'Enforcement' and 'Shield's for Defenders, etc...

Here is an idea of how I think these things up and an extended suggestion:

I recently had an idea for Defenders and their redside counterparts to get Shield Defence proliferated. (Modified to be more team oriented than self.)

Then I started thinking about the various Police groups, Paragon PD, Praetorian PD, Rogue Isle Police and Private Security...

I got thinking that the above Defenders and their counterparts should get a Single Pistol ranged set, but then I recalled some ranged sets also have a few melee attacks...

Then I recalled that Thugs Masterminds could have 3 customizable weapons, Left Pistol, Right Pistol and Trick Arrow Bow. (Possibly 4 whenever PPP's get customization.)

So having a Shield and 2 other weapons should be possible...

So a Single Pistol/Mace Combo Powerset (Enforcement.) and (Team based) Shield for the Defenders and their counterparts would be ideal...

Yes I know this may make them Offenders (Offensive Defenders.) but that seems to match with their Dark/Dark setup anyway.

Defenders imho are typically the only Hero AT that is not a squishy Ranged based AT or a hard hitting Melee based AT.



The Powers I would suggest including would be:

1. War Mace: Bash, Clobber and Crowd Control.
2. Dark Miasma: Fearsome Stare or Petrifying Gaze.
   (Less of the skull effects but with a similar result, maybe have the mob use the Surrender emote if held.)
3. Thugs: Pistols (Snap Shot), Empty Clips (Empty Clip), Call Thugs (Call for Backup).
4. Archery: Aimed Shot (Same name but using a Pistol.).
5. Other: Some sort of Build Up, Aim or similar self buff.

1. Paragon PD on a Hero in Paragon City.
2. Resistance on a Hero/Vigilante in Praetoria.
3. Praetorian PD on a Villain/Rogue in Praetoria.
4. RIP on a Villain in the Rogue Isles.
5. Generic Thugs would suit Vigilantes and Rogues in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles.

Ok, first off no blast sets do not get melee attacks. They sometimes have PBAoE attacks but those tend to have a longer range than just melee.

Given that a Dual Pistols set is being released soon I can't see the devs making another set based around single pistols. It might be possible for them to take the Dual Pistols set and do alternate animations so it only uses one pistol although I'm not sure that they'd bother for the same reasons Defenders have trouble with shields...

The problem with giving Defenders a set that uses Shields is that the Blast sets are all designed around using two hands. When Shield Defense was released the devs have to forbid it from being paired with several melee sets due to animation issues.

Even if you said it couldn't be paired with the worst offenders from the Blast sets (AR, Arch and DP) you'd still end up with several attacks per set that looked odd when wielding a shield.

I'm having trouble seeing how a Shield protects or defends the TEAM - which is what Defenders are all about. I know that a RL shield can be moved from in front of the holder to another *single* person (seen it done many times in SCA combat) - but how does that translate to a powerset that defends the TEAM by buffing it or debuffing its enemies?

And the rest of the idea seems to be a request for mixed weapon sets - Mace *and* Pistol, etc.

I know this is a Superhero game, but thematically, I don't see how it holds together, *especially* for a Defender. Not to mention the <shudder> Redraw already noted by Rebel_Scum.

A further breakdown...

Thugs MM's with Trick Arrow have 3 customizable weapons.

Shields already have a team based buff, the modified version could also have a mez resist.

'Enforcement' would have redraw between pistols and mace but it would also have 'Call Reinforcements' aka Gang War Pets.

Also note that I requested 3 Ranged and 3 Melee attacks, I would assume a good player wouldn't use a Melee weapon for Ranged attacks or a Ranged Weapon for Melee.

In fact they could have a dual damage modifier depending on range and equipped weapon.

The main design behind this was as I previously stated due to there being 4 (or 5) security and police groups...

Paragon PD, Preatorian PD, RIP, Private Security. (And Possibly Crey.)

Now a police belt (Official) has a police baton and revolver...

With 'Enforcement' it would potentally be possible to modify hidden copies of this belt with either the holster open or the baton missing depending on which was equipped from the set.

If 'Enforcement' and the additional belt option was implemented, it could pave the way to have scabbards etc which display the customised sword hilt when it isn't equipped and an empty scabbard when it was.

(Look at the KoA NPC's for an example of an equipped but empty scabbard.)

I think that you are misunderstanding how costume pieces (especially weapons) work in the game.

A single character can have any number of "weapon" costume pieces and there is no technical reason that the devs couldn't allow you to set all weapons for your character. However in practice the devs only allow you to set ones that they will actually use for their powers since there is no point in setting ones you won't use. When a character uses a power that requires a weapon (except for temporary powers) the code checks to see if the character already has that weapon drawn. If the weapon is not drawn then any existing weapon the character is holding vanishes and he performs the "weapon drawing" animation for the new weapon. After this it performs the actual power animation.

It is therefore impossible for a player to use the wrong weapon in an attack (barring a bug at least). Additionally making so that an attack has different effects based on what weapon you have out is probably also not possible with the current engine (although I'll admit I've never seen a dev comment on that one way or another).

As for scabbards and holsters ect. for weapons. This is something that has been requested many times in the past. The devs are aware that people would like this but apparently there are technical issues with implementing it (similar to how we have wings but not rocket packs).

In regard to your proposed power sets, "Enforcement" is not suitable as a Blast set simply because Blast sets do not have melee attacks. What it is an an Assault set (aka Dominator secondary). Now a weapon based Assault set is not out of the question although from a practical point of view I'd like to see it avoid the redraw issue by carrying the melee weapon in one hand and the pistol in the other (I'd also prefer it to be a sword rather than a baton so I could have a Sword and Pistol Swashbuckler). And yes I realize that going this route would mean it could never be used with a Shield, it's still how I'd do it. Additionally regardless of whether it's a Blast set or an Assault set a Gang War clone would be hideously broken. The only pet type power in Blast/Assault sets is the Voltaic Sentinel in Electrical Blast/Electricity Assault and a new Blast or Assault set with a summon should probably keep it at about that level.

I really don't see how you could make a practical Buff set that uses a Shield. Overall I think that Force Field fills the same thematic role for a Defender while allowing him to shield allies without standing right next to them. The obvious solution would be to allow shield pieces to be part of a standard costume rather than a "weapon" for the Shield Defense set. Unfortunately the devs have stated that this is not practical since it would require changing to many animations. In fact the Shield Defense set was made for this very reason, players wanted the ability to have shields but the devs could not make shields work with the current costumes and animations. The Shield Defense set was basically a compromise by the devs to let us have shields on some characters without the massive breakage caused by giving all characters shields.

Basically I see your suggestion as boiling down to one of two different requests:
1. Make a new AT with an Assault primary and an Armor second (and a new weapon based Assault set to go with it)
2. Make a new Cop based Epic AT

Both of these have been suggested before on multiple occasions (check the suggestions forum) and overall I think the second is much more likely but to the best of my knowledge the devs have never officially commented on the future viability of either one.

The EAT option would also allow the Primary and Secondary to vary a lot more from the established norms since they would only be applied to one AT which in turn would only have one or two powersets available giving the devs a lot more leeway to use the AT modifiers as a form of balance.

That would be why this is the 'Suggestions and Ideas' thread then...

I'm only making the suggestion with my idea, what he devs decide to do with it is up to them obviously...

However as for this being one of the Praetorian unlockable EAT's,
I agree, it could then have a base DMG and ACC buff on the attacks
to compensate for the dual weapon selection redraw.

EU @Coolio