Steampunkette

And this is why I suggest Account Unlocks. Get a concept for a character that uses the New Costume Bit behind grind. Grind on main. Roll character with Cool New Outfit!

I'd love an Assault Primary AT. But because an Assault/Defense character wouldn't have a "Nuke" or an "Extreme" damage melee attack, and wouldn't have build up -and- aim for maximum Burst potential like Blasters, their baseline damage scale would need to be fairly high for both melee and ranged attacks. Of course, that could make them an interesting and engaging option for players on it's face, with an inherent mechanic that -doesn't- modify their damage, but instead plays with their defensiveness, or offers some support or utility to groups. Imagine playing a character that deals damage on par with Scrappers (Who don't have Crits) or Blasters (Without Build up + Aim + Nuke). Consistently solid damage combined with moderate survivability jumping in and out of melee to survive..? I'd love it. It'd be an Ultrablapper. Give 'em Scale 1 or Scale 1.08 and let 'em go to town. But it wouldn't be a Sentinel.

I do not agree with your assessment of the Carnival of Shadows and I feel like the "Gang War" idea turning a portion of it into a Circus Clown Crime Organization would be a bad move, regardless of how you wind up justifying it. The Carnival are Mardi Gras. Let them be Mardi Gras. If there's some kind of internal strife it should work in -that- sort of way. Not a way that changes the theme of the group. Like the Skulls? If there's a Gang War or whatever Faction Flippery that happens, it should be centered around the Superadine. It should be some upstarts or rivals or old members who feel undervalued fighting over the drug itself. Over the territory and the sales and the money. Or maybe a pseudo-fascist ingroup-outgroup violence on the basis of their Death Cult mentality. A Hyperreligious Sect of Skulls who reject Superadine altogether and seek a Skulls gang organized centrally, if not exclusively, around thanatology. So maybe the Carnival could split -that- way. Devore only put the mask on during the Rikti War so she could be a Hero, after all, maybe have a personality schism between Devore and Scaldi that births the Carnival of Twilight which is a bunch of Heroic Carnival characters. Still hedonistic. Still self-centered and mind-controlled and Mardi Gras, but a split of power and concept that plays with morality rather than theme because the leader -is- a morally dichotomous character wearing a full mask which plays into hidden intentions. But Circus? Nooooo.

RPGs in General are a Skinner Box. You do the thing a little bit and get a reward. So you do the thing some more and get another reward. But the longer you do the thing the longer the wait between rewards. But you still want the reward, so you do the thing looonger and looooooooonger. Part of CoH is a Skinner Box environment. We've retained some of that with leveling, obviously. And added a new Skinner Box in the Vet Leveling which I, personally, adore. Even if I don't get new powers at this point I like the ding. So putting some new stuff behind a little grind, but not a ridiculous grind, would be good. It would give people something to work toward in the days or weeks that followed implementation. I just beg you: ALWAYS make it Account-Unlock.

Ohhhh... I see, now. You're a rude pseudo-intellectual jerk who might have some kind of point but hides it under personal insults and passive aggressive snark. That makes more sense! If you earnestly think Mag 4 Fear protection and half a break free are anywhere near as desirable as Tough or Weave (Especially since there's no IO Set enhanceable component to that sort of 'Mez Protection') then I don't think I can help you, Scorpo. Same thing with Duration Reduction on Hold/Stun. But hey, you'll never have to read my responses to you, again, at least! I'll just drag my neanderthal knuckles over to the ignore button for you!

At no point did I say "Do I have to do the Katie Hannon Trial 30 times in a 48 hour period to unlock a Witch's Broom travel power?! SIGN ME UP!" I get that it can be frustrating to have to do the same content over and over and over again. S'why I didn't suggested. Oh... The Warwalkers was supposed to be Warworks. Like any of the Clockwork IDF members, up to and including the Warwalkers. I think you'd hit the 1,500 mark just doing all the mid to late game Praetoria content the first time through (Including the Incarnate Trials).

