Powers that really don't make sense
By
beyeajus,
Posted on: 2010-09-13 08:05 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion
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Or you could have just upgraded the mechanics in your gun, used a stronger alloy in your swords, improved the burn rate on your flamethrower etc etc etc
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Originally Posted by Dz131
Any guns, rifles or just advanced weaponary. somehow lvling up makes the bullets hurt more.
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Member of GGRRR, a SG on Defiant - check out our website - GGRRR
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
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The entire "Natural" source of power when it is being used by a natural human. Even at level 1. No natural human can be shot 20 times in a five minute period, fall off a 30 story building, and then still go and beat up hellfire breathing devil worshippers. With your bare hands. Every excuse points to other sources, like technology.
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Unless you are "natural" in the sense that peacebringers are. There is no magic, tech, mutation, or scientific thing changing them into super beings. It is just the natural life cycle of the Kheldians. They are like a form of symbiosis, which is completely natural. I also like to think that some natural characters can be thematically other types of aliens, so they are simply born with the powers. Superman is technically natural origin, right?|
Originally Posted by BunnyAnomaly
The entire "Natural" source of power when it is being used by a natural human. Even at level 1. No natural human can be shot 20 times in a five minute period, fall off a 30 story building, and then still go and beat up hellfire breathing devil worshippers. With your bare hands. Every excuse points to other sources, like technology.
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Bearing that in mind, the human natural characters do have some problems. Perhaps bullet proof vests can cover the "shot 20 times in 5 minutes" deal, and very good landing form can show the landing off of a building thing.
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It's not natural, it's Natural, with a capital "N". It's what action movie heroes have been using for decades.
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Originally Posted by BunnyAnomaly
The entire "Natural" source of power when it is being used by a natural human. Even at level 1. No natural human can be shot 20 times in a five minute period, fall off a 30 story building, and then still go and beat up hellfire breathing devil worshippers. With your bare hands. Every excuse points to other sources, like technology.
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Winner of Players' Choice Best Villainous Arc 2010: Fear and Loathing on Striga; ID #350522
the sparks that come out of mobs when you use any Ninja blade/Katana/Dual Blades attack is weird. I feel like I'm battling the puddies from power rangers.
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Or Superman. His powers are due to being born Kryptonian. So he's a Natural hero who can take a nuke to the face and play ball with asteroids.
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Originally Posted by FredrikSvanberg
It's not natural, it's Natural, with a capital "N". It's what action movie heroes have been using for decades.
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Arc #40529 : The Furies of the Earth
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Yes, and it doesn't make sense when an action movie star jumps out of a plane and survive, takes a 10 second break and is good to go. That's what this thread is about right? Also point me to the action movie where he survives a literal torrent of bullets, which hit him, and wound him, and he survives, where you didn't say "that makes no sense". Because again, that's what this thread is about.|
Originally Posted by FredrikSvanberg
It's not natural, it's Natural, with a capital "N". It's what action movie heroes have been using for decades.
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PS to those saying natural is an alien, re-read my first sentence. This goes to these two posts:
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Originally Posted by Pyro_Master_NA
Unless you are "natural" in the sense that peacebringers are.
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Originally Posted by Obscure Blade
Or Superman. His powers are due to being born Kryptonian. So he's a Natural hero who can take a nuke to the face and play ball with asteroids.
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Originally Posted by BunnyAnomaly
The entire "Natural" source of power when it is being used by a natural human.
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Lastly, I covered this one too.
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Originally Posted by Pyro_Master_NA
Perhaps bullet proof vests can cover the "shot 20 times in 5 minutes" deal, and very good landing form can show the landing off of a building thing.
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Originally Posted by BunnyAnomaly
Every excuse points to other sources, like technology.
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Oh I thought the thread was about powers that didn't make sense even within the context of the game world. Carry on.
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Originally Posted by BunnyAnomaly
Yes, and it doesn't make sense when action movie stars jump out of planes and survive, take a 10 second break and are good to go. That's what this thread is about right?
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Winner of Players' Choice Best Villainous Arc 2010: Fear and Loathing on Striga; ID #350522
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If you're meaning specific powers...|
Originally Posted by FredrikSvanberg
Oh I thought the thread was about powers that didn't make sense even within the context of the game world. Carry on.
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Rest, on a natural human.
Oh my god, Jane just fell from the plane head first onto bitumen! That's okay, she'll just take a knee for 10 seconds and piece herself back together.
Substitute "head first onto bitumen" for just about any catastrophe which would put you in hospital for a year and then require a further 7 years of physiotherapy to walk and eat again.
