Power ideas - Grappling hook

[ranevan]

Travel power - Grappling hook

(Graphic styles - rope, web)

Binding shot - Has a chance to wrap

Yank - knock down, but toward the user

Swing line - Acts similar to double jump

Swap - jumps over target and swaps spots with them

Grounded - resist knock around and mez

 

[Aracknight]

Hmmmmm.

 

Not too different than I imagined it as a thought process.  

 

I like the entangle of binding.

 

Yank I picture as a ranged Air Superiority, using knockup instead of down, complete with the -fly.

 

Swingline I figured would be the same "mechanism" as the jump pack.  You go up until you let go, just without the timer.

 

Swap I'm not feeling as much, but I think "Slingshot" with a Spring Attack teleport aoe attack might work better.

 

Grounded I don't like.  I always actually pictured using a swingline disabling your KB protection, since you have no way to brace yourself when you're in the air.

 

 

 

In before the complaints of immersion breaking when you're swinging from "nowhere."

 

 

I want this though.

 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2021 by Aracknight

[ranevan]

I was thinking the swing line can either hook to a nearby building, or an invisible or origin dependant anchor point, like a drone or large animal or mystic totem or whatever.  Swap and grounded were just spitball ideas because 5 skills.  

I might replace swap with 

Swing around - grab a target and swing them around you doing an AOE. Target takes damage based on other enemies hit.  If the target can't be swung or no target is selected, grabs an object nearby (like the gravity skill set debris) And swings it around instead.

[ranevan]

And while Spidy may be the obvious user of these powers, Wondy had also done so, so it's not just a power set for one archetype.  And Wondy lassoed lightning as her anchor :)

[Aracknight]

Oh, I'm on your side.  One of the very few things I enjoyed about Champions was the swingline power, and one of the very few things I enjoyed about DC was....acrobatics?  Where you have a grapnel, can climb, and glide?  I forget the actual name, but I'm sure you all get what I mean.

 

I think that not having this is one of the few holes in the "comic book travel powers" tropes that we adhere to, outside of vehicles or things to ride.

 

I think they are working on some "knock towards" powers instead of knockback, and a "Get over here" power a la Scorpion from Mortal Kombat sounds dope too.

 

I think there's some animations that can be used already, there's Dark powers that have a "pulling towards you" sort of animation that could be recycled, and i know some minion summoning powers, especially arachnos and Lord Recluse seem to have them rapelling from the sky, so there's got to be some resources available for it.

[Greycat]

Part of the problem with these sorts of things is that (as I recall) there's nothing in the engine, or the engine has (or had) a problem with "grappling." Things can't pick up and hold other things - something like Hurl just makes up a rock as part of the power graphics/animation, it doesn't have you pick up a nearby garbage can, for instance.  (It also keeps us from having melee pools that involve grabbing/picking up, some potential whip attacks, and is one of many things tied to stretching when it's suggested. Or for that matter, even a "hug" or "arm on shoulder" type emote, much less power.)

 

And I know the "swing from nothing" would end up bugging some people - ok, reach something offscreen in the city, sure, but over the ocean or in a hallway, it would look weird - but that's more "personal preference" than "reason not to do it." (Granted, I'm one of the people it would bug, but that's also just me.)

 

If this *could* be done, it'd be an upgrade that would allow other things (as mentioned before) as well. For that reason alone I'd kind of like to see it.

[srmalloy]

From what I remember of Positron talking about it -- and it was something that was requested a number of times during live -- it would require an update or replacement of the game engine to do it. There were no updates available for the game engine Cryptic had bought, and putting in a new engine would require development of new content to come to a halt while they went through the code to make all of the old hooks into the engine work with the new one, including reworking most of the costume pieces to fit the new engine's rendering model.

[ranevan]

Maybe it could work like a reverse jump?  While the line is active, you have double your normal jump height, and when you hold jump it has an increasing braking factor, so if you just hold jump you'll stop falling at half you're distance (top of a normal jump), so if you just hold the button forever, it's a weird fly power where you constantly lose altitude but gain double it, but, that's pretty much what a swing power is. 🙂 and having a power that would let you fall, and then pretty much pull a break fall and catapult back up would be fun.

It could also be like super jump where after you hit jump peak you swing and then after falling half way you could let the power be able to activate again, rather than the constant active state for double jump and the packs.

[ABlueThingy]

15 hours ago, ranevan said:

Maybe it could work like a reverse jump?  While the line is active, you have double your normal jump height, and when you hold jump it has an increasing braking factor, so if you just hold jump you'll stop falling at half you're distance (top of a normal jump), so if you just hold the button forever, it's a weird fly power where you constantly lose altitude but gain double it, but, that's pretty much what a swing power is. 🙂 and having a power that would let you fall, and then pretty much pull a break fall and catapult back up would be fun.

It could also be like super jump where after you hit jump peak you swing and then after falling half way you could let the power be able to activate again, rather than the constant active state for double jump and the packs.

 

As I recall "jumping" is actually reverse-falling as far as the game engine understands it.  Jump mechanics are wired in a very weird way.  That's part of what gives it that unique feel.  It also makes it hard to mess with.  There was an Arcana post on it some years back when she busted open the demorecord to see what was going on I think.

 

This game was build out of paperclips, twine and chewing gum.  Every patch re-enforced that foundation with extra prayer.

[SwitchFade]

Rygar shield

[biostem]

Really, the most practical way to implement any sort of grappling/swinging power in CoH would be as a form of superjump where your character holds up an arm with a rope/cable going up to nowhere...