Alchemystic

For the metabuilders who dont care about game health and only want cheap unbalanced content, Thunderspy is that way ---> For those who clamor for the stagnant live server experience and hate the idea of updates in general, Rebirth is that way <--- Have a pleasant journey.

The AoE component for Dynamite is fairly weak, intended to use the new 'splash' mechanic that was included in Blind or Explosive Shuriken, where it's a sort of 'soft' AoE. The splash would be a low range and low damage compared to a conventional AoE. And yep! There's a lot of AoE, that's this set's gimmick. No special combo mechanic or unique secondary effects, just straight up extra AoE. Stun grenade was intended to be similar to Dark Pit, but I suppose a similar power to Char might suffice, maybe using the Spit Fire animation again!

Since there's been a lot of talk about grenade powersets and natural origin themes, I wanted to do a blast set themed around explosives. However, having multiple powers that looked almost identical seemed a little boring, so I instead included some of the old material from the 'Urban Warfare' powerset to give it some more variety. This powerset is designed to encompass a great variety of character themes, from mercenary grenadiers, crazed arsonists, streetwise vigilantes or thuggish enforcers. The explosive nature of these powers means that there is only one purely single target attack, and acts as this powersets special theme/mechanic. Pyrotechnics You have an arsenal of pyrotechnic devices that can cause explosive blasts or fiery blazes. Pyrotechnics powers focus heavily on dealing a mixture of smashing, lethal or fire damage, and often can cause foes to go flying, catch on fire, or both. - Throw Bomb: This new power uses the 'throw rock/snowball' animation to launch a miniaturised dynamite projectile, exploding on contact and dealing light smashing damage to a single target. - Dynamite: This power is almost identical to the Scrapyarder/Destroyer power of the same name, except it instead deals moderate smashing damage to a single target and light smashing damage to enemies in a close AoE radius. Has a chance to knockback. Uses the Fire Blast/Thorny Darts overhead throwing animation to mix things up. - Spit Fire: A power borrowed from the Arsonist henchmen, this power deals moderate fire damage over time in a cone. - Frag Grenade: A power belonging to many NPCs, deals moderate smashing/lethal damage in an AoE and can knock foes down. - Aim: Standard Aim power of blast sets. - Molotov Cocktail: Another power that many NPCs possess, this power creates a targeted AoE patch of flames that does minor fire DoT. Uses the Stun/Impale animation so it's not as boring. - Stun Grenade: Another NPC power, dealing light smashing damage and stunning foes in an AoE similar to Dark Pit. - Fire Bomb: A power borrowed from Arsonist/Scrapyarders, dealing high smashing/fire damage in an AoE with minor fire DoT, can also knock foes back. Uses the Alkaloid/Antidote animation. - Demolitions Charge: A power that functions like Time Bomb, though instead dealing extreme smashing/fire damage and a -DEF debuff. Can also be set off earlier like Oil Slick Arrow. To make it visually distinctive, it uses the appearance of the 'bomb' mission objective. Other ideas that didn't make the cut for various reasons: - Bomb Volley: A cone version of Throw Bomb, using the 'Psi Blade Sweep' animation. It'd work, but I felt it wasn't interesting enough. Intended in place of Spit Fire. - Minefield: A power that works similar to Trip Mine, laying several high damage explosives instead of one high powered one. Seemed like a good fit but mechanically awkward. Intended to be the T8 power, with Fire Bomb instead working similar to Molotov. Also on the table was the idea of calling Frag Grenade 'Pipe Bomb' and Stun Grenade 'Stun Bomb' for thematic purposes.

