There is a potential problem with the whole dual nature, come to think of it: enhancements. The more things a power does, the harder it becomes to slot for everything... Or indeed much of anything. If you want to truly have a dual purpose to every power, then you are more or less asking people to slot for both, or pick just one, slot for that and use only it. Think about all the rhetoric behind Granite Tankers, as an example.
That's sort of why I wanted to stick to just either more damage or different kinds of damage - easier to slot for and get a serious effect out of. We've already given up on it, of course, but I'm just worried about how something with too many effects would be slotted.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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There is a potential problem with the whole dual nature, come to think of it: enhancements.
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This.
Remember that most people don't actually pay attention to the numbers of what a power does. They just take it for granted from the description. I've seen Katana/* and BS/* Scrappers that slotted for def debuff rather than accuracy because they thought it would help them out more. Telling players that they can slot def debuff into a power (re: the second) is what they'll pay attention to, not how much of an affect it has that it's only up when they turn their mega-modifier toggle on.
Something else to consider: while I think it's possible with some very heavy handed power screwery to have powers toggle between 2 values traits such as range and area of effect, it's not going to work out like you think. The power would need to be defaulted (as the game sees it) to a zero radius AoE within a preexisting larger AoE (which is how gauntlet works). The functionally single target AoE would deal damage all the time and the larger AoE would deal damage only when the mode is activated. However, it would never check tohit for the other damage so that's pretty much out of the realm of possibility. Another possible option would be for the toggle mode to activate a summoned pseudo-pet that does the second attack, but, either way, you're getting needlessly complicated.
You've got similar problems with most of the other powers you mention. You can increase mag on a target reasonably easily, but increasing the duration is a bit tougher. You'd need to either completely negate the previous effect and have a different effect with the longer duration override it or have a second effect with a similar mag but longer duration added to it, which doubles the duration for the standard period and keeps up the remaining mag for the extended.
It's also needless to say that you'd also be making a needlessly complicated power set. People wouldn't want to play both. They'd only want to play one or the other and, what's even worse, Castle would need to do balancing work for both of the sets, which makes it all the less likely. It's an interesting, but simply not viable, idea.
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Yes, i see that my idea has only 4 actual attacks, a mez and a oh-sh~ button (thats what i call nukes). Hmm, Its strange because I'm using Ice Blast as a model because it some how pulls off the triple attack and no snipe idea thus is is close to what I'm thinking of when it comes to DP.
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The problem is that you're only barely following the Ice Blast model. Ice Blast has 3 single target attacks, 2 control attacks (one of which does very respectable damage), 1 rain, 1 AoE, Aim, and the Nuke. It's really using 4 st attacks, not 3. It's giving up the snipe for a controlling attack (Bitter Ice Blast). Your model was actually closer to Electrical Blast's: 4 real attacks, 1 control, 1 utility, 1 snipe (switch for toggle), Aim, and the nuke.
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Also, While the toggle is on I believe a penalty would be needed, such as -20% damage or even more so that players have to make a choice on either full assault or a more technical approach.
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First off, 20% -dam isn't all that much considering that attacks are generally slotted for 95% +dam already. That's less a 20% reduction in damage and more an 11% reduction. You'd be better off just going full tilt for crazy (if the idea ever flew) and just reducing the base damage of all of the new powers.
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This would allow even a blaster to become more supportive on a team. Corruptor's would really enjoy it stacking with their own secondary. And defenders (power proliferation!) will like the idea of not having a crummy secondary. I wont go any further on this subject. I'll let others brainstorm on it. Personally, I like it much better than the original idea.
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First off: it's a blast set, it should blast. Allowing someone to work around that and let it be a complete support set shouldn't really fly. Sonic Blast already blows every other defender blast set out of the water because of this. Besides, the defenders that don't like their secondaries feel so because of the low damage mod, not because they can't support enough. If anything, their secondaries create a glut of support capability because all of their attacks pack a more significant debuff than actual damage making their secondaries already more significant for their support than for their damage. You'd just be exacerbating it. The Cold and Sonic Blasts already give up more than Dual Pistols in order to have their support capability and theirs is actually focused (-spd and holds v. -res).
Still, the biggest problem is that, even if you somehow managed to address all of the problems that I've mentioned, you're making a really complicated set. Dual Blades is already pretty complicated but this is a complete magnitude above, especially considering the slotting and balancing issues.
