Now we all know about the main 5, which we had while playing City of Heroes but I think it would be quiet interesting to go deeper into origins and define what your origin is much deeper.
The main 5:
Magic:
Mutant:
Natural:
Science:
Technology:
I would prefer to see sub-elements to help define our character: These could appear as a slightly different element or colour for the emblem
Magic - Spellcraft (access to the arcane from their physical ability) and Artifacts (They make use of an artifact to use or generate powers, this could be to don armour or generate weapons or cast spells)
Mutant - Natural (Natural Mutations, rogue unexpected occurrences that have generated their effects) and Bloodline (You have super powers in your blood from your linage your powers come)
Natural - Veterancy (Veterans, the elite of the elite, soldier and warriors whom have lived good lives in their trade) and Prodigy (Genius's beyond the normal these people have exceeded expectations time and time again at their young ages)
Science - Experimentation (Experiments, These people have put themselves or been put under experiments to gain their powers) and Accident (These people not by their own volition were effected by experiments gone wrong an accident causing their powers to generate)
Technology - Wealth (You have gained your powers through technology through your own wealth) and Design (Designer, You have developed and designed your own equipment to enhance yourself beyond the human norm)
Does anyone else have any other category ideas ?
You left out a few, like the 'Found Alien Gizmo' version of Technology, or 'Is an Alien with Alien Technology', also 'Magic is Technology'. In Natural, there is also the 'I'm naturally this way' extra-normal entities, like Aliens and Extradimensional beings. Magic also includes 'Granted' powers and, to some extent, the 'Veteran' powers you mention, like 'I've been around so long, it seems like Magic'.
That said, 'Origins' are not expected to play a part in this game. Not 'mechanically' anyway. A character's backstory might contain any sort of strangeness.
Be Well!
Fireheart
This. As far as we know - we will not be selecting a specific origin for our powers from a list. Even in CoH it had little mechanical effect beyond starting mission selections, DO and SO slotting, and minor starting powers like "Throwing Knives" and "Tazer". Fun note: while CoH was in development (around 2002-ish), they had 7 origins (Mutant, Altered Human, Magical Powers, Cyberware, Superior Human, Gadgeteer, and Mystic Artifacts) and they [I]were[/I] planned to have a BIG effect on what and how many powers you could select (and how powerful they would be), but that was changed as work on the game progressed.
Now, as Fireheart said, what you put in your bio is up to you, and I think that gives the player maximum freedom to craft the character they want.
Not everyone reads bio's i was thinking of a marker that helps define the character just by someone seeing it for example, rather than anything else. Currently we also don't know I believe if there is active knowledge of alien species earth side ?
Cats are clearly alien creatures.
Be Well!
Fireheart
I'm pretty sure they're set on the whole "not making you choose an official origin" idea. As Fireheart said. It just allows for more freedom of backstory. I mean, you could have elements of magic and mutant and tech and science in there, theoretically, so limiting it to one exclusively is somewhat arbitrary and unnecessary, really.
One place where that turns into a question, though, is crafting. Will all crafted Augments be totally generic, with no real flavortext telling you what they do and how they do it? And what then will be the raw materials we use to do the crafting? Will that be completely abstract too? I personally don't know.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
Origins are best left to Fluff Text™ in a Bio entry, rather than being something with game mechanical influence (such as which Single Origin Enhancements you're allowed to equip).
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
True, but I don't see the necessity to know someones "power origin" at glance when it's a fluff-piece of info. Add in what Radiac said that not everyone would have powers from one single definable origin within those listed and the system becomes a bit too much to be worth it. I mean where would we draw the line in how many origins one could show, what origin would you give a cybernetically enhanced mutant alien-demon that uses magically augmented tech to supplement their "natural abilities" (all of mutant, alien, demonic and cybernetic) and their "veteran level" of combat training?
I just don't see any system that would make it justice and still be workable and actually used since from a concept PoV every individual power could have their own distinct origin.
Why wouldn't there be, it's a staple of the super hero genre?
With your guys comments, what about having a Hybrid Origin as well ?
The biggest question, if you want to keep thinking about Origins, would be "What difference does it make?" in terms of actual game play. I mean, in CoX, you could tell people you were Science, in case they hadn't figured it out on their own, but if they don't care, it doesn't matter. The only difference they made was in dictating which pre-Invention-era Enhancements you had to use, which was not something other people had to know, really. Then, in the Invention system, they boiled the crafting items down to two origins, science and magic. And what was worse, you had to use magical salvage items to make some IOs for your sci/tech toons, and sciencey components to make IOs for your magical toons. That was not ideal.
If you leave everything generic and unspecified, you don't have that problem, but the crafting becomes a little more vanilla. You put three reds and four blues into the gusnausenfosser and get out a rare thingy you want. It works, but there's not fluff justification for how or why. This allows us to pretend that it means different things to different toons. For Iron Man, it's techy stuff, for Dr. Strange, it's magic. In the other system, you've got Iron Man farming werewolves for magic dander to make his new Iron Man suit, for some reason. One system is colorless, ordorless and flavorless and the other requires you to cross the streams on the origins in order to progress in the crafting. I think I like the generic one better.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising