Power Semi-Customization/Diversification
By
NeverDark,
Posted on: 2009-05-01 21:16 in Suggestions and Ideas
[ QUOTE ]
Please do not post things like, learn to search or anything else alike to this.
[/ QUOTE ]
Definitely not the way to start a suggestion, especially when it's been suggested before. Here, for example.
[ QUOTE ]
Points is the concept of being able to add and subtract from the base values of certain aspects of ATs. There would be three points max, one point minimum, for simplification, but thats changeable. All base values would have two points automatically. You would automatically have 0 extra points.
[/ QUOTE ]
At this point, you no longer have ATs. Part of the point of having archetypes is to have a standard around which you can balance. All Blasters have a particular range of HP (slightly variable due to build preference, but bounded by caps), and thus can be treated similarly. If we allow them to decide to break the design rules, then there's no point in having the rules to begin with.
[ QUOTE ]
Damage X X O
To-Hit X O O (I believe it would be this modified, not accuracy. I dont think both)
Recharge X X X
End Usage X O O
Range X X X (This could apply to all powers, giving meleers the polearm effect, or rangers a sniper effect)
Defense X X O
Resistance X X O
Regeneration X O O
Max HP X X O
End Recovery X X X
Max End X X O
[/ QUOTE ]
A lot of these are attributes that players should not be allowed to change. The way To-Hit works is incredibly ugly, and it's hard to work with even when the creator knows how it works; someone who doesn't even know the formula shouldn't be touching it. Range would only affect powers with range, as the devs have shown that they want melee powers to remain unchangeable (they literally have their range unable to be changed in the code). Defense and Resistance would either be useless: they modify attributes that a player would not have (Defense for a Firey Aura, for example), or incredibly overpowering: they modify base attributes (impossible for Resistance and game-breaking for Defense) or they work like extra enhancements that ignore ED (Defense letting an SR boost his own powers again).
The entire idea is one that requires very, very, very careful design. It's incredibly easy to make a tank-mage, and it's even easier to make a complete gimp. It's a really interesting idea - for a game that's just starting development, and then only if you have developers that understand the dangers in it. It can't be worked into a game that's five years old, no matter how hard you try.
[ QUOTE ]
Second Set Diversification
This is the concept of having two powers of each tier, where you may choose one of them and only one. This could have many benefits to story and playability, but is likely one of the hardest to implement due to massive work on balancing and other such things. This would likely not be available on epics, due to them having so many powers anyways, but thats in the hands of the Devs.
[/ QUOTE ]
These aren't so much difficult to balance as darn near impossible. Sometimes the "choices" end up being so imbalanced they aren't really choices; a debuff on a Scrapper is going to be so low (due to the Scrapper modifiers) that there's no point in taking it over straight damage (especially as debuffs don't defeat enemies). They also tend to throw off the theme of the sets; Dark Melee is supposed to be heavily single target and control focused, and Willpower is supposed to trade damage for survivability. And again, all of this ends up being very, very gameable.
[ QUOTE ]
Multiple Inherent Powers
This idea is of having multiple inherent powers (Origin and AT) to choose from when creating a character. Fairly straightforward, this would at the same point not allow things such as a Fury power on a Controller, as that is not what they are built for. These should not be overpowering either. Just for diversification, customization, and replayablity. This example will be for Brutes, as that is what I have the most experience on. I dont see any reason epics (or any other AT excepting Stalkers) couldnt get this.
[/ QUOTE ]
See above about being easy to break and ruining theme. They also end up causing massive balance headaches. Powers have to be designed knowing that, for example, some players have inherent recharge buffs, so their recharges have to be somewhat long, shafting those who picked damage buffs. The way defense and resistance stack means that new powersets have to be designed around players being able to give themselves higher performance, meaning that these sets have to come pre-nerfed. Nobody wins, because everyone starts from such a different place that they're essentially playing different games.
[ QUOTE ]
Natural Origin Powers
Inherent One: Throwing Knives - ST Ranged DoT Damage
Inherent Two: Nerve Strike - ST Damage/Disorient
Inherent Three: Molotov Cocktail - AoE (Minor) Damage/(Chance Mag 1) Fear
The different origin powers are more or less for a change to the norm, rather than things that are meant to make a large difference.