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You've got similar problems with most of the other powers you mention. You can increase mag on a target reasonably easily, but increasing the duration is a bit tougher. You'd need to either completely negate the previous effect and have a different effect with the longer duration override it or have a second effect with a similar mag but longer duration added to it, which doubles the duration for the standard period and keeps up the remaining mag for the extended.
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Actually, that might be possible via staggering the effects, like how self-drain effects are staggered on "god mode" powers. Say a stun for 10 seconds that always plays, then another stun for 5 seconds applied after 10 seconds. Of course, we loop back into the problem of enhancements, because if you enhance the original stun's duration, you will end up stacking it with the second stun. You can increase a power effect's duration, but you CANNOT alter another power effect's delay pretty much at all. So the only way this would work is if the original stun ignored enhancements and buffs.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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So the only way this would work is if the original stun ignored enhancements and buffs.
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And that's the problem. You're going to need to have a variable duration because enhancing the mez effect is one of the basic properties of the mez controls. It would be like being unable to slot Tesla Cage for hold. It's not really a viable option for doing so because slotting is an important consideration when designing the set.
well its between you guys now. I don't like my idea anymore. too many changes on my part that keeps making it worse (as umbral and samual_tow point out) which isnt bad, just they showed me my flaws. Well, good luck guys
Whining about everything since 2006.
Ammo switching for Dual Pistols was my idea:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=135484
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well its between you guys now. I don't like my idea anymore. too many changes on my part that keeps making it worse (as umbral and samual_tow point out) which isnt bad, just they showed me my flaws. Well, good luck guys
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It wasn't a bad idea. Very few ideas posted here ever are, despite what you might think from reading the forums. It's just that final step between having an idea and implementing a game feature that's the real doozy. Trust me, I've discarded a lot of my own because they simply weren't workable.
For what it's worth, I liked parts of yours, but all of us here just disagreed on too many points.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Have two different pistols;
Pistol 1, fully automatic standard slugs, have the toggle to switch between ammo types (single fire DoT, single Ice hold, etc).
Pistol 2, specialised pistol that fires the aoe and "nuke" rounds. (think terminator 2, where he dual wielded the 9mm and M203)
If the good guy gets the girl, it's rated PG;
If the bad guy gets the girl, it's rated R;
And if everybody gets the girl, it's rated X
- Kirk Douglas
OP: Great idea.
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My preference for Dual Pistols has always been to make it the ranged Dual Blades: combo attacks for all the special effects. The effects could be all over the place, they could even be similar (1 control, 1 debuff, 1 buff, 1 damage), or they could be a bit more specialized (4 additional extra types of damage). I just think it works well for concept and playability.
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I was thinking the exact same thing after reading Samuel_Tow's post. Why not make it like dual blade combos except have different types of damage, like the last power of the combo doing fire, ice, etc. instead of status effects like Knock Up of the Sweep Combo? Or maybe we aren't thinking the same thing.
If it ain't broke set it on fire, then say it was a fault in the design.
Main:50 Force Encephalon Mind/Kinetic Controller, Protector Server
I had a similar idea of the OP, but simpler. At least I think it's simpler. It's actually a altered version of a few different ideas I've seen all crammed together.
You'd still use the toggle idea to add different affects, but you would get three different toggles from one power called Ammo Diversification. One toggle would add Fire DoT and KB to your attacks, one would add cold damage and a slow effect to your attacks, and one would add toxic damage with a -resistance affect.
As I mentioned you'd get all three toggles from one power choice, but you can only run one toggle at a time. Turning one on automaticly would turn another one off. Sorta how turning on Combat jumping automaticly turns off Super Leaping and vice versa. This method would allow you to easily switch ammo (switch toggles) on the fly to best fit every situation.
As far as the slotting issue, you could slot each toggle to increase it's effect like Knockback or debuff, but not increase the damage. Only the lethal damage in the actual attacks could be increased thru slotting enhancments.
Side notes: The animation for turning on a toggle could have you hold out both arms and you ammo clip fall from your pistols, then cross your arms tucking your pistols under your armpits for a brief second. It would just need to be a very fast animation that grounds you.
If there is any way to make your attacks have different visual effects for each toggle, this idea would be golden. Having your bullets cause explosions and fire on your target for example when the Fire/KB toggle is on. This is probably considered power customization though and is not possibly.....not really sure.
thats not a bad solution actually.
