Gimmick may not be the right word but here goes:
I was very pleased the first time I was able to pick up Long-Range Teleport in CoH. Many of my characters still liked the base teleporters or Oroborous but a few of my toons that really liked to Port would get it and use it.
It occurred to me that sometimes my toons preferred to use gimmicks to achieve a certain effect (like a vehicle for fast travel) and some I wanted them to have a power that did the same thing.
My question to the players is this: Do you prefer using powers, gimmicks or is it more of a case by case basis?
I ask for my own curiosity and as an informal poll for the devs. If a majority of the players hated LR Teleport then they can likely back-burner it and so forth.
I remember when Star Wars was cool...a long, long time ago...
Case by case, so it's always best to offer graphic/thematic options for the same thing whenever possible.
In other words, if you're going to build, say, a long-range or between zone teleport, save time by only building it once, but make it "skinable" so people can make it look like it's an innate power or a gadget that they have that cues a teleportation device somewhere or a magic spell... less work, more customization.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
I only used it on my WS because it was basically a freebie.
I didn't have any other toons who used teleport as a travel power. I had LOTS with recall friend, but that was about it.
I certainly didn't "hate" LR Teleport, but it wasn't awesome enough to get it on any of my other characters.
Now, if, instead of dropping you at the train station in whichever zone you picked it used a map-pin type thing that let you go anywhere you wanted, now THAT would have been awesome, even with a very very long cooldown.
"I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation."
It's definitely a case by case thing.
I think it boils down to whether players simply want a feature because it's something that makes "playing" the game easier or if it's something players want to do because it works for them from a roleplaying point of view. If you'll recall there were some people who were so dedicated to roleplaying a specific concept that they would, for instance, have characters who did not use any travel powers at all. Sure it probably made actually getting around the game more cumbersome for them, but they chose to do that because it fit with their character concepts.
Also remember that for Tech-based characters you could probably argue that everything they did was a "gimmick" (using your definition) because most of the time they had no innate "powers" at all. Nothing wrong with that. ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Totally a case by case thing. What gets used depends on the character concept. A character with no innate powers would use a motorcycle or other device to get around. One who could fly would find jetpacks unnecessary. In CoH I occasionally had to do some handwaving (there were no motorcycles, after all), but sticking close to the character concept is key.
Before Enhancement Dysfunction came along and ruined everything, 6 slot Hover was beyond incredible! Ah, those were the days!
Even in Issue 23, most of my characters didn't have the typical Travel Powers. My Ninja Mastermind used Teleport (because: Ninja) and quite of lot of them used 3 slot Hover for 3D maneuvering and Ninja Run+Sprint+Swift for "travel" purposes. Kheldians came with "built in" Travel Powers, particularly if built as Tri-formers.
I always used to make a game of it to try and beat teams to the mission door using just Ninja Run+Sprint+Swift. My running speed topped out at 60 mph (66 for Redlynne, since she had Quickness from Super Reflexes) because everything just had single slots ... so it's not like I was "cheating" to get to the door first. But it was still fun to be the first to the mission door when everyone else was using "real" Travel Powers and say over Team Chat, "Ninja Run wins again."
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
I guess by gimmick you mean a physical item as the cause of the effect. It is certainly a case by case situation for all of us. As long as we have cosmetic say in the matter I will be quite happy. Even in CoH, a lot of this was cosmetic. For instance my wife and I both had inv. tanks. Mine was a robot, who looked heavily armored, I had all the power effects on to represent energy shields. My wife's was an amazon-build 8' tall woman who was just "tough" and had all her visual effects suppressed to reflect that. From what we've been told of ascetic decoupling, there is going to be even greater leeway as to how we express our powers.
-----------------------------------------
I never set anything on fire accidentally!
The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
For what it's worth you're preaching to the choir with me on this: I rarely ever used Super Speed, Super Jump or Teleport. I had no particular hatred of those powers - just most of the time they didn't fit with what I wanted to do RP-wise or otherwise.
