Steampunkette

Doesn't that imply you could do Tank Armor/Stalker Armor? I think it's gotta be more flexible than that. And, honestly, if they hope to balance it at -all- the defense needs to be a secondary, control and pets to be a primary, and everything else can be primary or secondary.

I'd want an Assault Primary and a Defense Secondary. Or the ultimate blapper: Assault/Manipulation. O.O

Kinetic Melee. Color it Grey/Pale Blue. Pair with Minimum Effects Bio Armor in the same colors for a storm effect that moves with you.

The animation customization of CoH is a bit limited. You'd be more likely to wind up with multiple identical and mutually exclusive "Fighting" pools, each themed after a specific weapon.

Narrative "tags" have been a thing since the game launched, not just the AE. It was just our first chance to explore it. When you hit f5 and your character shouts out your level and archetype those are the same tags. It's just a variable that does a quickie lookup in your character's game file to find information. It also does Origin, though never in a text conversation, it's how the game knew which starting origin contact to give you. Heck, it could even check whether you started in Galaxy City or Atlas Park, way back when! It also uses Badge Text as tags so that NPCs on the streets can talk about how you recently beat up the Council or the Family or whomever else while they're walking past. There's a plethora of stuff about characters that we -could- use as tags for mission text... But. The more of them you put into the mission tag, the more it becomes a Mad Libs of different issues and trying to account for players being Robots or Zombies or Normal People or Immune to Toxic Gas just makes all the writing for the game that much more complex. So while it's cool stuff, it's largely remained "In the Box" so to speak.

Downsides of creating the additional Uniform Slot: You have 2 costume slots that you cannot edit after earning them. You already have one. Development time to give two Epic Archetypes extra costume slots instead of providing stuff that a larger portion of the playerbase will use. Benefits: A small portion of a tiny fragment of the playerbase will enjoy having two Uniform slots. Essentially impossible.

Rocketboots are a part of the costume creator. When you're wearing them, they light up with blue flame while you're airborne. Similarly, there's Mechanical Wings that you can use. The Shrike Wings just unfold and then stay open as long as you're flying, same for the Komodori. Or the Vanguard Backpack and just -pretend- it's a jetpack/booster thing. There's also the Rogers Rocket Pack and the Cosmic Rocket Pack that both slap a rocket or two to your spine. As far as teleportation... *shrugs!* Just give your character a neat pair of techy gloves or a belt and harness or some combination of pieces and say they're what allows the teleport.

Yup. It's 200% for Maximum Fury. I was wrong. Though a character is almost never going to get to 100% Fury, so you're still in the 75-80% target range for the 259ish value. If that's too low, and brutes solo too slowly compared to Tankers (Who clear most of the spawn in 3 tiers of buttwhuppin) and Scrappers (who rely on Crits to blow past the Brute's damage), then increase it by another 75% maximum. Or 37.5%. Or 100%. Or whatever value is required to make them feel "Better" while solo, while not impacting their high end team damage values by raising either their Cap or their Scalars. Brute Fury is absolutely great for that, really. A global-ish buff that still falls within a bounded constraint that the player can't reach on their own.

Buff Brutes? Okay. So... how would I buff Brutes in the current state of the game... hmm. Increase the damage buff of Fury by 75%. At 100 Fury (Almost impossible to get) you'd wind up getting 175% increased damage instead of 100% increased damage, allowing them to solo better without altering their Team-Function at all (The damage Cap remains the same, the base damage values remain the same, so getting Fulcrum Shifted to your cap changes nothing) Assume a power deals 100 damage baseline: 1) A tanker has a .95 scale so with enhancements doubling their damage would be at 190. (95x2) 2) Scrapper has a 1.125 and doubling with enhancements it puts them at 225. (112.5x2) 3) Brute has .75 scale so with Enhancements and 175% damage from Fury they'd be at 206.25. (75x2.75) Though with the Brute's Fury most of the time capping out right around 80ish percent you're only looking at around 140% damage increase, which actually puts them at 180 damage (75x2.4) So maybe it needs to go with the full 200%? That'd be 160% damage buff at 80% Fury for 195 damage, just slightly ahead of the Tanker (75x2.6)