@Player2 likely a powerset befit of a completely new Archetype to be honest, the idea of a melee ranged controller is an interesting one, and I think it's been discussed a few times in the past. 'Matrial Control' was also mentioned a little while back over on @Darkneblade's thread. 😅

Substituting the normal Sleep/Immoblize powers with Fear is an interesting move, but it might just work 😜

Inspired by the Wand Blast set @Aberrant created for the Weekly Discussion a few weeks back, I figured I'd have a try at creating something similar using assets from a few different places. To avoid completely stealing the idea, I'm going to call this powerset 'Power Weapon', to be a little more inclusive to characters wanting to opt for other approaches to the set in regards to origin or style. The idea for an 'Ammo Swap' mechanic is definitely interesting, though to avoid copying the exact same damage types, this powerset will primarily deal Smashing damage, and then Energy, Negative or Psionic through the 'Power Core' ability. The FX for this are going to be based entirely on the material used in Sorcery and Demon Summoning, with an alt FX option to remove the runes so it looks less focused around magic. This way, you have the option of retaining the traditional Wand/Staff aesthetic, but also a means of making it function as any other origin. Many of the animations are taken from Arachnos Mace, along with wand/staff wielding foes in the Circle of Thorns and Carnival of Light. Other than that, perhaps using the FX from Bane/Crab Spiders might be suitable, since there are many powers from Bane Spider or Mace Mastery that are designed to work with a prop/weapon like this, and Crab can fill in the blanks, buuuut I'd like to avoid making this powerset Bane Spider 2.0. Power Weapon You have in your possession a sophisticated Power Weapon. This weapon may be an item of magical artifice, or technological machination, or perhaps even the instrument for channelling your powers. Power Weapon focuses on dealing raw smashing damage to foes, but can be further augmented by the 'Power Core' ability, allowing you to inflict additional Energy, Negative or Psionic damage. - Weapon Bolt: A simple low damage blast attack. Uses the standard Wand animation. Uses projectile FX of Spirit Ward (or Channelgun) - Weapon Blast: A heavier hitting blast attack, using the unique Arachnos Mace blast animation when used with shields. Uses projectile FX of Arcane Bolt (or Mace Blast) - Wave of Power: A moderate damage cone attack, using the 'Crowd Control' War Mace animation to project the wave outwards, knocking foes back. Uses projectile FX of Enflame (or Mace Beam Volley) - Power Core: A special power similar to Ammo Swap, imbuing attacks with a secondary damage type. Uses the animation from 'Lost Cure'/'Radiant Burst' animation. creates a faint rune aura and glow on the weapon (or the 'summon' FX on mace mastery) Energy Core: Changes secondary damage to Energy, adds chance to Siphon Endurance to Weapon Blast, Power Ray and Power Storm, and adds a minor -End to all attacks. Dark Core: Changes secondary damage to Negative, adds chance to Siphon Health to Weapon Blast, Power Ray and Power Storm,and adds a minor -Heal to all attacks. Chaos Core: Changes secondary damage to Psionic, adds chance to Siphon Recharge to Weapon Blast, Power Ray and Power Storm, and adds