megaericzero

I've no opposition at the repetition itself; I'd just ignore it if someone was shouting it to the sky on repeat about another topic. It's that that one reason is used to blanket-hand-waive every additional point made when that paradigm was already shifted thrice: EATS used to be locked into Natural (PB, AS, AW) or Science (WS) origin, that changed; Kheldians used to be locked out of the Flight and Teleportation pools, that changed; Kheldians didn't have access to power customization, that changed. (And Soldiers now have access to regular rifles, though widows still seem to be restricted on claws.) You're still not Heracles in that case. In the following section of your post, you mention the player designs the host, so you're still only inhabited by Heracles. That also further divorces the forms from being Heracles as well because now you're not channeling Heracles while in a non-human form - you're channeling his Zeus heritage or something else that's incorporated as a part of him but not purely him.

You're not playing as Heracles, though; you're playing as your own character that has a space parasite that used to be inside Heracles. You can draw upon the essence of Heracles. How that manifests doesn't have to be as strict as being the 1:1 flesh-and-blood person. Hot dog, it was both; I should buy a scratcher.

And no one suggested changing the default form VFX, so you don't have to use them on your own characters. How someone else presents their character doesn't impede on your playthrough of the EAT story arcs. The pro side can address concerns from any angle people want; they already know the anti side will dismiss it whether it holds water or not, or move the goal post. For instance: even if the COH universe explicitly states how the forms look in writing and with absolute authority down to the last detail, power proliferation was written as an in-universe event of a guy messing around in his lab and whoops he literally altered the fabric of reality so new powers became available. Before that point, Blasters couldn't be psions and Stalkers couldn't project electricity but suddenly they can. (I've said before that I think it was egregious for the Paragon devs to explain power proliferation in-universe. The takeaway from this is meant to be that the game lore can has been re/written for new options but I suppose the next response to quote this post will completely ignore that and clap back with "that only explains how existing power sets were spread around!" Or it could just circle back to saying that EATs are exempt from everything because their starting contacts have missions past level 5. Bit of a coin toss which one; maybe both.)

I feel like the heart of it is that the pro-form-customization crowd can suggest infinitely many ways that any of the different levels of not-fully-seafood can be explained and fit in with established lore but the opposing crowd will dismiss it as "it's not explicitly written into Sunstorm's dialogue so it can't possibly exist." Like the hero epic archetypes are this divine child that is divorced from the entire rest of the game in every single aspect and dictated by some grand plan left by the old live devs that lays out the movement of every hair follicle from birth to death with zero wiggle room. Even their redside counterparts don't get this level of hardline pushback - at least not as far as I've seen on the S&F forum.

If you want to draw a line and say that is in its own category of customization, and then draw a parallel to this, then sure. I already do think henchmen customization should 100% be a thing on this server. My concerns with both are purely in implementation. If someone wants to take Necromancy and dress their zombies up as cute anime girls, that's no more a concern to me than having someone "wear" their dwarf form like a cosplay or have their nova float behind them as a Jojo reference. The previous thread(s) on HEAT form customization have already addressed how a shapeshift that involves staying human - or the player model staying visible - can remain lore-friendly while still allowing that customization; everything from improper/incomplete transformation to absolute mastery over their form allowing two bodies at once. EDIT: (Thought about this after I hit submit.) If you're concerned that I don't care about the lore... I guess that's true? Not in the way it sounds, though. I think the game/NPCs can tell you things like where to go, who to beat up, what other people (NPCs) think about you, or recount what they think you did on a mission; I don't believe they can tell you who you are, where you came from, how you feel, or how you work with absolute finality. To you specifically, Rudra - who has mentioned before that you'll begrudgingly do a distasteful mission in-character, bring a piece of salvage, and delete it at the end to roleplay that you are dropping it off to actively undo your own villainy - I would imagine can see how much room there is for things like form customization even in an archetype that you and greycat believe is as predefined from head to toe as Peacebringers and Warshades are.

If you're using the power descriptions as justification, then I need to retake Anatomy 101. Power customization has existed for a long time now that openly contradicts the established descriptions of powers. Allowing the human model to at least show up in some fashion while in nova/dwarf form is no more egregious than these examples, if not allowing more human-than-alien shapeshifting (eg: parts of the alien showing up as ghostly armor rather than it being the main body).

So what's wrong with having an option with visuals like this? (If there's concerns with clipping or the human imitating the nova, let's say your model is curled up in fetal position the whole time while "encased" in the form.)

You keep coming back to the Crab Spider backpack. I don't think it's as strong a counterpoint as you do. That only takes up the cape/backpack slot on your costume and people have asked for alternatives for it as well - Arachnoid arms, Meat Doctor backpacks, etc. (As well as generic claws, maces, and rifles for the rest of the SOA.) The backpack's concern is that not many (any?) "extra arms" models use its skeleton/rigging.

I'd imagine you still have the tendril aura that comes with using PB/WS powers since we're talking minimal FX and not "No FX (except PVP)." Plus flight animations in nova, of course.

Oh, 100%. At least, if you ask me. I wouldn't dream of taking away current options; just adding more alternatives. Can't speak for others but I'd be happy with the other power effects as-is - lockouts, animation times, suppression/detoggles, etc - just changing the visuals to keep the character model in some fashion.

Based on some of the alternate FX suggestions in the previous recent thread on the topic, there's some other perspectives like: being able to see your human(oid) self inside the translucent body like Hisako Ichiki / Armor; having only some of the pieces of the forms appear either with attacks or while "transformed", representative of partial/temporary transformations; having the energy form appear separately, offset behind you like a Stand / guardian spirit; etc. EDIT: Granted, those would presumably require more work than a "no transformation" option, especially the middle one.

