I personally think that if a power is going to have a complicated gimmick it should only be applied to the base, while things like damage types or side effects should be put in themes. If I'm right this would mean that it would be easier to make bases or themes. If I'm wrong ignore that because apparently I'm just being stupid. At any rate here are some ideas for more unique themes.

Elemental: assuming we're using the 9 powers per set mechanic, the first and fifth powers would deal fire damage and fire DoT, the second and sixth powers would deal cold damage and slow the target. the third and seventh powers would deal electricity damage and would drain endurance, the fourth and eighth powers dealing smashing with a chance of stunning the target and the 9th power dealing fire/cold/elec/smash damage and would have all the side effects of the previous elements.

Ballistics: Any melee attacks deal smashing damage and have a chance to stun, any single target attacks deal lethal damage and any aoe attacks deal dire damage and fire DoT. For the guy that wants to be like Rambo.

as for animations I would like to see, I would like a melee option for rifles and pistols, things like hitting the target with the butt of your gun and pistol whipping him/her. Maybe add some animations that look like I'm stabbing my target with a bayonet and add in some gun models with bayonets on them.

Thunder-Puncher wrote:

Just to make sure I'm looking at this right...,
Base - meaning type of attack: Single Target Melee, Ranged AOE, Damage Type In General.
Element - common soft control inherent: Electric Drains, Ice Slows, Status Effects In General.
Animation - how fast cast time occurs: A Quick Punch, A Slow Buildup, Activation Times (if any).
- I could work with this... ^_^

I think damage type is supposed to be attached to themes, which is what elements are supposed to be called, though I could be mistaken...

A book prop and the ability to look like I'm reading it while blasting my enemies with spells.

I would love to see trick arrows & some "regular arrows". It would be real cool if there was a secondary melee that could linked with it. like using the bow or an arrow as a hand weapon to strike with.The "Arrow" is a good example of the fighting style I am thinking of.

Cutter wrote:

Ellysyn wrote:
I got one. So long story short. I wrote a story about a group of people that used Music as a weapon. Literally. I would like to see a Music Power set. I'm not sure how it would work in a melee set. But as a ranged set I can see it. It's roughly a Bard but with more happening. All the moves would be the toon playing a riff or chord or something musical. And you'd see notes move around. You'd have the softer elegant musical notes do stuff like healing and buffing. Then say the more somber and dramatic does the crowd controlling and debuffing. Rapid fast paced music doing the ranged damage. And the loud explosive music causing AoEs and and such. And the toon would actually be using an instrument. It's great we can put an electric guitar on our toon in the create a toon. But now we could actually use that guitar and blow up some mobs with it.

Why stop at guitar? Bagpipes! Trombone! Key-tar! Conductor's baton! Kazoo?
Base: AoE Buff/Debuff
Theme: Music
Animations: As Ellysyn so ellyquently (yes I know) described.

Enough variation in the instruments, and you could have a Band of Adventurers!

hopefully i got the power breakdown thing... Still not sure if ive got base/theme/animation right.

there's always a few DnDers in the bunch ;)

sigh....I hate drow.

:P

What I would like to see as far as masterminds go:
Setting a base: Pets of course.
Theme: This is where things get sticky. Say I want melee pets with a focus on control over damage. Where would this logically limit the appearance of the pets? Pets are complicated on the whole to begin with, never mind with the possibility for two completely different looking pet players having the same effect. One player has a team of psychics that wrap enemies in telekinetic cages, the other has a team of wolves that tackle enemies and hold them down through weight and jaw strength. Functionally, the only difference is that one set of pets has range (telekinesis) and the other is melee (wolves). The problem arises from the VAST difference in pet model as well as animations used, without even going into the potential for various skins on the pet models. (Wolves made of fire/ice/stone/shadow/electricity/water)

The basic concept simply doesn't encompass the vast amount of potential variation inherent in a pet class that isn't inhibited by shackling effect to appearance. While I LOVE the idea, the end result is going to be murderous on the developers.

