New MM Powerset: Musketeers

[CommanderStryker]

Despite the impracticality of black powder firearms in a setting where everyone regularly uses modern assault rifles, shotguns, SMGs, and energy weapons, it would present a unique option for henchmen that have powerful but long recharge ranged attacks mixed with not as powerful but short recharge melee attacks. Along with the ability to decrease the recharge on those ranged attacks as the player gets stronger. They would be resistant to fear, confuse, and disorient. They would also only be resistant to smashing damage out of the gate as there was no such thing as body armor outside of the metal breastplates some cavalry wore.

This would be a perfect powerset for those Heroes (or Villains) who want to reenact the old days of Napoleonic Warfare and use it against their foes.

Tier 1 Minion: Fusiliers

Line Infantry equipped with smoothbore muskets and attached bayonets.

With no upgrade powers active, they are capable of firing a quick, but powerful "Snap Shot" with a long recharge and able to strike enemies in melee with the buttstock of their musket. 

With the first upgrade power active, they will gain access to two new melee attacks that utilize their bayonets. A quick stab and a longer lunge forward. They would also gain a new ranged attack called "Buck & Ball" which is similar to the Buckshot ability, but in a narrower cone, is slightly longer range, and also has a long recharge. 

With the second upgrade active, they gain access to "Reloading Drills" as an Auto ability that would decrease the recharge time on their ranged attacks. They would also gain "Discipline" which would increase their resistance to any psychological effects like Fear, Confuse, and Disorient. Lastly, they would gain a new "Aimed Shot" ability that is more accurate and damaging than "Snap Shot", but takes slightly longer to fire due to having to actually aim and is not a Snipe ability. 

Tier 2 Minion: Jaegers

Skirmishers armed with muzzleloading Long Rifles that are longer range and more damaging than muskets, but even slower to reload.

With no upgrade powers, they would have access to "Rifle Snap Shot" which is similar to the one the Fusiliers get but has an even longer recharge and is slightly more accurate and damaging thanks to the use of a rifled barrel. They would also get "Rifle Aimed Shot" which would be similar to "Aimed Shot", but once again slower and more powerful than the musket counterpart but is not a Snipe ability. They would also have two Melee attacks. Brawl and the ability to strike with the butt of the rifle. 

With the first upgrade, they will be given Sabers to be more effective in melee. Nothing really much to say here other than you can easily just copy/paste some of the Broadsword abilities.

With the second upgrade, they will gain Stealth, Reloading Drills, and "Rifle Snipe".

Tier 3 Minion: Sergeant

A non-commissioned officer armed with a smoothbore carbine and saber. They are capable of using abilities to buff you and your allies in combat. Thanks to the shorter barrel of their carbine, they are also able to use ranged attacks more often than Fusiliers and Jaegers at the drawback of shorter range and less damage.

With no upgrades active they have access to a lesser version of the Maneuvers Leadership ability, "Carbine Snap Shot", and a single sword attack.

With the first upgrade, they gain access to a lesser version of the Tactics Leadership ability, Reloading Drills, "Carbine Aimed Shot", "Carbine Buck & Ball", and "Black Powder Bomb" (just a flavored Frag Grenade).

With the second upgrade, they gain a lesser version of the Assault Leadership ability, Discipline, and multiple saber attacks.

Player attacks/abilities:

Pistol Shot: Fire a single shot from your pistol at an enemy. Moderate Recharge Ranged Attack

Saber Swing: Swing your saber at multiple enemies in front of you. Short Recharge AoE Melee Cone Attack

Saber Thrust: Thrust your sword into an enemy. Short Recharge Melee Attack

Fire at will!: Temporarily disables all Melee attacks on your Henchmen while significantly increasing their rate of fire, accuracy, and damage with all Ranged attacks.

Charge!: Temporarily disables all Ranged attacks on your Henchmen while increasing their movement speed, accuracy, and damage with all melee attacks.

Equip Arms: The first Upgrade ability. Fusiliers and the Sergeant are given Tricorn, Bicorn, and/or Shako hats. The Jaegers are given Sabers.

Advanced Training: The second Upgrade ability. Fusiliers are given Backpacks and Jaegers are given greatcoats. Sergeants have no visual change.

[Skyhawke]

Came in hoping for this, leaving disappointed. 😅

 

 

[CommanderStryker]

Well, I mean...You can't have Musketeers without Muskets. 

