Samuel_Tow
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Lastly, I want to take back quite a few complaints I levelled against Ninja. I complained about the Jonin's AI, but his AI seems to have been fixed when I wasn't looking. He no longer gets stuck cycling darts for no reason and always closes in to melee things with his sword. As well, his poison dart attack no longer puts his weapon way, he just holds it sideways as he fires the crossbow. As well, his Flashbang hide no longer breaks from anything, and instead gives him something like 10 seconds of guaranteed criticals, even if he's dumb enough to use up a large portion of that for Caltrops and Poison Darts
The Genin still tend to hang back and chuck Shuriken, with at least one hanging back at all times. However, they're decent enough with Shuriken alone, and they're so squishy I'm not sure I want them in melee anyway, so I'm not sure I want to really complain about that one.
Suffice it to say that Ninja Masterminds have been improved by a large margin since last time I played them, and I'm happy to have been completely wrong before.
They are, however, still underperforming. The ninja are overall far too squishy still. -
Quote:Well, neither do the PPD. They start out as beat cops in uniform and move on to SWAT guys in fatigues. Basically, your run-of-the-mill Equaliser and Ghost are... Pretty much a carbon copy of your run of the mill Mercenaries SpecOps, but with a few powers switched around. And in the Talos Mayhem, SWAT and Hard Suits show up in the same spawns. The game already gives us precedent for "stronger = more tech" when it comes to armed forces, at least up to a point. All I'm saying is we can copy what the game has already established.Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
Yeah, because it doesn't actually gel that well with the rest of the set, if ya think about it. If they were all Sky Raider-esque mercs, then yeah, that'd work. As it is? An all-purpose veteran with a rocket launcher slung over his shoulder, custom-job gun that looks like it should be banned by UN treaty, and a 'Born to Kill' aura that doesn't need writing down. He just looks like trouble.
Problem is, as long as we keep the guy as... Well, just a guy, I don't know what you could do to him to make him stand out. I actually feel that going with Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commando may have been the mistake, because we have soldiers, then soldiers in masks, then what is ostensibly a Vietnam-era soldier. Again. For some reason, I feel that... That...
...
Let me think out loud here for a second. Imagine a buzz-cut white-hair old man with a giant cigar who goes into battle in a tank top and dog tags and a perpetual scowl. I know the Commando is kind of like that anyway, but the Commando is basically every action hero ever made rolled up into one. He's the likely hero. He's the macho man in an army of macho men. "The old guy" isn't as likely of an action hero for the simple fact that he's old and shouldn't be as fit. But because he's a long-time veteran, because he's so grizzled and exactly BECAUSE he's so unlikely is why he stands out more.
I know everyone hates the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and for good reason, but I feel casting an elderly Sean Connery as a badass action her, to the point where the bad guy remarks "I hope I age as kindly as you do!" Seems like the only way to make just a normal guy stand out is to break a few tropes. Or...
You know what just occurred to me? You know what would make the Commando stand out? What would make him unique among henchmen? If he weren't a he at all. Just picture a final henchman who's a brawny lady with a big backpack and a chaingun. She wouldn't have to be giant, she wouldn't have to be eccentric. Just having your toughest, most dangerous soldier and heavy weapons specialist be a woman would be distinct enough as it is
Granted, but the chances of an NPC getting that are far superior to the chances of us getting it, so I try to put in a suggestion for it wherever I can.Quote:Also Sam, I'd rather we got the PPD armour with arm mounted guns than yet another NPC get it to wave in our faces 
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Quote:One of the primary things I've found is required to enjoying any genre of any field of entertainment is to basically ignore its fan base. Never take fan excesses as an objective measure of quality, and only ever take reviews with a pinch of salt. Ideally, stick to video reviews where available and try to pick out what goes on from the background footage.Originally Posted by Lycanus
I have the feeling that Naruto suffers from the idiocy of its fanbase. I must say that when I finally decided to watch it (after a roommate who would watch it regularly...and after reading Team 8) that it wasn't at all what I expected from the rumors I'd heard.
Aside from the hand signs, it's not much like ninja as we define them...more like super-martial arts spec ops, and I get the feeling that the author plays a lot of pun games to get different meanings out of ninja
if we were talking about a normal fantasy setting, they'd be getting called warriors, sorcerers and the only ninja would be the Anbu
in fact...Naruto has more in common with Chinese Wu Xia knight errants
more Three Kingdoms, Outlaws of the Marsh or Journey to the West than Hattori Hanzo and the like.