Based on previous threads about expanding/reworking incarnates, I'm more a fan of making the slots freeform - allowing the player to pick any six incarnates at a time as more ability categories are added - but can see how that could leave a bad taste as people figure out the six meta picks and only ever go with those, or let them sextuple-up on something (eg: buffs) and take them to insane levels. Personally, I'm not keen on the idea of having an option be an extreme buff to a power instead of a standard ability. It feels like it would be moot both mechanically and conceptually - similar to above, I'm afraid people would run the numbers and always, or never, pick the stat-boost alternative over the separate ability and it doesn't seem like it would add enough value to character concepts that isn't already covered by taking the existing thematic match and writing it off as "this is my power, not the well's." As for the groupings, I think they should be more uniform if they're not freeform - for instance, putting Genesis with Destiny rather than Judgment (which your posts lead me to believe is the suggestion but I could be misreading). Judgment itself could have the big CC mentioned as a tradeoff for raw damage, and perhaps another alternative that has major single-target damage instead of AOE; hybrid could potentially get the "boost one stat at the expense of another" idea that was listed in the old dev AMAs about what other slots might have done. (EDIT: Erm, these are listed by the slot that they'd be mutually exclusive with but, of course, would have their own name to differentiate them.) Seems too niche to be useful as-is and could be better served as a powerful (generic) confuse in a larger CC-focused category like the one that greycat suggested, I think.

Alignment probably didn't exist as a character flag before Rogue and Vigilante were added; the game likely just checked your archetype to determine if you should be treated as a hero or a villain, as those were side-specific at the time. Tacking those on to the existing character structure would be much easier than trying to change something as fundamental as the live devs alluded to those other things being.

Because I have incurable altitis and no wherewithal to micro-manage my enhancements on the way to 50.

"I shall call him... Mini Me."

I believe the functional reason is that PI and Monster Island are meant to be a way to farm EOE without summoning Hami as, once it's summoned, those monsters disappear.

On the whole, I agree with the sentiment that Force Mastery covers it but I wouldn't be opposed to seeing a more overtly energy-themed mastery anyway. (eg: Kinetic Shield for the smashing-lethal armor) Energy ("pure" energy), Kinetics, and Force Field get mixed and matched visually and conceptually (see: Energy Aura) yet also sometimes get separated (see: Energy Melee vs Kinetic Melee). Heck, Force Mastery borrows Temp Invulnerability and, as far as I'm aware, added Force of Nature even though that is available to Widows who are supposed to be more psionic in nature.

That does help clarify things, for me at least. Thank you. I was under the impression that you were wholly opposed - even in the scenario where no viable alternatives were found - but I see you just want to exhaust the other possibilities first. Sad thing is, we'll probably never know because it's unlikely we get a dev explicitly posting "we tried x, y, and z and couldn't get it to function."

My response was also in context of the posts upstream before the thread was necro'd where Rudra said

Playing devil's advocate, er, again: I see the distinction you're drawing between choice and option. Using your own example, though, your stance is that no one else can have wine either. Am I incorrect?

Hello and welcome to the forums! Magic-themed power set suggestions come up periodically. The regulars on this subforum have debated it to death multiple times over. The broad strokes camps are: this deserves to be its own power set vs this should be power customization for existing sets. Here's some random, relevant search results. Mind that the list is not comprehensive. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/49916-sorcery-powerset/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/52471-powerset-feedback-eldritch-blast https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/38242-arcane-mastery-new-powerset-for-blasters-defenders-corruptors-and-sentinels https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/38372-feedback-post-what-blaster-power-would-you-like-to-see-next https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/13484-eco-friendly-powerset-recycling/page/3/#comment-142769 https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/13484-eco-friendly-powerset-recycling/page/25/#comment-507435 https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/50112-some-things-i-think-would-be-cool-additions https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/50235-crusaderdroids-powerset-suggestion-thread-open-to-requests https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/12484-ideas-for-cox https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/49773-ideas-suggestions https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/45486-two-suggestions/ https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/22729-powerset-ideas https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/6442-proposed-new-powerset-group-arcane https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/50421-powerset-concept-staff-blast-working-title

As an option, sure. There may be other niche uses you'd be taking away, such as activating them when something is spawning in or resurrecting itself and is otherwise un-targetable.

Thanks! I'm glad you like them and I appreciate the feedback. -- Now that Marine Affinity is out, here's the icons I suggested during the beta that weren't implemented, for those that prefer them. (Again, no shade to the HC team.) This gives Toroidal Bubble a standard "recovery buff" symbol, Tide Pool a summoned-AOE ring, Barrier Reef a summoned-AOE ring and "defense buff" symbol, and Power of the Depths a "mega buff" symbol. marine-affinity-icon-fix.zip -- Here's a set of icons that repurposes one of the custom power symbols from the Tyrant solo mission. In that mission I think it was used for his version of Zeus' Lightning but I'm in agreement with the new Marine Affinity set that it works well as a "move + attack" icon to distinguish it from a normal teleport. This should affect: Electrical Melee, Shield Defense, Savage Melee, Savage Assault, Martial Combat, and Leaping. teleport-attack-icons.zip

Thanks for taking my, and others', feedback on Marine Affinity's icons into consideration. I appreciate that the frenzy icon is now the same color as the rest of the set and that whitecap now has the TAOE ring.

Erm, are powers 2 through 5 not Pacify, Confuse, Stealth, and Duplicity? Or is this a satirical suggestion that's going over my head?