Inspirations - perfect system, or what?

The inspiration system of CoX is unique in the MMO world as far as I know. I really like the system, it adds a lot of variety and planning into the combat. Let's you boost yourself for a tough fight. And generally is a simple system that adds a lot to the game.

The only changes I would like are below, but neither would be worth the dev time. I really have no significant complaints about inspirations. I think they are a great feature of the game.

1. allow you to convert 3 of the same color to a different type of inspiration of the lowest level combined - so you don't get stuck with 2 small yellows and a medium and cannot convert to a break free

2. Get inspirations from thematic NPC's rather than buying them from contacts. Sick kid in the hospital instead of a nurse, that sort of thing. Make it seem more like inspiration instead of medicine or a drug.

Even just being able to down-convert single insps (large to medium, medium to small) would address the first problem, and might be simpler to do.

I've always interpreted buying insps from contacts as seeking out their help/advice - maybe they can provide me some Insight, or wish me Luck, or even just tell me about how horrible my enemies are, helping me work up an indignant Rage. This works fine for normal contacts, but does kinda break down with the nurses.

Ooh, I like that explanation.

I love the inspirations of this game [the power inner inspiration is one of my most used temps] simply because if you are indeed in a fight that should be too tough for you, inspirations can fill that gaping hole in your character and give you a fighting chance.

I'ld still love for there to be a +recharge inspiration [would have to be a rare one though] that cannot stack [like the Ultimate inspiration] with say a temp rech buff of 30% or so.

I don't care for Inspirations. Indeed, I tend to generally dislike consumables in RPGs.

love 'em. It took me a long time to learn they are there to be munched when needed - I tended to hoard them and would sometimes die with a full tray

But they are a very cool feature of the game.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

One idea that's popped into my head from time to time before I13 hit and I dabbled in PvP was to have Rages give recharge debuff resistance and Lucks give slow resistance, like how Sturdies have teleport protection and Insights give a perception buff. This would allow builds that did not have these things naturally to have access to them, while still allowing powersets to have the different strengths and weaknesses that made PvP interesting. Sort of like the concept of a sideboard in trading card games.

I tend to hoard inspirations, too. I've got a few Super Inspirations sitting unused in my tray on my main from back when they were first introduced. I think it's the urge to save them for when you need them that makes it a hard habit to break. Even when you encounter a tough fight, you're still reluctant to use them because you might need them for an even tougher fight later on. I'll have to make breaking that habit one of my New Year's resolutions.

Certain ones, like the hamidon ones, are just cop outs imo for the davs to make broken content, other ones, like the res ones are great in allowing you to play without a healer. They are one of the great enablers in CoH. It enables you to do things you do with a "Heroic" angle, drawing on inner reserves to do things mere mortals cannot.

To sum up, Heroic Inspiration in times of need, is all you need to succed at times you might otherwise fail, so to me, even if on some alts I hardly ever need them, they are a Power all heroes and villains have. Thats how I see it, as a Super Power.

I definitely prefer them to the instant-use power-ups found in some other MMOs. Our system allows for some flexibility and strategy in use.

Inspirations are indeed awesome, and I don't know why the idea hasn't caught on. Some other games have consumables outside the conventional potions, but usually they need to be crafted and don't fall like rain like in our game.