Alchemystic

Another thread wanting free Hasten/Combat Jumping, must be Wednesday.

Don't make me choose... 😭

I suppose if the powerset was to have a unique mechanic, it may not need that -def to be effective. I'd likely keep the -DEF debuff on a few powers like Cutting Laser, Melting Ray and Piercing Laser though

@tan702 I'd love to see more alternative animations for powers! But it may be worth creating a new thread dedicated to that so things dont get too hard to follow here in this thread 🙂

I guess just reduced damage on the additional targets? there's a few newer AoE powers that do this already, where the main target gets full damage, and those around him get minor 'splash' damage.

I was actually pondering something like that, having some sort of narrow cone effect on all powers when you reach max stacks of 'laser focus', or perhaps having it chain to multiple targets?

There are a few armor sets with more than one taunt aura; Ice, Bio and Dark. So I don't see any problem with adding another! We could do something with Fungal Armor as @Galaxy Brain said, make it work similar to Adaptive Armor and put a debuff effect on it when it's active, maybe -ToHit and -Regen like the Spore Cloud power. This would strictly be just +healing, I think other buffs might create a balance issue. I think it was the 'Primal Armor' set I did some time ago, taking assets from the scrapped Primalist archetype. My hopes were that they had some FX for the set already, but otherwise it'd likely use similar stuff to Nature Affinity (though probably more the glowing FX than the leaves and vines). I wanted to try and make something that focused entirely on the plant FX of Nature Affinity for this one, and luckily enough it had enough to work with. As for Rooted? Eh, it just felt fitting. I suspect Stone Armor is going to be looked at in the future (Rooted and Granite Armor specifically), so whatever changes made there would be reflected here too. And yeah, healing over time works too, that lines up nicely with Nature Affinity.

because her powers aren't being a swan, her powers are being magic/telekinetic, that's how she flies.

Dug up some old notes I had and got to work making it happen;

Following on from this thread I decided to take a stab at the idea of making a beam-focused blast set that doesn't use a rifle. In order to make it different enough to Beam Rifle, I decided to make this powerset energy/fire damage based, as well as reducing enemy DEF. This powerset has two animation styles; eye-lasers and arm-lasers so it can have a few different concepts to play with. I know this means yet another energy damage blast set, but I'm hoping by making it a split between energy/fire we can forgive that and play a little more on the 'heat vision' theme that comes with the whole laser thing. The unique mechanic I was thinking with this powerset is perhaps generates stacks of 'laser focus' that increases your accuracy the more you use your single target powers. Laser focus is lost when you next use an AoE power (cutting laser, piercing laser, laser blast) Laser Blast - Laser Bolt: Standard fast attack, dealing low energy/fire damage and reducing defense. Same FX as Robotic's 'Pulse Rifle Blast', with the animation of 'Psionic Dart'/'Neutrino Bolt' - Laser Beam: A harder hitting blast attack, dealing moderate energy/fire damage and reducing defense. Same FX as Energy Mastery's 'Laser Eye Beam', with the animation of 'Laser Eye Beam'/'X-Ray Beam AltFX' - Sweeping Laser: A cone attack power, dealing moderate energy/fire damage to foes and heavily reducing defense. Same FX as War Walker's 'Sweeping Laser', with the animation of 'Shout'/'Steam Spray' - Laser Burst: A much stronger blast attack, dealing high energy/fire damage and reducing defense. Same FX as Robotics' 'Pulse Rifle Burst', with the animation of 'Scramble Thoughts'/'Cosmic Burst AltFX' - Aim: Standard Aim power - Focused Beam: A snipe power, dealing extreme energy/fire damage and reducing defense. Same FX as the Mk-VI VIctoria 'Plasma Eye Ray', with the animation of 'Psionic Lance'/'Sniper Blast' - Power Beam: A heavy blast attack, dealing superior energy/fire damage and reducing defense. Same FX as Clockwork's 'Anti Matter Ray', with the animation of 'Terrify'/'Power Burst', or the classic Clockwork chest beam. - Melting Ray: A debuff power, dealing high energy/fire DoT and reducing both defense and resistance. Same FX as Clockwork's 'Welding Ray' with the animation of 'Mental Blast'/'Power Push' - Laser Blast: A massive cone attack, dealing Extreme energy/fire damage and reducing defense and resistance. Same FX as the Clockwork 'Anti Matter Beam', with the animation of 'Liquefy AltFX (old)'/'Thunderous Blast', or the classic Clockwork chest beam.

