As you might not be very surprised to read, I like animal themed characters. And the thing I like (and often miss) the most about them is that they would perceive the world differently than humans. In most cases they have superior senses.
But not only animal-people have those, every superhero or villain could have heightened senses. Superman hat X-ray vision, Spiderman a danger sense and the only superpower of Daredevil is his enhanced hearing and balance. And I am sure there are countless more examples, it could work with magic, cyber-ware or gadgets, as mutation, natural ability or the result of an scientific experiment/ accident. So it will fit into a lot of concepts, but I have jet to see a game to really make something out of it.
This is why I want to suggest an "Enhanced Senses" tertiary powerset. I think there is a lot that can be done with this theme. The way I envision it, it would largely consist of passive powers, providing small bonuses for the character. For example:
-Enhanced Vision would provide bonuses to accuracy and range.
-Enhanced Hearing could perhaps show enemies on the mini map, help against stealthed foes and/ or reduce the effects of blinding, because the character can still hear where the opponent is and what he does. I could even imagine that it lets you hear things, that you normally would not, like footsteps of your opponents. Or maybe you hear glowies from further away and get an indicator which direction you need to go to find them.
-Enhanced Balance could make the character resistant to knockdown and maybe some other control effects. This could be combined with Super Hearing, since the organ responsible for balance is also located in the ears.
-Enhanced Reflexes would also fit in, providing a little defense buff.
Sense Fear is an idea I had to bring in an enhanced sense of smell, but it would work with other explanations too. It would give you a bonus to momentum gain if you hit foes under a health threshold.
And there could also be some more exotic things in there like:
-Sonar Vision/ Radar Sense, which maybe would be a click power, negating any accuracy debuff and reveal hidden enemies.
-Examine, a power that gives your character heightened damage and/ or crit- chance against his target
-X-Ray Vision could allow to see through certain walls.
Something like that.
But that only covers the combat side. There could be something similar for the non- combat powers (if they get implemented, that is). Those could offer up additional information from NPCs and more ways of getting clues for missions.
-Enhanced Vision would offer more visual clues as your characters sharp eyes spot more details of the scene. He might find that tiny piece of evidence the police overlooked or be able to read something from far away.
-Enhanced Hearing could provide more gossip, because the character is able to hear whispered or far away conversations. He also might know when someone is lying since he could be able to hear the heartbeat quicken, provided there is not too much noise in the background. And it might help with certain other non- combat abilities, like safe cracking.
-Enhanced Smell could also provide a lot of useful information. The smell of blood in an alley, hinting at a crime scene. A faint trace of the favorite aftershave of a gang boss, indicating his involvement in something. It might enable the character to track people like a bloodhound or sense their emotional state. And he would definitely notice if someone was replaced by a robot or alien.
And there could be a lot more. X-ray vision would obviously provide lots and lots of information and one could consider telepathy, visions from the future or the ability to see ghosts or auras as additional forms of perception.
This is supposed to change the feel of the character, to underline he mainly relies on his enhanced senses to get information and to lead him through a story. I think there should be other non- combat powersets like detective work, hacking, interrogation, science and maybe even fortune telling that focus on something similar or have at least components that alter the way your character gets his information.
Alright, this has become too long already, I will leave it at that. What do you think about this idea?
I think the devs have already stated that they are looking into something like this - can't find the post, sorry, but I think I read something like this a while back. Or maybe this had something to do with non-combat skills or abilities they were considering?
Danger Sense is always a fun one to try and model in a 3D action game. Just about the only thing I can think of for it would be a sort of "tell" for the Player of things like aggro ranges and fields of fire. Essentially a tool to enhance the Player's [i]situational awareness[/i] so that they've got a better idea of how close they can get to a Foe without tipping them off to the PC's presence, receive indications of Danger Zones for various attacks so as to perhaps be able to proactively avoid them (which starts getting towards "twitchy" gameplay), and so on. Essentially, give the Player "more information" to work with so as to presumably inform and improve their decision making process.
Of course, the danger with that is Information Overload, where in dogpile situations there's just so much stuff happening that it all blurs into a confusing mess ... but perhaps that ought to be the downside of being "sensitive" to threats via a Danger Sense.
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Hate to say it--and I mean I really do hate to say it--but this type of thing probably should be non-combat. Out of combat this would add great flavor. In combat it *could* be too advantageous to pass up just for a few more regular powers.
In combat it would probably become like the Fitness Pool was and be something that absolutely everyone takes to the point where they just give up and make it inherent.
Seriously, who wouldn't take what Lutan just outlined? Most of it is power multipliers that enhance and give an advantage in every way to your hero's overall functionality.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
First of all, I would be more than happy with just the non-combat versions. They would fully provide the feel I was aiming for.
As for the question of who would not take them... well probably nobody if there is no alternative, that is true. But if there are well made tertiary sets that are as good or in some situations even better?