[srmalloy]

1 hour ago, Skyhawke said:

Came in hoping for this, leaving disappointed.

Particularly since, while the signature weapon of the musketeers was the musket, its long reload time (and the easy interruptibility of the reloading process, an aspect not noted anywhere in the original suggestion) and increasing inaccuracy as range increased made its use impractical for more than setpiece battles, with their primary weapon being the rapier or epee. As such, the addition of another mixed ranged/melee MM set that requires a completely new set of animations that occurs, unlike other powers, during the power recharge time, doesn't seem to me to add much to the diversity of MM primaries.

[Rudra]

43 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

Particularly since, while the signature weapon of the musketeers was the musket, its long reload time (and the easy interruptibility of the reloading process, an aspect not noted anywhere in the original suggestion) and increasing inaccuracy as range increased made its use impractical for more than setpiece battles, with their primary weapon being the rapier or epee. As such, the addition of another mixed ranged/melee MM set that requires a completely new set of animations that occurs, unlike other powers, during the power recharge time, doesn't seem to me to add much to the diversity of MM primaries.

We can hand wave away the long, cumbersome, easily stopped reloading the same way we do reloading every other weapon in the game. We can address the ridiculous lack of accuracy those weapons had, despite their much better accuracy over blunderbusses and arquebusses, by giving them shorter than normal range. (Which can be compensated by increased damage or suitable secondaries to keep the power worthwhile.)

 

The primary weapon being the rapier or epee is not true however, If combat distances close, then yes, those weapons were typically preferred. Until then though, most weren't willing to advance under musket fire and simply fired back with their own weapons. The proposed minions can also be equipped with flintlock or wheellock pistols. So for ranged combat the minions can use their musket or their pistol, and for melee they can use rapiers.

 

So as far as reloading animations go, the devs can either devote time and resources to making new animations or they can just skip it and let the muskets always be loaded like the assault rifle. My question is would the set be melee preferred or range preferred. Because that will heavily influence how they fight and how the player utilizes them.

 

The other question, well, concern, I have is the MM's innate attacks. The proposal has 1 ranged attack followed by a melee cone followed by a melee attack. (If retained, it should be ranged then melee then cone because MMs don't get their area attacks until the end.) MMs only get three innate attacks. And having the MM split those very limited attacks between ranged and melee means they lose out on effective chains. I would recommend either all three attacks be ranged or all three attacks be melee. And whether I recommend ranged or melee depends on whether the pets are range preferred or melee preferred. I'm also not a fan of the idea of taking away pet attacks. MM pets already have their flaws, and reducing their combat options for slightly faster ranged attacks or slightly faster movement does not sit well with me. Never mind that the proposed set has 10 powers. So I would like to see how the author addresses these concerns.

 

Edited July 3 by Rudra
Edited to correct "bu" to "by".

[MTeague]

While this theme does not speak to me personally, it is long past time that MM's got a new primary. 

Scrappers have three times the number of primary sets that Masterminds have.  21 to 7.   

 

Now, while I get that making them 1:1 is never gonna happen, 3:1 is .... really a bit much. It's time. Whether they go with this idea or another. 

[CommanderStryker]

7 minutes ago, Rudra said:

We can hand wave away the long, cumbersome, easily stopped reloading the same way we do reloading every other weapon in the game. We can address the ridiculous lack of accuracy those weapons had, despite their much better accuracy over blunderbusses and arquebusses, by giving them shorter than normal range. (Which can be compensated by increased damage or suitable secondaries to keep the power worthwhile.)

 

The primary weapon being the rapier or epee is not true however, If combat distances close, then yes, those weapons were typically preferred. Until then though, most weren't willing to advance under musket fire and simply fired back with their own weapons. The proposed minions can also be equipped with flintlock or wheellock pistols. So for ranged combat the minions can use their musket or their pistol, and for melee they can use rapiers.

 

So as far as reloading animations go, the devs can either devote time and resources to making new animations or they can just skip it and let the muskets always be loaded like the assault rifle. My question is would the set be melee preferred or range preferred. Because that will heavily influence how they fight and how the player utilizes them.

