alloygray25

My dream City of Heroes 2 would look like this; - Created in Unreal Engine or something equivalent. Take a look at the Mandalorian and the Superman game concept trailers. A modern CoH could look truly incredible. - A seamless world set decades after the the first game. We could have hub cities and towns, where we visit other players in order to create super-teams or to hang out, level up, buy stuff, trade, or unlock new costume styles. Random crime happens on the streets, randomly generated supervillains start a raid or a scheme at a major landmark, and Alpha Level threats happen at set intervals in different parts of the world. Outside of the cities would be open countryside, suburbs, lairs, highway networks with traffic, large bodies of water with hidden bases, etc. etc. - Console accessibility. I would much rather play on PS5 than need a graphics card from 2037, for a game theoretically made in 2024-2025. - Powerset Archetypes. If they created a modernized City of Heroes, the BIGGEST thing I would want to see is the superpowers given much more freedom of choice, personalization, and the ability to match them up thematically. Give us hundreds of "baseline" powers to choose from, and then give us dozens of options in various subcategories to narrow down how they work. The process could go like; At Level 1 - Create 3 powers. 1 Travel, and 2 of your choice, either offensive, defensive. When creating a power, choose the origin first (Magic, Tech, Natural, Mutation, Science). The idea here, is that character's abilities can come from innumerable sources, simultaneously. Look at Marvel's Doctor Doom for example. His melee capabilities come from his powered armor, but his ranged attacks can come from both his suit AND his knowledge of the arcane. So Doom has a mix of many possible powers from different origins. Another example would be Black Canary; Her fighting skills are natural, from training, but her Canary Cry sonic attacks come from a genetic anomaly, so she's technically a DC Mutant. Afterwards, you pick a baseline powertype. An attack type, a defensive buff, some form of debuff, or maybe a travel ability, etc. Once you have the basic concept, then you pick from the subcategories, allowing you to choose the medium, or the vehicle through which this power is used. If you want to be primarily melee, do you use a primary weapon? Or are you unarmed with enhanced combat skills, such as the classic Super Strength? Then you choose the theme of the power. Are you a technological monk who channels artificially produced fire through your martial arts? Or are you an arcane warrior who swings a hexed warhammer around with reckless abandon, protected by a suit of enchanted stone armor? A few limited examples for the sake of time and characters typed; - The Origin of "Magic", the baseline power "Projectile - Blast", the subcategory "Eye Beams" OR "Palm Burst", and the theme of "Plantlife" OR "Electricity" OR "Sound", etc. - The Origin of "Mutation", the baseline power "Control - Root", the subcategory "Thrown - Trap" OR "Manifest Binding", and the theme of "Earth" OR "Water" OR "Metal", etc. - The Origin of "Technology", the baseline power "Melee - Dash", the subcategory "Enhanced Unarmed" OR "Weapon - Mace", and the theme of "Impact" OR "Gravity" OR "Air", etc. - The Origin of "Natural", the baseline power "Buff Self - Armor", the subcategory "Bubble" OR "Manifest Armor" OR "Manifest Aura", and the theme of "Kinetic" OR "Fire" OR "Blood", etc. And lastly, each of your choices could have a small skill tree attached to it, giving you options to further narrow how you want your powers to function. Perhaps you want your fire to burn more intensely, dealing more damage over time, but making it short-lived? Or you want your sonic attacks to have a higher chance to stun enemies, while dealing less raw damage? This of course, could be relegated to the use of enhancements from the current game. The possibilities are endless, and open the way for future content packs, helping keep the game sustainable without being predatory. DC Online does this pretty well in my opinion. They sell entire powersets, like Atomic, Munitions and Rage, while still offering over a dozen base-game abilities. - Cinematics. A game like City of Heroes deserves epic cinematic moments during the main campaign, akin to SWTOR. - Interactions. A superhero game of this scale could use an NPC companion system, with conversations, background missions and potential romance options for those of us who enjoy that (In the same vein as Mass Effect or Fallout 4). Am I wrong to say that comic books include a TON of situations where superheroes hook up? Why should our hypothetical game not include the choice?

