...for Mind Control

Hello,

I've (quietly) been in this community since I6, not quite the beta days but I have served faithfully..
The Dominator/Controller AT's will be the source of my focus. I have played the dominator many times, mind control being my all time favorite, so what I've been rolling in my head would add a little entertainment to this set, I should just get to it hmm?

I would love to see "possession" as a power, and be able to completely (power set and all) become the target you are fighting. I won't lie and say I know how to accomplish this, but I do know it would be a hell of a lot of fun to tap a toggle/power button and temporarily become that sapper that suddenly ground my expedition to a halt, or slide into the power set of a Power Tank and hammer the cocky Paragon Protector that once thought him an ally. Vice-versa works just as good.

Anyway I'm not making any demands, I am curious if this thought process has been brought up before and if so how far it went. The Mind control set is in need of a little love, (not pointing any fingers) and I know a power like this would be highly entertaining.. even if its bringing a Longbow soldier into drone range, then popping out of him/her to hear the tell tale sound that ensures us they've been disintigrated.. it's this kind of humor that can bring smiles to many faces.

My apologies for posting in the wrong area *head desk*

I've seen this done in other games - Freedom Force vs The Third Reich had it, and there was a first person shooter that revolved completely around this mechanism called Messiah. It wasn't that great, to be honest.

I don't know what it would bring to CoX that Confuse doesn't already do better.
Most NPCs have fairly limited range of powers, so being them often turns out to be not as fun as it sounds at first. And possession would tie up the Mind Controller's full attention, whereas Confuse takes care of an enemy for a very long duration without you having to pay further attention to them.

Confusing a Power Tank will 9 times out of 10 cause them to clobber their Paragon Protector buddy (or someone else) without you having to spend any more time thinking about it.

An Illusion Controller Superior Invis and Deceive works really well for simulating posession, albeit multiple targets at once. I'm loving mine so far.

I don't think you get it at all "buddy"... but thanks for the comment..

It has nothing to do with power that are available.

You suggested a brand new power mechanism for Mind Control. Fair enough.

I then said I've seen this attempted in two other games, and it wasn't as much
fun as it first sounded due to the limited abilities of most NPCs.

I then said the current Confuse/Deceive powers do this so much better.

And I wasn't calling you "buddy", I said the Power Tank would attack their "buddy" - the Paragon Protector ie their ally.

What didn't I get? I'm trying to discuss your idea, not piss you off.

Just to clarify - what are you picturing happens to you when you possess a target? Do you ghost out like Jericho from the Teen Titans (who would enter the bodies of his targets) or do you stand there immobile and uncontrollable while you control the NPC?

Does the camera shift to behind the NPC you've possessed as if you were them?

Both games I mentioned used the ghosting method, because leaving a vulnerable player body isn't a good idea. While this works better for gameplay, its not so good concept-wise for the standard Mind Controller like Xavier or Jean Grey.

DrMike2000 I did misinterpret you comment and I apologize for that, call it early morning blurries...

The idea I guess would be more towards Jericho yes, I agree leaving an unattended shell to be picked off would be silly. Having the camera swing to the view of the new target was the intent.

Personally I like adapting to new situations on the fly in-game, the Khelidians would be the best example of this, be it the Nova or Dwarf form.

No worries

The next question with a Jericho-style possession is what happens when the host gets damaged.
I guess the obvious answer is that they take damage and the player doesn't, they're sort of stored in limbo (maybe regenerating, maybe not) and pop out as harmed or unharmed as they were when they entered.
Same questions with endurance I suppose - you'd be using their end not yours to fire off their attacks.

This leads to some odd situations.

The player can hide indefinitley in a host, sort of like Phase Shift. I guess the obvious solution is have them eject automatically after 30 seconds.

If the host is untargettable or unharmable by allies, then the Mind Controller can grief missions by possessing a key NPC, eg the boss you have to defeat. If there's a timer, then its no worse than the existing phase abilities - you can be a dick and keep phasing the boss, but it wont last forever.

