megaericzero

tldr version: Rikti EAT plagiarized from VEATs but I'm not seriously suggesting it -- I was going through some older stuff and stumbled across this idea that a much younger me had. We're talking circa 2008. After dusting it off and touching up some details, it looks ... That said, my heart's not in it anymore but it would be a shame for this much work to not see the light of day. It could make for an interesting discussion at least. -- Costumes Being a very "Can I copy your homework?" / "Sure, just make sure to change a few things" with the VEATS, the first costume slot is locked into being an actual Rikti, with a low-level story mission allowing you to acquire a normal costume slot disguising yourself as a human or however you want to spin it. In a world where spaghetti code wasn't an issue, any costumes in slots 2-10 could be either Rikti or not (and port that tech backwards to VEAT characters for their Arachnos uniforms). As I understand it, though, duct tape solutions on the part of the old live devs are exactly why that isn't already a thing. For model choices, we have: Light Armor (for minions like Conscript, Guardian, etc.) Heavy Armor (for officers, with different shoulder pads and helmets to go between Mentalist, Chief Soldier, and Magus) Ceremonial Armor (for Priests, negotiators, etc.) And, of course, these can be recolored. (Headman Gunman armor was excluded because the permanent gun hand may cause clipping issues. You could custom model it with two regular hands, if anything. Heavy Assault Suit will be available as a power below.) The costume also comes with a weapon - the Rikti gun-rifle. The kind that was given to them after their visual update, as opposed to the old sword-only or rifle-only weapon models. Alignment & Story Something that would set this EAT apart from HEATs and VEATs is the ability to start as either a hero or villain. Each side would have its own contact to fulfill the epic (as in story) portion of being an Epic Archetype. Story was never the biggest draw for me so I'll leave people more passionate about that area to decide out how that plays out. The low-hanging fruit here would probably be hero Rikti starting as traditionalists working to improve relations with Earth and getting roped-up in Paragon City's conflicts while villain Rikti are restructurists who want to exploit the social and political gap between the two worlds. Powers Powers, on the other hand, are of interest to me. So onward to the meat of the suggestion: how the Rikti archetype functions! (This is going to look weird so bear with me.) The Rikti primary set is Rikti Weapon but comes with only two powers: Rikti Rifle (Ranged) Foe High Damage (Energy), Chance to Disorient Rikti Sword (Melee) Foe Moderate Damage (Lethal, Energy), Chance to Knockdown The Rikti secondary set is Rikti Armor and also comes with only two powers: Rikti Armor [Auto] Self +Resistance (Smashing, Lethal, Energy, Recharge) Rikti Training [Auto] Self +Resistance (Psionic), +Protection (Confuse, Fear, Sleep) (When this was originally thought-up, this would mean you'd have to take all four powers. Nowadays, I believe you can skip either one primary or one secondary as pools start opening up?) Now for the method to the madness: Instead of having "All the Powers" like HEATs or branched roles like VEATs, Rikti have access to specialization pools. At four powers each (this idea was conceived before all pools had a fifth), characters can choose their specialties piecemeal. Each build is limited to four specialization pools, similar to (but not counting against) regular pools. This fills in the space that full primary and secondary sets would. The specialization pools do not have pre-requisites like normal power pools; only minimum level requirements. The