New(ish) AT

[Rudra]

I would like to propose a new(ish) AT. The S'lisur Renegade! Just what in blazes is a S'lisur? It's what the Snakes call themselves in the game. You can see this in the first mission of the Ancient History arc from Operative Grillo.

 

Why ask for a whole new(ish) AT for this? Because the devs have already pointed out why non-humanoid bodies don't really work as an option for regular characters. No legs to go with the existing animations.

 

So how do we get a new(ish) AT with snake characters? We simply build the AT the same way the Kheldian ATs are built. So! Introducing! Drum roll please.

...

...

...

Nevermind, I forgot to hire a drummer and buy drums....

 

S'lisur Renegade

 

 

Primary:

Level 1                 Bite

Level 1                 Snap Shot

Level 2                 Viper Claw

Level 4                 Dagger

Level 6                 Throwing Dagger

Level 8                 Aimed Shot

Level 10               Poison Bite

Level 12               Fistful of Arrows

Level 16               Venomous Spit

Level 18               Snake Arrow

Level 20               Venomous Spray

Level 22               Stab

Level 24               Mesmerize

Level 26               Poison Beam

 

Are these powers set in stone? No. There are lots of attacks across all the snakes and I just grabbed 14. They aren't even set for order. I am most definitely open to changes.

 

Secondary:

Level 1                Resist Physical Damage (from Invulnerability)

Level 1                Temp Invulnerability (from Invulnerability)

Level 4                Resistance

Level 10              Shed Skin (Variant of Kuji-In Rin)

Level 16              Hide

Level 20              Quick

Level 24              Resilience

Level 28              Regenerate

Level 30              I Have No Clue What To Put Here (Maybe Feral Viper that functions like a berserk power?)

 

Why are these powers so all over the place? Because the Snakes only have five secondary powers that I found and I am trying to keep the secondary in theme for them. So, again, I am most definitely open to changes.

 

Now you are probably wondering "but Rudra, how does a snake body work with the power pools and what ancillary or patron pools would they get access to?" And that would be a damned good question. To which my answer is "I don't know...." For starters, since they have no legs, they obviously couldn't make use of the Kick power from Fighting. Then there is also the question of how to animate flight with them since they don't have any flight animations I am aware of. As for ancillary and patron pools, I figure just treat them like Scrappers for access. However, again, I am open to changes.

 

But what about story arcs you might say. And that is yet another good question. How do you incorporate a known hostile species into the game as a PC option? No, seriously, I'm asking. How do we do this? So far the only thing I have is they get treated like Soldiers of Arachnos and Widows of Arachnos that have heroic alignments. Their backgrounds just get ignored and we move on. Aside from that? I'm at a loss. Though dedicated arcs like the HEATs and VEATs get to delve into why a snake would help humans could be lots of fun.

 

Now, I know this isn't an original idea. This has been brought up before when snake bodies were asked for as PC character options. I'm just trying to tackle the idea from a different angle. I'm also already digging the hole to bury this in, so murder away! Let's hear your responses!

 

 

Edit: Oh yeah... how do we deal with the costume slots... ... uhm... ... maybe like a VEAT? The first costume slot is your snake model and the rest are human disguises? Yes? No? Should I get the flamethrower yet?

 

Edited April 16 by Rudra
Edited to add missing "five" before secondary powers.

[Super Atom]

no

[Rudra]

2 minutes ago, Super Atom said:

no

No I shouldn't get the flamethrower yet?

[Ghost]

I don’t like it, simply because I can’t pronounce the name.

 

Yes, I’m petty like that!

[Rudra]

Just now, Ghost said:

I don’t like it, simply because I can’t pronounce the name.

 

Yes, I’m petty like that!

Yeah, all those letters can be confusing. So how about Snake Renegade or Renegade Snake?

[Ghost]

1 minute ago, Rudra said:

Yeah, all those letters can be confusing. So how about Snake Renegade or Renegade Snake?

I suddenly like the idea!

[MTeague]

I demand Martial Arts styled attacks for the Snakes. 

Purely as a nod to EverQuest teaching snakes to kick. 