If the host can be damaged by other players, you could lose a nice host by splash damage. But I guess that already happens with confuse - you can confuse a Sky raider FFG and then have a teammate shoot it down.

Can the possessed body be attacked by their allies? If not, you've got Phase Shift with the ability to fight back, zero risk for reward. So I guess the host body while possessed is targettable by everyone, friend and foe.

And if the host gets held, should the player be able to eject at that point still, by turning off their posession toggle I guess. (You can turn off toggles when held, can't you?)

Yes, exactly. I would think once you took over the host he would inherit the life that target was presently at, whether inspirations at this point I'm unsure.

I would guess your mind controller form would be in state of limbo, giving you an a sort of panic button also when possessing, but your health would remain in dire straits when you finally returned.

It would only make sense that an ally could inadvertently take you out also, but if that were the case could you still attack and surprise the enemy.. so the answer would have to be no then, the target you possessed would continue to bear its original name but now its name would appear in green writing, and the mind controller own name in the team window would appear as what ever he/she took over.. this make sense still?

Mind is one of my favorite control sets in the game, my Mind/Nrg dom is simply amazing. Perma-dom seriously brings a lot to the mind set

No real comment on your idea, but a question really. What would you suggest they remove from the set? I've seen several builds in my years here and I've seen people who enjoy every power. For my dom currently I don't have Levitate and Telekinesis, I enjoy all the other powers. But I know controllers use levitate because they lack damage in their secondary. Telekinesis helps in certain situations, I skipped it because of end cost and with domination I've had no real need. To ask for a 10th choice would just open up a can of worms, even an alternate in one of the nine would cause complaints.

I like the way you're thinking, but you're thinking too small. I would rather lose telekinesis (Yes, I know. The cottage rule. Just play along for a minute, though.) and get a PbAOE toggle that put out a special confusion aura.

The way the aura would work is kinda like Swap Ammo. The first option would be to send out a low end/sec pulse that can easily perma confuse up to 3 nearby minions. The second option will send out a slightly higher end/sec pulse that had a %70 chance to perma confuse up to 2 lieutenants (that have a %20 chance to break out of confusion every 30 seconds). The third option sends out a relatively high end/sec pulse that allows you to perma confuse 1 boss type enemy (with a %40 chance to break out of confusion every 30 seconds).

It *should* be possible to pull this off within the game code....what do you guys think?

This is kind of a cool idea. I'm not sure how you'd implement it, and I'm not sure how useful it would end up being, but the idea is cool.

Actually, it might be possible to do something kind of like what you're asking for (but easier) by essentially turning the target into a pet and giving you mastermind pet controls over it. It wouldn't be exactly what you're asking for, but those sorts of controls are already implemented in the game, and we already have the ability to turn an enemy into an NPC, so turning one into a pet might not be too much harder.

I would prefer the current Mass Confusion + Confuse proc to a PBAoE confuse. Mass confuse can be used w/o being seen, would this version alert foes?

I'll also need to mention that mez auras usually have low mag, low duration, and low accuracy standard. World of Confusion, Cloak of Fear, and Oppressive Gloom are evidence of this.

Telekinesis while not popular is still a better choice then the above considering Mind is abundant with control options.

Quote:

Originally Posted by firespray Actually, it might be possible to do something kind of like what you're asking for (but easier) by essentially turning the target into a pet and giving you mastermind pet controls over it. It wouldn't be exactly what you're asking for, but those sorts of controls are already implemented in the game, and we already have the ability to turn an enemy into an NPC, so turning one into a pet might not be too much harder.

Making enemies pets has been asked for in the past and declined. Reason being either the MM would be too powerful or too weak. Also MMs need their pets to really advance w/o problems. Whats done if the MM cannot control the target? Mastermind denotes mastery of ones minions, it doesn't mean they can force "control" anything they want. That would make them doms or controllers.