Jay Doherty: Yes, there was this one night that I was ready to go home but had to drop the browns off at the super bowl before I left for home. While on the throne it hit me. I stayed for a few more hours and that why we have the pain pads in the game.
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You'd still use the toggle idea to add different affects, but you would get three different toggles from one power called Ammo Diversification.
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The only way to make this workable would be for the powers to be linked to the "real" power (in your case, Ammo Diversification) in the same manner that the Nova and Dwarf attacks are linked to the selection of the choice of the Nova/Dwarf toggle. It still creates the problems posited by Samuel and myself earlier insofar as only being able to slot end redux and possibly recharge (I described all of the problems with this several pages back). The other problem is that, unless the selected power actually had some effect, it would be a pointless placeholder (which I don't think the devs want to have).
The best workaround for the second problem (there isn't really one for the first) would be to just make the power something that actual has a real effect of some kind. I would suggest renaming the power "Reload" and having it be a mid-long self buff of some kind, possibly a small non-stackable, easily perma recharge buff. All it would need would be an additional note on the power description that taking this power also gives the user access to several other special rounds.
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One toggle would add Fire DoT and KB to your attacks, one would add cold damage and a slow effect to your attacks, and one would add toxic damage with a -resistance affect.
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Rather than using those 3 special effects (bonus damage + special effect), which are all a bit overpowered insofar as combined effects go, it would probably be better to actually use some of the suggestions that Samual and I suggested earlier, such as Incendiary (Fire damage), Armor Piercing (5% chance for double damage, or a substantial -def), and Cryogenic (minor cold and -rech/-move).
Hmm... You know what I just thought of? How about a SINGLE power that rotated between a few different effects? It should be technically possible, though it may be a pain to code in. Call it "Switch ammo" and have it rotate between Off, Incendiary rounds with more damage, Cryo rounds with secondary effects, maybe some kind of Energy rounds for... I don't know what...
Point is, it should be possible. Have the power coded something like that:
Switch ammo
Enable Fire mode for 9999.99s
Enable Cold mode for 9999.99s If Fire mode
Disable Fire mode if Fire mode
Enable Energy mode for 9999.99s If Cold mode
Disable Cold mode if Cold mode
Disable Energy mode If Energy mode
One power, four effects - Normal (Off), Fire, Cold and Energy. Sure, you have to cycle between them, but if the power is given 0s recharge and no animation and root time, it could be a fairly quick switch, though perhaps a fiddly one. More than anything else, it saves the set from being overrun by toggles. Cost would have to be considered, of course, but I would personally feel that situational awareness is enough of a cost to balance this out, provided all modes are balanced with none being better than the others. And, push comes to shove, we can just go back to the different damage types 
P.S. I list "9999.99s" as a timer because it doesn't seem like the game supports "permanent" effects. For instance, Controller and Mastermind "permanent" pets actually last for 9999.99 seconds, which comes to around 27 and a bit straight hours.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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I think my idea would work. I don't really see a technical issue with it. Being able to choose what ammo to use at anytime is kinda the whole point, so having one botton that clicks thru the different types randomly wouldn't work IMO. Just because there is currently no toggle that adds damage/effects to your attacks, doesn't mean it would work. It's not like power customization or something where the way the game is built just won't allow it.
I do like the Armor Peircing ammo idea though. I think a defense debuff effect with a chance for double lethal damage would fit well.
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Being able to choose what ammo to use at anytime is kinda the whole point, so having one botton that clicks thru the different types randomly wouldn't work IMO.
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Good thing that's not what Sam is suggesting. It's cycling through the various ammo types in a distinct pattern. None>Fire>Cold>Other. It's not random at all.
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Just because there is currently no toggle that adds damage/effects to your attacks, doesn't mean it would work. It's not like power customization or something where the way the game is built just won't allow it.
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Actually it is. We went over all of the reasons why it would have to be done this way, unless there is some pretty significant code screwery done to tweak it. Please, actually read the relevant portions earlier on in the thread. Sam and I actually got pretty in depth as to the reasons why it would have to be done the way we describe.
I have read this thread Umbral, and I get that you and Sam don't think it's possible. You guys seem to know alot about programming and codes, so maybe your right However your not a redname, so I don't take your opinion as law. I think a toggle is fully capable of putting your character into a mode that does minor fire damage whenever you attack, or has a chance for KB whenever you attack, or do minor toxic damage whenever you attack, ect. We can agree to disagree.
