New Status Effects!

As the game progresses, powersets are tweeked, added and so forth, we're starting to run out of possibilities besides number differences. For instance, the new Energy Aura will basically be like Ice Armor but there are key differences...like EA has a crashing tier 9 while IA has an only affecting self toggle...one has a +HP heal and the other a +regen/END discount heal...one has a damage aura/debuff aura, the other a self-buff aura and stealth...

Okay, well they're not that alike...but still, there are other examples of sets being rather identical save for visuals and one or two differences.

And as the devs scratch for new and impressive gimmicks to add to their new sets to make them shinier, I have to wonder where you can go with control or buff sets. Eventually, it'll be all about the gimmick because the effects are exactly the same as some other set.

Not saying we're in dire need of *NEW!!111* but just thought I'd throw out the idea of adding/altering some effects to help increase variety.

And now...to the idea...


Phasing

As visited here, we could stand to expand on phasing in this game. Yeah, I can hear the AoE farmers groaning now...

Status: Phased
Effect: A target tagged with a 'mode' that makes them immune to any effects except from those in the same 'mode'.
Notes: Not sure how the game is coded to work, but I'd go on to explain it as there being 3 'modes'. 'mode0' is the base mode everyone starts in, 'mode1' is what you gain after applying a phase power as well as altering all phase powers to subtract a mode when in this state. 'mode2' is basically an 'affect everything' mode usable by bosses that can attack mezzed foes or pseudo pets that can do the same.
Extras: We'll need more enemies that use phase and more power that cast/grant phase. Swapping Dimension Shift/Black Hole for a version that casts a 'mode2' pseudo pet that will phases anything within its range would be a good start. Putting Singularity in 'mode2' and giving it a ST phase power that's locked into '-1 mode' would give the pet the utility of unphasing any phasers as well as the ability to affect phased targets...it's a very fun prospect that you can do alot with, IMO.

Status: Caged
Effect: An offensive effect that stops anything from affecting a target and the target from affecting anything else.
Notes: This is what we've got now with intangibility. It's not a useless effect by any stretch of the imagination so would be kept in powers like detention field and sonic cages.

Status: Walled
Effect: A defensive effect that stops anything from affecting you or your ally if its castable on a target.
Notes: Again, this is what we've got now with intangibility. Conceptually, both phase and walled should exist. For instance, dimension hoppers should be affected by others with the same ability (phased) but it's also fitting that one can 'cage themselves' to protect themselves from harm. I'd personally use on my Storm corruptor who explains the power as turning her body into mist/fog.

Status: Stun
Effect: All offensive actions are nullified/suppressed, the target is unable to take action and their ability to move is inhibited.
Notes: Basically, what we have now with stun. You can't act, offensive toggles suppress, you can move but at a very slow pace.

Status: Disorient
Effect: Offensive actions are nullified, the target can still moved but at a slightly slower pace. Movement increases the chance to trigger knockdown and knockback.
Notes: With this, toggles won't suppress but your ability to attack will. I'd imagine it's possible to grant a target a temp power that occasionally 'knockbacks' the target. Since it only occurs during movement, it's possible the target will fly back to the point they started at. Still unsure of the full ramifications of such an effect, but it's a bit more 'offensive' than just Stun.

Status: Shocked
Effect: Offensive and defensive actions are nullified. The target cannot move or act unless acted upon.
Notes: Think of this like a hard Fear power...or a soft hold...except it turns off offensive and defensive toggles. The effect instantly wears off upon being attacked. This is a more powerful effect in that is can revert a targets self-buffs into the 'off' state while completely controlling the target.

Status: Drowsy
Effect: A long duration mez where, if the target does not act, they will be reverted to a state where they cannot act. Movement is impaired as is recharge.
Notes: This is a defensive supplemental mez, in that, its effects have a small chance to 'work' at first but have a higher chance of taking effect if the target does not act or move. Think of it like a fear power that can only be suppressed by the victim taking action rather than the victim being acted upon.
Extra: I see this being put in control heavy power pools like Mind Control, Ice Control and the like. Damage itself does not break this effect. It's categorized as 'Sleep' so sets/resistance is what affects this.

Status: Sleep
Effect: See Shocked above
Notes: A major change. Any powers that must conceptually keep Sleeps like they are (like perhaps Mass Hypnosis) would get the 'Shocked' status but called 'Sleep'. I'd imagine, to streamline it, you'd be able to slot the power with Stun or Sleep sets.

Status: Intoxicated
Effect: The victim will cough/puke until attacked. Any form of Knockback will cause the intoxicated victim to lay on the ground for longer periods of time before getting back up.
Notes: I'd imagine, both KB resistance and sleep resistance would lower the duration one stay prone.

