megaericzero

Boom. The feature was implemented before you even came up with the idea. Now that is customer service!

That's interesting. Is it because pets execute their commands when available rather than immediately, so if they get stuck on something they don't see themselves as available to be dismissed? /release_pets forcibly defeats your pets - henchmen or otherwise

I was going to suggest having the henchmen's own summon powers teleport them if they are still alive when used. Since the Mastermind can already just dismiss and re-summon them, this would give the option to act like they did but keep their upgrades and any lingering buffs with the trade-off of putting the powers on cooldown. Then I looked at COD and double-checked in game... When did the henchmen powers get buffed to 5-15s recharges with 5-13 endurance cost? Forget what I was going to say; just desummon and resummon them.

Henchman/pet customization is a suggestion that comes up pretty frequently. Here's the most recent thread related to it for visibility on what was recently discussed.

Bah. Beaten to the answer. Twice. Yeah, war wall surfing is more of a physics engine exploit than a power feature. EDIT: Which isn't to say it's bad. It's loads of fun; even on characters with travel powers. Hop on the wall, get the angle right, set autorun, and sail across the zone passively while you (the player) goof off.

The whole game could use a full pass for lexicon consistency. The other powers come with an additional effect called Combat Phase. Ironic, given the tooltip describes Speed Phase as phase whereas the other powers call themselves intangible, but it appears it's the reverse case for which term does what effect when you look at COD. EDIT: And then there's Dimension Shift which has a sub-effect called dimension_shift_ally which I assume is the added function to walk into the field and be able to act against the foes that the power phased. One of its effects is listed as "1.0 points of Designer Status."

"Speed Phase allows you to vibrate the atoms in your own body so quickly that you can pass straight through both allies and enemies. Whilst in this state you are unable to affect anyone but yourself, but can still be attacked by foes." EDIT: Note also that its power tooltip lists its effect as "Self Phase (Special)" whereas powers like Phase Shift, Quantum Flight, and Nebulous Form list themselves as "Self Intangible."

To the subject of Athletic Run and Super Speed: they did add a momentum mechanic where running for a bit gives you temporary jump height so you can clear minor barriers or get to slightly higher ground without having to go around them like back in the day.

To be fair, kelika did say to compensate Sudden Acceleration by giving its KB2KD something additional and then suggesting something that the proposed set doesn't have: -- What I'm trying to understand is why each enhancement has KB2KD. I'm guessing the purpose of the suggestion is to alleviate the slot tax by having KB2KD enhancements that also boost one aspect but not being beholden to which aspect so you can use them in powers with different needs (acc, dam, end, rech, etc.) without having to suggest separate sets.

Erm, what's the function of every enhancement in the set doing KB2KD?

My bad. I misread the part about energy. A weakness to energy/electricity is plausible. The phase shift sounds interesting. Alternating intervals of being unable to affect foes probably won't go over well with people, though. I also have reservations about changing it into a Hibernate clone for the same risk of inviting comparisons to Ice Armor. Maybe turning it into a crash-lite t9 like Strength of Will and keeping the no-collision Zork suggested (assuming you could separate that from normal intangibility)?

Great points, @ThatGuyCDude. More energy protection sounds good; psionics I'm not sure on but could probably work in. There were a couple different things I was trying to do so the set would stand out from other armors. I was avoiding making heat/cold resistance this set's specialty because then it becomes room-temperature Ice Armor. That said, Thermocline Armor was meant to be the thermal density property at work. The slow resistance wasn't that you move fast in liquid but rather that the liquid was insulating you from the slow-down that most cold powers inflict. As for movement, Hydrodynamic Body already does buff that. It's even listed as +Movement; I didn't write it out as +Speed or +Run/Jump/Fly. We already have multiple haze-type powers - Arctic Fog, Steamy Mist, and Shadow Fall; granted they're all in support sets. For liquid armor, I wanted to have the character absolutely drenched, pouring out fluids like they're a fountain (or at least a recent victim of a Gatorade dunk). The mez protection being themed as dissolving whatever's mezzing you was both because the set is doing double-duty as Chemical Armor (hence it's not called Water Armor directly and the only power describing water is Storm Drain, which refers to you taking someone else's) and because of water's nickname - the universal solvent. The tier 9 definitely leaves something to be desired, given it's a carbon copy of many other sets' t9. Which warshade power are you referring to that behaves like that (or is it an original take on their existing intangibility power)? And as for a teleport attack, that's already in the melee set via Jet Kick. It would seem redundant since the melee and armor set are already a thematic match; being able to double-up on that feels like a benefit of purposely mix-and-matching themes instead of doubling down (eg: Electrical Melee and Shield Defense being able to do it). Unless we wanted to make that the liquid-themed close-combat's specialty... 🤔

