Ultimo

The Experimentation pool is VERY underwhelming. What I'd kind of like to see is a power set where the powers are kind of "constructed" by activating things in a certain order. For example, suppose you have three of the powers in the set... activating A, B, C might cause a DOT. activating B, A, C might cause a heal. activating C, A, B might cause a debuff. You get the idea. The thing is, the effects have to be meaningful. As it is, the effects of the powers are so weak, they're practically nonexistent.

It's also possible to aggro them with a taunt aura.

The basic principles I expect from moderation are: Fairness. Consistency (this one is especially important). Reasonableness. Patience. Respect (this one goes both ways). Some of the worst experiences I've had with forum moderation (and they've been few and far between, and not ever here) have violated one or more of these core principles. Stick to these, and you can't go wrong.

So, I was trying to edit a character's costume in Talos, at Luminary, by the tram. I would try scrolling through the helmets and weapons, but the game would freeze for a few seconds each time I click to change costume part. It would do this for a while, then completely freeze for a bit longer, then crash to the desktop. It's been doing this for quite a while. I don't know if it's related to the general choppiness and lag I've been having, more or less from the start. I've posted a couple of threads about that stuttering and freezing. Anyway, I just thought I'd report it here.

I've often wished we could exemplar ourselves down while on our own, so we can do stuff in zones we've outleveled. For example, I have a street-level character (a Batman/Daredevil sort) whose "home" is King's Row... but he can't really DO anything there now that he's leveled up past the zone's maximum. I'd love to be able to exemp down to whatever level I want so I can do stuff wherever I am.

Ya, that was a consideration, but it's relatively minor. Being on the ground means foes getting to melee get knocked down. Sometimes. Being in the air accomplishes the same thing, really.

I struggle with my own Magneto homage. I've tried a few combos, but my feeling is they all need to include Force Fields. They're kind of definitive. That limits him somewhat. My first try was a Gravity Control/Force Fields Controller. The gravity attacks are good for what they are, and Propel does get him throwing heavy things at enemies, but it kind of conjures them out of thin air. It's too teleporty, if you take my meaning. My second try was a Force Fields/Seismic Blast Defender (and Corrupter with the sets reversed). I liked the Defender version better because his force fields were more effective, and I didn't really notice much difference in damage output. The Seismic Blasts, I defined as pulling debris from the air and ground (like the little iron filings and stuff Magneto used to encase Banshee a couple of times), making rocks and stuff to smack foes with. But, it felt like rationalization, and just didn't quite have the LOOK I wanted. It just didn't feel right, if you take my meaning. The only other class that has a force field is a Peacebringer, but that's just too blasty (and awfully squishy). There's not any other class with force fields, so it's really down to the Controller or the Defender for me. Whichever I end up sticking with, I'll likely give them either Psychic Mastery or Electric or Mu Mastery to cover that aspect of Magneto's powers. Nowhere near that level yet, so that's for future consideration.

Quite, that was my point.

I think that ship sailed when they made claws with three retracting claws on each hand... Even if the animation had the blasts coming from the face/head, that would be sufficient. I probably should have included the other blast sets too... I mean, I can easily imagine characters who spit fire or ice, or what have you...

Folks, if you please...

I know, there's a few threads around that discuss various specific power sets and such, but I thought a consolidated thread might be useful. Perhaps it could become a sticky people could add to. Basically, my purpose here is to suggest power sets, or specific powers, that could use alternate animations. Keep in mind, I'm not posting this for the sake of argument, if you don't like a suggestion, that's fine... but please don't muddy the waters with disagreement. I'll begin with a couple that are on my mind, and will add more as they come to me. I hope others will add some of their own suggestions too. ENERGY BLAST (and most other blast sets) Right now, all the blasts come from the hands. Energy blasts from the EYES are quite common in the comics, it would be nice if there were animations that resembled this. Most of the stances and such are already in the game, even. FIGHTING (Pool) It would be nice if selected Martial Arts animations could replace the attacks here. For example, Boxing might be allowed to use the Storm Kick or Cobra Strike animation. I know my Ninjas MM, who longs to get stuck in melee too, would love to be doing martial arts instead of boxing. ALL ARMOUR SETS Right now, many armour sets have extremely visible effects. It would be nice if the minimal effects setting was actually MINIMAL. I have great difficulty using Stone Armour or Bio Armour, because they're so UGLY. Let's have a NO effects setting. DUAL PISTOLS I find the overly flashy gymnastics really ugly and unrealistic, and frequently out of character. It would be nice if there was an alternate set of animations that were simpler and more realistic.