That's my understanding as well. Simple fact... Although, through creativity, we can explain away the various non-generic powersets as being based on an origin obviously not likely to them, it cannot be ignored that we have powers that are "very" specific. My original concept is just an idea for a powerset that fills in the essentially empty fantasy corner of magic in COH. Demon Summoning has some, but not all magic users are demon-worshipers. Zombie Summoning too has some. But again, not all magic casters draw the darkest parts of the universe. Also, not all magic is freaking summoning magic. We also have the Sorcery pool, which begs to have something else to compliment it thematically. That's it for magic. Everything else is based on imagination, through multiple elements, weapons, armour and appearances, but nothing remotely specific like other powersets afford. And the same argument can be made for other origins as well. If an Arcane set existed, creativity could easily explain why a scientist is using scienced-magic (Doctor Fate), mutant-magic is a thing (Illiana Rasputin, Scarlet Witch), someone could have a natural spark of arcane potential, and someone else could build an advanced reactor that draws in magic energy and imprints it on a piece of high-tech gear (Doctor Doom) Meanwhile... a proper mage, could be a proper mage, finally.

Problem with this? This isn't arcane. You just described "Elemental Blast", essentially a powerset that gives a character an array of elemental abilities that have no crossover and no uniqueness. To create a proper Arcane set, it would need a uniform collection of VFX with a clear, or somewhat magical theme, and to make it unique from all the single elemental powers, mixing energy with another damage type creates the illusion of a "spell" effect. So example, to make it generic *and* arcane, maybe; T1 - Arcane Bolt: You draw from an unknown source, firing a quick bolt of power that deals minor energy and smashing damage. T2 - Arcane Blast: Pulling from somewhere beyond, you launch a burst of power that deals moderate energy and cold damage.

I seriously like this idea, though the animations *might* be a bit limited for a staff, aside from the one used to cast the bonus "wand" powers from the P2W vendor. Personally though? I prefer proper spells, so maybe renaming some of my powers with more generic terms would leave it more origin-ambiguous

Thanks! I LOVE coming with this kind of material, it's fun and inspirational. And, this is just me, but when I sat down and typed this all out, I was thinking along the lines of the Sentinel's Blast type, because I like Sents better than paper-like Blasters, haha! But sure, you could easily substitute Arcane Shackles or Necrotic Volley with a Magic Missile, or potentially an Arcane Beam snipe attack. "You draw in mass amounts of residual magic energy, forming a roiling ball of destruction within your hands, and in an instant, cast it towards your distant foes." - Or - "You draw in mass amounts of residual magic energy, causing your hands to glow with an arcane heat, and in an instant, fire a beam of undiluted power directly at your distant foes."

Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. And its probably why this'll never get made. Though, think about some of the characters whose origins are actually other than straight magic. - Doctor Doom, highly technologically advanced, also knows sorcery and has made pacts with Mephisto - Magik/Illiana Rasputin, a mutant with the ability to draw power from a dimension filled with magical energy - Doctor Fate, a scientist who wears a magical helmet that imbues him with mystic powers - Gwen Tennyson, a natural-born alien/human hybrid with magical abilities on a level that was never fully explored - And for good measure, Shazam, a kid who learned a simple of word of power, and can effectively transform into a magical god. Also, while I agree with you to a point, I think Energy Blast is a bad example personally, as honestly, it looks nothing like magic. It looks like something created by tech or science, or *maybe* by an alien energy being. Fire would be the best universal elemental power for any origin. Human Torch = Science, Pyro = Mutant, Scorcher = Tech, Ghost Rider = Magic, Surtur = Natural (Fire Demon) One other thing to consider, there are a few powersets that feel shoehorned into specific origins. - Traps, not a single one of those powers could pass as magical or mutant. They're chunks of metal and chemistry that explode in various ways. - Assault Rifle, maybe some people say "oh but you could have a magical gun", fine, but thematically an assault rifle is just a simple, mechanical piece of equipment. No magic, no mutations, unlikely to be scientific. - Sonic Attacks? When has "sound magic" ever been a thing? XD I can believe any other origin, but never magical-based sound powers. - Robotics, does this one even need explanation? Magic robots? So my point is, while maybe renaming some of the powers to sound less magical could work, you can get away with things in another origin. Using science to open a gateway into a magical dimension, a magical mutation, a natural alien born with magical potential, using technology to "capture" magic energy in something like a pair of gauntlets or a mask?