Essentially impossible. The Paragon Studios team had to break the game's UI to give Arachnos Soldiers/Widows the option of having a single "Costume Slot" tied to the standard uniforms. And did so by essentially cramming 1 slot of the "Arachnos Soldier" or "Arachnos Widow" character models into the character generator. Because yeah. Those aren't player models wearing specific outfits, those are all pre-generated character models with minimal variability you're fighting in Arachnos Mishies. Which is why any character that uses the Bane Spider armor can't take off the helmet. There's no "Version" of the npc model without the helmet and with a customizable head. Male Widows and Female Soldiers had to be specifically created for this. Though, honestly, with that much effort being made they probably should've just made all the costume elements into costume pieces and ditched the option of doing the Bane Armor. Would've been smarter, if you ask me... but then you wouldn't be able to make a "Proper Bane" or a "Proper Crab" so they shrugged.

An important thing to note: The Devs are working with the code they have, as much as they can. They're not writing massive code-changes into the game that change a ton of baseline functions. In fact the most recent big change they've made, that I'm aware of, is allowing Repel to work in Reverse. So while there could be "Several ways to code it" that's asking for a much bigger change than the creation of a powerset. I'm not saying it's impossible to write the code to make it work. I'm saying that it's unlikely to be done anytime soon so you should try to aim for what the engine can already do.

For the Spectral Wounds method to work every power in the game that could do damage to the character would have to be rewritten to include the heal effect. For the Bodyguard method, as I believe it works, you'd need to redesign the way damage is dealt to all characters. Otherwise it would just be an extra 25% damage resistance to everything because there is no structure, currently, for keeping track of which NPC is dealing how much damage. In either case a massive undertaking for a single power. You're not the first person to suggest reduced damage from a specific target or retributive damage on being hit. The devs have said it can't be done with the way the engine works. I highly suggest coming up with a different idea for that power until they're able to do something that ambitious.

I like to make psychic contact through Mesmerize to warn her to dive so no one can hurt her.

Throwaway CoH Accounts are just a fake Email address away. Twitch is someone's income tied to their bank account and their connections through followers and friendgroups.

Might also be something to specifically, explicitly, avoid... People are likely to troll Streamers. Throwing foul language and stuff to try and mess with Twitch ToS, griefing, things like that. It would be a magnet for the worst among us.

It's like that because it was developed for NPCs first. Hellions and Skulls and stuff swinging the hammer hold it in their right hand at that point so their left hand can hold the lower portion of the hammer for their swings. When it was ported over to Warmace Paragon didn't alter the attachment point because it would've been a little bit of a mess that wasn't worth the hassle, in the end. I'm not against changing it, now. But it would probably require a new sledgehammer model to avoid borking low-tier enemy animations.

Fixed it months ago, actually. Wound up just clicking "No" every time the program tried to close until it gave up on closing, then uninstalled the overlapping mod. Problem solved.

Spectral Wounds doesn't work like that. Spectral Wounds does 1.5 Magnitudes of Damage, immediately, and 0.5 Magnitudes of -Damage 10 seconds later. Don't ask me how the Paragon Devs got it to do -Damage, but it probably has to do with the Special Typing. If it were created, today, it would probably just be 0.5 Magnitudes of Healing to keep it clean. It doesn't "Store a percentage" to undo. The value it erases is fixed and based on the baseline damage of the power (Ignores enhancements and other buffs) As far as doing the Mastermind Bodyguard thing: That shit is SORCERY and no one can convince me otherwise. You can't pay me enough money to dig into the fucking Mastermind end of the CoH code. No, sir. But if I had to hazard a -guess-? It most likely creates a special damage reduction shield on the player with a value based on the number of "Bodyguard" pets within range that reduces the damage first before the remaining damage hits the player, then functions as a logic-gate that has a damage proc based on magnitudes that it then "Chain Lightnings" to each pet within range. That Chain Effect probably targets in the same way a Mastermind's Pet Buffs do, hitting only the MM's MM Pets. Each of which has their own special damage reduction shield that triggers to reduce the damage from the full power attack by a specific amount before the remaining damage passes on to their normal resistances. I.E If a Mastermind has 1 pet within range and takes 100 points of damage it is "Split into 3 shares" and the Mastermind takes 2 shares. A fancy way of saying 2/3rds. So the Mastermind gets a 33% Special Damage Resistance applied to the damage and takes 66% before other damage resistance kicks in to reduce it further. The effect then hits the pet as a Chain Lightning style effect to deal 100 Damage, but the pet has 66% Damage Resistance against it, and takes 33. If the mastermind has 2 pets within range it's 4 shares. The Mastermind's resistance increases to 50% and the pets resistances each increase to 75%. MM takes 50 from the 100 that hits him, then each pet gets hit for 100 and only takes 25. Mastermind has 6 pets out and takes 2 shares out of 8 or 25% of the damage. (100/8=12.5. 12.5x2=25). 100 damage hits the Mastermind, 75% Special Damage Resistance. Chain lightning. Each minion takes 1 share or 12.5 damage because they've got 87.5 "Special Damage Resistance" applied before normal DamRes. Easiest way to handle it would be Stacks of Special Damage Resistance based on an Aura power for all pets within range. Each pet provides a smaller bonus than the first pet, sort of like Invuln. But that's all supposition based on what I know about the game's systems.