For what it's worth, I posted a suggestion recently for water-themed melee and armor sets as well as control and support. 👀

The funnier point to this is that cutscenes aren't pre-rendered - they're emoted in real time by the mobs while the game arrests control of your camera. (At least, if nothing's changed since the last time I checked.) Players have planted themselves next to where Arbiter Sands will spawn with his platoon during the first mission of the STF (back when it was the STF) for a "cheekie selfie" while the team is forced to wait out the dialogue. Imagine someone wanting to see the cutscene only to watch the carnage of seven Judgment powers and a slew of other AOEs wipe the mobs out before they're even done talking. Meanwhile this person is forced to watch in horror like they're tied to a chair.

Good feedback and ideas. I've incorporated a couple into the OP. Here I thought I'd get more responses to the armor and melee sets given they're less adventurous (read: copy-pasted) but I suppose when you stick so closely to an existing template, it already comes with the benefits and baggage of the thing you based it on so there's not much that needs to be said. @Rudra: yeah, the idea with Sinkhole is you washed the ground out beneath the foe to create it; I've renamed it. For Flood, there wasn't a good term for "knee-deep/waist-deep water" and I didn't want it to just be "Bigger Sinkhole" so fell back on flood. With Ink Burst, I thought to have Liquid Armor also have a minor tertiary theme of your character being some kind of water creature (hence Hydrodynamic Body) but it's too much in retrospect. Plus the power was filler until I added Hydrophobic Coating; I just kept it for Stalkers since it seemed like a fitting power (it is a Smoke Flash expy). I've removed it and put Hydrophobic Coating in its place. As for Storm Drain, the PBAOE scaling endurance drain powers (Power Sink, Energy Absorption, Energy Drain) seem - to me at least - to be about creating a conceptual low-point of energy so that electricity/heat/energy flows to you via osmosis. With that in mind, the visual I had was one of those street drains that's been flooded over and just-recently unblocked, creating a whirlpool. (see visual) I've also given my thoughts in Alchemystic's powerset-recycling thread that there's a fuzzy line between jokingly punning and genuis wordplay, so calling it Storm Drain to go with Energy Drain and Power Sink seemed fitting both as wordplay and because you are conceptually becoming a drain for the endurance to flow into. @ZorkNemesis: I love the Fluid State idea and have incorporated it as Stalkers' t9 with a focus on defense and the no-collision effect to contrast with Scraps/Tanks/Brutes' stand-your-ground t9 Overflow. I'm glad we had the same idea with Vortex; it reassures me that the name, theme, and effect together are a good match. @Videra: Good points. I'm more out-of-touch with support sets as I mostly solo. What would you suggest to replace the t8 in Water Affinity?

