Would it be possible to design placable defensive and control type powers, rather than run around blasting 'em sets?
From a gameplay design, whether they are killable or not, and how much their affects generate rage to the turret thingie and/or owner are adjustable, of course.
I liked the psychogical ease of /traps for my MM even if no power itself was anywhere near the blasty levels, e.g. triage for heal rate or acid mortar for debuff of poison trap for barf holds. Perhaps reserve for secondary/backup type use.
In other words not everything needs to blast out one of my orafices.
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The very existence of the taunting tank irritates, for it requires idiotic AI that obeys the taunt.
I'm sure the question is more when such a set comes rather than if it comes at all since placeable objects are a pretty big part of supers in general, both heroes and villains.
Another question of interest is, when a character gets defeated, do his/her/its emplaced devices (or regular pets, even) disappear immediately, or hang around for a bit?
And is the answer to that question different if the character is an NPC rather than a PC (or vice versa), and if so, why? *Glares at the game company hiding behind the Orange Curtain*
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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Basically all you are asking for is powers that provide a passive AoE buff/debuff as opposed to direct single target or AoE buff/debuff. I see no reason why the game won't include this type of power. Beacons, turrets and the like have always been a staple of MMOs.
I'd go so far as to point out that "construct emplacements" emanating Powers would make a pretty solid cornerstone for a Gadgeteer type of otherwise "normal" Super. That way, YOU aren't "super" per se, but what you can DO certainly is ...
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I need to see the Z axis plans and how 3 dimensional movement is handled in combat before committing completely to the idea BUT I like it on the premise.
So much about the combat system is yet to be defined
Crowd Control Enthusiast
It would be cool if the "places immobile traps" class had a "team teleport" power that moves the traps to new positions for you. You could have some way to give the AI instructions for where to place them, with yourself as a point of reference. Then when you hit "re-spawn traps" it TPs them each a to a new location, with yourself as the origin of their little coordinate system. You could then program each trap to go to a specific set of coordinates relative to you when TPed in this way. E.g. the Heal Beacon always lands to your immediate left, the gun drone always to your right, the debuff patch on the ground immediately in front of you, the shield generator immediately behind you, etc.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
The teleport idea seems borderline exploitive to me but as a QoL feature it might work better. Make it a QoL automation option to placing multiple beacons and traps with the push of a single button when the action is ready. Make it so the player can interrupt the action if the need arose.
This kind of 'one button push for multiple out of combat actions' feature would be good for a few aspects of the game.... one that leaps out at me is activating multiple toggle powers (that's another topic though).
I'd prefer, I think, a simple 'reclamation' function. Recall any emplacements that still have time on them, and recharge the next application of those emplacements. Because I don't need the same things each time. Shield Projector was Mobile, though, and needs to be able to move at least as fast as the owner - Hover was too slow!
Be Well!
Fireheart
Hmm, interesting ideas. I would like them implemented this way.
"Fetch"
A simple teleport to casters current location. Put a decent CD on it (quarter, third, half CD of the power being relocated?) and only make it be able to fetch one at a time. Makes you think about when and how to use instead of just spamming it.
"Reclaim"
As Fireheart essentially said, prematurely end it and reduce the CD by the percentage time and/or charges left on it.
On another note. I would like these to not only be placeable on any surface (was it ground only in CoH?) but actually be placeable freely in the air, and I'm not talking about an aesthetic choice of a hovering item. Having them be "placeable" freely in true 3D fashion makes them fully usable in any situation.
I'd like to +1 this, if a way can be found for the player to easily designate such a location with our 2D displays. Mouse click for bearing plus entering a range in meters or feet up to maximum? Mouse click on ground for [I]x,y[/i] and enter [I]z[/i]? I seem to recall a discussion on this with regard to AoE powers, but placing traps can be somewhat less time-critical...
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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How about vector based with you as origin? Mouse for direction (left, right, up, down) and mouse-wheel for distance. All rebindable of course.
I would not want a system where I would have to type anything into a box or similar.
Placing it on the ground, or any surface, first relies on you being close enough to actually see where it would end up, or even see a surface at all.
Unless the game has an extensive 3 dimensional combat system (beyond just character position in 3 dimensional space) the addition of 3 dimensional placement of beacons, turrets or mines is not exactly a needed feature IMO. It seems the effort involved to make it a reality as well as the complexity in use far outweighs any gain it would provide to me.
The closest I'd want to get to this sort of functionality is an "alternate animation" casting based on whether the Trap already exists or not, for "1 use" Traps. So if you don't already have the Trap "out" then it takes the longer windup casting to place it (the first time). If you recast it while the Trap is already "out" there's a faster "alternate animation" that dispells the previous placement and replaces it with the updated location. So a sort of move/replace without invoking an actual game mechanical Teleport to the new location. One possible way to run this would be to make the alternate animation "faster" based on much HP percentage remaining the original Trap has (so 100% HP equals +100% animation time reduction).
