Rosen_ice

hehe i would use it for an alt too...but the thing with my alts, is after they reach over 30ish...i don't delete them so.... arrg

It's more of an understanding towards those who go through all the work to get 50 but end up (for whatever reason) deciding the character just isn't what they want anymore.

The +50 percent exp isn't for all the characters on the account, just that one character slot.

If they just delete the character... it is like tossing out tonsss of grinding and missions and everything that went into the character out the window. So, most people just leave the character sitting there neglected.


Also, the "epic end" mission could be made open to everyone (so it is opening up this content to the entire game). The only people who get the "alternate ending" would be those who have done all the consent steps beforehand.

The epic end mission would be designed to push a team to death. Which, would be pretty fun (reguardless of the perma death and memorial slot unlock).

Going into a mission knowing that you aren't going to survive? Seeing how long you can hold off an increasingly tough wave after wave of relentless mobs? Maybe throw in a couple badges of "survived the storm!" or "faced the storm!".

Basically, it solves a few problems.

1) added epic really challenging content for level 50's (fun fun!)

2) giving a little bit in the entire sittuation of "dead alive 50's" that are all over

3) gives a little ground on the "I want power respec!!", throwing this to the players and going "fine, you make it to 50.. we will let you delete and relevel a bit faster, it isn't a power respec...but it is the best you are going to get". And honestly a lot of people (me included) would be happy with that.

4) added epicness to the world of COH. Finally having heroes really fall in epic turns of the game (after 6 years!) would be a nice touch. Something big is coming, make it really seem big... instead of "oh, rikti are attacking again *yawn*"

5) It is fun! Brings in more immersion and connection to the game. Being able to summon your dead hero's spirit on your memorial character? It is just kewl Even if you don't RP, it is still something that would really be fun and make playing that memorial character a lot more enjoyable.

So, I was looking at the thread asking for a "power respec" (which we all know isn't going to happen).

Also I had been thinking of a way of making the world a little more "alive" with epic permanent deaths of heroes (obvious problems). Afterall, during the game we continually come across heroes who have fallen in their attempts to save the world.... but our characters can never "make the ultimate sacrifice" (other than just deleting them heh).

So, how about combining the 2?

Give us a level 50 epic battle arc which your character can go through (with LOTS of warnings that this arc is leading to the PERMANENT deletion of your character) and lead up to a "last stand" battle. Obviously, this is going to be a lot like just logging out and hitting the delete button... but stick with me.

After the last mission *note, you can bring a group with you, but only the person who has run the very very heavy warning arc up till then will be actually perma dead after everyone dies" (waves and waves of increasingly hard mobs... basically the game throwing "lets see how long till you die, bwaa ha ha" scenario at the player), your character gets taken to a cut scene of a funerial for your character (heroes remembering or villains honoring). And then you are taken back to the login screen.

(maybe the last epic battle is against the coming storm? whoever that is? it seems like the game is leading up to a "huge epic event"... it only seems fit that a few heroes are going to fall in it... and all the deaths will be 100 percent consentual and welcomed).
Now, in place of that character, you unlock a gold "Memorial Slot".

Any character made on this slot now recieved +50 percent EXP (or some other amount, decided by the devs... but a decent enough amount to make it worth the sacrifice, even if the character has probably been stripped of his IO's already :P).

In addition, the character made in this slot recieves a very long recharge power of "Guardian Spirit", in which a spirit form of their old character is summoned to help them for a short period of time (so, a pretty kewl little power and RP spirit mentor... and a nice bonus to exp, making the death of your old mothballed 50 pretty worth it).

You could also add in a plaque somewhere in the game to remember fallen heroes, and players perma dead characters could be listed there (for another little bonus).

Hmmm, not sure about commissions yet :P I think I have been getting kind of messy lately anyhow. I started using the basic round brush again today, so hopefully that will help smooth things out a bit more.

((i need to fix this one, ill repost it later ))

Yea, peacebringers are kind of depressing when you set them against a crab...

I wish peacebringers were more group friendly.... how about merging all the shield toggles into one toggle (like crabs have) and then replacing the missing powers with group friendly buffs?

Not a toggle like VEAT have, instead a buff more like empaths... something unique, like a couple different proc effect buffs? Like a buff which gives someone else a percent chance for a self heal? Or a proc which summons a mini photon seeker randomly while fighting?

bwa ha ha ha!

You can be evil (really really evil) without needing to spit in everyones face and remind those around you all the time. Just look at how a lawyer acts (badoomboom).

The most evil people and effectively evil people understand how to control others. They know what buttons to push and what is actually going to work (will saying you are going to break the arm of the tanker really make him scared? or just think you are stupid?).

