Some clarification on themes would be good. I know it has been mentioned in other threads but every time I read 'theme' I think of the theme I have on my PS4

Lightning / Electricity.

My understanding is that themes will be a combination of avatar motions and particle effects. So like, the pose you strike when doing your "Sniper" power, as a Blaster in CoX would be the player motion part, and the actual blast that you emit would be the particle effects. Fire had one version of that in CoX, where you blast out one big firebolt. For Radiation, it was a thing where you puff out like 4 pulses of radiation, Energy Blast had a three-pulse animation, Electric had two lightning bolts, one from each hand, the came together at the target, etc. You take all of the animations and particle effects that you need for a whole power set (from CoX) and those form a theme.

I think flames, shards (ice), fluid, granules, lightning, and any number of different looking "energy blast" themes are all possible and probably not hard to do.

I believe props will be a costume add-on, some of which will also provide additional origination points for powers.

An interesting question is whether or not the existence of a prop will also change the animations of your powers. I suspect they will. But I also suspect they will only change the animation of powers for which they are chosen to be the origination point.

As an example, If I choose a martial arts aesthetics theme for for my brawn/agility [i]guardian[/i] and I also include a bō staff for my prop, then I can choose to have some of my attacks originate from the bō staff. As a result, those attacks would animate as if I was wielding the staff and not using my fists or feet. However, if I choose one of my attacks is a kick, I would expect the animation would be the martial arts default animation for a kick for that power, and not the staff animation.

So, as far as animation styles are concerned, I see this being applicable on a few levels:[list]
[*]First there is probably a set of default animations assigned to the mechanics theme of your powers regardless of which aesthetics theme is applied. A default for your quick attack in the brawn melee theme is probably a basic punch.
[*]Second, there are probably from one to three animations per ability to pick from according to the theme chosen. So a quick attack with the martial arts theme could be a front kick or a chambered punch.
[*]Third. there is an animation for most abilities according to your chosen prop. So that same quick attack could be a dagger stab or a poke with a bō staff, or a swat with an Akomeogi (folding hand fan)
[/list]
Putting them all together would give me no less than three and probably up to six different animation choices per attack.

And then I get to pick the colors and effects.

This is all conjecture, but it seems probably the logical choice that MWM has made.

Theme or Aesthetic? Lot's of these sound like aesthetics, which is fine. I'm still not quite sure what a Theme is, but I think the existing powerset and weapon threads could work be translated into respective sets, themes, aesthetics, and props.

Swinging:
Organic - tendrils, webs, vines, hair
Tech - chains, rope, cable, wires, grapnel launcher
Energy - glowing energy tethers
Elemental - fire or water tendrils

Jumping:
Tech: Jump Jets, Piston Boots, springy shoes
Elemental: a short-lived column of ice or rock erupts from the ground and launches the character into the air (quickly crumbles and dissapears afterward). A gout of water, or blast of flame could also work.

notears wrote:

Sumo type melee attacks

On that note, I'd like to have a variety of martial arts movesets available, from brutally practical krav maga to the fanciful tai chi :)

Grimfox wrote:

There are two types of theme. Mechanical themes, how the power set does what it does, this gives the unique feel to playing the power set. And the aesthetic theme. The aesthetic theme is very broad and covers everything from your martial arts styles to the particle effects you cast at your foes. These two can be combined to result in things like you see in the power video where the character is using Capoeira style moves to throw fireballs at it's foes.

Which is #$*@ing awesome! :)