_Echo_

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Also, if you remove the 3rd and 5th letters from 'Omega' you get 'OMG'. QED tbh

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Well, it looks like we've already coined the commonly-accepted acronym for this power then.

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Imho stalker concept is not well made in CoX.I love the rogueish assasin type of stalker that Warhammer Online introduced where this kind of AT's could totally vanish on a timer and attack angles made a difference.also that kind of AT had some really good self heals and good melee capabilities even when unhidden.

I dont mind at all stalkers in PvP since they are easiest thing to fight but the AT is too much reliable on a couple of mechanics and is the least tactical set to play in whole game in my opinion.

- Too much reliability on stealth mechanism

- Too much reliability on Assasin strike

- 0 build flexibility due to tight power set up needs.

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My sentiments exactly.

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I have a feeling that Bane Spiders and Night Widows will be like stalkers "fixed" in the way you suggest.

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My hope exactly.

I will be Trapping from 7pm tonight, hope to see you there.

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....ensign expendable!

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I might just have to use that name, ta very much.

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But to leave out a whole AT from the process is something I cannot see the devs would do

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It's an EAT, so it wouldn't follow the same design stance as the standard ATs. Unless Fortunata NCs suddenly get different coloured psi-blasts VEATS should continue to match them.

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I agree here too. And I do hope that if/when power customisation comes into play, you wont be able to give the warshade/peacebringe powers other colours either. That would look just wrong.

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You're entitled to your opinion of course, though I was actually surprised that people would feel that way.

If Power Customisation were to come along and was implemented for EATs there would be nothing to stop you colouring your own psi blasts (or WS attacks) purple if you wanted to stay in keeping with the rest. I don't know what replacement colour I'd use if any, but I'd much rather have the freedom to choose whichever I prefer.

This is all conjecture anyhow. Power Customisation's not gonna happen for a long time yet, if ever.

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As for all powers of the same kind like psychic having same colour....
That might be true for psychic atm but only cause they havent changed it yet.

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At the moment, in CoH psi powers are purple. They will stay purple until power customisation comes in, in the year 4000AD.

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Ok, that made me LOL.

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This does have advantages, it lets you know when someone is using psi powers without having to inspect thier power list or combat log.

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Certainly agreed with you there.

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However, even when power customisation comes in, the NPC fortunatas will stay purple, so the player version should also be purple.

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Though I'm calling you on this.

If we ever see Power Customisation enter into the game, granted it will likely be in a piece-meal due to the amount of work involved. But to leave out a whole AT from the process is something I cannot see the devs would do - at least, certainly not with as much confidence you have asserted in your post.

Can you imagine the uproar? Especially considering how little extra would need to be done if they were already busy recolouring the other psy powers (Blasters, Fedners, Domis and maybe, just maybe, Corrs). It would be seen as victimisation (like half the shiny new things we get, sadly), punishing the players of one AT as part of an arbitrary and pretentious story-based judgement call.

The devs are far more than likely to shirk the game background in favour of player wants and/or fairness in this case, as they try to do in most cases. It's the same sort of compromise the devs have to make whenever they introduce new content.

Well, what if the new AT was another type of Arachnos trooper, just one we'd not seen before?

Such a development would be easy to fit into the storyline, what with the amount of research (in all areas) that Recluse patronises.

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However, the thing I find curious is the fact it has an in-game model of its very own and is evidently deployed by the Crab.

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Looks like those mines/missiles/thingies you can find in the tunnels below Grandville. The very slow moving mines/missiles/thingies.

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Oooh, I've never seen those.

So... maybe it's an exploding pet, like a Photon Seeker?

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Didn't they have one of these in Galaxy Quest?

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Good call! I knew it soudned familiar...

I should clarify my last post: If it's a Time Bomb with say a 2 second deploy time (4 seconds if non-interruptible) and approx. 3 second fuse (just enough time to cry "OH NOES!" and try to run away), I could probably live with it.

But if it's a 6 second interruptible lay with a 15 second fuse it'll be a joke.

Psychic Wail, actually.

For the Night Widow, I couldn't guess. If they do have the smoke bomb though, that's likely to be higher up on the list.

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- Chance for AoE crits from hidden increased to 100%


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I don't think this would be a problem, however I wouldn't combine it with...

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- After an assassin strike, all ST attacks in the next, say, 8 seconds are criticals (enemies are so stunned they cannot defend themselves properly blah blah blah), this extends the burst of damage done, would also help in taking down bosses and the like in the later game.

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....which would completely overpwoer them. 8 seconds is too long, you can usually get at least 5 attacks into that time and since you're attacking from Hide, you're likely to have BU on top of the crits.

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- Defence/Resistance increased to tanker levels but HP kept the same (makes stalkers tougher but still falling back on a lower pool of HP) - I know this would not help /regen stalkers but maybe change fast healing to a inate health points boost (like High Pain Tolerance in the willpower set) rather than a regen boost?

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I don't see how this buff would fit into the idea of a Stalker's role - they're not intended to stay in combat toe-to-toe like Brutes, Tanks or Scrappers. Any defensive buff should surely be designed to allow a Stalker a faster/safer escape to re-Hide?

