Power Customization Proliferation

[JKPhage]

So, I brought this suggestion up literally *years* ago and it seemed to be fairly popular, but here we are so long since and it seems that it vanished into the ether. Now we have a beta patch near ready to roll out with Symphonic Control appearing and it has rekindled my desire to see this happen.

 

Proliferating Power VFX to Players

 

What am I talking about? The plethora of awesome new VFX that were created for enemy groups in the twilight years of Live but not made available to players of course! The most obvious example to use here is the musical note effect that was given to Talons of Vengeance Sirens when they used sonic attacks. This effect has now been repurposed to create a new control set from whole cloth in the form of Symphonic Control, complete with color customization. Similarly, when Homecoming went live, one of the most impressive feats they'd worked was to proliferate the new darkness effects from Dark Control back to all the existing Dark-related power sets. Even some Fire powers had a subtly different "flame" option added to them, though not all for some reason. The tools to do this sort of thing and the capability are there, and would open up a plethora of new character concept options via power customization.

 

What sort of effects am I talking about? Well for starters, I (and many others from all the way back to live) were absolutely begging for the aforementioned musical effects to be ported to Sonic sets. Sonic Blast, Sonic Resonance and the new Sonic Assault set could benefit greatly from this, as the effects is very visually dramatic as opposed to the somewhat generic-looking sonic waves we've had since the dawn of the game. Adding this as another option for power customization could also make it much nicer-looking to pair Sonic Assault with Symphonic Control, as well as Sonic Resonance for Controllers. Likewise, Sonic Blasters could benefit from a more "fun" visual effect to make Sonic more enticing to play.

 

There are many other such things that could benefit greatly from having existing VFX ported from enemy groups or other power sets.

 

Fire Sets

 

Hellfire effects from Demon Summoning. The visual effect is very striking and could offer a fun new look for classic Fire Blast/Manipulation/Melee/Armor and even Thermal Radiation. While it meshes well enough as-is, it also means that Thermal Radiation could be made to pair even better visually with Demon Summoning.

 

Magma effects from Igneous Bosses/Magmite Lords. This is a very unique-looking effect that is only used by one in-game creature that some players might never see if they don't venture into certain areas or missions in The Hollows. It gives the appearance of hurling lava/magma at the player. I'm not sure how well this effect would work with Fire Control/Armor, it might actually provide a cool effect, and more options are never bad. This also allows for more thematic customization and pairing with other sets. With Blasters now having access to Seismic Blast/Earth Manipulation which both have lava effects, pairing a fire primary or secondary set with these lava VFX could create a fully lava-themed character, as opposed to someone who has *some* lava powers and other generic fire powers. The same can apply to pretty much every other class with combinations of Earth/Fire armor/melee/blast sets and control/manipulation/assault sets to give players a huge range of options for thematic pairing that looks more cohesive. This even applies to weapon sets that have a magma weapon available, such as Titan Weapons, War Mace, Broadsword and the like.

 

Archery Sets

 

As a disclaimer, I'm not sure if this particular section of suggestions is possible, but given it consists of a similar system of particle effects summoned by activating a power, as well as the fact that enemy factions have copies of player powers that use these effects, I am assuming they could be proliferated. If not, my mistake but I'm still putting it out there.

 

Shadow arrows from Black Knights. This enemy group fires arrows of darkness at players which look visually stunning and stick around in the player for a short time until they fade, much like arrows fired at enemies by players do. This and the next suggestion could provide a much appreciated "mystical" or even "technological" flair to archery characters that are a little lacking at the current time as well as making things a little less tonally dissonant for those that don't want to pair archery blasts with more archery as a secondary/primary. I myself have bemoaned how silly it would be to make a character with Dark Manipulation and Archery because why am I shooting arrows if I literally have power over darkness? With shadow arrows? Suddenly it makes a *lot* more sense to pair the two. This could also apply to Sentinels using Dark Armor. If coloration is possible then this could be paired with other armor or manipulation sets with dark coloration available to make nice thematic visuals, such as a dark force field set and shadow arrows, or dark-colored Energy Aura and Archery for a Sentinel. On the other hand, if you want something less dark...