The irony, of course, is that a 'controlling pets' concept under the open ideas this new team offers would be rather simple to do via alternative animations on a control base.
Base: Control
Theme: Restraint and interference.
Animations: Various animals are summoned to interfere with your enemies by attacking them and holding them in place until they are thrown off or otherwise distracting the target. A hold could be a wolf or dog pinning the target down, an AoE hold from a massive ball of constrictors spreading out from the player. A fear effect as a swarm of rats or other verminous small animal all climb over a single target. Single target knock back via a charging rhinoceros. If all of these were viable animations...

Mind-Freeze wrote:

I would love to see mind control get a revised look it was a decent power set but always felt in COH that total domination and mass confusion were weak in crowd control and would always either miss or not hold the group for very long

That's substantially due to the fact that somewhere along the way (I forget which Issue exactly, was it 9 or 10?) pretty much EVERY AoE Mez in the game got "double whammied" with the Nerf Bat (I always believed the Devs inserted an IRON CORE into that Nerf Bat, just because) so as to make AoE Mez dramatically less functional when it came to achieving TOTAL Lockdown.

What do I mean when I say "double whammied" you ask?

I mean that every AoE Mez had its duration cut in HALF and its recharge time DOUBLED ... meaning that ultimately the Uptime on all those powers (including Total Domination, as you cite) got reduced to [i]ONE QUARTER[/i] of what they had originally been ... with NO COMPENSATION given anywhere else for pretty much nerfing these powers into the ground (relative to where they had been, power level wise).

So yeah ... Nerf Bat With Iron Core ... just to make sure that the hits delivered would be crippling.

I'd really like to see a good magic control... you know, glowing binds, magic circles on the ground, harrassing of imps

what about finally getting a shrink/grow set?
we've seen in champions that the basic concept (a toggle-able size adjustment power) is viable, mechanically...

i'd see it as a defense set, with two toggles, one that increases your ability to dodge attacks, and one that increases your ability to resist attacks

the way I'd set it up, is that if you run both toggles, you stay the same size, but only 50% of the possible bonus (whatever that is determined to be) of each..... using one or the other gives you a significant defensive weapon but at a cost.
with shrink active alone, your resistance to holds (by which i mean 'hold powers') and knocks is lowered significantly
with grow activated alone, the endurance cost of your powers increases while your resistance to secondary mez effects (confuse, stun, etc) is lowered significantly.
(or something along these lines... im not great at disadvantages)

the question is.... why bother using one toggle or the other, then?
and therein lies the rest of the set.... different clickable powers that have greater/lesser or different strenths or features depending on whether you're small or large.

so, i see a shrink/grow character running around with both toggles on until they get into a decient fight, then they drop one toggle, and fire off buffing defense powers while working through their attack chains.

thematically, i envision the grow-themed abilities would relate to protection of self and others (self heals, absorbing damage for allies, mez protection) while shrink-themed powers would be about speed (like reflexes 'quickness') and secondary effect enhancement

now, while i see all powers providing a benefit when at neutal size, the idea is that they are significantly improved by changing to the appropriate size.......

Yes, possibly.... but being a defense set, i'd be worried about making it too damage/v/attack (such things will already be greatly effected by the class you choose... and I dont want it to end up that "no respectable tank ever shrinks!" or see a thousand "shrink-scrappers" running around.....) things the character needs/wants should be in both halves, so you are destined to bounce back and forth, regardless of your "team role"

but otherwise, yes... the basic idea of the keldians works, but definitely within a single power set

we need "throw a vial or beaker of chemicals at that guy" kind of animations for those mad scientist types out there. Also "I inject myself with chemicals from a hypodermic needle" type animations for self buffs/heals and self damage mitigation powers.

Fireheart wrote:

Err, yuck, no crazy injection fantasies, please. I'm phobic.
Can just barely handle the 'stim pens' in SWTOR, because they're just jammed against a leg and I'm usually in the middle of 'killing them before they kill me', so I'm not looking.
Be Well
Fireheart

Well I have a fear of insects and dogs, yet I'm not saying that Rottweiler shouldn't exist because of that. listen I know how it feels to have a phobia, I feel scared when I have to go outside in the summer or spring, but you have to understand that the world isn't going to change simply because your afraid of it or even should change. There are other people in this world who like things that other people are afraid of, and they shouldn't have to change that because of you.

That being said I want a "I drink this beaker full of chemicals" animation for self buffs/heals and self damage mitigation powers as well.

