Split the Assault Rifle powerset

And don't assume I said things I didn't either, I don't even want you touching the name. Thus the minor reaction of breaking lawn ornaments.

About the one handed shooting of an assault rifle; You are a god damn super hero and all. You can probably handle the recoil.

Yeah I figure, I just really felt the need to mention it after reading ReclusesPhantom's post. It did mention apparently breaking your arm trying to shoot a non-sawed off shotgun one handed, among other things.

Because that's BORING. This is the same argument people keep making with Dual Pistols - why do they have to have the same animations. Because a set that consists entirely of "stand and shoot" is, by the very definition of the word, boring. They could rename it to "Pillbox Blast" and it wouldn't lose much.

Powersets don't need to be realistic, or indeed specific. An entire powerset around a shotgun, even with "rain of bullets" and "underground bullet" thrown in, is both specific and boring. You can spice anything up with enough time adding special effects, but a shotgun set is the LAST thing I'd expect to see, especially when you can see a Pulse Rifle set, instead.

When adding new powersets, always try to think of something they bring to the table that's unique and interesting. Polearm melee brings the concept of large, two-handed melee weapons. Pulse Rifle sets carry the inherent "raygun" concept that comic books and 1960s sci-fi movies made famous. Shapeshiftong powersets carry a brand new mechanic. Even "wand" powersets bring their own unique spin.

But shotgun? All that comes down to is "like Assault Rifle but." Even Dual Blades has the fact that it's the only set with TWO melee weapons in its favour.

Shotgun Blast is to Assault Rifle what Ken is to Ryu.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Storyline spin notwithstanding, Ken and Ryu were and even now pretty much are the same character with a colour swap kimono, and they were made that way for a reason. The original Street Fighter game, back before Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior, used them as palette swaps for player one and player two, and they made the transition into the game that way. Capcom have tried to differentiate them over the years, giving an extra hit here, an extra super there, a few other superficial differences, but they're still the same character. If it weren't for their sheer fame, no-one would care. It's like Wolverine vs. Bone Claw Wolverine in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, or Marve Super Heroes' Iron Man vs. War Machine from Marvel vs. Capcom, and I think they both appear together in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. They're the same character, only War Machine has an extra sprite where his Shoulder Cannon pops up, to differentiate it from Iron Man's Unibeam using the same sprite animation.

People have suggested alternate animations for that, and for what it's worth, I say eh, why not. If people want a more boring version of a cool set, more power to them. The point remains that the set, as originally designed, is still in the game and still interesting and distinctive enough to exist. People are free to choose, obviously, but if the set had to ship with whatever boring alternatives people were thinking of, it wouldn't have had nearly the same impact. Or nearly the same point.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

That is entirely subjective. I would not find it boring at all, and I think anyone who would really want to use a pure assault rifle or shotgun set wouldn't find that very boring either. I mean I find the entire MM AT very boring, but that's just me and I never would have suggested it to be not added.

I also haven't really even attempted to point out all the various ways to fire a gun in a super hero game because I don't think it matters and I wanted to make it as easy as possible to add (maybe if it was a simple rearrangement of existing player and enemy powers they'd be more inclined to quickly throw it in). If you want flashy powers I can think up a bunch.

Let's see, for shotguns it's generally a good idea to fire in close range, so you could build the set with that in mind and create a ranged set that spends a lot of time in melee range.

Face Shot: Has medium range but the power starts with the character dashing right in front of the enemy, holding the shotgun out with one hand right up against their face (if they have a face), and boom. The effect would be more an explosion than a normal gun shot, and the blast could be tintable.

Blindshot: Also medium range and comes with a movement element. Character dashes past the enemy a few feet then fires backwards (again one handed, why not?) in a reverse cone attack. Again, the effect is more explosive than a normal gunshot to make it more visually appealing and so it can be tintable.

Rocket Gun: PBAoE. Character first fires straight down at the ground, the shot is extremely explosive and sends a blast out hitting enemies in close range with decent knockback, this also sends the character flying up about 10-15 (ceiling height?) feet at which point they fire again straight down with an even bigger and more powerful blast that hits enemies in a larger radius and knocks them back even farther. The character then drops down to the ground and lands with style.

Cluster Shot: Medium range frontal cone. Fast normal shogun type shot, but what fires out of the gun is a large cluster of fiery projectiles which each move with their own trajectory illustrated by what look like small lines of fire arcing in multiple directions.

Dragon Slug: Medium range. Character holds the gun at their side and braces themselves, the end of the barrel starts to burn and gets brighter and brighter while the gun shakes in the character's hands, after about 2 seconds a huge "beam" (shape of attack, not an energy beam) of fire shoots out in a straight line maybe 5 feet wide and 20-30 feet long and does instant massive damage to all enemies in it's path.

Are those still boring to you? I'm not good with names obviously, so ignore how much those suck. I don't really like that last one much, as it would feel a bit too much like what I'm complaining about in the current AR set, but it would fit into some shotgun themes. It only takes a few seconds of creative thought to come up with stuff like that. Just because it's a gun and you point it to shoot doesn't mean you can't do all sorts of things with character movement, posing, and the projectile animation and effects.

It's a superhero game though and you're kind of missing my point. Everything in the world of comicbooks is somewhat played up, yes? Look at Dual Blades for example. You can swing a sword horizontally, vertically and diagonally. Dual Blade has your characters swords go left, right, up, down, backwards, forwards etc. Why? Because it looks awesome! It makes your character feel super. I doubt a martial artist in real life could jump in the air, spin, kick their opponent in the chest, rebound off them, do a backflip and land. It just makes your characters feel super, the way a superhero should. Standing still and bulling a trigger isn't very super or entertaining to watch.



Apologies then. I didn't think of reading that.

You miss the point. Such a set is boring because there really are only a handful of ways to fire a rifle. Basically, it boils down to "fire once" then "fire multiple times" then "fire even more times," but beyond that you ARE repeating yourself. Redundant powers that all look the same but do different effects is a remarkably bad approach to game design, and it's one of the primary killers in classic MMOs. Think back to older "action RPGs" like the original Diablo - that game had five weapon models and three armour models and that was IT. Then, it might have passed for great. Play it now, and its flaws are glaringly obvious.

As I said before, suggesting a more boring set of animations for Dual Blades NOW when it has all of its cool ones, that could very easily fly. You have a set that works and is interesting, so it hurts little to add to it. The set exists. Adding the set like you're suggesting would NOT have happened, simply because it would not have had a point. You don't make a boring set and add cool animations later. That's called a bust. You make a cool set and possibly add boring animations later, like what happened to Martial Arts.

As a general rule of thumb, you need to ensure that any suggestion you make is actually interesting, and to be honest, I'd be hard-pressed to agree that more "long firearm" powersets count. Hell, I WANT a two-handed sword powerset and I wouldn't agree it's interesting enough to add to what we already have. Alternate animations for Broadsword and a selection of larger swords (PLEASE!!!) would cover that gap sufficiently.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.