Leo_G

I would. I mean, I can but I don't actually just roll alts just because but I described several ways a 'ghost' can be natural and Venture didn't rage over those so I'd say they're good explanations.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMM!

Wehehell, I'm sure once you come up with a precise formula for ghostly magical apparitions to definitively describe what exactly a ghost is, then yeah, almost wouldn't count.

Unfortunately, the meaning of life, the existence of an afterlife, souls, spirits and all that jazz are uncertain, at least in CoX to the extent that things are often confused when encountering them, run into difficulty dealing with them or discover outright contradictions to previous expectations.




As mentioned before, the ghost slaying axe may be magical but it targets *dead* things (not to be confused with *rotting* things which would be considered *dying* things), not magical dead things. Shivians are affected by the GSA but they aren't magical. Apparently one can be undead and not magical.

So your notion that undead and ghosts must be magical is right...until you introduce a circumstance that contradicts those notions (Metronome, Mother, Shivians)...then you're no longer right.

Also, ghosts in this world tend to be limited in origin because of dissonance that might arise with the players vs the lore. But since our characters backstories don't directly affect the lore and therefore the gameplay of others directly, we have room to explore other options.

Spirits can also be linked to religion and while some may have 'mystical' properties, what makes a religion a religion is faith and faith is not unnatural. There are plenty of stories of spirits of saints or deceased loved ones coming back in a time of need as a guardian overlooking their loved ones. What makes this natural isn't where the ghost is coming from but the faith the people they're protecting has.

Having the people of Paragon City having so much belief and faith in a fallen hero who put their life on the line to save them countless times isn't considered a magic ritual. If that heroes spirit continues to protect like a guardian angle because of that faith, IMO, is not magical or arcane.

There's also power in promise, not wishing to give up on business that was unfinished at death. If one was adamant enough in their word as to continue on even after death, the only think unnatural is how much faith they put in their words.


Personally, I would probably say a ghost or spirit would retain their preferences even after death, that is, if a mutant that used cold or fire powers would manifest cold or fire as a ghost as well as gain whatever properties a being of that type would have such as flight, translucency, maybe the ability to pass through solid objects...anything else like shooting 'ghost bolts' and draining life might lean the entity's origin elsewhere but I agree with your earlier statement that it's more about the origin of their 'powers' and not so much their 'body'.

That and classic anime blasting

That's an interesting tid-bit...maybe I can use that as a springboard for another character concept somehow

Oh, I've suggested it in the past several times, one of which is probably in that big powerset suggestion thread dated several years back.

But the reason I pointed out that thread is because I had already made a post in it about relating it to the newest Martial Assault set and even made a template with blanks for new powers to be discussed. Since the thread isn't that old, one can continue discussion in it without it being a necro-post.

As for the customization, that'd only be a problem if there were weapons attached. That is, weapon customization. Why Archery probably won't have customizable projectiles is because it's already got customizable weapons, same as Assault rifle/Beam Rifle.

It *might* be possible to customize the projectiles in a Thrown Weapon set but maybe only as Shuriken and maybe a Boomerang look since the attacks seem to arc.

I'd say, yes indeed.

Agreed. But I can still see other uses beside that. When I first heard of Mirror Spirit, I thought a cool power for her would be the ability to make a short lived copy of someone to attack her foes or defend her. Now that we've got doppleganer tech, I'd like some more arcs with heroes/villains with esoteric powers like that instead of just odd blends of our powers.

Hmm, remembering that mission, the one I had particular trouble with was on my Claws/EA brute. He'd been able to solo pretty well up until then but man...auto-hit Energy Drain + bounce my *** around with Focus...it was impossible to solo without kiting and pulling. And those clones spammed the crap out of ED and once my toggles dropped and they got a follow up and/or Slash, they'd slice through what defense I could muster up with inspirations.

Energy Drain is just too awesome in the hands of an NPC especially a group of them!

Not a silly idea. It's been suggested before. I'd love the idea myself.

I've got anime logic on my side. Idiots can defeat geniuses with pure determination so using genre savvyness, i'll intentionally let you underestimate me and kill you instead.

Or you could, ya know, say since their technology has progressed to such a level as using VR, they have overcome or greatly mitigated those limitations since it's fiction.

No one wants to really read about how they do all that except for the niche group that are knowledgeable about that kind of stuff.

See, this is the point I would have been reluctant about if it were not true. That is, the fact that in this world, VR is something already used and tested to work, there could be various programs in that world where it's used to train soldiers and workers, from pilots to doctors and shown it *WORKS*...that someone pushed and used it for video games was probably one of the first few applications of the technology...

That the VR basically expanded to MMOs is a slightly difference concept since you'd be interacting with other minds beside your own.

If the tech were built, tested and used in that world and shown to work, I'd probably would actually join a beta for one of the first VR MMOs if it were a game theme I was interested in. Finding out I can't log out after the fact might happen even after reading up on every grain of information about the game. Still gotta think about this...it'd probably help if I watched/read whatever this was about...it's an anime you say?

As for Arcana, she's not trying to answer hypothetical situations. She's only trying to defeat the question so no fun trying to discuss it with her

Virtual reality requires less physical effort than current video games. With a controller, you still have to sit up and press buttons. VR is using your brain signals as a controller which is no more strenuous than watching TV. You just sit back and interact with the game in your head.

