megaericzero

To reiterate what others already said: there's less villain content and heroes are more convenient. If you ask me, the two big areas for that would be maps and contacts/storyarcs. Blueside has more maps that cater to a wider range of aesthetics and offer alternative choices at multiple level ranges. Even if multiple zones went unused or underexplored (largely the older hazard zones), they offer alternative vistas that feel visually-immersed in their motif. Redside is a string of island slums with a gimmick-aesthetic that's only even tacked onto a section of each map, compounded by a fairly strict linear progression from one zone to the next. Ease of traversing is also important. The grid-like layout, clear, wide, open streets, and less need for Fly/SJ/TP make for a better experience getting from A to B even if blueside sends you from zone to zone between missions. While the aesthetic of inconvenience contributes to the theming of redside, actually being inconvenient is mentally-taxing. Contact progression blueside is also more fluid as your existing contacts offer you a choice of who to send you to next, sometimes multiple times, as you work through their missions and arcs. This lets you bounce around where you want as opposed to redside's patterned newspapers-A-B pattern that resets in every zone. As for storyarcs (or missions in general), it's easier to write for heroes than villains. Heroes will do the good thing at the end of the day regardless of what the contact says, because it's the right thing to do. Villains have varied motivations and would want to have their specific motivation stroked (or at least not contradicted) - big money payout, the chance to cut loose, spreading their ideology, etc. It would be nice for each alt to be able to progress on a path that feels at least partly suited to a specific villainous drive or only a small set of them instead of being the every-villain that's sometimes an obedient lackey, sometimes cartoonishly money-grubbing, sometimes insatiably murderous, etc. In terms of solutions, gating features from blueside or giving material rewards to redside (boosted inf/exp/drops) are not the way to go. Dangling a carrot may lure people in but only begrudgingly. Make it a place people actually want to be instead. That's my take, at least. There are other, minor details like villain enemy groups generally having less models - making them feel more bland - or just being existing COH groups +1 new enemy type, difficulty being slightly higher going from blue to red, lack of a gathering hub equivalent to Atlas Plaza, etc. but the above are the big two.

Personally, I think the benefits of badges (accolade powers, earning Vanguard merits, the Ouroboros portal power, Midnighter Club access, etc.) should be account-wide. Aside from accolades, they're all seemingly just a checkbox that you did the tutorial for the thing they're gating anyway. (If anyone wants more of my reasonining, I'm glad to explain myself; I get that this is a crazy opinion in the first place.) By all means, still make each character earn the badge itself for bragging rights. I wouldn't support selling them for the RMT reason, though, so no to the actual OP suggestion.

I've always wondered that myself, in a broader sense - why do games (that receive updates) keep unused or retired files that they're extremely unlikely to ever put [back] into the game? I'm guessing it's something to do with the nature of computer memory or programming dependencies. Not complaining, though; Galaxy City was my starting home more often than not on blueside and I like to visit occasionally.

If memory serves, BABs back on the live forums mentioned that the engine couldn't mix animations like that, hence why they always have to create a flight-alternate of any power animations.

Gotta love fighting an EB/AV and they decide now is the time for their morning jog at full Super Speed.

The default keybinds have Z set to do that. (If memory serves.) In fact there are two commands: one that cancels your next queued attack only (/powexec_unqueue?), and one that cancels both your next queued attack as well as clearing whatever auto-fire power you have set (/powexec_abort?). The default bind is the latter. Personally, I have Z set to just the cancel-next-queued-only command and relegated the clear-both to CTRL+Z instead. As for the OP: no strong feelings. As an option I suppose? That way it doesn't interrupt jousting, as lemming said.

The idea was actually, yes, to give squishies an option for protection to the main three mezzes that all melee get protection from (hold, sleep, stun) specifically because they don't have a toggle-able option outside of FF and sonic's bubbles. In my own head, it was low magnitude only sufficient for one mez (mag 3?) and I figured the cost of having to go three powers deep into a specific pool would be a good enough balancing factor. Doubly so if we remove the hold protection so that they have to take Acrobatics. (It's annoying that power tooltips list both protection and resistance as just resistance.) If a dedicated mez protection toggle is still too good for the ranged archetypes, perhaps going with a previous idea I had to turn it into a pseudo-break free might work? Having it be insanely high mez resistance so it basically instantly ends all mez of those types on the character but only last for a single second and on a very long cooldown. The problem I see with that, though, is the resistance can't discriminate by magnitude so it would be able to shrug off some ridiculously large magnitudes of holds that even tankers would be jealous of.

