Signature powers... for players -- I had this idea

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Looks like this idea is turning into something more tangible.

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So I had this idea pop into my mind today. I was thinking about how for some players the 32+ game starts to die down because you aren't getting powers as often and leveling is slower. I was looking at Arch Villains and Heroes and remembered each of them had their own signature power. I thought to myself, wouldn't it be cool if Heroes (And villains) could create their own signature powers? Well, here was my idea:

The Basics

Starting at level 33, you earn "points" toward your signature power. You basically get one point per level all the way up to 50. Each point is spent in a tree that modifies the ability of the power. There is a special "lock" system in place so you cannot just focus all your points into one category. (IE, focusing all points into "Hold" so that the power is like mag 20)

Players could choose from various attributes

Teleport Self
Damage
Hold
Heal Self
Heal Other
Accuracy
Speed
AOE
Etc.

A player could spread his points out creating a jack of all trades power master of none. They could chose to focus on certain categories but only to an extent. The various categories will work in a tree like system. The bottom of the tree would be:

Damage -- Heal Other -- Heal Self -- Buff (Speed, Recharge, +Damage, etc... only one of these) -- Hold -- Disorient -- Teleport

Focusing more points into a given category would enhance the effect. However, after X amount of points the category becomes maxed. Spending points in a certain category would unlock the next set.

IE

AOE -- Range (5 is starting range or melee, more points enhances the range) -- Recharge Timer -- Etc

All signature powers start out very generic. They all just about have the same recharge (Which would be very long to begin with until points are spent), and have the same statistics. (Assuming players invested in the same area, IE, Heal vs Heal, Damage Vs Damage, etc)

The Initial Pick, Target Foe, Self Buff, or Target Player

This is the player's very first pick at level 33. They will chose what their signature power targets. Perhaps your defender's special power is a heal on a player. Maybe your Corruptor wants to decimate his foe with an attack. Perhaps your Tanker uses a special shield. Etc.

All signature powers start out with the same animation.

New Unlockable, Level 35

At level 40, players will unlock the animations. Here is where players can customize the animation of their signature power. There would be various animations to chose from. The animation would have an impact on what the power does. Basically, the animations would be split up into:

1 Second Animations
2 Second Animations
3 Second Animations
4 Second Animations
Interruptable

Basically, the shorter the animation time, the less effect the power does, and the longer (all the way to interruptable) the greater effect it does. Thus, a 1 second power receives no bonus but perhaps a 4 second animation power receives a 60% bonus. (Just an example)

By this point too, you are earning more points (One per level) to further customize your power.

Level 40 New Unlockable -- Effect

Here is the next custom option available. You are able to change the effect of what the power looks like. A player would have various choices from:

Explosion (Fire for instance)
Energy (Various range energy attacks)
Buff Effect (Maybe a shield)
Lightning
Etc

Basically, a player is chosing the particle effects associated with the power. Up until this point, all signature powers used the same particle effect. (Something generic)

Level 45 New Unlockable -- Colors

At this level, you can now chose various colors for the power. You can customize the look and change various aspects of it. This will give it a more unique feel.

New Unlockable Level 50 -- Sharing your power with others!

Using the invention system, a player can share his signature power with other players. He is able to create a one use temporary power. There are limitations though:

1) A character can only have one "gifted" signature power at a time.

2) A character can only receive a "gifted" signature power once every 30 minutes.

Basically, this would be a cool way to show your friends "Hey look what I made, try it and tell me what you think"

The requirements to make the temporary power would be the same for all signature powers.

Naming your signature power

A player can name their signature power at level 33. (When they first get them) This name can be changed at anytime.

How enhancements work in signature powers

Signature Powers will not be effected by any kind of enhancement. Their accuracy, damage, heal, duration, etc is all determined by how a player spends their points. They also cannot be buffed or debuffed similar to how Veteran Rewards work. Thus, no outside powers can effect them.

How will they not be imbalanced?

My main balancing factor for these powers will be giving them long recharge times similar to accolades. Basically, these powers are not meant to be part of an attack chain or turn a Brute into a healer. They would mostly be used for tough fights (Such as an Arch Villain). There is a place to spend points to lower the recharge time.

What if I wanted to modify my power?

There would be a place to edit them similar to the way you can edit costumes. It would cost a infamy, influence, or maybe some salvage pieces.

The place would be like a training room or something in the university. The idea is you "train" into modifying your skill.

[/ QUOTE ]Great ideas the only thing I don't agree with is very long recharge times I think you should make it have normalish recharge times but maybe not let people like melee have heals or something like that but if a it gives someone like a blaster an awesome ranged damage attack that would be fine. Other than that I like it send it in to positron.

From a layman's perspective on the concept of the animations I've narrowed it down to four stages of customization necessary on a basic level.

First the animation itself. How the character actually moves, and does he have to load a weapon first. If it's truly customizable there would have to be at least 3, and preferably 5 animations per every power-set already existing. If you're using an existing animation already it's not really a custom power.

