Incomming Two-handed weapons

That's kind of what I was asking for. I'm also biassed, so please allow me to explain my bias:

I don't like "free hands." When given the choice of medieval weapons, I will pick either a one-handed weapon and a shield, a two-handed weapon or dual-wielded one-handed weapons. It simply looks odd to my sense of aesthetic to have a character use, say, a small one-handed weapon in one hand and use the other to essentially wave around and occasionally punch things. It may work well in more down-to-earth fights, but when you crank it up to eleven, it bugs me.

The aforementioned Lady Bizzybee is a good example of where a single one-handed weapon would be appropriate where a two-handed one wouldn't be - for a fast, agile, skill-based fighter who relies on athleticism. I'm not sure if that's precisely what the character in question is, but that's the impression I'm getting. This, in turn, actually reminds me of a sword user that I have who won't be swapping, the one called Mage-Killer Po. She's a Stalker who uses a combination of cloaking devices and sneaking techniques to use the drop on mages and then fights them with the grace and speed of a cat. A Titanic Sword is a strength weapon more so than a skill weapon, so it only makes sense not to switch.

That said, I have about five other swordsmen and, err... "Swordswomen" who I may end up swapping. Most specifically, I'm looking at the one they call Herald of Light, who looks a little something like this:



Depending on how the animations come off and depending on the weapons we get to choose from, he may end up being rerolled. And he's level 42... Curse my enthusiasm!

Originally Posted by Arcanaville 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.

Firstly, yeah, to say something is graceful would imply it is light and/or fluid which BS definitely isn't. If you know me, you know I do not care for BS's animations...the sounds are nice but the animations are whack. As of currently, for a graceful sword wielder, Katana or Dual Blades would fit the bill way better. As Sam said, that extra arm does practically nothing and the actual strikes are less than convincing not to mention the body movements...It just doesn't work in my head.

As for Titan Weapons not fitting either...well, we don't know that. I'm more inclined to believe the animations will flow at least 50% better than BS so even though it may start out 'slow', at least it fits part of the theme of graceful which = fluid. BS does what? Not fluid...not fast...not light...it just doesn't.

Secondly, I'm hard pressed to label the theme of a set right out. Similarly for Stalkers, I actually play my MA/WP as having enormous Strength (actually a form of Kinetic manipulation combined with absorbing force and being dead so absorbing extreme amounts of trauma wouldn't really *kill* her). All in all, she uses enormous bursts of power, not precision. Translate this to Titan weapons...the momentum may not be the weapon being heavy or needing to build up speed. It could be something else entirely. Basically, what I'm trying to say is, TW just may be more graceful a single weapon than BS. The only thing I'd say would help fulfill the theme would be to add 'regular-ish' sized swords...These swords would still be big, just maybe not ridiculously fat like the Buster Sword. Just a nice sized greatsword would fit the bill.

Perhaps for a 'less skilled' sword wielder? This is going on the asumption that TW may have a 'spinning strike' or two to give a sense of momentum and power, with the right model, it may look 'better' for a seasoned swordfighter where as BS is more straight forward "smack 'em in the face with metal" set.

Annoyingly short and somewhat vague answer: Theme, as with MANY other power decisions.

An example of my own is a planned toon, which is in fact a toon that I deleted some time ago due to... I dunno. Nonetheless, I figure him as a BS/Regen toon, which thematically is to be the leader of another self made faction of mine. I certainly plan to roll him as a TW/Regen (or WP), but a lot of it depends on whether he can get the nictus sword, as it has quite the importance for the toon's power symbolicness.

That said, I don't see the link between Titanic Weapons and lack of skill. IMO, a warrior certainly can master wielding a Titanic Weapon as well as a regular sized one, it just depends on determination.

I actually agree with Leo somewhat here - Broasword isn't graceful. At all. It has animations which were intended to also work with a bashing weapon, after all. However, I actually like the set BECAUSE of that. If you make a large enough character and give him (or especially her) a large enough sword, then the unwieldy "Urk!" animations of broadsword actually work to the character's benefit, replacing skill, grace or even any sort of aiming with just brutish, violent swings. I made characters on exactly this premise several times already, and I have a sneaking suspicion I'll be remaking all of those characters come Titanic Weapons, hence the question.

Possibly, though a lot of the characters I feel like remaking are actually based around raw strength more so than skill. You've already seen Xanta (everyone has ), and her entire shtick is that she's very big, very strong, dressed in very heavy (if still very revealing) armour and swinging around a sword longer than most of her enemies are tall. I'm pretty much positive that Titanic Weapons will be a better thematic choice for her in absolutely every case, barring total set suckage. But the rest... I don't know. Does that armoured knight look like he makes sense to have a bigger weapon?

