ThePill

I'm having a hard time pinning down what 90s comic book high tech armor looked like, and crossing it with what we know of David Nakayama's art style.

Elemental? I was thinking have The Outcasts jump headlong into costumed super powered supervillainy.

Which, I realize I've lobbied for before.

Outcast are messy, but they have a very defined look and theme, once they all start exhibiting their mutantness. Blue skinned Freezers and Shockers, Orange skinned Scorchers and Gray for the Bricks. And to top it off, they wear color coded t-shirts and symbols indicating which power they are.

So, my proposal, as noted above is something I've talked about before, is to just push them over the spandex edge and start gearing them up to be costumed super powered with a focus on super powers.

Leave the under 20s exactly where they're at looks-wise. But then, as a bonus, as they turn up post-20, they'd start branching into spandex.

Maybe start with 20-28 or so as just spandex tops for the male and now, female members of the gang. Roll in Earth/fire/ice/psi control, while also keeping the tank whatever hybrids that we see with the under 20s, on the boss types and of course, possibly make their power choices a bit more robust to make them a match for players. And to pair up with Frostfire's gimmick, make a good portion of them use two different types of powers (Hopefully, they'll get labeled like the Tsoo bosses, so that they'll be of a type.) Then, add in the occasional SupaTroll in some sort of sleeveless spandex. Primarily, because it'd be a shame to let the big guys go to waste as just a one-off Troll Rave thing. (Also, because huge monster enemies are fun, and it'd break up the multi-hued to mob spawns.) Maybe boss types here, start wearing masks.

Then, post 28, full spandex for the whole gang masks, head details, the whole shebang. Reserve capes for the boss types, Lts. can hold on to their hats or maybe add in vests or shoulder things. Maybe at this point, throw in some Radiation and Plant control/thorns/nature affinity and Gravity to round out the remaining variety. At this point, you push the SupaTrolls to just Lieutenant types, as well as a couple dual types for flavor. Heck, if you wanted to get really ambitious, you could give the Boss-types theme specific looks depending on their powersets, like the Tsoo bosses.

Bearing in mind, that this is in addition to every other type, as opposed to replacing a set of guys. Keep the variety across all levels. Otherwise, we'll end up with another Circle of Thorns situation where you only see one or two types of magic depending on level bands. Maybe even make a SupaDupaTroll Giant Monster(I figure if he or she's Kronos sized) event for Founders Falls or Skyway, could even add in a Godzilla reference here(because he's big and green and why not, breathes radioactive fire.)

I like the redemption angle that somebody mentioned above, but the only way for that to work, for me, is if there's still a number of them on the other side of the law. You could even have the occasional helper Outcast NPC thrown into random Outcast missions, to show that there's still Outcasts that are fighting to change from criminals to heroes.

Roll them into Peregrine Isles, have them going head to head with the Malta, what with Malta being the guys that want to take down super powered people, a villain group that was all superpowers would seem a natural fit to go head to head against all the time. This isn't about mutant oppression, that's for the other guys, this is mostly about turf. And of course, Outcast on Outcast fights, because they don't keep their in-fighting just amongst themselves or even indoors.

Even if they only showed up in Radios and maybe tips, it'd be adding something just a little bit more comic book to the game.

C'mon, really? Nobody's going to say it?

They all look caucasian now. Where's the racial diversity?

I don't recall. But, the new one has jumping puzzles.

MMs have bodyguard mode, which so long as they're in defensive mode, means they share your damage. Not quite a "proper" defense, but ablating some of the damage goes a long way. Especially, once you have a lot of pets out.

E-mail yourself an inf infusion and you're out of the Arachnos costume really quickly. Heck, barring the story, the best reason to do the VEAT arc at the beginning is to get the extra costume slot.

Just wanted to note that the Long burst that SoA's get is awesome.

Sam-- First of all, have you checked out what sort of defense bumps people have done with set IOs and the like? Because hokey pete.

I mentioned my MM-style idea in one of the more recent threads, but I'll give you a summary of my idea here.

I'd make the armor bits into "pets". With an MM as a base, you still have a low base hp and whatever else. But, the trick is, that what most of the enemies are going to end up shooting at, is the "armor" pets as opposed to you. Plus, as the pets auto-fire, that would leave you to move freely. No rooting necessary, just direct those pets to fire at whoever and watch the bodies pile up. And to top it off, when a pet dies/armor piece gets blown up? You just summon a replacement.

I'll grant you, I assume you'd get smeared in PVP, as people can just tab straight to the man under the armor, but in PvE? Barring ambushes that lock straight onto you, you're going to be sitting pretty under all the pets.

With reticles/target boxes being as they are, I have no idea how this would work though.

Or you could just live with the redraw.

I read about Force of Will, where'd the other info leak from?

Your kid has a great idea! This game needs monkeys!

Pretty sure those are what's his name's special pets.

OOoh... with an Ammo swap type toggles for each element.

I think it might have to be it's own AT...

Is /assault dominator blapping viable? (edited to add: Oh right, like I care if it's really viable (see above /devices blapping))Because I think I have yet another horribly gimped alt to make.

I think I read a lot more comics than you do.

See, that's kind of covered with a Weaponized Suit MM. Sure, things can aim at you directly. But barring a taunt, most thing focus on pets. So, you'd have the semblance of being shot at, and having access to the MMs 3 attacks. You'd have all the health of a Mastermind, but the pets would be mitigate the direct damage to you in the same way that they do when they're running around.

Also, consider that they wouldn't go running around willy nilly. They have to attack from wherever you are all the time. Maybe it's too much power.

I've mentioned it before, but one of my Batman-like characters is /dev blapper. Also, temp/day job powers.

Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to the changes to the Fighting and Presence power pools.

Okay, I think I figured it out.

Mind Master Mastermind. I know, crazy, right?

While not ideal, it'd give you more power. And it'd let you take over more guys and give you more control. Seems like you'd still have to figure out if allies can still attack your guys or not.

Not sure how it would work for entering instances, because I think MM pets seem to get resummoned when the cross between zones and instances.

I see what you're saying, but how do you fill out a whole set with this idea? I could see a Mind control variant where a confuse was traded for a body jump. But, as a whole set, it doesn't seem feasible.