FDR's Think Tank

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.

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!

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

This Duo Archetype would be an excellent chance to play with some "Epic Powerset" options that tie directly into CoH's lore. For Instance: What if one of the Summon/Support sets was "Priesthood of Stheno"? -Your Duo Summon could be a Snake partner! -You could have Mastery over Venom.... so something Similar to the Mastermind Support set. -Snakes would recognize you as an ally and you wouldn't get snake hunting missions, since you couldn't be trusted to very well follow through with any of it. Just some thoughts on this. ~On a more mechanical level, I couldn't find it mentioned... The Mastermind gains pets as they level up. While I understand there are two "Upgrade" abilities that are tied to your primary rather than the Pet Secondary, I am still curious: Does the Duo Pet have some sort of upgrade process where as you level up, the Partner gets bigger? Or does it START off as the Major summon and scale from there? Maybe an example will illustrate my point: A level one Robotics Duo: Does it, like a Mastermind, start off with the basic little robot, then upgrade it to Protector Bot when Mastermind gets their second bot? Or Do you start OFF with the Giant Assault Bot? Another way to look at this is like this: the Ranks for NPC mobs go like this: Underling*, Minion, Lieutenant, Pet**, Boss, Elite Boss, Arch Villain/Hero, Monster, Giant Monster *Underlings are like Rikti Monkeys, I think... tiny guys that only pose a threat because of their great numbers, making them cannon fodder for AoE. **Pet class is for the summons of Non-Masterminds like Dominators and Controllers. I think it has less protections against effects, but has more hitpoints/damage to make up for it's chaotic and uncommandable nature. Masterminds can summon Minions, Lieutenants, and a Boss. Obviously, unless you do something special like have a Duo with a growing mob of weakling creatures, we can throw out Underlings. So do you start with a minion and work your way up to your partner being an Elite Boss or, gasp, an Arch? Or does he start off as a Boss and just scale from there? Either way, you could probably balance it. I am just curious what the model you are working from does? ~Also, since the Upgrades are from the Primary Powerset... are they simple buff effects, or do they uniquely alter the Duo Character when activated? It would be interesting to see a Gun Assault Set that arms a Lich with an American Civil War era Gatling Gun or something. Obviously, that's wild dreams category... but we can hope!

"Bury me with all my stuff, because you know it's mine." is perhaps closer to dead accounts that aren't even logging in. Maybe Naming rights need to be purchasable from the auction house with your level/playtime raising the minimum bid for the name (unless surrendered...) I am still a big fan of the arena battle for the name, but it's important not to forget backstory too. I think if you haven't added at least a funny quip to explain your character's backstory you aren't very invested in the name.

You want a reward for being a bad boy and breaking the game? I think you only deserve Villain Contacts. It does bring up an interesting point... Can Rogues do Newpaper Missions in Paragon and Vigilantes do Radio Missions in Rogue Islands? That would be a huge area of content they probably SHOULD have build in. I am curious if they will add more alignment's in the future. Maybe something more integrated of Chaos Vs. Order than the Resistance Vs. Loyalists only vaguely suggests.

I have seen people running around with duplicate names in game, I am sure of it. Is there a different system in place? In my mind, there should be free range on all the names... if people want exclusivity, they can issue a name challenge and fight for it in the arena. You know, like The Tick did against Barry.

You can get that kind of influence just sitting in a farm, easily. The Rare drops easily gain you that cash. Perhaps you'd be more comfortable with an official travel power that goes faster, but I like the option of having a halfway measure that allows me to load up on other pool powers, if I desire. On the otherhand, those prices were set because longtime players near the end of CoHs had ABSURD amounts of influence, more than they could ever spend in their life and CoH had removed any reason to splurge on a base beyond vanity. Maybe they could make it cheaper if they do a system where it's a recipe for a device you invent, then the price is largely dependent on the salvage required to built it. This would also feel really thematic, although maybe people would feel it adds a obnoxious step in between.

If you aren't calling your henchmen all Nincompoops, you aren't a real Mastermind. If you want to do something right, you gotta do it yourself.