*only problem I see is the toggle would effect all attacks, not just attacks from the dual pistols set. So if you use brawl or Air Superiority....you'd still do xtra typed damaged with an effect. THAT wcould be a problem. I don't think that it's possible to code it so the toggles only effect certain attacks.
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I have read this thread Umbral, and I get that you and Sam don't think it's possible. You guys seem to know alot about programming and codes, so maybe your right However your not a redname, so I don't take your opinion as law. I think a toggle is fully capable of putting your character into a mode that does minor fire damage whenever you attack, or has a chance for KB whenever you attack, or do minor toxic damage whenever you attack, ect. We can agree to disagree.
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The problem with saying "You're not a dev, thusly everything you say about having to change the engine isn't law" (please notice the correct spelling of "you're") is that it could be used to explain any problem. There are already powers in game that are supposed to act in the way you want, but they don't. The devs could have done the code work to make it work that way, but they didn't. This shows us that it's either too hard to add it and thusly not worth the coding effort or (as I'm pretty sure) completely impossible (because the powers can only alter global attributes, not power specific attributes is what would be needed to be applied in order to do it like you want). You can't just brush it off and say, "It's still possible unless the devs say 'no'", especially when there is a lot of evidence of in-game attempts at similar systems that were forced to operate exactly as we describe.
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Being able to choose what ammo to use at anytime is kinda the whole point, so having one botton that clicks thru the different types randomly wouldn't work IMO.
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Good thing that's not what Sam is suggesting. It's cycling through the various ammo types in a distinct pattern. None>Fire>Cold>Other. It's not random at all.
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Systematic cycling through the options in order is what I meant, yes. At no recharge and no activation time, the power's only delay would be whatever your ping time is, and at the very least whatever the server's fail-safe against botting happens to be. I'd call that at 50ms. Arcanaville did some research on animation time vagaries due to network traffic, though I don't remember what the findings were like, which will likely put the upper limit on what the delay has to be.
If I had to make a guess, though, I'd say you can cycle between states in around 50-100ms, which is below most people's average ping anyway. It's like toggling Sprint on and off, to put it in precise perspective. The only reason it would be fiddly is that it would require one to stop at the required ammo type.
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Just because there is currently no toggle that adds damage/effects to your attacks, doesn't mean it would work. It's not like power customization or something where the way the game is built just won't allow it.
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Actually it is. We went over all of the reasons why it would have to be done this way, unless there is some pretty significant code screwery done to tweak it. Please, actually read the relevant portions earlier on in the thread. Sam and I actually got pretty in depth as to the reasons why it would have to be done the way we describe.
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There are plenty of technical limitations, yes, and we did go over them. Off the top of my head, by far the biggest one would be a slot sink similar to how Kheldian Form attacks need to be slotted separately from forms, causing the now-infamous Kheldian slotting conundrum. But they're an Epic AT, and as such are allowed their oddities and unique mechanics, even if that one I see as a huge disadvantage. Blasters, or in general any AT this is given to, has to exist within the context of how the AT is set up. Three powers fro the price of one leads to a generic AT primary with 11 powers, and that's a pretty big thing.
There's also the fact that not everything can be slotted for. You can slot for damage, for instance, but that only affects the power it is slotted into. You CANNOT, however, slot for damage BUFF. Enhancements for this simply do not exist, and the system, from what I understand, is actually self-looping. Damage buff enhancements would increase the damage buff, which would then buff the enhancements, which then increase the damage buff and so on until the damage cap. Kind of like how resistance buffs also act as resistance debuff resistance, in effect applying twice. Power Boost does prove that control effects can be increased, but it also proves that control effect buffs aren't slottable. You can't slot Power Boost for hold and have your holds increased more still. In fact, most offensive effects powers have can be buffed, but these buffs cannot be slotted for, defence and to-hit notwithstanding. Damage, control, debuff... We're not talking about applying debuffs to enemies, we're talking about applying a buff that increases debuff effects, which... I don't believe currently exists.
The only real way for this to be implemented would be to shove all possible effects into each power, which then means people are forced to either slot for everything in six slots and fail, or slot for only one thing and abandon the rest of the toggles. And then that leaves you with three toggles which cannot be slotted for anything, which isn't really better. In fact, I made the mistake of suggesting extra status effects, myself, even though I should have known better.