There are far too many phenomena where either the fans are idiots who spoil it for you, or otherwise people have developed a fictitious idea of what that is and proceed to hate that straw man, suppressing legitimately good ideas. Or both, as the case may be.
Naruto is a good example, especially the earlier series, back when the show had a budget worth a damn and an author not suffering from writer's block. It's just a fun and, yes, badass show. I still love one particular attack from the Shippuuden movie, and hot damn is that cool!
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Quote:You know... If the Commando actually had a minigun, I might actually enjoy the set a lot moreOriginally Posted by Techbot Alpha
They should make the Commando more like Heavy Weapons Guy from Team Fortress 2. Giant minigun, Cone fear attack of 'Cry some moar!' and a self heal; Sandvhich.
What I'm surprised about, though, is that you're the guy who's suggested power armour several times over and yet you gloss over my suggestion to make him a PPD Swat style power armour soldier with arm-mounted cannons? Duuude!
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To save yourself from deleting anything that's not Inventions salvage, be sure to click on your Inventions tab. That way, you'll only see Inventions, so you know you can't delete (or sell) anything you didn't mean to.
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Funny. The Architect came out with a "quiet room" for this precise reason. And even back during the Architect boom, I saw precisely one person ever use it. I'm sure more did, but the crowds in the regular rooms were always dense and the crowds in the quiet rooms didn't even qualify as multiple people.
As far as I'm concerned, the Praetorian Trading House is horrible. Some of my characters happen to be designed to always fly, either via Hover or Fly, and in there they are grounded. Several of my characters run multiple toggles, some of which root me when they activate, and I don't fancy having to retoggle them.
It's interesting to me that people always reach for the "politeness" hypocrisy, when it's always people with pets and toggles who have to comply, and never people without them who have to put up. So to avoid inconveniencing you, I have to let you inconvenience me, and if I don't, I'm the bad guy? You may be able to see how that idea fails to endear itself to me.
If it takes having a quiet room for people to be happy, then fine. Drop a below-ground cubicle at Went's and a sewer area near the Black Market and be done with it. But for Pete's sake, stop dropping my toggles when all I want to do is check to see if anything sold. Either that, or sit an Auction House employee in front of the building and count how many people ever bother to walk in again. -
Actually, the game seems to have at least some idea as to what's in the map and what's out of it. The /stuck command doesn't do anything if you're out in the open, but shifts you, sometimes across the map, if you manage to jam yourself inside geometry or fall out of the map. Remember that hole in Arachnos maps that let you fall down into the blackness and walk around on the "floor?" If you hit /stuck while "in the black," the game would shift you to the entrance, but if you hit /stuck while up in the map next to the hole, nothing would happen. At most, you'd be budged an inch to the side.
I'm not sure what the implications of this are, but it may be something worth looking into for enemies. -
That's kind of what I had in mind when I was thinking "caves." Granted, I haven't seen one in person, but Mike Rowe and Bear Grills can't seem to keep out of mines, both active and abandoned
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Quote:Yeah, it's a legacy problem. Most of the game's pets have been reduced to a single weapon (historically, Jack Frost's Ice Sword getting the Greater Ice Sword weapon so he didn't have to redraw), but the Jonin just hasn't been "fixed" yet. There's no reason why the Crossbow can't be on his right hand, so he can fire it without putting away his sword. The only reason it's on his left hand is because Knives carry it on their left hands, and the only reason they do is because they hold their, um... Knives in the right.Originally Posted by AzureSkyCiel
Well, the problem is more that they're first ranged attack requires the first upgrade, which is not such a big deal. But as a random thought about the redraw, on possibility could be to give them the Syndicate Sword Master's ranged katana attack. It strays a bit from the ninja theme, but would remove the redraw issue, and honestly, when you get right down to it, ninja tend to be just as much about surprise as stealth, and what's more surprising that showing someone that they're not safe from your sword even a hundred feet away.
Hell, the Medic started shooting his HAND grenades from his rifle to avoid redraw. Why can't the Jonin?
