Rocket Boards?

Brief answer, yes.

I think an iceslide would be amazing. If it could also be skinnable, so to speak, so that we could make it a slide of solid energy or crystals or rock or asphalt... that would just make it all the better.

Although the iceslide gets my top vote, other hover style platforms would also be desirable, and I can imagine that they would be much easier to do, so I would not be sad if some of those slipped in while sliding travel powers were under development.

Mounts go further down the list. That said, motorcycles and hovercycles should top the list of "mounts".

Back to sliding powers for a moment. I could see this really working well as an extra travel power POOL called Matter Manipulation. This could add some other powers in the pool such as soft control cages that immobilize the target. Of course that adds to the development time, but it would be absolutely magnificent!

It's been done.

That depends... if it's just Fly with an ice path aura then no. If it uses the skiing game mechanic to actually slide, with velocity depending on the angle you're moving at, then yes.

Not going to happen. If this hypothetical power left any ice in its wake, I'd bet on it being intangible.

1- How many here would like to see Rocket Board as a Power Pool with 5 powers, befitting a Travel Power Pool?
Yes

Whack someone over the head with your vehicle/platform of choice
Remotely call your vehicle/platform to knock an enemy down at a range (no damage)
Travel power
Slower travel with a respectable +def (like Weave combined with Hover/Combat Jumping, call it Evasive Manauvers?)
Clicky spammable +movement buff, an afterburner of sorts, with a short term stacking -recov so it's more for travel but can be used in combat

2- How many here would prefer the board to be customizable, ie, coloration and form?
Yes

I would settle for one themed vehicle/platform per origin, if possible..
Current rocketboard for Natural
Green Goblin-esque flyer for Tech (visible weapons, less like a skateboard more like a fixed wing)
A cloud for magic
Elemental Fire/Ice/Electricity/Energy for Mutant and Science

3- How many here would prefer that Rocket Board didn't disallow attacks and detoggle you, or would you be happy enough to keep the toggles?
I would like to fight with it, but would settle for it just greying out attacks (but not self buff toggles)

Meh. A "rocket board" is a single power - you travel around on a rocket board. Everything else about it goes into "shield melee" territory.

On the flip side, I DO NOT want to see this as just another throwaway temporary power. I have eleventy billion of those and I'm sick and tired of getting more and more powers that bastardise the powersets/pools/epic system. I want it added to the game as some kind of more meaningful power, if necessary as part of a pool, so that this can be drawn up as a costume item, because...

Quote:

Originally Posted by RavenSoul 2- How many here would prefer the board to be customizable, ie, coloration and form?

This needs to be customizable. Not just a selection among five different "rocket board" powers, I mean genuine customization. You take the power, you enter the costume editor and customize the board. You pick between models, you pick the colour of the models and possibly even the effect the models leave behind. "Board customization" needs to look like weapon customization. Anything less would be disappointing.

Attacks are not gonna' happen. City of Heroes has static animations with no ability for animation blending, as per BABs in those exact words. What this means is that each power animation needs to start from a predefined stance, play out and return to a predefined stance. In turn, what this means is that each stance requires its own unique animations for EVERY attack in the game. Ninja Run and Beast Run sort of get away with it, since they essentially self-interrupt and return the player to the default "left foot forward" stance for as long as you keep attacking, then return you to the hunched-over stance of each.

This can't work for a rocket board, however, since for one, the flying animations use a VERY different flying stance, and for another, the rocket board would need to disappear. What's more, with rocket boards being a prop, it means attacks would actually require a separate activation sequence like with weapons, or the board would have to disappear every time you did anything else. Essentially what needs to happen for combat to happen while on a rocket board is like what needed to be done for shields, but ten times more work. First of all, Shield Defence needed its own new tech to keep the shield out at all times and mix its own activation sequences with those of other weapons. Secondly, it needed unique "with shield" animation for everything. However, a lot of those animations were nearly identical to their stock counterparts, because shields used the same basic stance as normal attacks. For Rocket Boards, they'd need much brand new animations for everything.

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I suppose the only way I could see combat while flying on an aerial platform is to have the character retain an exact copy of his ground animation, but standing on the flying platform. That way, you can just reuse all of ground animations, but pass them off as aerial combat. I'm not sure if David would be interested in this, but I'd be interested to see it. If the platform is big enough for the character's gait, then technically, this shouldn't take anything unusual to make work.

