Alchemystic

@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? 😅

I can see a lot of Storm Summoning's assets being reused for a defense powerset, I sometimes poke at Support powersets like this for ideas (Such as Sonic Armor). However, the set does look a little too focused on debuffs and knockback rather than personal protection, so it would need to have quite a few powers modified to fit into the defense powerset format. Storm Shield - Toggle power with Defense to Melee, and resistance to Energy, Negative and Cold Wind Shield - Toggle power with Defense to AoE, Ranged and resistance to Smashing, Lethal and Fire O2 Infusion - Self Heal power Rainfall - Mez Protection click power Snow Globe - PBAoE toggle power that works as a smaller version of Snow Storm Mist Shroud - Personal Stealth toggle (replaced with hide on stalkers) Thunderclap - Unchanged from its Storm Summoning form Lightning Storm - Unchanged from its Storm Summoning form Eye of the Storm - Click power that grants defense to all damage types.

That's a possibility too! Though I wasn't sure it would be as rewarding since it's single target. Then again, it can be activated without drawing aggro or breaking stealth, which is pretty powerful I guess!

I just realised that Scrappers/Stalkers already get Targeting Drone as part of the Weapon Mastery Ancillary. So perhaps instead of Targetting Drone, they could instead gain this; - Optical Scanner: A new toggle power that increases perception and accuracy, and resistance to confuse and placate. Also provides resistance to perception debuffs.

Here's another quick one. I basically figured I'd mash together some of the stuff from Devices, Munitions Mastery and Arachnos Soldiers to create a sort of natural/tech themed defense powerset, with a few new additions to iron out the concept. Tactical Gear You have an array of specialist equipment that allow you to survive harsh conflicts. Tactical Gear equips you with a multitude of protective gadgets that provide sturdy defenses and emergency aid. - Combat Gear: New toggle power; provides melee defense and resistance to smashing and lethal damage. Slight body glow FX on activation only, with MinFX available. - Body Armor: Taken from munitions mastery, serves as a nice autopower (maybe with slightly higher numbers) - Hazard Gear: New toggle power; provides ranged/AoE defense and resistance to fire, cold, energy and toxic damage. Slight head/eye glow FX on activation only, with MinFX available. - Serum: Taken from Crab Spider Soldier, works as a decent self heal power. - Emergency Teleporter: New click power, this ability quickly teleports you to a targeted location and removes mez. Also gives resistance to mez effects and enemy teleportation for a short while. FX is similar to the defeated teleport that Dr. Aeon and Maelstrom have. - Surveillance Drone: (Tankers and Brutes) This power looks identical to Targeting Drone in effect, though now acts as a PBAoE toggle that reduces enemy defense and resistance, while also buffing the user's Perception and resistance to -ToHit effects. - Cloaking Device: Taken from devices, this power works nicely as a stealth effect similar to Energy Cloak or Cloak of Darkness. (Stalkers get hide instead) - Surveillance: (Scrappers and Stalkers) This power is taken from Arachnos Soldiers/Munitions Mastery, providing a heavy debuff that does not break stealth or draw aggro. - Triage Beacon: A power taken from traps. This slots in as a utility buff similar to Grant Cover or Ground Zero. - Personal Force Field: Taken from Force Mastery/Mace Mastery, I figured this would work nice as an unusual T9 power that functions much like Hibernate in some ways.

Oh uh, I had a few of these actually, over in a thread from months ago. 😅 Since there's quite a few there, I'll just pick the top 3 of my favorites for each AT: Blaster/Mastermind Controller/Dominator Defender/Corruptor Scrapper/Stalker Tanker/Brute Sentinel I was gonna maybe work on these some more over in my other thread, fine tune some of the concepts I have here into something a little more fitting, and give them some proper attention.

Lazy is the best we can do unfortunately, since we can't create completely new assets, just reuse the old. But APPs would certainly be easier, but likely not as exciting as new primaries or secondaries.

@VandenI was considering involving more APP stuff in this thread eventually, or perhaps in a 'Eco-Friendly Ancillary Recycling' sister thread. I tried my hand at it a while back, but only causally. I may focus on it some more down the line.

Perhaps, I was also considering that it could be used to fill in for the missing assets for Gadgetry. Nano Net = Force Netting Drone Blast = Force Bolts Jetpack = Thruster FX on the back? Drone Barrage = Force Wave Force Barrier = Force Cage target FX