I'm going to go back to my original idea of changing damage types, but with one caveat: make "Off" useful in its own right. We already discussed that it's silly for Fire bullets to not act like bullets and deal Lethal damage, too, so let's compromise: have this power provide a static buff to Lethal damage when no mode is selected. I could deal with the powerset having slightly under-performing damage without this power, and being granted a bigger constant damage buff when the power is picked up. This damage buff to Lethal damage would then disappear and be replaced with a Cold or Fire or Energy or whatever damage component of equal value, trading some Lethal damage for damage of another type.
In fact, have all powers come in two components - one Lethal that's always active, then another one that starts out Lethal at character creation, but is REPLACED by different damage types as the person switches. That way we get to keep bullets acting like bullets yet still play with a sufficiently large damage component changing type for it to be meaningful.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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The only way to make this workable would be for the powers to be linked to the "real" power (in your case, Ammo Diversification) in the same manner that the Nova and Dwarf attacks are linked to the selection of the choice of the Nova/Dwarf toggle. It still creates the problems posited by Samuel and myself earlier insofar as only being able to slot end redux and possibly recharge (I described all of the problems with this several pages back). The other problem is that, unless the selected power actually had some effect, it would be a pointless placeholder (which I don't think the devs want to have).
The best workaround for the second problem (there isn't really one for the first) would be to just make the power something that actual has a real effect of some kind. I would suggest renaming the power "Reload" and having it be a mid-long self buff of some kind, possibly a small non-stackable, easily perma recharge buff. All it would need would be an additional note on the power description that taking this power also gives the user access to several other special rounds.
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Another possible two for one solution would be to make those powers level zero unlockable, which means the player would get them immediately upon selecting that powerset (basically, an inherent power tied specifically to that powerset).
I'm not sure I'm crazy about the idea in general, but I don't think there are technical impediments to implementation. I think its more a question of whether this is the right way to introduce this type of mechanic to the game. The moment Dual Blades got combos, combos became effectively "off-limits" for anything else short of an act of god, because combos were The Cool Thing Dual Blades Got**. Giving it to anyone else would devalue Dual Blades. Similarly, giving this kind of effect to Dual Pistols and making it the central effect of the set also has the potential to eliminate the effect from any more general adoption down the road. So I'd be cautious about using it unless I was sure that was the one and only way I wanted it to be used.
** Not guessing
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Hey, Arcana, you would probably be the right person to ask - do you think variable damage types are a strong enough mechanic to bother with coding into a set? If an attack powerset potentially had the ability to turn half of its damage into another type, to put in some rough numbers, do you think it would actually be more useful than it is a bother?
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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I have read this thread Umbral, and I get that you and Sam don't think it's possible. You guys seem to know alot about programming and codes, so maybe your right However your not a redname, so I don't take your opinion as law. I think a toggle is fully capable of putting your character into a mode that does minor fire damage whenever you attack, or has a chance for KB whenever you attack, or do minor toxic damage whenever you attack, ect. We can agree to disagree.
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The problem with saying "You're not a dev, thusly everything you say about having to change the engine isn't law" (please notice the correct spelling of "you're") is that it could be used to explain any problem. There are already powers in game that are supposed to act in the way you want, but they don't. The devs could have done the code work to make it work that way, but they didn't. This shows us that it's either too hard to add it and thusly not worth the coding effort or (as I'm pretty sure) completely impossible (because the powers can only alter global attributes, not power specific attributes is what would be needed to be applied in order to do it like you want). You can't just brush it off and say, "It's still possible unless the devs say 'no'", especially when there is a lot of evidence of in-game attempts at similar systems that were forced to operate exactly as we describe.
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Thanks for the grammar lesson. Like I said, we can agree to disagree.
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Hey, Arcana, you would probably be the right person to ask - do you think variable damage types are a strong enough mechanic to bother with coding into a set? If an attack powerset potentially had the ability to turn half of its damage into another type, to put in some rough numbers, do you think it would actually be more useful than it is a bother?
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By itself, swapping damage types is the sort of thing that will likely to appeal to only a tiny fraction of the players, and most of those probably won't even be correct in evaluating its relative utility. On its own, I think in the general case its not a strong enough idea to be worth coding the effects into a powerset.
Now, if the damage types came along for the ride with adjustments to other secondary effects, that might be more interesting. But to do so in a way that doesn't homogenize the powers themselves (the powers you're adjusting with the type-switchers) would be the tricky thing. I could see swapping DoT for recharge/slow and as a consequence swapping Fire with Cold, that sort of thing. But even that by itself doesn't seem interesting enough to base a powerset on. You'd want to do more.
