Cayenne

I think that new archetypes would be great, as long as they could use existing sets to minimize the work involved.

The set categories in the game are: Defense, Melee, Buff/Debuff, Ranged, Control, Support, Summon, Assault. Combining these in new ways could be interesting and fun.

We have Control/Buff, Control/Assault, how about Buff/Assault? Defense and Melee always seem to go together, we have 4 ATs that use those categories. Support/Defense could be fun, somewhat scrapperish but with less attack and more minor control. Assault with a weaker Defense category would make a good near-melee, kiting AT. Buff/Support? Summon/Control? Defense/Ranged would be odd... you would be sacrificing half your damage to get good defense with mostly ranged attacks, but it probably wouldn't be unbalancing given that blasters can softcap defenses now.

So, there are 5 new AT ideas that need names:
Buff/Assault, Support/Defense, Support/Buff, Summon/Control, Ranged/Defense

Mix up the sets allowed in each one a bit for variety, add a new special power for each AT, and done!

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These 5 new ATs could be native to the Shadow Shard. We're likely to see the Shard play a huge role in the future, and new and different ATs with totally new strategies would fit right in there, The natives have to survive somehow, after all. That would take a little more work, we would need a Shard tutorial zone ending with being rescued by Portal Corp or something.

I was thinking of something along the lines of the slot system, only inside the IO itself. It has six spaces, and starts out with one full of that IO type. The mechanic would be to total up all bonuses, then divide by the number of IOs for each bonus. The IO would end up having a look similar to the graphic on the invention badges, with each slice being whatever color.

The IO alchemy should only be accessible by dragging an IO onto an already-slotted IO, and the game should make the usual check for allowable IO types (graying out the powers that can't take that type). They shouldn't be removable, and removing during a respec should break them if they end up in your tray at the end of the respec.

My goal isn't to break the game, or allow powers to be slotted in ways that are normally unavailable. I just want more customization options for my powers.

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I would support only having three spaces instead of six, as the game has many examples of dual- and triple-effect set enhancements. I had thought six at first simply because I was comparing it to the slot system, but three would be totally sufficient.

Oh, yes. Common IOs only.

I don't see the need for an additional inf cost, as you're already losing 50% of the inf that went into making the two IOs, as well as half the salvage. Does it really need to cost additional inf?

I suggested this in another thread, but I think it's a good enough idea to deserve its own post.

Let players combine even-level IOs, dividing the effect equally from the combined IOs. Combining two IOs would give each effect at 50%, three would be 33%, four would be 25%, and so on, up to 6 maximum. This would not increase the powers of IOs at all, but it would allow for much more customization.

Example of my intent: a level 25 character would like to have a power with increased recharge time AND reduced endurance consumption, but it has only one slot. He chooses a level 25 recharge and a level 25 endurance IO, and combines them into a single IO that gives half the normal amount of each IO. This isn't as good as either one separately, but he slots it happily. Later he finds that he isn't really having end problems as he thought he might, but the power isn't recharging quite fast enough, so he combines the rech/end IO with another recharge IO. The resulting IO has 1/3 of the normal end reduction, and 2/3 of the normal recharge reduction.

I can't see how this would hurt the balance of the game, as no IO could ever be made more powerful in this manner.

I would like to see a change to the way that radio or paper missions are handed out. If I use my radio in King's Row when I'm level 40, I shouldn't get a message saying that it's beneath my notice. Obviously it isn't, or I wouldn't be doing it!

Instead, I suggest that every zone have a level cap that exemplars you to that level when you choose to take on a radio/paper mission in the zone; doing radio missions in KR would set you to level 10. As normal, 3 or 5 of them in a zone give a bank or mayhem mission, also capped at the level of the zone.

This nicely handles the problem of Praetorian characters that go red-side not being able to get the bank exploration badges, as well.

I don't think we'll see a third world anytime soon. That said, if I read what you're suggesting properly, a perfect fit for this would be Axis America: the people with powers would be useful, but not part of the Axis's vision of humanity. Thus they're either slaves or hunted, and being hunted by a whole nation is a horrible thing.

Honestly I think this could make a good arc or two for high-level characters in Peregrine Island and Grandville, and I would totally support the devs making it as such. It would even be interesting as a series of TFs/SFs starting at level 30, and working up to 50.

As long as this thread is risen from the dead anyhow, I'd like to suggest a totally different fifth power for the teleport pool: Combat Jaunt. This power requires you to have a target, and teleports you next to that target, with no location crosshair. Short range, low end cost, made for battle instead of travel. Let's have a teleport power that doesn't require the mouse!

