Reverse Altoholism

[Aracknight]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this before.  Sorry if it has already been crapcanned.

 

Unlike a lot of players, I really only enjoy playing my MA/SR scrapper main.  I'm just invested that way emotionally, and I have trouble connecting or enjoying other characters on any real level, much less coming up with names and costumes for them.  At the same time, I've also been that MA/SR Scrapper since I8, and sometimes I do want to try out other things, but I run into the aforementioned disconnection/disenjoyment.

 

 

For example, I'd like to learn how to Tank... as a Tank.  Those guys that know what they are doing are friggin' amazing.  I'd also like to see how I'd perform as a Stalker, or even a Brute.,  Or try out Sentinel.  Who knows, but you get the idea.

 

Would it be possible, or even desired, to use the Alternate Builds system to function as a different Archetype?  I'm not as familiar with non-melee powersets, but I do know that proliferation has been pretty good to melee toons, and it'd be neat to able to switch gears depending on need.  Need a tank?  Change your build to Tank.  Something stealthy?  Switch it to Stalker.  And so on.  I've seen some players with toons with the same name with an extension like   Bob the Scrapper or Bob the Tank or whatever to differentiate, but that sort of breaks my immersion.  

 

Just a thought.  Have a nice evening.

[MetaVileTerror]

Not saying anything for or against your proposal, but you may want to log on to Justin; the testing server.  As I understand it, you can insta-build a character there.  This might give you the freedom you need to explore some of the other character concepts in a hurry, and then come back and invest the time and energy in to building the one(s) you really like on these server Shards.

[Zepp]

On Star Wars Galaxies they allowed people to respec in a manner you are suggesting, to a degree. What happened was you had a dancehall filled with AFK dancers grinding XP to respec to jedi, commando, or spy. If this were allowed, you could grind a scrapper to get that level 50 controller you've always wanted but never had the patience to grind...

 

I'm not opposed to it, but there will be a lot of pushback against this.

[Haijinx]

Don't think Reverse altism is a widespread problem.   

[Vanden]

The only way I could see it being allowed is if you had to level up your alternate builds separately.

[GM Sijin]

3 hours ago, Aracknight said:

Would it be possible, or even desired, to use the Alternate Builds system to function as a different Archetype?

To answer this specifically, no this is not currently possible. It would require a redesign of, at the very least, the character database and the way the respec and builds systems work. Probably a lot more than that knowing City of. In short: A prohibitive amount of work would be required.

[Aracknight]

I played Galaxies, but forgot about it, until you mentioned it, and that is sort of the model I had in mind subconsciously I guess.  Galaxies and Heroes were the only games I could ever get into.  Really glad the universe saw fit to give us back Heroes.

 

Anyway, thanks for the replies.  Appreciate it.

[Steampunkette]

It seems like the main stumbling block is psychological, your deep connection with one character precluding the creation of other characters... So... Could you make an alternate version of the same character?

 

Like... You like Claws/SR, right? So make a Claws/SR Brute with the same costume and a slightly different name (Hyphenate, maybe? Or have it be the Weapon-X to your Wolverine or whatever). Play the same character in concept and even powers, but with a different archetype. You could do the same guy as a Claw/SR Stalker and use that 'version' for a Black Ops/Stealth Mission mindset.

 

Or maybe you can do an alternate universe version of the same character, where instead of getting Claws he became a Fire Blaster. Same person, different powers and playstyle and archetype.

[Aracknight]

Steampunkette gets me!

 

That's just what I was going for but trying to avoid name stuff.

 

Is there a list of what special characters like * ( - etc are allowed in names anywhere?  Google and Bing were unhelpful in that search.

 

Thank you so much for the advice.  I *really* am ridiculously happy to be home in Paragon City.  I tried to fill the void with Marvel Future Fight on my phone, but what has always set Heroes apart for me is the community.  You guys are so helpful and forthcoming with advice and numbers and just anything anyone needs, even at the Dev/Admin levels.

 

Thank you guys for being....you guys. 

 

From the Department of Redundancy Department lol.

[Steampunkette]

There are 4 non-alphanumerical characters allowed in a PC name: . ' - ? (period, apostrophe, hyphen, and question mark respectively). But you're only allowed to use one of the four types of non-alphanumerical characters in a name, and only one of that type of character.

 

So you could name someone Cherry-Bomb or you could play on the song title to name her Ch-Cherry Bomb, but you couldn't call her Ch-Cherry-Bomb or Ch-Ch-Cherry Bomb because you only get to use one special character (In this case the Hyphen). And you also couldn't do Cherry-Bomb? because there's two special characters of two types in that one.

 

Just remember: No matter what the -name- is. The character is the same, and it should help you out!

[PaxArcana]

3 hours ago, Steampunkette said:

Like... You like Claws/SR, right? So make a Claws/SR Brute with the same costume and a slightly different name (Hyphenate, maybe? Or have it be the Weapon-X to your Wolverine or whatever).

Just append a roman numeral.

So if you play Clawdude the Claws/SR scrapper ... the Brute can be Clawdude II, the Claws/SR Brute.  🙂  You could even play them off as being alternate-universe clones of each other, a la Into the Spiderverse ...! 🙂

[Steampunkette]

9 minutes ago, PaxArcana said:

Just append a roman numeral.

So if you play Clawdude the Claws/SR scrapper ... the Brute can be Clawdude II, the Claws/SR Brute.  🙂  You could even play them off as being alternate-universe clones of each other, a la Into the Spiderverse ...! 🙂

Oh no no no! Even better! Clawdude the Scrapper, Klawdude the Brute, and Clawdude Noir the Stalker!