a minor -Recharge to all attacks. - Power Cascade: A PBAoE blast power that deals moderate damage, uses the 'Moment of Glory' animation to hold the Weapon high and blast everything around. Uses the FX of Rune of Protection (or Frenzy) - Power Cage: A ranged hold power that deals high damage, using the same generic Wand animation as Weapon Bolt. Uses a ranged version of the Translocate FX (or Poisonous Ray) - Weapon Beam: A sniper attack that utilizes the 'Mace Beam' power available to Scrappers/Stalkers with Mace Mastery. Uses projectile FX of Enchant Demon (or Mace Beam) - Power Ray: A heavy blast power with low range, using the same animation as the default Mace Blast animation seen on many Arachnos Mace powers. Uses projectile FX of Abyssal Empowerment (or Disruptor Blast's projectile) - Power Storm: A heavy ranged AoE power that blasts all foes around for heavy damage, using the unique 'Summon' animation from Mace Mastery. Uses the same FX as when summoning demons, centred on a targeted location. (or a larger version of Disruptor Blast) Power Assault You have in your possession a sophisticated Power Weapon. This weapon may be an item of magical artifice, or technological machination, or perhaps even the instrument for channelling your powers. Power Weapon focuses on dealing raw smashing damage to foes, but can be further augmented by the 'Power Core' ability, allowing you to inflict additional Energy, Negative or Psionic damage. - Weapon Bolt: A simple low damage blast attack. Uses the standard Wand animation. Uses projectile FX of Spirit Ward (or Channelgun) - Weapon Brand: Identical power to Pulverize, has slight glow FX (with or without runes) - Wave of Power: A moderate damage cone attack, using the 'Crowd Control' War Mace animation to project the wave outwards, knocking foes back. Uses projectile FX of Enflame (or Mace Beam Volley) - Weapon Blast: A heavier hitting blast attack, using the unique Arachnos Mace blast animation when used with shields. Uses projectile FX of Arcane Bolt (or Mace Blast) - Power Core: A special power similar to Ammo Swap, imbuing attacks with a secondary damage type. Uses the animation from 'Lost Cure'/'Radiant Burst' animation. creates a faint rune aura and glow on the weapon (or the 'summon' FX on mace mastery) Energy Core: Changes secondary damage to Energy, adds chance to Siphon Endurance to Melee Powers, and adds a minor -End to all attacks. Dark Core: Changes secondary damage to Negative, adds chance to Siphon Health to Melee Powers,and adds a minor -Heal to all attacks. Chaos Core: Changes secondary damage to Psionic, adds chance to Siphon Recharge to Melee Powers, and adds a minor -Recharge to all attacks. - Power Cascade: A PBAoE blast power that deals moderate damage, uses the 'Moment of Glory' animation to hold the Weapon high and blast everything around. Uses the FX of Rune of Protection (or Frenzy) - Weapon Beam: A sniper attack that utilizes the 'Mace Beam' power available to Scrappers/Stalkers with Mace Mastery. Uses projectile FX of Enchant Demon (or Mace Beam) - Weapon Smite: Identical power to Shatter, has slight glow FX (with or without runes) - Power Ray: A heavy blast power with low range, using the same animation as the default Mace Blast animation seen on many Arachnos Mace powers. Uses projectile FX of Abyssal Empowerment (or Disruptor Blast's projectile)

