually be a character concept, but you haven't actually told us...
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If you are stuck between wanting support and defense buffs, you could make it so the set has drones/pods/sprites that it summons for it's secondary that follow the war machine and give a defense buff to him and his allies. It would be a simple pet summon class, but the pets would all be without attacks. This sets it apart from Sentinel without making it too much like Dominator or Controller, who have the attack/support role as well.
You could have an inherent that boosts your primary powers the more support pods you have in range... A triangulation targeting or powered up effect.
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I am glad to see you ultimately agree with me. New sets are a better solution than fundamentally changing what has been established simply because you value range but refuse to admit that it plays a factor in how sets are balanced or designed to function.
You forget, the sets, as they exist, are already playtested... And you want to throw it all out the window because T9 needs to be the same basic power?
Again, you are free to muck around with the mechanics of the game as you want on your own server. And really, rather than coming hot and taking everything personally, that would be the ethical and principled action on your part. Prove it.
The game needs more people experimenting with changes and ideas. I still believe anything useful you discover would be built into a new set, rather than make a sweeping change to decades established lore and structure... And I know you would thank everyone for doing it that way in the end. However, there is nothing wrong with being stubborn if it also means you are productive.
I dare you to code your own server with the heretical changes you desire. Complete your evil training and join the dark side!
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On one hand, thank goodness this game isn't overrun with Chinese Gold Farmers. On the other hand... Why can't this game be overrun with Chinese Gold Farmers!?
Seriously though... The game just came back and is really rather stealth about it. Most people don't use Reddit and short of a random nostalgia search have no reason to suspect CoH is back in any way. The key to there being more stuff in auction is more people playing. It will be harder to get names then, but it will be easier to get recipes.
So invite your friends, your family, your coworkers. Badger them about it. Threaten them. Ruin relationships with your demands for them to join. This Community is so positive, they will quickly forget and forgive you, once they join.
With Thanksgiving coming up, it's a great way to derail discussions about Politics, which really don't matter. You just leave your Government to me... And I will rely on you to bring in oddles of more players! Everyone wins!
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2 hours ago, 0th Power said:
it probably would make more sense, but i dont like the stances/combo mechanics so i didn't put it in
Stances wouldn't be like the combo system... But it might be incompatible with bio armor, or you might have to choose between bio armor modes and combat stances. At least, that's what it seems like to me.
For Nunchucks/Duel Blunt Force I could see a
-Bonus Taunt stance, that might have fire damage, since it's flashy and provocative.
-Flexible wild combat which, similar to a blaster allows use of attacks even when held, dazed, or sleeping. This might be electric themed.
-Dodging stance, which gives a bonus to defense/resistance vs projectiles... This is really good for flying melee. Wind themed.
I don't know if that's too crazy or breaks too many archetype systems. You could add in downsides to the stances if the bonuses were too extreme. I feel like not picking a stance SHOULD be it's own stance, but swap ammo and bio armor don't currently do that.
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Different combat stances might be more appropriate for nunchucks than elemental variables... Although perhaps an element could be involved in on or two of the stances.
I really like the attack until endurance runs out. That sounds like loads of fun
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A few questions:
-where is the Mastermind pet upgrade ability? You need to be able to empower your pets, giving them the necessary paperwork would be a good start!
-Is Habeas Corpus a summon for a Judge (or two?) Or is it a bizzare attack?
-Where are the Jr. Partners?
-maybe instead of a bounty Hunter, a super secretary/personal assistant, like Donna from Suits, is more in keeping?
-Are you dead set on this being Lawyers, or can this be paired down to a more "Suit" themed Mastermind? They could be lawyers, businessman, or Family accounting assassin's...
-what are the minions attacks? Do they have combat ties? Briefcase machine guns? Or do you really want them throwing legal papers at people?
-How can we take this from an amusing ponderance into a likely addition?
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Making a new power set would involve mostly copy and pasting existing code anyway. And missles exist in game, you just need to reuse existing animations.
