I LIKE!
/signed
/Signed for the thought and the fact you actually listed their powers and effects. Sheer genius
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I only read about half the replies, so I might be repeating someone else.
I have a couple of possible suggestions:
One: Make one power that can be taken called "Back Story" or something such as that, and then this unlocks the actual power pool which doesn't come out of your normal power choices. Then how often you get a new power can be say every 5, or so levels. I'm not entirely sure how many powers you would want a given character to have from these, so the level could be adjusted.
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This could be a good idea, but I would like them to have the opportunity to gain the powers at an accelerated rate if they so choose. People who are choosing "Student" would probably want it rather early on.
Still, I can see the wisdom in this. How about every 3 Levels, though? 4 Levels?
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Two: Based off of the previous, but with a slightly larger power-hit: One pool power/back story: I.e. you take a power such as "Rogue Back Story" and that unlocks the Rogue power pool, and then if you want something from another you have to take that power pool. This hurts multi-dippers though, but it feels more appropriate this way, and makes it so that the players decide how many of the backstory power pools they want in spite of a 1/level type thing.
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I like this quite a bit, and feel it should go hand in hand with the first idea as well. Making it very easy to get one power pool full, but upping the disadvantage for multiple pools is a great idea, as I wanted to encourage diversity.
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Three: The strictist and most limiting would be to make it another choice like Origin at the beginning, but this would limit you to one power pool.
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This has been suggested before by Empress. While I liked her ideas very much, the more I think about it, the more uncomfortable I am with tying these ideas to origin, as it forces people to choose these powers, and then only have one.
I don't want to force people to give this idea a try, as that seems counter to the basic idea of the new concepts (Mayhem Missions, Inventions), which is to make them optional.
Only letting someone pick one also seems limiting. I'd rather strike this idea and meld your first two together. 
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Bottom-Line: I don't think it should be one power choice/power in power pool. I also don't think it should be completely free. It needs to fit somewhere in-between, there are a few suggestions that fit this that could work. I'm almost in favor of the enhancement slot replacement, because, especially at the beginning, it feels like you have too many, so it would feel natural to take a power instead, though one might wish they hadn't when they get towards the end.
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I agree with this utterly, and maintain that BSPPs as an alternate choice to slots is a good idea, but it may become less viable now that we know Inventions will "require" so many slots per power to fully appreciate.
Thanks for your input! Let's keep the conversation going!
my idea about origins and backstories never "forced" anything on anyone.... it just gave a headstart for a particular backstory pool....
it gave you "something" for picking your origin... but it didnt force you to choose one of another, as it did not "prevent" you from choosing other "origin based" background pools if you wanted to.
also... increasing penalties for multiple pools does NOT encourage, enhance, or aid diversity...
what it DOES do... is make the "background" less important than the "benifit"
if you can only max out one pool, your going to take the pool that gives you the most benifit, reguardless of its "theme" or how that "Theme" fits your character.
the object is NOT to make players limited.... but to make Specialization... ACTUALLY specialization.... i.e. make it difficult to "max out" multiple pools (if not impossible), but never to make it difficult to aquire SOME of the powers in multiple pools...
and never, ever, make it a sacrifice to diversify.... all thats doing is encouraging mini-maxing.
Hm. Therein lay the difficulty.
Okay, let's say that we were to have these BSPPs side by side with the other origins (If I understand you correctly). Is it your intention to add Back Story Powers to the origins like "Magic" and "Science"? Or are their inherent abilities satisfactory?
my original idea for encorporating backstory and origin was this:
Selecting your origin (level 0) automatically granted you the "inherant" first ability in that origin's "BSPP"
when you reached the first level where you could choose a BSPP, and you went into the list of available pools, you would see that you already have one power in the bspp of the origin you choose...
so, for every other BSPP durring this first selection, you could spend your first point in the first or the second power (ala PPs)
however, in your origin pool, you would have the choice of the second or third power in the pool...