I'll probably have to do a few editor mockups to show what I mean. However, I enjoy the notion of "soft" ninja who don't block or brace for impact, but instead hop around and "move like water." They need a lot more defence for that, though, but having "light" costumes helps.Quote:Well, I would more mean the arm and shin guards, this is partly spoken from having made a few "ninja" costumes myself which I felt came out pretty nicely. And since they're already dressed in smoke grey and such, why not have some armor on a part of your body you might block with?
But I see your point. -
Let me put it this way: I want my aesthetic choices to be as separate from my build choices as practicality allows. That is to say, if we want to have patrons, then these should be done in a different way. And, to be perfectly honest, I don't enjoy the concept of patron pools, either.
Either have your patron show up to help you from time to time in missions that allow that, or otherwise add the ability to take missions from said patron from time to time. But "having" to side with a specific patron because you don't want to suck is not a choice I want to be presented with. -
Quote:I agree with most of this. Ninja can stand to be made a little tougher for lack of any real support from the primary (henchmen or Mastermind), and that's across the board. I am also on board with the "fistful of shuriken" idea. Sorry to bring up Naruto, but that show set up a good precedent for a "hail of shuriken" technique that basically involves throwing many shurike in a cloud of projectiles, something which can work similar to Empty Clips.Originally Posted by AzureSkyCiel
All ninja-
Powers: All of them need KN protection. Since they're mostly melee oriented pets, lacking KB protection can be a big problem, and none of the secondaries give KB protection. Possibly immobilize to.
Furthermore, their need a massive defense buff, by level fifty all ninja have their defense increased by... About 1.9%, this does not even bring Genin out of the woeful single digits. Worst of all, other Pets that use Defense such as the Enforcers of the Thugs MMs and Protector bots grant higher defense buffs out of the box than the genin do at level fifty. By the time you get your second enforcer or protector bot who stacks this defense buff, they grant more defense than your jounin have at level fifty. Oh, and they can be slotted for defense buffs, making their ally/self defense buffing EVEN STRONGER as the buff's defense boost also increases with the MM's level. Something SERIOUSLY needs to be done.
Genin-
Art: Genin lost their equip graphics change when it was decided genin should not have archery, those losing a quiver they got. This was pretty sad since I tend to look forward to how a minion changes appearance with each upgrade, and thugs, right now, are the most visually impressive. Plus, I think with the Samurai vet reward costume pieces and martial arts booster, they could stand to look much better.
Powers: I will say right now that I never liked exploding Shuriken, perhaps if it could be changed into a long ranged cone of a handful of Shuriken?
Jounin-
Powers: The jounin could be compared to the Zombies Grave Knights... Except Grave Knights have a ranged attack out of the box. In the end this isn't such a big deal since by the time you get your first jounin, you'd have had your first upgrade for six levels, but it Caltrops does not strike me as a decent ranged attack or much in the way of area denial or mitigation.
Art: Okay, not a pressing issue as the genin, but like the genin, I think their appearence could stand for an upgrade with the help of the Samurai Vet reward and MA booster pieces, maybe have one of their upgrades involve getting a sleeveless baggy top with the irezumi/yakuza tattoos like the Tsoo enforcers have. I think this might make them look a bit more interesting as Sam puts it.
The Jounin does have a ranged attack. Unfortunately, it puts his weapon away, screwing his AI up an causing him to get stuck just cycling that crossbow attack. Bad move on the developers' part, because invariably when I hit him with Smokeflash, he uses that damn crossbow. You know, instead of Rising Dragon. Jerk!
As far as costumes go, I would be very much against using Samurai armour on any of the ninja with the possible exception of the Oni. Ninja are not samurai, and they should rely mostly on dodging attacks, not on heavy armour. I will, however, agree with improving them with the Ninja pack items, especially their face masks. They can stand to be so, so much better. -
Quote:Or the previous generation's concept of extremely obvious ninja who stroll around in broad daylight and engage in open combat with long swords and inept fisticuffs. Ninja in 80s movies, if they have any dignity at all, act more like Samurai, and for the most part act like common thugs anyway.Originally Posted by Tenzhi
As compared to the previous green, anthropomorphic pizza-eating joke ninja given to the masses and children? Naruto is, at least, a step up in the badassery department - a more lighthearted take on Ninja Scroll and Samurai Showdown-esque ninja.