Status: Consumed
Effect: Same as Drowsy but shorter duration, without the need for the target to 'not act' for full effect and the mags break upon receiving damage. A mag of 'sleep' having a chance to proc on the target and stack would be the intended design. If one attacks the victim, they're less likely to stack.
Notes: Conceptually, this is what I think Flash Freeze and Salt Crystals basically is, consuming a target in a thin sheet of material. It's basically going to freeze a target in place unless attacked. This effect is enhanceable/defendable by sleep enhancements/resistance/protection.
Extras: It's iffy to replace some sleeps with this, but I imagine them being like the sleep patch except more definitive. If left alone (and not attacked) an affected target will eventually succumb to being consumed but this effect will break if attacked. But they may still be consumed until the full effect expires off the target (just like a target will still be drowsy until the effect wears off).

Status: Confused
Effect: Same as current Confuse powers.

Status: Deflect
Effect: The duration of this effect is short. The victim's range and perception is debuffed and any actions are going to affect the target or be targeted through the opponent.
Notes: Not an actual confuse, but used as a means of 'deflecting' attacks. Since its such a short duration, it's harder to wield but it can be used more often. Basically, if an NPC gets 'Deflected' in the sense of the mez, their perception radius would be shortened, they'll target the nearest foe and shoot them instead. If there are no targets in range, the deflected foe can target through you and shoot a more distant foe you are looking at. If you're targeting the deflected victim, they just can't act.

Status: Bewitched
Effect: The affected target is granted damage and ToHit buffs but only attacks targets that attack you. Under this effect, the target will cast any defensive powers on your allies as well.
Notes: An interesting power if factions could play a part in the game. Not only that, but I could see the effect working as a kind of 'love struck' effect as well.

Status: Placate
Effect: A placated target will not only be unable to attack the caster until the caster strikes them afterwards, but the victim will be under a confused state until it is able to hit something.
Notes: I'd imagine this being too powerful for Stalker Smoke Flash but in Placate (or other ST placate powers) this would help mitigate the whole 'sic my teammate instead' syndrome, if only momentarily. And it'd be an offensive tool as well!

My feeling is that instead of making things more complicated on the player side, they should do a total revamp of how mezzes effect NPCs. They could make creative use of the same thing that lets Blasters shoot basic attacks while mezzed, to create a much more nuanced system than exists now.

I suppose you could dismiss it as 'more complicated'...

But I'm suggesting this not just for NPCs but for players too. Because we should be trying to vary the simple base of the game which is combat.

For instance, melee is melee and ranged is ranged. But there's nothing that discourages using ranged in melee. The deflect mechanic would make shooting at close range a hassle since, if a foe deflects your blaster, you can accidentally shoot any of your allies within line of sight of the mezzer. Melees would just have to spread out a bit beyond melee range.

People *love* Oil Slick Arrow and it's burn patch. Don't see why no one wouldn't love Poison Gas Arrow > Exploding Arrow leaving a mess of intoxicated, sick foes unable to hop back on their feet. Or heck, PGA > Ice Slick would basically be an AoE Hold. Power synergy is an oft requested feature that I'm totally behind.

What I wish they'd do is make both slows and sleep powers a more integral part of the game. With the exception of electric trollers, sleeps are pretty useless - too much AE damage going on in most teams. I've found slows to be very useful, although I dont often see that opinion among other players.


My suggestions:
Sleeps:
When "awoke" from a sleep by damage, a mob should have a "groggy" period where his recharge is greatly diminished and possibly a short period of disorientation.

Slows:
All slow powers should also slow down mob attack rates - a lot of slow powers do, but I don't think all. In addition, it should lower the accuracy of mob attacks.

One thing that annoys me when playing my plant troller...
the conflict between roots and knockdown powers.

Roots should just root in place. It shouldn't hold the mob in an upright position so that powers with knockdown have no effect. I'm fairly certain they coded it this way since "knockdown" is just a scaled back version of "knockback", but it should be fixed.

I actually feel exactly the reverse of the thread's direction. Rather than making status effects more diverse and complex, I've always wanted to make them simpler and, if possible, even boil them down to the same single effect. Why? Because then control-heavy characters could much more easily stack status effects the same way they stack "damage" on enemies, and status effects in general can stop being so binary.

Yes, this means that some enemies would be harder to control with a single application of any control effect, but it also means that we will not need enemies who are so completely immune to control effects as to leave Controllers with basically only one powerset out of two for AV fights. It means that enemies who are resistant to control effects can be only PARTIALLY resistant, and it would still work because many more players would be able to build up control magnitude.

