A pattern? anyone else see it.

The way I see it, the powers we got for free were powers that were incredibly unique in concept. Stuff that we sorely lacked, and the game actually needed to round out powerset selection and try cover all bases.

Time Manipulation - We have no other powerset in this game that deals with time. The closest you could ever get to a time-based powerset would be Gravity/Kinetics, but that's a bit of a stretch.

Dark Control/Assault/Affinity - Control-based ATs have no dark powersets of their own. That's kind of a big gaping hole in terms of concept. The only other powerset that might work would be Fire tinted black, but even then, it's a stretch.


Whereas, the purchasable powers seem to be more refined and varied versions of powers we already possess. Stuff that's not really as necessary and can easily have another powerset or two stand in for it if you don't want to purchase this. Thus, it's justifiable to put a price tag on these powers.

Street Justice - Another fighting set. We've got Martial Arts and Super Strength, both with alternate animations, even.

Beam Rifle - Essentially Energy Blasts that come out of a gun. Again, you could just roll up any character with Energy and alter the concept slightly to, say, using gloves or some other piece of tech.

Titan Weapons - Lugging around a big old sword/axe/hammer. We've already got all three as individual powersets, so this one's probably the least unique of the bunch.


Staff Fighting's actually the only powerset I can think of that doesn't have something that can stand in for it as well, Dual Blades or Katana both being stretches. But what makes it not that unique is the fact that it's yet another weapon set, which will do smashing damage, which we already have tons of.

Again, this is only talking about concepts and not actual mechanics of the powers. This is the only real pattern I can see.

I'm not sure it's so much a case that melee is more popular, but rather, that melee lends itself easier to making new powersets. There are a gazillion weapons in the world with which you can artistically bash someone in the face with, but there are only so many ways to fire a gun, and after you get through all the available 'elements' (fire wtf you ain't an element) that's pretty much what you're left with: Guns.


Maybe we can have a giant ninja throwing star ranged set or something, I don't know.

I think the pattern is how much it costs to develop the power set with a bit of consideration for how long its been since a new power set has come out for free and if there's a hole in the existing availability of power sets.

Its hard to pull a pattern from one issue and a half issue but...

Since Freedom came out:

Time Manipulation: Nothing too technically new or that couldn't be done with existing tech and animations. New effect art and such. Nothing too terribly expensive. VIP membership used to make up the cost.

Beam Rifle: New weapon artwork. New tech to handle the jumping of powers to different mobs. New effect art and such. A little pricier. Paid set.

Street Justice: New combo builder tech. New animations and effects. A little pricier. Paid set.

Titan Weapons: New animations and effects. New weapon art. New momentum tech. Pricey to develop. Paid set.

Dark Control/Affinity: Hard to say since they aren't live yet but probably some new effect art. Possibly using standard existing animations. They probably want at least one new for VIP power set for an issue. Plus controllers are already gated. Cost made up by VIP and controller license.

Staff Fighting: All new animations, weapon cost. From the powers lists that leaked it sounds it has a combination of the dual pistols secondary effect picker ability from switch ammo and the combo builder tech from street justice. Pricier to develop so paid set.

Not to single you out, but this isn't 100% the case

Quote:

Originally Posted by AquaJAWS Time Manipulation: Nothing too technically new or that couldn't be done with existing tech and animations. New effect art and such. Nothing too terribly expensive. VIP membership used to make up the cost.

Quite a few new mechanics, (heal over time to name one) and completely new animations and fx, both being the most costly thing to develop.

Point being, we won't let development cost of a set be the singular deciding factor on whether a set is free for VIP or purchasable. Remember, we want for these sets to be compelling reasons for a free/Premium player to decide to become VIP, so we have a definite interest in making them appealing.

While a new mechanic, somewhat, the HoT was not new tech. It's just a DoT but backwards.

Not sure how much it took to add the accelerated/delayed states, but the essence of that mechanic/tech is the same as containment.

Rodion - Dark Control will have all new visual Fx.

Seriously? If you get a chance to double check with him that would be cool. Seems off to me just because pretty much every else it seems healing is just another form of damage. Spectral wounds does a similar thing already.

(The irony of it is that I have as many brutes as I have dominators. I just have a weird sense of fairness that kicks in at tie oddest times.)

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