Starblade / Starbolter

[Starhammer]

So obviously a lot of folks use some lovely sound mods to give their laser blades and pistols a space battle sound effect. Without infringing on any copyrites (certainly no more than Shield powers infringe on Major Patriot type characters), I'd like to see some powersets built that lean into this.

A "Starblade" set would be sort of yet another melee blade set (I don't want to say just swords, because axes fit too, and frankly, I'd love to see maces included also. Some of them are pretty sharp. Might even be able to make some claws fit). Do a bit of a mix and match of other set attacks so it's not an exact copy of any one set. Definitely include a 40foot cone "Throw Blade" style attack similar to the one in Axe. Make damage some mix of Energy plus fire and/or lethal so we're a bit different there from other sets. No KB, but maybe some -def and a smidge of fire DOT. Where others have a "Parry" or equivalent, give this one a "Deflection" type ability that gives Ranged Defense... I'd favor a mechanic like how most Blaster attacks add a bit to damage for a short time, but in this case, they add Range Def instead of just tying it to a specific power. Obviously we don't want to use a certain set of sound effects, but some sort of energy attack sfx and let the modder community "fix" it client side. And there's no reason the full selection of sword/axe costume pieces shouldn't be usable. Via magic or technology, a blade doing "energy" damage shouldn't have to be a VKL-99 or whatever.

Optimally, there should be a variant of the set to use as a Blaster secondary as well.

The "Starbolter" would be a single energy based pistol. We even already have some in game, Resistance uses them. So art/fx shouldn't require too much. But a bit of a mix of Pistol & Beam Rifle attacks with something unique thrown in. A "Set for Stun" attack would be nice (though in spite of the name, I'm thinking more of a sleep attack, to mimic various space fantasies). Again, we should already have sufficient in game sound fx for this, though it would be cool if they had something unique to this set that wasn't just a copy/paste of the same powers in other sets or on NPCs. I'm sure there's other sounds to draw from, and again, if the modding community wanted something more specific, I'm sure they could manage it. In addition to the various pistol costume pieces, I'd like to see something that doesn't look like a traditional gun... maybe the Aid Other pool power device. Maybe a magic wand? Heck, a magic wand (or a small selection of them) would open this set to a whole lot of additional character concepts that aren't gun based.

Finally, for Dominators, a "Star Assault" set that's a mix of the two, using a pistol in one hand and a blade in the other (Doesn't one of the guys in W.I.S.D.O.M. do that?)

Optimally, all these sets would come out at the same time, in an update including a space station zone or some other extraplanetary excursion. We can dream, right?