Oh geez. I'm more out of touch than I thought. Thanks for updating me! 👍

The idea for Advanced Investigation was just more damage to destructible objects and faster glowie progress - basically complete object-oriented objectives slightly faster. Less damage (or even less push) from object explosions could be a thing; it can be really annoying to destroy a person-sized item and be sent flying from Cap au Diable to Peregrine Island because the live devs put so many zeroes on the repel number. To be fully honest, the pool idea started as "give people a permanent single-pistol option on all archetypes for RP during gameplay + complete objectives slightly faster + slightly better see-last-mob/glowie" but since the latter two are not standard effects and thus can't be enhanced, I had to add additional effects. That's where the other parts came in - some psi mitigation, a way to encourage mobs to gather (taunt was just how I figured you could encourage the mob AI without using teleport/draw-in), some status protection (as opposed to resistance) to the standard three disablers (hold, sleep, stun), and a self-rez. EDIT: The reason I went with psi defense instead of resist was to purposely block the immediate combo of "I take the psi resist power then slot it with two more psi resist globals so now it's triple-y effective!" and to still leave a psi opening since, without additional defense, there's still a strong chance you get hit and will instead take full damage. It was a cruel choice, to be sure. The consolation is that it would still be useful as a LOTG mule. I'm not good at actual numbers so if the defense by itself would be too polarized or if it's a non-issue to be able to slot Impervium Armor and Aegis' globals into it, totally change it to resistance instead. That's fair. Wait. There's self-rez in the power pools?

That was the idea originally, yeah - that you create the Distraction and it makes an invisible pseudo-pet that generates a very tiny amount of aggro so that enemies are attracted to it instead of the caster but the moment you generate any threat value by being in LOS or attacking the pseudo-pet stops being relevant to them. Probably also should've mentioned I assumed you wouldn't need LOS to place the reticle, since the distraction in-universe could be you throwing your voice or banking an object around a corner so the reticle represents where you intend for it to be seen or heard.

A very good point; I had failed to consider that. My bad! Thanks! I'm not married to specific powers/effects so it's all good. The idea for Distraction was how to get enemies to run over to a location themselves instead of using teleport or draw-in effects - like Metal Gear Solid and other games/movies where the peons will go "WHAT WAS THAT NOISE? [walks over to spot and stands there, staring at something on the floor]" With what Luminara pointed out, going with your -perception would be better. As for Contingency Plan, there were a couple of different ways I thought of going about it - such as an extremely brief but super-high mez resistance on a very long recharge to basically function as an instant break free that only frees you from current mez in that instant that it's activated ("Ha! I was ready for you to trap me!"). That ended up becoming Superior Reasoning as a normal mez protection instead. The reason I went with self-rez was to give people a pool option for self-rez and for the aforementioned "I tricked you" / "I was ready for you to [defeat] me once!" Your alternative effects are good and have unique utility, though untouchable specifically might be redundant with Phase Shift.

