Presenting Issue 16: Power Spectrum!

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Of course, as a non in-game explanation, number of Kheldian characters and number of powers unique to kheldians probably makes them lower priority for the initial pass at power customisation. Hopefully they make it into the second pass.

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Kinda like the second pass of Powerset Proliferation?

How long did THAT take again? Oh wait, it hasn't, yet.

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But if the APPs and normal Pools aren't being addressed in the first pass I can see the devs wanting to get a 2nd pass done fairly quickly. I think it's almost akin to how the MA was delayed for customisable bosses due to player feedback there'll be a fair bit of player feedback miffed if PC only covers most primary/secondary sets.

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By my mohawk shall ye know me!
my toons
Funny: Ee-Ai-Ee-Ai-Oh! #3662 * The foul-mouthed Handyman! #1076 * City of Norms #132944
Serious: To Save A Single World (#83744) * Marketing Opportunity (#83747)

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and that is why i cant keep a veat or heat long enough to pass lvl 10. The concept is solid.

I can make a widow a vampire or a soldier a werewolf.. eventually. But they will always have started as Arachnos.

Every Kheld is a alien bonded being. Its in you re AT.. youre origin... you re missions. You can't ignore this. Its just way too much. For roleplay you would actually rewrite youre own origin and ignore all stuff you do along youre line of levelling.

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Sure I can. I can ignore it, or bend it any way I please, and even do it whilst not going beyond STATED canon material. Some of us are blessed with an imagination you know, and don't need to base our chars on tired old stereotypes.

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@FloatingFatMan

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

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But if the APPs and normal Pools aren't being addressed in the first pass I can see the devs wanting to get a 2nd pass done fairly quickly. I think it's almost akin to how the MA was delayed for customisable bosses due to player feedback there'll be a fair bit of player feedback miffed if PC only covers most primary/secondary sets.

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Based on past experience, I'd be surprised if we saw any additions to the colour customisation for at LEAST a year.

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@FloatingFatMan

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

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But if the APPs and normal Pools aren't being addressed in the first pass I can see the devs wanting to get a 2nd pass done fairly quickly. I think it's almost akin to how the MA was delayed for customisable bosses due to player feedback there'll be a fair bit of player feedback miffed if PC only covers most primary/secondary sets.

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Based on past experience, I'd be surprised if we saw any additions to the colour customisation for at LEAST a year.

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They'll be a "feature" of i17 or i18

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Earth Assault Dommies!!

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*sniff*

Still no Soul Control/Darkness Assault Dominators though.

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Contact Information!

Twitter: @TonyParkeze

Facebook: www.facebook.com/anthonyjp91

Email: anthonyjp91@gmail.com

Some insight from BAB about how long this has taken

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Fun facts:
To date, power customization for Primary and Secondary player powers has involved
1,241 individual powers.

which use use 1,620 FX scripts

which reference 5,144 particle scripts.

(Yes, those 1,241 powers are from just the powersets listed in the Issue 16 overview page.)

I'm still trying to nail down an exact date for when we started working on this, but so far the earliest reference I can find is from a document created in March of 2008. I know there were some meetings before that document was made, but I can't find the date or meeting notes from the initial "Lets do this!" meeting, which I would consider the official start of this massive undertaking.

Unofficially, I've been trying to figure out ways to do it since around Issue 11, but every idea involved new tech and a tremendous amount of data parsing...two things that simply would have never happened back then with the size of our team.

Obviously, we haven't been working 100% on this since we started. A bit here, a bit there...time taken for other Issues, bug fixes, booster packs, etc. But we've been working on it pretty focused for the last 6-8 months.


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@Golden Girl

City of Heroes comics and artwork

Another thing I'm wondering about - do you think that the revamped costume creator will have somewhere where you can view the powers and animations, to help with choosing the look you want?
The MA already incldues a little animation preview, so maybe they'll use something similar for previewing powers?

