DulothS

Ooh; what if you Disintegrate someone who already has it, and it automatically causes a spread? As it stands, it has no chance to cause it, so....

Hmm.
I don't think it will work, generally, with specefic damage amounts.

What if it worked like so:
'Energy Absorption: Each time you take Energy damage, you gain one instance of 'Energized' for 20 seconds. This can be applied any number of times, but certain powers have differing effects. (One version for each energy type)

'Absorptive Resistance: For each application of Energized, maximum 10, you gain a 4% resistance to Energy damage. For each application of Warmed, maximum 10, you gain a 4% resistance to Fire damage. (Etc, Lethal, Smashing. Everything but negative energy, toxic, and cold)

'Minor Absorptive Blast': Deals minor lethal damage alone. Deals very minor additional DoT for each application of the various 'Energized'/'Warmed'/'Smashed' types. If you have 10 stacks each (The maximum per energy type) you'll be dealing blaster-level damage, but obviously you generally won't reach this point.

The Absorption/Resistance powers are passive; you then have an array of 'focus' powers as you said, which amplify one energy type at the expense of others. Possibly while a 'Focus' is active, you gain a regen bonus for a while after each hit of said type.

DoT Enhancement: Tacks an exceedingly minor DoT effect of a specefic type onto any attack that deals damage. (I.E: You just shot him for 12 damage with your dual pistols attack; this 'Poisoned' tick adds 3 ticks of 1 toxic damage to each shot at 2/4/6 seconds)
Proc Enhancement: Randomly adds damage, knockback, stun, or whatever.
Secondary Effect Enhancement: Tacks on an additional secondary effect; such as -15% Regen for 20 seconds, -5% defense for 15 seconds, -5% resistance for 10 seconds. (You just put the 'Armor Piercing Rounds' into that Dual Pistols power, and it now deals 12 damage and takes off 5% enemy resistance)
'Pacifier' Enhancement: Either has a chance to Placate an enemy, or a very weak aggro reduction which turns into a Placate after several applications.
Splash Enhancement: A lower-damage Proc that triggers on nearby enemies rather than the enemy himself.

Really? I've dealt with uninterruptible snipers that can shoot through walls fairly often, especially from Nemesis. Wonder if thats just my own experience.

But, by and by, I'm fully aware many of these ideas are in the game; I'd just like them expanded to cover more enemies. In the tutorial, these big glowing patches appear, warning you a meteor or airstrike is about to hit. Imagine a Damned doing that; an aura of flame envelops him, he points his arms; a big glowing cone appears on the floor where he's about to incinerate for excessive DoT. A set of caltrops does significantly more DoT; but is only a few feet wide, so if you step off to the side you get out. A Rikti Mentalist summons up a Nightmare that charges you; an illusory creature that dies to one or two hits, but if you let it touch you it self destructs causing some nasty damage and a terrorize effect. A Devouring Earth boss that summons mini-floating-seeds that if they aren't killed before contact, attach to you, giving some sort of nasty debuff, or even a major confuse effect and a buff.

We see a few of them in the Incarnate trials; but I would like to see alot more of this' enemies whose attacks can be avoided with manuevers, or seeking cover, or something other than simply pure defense/resistance, and who you can't just walk over with pure DPS. Wouldn't it be great to spice up existing enemy groups with this sort of thing, or even existing mobs?

Snipers? What if you made enemy Snipers like players; excessive damage, but if you break LOS with the shooter during the animation/interrupt time it doesn't go off, as well as being interruptible. Tack on some 'critical' non-resistable damage to these NPC snipes, or some debuffs, so that it gives some incentive for any player to take cover or switch to kill the sniper once seen, and make sure their AI keeps Snipers avoiding melee contact/easy AoE range.
Location-Targetted DoT AoEs? Your standard ones, like Caltrops, are just a huge radius that can't be avoided aside from simply backing off and reverting to ranged combat. It'd be nice to see enemies with some of these with a relatively small radius/recharge time; if you stay in one spot, they can rapidly build the DoT up to unsurvivable levels, but if you keep moving it can be easily avoided. (I.E: A Vahz minion shoots you with a chemical sprayer. That one spot now has a 100 dmg over 25 seconds burn patch. He keeps shooting every 5 seconds; if you stay still, you'll have silly amounts effecting you.)
'Warning' AoEs? This method, of giving a character an essentially unstoppable attack, but then giving anyone around them advance warning so they can back off/move away, preventing 'get to melee range and then pound til it dies'. Do it at range, too; the location its about to shoot starts to glow, and you'd best get out or you're a corpse.
'Intercept-capable attacks'? I.E: The boss makes a smaller, weaker creature, which will self-destruct when it hits you, or after X seconds. You either shoot this thing down en route, launch it off with knockback/etc, or otherwise simply keep it from getting close.
Enemies who its actually a bad idea to attack at certain points? Perhaps entering a brief phase where they regen when dealt damage, and have an insane resist, while not attacking. Or when they reach X health, they start to self destruct; and each hit they take after this point buffs the range/dmg/to-hit of the explosion.

Hovercar/Helicopter
Functionally the same as the 'Hover Board' power, this power is also a costume power; when toggled, it replaces your character with the appropriate vehicle. It gives a modest damage protection/status protection to help keep you alive/in the air, but negates all of your various abilities.

