A de-backpack costume power for Crab Spiders

[biostem]

3 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Difference being a handgun can be easily hidden on the body. To the point that it takes a good pat down from someone that knows the concealment tricks to find it. And we are talking about a large spider-shaped backpack with four large arms. Make it invisible and you still have all the mass and space the backpack has smacking into things and otherwise getting people's attention as already mentioned.

Well then it's a good thing that these are just the sort of highly trained agents and operators that would know how to act casually and not do those things.  We have people turning others invisible willy-nilly, and you're objecting to a special-use case where it'd only be applied to a portion of said person instead?  If the invisibility thing is too far-fetched, then nanotech assembly on-demand or some sort of on-demand teleportation of the pack onto your back from some secure location, (also established tech in CoH)...

Edited July 31 by biostem

[Rudra]

1 minute ago, biostem said:

Well then it's a good thing that these are just the sort of highly trained agents and operators that would know how to act casually and not do those things.  We have people turning others invisible willy-nilly, and you're objecting to a special-use case where it'd only be applied to a portion of said person instead?  If the invisibility thing is too far-fetched, then nanotech assembly on-demand or some sort of on-demand teleportation of the pack onto your back from some secure location, (also established tech in CoH)...

Nano-tech assembly on demand or teleportation to a mount on the back as per @Major_Decoy would avoid people walking into the backpack, the character having to go to odd lengths to avoid specific interactions from random people in the area thereby drawing attention to the character being up to something, and would also not trigger my weapon set going weaponless hate.

[biostem]

6 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Nano-tech assembly on demand or teleportation to a mount on the back as per @Major_Decoy would avoid people walking into the backpack, the character having to go to odd lengths to avoid specific interactions from random people in the area thereby drawing attention to the character being up to something, and would also not trigger my weapon set going weaponless hate.

How difficult or not it would be for characters in-game to accomplish certain feats is irrelevant - they just do.  I am unconcerned with the specific rp-reason(s) why your crab spider may have a concealed backpack.  If a player or Sky Raider engineer can summon a shield gen from seemingly nowhere, or a seismic blast character can call forth a meteor inside a building without damaging it, then we can handwave a hidden crab spider backpack...

Edited July 31 by biostem

[TheMoneyMaker]

13 hours ago, Rudra said:

The backpack is where all the Crab Spider's attacks come from. Why should it be able to be disabled? Now, if you were saying to be able to make it go away when you swap over to your Bane Spider build? That I can agree with.

As long as it suits your worldview, it's okay. If it doesn't, you still have to push back against it even if it's an option that you personally don't have to use.

Edited July 31 by TheMoneyMaker

[Ghost]

You should be able to take off the backpack, but have to carry it around on one arm like an oversized purse

[Rudra]

5 minutes ago, TheMoneyMaker said:

13 hours ago, Rudra said:

The backpack is where all the Crab Spider's attacks come from. Why should it be able to be disabled? Now, if you were saying to be able to make it go away when you swap over to your Bane Spider build? That I can agree with.

Expand  

As long as it suits your worldview, it's okay. If it doesn't, you still have to push back against it even if it's an option that you personally don't have to use.

Oh good. You went back to my original post. The post I already stated was made because I had missed the part in the OP about the Crab Spider powers being rendered unavailable while it backpack costume part was hidden. Completely ignoring every comment made since then. You know, the parts where I stated that the request should work the way the author had originally posted? So very good. You proved you excel at completely ignoring a conversation you were party to for the sake of trying to find a way to say I am opposed to the OP. Congratulations.

 

Edited July 31 by Rudra
Edited to change "the" to "my".

[TheMoneyMaker]

23 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Nano-tech assembly on demand or teleportation to a mount on the back as per @Major_Decoy would avoid people walking into the backpack, the character having to go to odd lengths to avoid specific interactions from random people in the area thereby drawing attention to the character being up to something, and would also not trigger my weapon set going weaponless hate.

