temnix

Marine Affinity is doomed to jokes. Anything about fish, in any game, is dead in the water. @Hatecube That's better, but blurry and I still can't make out what you did with the right hand. Just zoom in. @biostem What I mean is that since you are just tossing together combinations of parts that look impressive one way or another and don't try to decide what would make a particular look perfect to fine-tune it, there is no point in discussing them. People can click those reaction buttons, they are the lazy man's reply, give you a cup even, but that is as far as it goes. They can say "Pink metallic skin works"... I don't start out with character concepts too, but I either follow my desires in creating what will please me the best or the character creates him/herself, demanding changes until he/she reaches an integral appearance. Meanwhile a concept also forms with a choice of powers. Sometimes all this is upleasantly self-directed and I turn away from a logic path to avoid ending up with perfect characters that are of no interest to me whatsoever, or I buck the trend and push in the opposite direction where, after all, they will mean something to me. But in the end, with the exception of a few sets of "party clothes," I have to want to play what results or he/she will not be worth the effort of tuning up. If by the last screen I do want to play him/her and want to go back to bring his/her appearance up to my standards, then I have ended up with a story already, though in words it may just be "An adventurer." There is nothing wrong with dishing out incomplete ideas like you are doing, but nothing much to say about them either.

@biostem No, that costume was good. Only the Field mantle stood out. But I see that you are not spending time to develop these concepts, only throwing them here as they come. Plus, you can't carry over a detail that worked in one place, like the metallic skin, to a completely different combination and expect it to keep its value. But at least you have some imagination. The brown coat and steaming backpack on this last one remind me of my Lucienne that I posted above. Probably an accident. @Hatecube This one really needs a closer view, and turn him so those Longbow aren't messing up the background... The Lanterns aura has always mystified me. I could never understand what it is supposed to represent. A question to everybody, by the way: why do we get one white pixel on bottom of every screenshot? It happens to me, and I can see that thin white line here. It has to be cut off every time a screenshot is prepared.

@biostem Rose Alloy does look good. The triangle of rose, turquoise and black does it. But I don't see the rationale for that particular mantle. I think you could have chosen something that would cling to the figure or the concept closer.

Here are five more characters from me. These are the older ones. Some of my characters have a spare costume I called "party clothes" at first, because those costumes were meant for Pocket D and other places to socialize and have fun. When I realized how little partying went on in that lonely place (and everywhere), I began calling them "civilian clothes." The characters switch to them from the "combat clothes" when traveling through cities or passing through those cooperative areas. Some characters becames clotheshorses as I used their spare costume slots to design new dress, even though they don't wear it. Zay April Hope The Panzercrator Willing Pariah Sallow Evangel

I will post a bunch of characters. A few more are coming later. Most of these come with bios, because the appearance and the bio are both parts of the concept. A character is incomplete without a bio. Still, I have a few of these incompletes. Sometimes also a bio can't be written for one reason or another. Tarzagz of Sunna Aegelmere Ellbial the Titaness Eliza Menken Lucienne Kerchansky

@biostem Now THAT is something. 90% of costumes here are banal as a banana, not yours. I mean the Pyre-Bat, the derivative is less interesting.

Given that the most agressive kind of hands characters can have are mildly pointed fingers from Monstrous gloves, it would be good if they could rend and slash with, let's say, a pair of Rularuu's Talons.

Why so many people can't just shut up? The lot of you turned this thread into garbage, even though it talks about an obviously welcome tweak. And if this game's play is shallow, though pleasant, or if you can't handle a detailed introduction of a complex idea without running into attention deficit, them are reality bites. Homecoming IS just modders who grabbed themselves a license from sheer persistence and sat on top of a game with a business model that will ensure there is never going to be enough resources to develop for real. They are hard-working, there is no denying that, but I don't see much imagination from them. As to whether I still play the game, like that's any of your stinking business, I kept installing and uninstalling it, because it amuses me before it depressingly bores me. It is uninstalled now, and I'm out of this "community" of the dull and obsessed. No one but myself here suggests anything interesting, and the developers don't show any signs of wanting but more of the same. Perhaps when Homecoming brings another major update or two, if they change the gameplay in a way that doesn't make me feel like a fucking loser for putting time in it, I'll give it another shot. Cheerio!

