New AT idea - Random

[0th Power]

(Slightly serious)

Idea for a new AT, The Random.  

-You would get assigned a random AT base stats/hp/dmgcaps/etc

-At level 1, you would be assigned 2 random powers from any set (1 would be an attack)

-Every level you get a power, you are assigned a new random power.

-Slot levels would allow you to slot normally

-AE would be disabled

-one per account

-could only delete once you hit 50

 

This would make for some interesting possibilities, some being very powerful, some not so much.

[Dragon Crush]

Odds of it being powerful if really random seem low, since ending up with ending up with the best blaster ranged attacks and tanker scalars means you don't do damage, no set wide mechanics can really work, slim chance you end up with 1 attack and all end heavy armor toggles or long recharge/short duration buffs/debuffs with nothing to do most of the time...

Not sure at the moment how to adjust this to be viable, but not being fully random would be the first step.

[FrauleinMental]

You'd almost certainly need to disable respecs for the Random as well.  Otherwise, it'd be way too easy to reroll powers because respecs are relatively plentiful.

 

Why disable AE?  Power-leveling?  There are other ways to farm, though perhaps AE allows greater efficiency.  You'd probably want to disable XP boosters as well.

 

I personally prefer greater agency in my character design, but I do know a lot of people who loved the random power generation in the old TSR Marvel Super Heroes RPG.

[JumpingSpider]

So the archetype would be named Masochist?

 

[Greycat]

... ugh. I'm sorry, this just sounds... really bad. And the restrictions are - well, not particularly logical, either. No AE? There's more there than just farms, so no. And "can only delete when you hit 50?" Why? If you're stuck with one attack and you start getting random powers - say, level 2 you get a teammate rez, 4  you get, say, Fast Healing, 6 you get Personal Force Field... you can see where this is going, right? Would you *want* to be stuck with that?

 

There's absolutely no way you could plan this out, and how would you feel about having one join your team - say, for an ITF - that's randomly been given two attacks, one hold, three rezzes, Sonic Cage, Time Bomb, etc.

 

Sorry, for me this would be a *hard* pass... and I *like* some sets, mechanics and ATs that people generally call "weak" or "underperforming."

[Glacier Peak]

There is an ability to actually do what you're suggesting if you hosted your own server, gave yourself access to the dev command tool, and added all the powers you desired. It is not entirely that difficult to do so either.

 

Short of that option, I do not support this suggestion. Thank you.

[FrauleinMental]

2 hours ago, Greycat said:

... ugh. I'm sorry, this just sounds... really bad. And the restrictions are - well, not particularly logical, either. No AE? There's more there than just farms, so no. And "can only delete when you hit 50?" Why? If you're stuck with one attack and you start getting random powers - say, level 2 you get a teammate rez, 4  you get, say, Fast Healing, 6 you get Personal Force Field... you can see where this is going, right? Would you *want* to be stuck with that?

Casinos make a lot of money on how people answer questions like this.  Most of the people who would take this AT think they're going to be the one to "beat the house."

2 hours ago, Greycat said:

There's absolutely no way you could plan this out, and how would you feel about having one join your team - say, for an ITF - that's randomly been given two attacks, one hold, three rezzes, Sonic Cage, Time Bomb, etc.

That's an interesting point.  When a particular AT joins the team, you generally know what to expect.  This AT doubles down on the rando.

[Greycat]

3 minutes ago, FrauleinMental said:

Casinos make a lot of money on how people answer questions like this.  Most of the people who would take this AT think they're going to be the one to "beat the house."

Personally, I don't think this would have the same... allure as "I know I can hit the jackpot." (Aside from the other psychological tricks casinos use to keep you feeling like 'just one more time...' )

 

Especially with the idea of "Can't delete til 50." I think this would be the most PL'd AT... just so people could get to 50 and delete it. I mean, people like to plan. People like to look ahead (... and PL to get there, admittedly) to get that next ibg power. Masterminds, getting each of their pet tiers and upgrades, for instance. Getting that "big attack." Emps getting their RAs, controllers their pets, etc.