People should not have to come up with their justifications for every little possibility to have the discussion of the game making allowances for the option to render the backpack invisible when not in use. Magic, nanotech, science portals, mutant reality warping or whatever. Let people make of it what they will --if they want to-- after if the option becomes available. And if their justifications don't suit you, that really doesn't matter. You are not a factor in everyone else's game experience......or rather, you shouldn't be.

[TheMoneyMaker]

2 minutes ago, Rudra said:

You proved you excel at completely ignoring a conversation you were party to for the sake of trying to find a way to say I am opposed to the OP. Congratulations.

 

I try very hard to ignore you as much as possible.

Edited July 31 by TheMoneyMaker
You don't make it easy, though.

[Rudra]

1 minute ago, TheMoneyMaker said:

People should not have to come up with their justifications for every little possibility to have the discussion of the game making allowances for the option to render the backpack invisible when not in use. Magic, nanotech, science portals, mutant reality warping or whatever. Let people make of it what they will --if they want to-- after if the option becomes available. And if their justifications don't suit you, that really doesn't matter. You are not a factor in everyone else's game experience......or rather, you shouldn't be.

I am seriously getting the impression you are simply trying to continue an argument with me for its own sake.

[TheMoneyMaker]

1 minute ago, Rudra said:

I am seriously getting the impression you are simply trying to continue an argument with me for its own sake.

I feel like every reply to a suggestion you make is in bad faith just trying to shoot ideas down because they don't suit you.

 

Prove me wrong.

[Rudra]

1 minute ago, TheMoneyMaker said:

I feel like every reply to a suggestion you make is in bad faith just trying to shoot ideas down because they don't suit you.

 

Prove me wrong.

Considering the number of suggestions I have supported, I already did. Welcome to ignore,

[TheMoneyMaker]

This will be fun.

[Aracknight]

[El D]

Making the entire backpack invisible probably won't happen because any attack animations without the legs look janky and broken. However, a 'Sheathed' option where the legs fold out when attacks are activated and are curled inside out of combat, similar to how sheathed/holstered weapons currently work, could be a cool way to work in the idea. How easy that would be to do, no idea, but it works pretty nicely for the Praetorian clockwork in the same 'having these attacks locks you into X costume pieces for animation/model functionality' approach.

[biostem]

34 minutes ago, TheMoneyMaker said:

People should not have to come up with their justifications for every little possibility to have the discussion of the game making allowances for the option to render the backpack invisible when not in use. Magic, nanotech, science portals, mutant reality warping or whatever. Let people make of it what they will --if they want to-- after if the option becomes available. And if their justifications don't suit you, that really doesn't matter. You are not a factor in everyone else's game experience......or rather, you shouldn't be.

It's about maintaining the semblance of some sort of "rules" within the world the game takes place in.  Whatever your chosen explanation, (or lack of one), as to why you cannot see the pack, is irrelevant.  I lean toward coming up with at least *some* nominal explanation because it helps to maintain some sort of illusion that this is a (at least somewhat) coherent world that operates under some rules/laws.  My only contention, (and why I went with the cloaking device or nanotech angle), is that some sort of toggle that specifically hides the backpack, (along with enacting some sort of "only affect self" condition), would require vastly more dev resources than simply providing an invisible option...

Edited July 31 by biostem

[Forager]

3 hours ago, Rudra said:

I am seriously getting the impression you are simply trying to continue an argument with me for its own sake.

 

Lol do you ever think it's weird that you have to say stuff like this a lot... 

[TheMoneyMaker]

9 hours ago, biostem said:

It's about maintaining the semblance of some sort of "rules" within the world the game takes place in.  Whatever your chosen explanation, (or lack of one), as to why you cannot see the pack, is irrelevant.  I lean toward coming up with at least *some* nominal explanation because it helps to maintain some sort of illusion that this is a (at least somewhat) coherent world that operates under some rules/laws.  My only contention, (and why I went with the cloaking device or nanotech angle), is that some sort of toggle that specifically hides the backpack, (along with enacting some sort of "only affect self" condition), would require vastly more dev resources than simply providing an invisible option...