... yeah, I don't really understand how it's supposed to be Disadvantages, here. Unless the powers Debuff you for having the audacity to take them, they're going to have advantages. The question is whether or not "+50% Resistance to Hold/Stun Durations" (Which reduces their duration by 25%) is a good substitute for Kick (Which can be slotted for a Proc, but is largely unused outside of triggering that proc). If you're a melee type: No. Because you've got Mez Protection which also provides Resistance to some degree or another. It is only marginally useful, like Kick. If you're NOT a melee type it's kind of useful, but not really. More useful than kick unless you planned to proc Sudden Acceleration off Kick. Then comes the same question asked of a power that grants a small amount of Fear Protection (Which is a very rare form of Control that only a few sets have protection against) and has a click 'end controls on me' effect is a good substitute for Kick. If you're a melee type, again the answer is no. Fear is only used by a handful of enemies in the game and your Mez Protection precludes a need for half of a break free's usefulness. Especially since Break Frees exist in the game. If you're not a melee types... Not really? The break-free effect is nice, but those drop fairly regularly and Fear is pretty rare. It's like buying a brand new umbrella because the weatherman said there's a 20% chance of rain. As to the Brawling Pool... Very few people would ever bother using it. Yeah, there's advantages in taking the full powerset (Boxing/Kick/Crosspunch buffing each other is nice, and getting a 10% bonus to all of them is great!) but it's a very limited pool, has higher end costs and recharge times than other melee powers, and would require a lot of slotting investment to make it 'Good'. Which would limit investment to Blappers, Seppers, and Scrollers. In short I think your minimal response with only vague terms isn't particularly productive, but I'm trying to answer it as best I can: The disadvantage is you still have to take a crappy power to get to the good powers.

Yeah. New items behind Grindwalls. Right now, everything is free because most of us -did- the grinding on Live to unlock everything. Or most stuff. If your character needed the Vanguard stuff to look good, or the Purchased costume pieces, you got them on live. Remaking the character on this server? No one wants to do the grind, again, and we aren't allowed to throw profits at the Dev Team because NCSoft would murder them. So keeping everything that -is- unlocked the way it is? Golden. But putting new stuff in the game locked behind Gameplay Walls? Brilliant idea. Perfect. Beautiful. New Costume pieces? I will murder 2,000 Warwalkers for them. New Archetypes? I will grind my way to Vet Level 100 for them. New Titles? New Badges? New Powersets? I'll complete every TF and Trial both Red and Blue on a single character for that account-unlock. Gimme.

Let's try round 2! Brawling Pool: Boxing (Unchanged) Kick (Unchanged) Crosspunch (Unchanged) Leg Sweep (PBAoE Smashing + KD, 8ft Radius 18.5 end/use 20 second recharge, max 5 Targets.) Bruised Knuckles (Autopower. Increase KD/KB/Stun of all previous powers, add 10% more ToHit and Damage to other Brawling Pool Powers) Self Defense Pool: Reliance (Autopower: Mez Resist (Not protection).Grants 50% Duration Reduction on Hold/Stun/Sleep.) Fearless (Autopower: Mez Protection Fear Mag 4. Grants click power that ends control effects currently affecting you, but provides no lingering protection.) Tough (Unchanged) Weave (Unchanged) Defiant (Autopower: Debuff Resistance for Defense Debuff, ToHit Debuff, Recharge Rate Debuff, Speed Debuff, and Healing Debuffs) People looking to get Tough and Weave still have to pick a power from the Self Defense pool, but their choices are a little more meaningful. Most Mez Protections don't provide Fear Protection, and anyone who -gets- mezzed could benefit from shorter mezzes. And then Defiant can help shore up sets that don't have "Enough" Debuff protection. Meanwhile the Brawling Pool becomes a much more reasonable choice for Controllers, who can cobble together an attack chain for themselves to use on Mezzed Opponents with 2 Melee and 2 Melee AoE powers. Also a great option for Pistol Blappers and Sentinels who want to mix things up in melee a bit more while maintaining a "Natural Hero" theme.

"The Circus Larcenous" would be pretty cool. Bunch of thieves and acrobats, jugglers and low-grade supers and mutants who work together to put on a great show and then rob everyone blind. Even better, they're not the Circus, but, like, a subgroup of thieves and stuff that use various Circuses as -cover- and then bail, leaving the Ringmaster to deal with the fallout.