And then, the ones who are simply a pain to be around have something that other people want. How can you roleplay that? You need to really have things other people want! Get a character with a bunch of influence and HIRE some minions... order them around.. and they will put up with it because they are getting paid.

Or, be a great leader. Have something you stand for and command others through the respect they have for you. Again, this isn't the type of evil that running around stabbing them is going to help (unless it is a structure built around raw power... like a PVP guild, where you simply actually are the strongest in the guild...and anyone that tries to mouth off you take to the arena and beat down.).

I'm more of the type that likes to roleplay WITH the game and it's mechanics (instead of just sitting in a room chatting). When I wanted to make a corporate guild and private base... I actually hired grunts to earn prestige for me (paying them in influence for each prestige they made).

To unleash the true "bwaaaa ha ha!! you are all going to die!!!" evil side... i think that is best done through AE system. Make an arc where your character goes on a rampage and tries to kill everyone :P

So, i think there are lots of ways to be evil... without sitting alone in a corner burning kittens and biting anyone that comes near you :P

Thanks I still gotta go back and fix a few things on the last one... but here is another one for today.



As Doctor Mousey would say "bwaa ha ha!!"

I wish they had an ally version of personal force field. A toggle that super charges their defense and resistance, but doesn't let them attack. Put it on a really long recharge and short-ish duration so you can't abuse others with it.

I was wondering if anyone knew what the mechanics were with sapping in PVE? I tried it a few years ago... but completely forgot if it actually stopped NPCs from attacking (I have a faint memory of them still being able to get attacks off).

What about for AV's? And other giant type monsters?

Well, I was kinda bitten by altitis ... so made another character! bwaa ha ha! This time it is Dr. Mousey, the super mad genius of science (and zombies).

She joined Clockwork Scout at the tin tower and started Tin Tec to help fund her super genius. Here her first invention

Designed to help out non-heroes when they need a little saving (but it runs out of energy quickly, so only good for a quick jam).

I think the key thing is to remember why oborous showed up in the first place. They said they were trying to help us avoid the coming storm all together... through things we were doing. So, if it were just a big bad alien coming from far away that we haven't heard of before... well, nothing the heroes are doing is going to help avoid that.

So, we find out about a helpful well of power (which, obviously silos and the others want for themselves, which is why they were so interested in checking it out when they thought you found it). But, what about the evil one?

Best advice is to stop asking people what to play... and just play.

Grab mids hero designer and look around at different possibilities. Lets you "try out" different things and look at what a character is going to offer you. Think about different ways you could use a power by what effects it has (and how it can be upgraded) and then that might lead you to building an entire character around some special power.

Different people have different ideas of what is fun to play.... and a LOT of people have bad ideas in terms of what "can't work". Want to help out healing a bit? Grab aid other (my dominator has helped out a LOT with power boosting before aid other someone on the backline).

The entire dieing and what you bring to the group and how the set actually plays? That all comes with...well...actually learning to play it. There is a BIG difference between a bad energy blaster and a good one (there is a big difference between a bad anything and a good one).

I have another question, can we be allowed to show the submissions and get feedback in the art section of the forums? Makes it more fun when we can show eachother... instead of just everything being quietly sent in for judging in a couple months (also, keeps a dialogue going and constant reminder to people when they see others posting their updates, which lets people feed off eachothers drive and ends up with better results all around )

The problem with a tree system of powers is a developer actually needs to sit down and go through each power and upgrade...

Putting it a basic "this is ranged power and can use any animation" is a lot easier (and then you just add in the enhancements, which can be combined in infinite ways).

The thing with allowing people to just customize their powers completely (as they exist, just changing the animation) is it destroys the reason for different powers. What is the difference between an ice blast and a fire blast? One slows, one has a dot... the slow is stronger in the game.

If people could take ice and make it LOOK like archery... why would anyone take archery? (Other than rain of arrows, but arrows that slow would rock so much).

Also, in terms of programming, they would have to go through everything and rip it all apart to remake every power totally customizable (also some animations are slower than others, if you meta game...animation times are very important... which is part of the balance they have in place. If i could change out everything with under 1 second animations, that would kind of break the game in terms of power levels).

Its a tricky sittuation... ideally, the players want completely open "let us have anything"... but the developers know what this will cause (food of the month, super combinations... more than already exists under a restricted system).

That's why if we get a chance for customizable powers, it needs to be in a way that is really easy for the developers to do. Throwing in a naked power and special enhancements with 100 percent procs is very easy for them (the groundwork for enhancements are already in place, creating a new enhancement would take a few minutes maybe... the hardest part is writing in the name of the enhancement :P).

