Reverse Character Progression

[Herotu]

No. Not regression.

 

Reverse Progression. It's a bad name for what I'm suggesting but it's clickbait and I thank you for your attention.

 

What if you got your best powers first, and then fill out with less powerful ones as you went along, instead of grinding away to get the best powers to eventually get an idea of whether or not you'll enjoy the class at higher level?

 

PROs:

• You get to know if you love the character almost straight away. No grinding. Big, impactful gameplay that draws you in and then holds on to you as you fill out your arsenal with less and less impactful, but still important and varied powers.

 

Other PROs:

• You won't play the character beyond the first few levels to know if you love it or not. Some will see this as a CON, I don't understand why.

 

CONs: 

• The devs would have work to do on this.
• There may be issues with the super-crap powers that you currently get at the start of the game - people would probably pick pool powers instead (which ISN'T in itself a bad thing). This may provide scope for improving those powers in some way, perhaps making them do different things.

[Blastit]

The big con is that most high-tier powers have long recharge times and it's not that fun to play levels 1-20 having to wait 15 seconds between attacks. Additionally, some power sets are actually very frontloaded and you'd just end up with a reversed situation there. Stalkers get their assassinations pretty early, too, and Hide is always the lowest tier power.

 

 

It'd be interesting to manifest in Atlas Park immediately with a nuke and could make for some funky early task forces but the game is straight up built on handing you bread-and-butter moves first so reversing it is going to get weird.

[Herotu]

That would be the case were it not for the P2W powers, I suppose...

[Apogee]

If you really want to try out a powerset without investing a whole bunch of time simply go to the test server and kit one out.

[MTeague]

I give it a no.  The "Big" powers are rarely your bread-and-butter playstyle powers.

[Replacement]

Just reverse the order of tiers 3-9.  Leave the 1st 2 powers the same.  Gives you a nice contrast between your daily drivers - your "auto attacks" and such - and your big powerful moments.

 

But still fix the t9 armor powers.  They aren't worth it at 32; they aren't worth it at 4.

Edited May 22, 2020 by Replacement
Lost my numbers!!

[Hexquisite]

2 hours ago, Herotu said:

PROs:

• You get to know if you love the character almost straight away. No grinding. Big, impactful gameplay that draws you in and then holds on to you as you fill out your arsenal with less and less impactful, but still important and varied powers.

 

 

...yeah, I get this with the normal progression. But, I'm one of those crazy people who likes to level through normal mission content ( ie, not endless DfB and TFs ), and enjoy the feeling of character progression as I grow stronger and gain more powerful abilities.

 

So, hard pass. I don't want the game 'easier' at lower levels. Whether or not I love the character has almost nothing to do with their powers.

[Doc_Scorpion]

2 hours ago, Blastit said:

It'd be interesting to manifest in Atlas Park immediately with a nuke and could make for some funky early task forces but the game is straight up built on handing you bread-and-butter moves first so reversing it is going to get weird.

 

2 hours ago, MTeague said:

I give it a no.  The "Big" powers are rarely your bread-and-butter playstyle powers.

Yep.  And those "big" powers often aren't all that useful without at least of a couple of slots, and Stamina, and your (often low(er) level) bread-and-butter powers to fill in around them.

Hard pass.

[MTeague]

Also if the goal is just to know "will I like this character when I have my whole toolkit"?  

There's a TEST server.  And you can shazam a cahracter to 50 there anytime you want.

 

Much better tahn screwing up when you get Build Up, or when a Mind Controller gets Confuse, or when a Katana Scrapper gets Parry, etc.

[Chance Jackson]

21 hours ago, Blastit said:

It'd be interesting to manifest in Atlas Park immediately with a nuke and could make for some funky early task forces but the game is straight up built on handing you bread-and-butter moves first so reversing it is going to get weird.

In accordance with the principles of creation

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by Chance Jackson

[Black Zot]

So, you want every melee to start the game with their only available survivability tool being a suicide button, and the things that will ACTUALLY keep them alive coming last?

