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Steampunkette

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Posts posted by Steampunkette

  1. On 5/1/2023 at 4:07 AM, Wavicle said:

    Superman is a Science hero. Exposure to an alien sun is Science.

    Ehhh... It affects -every- member of his species the same way.

     

    Science is something specific to you based on whatever experiment or accident happened. Natural is a function of what you are.

     

    Also "Alien Sun" doesn't mean anything. Stars are stars. Dude just wasn't getting all the solar power he could've out of a Red Dwarf instead of a Yellow Main Sequence star because red dwarves literally put out less light/heat/energy.

     

    GASP.

     

    Kryptonians are Photosynthetic.

  2. On 4/29/2023 at 10:48 AM, Techwright said:

     

    It's an interesting thought, but how might that work with our five origins concept, specifically the Natural heroes?  Anything beyond your definitions for Street Hero would seem to exclude the Natural origin. 

     

    Full disclosure: although I have a few Natural heroes, I never really saw it as a viable origin.  In comics, natural heroes eventually use tech, either a little or a lot, which means, to my way of thinking, they're automatically tech heroes.  Maybe not Iron Man, but even the Green Hornet comes armed with a gas gun, a Stinger taser, and a tricked out ride.  Despite my misgivings at this origin, I'm still interested to see how it would be interpreted in any hypothetically future work.

    Same as we have now.

     

    Natural doesn't have to mean "Human", after all. Superman is a Natural hero.

    • Like 1
  3. 7 hours ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

     

     

    Why not have four different iterations your character goes through - each 50 levels; so you start at street, then world, then cosmic and finally ... well I'm not completely sure I understand what you mean by "imaginaut" but it would give your character 200 levels to go through before meeting the end game  which could be a real challenge. Especially if the Architect Entertainment didn't give XP 😄

    The point is to have different ways to play the game. Not one even longer path which progresses through everything.

     

    To have characters who spend their whole career in Kings Row, becoming the guardian of the downtrodden that live there. To make a character who punches out aliens at level 1. To have -variety- of character scale.

     

    Rather than every single character progressing from Hellions to Praetorians. More stories, not one that is 4 times longer to achieve the same goal as CoH 1.

     

    And the Fantastic Four are Imaginauts. Different dimensions, planets, dangers. Very much more on the "Star Trek" side of superheroics where you introduce wild alternate realities and crazy alien species that later plague the comic book universe.

    • Thumbs Up 2
  4. 1-50 for four different scales.

     

    Street Hero

    World Hero

    Cosmic Hero

    Imaginaut

     

    Not Street Hero 'til you hit 30, then World Hero 'til 45, then Cosmic Hero at 50.

     

    Lemme make a Street Hero and keep fighting Hellions, Skulls, Sky Raiders, the Family and stuff all the way from 1 to 50.

     

    Lemme make a character who exists on a Cosmic Scale, fighting Aliens and Space Pirates from level 1 onward.

     

    Lemme make a World Class Hero who stops runaway trains at level 1 and maxes out on Global Threats without touching Space.

     

    Lemme do a Dimenion Hopping Space Faring character who jumps between realities at level 1 and engages with the Quantum realm.

     

    Also Also: Disaster Missions. I've defused a lot of bombs, sure. But let me stop a runaway train. Let me lift rubble off of civilians. Let me throw a gasoline-carrying tanker truck away from the emergency room it crashed into so it blows up somewhere safe instead of endangering the hospital. Give me missions where I have to break the Earthquake Machine or catch part of a building to save people and be a hero in that way. How about Search and Rescue missions where NPCs spawn at various locations and I have to get them to safety from the plane crash or shipwreck or whatever.

    • Thumbs Up 2
  5. On 3/28/2023 at 3:27 PM, Wavicle said:

     

    Nah, that wouldn't be one of the options. Assault is a secondary. But you could have Armor/Assault.

    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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

    • Like 1
  10. 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)

    • Like 2
  11. 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.

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  12. 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.

  13. 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.

     

     

     

  14. 1 hour ago, HelBlaiz said:

    I've seen posts around the forums that the only legitimate way to interact with Sally is to pet her (using Brawl). An actual "Pet the Sally" power would be neat though.

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

    • Haha 2
  15. 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.

    • Like 1
  16. 41 minutes ago, Brutal Justice said:

    Can we hold the sledgehammer skin for war mace a little farther down the handle similar to the bat?   I figure they probably designed it that way because of the perceived weight of the hammer, but I’m a super hero and that generally comes with some magnitude of greater than normal strength.  

     

    I have several costumes that would love to use the sledge but every time I equip it and watch the animations I think, “there is no way you don’t hit yourself with the handle hanging so far below your grip.”  You carry a sledge from closer to the head because of the weight, but you swing it from the bottom for both leverage/velocity and clearance.  

    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.

    • Thanks 1
  17. 7 hours ago, Solarverse said:


    Hmmm...do you know which mod it was that caused it to go boom? I might be able to replicate it and create a fix for it. However, to be honest, from the looks of that destination folder, that looks more like a modder tool issue rather than the mod itself. And sorry it took so long to reply, I have not been around for awhile.

    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.

  18. 1 hour ago, AgentForest said:

     

    Well, the only thing that would be challenging would be Survival Tactics + Hunters Mark that changes how much a single enemy does to you specifically.  But we already have a mechanic essentially doing this, though indirectly:

    Mastermind Pet Defensive Stance

    Whenever an enemy attacks you while your pets are in Defensive Stance, a portion of that damage (based on the number of nearby Defensive pets) is immediately removed and stored in a buffer variable.  This damage reduction is ONLY for you (not when those enemies attack your pets or other players).  Then, the amount of damage stored in that buffer variable is divided among nearby Defensive pets.  (NOTE: This is partially speculation on my part, as the mechanic, code-wise, could just be that each pet is subtracting a set percentage of damage from enemy attacks onto itself, but mathematically the result of each pet in Defensive taking a set percentage away from the damage and giving it to itself is the same as just dividing the damage stored among all Defensive pets equally.  Either way it's coded, both algorithms could be repurposed for this mechanic.)  You could essentially just steal from that algorithm.  Mark an enemy, and if they attack you, a portion of that damage is whisked away to... nowhere.  Coding-wise, have a buffer like for MM Defensive Stance where the damage reduction is stored, but don't actually give it to any pets.  Just wipe the buffer.

    If one wants to be really lazy, the easiest way to code it would be a tad more risky but workable: Simply make it so that if a player with Survival Tactics on takes damage from the Hunter's Mark target, that player heals for X% of the damage dealt immediately.  So a strong enough move could still power through what's left of your HP, but if you survive that burst, a portion of the damage is undone, sorta like Spectral Wounds, but instant.

    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.

  19. 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.

    • Like 2
  20. 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.

     

    screen6.jpg

     

    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!

    • Like 1
    • Thumbs Up 1
  21. 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.

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