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I always just assumed it meant you were better at shooting them in places that hurt. At level one, you're just sort of barely nicking people, but by fifty, you're getting crippling pinpoint shots with every attack. And yes, this only really goes so far--if that were the total reason, a level one AR blaster would still have a chance to kill a level 50 minion without much fuss.
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Originally Posted by Dz131
Any guns, rifles or just advanced weaponary. somehow lvling up makes the bullets hurt more.
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Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
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That's kind of a problem with any technology. Unless it is being 'upgraded' at every level, that super power-armour suit you wore at level 1 should be hopelessly useless by level 20.
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Originally Posted by Kelenar
I always just assumed it meant you were better at shooting them in places that hurt. At level one, you're just sort of barely nicking people, but by fifty, you're getting crippling pinpoint shots with every attack. And yes, this only really goes so far--if that were the total reason, a level one AR blaster would still have a chance to kill a level 50 minion without much fuss.
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Here's a thought:|
Originally Posted by BunnyAnomaly
The entire "Natural" source of power when it is being used by a natural human. Even at level 1. No natural human can be shot 20 times in a five minute period, fall off a 30 story building, and then still go and beat up hellfire breathing devil worshippers. With your bare hands. Every excuse points to other sources, like technology.
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If your character is a natural human with no training that would explain any of these things, why not do the 'Natural' thing and not expose said character to such dangers. I mean, do *you* jump off 30 story buildings to see if you'd survive? You never know. You might. So why not try it? You don't want to because it's too dangerous? You might go splat?
Yeah, the only way your natural human character would know they could survive a fall like that or being shot that many times is if they were dumb enough to put themselves in that situation without the training, armor, magic or tech to survive it. So if that's your RP hang-up, then you gotta explain why they tried it in the first place.
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Well, it's easy enough to say "There are no 'natural' humans in City of Heroes." Everyone either has super powers, or is using off the shelf technology that duplicates the effects of powers. Problem solved.|
Originally Posted by BunnyAnomaly
Bullet proof vests don't survive 400 people shooting you full auto with machine guns the size of cannons. This again is firmly under 'technology'. I'd love to hear about the physics of your legs taking an impact at terminal velocity onto solid concrete where you can walk away from it. A 'good landing' would mean that you are a splat only 5 meters in radius rather than 10 meters.
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The fact is, though, that even if your power is Super Speed, or the ability to shoot fire from your fingers, or the ability to control mens' minds, none of that is going to help you jump off a 100 story building and walk away when you hit the concrete. EVEN NPCS in the game can walk off of any height and survive it. So either the average bystander on the street has superhuman strength and resiliance himself, or he's been issued a standard antigravity belt by the same Paragon City officials that limit car speed limits to less than a brisk run.
It's a game mechanic. The devs don't want people jumping off a building and being sent to the hospital from the falling damage. For that matter, going to the hospital itself, instead of being kicked from the game and having your character deleted is a game mechanic.
There's nothing a "Natural" hero can do that can't be explained by sufficiently advanced technology. And since there's no rule in the game that a Natural hero CAN'T use technology -- in fact, a MAGIC hero can use all the technology he wants, there's no limitation on that whatsoever -- then I would say that's sufficient. The Natural Origin doesn't say where his powers come from, it says why he chose to have powers in the first place. Because he was driven to seek out training and hone his abilities by some aspect of his character.
If you're going to argue that an AR/Dev machine gunner can't survive a 400 people shooting you full auto with machine guns, I'd like your explanation about how a Fire/Fire pyrokinetic can survive 400 people shooting him full auto with machine guns. Blasters aren't supposed to be able to use their powers to stop bullets by definition.
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It's always been my take that it was a factor of both your experience level, and the foes'. At level 1, you're not as good or as accurate as you are at level 50, but on top of that, your opponents are also MUCH better at dodging or using their powers to block the shot. So it becomes a matter of knowing how to overcome your opponent's greater skills as well. |
Originally Posted by Kelenar
I always just assumed it meant you were better at shooting them in places that hurt. At level one, you're just sort of barely nicking people, but by fifty, you're getting crippling pinpoint shots with every attack. And yes, this only really goes so far--if that were the total reason, a level one AR blaster would still have a chance to kill a level 50 minion without much fuss.
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MMOs in general greatly exaggerate the gulf between low experience and high experience in order to keep the game population spread out and balanced in terms of resource utilization. You basically have a very narrow band of levels, in a very specific area of the game world, which you (or your team) are effective against. Otherwise, you'd end up with everyone in Atlas Park, (or wherever the best farms are) with the rest of the zones as empty as Boomtown. (AE anyone?)
