Steampunkette

The only reason I'm uncool with how it was presented is: There is no content warning at all and you got bombarded with a lot of abusive text. That could be really upsetting for people with triggers and anxieties. I recognize this is supposed to be a comedic over the top ridiculous character... but yeesh.

My take on this is simple: City of Heroes is Sci-Fi and Fantasy. So tell this story, and those like it, in allegory. Have the Council be made up of people who hate "Mutants" and think Malta has taken over the government. That the Rikti Invasion was a false-flag for the UN to gather a bunch of power and military strength for their Vanguard to enforce a new world order. Have the Council be pissed off about the "Handouts" the Praetorians are receiving while good hard-working Primals are being crushed by corporate interests. Make it obvious, and allegorical, rather than just taking modern talking points and sound bites and sprinkling them about. I promise. I'll hate the Council -just- as much if they're hating on "Mutie Lovers" as I would if they were hating on "(Insert slur here) Lovers".

To be clear: This isn't a "Magic Wand Assault" set. It's -wand- assault. You can RP it as a Star Girl style techno-weapon, or magic, or whatever! Which also functions as a Warmace. Maybe call it Scepter assault, instead?

Tier 1: Pulverize Tier 2: Wand Bolt (Minor Energy/Toxic, Ranged) Tier 3: Jawbreaker Tier 4: Wand Gloom (Moderate Energy/Toxic. Ranged) Tier 5: Build Up Tier 6: Shatter Tier 7: Wand Burst (Moderate Energy/Toxic, PBAoE) Tier 8: Wand Blast (Moderate Energy/Toxic, Ranged AoE) Tier 9: Crowd Control Pretty much just uses the Warmace options for weapon models, with a few of the Staff options added in. Use the Volkov animations for the Blackwand attacks from Volkov Skulls. Blackwand Blast uses the Disruptor Blast animation from Mace Mastery. Toxic damage either represents the power of magic or the same weird energy blast Arachnos uses. Minimally resisted in the game. And then make an Assault Primary archetype and slap this thing on it as a flagship powerset.

Slippery Slope detected! Anyway. Yeah. If you don't like Group Fly you should have the option to be immune to group fly. Other people can still use and benefit from that power, you just aren't affected. This would be a more accurate comparison. Blaster Nuke thing is an EXTREMELY out there argument which amounts to arguing to absurdity. Self-Rez is just balls to the wall insane argument to absurdity. No. They aren't. This is gonna shock you, but people CAN tell the difference between Gay Marriage and Sex With Ducks. People can recognize that there's some reason some people might dislike KB reducing their effectiveness without immediately accepting that self-rezzing ruins someone else's good fun. (Granted it's not a perfect metaphor, since Gay Marriage is infinitely less onerous on the populous than the Anti-KB Hatred in this community is, but I just really wanted and excuse to use the song and point out how bananas this slippery slope argument is) Not only does KB not bother me, I much prefer to play WITH KB. Myself and the KB of others. I am, however, against the CONSTANT pressure from the Anti-KB community to either change the entire game to be KB free or demand that anyone who has any KB power slot an ever increasing number of KB Stopping IOs in order to appease their playstyle. At least this way the onus is on them, and the impact is limited, rather than it being a constant fight.

No, not really. 1) Not an interrupt. 2) No "Mez Condition" Think of it like a Stack Tracker for Assassin's Strike or Street Justice. Only it's how many magnitudes/scales of each type of control are you under, right now. If that number is over X, you lose access to One With the Shield. If it's over Y you can't use Crushing Uppercut. If it's past Z you can't cast Hasten. They "Grey Out" on your bar as if you were exemplared. It's like that, but applied to NPCs rather than players.

It is a potential problem. I do like the Overpower suggestion, though. Something like that could be built in to make Controllers catch up in overall efficacy. Could be pretty cool... but. Would mostly result in players complaining they're being locked out of their "Best Powers". I think this'd need to be one-sided for it to be fun, rather than punishing.

So this was an idea my husband and I had years ago, specifically to make it so that Control characters are more useful against EBs/AVs from the control side of things. 1) Every NPC gets a "Hinder Level" tied to their various powers. 2) If the NPC is under a specific control magnitude equal to a power's "Hinder Level" they cannot use that power. Even if they're not locked down. Tadah. That's it. That's the entire idea. We can see something similar going on with Blackwing Industries, where if their HP is above 75% they don't have access to specific powers they would otherwise have available. This way, even if the Purple Triangles of Doom are up on an AV, the Controller or Dominator in the group is still having an effect. Perhaps a somewhat invisible effect, sure. But a direct mechanical benefit even if the AV is uncontrolled or uncontrollable. Same thing for Giant Monsters and stuff, too. They still get their binary lockdown, too, obviously, once the stacks are high enough... Just also get to deny baddies access to their big powers when they're not locked down, too. The easiest way I can think to implement it, is have an invisible Hinder "Power" added to all NPCs. If they get control stacks above X value, powers with a recharge time above 8s are locked out. If it's above Y stacks powers with a recharge time over 6s are locked out. And if they're above Z stacks, powers with a recharge time above 4s are locked out. And then define X, Y, and Z by the rank of the enemy. This also means the Purple Patch affects this setup, since your controls aren't as effective against NPCs of higher levels than you.