Enhanced Senses is supposed to be a little from everything and mostly passive powers. Other sets might be more specialised in one direction and therefore more useful for builds that already have one thing covered very well or players who feel they want to emphasise one particular aspect or counter one single weakness of their character. Some other set might do something similar but has more active powers, meaning it might be stronger but also puts more strain on your endurance.
As it is it offers nothing in the form of team-support, health and endurance regeneration/ management or damage resistance. Those might be good selling points for other sets.
Another thing I've considered is drawing attention to ambushes, even making the doors they enter through blink or glow before the ambush appears.
It makes sense to me that Danger Sense would work like that in combat. If it's part of a defensive power set it could continue to provide a Defense buff; if it's just supposed to be a graphical thing I'd expect it to be useless when you're already fully immersed in peril.
Redlynne, I think I remember something similar was mentioned while discussing a possible stealth archetype. But I do like it.
And to avoid the information overload, the effect could simply vanish when entering combat. You do not really need that information while fighting anyway, do you? Any opponent would be painfully aware of your location anyway once you start hitting them. ;)
Fair enough argument.
In CoH there was enough ability to jack up endurance that this issue would be circumventable (trust me, one of my brutes lugged 9 toggles and it was worth it), but this won't be CoH.
Also, It seemed to me that most people focused on making their own toon powerful, but not all. So a good support tertiary could pull support people away.
As far as DPS, Tanks, or PvPers, however, it'd have to be one hell of a tertiary to pull them away from the powers you outlined :P.
That's all just talking about combat powers, though. Non-combat circumvents the whole issue nicely.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
We do plan to have a Super Senses category of powers. Right now they are in our noncombat powers section. They all do provide certain advantages in combat situations but no statistical improvements. This however may change.
[hr]I don't use a nerf bat, I have a magic crowbar!
- Combat Mechanic -
[color=#ff0000]Tech Team. [/color]
Glad to hear that, Tannim222. Actually, when I think about it, the non- combat variant is even more important to the feel of a character. I will keep my fingers crossed that they make it into the game.
Actually, a thought just occurred to me involving the gameplay seen in TERA.
In TERA, there is a sort of "standard tell" for if you've entered a mob's aggro radius. What happens is that if you've entered aggro range around the mob, it will stop moving and pop up a [b][size=18]?[/size][/b] overhead on the mob. After like 1 second, the mob will turn to face you, and if you're still in aggro range 1-2 seconds later (thus giving you a chance to reactively back off or move on out of range again) the [b][size=18]?[/size][/b] will change to being a [b][size=18]![/size][/b] and the mob will aggro and come after you. This basically happens with all mobs in the game, and as a consequence, as a Player, you "learn" to [i]feel your way[/i] in and around mobs so as to not aggro them except when you want to.
Something similar could be done here in City of Titans as a general thing, so as to avoid a variety of "instant aggro" issues based on proximity. Gameplay quickly feels much more complex and immersive when Players are given not only cues but also the means and methods to AVOID engaging in combat unnecessarily. Such a system could then be EXTENDED to also include a Danger Sense ... such that rather than popping up a [b][size=18]?[/size][/b] or [b][size=18]![/size][/b] above the heads of hostile Foes, instead such status markers pop up over the head(s?) of your PC! That way, rather than doing any sort of volumetric "fields of fire" sort of thing, instead you're being given very simple indicators telling you (as a Player) to "Look out!" and so on, giving you extra reaction time.
So if your PC has drawn the aggro of a Sniper (for example), you'd get a [b][size=18]?[/size][/b] over your PC's head. If that Sniper is actually attacking, then during the animation time you'd see a [b][size=18]![/size][/b] over your PC's head, telling you that you're being attacked. That way, you've got an "early warning system" telling you when you're in danger and giving you more time to react in advance of actually taking damage (and possibly even break Line of Sight before the sniper shot reaches you, foiling the no-longer-surprise attack!).
So the basic idea is to design the aggro system to put an indicator on all NPCs to represent their aggro state ... and then extend that basic system to put an indicator onto PCs with a Danger Sense Power to represent warnings of various types to threats which do not need to be otherwise visible (or even with the field of view of the current camera direction). This could even be designed in such a way as to be a "hint" system for when a variety of traps, ambushes and other hazards are imminent, enhancing the Player's ability to avoid such hazards and obstacles. Heck, even being able to "pick the right lever to pull" from a randomized selection based on "vibes" courtesy of a Danger Sense Power could be a worthwhile functionality to incorporate into the game ... and all you'd need to do is incorporate a simple [b][size=18]?[/size][/b] and [b][size=18]![/size][/b] element into the GUI system in order to accomplish it.
Thank you TERA gameplay standards.
There's basic aggro ... and then there's NUKE Powers, which for some Big Bad Boss Fights™ can get pulled out more than once. Being able to get advance warning for when the Death Patches™ are going to come out would be something I'd want to know about during combat. So it isn't quite as cut and dried.
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
What if the Map had that also?