I think these ideas would work better in a wider set about impersonation and infiltration. Either of those can be its name. Or Manipulation. Another power might be a variety of stealth, targeted, something that would copy the appearance of an enemy and let the character pretend to be one of them, as long as he doesn't come too close. I wonder if this engine has a function for copying someone's appearance, though. It's funny, the Infinity Engine does, through a kind of back door.

That's impressive. Did the developers host that? And to @Trickshooterabout Run and penalties: its penalties can be made unenhanceable, if they aren't already. But wait, I don't know and you don't know if it works by applying a speed penalty to the character. Maybe it simply switches him to a different, low set speed without the Running speed debuff effect. It should be possible to check this by trying Walk with some overhead speed-up bonus. If the character walks no quicker than before, then that is probably what happens. Someone from Homecoming could tell for certain.

What do you mean by Dev contacts?

I have suggested before organizing walkathons, competitions where characters would seek to outpace each other in calm, healthful strides to a goal. Yet honing this activity to a competitive edge would involve a chance for a focus and slots in Walk. Anyway, I have broadcast invitations to try it on the longest pier of Spanky's Boardwalk on Talos Island. This can still be done. You and someone else begin at the first plank toe-to-toe, as confirmed by a third party standing crosswise, and set out along the sea-destined length to the dock in the far end. There are some boxes along the way that serve as natural obstacles. The first one to butt into another character, standing at the end of the pier and looking at himself from a vertical camera, wins. It can be the same third participant that was there at the start, if he races or flies to the finish. Then the game can be played with only three people. Afterwards you all head to Tina the Body Sculptress and wear T-shirts of the same color for a while.

What prevents this engine from applying a translucency effect to the character on a checked box? It doesn't even have to be a costume part, just a variable set.

Are you using e-mails to yourself as a cloud resource of Inspirations for all your characters? Confess.

No, how is that similar? Street Justice has specific builder and finisher moves, and only within the set, and with the builders making the effects of finishers stronger. Other sets have other ideas of combos. My idea here is a way to get out combinations of attacks that the player himself chooses from many different sets quickly for extra Endurance (they should apply defense debuffs, too, to be more worth investing in). I thought a little more about this, though, and I think attacks should be grouped not into punches and kicks but into High and Low, depending on their animations. After all, mixed martial arts are a valid fighting form. Every unarmed attack in the game would start from one of these classes and either end in that class or lead to the other. For example, as Brawl, Punch, Jab, Boxing, Heavy Blow begin from the shoulder level and end there, they would be labeled as High-to-High attacks in the power descriptions. Starting any of them would invite a sequel in any of the other High attacks the character has got that are already recharged at the time. So there is prizefighting. Crane Kick would also be a High-to-High attack, since it happens entirely in the air. But Haymaker would be a High-to-Low (the alternate animation should be adjusted to more of a waist punch) and open the choice of Low attacks instead, if any. Air Superiority from Flight, a power that is not, I suspect, very popular, would also be a High-to-Low attack, as would some of the descending kicks. Kick from Fighting and Shin Breaker from Street Justice would be Low-to-Low. Crushing Uppercut is an example of something that would open the High attacks menu from a Low start, and both Crosses look that way too. If my idea about progressing in other power sets after level 50 were accepted, veterans would have a chance for the widest variety of segues. All of these possibilities would get players thinking: is Haymaker worth using as a starter without any Low powers to continue to, to use Punch in the same set as a first or second attack, given that it often knocks enemies out, ending any combo, to use Rib Cracker for its transfer to High now or not when it's a builder within the set and you'll be continuing with different attacks instead of the finishers, the same for Savage Melee and its Blood Frenzy, how Assassin's Strike will fare in a combo for Stalkers who take Street Justice or Kinetic Melee, how effects from Radiation Melee and other energy Melee sets will play out here and so on. Many different fighting styles would be possible. I am for admitting any unarmed attack with hands or feet here, which should make powers like Mental Strike and Stone Fist that everyone probably respecs out of as soon as they can more attractive, but nothing for Claws (that set needs help), Spines, solid or evoked swords, psi blades, mallets, maces... nor Hand Clap or Foot Stomp either. Some of the animations for standard-looking punches can be reworked to lead to a different level. Why not change the elemental Fists to be hook-type punches to the liver, for instance?

