Unexpected power customization awesome


Dechs Kaison

 

Posted

It should be noted that I don't use the word "awesome" as a noun unless there is a very special occasion for it, usually one of much childish glee and unbridled excitement. I am happy to announce that I've found just such an occasion, ironically thanks to the shoddy interface for power customization.

Back when power customization first came out, I opted to not customize the powers for my Necro/Dark Mastermind for the same reason I opted not to do this on my Bots/FF Mastermind - I didn't want my personal copy of my powers to differ from my henchmen's normally identical copies of them. Necro/Dark has too good a synergy to ruin, after all.

However, when I made my Necro/Poison Mastermind recently, I tried to sell the guy as a TOXIC Mastermind, with the zombies, skeletons and so forth representing the infected, diseased husks animated by the Mastermind's evil toxins. Poison was pretty easy, and I didn't customize it much. It's less rancid green now, and more of a cream/yellowish green, kind of like the Smoker smoke from L4D2, I found out after the fact. The three Dark Blast powers in Necromancy were fairly easy, as well, being that they're customizable, in the same creamy yellowish green, though being dark powers, they ended up with a lot more black smog in them. All in all, a good outlook, but the entire time I was playing, I kept thinking "Man... This is awesome, but it will SO be ruined when my Grave Knights start throwing around black Dark Blasts and Glooms."

Only when I snagged the first update for my zombies, I noticed something odd - their halitosis was MUCH denser than I remembered it, and it seemed to be more yellowish, too. Granted, I hadn't played my Necro/Dark in something like 300 days, if not more, so I didn't exactly remember my zombie dentistry, but everything I saw looked to me like a custom sprite, far too reminiscent of the new sprites we got for "baked-in" powers like Fire Blast. And their puke was this interesting pale colour, kind of like pea soup, and a LOT like what I'd customized their summon to resemble. But surely the henchmen powers can't be custom, can they? That's only true for Demon Summoning, isn't it?

But no, my suspicions were correct. As soon as I snagged my first grave knight (instantly renamed to "Diseased") and hit him with my green/yellow upgrade, he manifested not bluish-black inky darkness, but the same awesome rotten yellow/green Dark Blast as I was throwing around. And it was GLORIOUS! I honestly did not know that Necromancy henchmen powers could be customized. How the duck could I? The power customization interface barely shows me my summon to the end.

It was on this note of absolute awesome that my evening ended last night, with Nuclear Toast whisking me away to shoot some zombies with my four favourite survivors (which is when I spotted the Smoker smoke), and I cannot wait for my work day today to be over so I can go back to Iprit, finally buy his DOs and revel in the awesome that is my Toxic Mastermind. Hell, the Grave Knights even have a rotten yellow/green aura to them when upgraded! Now all I need for this guy is the Tendrils aura. I so wish I didn't have to wait until level 30 for it... But, hey, Omega will do in the meantime.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

 

Posted

Enjoy your custom colored hork man.



Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison View Post
Riveting tail, chap.
Is that a new form pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey type game, only with rivets instead?

I'm wondering how that would work.


There I was between a rock and a hard place. Then I thought, "What am I doing on this side of the rock?"

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Twisted Toon View Post
Is that a new form pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey type game, only with rivets instead?

I'm wondering how that would work.
Ladies, gentlemen and Twisted Toon, this is what happens when I roll a critical miss on my word choosing check.


Where to now?
Check out all my guides and fiction pieces on my blog.
The MFing Warshade | The Last Rule of Tanking | The Got Dam Mastermind
Everything Dark Armor | The Softcap
don'T attempt to read tHis mEssaGe, And believe Me, it is not a codE.

 

Posted

Haha (at Twisted Toon and Dechs)


That is awesome, Sam!
I knew about the zombies' breaths and auras and stuff, but I honestly did not realize that the Death Knight's dark blasts were changed with those options as well!

And here I thought this post was to celebrate some customization awesomeness from the i20 beta...

I've not yet checked it out myself (I haven't the time to test and unlock incarnate stuff on test these days), but I've heard that the Incarnate Powers are customizable and I dare say that that too is a thing of power customization awesomeness!!

What we need now is the triad... Customization for the rest of the Power Pools!!
(How I am eagerly awaiting that!!)


@Zethustra
"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"
-Dylan

 

Posted

Ill have to wait to make a MM until we either get the ability to totally customize the pets or the offer up a 'sidekick' set. Nothing that is there now... do I like... BUT I would love to run around like my own little Justice league...

Sorry kinda sidetracked there... that awsome Sam, glad the toon and powers worked out so well for you!