I did use Fly quite a bit and of course I made use of just about every other pseudo-travel power as well. Like you I never felt I lost out on anything for not using the "fastest" powers available.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Back in Issue 3 ... yes, three ... there were all kinds of people astonished that Redlynne didn't have a "true" Travel Power. I was using 6 slot Hover and Sprint. The beauty of it was that with 6 slots, Hover was close to (but not quite as fast as) unslotted Fly, making it at least competitive. The difference was, Hover had Friction, meaning it could stop on a dime, while Fly had very low Friction, causing the "slide" that was commonly associated with Fly resulting in imprecise maneuvering.
What was fun though was racing Superspeeders around places like Independence Port and Terra Volta. In those days, 3D movement options were limited to the Power Pools ... there were no Temp Powers to give you Travel Powers if you didn't already have them. This meant that most Superspeeders were effectively ground bound. Naturally, this just meant that Superspeeders were "forced" to learn all of the ground access "routes" to anywhere they wanted to go on every map, and it didn't take most all that long to start remembering the fastest way to get to ramps and so on in order to get to any destination. Meanwhile, I ... with 6 slot Hover ... could just "fly" my way over to wherever I needed to go at a dramatically slower speed, but with far fewer detours and a lot less risk (and "twitch" actually).
The catch phrase I came up with to describe the phenomenon of my being able to cross zones and get to mission doors before the Superspeeders was pretty simple.
Superspeed is faster in a straight line.
But Fly moves in straighter lines.
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
+1 ;)
We need a T-Shirt:
"Speeders can go Really Fast in a Straight Line,
but a Flyer actually travels More in a Straight Line."
;)
There was also that whole -50% Accuracy debuff you got if you had Fly running. So lots of people would run these really tricky keybinds to switch between hover and fly as you pressed and released movement keys. Tricky because they didn't always work, and you could be left with Fly running when you wanted Hover, or worse, neither running when you wanted to stay off the ground.
Meanwhile Red and I were cruising about with out 6-slot Hover on constantly and not caring. I'd explain it to other players as, "Y'all with your fully-slotted Fly powers are fighter jets swooping by everything, strafing all over the place. Meanwhile, we're flying attack helicopters which pop up from behind a hill, blow everything up, and duck back down before anyone figures it out."
One difference between Red and I was that I played a blaster. So I could get away with engaging Sky Raiders in Air Combat Maneuvering (i.e. kiting in 3D) in Terra Volta, while Red relied on Air Superiority (knocking them out of the sky).
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
Most of my characters used Fly. Mostly because I just loved watching them fly! I experimented with other travel powers on alts, but never really enjoyed any of them as much as I enjoyed fly. When I got Ninja Run as a built-in power available on every character (I think it was a Veteran's Award?) then I would often use Ninja Run for short distances and Fly for long distances.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My author page at Amazon: https://amzn.to/2MPvkRX
My novelty shirts: https://amzn.to/31Sld32
For me it was Super Jump.
Fly on the other hand, I was already accustomed to from games like [url=http://youtu.be/DNpBwU3PTX8?t=3m24s]SuperMan64[/url]. ;)
I tended to like super speed/super jump for melee characters and fly/teleport for range/support.
There were exceptions. My stone/stone tank had tp and my fire/fire blapper had ss/sj.
case by case. different character concepts demanded different travel powers, assuming they had a "travel" power to begin with. I had a couple that just ran everywhere, which became much easier once ninja run was released. whether these travel abilities were inherent to the character or they used some sort of tech support depended on the concept itself.
[img]http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/whiteperegrine/84183/69278/69278_original.gif[/img]
Super jump for melee (more for combat jumping than for travel power of super jump though!!!)
Teleport for utility class (for group summon)
Fly for everything else (mainly blaster types and MMs)
And craft a rocket backpack for non-fliers for traversing dangerous maps way out of my level.
God i am gonna cry now.
__________________
[IMG]http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll38/Gnurl/a72b7fba-8da2-4ac8-8e18-0f8453f7d3ee_zpscc5b27b5.jpg[/IMG]
The very existence of the taunting tank irritates, for it requires idiotic AI that obeys the taunt.