• Storm Kick
• Dragon Tail
• and especially a flying kick like Eagle's Claw, all using the snakes tail to swat the foe. 

(okay, okay, Eagle's Claw for snakes can have an alternate animation where it's a lunge-and-bite. as long as one of the animations is a flying snake kick)

[Akisan]

Any chance of this AT being able to go 2 routes, just like VEATs?
 

1) Infiltrator (Mix of Kheldian and Stalker)

 -> Has a Snake form and a Human form.  As a snake, primarily damaging powers (mostly melee, some ranged), with quite a bit of Toxic DoT.  As a human, primarily control powers (especially placate/confuse/sleep).

2) Broodmother (Mix of Crabbermind and Sentinel)

 -> Always in snake form.  Decent defenses, but weaker attacks (and little control, if any).  Can still do decent damage by summoning smaller snakes to aid in combat.

[starro]

I get negative feedback on playing in game groups too but I like the idea, especially as mastermind pets. Not sure if the Family, Rikti or snake bodies would get old too quick. 

[Rudra]

5 hours ago, Akisan said:

Any chance of this AT being able to go 2 routes, just like VEATs?
 

1) Infiltrator (Mix of Kheldian and Stalker)

 -> Has a Snake form and a Human form.  As a snake, primarily damaging powers (mostly melee, some ranged), with quite a bit of Toxic DoT.  As a human, primarily control powers (especially placate/confuse/sleep).

2) Broodmother (Mix of Crabbermind and Sentinel)

 -> Always in snake form.  Decent defenses, but weaker attacks (and little control, if any).  Can still do decent damage by summoning smaller snakes to aid in combat.

I thought about going two routes like the EATs, specifically to make a ranged and melee. So yeah, I'm definitely open to splitting the AT into two. However, I'm pretty sure we can't have a just snake only option without designing the AT to lose all of its normal costume slots. Which I'm not going to bet on the feasibility of that. The thing about what I am doing though, is I am specifically using the existing powers the Snakes have. Because they already have snake body animations. (Except for secondary since they only have 5 powers across all of them that isn't a primary attack.) And it seems to me that you are asking for new attacks to be made for them.

 

Edited April 16 by Rudra
Edited to add missing "sure".

[Rudra]

5 hours ago, starro said:

I get negative feedback on playing in game groups too but I like the idea, especially as mastermind pets. Not sure if the Family, Rikti or snake bodies would get old too quick. 

Making Snakes a MM primary set definitely has options. And would be much easier to implement than what I am pitching. However, there have been multiple requests for snake body options for players, and I think this is probably the best way to try and get that given how snake bodies and player powers don't mesh with how the animations are all set up.

[JasperStone]

I like it. 

 

[Rigged]

What's the goal here? Do you seek to specifically play a renegade member of the snakes or are you seeking an option for a scalie character? Because it feels like Maybe tying the AT to the Snakes lore might not be needed if you cannot figure out why they would go independent as PCs.

 

But just in case you want to play a Snake-snake, we could try to revive the specific Greek myth that birthed Stheno. In myth, the three Gorgons are Stheno, Euryale and Medusa. In the COH-verse Stheno was a mortal woman who gained incarnate powers from the Well of the Furies... but what if she had two sisters who drank at the same time? Medusa was killed by Perseus, and in the game we kill (or possibly defeat) Stheno, but there's still Euryale. Why not a story arc introducing another Mother of snakes, with a storyline on their quest for vengeance against Perseus (or whoever holds his incarnate powers in the modern world), and a falling out between the two sisters on how they handle interacting with Heroes and Villains?

[Rudra]

10 hours ago, Rigged said:

What's the goal here? Do you seek to specifically play a renegade member of the snakes or are you seeking an option for a scalie character?

The goal here is to let players play as snakes. Like I stated in the OP, this is not an original request, players have been asking for access to the snake body off and on and my suggestion is a proposal for players to do so without the current problems faced by snake bodies trying to use player powers. Namely that our powers are animated with legs and snakes lack them. Which is also why all the attacks are drawn exclusively from the Snakes themselves.