Secondly the Aura around your character at the time of the animation. This is easy enough to do as Auras already exist. How long will the Aura stay with your character after the attack has completed? Contingent upon how the Devs built Auras it might be difficult to stack custom ones on top of each other.

Third and probably the most difficult are the Particle Effects on Explosive, Ranged, and to a lesser extent Melee powers. This is presumably the hardest to customize based on how they're originally set up. Take Energy Blast as a good example. There is a separate jpeg for blue, red, and green ones. There isn't a master jpeg where a color is applied after being loaded. (As costume pieces are.) This would have to be entirely reworked or a massive upload for the accommodating information.

Finally, the fourth layer would be an archive of various sounds. Obviously there has to be some kind of noise for your power. Thus new ones would have to be created.

Based on the amount of work required for such an endeavor it's likely that CoH and CoV will never see custom powers. There is a silver lining to all this though. I'm certain that in a new game (CoX2) it will exist. Something where the devs can build it from the ground up with this in mind from the beginning.

...Why would they make CoX2?

great idea, would be a long while before we ever saw it in-game tho (ill be here waiting) =P

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I would lvoe to be able to make a sig pwoer for my ill/ff controler. I allready know what it would e to. he would focus for a while after targeting a nearby location and essentualy creating a powerfull enough illusion taht it warps the very fabric of time and brings in his futrue self as a pet for 1-2 minutes with every power my controler has. after the 1-2 minute time, the future me dissapeares and I am teleported and disoriented to where he was summoned. in other words, it's a time paradox where I call my futrue self in as a pet and make him fight and even if he dies, I still live and get TPed to his spawn point from anywhere in the zone. which means I could lt him die and lead villians in RV all aroudn as they try to kill me, only for me to be TPed away before they can kill me. I like this idea and say sig powers should be implimented, but only after compleating a very hard TF/Trial to earn it.

i wish
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You know this and my post New Special Powers goes together very well. Try reading it and tell me what you think. Yours is cool too btw.

uh no - with this system there's no point in having yours, since we could design our own "uber power" - why would we need both?

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Originally Posted by Psychoti "....so I headbutted the blind chick."

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Letting the devs blow away this idea for CoX2 (Which, by the way, will never happen.) is pointless. The devs always say that changes will always happen... And Ghost Widow told me that they already have plans up to I13. Think that in 4 issues from now, if the devs decided to do this, it would be at all reasonable to think that they would have enough time? The invention system is no more complicated than this is, because all the animations, auras, power effects, EVERYTHING is there. All they need to do is bring it all into one system, add a few more effects, much like costume pieces which take very, very, very little time to make, and this system is easily doable.

What the devs will try to do, I bet, if they ever stop pretending not to notice these suggestion topics, is pretend that it would be hard to add these features to the game. I remember hearing that they said the reasons why they couldn't make Patron Powers respeccable is that they 'don't have the technology to dump contacts.' Anyone who has half a brain can immediately tell that that is complete bull; you don't necesarilly have to delete the contact from your list (And making it possible to do so is likely as hard as it was to drop missions, which took them maybe a week to code or less).

This system would be easy to make, makes sense in terms of character customization and END-GAME CONTENT, and would make everyone happy. At this point I don't have a clue what reason could explain why this won't happen, other than the fact that the Devs' new "Give players what they want... ...(within reason)" policy is simply a marketing ploy. Just like double XP weekend.

I dont see why we'd need a CoX2 when they can just build off this one.

Hey guys thanks again for all your support. Maybe we can try and get a developer response in this thread or a community representative. Lighthouse does a weekly report that he sends to the developers or presents to them. (I saw him talking about it in a recent post)

Perhaps we could try and get him (PMing him?) to mention this thread in his report. Maybe he could or a developer could reply. Even if it is just a "hi I've seen it" type of thing.

Thanks for your support and keeping this thread alive!

Wasn't whoever was playing Ghost Widow going to inform Castle about this?

/signed

I love the idea. only have one question that prolly was asked already but did not have the time to read the complete thread. What of the people who have character at lvl 50? would it stock points?

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I love the idea. only have one question that prolly was asked already but did not have the time to read the complete thread. What of the people who have character at lvl 50? would it stock points?

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It was asked, and we'd decided that these points would stack up just like unused levels.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Venture I'd never use a nuke in a superhero universe. You nuke a city, you kill 1.5 million people minus one. The last guy not only gets superpowers from the explosion, but ones that let him survive a nuke...and wow, is he torqued off

Tank you

Great Idea!!!!

Where do I sign up?

I was the one who asked Ghost Widow to tell Castle. And I will do it again next time she comes on.

bump

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I'm really hoping there's a way to implement this idea within the game engine. I wants me some cool and unique tricks, durnit!

Totally kicks the crap out of my signature power topic. Nice work Ultimus.

Beautiful idea.. /signed

If this topic drops below the first couple of pages, bump it :P

/signed again.

/moresigned