[img]http://i.imgur.com/WdZfm7I.png[/img]
Foes gradually change color from lighter blue to yelllow'ish orange, to Red when engaged?
Too "God's Eye View" for my taste. That kind of color mess could also get confusing real fast and would prevent such colors being used for other purposes on the mini-map.
And honestly, after playing Elder Scrolls Online ... where you [b]don't get a mini-map[/b] ... I have to say that the no mini-map style of UI and gameplay definitely has something going for it in terms of immersion and reliance on the Player's sense of situational awareness. Of course, you could always "open a map" that would occupy your entire screen at any time, so it's not like you had no access to mapping features.
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
i just hate ! and ? or any such immersion breaking Icons over the NPC Foes. :/
As long as I can turn it off in the Settings, i dont mind. ;)
Sucks if you're color blind.
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
No Pink Elephants then?? :P
They're gray to me.
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
Ok. I'll try to keep CB's in mind. :)
I think people will try coming up with more Acronyms in the forums... So i'm getting a leg up on 'em. ;D
/em looks skeptically at Izzy
Really ...
Here's an example of what it looks like in actual gameplay (recommend full screen viewing to be able to see what I'm talking about).
[youtube]uKWEx6-Mlrs[/youtube]
And that's immersion breaking for you ...
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/Q17xRJo.png[/img]
That one isnt that big, and it works well for color blind players.
But, when I see someone mention Question marks or Exclamations for NPC's
Without thinking i imagine this:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/WNreFh2.png[/img]
:(
Considering that I first proposed the notion in reference to how it was done in TERA ... and was using TERA as the example to follow ... I'd consider the example of TERA in this regard to be the starting point for making that kind of an assumption. I did the punctuation in bold text so as to differentiate them from the usual grammar and sentence punctuation stuff, and to try and convey through pure text what it would look like when integrated into the standard GUI format.
That GIANT BLUE P*****C SYMBOL you've got in your second example is just terrible UI design. I agree with you that something like THAT would be quite immersion breaking! Fortunately, that isn't what I was suggesting. I'm glad we cleared that up then. ^_~
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
<--- only tried Champions Online for 2 weeks, Scarlet Blade for 1 week, DCUO for 2 days or so, Marvel Heroes for 2 hours, WoW for 10 minutes.
No Tera though. :/
Tera had a beautiful world and environment, great sound, drunk-out-their-ass fashion (way too asymmetric and sexualized), and mechanically was a full-bore Korean grindfest that will waste all your time. As in the daily raid had a 5% chance of dropping a scroll which itself had a 3% chance of upgrading your weapon when used with some rather expensive components, and there was no streak breaker, so strings of 60 failures were not unheard of. And bloody everything was soulbound.
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
Everything sucks when your "something" :p No game can account for every little thing that can possibly be wrong with someone and still make a fun game.
TERA is what other MMOs should aspire to be, but with a better player base!
Sure you can: you just need to provide alternate means of conveying information. CoX used color to indicate con level, but it also provided small arrowheads neat the mob's name that indicated the same information. So most of us saw a red enemy, but colorblind folks could see three up arrowheads as well and still be able to play along.
Granted, there are some things you just can't do anything about. Someone who is outright blind isn't going to be able to do much more than hang out in chat, maybe. Someone like me who is going deaf isn't going to be able to enjoy the game's music, or recognize some of the audio cues, [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpKKYBkJ9Hw]after getting cochlear implants installed[/url].
The trick is to make it so things gracefully degrade, not to just tell the players to go f* themselves.
If only. Tera's writing is a joke. The Vanarch system was pretty cool... until they got rid of it. And the fashion is ridiculous. There's a reason their support peeps call it "Terable".
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
Lin as a dad of a deaf and hardnof hearing child I just want to say I feel ya brah!
Even with his hearing aid and cochlear implant picking up sounds from a secondary sound generating device takes a lot of training and even then can come across distorted. A new sound dan easily be missed even in isolation much less with other sounds going on at the same time.
Thwt being said we do aim to make the game as accessible as possible.
[hr]I don't use a nerf bat, I have a magic crowbar!
- Combat Mechanic -
[color=#ff0000]Tech Team. [/color]
TERA's best feature was its relatively immersive game play, albeit of a decidedly "twitchy" variety. A lot of its crafting systems were straight up rip-offs (as Lin already mentioned) and its fashion sense was sexualized [i]by default[/i], up to and including significant Loli ogling in the form of the [url=tera.enmasse.com/datastore/videos/2012/10/05/19/44/33/653/Elin_racevideo.mp4]Elin[/url] (also known as [b]The Master Race™[/b] of TERA). But the actual game PLAY itself is actually quite fun, and a lot of the UI elements are very well done.
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
TERA's writing is just as good/bad as all the other MMOs, with the exception of TOR. While I wouldn't consider TOR to be great writing, I can see how it can be considered the best MMO storyline. :p
TERA's combat system is the best of MMOs imo. And I loved my Castanic! :p TERA's only failure was making a class that was restricted to one race.