I'm not really opposed to powers having different effects, but I'd rather see them as secondary effects to the same basic overall "hold" effect such that any status effect in the game can stack with any other effect, as well. If you have a Blaster with Web Grenade and a Brute with Stun, I'd like to see those serve to help a Controller cage an Elite Boss with Char more easily, even though we're combining a stun with an immob with a hold.

Quote:

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.

Oy, why'd I even try cobbling together a post on my phone...ah well, let's try this again >_>

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow I actually feel exactly the reverse of the thread's direction. Rather than making status effects more diverse and complex, I've always wanted to make them simpler and, if possible, even boil them down to the same single effect. Why? Because then control-heavy characters could much more easily stack status effects the same way they stack "damage" on enemies, and status effects in general can stop being so binary.

Funny you seek to make mez less binary but the direction of your brainstorming does nothing to accomplish this...it only homogenizes magnitude. It's not a bad direction to start in but far from your intended goal. And honestly, it's not mine either.

While I can get behind thoughts on how to fix mezzing in CoX, I *REALLY* doubt *ANYTHING* so drastic will ever come about.

You see, you're coming at the thread with the idea of 'fixing mez' while I'm coming at it as 'expanding it' not to make it intentionally more complicated, but so there's multiple 'layers' of differing multitude of effects that still interact with the game in the same way.

That last part is important. This interacts with the game 'the same way'. I'm aiming to keep anything added as simple and integrateable as possible as it's more likely to be added to the game without overhauling everything.

Quote:

Yes, this means that some enemies would be harder to control with a single application of any control effect, but it also means that we will not need enemies who are so completely immune to control effects as to leave Controllers with basically only one powerset out of two for AV fights. It means that enemies who are resistant to control effects can be only PARTIALLY resistant, and it would still work because many more players would be able to build up control magnitude. I'm not really opposed to powers having different effects, but I'd rather see them as secondary effects to the same basic overall "hold" effect such that any status effect in the game can stack with any other effect, as well. If you have a Blaster with Web Grenade and a Brute with Stun, I'd like to see those serve to help a Controller cage an Elite Boss with Char more easily, even though we're combining a stun with an immob with a hold.

And this is why I think I'm onto something. Because my OP does basically what you describe. You see those effects up there? Stun, Disorient and Shocked...those are all protected against by 'Stun resist/protection'. They are different 'effects' but they are the same mez. You *can* stack them to overcome a target's resists. That was the whole point, really. But they don't stack in a binary fashion...or not completely binary.

Stun (the described effect above) comes with a high movement penalty, disorient would grant a chance to knock- every time the target moves while under its effects and shocked completely cancels movement. One could stack these for different outcomes across multiple characters....

For example: Thunder Clap causes 'shocked', Oppressive Gloom causes 'stunned' and energy melee causes 'disorientation'. One can hit a foe with energy melee attacks then have a teammate follow up with TC to stack mag and hard-control the stunned foe's movements. Or a DA/EM Tanker can run OG...this sends targets wobbling away once they become stunned. If he decides to stack it with EM's disorient, there's a chance those foes wobbling away will literally fly *back* (or down if one can't send the foe in the opposite direction they are facing) to the tank since they're disoriented *and* stunned.

Another example: Consumed is basically a moveable static field except it's effects require itself to stack. I consider thematiclly, powers like Flash Freeze being something that is 'consuming' you, constantly growing to cover you up and completely encapsulate you. You can keep wiggling to try and break some off, but if you don't keep it up, it'll swallow you up anyway. In conjunction with an actual sleep like Mass Hypnosis? What easier way for the ice to completely consume a person than if that person was asleep and unable to struggle? That's what stacking a 'consume' sleep and a 'sleep' sleep accomplishes. They're the same 'mez' but interact with other powers differently.

But beyond that, the main point of my suggestion stems from the new Titan Weapon set's gimmick. Momentum. You and me, Sam, know each other's stance on gimmicks like these. I enjoy seeing them on all new sets and powers while you're rather indifferent. Well, I feel a bit different with momentum. I see no reason why I can't use such an effect on, say, Katana. Really, any type of swung weapon will hinge on the use of momentum. It's a gimmick that shouldn't be limited to one new set...but it is. Oh well. But things can change and as more new powers and sets are made, you have to wonder if they'll bother making newer and newer gimmicks or will they revisit some of the cooler stuff we have and rehash it.

Personally, I *WANT* them to rehash old stuff too. I want AoE teleport mez powers a la Wormhole...but then you start infringing on old sets too. Which kind of comes back to my thought. These 'new status effects' aren't meant to complicate mezzing, just add new dynamics to mezzing that can be retrofitted to old sets or added to new sets without taking the shine of the old.