exact levels themselves are arbitrary but I'd feel bad for giving the pools access to notably good powers before the actual sets they come from (eg: Regeneration Aura), so maybe thresholds at 6, 12, 20, and 30? The Rikti pools and their powers are: Soldier Blade Slice (Melee Cone) Foe Moderate Damage (Lethal, Energy), Chance to Disorient Blade Eviscerate (Melee) Foe High Damage (Lethal, Energy), Chance to Disorient Blade Swing (Melee) Foe High Damage (Lethal, Energy), Chance to Knockdown, Chance to Disorient Blade Carve (Melee Cone) Foe High Damage (Lethal, Energy), Chance to Disorient Headman Plasma Volley (Ranged Cone) Foe Moderate Damage (Smashing, Energy), Knockback Aim Self +Tohit, +Damage Plasma Snipe (Snipe) Foe Superior Damage (Smashing, Energy), Knockback Plasma Burst (Ranged AOE) Foe Moderate Damage (Smashing, Energy), Chance to Knockback * These powers would use the sword-rifle weapon model since we didn't include the Headman Gunman model Mentalist Mental Blast (Ranged) Foe High Damage (Psionic), -Recharge Mesmerize (Ranged) Foe Moderate Damage (Psionic), Sleep Dominate (Ranged) Foe Moderate Damage (Psionic), Hold Mass Hypnosis (Ranged AOE) Foe Sleep Magus Lightning Bolt (Ranged) Foe High Damage (Energy), -Endurance, -Recovery; Self Chance for +Endurance Block of Ice (Ranged) Moderate Damage (Cold), Hold, -Recharge, -Speed Fire Ball (Ranged AOE) Foe Moderate Damage (Smashing, Heat), Minor Damage-over-Time (Heat) Stalagmites (Ranged AOE) Foe Minor Damage (Lethal), Disorient, -Defense (All) Guardian Protection Shield (Ranged AOE) Ally +Defense (Smashing, Lethal, Heat, Cold, Energy, Negative) Radiation Emission (PBAOE) Ally/Self Heal Accelerate Metabolism (PBAOE) Ally/Self +Damage, +Recovery, +Recharge, +Speed, +Resistance (Disorient, Hold, Immobilize, Sleep) Call Drones (Ranged) Summon Pets (Rikti Drone x2) Rikti Drone Fly [Auto] Self +Fly Resistance [Auto] Self +Defense (Melee, Ranged), +Resistance (Smashing, Heat, Cold, Energy, Negative, Psionic), +Protection (Sleep, Fear) Drone Blast (Ranged) Foe High Damage (Energy), Chance to Knockdown Despawn [Delayed (240s)] Self Dismiss Communications Officer Transponder (Location) Summon Henchmen (Rikti Soldier x1-3) Scan Target (Ranged) Foe -Resistance (All), -Defense (All); Self +Special (see target's Combat Attributes) Rikti Monkey Swarm (Ranged) Summon Pets (Rikti Monkey x10) Teleport Bomb (Location) Summon Pseudopet (Rikti Bomb) Rikti Soldier Rikti Rifle (Ranged) Foe Moderate Damage (Energy), Chance to Knockback, Chance to Disorient Rikti Sword (Melee) Foe Moderate Damage (Lethal, Energy), Chance to Knockback, Chance to Disorient Resistance [Auto] Self +Resistance (Smashing, Lethal, Energy, Psionic, Confuse, Fear, Sleep) * Rikti Soldiers are treated as henchmen - they can be given commands and the number summoned varies by level. To avoid undermining Masterminds, their thresholds for headcount are 6 (when you can pick up the power), 16, and 26. They don't have upgrades but, given the slew of powers you can take for support and for yourself as well as the ability to micromanage them, hopefully that balances things out. Rikti Monkey Monkey Brawl (Melee) Foe Minor Damage (Smashing) Psychic Dart (Ranged) Foe Minor Damage (Psionic), -Recharge Gas [On Defeat] (PBAOE) Minor Damage-over-Time (Toxic) Monkey Jumping [Auto] Self +Jump, +Speed Despawn [Delayed (240s)] Self Dismiss Rikti Bomb Nuclear Blast (PBAOE) Foe Superior Damage (Smashing, Energy), Minor Damage-over-Time (Heat), -Recovery; Self Defeat Immobilize [Auto] Self Immobilize Priest Transfusion (Ranged) Foe -Endurance, -Regen; (Ranged AOE) Ally/Self Heal Siphon Power (Ranged) Foe -Damage; (PBAOE) Ally/Self +Damage Total Domination (Ranged AOE) Foe Hold Regeneration Aura (PBAOE) Ally/Self +Regeneration Heavy