That's kind of the point of me asking, though. I'm not looking for a straight, objective answer as there isn't one. More I want to pick people's brains and see how they see things, get some perspective and maybe re-evaluate my own style and preferences. It's good do a pass on long-held notions and opinions from time to time just to see if you haven't outgrown them, you know?

---

Something interesting and mostly unrelated that I want to say about Broadsword:

I dislike most of the existing Broadsword models because they look like one-handed weapons, and in more than just hilt length. The weapons themselves look like they're about the right size and shape to swing around one-handed without putting undue stress on your wrist, and they look like they hit about as hard as you would with a stick.

This isn't the case for the Legacy Broadsword for women. Not only does it have a hilt more than long enough for the weapon to be wielded two-handed, the weapon's apparent weight and length make it seem just too big, bulky and heavy to swing around one-handed without something in the system giving or breaking, superhuman powers notwithstanding. It just LOOKS like a two-handed weapon, so even though my character isn't using it with two hands, it still looks like a two-handed weapon.

In general, though, I seem to prefer LONG weapons over anything else. There's a sort of "critical length" beyond which a swinging weapon feels like it attains a sort of inertial force of its own, delivering hits at a force greater than just the strength of the arm. This is true for all weapon classes - swords, axes, maces and beyond. When a sword is too short, to my eyes it looks like a knife, in that it can cut, but it can only cut with about as much strength as you have to force it into your opponent's body. A longer sword, on the other hand, can more than cut. It can HIT things and it can hit them with an apparently great force of impact.

Titanic Weapons being all two-handed and big means they'll be long, as well, and that means they'll have a LOT of apparent strength of impact. As such, I'm having an increasingly hard time justifying my use of anything else.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville 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.

Apparently it would take up tooo much dev time to do bo staff/scythes/spears/tridents

Kanabo, in case anyone wants to look into that.

Also, the sword you want may be the Odachi.

Also check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeqhY...eature=related

Sam, you and others may be ecstatic about the new sets, I'm not.

I don't like ultramegasized gear. Heck I don't even like the greater fire sword. I don't like WOW pauldrons (shoulders). They look silly in my personal opinion. That's my opinion. Ultramegasillysized gear really get's some people excited... kinda like monster trucks, and giant robots I guess...(insert joke here about the inverse size of certain body parts and the size of the item for compensation).

So, Meh. I'm less than thrilled. I would rather have had a new class/archtype which would contain hybrid ranged and melee weapons--Call it the Avenger Class.

A full whip set for blasters or scrappers would have been interesting.

An offensive shield set would have been interesting-- ability to throw the shield, and various ways of slinging it around by it's strap, or using it to smash a foe with both hands...thrown in a couple of kicks and punches... what's not to like?

Web slinging could be a great set: web balls, group nets, individual nets, single strands: whip, lasso, trip, bola, flail...

Lots of people have been asking for a staff/spear set.

A power-gauntlets set could be interesting.

I could keep going but there are entire threads full of good ideas (and some bad ideas) for power sets that I would find preferable to Ultramegasillysized Weapons. I guess we're going the Final Fantasy route, it's nice some people are pleased.

Now as to my objections about Time Manipulation *somebody else brought this up too.

To do Time Manipulation right is very hard. Real time manipulation would allow you to move back and forth in time to change events or the results of combat. They can't do that. That would be so overpowered it would be absurd.

So what can they do? Speed and Slow. They can make things move faster and make things move slower. Sounds a lot like Kinetics with a few minor twists.

So here's what they can do:

Slow individual or group attack rate, movement speed, and regen & recovery.
Speed individual or group attack rate, movement speed, and regen & recovery.
Hold an individual or group (i.e. stop time for a group)
Slow individual or group and reduce their defense
Speed individual or group and increase their defense

Unfortunately I don't see how they could manipulate resistance and damage (although they could play around with the idea of entropy--it would be hard because entropy would need to be item based) . They couldn't do anything with aging because that would be too permanent and therefore overpowered.

Bottom line is there is nothing that this set will offer that is not already done to some degree by the primaries in the defenders or the secondaries in the controlers/corrupters. I.e. this set is rendered moot by the fact that it's going to be more of the same.

Is there a power set out there that is not already covered by the current powers? Probably but Time Manipulation is going to be a rehash...and that's just my opinion.

