BudunkBdunk

More customization!
but I continue to see a deeply seeded desire in the developers to protect something.
I'm not sure what it is but I think I have some idea, something like defending immersion or the definition of a power itself.
To keep players from changing the theme of the game and, I guess, unraveling the fabric of the universe.

On the old forms, when they were all orange and ookie looking, and before many of the game mechanics were even finalized there were questions as to why powers weren't just 100% customizable. They had just switched to the archetype system to the dismay of many. Some long threads on it with people working out how custom heroes could be done, my own included.

One of the best responses was that Ice looking powers should do ice damage and fire looking powers should do fire damage. The game is based on typed damage. The game world has an element of Negative Energy from a Netherworld which looks dark like this.
They are building a world with consistency where players could get to know the meanings of these effects in the COH universe.

I feel like These controls have been continuing for a long time behind the scenes.
When Villains came out, they had their own costume options. This let them be the ones that looked really gnarly. The heroes could go a little dark also but the Villains had all the truly demented stuff. Their claws, swords and attacks also looked, well, a bit more cruel.

This made it so you could spot a villain, just by their look. Personally, I liked this. The problem I had with it was that villains did not have some of the really heroish options restricted so it was only half way done.
The player base however, which I have found myself more and more in conflict with, took the simpler and more obvious approach of "THEY HAVE IT AND I WANT IT TOOOO!"

So rather than having different looking heroes and villains, heroes were given all the villain options too and now when you go to the costume editor on hero side you need to sift through a huge number of really morbid looking options thinking "what is this? City of Scarred Zombie Skull Heroes?" The players slapped them on the hand with a ruler for restrictions to any options and the developers learned their lesson.
Kind of.

We arnt shooting arrows at people to heal them or shooting ice beams that do 10 ticks of toxic damage or firing eye lazes out of their crotch. I know much of the playerbase would love it if we could do exactly those things and maybe it is going further in that direction but here is the odd thing that I've noticed: They are still being careful with the color palate.

Did you notice how dark or rocky looking all the colors available for Stone Armor are? Or how crystalline light the ice power's palate is? Thankfully no Yellow Snowman! People can now make their much desired green lantern clones but I have the feeling that these color palates are the last bastion of the customization control philosophy.

The players want more and more custom everything and the developers wish the game had started with custom powers in mind but, I'm sure, at some level, they remember to not give them absolutely everything.

Random Super Guy on the Street Comic Heroes are really varied and giving them everything might even be justifiable, if a little scary. (really only practical with a do-over of the entire system or a sequel though)

Kheldians however, a race of energy beings made up exclusively for this particular universe. Should players be given the right to make dark Peacebringers and bright Warshades? Will we be able to stomp on what a Kheldian is? How far will their inevitable customization options allow players to bend their universe?

Maybe they will at last please those who refuse to call their character a Kheldian and hold to the idea that theirs is a wizard who can change into a tentacled being identical to a Dark Nova or whatever. I cant wait to see how their fading defense, which is now only lightly held as an idea, holds out here.

I really don't mean to shoot down your priority powersets because I completely understand where you are coming from.

Some ideas take their inspiration from the game itself instead of actual comic heroes which it was once intended to emulate.

The desire for a psychic weapons sets for example because it would be teh sick unrezisted dammzorge.
Instead of boomerang or lasso or swinging or call custom vehicle transport or other iconic things.
Not to mention imposable hurdles requiring new tech or a sequel, like liftable cars and catchable civilians, savable trains, planes and automobiles, and punch a guy through a wall stuff.
I know the game inspired changes mesh well with what is already there, but as far as priorities and power sets go I'd like more time spent on the really new stuff.

Instead of say, Sonic Manipulation, I think that issue would disappoint me.

I think customizing anything too far beyond its color or what type of axe it is would be bad. That is because of the Typed Damage System that the game is founded on.

To have fire blasts do cold dammage and arrows heal, is dumb. In PVP its practically an exploit.

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I am not a hotshot modeler/texture artist, so I prefer to work on the basic looking stuff that can accept a broad range of character concepts being projected on to it. My opinion is that the more specific and detailed you get with something like this, the more narrow it's potential for fitting a lot of character concepts become.

