Eventual Hope for Power Customization
By
Adeon Hawkwood,
Posted on: 2010-01-13 18:22 in Suggestions and Ideas
Ok.
How about...
Alternative animations for ALL blast sets: magical staves/wands and energy rifles. They could all use the same animations for most of the attacks so unless the animations are really weirdly programmed it shouldn't require too many new animations to create. Considering the evidence so far it's probably weirdly programmed and would require too many new animations, but I can dream.
Basically we'd have animations similar to the Blackwand for fire, energy, electricity, ice, dark, psychic... etc. And energy rifle and/or energy pistol animations for all of the above as well.
More different kicks and punches for Martial Arts and Superstrength. Alternative animations for all the attacks in the sets would be nice. I want the old Storm Kick back, somehow. Perhaps as an alternative animation to Flurry?
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I think new animations would be super awesome.
In fact, I think that new animation styles for a big variety of power sets would be a really great thing to throw into booster packs. Like an energy gun blast style, or wand blast, or even stuff like spellcasting for buff powers or control powers, where big arcane runes show up while you're casting when you activate the power.
Love it.
I'll take whatever power customization options the devs decide to throw our way. I'll figure out a concept for anything eventually 
But specific customizations that I had wanted (yet probably will never get):
-Storm summoning using a bow. I always had a concept for a tech character that had devices to manipulate the weather and he'd use them on the ends of arrows.
-Fire/Ice swords that looked like beam sabers...like this:
because I have megaman-esque blasters T_T
-Sonic powers from the hands.
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The problem with that is new code, not new animations. You are talking about adding a weapon to non-weapon powers, which will also require drawing that weapon. Adding that option may or may not be easily doable.
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Originally Posted by FredrikSvanberg
Ok.
How about... Alternative animations for ALL blast sets: magical staves/wands and energy rifles. They could all use the same animations for most of the attacks so unless the animations are really weirdly programmed it shouldn't require too many new animations to create. Considering the evidence so far it's probably weirdly programmed and would require too many new animations, but I can dream. |
What I'd like to see is someone go through all the blasts, controls and buffs/debuffs, and sort them into groups with the same animation lengths. Then, after removing any that have a very non-generic animation, make all the animations on each of these lists available to any power with the same casting time.
Especially with the normalization of blaster attacks a while ago, there should be a lot of options available, without any new animation work (except maybe a few tweaks and fixes). And with the the framework already in place, it should mostly be database work, and a bit of coding - the perfect task for the new guys to cut their teeth on!
@Roderick
More options gets my /signed.
Some suggestions are a bit unreasonable with /standard code rant, redraw, all that normal stuff. But so long as we get more options steadily, then thats always a good thing.
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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.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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I believe it could be done, but it would have ramifications on balance.|
Originally Posted by LordSquigie
The problem with that is new code, not new animations. You are talking about adding a weapon to non-weapon powers, which will also require drawing that weapon. Adding that option may or may not be easily doable.
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Adding customizeable weapons to power customization is another story.
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Darn it, and I wanted to be able to summon a mob of minions all wearing their own unique clothing and designer dual pistols, while immersed in uniquely swirling particle effect fog--|
Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler
I believe it could be done, but it would have ramifications on balance.
Adding customizeable weapons to power customization is another story. |
...anyone have a mop? I think BaB's head exploded.
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I'm curious as to how it would impact balance? I mean obviously using a weapon with a set not designed for it would make you a little better/worse off since you'd remove/suffer from redraw that you otherwise wouldn't but would that really have a noticeable impact on balance?
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Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler
I believe it could be done, but it would have ramifications on balance.
Adding customizeable weapons to power customization is another story. |
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No fire katana........?|
Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler
I believe it could be done, but it would have ramifications on balance.
Adding customizeable weapons to power customization is another story. |
;_;
I was just thinking of it as a seperate theme, sort of like you have scimitar or great sword right now.
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"Notice at the end, there: Arcanaville did the math and KICKED IT INTO EXISTENCE." - Ironik on the power of Arcanaville's math
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mew it Manga.|
Originally Posted by CuppaManga
Darn it, and I wanted to be able to summon a mob of minions all wearing their own unique clothing and designer dual pistols, while immersed in uniquely swirling particle effect fog--
...anyone have a mop? I think BaB's head exploded. |
/control-alt-f1
root
***********
top
>
>
Q
kill -9 4N1M4+3
start 4N1M4+3
control-alt-F7
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okay. he should be back to normal now.