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@Golden Girl

City of Heroes comics and artwork

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Obviously, we haven't been working 100% on this since we started. A bit here, a bit there...time taken for other Issues, bug fixes, booster packs, etc. But we've been working on it pretty focused for the last 6-8 months.

[/ QUOTE ]Hmm, that explains a lot.

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Tyger (50), Mutation-Controller Mind/FF - oldest Mind/FF on Union

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Another thing I'm wondering about - do you think that the revamped costume creator will have somewhere where you can view the powers and animations, to help with choosing the look you want?
The MA already incldues a little animation preview, so maybe they'll use something similar for previewing powers?

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I was wondering this also, perhaps there will be another specific 'power customisation' section in the character creating process, preferably after 'costume creation'.
I'm hoping characters will be shown with a list of your powers and the colour tinting palette... ready to roll

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perhaps there will be another specific 'power customisation' section in the character creating process, preferably after 'costume creation'.


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It should be immaterial where any power customisation screen sits in relation to other character creation screens since I16 brings the ability to jump back and forth between screens without losing progress. So even if power customisation is displayed (apparently) before costume you should be able to pick the costume first.

Though I'd guess that PC may well be tied to powerset/power selection screens.

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By my mohawk shall ye know me!
my toons
Funny: Ee-Ai-Ee-Ai-Oh! #3662 * The foul-mouthed Handyman! #1076 * City of Norms #132944
Serious: To Save A Single World (#83744) * Marketing Opportunity (#83747)

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I see on the American thread, BAB mentioned a "customizable Helllfire Whip" for Demon Summoning MMs - I thought whips where one of those impossible powers, like water?

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I'm guessing that whips are still one of the impossible powers. i.e. a complete whip set that involves a whip being used for some forms of entanglement (KD? Maybe even knock/pull forward?) as well as strikes.

I think the problem may be that a complete whip set would look poor without taking enemy models into account. That problem still remains. You could end up with some odd effects like the resizing arrows - but odder due to the whip being attached to both MM and target...

But a whip being used for just 2 or 3 attacks/strikes as part of an MM set is a very different matter. For this it could happily get away with a couple of shortish-range attack animations - no-one really questions attacks hitting odd places.

Just my guess, since we haven't seen the sets yet. But given that it seems to be linked to the demon summoning MM primary I'd guess it's pretty much going to be used on the level of the ninja MM bow, the thug MM dual pistols etc

ok - I was slow picking up on this one...

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By my mohawk shall ye know me!
my toons
Funny: Ee-Ai-Ee-Ai-Oh! #3662 * The foul-mouthed Handyman! #1076 * City of Norms #132944
Serious: To Save A Single World (#83744) * Marketing Opportunity (#83747)

Maybe the whip is for your summoned demons, to whip them into obedience?

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@FloatingFatMan

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

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But a whip being used for just 2 or 3 attacks/strikes as part of an MM set is a very different matter. For this it could happily get away with a couple of shortish-range attack animations - no-one really questions attacks hitting odd places.

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I was wondering if the Hellfire Whip might be something along the lines of the Carrion Creepers in the Plant set. But I haven't seen the whole quote from BaB.

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Arc#314490: Zombie Ninja Pirates!
Defiant @Grouchybeast
Death is part of my attack chain.

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Maybe the whip is for your summoned demons, to whip them into obedience?

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That's the way I imagine it'd work - not only because it'd be easier to have a single whip animation that making it into a power set, but it'd also fit with the info about demon summoning we got from Desdemona's biography.
My guess is a pet buff that increases the rage (damage) of your pets.

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@Golden Girl

City of Heroes comics and artwork

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My guess is a pet buff that increases the rage (damage) of your pets.


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ya that would make sense alright but a couple of plain attacks would be nice. a narrow cone stun perhaps or else just a couple of swipes

and am i the only one who thinks some die hards will make a petless demon summoning MM just to be a whip wielding character. similar to a petless thugs MM in lieu of a dual pistol blaster/corrupter

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I wonder if there'd be a Succubus as a demon.

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He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.

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I wonder if there'd be a Succubus as a demon.

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Possibly.

