I think I've seen something like this suggested before.
...I forgot what experience means.
Here's one of Memphis Bill's cut and pastes on the topic of vehicles: Just ignore the "How to search" part. I'm too lazy to edit it.
Disclaimer
Yes. This is a cut and paste reply that I keep handy, as well as a quick bit of instruction on how to search. Neither are meant to cause fights or to be insulting. The search instructions are in, not just because forum rules say flat out to search, but to help you and anyone else reading this use the search tool effectively.
The body of the cut and paste reply is the way it is because we've seen these arguments numerous times before. They're a summary of the salient points that come up each time. They are not here to insult you, make you feel stupid or otherwise "bring you down a peg." Instead, they are meant as instruction and information. Please read through the points and the explanation behind them to see the issues that are commonly brought up in response. They may not always match your suggestion 100% - in fact, you may have explained around one or two of them - but they're there for consideration and refinement of your idea.
Yes, I do look forward to the time, with some of these suggestions, that someone not only addresses all the points, but does so exceptionally well. It'll probably be added to the end of the cut/paste reply, with credit. For now, though, read and consider the points. They really are just there to help you, and move discussion along to help ideas evolve.
If you're going to see this and say an "evil forum vet is just shooting down your idea," or "You think you're the last word because of your post count," you're wrong. Heck, if you say the second, you've just worried more about my post count than I have in the last four plus years. Tongue-in-cheek comments in here are meant as humor, not put downs.
Searching Effectively
1. Click on "Search" up at the top of the forum.
2. On the left, under "Forum(s) to search," select "Suggestions and ideas."
3. On the right, Keyword Search Terms. This is probably where your problem was if you did search. Try the following, exactly as typed:
+vehicle -"re: "
This will search for anything with the string "vehicle" in the title.The -re: portion of it removes replies, so you'll see the root of every thread that comes up, letting you see just how many threads there are on this. (The last helps for other subjects, as well.)
Be sure to put the space between the colon and last quote.
4. Click the "In subject" radio button. This is a search, not a cute blonde in a bikini. Here, you want to ignore the body.
5. Leave Username Search blank.
6. Date range, Newer Than, change the 1 to a 3, and the time to Months.
7. Result format doesn't matter. Click on "Submit."
The subject at hand: Vehicles.
Vehicles as travel powers. This gets brought up a lot.
Short answer, don't expect it.
Long answer:
There are a lot of problems with the idea.
1. Movement.
Forward and back,even turning - ok. But you can do things that a vehicle can't - such as strafe (direct side to side or angular movement.) It doesn't work with a vehicle. There are also issues such as drift and "realistic" handling. We can go side to side, as mentioned, and make immediate right angle turns. Cars... not so much.
2. Movement, part 2.
Go stand in the road. No, not you personally. Take your character out and stand in the road, if you're heroside. Or even in the path of civilians. What happens? You get pushed. While not as big an issue with a motorcycle, perhaps, a car would have issues. What happens if two cars meet head on - yours and an NPC, or yours and another player's? Do you just pass through each other? Would you be satisfied with that very odd result? Or would you get stuck? How about those NPCs, can they walk and push your car, or are they walking through it? Neither answer is very satisfying, and intelligent, dynamic pathing is too computationally expensive.
3. Terrain.
Not every place has roads, or even makes sense for "off roading." Go look at Founder's Falls. Go look at Crey's Folley. Or Eden. Try to get to the north islands in Talos. What, do you have a kubelwagen? Look at the Pit in Sharkshead. Try to use your travel power (car) to get up to some of the doorways in high caves. Cars and motorcycles would be more like Superspeed - horizontal movement, period. And look - I'll be blunt - flat out *stupid* tied with, say, Combat Jumping or Superjump.
4. Combat.
You get ambushed on the way. How do you fight? Just have your powers blast out of the rolled up windows? How do you buff or debuff? EVERY power would need a new animation. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Then you want people with motorcycles instead of cars. Redo ALL the animations AGAIN. And they still wouldn't make sense - how do you use Footstomp in a car? Or Stalagmites?
5. Customizing.
Yeah, it would come up. Not everyone would want a sports car, or a mid-70s Buick boat, or an exotic, or a minivan, or whatever else.