You seem to have forgotten that on top of recoding, playtesting is involved. I already disagree with the notion there is less work in trying to unify all the blaster powers in function/purpose... But even if we set that aside, playtesting a single set is much easier than playtesting multiple sets and comparing the overall game balance to the previous set up. It's really not as simple as you are strawmanning it to be, as unbalanced as the game is, each set has different features, different advantages that need to be considered. You insist the one won't make a difference, but you then ignore the fact that you don't really seem to have anyone on board with this plan.
However, you do have one big advantage you wouldn't have had in the days of live. You are free to run your own server, make those changes yourself, and playtest it to your own hearts delight. If you can sell enough people on it, your server could get very busy: but Homecoming has a goal of trying to keep people nostalgic for CoHs happy. That's not always gonna line up with an OCD goal of everything lining up perfectly the same.
That aside: I gave you a solution, and a potential missle set could do fire and/or rad damage. This is much more likely to be done, especially if you crunch numbers, make custom icons, and detail each power. You can find many examples in the forums. If you are more into ideas than execution, you must change hearts and minds until you inspire people who can execute it. This Community is super positive, but you will find that optimism makes it difficult to remove legacy features people accept and much easier to add features that correct what you dislike. And for the record, that's how the mechanics of most new powersets came about back on live. Compromises and refusal to change the core mechanics of an existing system.
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Thinking about this, most of the weapon sets try to pack in as many variants and models as possible to enhance the usefulness of the set to the player base. As such, it wouldn't be bad to have other weapons that could be part of this powerset, although they might require a few extra/alternate animation styles. The main thing is these sets have the ability to do wide slashes and pull enemies towards you.
I was thinking a Chain Kunai could work, if the character basically keeps the chain taut between their fists as they grip it.... that is, you could have something similar enough to use the same powers with slightly different animations. Depending on how clever the artist/animator is, they MIGHT pull it off with the Scythe animation.
Since it's already two handed, you might have two fisted Sickles? (Or for something really thematic, a Hammer/Sickle combo?) This would also let you have whips, chains, martial neckties..... This would require a separate animation subset, but might be mostly handled by existing duel weapon animations.
If it wasn't too much a stretch, you could have Retiarius style Trident and Net combo. This would be mostly looks, since there aren't any immobilizes specifically involved.... (Although perhaps pulled opponents should be stunned?) This would be the trickiest to animate, but I feel hugely worth it, if feasible. It's nice because you can't use a shield with this set anyway.
Already in game but not expressed as a power are hook hands. There might be a way to work with that and another lethal weapon with a very flexible close combat range. This would be the most complicated, as far as animation goes.
While I was brainstorming ideas for this style set, it occurred to me that in Day of the Dead they use neck grabbers to move zombies to the lab for research..... this would be impractical for a weapon, but you could make it a long necked claw grabber and it would have similar effects to this set and use the same animations as a Scythe might.
I would definitely make a character with a Scythe, but it would be a shame if this set was locked down to a single character concept per account. More weapon models and styles free it up, like the Sword/Mace/Axe sets currently are.
If these were possible as additional models/animations for this set, it would become the "Esoteric Blades" set. I realize "Rift into the Abyss" is largely a superpowered Scythe only special, but the effects could be achieved with any weapon flexing/flashy kata move that might intimidate someone. "Marked for Death" is an interesting mechanic... and while the naming style evokes really cool and potent images of a ruthless vigilante or a wicked villain.... the mechanic could also express the difficultly most people have defending against Esoteric Weapons... a sort of Unconventional Combat Advantage. I know. Very Generic. I am sure there is a better way to express that... but the concept definitely applies to a Scythe, which has that curved hook that can sneak past normal blocks or into blindspots.
Either way, I really enjoyed thinking about this Power Set!
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The nice thing about Pool Powers, or even Prestige Pool Power sets is that they can address narrow situations effectively.... It would be absurd to make a Primary or Secondary Power Set that was dependent on large bodies of water. However, since we have multiple builds, anyone who wants it.. either because they love water missions or they just want it for roleplay... can have it!
You could even add new Arena options for different environmental settings such as deep water.
As far as a Pirate set goes, you could almost just use the Thug set.... if they ever let us customize costumes of Mastermind Pets....
Maybe the Ninja Prestige Pool set could include some sort of decoy/ninja clone ability. It would be LIKE placate, but would put out a decoy that would lead PvPers to believe they were looking at the original (although accuracy might be a factor..)