I agree... though I would extend this to ANY power you have access to, including temporary ones. Certainly the inherent powers though.

Regarding this, I assume this means Ouroboros wouldn't have any of the original missions either...?

Back in the day, I usually started my characters in Galaxy City instead of Atlas Park. So, I decided to visit Galaxy Echo via Ouroboros today, and indulge in a bit of nostalgia. Sadly, I found the place entirely empty of people, and no quests were to be found. There was nothing to DO there. More, I couldn't even go to the AE or log out in the Arena for the Day Job. Disappointing, overall. It seems a terrible waste. I assume the other Echo maps are the same. So, my suggestion is twofold. First, restore all the original missions and such to the Echo zones, so they're exactly as they were when the game launched. Second, create a NEW zone, Ruined Galaxy. Instead of blocking off the zone entirely, make it a hazard zone, perhaps where Rikti and Shivans run riot, with ruined buildings and so forth, somewhat like Boomtown.

#4 is a fair point, a lot of my characters are based to some degree on existing characters, though they may not look like their inspirations, or may be a combination of elements. For example, I have a character called the Canadian Shield, who is kind of a blend of Captain America, Superman and Captain Canuck. There's elements of all three there, but also plenty of original material too. It's also the case that my characters tend to evolve away from their inspiration, as I play them and refine their concept. I get it, I understand the legal aspect of things, but I do try to avoid any issues. Of course, none of this is to say I have no characters that are entirely original. I do have many. Way back in the day, my brother and I used to make comic books ourselves, and we had a sizable stable of characters I can draw from. I should also say, when I start a thread like this or the others, I'm often not asking because I actually want to recreate the characters, I'm usually just thinking about how I WOULD, if was going to. It's more for my amusement than for any actual purpose.

That's fair... but not quite what I was looking for. None of the characters I'm planning for would look like the comics characters. They're liable to just be people who happen to have powers like the characters from the comics, and not even have codenames (though, they might... some of them, anyway). It's all still bouncing around in my brain. It's entirely possible I'll not bother, especially given the reaction I'm seeing here.

I made a character kind of based on him, he's a Blaster, Assault Rifle and Ninja Training. I also made a Dominator with Assault Control and Assault Rifle, but he lacked the melee ability.

I like to think I can write a decent arc (though, the 5 mission limit rather constrains things). I just like adding little "easter eggs" in missions. In the arc I'm planning out, the idea is that you'll likely end up rescuing a group of mutants who are being held as prisoners... for being mutants. It's a classic X-Men thing, so I thought it might be fun to include some characters where players might get the reference. It's not critical to the story or anything.

No worries, I'm aware. The characters are meant to be inspired by the Brotherhood, not to be copies of them. Kind of necessary, given that the powers are never going to be exact anyway. Exactly, the characters would have powers similar to the comic characters, but their appearances would be different. Or, if I can't get the powers the way I like, I might go the other way, and have them resemble (but not copy) the comic character, but have somewhat different powers. For example, I might make a character based on the Black Knight (Marvel), but change the cultural frame of reference, and make him a Samurai, or perhaps a Roman Gladiator or something. Similar powers, different character.

So, I'm making an AE arc that includes a group of characters based on the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, from the X-Men. However, I'm finding it a bit difficult to give them appropriate powers, that simulate what the characters in the comics had, so I thought I'd see what the community would suggest. The general rule is, I always try to make AE enemies using power combinations the players can have, as if I was going to make the characters playable (which I often do). So, here's what I have. Magneto - Defender, Force Fields/Seismic Blast Toad - Scrapper, Martial Arts/Regeneration Mastermind - Controller, Illusion Control/??? Quicksilver - Tanker, Super Reflexes/Street Justice Scarlet Witch - ????, ????/???? Mastermind in the comics could create realistic illusions. The Illusion Control set actually makes relatively few illusions, it depends heavily on Phantom Army, but it's the only Illusion set there is. Beyond that... I'm not sure what to give Mastermind. Scarlet Witch's power in the old days was her Hex, which made improbable things happen to her opponents... but I've NO idea how to simulate that in the game. Any suggestions would be great. I also intended to include other X-Men themed NPCs, including: Blob - Tanker, Invulnerability/Super Strength Unus - Tanker, Energy Aura/Street Justice????? Not sure about this, he really should have a Force Field that makes him "Untouchable." Vanisher - ?????? Not sure about him either. His power was instantaneous teleportation, but there's no powerset built around that, and certainly none available to an AE character.