And you'd fall dangerously close to asking the question: if dual pistols gets to swap its power effects in a balanced way, why can't, say, Energy Blast do so at least as a power customization decision at character creation time? That's where this gets tricky in my opinion.
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The moment Dual Blades got combos, combos became effectively "off-limits" for anything else short of an act of god, because combos were The Cool Thing Dual Blades Got**.
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I'm actually curious about this. I understand why no other melee set would get combos because of Dual Blades' presence (with the possible exception of some type of Escrima or some other stick fighting power set), but I don't see any reason why a ranged set wouldn't be able to get combos. If the combos are considered to be the "secondary effect" of Dual Blades (which is how I've always interpreted it thanks to the lack of a cohesive secondary effect otherwise), then, because we've already seen secondary effects be shared across similar theme sets (all Fire sets lose utility and get mo' damage, Ice does -recharge, etc.), it would make sense for a ranged set to be able to use the combo mechanic as well, without taking anything away from Dual Blades.
Yes, i see that my idea has only 4 actual attacks, a mez and a oh-sh~ button (thats what i call nukes). Hmm, Its strange because I'm using Ice Blast as a model because it some how pulls off the triple attack and no snipe idea thus is is close to what I'm thinking of when it comes to DP.
it sounds neater that way. Some people are... sluggish players, how long would the interval between switching targets?
We could knockout the stun but now i just dont see it happening. Infact now that i think about it, 1 toggle may actually be enough. If that toggle completely changes the way Dual Pistols is played then it may work.
Playing theory-generator here for a second: Lets say without the Toggle on, DP is a full damage set, just like any other, go all out just to annihilate enemies. Now lets say that with the toggle on, it turns Dual Pistols into a different type of powerset. Stay with me: Once you turn the toggle on, you may get completely different effects on your attacks. such as the cone now does -movement speed, the high damage attack now has +X type damage, the weak attack has chance to proc "Blah" etc. Agian i think im stretching the system too far as to whether or not it can be done but I have faith that it can be done. so the powerset would look something like this:
Without Toggle On:
1. Weak Attack/ Short Recharge
2. Moderate Attack/ Moderate Recharge
3. Moderate Cone/ Moderately-Long Recharge
4. Aim
5. The Toggle
6. Mez Attack
7. High Damage/ Long Recharge
8. Strong Cone/ Long Recharge
9. Generic Tier 9
This is similar to yours Umbral if not the same, order can be changed easily, its the idea for now that counts.
Ok, when we turn the toggle on, certain things change and we get different effects:
--With Toggle On--
1. Same /w small AoE
2. Same /w defense debuff
3. Same /w Chance for knockdown/back
4. Aim instead gives +Defense and/or Resistance
5. Toggle
6. Same /w higher mag and longer duration
7. Higher Damage and Range, also increased recharge and endurance (thus becoming similar to a snipe)
8. Same /w Damage Debuff
9. Use your imagination
This would cause the DP set to almost be Two in 1. Of course all of the above effects are just theoretical and you could have any effect on any power really; which ever makes it balance with other sets without becoming too powerful I suppose. Also, While the toggle is on I believe a penalty would be needed, such as -20% damage or even more so that players have to make a choice on either full assault or a more technical approach. this would also get rid of the idea of an instant toggle. This pretty much forces a cast time or else people will switch in an out too fast to feel the penalty.
This would allow even a blaster to become more supportive on a team. Corruptor's would really enjoy it stacking with their own secondary. And defenders (power proliferation!) will like the idea of not having a crummy secondary. I wont go any further on this subject. I'll let others brainstorm on it. Personally, I like it much better than the original idea.
@James:
I dont think many people would enjoy the twitch-switch as im going to call it
I did take into account what you said about how powersets pretty much guide you to focusing on a single target at a time. Hopefully this new idea will help that problem out. As while the toggle is on you arent at full power (atleast in my model) thus you might want to pick targets that are attacking your teammates or mabye all of the minions to stun them, etc. This looks good on paper but I don't know how it would actually work. hmm
Thank you for not being one of those people who agree with you just because they want to be nice. It makes for good brainstorming.. gonna go make a storm/psi defender now.
Whining about everything since 2006.
Ammo switching for Dual Pistols was my idea:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=135484