Power Bunny's Crazy Suggestion for New Inventions

First off, no idea if this forum section is just for discussing stuff that already exists only or if new ideas have a place here. Second, I would like to get it out of the way for the inevitable snarky post stating something like,

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The devs are already swamped. Instead of wasting time on new inventions, they should blah, blah, off topic, no idea why I should just shut up as this comment is totally unproductive.

I agree that there are plenty of things that probably need looking into first, and this thread is just meant to be fun and offer some nifty ideas that maybe could be something we see in the future. Third, I am not even coming close to saying I know how the specific mechanics of programming this game or any other game works, so please hold the

Quote:

That would be impossible with the current system. The devs have said they can't do stuff like that, blah, blah, off topic, I don't even realize they have already made stuff that's "impossible" like Walk, Power Customization, I am totally new at this but I still know more than you, stupid bunny.

And lastly, yes. Perhaps I am starting this off a little defensively because I am hoping to avoid the usual and more ridiculous comments like the ones listed above which seem to surface every time anyone with an interesting idea starts a thread. I still don't understand why.

Now on with the Crazy Suggestions!!!

1. Invention Set alternative pieces:

   So one thing I have noticed is how little some of the status duration sets get used. Presumably this is because most people choose to enhance Damage over say, Sleep duration when given the choice in order to get set bonus powers. I propose adding new recipes to each invention set to allow a more varied usage such as adding a recipe increasing damage. Think Trap of the Hunter. It's one of the few "status effect" sets that also has at least one recipe in the set in the style of "Dam/(insert status effect here)". I believe doing this would encourage using more set types across the board, possibly evening out the demand we currently see in the market for straight damage sets versus effect sets. I would also say this would finally give us the option of adding range increase recipes for the "Ranged Damage" sets.
   Of course, we know that right now each set has exactly the number of recipes to obtain the set bonuses. I can't be the only one who looks at some of the sets and thinks I would love that bonus, but a particular recipe availabe produces an enhancement that does nothing for me. Adding new recipes to the existing sets would also help alleviate pointless enhancements in a power just to get a set bonus or reach a desired set bonus level. I would suggest leaving the set at its current bonus schedule so if the set currently only provides 4 bonuses, it would still ony provide 4, but you would have more recipes in that set to choose from eliminating superfluous enhancements giving a bonus to something that power doesn't even have to enhance.

2. Invention Set Powers

   I, for one, love the new accessibilty of the Invention temp powers these days. It has totally changed how I do my alternate builds, and I highly recommend looking into it for anyone who is looking to make normally attack powerless Defenders, Corruptors, and Masterminds. Anyway, on to the actual suggestion:
   Currently there are two types of "attack" powers offered by Inventions, temp and proc. Temporary obviously only have a set duration or charges and procs only have a chance to go off every so often. What about actual permanent powers? Just like a proc, one would be sacrificing an enhancement slot to gain access to a power that could say be on an extremely long recharge timer.
   My basis for this suggestion is the Crey Pistol accolade power. It is a single target minor damage immobilization power that recharges every 20 or so minutes and in my experience misses 30-40% of the time and otherwise seems to be pointless. On the rare occassion it has been useful, well...it was useful. Why not have a few unique enhancements that are like that? A new power icon shows up once slotted, and it recharges like self-destruction from the tech booster once used. In my mind, this would actually be in keeping with the whole invention concept really. Maybe some of the invention powers could be super effective but in an extremely narrow target base like the vet reward Ghost slaying axe? I also think this could help RP-wise for certain concepts. Maybe explain why a Corruptor like Scirroco has access to a powerful melee weapon when his typical powerset would never offer that?

3. Invention Assists

   This is possibly my craziest suggestion yet: Invention enhancements that don't benefit you, but instead benefit your teammates/pets. Imagine recipes that produce small PBAoE auras similar to leadership, but obviously much reduced and could be odd things like, reducing end cost for teammates, or add minor cold dam to others attacks or other crazy things like that.

4. Give to gain

   Okay, the big one! I propose a new type of invention enhancement. This one actually takes away from your stats in order to increase something higher than usual. Say you want a blaster who is a little more survivable in certain encounters. You would have the option of slotting her ranged damage with enhancements that increase her defense and/or damage resistance while decreasing the range and/or damage of her attacks. Or perhaps a tanker whose melee attacks increase in range slightly but decreases her defense or damage resistance as a result. Interesting, eh? And controversial no doubt, lol!

Anyway, those are my loopy off the wall ideas, and I would love to hear feedback about if any of you forumites think these would or would not be fun or beneficial to CoX/GR as a whole. Naturally any dev wanting to make a comment would be welcome, too!

Of your suggestions, I think #4 is the most feasible, with #2 and #4 the only ones at all likely.

For #1, part of the point of the set bonuses is you have to trade off better power stats for them. That's why frankenslotting exists, to get the absolute most out of a power as possible.

