Steampunkette

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.

Redside needs more Hero Content. Blueside needs more Villain Content. In the Rogue Isles you are Recluse's plaything. That's the most you could ever aspire to because the Rogue Isles are his. He conquered them. You can't change that narrative, so any Supervillain who hangs out, there, is -going- to be Recluse's plaything. Hanging out in -his- sandbox. But over in Paragon? Over in Paragon you could be the Archvillain to the Freedom Phalanx! The NPCs are heroic so you could be an actual villain in relation to them! Just introduce contacts who are flunkies, spies, and minions and write the stories as though they're providing you with information about your rivals and enemies so you can go out and crush them... rather than people with their own motivations and goals that you are fulfilling.

Different sets have different costs. Look at the 3 sets with Click Mez Protection. All of them grant Positional or Vectored Defense. All of them grant protection to all three Vectors. Any control effect is going to be targeted. Generally from Range or Ranged AoE for soft-controls (Sleeps, Immobs, Fears, Confusions) and melee or ranged tossup for hard controls (Hold, Stun) You dodge most of them by rote. Especially once your Defense gets near, or to, Softcap. At that point you don't even really -need- mez protection that much. At that point I typically use my Mez Protection as a Break Free unless it's a Shield Defense character and then the Mez Protection provided Defense Debuff Resistance which I need. Are toggles more consistent? Arguably, sure. But clicks are more powerful in almost every respect and are tied to sets with more complete protection out of the box. Toggles? Typically used by Resistance-Centric powersets that get hit by EVERY MEZ because they don't have decent Defense out of the box. They need constant protection or they'd be screwed. Defense-Builds with all three vectors? Not so much.

Adding new powers to old style mobs involves altering their AI. Using AE Player-Created Mobs in the open world doesn't. Those mobs are based on a Templated AI tied to the powers that are granted to them. Like the powers you select in the AE? It's tied to them. To the magnitudes and recharge times in a priority chain. That said: It won't really increase the difficulty of the game at all. It will just add some new mobs to old villain groups like Arachnos's Praetorian Clockwork.

Every single suggestion (Other than the "Swap them with Supatrolls!" one) in this thread requires the creation of new NPCs, or an amount of work tantamount to that. NPCs don't have easily swappable powersets like players do. They've got a series of powers baked into a specific AI structure that gives them a priority of use and a priority of tactics before any given power is used. Things like "Before firing off Brawl, get in range to use Brawl". It seems simplistic, but... To add new powers means cracking open that AI and giving it a new priority of which powers to use, when to use them, and how they have to be used. Thankfully, there exists AI structures regarding Healing which could be co-opted to create a "Target weakened ally and activate power X which kills weakened ally and heals/empowers self". So that kind of thing would be possible? But it would also steal XP from players and if that target were to become confused, could kill player Teammates in order to self-empower. Nifty thought. But the "Get Larger" thing... that doesn't exist as a game-mechanic that can be utilized. They'd just get some buffs unless we created "Larger Models" for them to become, progressively. Things like the "Cyberwulf" have AI present in game to key off of (The Malta Titan Protocols) but no Model appropriate for that use. So that would need to be designed from the ground up, along with the power selection and AI required. All in all, though... This is not "Harder" or "Advanced" NPCs. It's just NPCs with new gimmicks and tricks. They wouldn't make fights any harder, they'd just shift around the target priority a bit, like fighting Nemesis soldiers and killing all the Minions and Bosses before the Lieutenants to avoid Veng-Stacking. In short, I don't think this is a particularly good idea. I would prefer to see this sort of effort moved into creating whole new villaingroups to fight. Perhaps harder "Incarnate" style groups, sure. But just more variety overall rather than a few new gimmicks in the old groups.

This is a more reasonable suggestion, by far. Turn the Upgrades into Autopowers that change the Power Call and create a separate power for each tier of minion. Sort of like Momentum and Titan Weapons. Technology that didn't exist when the MM Pets were being created. BUT. There's a lot of people who don't like putting the T3 upgrade on their Lich because it lowers the Lich's DPS in favor of more Control effects. Players who prefer that style would be SoL with this change.

Back when the Architect launched it was described as being the same system used to create in-game arcs with an interface that made things easier. In fact there was distinct mention by the devs that it would make content generation easier on -them- because they didn't have an interface before the ME was being constructed. So while I don't doubt that the mission mechanics are really awkward and hard, I think I'll trust the Live Devs that it'll be a lot easier going forward. Especially since two AE Arcs created by a community member now exist in the game world.

Some? I have a Necro, but if Thugs gets customization I might make a new Thugs Mastermind and play a Multiplier Punisher. And after checking the 4 Months in Stats thread, I'm suddenly thinking this will be -way- more popular than I initially considered. Mastermind is one of the 3 most popular archetypes which is a shock and a half, to me. But the 3 powersets that might get customization are also the least played three. Beasts, Demons, and Robots dominate.

Ehhhh... It's definitely a step in a good direction. It's just an incredibly time consuming step in a direction that affects few people... Not everyone plays MMs. Fewer still play Mercs, Thugs, and Ninjas (The only ones reasonably likely to get customization)

Oh, no doubt! I wholeheartedly and earnestly believe it's worth it. I'm just saying it's not the Easiest. It's not the Fastest. It's not the Best. It's time consuming and grueling for artists and designers... It's worth it... but hooooly crap is it intensive.

Fun as a Prime Directive is nice and all, in theory... but they've gotta balance a lot of different ideas of fun. Some people think PvP isn't fun unless they can just instantly win any PvP fight they get in because of superior power/numbers/etc. Some people think PvE isn't fun unless you completely ignore enemy attacks and crushes them without effort. But for every type of fun out there, there's someone else who has fun in the exact opposite way. Where every PvP match -needs- to have a risk of losing. Where Roflstomping enemies en-masse with no sense of danger is dull. How do you appease them all? Well. Some servers don't try. They hand out tier 9 powers at level 1 and let loose having a great time for them. And... honestly? I'd rather stay on the server that clings closest to what CoH was on Live. Because I loved that game. I love this one. We all did.

The Walk Powers were pretty resource intensive, honestly. Every time a new power is made with a new animation that animation has to be redone for two more models, 'cause they don't just "Share" by default. If they did, the Huge Body's Biceps might clip into their head on some of the powers that make the character raise their arm. Sharing every walk power across the models would be a pretty big undertaking.

Thank you, so much, for better encapsulating what I understood, but could not effectively communicate. I actually, earnestly, appreciate it. Fact is, someone could take that exact same build and instead of grabbing a Primary that drops Defense into one of it's attacks and instead just slot a few Kinetic Combats into their melee attacks to offset the lack of Melee defense, then use the rest of the same slotting strategy to get to softcap melee defense. All it really shows is that if someone is willing to spend 3 power pools on defenses and 30 million+ inf on IOs they can have good defenses regardless of their powersets. And combined with a defensive primary or secondary, the investment becomes even more effective. It's not really news, at that point. It's just noise.

Oh, you're right. It'll have 3-4 attack powers with, like, no slots to spend on them. Also this build is level 25, forgot to check the slot-levels on Gaussian's, so it'll have even -more- attacks, but absolutely no room to slot any of them 'cause of the entire focus on Defense. And will only have 22.5% Resistance to S/L for 10 minutes (or 18.75 for 7) 'cause you didn't save any slots to spend on that to make it recharge faster or get it's resistance levels up... Which... I dunno. Kind of undercuts the whole argument. Really, it seems like getting 8.75% defense from IOs and more from Weave/Maneuvers/Hover is the 'Real Problem' rather than the power itself.