Assault Suit Laser Lance (Ranged) Foe Moderate Damage (Energy), -Defense Sweeping Laser (Ranged Cone) Foe Moderate Damage (Energy), -Defense Fusion Explosion (Ranged AOE) Foe Minor Damage (Energy), Minor Damage-over-Time (Energy), -Resistance (All), -Regeneration Fusion Overload (PBAOE) Foe High Damage (Energy), Minor Damage-over-Time (Energy), -Resistance (All), -Regeneration Armored Exoskeleton [Toggle] Self Transform, +Max HP, +Resistance (Smashing, Lethal, Heat, Cold, Energy, Negative, Toxic, Psionic), +Fly, +Protection (Disorient, Hold, Immobilize, Sleep) * The Heavy Assault Suit is treated as a transformation similar to HEAT nova and dwarf forms. However, a power pick is not needed for the transformation and no powers are granted by it. Instead, the transformation power is unlocked by taking any of the powers from the HVAS pool. While active, the character gains flight, additional damage resistance, barebones mez protection, and increased max health but is locked into using the powers from that pool. To tie it all together, the Rikti inherent power is Adept (or whatever synonym isn't too corny). Through the power of sharing knowledge via Rikti psionics, mastering general skills is easy. In your hands, pool powers use secondary set modifiers instead of pool modifiers, making them more potent. This allows a Rikti character to pick powers that will fill their chosen role(s) more completely, acting in place of traditional secondary powers. Want to be more of a melee archetype? Take Fighting and Presence; the higher numbers on your pool powers mean Tough is your standard smashing-lethal shield. Support? Medicine or Leadership. Damage? Force of Will got you covered. Some pool powers might require custom house rules to not be broken (good or bad). I can see Hasten having higher base values being way too good. On the other hand, it's not like Hasten has a direct primary/secondary equivalent so you could argue it wouldn't be boosted since it's not necessarily nerfed with pool values to start with. Similarly, Burnout wouldn't be of any benefit since your only recharging powers as a Rikti would be the level 0 rifle and sword attack but, with Rikti pools being a custom thing in the first place, they could feasibly be coded as primary/secondary sets instead of pools/ancillaries similar to VEAT branches. SCR applies, of course. And - because someone will probably ask to tack this on - potentially Rikti patron pools to round things out. This part I don't have fleshed-out but perhaps based on the four horsemen from the Lady Grey task force; giving dark (Death), electric (Famine), poison/radiation (Pestilence), and [generic teamwork powers but not overlapping leadership] (War). Each set potentially giving a toggled AOE debuff (Cloak of Fear, Conductive Aura, Radiation Infection?, [still not sure what to give War]) that can be used even while in the HVAS, given the characters they're based on. Alternatively, patron pools based on other big-name Rikti like Lord of War for better armor for those who want to fully tank, Dragon for fire damage to DPS harder, and Master at Arms for calling in more pets/AOEs? -- And that about does it for this suggestion. For unanswered questions like why pacifists in the traditionalist faction would go into combat on heroside or how things would play out if you're a Rikti character doing the RWZ arcs... I dunno. Never got that far. Sounds like something you would want to write in to the EAT contact or RP in yourself as a player. The whole idea is honestly null in the face of rolling a character to RP as a human-disguised/transformed Rikti. Especially with the prismatic aether costumes. As I said at the beginning: just throwing this out in case it makes for a fun discussion. Oh, and before I forget: #powercreep

