Powerset Proliferation 3.0

I don't think it's so much a narrow niche that's the problem as the very, very specific design that's the problem. Whenever you start combining weapons and hard-coding them into their own powersets, you start running into problems. You'll get people who don't want an axe and a gun, instead, some who want a mace and a gun, and then there's me, who'd like to see a gun + shield combo. Seriously.

Bundling concepts into monolithic packages is not something I'm a fan of. To be honest, even when it comes to Titanic Weapons, I have my reservations about the set including non-sword weapons, but we'll have to see how that goes. However, when opportunity exists, I want to see powers broken down as much as possible, to the point where players could pick any collection of concepts they desire without inheriting things they don't want with it. See GunFu characters now (like I know you have) and Petless Thugs Masterminds before that. Sometimes you just want the gun but not the other two thirds of a powerset that come with it.

I have nothing against a character who uses a sword and a gun. I just feel the game is able to provide much more choice than JUST that.

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.

There was a time a couple of years ago when I wanted to make a sonic/fire defender, but now I can't remember the character concept I had in mind or why I wanted that particular combo.

Oh well, something else will surely present itself! It's stuff like this that keeps me coming back.

True, true, but that's why I bring up Devil May Cry's Dante. Once upon a time I could never imagine a sword + pistols combo ever working and looking good on any character specifically because I could never imagine the act of switching between weapons being done well. Turns out it doesn't have to be "done" at all. You can have a character who swaps weapons instantly and with no intervening animation, and surprisingly, the resulting game still looks pretty damn good!

I have subsequently played quite a few 2D fighting games which featured characters either manifesting ranged weapons or sometimes even swapping between multiple ranged weapons within the span of a couple of seconds, and I have to say it still looks seamless provided the character doesn't animate putting one weapon away and pulling another out.

Years ago, the draw animation for the Undead Slaying Axe (as it was called at the time) was bugged and would simply not play when in the air. This allowed my constantly flying BS/Regen Scrapper to do half an attack chain with the sword then swipe with the axe in a manner so seamless it looked as though it were inherent in the set. Of course, swapping back to Broadsword caused redraw and somewhat ruined the effect, but this proved - to me at least - that simply removing all weapon redraw would eliminate all issues of redraw interference without introducing any aesthetic problems whatsoever.

It's interesting to note that having a character switch between weapons instantly and already be mid-swing mere frames later, while it sounds bad in writing, actually works really well. I suppose it's fast enough that it fools our brains that a weapon changed really did happen, we just didn't catch it. I suppose it's also that the concept itself is cool enough that the cut corners aren't as noticeable as they would be elsewhere.

Will removal of all draw animations ever happen? I don't know. Prior to the recent massively awesome announcements, I'd have said "No, not with BABs gone." But if Paragon Studios really do intend to make an awesome game that's more than just a cheap money scam like they're promising (and like I'm starting to believe)... Then, yeah, I seriously think it could happen, and not too far away from the present, even. And not just for sword + gun combos, but for the sake of weapon sets across the entire game.

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.

Mee too. My one of my first posts in CoH Beta (after the "squeee, I'm in Beta" post and "wow, this game is amazing!"), was to comment on how disapointed I was with the way powerset themes were divided up amongst the archetypes and asking why Scrapper couldn't hold an axe.

Oh, I know. I'm just teasing Samuel Tow - he really went to bat for the "big weapons" look.

Hey, that's half the reason I haven't had the heart to complain lately. Titanic Weapons really flipped my view of the game clear upside down, and with the latest proliferation announcements, I'm considering having my Fanboy ID renewed

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.

I heard it costs 10 Empyrean merits to unlock Titan Weapons... each time you want to make a character with it.

I couldn't resist.

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.

It costs 400,000 influence to swing this weapon for twelve seconds.

Originally Posted by reiella Until I see something that states to the contrary, going to assume VK is right .

It's only a joke until you realise that some games have systems remarkably similar to that in play. If there's one thing I HATE more than anything else, it's renting virtual property, specifically since I'm ALREADY paying money to rent access to the game itself.

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.

Just to check, you do know that was a TF2 quote right?

No, not really. I only recently tried that game when it went free and I haven't heard many quotes out of it, aside from "This feel great, dokta!"

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.

Then, my friend, you truly need to Meet the Team. Each video is a fountain of memes on their own.

Edit: Partly to keep this on topic of City of as well as related to the thread overall, it's funny but awhile back I tried to imagine Meet the Team style videos for each City of Archtype, even had a thread for it but I could NEVER escape the idea that scrapper's would be "Meet the Scout" in City of Heroes.... The fact that we will soon be able to make Baseball bat(War Mace)/SR does NOT help at all.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

It's not actually from the game; it's from the "Meet the Heavy" video that Valve created -- one of the 'meet the character' series they've released. They're all pretty funny.