Ultimo

I understand what you're saying. I'm just adding my thoughts to the discussion, they may not be exactly on topic, my apologies. In essence, my interest is in making Super Strength FEEL super strong. I agree that Rage can be counterproductive where that is concerned, and I'm not sure what this Unleashed Might thing is... I'll have to do some searching around to find out what it's about. MOVING things is kind of definitive of Strength, so knockback strikes me as the most obvious way to represent that. It's in keeping with the source material, too. I understand that knocking enemies back can be problematic, which is why I suggested altering the way knockback works. My main suggestion has always been to have it do damage, depending on how far the enemy is actually knocked. Leave the power alone, and the knock and relevant damage would be minimal. Add Knockback Enhancements, and you'll knock them farther, which will do more damage. I had thought about having this effect increased when Rage was active, since so many discussions boiled down to NEVER EVER REMOVING RAGE!!!111!!!11!eleventy!! I had thought about making Rage a toggle, which would increase the endurance and knock effects (and therefore the damage), representing the character not holding back anymore. To represent throwing an enemy, they could put in a low damage "swat" power, where the character backhands the enemy for minimal damage and sends them flying, kind of like Force Bolt, or similar powers. They would only take damage from the knock effect. I think there are places they could add some aoe, already in the set. Hurl, for example, should be a small AOE at the target's location (a big rock covers some area, and sends debris flying around). Hand Clap would also do some damage if knockback was altered to do some damage, so no changes would be needed there. I think I'd make Haymaker a small aoe, perhaps a cone. The "Hulk SMASH" animation fits that effect, too. Anyhow, to complete my point, I think Rage CAN stay but should be reworked. If it were removed, adding a bit of damage to the powers in general, and then adding a bit more through knock damage... might be enough for me.

I've posted before (for MANY years, actually) about what I would love to see happen with Super Strength. At present, the set performs adequately, but it SHOULD perform better, considering its popularity in the genre. My main complaints are as follows: 1. It doesn't "feel" strong. Strength involves MOVING things that can't be moved by normal strength. We can't do that very much with this game engine, so my thinking is to increase the set's knockback considerably. Of course, this is counterproductive for many defensive sets, so something would need to be done to make this a desirable effect. I'd also move Hurl, so it appears earlier in the set, both because it's the only ranged power, and because it's the only power in the set that suggests actual STRENGTH. Another possibility is giving more powers an AOE effect, since hitting multiple enemies "feels" more powerful than hitting one. Another suggestion that's been made in the past is, have Super Strength attacks do greatly more damage to inanimate objects, like doors, rocks, robots and the like. Superman would never hit a living enemy with all his strength, but wouldn't hold back when pulling a door down. 2. It relies too much on one or two powers. KO Blow and Rage are unskippable, but many other powers are overshadowed by powers in other sets. For example, why would I take Punch when Air Superiority does the same damage and guarantees a knockdown? I'd like to see the power set revamped to spread damage around the set a bit, or trade in some of the powers hitting things for powers that have different effects, such as a power that grabs and throws an enemy (essentially, minimal actual damage, but HUGE knockback). More Area Effects would be useful for this too. 3. It is very endurance heavy. I could say this about a lot of sets, but especially in the case of Tankers, the endurance costs are often prohibitive. If Rage were to be retained, perhaps they could make the endurance costs WITHOUT Rage active negligible. That would simulate the character holding back, which should use less endurance. I've made other threads on this topic, I can post links if anyone is interested.

I thought I had that turned off... I'll have to check, perhaps I turned it back on while testing an AE arc. I do that sometimes.

You'll pardon me for a moment while I vent a bit. Again. I know, I do this sometimes, if you're not interested, just skip the thread. I'm not really looking for solutions, just commiseration. So, my L39 Storm/Storm Defender has been doing a Devouring Earth mission line in Founder's Falls. The final mission has me taking on an Elite Boss called Terra. So, I went in and tried sniping at her from a distance, but she throws rocks that reach farther than my snipe, and I just wasn't doing enough damage anyway, so I tried getting closer. She does a toxic spit attack at that range that does around HALF my health, in addition to other attacks. The spit thing happens every few seconds, so there's not enough time between them to recover without completely retreating. So, I took in a full tray of inspirations and went at her, healing and supplying endurance (since, even with ALL the endurance IOs, he STILL runs out of endurance in seconds), but just couldn't do any significant damage. A FULL TRAY, plus the Heroic power boost thing... I hit it with everything I had, and did MAYBE a third of its health before I ran out of endurance (and subsequently almost all my health). Just couldn't hurt it. I mean... I've complained before about foes doing too much damage, and that's part of it... if it wasn't doing enough to kill me in 2 attacks, I might be able to fight it more effectively... but as a Defender, I'm just not doing anything like reasonable damage, and that's with my damage BOOSTED. Just frustrating. Now, I know I can call for help. Lots of people offered, and I did appreciate it... but I shouldn't HAVE to call for help. There's no point playing if I can't fight my own battles. Doesn't feel very "super" having someone else fight my battles for me. I know, that's the game, but it's still intensely frustrating. That's it, venting concluded.