6. Making "sense."
This was touched on in terrain - how do you get across water? How about the Shadow Shard? And if you want downright ridiculous looking, go do the heroside 25-34 Respec. Look at the Sky Skiffs inside of rooms or the reactor room. It makes no sense and looks *ridiculous.* Something that, yes, the devs try to avoid.
That's just a quick overview of why vehicles as generally envisioned aren't a spectacular idea for a travel power.
Yeah I guess thats a good point BBQ_Pork.
And Spacenut, I used the search bar and nothing turned up.
I like being self-sufficient in my abilities to travel, although an advertisement placed somewhere in CoH for Hoveround, the super-powered mobility service for the walking impaired would be great.
Let's see if I can take a crack at rationally addressing some of the problems here, and how I'd envision some of them being solved.
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1. Movement.
Forward and back,even turning - ok. But you can do things that a vehicle can't - such as strafe (direct side to side or angular movement.) It doesn't work with a vehicle. There are also issues such as drift and "realistic" handling. We can go side to side, as mentioned, and make immediate right angle turns. Cars... not so much.
[/ QUOTE ]
The main solution I can think of to this is just to cause the car to hairpin-turn and be forced to face the direction that it's moving at all times. This means, yes, you do get vans doing hairpin curves, but it does work somewhat better than removing the ability to strafe. On the note of drift and realistic handling, I'd think that having those not apply to any super-heroic vehicles we happen to use would be a blessing, especially since the only thing we have like that currently is the drift we get with fly and on ice.
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2. Movement, part 2.
Go stand in the road. No, not you personally. Take your character out and stand in the road, if you're heroside. Or even in the path of civilians. What happens? You get pushed. While not as big an issue with a motorcycle, perhaps, a car would have issues. What happens if two cars meet head on - yours and an NPC, or yours and another player's? Do you just pass through each other? Would you be satisfied with that very odd result? Or would you get stuck? How about those NPCs, can they walk and push your car, or are they walking through it? Neither answer is very satisfying, and intelligent, dynamic pathing is too computationally expensive.
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I would, in fact, be fine with being pushed around by cars and civilians. I'm fairly certain some power-armored heroes and villains are on the brutish end of the scale and weigh as much as several cars, and get pushed around by traffic and pedestrians already. It's one bit of immersion-breaking thing that I've already gotten used to in CoX.
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3. Terrain.
Not every place has roads, or even makes sense for "off roading." Go look at Founder's Falls. Go look at Crey's Folley. Or Eden. Try to get to the north islands in Talos. What, do you have a kubelwagen? Look at the Pit in Sharkshead. Try to use your travel power (car) to get up to some of the doorways in high caves. Cars and motorcycles would be more like Superspeed - horizontal movement, period. And look - I'll be blunt - flat out *stupid* tied with, say, Combat Jumping or Superjump.
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No, I don't have a Kubelwagen. I have the amazing JUSTICE MOBILE. And it has rocket thrusters on the bottom for the occasion that I need to hop over insurmountable foot high walls.
You may think that jumping cars are stupid, I think the chiller haircut is stupid, but both are things that some people would readily use in the game where they available. Superspeed is pretty viable as a travel power bar a few zones like Grandville, so either cars aren't ground-locked or players turn off their travel toggle, hop over the impeding object, turn their toggle back on.
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4. Combat.
You get ambushed on the way. How do you fight? Just have your powers blast out of the rolled up windows? How do you buff or debuff? EVERY power would need a new animation. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Then you want people with motorcycles instead of cars. Redo ALL the animations AGAIN. And they still wouldn't make sense - how do you use Footstomp in a car? Or Stalagmites?
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As hillarious as it would be to see an AR blaster or corruptor doing drive-bys, Redoing animations to work emenating from a vehicle isn't practical. Using the shape-shifting tech from the kheldians to turn off the players powers (And optionally grant new ones, like a rocket and gun attack should they be piloting a skiff) would be the only way I'd see travel being practical with the vehicle.
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5. Customizing.
Yeah, it would come up. Not everyone would want a sports car, or a mid-70s Buick boat, or an exotic, or a minivan, or whatever else.
