EggKookoo

Fourth... ted..?

Thank you. :) I mean, for getting us back on track, not about origins. Speaking of, is there a reason you think they shouldn't, aside from some form of "they haven't been up to now"? I mean, I should make it clear that I'm perfectly aware of their lack of historical relevance. I wouldn't have started this thread otherwise.

Do you do this by buying IO recipes at the AH and crafting them yourself?

Yes, yes. Your opinion has been noted. Thanks.

That's not really what I'd call flavor. Mechanics is anything that imposes parameters on decisions or functions, or limits choices or options. Changing my attack color effect is flavor, as it has no mechanical impact. Obviously enhancements in and of themselves are mechanical as they affect functionality. If origins with respect to enhancements were purely flavor, then you could just slot them as you wanted. But the game prevents you from slotting a cross-origin enhancement. It doesn't discourage you from doing so by saying "Hey, you're Science and that's a Magic enhancement. Maybe you should use a Science one." It literally prohibits you from doing so. That's a mechanic. Further, this mechanic is used as a gate for enhancement rate drops. You can only slot some percentage of enhancements that drop, solely due to origin. Again, if origin was purely flavor, you'd be able to slot any enhancement the game gives you into your powers. Not being able to slot the an enhancement due to origin is no less mechanical than not being able to slot one because it's inappropriate for the power. Drop rates are typically considered more of a mechanic than a flavor. Note I'm not saying origins with regard to enhancements is a particularly good mechanic. It's an uninspired or at least incomplete one.

Understood, even if I truly am baffled at the resistance to making an element of the game more engaging, even if just in concept. Edit: And I'd like to point out that origins currently aren't just for RP/flavor. They limit what enhancements you can slot. Origin already has a mechanical consequence -- I'm just asking to make it an interesting one. It's interesting but do we run into too many powers? I mean, if we make Sorcery inherent to Magic origins, and I have Tech, I'm assuming I can still get Sorcery when the time comes for me to pick a pool, right? But then I also have my inherent Tech powers (whatever those end up being). But I do like the idea. What if we kept the pools as-is but gave a character some kind of bonus based on origin? So when a Magic origin character uses a power from the Sorcery pool, they're more effective at it?

Help me out here. What kind of /JRanger is this? Is it "it's too much work to add new content to the game"? Is it "it's doomed to fail because people can't agree on what origins mean thematically"? Is it "I fear change"? Is it "how dare you suggest something without a business plan and angel financiers lined up"? Inquiring minds want to know.

There was nothing wrong with the Kheldian thing in basic concept. Overtuned enemies is dealt with by downtuning them, and the whole idea of creating origin-flavored missions or content would solve the other thing about there being no valid reason behind their presence. However, I do think just "Kheldianizing" it is too simplistic to be interesting.

I like to level at my own pace. Not just because I'm selfish and impatient with other peoples' paces, but also because I don't want to make other players have to wait for me. So I guess I fall a little bit into both categories. I like the option of grouping when I want to, but grouping is also often a bit of a hassle. Not anything to do with the LFG mechanics or the social aspects (both of which are fairly painless in CoH). I just sometimes -- most of the time -- want to get in, get some exp racked up, and get out. I'm more likely to look for a group when the game content warrants it, like if I were to do a trial.

Then six people pop up their Batmobiles while crowding around Ms. Liberty...

Demons are the odd bit to me, not the MM part. My Bots/Traps is a military surplus catbot on Hero side. Ah, gotcha. Hm, well, there are plenty of "heroic" (or at least not-evil) demonic characters in comics. Spawn, for one. Kirby's Demon is another. Ghost Rider. Hellboy. There's precedent. Are they, though? Again, within the fiction of the game, my MM's thugs are actual people, with unique names and (presumably) personalities and identities. They're not disposable or interchangeable. When they're defeated, they come back (from the hospital?) just like any PC hero. I guess a defining characteristic of MMs is that there's a clear leader, but that can happen with PC groups as well. I don't think the average NPC "notices" the difference.

I like the idea. I'm not sure how to make it work mechanically unless you can convert it to a damage type, of which you take extra damage. Which might work, even for "hubris" (Psychic Damage).

Within the fiction of the game, what's the difference between a MM and, well, just a team? Could Reed Richards be a MM, with Sue, Johnny, and Ben his minions?

Curious, given this statement, what your position on new powersets is.