Haha yeah, I'm a concepts and design guy, numbers are... not in my *powerset* 😁

Yup, been looking at the outdated wikipage this entire time. And I've made a couple of changes...

Oh, I was looking at the COH Wiki power pools page for reference on naming and wording. It doesn't list Cross Punch. -_-

For my Sidearm idea, I was following the Fighting pool set, which only has 4 abilities; 2 attacks and 2 buffs. And yeah, I can see that idea of pretty much any power being possible from any origin, like claws that were magically attached to the body, or fire powers based on technology, etc. Also, that makes a lot of sense for Blood Pact to enable a short-lived "Bloodthirsty" effect, maybe decreasing endurance costs, and increasing power recharge speeds, basically allowing you to spam spells quickly for that desperate kill.

Just have a handful of Powerset ideas to share, not greatly fleshed out, but that I would love to see possibly added! P.S. I didn't add any recharge rates, since they'd be in-line with all other equivalent powers. Sonic Armour/Aura Sidearm Training: Power Pool Set Arcane Blast Mystical Aura

As a fellow Power Set conceptualist, I like these ideas! Well done. Maybe you saw my Earth Blast, Magnetic Blast/Magnetic Shielding post?

I did! But I was never really 100% happy with it, just wasn't as exciting as my other suggestions. Very cool set you came up with there Trick! It would go really well together with my Magnetic Blast on a Corruptor.

Your feedback is appreciated, and gives me something to think over for next time. These 3 sets were rather spontaneous, so they're a bit barebones when it comes to real depth. I have other ideas too, such as; Plasma Blast / Plasma Melee / Plasmic Aura Magma Blast / Lava Melee / Geothermal Armor Ectoplasm Manipulation / Spectral Warding / Poltergeists (Ghost Summons) Minigun Tempest Blast / Tempest Melee / Tempest Armor Arcane Blast / Arcane Melee / Arcane Aura Once I get around to fleshing out these power sets, I'll keep your feedback in mind!

Yes -- I think -- but as written they're all very close to existing powersets. Earth Blast: For mechanical reasons, the -dmg component from Cripple would need to have limited (or no) stacking. The lack of power interactions (combos or etc) makes the set feel a little dated. I also feel like the design space for the set is pretty well occupied by Ice Blast. I'd suggest looking at "earth power" characters from media and games for not just visual inspiration, but stylistic inspiration; Earth users tend to trap their foes and manipulate the battlefield. A set that uses several placeable damage fields like Rain of Fire or Whirlpool or targeted AoEs, and traps enemies in those fields with slows and immobilizes (and associated -KB), seems more in-theme. Magnetic Blast: I like that you gave this more power interactions! However, it's worth thinking about what the interaction does a bit more. In this case it seems like the interaction effect is purely bonus single-target damage (since -def doesn't rely on the interaction). What that means is that the powers would be adjusted to do slightly less damage up-front. Without anything else to sell the set, it might feel a little lackluster in comparison to, e.g. Beam Rifle, which has kind of a similar effect but expands the interactions a bit. Magnetic Shielding: This set looks a lot like Energy Aura but doesn't appear to follow the standard positional vs typed defense structure. This would probably result in it being less effective (since one type pair or one position of Defense adds balancing cost) and potentially harder to build, but it doesn't seem to offer any particularly new tools. There are some other minor issues (as written, the set has no debuff resistance), but occupying essentially the same design space as Energy Aura is probably the largest. This is the kind of feedback I hope for when I take the time to come up with these kinds of things! Everything you mentioned makes sense, especially seeing as I had the Powerset wiki up most of the time I was typing out my ideas lol. I tried to keep the abilities as stand-apart as possible, but as I read through the various aura and armor powersets, I noticed most of them were quite similar. So I figured making my Magnetic Shielding concept incorporate some of those same effects would make it feel in-line with the actual functioning powers. Making my sets too outrageous would make them extremely unlikely to ever be considered for use. Of course I realize that its already highly unlikely we'll see new powers, I hoped that by keeping them on the slightly simpler side, they might be a viable addition at some point, hopefully helping anyone working on such things to less coding work. And to be honest, I feel like having these, even as basically reskins, is acceptable, since the fantasy of it all is what we're all playing this for anyway! :D