I want a rapier as a weapon, also I want to use a shield as weapon.

davidnel23@aol.com wrote:

I think a metal based power would be great. For a melee character it could be used for defense and for very precise attacks. For ranged it could be used any variety of snares, holds, crowd control, and straight up damage.

*growly roaring voice* TITAN CITY, PREPARE YOUR EAR-HOLES FOR THE VIOLATION OF OUR MOST SINISTER SHREDS! PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR THE INSANITY OF CHORDS WRITTEN BY THE GREAT OLD ONES THEMSELVES!

*wicked dueling guitar solos*

we need "I throw an explosive at that guy" type animations along with our other options for throwing things. Also I want to be able to throw my melee weapon at the bad and then get out another one like the enemies in the roman themed zone did with their spears. (sorry forgot the name of that particular zone) would go great for people with axes and spears.

Von Krieger wrote:

Cimiora?

yeah, thanks

Bagpipes for Sonic Blast powerset? I could see that working ...

I'll just be boring and conventional and say that I really want to see Dual Pistols again so that I can remake Sidhe Bang ...

i want to second that 'remote control' idea... my namesake was always ment to be a physical organic controller.. but neither cox nor cox supported the concept...

Dual Pistols, Archery, Trick Archery, Kinetic Melee (also known as NASCAR Ninja), Martial Arts, Street Justice (butcher meat slapping and bone cracking), Staff Fighting, Super Reflexes, Energy Aura, Ninjitsu, Mind Control, Gravity Control, Illusion Control, Storm Summoning, Dark, Dark and Dark plus Dark ...

{wanders off still reeling off powerset names}

sort of like the sigils concepts in other games (sigils in Champs, shaman totems in WoW)????

Personally I LOVE those mechanics... would be great as a defender/corruptor set, or this game's version of "traps" (which never felt like traps, in COX, imo)

That said, they should have a different mechanic, then the "destroyable object" mechanic they usually have.
Perhaps something along the lines of a trade off? get a benefit target aoe, but take a hit somewhere else, personally?

I guess I just always feel a bit cheated by a whole game mechanic that relies on nothing bad happening (all too often, these destructable objects have like 1 hit point... so they only have a value when they're barely necessary or you're acting like a chump.)

But it would be awesome to establish a "killing field" of layered buffs or debuffs, then draw enemies into it, and decimate them. (either as a melee(or ranged) / (d)buffer or as a support/ranged character)

Martial Defense:
A set of low graphics powers that act as stance toggles that change the behavior of default stances, click powers that temporarily increase hit, defense or dodge, Psychic and other defenses later based on martial arts openning chakras, therefore empowering your Chi or Ki.(Passive increases endurance by a small ammount as well.)

Energy Absorbing defense:

A defensive set that gains effects based on damage taken from energy sources, inherently gives resistance with passives and toggles grant endurance boost based on damage absorbing rate(Functionally damage reduction), degausing power that functions like a nuke, releasing effects based on absorbed energies. Click power that temporarily allows psychic absorbtion, top tier that put character into hyper active state, boosting damage and effectively making endurance negligible with a huge crash.

Variable Traps and gadgets:
Something like how dual pistols had toggles for different rounds this set changes the effects of mines, control techniques and other gadgets based on toggles, however I don't want it to function like a level up, I love the idea of actually crafting your gadgets like tony stark or Gear from Static shock, I enjoy the possibility of prototype gadgets failing or backfiring... I'm weird.

Any and all powersets, across all kinds of roles and classes. I loved all the ones in City of Heroes because they were so numerous and varied. First I would like to see the basics in place: Super strength, Invulnerability, Super Reflexes, Empathy, Force Fields, Martial Arts, and all four classical elements of earth fire water wind. There you go. Then the stranger ones can come in such as gravity and sonic, Energy(Light) and Negative Energy (Darkness), knives and swords, underling robots or gunmen, stuff like that.

Really there are hundreds to choose and just as many that would fit snugly into a superhero mmo. The devs will never be bored or out of ideas, they will have a giant bulletin board of power sets to work on. Even if they start out with only a few they could work on pumping out a new one every few months and most everyone would be happy.