Wait, what? They're actually looking at buffing Super Strength?!??! Colour me happy, I've been calling for this... well, since the game was on the original live servers!

Well, it wasn't perfect, but it's better than nothing. As it is, my characters who SHOULD have swinging are stuck using Super Jump... effective, but kind of out of character. There really aren't any "normal" travel powers. Some kind of vehicles might be nice too... perhaps as some kind of transformation, similar to how the Kheldians work.

There's no Pilot job possible blueside, as there's no airport. Perhaps they could add one somewhere. DUST Ranger isn't the same as being a soldier, but that also isn't available in Paragon City. As I think of it, there's a lot of jobs that are restricted to difficult to get to places (such as the Psychologist job). Perhaps they could add some places where such badges are possible for each of the areas.

Well, what I mean is, while the player isn't actively playing the character, he's off ruling his realm... you know, doing the day to day things we don't do in the game. For example, Doom isn't ALWAYS trying to conquer the world, there must be times when he's balancing the Latverian budget.

Ya, I know you can only have one day job per place, but I'm sure they could divide them up a bit. For example, going to the lab areas of a University might give you the Professor job and the libraries might be the Student job. Where two jobs are in close proximity, it could just apply the closest one (as with the Tram and Base Portals in Talos and Brickstown). Being a ruler CAN be a day job, of sorts... as can being something like a celebrity... but I'll agree the locale appropriate to it is a bit hard to decide upon. I'm just putting the idea out there for consideration. Military installations are few and far between, I agree... perhaps being in a conflict zone, like The Hollows, might be appropriate. I have a couple of characters who would fit the Pro Athlete job, one is a (former) professional Sumo, the other an Olympic Archer. Right now, I've got them logging out in the Arenas, but with Galaxy inaccessible, the only Arena blueside is in Peregrine, making it nearly impossible to get to for lower levels... and the Duellist job isn't QUITE right. Perhaps they could just rename that Day Job?

Not so much a new pool, but I'd like to see Martial Arts animations for the Fighting pool, and alternative animations for Sorcery that aren't necessarily magical.

So, I like to log my characters out in places that reflect their day jobs. It's kind of a RP thing, so it's not something important to everyone, but the system exists, and some of us like to use it... but there are jobs I'd like to see added that aren't available as yet. I thought I'd start a thread to suggest new Day Jobs. I hoped people might post their own ideas in the thread, and I'll update the list occasionally. I'll start: Reporter - Small Perception buff, log off near a quest NPC (ie. they're being interviewed) Construction Worker - Small endurance buff, log off at a construction site Taxi Driver - Small influence buff, log off in a parking lot Soldier - Accuracy buff, log off in a military facility Pilot - Movement buff, log off near an aircraft or at an airport Ambassador - similar to City Official? Ruler - The character is the King of Atlantis, or what have you... probably similar to City Official? Pro Athlete - Perhaps similar to Duelist? Student - small xp buff, or perhaps freexp buff? Logout at a school or university. Homemaker - Housewife or husband Domestic Servant - a butler or housekeeper. Celebrity - an actor or model, or other famous personality

Good feedback! I'm always looking for that. I'll tweak the dialog for sure!

Well, it's posted and ready to go... but I'm still not quite happy with everything. The Menders arrive, but they run in from offscreen, which means you can easily miss their dialog, which is kind of essential. More, it doesn't bring in one guy, it brings in THREE of them, and they don't arrive and just stand there, they kind of keep shuffling around, running into one another, and then they follow you around the map. I feel like I need to rework the intro and outro dialog from LCol. Anderson... but that I can tinker with. If anyone wants to give it a try and let me know what they think, that would be great.

Hm, that could work! I'll try that, it's better than the generator I have in it now. I'd hoped for one of those big Portal Corp portals, but of course those aren't available.

So, here's my plan. The mission will still use the same Croatoa map. It will be populated by Japanese troops. The players will be given several objectives. 1) Destroy the Japanese atomic bomb (provided by the Rikti, but the players won't know that yet) 2) Destroy all the Japanese research, and "sanction" all the researchers. 3) Defeat the Japanese leadership. The Japanese Leader will actually be a RIKTI general, with Japanese guards. They'll be animated as if he's talking to them, presumably about the tech he's given them. When they defeat the Rikti general, it will trigger two events. First, it will spawn a MENDER, as an ambush. He'll run in, and drop an exposition bomb telling the players about how the Rikti have come back in time to change history, making Earth easier to conquer in the future, and how they need to destroy the time portal. Second, it will spawn the Rikti time portal, which will be a new objective. There will also be several patrols wandering around, both Japanese and US Troops, a couple of allies to rescue and a Japanese super (who isn't an objective) to defeat. The issues I'm having right now are... There doesn't seem to be a destructible object that looks anything like a time portal. There doesn't seem to be any way to have a MENDER appear as an "ambush." I COULD create another new group called Menders, and populate it with custom characters based on the actual Menders in the game. What say you, how does this sound?

Ya, there's a P2W vendor hand grenade power too, but Custom AE characters can't have those (be nice if they COULD, actually... Pool Powers too). I did think about giving them all smoke grenades instead... but decided against it.

For the Japanese, I gave them the ability to resurrect on defeat, to represent their all-in, fight to the very last attitude, and I gave the Officers Trip Mines, which detonate when they are defeated... a kind of kamikaze attack, though not stated as such. I kept the genin around... ninjas aren't historically accurate, but they're flavourful, if you take my meaning. The Italian troops... I gave the officer a single target heal. Wasn't sure what else to do. I had intended to NOT give the troops a grenade attack, which I intended to give to all the other infantry... but the game doesn't appear to HAVE a thrown grenade attack... so they're not really any worse off than any other infantry.

So, I continue to struggle with the final mission in my WW2 arc. Set at Guadalcanal, the idea is that the Rikti have gone back in time to give the Japanese the atomic bomb, which Ouroboros is trying to prevent. At the same time, the US Army has detected the radiation from the bomb, and has sent in several WW2 era heroes, including the player characters, to destroy the Japanese bomb, researchers and research. During the mission, the players would meet the Ouroboros Mender, and help him to defeat the Rikti and destroy their time portal. The problem is, I'm not sure how to set things up. My first thoughts on the matter are this: The players enter the mission, told by their contact about the threat of a Japanese bomb. The Stalwart Star has already gone in, but contact has been lost. The players must find him if they can... complete his mission either way. Destroy the bomb and the research, and "sanction" the researchers. The fight through Japanese patrols, perhaps help out US Troops fighting in the area, and find the Mender, being held by RIKTI. They free the Mender, and he explains that the Rikti are from the future, trying to change history. He needs their help to destroy the Rikti portal and the Rikti themselves. THIS is the first issue. I can't make the Mender a CONTACT. In a regular mission, I would expect the players to click on him, and a dialog box would open with all the necessary exposition. AE doesn't let me do that. I could have it appear as a Clue, but players often ignore those... so I'm not sure how to make this work. The second thing is the selection of map. Ideally, the map would be some kind of forest/jungle (I've been using Croatoa maps), but would have some kind of underground tunnels they could enter to find the research... but I'm not sure which map, if any, has that. In the end of it, they don't find the Stalwart Star, as he's fallen into the future through the Rikti portal. The players can't wait for him to return, they need to end the threat and destroy the portal (this is part of the origin story of one of my characters, the Stalwart Star, kind of a Captain America homage). If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions, I'd welcome them. Thanks in advance.

Well, I appreciate the info and input! My next dilemma is figuring out how to make the final mission of the arc more interesting. At present, you go in, rescue a couple of heroes and wander aimlessly destroying some stuff. It lacks any Oomph. It's a bit tedious, and not the best way to finish the arc. The plot of the final mission is supposed to connect to the origin story of my Captain America themed character, the Stalwart Star. The idea is that the Rikti have come back in time to give the atomic bomb to the Japanese, and disrupt history. Ouroboros has sent a Mender back to stop it. The US Army has detected the radioactivity related to the bomb, and sent the Stalwart Star in to try and destroy the bomb and any research the Japanese have done... but they've lost contact with him. In reality, he got involved in a brawl with the Rikti and fell through time into the present day. Of course, the players are to have minimal knowledge of any of this backstory (at first). They're to be sent in to locate and help Stalwart Star, or finish his mission. The thing is, I'm not sure how to make it work (I expect the AE forum is a better place for this part of the discussion, so I'll post there as well, but I thought perhaps you guys might offer some thoughts too). My first thought was that the player would enter the mission and fight their way through Japanese patrols, maybe helping out US troops engaged in battles, while the look for the Japanese researchers. When they find them, they've been defeated and a Mender is about to be killed by Rikti. The players save him, and he tells them the backstory, giving them the new objective to destroy the Rikti time portal. The thing is, the players can't actually TALK to the Mender, so he can't assign a new objective. Anyway, I'm still pondering this one.

Not to confuse things further, but... I actually named them "Genin," since I gave them the ability to summon Genin, and I wanted it to be a little unclear which of them was the summoner... just to make them a little more challenging to fight.

I'm still unclear on the problem. Mystic Flight has the Translocation secondary power. Flight has the Afterburner power. Are they not otherwise identical? Hover affects each one the same way, and is a second power choice in either case.... so I'm not sure what the issue is.

Ya, I meant to say "AMONG the first," but failed to make the edit before I posted. My point stands though.

I've always thought that was an unfair characterization. Remember, the French were the first to be conquered, yet they never stopped fighting back. Also remember that France controlled most of the Europe and even much of the 'New World' not so long before that... under a fellow named Napoleon.

Actually, I find Arcane Bolt is VERY useful for Controllers, as it gets double damage on controlled enemies. Controllers desperately lack damage from their OWN powers, so Arcane Bolt is a godsend. I'm not sure if Enflame has the same effect, it's hard to tell with all the numbers flying by...

I'm not sure I understand. Hover isn't part of the Flight power, there's no reason you can't take it when using Mystic Flight. I love that Mystic Flight includes the Teleport aspect, because that gives me Teleport without having to take a separate power.