And any proper beast set should probably have a howl! You could even toy with it being more effective at night for Werewolf players and the like. Howl at the moon! Howls could be sonic attacks, fear procs, or even just a self stat boost. Maybe a mix of minor sonic damage, fear proc, and self boosting? I don't really know how much is too much, but you can give it a long recharge to get around it being too good.
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What if, instead of extending the cone to match the width of Mace's Shatter, you instead make it so the cone retains it's thin range, but becomes a double cone, with one that extends behind the character? This would accomplish the goal of the thin Cone, make it easier to get 5 targets, but not remove the challenge of positioning yourself to pull it off. Is it possible to include a blindside back cone?
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The very BEST solution to this will come when this is all legitimized. Then there will be more people and MORE servers
Personally, I only came back recently. I only just found out... It honestly makes me squirm knowing the game has been running since January this year and I didn't know. (I don't hold any animosity to SCoRE and I think they did the right thing, keeping it secret back then. It's not a secret now and they released it to the public.)
This game has haunted my dreams for years and I have written my own notes on how to accomplish something closer to the original design of the game. I don't know when I would feel ready to share those ideas, but they don't really have anything to do with this being here now. We can play... And ultimately there will be more servers. The name limitation doesn't really exist on a long enough timeframe, you just find a server without it.
I think this only really is targeting people who have, for whatever reason, left the game.
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This is a removal of nuance and I am against it. There isn't a strong enough reason to undo powersets differences listed.
What is more constructive is imagining new powersets that both fufill your need to smooth out balanced features and don't alter the base game.
For Instance: You could easily come up with a Missle Launcher set that does ranged fire damage and probably wouldn't have a self-nuke and launch from a range.
In the end, it's about the same amount of work, but you aren't wrecking the existing game in worship of the God of Symmetrical Satisfaction.
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If someone thought up a Nunchucks powerset, it would be pretty easy to make it dual billy club, chain swinging, double morning star, tactical baton, tonfas, and blunt bashing. Basically the Dual Blade version of War Mace. As long as you don't do anything ridiculous like have the person flying around with whirling nunchucks.
I don't know about the programming weapon looks, but you could have the resting pose for nunchucks where the character holds them together and tight, and only animate the spin when they attack. However, I don't know how that functions with multiple weapon choices. The other option is to have a clunky always spinning option, and rather than animating it, just draw the model so it looks like a semi clear blur. That, however, might look shoe horned in. I don't know if they can do a jiggleboned model where the chucks' just dangle around and swing as you use them.
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Neat ideas... also consider that the movement powers of these prestige power pools so far have a hidden ability you can only use while the toggle is active. This is effectively a 6th power.
If they are gonna go down the route of making more of these prestige power pools, I would like to see a Swimming/aquatic battle one. You could have fast movement, but only while swimming. There would probably also be a defensive bonus while in water, or while active.... although travel powers tend to really drain endurance in combat.
I am curious what sort of movement power you would see in a Pirate Prestige set... a rope swing would be neat, although I don't know how they could balance that. It was already explained by the original Devs they don't have a specific way to allow characters to interact with walls or ceilings in a sensible fashion for travel powers. However, you could limit rope swings to work indoors. It's a very swashbuckler type move. Pirates could really use a Mastermind Set, though.
I think you would see a lot of PvPers take "way of the Warrior" for that psy defense/resistance.
If it wasn't for the Ninja run, I would consider making a Swordplay prestige Power pool for "Fencing" style set instead, since there are lots of options for ninjas as it stands. The closest you can get to fencing right now is a cutlass and it's mostly brutal slashes. Maybe Ninjas could get throwing stars/kunai instead, considering there aren't as many options for players who want that style of combat yet.
Energy Aura for Tankers?
in Suggestions & Feedback
Posted
This is really off-tangent, but since this was talking about an energy crisis and tankers, I thought it would be really neat to suggest an Oil-based defense set for Tankers. You know, like Oil Wrestling... your character is really slippery. They would probably be weak to fire though.
Thematically, I can really get behind all the resulting puns from this.