There was that time Captain America did a front-flip off his motorcycle in ... Age of Ultron I think? Tossed the thing at some guys. I want to say one of the Decepticons in the first Bay film grabbed a passing motorcycle by the handlebars and whacked an Autobot with it. They're already giant robots of course, though. And Dante has a motorcycle that splits into dual-wielding chainsaws or something in DMC5. 😜 (Dunno, never played - just saw it in the commercials.)

Other - more power sets and ancillary power pools. Especially proliferating concepts across more categories (eg: Water Control, Gravity Manipulation, Rifle Assault) and hopefully all the existing elemental categories for all the archetypes' APPs (Fire, Ice, Elec, Earth, Dark mastery). Also more costume parts, especially if they add things we don't have yet like the coveted long skirts. I think they meant Super Speed.

So a mudkip?

My OCD wants to say 3 imps, 2 gremlins, and 1 stone to parallel the control sets. 😛 The elements getting representation would be nice, either as individual sets or as a single Elementals/Golems set, with or without Swap Ammo-style mechanics.

Count me in, especially as a gateway to accessing the other weapons for power sets as well.

The most drastic of those nerfs happen because people achieve a level of power or efficiency that shouldn't be possible. There's no way you can say anyone - dev or player - should want the game to be herding an entire zone into a trashcan for ten minutes and then eliminate all mobs in two seconds by clicking one attack power. It makes for fun narrative in Konosuba but turns COH into an idle game. As for power creep, buffs and nerfs are an attempt to reach an equilibrium. Where that point lies is subjective, though. Increasing performance, however minor, does shift where we're at. The people who bring up power creep figure we're at the equilibrium point, the same as those requesting this change to Weave because they figure we're not there yet. I get where you're coming from, thematically. I took a self-defense class in early college and, yeah, we learned breathing, stance, and dodging before punching; before learning to throw, we had to learn how to properly get thrown. In the case of Weave, that's where the thematics break down and gameplay is taking precedence over theme. You're an archetype (and this is just a repeat point) that specializes in ranged damage, lockdown, or has pets - your vulnerability to damage is your weakness. It's even offset by the fact that you're attacking from a distance; there are already some moves you aren't even in danger from. Heck, some mobs only have a ranged attack as a formality. If you want to shore-up that weakness, it does need to come at a cost. In this case, the price is multiple power picks (plus slot investment). You can take Hover, CJ, Maneuvers, and Weave; each pick reduces your remaining pool options and how many other powers you can take. Weave costs more in picks because it provides more defense. Especially if people are going to dismiss CJ and Hover together as redundant because that shows movement is not of value to you, further proving Weave's defense values are significant. If people want to argue that Maneuvers provides its defense bonus to a whole party, that's not a benefit you can reap on your own and being on a team means you have even less to worry about defense because there's already more bodies and potentially buffs going around; at that point it's more just building an argument that Maneuvers should switch places with Tactics because it has so much potential value as a power pick. -- EDIT: The game provides you with 24 power picks. That's enough to take your entire primary, secondary, ancillary, and one travel power. If none of those powers are skippable yet survivability is an issue, you should be mad at your power set(s) for not providing the tools to do your job. If there are skippable powers, then it's a non-issue because you have the room. Anything beyond that is just build issues, which other players can help with.

That's cool that you like playing builds with softcapped defense. Genuinely. "Can't touch this" builds are fun. Extreme recharge builds can be fun too. A lot of playstyles can be fun. Some types of builds are better lent to specific archetypes'/sets' built-in playstyle or flavoring. You can make a blaptroller, offender, etc. but it's going to take some sacrifices. Are there specific archetypes this change to weave is meant to be for and what is the bar for difficulty? I am with you 100% that boxing and kick feel like a useless pick. I don't think that making weave more accessible is the solution, though. In a world where cross punch wasn't a bandaid solution that's already implemented, adding powerful utility to one of them like Air Superiority's knockdown would be a better route. Defense has extreme value in this game despite the 5% ceiling. Not getting hit means you also don't take debuffs or mez and your max HP value matters less and less as you approach the cap. It also doesn't soft cap at different values so a squishy can be as evasive as anyone else. Add on top of that the fact that you can nickel-and-dime your defense up with pools - unlike resist or healing. It's intentional that weave is behind two prerequisites given it's the biggest value among multiple pool options.

I really don't mean to come off as an a-hole but, honestly, that's a choice. There are a handful archetypes that don't really even benefit from weave (depending on armor set). The meta has been about capped defense for a long, long time now but if that's all you're building maybe it's worth trying something suboptimal. It might suck but it might also turn out to be a fun and refreshing character.

The devil is in the details. Sorcery gives you teleport as a BOGO for taking its version of fly. Hasten has always been a controversial power and, even then, has drawbacks - not compensating your increased endurance consumption, a crash, and a bar for build investment to perma. The delta in performance with and without stamina made the game pretty unplayable and the live devs did eventually agree. And that was for every archetype. The difference between weave and no-weave is far less and not applicable to all archetypes. Yes. You chose an archetype that isn't armored. It's one of your vulnerabilities and there's a cost to shore it up. Before you tear me a new one on game design for saying that, I did acknowledge in an earlier post that it's a Gygax design artefact. Games have shifted to have less polarized class stats over the years but there's still some level to which classes should differ and that includes having deficits. Otherwise your choice is reduced to just what animations you want your tankmage to have.