It's a stylized thing. I enjoy a pretty broad range of things, subtle and sleek, over-emphasized, techno, normal/casual, not a huge fan of generic superhero though (patterned tights with maybe a belt, mask and cape). That said, certain things just look better for certain characters. Not sure why you don't like the greater fire sword, it looks regular sized on the Huge Model, especially if you make the character look as big and tall as possible whereas the regular fire sword model looks Gladius sized (which isn't inherently bad, but may not be what works for the character's theme). But even then, I actually use both models on my Fire/SD brute on different costumes.

I'd prefer an AT with melee focused attack set (*maybe* with some light ranged mixed in) with a defensive set that has a mix of team buffs and some armor built in. Something like a Paladin or some such but it should come with Martial Arts! Call it Enforcer.

The devs said animating one attack was near equivalent to animating kinetic melee...or something like that. It'd be alot more work, maybe even alot more than Titan Weapons.

Won't happen.

1. Although I think the reluctance of giving Marvel fuel for another lawsuit was merely a joke, I believe the mechanics themselves wouldn't allow it. If you could throw your weapon, then you wouldn't be able to customize it otherwise you'd need seperate animations for the round shields, the tribal shields, the round shield with a star on it, the round shield with a snake on it, each individual roman shield, etc. etc. etc.

2. It'd be dumb. Picking up a shield and *not* protecting yourself with it? Why not make an axe defense set where you hold the axe and it makes you more resistant but you don't hit anything with it, while we're at it...How goofy would a Shield Attack/Axe Defense Scrapper look, honestly?

I'm sick of webs. I'm sick of glue. I'm sick of nets and tar and goo.
But that's just my opinion, a web set might be kinda cool.

Yeah on the staff/spear, neh on the gauntlets.

The premise I'm not quite wrapping my head around here is, you're okay with backing something so totally 'meh' as 'Power Gauntlets' which I can only assume is using some glove options to shoot bullets/beams/grenades from...but then when it comes to Titan Weapons, you dismiss it as 'Ultramegasilly' when, quite easily, the set could also use Spears as an option...which is also something you back.

I'd actually be surprised if they didn't have a type of axe-type implement attached to a pole as a weapon option for Titan Weapons. It's just too easy to imagine and design.

Technically, that's 'Time Travel'. Literally moving back and forth in time to change events or results is 'traveling', I guess seeing future or past events is I guess Astral projection, precognition or clairvoyance. Manipulating time is changing the passage of time. A device (like a remote that stops, fast forwards or rewinds) or predetermined ability (like Prince of Persia's second-chance type effect that gives you a do-over from a specified point in time) is closer to time manipulation. But then it could be said the word 'manipulate' is rather a broad term and could encapsulate anything involving time. But in the context of the game (yeah, just because Blaster Secondaries are called 'manipulation' sets, doesn't mean they can do anything...) I wouldn't use such a broad definition of the term.

The set can have gimmicks that Kinetics doesn't have. It's already been mentioned that, using certain powers on friends/foes alters the effects of your other powers when used on the same target. We don't know the depths of what this could entail. It'd be interesting if, before a fight, you cast this little time book-mark on an ally then cast 'rewind' on them during battle. If simply casting 'rewind' gave a moderate regen buff, casting it after casting the book-mark might instantly refresh them back to that 'save point', bringing their HP and END back to previous levels.

IMO, Kinetics can work for time manipulators, but it works better for fate manipulators. Since Kin is more about the damage and endurance, it's more offensive. Time manipulation might be vastly more defensive.

I would be quite content with just a regular sword-less chainsaw. That way we would really be able to give those pesky Croatoan pumpkins what they deserve!

My Broadsword/Willpower stalker. I doubt they will make titan weapons for stalkers.

I think you'll be wrong

Titan Weapons will be a set people have to purchase. There might be people who only play the Stalker AT over any other melee AT. Those player may buy the Titan Set, but would only buy it if the Stalkers could use it.

Essentially, I think the devs are going to want to cover their bases, and get as many sales as they can on it.

Aren't all of the weapon models automatically ridiculous already?


(I kid, I kid.)
I really hope you are wrong. Not because I dislike Stalkers... but instead due to the characterization of how the Devs will be making decisions on this Freedom thing. I hope they are making decisions based on how it will impact the feel and aesthetics of their game moreso than just pure dollar signs. Am I being too much of an idealist to believe they will never give this set to Stalkers because it is even more illogical than Elec. Armor?

Why can't we have both?