New Powers: Earth Blast and Magnetic Blast/Magnetic Shielding

[alloygray25]

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

 

[justicebeliever]

I have always thought that a magnetic theme was missing from the game...I love all 3 of these sets, but especially the 2 magnetic ones

 

/signed

[malonkey1]

I think Trickshooter had a suggestion for a magnetic support set on the old Pre-sunset forums. I'd dig it up, but I'm at work and they block the wayback machine.

[alloygray25]

I have always thought that a magnetic theme was missing from the game...I love all 3 of these sets, but especially the 2 magnetic ones

 

/signed

 

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?

[Redlynne]

So ... thematically speaking ... just reskin Gravity Control and Force Fields?

[jack_nomind]

Do you think the descriptions and effects sound plausible for actual in-game play?

 

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.

[alloygray25]

Do you think the descriptions and effects sound plausible for actual in-game play?

 

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

[jack_nomind]

Making my sets too outrageous would make them extremely unlikely to ever be considered for use.

 

I don't think that's true at all.  Reproducing existing sets isn't going to get any interest -- they have to be maintained and balanced separately from their near-clones, but won't really add much to the game.  Designing an "outrageous"(ly different) set might get pared into something a bit different than the initial proposal, but will open new play interactions and be more likely to get interest.

 

Ask yourself, "if my powerset visually looked identical to Energy Blast (or X similar set), would people still want to play it?  Or is the concept here running entirely on the idea of a visual theme?"

 

as I read through the various aura and armor powersets, I noticed most of them were quite similar.

 

Yes... and no.  They're similar like stories are similar; they have a grammar and a fairly predictable overall structure, but there's room for variation there.  Four of the powers are almost always two armor toggles, some kind of layered mitigation power (often a passive), and an anti-mez power (often a toggle).  But both Dark Armor and Shield Defense clearly follow that general outline and yet have very different play outcomes.

 

You can still do design by mashup to get started -- for example, mashing up Ice Armor and Bio Armor, or Stone Armor and Super Reflexes.  Take all eighteen powers and combine the obviously similar ones.  Then refine until you get to something roughly coherent, scale the numbers, shape it into the right 'story form,' and go for feedback from there.

[alloygray25]

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!

[ranevan]

A minor counterpoint to one of the criticisms... I don't think in this game unique mechanics are the only thing that gets interest in a powerset.  It helps, but a lot of this game is fluff and flavor.  Not everyone likes those aspects but I think there are plenty of people who do. A set that has a unique or appropriate flavor can generate interest.  It won't get the same kind of interest, or maybe interest from the "elite" players maybe, but I think there's room for casual sets, too. 

[Trickshooter]

I think Trickshooter had a suggestion for a magnetic support set on the old Pre-sunset forums. I'd dig it up, but I'm at work and they block the wayback machine.

 

I did! But I was never really 100% happy with it, just wasn't as exciting as my other suggestions.

[alloygray25]

I think Trickshooter had a suggestion for a magnetic support set on the old Pre-sunset forums. I'd dig it up, but I'm at work and they block the wayback machine.

 

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.