Sort of.

Only male.

Incubus.

Safer and easier to get away with as sexism only ever works one way.

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By my mohawk shall ye know me!
my toons
Funny: Ee-Ai-Ee-Ai-Oh! #3662 * The foul-mouthed Handyman! #1076 * City of Norms #132944
Serious: To Save A Single World (#83744) * Marketing Opportunity (#83747)

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I wonder if there'd be a Succubus as a demon.

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Possibly.

Sort of.

Only male.

Incubus.

Safer and easier to get away with as sexism only ever works one way.

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I seem to remember some debate back in the day surrounding questions of female pets for MMs. As I recall, wasn't the decision irrevocably "PC" - although if that's the reason it's as dumb as a sack of spanners. Because it's OK to create virtual villains who commit virtual murder, but apparently unacceptable to allow anyone over 16 to demean women by creating virtual fembot assassins, I can only surmise that these decisions are taken by lawyers and marketing creatures who have to try and juggle political and legal variations across not just the vast mosaic of US culture but also international and intercontinental experience. Perpetrating mayhem, murder, destruction and violence, all with sadistic glee, is not as vile in the West, at least, as pretending to control an army of women. I don't get it, but that's the culture. It sucks, but I guess people in suits, and well-meaning but dumb people in smocks, not only assume power over our lifestyles and culture, but presume to police our thoughts, too. Better safe than sorry, I guess, is the motive.

It is frustrating, but the really infuriating part is that such a huge portion of humanity really do seem immature and ignorant enough to need it.

Back OT of colours: do you think this will include the "no colour" option? (And, if possible, a "no noise" option for auras that "hum"). I'm still holding out hope that I can make armour auras etc. invisible. If I wanted to move something garish and shapeless around the screen I'd dig out the old Gameboy. We have so many options to customise our appearance, why not have the option to let us see it, rather than hide it behind an explosion of colour and noise.

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I think the no-color option won't be available because of PVP. You have to know who attacked and what he used; it would be odd to be hit by an invisible fireball.

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I think the no-color option won't be available because of PVP. You have to know who attacked and what he used; it would be odd to be hit by an invisible fireball.

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Would make a phantom army really awesome.

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@Damz Find me on the global channel Union Chat. One of the best "chat channels" ingame!

Or revert no-colour to defaults for PvP!

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I think the no-color option won't be available because of PVP. You have to know who attacked and what he used; it would be odd to be hit by an invisible fireball.

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But won't the combat tab still tell you?

I'd guess that a lot of powers may look fairly similar and that the combat tab will need to be used to tell what sort of damage you're taking anyway.

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By my mohawk shall ye know me!
my toons
Funny: Ee-Ai-Ee-Ai-Oh! #3662 * The foul-mouthed Handyman! #1076 * City of Norms #132944
Serious: To Save A Single World (#83744) * Marketing Opportunity (#83747)

A fight with all powers totally invisible would look rather cool

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@Golden Girl

City of Heroes comics and artwork

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I think the no-color option won't be available because of PVP. You have to know who attacked and what he used; it would be odd to be hit by an invisible fireball.

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I don't PvP. Please tell me there's a reason other than that for something not to be implemented.

I can think of only a few "powers" where an invisible effect might be aesthetically preferably to some players - maybe Martial Arts, for example: when I kick things in real life there's no blinding flash coupled with a thunderclap. I was mainly after having the option to hide auras that cloud my toons: I have a tanker that glows like a 250 watt bulb with some auras running, and a brute that looks like a blob of radioactive yellow snot. I'd rather see the toons I made than the eye-melting pixels of a tired designer from 2004.

As for PvP: anything like that could always be suppressed in those zones if it's important to know what's just ganked you. I don't know why an invisible blast would be any less overwhelming than a blue or pink one, but then I rarely survive long enough in PvP zones to let those thoughts occur to me

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for example: when I kick things in real life there's no blinding flash coupled with a thunderclap.

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Then you need to kick more electrical things

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@Golden Girl

City of Heroes comics and artwork