VR also has the application of allowing the disabled to play or training since one can program a simulation as being as realistic as the real world.

But it's virtual reality! VIRTUAL! REALITY!

That's like the apex of any and all video gaming and where I've dreamed the hobby eventually reaches at some point. There's bound to be people to actually seem even more excited about the possibilities and sign up to test it considering how many people will graciously hop on betas for anything with the term 'video game' in it.

That said, I probably would actually do the same and not get involved in the first place. Personally, I don't really do betas that often. This is one of those things I've literally put into the 'look and listen' bin as I'd want to assure it's safe before participating.

Sure, whatever works for you. But the way I see it, your WP characters are practically marching into elemental and energy attacks unprotected. You see, practically all armor sets have a measure of protection against most types of attacks to varying degrees with a few niche exceptions:

Dark Armor:
(Smashing) & (Lethal) = Gets moderate protection to both from [Dark Embrace]
(Fire) & (Cold) = Moderate protection to both from [Murky Cloud]
(Energy) = Only minor protection, a reduced amount from [Murky Cloud]
(Neg. Energy) = Higher than normal protection thanks to [Dark Embrace] and [Murky Cloud] stacking resists
(Psi) = Unnaturally high protection because [Obsidian Shield] offers a lot of res to only psi
(Toxic) = Only minor protection, a reduced amount from [Dark Embrace]

Ice Armor:
(Smashing) & (Lethal) = Moderate to high protection from [Frozen Armor], [Wet Ice] and [Energy Absorption] stacking def and [Icy Bastion] granting resistance temporarily
(Cold) = High protection because practically every power grants cold resist and stacking defense from [Wet Ice] and [Energy Absorption]
(Fire) = Minor to moderate protection from [Frozen Armor] and [Permafrost] stacking reduced resistance plus stacking defense from [Wet Ice] and [Energy Absorption]. [Icy Bastion] temporarily boosts protection by a large amount
(Energy) & (Neg. Energy) = Moderate to high protection in a similar fashion as Smash/lethal but using [Glacial Armor] instead.
(Psi) = No direct protection
(Toxic) = Minor to moderate protection from [Hoar Frost] and [Icy Bastion]

Those two sets are balanced in a way that, with the powers taken, you'll have some answer to most types of damage. It may be to varying degrees (like Ice's weak protection to fire in most cases or Dark's lack of comprehensive protection against energy) but there's something.

Willpower is no different except while Ice is generally defense and Dark is generally resist, WP uses both for different damage types to varying degrees.

Willpower:
(Smashing) & (Lethal) = Moderate to high protection from minor def from [Heightened Senses] and higher stacked resist from [Mind Over Body] and [High Pain Tolerance]. [Strength of Will] temporarily boosts protection with more moderate resists
(Fire), (Cold), (Energy) & (Neg. Energy) = Low to moderate protection from minor resists in [High Pain Tolerance] and higher defense from [Heightened Senses]. [Strength of Will] temporarily boosts protection with minor resists
(Psi) = Moderate to high protection from def in [Indomitable Will] and resists from [Mind Over Body] & [High Pain Tolerance]. [Strength of Will] temporarily boosts protection with more minor resists
(Toxic) = Minor to moderate protection from resists in [High Pain Tolerance] and [Reconstruction]. [Strength of Will] temporarily boosts protection with more minor resists.

If you eliminate Heightene senses, you're basically leaning on minor protection for 4 common damage types with the only supplemental protection coming from healing/regen. Because the resists in HPT and SoW are of the small variety only amounting to around 24% resists at most. For perspective, Ice's minor protection from fire can amount to around 28% resists (not counting the minor defense) and Dark's minor protection from energy is 23% resist and both have means of stopping enemy action as well as healing and damage auras (in the case of non-stalkers) on top of that.

So yeah, walking around on your WP characters is like walking around without Murky Cloud on a Dark Armor or Glacial Armor on an Ice, all of which are sitting ducks to any type of Fire, Cold, Energy or Neg. Energy attacks.

Not that it's impossible to play such a character...most of my Blasters only walk around with protection to either ranged and smashing/lethal or or fire/cold/energy/range...but that's a *BLASTER*. They aren't trying to take a whole bunch of hits. Not that a Stalker is either, but if you're a Tanker or Brute walking around with Blaster level protection, something is horribly wrong...

Sure, both are right. Saying 'I like it' is only wrong if you're lying when you really don't or saying you don't when you really do.

What's 'wrong' is when, just because one doesn't like it, they feel others should go out of their way to change it. Why make a suggestion that deprives others of something they enjoy? It'd be different if there was absolutely no alternative, but you'd be misleading if you say that in this situation.

If your goal is not to deprive others of their likes (in this case, Voltaic Sentinel) but improving the Elec blast set, there are *many* avenues to do that without messing with the others in the least.

Heck, the OP has a long standing suggestion that lots of Elec Blast players agree wouldn't be obtrusive. Removing a power to replace another is like trying to knock down a wall to unlock the front door...when you could have climbed through the window, used the back door, slid down the chimney, called a locksmith or any variety of other options that get the same results *without* damaging the house some people actually like.