Allowing that, because people already know you're a magic origin.. you have the "ability" to tell them more about your magical past (granting the character its next bspp power)
where as, telling those interested something new about you (that you were a student, or a lone wolf, etc..) would be unknown before then and be starting with the inital choices.
Combines with a structure that places all the "best" powers in a bspp at the top (you'll remember I suggest before that the pools have 6 powers, not four), and a limited number of total pool power selections (I beleive I said 9)
If a person wanted to "get to the good stuff", at the BEST they would only be able to acheive that for three bsp pools... thus limiting the potential of mini-maxing naturally.
Now, what this ALSO does... is enable players to choose Multiple Origins on the same character (for all of those magically-imbued robot ninja out there)
because "origin" is now something you can "purchase" in the bsp pools, though you start the game as a Mutant, you can later "explain" how you are also a martial artist (take powers in the Natural bsp pool), and that really, your mutant powers just allow you to use the Crystal of Awsomness, where your effectiveness really comes from (taking a power in the magic bsp pool)
It not only gives you a "slight" bonus, for choosing a particular origin (a single power headstart) without sacrificing any of your power choices (meaning that you could max out your origin and still have enough power choices left to diversify)
...but it enables you to customize and refine your origin to uniquely fit your character.
all the while, maintaining the balance of the current pools (i.e. you have a limited number of choices, if you want the good stuff from a particular pool, you'll have to balance that out with less from another), without "forcing" any character to specialize (with nine powers, you still have enough to get to the "second teir (3rd power)" or more in 5 bsp pools, if you want to.... but doing so means you miss out on the "powerful" powers deeper into each pool (of course I use the term "powerful" loosely, as we intend for BSP's to be "nice" but not "necessary") )
Very interesting suggestions. I like it!
/signed
"...freedom isn't a commodity to compromise." -- Captain America, New Avengers #21
Guide to Base Teleporters
Empress, I don't know why I didn't fully realize your suggestion before, but now that I read it again, I like it.
/signed.
^_^ BSPPs for life!
I have to say... I do prefer us being on the same page
/signed
great original idea, marcian, andd great innovation on it empress... as someone who has a story for each of his 90+ toons, it'd be nice to have it reflected in game in some manner... i'd really like to see something like this implemented in game... thanks for the great ideas guys!
@Johnstone & @Johnstone 2
ediblePoly.com
All my characters
<QR> I kinda like it.
What does QR mean?
I like the ideas but I think something like this should be seperate from the powers system. Maybe something like the ancilliary skills system they were planning for the universities would work with these kind of skill pools? Have it be a seperate system rewarding a new skill every other odd level (so, 3, 7, 11, etc.). So no one has to waste power slots on noncombat skills.
And QR mean Quick Reply BTW. 
Blackavaar, there are several theories on how to deal with this issue being easier to obtain. As a matter of fact, the past four pages have been nothing but Empress and I debating different methods of delivering these powers.
The consenus is at the bottom of page 6. You may read it there, and see that you are not that far off.
As a matter of fact, your idea sounds to be similar to ideas around pages low five high six (we've being doing LOTS of talking).
Read this and get back to me.
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What does QR mean?
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It means Quick reply. I was responding to the OP instead of whoever was before me.
I think maybe you should do an "update" of the original idea, Tobay...
I think we struck upon some solid revisions durring our conversation that many "new readers" might miss. And whether it sounds arrogant or not...
I'd kinda like to hear new posts about the idea "as it stand now"... rather than having good solid posters read the OP, and offer up suggestions that we've already discussed.
In Statesman's recent interview, Jack Emmert answered my question (whoot!), and then went on to add: "I wish we could add something into each mission that would allow someone to be a scientist. Or a doctor. Or a thief. Or whatever."
This comment resonated with me entirely because of this thread. I am going to revise the idea based on the feedback that has been given. In the meantime, however, I have revived this topic in order to allow people to compare it to Mr. Emmert's comments, discussing and giving feedback that may influence my revised idea.