[/ QUOTE ]
Now these I like. They allow for some extra customization, and they're not particularly gamebreaking. There need to be more temp powers like the inherents that allow for a little wiggle within AT bounds.
tl;dr version - All good ideas, if you're starting from scratch, but they just can't work here. Shoehorning these into CoX wouldn't be forcing a square peg into a round hole, it would be forcing a square peg into a solid surface - there's just no hole to try.
We'll always have Paragon.
Please do not post things like, learn to search or anything else alike to this. This post is about a new way of implementing customization that will be balanced, efficient, and effective. Thank you. On to the longest post I've ever done,
For a long time, the players of CoX have requested that we are allowed customizability on powers. My idea is to allow semi customization and diversification, by doing this,
1. Grant players Points they can use to change their characters base aspects.
2. Create a second set that are diversifying while not overpowering, for all sets. The players would then be able to choose between powers received from each tier.
3. Allow players to have multiple inherent abilities to choose from (for ATs and origins) that resemble each other in story, but allow for diversification of the usage of the AT.
So, if one looks at that, they can see that it would fairly well dissolve many distinctions between sets. As long as some people can sit back and calmly realize, that some people want to play, for example /Shield for concept, and not have their hopes smashed for a toon that can charge through massive amounts of enemies, and sacrifice damage a bit, thats fine. So, on to the detailed explanation of #1.
Points
Points is the concept of being able to add and subtract from the base values of certain aspects of ATs. There would be three points max, one point minimum, for simplification, but thats changeable. All base values would have two points automatically. You would automatically have 0 extra points. This means that you would have a stock AT. They could have different modifiers for each point from value to value. Example, damage could be a .1x difference between points. Max HP could be .2x difference. The example below of a custom AT base is shown below. Note that this is not what must be done for it to work, but I believe its all the ones that are changeable.
Damage X X O
To-Hit X O O (I believe it would be this modified, not accuracy. I dont think both)
Recharge X X X
End Usage X O O
Range X X X (This could apply to all powers, giving meleers the polearm effect, or rangers a sniper effect)
Defense X X O
Resistance X X O
Regeneration X O O
Max HP X X O
End Recovery X X X
Max End X X O
Extra Points: 0
You could also do it in pairings, such as Damage vs Damage Mitigation, but I am unsure of how to do that without impairing the customizability of it.
Second Set Diversification
This is the concept of having two powers of each tier, where you may choose one of them and only one. This could have many benefits to story and playability, but is likely one of the hardest to implement due to massive work on balancing and other such things. This would likely not be available on epics, due to them having so many powers anyways, but thats in the hands of the Devs. Example below. Note that I have a 50 DM/Will Brute, which is why I have those as examples.
Dark Melee (All melee here, except Tentacle Eruption. * Means second set)
Tier One Shadow Punch - ST Damage
Tier One* - Shadow Blind - ST Damage/Large To-Hit Debuff
Tier Two Smite - ST Damage
Tier Two * - Clinging Shadows - ST DoT Damage
Tier Three Shadow Maul - Cone Damage
Tier Three* - Shadow Rift - PBAoE DoT Damage
Tier Four Touch of Fear - ST Fear
Tier Four * - Withering Touch - ST Damage Debuff
Tier Five Siphon Life - ST Damage/Heal
Tier Five* - Condemn Soul - ST DoT Damage/Special resurrect on death as minion pet. 1 max.
