Sakura Tenshi

Because instead robotics got Richard Simmons

There's a Vazhilok surgeon probably called 'Grinder' who doesn't understand the snickering.

There's soooo much I'd want to wish and ask for so it's really really really REALLY hard to pin down or even word broadly. So I'm going to cheat and technically make two wishes. Total revamp of the PvE experience dealing with mobs and missions. New powers, new looks, tidied up lore, improved story contacts, and new maps to battle them on. It wouldn't be easy, of course not since it's such a broad thing, but this area would give quite a new life to the game and bring back some of the challenge. Partly by, you know, giving Incarnates more to do than faceroll through content never made for them. Some ideas include: Related to the above 'Incarnate/Hard mode' of level 50 TFs/SFs. Admittedly it wouldn't be much of a change to the stories and missions (at least not stuff that wouldn't change the normal mode*) beyond just beefing up the enemies to Incarnate level and in a few exceptions maybe include throwing on some new powers to old AVs (try to tank Recluse just by hiding on the lamp posts? think again! he now has a foe teleport that doesn't require line of sight and autohits!). *Probably sole exception would be trying to find SOME WAY to make an Incarnate level ITF involve fighting one of those giant mechmen because I'm tired of being teased of their existence! Your favorite mobs able to now scale to 50 so your street level hero can stay street level. (I mean, let's face it, right now Rikti Chief soldiers have two attack powers that have KB and stun while Fake Nemesis have three four powers, two of which are support abilities that don't do much, and they're both considered level 50 threats while Bone daddies and Damned posses a lot more abilities) New map types: Office buildings (that make sense!), Nemesis bases (in factory, airship, and seaship forms!), wild areas without war walls or Croatoa's obnoxious yellow glow!, more mansions and private residences in general, shopping mall interiors (yes, they're not really a thing these days but still), construction sites, hotels/apartment buildings, and more!

@Piecemeal Kind of sad I know almost none of my own ideas could happen since they're require new assets. But I think in general you're able to start working on these things because they're common and old issues people have. I remember folks back on live complaining about the Warriors as just plain stupid.

@Rishidian Now now, I don't think that's wholly accurate. They weren't really too interesting to begin with because they lacked a great deal of plot relevance to begin with. In that respect, that's why the whole 'They're a reference to a 1970s film, you can't change that!' argument is honestly awful. The Warriors blandness is partially because they existed purely as a referential joke on part of the live developers. It'd be like if I made a super hero game and made a mid level mob based off early 2010s 4chan, spouting memes as old as '08 and existing as a cheap mortar between other, more relevant groups like the Tsoo, Family, Trolls, Skulls, Hellions, CoT, and so on. Now, that all being said, while I know Piecemeal is in the works on something, I'll just post my own thoughts on how I'd revamp the Warriors. Yes, they'd ultimately remain a quirky, street gang with an archaic theme. I'd just have them get a little less 'street gangy' as their ranks progress. Now this also is a pie-in-the-sky revamp idea as it would require new assets including animations and powers and such. So, don't old your breath. Warriors remain a Greek themed group, and part of that is they now have spear users in their ranks: the Hoplite. The minion tiers don't look much different than the Warriors we know now. Updated models, yes. More appropriate weapon customization that match Greek themes? Yes. But the minions pretty much stay the same with one exception: they ow have the phalanx fighting passive. They're taught to fight as a unit and watch eachother's backs, and this is how it shows. At the Lt. ranks, big changes come up, they start wielding elementally attuned weapons with fire, cold, and energy taking up a bit of the weapon's damage typing. These three elements appear in all four weapon types of the Warriors. Also at this point, Slashers and Hoplites begin to pair their weapons with shields. (using a proper Hoplon model). All Warriors also add on some appropriate Classical style greaves to their armor. Of course it would have to obviously look like they're still just slapping it over their street clothes. Now at the boss ranks, we have some changes with smashers and Hewers who being to instead use two-handed axes and maces, possibly with some one-handed animations thrown in. Hewer and smashes also have donned Corinthian helmets and the molded muscle breastplates to fully armor themselves out. In contrast, the Slashers and Hoplites, wear Chalcidian helms and going topless (possibly with a red over-the-shoulder cape) relying primarily on their shield for protection. Powers wise, the hoplites and slashers also grant the benefit of Grant Cover to their teammates. EDIT: Hewer and Crusher bosses, being the 'heavy hitters' could all have Assault as a power, buffing their allies with more damage and increasing their own. Throughout all this, the Warriors also ditch their usual archery for javelins like the Cimerorans. New member of their mob is a unique take on the sniper enemy class: the Crypteia. Based off the secret police of the Spartans, the Crypteia would basically use Redcap dagger attacks and rely on stealth, increased movement speed, and perception to close the gap on heroes. They'd be rare spawns out in the world and have sapper mob rarity in missions. They hit hard, but are lightly protected. Possibly could give them a 'rush' teleport power like savage leap, which can ironically mitigate their own effectiveness by meaning they'll leave their own allies behind making it easier to kill them. Edit: An additional possible member, and maybe giving two 'snipers' to the Warriors would be a formal Sagittarius. A dedicated archer in the group focusing on picking heroes (and villains) off from a distance. I suggest them as a sniper seeing as archers actually were not necessarily common Greek soldiers, they more commonly used javelins and slings (and while I was tempted to suggest them getting a 'sling shot' power, I felt that was going a little too far one way or the other. Either top heroes get taken down by balls of lead and rocks flung at them at sub sonic speeds or the warriors are such over zealous LARPers they'll use and pretty useless weapon to show their commitment to a gig, it'd be like Joker sooner letting himself be caught by batman than drive anything but a clown car)

