I have question about what you'd like do in terms of the flow of combat.
What concerns me with this and some of the other superhero projects out there is that the devs may not be considering the main nuance to the way combat functioned in City of Heroes and will gloss over it entirely with their own games.
[b]That being the way every power you used rooted you in place.[/b]
Some hated it but, for me, it was key to the way combat behaved and made it strategic and appealing. This doesn't happen at all with most powers in Champions Online and I felt it was a large part of the combat in that game being really 'floaty,' disjointed, and having no weight or impact. It's one of those things where I've said time and again, 'Cryptic got it right the first time.'
For whatever progress you've made into designing this game's combat system, is this something you've considered?
"The Remarkable Dazzling"
Luna Eclypse
Old-Fashioned
In my personal view, you have to balance between some abilities locking you in place the others not. characters should be able to have a mobility focus to their characters, while I think tanks need weight and the ability to lock a target into combat with themselves for example.
But going completely one way or another makes it rather stagnant and boring, always locking down when using an ability benefits melee classes far more than it does ranged classes for example, where as say a character with a firearm may want to shoot on the move, you could always look to give bonuses to being still during your attack compared to moving for exampe, decreasing accuracy, damage dealt etc.
The devs have said that some powers will root and some won't.
There are exceptions but I believe the general rule of thumb I've heard is single target will allow movement and AoEs will be rooted. Key word "general". Some powers will get exception that only they know. Ranged cones could not be a root but we simply don't know any details.
My opinion for an example is jab punch from super strength will allow movement but maybe knockout blow won't be because of strength or thematic
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
Footstomp [i]while one the move[/i] ...?
Uh ...
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Seems like I've seen something somewhere that cones will in all likelihood be rooted due to the fact that with mobility it is too easy to turn a cone into an AoE. Turning such a cone into an AoE is one reason I like my flamethrower in GW2. Circle and burn baby burn.
Just lock down the cone at the time of activation. No need to freeze player motion. And cones are more or less AoEs already, though I get the point that motion shouldn't increase their area for free.
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
From what I can recall - the devs said that some powers could allow the character to move while "casting". I don't have the exact quote, but it seemed to imply that these would be in the minority and that they would be limited to the "light attacks" or low-tier powers (or at least that's what I inferred at the time). The devs themselves may not have this 100% nailed down at the moment - the final decisions on that will probably come later during alpha/beta testing.
That said - I do agree with the OP - CoH's rooting and reliance on good animations DID make them feel more powerful or epic to me. Champions Online's combat felt too soft - and their Super Strength looked ridiculous. So, while I'm not entirely against being able to cast on the move - hopefully it will be used sparingly in CoT.
Personally, my main annoyance with getting rooted was while dogfighting Sky Raiders over Terra Volta. Running battles have their charms!
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]