if I could radically overhaul one thing I would go for the most radical thing I can! I would change powersets so there is no separation of traditional vs weapon powersets, and give every powerset options for using weapons or other props as a means of using their powers. fire blast could be your standard fist-projected attacks, or delivered by a flamethrower, or perhaps a magic wand, or maybe even a set of high tech pistols. Melee sets would be able to have fist or claw attacks, as well as use of weapons or special props that deal the same damage. Weapons like Beam Rifle and Assault Rifle could be reworked so they fire from the arms like wrist blasters or cybernetic augmentation too!

I totally forgot about the PPD 'on hit' aura, that would actually work really well! and I think the PPD Shell/Armor guys might have the same suite of animations as Robotics henchmen, but I could be wrong. The Laser Burst and Laser Spray powers could be good candidates for a basis for Blaster Drone and Drone Barrage.

So! as many people may already know, we're three out of five on the origin power pools. So far we have Sorcery, Force of Will and Experimentation. Given that Utility Belt is likely going to be easily achievable in terms of what assets could be used (except for maybe Bolas), I figured I might look at what we can use to make Gadgetry work (if no assets were left behind by Paragon Studios). - Nano Net: Ranged, Foe -Speed, -Recharge, -Fly, -Regen You trap your foe in an energy net that significantly reduces their movement speed, attack rate and regeneration rate for a short time. Affected foes will also be knocked out of the sky. This power is strikingly similar to the Praetorian PPD power called 'Force Netting', which could be used as a base for the power to work from. The theme and the animations of the power seem to work nicely enough as a comparison to draw from. It may even be that Nano Net was based off Force Netting to begin with. If we wanted the power to look more original, maybe the animation could be swapped for something else. - Blaster Drone: Ranged, Moderate DMG(Energy), Foe -Regen You fire a series of blasts from a sophisticated energy drone. Wrist Blaster deals Moderate energy damage and will reduce the target's regeneration rate for a short time. This one is a little strange, because it's called Blaster Drone, but seems to be referenced as 'Wrist Blaster' in the description. If that's the case, the Praetorian Clockwork's 'Plasma Blast' power seems to work nicely, as it's animations look fitting, and it also seems to carry over the -Regen effect, which indicates it may have been the original inspiration for the pool power. The animation for this is what defines it, but the FX could easily be swapped out for the laser burst from either robotics or PPD shells. - Jetpack: Toggle: Self Fly, (Special) By activating this power will you will be able to fly at high speeds. While this power is active you will have the ability to engage a Turbo Boost for a short time to further speed up your flight. Jetpack is fairly simple. I think for this one using some sort of thruster FX on the back would be the simplest way to go about it, which grow more intense when the Turbo Boost power is activated. The 'original' rocket boost FX as seen on the rocket boots and sky raider jetpacks would work best in my opinion, though the newer ones as seen on the mecha or sci-fi jetpacks could work too. - Drone Barrage: Ranged Cone, Moderate DMG(Energy), Foe -Regen You fire off a barrage of energy blasts from an advanced energy drone dealing Moderate energy damage to foes in long cone in front of you. Drone Barrage requires you to have two other powers from the Gadgetry power pool. This power seems a little harder to work with. The Praetorian Clockwork has a shoulder-mounted weapon that could maybe be considered a drone, which could be used to fire a similar projectile to Blaster Drone in a cone. Other than that? maybe using the 'Steam Spray' animation to fire two wrist-blasters simultaneously could work, or the 'Full Auto Laser' animation available to robots and shells. - Force Barrier: Self, +Absorb You activate a force field around you for a short time that will absorb a high amount of damage before dissipating. Force Barrier requires you to have two other powers from the Gadgetry power pool. Force Barrier is a little more simple. By using the bubble FX granted by the Barrier incarnate power, we have something that works as a high-tech force field that doesn't borrow assets from the force field support powerset. Though perhaps as @Vandensaid, using the 'on hit' FX that the Praetorian PPD have would work just as well, if not better.

Giving it the same treatment as Envenom and Weaven would be nice, where it has a 'splash' effect that does a smaller heal to those in AoE radius.

The two are connected. Having them active longer means that you would need less recharge in order to keep them around permanently. If the recharge was increased to compensate for the longer duration, the issue of it overperforming would be taken care of.

It's already fairly easy to get Phantom Army to recharge at such a rate that they can be permanent, even without using Time or Radiation for those recharge boosts. of course, that means focusing your build on doing so, so it would leave other areas of the character less than optimal. Personally, I think that's a fair trade, if you want to make one power perform extremely well, there has to be sacrifices elsewhere. So personally, I think the duration of Phantom Army is fine, and extending it further will put more strength behind these already powerful builds.

Going back and looking at support powersets that could be retooled to function as defense sets, I was surprised that I missed Force Field, considering I created three other sets with 'force' in the name... so I figured I'd do another quick one. Force Armor - Deflective Shield: Identical in effect to Force Field's Deflection Shield, with the same FX. - Kinetic Dampening: An auto power that provides resistance to lethal, smashing and energy. - Insulating Shield: Identical in effect to Force Field's Insulation Shield, with the same FX. - Force Barrier: A new click power that gives a temporary +MaxHP effect, similar to Dull Pain or Hoarfrost, has the same visual FX as Force Netting's target effect. - Protective Shield: A new toggle power, grants your basic suite of mez protection, looks identical in effect to the Barrier incarnate power's bubble FX. - Waves of Force: A PBAoE toggle power for brutes, tankers and scrappers, deals smashing DoT with a chance to knock down. Has the same FX as Repulsion Field. - Dispersion Bubble: Taken directly from Force Field, provides a nice team buff similar to Grant Cover. - Force Absorption: Another new click power, granting a large amount of Absorb and a slight boost to smashing, lethal and energy defense. Uses the aura FX that Praetorian PPD have when they receive damage. - Personal Force Field: Taken directly from Force Field, fills a similar function to Hibernate.