Two (unfortunate) things to consider with a revamp to the warriors to make them interesting is that Greeks did not popularly use too many weapons (Javlins, slings, spears, shields, and swords.) and that this game is not really that great to represent nuanced fighting styles, nevermind our inability to have new animations. Made blander because the warriors use three weapons that share the exact same animations.

Yeah, and even after City of Villains launched and assaults became a thing, I imagine Devs would have been reluctant to add something like it mostly because the benefit of Assault sets was that they're supposed to be an 'easy' powerset recycled from a bunch of other powers. A swashbuckling assault would have been wholly unique, and might have felt like a waste with assault powers being restricted to a single AT. As a sort of a side note: you might remember from live, and even now that when the ToV became a thing, so many people wanted Sorceress Serene's Autumnal Assault. Even if it was a fat chance it would ever happen. (for one thing the set's ultimately incomplete, then there's the whole thing where some of its attacks deal three types of damage)

I'm not sure why Rose Star was never added as her costume and powers are pretty simple, but I think Spark Blade presented a number of technical challenges if they wanted to use him. He existed before actual trenchcoats had been added, so they might not have known how to. He also wears a duster-type coat that has a mantle over the shoulders and looking at the chest underneath, they might not have felt he'd look good (no reason he couldn't be redesigned though like Foreshadow). But the biggest issue I'd see with Spark Blade is that he has a VERY unique powerset: he wields a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other. A swashbuckler assault if you will, and I don't think the developers were interested in investing that kind of time into a semi-obscure NPC.

you can actually prevent them from phasing out with a hold power.

Personally, I don't like it myself, but I'll play devil's advocate here and point a few things out about MoG/unstoppable/elude/Personal forcefield using enemies. While they are a pain to deal with, they do add a certain level of strategy to the game, and especially add value to control powers and control focused ATs (who can lock them down leaving them unable to activate their panic buttons) as well as value to stalkers and long snipes which can kill them in one shot or take down such a massive amount of HP in a single hit that it bypasses the threshold. That said and a bit tangentally, I would like it if Nemesis Personal Forcefield did something other than just shield him. Paragon protectors can still attack, which means during their tier 9 state they're really really dangerous as they can fight you with impunity. All Fake Nemesis can do in their bubble is... Run away. And they do. Maybe give them the ability to still buff their allies while bubbled?

Not exactly my best, but I've been playing Darkest Dungeon and got some inspiration to make a Leper costume for my Titan Weapons/Willpower brute. "This man understands that adversity and existence are one in the same."

Not exactly one, but I made my most recent kat/nin scrapper inspired by Orochi from For Honor, so I like to imagine his version of Golden Dragonfly is doing a sick deflect counter.

I always thought it would have been cool if when you defeated KoA they would play a teleport animation suggesting they’re being whisked off by their own mediocre system, maybe even include field hospital things that spawn in KoA missions that works as a minion spawner.

One possible suggestion to amp warriors up a bit could just be as simple as elemental weapons. Still mostly smash and lethal but with a fiery/electrical/dark/cold kick. as a side note on the aesthetics front, one thing to possibly consider (and maybe add tot their rivalry with The Tsoo) would be the Warriors no longer restricting themselves to Greek themes, but incorporating the warrior identities of other cultures (like Nordic, Japanese, Chinese, Arabian, etc.) because they’ve been playing too much For Honor. (And possibly them finding a way into night ward and swiping stuff from the black knights?)

Culture can also muddle things a bit: Eastern cultures basically wouldn’t recognize a big difference between natural and magic. Train hard enough and boom! Magic powers but it’s all natural stuff. Throwing fire? Natural from that stand point. Riding clouds? Natural for the pure of heart. Laser Beam eyes? Look up Bodhidarma.