 

The only way I could see "randomness" working would really be "you're at an average for all ATs, you get a random primary and random secondary." (None of the other limits.) Yes, you could end up with armor/armor, or control/control, you could be an empath/pain. You could end up with a fairly unsoloable character - but it'd also be something you can plan to work around, too. That armor/armor - how would you like to be FA/SR? Could you work with that, pools and P2W attacks? How about a Ninja/Bots MM? Giving random but full *sets,* people could do some planning.

[johnnysc]

I think this is a fun thought experiment.  Here's my two cents on the concept:

 

First cent: It would probably make sense to divide powers into random primary and secondary pools.

Primary powers random pool:  melee damage, ranged damage, control, assault

Secondary powers pools:  armor sets, manipulation, support sets

Not included: Mastermind primaries - I just don't think the pets would work out for anyone if the buff powers are missing.

 

2nd penny:  The powers would have to be assigned to tiers:  Primary tier 1 would consist of light attacks, immobs, tier 2 would be medium attacks and single target holds, and so forth.

 

You would still have lots of opportunities for random weirdness, but just might get something playable out of it.

[Outrider_01]

In anime its call Isekai, poor schmuck transported to another world.  Also a type of stuck in a video game plot from books on Amazon, think like Teon movie.

 

 2 different outcomes for the protagonist

-  Keeps gaining OP abilities

- Rolled a natural 20 below zero and the weakest character, for comedy.  Than works to overcome being a hero.

- Catgirl harem not included

 

You are going to see a lot of revolts when they end up as Tank defense, MM pets, and control power.  Hard to kill, dumb pet AI, and no buffs for them excep to lock down stuff.

[Dragotect]

No... Just no.

 

99.999% of the time the character will be junk.

 

Imagine, getting only non damaging sleeps? Or only non elemental defenses? How about one attack from each different weapon attack (oh God, the redraw)? What about only teammate buffs? So many ways for a toon to have zero attacks except the first, brawl and the origin power. Oh,hell! What if all your powers were t9 defenses with horrid crashes? Or only auto powers? Or only MM pet buffs with no pets to buff? So many 100% useless possibilities. Or only t1 attacks with the lowest damage modifier?

 

How would powerpools work? Are they included so you might only end up with all the travel powers?

 

And why have the restrictions? I'm not gonna bother going further if I have one attack for 40 levels and losing one slot for a junk toon is nothing if I have 999 more. Also, why hope for a god-like character when you can just make one currently?

 

The idea of a random primary set paired with a random secondary set could be cool though. If you have two defenses, at least you have power pools to get attacks from. Imagine an FA/Bio that has PP taunt and attacks.

 

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Dragotect

[Blackfeather]

While I wouldn't be interested in a totally random archetype, having a 'Random' button for both archetype selection, and primary/secondary selection might be fun.

[Troo]

I would take this idea for creating randomized Bosses or AVs.

 

We'd need to recognize and react to the combinations.

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Troo
forgots a word

[General Idiot]

For a random powers AT to work there'd need to be some kind of logic applied to how it chooses the powers for it, to prevent the already mentioned awful unplayable combinations from happening. You'd need stuff like at least X powers must be damaging attacks of some kind, powers probably weighted toward what the chosen AT scales are better at, and specific things like if given Mastermind pets must also be given upgrade powers and if given something that builds combo points must also have something that spends combo points, etc etc.

 

Done like that it could work but it'd be a lot more effort than it sounds like at first glance. A full random selection though just has too high a potential of producing completely unusable characters.

[0th Power]

Thanks for all the feedback, except the do it on your own server.  Like I said in the original post this was only slightly serious, but thinking about it more (Spitballing here), this could end up being a Crey AT.  You wouldn’t necessarily get a choice of which powers you would get, but it wouldn’t be totally random. Low levels, you would be the face of crey, doing good in atlas and kings but it could open up an arc where you realize who you were, etc, etc. 

Im not dead set on any ideas, but I think there might be something there.  All thoughts and comments welcome.