I get that. My point is that no one should have to justify their personal explanation for how or why it works for their character just to establish the discussion of an option like this.

[golstat2003]

17 hours ago, TheMoneyMaker said:

That's what it always breaks down to, though. What you would rather have. You had your say, but you're less here to contribute to the idea and more to make sure it fits with what you want. So.....opinion easily dismissed.

 

Errr no. What any one person wants (or group of people want) if this idea ever gets to beta is always considered by the devs. Since we all play the game every opinion about a potential change matters. (Or at least that is what the devs have said in multiple channels).

 

With that said I'm sure there are ways to do this that gives the option to hide the back costume piece, while still making the animations make sense. HC devs are smart enough to figure this out. So Rudra's opinion really isn't an impediment and can still be consisdered.

[golstat2003]

15 hours ago, El D said:

Making the entire backpack invisible probably won't happen because any attack animations without the legs look janky and broken. However, a 'Sheathed' option where the legs fold out when attacks are activated and are curled inside out of combat, similar to how sheathed/holstered weapons currently work, could be a cool way to work in the idea. How easy that would be to do, no idea, but it works pretty nicely for the Praetorian clockwork in the same 'having these attacks locks you into X costume pieces for animation/model functionality' approach.

 

Yeah I get many folks don't care about that sort of thing (animations making sense versus the character model) but I can guarantee and equal number of folks do.

 

EDIT: And either group stating their preferences or opinions has zero baring on if the devs take up a suggestion or not (HC has explained this multiple times in multiple places, not just the forums). People need to stop thinking it does. Everyone needs to relax. lol

Edited August 1 by golstat2003

[biostem]

6 hours ago, TheMoneyMaker said:

I get that. My point is that no one should have to justify their personal explanation for how or why it works for their character just to establish the discussion of an option like this.

Well, there should be at least an attempt at explaining why the pack isn't visible, but it need not be any more complex than "it has a cloaking device" or "you can summon it when needed" - the actual mechanism doesn't need to be explained in exhaustive detail...

[biostem]

15 hours ago, El D said:

Making the entire backpack invisible probably won't happen because any attack animations without the legs look janky and broken

Can't you get a Freakalok PAP costume that has no legs, yet still use kicking attacks while it's equipped? If so, then I think that ship has sailed...

[El D]

29 minutes ago, biostem said:

Can't you get a Freakalok PAP costume that has no legs, yet still use kicking attacks while it's equipped? If so, then I think that ship has sailed...

 

I'd argue there's a core design difference between optional PAP costumes intended to break normal player model access as a high investment reward versus 'this powerset is built around using a specific costume piece for all of its animations.' Especially given that the Freaklok example is one outlier out of multiple dozens, and we only have access to that one because it also happens to work with the vast majority of player animations and is only wonky with one powerset. Same reason we don't have the Snake models as PAP rewards.

 

Though, if this is the route we want to take for this suggestion - that PAP rewards are the approved way to break player model/attack animation fidelity - then an invisible Crab backpack as a low-tier PAP reward totally works like @Talen Lee suggested in the original post. Option is there for folks who want it via a path approved by the devs. Every player would have to earn it individually on every crab they make versus having the option worked into the backpack itself, but hey, it's implementable immediately.

[Snarky]

On 7/31/2025 at 12:44 AM, Talen Lee said:

I did search, couldn't find this specific thing.

 

I recognise there are all sorts of problems with turning off the backpack and animation jank. But I'd really appreciate just as a roleplay tool, a toggle in the vein of Disable All Powers/Only Affecting Self powers, for Prismatic Shards, that at least let me hide the model  of the crab backpack for situations where a character is meant to not have it. 

 

'Twould be nice.

As a crab, you already get de backpack…

 

 

[Aracknight]

Kind of the opposite of the OP request, but a crab backpack option for Mace Mastery could be cool.  Shooting blasts and grenades from that instead of drawing and using the Arachnos Mace.

[Forager]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

As a crab, you already get de backpack…

 

 

 

I sink zay vant to get rid of de backpack

 

Edited August 1 by Forager