For #3, the possibility exists in the temp powers and your suggestion #2. It might be crawling into territory that's reserved, conceptually, for the Devices and Traps power-pools, though.

I would LOVE to see enhancements with negative modifiers in Invention. I'm not sure it's possible in the system as it is, but it's probably possible to make it possible.

Bunnehs unite!

There are some "dev-brain" things that I've reverse engineered. They may or may not be accurate, but here goes:

1) They do want to give us what we want. Sort of. They gave us accurate heal, for instance, because people complained about giving up the 6th slot in a heal set on the Dark or Kinetics heal. They didn't add a seventh IO to Numina's and Miracle. Either that's a deep dark code change or it's a tremendous amount of rebalancing work or... or something.

2) There ARE cases where they've deliberately balanced against certain things, both in frankenslotting and in specific sets. Touch of Death gets you to the damage cap at level 40... Mako's gets you ALMOST to the damage cap at level 50. Mako's provides extra damage in the set bonuses. It's a choice. There are only three ranged AOE sets, and all of them are short on Recharge. I think they were trying to keep people from having fast cheap ranged AOE builds, and [again] force the choice between running up Positron and having good recharge in the power.

It's Enhancement DIVERSIFICATION and I think that they wanted to see diverse builds. There are tiers- Crushing Impact will always be a better choice than Smashing Haymaker- but there are at least three ways to make a powerful Blaster with Set IOs. (dam/regen/HP, recharge, Defense. Maybe procs as well.)

What I would be interested in, is this, now that we have had a market merger, have a recipe merger. Basically it would look like this,
Using Thunder Strike Acc/Dam recipes for example, as it stands now, we currently have 20 or so varations of this single recipe, based on level. What I propose is this, recipes would be level neutral, the level of the enhancement crafted would be based on the crafters level +3 instead. There would be a minimum level some recipes could be crafted at, and you would have to be at least -3 of that minimum level to craft, and if your above the maximum level, you can still craft it, but it will cap at its level maximum.

I'd just like to see more different enhancement combinations. Take a look at stun sets, for example. Every non-purple set is:

Accuracy/Recharge
Endurance/Stun
Accuracy/Endurance
Stun/Range
Accuracy/Stun/Recharge
One other thing.

Having every set give the same combos of pieces is a bit annoying, and it makes some entire enhancement categories annoying to use for frankenslotting. It makes the choice between sets based purely on their bonuses and costs, instead of needing to also consider which one gives the best enhancement values for the power. It also makes you pretty much need to frankenslot some powers--if I want my stun to recharge as quickly as possible, any of the existing non-purple stun sets are subpar to six-slot.

This change probably couldn't go in to existing sets, but I'd love to see one or two new sets in some of the categories that don't offer much meaningful choice outside of set bonuses.

I have to say I agree Kelenar...the lack of choices is another reason I suggested these ideas. Naturally new recipes for each set or new sets entirely would help that of course, but your post has just given me another idea for a crazy suggestion!!

• 5. Invention set cross bonuses

  Okay, imagine if there were some new sets that were literally only like 2 or 3 before the set was done. By themselves they provided only one or two set bonuses, BUT they would have set assists for every one of another set you had slotted. Say a set based on Sister Psyche control that had special set bonuses added if you also slotted a set based on Aurora Borealis' psionic damage. (Disclaimer Yes, I understand that no such sets exist, this is just an example of two beings who work together so it seemed to fit.) They could add new sets that would work with old and new IO sets! Thereby actually recognizing franken slotting for the glorious thing that it is!

That's interesting,you can balance it so it doesn't do ... whatever the devs don't want done short of purples... you can provide intriguing cross-function (Sister Psyche might go with both Manticore and Aurora Borealis?) - generally nifty idea.

Clarification- did you mean "slotted in the same power?" or "Slotted anywhere on the character?" Because if you have a "Better lucky than Smart " set and it works well with Luck of the Gambler, that's a synergy to watch out for.

I was implying slotted in the same power on that last one. Sorry I didn't make it clear!

I'd like a temp pwr that gives you a bonus for a rare recipe drop. This stacks on top of any day job or accolade bonuses.
I want a mutant ray gun temp pwr that will morph part of another toon's outfit. For example, I shoot the ray gun at a bunny, the bunny grows an afro and afro remains there for 10 mins.
I want a title scrambler power that changes the title on somebody else's toon to something silly. Instead of Nefarious Nick, it will say Wimpy Nick after being hit by the scrambler and the effect lasts 10 mins.
I'd like to be able to use the enhancement tray like inventory to carry 'charms'. For example, you give Miracle Sxxd to a Grass Pxkemxn, and the all its grass powers are stronger. The charms are like regular IOs, but you don't have to slot them and you can even transfer it to another toon. Charms could enhance like 1% of something or give a bigger enhancement but reduce something else. For example, +2% defense/-1% damage.

EDIT: while I'm dreaming, I'd like a porta-Vault temp pwr that opens a window to your vault even in a mission.