Alchemystic

Oops! 😂

Does anyone know how far along the old devs were with the Utlity Bely pool? I'm curious to see if the unique 'long knockdown' mez effect that was planned for the Bolas power could be used to similar effect for the T1 power of the Hellfire Manipulation set.

I think Hellfire Assault was in the works, but it may have been shelved for a buncha reasons, which is why I focused on a Manipulation set instead.

Somewhat inspired by this post. I had a look to see what could be done to try and achieve a good Whip Melee set, but found that there wasn't really much that could be used to make a complete set. However, I did find that there was just about enough to create a Manipulation set for Blasters just using assets from Demon Summoning alone. Hellfire Manipulation - Hellish Binds: Using the animation/FX of 'Hell On Earth' (except a little faster and targeting the legs), we have all we need for a simple immobilize power. - Flay: Identical to 'Corruption' only it is instead a light melee attack with no ranged projectile. - Crack Whip: The exact power from Demon Summoning. - Lash: The exact power from Demon Summoning. - Build Up: Your typical Build Up power. - Hellish Aura: Identical to the Hellfire Gargoyle's 'Hellfire Aura'. However, this power also gives Absorb and Recovery. - Hellish Coil: This power uses the same FX and whip prop of Crack Whip, with the animation of Katana's 'The Lotus Drops' - Abyssal Reconstruction: Identical to the Ember Demon's power of the same name, except it is now a 'self' power, not an AoE. - Infernal Grasp: Like Hellish Binds, this power uses the 'Hell on Earth' animation/FX, but with no changes, forming a high DoT hold power.

Yeah, I think maybe swapping a few powers around would be needed, otherwise you would have duplicate powers here and there. Devices/Traps would be the worst offender, but I think Trick Archery, Plant Manipulation and Temporal Manipulation may need some changes too.

Hell On Earth could definitely be a hold power judging by its animation

The problem is that there's only 4 current whip animations at the minute; Corruption, Lash, Crack Whip and Hell on Earth. If we also add Build Up and Taunt/Placate that's 6 powers we can put together for a 'whip' powerset. So, we would be missing 3 powers (4 if you count Assassin's Strike). I'm not entirely sure if it's possible to reuse the whip FX with different animations to make up the rest of the powers, or if we need to look elsewhere for something that fits.

I think at a push it may be more feasible to use the two color options when customising powers to apply to pet costumes. So if you picked Brown/Olive, that would be the camo that Mercenaries use, or on robots it would be the color of their metal plating, and on thugs it would be the colour of their shirts/accessories and so on.

Just some ideas I had for what two different MM sets might look like; Knights: Archer (Tier 1): Man At Arms (Tier 2): Crusader (Tier 3): Suits: Agent (Tier 1): Specialist (Tier 2): G-Man (Tier 3):

Yeah, this is all hypothetical stuff anyway for far in the future, but I firmly believe that from a narrative point of view giving Striga over to redside and showcasing the interactions between 5th Column/Council/UDF its a good move. Doubly so if the present Striga material is moved to Boomtown and enhances the content being showcased there too.

The only other idea that comes to mind for attack powers that wouldn't take much effort is making it a bit more melee focused like Demon Summoning. I'm thinking that it might be possible to make close ranged versions of Mental Strike and Telekinetic Blow, and having the 3rd attack look much like Flurry. You just summon a bunch of disembodied fists to do the smacking.

Actually creating an Echo is as simple as moving the map from one access point (Ferry/Submarine) to another (Ouroboros) and putting the words 'Echo:' in front of it. And I think more people would appreciate having a ready-made redside zone ready to fill with more content than having a stale old hazard zone that serves no purpose other than a Task Force being present. Besides, losing a hero zone to the villains is good for narrative, it shows some actual conflict and intrigue between both sides, not this static stalemate that's gone on for years. The plan for Hazard Zones was to entirely re-purpose them, not just remodel them, completely change the nature of them. I think one of them becoming a redside area was entirely in the cards.

I don't know how you jumped to that conclusion but feel free to weigh in with a suggestion sometime.

I have indeed! I was actually basing the attacks off characters such as these, mostly Noob Saibot from the Mortal Kombat series.

Like I said, there's nothing there except TF contacts (and exploration badges). which is why I think moving those contacts somewhere else wouldn't harm the game. It was always Paragon Studios ambition to completely revamp Hazard Zones so they have more content, so too was it their wish to improve red-side so it had more to explore. I don't believe turning Striga into a villain zone is a "terrible idea", since all Hazard Zones seem to be are areas overrun with villains. Transferring Striga's contacts to Boomtown certainly improves upon the new Council narrative, and any mission that takes place in Striga's outdoors can still be played if the mission access point is a vehicle instead of a door. "Old Striga" could still be reached as an Echo just like Galaxy and Astoria, so its not like blue-side actually lose anything in this transaction. All this suggestion does is offer red-side a little more content that wouldn't violate the lore or make any huge changes to the world. In fact, Striga could serve as a really nice playground for fights between the 5th Column and the Council, along with showcasing the newly formed alliance between the Council and Calvin Scott's UPA faction. So I don't think it's a terrible idea at all, and if moving contacts around is so horrifying then I guess we'll just throw everyone who came from Galaxy City back where they came from 😂

Then create an Echo for it like Galaxy and Dark Astoria

It entirely depends on if there is a GM/Dev with interest in running RP events at all. They could certainly promote things on the GMOTD on Everlasting for people willing to run a large scale event themselves.

As a note, thanks to the insight from @Captain Powerhouseover on the Illusion Dominators thread, we now know its at least possible to give pets access to a player's secondary powers. So this concept is looking a lot more viable than I first anticipated 😅 With that being said, I still think it has a long way to go before it is in working condition, I think one of the bigger issues is trying to figure out if the 'blast' powers themselves are viable too. Making new powers from scratch is tough, even just fashioning something from existing FX/Animations. I can't really think of anything else that seems fitting for a 'Duplicator' character though...

not immediately anyway, but I think shifting the contacts from Striga Isle to Boomtown would enhance upon the Council narrative that is already expanding into that area. Striga would then be left open as a good template to work some more villain material into the game, perhaps with the 5th Column reacquiring it from the Council and giving them some much needed presence red-side, opening it to villainous opportunities.

To be fair many of the blue-side hazard zones suffer the same problem, if not worse. So it'd be killing two birds with one stone by re-purposing a hazard zone that's fallen by the wayside into a red-side zone with better content, plus it would require far FAR less work than making an entirely new zone.

I know the 'Doppelganger' enemy group has a means of checking what powers the player has, could any of the code there be reused to accomplish this? Or is it more alike to powersets like Shield Defense that have coding to prevent it from being paired with incompatible sets like Staff and Katana?

I'm glad something like this actually works! My idea for a 'Duplicates' mastermind set pretty much relied on pets being able to use the player's secondary powers 😅

Already made a proposal about that in another thread, there's a link in my last post 😜

Sure! But those contacts could easily be moved to another Council heavy zone, perhaps even Boomtown since it's in dire need of more content, and it lines up nicely with the Council Warworks factory thats already present!

I think Striga Isle would be a good candidate to turn into a villain zone. Besides two TF contacts, there isn't really much going on there, and I don't think it's actually part of Paragon city. It could be pretty easy for villain groups to secure more of a foothold there and blockade access to it from Paragon with a little more effort.