... The Carnival of Shadows literally runs through Mind Control and Soul Sucking. "The Carnival of Shadows exists principally to cater to the needs and desires of Vanessa DeVore and the spirit of Duchess Giovanna Scaldi. In return, Vanessa has built a decadent and insulated environment for her subjects, in which they may enjoy whatever pleasures they desire. All she asks in return is their absolute loyalty in the ongoing battle against her many enemies. Of course, since Vanessa dances through the minds of each and every one of her followers, they are always happy to do whatever it is she asks of them." When you beat them up and they scream and fall and then drain your endurance? That's the power "Psychic Visage". It's literally Vanessa Devore pulling her mind-link out of their head and yanking it back to herself, stealing some of -your- endurance on the way. The Mafia can have all the subgroups and splintergroups and backstabbing betrayals it wants 'cause the Boss doesn't have a psychic mindlink to every member of the group through their special psychic masks and literally suck out their souls if they betray him. Okay, for the mafia it'd probably be a tie or something. Cufflinks. The Watch you get when you've been a Goon for 30 years and are about to retire. This would be a huge retcon. It would be an absolutely massive narrative and tonal shift for the Carnival of Shadows to suddenly also have Lion Tamers and Sideshow Freaks, Clowns with Murderpies, and stuff like that. ESPECIALLY if it was an "Oh, we already had all that, we just didn't mention it before now because they're betraying us in a Gang War!"

Yeah... I know about Cirque du Soleil. I'm not an idiot. I also know that Tumblers, Jugglers, and Masked Entertainers have been a staple of high faluting parties since freaking ROMAN TIMES where the masks they wore would often symbolize specific gods whom they were either impersonating or insulting in a fun and ribbing sort of way with their antics. More acrobats have died slamming into marble floors of Palaces than straw lay down on sand and soil, over the centuries. But that doesn't change the VIBE. Nor does it change the kind of people within the Circus versus a Carnivale Atmosphere. And no. You couldn't have an 'Unwashed Masses' sub-faction of the Carnival of Shadows. The Carnival is masterminded by the psychic soul of Giovanna Scaldi tied to an exquisite carnival mask after she'd ruled Venice as a Duchess for years through psionic control. She manipulated Vanessa Devore into surrounding herself with mind controlled rich and young beauties for endless debauchery and wealth, started sucking down souls, and is constantly on the lookout for other rich young women to bring into the fold. Like that is their MO. There's a high end Hero Tip Mission called "Elegant Party Favor" where you're explicitly rescuing Debutantes and Socialites who are being wooed into the Carnival. https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Mission:Tip_-_Elegant_Party_Favor Here's a link. Vanessa Devore/Giovanna Scaldi don't recruit Riff-Raff Circus Folk. They don't get sideshow freaks or lion tamers or lions for that matter. They're aiming for wealthy and poised young men and women to have freaky sex with and expand their wealthy little empire with. It doesn't write itself. It would require a massive retcon of what the Carnival of Shadows -is-.

I'm not gonna get into the "Crimewave" or the "Subgroup" or any of the stuff touched on in the other thread. But I do wanna touch on one important thing: The Carnival of Shadows is meant to play into Mardi Gras/Carnivale ideas, not Circuses. Yes, they have Strongmen. But the style/colors/characters are all about a Carnival and they play into Debutante Balls and it's all very French and very Louisiana. It's a very "Party" Vibe. It's not a Circus, which is a whooooole other vibe. It's a -show-. It's clowns and barkers, lion tamers and sideshows. The Carnival is a Masked Ball in High Society. The Circus is a bunch of poor folks trying to make ends meet by biting the heads off chickens or taking pies to the face and being humiliated so people laugh. Carnival Lion Tamers would be more Sigfried and Roy than Ringling Brothers.

The least intensive and greatest effort to result option would be the varied boosts. Updating existing groups is -way- more work and wouldn't be needed or conducive towards increasing the difficulty while the boost pseudopets are being added. At that point there's no reason to add the new NPCs to old groups except "I want it" And I want more enemy groups instead of old group updates. More work than adding a few units to old groups, but more worthwhile, I think, since it also requires more content to make it work.

