Giving Origins Purpose

After quickly searching through the Suggestions/Ideas threads, I have found none that address the lack of reason for selecting an Origin. Feel free to leave any constructive comments or criticism and/or discuss what I am posting now.

Aside from determining the flavor text of our enhancements, Origins seem to have little or no purpose outside of Role-Playing in City of Heroes/City of Villains. I believe that the following ideas are or are the basis of a good way of making Origins serve a purpose. I will do my best to explain why I believe each bonus/penalty fits with each Origin.


Natural:
- Increased Experience Gain
Natural Heroes/Villains have become super-powerful through strict personal training. As such, they know how to get the best results from any workout. More experience is earned from all experience earning activities
-Reduced Endurance Cost / Increased max Endurance
Repeated use of powers during training leaves a Natural Heros/Villains body used to the energy it takes to use such powers. All powers cost less endurance to use and/or the hero/villain has a larger reserve of Endurance
-Gradual Power Growth
Through trial and error, Natural Heroes/Villains learn how to properly use and direct their powers, increasing the magnitude of their effects. Each use of their powers slightly increases the effect and accuracy of the power


Technology:
- Increased Effect
New technologies can be exceptionally effective. However, such power usually comes with faults and flaws. Technology Heros/Villains powers are more effective than those of other origins.
- Overheat / Overcharge
Repeated use of a single device can cause it to heat up, increasing the effect of the device with each use and moving it towards overheating. When a device crosses into overheating, it can be used once more with greatly increased effect before going into a long cooldown. Multiple different powers can come from a single device.
- Malfunction
A working prototype will likely have a number of reoccurring bugs, often causing the prototype to stop working. Through vigorous testing most of these bugs can be removed completely. Technology powers have a chance of failing and going into a lengthened cooldown. Repeated use of the power reduces the malfunction chance.
- Invention
Any invention can be improved with another invention. By gathering the right parts, a Technology Hero/Villain can upgrade their prototypes in various ways. (Could give a large EXP bonus, improve powers, or give powers new effects.)

Magic:
- Channeling
Heroes/Villains who get their power from magical sources can find ways to flow their magical energies into allies and enemies, strengthening or weakening/damaging them respectively.
- Rituals
Through the right combination of magic words, motions, scrolls, runes, magical items, and sometimes the bodies of the defeated, a Magic Hero/Villain can give themselves and their allies a long-lasting improvement.
- Enchantment
Magic Heroes/Villains can use certain clothing and trinkets to strengthen themselves, and can make or improve magical items by draining the energies from other magical items and/or combine them through certain rituals and methods of crafting.
- Drain opponent
After defeating an opposing magic-wielder, Heroes/Villains can take away some of their power and add it to their own or steal/confiscate sources of magical knowledge. (Could give a large EXP bonus, improve powers, or give powers new effects.)


Mutation:
- Self Control and Outrage
Mutated Heroes/Villains often have problems with self control, usually either due to changes to certain parts of their brains or the effects of social stigma and mental breakdowns after serious physical changes. As a Mutated Hero/Villain loses more control of themselves they lose awareness of their own fatigue and focus less on the consequences of their actions. (Reduced Endurance Cost of powers, reduced attack power secondary effect, and increasing chance for powers to backfire.)
- Physical Change.
Mutation can cause massive changes to a Heroes/Villains body, making them more or less resistant to certain types of damage and secondary effects. Increased resistance to one type of damage often means reduced resistance to the opposite damage type.
-Re-Mutate
By finding or creating more of the mutagen that caused their original mutation, a Mutated Hero/Villain can further mutate them self, increasing the effects of their powers and Physical Changes. They can also create new mutagens or improve the formula of the original mutagen to cause different mutations or reduce/counteract the negative effects of mutation. (Could give a large EXP bonus, improve powers, or give powers new effects.)


I could not think of any exact purposes for the Science Origin, as Science would most likely classify as either a Technological advancement or a personal Mutation. Please leave feedback, and thank you for your time.

Origins originally did have purpose, way back in the game's Alpha stages. Then it was dropped, and never touched on again. Every now and again folks do pop up with ideas for Origins, some good and some bad, but Origins will always remain how they are. Just a little something to flesh out a character's backstory more.

I like pretty much nothing from the OP when tied to an origin.

I like pretty much everything from the OP if it were perks/disads that one could pick from at will.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

I think I could live with one, minor perk per origin without getting stressed that the change had invalidated my original choices. Disadvantages could create a lot of bad feeling though if they contradict character concept or change the way a character plays.

In Paragon City since June 2005.

What Claws said. Much like costumes, Origins are better without mechanical effects applied to them. It's taking something nice and uncomplicated and making it an unwanted problem.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

The best thing they could possibly do is make the Origin Attack Powers actually scale with your Level, so they don't become completely useless after Level 10. At present, the only reason to pick ANY specific Origin is when playing Trick Arrow ... since you need to have Energy or Fire Damage to light the Oil Slick, and only the Magic and Tech Origin Attack Powers deliver that for you.

If the Origin Attack Powers scaled with your Level, then Origins (might!) "mean something" in terms of rounding out your attack chain (sometimes).

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

i would kinda like to see the option to pick a strength and weakness to certain damage types, and perhaps to other origins.

but again, some people would hate that. also, origins dont exist in AE [unless it has a default origin?], so that might be a problem. and then enemy groups would have to be assigned origins [which might be easy]... but idk

I think the only place origins make a difference these days are with the bonus damage from the vet blackwand/nem staff, and the ability to get early SOs from Yin in Faultline (I think they are limited to tech origin).

Ok. Maybe I was looking at the DO's. I saved her father and all I could see were tech which I couldn't use on my mutation brute.

I'll go back and look again.

I think most of my toons are either science or mutation... And my spider being natural... I know the science SOs better than like natural, tech, magic and better than mutation. But that's just me..
I'm glad they didnt go the route of having perks to a certain origin over the other cause of those douches that like to do the "fotm" BS and try to OP it n crap as much as possible.

Absolutely not, at this stage of the game.

When it comes to "purpose," I'd like to see origin-related (and specific) story arcs, sure. But mechanical/stat dis/advantages? No.

You've got 8 years of player characters, millions of characters, sitting out there created with origins meaning nothing. Now you'll just slap advantages/disadvantages on them? End result: annoying the playerbase.

Besides, your descriptions are off. My peacebringers, for instance - forced to be natural - are not the way they are from "strict personal training," but from merging with an energy-based alien lifeform. And who says my mutants have "problems with self control?"

I don't think changing the mechanical abilities of character to reflect origins will go over well, for many of the reasons noted here, and probably more.

I wouldn't mind if powersets had additional alternate animations reflecting the various origins. That's a huge amount of dev work though -- so much I couldn't bring myself to actually advocate for it.

It might have been a good idea in 2004, its waaay too late now and coding an origins "respec" is a waste of dev time and resources. Also, people will *hate* this if it has any negative impact after the character was already made based on the current rules of the game at time of creation.

I think this would suck for players who had characters already made, or who had a concept that fit one origin but preferred the benefits from a different origin.