The Movement powers in PvP is probably one of the FEW things that actually works while simultaneously setting this MMO apart from others. There is already a narrow range of viable PvP builds... I don't see how eliminating movement widens the field on that. Against an intelligent foe, movement is the best defense, even when they have autolock on. Of all the things to complain about in PvP, this is the worst. No matter how janky, silly, or completely spazztic the playstyle is for a PvP game the solution is nearly NEVER to eliminate movement abilities intended or unintended. That's why Tribes 2 was fun. That's where Team Fortress 2 got rocket jumping and sticky-bomb jumping. If you don't like people speeding in from nowhere and alpha striking you, online PvP isn't your thing. Once you adapt to it, it can be thrilling... and once you learn to work with a team the rough edges pretty much evaporate. It's basically like Sportsball or 40k. The first several times you watch or play, nothing makes sense, even if someone sits down and explains it. If you stick with it, you discover what you need to time your plays and compete. There is NUANCE in what seems like a cheesy and abusive system. That's the problem with real time PvP in ALL games. It takes time for your brain to readjust to it. Fighting games, FPS, MOBAS, and MMO PvP all have that in common.

Teardrops in the rain. You have everything they could possibly give you to rebuild what you had... and THEN some. I think that will have to do, because it's totally impractical for them to dive into the legal, moral, and flat out time consumptive quagmire of toying with all that old user data. In fact, aside from your ability to duplicate it with a little effort, I would say the old stuff even further out of reach than any Copyrighted Character. At least there is the possibility that the infinite copyrights on these Superheroes could end if the companies succeed in their seeming quest to make them completely unprofitable. I think the thing that I miss most isn't the stuff, it's the Ships... and since they never added vehicles for us to use, I am left with only longing for Friendships that vanished all those years ago!

I like the big Collar lock that comes with one of the Corsair backpacks, but wish I could just have that big round collar that's perfect for bubble domes and such... Maybe a Corsair three, and you sacrifice the backpack... or a (corsair collar + cape) option under the high collar capes? Or give the rocket packs the options for a similar collar. Or... ALL OF THEM! And give us the ability to put big faces on our chest or abs too, for people who want to play something similar to MODOK, Hector Hammond, Krang, or Dr. Vahzilok. I think they should probably have more options under "Shoulders" that give you interesting Neck covers/lock-ons. The Neck Chain-wraps are under that option.

I was fully against this until you gave Trick Arrow all three of the arbitrary buff sets. That's the part that makes this click... and made me think that maybe the defender shouldn't be trying to get his teammates killed. That fits more with a Corrupter, if you think about it, but they get Scourge instead. And the Archetypes aren't confined to Hero or Villain anymore, so that doesn't even matter much. Making a change over the whole Archetype is tricky, especially when you have and entire power set of that Archetype which is universally recognized as not functioning well. As far as complaints about activity/non-activity... I am NOT so sure giving Defenders another thing to manage (I.E. a combat charge bar with click activation benefits when full) would solve the aired grievance that some Defenders focus too much on one role of the class (Buffing/Healing) and ignore other contributions to the team. However, you can't FORCE people to play in a way they don't want. ~However~ What you can do... is similar to the Uber Employee Encouragement system... You HIGHLIGHT various targets and give a charge/minor buff for using a power on the chosen target. You could get even fancier and specify the power to be used (Provided it follows the Heal/buff for allies and Attack/Debuff for enemies dynamic.) The system could choose critical targets, or choose randomly, or have some other dynamic.... It would take a bit of coding, either way. The Defender would then see either an ally or an enemy highlighted, also highlighting a specific power to be used on the target. TO be fair, this is a lot like Offensive Opportunity, but it DOES reward a VIGILANT player since the key difference is Offensive Opportunity is more flexible about who it is activated on and when it is activated. The nice thing about this is that for a defender with no buffs or heals, like a Trick Arrow Defender, the mechanic basically works the same as it does for all the other defenders. The Vigilant Defender has to play a bit of DDR with his targets and powers. Or he can ignore it and do what he thinks is correct. In the end, I don't think Defenders are really losing anything they will miss. After all, I hardly see people defending the current model.

I could really dig more helmets that lock the neck down... or even helmets/head settings that basically put the head/face onto the body instead. In a way, you can do this with the headless option/a huge body type/certain chest emblems... but maybe what we need is more chest emblem options to build this sort of abomination. Can we have moving eye/s as part of a chest emblem?