Unfortunately resistance/regen sets will always be a problem as long as Stalkers need defence in order to rehide.

Perhaps if a successfully landed AS gave a Stalker a +Def buff for 10 seconds...? You could choose to retreat or stick ti out in combat a little longer, and either way it would help you out.

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- Damage scale increased from 90% to 100%

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This still wouldn't help versus higher-ranking enemies such as AVs.

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- Scaled damage against bosses/EBs/AVs for AS.

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If Castle/Posi (I forget whom) could ever get this working to satisfaction, it would be a great buff for Stalkers, for sure.

Mini-rant:

Personally I dislike Stalkers because their whole existence relies on one gimmick - stealth - which is simply irrelevent in PvE and overpowered in PvP. Because of this gimmick I just find them too shallow and tedious to play.

Stealth is too fragile in this game to be relied upon, and you can tell the devs realised this because they invented Placate to help out in that area. An unresistable soft mez, a bad idea on top of another bad idea.

It's a shame because the concept of a Stalker is quite possible to achieve in CoX but just hasn't been fully realised (melee DPS/burst damage versus surprised/defencelss opponents doesn't have to mean stealth: see Containment) though it's way too late in the day for a fix of that magnitude.

Anyone else wondering about the exact nature of this top-tier Crab Spider power?

From the video this is obviously a very powerful blast, which would indicate a nova of sorts for the resilient Crabbies. However, the thing I find curious is the fact it has an in-game model of its very own and is evidently deployed by the Crab.

This could indicate a Trip Mine-like power, or maybe (*shudder*) a Time Bomb.

Please, please please don't let it be a Time Bomb...

If I make a VEAT I'm rather tempted to call him Operative O'Hara as a tribute to the cheery but generally inept Police Chief from the 60's Batman show.

He may or may not be uniformed in emerald green.

I can see the OP's point to an extent. Yes, we don't have the complete powerlists yet, but the powers we have seen we're arleady very familiar with. If the devs' intention is to sell these EATs to us as something new and unique (a reasonable assumption for marketing a new feature), to chosoe to show us the familiar powers they did is a worrying portent.

This problem is compunded by the fact that VEATs (as yet) don't have any Inherent powers, so these powers are WYSIWYG, there's no hidden slant on them like Scourge or Containment at the mo. Not that this is bad (and I've no doubt the VEATs will get some inherent powers eventually), but it doesn't exactly add to the anticipation.

Add to this the fact that (unlike when Khelds first came along) the fact that these are creatures we've seen in the game for more than 2 years already, so the devs are already working on an uphill slope to make them seem new and different.

(That's my biggest bugbeef with the VEATs personally, I'd rather they had invented a new type of previously-unseen Arachnos soldier for the VEATs, at the very least.)

On the other hand, the more interesting powers simply may not be in a presentable state yet - the more exciting power animations may be bugged still, for example.

Alternatively, the devs may simply have deliberatly chosen to hold back some secret powers. Though that's a bit counter-intuitive for the purposes of a promtional video, but the devs have done non-sensical things before so who knows?

Can you tell I'm sitting on the fence yet?

Amazing!! I really like the feeling of motion you created.

Two words really sum up the fun we had on Monday:

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"

and

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHAHAAHAAHH!!!"

Aside from the tier 9 and the fact there's a snipe (why??), this set looks pretty good to me. You have those 3 great melee powers, one of the better damage cones in the game and Build Up, which is a most welcome buff power for Doms.

It should make a decent secondary for any melee-minded Dom.

Hope to see you all at 7pm!

It was an entertaining evening. I selfishly concentrated on Mea's patron arc since she was nearing lvl 41 and didn't have the PPP unlocked yet. By the end of the night she'd attained both, too.

My favourite moment fo the night was our musings about messing with the game's word filter to replace phrases such as "Lord Recluse" and "Arachnos" with, for example, "Ronald MacDonald" and "Ikea"...

Why must you remind me??

But seriously, while there have been some breakthroughs on that front and *fingers crossed* it is fixed now, it's currently staying at a friend's place where it was repaired and it's not likely I'll be able to pick it up in time before the theme nights this week!

So if I'm on, I'll be on my housemate's PC.

Thanks for the offer Hunter Hunted, we may well see you in-game.

Barring unforseen circumstances I will be around for Trapper night tomorrow, so hopefully I'll see you all then.

Thanks for the encouragement all.

Psi, the plan is to create one action-y group shot, made up of individual pics that'll be created seperately and pasted together. That way you guys can take the individual shots and do with them what you wish.

Saxtus, I will get Gerd sorted out too, it's no trouble. I was thining of using her primary costume myself, since her Enforcer armour cossie hides her face entirely.

Drak, I agree Jen's Jester costume is so very, very her. That's exactly the one I had in mind for her picture.

As some of you may have noticed, I'm the custodian of the all-Dominator team that runs regularly on Union. The team has been running since Autumn 2006, and after all their had work and limited game time (just 3 hours a week, and this was back before Dommies were buffed!) all the Dommies are finally hitting the Big Five-Oh. Which is super.