You know how a second bar pops up when you leap up with Arcane Flight, with Translocation on it? Or Afterburner with Fly? The same kind of bar could float up when delivering punching moves. I'm thinking about all of the forms of boxing between the different sets: starting with Brawl (cool and unusual thrown from the left), then Boxing per se in Fighting Pool, Cross Punch later on, Flurry in Speed, most moves in Super Strength too (especially if you switch to the alternative animations there; Haymaker, Knockout Blow really look much more pleasant than with those top-down slams that are on by default and that all Super Strength enemies use, e. g. Family Muscle; switch some of them to the alternate moves, Homecoming), a few of the moves in Street Justice also. I think they ought to enable combos. It can be discussed and tested which are more suitable, e. g. Crushing Uppercut in Street Justice doesn't look like any uppercut from life, but on the whole, it would be great to engage in something like a real ring duke-out between these moves. My latest character is a strong, bulky Super Strength Tanker with boxing gloves on his mitts, and he don't do any kicks. Strictly pugilism. Of course, you could have a parallel system for kick moves. Another incentive to want powers from other sets, by the way. Dive into a Shin Breaker from a Crane Kick. Collect your punches/kicks today! The way I see it, the pop-up panel would appear when you started one of the eligible moves, if you had other valid powers to follow up with. If you clicked on one of those in time, you would next execute it faster than usual, but at higher Endurance cost. Maybe 50% more. The second move would also have the pop-up option, 100% higher, and so on, forming a chain. The punches would probably go off too quickly for the player to link up any more than two or three, though, since this is not a turn-based game... But this would be a way to compress a lot of damage in a short span for a good slice of Endurance. Either as an opening sequence in a fight or as a desperate last resort. Maybe for balance linking should work as an upfront Endurance payment, when you click the upper-bar button, rather than when the follow-up begins.

There is an Antimatter aura option, let's have an Antimatter Blast set. What would set it apart is interaction with other powers of its targets. As you all know, when animatter meets normal matter, both disappear in annihilation with a release of energy. The blasts here would have special effects on enemies who just used a power from Fire, Cold, Electricity, Energy or Negative Energy sets or who are in the middle of activating them. Meeting these emanations, Antimatter would create bubbles of annihilation where they stand, little motionless spheres that do damage over time as long as one is standing in them. All of the powers would take Interrupt Es, too, for a chance to disrupt enemies' power during activation time. It would be a special-purpose, anti-boss and Arena-oriented set primarily, focused on suppression. A separate set power would create a bubble at a target point directly. The ultimate power may be Sphere of Annihilation as a pet. My hat goes off to Dungeons&Dragons!

Leadership is a great set. Possibly the best Pool set. But most of my characters steer away from it. You know why? Because if they take any powers there, they'll be doomed be surrounded by twirling droplets, shields and whatnots for the rest of their lives. Not only isn't there any-character explanation, especially when the characters do natural things like Street Justice, Willpower, Dual Pistols... but it's damn annoying. All powers need to have the option of effects disabled - including shooting bolts. If my character throws fire, it can be invisible fire. Maybe it's thermal. And it's very simple to include that option, unlike "Minimal FX," where you have to draw up special tuned-down versions. "No FX" just switches off the graphics and sounds. By the way, turn off that aggravating levitation whistle for "No FX" flying too. I mean Arcane Flight, maybe Fly. If I don't want twirling runes, don't subject me to the wheeze from Hover either.