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In Fred Saberhagen's Book of Swords series, one of the twelve magic swords is a "healing sword" named Woundhealer. Stab somebody with the sword and it instantly heals them.|
Originally Posted by seebs
Was in a group with a /DP defender, someone said "switch to healing bullets!"
I still suspect there are people who think that Trick Arrow actually has a power named "healing arrow". |
My favorite scene with that sword is where a guy is trying to escape a huge group chasing him. He runs to a cliff, shoves the sword through himself, then jumps off the cliff. At the bottom, he dusts himself off, pulls out the sword, and runs off.
So, at least there is precident in literature for a healing arrow or bullet.
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
That's funny. Every time someone tosses out a joke about TA's Healing Arrow, I in fact do think about Woundhealer (tho Coinspinner was always my favorite). We're prolly not the only ones either. 
An Offensive Guide to Ice Melee
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Lies. Everyone knows that fire is great protection.|
Originally Posted by Jade_Dragon
The whole Thermal set.
I'm going to heal you... BY SETTING YOU ON FIRE! And then protect you from further damage. BY SETTING YOU ON FIRE! I can make you deal more damage. BY SETTING YOU ON FIRE! (Well, actually that might work...  )Or, my Cold Domination friend can protect you by freezing you solid. |
After all;
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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.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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Personally, I think healing flames makes sense if you have fire aura simply because I assume you are constantly engulfed in flames (protecting you because people have a tough time hitting something that's on fire w/o wounding themselves). Since you are constantly on fire and/or a being surrounded by fire, adding even more fire to your being could in a sense prevent you from being extinguished or make you harder to take down because you went from a mobile campfire to a mobile bonfire.
The scaling resists in the Super Reflexes passives. You're trying to punch me, and I'm dodging. Then you throw a punch that I fail to dodge, and it hurts me. You punched me hard so it hurt me a lot. It might have broken something, I might be bleeding internally, then the next punch I fail to dodge hurts me...less? How does that make sense?
The entire concept of lying around waiting for a rez. I'm a vile evil villain and I just knocked a hero unconscious. I'm Longbow and I just knocked a vile evil villain unconscious. They didn't immediately transport to the hospital. So instead of finishing them off/dragging them off to jail I just....walk back to where I was standing and forget about them.
Missing with AoEs.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
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Adrenaline.|
Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
The scaling resists in the Super Reflexes passives. You're trying to punch me, and I'm dodging. Then you throw a punch that I fail to dodge, and it hurts me. You punched me hard so it hurt me a lot. It might have broken something, I might be bleeding internally, then the next punch I fail to dodge hurts me...less? How does that make sense?
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But besides that, Super Reflexes has been RP'ed as so many different things, from super speed to time manipulation to extreme luck. Honestly, the passive resists could be any number of things but for the most part, it's agreed to be 'rolling with the punches'.
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| The entire concept of lying around waiting for a rez. I'm a vile evil villain and I just knocked a hero unconscious. I'm Longbow and I just knocked a vile evil villain unconscious. They didn't immediately transport to the hospital. So instead of finishing them off/dragging them off to jail I just....walk back to where I was standing and forget about them. |
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| Missing with AoEs. |
Psi blast and to a lesser extent Psi control.
I get that your attacking the mind of your target, but why do I shoot a bolt from my head at you?
Well if we want to make a real case about any of the powers not making sense, we at least have to mention that we can summon a Blizzard-Ice Rain-Sleet-Fire Rain-Inferno-Tornado-Earthquake-Glacier-Static Field, and stand in the middle of it to no ill effect. We can also shoot projectiles through a crowd and unfailingly never accidentally hit any targets except the person we're aiming at. Although in the end I'm ok with all of this, because I've never viewed the game as "real life" but rather as something you might see in a comic book, where people do indeed outrun explosions and survive impossible odds.
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Because it'd be boring if you just stood there all the time thinking at people.
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Originally Posted by Kidou
Psi blast and to a lesser extent Psi control.
I get that your attacking the mind of your target, but why do I shoot a bolt from my head at you? |
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Could be worse...you could be shooting a butterfly from your head a la Psylocke in the X-men/Vs. series' of fighting games.
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Originally Posted by Kidou
Psi blast and to a lesser extent Psi control.
I get that your attacking the mind of your target, but why do I shoot a bolt from my head at you? |
RaikenX is currently seeking new quotes to add to his signature.
Someone say something funny.
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Originally Posted by Smiling_Joe
::looks at RaikenX's signature::
Something funny. |
When your Threat/Security level goes up, you are authorized to use more powerful bullets which are immediately sent to you via the micro-teleporter built into your gun. Something you obviously have or you'd run out of ammo, right?
Arc #40529 : The Furies of the Earth