@FoulVileTerror Don't worry about it! If it helps, much of the numerical data for the powers in that set already exist in game, you can access them by typing in the power's name in brackets, like [Tear Gas] or [Sleep Grenade], and then clicking on the link that appears in the chat box. They won't be the best fit for the powerset, but it's something to work with!

lets take the discussion about Dual Pistol animations to a more fitting thread

Looking at what powers are available in the powerset, there's a few changes that can be made to make it look a bit more no-nonsense: Pistols, Dual Wield and Empty Clips all have a version available in the Thugs mastermind powerset. Executioners Shot and Ammo Swap seem okay as is, they aren't -too- over the top. Suppressive Fire and Piercing Rounds could perhaps use the generic hip-fire animation and the 'huge' sniper animation respectively. Bullet Rain and Hail of Bullets are a little too difficult to change, however.

Having more choice over the Dual Pistols animations would be nice, there's enough from standard NPCs as well as ones from Thugs to cover most powers in the set. But I think Dual Pistols as a concept went from being gangsta to being over-the-top and iconic. It's all based off popular gunslingers in media, such as sentai, or action thrillers like Wanted, Equilibrium, and so on... The design choice was to put as much wow factor as they could into the set, but that also meant ignoring older material to do so. I have a prototype powerset I'm not too sure on that makes use of the Thugs/Enforcers powers for a more traditional Dual Wielding set, but I have no idea what would set it apart from the many Lethal damage based sets we got already.

I think the Homecoming team are keeping orou i26 under lock and key because they intend to use it to showcase their legitimacy as a development team, so I can understand why they're protective of it. though there are plenty of i24 and i25 servers out there using more accessible versions of the code.

After the private server was leaked, the source code was released to the public. I'm not too sure about the particulars of where to find it, but the main one seems to be called "orouboros i24", which is the original code for the game preserved before the game's closure. There is also i25, which is what Homecoming started with based on the efforts of it's predecessor, and I think i26 which is the version of the code we have now.

bit of a tangent, but it's semi-related... Can we maybe change Mace Mastery on VEATs? Right now there are 3 powers that are pretty much identical to the Bane Spider powers you can access, and its a bit disheartening when there are other powers that they could use instead. 1 - Whirling Mace (replaces Mace Blast) 2 - Web Envelope (stays the same) 3 - Mace Beam (replaces Disruptor Blast) 4 - Jawbreaker (replaces Shatter Armor) 5 - Summon Blaster (stays the same)

It is open source, Homecoming is just one of several development teams that have emerged from the SCORE project that were working on the CoH code. The reason why development is slow in this particular instance is because the main priority has always been game health, and so new features are only ever implemented after a great deal of brainstorming and testing. To my understanding, much of what Homecoming implements isn't always in-house, and can often be co-opted from other shards and servers (like the unofficial predecessor to this server). That being said, things may progress at a steadier pace if Homecoming's own beta shard was used more often to trial things in lieu of vetting them through third party shards/servers.

There's the standard wand animation, then there's the Arachnos Mace animation, then the Mace's sniper Animation, then both of those with a variant animation for use with shields. There's also an animation for Mace Mastery's pet summons. So there's at least 6 animations to work with that would be plausible. Two more if you want to re-use the Crowd Control/Whirling mace animations for a Cone and PBAoE attack.

Not to worry, this thread got linked a few times so no doubt the HC team saw your contribution 😊

I believe @Aberrant had something like that in the discussion a couple of weeks ago, and I was very intrigued by the idea! I was considering making something similar, though instead using staff fighting as a good base to work from, since there are some later NPCs with a few 'Staff Blast' powers that look interesting... perhaps paired with animations from Bane Spider/Mace Mastery, there may be enough to work with for formulating a similar concept.

Since villains already have exclusive Patron Power Pools, how about something for heroes too? Having a set of Patron Power Pools based around some of the great in-game heroes would be pretty nice, and perhaps unlocking them could be as simple as doing the Maria Jenkins arc over in Peregrine Island perhaps! The question is, what heroes are best suited for the job, Both thematically and mechanically? Do we take heroes from the Freedom Phalanx as inspiration, or do we instead opt for a different hero group such as The Vindicators or The New Praetorians? Or do we come up with entirely new heroes to take the stage? Perhaps ones that the Homecoming team create themselves with suitable story arcs designed as the prerequisite to unlocking these new powers? What do people think? 😅