I'm busy, so I'm going to keep this brief. Let others draw out and develop these ideas as they like. Keeping it short, I'm not interested in the post-level 50 future for my character where he'll only have Incarnate powers to look forward to. It takes an extremely long time even to get to level 50, no one has got many characters who have gone there, let alone beyond. All I've read about the Incarnate tiers tells me the abilities are pretty bland. There are some AoE damagers, some defenses, if memory serves, summons from the villain groups that we already know, and a diversification-bypassing power-up. I appreciate Cryptic/NCSoft and Homecoming's working to pave a future up there, but none of that sounds worth pouring months and years into. Especially if it involves going on Incarnate Trials with huge crowds of people. Besides, what kind of challenge could there be at that power level? To do what, shake the gods off Mount Olympus like pears off a tree? If you ask me, at that stage one ought to choose transcendence and continue to an existence with completely different goals instead of still trying to wade in the earth's sandbox in a giant's boots. In short, I'm not interested. What I would be interested in is taking on the abilities of other Archetypes. And Instead of far-out fights I can't identify with at all, I would like to see more early and middle-game content, deeper content too, and a way for my Veteran to relive the life on earth or still live it, but differently. A case in point: my most developed character is Street Justice/Willpower, and I would find it very nice to tap the power set of Regeneration or Invulnerability. I can think of two ways this could work, and they are not mutually exclusive. They could both be options for players at level 50. They wouldn't involve creating a slew of new missions or enemies or types of resources either. Maybe one story arc to introduce a choice between these options and the Incarnate path. As for balance, here is the long and short about it: if a power isn't so mighty that it wins every fight or so weak that you don't know whether you've got it, its balance is fine. We aren't weighing grains of diamonds here. The point of a game, or of life for that matter, is to be interesting in an advancing way, and if that is achieved without destroying the world, either is successful. The first option may be called Old Soul. Here your character discovers that he has lived before, and he gets to tap into that past life. You choose an Archetype and one of the primary or secondary sets open to it. It can be the same Archetype you already have, just not the same power set. And you get the option for taking on powers from there at the usual speed of progression: first the choice between two starting powers, at the next level-up you can pick the other from the pair, then two slots and so on. The powers are used at your current level, but you progress up the tree at the speed of a Veteran, so very, very slowly. If I wanted to draw on a Mastermind's set, for example, and get the basic henchmen, I would get 3 right away, but I would be a long time away from the first upgrade. At reaching level 20 in the recalled set I can make the choice again and recall another life and another set. What's good about this version is that the character gets to use all his high-level powers and still progresses up there to some quasidivine state. It would still require Homecoming to keep supplying high-level challenges, but I think it's considerably more interesting than gathering those threads. The second option is starting a new life. It's a Return to Samsara. Here you get to change all your costumes (bodies) for free, the sex, even take on a new name, if you like, and any permitted Archetype and combination of sets, except your old ones. You begin anew in Atlas Park or on Mercy as a 1st level character. The collected badges are still there, but otherwise it's a reset. The former life's powers are dormant until you rise to the level required to obtain them normally, and they function at the current level. So, if I played a Mastermind formerly of Thugs and now want to add some Wolves to the army (street curs, hey), I begin able to summon one Punk in addition to my starting puppy. The slots are still there when the powers wake up, but all the Es have gone to storage, and the minimum level restrictions will mean most of them will be unusable. Attuned Es are very weak early on. Gradually I will recall all of the other abilities. At reaching level 50 again I'll be able to repeat the trick and relive as another character and another. Recalled powers will make Veterans stronger than real newbies of their level, naturally, that's part of their reward, but enemies can be given special big bonuses vs. these reborn types to prevent them from quite burning through the early levels with their Hellions and Clockwork. What's good about this version is that you get to participate in adventures on earth for real instead of condescending to them in Ouroboros. Now, if Homecoming can bring themselves not to hand-wring over balance and just make things difficult for Veterans with whatever arbitrary enemy bonuses it takes, both of these systems could exist alongside the Incarnate option without needing a major overhaul of the game or tons of new missions or enemies.

