Pool (plus Ancillary & Patron) Power Customization (Yes and EATs as well)

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

What it would take to improve gameplay as I see it as an improvement is not feasible. It would be pointless to even discuss it, because when it comes to gameplay, what I'm looking for is another game entirely. I don't fault City of Heroes for having gameplay like it does, but you and I have butted heads over how challenging it should be in the past, so you at least know what direction I'd push in. What it would take to improve visuals to the point where I would be more than satisfied with them, however, is much, much more feasible, as the things I tend to ask for are far simpler. More of "this" item, more of "that" item... It's just a question of priorities, not game design philosophy.

It all comes down to this: I am much more easily able to play a game that looks cool and plays badly than a game which plays well and looks like crap. The more the game lets me feel like "I can't believe this is really happening!" in the sense that these characters I've only ever imagined and never thought I'd see "for real," I can now actually play with. As long as they look close to what they should look like and behave close to what they should behave like, I'm more than fine with that.



I completely disagree. Adding tips added precisely nil to my enjoyment of the game. Even if we ignore their sometimes railroading writing, there are, what? 50 missions all told? I ran out of 20-30 tips before I got my first morality mission and had to redo at least a couple. All that lasted me was two days. If that. I'm not interested in doing Tip missions again unless I start having to move characters across factions. To me, Tips are little better than Paper missions, which I only ever do if I can't take on normal content.

I don't NEED improvements to gameplay to stay subscribed and keep having fun. There are tons of gameplay options I haven't explored yet, like most Stalkers and probably half the powersets on Masterminds. I have not touched on these in the slightest, and I keep meaning to. What I need is to make those options cooler, such that I will WANT to play them, and optimizing the numbers does comparatively little for that.

Let's talk about what options opened up. I19 promises Blast power customization. If this allows me to make a Blaster who fires Sonic Blast from his hands instead of from his mouth, I will do that in a HEARTBEAT. For the... What has it been now? Five years? For the five years since Sonic Blast came out, I've never been interested in playing it because "shouting" is one of the dumbest ideas ever conceived for a powerset. Yeah, personal opinion, obviously, but since it's MY character and MY time, it's my personal opinion that matters. Being able to shoot Sonic Blast from my hands and not my mouth gives me one more powerset to use, and one more character to make.

But wait! Blasters have access to Sonic Blast, but have no Sonic secondary? Oh, bummer. Guess I can't make one I like after all. But wait! Sonic is smashing/energy and Energy Manipulation is smashing/energy. Oh, that's right! I can just recolour Energy Manipulation to match Sonic Blast's black and white. Actually, you know what? I don't really like Sonic Blast's black and white to begin with. I think I'll recolour it that kind of orange that the Defender Sonic support powerset has. I always thought that was really cool. Sweet! When is I19 coming?

Wanna' know what else? The Alpha aura has options to apply it only on a single fist, unlike everything but Omega. I have an Energy/Energy/Force Blaster who has that big robotic glove on one hand, as well as that off-centre Gladiator shoulder and a single-shoulder cape, all on the same side. So I made her right hand glow. You know what would be REALLY cool, though? If I could customize my Energy Blast powers to shoot only from her right hand. It'd be cool if I could customize her Energy Manipulation powers to be one-handed, too, but I guess that's beyond the scope of this issue.

Let's inspect something else: Super Speed is the worst, most silly travel power ever conceived. Yeah, yeah, the Flash, whatever. I hate it, have always hated it and will always hate it. In six years, 40 retained characters and Lord knows how many deleted, I've taken this power a grand total of twice, and both times out of guilt that I wasn't taking it. You know what I did with one of these characters? Nuclear Toast generously gave me the DVD Edition code, which gave me Prestige Power Slide, which I started using when I was super-speeding, turning Super Speed into the classic anime Super Slide. Instantly, my enjoyment of having the power increased monumentally. Many times in the past I've considered just respeccing Crash and giving her Super Jump, instead. It'd make more sense, after all. Ever since I got Prestige Power Slide, I simply haven't been able to bring myself to even think about that. It's that cool to use the power. Just imagine what it would be like if I were able to actually customize the thing and get rid of that silly yellow starburst glow?

Shall we keep going? My character by the name of Slime Girl would not have existed were it not for Power Customization. She's basically a teal-greenish creature made out of slime who possesses teal-greenish regeneration capabilities (you can disperse her, but she'll just reform) and team-greenish bio-electricity. Yes, you can argue that it might have worked with blue electricity. I argue that if I hadn't seen the teal-greenish electricity, I would not have been inspired to make the character, an would have been one character shorter and that much less interested in playing the game in general.

Just like Weapon Customization has allowed me to have no less than five Broadsword characters without feeling I'm repeating myself, so power customization allows me to reuse elements without the same fear. For instance, I finally broke down and made another Stone Melee character. Normally, I'd feel odd about this, but his lava-like orange rock is different enough to that of Ezikiel that I don't mind. I'm right on the verge of repeating myself with powerset combos, and being able to customize them to not be the same will help tremendously. Just the mere fact that I left one Blaster's Devices stock and made another's all green (I love green explosions!) is reason enough for me to celebrate this.

