So in city of heroes once you entered combat your movement powers pretty much were useless, super speed reduced massively and if i remember correctly didn't have much if any additional effect etc etc.
Now I was wondering if we are aware of current plans on how movement powers will or won't be toned down in combat for example currently ive been playing on titanfall - https://youtu.be/VqeMjHmL9eg?t=46 Now your characters basicly I would say it fits close to a mixture of combat jumping and hover from the City of Heroes, but if it was made that using your movement powers as well as your abilities. It could make interesting dynamics in combat.
For example say you have someone capable of building barrier's well getting around them, you might not necessarily be able to go through it but getting around by other means such as fly, teleportation, walling-running (hint) and as soon as thats down the rest of your task force can join up with the vanguard.
I think it would make for an interesting dynamic, if your more mobile characters while they open up new options tended to be softer than your ground pounding slower guys. This could act as a factor to balance for example.
There were several reasons for animation rooting in the old game. One of which is it offered those withnthe right powers to joust targets in pve with zero retaliation, while they could defeat the target. This even included some giant monsters. There were other non-game advantage issues as well, but for gameplay, this was an issues. How this was accomplished was by rooting during the activation of powers.
And while pvp was founf to be fun for many pvpers with movement restrictions, it again led to jousting and very limited build-types with certain movement powers to gain significant consistant advantages. It also came with an increased skill ceiling, increasing the difficulty of the barrier of entry for newer players.
Now, we too plan to apply animation rooting, but only for certain types powers which if used in conjunction with high movement can cause issues. Mostly these will apply toward cone, area effect, charged attacks, and your "heavy hitters" (those just didn't feel right when used with full movement).
It is difficult to reference action-style twitch combat games and expect a direct correlation to our game. CoT, like coh, will be closer to "old school mmo design" using tab targeting, non-twitch style combat. This means that while we will have a lot of different travel powers, and we do want to allow more use of them in general, including possibly combat, combat usage will need some form of mechanisms which will also limit the consistency of advantage.
We have several possible such mechanisms (and there may br multiples applied) to explore in protoyping combat so that we have our primary plan with anback up or two before we end up at rooting every power.
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- Combat Mechanic -
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The biggest problem I had with CoH's Travel Suppression wasn't that it was a workable balancing mechanic but the fact that it imposed a shockingly binary 4 second fast/slow sequence. One second you were running like 100mph and then the next 4 seconds you'd be instantly down to like 10mph. The need for the slowdowns wasn't the problem - the problem was the instantaneous speed changes.
If in CoT you could manage these speed changes over a "bell curve" of transition instead of binary fast/slow changes then I suspect the whole thing will flow more smoothly and appear less jarring to the average player. Make it so that for say two seconds you "slowly" slow down and then the next two seconds you "slowly" resume your original speed. Making the suppression work like that will probably solve much of the "negative perception" many players had for the concept in general.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
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We are looking to apply something like that for the powers that do root, through they may have to root immediately. Especially for cones since movement with cones can be used to 'warp' the cone into an aoe. The intent is to allow for a gradual increase of speed after the rooting so it isn't as jarring. The ramp up time and amount will need to be adjusted carefully so that rooting powers aren't too detrimental to play either.
[hr]I don't use a nerf bat, I have a magic crowbar!
- Combat Mechanic -
[color=#ff0000]Tech Team. [/color]
Obviously the exact "numbers" involved will be determined with some good playtesting. But it's good to hear you are considering allowing CoT versions of Travel Suppression to be more "gradual" in the way they ramp up or down the speeds involved. Again I suspect what made suppression "annoying" to many people in CoH was its very jarring, binary nature. Making any kind of rooting "appear" less instantaneous (by adding a few dozen milliseconds to the slow downs and speed ups) would probably go far in creating an "illusion" that they aren't coming to full dead stops that seem "unnatural".
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
City of Heroes was notorious for having "imposed by stupid" binary states in the game (*cough* MEZ *cough*) which City of Titans will also be addressing.
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My scrapper (to say nothing of my tank) never got mezzed by anything once I got my anti-mez toggles (17-ish, I forget). Ever. I think I recall one boss doing so successfully once.
PvP though, it was easy. Then it came down to a war of attrition of your break frees.
Now that was irritating, but listen to me, far more irritating is every other game giving every class little micro holds for 1.5s or so. That leads to keyboard bashing instead of real play. Do not let PvP issues dictate PvE powers -- PvE needs controller classes with major AOE holds and powerful single-target holds for AVs. (This is to take the load off tanks so the end game doesn't devolve into one supertank bashing taunt while everyone else does pot shots.)
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The very existence of the taunting tank irritates, for it requires idiotic AI that obeys the taunt.
Ohh, i recall going on a Statesman Taskforce with my Stone Tank. When we were fighting Ghost Widow, my Stone tank got mezzed and was floating in the air like a lightweight hot air balloon. Let me tell you, that was the Most Embarrassing moment of my game lifetime. It was worst than getting some prankster pulling down your swim shorts at the pool with all the girls from the same class looking at your weee little weeee, and laughter would never end! :<
Technical Director
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Agreed with these points, AND this suggests exciting potential for Momentum/Reserves as a fun dynamic in PvP in CoT.
Since inspirations were so important in CoH PvP, Momentum/Reserve management could become--or be molded by the Devs into--a really great driving dynamic in PvP.
Side note: I wonder if the Devs plan for a power or something that allows you to have some control of what kind of Reserves your Momentum decays into?
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
I think the use of movement/lack of movement between different characters could aid in the increasing of time to kill, which would make both PvE through the use of movement or PvP through the increasing to TTK.
I don't think (personal opinion/prediction here) that there will be different types of Reserves. I think it will be one "bar" or pool of "fluid" that can be spent to achieve different effects. You might be using different buttons or function keys to spend Reserves on different things, but I personally believe that it will be one communal "gas tank" that the Momentum bleeds off into.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising