Costume Slot Equipment

It is generally understood that the idea of "Equipment" or "Gear" as represented in many MMOs and RPGs is generally absent from CoX, largely due to the presence of inventions and temporary powers.

However, I was thinking of a change that might allow for the *Feel* of equipment without handling it the way that Champions Online has handled it (costume pieces that grant certain abilities/bonuses)

Costume Slots could be customized with one slot each for special enhancements (earnable or craftable, preferably both) - that would allow you to basically assign "Equipment" bonuses to the costume slot in question.

This could alter a character's function significantly without changing powerset or anything similar.

For example:
Your Tech Defender (Force Fields/Lightning Blast) has three costume slots.

The first costume slot is your "Basic" costume slot, for his standard costume. There could perhaps be an "Equipment enhancement" that would give you a prestige earn bonus while wearing this costume.

The second costume slot you've used to create your character's off duty costume, so you've chosen to put a "Light Equipment" equipment enhancement there. This enhancement reduced your damage resistance but boosts your defense, or something similar.

The third costume slot you've used to create your heavy armor costume, so you've put a heavy armor enhancement in it. This increases your damage resistance but reduces your speed, etc.

This may sound upon first glance like it would only work for Tech/Natural characters, but. This approach could make science/mutant/magic characters very interesting with clever enhancements to reflect more stable secondary mutations, enhancements to reflect special enchantments your character has on herself, and enhancements to represent drug treatments or chemical experiments she is undergoing.

All in all, this system could be used to replicate the feel of having "gear" but in a suitably super-heroic way and without interfering with the existing costume design/slot system too dramatically.

Thoughts?

/unsigned. costumes should never have any bearing on game play. interesting idea though and maybe something for CoH2 or another game.

I think what he's trying to get at is that the slot isn't directly linked to the costume. But it's more of a "costume" as in something you character wears, or is undergoing, in that same vein.

I like the idea, cause I think it'd allow characters to have more diversity in how they function within their AT, and give a further feel of customization to the game (which is already plentiful, but more is always nice as long as it functions).

I've... got to say I'm still not fond of the idea.

Yes, it's better than having the pieces give you something. No, I don't want to be penalized in some way (even if it's "less effectiveness") for wearing the "wrong" costume. And the +Prestige? ... "Must be in SG mode, costumes must have the +Prestige enhancement or you'll be kicked." Bad enough some are prestige farms now...

I get the idea behind it. Honestly, I do. I just haven't seen anything that makes me think changing from the "Costumes are purely cosmetic" model is a good idea yet.

See my Guides and Tutorials

It's not a bad idea but I have to agree with Sharker. It would be nice in a different version of this game.

So you'd have minor (eg Mystic Fortune/Day Job level) bonuses attached to each costume slot?

Could be kind of cool to have from a RP point of view, eg having a Shapeshifter with a small winged form that gives +Movement, and a Huge form with +Damage attached.

But, the bonuses had better not be too big to create balance issues, in which case why have them at all?

Problems could arise with even a +3% defence bonus - that's enough to drop your incoming damage by 40% or so if you're sitting at 42% defence already. Similarly any resistance bonus can be quite significant for the right Tanker/Brute.
I think this would end up as a minor feature that only really affects the min-maxers. We already have Day Jobs, Mystic Fortune, Self-Mutation and 60 month vet rewards providing little bonuses. While I like your idea more than most of these - I don't think we really need another one.

EDIT: On yeah, and base empowerment buffs. We have them too.

Costumes are aesthetic.

Powers recieve the bonuses of equipment (IOs).

I dont want it any other way, having specific costume pieces give powers (say, you can only fly with wings or jetboots) breaks concept, where superheroes cna be made to do nearly anything conceptually.

And being able to add bonuses to the costume pieces you wear, beyond encouraging people to add uneccesary additions to costumes (like shoulder pieces that you dont want, just to have something to add a bufdf to) would add just another awkward level to min/maxing, that we dont need.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VoodooGirl [*]Watching out for the Spinning Disco Portal of D00M!*

/unsigned

/denied

/cease and desist

For all the reasons pointed above.

The OP was suggesting that each slot has a user-chosen bonus that was separate from the costume pieces used in that costume.
So while you could choose wings and a flight speed bonus for the same slot, you weren't locked into that.

I wouldnt like to see this in this game. it might work for others, but i dont remember supermans costume giving him +5 Endurance lol.

Obviously player sentiment is against this one, particularly with the spirit that a Comic-booky Superhero MMO shouldn't have the same "Feel" as a Sword&Sorcery MMO. Indeed, we have a fair number of folks who are here *because* it's not like certain other MMOs they've tried before. (Not any one MMO in particular, answer varies by poster)

But as Builds were mentioned, another way to achieve this end would be to allow us to switch between our two alternate builds via slash command, rather than just at the trainer. It could be bound to a costume change via macro, if so desired.
Now, the Devs have limited us from switching builds anywhere but at the trainer, primarily for balance. (The first thing that comes to mind is an argument about firing oiff long recharge nukes, then swapping to a Hasten/recharge/other attacks build to remove the penalty.)

But what if:
Allow Build swapping in the SG base as well? Generally the SG base is pretty removed from combat. From the battlefield mid mission, there are only three ways to the base. Exit the map, get killed and hit the [mediport to base?] button or use the (Interuptible!) SG teleporter vet power.
Someone who rally wants his powers to vary by which supersuit he's wearing could enter the SG base, run up to the <Base Device Name Here>, click the button, hit his costume change command (CC 0-CC 4), emote optional, and run back to the fray.
As it stands, you can do this by changing your costume at the trainer, but I'd imagine that the Arbiters really don't want to spend thier time having Destined Ones stripping down to thier undies in front of them all day. It's bad enough that they have to train this riff-raff.

It's better thought than the vast majority of 'Give us gear!' suggestions, but I still can't get behind it. Inventions and alt builds work fine for giving a different feel to powers, we have accolades, etc.
I prefer to have looks being there for the one reason of looking cool (or uncool, depending on character )

Quote:

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Alright, if you truly understood the spirit of the OP, ignore this.

What it meant was that the costumes themselves would have NO EFFECT, just like now, but whenever you were using the costume SLOT, regardless of what costume is actually IN said slot, you would get a small bonus (or larger bonus with a trade-off). Understand now? No gear, no "right costume", nada. Just a new ,and really minor in the long run, way to customize your character and set him/her apart from all of the other <Level X Pri/Sec Archetypes> out there.

Anyway /signed and keep it up.

LTRP!

Edit: You may want to call this suggestion something different if you ever repost it or anything. A lot of the hate piled onto this probably was written without even reading past the title. Good luck!

If the OP's suggestion were implemented, your biomass character could still shapeshift mid-battle with no effect on combat ability. Simply slot the same (or no) enhancements into each slot. It would be optional.

That said, I'm still not enthused about the idea. It rates a polite "Interesting, but no thank you.", rather than a "Oh, <expletive> NO!" on the Pork Scale.