Love the Lower-Stealth benefit from Invisibility leading to Crit Chance. Replace Phantom Army with "Phantasmal Killers" Phantasmal Killers have a lower damage magnitude and a proc-chance to apply a taunt to targets they hit, rather than a full on constant taunt effect. All other aspects are unchanged between the two powers. Group Invisibility getting replaced by Smoke and Mirrors doesn't work. The game doesn't evaluate whether a target is inside or outside of a zone when it does the ToHit calculation. It would just have to be a global ToHit debuff inside the area. Give it a ticking proc chance to confuse and I think it'll work fine. Phantasm? Totally fine as is. Spectral Terror... nnn... yeah. Maybe domination through it's fear effects. Spectral Wounds: Cut it. We should add in a Fear Effect in it's place. Yeah, Lift/Propel exist, but they exist in sets with a bunch of other effects which do apply controls. This one doesn't so much.

Stuff does get added. But mostly using existing art assests... Mostly. I, too, have been waiting for a Rapier Set. But it looks like the next powerset is going to be an Earth Blast type set or something? All we have to go off is this one image. That said, I doubt we'll be seeing any kind of Rapier set for a -very- long time. Just because we've got so many different weapon powersets, already. But if you take a look at Dual Blades? It has Rapiers as an option, if that helps!

Would not work. Translocation is a Teleport Effect. They could remove the rooting at the -start- of the teleport, but the end point is literally "Pick character up, place character RIGHT HERE on a 3d Grid" It doesn't retain your momentum, it just puts you where you're going to be. For an example of this in game, have a friend us "Teleport Target" on you while you're "Coasting" in the air from flying, only setting off the effect once your finger comes off the "Forward" key. You appear at a dead-stop. Similarly, you can jump off a building, let go of any movement, and get teleported to the ground with no momentum even if your arc had you moving forward.

I should note: The Superadine storyarc actually goes from about level 5 to a maximum of 44 (When you arrest Countess Crey in a Janet Kellum storyarc) So that's a Street Level Storyline reaching from 5th level Skulls all the way up to a level 44 Archvillain. It's pretty great, really! But because the focus is on Incarnates and "Post 50" means -just- Incarnates... Yeesh.