tldr version in yellow at the bottom of this post I saw biostem's thread suggesting Pistol Mastery for Scrappers and the responses it got. It seemed pertinent to post about a power pool I had been bouncing around in my head for a couple of weeks now. That being: Sleuthing. (Edit: this isn't throwing any shde at biostem or their idea; it just seemed relevant to post now since they mentioned a pistols options for a melee archetype.) A short preface: I think the existing power pools in the game cover the gamut of generic, not-full-powerset concepts and give good coverage of abilities to double down on strengths or shore up weaknesses very well so it's not lightly I suggest a new pool that would be available to every archetype, both conceptually and mechanically. That being said, let's jump in and I'll explain my reasoning as I go in darker text. Sleuthing You have experience as a detective, journalist, or other investigator that allows you to outsmart your foes and benefit from preparing for missions beforehand. This is a non-travel pool. Out of the gate, this would help cover the detective/journalist concept. I don't believe there's specifically a day job for that yet. Power Level Effect Sidearm 4 (Ranged) Foe Minor Damage (Lethal) Distraction 4 (Location AOE) Foe Taunt, -Range Advanced Investigation 14 [Toggle] Self +Defense (Psionic); [Auto] Self +Special Superior Reasoning 14 [Toggle] Self +Tohit, +Protection (Disorient, Hold, Sleep); [Auto] Self +Special Contingency Plan 14 Self Resurrect, +Protection (XP Debt) I think I got the power levels correct for a power pool? I'm still working off very old knowledge of live where it was 6, 6, 14, 20 but I know they've been lowered since then. If I got the level ranges wrong, please correct me. POWER DETAILS I'm not very good with numbers so I hope the power descriptions and you, the reader's, experience with existing pool powers will suffice to give an idea of how potent the effects should be. Sidearm (Ranged) Foe Minor Damage (Lethal) You carry a trusty sidearm on your person at all times. While just a small-caliber weapon only capable of dealing minor lethal damage to a target, it can come in handy in a pinch or be useful to attack targets out of reach. Damage: Minor Recharge: Fast This would allow people to have a permanent single-pistol power if they are willing to use the power (and pool) pick on it. Hopefully with power customization. The damage is small and could be supplemented with IOs or just serve as a mule. Distraction (Location AOE) Foe Taunt, -Range You create a distraction at a targeted spot, attracting the attention of nearby enemies. Though only momentary, this distraction can be utilized to corral enemies towards a desired spot or to cause them to cluster together. Note that the distraction is only minor, and the presence of you or any allies may supercede it in threat value. Damage: - Recharge: Slow Conceptually, this is the "knock on a wall" or "throw a rock in the distance to attract the faceless minions" trick. Mechanically, it would summon an invisible pseudopet at the location that does very low-magnitude taunt but is otherwise intangible or un-attackable and then disappears after a few seconds, causing enemies to gather around it. This hopefully adds some minor utility that is useful for smaller, lower-level, or inexperienced teams. It's not meant to be doing any favors for end-game TFs/trials that are built to steamroll. Advanced Investigation [Toggle] Self +Defense (Psionic); [Auto] Self +Special By leveraging your field experience, connections to information networks, and some prep time, you can prepare yourself for missions. While this power is active, you have a slight defense bonus against psionics as you are on the lookout for mental attacks as well. You also gain a passive bonus to damage against inanimate, destructable objects in missions and interact with other mission objects 30% faster. Damage: - Recharge: Moderate This would provide an option for psi damage mitigation. I chose defense because: a) without stacking it with other psi defense, it's less useful than resistance, b) being a defense power, it can't slot Impervium Armor or Aegis' psionic resistance enhancements to double its psi mitigation out of the gate. It also grants bonus damage to destructible objectives, which was actually the primary effect I had in mind. I wanted the Sleuthing set to give some sort of boost to mission objectives but definitely did not want any powers to affect rewards (influence, experience, enhancements/salvage/recipe drops). It's also the tier 3 power so that you have to take a prerequisite power pick in the same way as Tough. Superior Reasoning [Toggle] Self +Tohit, +Protection (Disorient, Hold, Sleep); [Auto] Self +Special With your honed observation skills, photographic memory, and some common sense you are able to piece things together with less information and tools than others. While active, this power slightly boosts your tohit chance and grants minor protection from disorient, hold, and sleep effects. You also gain a passive bonus that allows you to see the last groups of enemies and objectives in a mission map earlier than others as well as knowing which enemies hold keys to locked doors. Damage: - Recharge: Moderate This provides some minor mez protection (not resistance) that squishy archetypes could take and is purposely gated behind two prerequisite power picks. As above, I did not want Sleuthing powers to affect rewards or the market but still contribute something unique to missions. While the tech that shows remaining enemies and objectives can be quite jank (as Greycat pointed out in another thread), hopefully this would be workable. I don't know where the line is best - a third remaining? as early as half-way through? - but whatever point makes people feel the power pick adds something. Personally, I don't think seeing objectives or keyholders would break anything. Might just be awkward on story-heavy missions where your character isn't meant to know objectives until specific points in progression. Contingency Plan Self Resurrect, +Protection (XP Debt) You are always prepared for your missions with one or more contingency plans. If you are defeated in battle, you can choose to come back at one-quarter health and endurance as well as being protected from XP debt for a time. Damage: - Recharge: Very Long Mostly also meant for squishies but also potentially for melee archetypes that want a self-rez (eg: Invulnerability). I am aware Return to Battle exists. Very much the "ha, it was all part of my plan so I pretended to be dead / rigged an auto-defib to me beforehand!" Thinking out loud: should the player be able to activate this power early so they can completely avoid debt if they hard-read their impending defeat? tldr I don't suggest a new pool lightly and I hope this covers - a permanent single-pistol power option for all archetypes - the detective skills some comic characters have (conceptually) and powers that slightly boost mission QOL (mechanically) - give options for psi mitigation, mez protection, and a(nother) self-rez, purposely as a pool so it grinds against the Holy Quad Thanks for the read! I'm looking forward to hearing your guys' feedback on the idea.