You missed the point. What I suggested were just rationalizations off the top of my head. The thing is simply that it doesn't MATTER why they're there when it's not part of the story you're doing. If you must have an answer, it takes only a little imagination to come up with a reason you can accept. In any case, fringe cases like that don't mean you shouldn't NOT do something. Also, as I mentioned, it would be easy enough to put limitations on nemeses so they don't run into those kinds of situations.

Edge cases like that could easily be adjusted by giving the nemesis a few limits, such as a selection of groups they won't work with. Or, you could just accept that any villain will work with any group, if there is a reason. As players we might not be aware of such a reason, it's just a matter of rationalizing it. For example, that noble villain working with the Council might be acting to save the life of a hostage. The high-tech nemesis working with the Circle of Thorns might have been promised some kind of technology as a reward for his presence. The misogynist might be being blackmailed or extorted into working with the Knives or Artemis. Any enemy might have any reason to work with any group, we don't necessarily need to know the reasons for it, unless it's relevant to the story you're playing in... which wouldn't be the case if the nemesis is appearing in a random mission.

It is possible I've brought this up before, or at least been part of a conversation about it. I've been around for a while now. That said, I see no harm in suggesting it again, in case it's slipped through the cracks as a suggestion. I know how the Champions system worked, and I don't recall it being exactly the same. Sure, the specific Nemesis arc was always the same, but I seem to remember the Nemesis appearing in random missions from time to time. I could be wrong, it's been quite a while since I played Champions Online. In any case, I think it would be cool to add it to CoH as a regular thing, not just for the AE. The way I envision it, if a player has an active Nemesis, the nemesis could appear randomly in any mission the player is doing. For example, in my old comics I used to write, Ultimo's nemesis was called the Catburglar. If I was involved in Positron 1, Catburglar might (or might not) appear in any of the missions, either as a boss (replacing any generic boss, like one of the Eidolons, for example) or as a seperate encounter. Imagine being in that mission and coming up on a group of bosses where your nemesis has appeared with some of the other players' nemeses as well! It could be epic! Maybe it's not possible. I don't know. I see no harm in making the suggestion.

To me, the biggest issue with playing as a villain is the lack of agency, the freedom to be your OWN villain. From the very start to the very end, you're a lackey of a minion of a lieutenant of some other villain. That might work for some characters, but others would never prostate themselves before Recluse and his various agents. Those kinds of characters need to have some way to pursue their OWN agendas. I've posted a somewhat detailed suggestion on this topic before. It would take some work, but amounts to this: Villains choose an objective from a list. It might be to get rich, or it might be to conquer the world. It depends on the villain, and on his level. He then chooses a method to accomplish it. Perhaps he'll conjure demons or build an army of robots, perhaps he'll infiltrate the government, there could be any number of methods. Once these are chosen, a set of objectives will be generated, related to his method of achieving his agenda. These objectives would be substantial, and might take weeks to achieve. For example, suppose he's building an army of robots to conquer the world with. He'd need a base (ANY agenda would start with this), metal components, electronics, fabrication machinery, computer chips, etc. On any mission he's a part of, there might be some of the things he'd need (as glowies). He could also do missions specifically to gather such resources, or he could assign such missions to OTHER PLAYERS, acting as a quest-giver himself. Once all the objectives are completed, he's ready to achieve his agenda, and a final mission is generated. He would need to survive an assault on his base by NPC heroes. The assault would be timed, and the enemies would be beyond daunting, even getting to the point of facing the entire combined Freedom Phalanx. The player is NOT expected to win. If he loses, he gets standard rewards of some substance. If by some miracle he WINS, he gets temporarily upgraded to Arch-Villain status, increasing his health, damage and so forth, allowing him to go anywhere in the game. While an Arch Villain, he would be automatically open to PvP in any zone. He can attack or be attacked anywhere. Rewards he gets while he's an AV would be greatly increased too. This would give villains something special to do, a reason to BE a villain. As it is, there really isn't any reason to be a villain.

One of my favourite things about Champions Online was the ability to create an arch-enemy for your character (several, in fact). I wonder if it might be possible to adapt this idea to City of Heroes? I know, you can make a nemesis in the AE system, but there's never any surprise to it. You always know what the story is, and who is going to appear... because YOU wrote the thing. The ideal is that these nemesis characters might appear randomly in other missions, perhaps as a boss instead of some generic boss... What say you, is this possible?