Anti_Proton

Originally Posted by Durakken

There's a reason why the powers are balanced the way they are...

Originally Posted by ShadeovBlack

DINOSAURS!








am I right.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

I hate the fact that I can't make quote pyramids as easily!

Aside from the lack of matching set themes between ATs, why WOULD it be too late to do something like that? Think of it in terms of the classic multi-class option from the old games, only without any of the penalties. What do I mean? Let's call it Dual AT. Everyone should have them!

Let's take something that has analogues everywhere - Fire. At creation, you pick not just one, but two ATs, let's say a primary and a secondary AT. The only difference between them is which one you start as in Outbreak/Breakout. After that point, you can switch your ATs the same way you switch builds. Maybe even in real time as Kheldians switch forms.

Back to Fire. For the sake of killing stuff, you opted to be a Fiery Melee/Fiery Aura Scrapper. You have largely damage and self-protection, perfect for when you're by yourself or when you don't have to worry about other people. You just go out and burn stuff. However, you also picked a Fire Control/Thermal Radiation Controller. That's largely control and support, perfect for when you want to be helpful on a team that has other people shooting up the place.

Oh, but what if you didn't pick Fire/Fire? What if you picked Fire/Ice? For the sake of argument, let's say Ice Armour were ported over to Scrappers and you made a Fiery Melee/Ice Armour Scrapper. What would your controller mode be? Well a Fire Control/Ice Domination Controller, keeping to the old ATs. Same setup - Scrapper for solo or offensive teaming, Controller for supportive teaming or masochistic soloing.

Obviously, there are a LOT of problems with this, but I don't believe balance and technology are the biggest ones. On the contrary, I believe corresponding sets, or rather the lack thereof and extrapolated need to make a matching set for everything would be a far greater challenge. I don't want to see a Rad/Rad Defender turn into a Katana/SR Scrapper, but what does Katana correspond to, anyway? Archery? Devices?

There's certainly room to multi-class, it's just a question of what should be allowed and what new powersets need to be made to account for that. Elements are easy. It's weapons that aren't as straight-forward.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

Switch, as in select a different primary and different secondary, or switch, as in make the primary secondary and the secondary primary? Because the former is out of the question and the latter would accomplish precisely nothing.

Originally Posted by Shuriken_Blade

I don't know about anyone else, but one of the things I love the most about City of Heroes (from here on Villains fall under this) is the ability to make 'your own' hero, full with background and unique look. However, I think this is something that could be expanded on even further. For example:

Costume Descriptions
When a hero selects their costume (or their only costume) there will be a new tab in their Personal Info box, next to Description, called 'Costume'. In this tab there will be a box where you can write up to 1000 letters (or whatever), and a 'Save' button underneath. When saved, the box becomes unchangeable (like the Description tab) unless the 'Edit' button (replaces Save) is clicked, which makes it editable again.

This tab will be specific to each costume, depending on which is selected, and selecting a different costume will load that one's last saved description. By having this dynamic, players can write backstories on their heroes' costumes, perhaps explaining why they are currently robotic, or surging with electricity.

With such a small change on the developer's part, players that enjoy 'writing their characters to life' can feel their characters are explained that much better!

Pet Descriptions
This is mainly for Mastermind villains, but could also apply to Controller heroes.
Similar to the above idea: When you click on a pet's Info and the box with the pet type's description comes up, this would become tabbed under 'Description' with (something like) 'Personal Info' next to it. Using the same process as before, this box can be edited and is saved in the same way that pet names are, with each pet having its own unique description if desired.

Again, this will let players who enjoy broadening their characters write backstories for their pets and their motivation for following the player's character. It will be left blank for players who don't care, but again such a small change could make players feel more connected to their characters.

Hero Timeline
This would be completely different to anything previously seen in City of Heroes. Without wanting to make this sound like a stolen idea, this would be similar to the timeline found in Spore.
Essentially this would be on its own screen, somewhat like when you open the Architect window, and would be found in the Menu just under I.D. When opened you would be greeted with a timeline that began at Lv.1 on the left-handside, then progressing with a intersecting line at each day passed (this could be real days or game days, depending on how much self-gratification the designers think players need - I vote real). Within this graph there would be two main bars: one ever-increasing XP bar in purple, and one in blue or red for influence or infamy. There would also be a black one for debt and a yellow one for prestige, which can be toggled on and off.

For the XP bar, it would begin in the bottom-left (at Lv.1) and reach toward the top-right for the next level (eg. Lv.2). The angle of this would be determined by the speed at which XP was gained over the course of that day. When the next level is gained, the already-owned XP would be pushed down to make room for the new amount of XP needed, up to Lv.50 where the bar would finally reach the top-right and flat-line.
Similarly the Influence or Infamy bar would be more like a jagged line, going from bottom-left to top-right (with top-right being the most you've ever had at once), then dropping down to the bottom-right when you spend some (with the very bottom being 0).

