Underwater storyarchs

opinions?

Storyarch is an arch made out of books, right?

And opinion: too vague.

Second: BAB does not particularly like the idea of underwater anything given what it would do to animation.

That said, if we're just looking at underwater as a setting instead of an environment (IE, look out the window, see water, fish, etc.) it's more doable (and the assets could be used elsewhere.) Use it as part of the process of unlocking (and leveling) a Coralax EAT.

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Yeah, I pretty much thnk the best we'll get is an "Atlantis" style zone where all our running based travel uses the swim animation and functions like the Hami-goo, allowing for greater verticle movement. Other travel powers would likely remain unaffected, though they may take on the swim animation as well. I'd also suggest a mild movement speed decrease in water, myself.

Any missions, etc. would likely take place "in doors" with air, etc. The walls may be glass, displaying the ocean around you, but having missions take place "under water" poses some serious problems with powersets like fire, ice, trick arrow, dual pistols, etc.

Now, you COULD do the work to make it so that some powersets are simply "weakened" in a water based zone, the way you supress stealth in RWZ, for example, and then add in a very minor -speed component or a very minor increase in animation times for other powers, to keep it all balanced (the minor animation time increase would work, since being surrounded by water WOULD slow down your martial arts kick, or the way you swing your war mace, etc.) I would have each mission START for a brief second with a "watery effect" where everything is blurry, the way that flashback missions start with the sepia tone of an older photograph, and then have it fade. Sets the tone, then lets gameplay resume. I think you'd need to add some sort of "breather" bubble, kind of like the bubbler in the respec TF, that allows us non-fish people to function somewhat normally below water unless you did the things mentioned above.

After seeing how the only other superhero game handled their underwater zone (hint Terrihorriaweful bad is the term I'd use) and knowing that THAT engine is newer than this game's . . . no thank you.

No thanks. Also, Engine and time limitations. i.e. not worth it

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.

Ok, then how stealth is supressed in Mayhem missions. :-)

"I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question: "Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?"
"No," says the man in Washington, "It belongs to the poor!"
"No," says the man in the Vatican, "It belongs to God!"
"No," says the man in Moscow, "It belongs to everyone!"
I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different... I chose the impossible... I chose...
RAPTURE.
A city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."

I've always said Rapture would make a perfect City of trial zone, little sister hunts make for morality choices, fending off splicers, big daddies (EBs), and big sisters (AV or GM, lacking the 'G', part), plasmids and guns mean more temp powers, we'd get an underwater zone... Do not deny it...
you want your drill melee.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

We can still have an underwater zone - we just don't need to be underwater

Here's the link to BaBs post.

BaBs on Underwater Zones

And here is what he said.

BaB's protest is more about being active while underwater, I don't think it would apply to something along the lines of Rapture where the city is underwater,but the people are in structures.

Yes - some people seem to get confused by the term "underwater"

I would like to see (but realise will never happen... *waits for the magical power customisation unicorn to trot into the scene*) an Underwater Trial.

This does not mean a whole zone or set of instances devoted to lame animation and power/vfx skullduggery, but rather a trial that has villains/heroes/pick flavour of choice going underwater to fight a threat.

The final mission, much like the Terra Volta respec trial heroside, would involve some kind of protective device power up gained in a room outside the big dome of water.

Coralax could feature heavily.

Missions leading up to this final trial room, that involves swimming underwater, could have an under the water (not underwater - different term) structure to them. Glass walkways with murky depths inches away. Odd lights, large shark silhouettes, perhaps even a few tentacles...

Now that's as far as I got with this idea, which I had a while back. I can imagine the look of a gigantic dome filled with water, superhumans having to stock up on air/magical pressure suits (yadda yadda yadda), but sadly not why anyone would do this.

My serious thoughts on underwater arcs / missions/ etc.:

Underwater combat (that is, combat while submerged in water) would be tricky (hence why BAB is extremely remiss on this subject). The main problem stems from water being thicker than air, and therefor slowing down motion in water (one reason why athletes like to train in water for the "resistance training"). That means that everything animation-wise would need to be slowed down (with some exceptions) to reflect combat underwater. The "other superhero MMO" does a bad job of this - everything happens at the same speed underwater as it does in air, even for giant animated statues.

That's not even getting into semantics of certain powers (fire blasting underwater, electrical attacks underwater, etc.).

As for events that happen in structures under the water, although the scenery would be entertaining (which is a bonus on any mission, don't get me wrong), functionally, it would be the same as any other map in the game. Your underwater adventure might as well be in an underwater Rikti tunnel, for all it's worth, or an underwater office map for that matter.

The problem, IMPO, is that many players wouldn't want to merely play missions in underwater structures. New tilesets are always welcome, but when players think about underwater zones, they think about swimming underwater, attacking man-eating sharks and octopi, etc., which is all much harder to do than even making a whole new tileset.

Edit: or just completely rip off Bioware and call it a day

there was underwater area in Champions online and it pretty much the worst area ever. Aggro from every direction and it's really hard to tell if you're going to be in aggro range because all the mobs are basically floating in the air with no shadows/surface to tell distance.

Mission Maps with windows like Pocket D would look fantastic for an underwater setting.

The tileset can be adjusted depending on whose underwater base it is (Council, 5th Col, Arachnos, Nemesis, etc…).

This is what I’m looking forward to.

Y'know... looking at the "glass tunnels" and talking about flooding, that could be an interesting (if technically possible or not) mission setting -quite possibly for a non combat mission as well.

- Do nothing and seal the tunnel. Less XP, innocents dead, long way around to the other part of the base.
- Seal the breech. (Depending on powersets, possibly having a temp power to do so as well. Interesting use of laser beam eyes?)
- Save the people inside (unconscious) before the tunnel floods. Save them, but the bad guy escapes you.
- Blow the tunnel breach wider. Kills the bad guy, as well as the innocents, and your contacts - well, you'll have to find what's going on on your own. They're NOT happy with you.

... or something like that.

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