A few ideas for Halloween/Darkness Rotate which zones in Paragon are Night all day throughout the Holiday Month. Or choose zones that thematically are best at night. Danger Zones, which are largely unused.... like Perez Park... could become permanent Trick or Treat zones, trapped in night, even. Or you could turn each "dead" Danger Zone into a Holiday Zone. I suppose Villains lose in this model. Technically, Dark Astoria IS the Halloween Zone already, but it's higher level... Make a new PvP Zone that's Halloween all the time and only has those level-void enemies that scale to fight everyone. Or it could be a Holiday Zone, but you can't skip to Christmas after Halloween. If you are gonna do a full Holiday Zone, have each MONTH have a Holiday with unique decorations/environment changes. Does Darkness actually affect gameplay at all anyway? Or could we just give players the ability to choose whether or not they see night or day?

I would like to see more Regulator/Kings Row Stories that involve Supa Trolls.

Along a similar line as this, I would also like if they expanded the Boombox to include all the zone music transitions, including the ones from the Rogue Isles.

On Shapeshifters: I have been thinking about how neat it would be if there was a Stalker "Shapeshifter" powerset. It would let you shapeshift into whatever you target when you activate your "Hide" defense initially. One downside of this set is that you would need to deactivate and reactive the power more often, since disguising yourself as the wrong minion or as an ally hero or as a civilian is an excellent way to get detected when you are trying to infiltrate. Perhaps the benefit of this set could be that while you don't become stealth (Without taking a stealth power pool) you gain more placate options or the ability to "reverse taunt" forcing opponents to temporarily lose your target, thus be reset on being uncertain of your Friend/foe status. As a Non-stalker defense set, Shapeshifting could easily handle Growth/shrinking, fluid flexibility, and bloated expansion... but it would likely be another exclusive toggle defense power set and they haven't exactly fixed the main one we have. Also, I don't know how well Giant Growth will work in the game. The original devs always threw a wet blanket on it, saying the game had too many indoor scenarios and was incompatible with it from both a practical and a visual standpoint. I think a compromise can be reached on low ceiling maps, even if they can't add crouching/crawling animations for cramped giants. Obviously, it's worth considering making serious Giant Growth some sort of Epic Archetype if it requires tons of time to engineer. If it works, they can offer a weaker version as a Power Pool set or Incarnate Power option. I could also see a stretch/morph/grow/shrink attack power set available to melee classes that give them a small striking distance boost. There are so many stretch characters in comics! This would probably the most visually obnoxious/pointless with a Shapeshifter Stalker power set, considering it would instantly give away who the shapeshifter is each time you strike, but in the end, that's pretty much already the case with any primary power pool attacks. Of course, I have no idea what is appropriate for stats, given that this would be a largely concept driven power set, relying on the wacky ability to change into any costume you can.... I suppose it wouldn't be hard for player opponents to figure you out, once you use a non-generic attack... but PvP is hardly a top priority anyway. I doubt a shapeshifting set would ruin the meta, even if it managed to change it significantly. More on the direction of the topic: As far as changing the EAT Aliens goes, it breaks down when you consider how important it really is to the lore. They even have specific foes that deal extra damage to them. Also consider - They have locked origin types, don't they? While it would be cool to have different animation sets to alternate the forms... Dinosaurs, Animals, Fairies, Hamidons, Werewolves/Vampires, and so on... This is probably better addressed by how standard archetypes use the Incarnate System as it continues to evolve and add options for the dedicated character fanatics. Better to consider new AT and EATs to add in than to disrupt the existing ones. Sorta like the power pool policy they had: if they had a highly disruptive or experimental change to make to an existing power set they were trying to balance, they typically kept the old set classic and tried to balance it from it's original concept while trying the new idea out on a new power set. It doesn't SOUND like a disruption until you realize it's just a shoehorned animation that isn't distinct in function and probably confusing on the battlefield. (This game can have really chaotic battlefields right now...)

Having the powers tie into existing Melee draws or even changing into pistol whips would be very very cool.

There should be a defensive set that has more timer clicks and less toggles so you have more playstyles tankers can focus on. If you were to totally swap out toggles and innate stat buffs for all timer abilities, you could have like a super-power cola based defense set. I suppose they might need to work in some "Taunts" with the activation some of the defensive abilities, just to keep the taunt timing from not getting totally disrupted by the need to re-up on ones defensive abilities. Of course, balancing a totally click based defense set might be a real hassle. I might put it below balancing the Toggle-Exclusive activation Stone Defense, which really needs a bit of work still, after all these years.