Tier Six Taunt - AoE Taunt
Tier Six* - Confront - ST Taunt/-Range
Tier Seven Dark Consumption - PBAoE Damage/+End
Tier Seven* - Tendrils - Toggle PBAoE Damage
Tier Eight Soul Drain - PBAoE Damage/Damage Buff/To-Hit Buff
Tier Eight* - Dark Gift - Self Auto Damage Buff/To-Hit
Tier Nine Midnight Grasp - ST DoT Damage/Immob
Tier Nine* - Tentacle Eruption - AoE Damage/KU
So, there are many choices and sacrifices to be made on this set now. A single set like this would warrant a few go throughs with multiple builds each time to experience the set in all of its facets. It isnt terribly overpowered either, and each choice is either similar in concept, or polar opposites, which I believe is a good way of going about it. Example, Midnight Grasp and Tentacle Eruption both have good control, but there is a choice between ST damage and AoE damage. On the Siphon Life and Condemn Soul combo, they are both excellent looking powers, and a big choice. Touch of Fear and Withering Touch are both debuffs for survivability, but achieve it in different ways. On to Willpower then.
Willpower (* Means second set)
Tier One High Pain Tolerance - Self Auto Max Hp/Resistance
Tier One* - Ignore Pain - Self Click Max HP/Heal
Tier Two Mind Over Body - Self Toggle Resistance
Tier Two* - Disciplined Reflexes - Self Toggle Defense
Tier Three Fast Healing - Self Auto +Regen
Tier Three* - Resolute - Self Auto Status Resistance/PBAoE Damage Debuff
Tier Four Indomitable Will - Self Toggle Status Protection
Tier Four* - Momentum - Self Click (Less) Status Protection/Damage Buff
Tier Five Rise to the Challenge - Self Toggle +Regen for enemies in range
Tier Five* - Pull Together - Self Click Heal
Tier Six Quick Recovery - Self Auto +Recovery
Tier Six* - Clear Mind - Self Click +Recharge (Not much, sustainable)
Tier Seven Heightened Senses - Self Toggle Defense/Perception
Tier Seven* - Inspiring - PBAoE Toggle +Damage/Status Protection
Tier Eight Resurgence - Self Click Resurrection
Tier Eight* - Sacrifice Self - PBAoE (Nuke) Damage/-90% HP
Tier Nine Strength of Will - Self Click Resistance/Recovery/Status Protection
Tier Nine* - Final Stand - Self Click (MoG Type) Resistance/Regeneration/Recovery
There are large offensive bonuses not in here before (Like Momentum), as well as some other types of damage mitigation (Like Ignore Pain). There is the choice between Strength of Will and Final Stand, a Moment of Glory type power as well. There is the ability to be more of a team player also (Like Inspiring). A nuke that practically kills you unless you have near full health (Sacrifice Self) ironically replaces resurgence. If all defensive sets were like this, it would allow people to tank with /Elecs (Which isnt a bad thing) or SMASH! with /Will. We now move on to multiple inherent powers.
Multiple Inherent Powers
This idea is of having multiple inherent powers (Origin and AT) to choose from when creating a character. Fairly straightforward, this would at the same point not allow things such as a Fury power on a Controller, as that is not what they are built for. These should not be overpowering either. Just for diversification, customization, and replayablity. This example will be for Brutes, as that is what I have the most experience on. I dont see any reason epics (or any other AT excepting Stalkers) couldnt get this.
Brute Inherents
Inherent One: Fury, Damage buffs for hitting and getting hit.
Inherent Two: Aristeia, (Like Domination) Large Damage/Recharge/Resistance Buff followed by crash, that is allowed to be used every once in a while.
Inherent Three: Frenzy, (Like Fury) Recharge buffs for hitting and getting hit.
Inherent Four: Unrelenting, Auto Damage/Regeneration/Recovery Buffs
So there are many possible inherents, with this being only the tip of the iceberg. As a note to the Devs, this particular feature alone would warrant many trips though each AT just for the special inherents. Then we have origins, which are less major so I will have a small example.
Natural Origin Powers
Inherent One: Throwing Knives - ST Ranged DoT Damage
Inherent Two: Nerve Strike - ST Damage/Disorient
Inherent Three: Molotov Cocktail - AoE (Minor) Damage/(Chance Mag 1) Fear
The different origin powers are more or less for a change to the norm, rather than things that are meant to make a large difference.
So thats effectively my plan for customization. It is truly not full customization (and has no things like green fire), but is just a huge diversification in each set and AT. This is done in a fairly efficient way that should bring back and keep many players for a very long time. Do it Devs, you know you want to.