The basic idea is simple enough to explain though. The MadGent listed the base classes, of which there are six. Imagine if you could choose one of three different kinds of secondary power sets for your tank, melee, ranged, or control. Or for your Blaster, melee, control, or defense. That's all it is - the classic classes with the ability to choose the category of your secondary. Obviously this has much awesomeness in it, but it is pretty simple really.

1 eye > ... No, not yet. Way too early to talk about 'finalized lists.' The plan is to have a system flexible enough to re-create the old CoH ATs in a similar look-and-feel, but not slavishly copy. And the extra flexibility will allow us to surpass CoH's customization of powers.

Give me access to power armor and a big hammer, and we'll be off to a good start! =) Brute was by and far my favorite archetype, though I never managed to get the right "feel" for power armor. Always came off not-quite-right.

Lot's being done in that regard Savage. We were, at one time, being promised a nice detailed post explaining the current planning for Boosts and how power sets would work. Obviously they are all too busy now, so we'll see. But the Boosts will be WAY more flexible, this has been promised frequently. CoH was not originally designed for customizing powers. Ours will be, and the possibilities will be far larger as a result. It'll be designed from the bottom up (and casual friendly is one of the most frequently referred to by-words of the game's design goals, so no fears there either). Powers also. Bit hard to explain, but...well, first off, animations and powers are separate. This means powers themselves can be categorized differently. You'll actually pick your power set in two parts. Base (just a placeholder term) and theme. For example, you might pick Blades for a source, Fire for a theme, and Polearm for the animation. You see how this works. Both base and theme will have their own quirks that merge to make every combination different. The details of making sure this results in distinct playstyles is partly buried in what we don't know, and probably partly to be determined via playtesting. To make Super Strength, for a further example, you'd pick Brawl for a base, and Physical for a theme. Or something along those lines. Don't get attached to any more than the basic ideas I'm describing, it's early days and a more thorough explanation hasn't gotten through to us yet.

So we might be presented with a looong list of all the possibilities of combining the first two (relatively easy on your end, looks hella impressive on ours), and then choose our animation? Just for example./.../ Still it's good for the forumites - especially the new ones - to understand the underlying process.

Here I thought I was the ONLY one. (Cackles with wild glee)

We need those placeholder terms so that we're all on the same page for discussions. I think we all realize that most of what it said here is subject to change.

The old forums had a thread with all the new names for archetypes. There's a lot of info that needs to be brought over, it'll probably start coming in after the KS launches. I never did memorize them, hehe.

Is it too early to say if a character creation tool will be available to play around with prior to game launch. Giving us a chance to play around with the mechanics of the creator would be great in seeing how things flesh out.

I know I have been meaning to ask this question and it is possible I already did. If so, I apologize for the repeat.

Tannim222 wrote:

I'm around this evening doling out tidbits of info. What has been brought up is mostly accurate. Currently we have a listing of Classifications each with a subset of at least 3 Specializations. Not all will e available at launch unless we are wildly successful with our kick starter. Each classification can choose from one of three Masteries, these are previously known as Foci in our old terminology and are similar to CoH inherent powers, except now you get to choose from one of three. So even if someone has the same class and spec their character might play a little differently than yours based on your Mastery.
There will be more customization as Shadoe Elusive alluded to, as Dr. Tyche pointed out, how it appears to the user will most likely be different. Our goal is a more flexible system by which players will be capable of more diverse character builds and greater ability to design character concepts.

The Masteries are very much up in the air. We do not yet know if there will be three distinct, or if it will be a growing system like branches of a tree.

Yeah, I remember that...I remember throwing a hissy fit about it in fact :D

Tannim222 wrote:

Yes one of our hopes / goals is to release the character creator before launch. No word on character names being a guarantee for the server, but at least you'll be able to design the look of your character.

The main focus of the character creator / avatar builder, for the first "releases" of it, are focused on the costume building and similar aspects. Basically, what most folks would think of as the "tailor" / costuming part of character generation.

At what point this is "officially" released depends a lot on just what we nail down for costume support, which is currently mostly-decided-but-pending (basically, there are some fairly crucial answers that we can't pin down without knowing more about what exactly "full access" makes available to us, engine-wise; there is at least one major potential route that is only available that way).

What is supported beyond that, well, that's far enough out in the plans that it would be misleading to talk about it much yet; I know for a fact that it has already undergone at least two substantial revisions, and there's likely to be at least one more post-KS just because nearly *everything* is slated for at least one major revision post-KS…

I hope that there will be a Peacebringer-type utility archetype. I liked Amerikatt being a Jill-Of-All-Trades and then being able to stock-up on Healing IOs so she could be back-up for the main Healer.

