Power Set Workshop--Plants for Defenders

I personally enjoyed Noble Savage's cooperative design experiment for the now forthcoming Sci-Fi costume pack. Despite many of my experiences with design by committee, it felt like people were forceful and opinionated enough in that thread that the end result of ideas weren't completely watered down but rather had some of the benefits, IMO, of distributed processing--you know, the stuff that transforms dumb little ants into intelligent hives.

I'm starting this thread as a recasting of that collective design experiment and aiming it at a hypothetical power set: Plants for Defenders, Corruptors and Controllers. I do realize that at the end of the day, this could be considered a suggestion thread. And though ultimately it may result in a formal suggestion (which I'll be happy to write up and submit in that section of the forum when we reach that point), I personally am just as interested in the lively back and forth of such a design process. I am also interested in what it reveals about how different players approach the game as did much of the costume design experiment thread.

Before you jump in with your ideas, please see the suggested guidelines below. Rednames, feel free to participate under a standing disclaimer that all redname posts contributing to the design process are entirely here for fun and in no way are any indication of future design choices or priorities of Paragon Studios.

Suggested Formatting For Individual Powers:

Please feel free to quote this or someone else's usage of this formatting and fill in the blanks:

Tier X Suggested Power Name: Brief aesthetic description of power including fx and animation. Brief notes regarding gameplay effects of power and any special notes.

A Few Things To Consider While Helping Design This Hypothetical Set:

• We have one plant set already. How should a second powerset further flesh out plants as a manifestation of superpowers? Remember that with this set as a secondary, Controllers could now be built as pure-plant characters. Visually and gameplay-wise, how do you see these sets combining and interacting. Also keep in mind all the various combinations that would be possible for Defenders and Corruptors. i.e. Plant/Fire, Plant/Pistols, Plant/Ice Blast, etc.
  
• What are some combinations of gameplay options that don't exist yet? Let's try and fashion a set that is a unique combination of the existing options already set out for Defender primary and Corruptor & Controller secondary sets: shield powers, eminators, targeted area of effect, point blank area of effect, ranged cone area of effect, pets, etc. Keep all the options in mind as well as all the various effects possible: confuse, placate, stun, immobilize, sleep, debuff or buff of resistance, damage, defense, accuracy, regen and recovery. Should this set be a grab bag of the above? Or focused on things we don't yet have in combination? Again, how would this mesh on a Plant/Plant 'troller?
  
• I personally am of the mind that most any combination of powers, including primary and secondary effects, could be balanced via the numbers. But some of you reading and hopefully participating have more of a numbers based handle on the game. To that end, when reading other's ideas or your own for this set, do you see any combinations that may be overpowered? Just like with the costume design experiment, though I'd love to see ideas flow freely here, let's try and do this experiment with an eye towards the truly possible not just pie in the sky. And trimming back ideas is part of that process IMO. This would also be the place to bring up PvP issues, if any, that those who more thoroughly understand PvP in CoX than I do, may readily recognize with our hypothetical set as it takes shape.

I already have a few ideas for some powers and an overall aesthetic direction in my own mind, but rather than taint the water, I'd like to first read what comes to mind from a few other forumites before putting those out there. So please contribute ideas both in general in terms of look and feel and in specific in terms of individual powers. And though I will put my ideas in the pot eventually, do others reading think I should try and step back and moderate this as Noble Savage did in the other thread? i.e. Being there to type up summaries every so often of "where we stand" as a round table with "official" (official for the thread) lists of possible powers and alternates we are debating? Similarly, I could speak up every so often to keep us on subject if we stray too far. Consensus based design can be tricky.

Oh and one last thing: our powerset will need a name! Throw those ideas out if any come to mind.

Okay, so please stay polite, keep it fun and let 'er rip.

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