Time. There's only so much manpower that can be devoted to the game, currently. And each of these things takes time to implement. One creates completely random difficulty increases, which is good because it's unpredictable and bad because it's unpredictable! The perfect storm of miserable buffs could land to make a given mission essentially impossible to complete. One creates some new enemies for an extant villain group which will be a momentary speed bump that ultimately doesn't change much of anything except make an old group slightly more shiny. One creates a new villaingroup which necessitates new stories and reasons for them to exist, new meta-games of which sets are more or less useful against them, etc etc etc. All three of these things require time. One is moderately time intensive (Pseudopets don't need models or balancing of their attacks/defenses/etc, just a quick pass over their buff and a modification of the spawning logic to add one to every spawn, or every other spawn, or whatever, based on a difficulty toggle). One is moderately time intensive (Creating new NPCs in a given group takes time and effort, especially on balance passes) And one requires BOATLOADS of time 'cause they've gotta create storylines alongside the NPCs, Balance them, the whole nine yards.

... Yes. If the situation is different in a way that explicitly takes away the benefit of having a Clickie, then the benefit of the clickie is gone. What point, exactly, are you trying to make, here? Let's see. Every single Clickie Mez Protection lasts 120 seconds, and is easily perma'd through 2 Recharge SOs of equal level so. For that situation to happen you'd need to get mezzed and end drained right at the end of your mez protection (which is harder for NPCs to do 'cause you have Vectored Defenses and End Drains are ranged or melee attacks >.>) before your mez protection cycles... So out of 120 seconds of duration, that perfect storm of landing a bunch of End Drain and Mez has to happen right in the last second or two of your mez protection. The odds are it's not going to happen. And that if it DOES happen, it's going to be exceedingly rare 'cause it's more likely to hit somewhere in the other 118 seconds than in the last 2. And do please remember, with a third Recharge SO you can overlap the duration of your Click Protection by 17.8 seconds. Any level of Recharge Slotting or Hasten is going to make that overlap even larger... which means the "Perfect Storm" gets even HARDER to initiate. But at ANY TIME a Resistance/Healing/Absorb set is just as likely to get end-drained to mezzed and die. There's no second during a given hour where they're incapable of being Mezzed when they hit 0 endurance. Do you understand, now, that it's a benefit to have click protections in this situation and that only by creating an extreme circumstance which intentionally removes that benefit that it isn't?

'Cause I'd rather have new enemy groups than the Council get another 6 NPCs added to it at 50. Also Arachnos. And Malta. And the Carnies. Etc. Etc. Etc. All that effort could be put towards adding an evil Circus that has Lion Tamers and stuff. Or creating a group of superheroes including a 'Multiple Man' for Villains to beat up Redside. I'd rather get new stuff from the ground up than revamp old stuff with a couple of new units.

Unless every member of the spawn was from a randomized list of "Special Units" it wouldn't change much of anything 'cause the bulk would still be Cor Leonis Minions and LTs with some Galaxies and stuff. And at that point, you're better off just creating a new villain group 'cause it's not the Council, any more. Random Buffs applied on a per-group basis, though? That's still the Council, but they're stronger in different ways.

Only it's not random. It's a new specific enemy type that you learn and then conquer and never have to think about them, again. How about, instead, we add in a Difficulty Mode where the game's Spawning Logic adds 1 entity to every enemy spawn that is a Pseudopet. That Pseudopet is drawn at random from a selection of possible Pseudopets. Each one has a single buffing power it immediately casts on the nearest in line of sight 30 NPCs the second it spawns. These powers last for 999 minutes and provide everything from +damage to -Res procs. The Pseudopet takes 1 tick of 200 damage 30 seconds after using the power, and has only 1hp. There. Now the entire mission map is entirely filled with a rainbow assortment of randomly buffed NPCs. You can't predict which ones you'll get, you can only react to what comes out to kick your butt. Oh, and if there's multiple spawns together, they'll probably have multiple buffs on them in a rainbow menagerie of increased difficulty. Some with bigger HP. Others with Absorb Shields, Damage Procs, Hybrid Assault, the whole nine yards. No Speedbump, here. It's a freaking Rollercoaster.