Would that be because the tier three powers are all travel powers except for those four?

Your inherent, primary, and secondary powers are decided by your archetype and are your character's playstyle/role; the individual sets just flavor it. Pools and epics/patrons allow you to break the mold - potentially letting you double-down on your strengths but, more often than not, adding new functions or shoring up weaknesses. Making a squishy character more durable comes at a cost because you're compensating for your archetype's deficit. It's gygaxian but this game was made when that was the pinnacle of MMO balance. The devs have done wonders to chip away at that "you shouldn't be able to solo" philosophy with changes like adding survivability tools to all Manipulation sets but that is an archetype-specific solution and doesn't free up multiple power picks. Changing how pool powers behave would have much further-reaching consequences. You want to make a power skippable so it frees up a power choice to take a power you also consider skippable? Not to sound rude, that's just how the sentence is reading for me.

/hide is already used for hiding your online status.

It is weird that people are arguing back and forth about counterfeiting when a much cleaner justification would be paying homage. Like Kamala Khan cosplaying Carol Danvers.

I'm of the opinion that NPCs having unique costume pieces is alright as long as players have access to generic alternatives. How broad or how specific that gets can vary. In this case, a staff with a symmetrical spearhead in place of Shadowhunter's or a javelin in place of Valkyrie's would be fine. So +0.5 to this suggestion?

DISCLAIMER: Standard Code Rant applies to every part of this post. My bad if this has been suggested before. tldr: Could we give weapon-wielding characters a Judgment option that uses their weapon in the attack animation? Either as alternate animation options for each of the existing Judgment powers or as its own, new Judgment option. This would primarily be for characters whose concept revolves around a signature/legendary weapon. If memory serves, the live devs said Brawl was a coding nightmare. Adding it as a power customization may alleviate this headache as the game wouldn't have to check if the weapon is drawn - just which animation the player set it to. This also allows people to keep the classic judgment animations even if they have weapons. Since the costume UI is able to show/hide options, this could help prevent non-weapon-wielders from selecting the weapon animations or for weapons from selecting each other's animation (eg: Broad Sword selecting Assault Rifle's option). Or, heck, maybe even let characters select a weapon they don't have the set for. Maybe the real power was the friends this uncharacteristically powerful Crey pyro pistol we found along the way (but for some reason only use for judgment attacks). Admittedly, I'm a weeb who really just wants a Sword Beam option in the game. There is at least a precedence in, of course, Thor with Mjolnir and Stormbreaker. I don't remember if He-Man, She-Ra, or the Thundercats used their weapons to attack from a range but they could also potentially fit the bill. And there is a plethora of examples in videogames of varying genres. This option should apply to: Rifles (assault, pulse, beam, Arachnos) Bows Dual Pistols the medieval one-handers (axe, sword, mace, Arachnos mace) Katana (and Ninja Blade) Claws (and Arachnos claws) Dual Blades Staves Titan Weapons Ones I'm dubious on but could still be applicable: Shields the Crab Spider backpack Spines (? It's more of a power customization but I'm not the weapon police.) As for the animations, it does seem like new animations may have to be made and, lurking the forums, I'm eminently aware that's a gigantic ask. Recycling animations may be more feasible but it wouldn't surprise me if they aren't able to set a section of the weapons' models as FX origin points. Still, assuming we could recycle them, perhaps melee weapons using their PBAOE animations for Void/Mighty, their wide swing for Cryo/Vorpal, and their heavy single-target animations for Ion/Pyronic. For ranged weapons maybe their cone animations for Cryo/Vorpal and their long snipe for Ionic/Pyronic; the PBAOE nature of Void/Mighty seems a bit awkward for them though. These aren't meant to be hard and fast animation suggestions - just tossing out ideas. There's plenty of room for nuance like the Moment of Glory fist-to-the-sky for melee weapons doing Ion or a shield having the Shield Charge animation for using Vorpal. If this was limited to a single new Judgment power exclusively meant for weapons, there is an opening to add lethal damage. Vorpal does it as a secondary effect on its core branch but it doesn't look like there are any that do lethal primarily. That would fit most weapons. It could also have a particle effect like the ones made by Focus (Claws), Shatter (War Mace), and Cleave (Battle Axe) or a light blast-type effect for ranged weapons - for characters that want their bow of light or holy swords. Again, just tossing out ideas. Personally, I would still hope this could be applied to all judgment options. This way, people can have their Infernal axe, their Spark Blade katana, etc. This suggestion is in lieu of something more complex such as being able to designate any set as a weapon set (eg: "Electric Melee but it comes from a staff" or "Water Blast but it's pistols") or a dedicated "custom signature move" system. I did briefly think of those but they seemed like more of a COH2-level undertaking. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

