In the old game, I remember when we'd get to the higher-level powers they would almost always have very impressive effects, both mechanically and audio-visually, such that it felt truly rewarding to have worked one's way up to them. They might have had long recharge times, but they were so satisfyingly rewarding to use.
For the past several years, every RPG I've played seems to have upper-tier powers that are just kind of ...meh. Sure, there's plenty of choice, but the choices are all completely uninspiring stuff, like you can carry one more bomb or you have a 3% chance to apply some detrimental effect. Really? This is what I put in hours of play to achieve?
I'm really hoping CoT can reproduce that old feeling of 'Oh yeah, wait till those mobs go up against me [i]now[/i]….!'
Spurn all ye kindle.
For game balance purposes I probably wouldn't mind if the "net game effect" of a top-tier power was something dumb like "add 3% more damage to a basic attack" as long as the "graphics effect" looked really impressive. I want to at least [b]look cool[/b] even if my powers can't become overpowered. ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
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Aye, I'm definitely in the same camp, although leaning decidedly toward the mechanical satisfaction.[color=red]*[/color] The audio-visual cues need to match the effect.
If the visuals and sound are all [img]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/earth_shattering_kaboom.jpg[/img] but even minions are left standing with half their health, then I'm going to feel frustrated. There's nothing wrong with having just another attack to go into your rotation, but if it's billed as The Top Tier Power [/reverb reverb reverb] then the mechanics need to support that. I'd rather be Doc Holliday who takes down an enemy with a single, simple shot from a revolver than a DBZ character who has to fire off his main attack 15 times to defeat his opponent.
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[color=red]*[/color]I see what you did there.
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Support [url=http://cityoftitans.com/comment/52149#comment-52149]trap clowns[/url] for CoT!
I think T9 powers should all be long-cooldown extreme powers-- either huge "oh shit!" buttons for tanks and defenders or "massive damage" buttons for melee and ranged dps.
However, I also want lower-tier powers to be impressive. Even our T1 power should feel like a super power, not like I'm slapping the bad guy with a napkin.
The Altruist, Invulnerability/Super Strength Stalwart.
First, let me say, not all of CoH's long awaited powers were that great. :(
Second, why wait till the last of the powers? I want that effect on ALL of my attacks right out the door!
Oh yes, hopefully all the powers will look and sound cool, but I would like the Top Tier ones to be something that I feel was truly worth the wait. As Darth Fez says, if there's a big hullabaloo that leaves half the minions unharmed, I'd actually consider that [i]worse[/i] than a power whose audiovisual effects are as lame as the in-game effects. As far as I'm concerned, if there are any 'small percentage chance' top-tier powers, they should be the other way round: something like only a 3% chance that any enemy can hit you as long as the power is active. Any power that has only a 3% chance of doing something beneficial should, imo, be a bottom tier power -- if anything that random absolutely must be included at all.
Spurn all ye kindle.
True, I can't argue with that. But can we agree the majority were pretty cool?
Spurn all ye kindle.
For the melee/physical damage types as well. I've played a lot of games over the years, and there's always some kind of flashy effect for range/magic while the melee animations miss out. They may have consistently good animations but lack the moves that make you go "wow, I'm glad I rolled this, that attack skill made it worth it!"
So don't forget the melee :)
So much this. As a consummate meleeist, I feel in many cases that the same few animations are shared amongst the various powersets and we don't get much variety.
Please think of the meleeists. It's like thinking of the children, only punchier.
I'm more with Alltrueist and Cinnder. BIG BADDA BOOM!
Give it a long recharge (that I can work away ingame to reduce enough to bust out once per fight rather than every other fight) and let me shake the pillars of heaven.
Ditto to Ravorhan and Cobalt on melee, and don't forget straight-up SS too!
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
#Meleelivesmatter!
That's right people, raise your fists! And punch!
Now I want that aesthetic option, just because you said it.
To me it's not so much what the animation is about as it is how they do it. While having the big impressive animations is all fine we shouldn't forget the more normal or mundane ones as well, they do have their place.
#TenThousandFists #Disturbed
We could put it into endgame like the incarnate auras back in CoX. I'd hate to have certain animations only be applicable to certain powers, kind of goes against the idea of removing aesthetic from mechanics, but earning special animations for you powers at the endgame? That would be awesome!! That way if you're an epic level character you can make all of your powers feel epic!!
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
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I thought that if there are animation themes, something in those themes would be flashy if not over the top. So you'd have the option of attaching it to a high tier power.
Also, I'd like some over the top melee animations. No holding back.
I suppose certain aesthetics could be limited to certain power tiers but that kind of goes against aesthetic decoupling. It will probably be largely up to the player to decide that their powers actually look like, right? At least once enough assets are in the game to have a variety of choices.
I totally agree with wanting them to feel potent mechanically too, but at the same time it is really lame to get role defining powers late in life. Situational powers and powers with long cooldowns make for great higher level unlocks. you just don't want a core feature hidden away. CoX was mostly good about this but there were a few powers in some sets that were really important that you didn't get till late in a character's life.
One of the things I hated in CoH, was that they gave Dual Pistols all these nice animations and they didn't port any of them over to the other blast sets! The spin around to one knee and fire? Why not do that with fire blasts as well?!
actually I think this would make more sense as is. If you personally want to reserve your flashy animations to the really powerful powers than you still can but if someone wants to make all their powers flashy they should be able to. It's like the difference between fighting like batman and fighting like spiderman, Batman moves only just the amount he needs to deal the damage he wants to, so his strikes look more like military style fighting and his individual attacks don't look like much, when he punches he just punches, and really high damage attack would mean combining his different gadgets with 3 well placed shots. Spiderman however? All his moves are flashy, his attack chain involves highly mobile attacks that transfer from fancy uppercuts to roundhouse kicks to webbing up a guy in mid air to throwing that guy at another guy. His movements need to be flashy for him to make sense and his basic attack being a normal punch doesn't really make sense for him. So I don't think anything needs to change for this. If it makes more sense for the flashy moves to be later on for your character you can make that decision, but if you want your character to be an epic kung fu guy then you should be able to have the option to make all his fight moves epic aswell.
not my video just one I lke ===> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-SdIN0hsM
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(My emphasis)
Wait, did I miss where MWM has stated that the biggest, flashiest animations will be available for all powers, even the low-tier ones? I was assuming that Aesthetic Decoupling meant that for low-tier powers we'd get a selection of low-tier animations, and we'd have a selection of big flashy boomy animations for the top-tier powers. That is just an assumption on my part, so if MWM has said differently I'd be grateful if someone could point me to where they did so.
Spurn all ye kindle.
My impression has been that the only thing determining aesthetic choices would be:[list]
[*]Range: Melee or ranged power type. Primarily for the projectile and "projectile path/trail" bit.
[*]Target "pattern": A.k.a single target, cone, or AOE.
[*]Animation time: Some animations may not get a version for specific animation times since they said they'd need to make several version to cover the whole span of animation times.
[/list]
I can't remember them having said that they will separate so the more "mundane" animations are for lower tier powers and more "extravagant" ones for higher tier powers. Though that last "criteria" may, at least initially, make a separation of choices between lower and higher tier powers.