Similiar sort of philosophy for all of the shields and weapons I personally modeled. Except for the Rularuu stuff.

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This is a wonderful philosophy! please tell others about it before they make powersets like Demon Summoning AND necromancy or costume parts so specific and that they only fit with every other costume part in that costume "set"

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Keeping those powersets from Scrappers isn't going to make those tanker sets any better.

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My opinion was changed from "power proliferation makes one archetype a little less unique."

into "I want to keep powersets from other archetypes because I dont want broken powersets to be worked on"

not really my point of view but I guess it is easier to defeat that way.

I don't like power proliferation because it makes archetypes less unique and gives people one less reason to play a particular archetype over another. I see no reason to be a fire tanker now that scrappers have it, for example.
instead, new sets.

It tends to please the power levelers though with thoughts of "AW DIZAM WHUD IF BLAZTRZ HAD PSYDMMGLOLOLOLOO!?!?!?"

I have to agree with Rick that the idea of a second city filled with villains is silly. Especially when it has so little effect on the hero side as to be just a segregated section of the game with different archetypes.

I imagined it would be something more like mission architect with a player controlled villain as the boss. Or a way you can do crimes on one side and have heroes stop those crimes on the other. Or a Make your own Nemesis kind of system ala Champions Online.

when it came out calling itself City of Villains? I was like "huh? how did that obviously bad decision get made? They seemed so smartish about that kind of thing before."

When those kinds of choices get made, I always expect it has to do with some inner company flux political changing of powers thing.

Whenever I saw Demon Summoning as a power suggestion for masterminds in the power suggestion thread I always thought it wouldn't really be worth it.

It was the same problem I had with the suggestion of a playing card themed henchmen set, how many villains could you make with that set? like 10?
Mastermind powersets cover every genera of villain without being specific enough to be limiting.

For the evil mystic kind of villain we already have the necromancy set! Demons AND undead too now eh? Do we need another evil mystic villain set?

When the Ringmaster like Circus powerset was talked about by developers it sounded so much cooler and filled an actual gap of the goofy villain or the dark prankster villain who wasn't really represented by the other sets.

All in all I'm still happy about it because diversity is good and really I'd like there to be just a gazillion powersets so meh, I'm sure it'll be cool.

Its about the same as taking the time to release another labcoat or another Einstein crazy hairstyle, we already have things close enough to that but its still neat.

Mission architect shouldn't give any experience points or enhancement drops. They were saying they didn't want it to be about XP but instead about making creative stories and playing them/ sharing them with your friends and super group mates (as all the power levelers groaned and I applauded) so I was hoping, that is what they were going to do. That was the right philosophy to have about MA and I don't know why they changed their minds about that. We are now witnessing the obvious outcome to that wrong turn.

When the Kheldians appeared on the earth it was the first peaceful contact with a true alien race of creatures from a distant galaxy. Intelligent energy based life no less! In this world such an event would be the most important and influential occurrence in history.
It would redefine what people know about life, religion, culture, the biggest questions of science and mankind's place in the universe. It would open up whole new areas of study and ask dozens of new questions which have potential to rip civilisations appart or lead them lightyears ahead.

It was covered in the COH unverse by a humdrum news article that was available only on the website and the introduction of the Kheldians contacts in the actual game...cof*

can you elaborate on first contact with the Kehldian race?

For contrast, When the hostile Rikti invaded: we got forcefealds, teleporters, plasma rifles and all that stuff had to be stolen and reverse engineered. We also got new branches of government, new areas of study and change on a global scale and these were not even true aliens but humans from an alternate dimension when we already knew alternate dimensions existed.

Heres a little descrepancy that needs some clarification:

The Freedom Phalanx was founded by: Statesman, the Dark Watcher, Elementar, Maiden Justice and "team Vambrace"

Ive seen "Team Vambrace" described as a duo consisting of scientist James St. John-Smythe who invented the Vambrace armor and ex-football hero Brandon Warfield, who would wear the armor.

However in the Novel The Freedom Phalanx, There is no mention of "Team Vambrace" but Vambrace is referenced only as one person. Says He suffered from Alzheimer's in 1964, and died in 1972.

if they are "both right" and the novel was only talking about Brandon the football star, then what happened to Professor John-Smythe who invented the Vambrace suit?