I was toying with the idea of this for a potential new powerset over in my other thread, but I sorta benched it because I didn't think there was all that much demand for a powerset that mirrors Beam Rifle in so many ways (especially when it's another energy damage Blast set) As @Naomisaid, it's easier to turn a concept like this into a new powerset, and if I recall correctly, making Alt FX for powersets (like Soul Noir) is just almost as much work as making a new powerset anyway. Personally I'd love the idea of character customisation where there are no 'weapon powersets', but the option to give every powerset different props and animations... like turning Fire Blast into a flamethrower, or making Assault Rifle into a War Machine style suite of munitions, but I know it's far from happening soon.

Kinda hard to explore the world with the AE screen in the way

Never. Homecoming does everything in-house, it doesn't borrow from third parties.

I've never seen anyone play actual characters from existing franchises (in RP anyway), but I've seen plenty of examples of people playing off-brand knock-offs of characters like Superman or Batman and not even trying to distance themselves from the IP. CoH has a wealth of possibilities when it comes to characters, so it's a bit uncanny when you see 'The Jokester' in your RP team and you have to play along with it... Now... a whole supergroup of people like that? Yeah, that sounds pretty dire...

Yeah, and it always ends up revolving around whoever plays the Superman of the group...

Going over some old ideas and I figured I'd try and use some of the FX from Nature Affinity and Plant Control to work it into an armor powerset. It'll share a lot of similarities with Stone Armor, but focusing on resistance instead of defense. Nature Armor - Wild Armor: Standard smashing/lethal resist toggle power (with a little cold resist too), with the same target FX of 'Entangling Aura' (coiling leaves around the player). - Barbs: An AoE damage toggle that deals lethal damage, has a similar appearance to 'Entangle/Roots', but larger and focused on the player (Stalkers get Hide at T1 instead). - Verdant Armor: A fire/cold resist toggle power with a +healing received buff, has the same floral FX as many Nature Affinity powers (Regrowth, Wild Growth, Rebirth, etc.) but on the player. - Barkskin: An autopower that increases resistance to smashing/lethal and boosts MaxHealth - Rooted: Same power as the Stone Armor version, but instead of rocks forming on the player's legs, instead vines similar to the ones from 'Strangler' coil around the character's legs. - Nature's Healing: A simple click power that heals the player and grants resistance to toxic damage and -heal debuffs. Similar glow to 'Regrowth' with leaves fluttering around the character. - Fungal Armor: Another toggle power that gives energy/negative/toxic resistance. Similar visual to Spore Cloud's target FX, growing mushrooms on the player. - Photosynthesis: Another autopower, increasing regeneration and recovery - One with Nature: A click power that greatly increases defense and grants a huge stack of absorb. Similar visuals to 'Rebirth', but on the player. Also gives the player the 'leaves' aura for a short duration

What you're describing is turning the game from PvE into PvP with bots. No thanks.

🤔

The animation times for Dual Pistols are being looked into I believe. As for Ammo Swap; it isn't just extra damage, there are secondary effects tied to each Ammo type. And even if that wasn't the case, being able to change your damage type on the fly is pretty valuable on it's own.

dual pistols has ammo swap for a reason

I'm gonna have to pass. Sure, smashing/lethal is one of the most resisted types of damage, but it's also the most common, so it makes sense. There are few powersets that deal 'raw' smashing/lethal damage, and those that do have additional effects to increase their effectiveness.

I'll point out I'm not against easing the access to certain pool powers like Acrobatics, or even merging the functionality of certain powers together (like we've seen with Teleportation), and I have a feeling other Power Pools may receive the same treatment in the near future.

I feel like you're missing every point that's being made here... I'll reiterate; Hasten (or any other Pool Power) being given away for free creates balance problems, because you have to make the choice to get it and not another power. Removing that choice means all characters are inherently more powerful and it will trivialise the game. Powers have value, that's why you have to choose which are the most valuable to you with the allotted amount you're given, you cant have everything you want. As for the Leaping Power Pool, you arent forced to take Super Jump, you can opt to take both Combat Jumping and Jump Kick and still gain access to Acrobatics. On the topic of that... Making Acrobatics inherent is arguably worse than making Hasten an inherent, because its three power picks to get it instead of just one. If you want it that badly, unfortunately you gotta make sacrifices to get it. And not to sound harsh, but if you're having problems playing 'squishy ATs', or you refuse to compromise when making power choices, expecting the game to change to suit you isn't the way to go about it.. you just need to work on a better build.

Because all Fitness amounted to was a bunch of passive powers that increase your base stats, the other Pool Powers have greater functionality.

Lets put this real simple. When you pick Hasten, you are making a choice to take that power over something else, because it is beneficial to you. If you are given Hasten, you are able to circumvent that 'trade' and receive it for free, thus causing characters to become unbalanced. That's the same of all Pool Powers, they are options that improve certain aspects of your character by potentially giving up others.