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As for toggles, yes, I want to see us keep our toggles with both rocket boards and Walk. Outside of a few specific model-skeleton-altering toggles (Granite Armour, White Dwarf, etc), there's no reason that I can think of to knock out our toggles when we use these powers. Shield Defence MIGHT be problematic because of activation sequence black magic, but even then - why not disable JUST the problematic toggles instead of ALL toggles? A running toggle does not involve an animation, so it shouldn't be an animations problem.

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.

Which is why I think it'd be best as a Ninja Run type power but with less jump speed and more run speed. This would make it seem like you're gradually going up an incline rather than just shooting straight up in the air. Make all the running, jumping and falling poses the sliding pose (or a new one that looks like skating, reserving the sliding for the falling), and it should look like ice sliding. I don't know if low jump speed affects falling speed though.

I never said it didn't originate with Iceman. I just said it wasn't intimately linked to him. In the same way laser beam eyes aren't intimately linked to Superman, or circular shields aren't intimately linked to Captain America. (Or at least, not to the extent that they were excluded from City of Heroes.)

The Ice Slide, as depicted originally by iceman, and many other ice-powered characters since, is a staple of ice-powered characters in the comic book genre this game is based around. It would be more than appropriate to add it to the game.

But if you'd personally want to come up with a new spin then fair enough.

David, I think you are severely misinterpreting this poster's statement.

We all get the "No Physical Ice" bit and have no serious problems with it, there are lots of visual "Cheats" to something like that, such as a robust path aura that hides the feet The question is, if a "Slide" power could be implemented that would use the same physics as a Character who is sliding on ice in frozen areas(Such as the Ski Chalet) or oil patches in Port Oakes. Possibly with the ability to rise. The More or less unstoppable forward motion, the wide turning arc, the somewhat higher speed.

The idea of a rocket-board power opens up a lot of Creative potential if applied less as a one-off fancy bit and more as a real pool with customization

Another thing to consider is the possibility of re-using Flying attack animations, the issue would then be making the effect/object draw under the feet while doing so, but that doesn't seem like too much of an art hurdle, considering path auras. Simply have the character hover a few inches off their board/ice slide/flying rock/giant bat-thing whilst attacking then revert back to their "Surf" animation mode.Or more logically, just stand on it, it's a surface, you stand on surfaces, why not just use the "Ground" animations?
Power-Set: Sliding
With your hover board, hunk of ice, or flying(Insert thing here) you slide and zip around the city
Power 1:(Taking into account new movement power rules in i21)
Surf:
Toggle Power:
This would be the "Getting around the city" power, not a good idea to use indoors(unless you're just nuts like that, in which case, good luck, man) Basically the mechanics of sliding on ice, turning radius and all, with the ability to levitate(Hover in place) whenever you stop and a speed higher than Flight's base but lower than Afterburners allows for vertical movement like flight, but only when traveling forward (I.e. you can't just jump straight up but have to be traveling forward and going up)
The idea here is it's high speed is balanced by it's hard to manage controls and singular use, it's only good for getting around town, really.
Power 2: Skim:Toggle Power: Similar to Ninja run with a bonus to run and jump speed(but less so) a less pronounced slide-type turning radius and delayed stop possibly with a secondary buff to defense.

Power 3:
Kick-Flip:Passive Auto Power: The ability to perform a single, Steam-Punk jump-pack-esque Double jump whilst in the air, so long as no other Slide toggles are active
(You make the ice, Pull out your hoverboard/e.t.c and jump off it)
That's all I can think of at the moment, but I'm trying to come up with ideas based on existing game mechanics.

Obviously some kind of "attack" and a fifth power are needed. Just a thought

Before they do this, I'm assuming they'd have to get GENERAL pool customization working first. I don't expect this anytime this year.

David, I have been dying to see a motorcycle mount in this game. Since we're talking about mounts here, a motorcycle travel power has been requested since the early days of this game. I remember Positron or some other dev. saying that a motorcycle would not be doable since it would block doorways in instanced maps. My argument has always been why not only allow a mount/motorcycle be available for use in the open world? I think it would be easily programmable to write an instance in/out line of code to check if one is inside a mission or not.