And for a little more cool factor, what is the Vambrace suit's technology like and what are it's powers?

the electric blast used by the AE version of electric brute, now is red just like the rest of their powers instead of the blue one used by electric blasters. (not that this will matter for very long what with custom colors in the works)

Can you tell us more about some of the restaurants advertised, their food items, weather they are liked or disliked by the public, if any heros frequent them, if they are fronts for criminal groups.

Does City Of Gyros deliver?
Does Hester Fizz, that cola advertised in the Rogue isles, come in grape and orange? I know there must be something sinister with that pizza place, looked like it was owned by The Family.

because they are so common in comic books I don't mind having them around.
What a dumb thing to complain about.

Its like going into a fantasy game and complaining about the fact that there are all these Gnomes all over the place.

People who get so worked up about it that they kick people from their team for having cat ears, have some kind of psychological problem.
Maybe a cat bit them when they were toddlers or something.

I don't want them to give away things that haven't happened in game yet or to give away things that a player hasn't done yet. I said common history, things everyone playing should know without having to go to 4 different places and ask a few people to find out, also a section that expands as you learn more, as to not spoil anything. That information should be somewhere in game.

I doubt there actually is, at this point, a story bible. If there ever was one, it was likely written on a napkin by statesman and they have gone a long way off of the path it layed out. Or it is a very negotiable document, changing according to what the players seem like they want. For example, I seriously doubt Ouroboros was ever in a "story bible" players asked for a time travel system so that they could play old missions they outleveled, and this secret time traveling cabal was cooked up for us.

Is there any other game that doesn't have its back story in the actual game and relies instead on the players to build a fallible database of their own to peace events together through scattered lore gathered from event testimony, novels, contacts, cutscenes, in game dialog, stuff the dev's said at the con, Ghost Widow's diary, the website, the forums, the old paragon newspapers and the comics (some of which may contradict eachother)?

the "where is the COH lore actually?"
was a great question and I found the answer a little troubling. essentially there will be no effort to compile this stuff into an easy to access, paragon studios sponsored, single source.

Just asking someone who may have been around for such and such an event and reading every novel and doing every mission and putting together the tapestry yourself seems so scattered, sloppy and arbitrary. It is more something to be ashamed of than proud of.

There really should be a place in game where you have access to common history and this library could expand as you learn more, no matter which character you lerned it with.

This is a fantastic thread!

Can I get a rundown of the heroes behind Statesman on the COH loading screen?
I can name all of them on the COV one so it only seems fair.

all you'd really have to do to make this almost a text game from where it is right now is give everyone the mission teleporter and phase out zones altogether and take out knock back just like the players want so they don't have to move when fighting.

Already every mission is available via a menu and you can go from 1-50 by standing in one place because mission architect was put in as a "simulator" that is in one building in every zone.

It has always been sadly hard to make a truly natural hero but it is even harder to make the, even more common, natural minion.
give me the ability to make a melee minion with a ranged attack which is not something as theme specific as web grenade and not something as super powerful as ripping a chunk of cement from the ground.

I would like it if sets of powers from other, already existent foes, were available to tack on to our custom critter models. that way we could make minions who would throw rocks and attack with crowbars instead of having to fire energy blasts from their fists or pull out giant sophisticated rifles.

actually, I was hoping the sets of minion powers would be, mostly, pulled from other minions instead of retrofitted heroic powers, in order to keep the heroes and villains distinctly powerful.
When a minion's energy blast goes off and does almost nothing to the target and then, a moment later, you unleash an identical energy blast that obliterates an entire room, it tends to damage the thematic feel of the game.

Don't get me wrong. I realize this is the best system there is and I'm picking at nits.

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Have you ever actually stood around in Atlas Park and Mercy Island? Since both games launched up to the present, people have been making terrible, uncreative costumes whether we have costume sets or not. Here's a fun game to play. Stand in Fort Darwin and count the number of villains you see running by wearing black/red, black/purple, or black/blue outfits.

It's just not an argument I understand, considering that I know I'm not the only person who cherry picks individual pieces of costume sets to make existing costumes better. If anything, I welcome more costume sets, because then the uncreative types will have something ready-made so they don't look like they were attacked by a rummage sale.