 

 

[PaxArcana]

Of course, that'd be better if it was a Supergroup, so they could all team up together ... 😄

[Haijinx]

3 hours ago, PaxArcana said:

Of course, that'd be better if it was a Supergroup, so they could all team up together ... 😄

wasnt that a spiderman movie?

[Xoza]

Something very expensive with an extensive cooldown that would allow you to re-select your archtype and power sets and keep your level could be a solution.

[Steampunkette]

5 minutes ago, Xoza said:

Something very expensive with an extensive cooldown that would allow you to re-select your archtype and power sets and keep your level could be a solution.

Allow me to quote Siljin.

11 hours ago, GM Sijin said:

To answer this specifically, no this is not currently possible. It would require a redesign of, at the very least, the character database and the way the respec and builds systems work. Probably a lot more than that knowing City of. In short: A prohibitive amount of work would be required.

That cannot be done without changing the entire character database and system. 

 

This is something so big -Paragon- never tried it 'cause of the quantity of work... but trust me: People requested it ALL THE TIME.

[MunkiLord]

I'm a fan of using thesaurus.com to help me come up with names. Also sometimes a different language if there is a direct translation and I won't butcher it if I try to say it. Then I'll color swap a costume I really like. I don't always do those things, but it's a tactic I do rely on a decent amount of the time.

[Heraclea]

15 hours ago, Aracknight said:

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this before.  Sorry if it has already been crapcanned.

 

Unlike a lot of players, I really only enjoy playing my MA/SR scrapper main.  I'm just invested that way emotionally, and I have trouble connecting or enjoying other characters on any real level, much less coming up with names and costumes for them.  At the same time, I've also been that MA/SR Scrapper since I8, and sometimes I do want to try out other things, but I run into the aforementioned disconnection/disenjoyment.

 

 

For example, I'd like to learn how to Tank... as a Tank.  Those guys that know what they are doing are friggin' amazing.  I'd also like to see how I'd perform as a Stalker, or even a Brute.,  Or try out Sentinel.  Who knows, but you get the idea.

 

You might make your alts part of a shared universe beyond the Paragon City lore itself.  I do this with my Roman Amazon alts: there's a shared backstory that all relate to in some way or another. 

[Sura]

4 hours ago, PaxArcana said:

Just append a roman numeral.

So if you play Clawdude the Claws/SR scrapper ... the Brute can be Clawdude II, the Claws/SR Brute.  🙂  You could even play them off as being alternate-universe clones of each other, a la Into the Spiderverse ...! 🙂

CoH has a pretty wide ranging multiverse, I'd say use some of those.  Clawdude-S is from the Shadow Shard.  Clawdude-W is from War Earth.  Clawdude-P is from Praetoria.  Etc.  Like Spidey-616 in the Marvel Universe.

 

🙂

[Aracknight]

Or Action Figure variants, like the billion Cowboy, Astronaut, Samurai, Accountant Ninja Turtles and Batmen they made in the '90s and '00s.  My brain had those wired just as different Costumes instead of possibly different Archetypes.  There's enough overlap between Martial Arts (/Assault), Mu/Electric, and Super Reflexes to cover most things I'm comfortable with and keep me having fun while maintaining the integrity of my overall theme and enjoyment.

 

What else is defense-y flavored that isn't SR?  Force fields/Bubbles?

 

Oh, and what's the Character name limit these days?  I seem to recall 19?

 

 

Sorry for all the questions, but this was all super helpful and inspirational and whatnot guys and gals.  I'll try some stuff out and report back.

 

 

[biostem]

You have to come up with another character/concept that you really like and want to see become a reality.  A simple starting concept would be to imagine what your MA/SR scrapper might be like if they grew up in an alternate dimension, under different circumstances.  Maybe, in another world, they suffered an injury early in life, which caused them to have to slow down and change their tactics;  Instead of being an agile martial artist, they donned heavy armor and focused on raw physical strength instead of quick and precise strikes.  What if, in another universe, said character's mentor was a brilliant cyberneticist instead of a martial arts master, and augmented them with powerful synthetic limbs and implants?  Take what you already love and reimagine it...

[Xoza]

1 hour ago, MunkiLord said:

I'm a fan of using thesaurus.com to help me come up with names. Also sometimes a different language if there is a direct translation and I won't butcher it if I try to say it. Then I'll color swap a costume I really like. I don't always do those things, but it's a tactic I do rely on a decent amount of the time.

Best tool ever.

[GM Sijin]

43 minutes ago, Aracknight said:

Oh, and what's the Character name limit these days?  I seem to recall 19?

I believe it's 20.

 

44 minutes ago, Aracknight said:

What else is defense-y flavored that isn't SR?  Force fields/Bubbles?

Not much else for pure defense, but Ice armor/cold domination, energy aura and shield defense are primarily defense but do have some resistances. Stone is heavy on defense but it also does resistances, and there's a sort of forced aesthetic to the set if you want to be highly effective. WP and Bio both have some defense elements but are a little more resistance leaning. I think Arachnos Widows are fairly defense-focused as well, but I'm far from overly familiar with them.

[biostem]

17 minutes ago, Xoza said:

Best tool ever.

This anagram generator is also a great tool!

[MunkiLord]

8 minutes ago, biostem said:

This anagram generator is also a great tool!

Oh. My. God. THIS IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

 

My Arch/Temp Blaster's name is Thoughtless, there are so many possibilities!!!