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edit: Okay, since I've received a couple of tells from friends who were confused, here's a breakdown of this joke. Yes, this is a *nix based joke. Control-Alt-F1 is the command used to drop from most modern Linux systems to the command prompt. This is followed by logging in as the root of the machine. Top is a program that lists all of the currently running processes. The two arrow key presses are cycling through Top until the processes are sorted by those using the greatest amount of system power. Q quits out of the Top program, which is followed by running a Kill -9. Kill -9 basically means stop whatever process with no further questions, and stop it now. 4N1M4+3, or rather, ANIMATE, isn't actually a real process ID. It's a joke based on BaB's being an animator. In most Linux systems, when you kill a process, you'll need to restart it again. If you are doing this manually, this can involve a long string of process identifiers. Some critical commands, however, can use a start(app) identifier from pretty much anywhere in the directory lineup... such as startx. So again, another joke in here about the ANIMATE package being important enough to assign a start script to. Control-Alt-F7 takes the user back to the running GUI session.
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Elemental weapons are not weapon customization, they're power effects.|
Originally Posted by Lycanus
No fire katana........?
;_; I was just thinking of it as a seperate theme, sort of like you have scimitar or great sword right now. |
BABs is talking about taking (for example) Fire Blast and adding wand animations, like the Circle of Thorns and Midnighter Club enemies use. Basically, if you can choose to have a power with or without a weapon, the weapon would be baked in to the animations, much like the old, pre-weapon customization weapon sets. Most likely, the only way to have multiple wands would be to have a separate set of animations for each wand.
@Roderick
How about new animation for CLAWS! As in the Open hand beast Claw attacks!
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A while back I did specifically ask Castle if powers were balanced around damage type and he said they were not. |
Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler
I believe it could be done, but it would have ramifications on balance.
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Thus I don't know if it would be a balance issue if a broadsword became flaming (or whatnot).
Too many alts to list.
Not for sure, but some attacks would require new animations if used with weapons. I can think of a couple blasts that are two hand based, unless the emination point is moved to the wand head/gun barrel/etc... But again, that might require re-animating.
As for balance issues (redraw), why not simply put a disclaimer when choosing between weapon based blasts and non weapon based blasts that you're adding a disadvantage to PvP and other competitive content by choosing to use a weapon. The hardcore PvPers arn't going to care if thier guy holds a staff or shoots fire out of his hands, but the RP crowd and most other users won't care about a half second delay.
Plus, couldn't they simply use one of thier five costume slots to use a non weapon based animation set if they want to PvP? It's not like they are gimping thier character for life, just 30 seconds between /cc 's.
Agreed.
Redraw seems to be *the* issue (as far as limitations on variety of animations within a specified timefram). I could see making all weapons "summonable" like fire swords or stone mallots, but asthetically some natural types would still want to whip their stuff out. Makes me think that summonable weapons aren't really there from a code standpoint they just are just drawn, whereas a gun or claws initiates a separate cascade of events and are separate entities (I dont know just thinking and hoping for some feedback).
I really like the empty-handed/adding weapons animation options to some power-sets (dual blades and claws comes to mind; and if you want a wand instead of a gun - fine), but I cant comment on the difficulty there (see above comment on weapons).
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Which would be a completely new set of animations. Which I'm sure BAB can do; x3 for body types, x2 for flying; in his over-abundant free time.
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Originally Posted by RottenLuck
How about new animation for CLAWS! As in the Open hand beast Claw attacks!
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It may be minimal, but it is still an impact on balance. And keep in mind that powergamers will always choose the most effective option under any given circumstances, and so they will always choose to use the no weapon option. Casual players will interpret that as them being penalized because they choose to build for concept and not gameplay. |
Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
I'm curious as to how it would impact balance? I mean obviously using a weapon with a set not designed for it would make you a little better/worse off since you'd remove/suffer from redraw that you otherwise wouldn't but would that really have a noticeable impact on balance?
