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Enhancing Temp Powers

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Redlynne
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Enhancing Temp Powers

City of Heroes featured a variety of Temp Powers (many of them craftable at workstations within SG Bases). However, because these Temp Powers couldn't be Enhanced, they essentially came in a One Size Fits All variety.

So what happens if Temp Powers could be Enhanced?

Specifically, I'm thinking in terms of Temp Powers coming with some empty Slots (say, 3) so that there can be some variation in how they "work" for each Player. But here's the interesting part ... simply by having empty Slots on Powers that go "poof" after a while you create a rolling demand sink for Enhancements of almost every variety. Now, obviously, people would most likely only slot "common" Enhancements into those Slots (ie. Vendor Bait) as opposed to anything actually/really valuable, but even then this sort of "bottom rung feeding" would make for a useful sink for excess supplies inside the game's item economy.

Would such a factor on its own be a sufficiently large item sink to wrestle inflation into submission? No, I sincerely doubt that it would. But ... such a thing could be a contributing factor among many possibilities helping to tame inflationary pressures. So think piece of the puzzle rather than the whole pizza pie all at once.

For me, perhaps the most appealing notion in this idea is that it is Level Agnostic ... meaning that hitting the Level Cap is substantially "irrelevant" in terms of causing economic demand to flatline ... AND ... the fact that it means that Temp Powers can be "slightly" configured, albeit without ever really being able to overshadow more permanent Powers due to the differential in Slot potentials. It also lets a "conventional wisdom" develop around choosing how to Enhance any Temp Powers that your PC routinely makes use of. And if a "useful" balance point for Temp Powers can be achieved, simply crafting them for your PC can become an additional sink for in-game resources.

And just for extra bonus points ... if there's a stipulation that Temp Powers will last for 60 minutes as a baseline, it ought to be possible to code that duration to increase by +10 minutes per Enhancement put into Slots for that Temp Power ... meaning ... 60 minute duration unslotted, but 90 minute duration with 3 Slots filled with Enhancements. So, again, you can "spend more" in order to "get more" out of the Temp Powers you can craft.

Thoughts? Opinions? Pointing and giggling nervously behind hands?


Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.
Lothic
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It's an interesting idea in

It's an interesting idea in general. Like you said the economic impact of this probably wouldn't be enough to solve the currency inflation concerns of the entire game but it could be a small part of an overall approach that includes other similar mechanics.

Perhaps people would tend to only waste "vendor bait" type enhancements on these slottable temp powers, but let's not overlook the potential of these being TEMPORARY powers in terms of game balance. If powers like these were sufficiently limited in terms of number of uses or expiration timers then theoretically their combat effects could be made to be hugely powerful. Let's say that instead of just slotting cheap low-power enhancements in these powers you decided to sacrifice extremely powerful/rare enhancements into them. The trade-off for "overloading" these expendable temp powers may be that you only get to fire it once but it could be like an atom bomb in terms of destructive power. If being able to create one-shot "doomsday" weapons like that were possible then people might be willing to waste large amounts of currency/resources creating them which would only further increase the money sink effect you were talking about.

CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012

Radiac
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I would envision temp powers

I would envision temp powers as things which in their flavor text or design feel like something consumable. Grenades, missiles, anything that you use once then it goes away. I would prefer that most temp powers not be left ambiguous as to why they have an expiration date on them, like the jetpack in CoX. I can see needing to refuel it, but not just discarding it when it runs out of gas. If anything, that ought to have been a costume piece not a temp power. Depending on lighting conditions they make in the game, you could even have glow sticks as a cheaply obtained temp power.

As for having slots, and then the slotted Augments go away when the power is used up, I'm all for it. That would also probably imply that the temp powers would need those slots to be filled for them to do any kind of decent damage in the first place, which I'm okay with too.

R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising

Tannim222
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That's not too far off one of

That's not too far off one of the conceptual designs for temps we have already. We definitely plan for much more robust temporary powers than Cityof stuff.


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Redlynne
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I need to stop proposing

I need to stop proposing things you're already doing but haven't told anyone about yet. If this keeps up, I'm going to wind up being a security risk to the project.

Also known as the Great Minds Think Alike problem ...


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Tannim222
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Hehe. I chalk it up as a

Hehe. I chalk it up as a result of a couple if years worth of discussions and a few, like myself, who squirrel away every idea with positive feedback into conceptual designs.
When files of chat logs and forum thread logs reach into the gigs there's a lot of stuff that has been discussed, some of it to death, some of it resurrected and killed again, some kept, some kept but grown and / or altered, some discarded, some tabled for later review, some white boarded as a feature, and some approved for immediate implementation.

In gameplay we did mulitple passes before closing preproduction and entering production. So there are a lot of ideas that have gone their rounds. Its bound to happen where something new to you is old for us. But please keep posting them you never know when something might be new or requires another look due to player comments!


I don't use a nerf bat, I have a magic crowbar!
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Lin Chiao Feng
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Tannim222 wrote:
Tannim222 wrote:

But please keep posting them you never know when something might be new or requires another look due to player comments!

If it's not tested, it's broken. If you stop testing it, it'll break and not tell you. Gotta keep beating on the system!

Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...

oOStaticOo
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"If it doesn't fit, bend it.

"If it doesn't fit, bend it. If it still doesn't fit, break it!" - Old Dwarvish Saying

I got chills! They're multiplyin'. And I'm losin' control. Cuz the power, I'm supplyin'. Why it's ELECTRIFYIN'!!

Redlynne
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If it doesn't fit, force it.

If it doesn't fit, force it. If it breaks, it probably needed replacing anyway.
- Murphy's Law poster

You know that feeling you get when you build something really incredible and it just works? Gnomes don't.
- World of Warcraft, Goblin Engineering Tome


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Even if Temp Powers were not

Even if Temp Powers were not enhanceable, they still ought to scale with User-level. If my level 50 Super Strength Tanker hits someone with a bat, it's gonna hurt a lot more than that level 3 Street Thug.

Be Well!
Fireheart

Lutan
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I could imagine that augments

I could imagine that augments and refinements are used as components for temp powers.

Something like
Damage + accuracy + range + rifle components = sniper rifle temp power
Damage + 2x recharge + pistol components = uzi temp power
2x slow + hold duration + grenade components = freezing grenade
3x healing + medical supplies = medkit
3x resistance + armor parts = bulletproof vest
etc.

Mendicant
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That'd be an interesting

That'd be an interesting melding of temp powers and crafting, Lutan.

Lutan
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Thank you!

Thank you!

I can imagine this working without recipies, you just put three augmentations/ refinements and some components on the workbench and see what happens. Like the discovery mode Guild Wars 2 uses for crafting.

Mendicant
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Lutan wrote:
Lutan wrote:

Thank you!
I can imagine this working without recipies, you just put three augmentations/ refinements and some components on the workbench and see what happens. Like the discovery mode Guild Wars 2 uses for crafting.

And if there were some combinations that didn't result in a new temp power, but just enhanced the existing one like a normal augment, you'd have people experimenting with various combinations to find the ones that lead to the special results.

Lin Chiao Feng
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Come to think of it, I kind

Come to think of it, I kind of expected the Logos in the old Tabula Rasa game to work like that.

Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...