 

10 hours ago, Rigged said:

But just in case you want to play a Snake-snake, we could try to revive the specific Greek myth that birthed Stheno. In myth, the three Gorgons are Stheno, Euryale and Medusa. In the COH-verse Stheno was a mortal woman who gained incarnate powers from the Well of the Furies... but what if she had two sisters who drank at the same time? Medusa was killed by Perseus, and in the game we kill (or possibly defeat) Stheno, but there's still Euryale. Why not a story arc introducing another Mother of snakes, with a storyline on their quest for vengeance against Perseus (or whoever holds his incarnate powers in the modern world), and a falling out between the two sisters on how they handle interacting with Heroes and Villains?

If the proposal changes to have a different origin? Won't bother me none. (However, the specific Greek myth only had one of the three Gorgons, Medusa, as possessing any snake features. As punishment from Athena for getting raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple. Prior to her transformation, all three Gorgons were very beautiful women, with Medusa being the most beautiful of the three because she was mortal. So CoX doesn't really follow the Greek myth other than to use the Gorgons as a source.) And if anything, it could be easier to fit a Snake AT into the game if a different origin were to be used. (Since Stheno is a snake in the game world, I agree that Euryale could/should be as well.) Because the alternate source of Snakes could be less malign and maybe even semi-benign in her view of humans.

 

Edit again: Ha! I just had a fun(?) thought! Maybe it's a weird thought? Regardless, I had a thought! What if Euryale is the Praetorian version of Stheno? And she is more favorable to humans because she thinks Hamidon went too far? After all, like Stheno, she used to be human as well before drinking from the Well. (As opposed to Hamidon who used to be human until he changed himself. So they hold a different view of what should be humanity's fate because of their different ascensions and beliefs at time of ascension.) As for why they would not have been seen gold side before? Because like the Snakes of Mercy Island, they were in hiding, except rather than being under the unaware humans, they were in a hidden home like Gorilla City in DC.

 

Edited April 17 by Rudra
Edited to remove "basically".

[Rigged]

On 4/18/2025 at 1:27 AM, Rudra said:

The goal here is to let players play as snakes. Like I stated in the OP, this is not an original request, players have been asking for access to the snake body off and on and my suggestion is a proposal for players to do so without the current problems faced by snake bodies trying to use player powers. Namely that our powers are animated with legs and snakes lack them. Which is also why all the attacks are drawn exclusively from the Snakes themselves.

 

If the proposal changes to have a different origin? Won't bother me none. (However, the specific Greek myth only had one of the three Gorgons, Medusa, as possessing any snake features. As punishment from Athena for getting raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple. Prior to her transformation, all three Gorgons were very beautiful women, with Medusa being the most beautiful of the three because she was mortal. So CoX doesn't really follow the Greek myth other than to use the Gorgons as a source.) And if anything, it could be easier to fit a Snake AT into the game if a different origin were to be used. (Since Stheno is a snake in the game world, I agree that Euryale could/should be as well.) Because the alternate source of Snakes could be less malign and maybe even semi-benign in her view of humans.

 

Edit again: Ha! I just had a fun(?) thought! Maybe it's a weird thought? Regardless, I had a thought! What if Euryale is the Praetorian version of Stheno? And she is more favorable to humans because she thinks Hamidon went too far? After all, like Stheno, she used to be human as well before drinking from the Well. (As opposed to Hamidon who used to be human until he changed himself. So they hold a different view of what should be humanity's fate because of their different ascensions and beliefs at time of ascension.) As for why they would not have been seen gold side before? Because like the Snakes of Mercy Island, they were in hiding, except rather than being under the unaware humans, they were in a hidden home like Gorilla City in DC.

 

 

One of the other thoughts that came to mind when I read this suggestion was that you could make them a Praetorian AT (because Praes lack an EAT), so combining the two ideas works pretty well. One thing about this: If the HC devs have issues with writing an EAT's story arcs, they could try recruiting the playerbase. Make a writing contest, have us create the respective missions in AE, and then winner gets them implemented in game, provided it meets quality standards.

 

Normally I'm severely opposed to spec work, but in the case of a completely volunteer unpaid dev team I think this sort of thing is justified.