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And really, we have evidence that the redraw feature has a significant effect on balance. When it was removed from the overall cast time of the weapon sets, they became significantly stronger. To the point where Claws actually had to be nerfed to bring it back to the DPS it had before. It may depend on how fast the weapon set is, with slower weapons being effected less, but it DOES have an impact.
The only argument I see would be that before the redraw was a constant thing, 100%, and now it is a smaller fraction, maybe 10-20% of the time based on your other powers and how well you manage it. Removal of that remaining 20% should be less than the original removal of 80%.
Personally, I think a better option would be a separate Power Set which is balanced around the idea that you have a Staff or other item you are casting attack effects from.
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Isn't that what the whole talk of this thread is about? New animations for a Weapon to be used for non-weapon powers.|
Originally Posted by Rajani Isa
Which would be a completely new set of animations. Which I'm sure BAB can do; x3 for body types, x2 for flying; in his over-abundant free time.
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So that whole new set of animations for each power...
Why not add one more that people been asking for even longer then Power Customization was even introduce? I don't think it's the animation in this case more on the character Model. One would have to be made with open hands when attacking. So it's not just Animation it's a new skeleton.
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He's not talking about a Broadsword becoming flaming, he's talking about a broadsword being used to cast Fire Blast.|
Originally Posted by docbuzzard
A while back I did specifically ask Castle if powers were balanced around damage type and he said they were not.
Thus I don't know if it would be a balance issue if a broadsword became flaming (or whatnot). |
And it's not that it would be imbalanced due to the fire, it's that drawing the broadsword would slow down Fire Blast's attacks.
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I can't see them allowing damage type switches. This DOES change balance issues. As an example: Sonic Blast is smashing/energy, with -resistance effects. Many enemies have smashing resistance, so it takes an initial hit or two to get the smashing resistance worn away, bringing full damage down on the enemy. Now change your sonic blast to cold/fire damage, which is less resisted...the power still having -resistance effects. The attacks could easily start off at full damage, ramping quickly to even more.|
Originally Posted by docbuzzard
A while back I did specifically ask Castle if powers were balanced around damage type and he said they were not.
Thus I don't know if it would be a balance issue if a broadsword became flaming (or whatnot). |
I can see the devs maybe letting someone's fire melee all use fire swords, or electric melee use an electric hammer, or even fire blasts com from a cannon or something, but I'm pretty sure base damage types are not going anywhere.
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I have a Blaster that originally was supposed to use a beam sword, I chose Fire instead because Energy has no sword. I still can't create her as a Dominator, because Fire Assault has no sword either. |
Originally Posted by Leo_G
-Fire/Ice swords that looked like beam sabers...like this:
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You can recolor the Fire Sword to be bright blue, to make it look like a energy sword instead of fire. It will still set foes on fire, but the sword itself can be made to look like energy. And if you want a straight one and not curved, you can select the Greater Fire Sword model. (Although its size may not perfectly fit concept either)
Ice you're generally stuck with, although an alternate model that looks more like an energy field might be an option BaBs could add. In this case the "energy" would be cold and not hot. You're still doing Ice or Fire damage, though, there'll be no way to make it do Energy. Unless one of the Energy attacks could be changed to use an energy blade, and I think that bumps up against the redraw idea again. (I'm honestly not sure what the difference between Weapon Set redraw and individual powers that look like a weapon are, in terms of redraw, but I think at the least the redraw is much faster)
What I'd like to see, is for the Phantom Army decoys to actually be ghost images of my character.
Hopefully, I'd like to see alternate animations for all the powers.
Some ideas right now:
some kicks in the non-martial melees so someone can do a flashy martial-artist that uses some sort of technique that creates fire or lightning or the like. Currently, most of the non-MA martials are really good punch sets already, (which I like) but one or two kicks thrown in would be great. (targeted: fire, energy, electrical, dark)
more alternate weapons for earth, fire and ice (fire katana! ice axe! earth greatsword!) and don't say a greatsword doesn't deal smashing...a great frigging piece of rock shaped like a sword will probably smash more than slash
alternate animations for theme-heavy powers (the tentacles and skulls of dark mainly, I don't mind them for most of my characters, but for some...yeeeah)
ability to customize Ancillaries and Pools
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"Notice at the end, there: Arcanaville did the math and KICKED IT INTO EXISTENCE." - Ironik on the power of Arcanaville's math