Here's something I wanted to suggest: the gamut of remaining water-themed power sets, save for henchmen. We're ignoring the Manipulation, Assault, and Mastery categories because they'd all basically be children of these sets. Why are you suggesting four power sets at once? In large part so that we can give each set one or two overarching themes without stepping on each other's toes. For instance, Sonic Manipulation has a power called Sound Barrier whose name would proliferate perfectly as the smashing-lethal shield to a "Sonic Aura" or "Sonic Armor" armor set... except that the actual effects it was given are not that of a smashing-lethal shield so now if we ever get a sonic armor its physical shield will have to use a different name. (Yes, I do actually think obsess about things like this.) If anyone reads the thread and thinks "hey, you should focus on quality over quantity", I did actually. I've been tweaking each of these back and forth for about six months. They've sort of reached as good as they're going to get just banging around in my own head without actually talking to other people about it (hence this thread). They're by no means perfect but I do think they're a decent springboard. As far as the themes, at a glance I'd go with... Water Control: the flow of water Water Affinity: small bodies of water and things dissolved in that water Water Melee: water pressure and release Liquid Armor: properties of water (and/or other chemicals) The themes aren't meant to be absolute; just give us a theme to play towards with most of the sets' powers rather than each set looking like "I asked chatGPT for water-related terms and just picked random ones." There'll still be some outliers in each set. Why do a lot of your power names overlap or downright sound like ones from the Eco-friendly Powerset Recycling Thread? I mean... all-in-all I'd like to say it's because of simultaneous invention. Rooting the powers in real-world concepts and terminology will do that. There's still plenty of room that I may have been "inspired" by the thread, consciously or unconsciously. I tried to make what I thought were sets that distilled the aforementioned themes, whether they overlap with sets suggested in that thread or not. My bad if I did steal anyone's work. I will admit Aqua Strike down in Water Melee is directly copied in name at least. Now onto the power sets. I'll hide the detailed power info in spoilers boxes since the whole post is already a huge block of text and so people who just want to scan the power tables at a glance can. Water Control (Controllers, Dominators) 1. Water Trap (Ranged) Foe Moderate Damage over Time (Smashing, Cold), Immobilize, -Jump, -Movement, -Recharge 2. Water Prison (Ranged) Foe Moderate Damage (Smashing, Cold), Hold, -Movement, -Fly, -Recharge 3. Flood (Ranged AOE) Foe Minor Damage over Time (Cold), Immobilize, -Movement, -Jump, -Recharge 4. Deluge (Location AOE) Foe -Movement, -Fly, -Jump, -Defense, Chance to Confuse 5. Rapids [Toggle] (PBAOE) Foe Chance to Knockdown 6. Decompression (Ranged AOE) Foe Minor Damage (Smashing), Disorient 7. Riptide (Location AOE) Foe Minor Damage over Time (Smashing, Cold), Draw-in 8. Waterfall (Ranged AOE) Foe Minor Damage over Time (Smashing, Cold), Hold, -Movement, -Recharge 9. Undine (Location) Summon Pet (Undine) Undine Resistance [Auto] Self +Resistance (Lethal, Cold, Negative), +Protection (Hold, Immobilize) Drench (Melee Cone) Foe Moderate Damage Over Time (Cold), -Defense Dehydrate (Ranged) Foe Moderate Damage (Smashing, Cold), Minor Damage over Time (Cold), -Movement, -Recharge, -Defense; Self Heal over Time Water Prison (Ranged) Foe Moderate Damage (Smashing, Cold), Hold, -Movement, -Fly, -Recharge Power details and random thoughts on Water Control: Water Affinity (Controllers, Defenders, Masterminds, Corruptors) 1. Hot Spring (PBAOE) Ally/Self Heal 2. Seafoam (Ranged Cone) Foe -Movement, -Resistance, -Fly, -Jump 3. Mineral Bath (Ranged) Ally Heal 4. Humidity [Toggle] (Ranged AOE) Foe -Resistance 5. Cleanse (Ranged) Ally +Protection (Confuse, Disorient, Fear, Hold, Immobilize, Sleep), +Perception 6. Breakwater [Toggle] (PBAOE) Ally/Self +Resistance (All but Toxic), +Protection (Disorient, Hold, Immobilize) 7. Halocline (Ranged AOE) Foe Sleep, -Defense 8. Tide Pools (Location AOE) Ally/Self +Regeneration, +Endurance Discount 9. Tsunami (Ranged Cone) Foe Knockback, Disorient, -Defense, -Resistance, -Movement, -Recharge Power details and random thoughts on Water Affinity: Water Melee (Scrappers, Tankers, Brutes, Stalkers) This first power table will be the Scrapper one. 1. Aqua Strike (Melee) Foe Moderate Damage (Smashing, Cold), Chance for Disorient; Self Build (Water Pressure) 2. Piston Punch (Melee) Foe High Damage (Smashing, Cold), Chance to Knockdown; Self Build (Water Pressure) 3. Drench (Melee Cone) Foe Moderate Damage Over Time (Cold), -Defense; Self Build (Water Pressure) 4. Build Pressure Self +Damage, +To Hit, Build (Water Pressure) 5. Jet Kick (Ranged, scales w/ Water Pressure) Foe Moderate Damage (Smashing, Cold), Chance to Knockdown; Self Teleport, Consume (Water Pressure) 6. Confront self-explanatory 7. Water Vortex (PBAOE) Foe Moderate Damage (Cold), Draw-in; Self Build (Water Pressure) 8. Pressure Cutter (Melee) Foe Extreme Damage (Lethal, Cold); Self Damage (scales w/ Water Pressure), Consume (Water Pressure) 9. Hydraulic Press (Melee) Foe Superior Damage (Smashing, Cold), Hold (scales w/ Water Pressure); Self Consume (Water Pressure) Here's the other archetypes' power tables with their differences highlighted. Tankers Brutes Stalkers 1. Aqua Strike Aqua Strike Aqua Strike 2. Piston Punch Piston Punch Piston Punch 3. Drench Drench Drench 4. Taunt Build Pressure Assassin's Jet 5. Tidal Kick Tidal Kick Build Up 6. Build Pressure Taunt Placate 7. Water Vortex Water Vortex Tidal Kick 8. Pressure Cutter Pressure Cutter Pressure Cutter 9. Hydraulic Press Hydraulic Press Hydraulic Press In the case of Stalkers I looked at sets like Street Justice and noticed they still have to trade for normal Build Up if it's not just a thematic rename, even though things like Combat Readiness are "Build Up but better" because they play to the set gimmick. Ah well. Power details and random thoughts on Water Melee: Liquid Armor (Scrappers, Tankers, Brutes, Stalkers, Sentinels) The reason this one's called Liquid Armor instead of Water Armor or Hydro Armor is so it can also cover as Chemical Armor or Acid Armor. This is the Scrapper/Tanker/Brute power table. 1. Drenching Aura [Toggle] (PBAOE) Foe Minor Damage over Time (Cold), Taunt 2. Fluid Shield [Toggle] Self +Resistance (Smashing, Lethal), +Protection (Knockback) 3. Rehydrate Self Heal, +Resistance (Toxic) 4. Solvent Armor [Toggle] Self +Protection (Disorient, Hold, Immobilize, Sleep), +Resistance (Toxic) 5. Hydrophobic Coating [Auto] Self +Resistance (Cold, Negative, Recharge) 6. Thermocline Armor [Toggle] Self +Resistance (Heat, Cold, Energy, Negative, Movement, Recharge) 7. Hydrodynamic Body [Auto] Self +Movement, +Recharge, +Resistance (Movement, Immobilize) 8. Storm Drain (PBAOE) Foe Minor Damage (Cold), -Endurance; Self +Endurance (per foe) 9. Overflow Self +Resistance (All), +Defense (All), +Resistance (Mez); [Delayed] Self -Health, -Endurance, -Recovery Here's the Stalker table with only the differences highlighted. 1. Hide self-explanatory 2. Fluid Shield same 3. Rehydrate same 4. Solvent Armor same 5. Hydrophobic Coating same 6. Thermocline Armor same 7. Hydrodynamic Body same 8. Storm Drain same 9. Fluid State Self +Defense (All), +Resistance (Defense, Mez), +Recovery, +Movement, +Phase (Special); [Delayed] Self -Endurance, -Recovery I haven't played Sentinels enough to internalize how their versions of armor sets differ. Sorry, Sentinels. I guess drop Drenching Aura/Hide, shift everything up, and tack Hydrophobic Coating/Ink Burst somewhere? Power details and random thoughts on Liquid Armor: And uh... I'm really bad at ending essays. These are just my thoughts on more water-related power sets. I'm looking forward to hearing from you guys. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