That's a strong combo? I've played a tank with it and it never exactly felt strong. Fun as hell but not strong.

there's so much stuff I'd like it's hard to know where to even begin? I think a lot of other people have covered the bulk of things though: some new walls, preferrably tintable, new stone stuff, smaller letters, etc. A few things I'd like that I'm surprised we don't already have though are police cars and vans (was building a police station awhile ago and couldn't find cars) and monorail cars and rails. Some things I'd like I'm not sure would be so easily done (you know, assuming any of these are 'easily done) would be the living armor suits from the Midnight Club and similarly the icon tailor mannequins. (which, I can't tell if they're static world assets or if they're actually character models hard anchored to a spawn point and locked in a pose)

Could come with a storyline change where the clockwork king is getting his control usurped by something else and is getting driven nuts by the same thing.

Awhile back, I did actually start a thread about making up invention sets, and the one I submitted was actually basing it for my Beam/nin blaster: Sniper Joe who has some obvious inspirations in the attached image. But the big thing about the set was that it's proc and sixth set bonus boosted range as follows: Ranged Damage - Joe's Snipe (yes, it is ironic it does not go into a sniper set) Accuracy/Damage Damage/Endurance Damage/Recharge Accuracy/Damage/Recharge Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge +15% Global Range increase (unique) Set bonuses would be: 2: Increases Recovery by +2% 3: Improves accuracy of all powers by 5% 4: Increases Damage by 3% 5: Increases Recharge by 5% 6: Increases Range by 10% As I mentioned when I posted it: the numbers are admittedly kind of absurdly large, but with how rare range bonuses are and how overall mediocore I deliberately tried to make the rest of the bonuses, I thought it might balance out.

my own thoughts on kinetics melee from my experiences back on live (and some dabblings on beta as well) Kinetic melee's animations are painfully slow with anything beyond the first two attacks, this runs directly against it's own version of build up (which I like) and means you can never get enough maximum uptime where it actually is able to be worth it versus a normal build up power. I would suggest that reducing the animation/animation lock times by as little as 15% (though preferably cutting it down by a third to make it actually feel like a 'fast melee' set) would do wonders in addition to this, I would like to suggest the idea that kinetic melee's -damage debuff be a constant effect than one only active during siphon power. This will increase it's utility function and help tanks. Siphon power, both the stacks gained from it as well as the power itself should last longer. This is meant to be a selling point of the whole powerset and the fact that it feels like it has oppressively low uptime and requires not one, but multiple tohit checks to be equal to a regular build up (nevermind be better) leads to some frustration. Concentrated strike just plain sucks for scrappers, especially because concentrated strike's 'crit' effect chance is not altered by ATOs nor does it seem to have a higher chance on Lt.s and stronger. Perhaps if Siphon power's duration won't be buffed, Concentrated strike's crit effect chance should be increased substantially.

@Zepp just play mender ramiel’s Arc, first mission gives you capped range bonus. the short of it in my experience is that there’s a sharp falloff of +range utility, especially for PVP since you’d end up out of draw distance and have to run in and out to make full use of it.

Oh, one more thing I’d like to see: add underling tier enemies. I feel like underling tier enemies are criminally underused in this game and would love to at least have the chance for them to exist in AE custom mobs.

I have a strong feeling the Skulls story was going to continue on in later updates but... Well, the game went under. The Eagle Eye storyarc ends with Veles escaping and Morana still at large, the New Praetorians arc has passing reference to them (plus Chernobog) all being free and as foes you can assign one of the New Praetorians to fight to deal with a mass outbreak of crime in Kings Row, implying there was something that happened in the interim. As for the Hellions, could be interesting since I think the planned storyline with the CoT was that Dark Astoria both devastated their numbers (they were among the first souls Mot fed on, so meaning they could not be recovered at the end I think) and having a chance to stand up against a force of evil reminded them of their better days and cause a desire to redeem Oranbega and seek peace with the rest of the world. Either way, it'd mean Hellions would lose their main source of demonic artifacts and get a lot heroes sicced on them to retrieve what they have. There's also the fact that the Hellions are supposed to have a leader (in the Zig) but they've never made an appearance nor are even mentioned in any storyarcs surrounding the gang. Strangely though, the mission architect group description actually suggests the Hellions at least got their start through The Warriors.

It's crazier to think that those guys were made before invention sets were really a thing. Given the watchers and the quartz crystals DE lay down, along with how painfully common -def debuffs are to how rare damage buffs (for the enemy) and -res is, kind of makes you think Jack really didn't like defense as a mitigation tool.

I don't think I've seen anyone propose making the TFs necessarily easier. Indeed, an issue is that older TFs right now are easy and only are 'difficult' by being long and testing the patience of a player through Defeat-Alls and having a lot of individual missions. Heck, my own proposal would even bump up difficulty by suggesting more EBs and AVs thrown in. That said, making new and unique temp powers per the ATs we have for each TF for even the final AV(s) (hmm, maybe from Citadel onward the final 'AV' should instead be a GM rank in terms of strength?) for even just seven of the old TFs (Shard ones, Numina, Synapse, and Citadel) would mean needing 98 new powers be designed and programmed.