[/ QUOTE ]
We have customizable weapons, hints at customizable powers in the pipeline, and there are already a good amount of car models in the game at present. I don't see this as a huge issue.
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6. Making "sense."
This was touched on in terrain - how do you get across water? How about the Shadow Shard? And if you want downright ridiculous looking, go do the heroside 25-34 Respec. Look at the Sky Skiffs inside of rooms or the reactor room. It makes no sense and looks *ridiculous.* Something that, yes, the devs try to avoid.
[/ QUOTE ]
The whole concept of the Sky Raider jetpack troopers indoors makes me giggle occasionally. But the Devs give us lots of opportunity to look ridiculous with our costumes and power selections right now (CHILLER HAIRCUT) that I don't think having cars running through the water. My Elec/ Stalker and /Elec brute are much worse in a fridge-logic sort of way when I need to swim. If the travel-power supresses combat like suggested, people will drive to the next mission, get off, get into the mission, and fight crime. Much like heroes without travel powers in actual comics use them, leaving their car-related superspeed at the door.
Meh, there's probably quite a few holes in that. But I don't think vehicles are hugely insurmountable, but they would definately take work to be a satisfying addition to the game.
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like a rocket and gun attack should they be piloting a skiff
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I would just like to say that even without said attacks, I would love to be able to fly around in a stolen Sky Skiff. Or even one of those Longbow Chasers that you get as a veteran reward at some point.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
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No, I don't have a Kubelwagen. I have the amazing JUSTICE MOBILE. And it has rocket thrusters on the bottom for the occasion that I need to hop over insurmountable foot high walls.
[/ QUOTE ]
No, you don't. You have a car. You have to drive on the same roads as other cars and you travel at the same speed as other vehicles. This isn't the Flintstones. You can't stick your feet thru the bottom of the car to make it go faster.
If the devs did waste time on vehicles they would be a seperate powerset like the other travel powers. That means you would have to sacrifice power choices and slots in order to have them and keep them balanced.
Take a look at Khelds. They have Nova form. You would essentially see a powerset something like that only much weaker. Why weaker? Because travel powers are tiertiary sets. Also like Khelds Nova form set, you would not be able to use any of your other powers while using the vehicle.
So what would it look like?
Car
1. Some weak power, maybe an attack that can become vehicle mounted when you get the car.
2. Another weak power, maybe a defence that can be integrated into the travel power.
3. The actual vehicle you want at level 14
4. Another power that compliments the travel power at level 20
Then you have to look at how it would gimp a character, because your not gonig to be able to drive a car in an office building or in a tunnel. Doesn't matter if NPC's can do it. They are allowed to cheat, you aren't.
So this means that everyone that chooses a "vehicle" travel power is going to choose a second travel power so they can still get the extra mobility inside of those missions. That means there will be 2-4 powers and 4-24 slots that they won't be able to use from their primary/secondary sets and power pools.
And those same players are still going to want to take Fitness, Leadership, and an PPP/EPP set and whatever additional pool that fits their character concepts.
Not gonna happen.
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But I think it would be awesome if you could actually get mounts like a flying giant bird or a kick a** motorcycle (possibly flaming XD).
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If my motorcycle is going to be flaming, I want a "jump off and roll on the ground, slapping at my clothes frantically" emote. 
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
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But I think it would be awesome if you could actually get mounts like a flying giant bird or a kick a** motorcycle (possibly flaming XD).
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Here's the most Flaming Motorcycle I could find.
No, no, that just makes me want to BURN IT. There's a difference... 
Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
Repurposed
I'd already be happy if NPCs were given the ability for this. Chase missions on Skyway's streets, anyone? 
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
I don't know if I necessarily really care if vehicles are in put into CoH, but I just had an idea so I might as well throw it out in these shark infested waters and see if it stays afloat.
What if:
1. Vehicles were limited to only aircraft simiilar to longbow chasers or sky raider skiffs.
2. Vehicles were made similar to kheldian transformations
3. Vehicles were not allowed to click on objects, doors, etc.
4. Missions were labeled as either outdoor or indoor with vehicles being unsummonable indoors.
Now onto my suggestion for the actual Power pool setup (assuming its possible)
Flying vehicle travel pool
Lvl 6 - Summon Vehicle and Teleport vehicle (these come together in one power) - Summoning Vehicle calls your vehicle to you from your lair, hideout, base, whatever. Your vehicle has 2 minutes of fuel, after that it will be teleported back to your base for a 30 min refueling time. Summoning Vehicle allows you to toggle your vehicle on and off without the recharge until the 2 minutes is up. Teleport vehicle sends your vehicle back before the time is up so it can be refueled.