 

Energy/Crystal Arrows from Spirit Stalkers. These are, conversely, brightly colored energy arrows. Again, if recoloring is available then suddenly there are tons of options. Orange-red coloration for fire energy arrows that pair with fire sets. Color them to match energy armor/manipulation for Sentinels and Blasters to create a character who channels blasts through a weapon. Pair with a similarly colored Vanguard Bow and they create the bow from energy too! There are a ton of options that could pair well here and make it not seem silly to use archery when you have more objectively potent super powers.

 

With these I am not sure if they could as easily be applied to Trick/Tactical Arrow, but it seems that it wouldn't be out of the question if the blast set is doable. If so then one could make a fun energy/shadow archer, or even alternate with attacks using arrows of light, and tricks played using arrows of darkness. Tons of concept potential!

 

Psionic Sets

 

Psionic Melee/Force of Will/Penelope Yin effects. This one in particular is near and dear to my heart and I would *love* to see it happen above all else. Psionic Melee has a few attacks that create an effect around the player's head to represent psionic power which is also used by the Force of Will power pool as well as a matching attack effect for an AOE effect. Said power pool also has two ranged attacks that use a matching power effect. Penelope Yin uses numerous powers with share the same effects but are not available to players. These could be cobbled together to create a new "skin" option for Psionic Blast/Manipulation/Control/Assault (as well as Psionic Mastery for epic pools) that would give them a very fun comic-book look and allow them to match the new Psi Melee set visually. Psionic Control has always been a little mismatched-looking alongside Psi Assault for Dominators and has long been the outlier with effects that just don't look anything like any other psi set. Porting this over to the existing Psi Powers could give control a needed facelift and allow the others to match up with it, as well as matching up with Force of Will if one chooses to take those powers, and even the Psionic Mastery epic pool to allow for a triple Psi Dominator using the fun, comic book themed new effects.

 

Energy Sets

 

This is a little more straightforward, but Arachnos Drone/Mace energy blasts. The Arachnos Drones and Mace blasts from Mace Mastery/VEATS has the somewhat sinister-looking, Kylo Ren's lightsaber-esque VFX that have a lot of character to them. Energy Blast has no alternate visuals as-is, but giving them this option could allow for some more wild-looking visuals for them, or more objectively villainous looks for those who play redside. While I don't hold out too much hope that this would work well for Energy Aura, I do wonder if the VFX could potentially port well to at least Energy Melee to provide a similarly unstable/villainous look to the set that is otherwise just glowy fists. *If* it could port to Energy Aura and not look seizure-inducing or just downright garbage then that would be a fun option to have as well. That's about all I've got to say on this one. Energy sets having a more villainous or unstable option would just be *fun*.

 

Sonic Sets

 

While I already mentioned the musical effects above and porting them to sonic sets, there is another option that could be very fun to port over. Talons of Vengeance Banshee Screams. These particular enemies use a sonic effect that is paired with a shadowy effect to give them a very intimidating "death scream" effect that could be paired nicely with dark-themed sets or other sonic sets that it would work well with. While I don't know that Sonic Resonance would play nicely with this effect, it just might, so it's worth putting out there. Even if not, porting it to Sonic Blast and Sonic Assault would open the door for a character to pair Assault with Dark Control visually for a Banshee-themed character, or Dark Miasma for a Defender/Corruptor for a similar effect. Even Blasters could take advantage of this with Sonic Blast/Darkness Manipulation.

