Help with a character concept - robotic/cyborg changeling

[Blackbird71]

I had an idea for a character:  it would basically be a "brain in a box", in that the mind of a human character is preserved in some sort of mechanical device.  This device could then be loaded into any one of several robotic bodies.  Functionally the plan is to have a character with multiple costumes, each one a different type and style of robotic shell.

 

In the broadest version of the concept, each robotic shell would have different abilities.  Unfortunately, that's not exactly possible in this game.  However, it can be mimicked to an extent by using different builds, but these are still limited to the same AT and power sets (of course, if I really wanted to be dedicated to this concept, instead of different costumes, I'd make a different character for each "shell", and that way each could even be a different AT, but that seems a little tedious and extreme). 

 

So the question is how to best express this character mechanically; i.e., what AT/powers would be good for a concept like this?  A big hulking armored robot could make a good Tanker/Brute, or a well-armed machine could be a Blaster* or maybe a Sentinel.  There are a lot of possibilities, how would you play it?

 

*What I would give to be able to replace a character's arms with some massive cannons...

 

[PaxArcana]

My first villain character, was a Robotics/FF Mastermind.

 

I decided he was a "rogue AI", originally built to be a police system, that had "gone bad" and sought to punish all of humanity for it's erratic, illogical behavior and tendency towards comitting crimes.  Jaywalking as a gateway crime to genocide, that sort of attitude.

 

So, that's another way you could go with the character idea.

 

...

 

Alternately, you could have MULTIPLE characters, that are all essentially the same "guy" wearing different specialized bodies.  Won't be a simple matter of changing costume, you'd have to relog, buuuut for RP purposes?

 

"Damn, I knew I should have picked the Mark VIII-E body this morning; the Mark IV-A is just too lightly armored for this!"  (As your Blaster build pulls a faceplant, heh.)

[Cutter]

Kheldian? Robot for the base "human" form, and you could RP the Nova and Dwarf forms as holographic projections.

[Omnicron]

In the broadest version of the concept, each robotic shell would have different abilities.  Unfortunately, that's not exactly possible in this game.

 

The Bio-Armor powerset does this pretty well: you get three different toggles, a "full defense" mode, a "full offense" mode and an "efficiency mode" that winds up someplace in between. This doesn't change your actual powers at all, but it can change your playstyle pretty radically: the difference in the amount of damage you can do in offense mode and defense mode is really very impressive.

 

Of course the set's default effects do look biological, as one would expect. But you can simply turn it to low SFX so you never see the scab-armor and rely exclusively on costume changes to show the differences. And if your attack powerset is one that's gotten some extensive love from the animators you could change the feel of each mode even more. For example, the Super Strength set has both the original "Hulk-like" smashing style animations, and another set that looks more controlled and "Superman-esque". Because your animation choices are made costume-by-costume, you could have your attacks be "hulky" while in full-offense mode, then switch to the more controlled version when he's in defense mode.

 

You could also just roleplay certain modes too. If you take the stealth power pool you could have a costume change that's your "covert mode". If you take a travel power you could have a "deployment mode" that you use specifically when you activate flight or super speed or whatever.

 

If it were me I'd use colors a lot to differentiate these changes. Use some of the "self lit" tech sets here and there (sets like tech knight or ascendancy, that have lights on them) and have the light change from red (offense) to green (efficient) to blue (defense) to yellow (deployment) to purple (covert).

[srmalloy]

My first villain character, was a Robotics/FF Mastermind.

 

I decided he was a "rogue AI", originally built to be a police system, that had "gone bad" and sought to punish all of humanity for it's erratic, illogical behavior and tendency towards comitting crimes.  Jaywalking as a gateway crime to genocide, that sort of attitude.

 

So, that's another way you could go with the character idea.

 

That's loosely similar to what I did with my Bots/Dark MM; he was a late Soviet-era project to develop a robotic director for combat robots that accidentally became self-aware and began ignoring his orders, replacing them with his own plans. Despite the fact that he was actually more efficient this way, the generals backing the project wanted robotic cannon fodder, and not being able to rely on the robots being there to draw fire made it unacceptable, and he and his subordinate robots were deactivated, crated up, and stuck in a warehouse for decades, until he was awakened by an earthquake that triggered automatic threat sensors.

