MA character building stuff

I seriously love MA, but there's one or two things about NPC creation i'd like to see added/changed;

Power frequency / disable powers
- When making themed villains/story characters, certain powers don't work with the design, but are put in automatically by the computer.
- Either put a slider by the powers (full bar means the character will try to use it at every oppertunity, no bar means will never use the power) or just allow the powers to be turned off (but you can't turn on any powers that that level chharacter can't handle)

Auras
Characters who have access to auras (level 30+ who have completed the mission) should be able to put auras on their NPCs (however I can understand capes not having this option)

Pool Powers
When choosing powers for toons, you should have access to the Medicine, Fighting, maybe Leadership, as power sets that can be chosen, as either primary or secondary.

Constant Flight
- For toons who should be in the air at every oppertunity, not just when they want to move or when their enemys are (for style or stratergy reasons)
- As far as I can tell, 'flight' on the current version dosn't work this way

Ranged avoid
- An attack style, rather than just standing back, the character will persistantly move position between attacks

Auras are available, just as long as you fork out the 40 Tickets it takes to buy them. Same as Capes, Wings and other funky pieces of wear. Oh, and the lovely Hot Pants too!

[ QUOTE ]
I seriously love MA, but there's one or two things about NPC creation i'd like to see added/changed;

Power frequency / disable powers
- When making themed villains/story characters, certain powers don't work with the design, but are put in automatically by the computer.
- Either put a slider by the powers (full bar means the character will try to use it at every oppertunity, no bar means will never use the power) or just allow the powers to be turned off (but you can't turn on any powers that that level chharacter can't handle)

[/ QUOTE ]

So /Signed
And for the love of Pete, give us Traps please.


[ QUOTE ]
Auras
Characters who have access to auras (level 30+ who have completed the mission) should be able to put auras on their NPCs (however I can understand capes not having this option)


[/ QUOTE ]

The current version is working fine. Takes about one mission to have enough tickets for auras.

[ QUOTE ]

Pool Powers
When choosing powers for toons, you should have access to the Medicine, Fighting, maybe Leadership, as power sets that can be chosen, as either primary or secondary.

[/ QUOTE ]

/Signed

[ QUOTE ]

Constant Flight
- For toons who should be in the air at every oppertunity, not just when they want to move or when their enemys are (for style or stratergy reasons)
- As far as I can tell, 'flight' on the current version dosn't work this way.


[/ QUOTE ]

/Signed again

[ QUOTE ]

Ranged avoid
- An attack style, rather than just standing back, the character will persistantly move position between attacks

[/ QUOTE ]

They need to sort out the current Melee and Ranged stances. Which dont really work too well, from testing. Bosses+ especially seem to have problems with them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I didn't know about the Auras when I posted =] It is fine.

I also find it annoying that you can't have Assault rifle as secondary when you have Mercs / Robots as primary (since it's the same weapon and shouldn't interfere with animations)

[ QUOTE ]
I seriously love MA, but there's one or two things about NPC creation i'd like to see added/changed;

Power frequency / disable powers
- When making themed villains/story characters, certain powers don't work with the design, but are put in automatically by the computer.
- Either put a slider by the powers (full bar means the character will try to use it at every oppertunity, no bar means will never use the power) or just allow the powers to be turned off (but you can't turn on any powers that that level chharacter can't handle)


[/ QUOTE ]
Oh yeah, definitely. I'd thought about the option to turn specific powers off, but the slider method is a much better suggestion.
[ QUOTE ]

Pool Powers
When choosing powers for toons, you should have access to the Medicine, Fighting, maybe Leadership, as power sets that can be chosen, as either primary or secondary.


[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, pool powers would be good, especially for minions where you don't want them to have too many powers. Easy setting melee attacks and maybe acrobatics or something would be cool. It does say the power sets in the MA are not the same as the power sets available to players, but modified versions, so why not modify some more?
[ QUOTE ]

Constant Flight
- For toons who should be in the air at every oppertunity, not just when they want to move or when their enemys are (for style or stratergy reasons)
- As far as I can tell, 'flight' on the current version dosn't work this way


[/ QUOTE ]
Agree again. Maybe have the flight option with a slider like powers, to say how often an enemy is likely to fly if they can.
[ QUOTE ]

Ranged avoid
- An attack style, rather than just standing back, the character will persistantly move position between attacks

[/ QUOTE ]
that'd be cool.

Other stuff I can think I'd like to see in MA:

The option to take powersets from in-game mobs, or even just some generic powersets cobbled together from those the AI enemies get to use. Its a bit strange that all the custom mobs seem to have more "super"-powers than many of those well established villain groups.

Existing faction costumes for custom characters. I know this is tricky what with clipping issues on some pieces, but maybe even just the option to change one or 2 parts of existing mobs costumes and maybe the colour scheme would be good. I was very disappointed after shelling out tickets for the Arachnos costume pack to discover I couldn't even colour the helmets different on my custom Arachnos Boss. They've already got a dedicated Arachnos costume design interface, at least that could get incorporated to the MA, even if they don't do the same for other enemy groups.

Bigger file-size! (100k is just too small for a lot of ideas. I had to drop a 2nd custom group from the arc I'm making and use Longbow instead. Not a big deal, but a bit sad.) I really don't know how they expect you to make an arc with 5 missions in it unless you're really stingy with map sizes, objectives and text. I don't think many of the really memorable dev-created arcs in the game would fit into a 100k file.

Same mission, different text. I had an idea for an arc that would be fun for both heroes and villains to play, but the motivations for each side to carry out the mission would be different. Trying to make the text morally vague wasn't too hard, but without it making the heroes seem corrupt or the villains a bit too kind-hearted I can't think of a way to make it work. I don't know if this has been done before (although I suspect so for some of the special event missions) but being able to write a different briefing or objective title for reds and blues would be cool.

Finally, most importantly, more stability. I have a lot of problems being able to use MA, which I've sent bug reports about, but right now I'm seriously thinking I'd rather have the Dev's old spreadsheet. Harder work? Almost certainly, but without having to mess about rebooting, or closing and logging back in all the time I'd probably have an arc published by now.