So in effect, you'd be "recasting" the Trap emplacement, but you'd be given an animation speed credit based on how undamaged the original emplacement was. Net effect is a lot like a "quick move" from one spot to another, without being an actual Teleport of the emplacement.
Note that such an arrangement would not work for Trap emplacements that allow multiple copies of the Trap to be in existence simultaneously, such as ... Trip Mine.
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Ah! Your competence is showing, again, Redlynne. I like that idea. Alternately, one might press the key to 'place' the device, press it again to 'recall' it, then press a third time to 're-place' it, but that would require more work for the player.
Be Well!
Fireheart
I have two things to say to that.
1. It's a bad habit of mine and I'll stop doing it eventually.
2. We make every pretense of competency around here. ^_~
Honestly? That sort of thing works better as Toggle Power than as a Click Power, so that you can Toggle Off to despawn, and give the Power an incredibly short Recharge time (like, 1 second or something). That way, "unplacing" and "replacing" aren't all that much of a constraint and what you're really paying for (in Endurance) is the "service" that the emplacement provides.
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They have to do extra work to do away with it for certain things. CoH had the ability to place targets in the air (teleport worked like this, for example, as did calling pets (target location, needless but nest) and pet goto could set a destination in the air, even if pets couldn't get there, or would fall if they could.
Placing a turret then is just turning off gravity for it, as per flight and it stays there unmoving.
The difficulty is deciding what gets to be placed in air and what doesn't. I don't really care.
My real goal is automated placements that take care of themselves, healing, debuffing, buffing, shooting.
I wanna offload cognitive effort so I can focus on ruling the pets and tending them, ideally without needing moment to moment microheal shooties and 1 minute buffs I must keep reapplying (e.g. making bubblers' game be irritatingly reapplying 3 bubbles to each of the whole team every 5 minutes.)
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The very existence of the taunting tank irritates, for it requires idiotic AI that obeys the taunt.
I made my comment based on the notion of free 3d placement which I should have been more clear about.
The examples you give are not free 3d placement as they are actually 'place at the limit of range or blocking object' with no variation. To allow for true 3d placement there would need to be new placement mechanics designed. To warrant new placement mechanics being designed there should be an extensive 3d combat system in the game that goes just beyond simple position.
This is opinion and supposition Without knowing the ins and outs of the combat system CoT is going to provide I cannot see a benefit to designing these mechanics that allow free 3d placement of beacons and turrets.
A cool idea. I wonder if it will be possible to have briefly two traps of the same kind. /traps were mostly fire and forget, they disappeared after their timer expired. If you could cast 2 (or even briefly 3 with haste) more power to you.
Permanent pet ones would replace -- the floaty force field generator, and the two spinning blade bombs, forget the name, but you got two. These replaced when cast again.
Just saying I like the idea of having 2 of certain kinds, briefly, if you can shorten cast cooldown enough.
As for tping them, I don't care. Recast time slowed things down a bit monster group to group, but most had 45s or 1 min, so it was only a few seconds waiting. Big pets took a lot longer, but they could move themselves of course.
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The very existence of the taunting tank irritates, for it requires idiotic AI that obeys the taunt.
So, let's consider a 'Traps' or 'Devices' set of Control powers.
[b]Immobilize:[/b] Glue Bomb/Trap. "Improved' Exploding Candyfloss Machine produces ankle-deep carpet of pink fog.
[b]Hold:[/b] Placed device drives mechanical tentacles into the ground, which pop-up and entwine the victims. Drone fires entangling Nets. Mechanical Basilisk fires Paralysis Ray.
[b]Slow/Slip:[/b] Cryonic Liquid forms Ice Slick. Oil Sprayer forms Oil Slick. Exploding Candyfloss Machine makes everything Sticky!
[b]- Perception/Confuse:[/b] Fog/Gas/Smoke Generator.
[b]Stun:[/b] Costumed Clown-bot fires Pies/Rubber Hammers/Water Balloons. Catastrophic Vacuum Generator sucks all affected opponents into a pile.
Or, you know, just the stuff from http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Traps
Be Well!
Fireheart
Clown turret -- launches randomly water balloons (brief 2s stun and 10s slip-slow) confetti (brief AOE blindness type effect, 5s) and 10% a cigar which slams into the target's mouth and explodes, stunning for 45s or a minute (a major hold), "knocking them out".
How about some other clown-based /trappy things!
Clown Car -- Similar to Gang War, a tiny car drives up and 10-13 wimpy 2 foot clowns emerge, their real purpose is to absorb a hit or two before dying, saving a fight gone bad with accidental group ads for 30s.
Water bucket -- anybody can pick it up and drink it for a mana/end boost, or throw it on something for a wet/cold debuff.
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The very existence of the taunting tank irritates, for it requires idiotic AI that obeys the taunt.