It's a common troll trick. The details in the proposal wouldn't be taken at face value, but just picked apart for further arguments. In reality, something like this probably needs a small team to collaborate on it, and certainly would need iterations to smooth out bumps and tighten it up. One way to implement something like origin-oriented missions might be to use the radio/newspaper mechanism. No new contacts have to be created. The missions just show up in rotation (disclosure: I don't know how random the missions are, so maybe this is unrealistic). Then it's a matter of deciding what it means to have, say, a "natural" mission. Someone, maybe Justicebeliever, suggested the idea that existing enemies be thematically grouped by origin. Some might be more than one, but all groups should be able to be fit into something. Then the origin mission in question would focus on that group. It would require some copy writing and mission designing for sure (which would require an eye toward "origin genre theming"), and yes that's work that needs to be done. If possible, the devs could even have players create these missions with the AE system to crowdsource it. I dunno if that would work either. If popular, it might warrant more crafted origin mission arcs in the future. By then it would be clear if there's a desire for something like this among the players.

I expect pitchforks but I sometimes wonder if Hasten shouldn't just be a toggle, with severely reduced base +Recharge compared to the current power. Then let +Recharge enhancements also buff its effect. Then we all get perma-hasten, just at lower effectiveness, and can slot up from there. I mean, people say it's essential anyway...

Amen.

In principle it should just come down to making them invisible and non-interactive/selectable (assuming they would be such when "present").

I mean if the relevant part of all your feedback is "that's not what origins are for" you could have just ditto'd one of Vanden's posts and saved us all a lot of time.

I don't find them overly complex but I also keep the minimap open in the corner at all times, so I know where I am. I just find the blue caves fugly.

I don't think anyone's made that suggestion, but feel free to strawman away.The irony is stunning. Wait, so you're saying I did ask for that? Yes. And in your line of work, if someone suggests a feature, that's akin to demanding it? Which of my posts do you believe was directed towards the dev team? Actually, all of them (or I guess most of them). Your objections are development-based. Who else should you be talking to? I mean why are you arguing with me over development time? So at this point I'm going to assume you're just being contrary for contrary's sake. It looks like most of the other folks in this thread have already decided the same thing. I know, I'm slow on the uptake some times. Good luck hashing out development priorities with the Homecoming team. Hope it works out.

This thread reminds me of something I said years back when discussing how in WoW, little kids and older players played Alliance, and teenagers played Horde. It related to SW. When I was a kid, I thought SW was about Luke, Leia, and Han because they were the good guys. When I was a teenager, I thought SW was about Vader and Boba Fett because they were edgy and stuff. Now that I'm old, SW is about Luke, Leia, and Han because they're the good guys. CoH appeals mostly to older players, and maybe their kids.

I think all they really have to do is redo the blue cave texture maps. They can even stay fundamentally bluish IMO. They're just weirdly bright and not very rock-like. Like something out of a 90s game.

I don't think anyone's made that suggestion, but feel free to strawman away. Do you work in any kind of production industry (software or otherwise)? If not, let me explain something. The concept/design phase is not the same as the project management phase or the dev planning or implementation phase. If a designer wants a feature, it doesn't automatically follow that the developers must implement that feature without regard to project management or resource management. What happens is the feature is discussed among the developers and the project managers, and a decision is made about if, how, and when to implement it. That decision takes into consideration things like: 1) is the feature appropriate for the overall application and does it fit the intended vision of the application? 2) is the feature useful or desired by the users of the application? 3) is the feature expensive to implement, in time or any other resource? Plus any other considerations a given development team might like to address (all teams are different). If the answer to these is yes, and no other basic objections can be found ("nah, the CEO hates that kind of thing"), then it becomes a question of project management. When does it make sense to add this feature? Can it be added in a single upcoming "build" or will it need to be phased in? What, if any, other planned features will need to be reshuffled around it? And so on. Unless you actually are part of the Homecoming development or project management team -- and hey, you might be, but please say so -- then I'm not sure it's your position to decide for them what's appropriate and feasible. I'm confident they're capable of making that determination themselves.

Honestly that's where I am, too. I don't have any expectations. But as someone who works in software development, I understand the value of bouncing ideas. Mostly they go nowhere. Sometimes they sit on back burners until something opens up a path where they might make sense. I can't count the number of times I've said to my own boss "Hey, remember that thing we wished we could do three years back? Well, with this new [platform/tech/whatever] it's actually feasible now." And often some of our best progress comes from the non-developer side, who throw out concepts that 99% are pure nonsense, but that 1% pushes us in a direction we might not have had the inclination to go on our own. I completely reject the accusation that making a suggestion is in any way demanding anything from anyone. I'm not even demanding that anyone read or respond to my suggestion! Maybe the only thing I "demand" is that if you do voice an objection to it, your objection comes in the form of some kind of argument that focuses on the merits of the suggestion itself and not on broad hypotheticals.