No one goes there anymore, it's too crowded...
"The potato goes in the FRONT."

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
It should be noted that I don't use the word "awesome" as a noun unless there is a very special occasion for it, usually one of much childish glee and unbridled excitement. I am happy to announce that I've found just such an occasion, ironically thanks to the shoddy interface for power customization.
As someone who was there when Sam discovered this, I can verify the childish glee and unbridled excitement. He was ecstatic.

--NT


They all laughed at me when I said I wanted to be a comedian.
But I showed them, and nobody's laughing at me now!

If I became a red name, I would be all "and what would you mere mortals like to entertain me with today, mu hu ha ha ha!" ~Arcanaville

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison View Post
And for Kheldians!
Sir, I have no clue what you're talking about. What's a Kheldian?*

*Yes, that's sarcasm. Please don't actually answer that.


 

Posted

Huh. I must not have been paying attention to the MM power customization because I had no idea this was possible. I knew about the ability to color the normal attack powers in the Necro and Demon sets, but I didn't realize the upgrades could be colored too or that that color change would be transfered to the pets. That's awesome! I need to play around with my Demon/Poison MM some more.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scythus View Post
Sir, I have no clue what you're talking about. What's a Kheldian?*

*Yes, that's sarcasm. Please don't actually answer that.
It's a brand of starship fuel favored by The Battalion


http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison View Post
And for Kheldians!
YES!

My PB needs white/gold powers instead of white/blue.

I'd prolly leave my warshade alone though. I like his Purple Rain of DOOOOM.

EDIT: And SoAs too!


@Oathbound & @Oathbound Too

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Haggard4Life View Post
Huh. I must not have been paying attention to the MM power customization because I had no idea this was possible. I knew about the ability to color the normal attack powers in the Necro and Demon sets, but I didn't realize the upgrades could be colored too or that that color change would be transfered to the pets. That's awesome! I need to play around with my Demon/Poison MM some more.
You know, I never really checked to see if the upgrade itself was the culprit. I think what changes Henchmen powers is customizing the Henchmen summon power, like how you customize the explosion colour of your Trip Mines or the colours of your Poison Gas Trap's poison gas cloud... Well, it would, if Poison Gas Trap weren't bugged to not take custom colours and always display a light teal steam-like gas cloud, but I digress.

To the best of my knowledge, I know that Necromancy Henchmen powers are customizable to the colour of the summon, and as far as I know this applies to all henchmen including the Extracted Soul. I also know that Demon Summoning Hellfire powers are customizable to the summon colour. However, Hellfire powers constitute a total of two henchmen - the Hellfire Demonling and the Hellfire Gargoyle. The Fiery and Cold demonlings, the other Demon and the Demon Prince are not customizable and keep their elements of fire and ice to their default colours.

I have not checked to see if the Ninja Oni summon is customizable and if his fire can be retinted, though now that I know this, I probably should at least check. I know Mercenaries, Thugs and Robotics have nothing that's applicable to power customization.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ironik View Post
It doesn't take much to please Sam. A little pea green yack and he's re-subbed for 6 more months.
I'm easy to please, yes. Throw me a costume piece, a customization option or a new toy of some sort and I am indeed content and quiet as I go play with it in the corner. This is why I say I'm getting concerned when I start feeling really bad about the game - because I'm not a hard guy to pacify. Hard to shut up, maybe, but I take pleasure in the little things


Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gr33n View Post
Ill have to wait to make a MM until we either get the ability to totally customize the pets or the offer up a 'sidekick' set.
When it comes to customization of the actual henchmen, by the way, I want to see something more exciting than getting the same soldiers with different faces. If we do indeed get the choice to pick from a variety of henchmen models, I'd like for the customization options to span as wide a thematic field as possible. Off the top of my head:

Soldiers: The current soldiers we have resemble generic modern-day armed forces, SWAT dudes and an Arnie-style Vietnam era commando. An alternative could be WW2 soldiers, Star Wars reminiscent storm troopers, black armour clad faceless goons and even alien soldiers, like lizardmen. Bonus points if each model comes with its own custom weapons.

Thugs: We have modern-day gangs. How about Freakshow-inspired cyberpunk gangs? How about Wild West bank robbers and gunslingers? How about la resistance?

Robotics: We currently have largely Malta-inspired robots. How about more human-looking androids? How about less human-looking Rikti-drone-inspired things? How about WallE style torsos on caterpillar tracks?

