Alchemystic

here's something I whipped up a while back! And a tech themed control set further into the discussion for @ArchVileTerror's consideration!

I had something in mind to mirror this based off Robotics, IDF, PPD Shells and Turrets that would be a 'War Machine' themed set with missile pods and mounted miniguns, where Arsenal would be more like 'Iron Man' Artillery Blast - Minigun Burst: A PPD Shell power that fires a burst of minor lethal DoT - Missile: A basic missile attack, launching a single projectile like that of 'Rocket' type enemies in various factions, dealing moderate lethal/smashing damage - Minigun Heavy Burst: Another PPD Shell power, dealing higher lethal DoT in a cone - Swarm Missiles: A power Assault Bot has, firing missiles in an AoE and dealing moderate damage - Aim: Standard Aim power - Missile Volley: An IDF Heavy Trooper power, firing missiles at a Targeted AoE and deals fire/lethal damage - Flamethrower: An Assault Bot power that sprays an area with a hose of heavy fire DoT - Incendiary Missiles: Another Assault Bot power, firing missiles in an AoE and creating a burning patch that deals fire AoE - Warhead: A new power that uses the same animation/FX as the Warburg nukes, bringing down a warhead to deal massive smashing/fire damage in an AoE

All of the 'particle' weapons are shoulder mounted, yep!

Got another from recycling a bunch of the powers from various robots to make a sort of 'robotic' themed blast set. I wanted to avoid using the 'laser' themed powers since they might better serve a concept all on their own, but the other powers belonging to Robotics Henchmen as well as their Malta counterparts works well, especially when combined with a few unique powers belonging to Arachnobots. Arsenal Blast You have an arsenal of munitions affixed to your body, allowing you to release blasts of energy from specially designed weaponry. - Photon Blast: This power deals light energy damage, and has similar FX to the Arachnobot Blaster's 'Energy Blast' power - Plasma Blast: A power belonging to the Assault Bot/Malta Titan, hitting foes with high energy damage and reducing regeneration - Photon Barrage: Deals moderate energy damage in a cone, and has similar FX to the Arachnobot Blaster's 'Sweep Area' power - Photon Grenade: Taken from Robotics, delivers an AoE energy attack that can potentially disorient targets - Aim: Standard Aim power - Photon Pulse: Deals heavy energy DoT to a single target, and has similar FX to the Arachnobot Blaster's 'Energy Pulse' power - Dual Plasma Blast: Another Assault Bot/malta Titan power, delivering a heavy blast in a narrow cone that can knock foes back and reduce regeneration - Photon Ray: A power that delivers superior energy damage at short range, using similar FX to the Malta Sapper beam. - Heavy Plasma Blast: A heavy torrent of plasma, reworked to work as an AoE dealing superior energy damage, with similar FX to Malta Titan's 'Quad Plasma Blast' with a larger version of 'Photon Grenade' FX on impact

this sounds like it could potentially be a mix of energy, lethal or toxic damage. As for the visuals? I expect solid structures made from animated textures, perhaps very crystalline and metallic in nature.

Is this still going? 10 pages in... what more could possibly be said by this point?

I'm seeing a lot of this too, when swapping costumes some pieces may remain and sometimes are untextured, I don't know what causes it, but it seems to be on any kind of costume, not just those using the new asymmetrical features

Nice work @Naraka! I'll add this in to the OP with the collection!

I think this discussion already came up, and the result was "what defines an iconic power?" and nobody really figured it out, so.

/rjanger did I do that right?

Take a look here, see if anything catches your eye!

@JoshexI'm glad to see you took the time to come up with some pretty conclusive numbers! Not everyone would go out of their way to present facts, so kudos! With that in mind, I would probably suggest that since Absorb scales with MaxHP as you said that we explore that interaction by adding Absorb to powersets that have a +MaxHP power (if it permits), as well as a few other powersets that might also benefit from it. Though as @Galaxy Brainsaid, Frostwork having +MaxHP can be pointless, so that is certainly a candidate for this change at least.

I think Frostwork is the only ally targeted +MaxHP power, right?

Let me know your results, because if the numbers say that Absorb is vastly inferior to +Max Health, then I'll consider this thought experiment a bit of a failure and wrap it up here. But if that's the case, I think I'd like to see Absorb powers incorporated into powersets via different means as not to encroach on the effectiveness of +Max Health, and instead find a way for them to compliment each other without being OP.

Mostly because +Max Health doesn't strictly indicate if the bonus HP benefits or modifies regeneration rate. Just thinking of this from a new player's perspective.

that's basically what Absorb over Time does, but I fail to see how it could be more confusing than a hidden regeneration buff as a side effect of +Max Health

Probably because, as you say, absorb is a fairly new mechanic and the old dev team didn't see fit to go back and change things accordingly. An oversight that can easily be fixed, I'm sure.

I believe the term is "/jranger" What do you think this is? a democracy?

Which is why Absorb over Time exists to compensate this.

There is definitely a mathematical element to it which calculates a suitable exchange, which is what I'm looking to explore. How much absorb (or absorb over time) would be required to match the standard +Max Heath values of the powers above? I'm not looking reduce the effectiveness of these powers, but create a version of them that is more transparent in its value.

only autopowers are permanent, as I noted in my original post, which is why I wished to leave those powers be and focus only on the powers that are click-activated, as they are not permanent.

So! One of the most confusing things I've found with the absorb mechanic is that it's almost functionally identical to +Max Health effects. You gain temporary hit points for a short amount of time, the only difference is that hit points generated by +Max Health can be healed/regenerated. However, since it's easier to see when you get temporary hit points from Absorb (the silver bar) than it is for +Max Health (no visual change) I propose that for the purpose of click powers that we replace +Max Health with Absorb or Absorb over Time. Autopowers with +Max Health will remain unchanged, since this permanently increases your hit point maximum and doesn't change unless the power is somehow deactivated. Powers affected would be; Chill Mastery - Hoarfrost Cold Domination - Frostwork Cold Mastery - Hoarfrost Ice Armor - Hoarfrost Ice Mastery - Hoarfrost Invulnerability - Dull Pain Energy Aura - Overload Regeneration - Dull Pain Stone Armor - Earth's Embrace Stone Mastery - Earth's Embrace With these changes in mind, we would likely see more benefit from enhancements since +MaxHealth is affected differently than Absorb. So, there would have to be a few changes made to accommodate this, namely removing any standard healing effects they may already have. There is also potential to add Absorb or Absorb over Time to a number of other powers in order to provide a boost to functionality, open access to healing enhancement sets, and improve on their theme. Good candidates for additional absorb functionality are; Empathy Field Mastery Force Field Force Mastery Luminous Aura Pain Domination Shield Defense Umbral Aura

The new origin power pools seem far more formulaic in their approach, and there may be a reason for that; they are exclusive from one another. Players can freely pick between any power pools they wish, but they can only select a single origin power pool, so that's why they all appear so similar in design. However, it's true that these new power pools set a new precedent for balancing, especially versus conventional travel powers. In order to compete, old power pools need to appear more viable with a little rebalancing. Travel powers should probably follow the same formulaic approach as origin power pools so they balance out against each other, and after that other pool powers should be looked at to see what changes they need to meet the new balance criteria. Travel powers should look like this; an attack power a toggle power a travel power (with new secondary functionality) a team power a strong self buff This means the nature of some travel power pools will change, but will balance out a little more evenly.

They can.

I wouldn't say so, the broaches aren't tied to an animation rig like gloves and boots, they're a static texture model that could be applied anywhere. In fact, the broaches change position and size when you change what kind of cape you use, and some of the broach models were even taken from chest details and belts already.