 

Praetorian Police Sets

 

Bear with me, as this is somewhat reverse of the above. Praetorian Police have a hexagonal force field armor effect as well as a similar effect for melee attacks. This, I feel, could be used across multiple potential sets and provides a *ton* of extra character concept options with fun visuals to enjoy. The armor could potentially work nicely for Invulnerability or Energy Aura as alternate effects (and if it's possible to apply it to both, I say give them both the option, because more is always better) and the attack effect could make a nice alt effect for Energy Melee (giving a less glowy and more tech-oriented look to the set), Super Strength, Street Justice and perhaps even Martial Arts. All of these could give tech-related characters some great visual effects to reflect their super tech, and even someone simply wearing a high-tech pair of gauntlets could have fun pummeling bad guys with their force field-enveloped fists. This is a much broader suggestion and puts forward the idea of porting a single set of effects to multiple different themed power sets, but I feel like there really isn't one particular "perfect" match for these effects and that each of the ones mentioned is visually distinct enough via it's animations that having them share an effect would not be detrimental, and allowing for tech-heroes to pummel villains via brute force, reliance on generated energy fields, kung fu or just good old street brawling while shrouded in a force field would be a great thing.

 

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All of these suggestions could open up a ton of fun thematic power combinations that can now visually mesh much better with one another, as well giving a much-needed facelift to some older sets that, despite being able to be custom colored, still look a little dated, especially when held up next to more recent sets and power effects. Considering the team has completely constructed new power sets from existing animations and reused visual effects, such as completing Radiation Armor/Melee and Savage Melee from the incomplete versions that existed in the Issue 24 beta, and outright creating Seismic Blast, Earth Manipulation, Electrical Affinity, Plant Manipulation and others, it's apparent that the ability to add custom effects to powers is readily available and possible. I can't speak to the *ease* of such a process, though compared to creating entire new task forces and mission arcs, new enemy groups, and all manner of other things that are done one might assume that repurposing some visual effects to existing powers in the player repertoire would be at least no more difficult if not much easier.

 

I understand the desire for more "actual" content, but this seems like it would be a relatively small task on the grand scale of things compared to cobbling together entirely new power sets, coding their effects, balancing them within the framework of the game, etc. as well as all the similar tasks related to creating new mission content and task forces to undertake, and for that effort it would bring *tons* of new character options to players, at least visually, and perhaps breath new life into existing power sets. I know that I personally have long wanted to play a Mind/Psi Dominator, but I just can't bring myself to do it because I find the Mind Control power effects to be ugly as sin. A port of modern style psionic effects to make it look more appealing, as well as matching option for the Psi Assault set would motivate me to finally dive in and play a character that I've always wanted to. I'm sure there are other players who might feel the same way about certain sets, or that might be motivated to try ones they never had interest in thanks to a cool new option, like someone who never wanted to play an Energy Blaster suddenly deciding that if they can use the Arachnos-style blasts, they might want to give it a go.

 

I feel like this would be a huge net positive that gives the entire player base some new and incredibly fun customization to play around with, reinvigorate older sets without having to do actual balance passes or reworks on them, and give some great ways to pair more sets visually for those with an inclination to RP and trying to justify power combinations. While I say this with the knowledge that this wouldn't necessarily be *easy*, it also seems that it's not particularly *difficult* either, if entire new power sets can be created using repurposed VFX, as has been done numerous times, and the ability to grant alternate power effects to existing powers has been shown via changes to Dark sets, Fire sets and Energy Aura. With that in mind, this seems like a project that could be undertaken relatively easily and dropped as a huge chunk of new options all at once as a sort of "power customization extravaganza" that would make players very happy and excited to try out new looks, power combos and concepts, all for what is (with full knowledge that this is a vast oversimplification) mostly a cut and paste job within the graphical side of things.

 

I know I'm not the only one wanting these things, so sound off if you think this would be a great update that the team should look into! On top of that, I've only suggested what I personally have seen, noted and desired for a *very* long time. I may have forgotten about certain power effects used by enemy groups that could port to players easily, so feel free to throw in any suggestions you can think of. Don't Fir Bolg have fire blasts that are skinned to basically hurl pumpkins? Maybe the Rikti blaster fire could be ported to Energy blast as well? Anything Vanguard uses that could add some nice flair to an existing set? Perhaps the Incarnate-level Banished Pantheon have some unique blast effects that could be used? Let me know if I'm not thinking of something cool that could make a great player option, and drop some suggestions for how certain power effects could be used to combo nicely with another set that would otherwise be kind of visually disparate! Let's get some traction behind this and see if we can make it a reality!