Ninja were assassins who used disguise and hidden weapons, in much the same way as Altair from Assassin's Creed. The Splinter Cell/Metal Gear version of stealth ain't it. So even ninja as we have them now are a product of popular fiction. So if it'll be popular fiction, why choose 80s shot-on-shiteo shlock instead of 2000s absurd anime? -
To my mind, the problem arises from viewing the multiverse as a linear structure, where all alternate Earths exist in a single instance, i.e. there is only one Primal Earth and anything that's not in this particular universe is not Primal Earth.
By contrast, describing the multiverse as a two-dimensional structure (or three-, four- and on multi-dimensional structure) allows us to make "variants within variants," as it were. We don't have just one Primal Earth universe, we have an infinite number of Primal Earth universes, each practically identical and different only in trivial ways, such as some guy's name being Bobby instead or Robert or house cats having green fur.
Why bother writing such opaque fiction? Because it means you can draw an infinite amount of the same character from the same universe without actually impacting THIS particular universe that we inhabit. To an outside observer, it doesn't really matter. If character came from Warrior Earth and went to Praetoria, it doesn't matter which instance of the dimensions in question took part in the transfer, since you can trace this transfer to both origins. However, when a character ostensibly from Primal Earth shows up in, say, Werewolf Earth, though this may be a character we know, the actual character may still be on Earth, because this one we meet there came from Primal Earth++.
This could, in theory, explain Infernal. There are an infinite number of "Infernal Earth" dimensions out there, all of them identical. We got an Infernal from one, Praetoria got an Infernal from another, and if we travel to still another "Infernal Earth," we'll probably find Infernal still there with good probability. -
Quote:I would not actually be against this in spirit. But there's something I have to wonder, and that's how Smokeflash would work on a large brute. Granted, how it works on a flaming demon now isn't much of an easier question to answer.Originally Posted by SenseiBlur
Instead of being the Oni it is now, how about increasing its size to huge and giving it a large iron club (true oni folklore) to use the war mace powerset ? There you have CC from knockdown, big power, big pet since you're fond of size, and you have something completely different from the rest of the set. I still wouldn't really agree with the concept but it would be much more feasible towards your examples of trying to fit some folklore into the game.
But again, that's the sort of thing I had in mind, yes. -
Quote:Again, remember that Detonator does more damage with higher-tier henchmen, and that your highest-tier henchman does not have a self-destruct power.Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
The combination of having pets which do a debuff when they die combined with the ability to be able to order said pet to explode on command via detonator. I like the concept, but (being the synergy ***** I am) I immediately thought of this combo. That's a pretty strong "alpha suicide" combo right there.
*edit*
I actually thought of adding a "demoralisation" to-hit debuff on Battle Beetle death on YOU and your henchmen, but I reconsidered
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Quote:The thing is, you're mixing up form and function. People hate Ninja and Mercenaries for function pretty much first and foremost, while you seem to extrapolate that they hate them because they look ugly. I'm not saying the Oni is well-balanced or strong. Hell, I actually feel he's kind of weak. But I don't believe REPLACING him is the answer so much as FIXING him. Improve his attacks, increase his stats, give him more powers, retune his AI. There are many things which can be done to make the Oni better without replacing him with a completely different henchmen entirely.Originally Posted by SenseiBlur
I also never mentioned the AI of the set, which you seem to hate. I can deal with busted AI. I've been dealing with the oni (with busted AI) for years, and I see it as YOU see the commando, well less favorably actually. It's mediocre and sorely lacking. Its only redeeming quality is that the fire katana looks neat.
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Quote:This isn't unprecedented, though. Thugs get Gang War and Demon Summoning gets Living Hellfire, which I've seen spawn upwards of half a dozen Living Helfire things. Gang War is an obvious pain, but Living Hellfires never really struck me as one. I'm not sure how that is achieved, but it seems like there's a way.Originally Posted by SenseiBlur
I could get behind this except for one minor problem. Collision detection. Holy jesus on a stick can you imagine the collision detection issues we would have with just -one- of these MMs on a team with all those chances to spawn critters and such?
Incidentally, I wouldn't be opposed to disabling collision with henchmen for not just the Mastermind, but for all players, at least the ones on the team. Let 'em shove my bugs around. I don't mind.