Lvl 14 (requires level 6 power) Fuel efficiency - allows for up to 30 mins of flight time on 1 charged battery/tank of fuel
Lvl 14 (requires level 6 power) Assault vehicle - adds weapons for battle to your aircraft namely 1 gatling gun (30 rounds of ammo) and 1 assault cannon (5 rounds). These weapons can be reloaded only when your aircraft is sent back to base for refueling.
Lvl 20 - flight path - allows you to jump to one of the zones next to the zone you are in at the cost of 2 minutes of fuel.
Final suggestion, since flight and other travel powers would be useable indoors and this is not I would suggest this should get a slight increase in flight speed compared to fly.
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But I think it would be awesome if you could actually get mounts like a flying giant bird or a kick a** motorcycle (possibly flaming XD).
[/ QUOTE ]
Here's the most Flaming Motorcycle I could find.
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"Nice hog..."
bad, I know 
[ QUOTE ]
I don't know if I necessarily really care if vehicles are in put into CoH, but I just had an idea so I might as well throw it out in these shark infested waters and see if it stays afloat.
What if:
1. Vehicles were limited to only aircraft simiilar to longbow chasers or sky raider skiffs.
2. Vehicles were made similar to kheldian transformations
3. Vehicles were not allowed to click on objects, doors, etc.
4. Missions were labeled as either outdoor or indoor with vehicles being unsummonable indoors.
Now onto my suggestion for the actual Power pool setup (assuming its possible)
Flying vehicle travel pool
Lvl 6 - Summon Vehicle and Teleport vehicle (these come together in one power) - Summoning Vehicle calls your vehicle to you from your lair, hideout, base, whatever. Your vehicle has 2 minutes of fuel, after that it will be teleported back to your base for a 30 min refueling time. Summoning Vehicle allows you to toggle your vehicle on and off without the recharge until the 2 minutes is up. Teleport vehicle sends your vehicle back before the time is up so it can be refueled.
Lvl 14 (requires level 6 power) Fuel efficiency - allows for up to 30 mins of flight time on 1 charged battery/tank of fuel
Lvl 14 (requires level 6 power) Assault vehicle - adds weapons for battle to your aircraft namely 1 gatling gun (30 rounds of ammo) and 1 assault cannon (5 rounds). These weapons can be reloaded only when your aircraft is sent back to base for refueling.
Lvl 20 - flight path - allows you to jump to one of the zones next to the zone you are in at the cost of 2 minutes of fuel.
Final suggestion, since flight and other travel powers would be useable indoors and this is not I would suggest this should get a slight increase in flight speed compared to fly.
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My compliments on the effort you put into this. Very nice job.
Tell me what you think about this limitation.
Because the player is in a vehicle they have a limited camera view. They can only see as if they are actually sitting in the "cockpit"
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I think the chiller haircut is stupid...
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I sit here in my Real Life chiller haircut...
And cry.
Arc #6015 - Coming Unglued
"A good n00b-sauce is based on a good n00b-roux." - The Masque
All the problems presented in the cut&paste response can be solved in the same way:
Make the vehicle large version of a Nemesis Jaeger, just replace the middle bit with an open cockpit. My villain would oh-so-love riding around in one of those.
The design of a Jaeger allows it to strafe.
The design of a Jaeger allows it to easily offroad anywhere
The design of a Jaeger allows it to be bouyant
Stand up to attack, sit down afterwards
Every villain wants this
It will look awesome everywhere
I don't know why but there isn't really any mounts or anything you can ride on in this game. Which I could see why since I would choose to fly or super jump any day.
But I think it would be awesome if you could actually get mounts like a flying giant bird or a kick a** motorcycle (possibly flaming XD). Cars would be lame though since I'm sure everyone would use them while inside buildings or something.
Anyway, that's my idea. What do you guys think?