 

The other question, well, concern, I have is the MM's innate attacks. The proposal has 1 ranged attack followed by a melee cone followed by a melee attack. (If retained, it should be ranged then melee then cone because MMs don't get their area attacks until the end.) MMs only get three innate attacks. And having the MM split those very limited attacks between ranged and melee means they lose out on effective chains. I would recommend either all three attacks be ranged or all three attacks be melee. And whether I recommend ranged or melee depends on whether the pets are range preferred or melee preferred. I'm also not a fan of the idea of taking away pet attacks. MM pets already have their flaws, and reducing their combat options for slightly faster ranged attacks or slightly faster movement does not sit well with me. Never mind that the proposed set has 10 powers. So I would like to see how the author addresses these concerns.

 

Well, the idea was to do something somewhat historically accurate. We don't necessarily need reload animations. I assume it would be too much for a game like this to simulate a 15-30 second reload. Plus, in a setting full of people with abilities beyond the norm, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to have them capable of doing fast reloads and simply relegating each attack to a long cooldown that can be reduced with other abilities and IOs.

Most of the abilities are essentially just redone versions of what's available to the Assault Rifle set with a slight variation based on the type of pet and their equipped weapon. With the Sergeant having a Cavalry Carbine, the Jaeger having a Long Rifle, and the Fusilier having a more traditional smoothbore musket.

The idea is a Melee/Range Hybrid, but with a stronger focus on Range. Hence why everyone has a firearm, but has backup melee attacks when their ranged attacks are on cooldown. 

As for the attacks the player gets themselves, I would actually agree. Having a single ranged attack paired with two melee attacks does seem out of place and counterproductive to how other MM powersets are, now that I think about it. Besides, I was going more for a "Napoleonic Officer" feel on how the attacks worked since most IRL officers would carry a pistol and sword. However since we already have an MM set that uses dual pistols, we can opt to go all in on the sword instead and you can just buy the Revolver Temp Power as a stand-in for the pistol attack if you want to.

In regards to the Charge! and Fire at Will! abilities, they are meant to simulate you being an officer and ordering your men to use nothing but Ranged attacks for a brief time with buffs or Melee attacks with buffs. However, I am open to any other ideas to any buff abilities that you as the player can use on your pets. Maybe something that temporarily increases Smashing and Lethal damage, accuracy, and recharge without limiting attacks?

[Rudra]

10 minutes ago, CommanderStryker said:

In regards to the Charge! and Fire at Will! abilities, they are meant to simulate you being an officer and ordering your men to use nothing but Ranged attacks for a brief time with buffs or Melee attacks with buffs. However, I am open to any other ideas to any buff abilities that you as the player can use on your pets. Maybe something that temporarily increases Smashing and Lethal damage, accuracy, and recharge without limiting attacks?

How about something like:

 

Rallying Cry: PBAoE, click, long recharge. Clears current Stun, Sleep, and Hold effects (own pets only), +ACC (own pets only), +DAM (own pets only).

(Edit: Because only clears current listed effects, recurring effects like Static Field or new applications of listed effects can still disable pets.)

 

Edit again:

Or you can make it work like this:

 

Reinforce Morale: PBAoE, click, long recharge. -RECH, +ACC, +DAM. (Own pets only.)

This could reflect your character's role in commanding and inspiring the henchmen, driving them to fight harder and more relentlessly.

 

There are myriad options to reflect a battlefield commander buffing their soldiers without hamstringing the soldiers. Take your pick.

 

Edited July 3 by Rudra
Edited to add "Sleep, ".

[CommanderStryker]

4 minutes ago, Rudra said:

How about something like:

 

Rallying Cry: PBAoE, click, long recharge. Clears current Stun, Sleep, and Hold effects (own pets only), +ACC (own pets only), +DAM (own pets only).

(Edit: Because only clears current listed effects, recurring effects like Static Field or new applications of listed effects can still disable pets.)

 

Thematically, I think that would work better than my original idea. Granted, I did come up with a lot of this on the spot.

[Snarky]

[FrozenSolid]

21 hours ago, Skyhawke said:

Came in hoping for this, leaving disappointed. 😅

 

 

There was a time when there were troops of soldiers with spears and muskets. Could take some liberties with that to have the first tier minions have rapiers.

[CommanderStryker]

2 hours ago, FrozenSolid said:

There was a time when there were troops of soldiers with spears and muskets. Could take some liberties with that to have the first tier minions have rapiers.

If there was a Musket ranged powerset, I could potentially see someone trying to replicate this. Unfortunately, my idea is more geared towards the time period of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Napoleonic Wars. That's why the Tier 1 minions have bayonets on their muskets.