Craftable Temp Power Suggestions

So lately I've been having this idea for a new set of craftable temp powers for the game, form shift powers that make you into a vehicle, sorry about the trickery, but this is a super mobile idea thread. Before you click the "back" button or something like that, first let me present the realities of it.

What I'm fairly sure we can do:
-Form shift powers (Kheldians)
-Bonuses that adjust with ATs (Certain IO enhancement bonuses)
-Crafted Temp Powers (St. Louise Slugger, Revolver, etc. etc.)
-Have all the vehicles completely enclosed with opaque windows, for the sake of the Devs sanity. (At that point, it becomes up to you how your 9 foot brute just got into that tiny sedan)

What I'm not sure we can do:
-Land vehicle geometry adjustment. (I've seen the cars go uphills of varying degrees, but they're always moving in a straight line with now variation.)
-Actually make this, but I'm more just trying to present a possibility.
-Have powers prevent you from going into doors until you turn them off, enlarge your "character bubble", or automatically shut off in water.
-Distinguish between indoor and outdoor instanced maps.

Now here are some ideas on what vehicles can and cannot do.
-Vehicles would be form shift temp powers that come in variety of recipes, each would craft a different vehicle with it's own look and sometimes unique powers, there'd be two types; VTOL and Car.

-Vehicles temp powers, when activated, would lock you from your normal powers but grant you new ones, depending on the vehicle you picked.

-You would not be able to go through any doors while in Vehicle Form until you deactivated the power nor would you be able to summon them on indoor instances or in PVP zones

-Vehicles would not be faster than Super Speed or Flight at level fourteen and their movement rates are static with no growth.

-You cannot take Car type Vehicles into water. (I would like to see them explode and end your form shift, with no damage, the explosion is mostly for dramatic effect)

Things I'm not sure on how it would work:

-Accessibility. (Should there be a specific level you can start crafting these at, should you need to do a mission arc for them?)

-Recipes need salvage. (Should normal salvage be used, or a special salvage like Vanguard Merits?)

-"Mommy, Daddy, where do recipes come from?" (Should only specific enemies give out the recipes, should they only be purchasable through the merit vendors or purchased from NPCs period? Or all of the above?)

Before this post gets too long, I'll let you guys tell me what you think.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

problem is, we can't use vehicles in the game.

i see a huge problem with switching powers.

morphing into a vehicle would be a tremendous load and would require more skeleton adjustments then kheldians.

this seems like another attempt to get vehicles included into CoH. the search is your friend. use it. vehicle threads come up at least once a week.

[ QUOTE ]
problem is, we can't use vehicles in the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

right. this was a suggestion that would let us do that.

[ QUOTE ]
i see a huge problem with switching powers.

morphing into a vehicle would be a tremendous load and would require more skeleton adjustments then kheldians.

[/ QUOTE ]

What? Why on earth would that be the case? Do you think each frame element is individually stretched out into the new shape or something? I'm just... baffled by why you think this is the case.

[ QUOTE ]
this seems like another attempt to get vehicles included into CoH.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah... yes. Yes, it is. ...I'm just going to leave this alone, now.

...anyway, all that aside!

I believe it is possible to have the vehicle objects change inclination. Very few things do; even players often do not. But I've seen it happen for some things, so I suspect things that have at least very rudimentary skeletons (enough to tell top surface, bottom surface, left, right, fore and aft, anyway) should be able to.

I don't think this is likely to occur without a significant engine overhaul (like, to the point of being CoH2, even if it isn't released as a new game) because making vehicles believable would require a lot of work. With what we have now, I think the best we can hope for are things like hoverboards and perhaps motorcycles -- they could copy the character's costume onto part of the cycle object, 'cheating' the system a bit. Full-on cars might not be that hard to do graphically, but making them move and interact believably with the world would be a tremendous challenge.

Ooh, and oscillator backpacks. That would be sweet.

Well, what kind of changes to the engine would be required? I mean, I was trying to list reasons how it might work and then you got me curious.
I listed that they'd be crafted temp powers with certain summoning limitations that are form shifts that give different powers. Just please, let me know what you mean, this is something that's been in my head for a while and I've been thinking it might have a chance at working. So you know, I'd like to get a few more reasons before letting this thread die.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

Making vehicles move believably would be very difficult. Think about how your character runs, versus how a car handles. Everything in the game right now either moves on tracks (with fixed, pre-planned and pre-animated behavior) or like your character does. Making a car that steers and turns like a car would require a very large amount of work.

Actually, there's another thread going right now in which we're discussing this, and I'm taking a "pro-vehicle" position. I gave a workaround suggestion for how cars could handle, but it -- and many of the other ideas presented here and there -- fail to convince people that vehicles wouldn't totally break immersion without significant overhauls to the game.

What if they were restricted to existing roads to avoid animation issues?

I don't see how that would avoid animation issues; they'd still move like player characters, not like cars. It would, however, add the additional work of making the cars need to know where roads are.

I just don't see cars working without major work, and it's hard to see how it'd be worth it. You couldn't attack while in car form, so it'd be pretty limiting. I'd much rather see hover boards/flying carpets. No, they're not directly comparable to vehicles but they're more doable and give us some variety. Oh, and I'd like some tech wings that are really fixed wings with rocket pods on the tips, please! Not the current ones that flap (although those are cool).

As a travel power group, I can see vehicles being used, but in a very restricted manner.... they could appear just like some toons do on mission maps... they come (or go) a certain distance and fade into (or fade out of) existance. You enter (or exit) a vehicle just like entering a mission, the door opens and you jump in, (jump out). To make it feasible it would: 1) be an outside power only, 2) take you from your current position to active mission door location, 3) you could not do anything while being transported. In effect, it would be like TPing there, but safer (can't hurt others or be hurt while in the vehicle). If there needs to be a trade off, (travel without risk of injury for something) then perhaps a high end usage or make it slower than the faster travel powers... (but safer - useful for the lower levels....) I would not make the vehicle something that you could drive yourself, it would be assumed you would be going to a very specific location. You could even have it work that once activated it pops up with a menu (like train stations or the ferry) with specific locations, like train station, ferry, wentworths, arena. To minimize the graphics, use a standard car, but to indicate its a "power pool" car, maybe it has the character logo on hood and is color matched to current costume.