FrozenSolid

They did improve on that aspect with Champions Online down the line, as in that game any destructible object can be picked up and thrown at enemies, if you have enough Strength. But I would imagine the framework for such things doesn't exist in the game.

I suppose some powers from Seismic/Earth could also work... After all, there is a basis in a somewhat known mythical being that did have the power to turn people into stone with eye contact.

Animations for it already exist, X-Ray Beam uses one, and another would be the Psychic Blast (where the character puts their hands on the sides of their head). Fire Breath and Frost Breath have an alternative option that changes the attack to come from the hand rather than the head, which means Customization can change where the attack originates from the character. The big question though is can Customization change the particle effect into a laser.

Would it be possible to change the visuals of some attacks alongside their animations to create more options for eye beams? Currently there's only really X-Ray Beam from Radiation Blast, but would it be too much to ask if it's laser beams and animation to be ported over as an option to some of the other single target attacks in the set and other blast sets where it could make sense... Fire and Energy being mildly obvious potential candidates...

One way I could see a DNPC kind of working is them occasionally giving an extra rewarding radio/newspaper styled mission, with a penalty for declining. Storywise it could be stuff like them learning about something happening and passing you the info or needing the occasional rescue from kidnappers.

I would think it to be one of the bigger reasons to do it on a development standpoint, being able to introduce new Henchmen and new Attack types separately to MM if they want to keep expanding the game. But still, one of the biggest issues is how exactly would it be done as it's probably not going to be exactly clean and simple. But if they find a good way to implement it, then they'll have a easy framework to make new types of MMs.

I suppose it could be making Defenders, Corruptors and Controllers into mini-Masterminds.

I think fitting thematically ultimately just comes down to how people play it... As one could argue against the whole Demon Summoning power set because it's not really fitting for Heroes, but it's an option. Same with stuff like Radiation powers.

Mostly I think it could get away with just tuning around the Recovery and Regeneration auras... Shorten the recharge, and make the Regen aura last longer. Buffs not being usable on yourself is generally a thing for every non-MM supporter (since they can buff their Henchmen), I don't know how much that should change.

It would look silly to have a tiny character with most of the Melee power sets, but that's fine. And rather than making new body types, I wonder would it be possible to just extend the Height slider. Not changing the scaling though, because that'd affect literally every character and probably NPCs as well...

Some (potentially) Japanese styled clothing does exist in the game, aside from the samurai sets... But they seem to be limited to pants on a Male character and the Sandals option on Female ones.

Having a car and/or bike that's usable outdoors is definitely something I wouldn't mind having. Just have it work as a super speed that has the "Only Affects Self" state and reduce jump height by like 9001%.

Oh I acknowledge there's problems with it. I'm not saying it's a perfect solution, just that it IS a solution. And really, the problem with potential lack of attacks is only for levels 1 to 4, at which point you would get access to the pools and then it could proceed relatively normally. The only other option I can think of would be try to make MMs pick 3 power set... Primary for their type of Henchmen, Secondary for the Support powers and a Tertiary one for their choice of weapon (or magic/energy attack). But I would assume that's something the game wouldn't actually support as that would involve changing the character creation, also would start the MM off with 3 powers instead of 2, which would be fixed by removing power selection from one of the levels.

Well then the follow up question would be how hard coded the limit of 4 pools is and could it be increased to 5 for MMs? There is that, and there is really no going around that... Except maybe making it worth more than a standard pool. But that might not be entirely the best option, unless MMs desperately need a buff.

It'd definitely be great customization to be able to select your attack options... But I imagine the code wouldn't make it possible at least in character creation. One option would be take out the 3 attacks in every one of the MM power sets, and then make them into small Power Pools that only MMs can take, and possibly mutually exclusive with each other. Though if they went through that, it would be possible to then later on implement new attacks and new henchmen separately.

The main bits of Identity I would imagine for a Single Pistol set would generally be that it'd be slower, in terms of activation mostly, but maybe recharges as well. Basically, taking more time to aim shots. However with that additional time aiming, it would have a higher base accuracy and damage. And another thing would be Shield Defense for Sentinels. To make more fit for the ranged gameplay, the main changes probably would be to Shield Charge and Phalanx Fighting. Shield Charge could easily be replaced with a ranged attack with a stun in the spirit of a certain shield throwing hero, I'd imagine there would be some animation out there would fit it. Phalanx Fighting would probably make less sense for a ranged character, but I don't know what necessarily it would be replaced with... Shield Defense is one of the few tank sets that don't have any self heals, maybe the Sentinel version could have a weaker self heal in it's place. And much like for the melee characters, dual wields and two handed weapons shouldn't be available, which would at least mean no Archery, Assault Rifle, Beam Rifle or Dual Pistols.

It would be nice to at least have different looking henchmen for the different sides on power set where it makes sense. Mostly Soldiers, Thugs and Robots. Ninjas maybe. Basically Heroes and Villains having different looking Henchmen. And if possible, the Loyalists and Resistance for Praetoria as well.

I suppose it could also work as a Power Pool, as sort of a ranged version of the Fighting one.

Making a single pistol power set with existing assets probably wouldn't be too hard, as some of the Dual Pistols animations while they might look weird with just one gun even if they don't use both. Pistols, the basic attack, only fires with the left one. It probably wouldn't break anything if you could somehow mirror the animation to make it fire the right hand one instead. Suppressive Fire, Executioner's Shot and Piercing Rounds only use the right hand pistol. Enemies also do have some attack animations for a single pistol as well. Statwise, I would imagine it having somewhat slower activations than Dual Pistols or Assault Rifle, but maybe having a higher base accuracy.

I would imagine it's a matter of how things are being used... I don't think you can particularly copyright or trademark a concept. If you want to just recreate Superman, and have your character's backstory be that they're an alien from a dead planet... They can't stop you. But you can't use any names from Superman or just copy the look directly. Or if you want to be a sword using space wizard, I don't think disney can do anything as long as you don't try completely recreate Star Wars characters.

Rather new to the game, but I find it rather surprising there isn't a Melee / Support archetype... Can't have all of the freedom in character creation I suppose... Though some of the support sets would have very bad synergy with melee, specifically anything with knockbacks and repels... Maybe as a bandaid fix not giving them access to Force Field, Kinetics, Storm Summoning or Sonic Resonance