Hi all I'm quite excited about CoT development as I was a vet of CoH from early beta right up to switch off :-(
I was cleaning up my PC earlier and I found my notes that I had sent Statesman (yes the original ldev) back in the day regarding a classless, non-archetypal mechanism for characters and I thought I would share it with you. I remember receiving a couple of PM's from him stating how much he loved the system but unfortunately the game was already too baked in to explore it further.
On the surface it is a little like GW2 (which I hasten to add came much later!) but in essence there were no 'classes' every player could switch roles 'on the fly' so to speak. It is important to note that you only chose one powerset under this methodology (read on before you dismiss it!) I'll summarise below as it's always nice to hear people's opinions:
Basically each toon had a MODE switch and a ROLE switch. Mode was divided into melee or ranged attack whereas Role was divided into CONTROL, DAMAGE or SUPPORT abilities. The current mode determined the powers available to you in first 5 quickslots (keys 1-5) the role determined the ones in the second 5 slots (numbers 6-0). The - key was reserved for your self-heal power and the = key your travel power (this was chosen separately from your main powerset).
By pressing F1 during play your activated your melee mode (and therefore determined the powers available in the first 5 slots) pressing F2 would swap them out for ranged mode powers:
[F1] MELEE MODE
1 Basic Attack
2 Normal Attack (higher damage than 1)
3 Power (higher damage than 2)
4 Cone
5 PBAOE
[F2] RANGE MODE
1 Basic Attack
2 Normal Attack (higher damage than 1)
3 Power (higher damage than 2)
4 Cone
5 AOE
Pressing F3 changed slots 6, 7, 8, 9 and 0 to control powers (mezzes and holds), F4 swapped them out for damage powers (damage and debuffs) and finally F6 activated support powers (heals and buffs).
[F3] CONTROL ROLE
6 Foe Mez
7 Foe Hold
8 AOE Mez
9 AOE Hold
0 Pet (Control)
[F4] DAMAGE ROLE
6 Special*
7 Foe Debuff
8 Self Buff
9 AOE Debuff
0 Pet (Damage)
* If MELEE mode this is a CRITICAL STRIKE if RANGED mode this is a SNIPE ATTACK.
[F5] SUPPORT ROLE
6 Ally Buff
7 Ally Heal
8 Team Buff
9 Team Heal
0 Rez
It's pretty rough around the edges but thought I would share it :-)
At first glance, this structure appears to be sub-optimal in comparison to what has already been revealed concerning City of Titan's planned structure.
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If you combine the existing class/spec model with builds, you should get a similar result to what it sounds like you want.
Technical Director
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It is far too early to be optimizing.
The modes look very similar. But the roles do indeed sound like builds, which CoH eventually got to - perhaps the CoH developers took more of your philosophy on board than their first response implies . It'll depend how many powers (and what) you have to choose from in a build, whether the leftover powers could add up to a significant change in role.
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