I'd like to see much lesser versions of weapon/attack sets as pools.

We have several different sword sets, how about a dagger pool? It could have perhaps a normal attack, a DoT quick slices attack, a range 40 or 50 thrown dagger, and perhaps a minor parry toggle that adds double the combat jump defense bonus to melee attacks only. Make this pool like brawling, able to be used on the off-hand even while a weapon is drawn. Make it incompatible with 2-handed or off-hand-full sets like Shield or Dual Blades.

We have a few hand-to-hand sets. Perhaps a dirty fighting pool? A feint-type power 'hey, what's that?!' that reduces defense for 5 seconds or so, a melee cone of throwing sand into the opponent's face that gives a to-hit debuff and blindness, a tire iron/rusty rebar melee attack, and the ever-popular rock ranged attack. Again, off-hand/no redraw.

A ninja pool could be fun. Add a couple of DoT 'combo' attacks, short-range ninja stars, and a mag 1 PBAoE placate/smoke bomb?

We have assault rifles and dual pistols, how about the simple Pistol pool? Pistol-whip, a ranged attack, a ranged DoT, and 'cover me!' a cone minor damage and to-hit debuff attack.

How about a grenade pool? Put in an immobilize grenade, a flashbang, frag, and poison? There must be some combination of grenades that would be not overpowering.

How about a police baton/tonfa pool? Really, a lot of little pools like this would add so much diversity to the game. I would be willing to buy a 'Pool Pack' that added any one of these to my account, and I would bet that a lot of other people would too.

We could have many more non-attack pools, too. A shapeshifting pool that had a stealth-vs-one-faction power: you morph into them and they treat you like that faction, or a immobile turn-into-an-object power? A new travel power that used grapnels would be fun, perhaps with a power that targets a nearby surface and pulls you in a straight line to that point, a minor knockdown (pull the enemy's feet out from under them), a high-mag knockdown/knockback resist that requires you to be immobile (anchor yourself to the floor), and a 'pull the enemy to you' attack?

The bottom line is that more pools would multiply the amount of choices available to every player. Power sets only benefit a small group of ATs at once, but new pools benefit every character. Give us more pools!

It would be interesting to see an epic-style arc for khelds that involved hunting down the training center for voids, and finding and destroying the void rifle manufacturing facility. Once a kheld did it and got the badge, quantums and voids would no longer spawn for them.

Finding out who was responsible for it would be totally awesome, really. It would be even better if it was a TF that only khelds could start.

Regarding the Vanguard pack: wouldn't it fit thematically for it to include a teleporter power, perhaps to the forward base near the mothership? Something on a long recharge like 30+ minutes would be fine, it would just be a cool addition that's not game-breaking.

Wouldn't the obvious thing to do be to email the codes to a random person on each server, maybe once an hour? That way they're 1) encouraging you to actually play the game instead of ignoring it, and 2) not pissing off the playerbase by holding a contest that is designed more to frustrate than to please. It's not like it would be hard to email the codes, either.

Devs, I know you read these. Please, try something that works in-game, rather than outside the game.

I'd really love to see a psionic scrapper or stalker primary and secondary. Powers from other sets that could fit: Mind Probe, Telekinetic Thrust, Drain Psyche, Psychic Shockwave, Indomitable Will, Mind Over Body, World of Confusion, Concentration, Foresight, Mask Presence, Mind Link, Mental Training.

Looks like almost enough powers to make a psychic defense power, and four powers for a psychic melee power.

I changed my name legally a while ago, and noticed the other day that my account was not using my legal name. I emailed the support, asking for help on how to get is changed, and got this in reply:

As far as the tighter build argument goes, the numbers that were being presented earlier are a little incorrect.

Currently we get 27 powers at level 50, with 67 assignable slots. But on top of those 67 assignable slots we have the other 27 non-assignable slots, giving us a total of 94 slots. After inherent Fitness, we'll have 98 slots and 31 powers.

Our builds will be looser in the sense that we'll have three extra powers to pick, and those picks will be at low levels, if we took Fitness before. We'll also have 4 extra slots to put enhancements in.

Our builds will be tighter in the sense of having fewer average slots per power, dropping from 3.481 per power to 3.161 per power. The number of powers we'll be able to slot optimally won't change.

I'd really love to be able to pick my character's handedness! Let us swap all of our character animations for mirrored ones, including emotes. Making it a semi-permanent choice switchable at a tailor would be just fine, maybe per costume?