I believe they're asking for the addition of more ancillary power pools cover a wider range of themes, via pulling from the existing primary/secondary sets. (eg: psychic and sonic on melee, ice on defender and corruptor, earth on blaster and mastermind, etc.) If so, I'm for it.

I don't think we have to worry as much about the cottage rule in this case because Claws Combat neither exists nor is in the same category as its parent (manipulation vs melee). People might complain if it were removed but they'd be trying to justify "taking away" a power they never had access to. (I have no opinion on whether or not it should be removed. As long as it serves blasters well.)

I love pun names so, while not bombastic, there's... Farmer Brawn - ss/fire brute on my alt account that I use for AE Permadonna - dark/psi dom (but thinking of remaking as symphony/psi) Repeat Offender - a solo defender and part of the villain SG The Usual Suspects My Hero - I have yet to level this one; chose the name so that NPCs will say things like "No way! You're My Hero!"

I'm with Rudra on this one. If you want resistance to your own element on a non-melee character, the epic sets let you double-down on your element and get the respective smashing-lethal-[element] shield. If your archetype doesn't have that element as an epic, certainly advocate for it to be added. To saiya: if by "weakness" you mean a penalty to defense/resistance to that damage type, no thanks. Especially if it's mandatory.

Minority or majority, your stance makes perfect sense. I agree with you on temp powers but not for lore reasons; I see people talking about keeping some stocked like pistols or knives because they want those as part of their characters. I think those should have dedicated pools or epics for all archetypes instead of having to fill the gap with temp powers in the first place. (I can also agree with accolades as the passives don't have any visual impact while the only click with any overt visual is the crey pistol whose effectiveness, to me at least, was always underwhelming anyway.) The most important thing to me in COH has always been having full control of your character's presentation. "Equipment" didn't affect your appearance. Power sets may flavor how you do your job but your archetype decided what that is first; you're doing DPS, CCs, de/buffs, or tanking regardless of it being fire, gravity, radiation, gadgets, or sheer willpower; regardless of your size or shape or outfit. Enhancements (being parallel to equipment) in a pre-IO world didn't affect your powers' appearance - if only because procs didn't exist - and I think that should have carried over into the post-IO one, regardless of lore. Even if that was in the form of displaying generic mez vfx instead of specifically-themed ones. Sure, this suggestion isn't a need - there's really not anything we need in-game anymore that isn't already added unless it's too impractical to implement given resource constraints. At this point, nearly all suggestions are just things we'd want. OP did even suggest it as an option, so anyone who wants the effects to stay for themselves can keep them. I'm a Rule of Cool / Rule of Funny kind of guy. I'll take more funny power/weapon customizations any time. 😛

Yes, I'm familiar with the usuals. I lurk the Suggestions & Ideas forum often but only post in bursts. I never see anyone disagree/jranger with a suggestion without good reason.

You can certainly use it that way. It's a bit weird though because this is a forum so it ... kind of is a place to hang out? Otherwise there'd be a direct-to-dev suggestion box. I'd also imagine you want to list your reasoning with your suggestions even if you don't want to discuss it since this is where a dev is going to see it. If an idea was universally positive and intuitive such that it needn't be explained, it probably would've already been implemented. I don't have experience or opinions on ice melee so I have nothing to add about ice patch.