Artillery;
Base: Ranged
Theme: Heavy hitting physical damage with some burning attacks, knockback or stunning
Animation: Hand cannons, grenade launchers, very big guns
Summary: Ranged equivalent of Titan Weapon.

Firstly, can I say that I would love to see different choices for power animation – some like flashy anime, others with KIRBY DOTS (please, please have Kirby dots) and then some that are classic mmo-energy beam styles up to this point. Something like that.

Powersets that would be great components of the game:

Energy based powersets, both light and dark, and for more than one archtype:
-Ranged is an obvious choice. Beams. Lots of beams. Blasts. Explosions for aoe’s etc.
-Tanks and dps characters could use this power as well – they could be redirecting the enegy through their bodies for energy based melee sets… there could also be crowd control, buff/debuff and summoning.
- All this could be done with dark energy as well (dark matter, etc…).

Telekinesis – a new and innovative approach would be great to see:
-Being able to pick enemies up and toss them around, both individually and with multiple enemies simultaneously.
-Being able to interact with environment items in order to lift them and toss them at enemies – or maybe in some cases pull stone and steel straight out of the floor/ground to hurl at enemies.
It would just be nice to see this powerset really get a cool revamp, the choices with graphics and animations included.

It would be cool to see teleporting as a powerset, not just a travel power:
-The attacks could be teleporting based, each ending with an attack – some behind the enemy, others to hit him with momentum like a wrecking ball, another to drop him from slightly higher in the sky, etc…

Again however, being able to choose between different graphics/animations for the powers would be amazing to see. And it would really help differentiate between the different players in the game so even if they are teaming with a person of the same powerset, they still seem different and individualized.

A powerset that I would love to see and loved when playing on COH in the Virtue Server was Broadsword/Shield Defense.

Oh, and I'd like to have some delicious dual blades for a power set please.

Alpha0177 wrote:

If I'm understanding you correctly, and we'd go with this format...in character creation, after we chose archetypes and such to get to powers...we'd choose a base first, say I wanted super strength, but my character is a fishman with shocking eel powers, I,d choose melee (I never really played SS so I can't be more accurate there), and then as a theme I'd go for electrical junk, and then for animation I'd go for some head bashing and curb stomping?
That'd make for a ridiculous amount of choices in creating and customizing powers. :P
EDIT:Apologies, I was addressing Shadow

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/missingworldsmedia/the-phoenix-project-city-of-titans/posts/645893

It'll probably be closer to this. Base means how the power is built such as being single attack focused or AoE focused. Theme is what kind of damage as well as a side effect each has like dealing damage over time or each power leaving a defense debuff on the target and animation is simply something cosmetic and everything from making making your burning attacks look electrical to making the fighting be based around curb stomping and head butts would fall under that. The kickstarter update I gave you also says that they probably won't let you pick a base apart from a theme, but that we should probably still suggest it in the base/theme/animation format to make it easier on the people designing the powers. the plan however is still to keep animation separate from powers.

I was a little bored at work and thought about what I would like to see as support sets, especially with the Bodyguard in mind. And then it got out of hand...:

Inspiration
Tier 1: Enduring Spirit, PB-AoE resistance buff
Tier 2: Mark, makes a single target more vulnerable to damage
Tier 3: Inspiring, a passive skill that heals close allies for a small amount when using a defensive inspiration skill
Tier 3 (Bodyguard): Intimidating, a passive skill that adds a chance to lower enemy accuracy to your attacks
Tier 4: Rally, a minor AoE heal and regeneration buff
Tier 5: Invoke Fokus, a PB-AoE accuracy buff (possibly with a chance to crit bonus?)
Tier 6: Inspire Will, a PB-AoE mez/ psi resistance buff
Tier 7: Intimidate, a PB-AoE damage and speed debuff
Tier 8: Victory Spirit a PB-AoE damage and speed buff, may provide a small heal for every defeated foe.

I imagine animations like warcrys, chants, blowing a horn or using an other instrument (trumpet, military drum or even an electric guitar), blessing (just with a gesture or by reading from a book, using a holy/ unholy icon), beast howls, waving a banner, auras, using a tactical display or even summoning holy/ unholy light or spirits that inspire the team.

What do you think?

numchucks