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Sets or no, the bad costumes will always be around, and again, they already have the ready made costumes available.
Ideally it would be possible to "make" a set and have those ready made patterns available to players from the dropdown box but there currently isn't a philosophy of diversity when designing these sets.

I'd rather (and I think everyone else would too but just dont know it) have texturable shapes that can be cut or added to, such as how helmets can be designed: Sphere base, now put on your flourishes and patterns. Is it a communications helmet or more of a mech thing or a combination, or is it an ancient helmet with a horn pattern? What horn pattern? You decide! A combination of ancient warrior helmet and tech stuff, theres an interesting helmet that you've explained in your unique bio, cool. Maybe its a sports themed hero or one that runs so fast he needs an aerodynamic visor. Oh, and in case you cant figure out how to make your viking character, here is a premade viking costume from the dropdown box. Or others: Bam, mystic armored hero. Bam, SWAT team. Bam android.

Instead developers are being the creative ones and showing us what they made. We have to try and make our characters match their designs. Or if we are lucky one costume part might work with another one from another set but this is just pure coincidence if it does.
How about releasing a set of shapes and then showing us an example of some of the things which can be done with it and those can be your "awesome character screen shots"

This game gives some great opportunities to be original but whenever a costume "set" is released, suddenly everyone is wearing that costume set from head to toe and all the heroes in the city look the same despite the mind boggling possibilities. in. the. trillions.

I can already hear the insistent, drooling, braying of the sheep who just cant wait to conform.

Jay, try this, release dozens of costume parts that are just simple shapes and then add dozens of patters and textures which can be added to them in different sections and colored.

Rather than making costume sets which dont go well with anything except for the other peaces of that particular set, give creative control over to the players. Give them the forms and let them make it ruffled, reflective, furry, bejeweled, patched, hightech 1, leather, hightech 2,embroidered, ancient, bio-oganic, or what have you.

For those that arnt very savy with the costume creator and just cant put these things together...Well, you already have the premade costumes from the dropdown box which are at least competent. I thought that is what that thing was for, you know, uncreative meatheads.

Costume "sets" dumb down the possibilities of this wonderful tool , show a failure to recognize its potential and needlessly limit the creative control of the player.

Objective:
It is easier for me to get new players into PVP and to keep them PVPing without becoming frustrated and giving up. Matches tend to be closer, less one sided. Many powers that were not useful before are now viable in pvp.

Subjective:
I am glad that PVP is being reworked and I feel this design philosophy is moving it in the right direction. Often in the previous PVP, players would becoming overwhelmed with the influence expense of creating viable characters or restricted by the stringent game play. Pushing for all archetypes, powers and builds to be competitive in PVP is the right idea and these changes have brought the game a step closer to that goal.

These changes are great.

The copy and paste thing I've been wanting for a long time.

I'm really liking the new direction PVP is taking, feels much more skill centered and less perfect build centered, but it clearly needs tweaking. I'm glad to hear you are making it a priority, you're absolutely right about it being ignored for too long.

The Merit System is a brilliant idea and while it doesn't restrict the, I guess, "play style" of farming, its a philosophy away from it. I like that.

Havent had a chance to try the villain epic stuff but I'm glad it was looked at and tweaked finally. Honestly, its been needing it for a long time.

I'm a little worried about Leveling Pacts and Dayjobs. Giving rewards for not playing the game always seemed weird to me. though they are the big new feature this issue. I don't dislike them, I just don't really "get it" i guess. Its equally puzzling when I see such systems in other games so I'm not really the target audience for this.

multi builds system will keep me gathering enhancements forever. it was hard enough with one build. I can see others getting a lot of use out of this though.

It really needs to be minor, even many cosmetic changes are too much, because of how everything is set up now with typed damage and all.
a power's effect dictates what type of damage it does currently.

how about Ice blasts doing energy damage or fire blasts doing psi? ugh.

I'll be hit in pvp with a Net Arrow that does dark energy damage.

I read:
H3R0Z deals 300 dark energy dammage from his JUE JUS GOT PUNKEDLOLLOLOLO!! attack.

I can see, maybe, tinting the color of some attacks, a little. maybe choosing from a few different animations (provided animation times are the same) even naming an attack, might be okay. but even then, things could get ugly.

all in all, I'm not sure if it is worth it.