After doing the Pain powersets, I was looking through other Praetorian enemy groups to see what else could be used. I've already used material from the Destroyers, Clockwork and IDF, but realised I didn't look at PPD so much. While there isn't a lot of material to work with, there's at least enough to form a basic skeleton of a few new powersets. A Blast set would be fairly easy, as would an Assault set, but Manipulation was a little tougher... I've had to grab powers from Force Field and Energy Aura in order to make it work. Thankfully, there isn't much overlap with the current Energy powersets (except for maybe dealing Energy/Smashing damage and some knockback), but the sets offer a little more control and debuff at least. I decided to name these powersets Force Blast/Assault/Manipulation, since that seems to be a common term in the powers I borrowed, and because I had to use powers from Force Field and similar styled powers to make it work. Force Blast You are able to project pure force to overwhelm your foes. Force Blast powers have great crowd control capabilities, with many powers knocking down your foes or reducing their movement. Attacking a foe with single target Force Blast powers while they are affected by Force Netting or Force Cage will create a powerful disorient effect on them that may also disorient nearby foes. - Force Bolts: A standard PPD power, adjusted to work as a quick DoT blast power. - Force Blast: A less common PPD power, which works as a heavier blast attack with knockback. - Force Wave: A power unique to PPD Sergeants, works nicely as a cone attack with knockdown potential. - Force Netting: Another less common PPD power, though with a little extra damage, this could work nice as a ranged slow debuff attack. - Aim: Standard Aim power for Blasters. - Impact Bomb: Unique to Investigators, this is perfect for a ranged AoE with knockdown and chance to disorient. - Force Cage: A few PPD have this power, fitting into the ranged sleep power seen in some blast sets. - Force Burst: A Suppressor-only ranged attack with knockback, adjusted to have higher damage and short range. - Unstoppable Force: A completely new power. This Superior damage PBAoE attack uses a smaller version of the Barrier incarnate power FX, creating an expanding bubble of force that knocks down foes. Force Assault You are able to project pure force to overwhelm your foes. Force Assault powers have great crowd control capabilities, with many powers knocking down your foes or disorienting them. - Force Bolts: A standard PPD power, adjusted to work as a quick DoT blast power. - Force Brawl: Most PPD have this melee power, and works well for a moderate damage attack with chance to stun. - Force Wave: A power unique to PPD Sergeants, works nicely as a cone attack with knockdown potential. - Force Blast: A less common PPD power, which works as a heavier blast attack with knockback. - Build Up: Standard Build Up power for Dominators. - Force Shockwave: A melee power unique to Justicars, fits in as a close range PBAoE attack with potential to disorient. - Force Maul: A less common melee power, dealing higher damage and knockdown. - Impact Bomb: Unique to Investigators, this is perfect for a ranged AoE with knockdown and chance to disorient. - Force Burst: A Suppressor-only ranged attack with knockback, adjusted to have higher damage and short range. Force Manipulation You can control and manipulate force to attack or control your foes. Many of your powers have a chance to disorient your foes, while others draw power to yourself to recover health or endurance. - Force Bolt: Taken from Force Field, this power fulfils a similar function to Ki Push or Power Thrust. - Force Brawl: Most PPD have this melee power, and works well for a moderate damage attack with chance to stun. - Build Up: Standard Build Up power for Blasters. - Force Shockwave: A melee power unique to Justicars, fits in as a close range PBAoE attack with potential to disorient. - Energize: Taken from Energy Aura, this power helps heal and manage endurance. - Disrupt: Taken from Stalker's Energy Aura, this works nice as a mez toggle. - Force Maul: A less common melee power, dealing higher damage and knockdown. - Energy Drain: Another from Energy Aura, this power works much like Power Sink from Electricity Manipulation. - Detention Field: Another pick from Force Field, this power works well as a powerful T9 mez effect that contains a single foe. Just like The Awakened, the PPD also have a case of repeatedly using a single word to describe their powers; 'Force'. So I think if any of these powers were to be renamed, substituting the word 'force' with something else like 'Kinetic' or 'Impact' could work. This powerset works nice as a sort of tech-themed blast set that doesn't require use of a weapon, but could realistically be used by any origin without too much bias.

@Dinictus I really like your idea! You put a lot of work into visualising it, including the descriptions and the custom power icons, which is always a nice touch! Though I think to help distance it from Spines or Katana, a focus on Smashing/Toxic would be a good direction to go in, so having powers that create organic growths on the arms and using the standard suite of melee animations would be the easiest way to go about this. It wouldn't be too hard to change the stone melee textures for something from Bio Armor, or even stuff from Dark Astoria/Banished Pantheon, and apply them over the fists during attacks (and probably remove the debris/gravel that spawns after hits with a Bio Armor FX instead). I'll add this to the list.

@FoulVileTerror I'm perfectly fine with working out stats for any of the powersets I've made, or if anybody else would like to try their hand at it that's alright with me too! 😄

I could certainly try! Which of these natural inspired control sets do you think is worth working on?

Before I made the three Pain themed powersets, I was originally playing with the idea of how to include Psionic Melee into Manipulation and Assault sets without too much overlap with the existing psionic stuff. The first idea I had was to combine Psionic Melee with Illiusion Control, which worked well enough on its own before I played around with powers from Penelope Yin and The Awakened. However, I managed to come up with something using that old material to create Illusion Manipulation, another psionic damage powerset that focuses more on trickery and control than Pain Manipulation. Illusion Manipulation - Vertigo: This power uses the animation/FX of Spectral Wounds, but instead immobilizes the enemy and deals illusion(psionic) damage. The Illusion FX would only appear on the legs. - Flinch: This new melee power deals moderate damage, uses the Street Justice 'Initial Strike' animation with illusion arm FX. Also has a small -DEF debuff. (This power deals illusion(psionic) damage on the first hit, and smashing on the second) - Blind: Taken from Illusion Control, though this version does not have a sleep AoE effect. - Feint: Another new melee power deals high damage, uses the Energy Melee 'Barrage' animation with illusion arm FX. Deals a good -DEF debuff too. (This power deals illusion(psionic) damage on the first hit, and smashing on the second) - Build Up: Your standard build up power. - Phantom Cloak: This power is identical to Devices' 'Field Operative' power, but uses FX of Superior Invisibility. - Deceive: Taken from Illusion Control, this serves well as a single target mez similar to other sets. - Flash: Taken from Illusion Control, this matches up to newer manipulation sets that include an AoE hold power. - Spectral Fear: Taken from Illusion Control, this works as a strong T9 power, with reduced magnitude to balance it out.