I thought of the "Spinning Strike" when you said "Spinning Kick". And then you described 'KO' or 'Knockout' which I assumed was 'KO Blow'. SJ and SS respectively. As far as the hold protection: I was suggesting Hold/Stun Mez RESISTANCE. Mez Resistance reduces the duration, but doesn't protect you from getting mezzed in the first place. I was suggesting the second power have Fear PROTECTION and then the ability to break-free if you're already controlled.

Carnies are "scary" because psi damage holes are a thing, phasing is annoying, and the end drain on death can detoggle melee. Sappers are scary, too, but no one wants to play City of End Drain. Praetorians are harder because they have lots of Acc and ToHit buffs so softcap is less useful against them, until you hit 56% at least. Adding a few gimmick mobs will "Increase difficulty " for a short time 'til the tactic for killing them is figured out. Then people will just do that tactic. Kill Sappers, Madness Mages first, Stop killing the Nemmy Lt.s!!! It's a speedbump. Not a hill.

1) The old NPC models don't exist as a floating-point object that you can attach to a different AI or powerset. That stuff is all baked into one singular entity. If we had Cryptic's Proprietary Model Editor we could maybe make a copy of the model to use elsewhere, but we don't. 2) If enemies had different strategies you would make the game harder for approximately the duration of a single mission. After that, players would know the strategies and it wouldn't change anything beyond that. It's not instantly more difficult. It's just pattern recognition. Like a Mega Man boss. You know he jumps over you in these circumstances and fires a weapon in those circumstances, so you recognize his pattern and kill him with whatever weapon. 3) Enemies with Superspeed would be absolutely horrendous. Because they would immediately close to melee at super-speeds. Then, if they had their terror-morale-button triggered, they would run away at super-speeds. There would be no "Running around at Superspeed, jousting the players" or anything. It would just run up to you, or run away from you. Making stuff more difficult would largely require increasing NPC Accuracy and Resistances in "IO Content". Because without IOs the game is actually pretty decently balanced.

When you fire off a cone it just goes. Boom. Gone. It calculates area and then it's over. Same with Fireball type effects. If you wanted the cone to show up it would need to exist on the ground in a longer term thing. A pet could be a cone, basically, sticking out from the front of an invisible stick figure. Like the ultimate costume clipping error, facing the target.

I actually think this is a good idea... but I think the implementation is off. You're giving the "Offensive Pool" two of the biggest most flashy and awesome powers from both SS and SJ, and a minute long damage buff? Meanwhile the "Defensive Pool" is getting a ton of Resistance Benefits to hang out around it's sole Defense Power. What would a "Brawling" power pool look like? Well it's already got a punch and a kick and then a big punch... so how about a Haymaker? Or instead of a big flashy kick, how about a leg sweep? It definitely does not need a "long duration damage boost" type ability. That's strictly the province of Super Strength. How about, instead, it gets an Autopower that increases the effectiveness of the other attacks? That's what the whole attack benefit is for the 3 attacks that already exist in the set. We could make the 4th attack boost the other three, and then the fifth power boost them all without granting another attack? Meanwhile I think the Defensive Pool is just straight power creepy... Giving out a messload of resistances just gives people an easier time to get the rest of their resistances capped. How about making the Tier 1 powers into a Mez Resist and a partial Mez Protect, respectively? The first could give Duration Reduction on Stuns and Holds. While the second one could provide actual Mez Protection against Fear, passively, but functions like the Martial Combat Inner Will? Allowing you to break free of a mez effect, but not actually stop it from landing... Then come Tough and Weave, and then you could put in something like an autopower containing Debuff Resistances for Recharge, Speed, Defense... all that jazz in one "Defiant" power.

It would not be Feasible to implement. Wildstar was designed from the beginning to show you the shape of a power when you hovered over it because it kind of needed to as a "Skillshot" game. City of Heroes wasn't designed with anything like that, in mind. Not only would you have to craft the templates, you'd have to create a power that causes the shadow to appear on your target, or on yourself, as a separate power distinct from other powers and let people fire it off. And it would require the creation of a Pseudopet because Cones and Fireballs are instantaneous effects. I think it would probably be easier to create a separate version of a given powerset called "Easymode Fire Blast" or whatever which added a massive green outline to the VFX of the power so that each time you used it, it created that big visual to make it easier to learn how to use it... Maybe make it a "Help Menu" clickable that decides whether you're using the Easymode power call or the Normal power call.