I was with a level 50 on lady greys taskforce who didn't know what a hold was

I blame you Dr. Aeon!!!!! :|

I think the power should keep on a fairly short-ish recharge for everyone. So it can be used pretty much all the time and become part of how a character fights (maybe a few effects could come with larger recharges, like a 10 second long phase shift power).

Allowing these types of powers to become too strong would make a mess... people would make uber powers on long recharges for high costs and just eat an inspiration or two to get around high endurance (and use the uber power to make fighting rare super hard fights easy). Kind of like how they lmit the nukes in some taskforces... they don't want people running around with "bwahaha! die!" powers.

The thing is, in an attack chain, you can only string together so many powers before the start of the chain comes back. That is why having a bunch of medium powers is just a waste (and why it is safe to give people a bunch of medium temporary powers, like the hammer and bat). The devs know that it won't break anything, people already have access to a lot better than those.

It should be the same with the signature powers. They don't break anything... but enhance a certain aspect a character goes for.

Giving a mesmer a point more of hold. Giving a melee a little debuff. Giving a blaster a little self heal or defense... things that are already all very possible through power pools or patron /anc pools. Because they are weaker versions and pickable from any animation, they act like "icing on the cake" to help flesh out concepts and ground a character a bit more.

A ninja mastermind could take boxing or kick or jump kick to get a melee attack (all capable of being slotted with some nice effects and procs)... or, they could use their signature power to make a decent katana attack with a slight debuff that would do less damage than a proc-enhanced kick, but might give a 10 percent res debuff, making it just passable (and, more importantly, more immersive for the mastermind that was looking for a power to fit in with his pets as they go toe to toe with enemies).

The point of the signature power isn't to make characters all that much more powerful (just a tiny bit), it is meant to help fill in the gap that a player feels their character is missing and really make them feel unique.

Like creating a mind controller and having a backstory of the sindicate... but simply being unable to get the dual swords they have (outside of the very limited charge temporary power). You don't care if it does their amazing super damage, just something decent enough to throw into your attack chain with an affect that would help out a bit.

Or that melee basalisk who has a katana that has a small hold on it... again, very possible and simply not an issue in terms of gameplay balance (a melee getting ahold of a mag 1 or 2 hold won't break anything... though, it might be a tad useful running into a battle and using it on a minion level healer... simply wont break the bank on any meaningful content)

So, I was looking at the sticky thread suggestion on signature powers .. and just think it is overly complicated (and more importantly, probably a lot of work for the developers to put into the game. ..which means not so likely they will actually do it).

But! The current system inside the game could support signature powers a LOT easier through slotting!

Basically, at level 20, you get your signature power. Selecting from:

Point Blank Area
Ranged Area
Location Area
Melee Cone
Ranged Cone
Ranged
Melee
Friendly Target
Friendly Aura
Friendly Aura Toggle
Self Toggle
Self Click
Summon (hopefully? Pets might be harder to do)

You pick the category, and under each category is an animation for every attack that fits that category.

These attacks / abilities deal 0 damage and have 0 effects.

Now, it is simple from this point! You start off with one slot… and as you level up, get access to more signature power slots.

You then simply use special enhancements to put into the slots (made through non-tradeable material… kind of like shards? Or even needing to find “recipes” for the different abilities? However they want to handle it).

Each enhancement would have a minor effect (and some fitting into only specific types).

So, you could have a ranged attack enhancement that has a 1 mag hold. Or you could even approach it in terms of sets (getting a 3 mag hold after slotting a specific set of 4 enhancements that also have minor damage components).

Some might affect the range. Some could make it more accurate. Basically, it is slotting a naked animation however you want to get the effect you are after.

Just tone down the effectiveness of the enhancements so they don’t become overpowered (maybe the absolute max you could get through this is a 2 mag hold, hardly game breaking). At level 20 with one slot, you would be very limited in what it is doing (maybe just a light damage or tiny debuff to throw in… probably acting as more of an accent for characters at that level with just a tiny advantage.. giving a tanker a couple extra defense, or a mesmer an extra mag 1 hold to use on a minion).

The idea is to keep is useful, but just a little bit… and requiring a lot of work to get and develop, never actually overshadowing the real powers a character has.

I thought the new ones were too short They take maybe 45 minutes ....

The fights were fun, but not much buildup or discovering things. Things like statesman taskforce or khan seemed like a lot better buildup.

Why not just bite the bullet and join a team for a couple hours? ><

Why want the incarnate shards more solo-able than they are now (because, you can do it solo now...you WILL get slotted if you just play normally for a week doing some missions alone)? The taskforces the incarnate slots are needed for aren't soloable....