Thank you.
Im not sure how he was able to tie in the concept of "prestige AT's" to the idea that missions could directly relate to a character's "profession"...
but I like the idea of, perhaps, taking a collection of missions that evolve the "backstory" of your character somewhat... could be an alternate way of aquiring BSPs, through a system similar to respec taskforce/trials, thus enabling them to be more benificial, and also directly limiting a players ability to aquire too many of them (if they had one of these "solo taskforces" every 10 levels..?)
would cut into the sense of "this is just a fun cool way to evolve your character's personal history"
but at the same time, since they are individual (scaled and organized for soloing) it would be more like "living" the characters past... instead of "talking" about it. it would also be a cool introduction to the task force system already in place, and give new content for characters in every stage of the game.
"nj" I love the idea, you have my vote, signed!!! Would love to see this come out in a future issue!!
I agree!
would definatly add to the game. good idea.
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good idea but here's where you earn the thumbs down. i have a stalker and have a very tight build already. i can't get some of the powers i want (hasten or epic pool powers) much less these powers. the only way i would be able to get those is to sacrifice my fitness set (no) or my epic set (no).
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You say no to the idea because you have a character that would not choose to take them for a tight-build reason? Uhh, okay. My Defender simply cannot squeeze Boxing and Tough into her build-- perhaps these powers would be better removed from the game 
On the subject, I think this is a very interesting idea. I'd love to see more things like this integrate into the game. Personally, I think the Invention system should have been done through a power pool.
/signed
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I'm with Mann on this one. I really like the idea but I don't see more than a couple of powers in total that I'd sacrifice power picks for on any of my builds. If you make these powers inherents that you get at levels 5, 10, 20, and 40 and have them not take up power picks I'll /sign.
I love the idea, and the values seem workable (though I'm sure tweaks would have to be made here and there). Here's a concern I have though. Won't Student become useless at higher levels?
Only read the first couple pages, sorry if I'm reasking a question.
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I love the idea, and the values seem workable (though I'm sure tweaks would have to be made here and there). Here's a concern I have though. Won't Student become useless at higher levels?
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I see your concern for that, especially since it is the exact same concern I had for that specific BSPP when I designed it. 
The best thing I can say for it is this: The game of CoX has always been about level TO level 50, not what you do once you get there. This game has been infamously lacking on End game content, though reveling in an overabundance of things to do while leveling.
This BSPP would emphasize that style of playing. It would become moot when reaching level 48, but I think it will really be fun on the way.
If worse comes to worse, though, one can always respect out of it. Not the ideal solution, I know, but can someone suggest a better one? 
I only read about half the replies, so I might be repeating someone else.
I have a couple of possible suggestions:
One: Make one power that can be taken called "Back Story" or something such as that, and then this unlocks the actual power pool which doesn't come out of your normal power choices. Then how often you get a new power can be say every 5, or so levels. I'm not entirely sure how many powers you would want a given character to have from these, so the level could be adjusted.
Two: Based off of the previous, but with a slightly larger power-hit: One pool power/back story: I.e. you take a power such as "Rogue Back Story" and that unlocks the Rogue power pool, and then if you want something from another you have to take that power pool. This hurts multi-dippers though, but it feels more appropriate this way, and makes it so that the players decide how many of the backstory power pools they want in spite of a 1/level type thing.
Three: The strictist and most limiting would be to make it another choice like Origin at the beginning, but this would limit you to one power pool.
Bottom-Line: I don't think it should be one power choice/power in power pool. I also don't think it should be completely free. It needs to fit somewhere in-between, there are a few suggestions that fit this that could work. I'm almost in favor of the enhancement slot replacement, because, especially at the beginning, it feels like you have too many, so it would feel natural to take a power instead, though one might wish they hadn't when they get towards the end.