I also hope to have access to an Area-Of-Effect healing power *before* Endgame. *sage nod*

Are Incarnate-level powers part of the "5-Year-Plan" or is it too early to even consider such a system? I don't mean necessarily having the technical specs figured out, just asking if an Incarnate-type system has even been bandied about.

I have to agree with the Amerikatt and Fireheart. I know there won't be "Peacebringers", but something similar down the line would be great. My human only PB was by far the most fun to play, for me anyway and the one I miss the most.

oh and I almost forgot, will there ever be an archetype with assault for a primary in the future, if not with release?

Thank you SO MUCH! :D This makes a lot of sense.

Zombie, just for that, I won't smash your skull into the pavement.. for now.

Ok, so basic math gives us 64 potential combinations in here, but some of those would simply not work (Like Support/Support or Support/Defense), so if we remove all those without any offense capability, the new result is 60 (since control deals damage, if only a little).

This gives me hope for new archetypes in the future. We only have 18 specified out of a potential 60...lots of hope. And someday, if we're really good, we might get the Cannon class (Range/Range) 8D

Per Ignim wrote:

Ok, so basic math gives us 64 potential combinations in here, but some of those would simply not work (Like Support/Support or Support/Defense), so if we remove all those without any offense capability, the new result is 60 (since control deals damage, if only a little).
This gives me hope for new archetypes in the future. We only have 18 specified out of a potential 60...lots of hope. And someday, if we're really good, we might get the Cannon class (Range/Range) 8D

In one sense, much less, but maybe more.

It is unlikely that Assault or Manipulation would ever be a Primary, and unlikely Pets would ever be a secondary. Nor is it likely you'll have an Offense/Offense character or a Mitigation/Mitgation one (with the exception of the analog for the Controller... which had issues because it was Mitigation/Mitigation). So, that only leaves about half a dozen possible new ones... if there is the time and prioritization for such.

So, will people be bored of the 18? Not likely. We're talking about ways to further customize the 18 ATs. One schema is to have three 'masteries' for each one, a sort of third powerset, or a way to choose 'the inherents.' So, just like Brute and Scrapper were both Melee/Defense, but played differently because of their inherents; so, too, will a mastery color the experience of that AT.

There are no origin mechanics planned at this time. Your origin story shouldn't have to fall into a neat category.

Besides, personally, I never understood the differences between science and tech.

From what devs have said in the past, it will be a mix of offense, control, and support. From what I've gathered, they'll be edited slightly by primary to avoid too much overlap. e.g., taking out the melee powers in Melee/Manipulation, replacing them with something else (Defense?). The stalker /ninjitsu set has been posited as a rough example of a manipulation set for melee. I can also see a batman-style utility belt.

Zombie Man wrote:

Note that this is an early schema. No promises. Not all may be available at launch. Schema may be scrapped at any time and replaced by a tuna fish sandwich paper wrapper.

Which class is going to get the tuna fish sandwich paper wrapper power set?
Just kidding, thanks for the chart!

So far that naming convention is the plan, Titan.

Zombie Man wrote:

Note that this is an early schema. No promises. Not all may be available at launch. Schema may be scrapped at any time and replaced by a tuna fish sandwich paper wrapper.

Might be a good idea to pin that chart at the top level of the AT forums.

Will any of these be able to do the "gun and sword" trick that's pretty common in comics, but never quite made it into CoH?

---Dave

Gun and sowrd? Pish posh! I want to see sun and gourd!

Have we hashed it out yet? LOL

Lots of hashing. Now, let's see what survives further hashing, prioritization, coding, and QA. :)

Zombie Man wrote:

Note that this is an early schema. No promises. Not all may be available at launch. Schema may be scrapped at any time and replaced by a tuna fish sandwich paper wrapper.

*noms daintily on the tuna fish sandwich paper wrapper*

Fank-mew, Mr. Zombie Man! *purrs*

I think I have an idea we could use for making a tertiary power. What if at lvl 5 you could pick another powerset, but this powerset would have only 5 powers, but would give you powers from another powerset, enough for you to throw in some ranged powers onto your gladiator or some control powers on your gunner, that way we could further customize our characters in ways such as giving your super man like gladiator optic blasts, or giving your dual pistols / super reflexes gunner some martial arts powers so that he can be a master of gun fu.

Tannim222 wrote:

notears, the core concept has been part of the plan although we aren't there yet design wise so things may change.

cool, thanks for responding to me :)

Konflict wrote:

Enforcer will have assassin sub class???

From things mentioned in other threads, don't expect a stalker, think more along the night widow and Bane-spider specs.