I bought myself a proc-type E that is supposed to apply a Power Up effect every so often, only it needs to sit in a power that takes To Hit Buff Enhancements. In all my Street Justice/Willpower possibilities I don't think I have any power where To Hit Buff can be slotted. If I want that effect, I have to take a power I don't need at all and don't mean to use, like that dart shooter from Medicine. Luckily, I have Medicine opened up long ago for the sake of Aid Self (bugged and doesn't go off half the time in a fight, by the way, even when not interrupted), so I don't have to waste a Pool pick on an irrelevant set, but that dart is useless to me. I am far past the point where weakening or boosting someone a little would be a tactic worth including. Yet I have to take either that or something else, probably equally useless, just for the sake of having slots of the right type for all those special-purpose Es. This gives me an idea: why not make a new, inherent, passive power simply for the purpose of accepting every kind of E? Don't let it do anything, only accept all that may be slotted. Let it start with just one free slot, like every other power, or even, if you want to be tough on balance, none. The player will have to devote some slots to it. But that will be a way to define one's approach. Put a slot there for something special that requires a Damage power instead of turning over one of the six slots in the attack powers you are actually going to use. Better than sticking it in Brawl, ja? You can always find SOME kind of power that allows Es of the right kind, my concern here is having to take lousy powers or useless pool picks just for the type. Call this Style or Approach or Idiom or Devotion or Planning or Strategy or Penchant or Conditioning or Prayer or Introversion or Hidden Pockets or Stratagem or Horoscope or Grudge or Amalgam or Fate Dice or Accent or Cake. Call it Omega, and may Incarnate Veterans smell my farts.

I like it. A good transition between the chest and the shoulder pads, too. What kind of gloves are those? They seem unfamiliar.

As I think back on the concept of CoH and the work Cryptic started doing twenty years ago, I can only applaud them for style and the ambition that was successful almost everywhere. How they took on the superhero subject, interpreted powers, the villain groups, the unique work on areas and, of course, the music, that's just wonderful. But that creativity is spread over a large surface, so it doesn't go deep anywhere. They represented existing a super-powered being in a convincing way, but living as one in a world that responds they didn't, maybe couldn't. Me, I want more interactivity: with people, with the environment... Putting out fires is nice, if you can find them. So is climbing to the roofs of tall buildings by the stairs, that's another convincing touch. But I want to be able to put some money in the hands of that lady who so tirelessly implores for donations for the children of Galaxy City. And can't I do something to, I mean about, I mean with, I mean for the homeless on the streets? A little influence should go a long way, or infamy when that's lacking. It would be good to earn points towards an alignment change with such things. But that's all more complicated, not so immediate. Immediately I want to feel that I exist in this world. Just as I want it to matter what kind of body I chose to have with sliders - if I'm slow, let me be slow, if I'm tough, let me be tough, and THEN the powers go on top of that, the same way I want to exercise my god-given right to smash stuff. What good is super strength if I can only punch people, and then only bad people, and not through a wall? Well, as it happens, a lot of that is possible without any technical changes. Not walls, but the potential for destruction is already there for just about everything else: cars, buses, trucks, barrels, dumpsters, power poles, those red-and-white air masts on rooftops... You only realize how many kinds of objects can be destroyed after you've been on mayhem or safeguard missions and explored in junkier places: the middle-south of Faultline, Boomtown, Freakshow's shanty fortresses everywhere, places where Rikti are supposed to have invaded. Then you see everything that you thought existed only as bright, shiny catalog models twisted, mangled and burned. In some of those missions you get to smash a few chosen brackets. The only question is, why do you have to leave the big world for it? I propose making a massive freaking sweeping change and turning all those objects destructible. All the cars on the parking lots, all the dumpsters, the power poles where that would make sense visually vis-a-vis nearby wires, the stone gargoyles and lions - and a million other things. Not just something here and there, like the Trolls' explosives specially placed, but all those other things around all get to go boom, interior fixtures including, and inflict some damage in a radius. Indoors, too. Tables, for example. If I shoot a lightning bolt at a table, it ought to fly into smithereens and hurt everyone around. And if objects don't have a midcourse, damaged-stage model, they can still shatter in the end and toss out wooden splinters, chunks of stone, straps of metal - all of those, we know, are available. Of course, in the big world these objects would regenerate in a few minutes. The cars would come back (preferably a different model, but that's an extra), the dumsters... and the debris would clear away. The Paragon City maintenance service works day and night. I should know, I had a character who started out fixing up after Clockwork before she was nabbed by the Council. As far as debris goes, we also know that some kind remains permanently or just about, and other kinds fade away, so there is some setting that controls that. The point of all this is to give players a real feeling that their actions affect the world and sometimes tactical opportunities: target the truck the Hellions were stealing the wheels off, make it blow, send them flying; throw a fireball in a side office a few enemies stand in, singe them and hit with debris from the smashed desk to boot; throw one in a room with a lot of vases, and those will burst and pepper everyone for a little lethal. There is nothing impossible about this. As far as targeting is concerned, it would be nice to have something in Options for whether objects will be included in cycling with Tab. Some players may not care about using the environment this way and not want to be distracted when switching quickly in a crowd. Plus, object names should be colored differently, though aren't they already in aquamarine? A bigger question is, should they take damage from everyone's AoE powers, or must they be targeted specially to be damaged? The second variant promises more precision and fewer unpleasant surprises, but the first has potential for much more fun. When tossing fireballs at the Damned who toss fireballs back, all next to a big tank of fuel, it should be no surprise to find yourself in the hospital. I think this interpretation, where you have to mind what is around you, would make the reality more real.