To begin with this would all be on one page, then as days progress a scrollbar would appear to let you side to the right. There would also be options to view it as Daily, Monthly and Yearly.

The main appeal of this timeline would be that is marks any major achievements (or all achievements), such as badges awarded, respects completed, deaths, story arcs completed and new costumes made. These would be pointed out with icons around the XP bar, which show a little information when moused-over. Also, (and this is where some Spore influence might come in) when you save a new costume it should save a small .jpeg file on your computer - this way when you mouse over any costume changes in the timeline, you can see just what it was you looked like - even have nostalgic flashbacks to your first ever costume at Lv.1.

This timeline could even be brought into a person's Info, when right-clicked. Like, a small week-long timeline showing any recent badges or level-ups. Considering the inclusion of Ouroboros it would make an excellent addition to the whole idea of time in the City of Heroes universe.


Please, let me know what you think. I'd love to get some feedback on these ideas

Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect

Hate to be the parade rainer here.

I could see it for Teleport, but the other 3 wouldn't work from a canon lore standpoint.

The war walls are there to keep the Rikti out, if a hero could just zip right through them, obviously the Rikti could do the same, making the war walls pretty useless. They also have a ceiling, to prevent aerial attacks (the Rikti hack in and shut the walls down during invasions)

I could see this as an option for PI/Talos/Croatoa/Striga, but in the main city zones it wouldn't make much sense.

I don't have any major beef with the idea, I just think it would be unlikely based on the fact that it would make the war walls redundant (which really only exist to keep the zones managable sizes anyway)

They could remove the war walls entirely and add some countryside between zones, but then you'd have the problem of a Rikti raid in Talos causing lag in Atlas, because it would effectively all be one zone.

So, neat idea, don't have a problem with it, but I just don't see it happening.

Originally Posted by AzureSkyCiel

Hmmm...
Interesting, lemme think of some ideas...
Natural gives a small boosts Regen/recovery rate (like SoA's inherent)
Science gives small resistance to status effects
Magic gives a small resistance and damage
Tech can give small ToHit and Defense Buffs
Mutants gain small +rech bonus?

And by small I mean that these bonuses should never exceed 2% at most.

Also, maybe there can be something gained by teaming with members of compatible origins, like a natural teamed with a magic and tech origin would gain certain benefits with them and the magic origin character would benefit from the natural and the mutant?

But in the end, this isn't very likely.
And interesting concept, but I don't see it ever happening.

Originally Posted by Frosticus

I certainly never implied this. In fact my statement about expanding the target market would suggest that this "massively large elventy1111!!! gung ho pvp audience" is in fact outside of this game. Ergo "expanding the target market". Shifting the activity of an existing customer is generally not as conducive to earning revenue as adding more customers, unless the shift makes them start paying a lot more.

Perhaps that is a part of why pvp always seems like an afterthought. Without significant marketing to support the branding of a "pvp atmosphere" it would probably result in a very small increase in subs and primarily just be about shifting existing players around.

Think of it like when a female designer adds a men's line of clothes. Or closer to home, how many game companies have started targeting female players in what was once thought to be an almost entirely male market. Such things don't just happen it usually takes considerable effort to get the message out.

In the end though that boat has sailed as far as I'm concerned. Reinventing image is difficult, probably too difficult and lets face it, more than likely a waste of time for this game.

Though I have wondered how awesome this game could have been for people like me. I mean I obviously like this game I'm at my 39mth vet reward now, but the grass is always greener. I've always felt like something (well several somethings) are missing that prevented this game from taking off. I know I always enjoy my time in the arena, but for w/e reason have always felt it is has very limited accessibility. That doesn't make a lot of sense I know, I mean it is in lots of zones, but I'm not sure how to better describe it. I guess I think it feels like too much effort is required to activate pvp.

Case in point, standing around outside of a mission waiting for a couple laggers to show up. /duel would friggen make my day then. And I know they have greatly eased travel times and/or the necessity to even move to get to a mission, but ya.


EDIT: did it ever occur to anyone that a large part of why the arenas failed was because the majority of the features didn't' work and the UI was (and pretty much still is) a complete mess? Can you imagine the fallout if AE was implemented and subsequently ignored that badly? it would make the initial Posi posts look like a stroll in the park.

Originally Posted by Prof_Backfire

Why should we limit options to a certain origin or slotting combination?

Originally Posted by Kitsune9tails

Thanks, Dev Team!

I also hope the playerbase takes away the other lesson that this situation teaches: even if they think your idea in the Suggestions Form is THE AWESOME and start implimenting today, it will be a year before you see it, so chill with the whole impatience thing

Originally Posted by MaestroMavius

Yeah, I could've swore that 'The Coming Storm' talked about when Ouroboros was released was foreshadowing a 'true' alien race approaching.

That or the release of Rularru....