Need new concepts

I came back after a few months away to check out Darkness Control and so far I'm underwhelmed. I'm getting a been there done that feeling while playing it. We need new concepts for new powers, and not just reskinned powers that already exist.

Also checked out Titan Weapons and thought they looked pretty cool. It is neat running around swinging a railway sign lol

New concepts? Lets see all the newer powersets.
Staff fighting- Yeah.
Beast Mastery- Yep.
Darkness Control- Nope.
Titan Weapons- Your mileage may vary.
Street Justice- Your mileage may vary.
Time control- Again, new concept.
Beam Rifle- -Yet again-, new concept.
Kinetic Melee- Your mileage may very.
Electric Control- Nope.
Dual pistols- New concept ahoy.
Demon Summoning- New.
So, counting all the YMMV as 'Nope.', It's a 6:5 ratio. More then I expected, honestly. But with the YMMV ones, they play differently and fit different concepts for characters, just not for method of fighting.
I'd say it's fine as is, honestly.

No, I agree with Adelie. Dual Blades was the last 'new concept'.

Disintigration is a similar but weaker example, and momentum is more of a new kind of restriction than a new way doing anything. Pistol ammo was a neat idea but doesn't change how you play too much.

There are easy options like melee powers for a new MM set, or combos built into a ranged set just like dual blades uses. There are off-the-wall options all over the powers forums, too. The sniper/interrupted mechanic is still something the game has explored very little for example and could be used to simulate casting spells or balance really powerful ultimate skills on classes that face constant interruption like tanks and brutes.

I would also welcome more fresh ways to run a power set and I was very underwhelmed when I saw kinetic melee especially. Someone took all that time to do up a whole entire new set of slick animations and neat effects, just to make another rank and file melee set? :/

I have yet to experience Staff Fighting or Beast Control (It won't let me on the beta server even though I went back to VIP status). What is the new concept for Demon Summoning? Never played it out to 50. I don't see any other new concepts in the ones you listed. Dual Blades was a new concept as noted above. Prior to that I think it goes back to the introduction of the villain archetypes (especially masterminds - brand new concept there).

Are we talking about new concepts thematically, or new concepts mechanically?

Coming back from that... other game set in galaxy far far away ... I see again why I was locked into City of Heroes for so long. The Time Sink is far less insulting and the game play mechanic is far superior in City of Heroes. It feels like I've come home. But unfortunately home still needs some new furniture

Perhaps they could make the melee/buff AT idea that has been floating around these forums a reality? I'd stick around for quite a while for that, playing new combos. But still, they need something brand new, as groundbreakingly new as the villian archetypes were. That'd keep me in the game until the servers shut down years from now

Oh actually one other new concept I forgot to mention: Trick Arrow's Oil slick and how it can be ignited. That was an awesome new concept, and they seem to have done nothing with it since. Why have we not seen more combination powers like that?

Unfortunately, adding new mechanics to this game is a very daunting prospect for the devs at this point. A lot of that has to do with the fact many of the current devs are NOT the same people who coded the game engine 6 or 7 years ago. There are a lot of things they can't change about how the underlying gears of the game work. Take a look at some of the dev responses over the last couple years to suggestions, and you'll see a lot of "We'd like to, but..."

I'm going to play devil's advocate here and mention that there is a whole camp of people who feel that new powersets are getting TOO gimmicky.

That said, what do you mean there aren't any new mechanics in new powersets?

Lets look at what's come out recently:

Dual Blades introduced the "combo" mechanic, Street Justice improved upon it by not requiring powers to be used in a specific order. That combo mechanic was added to stalkers to give them a buff in single target DPS. I haven't tested Staff Fighting personally, but from what I understand it is a variation on the combo mechanic.

That one mechanic introduced with a single powerset produced at least 3 different things that were not possible before it came along.

Time Manipulation introduced a mechanic where your power effects changed depending on whether your target is under the effect of another power in the same set. Brand new mechanic that was subsequently used to give Gravity Control a buff (Lift and Propel do more damage if your target is held by Gravity Distortion)

Titan Weapons introduced a mechanic that actually changes the animation of your powers completely if you have Momentum active. The same mechanic was used to allow stalkers to use Assassin Strike outside of Hide with a much faster animation.

Now, the buffs to Gravity Control and stalkers would not have been possible if it were not for 3 completely separate and brand new mechanics introduced very recently. (The Street Justice variation on combos is distinct enough to be considered a new mechanic)

Pretty much all the new powersets introduced within the last year have had completely new mechanics involved in the way the set actually works. And those new mechanics are now being used to make improvements to old sets that would have been impossible to do if the new mechanic did not exist.

So, I fail to see how the game "lacks new mechanics in powersets"

I like the mechanics in CoH.

I want to like Dual Blades but hate its special mechanics so I won't play it.

I don't want them adding more bad ideas just to be different