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Gameplay changes are good, obviously. But each addition accounts for only one, single improvement. Every addition to power customization ends up improving ALL of my characters in some way. Literally the first thing I do when I log into an old character I haven't touched in years is to hit up the Tailor, see how much cooler I can make his costume and see if I can't improve his stock powers. Until we can customize Epics and Pools, I will never feel complete, however.

*edit*
Just to make a point: No piece of content ever added to the game, with the exception of CoV and Going Rogue, has caused me to make a new character. Not the ITF, not the Khaan TFs, not Ouroboros, not the Midnight Club, not Cimerora, not the Rikti War Zone, not Dean McArthur, not Agent Nancy, not Faultline, not the Shard, not the Hollows, not really anything apart from the creation of a brand new expansion. New powersets have obviously made me create new characters, of course. Typically one per powerset. But it's been power customization which has caused me to make multiples of almost every powerset out there, sometimes many, many multiples. I've made more characters since that was introduced that I think I did in all the time prior to that, and if not so then it's pretty damn close. Just about every character I have has been customized in some way, if not power-wise then weapon-wise. I have a few stock ones, obviously, because when everything is custom, stock becomes a novelty, but that's besides the point.

Yes, adding more content does add more value to the game as I'm playing it. I get bored less, I have more choice, it's easier to level, yatta yatta yatta. It just doesn't inspire the kind of glee I get from a new character perfectly pulled off or a rework of an old costume drawn just spot on. And the fun isn't in just making those. It's in making them and then spending hours in disbelief that a game actually lets me play with MY characters.

Originally Posted by Feycat

Within a considerably limited pallete, yes

Originally Posted by Feycat

Within a considerably limited pallete, yes

Originally Posted by Electric-Knight

I do think, though, that a limited color palette (Pretty broad for PBs, but more limited for WS) would likely be best.

Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha

That makes no sense. Why's that any different from every other AT that can already do that? Sometimes worse than others, due to forcefields, shields, ice etc. Khelds are the least horrible when it comes to that.

/rant

Originally Posted by Zombie Man

That's my take.

And I'm sorry when I said it I deflated BAB's pride in what he had done, which was truly outstanding. But to wait more than one Issue for the Pools to be customized means that Power Customization is, IMO, a failure.

What good is it if I can turn my red primary powers green and my blue secondary powers green but can't turn my overwhelming Speed Pool powers from that hideous yellow to my thematic green?

More people take the Power Pools than any Primary or Secondary and thus, in a way, they become even more Primary. Or they should be prioritized as such.

Until Pool Powers are customizable, what has been done is a unfinished job. And if there was a definite timetable, I could be patient. But because it's unfinished with no definite plan to be finished... sorry to say it... it's just unprofessional.

Originally Posted by Electric-Knight

From 1-10 where does Pool (plus Ancillary & Patron & possibly EATs) Power Customization fit on your scale of priority?

1 being something like, "eventually we'd like to fulfill that, but there are so many other things of higher priority"
4 being roughly, "it's on the list but multiple things above it may put it off for quite a while"
6 being roughly, "it's on the list and, while other things will take priority before it, we'll try and start focusing on it sooner than later"
10 being something like, "Zones, Incarnates, Moon Bases? They can WAIT. This game needs Power Pools customizable ASAP!"

Originally Posted by Eiko-chan

I'm one of these players. I wish the "game too easy" crowd would just go play a different game and stop messing with my pretendy fun time dress up smashy fest.

Originally Posted by GreenLantern68

I also like the cut of your jib, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Originally Posted by EvilGeko

As an aside to this question, many folks posting here put this very high. Not surprising given the self-selection inherent in board posting. But a question for you all:

Many of you have said that pool customization is extremely important, for some of you, the most important thing they can do. What about the game? What is the use of having pretty and matching blasts if you're dumped into a game that's doesn't get improvements because the coders are spending time trying to get pool customization right and the content designers can't get time on their schedule?

I guess for me, the looks is nice, but when it's all said and done, this is a game. The gameplay has to take precedence or why not just create a standalone "hero-creator" with a few offline missions and sell it for $50 bucks.

My two inf.

Originally Posted by rian_frostdrake

mmos are always bad games, they cant be good game-play wise, they can, however, use their continually updating assets to keep expanding. but no, if i want a game, i go to nintendo, capcom, arc system works, or team ninja(though curiously, NOT the collaboration betwixt nin and team ninja, shudder) but no, mmos are not good games, trying to make them good games is like trying to make a 2d fighter have a deep and engrossing story. feel free to disagree, but i have played most of the mmos on the market, and latency, stiff power selections and overly abstract mathmatical mechanics preclude good gameplay for me. the only mmo to come close died a bit ago.

Originally Posted by Feycat

Because Kheldians aren't a powerset, they're a species.

Originally Posted by Brimstone_Bobby

9 for Regular Pools, 7 for Epic Pools and 1 for EATs.