I expect that a lot of time and thought will be dedicated to the creation of powersets and the upgrade paths that go with them. The look and feel is also very important.
One thing I always wished was different in CoX was the look of the shadow powers. I wish there had been an option to turn off the skulls. My character's backstory didn't fit with the shadows and skulls visual, but the function of the powers was what I wanted.
I love that the plan is to allow us to decide if the blast comes from the hand, or eyes, or chest, or weapon etc. I'm excited about that level of customization. I spent a ridiculous amount of time adjusting the colours of each power on all of my alts.
I kamehameha'd your mom
From what I've head about the Base/Theme/Animation setup for power generation (mentioned here http://cityoftitans.com/forum/what-power-sets-would-you-see ) You really won't have to worry about matching your powers to your back story (within reason).
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I never set anything on fire accidentally!
The Titan Legacy - Defender of the Inner Flame
They've listed Darkness as an example power set at least once, for the Guardian class, yet I can't imagine it would be terribly different from making a fire user and making the fire black. Darkness did DoT didn't it? I think it had an accuracy debuff on it, but with the amount of animation customization suggested for this game almost seems like there will be a lot of overlap, potentially allowing a player to create the same powers by customizing different sets. It's all still a little confusing.
"No death, no doom, no anguish can arouse the surpassing despair which flows from a loss of identity." -H.P. Lovecraft
Dark's thing was -Accuracy. There were a handful of DoT Dark powers, but Fire attacks almost always had an extra DoT component.
BIZZARO MEDIA FOLLOWER
To stick with the examples already in play:
* Default visuals: "dark" effects, with Evil Beard Things flying around in it
* Alternatives available by default: the same, but with (ghosts|ponies|wombats|nothing) in place of the Evil Beard Things
* Alternatives available in extended "I know what I'm doing, or at least think I do, get out of my way" mode: fiery effects, snowy effects, laser light show, faerie dust, or pretty much anything from any set you have access to that is compatible with the 'core' of the animation (the things that determine the shape, distance, and/or movement-during-animation of a power)
Visuals will have no impact on the mechanical effects of a power, although in some specific cases the mechanical effects of a power will constrain what things are considered "compatible" visuals (a cone AoE will need to look like a cone, still, and so on).
Developer Emeritus
and multipurpose sheep
So, in essence (from our side of the ball) rather than picking "Ice melee" for our character, it will look more like:
Ok, so I need to pick a melee set.... oh, this one has an AOE right away, I'll get that one...
then... lets see... Ice is kind of "crushy and slowy"..... so lets tack on the crushing dmg/-rech/slow theme
now, to pick an animation.... cool, ice boxing gloves...
viola!
Or is it going to be more like:
hmm, which melee set seems the most like ice?
well, here's one with slashing/slow/chance to stun... and here's another with crushing/-recharge/-acc
heck, I'm gonna go with the slashing one... maybe they'll be an ice sword animation...
...oooh, Ice claws! i'm sold!
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....Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars...
^The question I've been needing to understand in a nutshell.
Crowd Control Enthusiast
This one, at least with any of the current approaches.
"Which one seems most like ice" might well be "Cold" if that happens to have been built for that primary or secondary by that point; it *probably* wouldn't be "Burning". When there isn't one that is a particularly ideal fit, you *would* need to end up making the sort of trade-off you describe here, in picking between slash/slow/proc stun or crush/-rech/-acc.
Caveat: there is no guarantee right now that any particular set of things will, ah, "be things", though it seems likely that whatever the final outcome is will be recognizable to CoX players simply because it often had a significant impact on the feel of the game). But seriously no promises there yet, for various reasons.
The things that you should be able to rely on, generally without having to check (if you know it exists elsewhere and it would make sense there):
Developer Emeritus
and multipurpose sheep
From what I understand, animations will be constrained mostly by their length as compared to the default animation length for whatever power you're working with, and whether that animation makes sense for the type of attack it is.
So if I wanted to find an animation for an AoE power to fit with my wind theme, the animations I could pick from would be ones with a loop that can work with the power, and that would look like an AoE attack.
DSFH thank you for you reply. I love the idea of being able to apply very different looks to the visual side of a power set. It opens up so many possibilities for the look and feel of a Hero to match perfectly with origin stories.
I kamehameha'd your mom