I just wanted to be different here. I've seen a lot of NPCs blow up when they die. And I don't just mean Nemesis Warhulks. Even simple things like Sky Raider Forcefield Generators hurt you and knock you down when they explode. I just felt it was a cool mechanic. I would not, however, be opposed to just scrapping those.Quote:Originally Posted by SenseiBlur
Another thing, You seem fond of the "pay you back in spades" death moves but it seems a bit.... counter productive? I don't know. By adding things like that through upgrades it kind of seems like you would want people to send their pets in to die purposefully so they could be affected by the death auras before the real team goes in.
Not sure how gamable these are with Detonator, but I do know that Detonator does a crapton of damage and does the most on the strongest henchman, who is not only your tank, but has no self-destruct power. So, yeah, you can rush in a Sentinel and blow it up for some fire AND some toxic damage, but you'd probably get more out of your Battle Beetle anyway... Provided you wanted to scrap that.
The problem with spreading infections is that they don't really work well in melees, not unless they're very long and very dense. I guess it might work in the ITF and such, but in regular fights, it just doesn't seem like it's worth the exotic mechanic to handle what could be handled via a simple "enemy aura" debuff for the disease power. Have one enemy become sick and stay sick for, say, 10 seconds, and have it debuff all foes within 10 feet of that enemy while it's sick. The game already supports that and it works well enough.Quote:Originally Posted by SenseiBlur
Oh, and as far as the "kill you and spawn things goes". Remember the 'original' clockwork? The nasty brown ones that shock you with electricity? When the bosses die they spawn the little mini clockwork things... I'm assuming there's a specific trigger for that. Perhaps that trigger could be used, alongside the mechanism that makes the chain lightning jump from enemy to enemy, to make your theoretical power work. That way, everyone who would be infected would be infected very quickly (which should prevent people from intentionally manipulating kills to keep a constant stream of bugs going) and right up front. If the enemy is killed within the duration of said debuff you get your little critters. Random thought.
As far as Parasites go, both the Mstermind and the Sentinel ones, I'm not sure how I want to handle them. I don't want a mechanic that only works on enemy death, specifically since it'd be useless on enemies that don't die very quickly. Unless we go with Techbot's idea of casting Parasites on defeated enemies as Warshades are wont to do, we need a power which carries either a debuff or damage with it, and since Mastermind direct damage sucks by design, it has to be a debuff. But if it is a debuff, then we have to choose between it being strong or being AoE, and such a system of spread might mean it has to be very weak. Just feels like single-target would be easiest to balance. -
Quote:Personally, I wish snipes in this game would either die in a fire and be replaced with something that doesn't suck, or otherwise fixed up so they don't suck. If a charge-up mechanic would allow me to snipe for damage that is worth the time it takes to charge up, then I might be inclined to see it introduced. Then again, I'd prefer it if Blaster snipes simply got the Dom snipe treatment. That, at least, would be a step in the right direction.Originally Posted by Tenzhi
I can see such a mechanic being useful for a few powers. Having it in a snipe could be useful - we're already essentially stuck "charging" those to full right now, after all.
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Quote:Like I said - a retextured Arachnobot which shoots toxins probably shouldn't be as big of a development investment, plus it would be more visually strikingOriginally Posted by beyeajus
The bees T9 move I was just trying to think of something that could be used from something that already exists (vial of bees), simply cause it would be easy to create.
On the flip side, I have nothing against a really large swarm following you around. -
Quote:Hey now! How did you know that insulting me is the one true way to my heart?Originally Posted by SenseiBlur
As far as needing something oddball to round out a set I think that's a ******** call. Robots have nothing oddball, demons have nothin oddball, mercenaries have nothing oddball. The only ones that stray and have a different final henchman are necromancy and thugs, and we know how popular the thug brute is.
This has absolutely nothing to do with wanting to be a "Cyberninja" or whatever other silly terms you can come up with; it has to do with wanting more fun in the class I love to play, and feeling like the set has flow to it instead of coming to the third tier and pausing for a "What the... I don't...huh?". I realise the Oni is from Japanese Folklore but it still does not fit with the current ninjas we have. It's not even like an oni from folklore, if it was it would be wielding a massive club and be using the war mace powerset (in fact.. I would settle for this as well. That would surely shake things up and still keep it melee oriented without diverting to the silly magic aspect).