Any arguments in support of either, or you think thinking just makes it so? I didn't say anything about the sex choice, mind you, but, of course, women are nimbler and more resilient than men, who are stronger and tougher. There is no reason whatever why this would not apply to superheroes. Or does Black Widow punch through walls? There is She-Hulk, but she is hulky. Of course, in both sexes there may be some small superheroes with unusual strength or who leap between buildings on short legs, in short, where their abilities aren't completely limited by their body, but that is where superpowers come in. A short-legged character, I proposed, shouldn't run or jump well naturally, but he may have Combat Jumping or Superspeed or another power to offset his starting point. That, in a nutshell, is the entire concept of superheroes as they were originally conceived - that they are regular people, maybe even invalids or puny, but with something extra, from an investigator's talent to flying, that lets them go beyond and achieve. It's the American way! Now how did this turn into a situation where, instead of being surpassed, reality is la-la-la denied the way you and others here are doing? @Triumphant It is pleasant to read a response from someone who is not a low-effort nay-sayer. These sliders would add a new layer of complexity, that's true. Well, what is the problem? All the mechanics you mention already bring accents: Enhancements, Incarnate powers, Accolades... Having a body that matters should have been the first layer among them. So players may not like being budged from the primitive situation they are used to. Big deal. The game was stupid, and it was made smarter. They'll love it before long anyway, they always do. Still, this change should be announced well in advance, and characters made until D-Day excluded from the changes, with the option to let the player click a button and agree to convert them (irrevocably). Later characters should not get the choice, however. Reforms for the better should never be optional; we must only be very sure that we do change for the better, and prepared to make adjustments if we are mistaken somewhere. And in this case the reform would only bring players back to a basic starting condition. As for Homecoming, they may be running this business as a non-profit hobby, but that excuse only goes so far. Serious money leaves for their maitenance costs from players' wallets, and more important, they command the free time of thousands of people. They haven't done anything with that power but condemn players to more senseless time-wasting - to grinding in one dull challenge after another. There are no learning opportunities, no role-playing choices to express a personality, no making players face, as in this case, the limitations of their physical condition - and the question of how, and whether, powers ameliorate it. Just time sinks, one after another, for badges and vanity. Like other MMOs, CoH has wasted millions of hours of people's lives for very little, and all that Homecoming seems eager to do is make them waste some more. That borders on selling opium. Here is a heads up: the more of someone you are in a virtual brag fest, the less of anyone you are in reality. If this argument goes through to Homecoming, I want to suggest something about implementation. It is possible that in this engine buffs and debuffs and other effects can't be applied on the Body page. Maybe there is no way to make smooth, analog changes there that would translate into exact corresponding permanent adjustments. Homecoming still struggles with costume-piece limitations, after all, and it is possible that there is just no natural way to turn slider changes into stat adjustments dynamically. In that case this system, at least, could work: record the slider parameters somewhere after character creation/"Customize your appearance"/tailor and make the stat changes only discrete, i. e. instead of "+0,33%" on the slider bar, let there only be so many increments of "+1%." These values recorded, apply the changes as autopowers from the game's master script, or global script, or what it is called that always runs in the background. For example, IF Size = +15 AND "Size-changed" = 0, THEN apply Perma-power "Size+15" AND Set "Size-changed" = 1. The Size+15 power would delete the effects from other Size powers and apply its own. This would be repeated for all of the sliders. It's not an ideal way of doing this, but it can go around an absolute impossibility of factoring in the body settings directly.