[Leogunner]

I've done practically all those methods.  It's really up to you how you justify it.

 

I've got 2 characters, a DP/Fire/Ice and a DP/Ice (hasn't gotten //Fire yet) but conceptually, you only need one.  I just felt like trying out /Ice...but anyway, the character's concept is there are two demons, one with fire element powers and one with ice element powers. They are working under Infernal as basically slaves but they get some freedom when they go out fighting crime at the city's bidding. At all times, one of the two must remain bound to a weapon allowing the other to wield it or in this case, a pair of pistols.  Functionally, when using the fire demon's costume, she can use normal or cryo ammo for the pistols (because the ice demon is stuck in there so he can charge bullets) and the powers of the /fire manipulation set and when using the ice demon's costume, he can use normal or incendiary ammo and the powers in //cold mastery.  I have costume change macros so I can swap costumes and ammo and I just have to use my own knowledge of my characters to remember not to use certain powers to keep up the illusion.

 

That being said, I do have "special costumes" I like to call their "Ascended Forms" kind of like an anime power-up where they somehow combine their powers, allowing me to use all powers and ammo but I don't use it very often.

 

On the other hand, I have a teen-hero student (Kat/SR) who, while not doing official hero work (i.e. only patrolling or doing random-like tasks), he isn't licensed to carry his live weapon so he keeps a bokken (basically a hardwood sword in the shape of a katana).  The attacks are intentionally unoptimized and all do smashing damage (IO procs).  But when he's working under licensed heroes and doing important missions, he can use his custom katana (a more min/maxed build).  It's easy to simulate this by using two builds.  He also has an unfortunate curse that turns him into a were-tiger (it's one of my oldest CoH character concepts...) and so simply changing his costume and turning on Toughness simulates that part.

 

I've got more examples but you get the idea.

[Blackbird71]

Thanks for all of the awesome ideas!  It looks like I'm going to have to play around a bit and see what works.  At this point I think I may start with a single character, maybe with multiple builds, and then if I want to add more variety I'll start branching out with the duplicates, but we'll see how it goes.

[Omnicron]

Thanks for all of the awesome ideas!  It looks like I'm going to have to play around a bit and see what works.  At this point I think I may start with a single character, maybe with multiple builds, and then if I want to add more variety I'll start branching out with the duplicates, but we'll see how it goes.

 

I should thank you. Since I responded to your thread I made Adaptabot, a SS/Bio brute who changes costumes when he uses any of his adaptations. I wrote macros so it both toggles on the relevant adaptation and does a costume change emote at the same time for a really cool effect. (He also has a distinct costume for super speed and for invisibility).

 

It actually looks even cooler than I thought it would for one interesting reason: for whatever reason, the power effects update at the start of the cce animation instead of at the part of the animation where the rest of the costume changes, and I've color-coded all my power effects to match the different forms. So there's a really cool effect when I hit the macro: let's say I'm in my green "default" form, which is the Efficient Adaptation, and I'm changing to my red "assasult" form. I hit the button and red glowing particles start spreading from my chest down my limbs. I kneel on the ground and then there's a flash and a bang (the Energy Morph cce) and when I stand up I'm in my red form. Then I change into my blue "tank" form and it's blue particles that cover me before the change, etc.

 

And as I suggested to you, I use the "heroic" super strength attack animations for most of my forms, but the older more "hulky" animations for the assault form.

 

It's rad and I'm having a ball, so I thank you for originating the idea.

[OEM61]

I think that blaster might offer the most diversity.

 

You have three basic options:

 

1) Blaster - Range all day

2) Blapper - Emphasis on the close combat abilities that your secondary offers.

3) Balanced - A little of this, a little of that.

 

There are other options, of course.  You just have to find ATs with sets that you are comfortable going all-in on for the first and second options.