Oh! Okay. I misunderstood. I thought you were speaking in direct opposition to the addition of henchmen-only costume slots that don't touch the existing 10 slots that players have access to. I see what you're saying now. Got it. I incorrectly read into it as a very impassioned statement because of the numbers. My bad.

I get that it's hyperbole but why so riled-up about this in specific? I'm genuinely curious. If they're added with the express purpose of being for henchmen and don't encroach your existing costume slots, you're not losing anything. You are literally gaining something at no cost to you. If they implemented it like that mechanically under the hood but it was never visible to you as a player, you wouldn't even know that's how it was. Like is it actually a concern to you, as a player, that the server store these hypothetical pet costumes in a different section of your character's file even if it doesn't affect the result and that you explicitly know that's how it's programmed?

Maybe we don't have to. Just playing devil's advocate for a second: VEATs were able to accidentally acquire a sixth costume as far back as i12. Dunno how the excess alignment-swapped ones behaved but, for the VEAT one at the time, the game supported the sixth costume. The UI just wasn't programmed to display more than five so you couldn't edit #6 at the tailor; it still worked fine and could be accessed with /cc. That brings up the question of how much more costume data current character files can store. If there's sufficient room, perhaps allocating n more costume slots for henchmen could give us the best of both worlds. Add a new NPC at icon/facemaker locations whose UI only looks at those slots (so you can customize them) and disallow /cc or /cce from switching players to them. From the end user's perspective, they now have "player" costumes in the existing menus and "henchmen" costumes in a new menu. (That said, I do still feel the costume route is too clunky and scales badly even if it didn't eat the player's costume slots, for the reasons I gave three posts up.)

Using costume slots is a creative solution but does present some concerns. The big ones, to me, are: Tying it to your own costume slots means you have to use more slots if you want henchmen to have multiple appearances. Not just in terms of your Jounin looking different from your Oni but if you want your Genin to look two different ways depending on which costume you-yourself are sporting. Henchmen also have different visual cues for which upgrades they have equipped. Not all are particle FX; some, like Thugs, change the actual outfits - arsonist gets a satchel, the enforcers put on trenchcoats, etc. Trying to incorporate that into character costumes would probably overcomplicate the customization process or impose cover-all VFX people would be discontent with, to speak nothing of whether or not it's even possible. -- Henchman customization would be cool. Moving away from other servers' implementation via costumes, perhaps power customization recycling existing enemy groups? For instance, defeat 100 Vahzilok to unlock them for Necromancy - cadaver zombies, mortificator grave knights, and an eidolon lich, selectable per-power. This could also address the visual cues for upgrades as the NPC models could go through different versions of the same enemies. Having the Cadavers go to Embalmed Cadavers with the first upgrade and Diseased Cadavers for the second, for instance.

Didn't see anything on the index page about proliferating Ninjitsu to Tankers and Brutes. Ninjitsu 1 Ninja Reflexes [Toggle] Self +Defense (Melee), +Resistance (Defense) 2 Danger Sense [Toggle] Self +Defense (Ranged, Area-of-Effect), +Resistance (Defense), +Perception 3 Kuji-In Sha Self Heal, +Resistance (Toxic) 4 Kuji-In Rin Self +Protection (Confuse, Disorient, Fear, Hold, Immobilize, Sleep), +Resistance (Psionic) 5 Taijutsu [Auto] Self +Protection (Knockback), +Resistance (All - scales w/ missing HP) 6 Mind's Eye [Auto] Self +Defense (Melee, Range, Area-of-Effect), +Resistance (Defense) 7 Kawarimi [Toggle] (PBAOE) Foe Taunt, -Recharge; Self Chance for +Absorb (per foe) 8 Quickness [Auto] Self +Recharge, +Movement, +Resistance (Recharge, Movement) 9 Kuji-In Retsu Self +Defense (All*), +Resistance (Defense), +Recovery, +Movement; [Delayed] Self -Endurance, -Recovery * differs from the original which only gives melee, ranged, and AOE Power descriptions (for non-recycled powers) : Taijutsu [Auto] Self +Protection (Knockback), +Resistance (All - scales w/ missing HP) You are trained in multiple forms of hand-to-hand combat. These skills allow you to evade attempts at throwing you around and reduce incoming damage by blocking. This damage resistance is only available as you lose health but improves as your hit points decline. This power is always on and costs no endurance. (Decided not to recycle Bo Ryaku both so this could have a scaling resistance instead and because the term is more familiar to me.) Mind's Eye [Auto] Self +Defense (Melee, Range, Area-of-Effect), +Resistance (Defense) Your ninja training grants you a level of combat awareness on par with futuresight. Your defense to all types of attacks - melee, ranged, and area-of-effect - is permanently increased. Your experience also grants you resistance to having your defense reduced. This power is always on and costs no endurance. Kawarimi [Toggle] (PBAOE) Foe Taunt, -Recharge; Self Chance for +Absorb (per foe) Using misdirection techniques allows you to trick your opponents mid-combat. While this power is active, nearby foes will be forced to focus on you but will be unsure where to aim their strikes, effectively reducing their attack rate as they hesitate to attack. Enemies also have a chance of attacking a body double which will absorb the damage for you. This chance increases as more foes surround you, allowing you to exploit the chaos, for up to a total of 10 foes. Recharge: Moderate (In terms of visuals, I don't know if a constant "afterimages" vfx like the ones Dual Pistols creates are possible, since I assume they are hard-coded to the attack animations rather than dynamically imitating the character's movements. That said, it would be pretty cool if possible and of course should come with a no-fx option as well.) Not sure how balanced this would be for tanks and brutes. Ninjitsu is already a distant relative to Super Reflexes but trades raw defenses and multiple scaling resistances for utility powers, and is originally used on an archetype not meant to draw aggro (Stalkers); this version may give up too many of those aspects without reclaiming enough of what it gave up from SR to properly absorb alpha strikes.