 

Hard fucking no.

[Blastit]

Just now, Black Zot said:

So, you want every melee to start the game with their only available survivability tool being a suicide button, and the things that will ACTUALLY keep them alive coming last?

 

Hard fucking no.

This would make for potentially funny challenge scenarios, though.

 

 

I would like it if this idea could be implemented on the test servers for a month just to fool around. It'd be great to sometimes have a league-style thing with weird stipulations. Spaghetti code willing, anyway.

[blayzemaster]

I'd kinda half like this, but only because my Fire/Shield Brute needs both fire swords available AT ALL TIMES.

 

[Herotu]

14 hours ago, Blastit said:

This would make for potentially funny challenge scenarios, though.

 

 

I would like it if this idea could be implemented on the test servers for a month just to fool around. It'd be great to sometimes have a league-style thing with weird stipulations. Spaghetti code willing, anyway.

Quite. It's not a serious suggestion (hence it's in general discussion), it's a thought experiment.  I think it's a fun idea.

 

15 hours ago, Chance Jackson said:

In accordance with the laws of creation

 

This just reminds me of The SHonen Knife...

 

[seresibyl2]

No Thanks.

 

I'll use Arachnos WIdow to explain.

 

I have a 50 widow. I plvled her to 50 - love her, shes great. Suppper fun.

 

But before I plvled one, I played one till level 28 and felt I had nothing "cool" to look forward to. No aspiration. No like 'can't wait till I get X power.' 

 

NOPE. There are several other sets that I don't play because I have nothing "to look forward to" -- Ice controller for example. After you get slick/confuse fog... you got nothing. You got a weird blue block guy and that's it. Nahhh...

 

 

So yah, firm no from me on starting with stronger powers sooner.

[Peacemoon]

Just play a MM. As you level your pets get lower level and weaker, and your attacks become meaningless. 😉

[Herotu]

17 minutes ago, seresibyl2 said:

No Thanks.

 

I'll use Arachnos WIdow to explain.

 

I have a 50 widow. I plvled her to 50 - love her, shes great. Suppper fun.

 

But before I plvled one, I played one till level 28 and felt I had nothing "cool" to look forward to. No aspiration. No like 'can't wait till I get X power.' 

 

NOPE. There are several other sets that I don't play because I have nothing "to look forward to" -- Ice controller for example. After you get slick/confuse fog... you got nothing. You got a weird blue block guy and that's it. Nahhh...

 

 

So yah, firm no from me on starting with stronger powers sooner.

I thought of this while writing the OP and the counter to it was, "What am I looking forward to? Acquiring the power or USING the power?" 

I guess I'm coming back to the old question, "What's the point in levels?"

[seresibyl2]

5 minutes ago, Herotu said:

I thought of this while writing the OP and the counter to it was, "What am I looking forward to? Acquiring the power or USING the power?" 

I guess I'm coming back to the old question, "What's the point in levels?"

WoW learned this lesson (even if still not corrected) -- leveling without acquiring cool new things = not fun. If you don't have any cool new things to look forward to, people lose motivation.

 

Levels are all in the type of progression game you want to build. CoH has a much larger leveling game than a lot of other games (I'd argue FF11 was the only one that was more focused on it than CoH back in the day, since leveling WAS the game 😛 and I was in the LS(guild) that spent 18 hours killing a boss in 11 😞 ). 

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by seresibyl2

[Herotu]

25 minutes ago, seresibyl2 said:

WoW learned this lesson (even if still not corrected) -- leveling without acquiring cool new things = not fun. If you don't have any cool new things to look forward to, people lose motivation.

 

Levels are all in the type of progression game you want to build. CoH has a much larger leveling game than a lot of other games (I'd argue FF11 was the only one that was more focused on it than CoH back in the day, since leveling WAS the game 😛 and I was in the LS(guild) that spent 18 hours killing a boss in 11 😞 ). 

 

That could be why I tend to abandon my characters when they hit 50.