RemusShepherd

The only two things I'll miss from Galaxy City are the one contact that's part of the cape mission, and the one plaque that's required for the Atlas Medallion accolade. As long as they move those two things to a safe zone, I'm good.

I may have bashed Khelds a little too much, and I apologize for that. I don't like the AT.

But my point with the entire TL;DR post is that a *balanced* system can be created which does *not* lead to cookie-cutter builds. A support character cannot be the same as a melee character cannot be the same as a tank, etc. The absolute worst case for this free-form system is that there may be a minimum of six superior builds, with infinite possiblity for customization around those. More likely, it will enable a slew of new hybrid archetypes that the game hasn't seen before. And those can all be balanced both proactively and retroactively if problems are found.

People have suggested that we try free-form power selection as a subscribers perk with the 'Freedom' initiative. Others have noted that this was tried in beta and rejected for balance reasons.

Well, beta was a long time ago and I have no idea what went on there. I think we should examine the possibilities of free-form power selection again. I believe it's possible to create a balanced system that veterans of the game will enjoy. And I believe that in part, the code to do it already exists.

First let's review how the current archetypes work.

Every archetype gets a primary and secondary. Some archetypes share powersets, and when that happens one is usually better than the other. That's because every archetype has multipliers that determine their effectiveness at every type of power.

I don't know the current archetype multipliers, but for reference let's say they look like this:

Blaster:

Ranged damage multiplier 1.4
Melee damage multiplier 1.2
Control multiplier 0.8
Buff/debuff multiplier 0.6
Defense multiplier 0.6
Pet health and damage multiplier 0.8

Mastermind:

Ranged damage multiplier 0.8
Melee damage multiplier 1.2
Control multiplier 1.0
Buff/debuff multiplier 1.0
Defense multiplier 0.6
Pet health and damage multiplier 1.4

Tank:

Ranged damage multiplier 0.6
Melee damage multiplier 0.8
Control multiplier 1.0
Buff/debuff multiplier 0.6
Defense multiplier 1.4
Pet health and damage multiplier 0.6

Note that these multipliers exist even for archetypes that don't normally get those abilities, because those abilities may exist in power pools. That's why blasters have a defense multiplier which affects the pool powers Tough, Weave, and Maneuvers, even if there are no true defenses in the blaster powersets.

(Caveat: I'm not certain whether there is a pet multiplier for every archetype; if there is it may default to 1.0 to keep the Patron powers even.)

Others have said that CoX character building is essentially a tree skill system. But it isn't -- or at least, it doesn't have to be. It's a characteristics system, where instead of characteristics like Strength, Intelligence and Charisma you get hidden multipliers determining your ranged, melee, and defensive abilities.

The thing about characteristic systems is that they are easily balanced by making them exclusionary; Fighters don't get Intelligence and Wizards don't get Strength. I can best illustrate that for CoX with a chart:



Again, one could argue whether 'Pets' should be in there. Without it this becomes a five-color exclusionary system like Magic: The Gathering. But it's best to keep it, I think. Also, the placement of the abilities could be argued over; I could see swapping the positions of Support and Control, for example, which would better explain the Ice Blast powerset. But this is a first stab at describing the CoX system as exclusionary spheres of abilities.

As you can see, the current archetypes are formed mostly from abilities that are adjecent to each other on the diagram. Their powers are complements, and they are, in general, bad at doing anything from the opposing abilities. There are exceptions -- and those exceptions illustrate the balancing problems in the system. Masterminds are Pets+Support, and are notoriously overpowered. Dominators are Ranged/Melee + Control and have gone through several attempts to balance them. Kheldians combine abilities from several spheres and are so hard to balance it was apparently easiest to just nerf them into nigh unplayability. But most of the archetypes stick to two adjacent spheres of ability, with one or two powers borrowed from other spheres for flavor.

The way to balance a free-form power selection system is to expand the ability multipliers from the archetypes to the individual powers.

Let's take a hypothetical free-form character. I choose to build her as a melee defender, with a pet power; she's a fighting shaman with a spirit guide. The initial multipliers for my character, for every ability type, is 1.0. She is equally good at melee, defense, buff/debuff -- everything.

But every power I select will carry with it multipliers. I take Howling Twilight, which adds +0.2 Support, -0.3 Defense, -0.1 Melee and -0.1 Pets, because Defense is the opposite of Support on the chart and Melee and Pets are adjacent to it. I select Eagle's Claw, which adds +0.2 Melee, -0.3 Control, -0.1 Support and -0.1 Pets. And I take Phantasm, which adds +0.2 Pets, -0.3 Ranged, -0.1 Support and -0.1 Melee.

Just with those three powers, my character's multipliers are:

Ranged damage multiplier 0.9
Melee damage multiplier 1.0
Control multiplier 0.7
Support multiplier 1.0
Defense multiplier 0.7
Pet multiplier 1.0

As I choose more and more powers for my shaman, I will be trading off Melee, Support, and Pet multipliers. Maybe I'll find a way to balance the three. But the system can be designed so that the end result will be decreased abilities across the board, especially if I delve into another ability sphere. And it should be designed so that the base archetypes remain unchallenged; their multipliers will always be higher in their specialty than any free-form character. (Easiest way to do that is to clip the free-form multipliers at 1.3, or whatever.)

Maybe I'll want to give her a single defense power. Oh, no, tankmage! But that defense power will be very weak because the multiplier will be very low, and it will reduce the efficiency of my Support powers. The more I generalize, the weaker my character will be, until I'm getting beaten up by Khelds.

This system also allows tweaks on certain powers. Howling Twilight is very powerful; because of that, perhaps it gives -0.15 to its opposing spheres. Permafrost is a very, very weak power, but maybe it gives a bonus of +0.4 Defense multiplier. Maybe there's never a drawback for selecting Buildup, because it shows up everywhere. The tools available for balancing this system are extensive, powerful, and precise.

Can you build a non-viable character this way, one that's inferior to all other archetypes and incapable of soloing? Of course you can. That's why we limit the free-form system to subscribers and veterans and put warning labels on it. Freedom should include the freedom to fail, even in character builds, for without the possibility of failure there's no thrill in success.

All that is needed to implement a free-form system in this way is to add multiplier values to the all existing powers. Then build the GUIs to construct powersets out of all the powers available, and a way to select those custom powersets at character creation.

That's all non-trivial; I'm not saying this would be easy. But it is far from 'impossible'. And it would be a terrific addition to the game.