Ninja: We have B-movie ninja filled in with what looks like esoteric stuff. So how about techno-ninja in the style of Metal Gear Solid's Grey Fox? How about orange jumpsuit wearing ninja? There's room for more options.

Not touching Necromancy at the moment. I'm happy with them right now, which blocks my imagination on the subject.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
When it comes to customization of the actual henchmen, by the way, I want to see something more exciting than getting the same soldiers with different faces. If we do indeed get the choice to pick from a variety of henchmen models, I'd like for the customization options to span as wide a thematic field as possible. Off the top of my head:

Soldiers: The current soldiers we have resemble generic modern-day armed forces, SWAT dudes and an Arnie-style Vietnam era commando. An alternative could be WW2 soldiers, Star Wars reminiscent storm troopers, black armour clad faceless goons and even alien soldiers, like lizardmen. Bonus points if each model comes with its own custom weapons.

Thugs: We have modern-day gangs. How about Freakshow-inspired cyberpunk gangs? How about Wild West bank robbers and gunslingers? How about la resistance?

Robotics: We currently have largely Malta-inspired robots. How about more human-looking androids? How about less human-looking Rikti-drone-inspired things? How about WallE style torsos on caterpillar tracks?

Ninja: We have B-movie ninja filled in with what looks like esoteric stuff. So how about techno-ninja in the style of Metal Gear Solid's Grey Fox? How about orange jumpsuit wearing ninja? There's room for more options.

Not touching Necromancy at the moment. I'm happy with them right now, which blocks my imagination on the subject.
You know, I bet the options Sam proposes would be easier to implement than full pet customization - just offer several different models for each tier of pet, or even just 2-3 different 'styles' for all the pets with pre-designed costumes - saves on having to pass around a ton of data on each pet to all who can see them, you just pass a model code.


Globals: @Midnight Mystique/@Magik13

 

Posted

The ability to customize Necro blasts was in the game from the beginning of customization. Sorry you missed it.

In general, if the blast matches what the MM can do, it can be customized since you're colorizing your blast... which the pets use.

Same with Demon Summoning. If you colorize the Hellfire attacks, the Demons will use the newly colored Hellfire attacks... along with their uncustomizable fire and cold attacks. <sigh>


Speeding Through New DA Repeatables || Spreadsheet o' Enhancements || Zombie Skins: better skins for these forums || Guide to Guides

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zombie Man View Post
In general, if the blast matches what the MM can do, it can be customized since you're colorizing your blast... which the pets use.
It depends on the powerset, really. Weapon attack Masterminds who have weapon-wielding or "eccentric" henchmen aren't really customizable. A Mercs Mastermind has the same three blasts that the Commando does and that some of the other henchmen do, but because AR attacks are not customizable, the henchmen aren't, either. They don't even get weapon customization while the Mastermind does.

As a general rule of thumb, I'm finding that any summon power which takes custom colours somehow affects the summoned pets' powers, as well as the summon effect colours (sometimes). That is excluding Poison Gas Trap which is bugged and doesn't take custom colours for its large-scale poison gas field, but that's besides the point.

And, yeah, I did miss it. It was partly my fault in not even imagining that kind of customization could exist, but I lay part of the blame on the Power Customization interface, too. It does a good job of showing us what we're changing on Click powers, but not on anything else. We barely see our toggles, we don't see what any of our pets do and sometimes we don't even see the actual power effect if it grants a power to the entity, like Detonator's.

I hear Incarnate Powers are customizable, so I hope this comes with an upgrade to the power customization interface down the line.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

 

Posted

Ha! I happen to have exactly the same character concept, with the same execution, on one of mine... only I picked different colors. My zombies have Ebola!


 

Posted

i found out about Necro pets' powers receiving the same tinting as the summons when i made a Norse-themed Necro/Storm MM and tinted most of the Necro powers blue-white.

Having my tier one cauldron-born zombies breathing out clouds of icy mist suited the winter feeling of the Storm powers perfectly.


Dr. Todt's theme.
i make stuff...

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by flashrains View Post
Ha! I happen to have exactly the same character concept, with the same execution, on one of mine... only I picked different colors. My zombies have Ebola!
To be honest, I picked yellowish-green to match Poison, which I customized only because I couldn't quite replicate its colour.

When he was still here, BABs talked about instituting some system to help us figure out which custom colours most closely matched a power's default effect, but this seems to have gone away with him, since nothing ever came of it. As such, the closest I could come to the greenish tinge of Poison was kind of the colour of pea soup, which I considered to be close enough to both Poison and something I could customize my Dark Blasts to.

When you can't make one powerset look like another, make both look like something else altogether


Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.