As I've had such a great time leading (bossing about) the team, I thought it would be nice to put together some artwork to celebrate the occasion.

In this thread, I'll try and update periodically as I make that artwork. So this is all very much WIP right now, sorry!

The piece I have planned will be an ensemble of the Dommies, each drawn (and eventually coloured, I hope!) in individual poses. These figure drawings can then be cropped for forum avatars, or all put in a composition together to create a unified-ish action picture of the team together. (Working on the Doms individually also helps with gettings scales and such correct with a minimum of fuss.)

Anyway, that's the general idea. For now I'm going to post a few sketches and show the Doms/anyone who's interested what I've been up to.

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Footloose:

First up is my toon, the Mind/Psy Dom known as Loosey. Thanks to some doodles I've done in the past I had the best idea of how to render him in my art style and as such I've done the most work on him of any of the Doms so far (Ha ha! Favouritism)...

He is most likely going to be leaping forward in the bottom-centre of the composite pic, hence this pic.

Here he is again, with a slightly more extreme ("chicken-wingy") version of the same pose, as befits the OTT nature of the action piece, my style and the game in general.

I prefer the 2nd one myself, thought the legs need some work.

Crazy Cartomancer:

This Ice/Psy Dom is often seen in dark colours and a black Arachnos pattern cape - plus a fetching eyepatch for the ladies. For CC's design, I was inspired by the awesome Batman cartoons (but not the crappy new ones, oh no) and so CC's dark cape will generally obscure a lot of his physique, while at the same time give him a great sense of movement. I'm still working on the pose for CC, but in the meantime here's a headshot I sketched out in biro. Expect to see a lot of these.

To be honest, I'm not sure how I'm going to pose Crazy Carto just yet. Though to be totally honest, I'm not sure how Crazy he's meant to be either, which may have a bearing on the pose.

Phedre:

Our Plant/Ice Dom and the team tanker, Phedre's had a number of nice outfits. As well as an interesting take on the Plant outfit theme, my personal favourite of Phed's is the green-skinned Greek toga goddess, of which I've drawn this headshot. I tried to give her a long face with noble (Roman, even) features, befitting of someone who habitually wears a toga.

Like Crazy Carto, Phedre is one of the numerous team members with the Fly power and so will likely find a spot on the back/top row of the composition picture (with the pedestrians like Footloose and Kappy in front/bottom).

Pside Winder:

A Grav/Psy Dom with a techy/cosmic appearance. Pside reminds me a lot of Mr Miracle, though I'm not 100% sure why. He also makes great use of the Lines pattern, which is a horribly selfish thing to do to an artist friend. Anyway, here's his headshot.

I've probably drawn Pside a bit too burly here, but it really does suit him - so much so that I'm very scared my final piece won't look nearly as good as that sketch at all! I would imagine Pside having the physique of Superman compared to Crazy's Batman. Besides, mixing up the body types makes for a more interesting picture at the end of it.

Day-Star:

Our own sun-god (every team should have one!), a Fire/Energy Dommie. Day's had more different outfits than any of us - and they're all awesome-looking - so it was hard to pick which one to draw. Eventually I fell on a costume Day's been sporting one-and-off for almost a year now, his magestic metallic sun-god look, complete with evil metal moustache. While his recent fiery Enforcer outfit is perhaps more impressive (it does look pretty sweet), my decision to go with the classic metallic look was mostly due to the following sketch I made. Look at it.

I'm very, very happy with the design of the face. It's just the right mix of realism and abstraction I like to aim for. Looking forward to drawing more of him.

Also Day's look, with the wreath and divine inspiration, quite inadvertantly pairs him up with Phedre. And since they both fly (with wings to boot), the pair could easillty bookend the final composition.

Kaptain SpellChequer(sp?):

The Kaptain, team healer and a Plant/Fire Dom. Also a really fun character to draw. I've cheated a bit here since Kappy isn't (quite) lvl 50 yet, but I already put the work in so I thought I might as well show it off.

First his headshots. Kap has a half-mask covering his face, which I've taken and embellished a little. Kap is one of the smallest and skinniest on the team, something I am definitely going to exploit when it comes to drawing him. In fact I've made him look quite impish, as you can see here. That's not a finished sketch, I need to redraw his legs at least and maybe put him in a more dynamic running pose, or soemthing else similarly less sneaky.

The Rest

I'm still finding designs I'm comfortable with for the final two regulars on the Dom team, Gerd Xiphos and Jenseits. So sorry guys, I've not got anything I'm happy to show you just yet.

Once I'm done with the regulars I may move onto some of our most noted irregulars, or former members, too.

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That's all I got for now.

To my Dom-chums: Sorry for the roughness of it all, but with my current PC troubles I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to complete this and I didn't want to have to wait to show you anything. Hope you like it, guys.

To everyone else: I will try and take some screenshots the next time I'm in-game so I can post reference pics in here, so those people who have no idea what these guys are meant to look like can see what these guys are meant to look like.

Just popping on to let you know I won't be able to make it tonight. I hope you guys have fun, and I'll certainly try and be there next week!