How do you know that you'll like the set you're switching to any better?

If memory serves, the game engine can't mix animations. That's why every movement needs a floating alternate. I want to say it was BABs on live that said it. Dunno if things have changed on the backend for HC. Great idea nonetheless.

If memory serves, disabling XP was originally intended for people who wanted to complete all the story arcs in each level range without out-leveling them, especially on the low-end. From what someone said in a related thread, double XP was meant to allow people to recreate old characters and fast-track them back to level 50. The reasons for these two things to exist were not related to each other. Personally, I'm not opposed to giving people something for playing with XP turned off, but INF definitely doesn't seem to be it. The only thing it would create is INF-lation. Getting SOs can be tough while leveling your first character but, once you have a 50, everything you can buy from NPCs is so cheap money is no longer an object for it. The only thing increasing INF gain would achieve is putting more INF into circulation faster, raising the asking prices on the market. All that really does is shift the decimal on your reward window and market listings one space to the right.

I'm lost. What is the reason for the suggestion? Is it the usual call to crack down on farming? Or is it, like, people exit their missions and AFK with Burn still on auto-fire and kelika is annoyed at the consistent noise it makes?

Interesting idea. It might cause unintended behavior, though. Imagine a tanker (or brute?) genuinely trying to keep aggro but the scrapper keeps taunting the AV because they refuse to be any amount less than maximum buff in whatever stat is being boosted. And then, on the flip side, if we avoid the above by having it not stack with itself and last long enough that it only needs to be cast every once in a while, it's just adding a chore for the scrapper - press the confront button every x seconds or else be missing your free buff.

Gonna be "that guy" - as an option, yes? I prefer my character turning themself to face the target. It lets me queue up a cone on a target while the power before it is still animating on a different target. Also, imagine trying to aim Piercing Shots if all cones acted like Vorpal.

Makes me wonder if it would be possible to use phasing to achieve a sort of either-or for Mercy Island. Like if your character comes from Breakout, start in Fort Darwin with the old setup; if your character comes from Galaxy City or directly from creation, start in Mercy with the new setup.

My bad. The point of that contrast was meant to be that I thought Brutes stood out as a more reliable DPS Scrapper, at least according to people I've played with, which would make it their niche. If damage is damage, I can see why the Brute comes off as a dollar-store Tanker. Fair point. Personally, I'm not concerned about Brutes' performance; just throwing out random ideas.

Would you prefer if Brutes' base damage was increased but Fury's potency was reduced to compensate? Something like having higher base damage at zero Fury and reaching around the same final numbers at max Fury? I'm no mathematician but if it's recalculated that way with only raw damage in mind, it seems like it could work as a buff overall as enhancements would now be working with higher base numbers and the damage buff cap would now be further away. For those worried about Fury not being 100% all the time, would it be better if it reached maximum buff before the last few percent (~90-95%) and the rest was just padding that could build and decay without impacting the buff value? Close friends always seemed to prefer Brutes in the past, reasoning that they'd prefer the always-on damage buff that fluctuates slightly over sporadic double damage that they couldn't predict. It's been a long time since I looked at numbers or discussions - did things shift?