Longbow Chaser(/Any other flying vehicle)
When you get this power, you also acquire a subset of two other powers which can only be used while its active; much like the Nova form of your Kheldian buddies, this essentially turns you into a flying weapons platform, with a low-damage fast-recharge gun attack and a mod-damage long-recharge missile attack. All other abilities are, of course, disabled while riding.

Combat Walker (Vanguard HVAS/any other large mechanical walker that can fit in mission maps)
This power also creates a subset of other powers that can only be used while active; varying from vehicle to vehicle, be it a giant mechanical spider or a bipedal Vanguard war machine, this one would likely have a limited duration/charges, and turn you into a giant killing machine for a time; like a Heavy, but with your own health/End.

Battle Tank/Armored Car(Or honestly any ground vehicle)
This power, unlike the others, might not work within the existing framework; they have models for these, but it isn't difficult to see how they could break where missions come up. Sure you see tanks in the RWZ; but fitting one down a hallway? How could a car handle the numerous small jumps needed for many missions/zones? Unfortunately not really a viable option.



***
Any such power functions as a costume/transformation; I could imagine the Paragon Market and VIP market containing noncombat vehicles, and charges to use the combat ones; Vanguard merits being used to acquire a pilotable heavy mecha; missions involving Longbow, Arachnos, Sky Raiders, etc where a vehicle is stolen, and you acquire a limited-use power; (We need you to hijack a Longbow Chaser from this airfield, get past the enemy air defenses, and land. You can feel free to use the Chaser once the mission is over, but you only have 1 hours worth of fuel, and the transponder that keeps you from being shot down will be flagged by longbow as soon as you leave. Once there, get inside the base and set the reactor to self destruct so we can clear this area of Longbow.)

The big downside of such is, of course, the inability to customize them. Power Customization might offer an avenue for such; but I can't see that working for a temp power. If it did, they'd likely have a couple of different bodies, then you pick the primary and secondary color.

All the tech exists in the game to do this. Its simply a matter of whether its considered worthwhile.

Hmm. Just making every animation into 'throw grenade'?

I've actually suggested this idea before, long, long ago, but I figured I'd repeat it;

Basically, take the Vanguard concept; reduce it in scale; and apply it to a variety of factions already present in the game. For example;

Your player reaches level 5, and meets up with Manticore; he offers them membership in Wyvern. This leads to a handful of story arcs where you work alongside existing wyvern operatives, earning Wyvern costume pieces, doing 'less savory' jobs that lead neatly into becoming a vigilante after the arc ends at level 20. It would have 'random' paper-style missions like going into the Isles to assassinate an Arbiter, or an up-and-coming villain; basic Wyvern-style activities. You earn Wyvern merits, which you spend on the costume, on temp powers that give you wyvern-style arrows and jetpack, and possibly summoning a wyvern operative.
(Or, alternately, to avoid yet another merit system; the costume pieces and temp powers are bought with Inf; you simply have to perform enough missions with the faction to unlock the ability to buy them.)

The most obvious faction to do this with is Arachnos; to have people who start out as villains and then join Arachnos, rather than the other way around. But hey, anything works.

.. So that you can use them with powersets other than archery without having constant re-draw animations.

And of course the animations are different. Thats why I mentioned either alternate animations, or different sets that function identically. Is three sentences a tl;dr?

The idea is quite simple; take the existing Trick Shot powerset, and give it optional Rifle, Beam Rifle, or Pistol using animations. Either three separate, functionally identical but visibly different powersets, or three different animations for the existing one. Existing animations can be slightly tweaked and/or duplicated for the bulk of these.

Mm, definitely more than 48 hours to sync access at this point. *zzzzzzzzz*

Galactic Piracy for Fun and Profit
ID: 439293
After stealing some Rikti tech from Longbow, Arachnos can finish off the construction on humanity's first FTL starship... and, of course, use it to commit interstellar piracy. Sign up here for a chance to steal from Longbow, steal from some (mostly) harmless alien civilians, and just possibly face off against whatever passes for military or the police out there if something goes wrong. Whats the worst that could happen?

*note to self: Track down Ascendant, assemble a story-arc wherein Nemesis is trying to obtain Ascendant-Os from the family for use in an Ascendant Death Squad, and the heroes have to steal a variety of terrible toy concepts before they cause lawsuits.

I wonder if it'd be possible to make an "Ascendant Lunchbox" temp power that has 30 uses and each use is a 10% chance for a Vial of Bees?

Villains will no longer be capable of winning fights. When a hero would normally be defeated, a new power is auto-activated by the hero that defeats the villain, heals the hero to full, and forces the villain to say "Darn you *insertplayerhere*! I'll get you next time! NEXT TIIIIIIIME!".

ALso, all cool-looking costume pieces will be disabled, as will all colors but pink, yellow, green, white, and black, and all costumes that do not involve tights, animals, or a ridiculous multicolored business-suit.

You didn't know this was true? Its already on test. My MM goes "Tweeeeeeet" and then there's an endless chain of "Bang!" "Boom!" "Tunk!" "AIIIIIE!".

.... WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEE

*cough*
Ahem.
Time to dust off the old AR blaster and corruptors.