Before you call ********, you may want to get your facts straight. You'll note I said "...if the set doesn't have something big at the end..." which both Robotics and Demon Summoning do. The Assault Bot is one of the largest pets available to players in the game, and while the Demon Prince does very much resemble the Hellfire Gargoyle, it's still rather a lot bigger because it stands upright.
Also, bringing up how popular the set is and blaming it on having a Japanese fire demon in it is a logical fallacy. Just because people don't play Ninja Masterminds very often, it doesn't mean the theme is the culprit. Much more likely, it's the fact that Ninja Masterminds suck for approximately the first 24 levels or so, and yes, I know what I'm talking about. The Genin are incredibly fragile and the one Jounin can't really make up for that. Add in the fact that Smokeflash requires on the AI to make the henchmen in question (at that level, the one Jonin) use his strongest attack while hidden, which he often doesn't, and you have a recipe for disaster. Poor stats and questionable AI sink ninja far more than their theme. They could all be catgirls and they'd still suck.
As far as Mercenaries go, they are BEYOND BORING. The only thing that saves them is that I love the sound of gunfire and Mercenaries feel like they're firing guns CONSTANTLY. But as far as final henchmen go, the Commando is easily the most boring. All he is is just another guy (with a frankengun, no less) and nothing more. I really don't know what you could add for what is effectively soldiers, but I'd have liked something like a PPD shell or some such. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commando is fun as a reference, but as far as "the big guy" goes, it's sorely lacking.
Which brings us to the Thugs Bruiser. Yes, he is "just a guy," but he's a big guy, and he looks less like a literal thug and more like some kind of Mad Max cage fighter. As well, his powers are visibly and obviously different from those of his peers, making him feel rather a lot more impressive than another thug with a gun. And the reason people "hate" the Bruiser is all down to his AI, getting stuck tossing rocks and scattering things with Hand Clap. I'm not sure if they haven't fixed that since the last time I played him, but I was always able to control him reasonably well. The Bruiser IS an oddball, and I hope you're not trying to say people don't play Thugs much.
You're arguing for a pet peeve. You're arguing a point of opinion. Please don't insult my intelligence when I disagree. -
I should probably comment on the parasites here. My original idea for the Mastermind personal power came from the Parasites from Alien Swarm (Which is a free game on Steam! Play it!), in that they're little critters which hug your face, make it almost impossible to fight, drain your health, kill you and spawn more of themselves. The characteristic feature of parasites is that they can very quickly destroy an entire squad. As soon as one Marine dies from a Parasite, more spawn and jump at the others, who then die and spawn even more.
Ideally, this is what I'd have liked to do with Parasites for Masterminds, but here's the thing - I can't. I can't design a power which kills on single application, especially for a Mastermind's personal use. So the other thing I could think of was a powerful debuff. Yes, it's single-target unlike almost any other, but it should be a decent-strength debuff usable on larger enemies like AVs, and I envision it lasting a rather long time, like 30 seconds to a minute. I also envision it having a relatively short recharge, so that you could infect multiple enemies with it.
Now, I did think about having spawned parasites jump on nearby enemies and infect them, and I guess it can be done, but... It kind of makes it pointless to make artwork for the things if all they'll do is spawn and immediately die.
I know Mastermind "utility" powers are supposed to be big, infrequent-use powers like Repair or Serum, but I wanted to be different and design one that's less powerful, but used more frequently. I also wanted to design something like Living Hellfire, in that it's a debuff AND a summon. You can even have the power summon parasites that emerge from the infected enemy's body while it's still alive, for extra squick factor
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Well, since you asked:
I like the spirit of the set, but I think you've designed it a bit too monotonously. Everything is pretty much just swarms of insects that do this or that. Now, that's not necessarily a BAD thing, especially if you're trying to go for something simpler and more marketable to the development team, but it just seems like you could do more with this. I mean, you have like three powers that consist of insects at your enemies' feet, for Pete's sake
I'm not really sure what I'd change, to be honest, but I think you might do well to introduce a few larger insects. Say, for the hold, you could send a large hornet out to sting your enemy and hold him like that. As well, with a set like this, you're probably going to want to go the Illusions route and add in at least one more summon. You could even make a complete Phantom Army clone with a summon of bombardier beetles who deal toxic damage which washes away in time, and who cannot be killed due to their tough shells and small-ish bodies.
Finally, while I like the Swarm summon, it leaves me a bit... Cold. I'd much rather see a more proper summon, something on the order of a fleshy Arachnobot Blaster. Just a human-sized eight-legged bug for which we already have the skeleton, which follows you around and claws at things.
*edit*
And I don't believe insect phobias really enter into it. Any set you design is going to have people "unable to play it" for a variety of reasons. Remember all the trouble Sonic went through, and that it still does? The game occasionally has disgusting things. It's what adds variety. -
Quote:Were it not for the problem of giving Masterminds powerful attacks, I would agree. I can certainly see why you'd want it as a temp power, and I... Guess I could see it as obtainable via a semi-rare activity.Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
I want this on my Bots/Traps MM though!
He has a freaking Orbital Railcannon that needs using! (Other than Warburg nukes which stand in for now)
But again - I want this as a regular nuke for a regular Blast set, because if we DO make a Pulse Rifle Blast set, there's no better nuke for it
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Personally, I find that a lot of Mastermind set suggestions tend to miss one big aspect of what makes a Mastermind cool, and that's a kickass final henchmen. Some sets tend to miss the ball, too, like Mercenaries, who just about scrape buy with just another guy in the face of the Commando.
The Ninja Oni is, indeed, an oddball, but you need something oddball to round the set out so you don't end up with a boring set. And, I'm sorry to say, "just another Jonin" IS boring, even if he has triple blades. If the set can't have something big right at the end (and this one can't), then at least it should have something iconic, and a Japanese folklore fire demon is pretty much that. It's especially iconic, considering most of the other demons we have in the game come from Christian fiction.
I realise that perhaps you may want to play cyberninja or just simple people with very sharp skills dressed as ninja, but the set is themed to fit ninja fiction more than ninja reality, because ninja in reality didn't wear black jump suits and didn't fight with long blades. As such, it takes in Hollywood's bastardisation of the concept and puts it in with Japanese folklore to create a set that has at least a little diversity in it.
Now if only we didn't have to use a bow for personal attacks... -
Quote:Actually, ours is better in terms of animation. Theirs only has an animation for walking forward. You still run in all other directions. Kind of a letdown, to be honest. On the flip side, it doesn't disable your powers. On the flip flip side, you have to hold a button to walk.Originally Posted by Lothic
Well let's just say I'm happy that our Devs "borrowed" Champions Online's Acrobatics travel power. We call it Ninja Run here. We also got the Walk power about a month after Champions Online launched with its Walk feature. Coincidence much?
*edit*
As far as the topic goes, here's my problem:
Whenever I use a charge-up power, I feel like I should be charging it up fully and that anything less than full power is a waste of the power. Champions balances this by having powers cost more the more you charge them (I think) but their energy scheme is "different," to put it like that. Call me weird, but I prefer to always use my powers at their full, err... Power and all a charge-up mechanic would do is introduce a way for me to essentially "waste" a power by not charging it up enough. I realise that such a mechanic would start from base stats and go up anyway, so I'm not losing anything, but the mental response I have to this is still the same: "I can be doing more with this power. Why am I not doing more with this power?"
A bit of context: I have always, ALWAYS been a fan of slow, deliberate, hard-hitting attacks. "Big guy" characters are always by far my favourites, because even though they may be sluggish in their attacks, each hit HURTS. As such, using a mechanic which encourages me to undercook my attacks and just blast them out half-ready is not something I'd be terribly ecstatic about. Even if it doesn't make a power hit harder (which would be odd and kind of missing the point) but instead added more secondary effects, it'd still make me feel like I HAVE to charge them up, meaning I WILL charge them up anyway, meaning the system is just a hassle.
As City of Heroes is built now, it does that on its own. Your lower-level attacks are quick, uncharged jabs and your higher-level attacks are the big charge-up hits. Energy Transfer vs. Energy Punch, say. I'd rather keep it at that.
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On the other hand, one thing I did like in Champions was attacks you held down to maintain, like the Dual Pistols... Sorry, "Munitions" power that had you fire repeatedly. The longer you held down the button, the longer the character would shoot. Of course, I still held that sucker down as long as I could, so I'm not sure there's much of a difference.