I have craved a fricking motorcycle in this game for so long. I'm not talking a crotch rocket either, I'm talking an old school chopper or cruiser for use by players a la Ghost Rider. If you're finally considering mounts in this game, a motorcycle would be number one or number two on that list. Just imagine what it would be like for a player to just be able to cruise around Praetoria speeding at 90 m.p.h. and taking in the scenery, not flying or teleporting his way through, ignoring his surroundings. Even the tunnels connecting the zones would get some use, hell, even the roads would get some proper use for once!

Thanks!

Just make it a jet-bike, then it's perfectly fine for it to strafe/fly/go indoors. And if people want to cruse at street level and stay on the roads then they can and and still feel like a boss.

Hell, I'd love to see a rolling dismount animation that could segue straight into an attack without the ready-stance-pause.... I'll bet you could do that with a second power that auto-switched off the movement power (Like the way Ninja run detoggles movement powers) and switched on a rolling movement power (rolling animation needed) that would be auto disabled with any attack (detoggle on attack, like "Shadowy Presence"). Oh you could give the rolling entrance a slight damage buff (and appropriate cool-down, and limit the rolling to a max of 3-sec say) and sell it separately... I'd buy that.

Scream up to a mob of villains on your rocket-chopper, rolling dismount into the centre of the mob and fire off a PBAOE (like "Hail of Bullets")

Not only that, Shield can only be paired with the melee sets.

Rocket Board would also be usable with EVERY powerset in the game.

Emphasis is mine.

I know he was pretty well liked by a lot of the community but I always felt like BABs was one of those guys who used pessimism as a tool on the forums. He would seldom say something was outright impossible but he would calmly explain in detail why various things were pretty unlikely. I can definitely understand the approach – some readers are going to interpret anything even mildly positive as some kind of binding promise – but it always rubbed me the wrong way because it’s the way you deal with children. I’ve not been one of those for some time.

The optimist in me says that Freedom makes a lot of ‘not gonna happen’ things a little more possible, especially if there is demand. If they determine that they can profitably make and sell custom animations and effects for travel powers, then they will probably take on the crushing labor of doing those animations for the various poses. As it stands, desire seems to be high but they probably won’t be able to determine demand until they get a bead on just how much people are willing to spend in the Paragon Market. At that point, we’ll all know a little better about what could be possible.

It’s also worth mentioning that while doing those specialized animations is undeniably a HUGE amount of work, a lot of powers share animations so it’s not quite as daunting as when you look at a list of all the ‘unique’ powers. Additionally, some powers could convincingly have their animations simply turned off when the specialized travel power is in effect – kind of how you get no animation when you activate most toggles while in motion. The self-interruption you mention with Ninja and Beast Run could also cover some potential travel power customizations and actually work well with suppression – if your customized super speed ice slide cut off when you attacked, it kind of works thematically that maybe you need to concentrate a little to create it. Sure, it isn’t as nifty as being able to blast away while you skate by but the suppression mechanic would ruin that anyway. We might as well go with the flow.

Lastly, I could even see some powers being convincingly unusable when some custom travel powers were in effect. If you’re flying on a broomstick, it would probably make sense that you need to keep one hand on it. Any power that requires both hands would either need an alternate one handed animation or could be grayed out. I wouldn’t love it but I could live with it – it’s just the total graying out that makes me crazy. This specific graying out would also seem to be possible as some powers already are unusable if you are not on the ground. Some customized versions of ‘Fly’ could just expand on that mechanic.

To me, it does seem like custom flight powers are the real stick in the mud because there are just so many wonderful imaginative things you could do with the power and each and everyone one of those specialized flight poses would need to be a new starting point for each and every attack animation, minimally. And that is, indeed, a lot of work but probably no more than it was to ditch those “baked in” colors and get us that customization. I see travel power customization as something just as radically game changing as color customization was (more so, in fact) but YMMV.

Yes, I’m trying to stay optimistic.

This is all I would want. Period, if Rocket board is travel power that I can't use during combat (as in it doesn't have a relationship like Hover/Fly or Combat Jumping/Super Jump) then I am not interested in it at all. It will be useless too me. I always toggle my travel powers to button 4 on my mouse so if I turn off Rocket Board and come plummeting to the ground because it doesn't have a lower endurance more control hover option that I can use during combat then it does me no good.

Honestly I would rather see Beast Run/Ninja Run suped up to become real travel powers with their own pools. They could be something like Acrobatics from Champions Online which was my favorite ground travel power in that game.

Forget the carpet I want the girl!