Ultimately, this is why I think the onus of 'fixing' the problem belongs on the shoulders of the people who don't want KB. Because either EVERYONE has to pay the slot tax or get shunned... Or the person who doesn't want KB can have a method to disable KB in their immediate vicinity so they can have their fun without forcing other people to do anything.

You say that, and it's certainly true. But you also see "Slot even more of your powers with more KB to KD or get kicked off of teams" as a valid choice between two people with differing perspectives and not just a choice between two ways to capitulate to one side's demands. The Anti-KB crowd gets what they want, and anyone who likes KB gets shunned or accused of griefing or trolling for playing the game. Personally? Nah. You haven't said anything personal. I don't find it particularly compelling, either, though. I'd feel like it was a massive waste of time and effort to try and erase Knockback from the game which would likely result in increasing demands from the Anti-KB community to keep removing KB. Up to and including cutting Energy Blast now that Energy Emission exists in the game.

No. Because the power you're dropping a beacon for still has to target the player in the other zone.

This "Teleport to Contact" button exists and functions because the Contact in question has a specific location on a specific map. You'd need any prompt to use a similar system, rather than being an actual "Power" that can target across zones.

Assemble the Team requires the same zone. All Teleport Powers require the same zone because they need target coordinates, and every zone has the same X/Y/Z map. They also require a target on the same map, because the targeting system doesn't allow for multi-zone interaction of powers. So if you COULD target a player on a different map with a teleport power, the game would teleport them to your target location... relative to the zone they're in. Which could be inside geometry. Something like this would need to be handled through a separate structure, like Chat, Email, Constacts, or Auction House, for it to communicate that kind of intention. Like how the Oro Crystal can teleport you to the mission's contact. It can only do that because it's not targeting you with a power, it's shunting you to a different map.

Y'know, that's a good point. But how do we make it work? After all, we've gotta help these Anti-KB folks out, and if this toggle gets implemented you know they'll complain that Repel isn't also covered... Definitely make the powers Mutually Exclusive. Any toggle with a Repel Component automatically Detoggles this power. That, at least, would stop you from abusing it, solo. But it doesn't help in a Team situation where you're using Hurricane while standing on the Scrapper with a Taunt Aura and this thing toggled on at the same time. This -is- a puzzle... Resistance to Repel is still a stat... If we change it to, say, +1,000% Resistance to repel, would that keep them being pushed a -little- without getting flung outward?

Yes. It 100% is. Not only is it a serious proposal, I explicitly altered it to better conform to game mechanics to ensure KB turned to KD instead of just being entirely negated based on poster feedback. To you. Because you don't want to have to change anything for yourself to reduce the KB in missions, you just want EVERYONE ELSE to change how they play, build, etc, or fuck off away from you if they won't capitulate to your no-KB position. You've made that incredibly clear by trying to frame "You can slot KB to KD or have the choice to find other teams" bullshit. Yes. For players to affect their own powers in a way that makes it more and more reasonable and widespread to change your build to capitulate to a vocal group who refuse to accept KB on their teams. The knock-on effect of which is just more and more threads requesting more ways for people who have KB in their build to change their build to capitulate to the No-KB paradigm until it's the standard. Which is trash. No, no. Reduce one aspect of a power (KB) to another aspect of a power (KD). That doesn't "Negate" powers. It also only happens if someone who is so infuriatingly smarmy about KB is willing to spend 10,000,000 influence for an hour without KB of any kind. Bonus points: It means no one ever needs to change their build to slot the KB to KD IOs unless they specifically want to. 'Cause all of you Anti-KB folks have the option of making KB into KD in your special little zone. Even if it's your -own- KB. Just think! No need for KB to KD IOs in your builds even when soloing! Just click a toggle and go! Nah. It'll do 3 things. 1) Show how few people really deeply care about KB in the game. 2) Give those few people a complete guarantee there'll be no KB around them. 3) Barely be noticeable to people who like KB 'cause the KD zone will be specific rather than global. And hey. That'll reduce the extant pressure to hunt for specific teams for your preferred playstyle, change your build to accommodate others, or kick people from your team 'cause you, personally, hate KB. Honestly, I don't care how wide you would've made it or if you meant it to be tongue in cheek. You've shown, rather pointedly, you don't actually care about other people having fun. You only want things to conform to the way you want to play. The second the imposition is on the side of the people who don't want KB it's an unserious suggestion. Which goes back to "Other people should change their KB to KD so they can be part of teams with people who hate KB" The "Solution" to the aforementioned shunning (which is unilateral, obviously) is that everyone should conform to the Anti-KB brigade and the Anti-KB brigade should change nothing. At least this suggestion demands the folks who want to curate their experience to actually do something to curate it rather than demand action of others. That said, if you wanna haggle over the price, that's fine. The suggestion itself, however? Serious as a heart attack.