Ehhh... No. The idea of infinite growth of the character and the threats they face is a common direction to go. But it doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to tell the Dragon Ball Z story for advancement of narrative and a character to feel more powerful than they did at earlier points in their progression. Having a character go from fighting 2-3 thugs at a time and barely winning to having them fight 8-12 thugs at a time and winning, easily, is progression in itself. Having more powers. Having enemies that you consider "Weaker" than you is similarly, progression. There's no need for those differences to be massive or exaggerated, like Superman fighting a couple of thugs when you could have Wolverine kick their butts with the exact same level of ease. Take Frostfire, for example. Within the CoH Narrative he's "Swapping Sides". But whether he's level 15 or level 40 he still has access to the exact same powers. Why is he narratively more powerful at 40-50? Frostfire goes from barely able to fight Trolls and getting his butt kicked by you in the Hollows to fighting off Malta on behalf of Longbow. At no point does he get a new power, or even a new costume. He just -is- that powerful. Did he "Take it easy" on you in the Hollows..? Why? Is your level 50 character who gets beat up by Malta in a mission where he finishes fighting off the spawn weaker than Frostfire from the Hollows? No. Obviously not. Because the Narrative Level and the Game Level are Separate. Oh, he's a level 50 character, for sure. But he's got the same powers as a level 15 character. While his combat functions have improved with level, his actual power variety hasn't. I also like how you make the example of the character "Wasting their time" by grinding to 50. Isn't that what we're -all- doing? Just spending time gaining levels? Vet levels when we're out of levels that "Really" Matter? Wonder if the people with 1,000+ Vet Levels feel like they've wasted their time... Or if they feel like they've played a game that they enjoy to that ridiculous level. That said. There's other forms of progression. Like the aforementioned narrative progression. You -can- move from Street Hero to World Hero to Cosmic Hero... Or you can create progression within each type. Like Street Heroes that go from fighting drug dealers to Kingpins to Courts of Owls. I get it if you can't imagine that sort of progression lasting from level 1 to level 50. But I know you can experience it from 1-40 in CoH. After all, you can go from Skulls to Family and Freakshow to Crey to work your way up the supply chain. Just stretch those storylines out a little bit more to get it from 1-50 and -whammo-. You've got a Street Level storyarc from 1-50. Just like the Peacekeeper Arc starts out with you saving all the Kheldians in the world from a super-device that chews them up and destroys them before level 30. Yeah, not even gonna bother. Just read what I wrote to the person above you.

Oh... The way I suggested to handle crossing the narrative barrier the other way? The World Hero treated Street Threats as level -10. The Cosmic Hero treated World-Threats as level -10. So if you wanted to play Thor you could head to Kings Row and have absolutely no threat coming at you from the Skulls because you were Cosmic. Similarly Iron Man as a World Hero would've seen them as a nuisance at best. Never did make it +10 for Street or World characters moving up 'cause that's just the story they wanted to tell. I also had ways to flag yourself as one kind of character or another, and change those flags at different times, too.

You'd definitely have to build the game, or sections of the game, around the idea of a game divided not by character level (Or not just by character level) but by narrative level. A long time ago I suggested to some developers I was working with (On a game that never saw the light of day) that we should create different Narrative Levels alongside the core leveling mechanic. I tried to express the idea of characters getting to start the game at level 1 in different "Zones" which each had their own style. Cosmic city zones on Space Stations and alien planets. Street Level city zones in New York. World Level city zones across the globe. That way a player could choose to start on Horizon Station as an alien superhero fighting Cosmic level threats from level 1-50. Or make yourself a street level character who never leaves Hell's Kitchen by fighting street gangs from 1-50. Or a World Level hero who stops a plane from crashing in Tibet and then flies back to New York to write about it for the newspaper. (Or maybe just a Street character who spends all their time fighting crime in France or wherever they choose to play, or a character who starts out in Zimbabwe before moving to New York) And each of these characters at level 1 and level 50 would have the exact same amount of powers, hit points, and whatnot based on their character's core functions like their Archetype. Can a Street Hero help fight Cosmic Threats? Sure, if they're high enough level or have someone to sidekick them. Why not? Daredevil helped the Fantastic Four fight Galactus, after all. But City of Heroes has this gameplay mindset of a level 50 character being Superman and a level 20 character being Daredevil and the only way to keep playing Daredevil is to turn off your XP and stay in Steel Canyon punching the Council for the rest of your career. Meanwhile Superman mostly flies around a different city zone (Peregrine Island) punching Council same as Matt Murdock in Steel Canyon. I largely got the same pushback. But in the end, you can tell both types of stories in the game where there's content from 1-50 in King's Row and the Shadow-Shard. And only tell one story when King's Row stops being relevant at 20 and you can't even go to the Shadow Shard 'til 40. Ultimately, that's a big part of why the Council exists from 1 to 50 in a nebulous "Sometimes we're super powerful and sometimes we're not" fashion. 'Cause Peacebringers are these big Cosmic Hero characters who are stuck leveling from 1-50 like every other hero. At least this way they get to fight a "High End Villaingroup" and do "Worldwide Storyarcs" at level 1.