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

Thanks! I spent about 4 hours staring at my screen yesterday coming up with these ideas spontaneously. ;D Do you think the descriptions and effects sound plausible for actual in-game play?

A handful of suggestions I really hope to see acknowledged! First, I really want to see an Earth Blast powerset added, as currently the Sentinel can use Stone Armor, but has nothing sensible to go with it. Same goes for the Blaster and Defender, they both have Earth/Stone based support powers, but no ranged Earth attacks. And while Dominators get Earth Assault, the ranged attacks in that set are deceptive, being cast on-target, rather than traveling from the player character. I propose using in-game assets (by shrinking/expanding/skewing pre-existing geometry) to create various hurled bits of rock as ranged attacks. EARTH BLAST This set could have a unique secondary effect, Cripple, which could reduce an enemy's movement speed by 15% and their damage output by 10% for a few seconds. Pebble Torrent: A stream of fast moving gravel pelts your target, slowing them and dealing minimal damage. This attack has a very low chance to cripple a target. Recharge: Very Fast Rock Toss: Summon a pair of mid-sized rocks, flinging them at your enemy. The impact deals moderate Smash damage, and has a small chance to cripple your target. Recharge: Moderate Dust Storm: Create a vortex of dust and gravel, shunting your enemies away in a small AoE around you, and dealing moderate Smash damage. Recharge: Moderate Crystal Spear: Form a large spike of crystal and hurl it forward, impaling your target for heavy Lethal damage, and causing them to bleed for a short time. This attack has a good chance to cripple your target. Recharge: Slow Aim: Greatly increases your chance to hit for a short time, and slightly increases damage dealt. Recharge: Long Crystal Cage: Create a ring of razor sharp crystals around a single enemy, dealing minimal Lethal damage, but immobilizing them for a short time. This attack has a good chance to cripple your target. Recharge: Moderate Skipping Stone: Fling a single tiny stone with superhuman accuracy, striking an enemy in the head. The impact deals heavy Smash damage, has a high chance to disorient your foe, and also has a very small chance to put your target to sleep for a short while. Recharge: Slow Landslide: Generate a wave of rock along the ground that knocks down anyone in its path, dealing moderate Smash damage, but almost always crippling the affected targets. Recharge: Long Meteoric Blast: Call down an asteroid from orbit at a targeted area, dealing extreme Smash damage on the initial impact, and leaving behind a flaming patch of molten rock from the heat of reentry, which deals high Fire DoT. Recharge: Very Long Additionally, I hope that these next ideas are somewhat plausible, since we have a magnetic aura in the game, with no powers to go with it... MAGNETIC BLAST Magnetic attacks could possess two stacking debuffs, each of which can only affect a target once at a time, called Debilitating Polarity - Positive, and Debilitating Polarity - Negative. Both could reduce their defense against energy damage slightly, but also, when used in an alternating cycle, can cause bonus Smashing damage. The idea behind this being, you are magnetically charging an enemy either positively, or negatively, which causes the next attack to strike your enemy with greater force, since it becomes attracted to them. Magnetic Bolts: Hurl an array of small magnetic bolts at your foe, dealing minor Energy damage, and adding a stack of Debilitating Polarity - Positive. Recharge: Fast Shrapnel Barrage: Magnetically launch multiple slivers of metal at your foe, dealing moderate Lethal and Energy damage, and adding a stack of Debilitating Polarity - Positive. Recharge: Moderate Repulsive Wave: Release an arc of magnetic force in a cone in front of you, knocking back anyone caught by the rippling energy. This attack deals moderate Energy and Smash damage, as well as adding a stack of Debilitating Polarity - Negative. Recharge: Slow Magnetic Grasp: Reach out and magnetically toss a random object at your enemy, dealing high Smash damage, and disorienting them for a short while. Recharge: Slow Reverse Polarity: Make yourself into a living magnet, causing all of your attacks to be more accurate and damaging for a short time. Additionally, your magnetic attacks place 3 stacks of Debilitating Polarity - Positive, on any targets hit during the duration. Recharge: Long Magnetic Lance: Summon a large metal spike and hurl it at your foe. The impact deals high Lethal damage, knocks the enemy down, and adds a stack of Debilitating Polarity - Negative. Recharge: Slow Electromagnetic Prison: Trap an enemy inside an electromagnetic sphere for a short time, causing minor Energy DoT, and immobilizing them for the duration. Also adds a stack of Debilitating Polarity - Positive. Recharge: Moderate Magnetic Bomb: Generate a large sphere of magnetic force, and blast a small AoE, causing very high Energy damage to anyone caught in the explosion. Adds a stack of Debilitating Polarity - Negative. Recharge: Long Polarity Shift: Change the polarity in a very large AoE, causing multiple massive metal objects to launch themselves at the affected zone. This attack deals extreme Smash damage, while consuming all active stacks of Debilitating Polarity - Positive and Debilitating Polarity - Negative, allowing it to deal even more. Recharge: Very Long MAGNETIC SHIELDING Repulsive Aura: When this power is toggled on, you gain a protective field that repels projectiles and some elemental attacks, increasing your defense against Lethal, Energy and Fire damage. Recharge: Fast Shrapnel Field: When you toggle this power, you summon a swirling vortex of tiny metal fragments that deals constant, minor Lethal damage to any enemies who come into melee range. The vortex also has a very small chance to knock down your foes on the initial hit. Recharge: Moderate Directional Sense: You are naturally adept at sensing the Earth's magnetic poles, extending even to the point of being near-precognitive in the case of which direction an attack is coming from. This power automatically makes you more likely to dodge some melee and ranged attacks, and also slightly increases your resistance against Lethal, Smash and Disorient. This power is always on. Shielded Mind: When this power is toggled on, your mind gains protective insulation from external intrusion, affording you a high degree of Psionic defense. Recharge: Fast Magnetic Induction: Your body is naturally attuned to magnetic fields, giving you a resistance to energy distortion and control effects. This power affords you a small degree of protection against Sleep, Immobilize, Hold and Knockback. This power is always on. Balance Polarity: You can re-balance your body's polarity, enabling you to recover from detrimental effects more quickly. When activated, you regenerate a moderate amount of health, and gain temporary resistance to Toxic, Negative and Disorient. Recharge: Long Metallic Armor: Using magnetism, you encase yourself in a shimmering sphere of fast moving metal shards, affording you a high degree of Ranged, Energy and Smash defense for a brief time. Recharge: Long Electromagnetic Singularity: When you toggle this power, you charge your body with an intense amount of electrons, effectively causing yourself to collapse most positrons nearby. This drastically reduces the damage you take from Energy, Negative and Cold. Recharge: Fast Polarity Drain: Absorbs positrons and electrons from all foes nearby, reducing their Energy defenses, and reinforcing your own magnetic fields, which drastically increases your protection from most kinds of damage, and restores some of your endurance. When this power wears off, you are left unbalanced for a brief period of time, which reduces your endurance severely. Recharge: Very Long