Power Pool Aesthetics

[Timslar]

Hello! I love City of Heroes and my absolute favorite part of it is the customization. I have 110 characters and hundreds of costumes made. But as someone who primarily likes magical or supernatural-based things I've run into some issues with the power pools. For example I have a fairy character who, based on the character concept, should be able to heal minor wounds. But when picking up Medicine to get "Aid Other" he takes out a device in order to heal. And I get it's a minor thing, but it was enough for me to drop the power since it clashed with him thematically. And since Power Pools are available to everyone I thought it'd be cool if there were a few changes to include "neutral" appearances.

Examples:

Aid Other - Add an alternative animation where the character holds out their hands, the healed character gets a glow.
Toxic Dart - Add an alternative animation that sends out maybe a blob (like in water sets) or a beam or something.

I don't know anything about what goes into adding things to this game, but in my mind these SEEMED like nice little changes to fit characters who can cause these effects through magical, natural, psionic, etc means without having to pick an entire Primary or Secondary power set to get some small aspect.

Along these lines I also thought it would be cool if the Fighting Power Pool included a 'weapons' option. No gameplay change, just the option to swing a weapon for a character who has a weapon but not enough to justify it being a Primary. A character like Nightwing might have Martial Arts/Acrobatics as their Primary and Secondary but pick up the Fighting power set for a baton strike. And this would allow a bit more design freedom for characters who were trained to fight, but not necessarily bare-handed.

And, of course, I'm not suggesting taking away anything from anyone. Anyone who likes the devices or current animations could keep them. I only ask that it be considered a few alternate animations. I'd be excited to have new options and freedom to match my character themes. Thanks for reading!

[Starhammer]

While this can apply to many pool powers, I specifically would love to see a couple alternate animations for [Kick].

 

[Timslar]

I'm a huge customization fan and this is one of the best games for it, so any more options would be great.

[merrypessimist]

I'm all in favor of more customization options.  I'm not 100% sure they can do new animations though, since far as I know they don't have any animators on staff.

[shortguy on indom]

• WOULD BE NICE TO SEE SOME ALTERNATE ANIMATIONS SINCE YOU SEE THEM MOST OFTEN WHILE PLAYING.

[Starhammer]

On 2/3/2025 at 1:22 PM, merrypessimist said:

I'm all in favor of more customization options.  I'm not 100% sure they can do new animations though, since far as I know they don't have any animators on staff.

At least in the case of [Kick] I'm confident it wouldn't require new animation, merely adding options for alternatives that could be pulled from existing kick animations in other powersets. the thunder kick from Blaster /MA and the spinning leg sweep would both be awesome options.

[Timslar]

Yeah, I wouldn't mind some reused animations. Like in my Fighting power pool suggestion, any animation from one of the weapons powers. I'm just hoping to match themes with my characters so my magical themed guy doesn't pull out some kinda medical device/syringe. 😆

[tidge]

I will admit that every once in a while I'll opt for a power pool whose animations don't really fit *my* concept of the character. The number one "offending" power pool is probably Sorcery followed closely by Force of Will. I understand that being stuck with certain animations/effects is the price that must be paid for (an example) a tech bro opting to leverage an "origin pool" that doesn't quite match the concept. The origin pools being open to everyone (without respect to 'origin') is a good thing, but sometimes it feels to me like some of the animations (ehem, Rune of Protection) are there in part to serve as an open-world min-max identifier! (gooble gobble)

[EmmettHarrell]

On 2/6/2025 at 7:18 PM, tidge said:

I will admit that every once in a while I'll opt for a power pool whose animations don't really fit *my* concept of the character. The number one "offending" power pool is probably Sorcery followed closely by Force of Will. I understand that being stuck with certain animations/effects is the price that must be paid for (an example) a tech bro opting to leverage an "origin pool" that doesn't quite match the concept. The origin pools being open to everyone (without respect to 'origin') is a good thing, but sometimes it feels to me like some of the animations (ehem, Rune of Protection) are there in part to serve as an open-world min-max identifier! (gooble gobble)

You are right, I agree with you.

[TheMoneyMaker]

So should we also get nonspellcasting options for the sorcery pool for people that want the powers without ruining their tech, natural or science theme also?'

 

Ideally everything should have alternate options because more options is always better.

[Timslar]

27 minutes ago, TheMoneyMaker said:

So should we also get nonspellcasting options for the sorcery pool for people that want the powers without ruining their tech, natural or science theme also?'

 

Ideally everything should have alternate options because more options is always better.

I don't see why not. My example is just what I've run into from my perspective. If that'd be possible I'd be all for it.