Something New for Character Origin

Going forward with CoX, one of my thoughts was to bring the character origins more into the lime-light in some way. The inherent attacks are an interesting idea, and I even use them with new characters (for a brief time). But I would like to see Origins explored more.

Here are some thoughts on how to bring the Origin of a character into their overall powersets. Feel free to suggest other ideas that could help the Devs with future additions to the game.

TECHNOLOGY: Well my first thought was that Techs are inventors and the temporary powers would be a great way to distingush them from other origins, unfortunately everyone can create these currently. So....perhaps allowing Tech origin characters to memorize these recipes would work.

NATURAL: I envision these characters as being able to use all manner of hand-held mundane gear. Perhaps several mini-powersets could be created (ala Kheldian forms), which would give each character a small power sub-set to utilize. You would only be able to choose one of these sub-sets and the powers would be lower-tier strength.
Examples:
BLADES : (fully customizable) would allow the use of a weapon in one hand and powers would be sufficient to create a meaningful attack chain using the item.
GUNS : (customizable, 1-handed) again to allow a 3-4 power ranged attack chain.
GADGETS : Assorted powers which could offer single target powers like immobilize, sleep etc..
Each mini-powerset would contain NO AOE powers and all powers would be at Tier 1,2 or 3 maximum strength so they do not step on the toes of other Full Powersets.

MAGIC: Every character that I recall reading about had sentient devices or pets/companions assisting them, and many folks love pets as an in-game feature.
How about giving an array of usable pets that can either function as
combat, buff or defbuff/control for the Hero/Villain.
A combat pet would not be stronger than a single fire imp, while buff/debuff pets would have basic defense and one special power, but would otherwise not attack.
The pets could be themed and customizable as follows; You would first choose your pet skin; Wolf, Drake, Imp, Snake, Cat etc...
Then you would choose your pets focus; Combat, Defensive
Then you give your pet his ONE power; Attack for combat pets, Buff, Debuff or Control for a defensive pet.

MUTATION: One Idea that I had was to enable a mutant to specialize ONE power every 10 levels starting at 20th. What they could do is choose an enhancement type for the power and have it applied at SO strength. It would not have a slot like other enhancements, so would not allow more than 6 IOs in the power, but would generically increase the ACC, DMG, Recharge, Endurance etc... of the power. This boost "could" be seperate from ED, but if that were too powerful, would simply allow 4 powers to be enhanced outside of the normal slotting process. This idea is meant to simulate that Mutant powers evolve over time.

SCIENCE: This origin is a difficult one. Hopefully others will have some ideas that are better than mine. What I did think was to have Science be a "potpouri" and have a dozen or more single powers added to a special science power pool. The themes would be a broad span of lower tier powers such that you could pick ONE power to supplement the character.
Then as a secondary benefit, Science characters could choose a single "generic" improvement that would be a global effect at approximately DO strength (Maybe lower). So if they wanted to be more accurate they choose ACC, more DMG, recharge etc...

I look forward to any revisions, additions or alternate concepts reagrding character origin.
Please be gentle on the flaming. These are just ideas that are open to discussion.

Bio

While I like the idea in principle I see some overlap which could be annoying.

I think this is nicely covered in our DO overlap and would like to see the same applied tot his concept. So a Tech Origin super can use to use either the Technology, Natural, or Science bonus while a Natural super would be able to pick Natural, Technology or Magic and so on and so forth.

This again...

I'm against any ideas to make Origins more meaningful for two simple reasons: you're shafting people who already picked an origin when it wasn't meaningful and now you're attaching a benefit to it, and your vision of origins is often completely contradictory to mine.

You propose to give Natrual characters affinity with "hand-held mundane gear." OK, what use would Superman guns? Wait, let me try that again... What use would Peacebringers have for blades? Natural covers a LOT of ground, and natural HUMANS are just one small part of it. Things like the Hydra are also natural, because that's what these creatures are. What use would the Hydra have for gadgets? They don't even have fingers... Or pockets, or skin, or a skeletal structure.

And then you propose to give magic users pets... And I'm trying not to say mean things to you over that. Because if

Quote:

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.

Origin means nothing, lets rip em out or make them mean something.

The only thing Origin does now is make it so you can't use some of the drops you get.

--edit(s)--

Also, that kind of logic means nothing should ever be built on or added to or spiced up.

Blasters couldn't use psychic attacks before issue 12 everyone who rolled blaster before then was robbed!

People who didn't choose natural before Issue 7 were denied there rightful throwing knives.

The game played fine without IOs, Dual Builds, and Customization we should have left that alone as well!

MMOs either grow and evolve or they die.

Just ask the elephant who is about to redo its core rules and have a major expansion, it's not doing it because it has dwindling numbers or is flat lining it's doing it to stay competitive and keep people coming back for more.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow OK, what use would Superman guns?

Or a phantom zone projector....or a lead suit...or his own private space ship...or that suit that enhances his rate of solar energy absorption...

Re: Responses

Samuel and Memphis,

I understand your points and really appreciate the feedback. Also I apologize for my comments regarding magic characters, this should have been worded differently.
The whole point of the thread is to discuss ideas like these, but without being offended, so if I accidentily offended anyone, it was not my intent.

One thing that I may have failed to indicate is that the system would be free and not change any of your existing powers and enhancement slots, unless you devoted slots to the sub-set powers. Much the same as Kheldians can go all-human and skip the forms, the origins could be completely optional.
Also, I would expect that existing characters would gain all the benefit of the origins. It wouldn't be something only for brand new characters.

Another thing that Lisar brought up is that every origin could be allowed to choose from up to 3 of the 5 choices, which increases your flexibility considerably. So if you Natural character didnt want to take "guns" or "blades", they could choose a more passive option like "Tech" and gain the benefit of being able to memorize temp powers.

Finally, my suggestions are just one idea. I am sure there are other more generic choices that would be appealing. The fact that the game is fine as is, to me, doesnt mean we should not have more "cool stuff" added. In fact, every MMO needs to continually add to it's game or risk players taking their $15 somewhere else.

I vote for an alien origin!