Oh I get that. Those were intentionally minor examples of people overwriting the game's established lore for their own character concepts, in response to Luminara. What I agree with Klaleara on is the sentiment (I assume) of being able to slot chances to [damage/debuff/mez] without having to live with hyper-specific vfx that I don't want as part of my character's theme. No, I understand. What I'd like is either more visual options or the ability to opt for more generic/subtle ones for myself so I can have a hypothetical cryo ray or taser gun attachment instead. (Damage isn't necessarily a concern to me, personally, as those effects are already subtle and generic. A little bit of fire, sparks, or chill don't jump out much. It seems to be the hold proc chiefly that has a big, hard to ignore tesla cage visual?) Epic pools often have a power(s) in their patterns that is offered in different themes - like tankers having options for a single-target hold in fire, ice, and stone flavors. Having alternative proc options with different vfx seemed like a good idea but, as TheZag pointed out, we couldn't do that without having them be uniques in the current system anyway because otherwise there will be people who stack all versions of the proc. The OP and thread title do suggest an option to turn off the vfx - not removing it for everyone outright. If other people's proc confirmation visuals are still critical for gameplay, then the option could be generic fx instead of just turned completely off. And, just to be silly: Yup. (For context, it's a dual blades option in Monster Hunter that has no weapon model, so your character looks like they're flailing their fists instead. Don't take this as a serious response.)

Any "why" is better than none. Otherwise it's just change for change's sake.

While I don't agree with how Klaleara is arguing it, I do agree enhancements should be included in the things players have control over that affect the presentation of their character. Whether that manifests as a simple UI toggle for your own proc confirmation vfx, an extension of power customization at the tailor, or having additional options to cover more themes with equivalent proc effects, I'm game. More directly to the section I quoted: there's a degree of artistic license players should be allowed to take with their characters, even in spite of the game's lore. For example, stone armor says "You can transform your skin into various forms of rock and stone" but how many people rewrite it for themself as surrounding themself with stone taken from the surrounding environment? Or writing Mu mastery as their controller/dominator's electric mastery because they don't have a normal EPP for it. Or any of the lore pets being real entities instead of reflections, which power customization even helps with. Conceited, arrogant, presumptive? Sure maybe but no harm, no foul.

I had failed to consider that. As Klaleara said in the OP, it would be nice to have the option to remove the effects. For those who still want to keep them, keep them. If you need a confirmation of someone else's mez or debuff proc activating, the generic animation and particle effect should suffice. It's fine if powers with the same mez effect override the proc's generic particles/animation - you still have your own effects turned on for your use and you'll either notice your ally's procs display generic effects when their powers hit or your team already has those mez(zes) covered with actual powers. (Hold and immobilize don't have consistent indicators as they rely on variable animations or specific power vfx but it seems like an easy job to come up with generic visuals to add to the game's aesthetic language; some sort of subtle chains for holds and shackles or boots for immobilize - similar but distinct from the ones used to indicate slowed movement.) Damage is damage so I don't imagine someone needs a bigger clue than the enemy's health dropping in bigger chunks.

Right, sorry. I worded that poorly. That's actually what I meant to convey. Other games' equipment does change how your character looks and I equate enhancements to equipment, contrasting that (pre-IO) enhancements did not affect your appearance. That was one of the biggest selling points to me of COH's customization is that not all tankers had to look the same because of how they decided to slot their builds. I definitely like your idea of implementing more sets for more thematic coverage. It provides more options, and an out for people who want to adhere to a theme (or want to exclude a theme that doesn't fit for them). FWIW I do think the over-the-head text and the in-your-face UI text ("Such-and-such is doing a thing!") are clunky and overused implementations for power/mission mechanics that were added later in the game's life on live. Fair point. I am aware that's what enhancements have always been themed as; I've just always viewed them as flavor text for a purely-mechanical system that has no bearing on your appearance, having played before procs were a thing. (I'm also very aware though only half-willing to admit I'm crazy and wrong to think that way.) The live devs went to excessive lengths to explain things in-universe that didn't really need them, like power set proliferation.

You had me in the first half. More enhancement sets are a plus. I would have no opposition to them displaying visual effects if more sets were added with similar proc effects to cover more themes. As for dev time, totally understandable. I also understand what you're saying in the second half but disagree. There's a level of agency players are given over their character's appearance - including powers. You pick your role and how you achieve it during character creation; pool powers have subtle and generic visuals except maybe Aid Other looking rather tech-y (not counting origin pools); destiny and hybrid are similarly generic; there's enough choices in epic pools and judgment/interface/lore options to cover nearly all themes. Granted we never had procs before inventions existed but enhancements - which I'd equate to other games' equipment - never had a bearing on your visuals. And that is part of COH's strong customization. Otherwise magic characters would look like a walking jewelry store and science characters would blind everyone with their radioactive glow. Either options to have subtler effects, more generic visuals, or more procs with comparable effects (and bonuses?) would alleviate the situation.