No strong opinions on the secret lair; I probably wouldn't use it if it means badguys (or good guys) are going to harrass me about it. The idea does just seem like bases with more steps / less control. The souvenir contact/display idea seems like it'd make for an interesting end-of-arc mission, though - having the game scan your character and populate a museum map instance with relevant items and/or contacts.

IIRC it's that the auction house isn't its own thing; it's a sub-function of the zones. Each zone - like Kings Row, Grandville, and Pocket D - has to create and maintain its own separate auction house, then the maps have to sync with one another. It's already janky and hardware intensive doing it for all publicly-accessible areas, hence things like lag and trouble fetching recent prices, so having any or every mission and supergroup base load their own auction house for the hundreds or thousands of players online would vastly compound the issues.

Erm, I think you're misunderstanding or overcomplicating it. In the hypothetical, we have two or three zones. Using the GC example, we have original Galaxy City for level range 1-5, Destroyed Galaxy City for (let's say) 25-30, and New Galaxy City for 50+. When you meet whatever trigger is used - whether that's simply entering DGC's level range, setting foot in the zone, touching its first zone-related storyarc, or whatever else is considered the best indicator of crossing the threshold - your character earns an internal flag telling the UI to, from now on, display "Echo: Galaxy City" for original GC's loading screen and name listings (player search, etc.). Then when you reach the trigger for NGC to be your "current" version, the game puts another flag so that DGC now displays in the UI as "Echo: Destroyed Galaxy City" in the same way. It's a cosmetic change and only affects your screen. Original GC is still, for all intents and purposes, original GC - contacts, enemy spawns, amenities - it's just labeled "Echo:" and that's fine because, to you, you're time-traveling to it via Ouroboros. Anyone you meet there - NPC or player - is in your past. Any newly-rolled player characters you meet or team with there still see it as Galaxy City (no "Echo:") because that's their present-day. No need to phase anything, no need to impose a "YOU ARE SEEING THE WORLD FROM MISSION-HOLDER'S PERSPECTIVE" warnings. [insert Standard Code Rant here] From there, just make sure missions above the trigger level range never send you there, same as it is now. Remove the zone's listing on the tram if you want or slap an Ouroboros logo next to it to go with the prepended "Echo:" in its name.

Er, right. That's why I mentioned in the next paragraph protecting people's immersion by having the game flag "older" versions of zones as echoes in name once your character touches content that progresses their stories. We already have the in-game lore (handwave-y as it is) that Ouroboros is giving you the ability to visit via the pillar. I'm eminently aware. My whole post was a hypothetical on an alternate way to have implemented this stuff, presuming that version would be no jankier than what we have now; it wasn't an actual suggestion to retcon the Altas/Mercy streamline storyarcs from how they are now. I never intended to imply Galaxy would or should be rebuilt nowTM. Just talking about if-and-when. Whether or not (and how) Boomtown and Faultline progress is another matter. Since you mention it, though, I can see Overbrook taking a lot longer to rebuild even if it's fully funded given the sheer depth to which the bedrock is shattered. Most of the zone is basically a bowl of loose rocks twice the height of skyscrapers.