Just to be clear, there's other origins and story themes than magic, k?

Heh.... just thought of the way to dice it up

We have magic to provide mystical and arcane threats.
We have technology to provide mechanical and gadget-based threats.
We have science to provide threats through the very properties of physics.
We have natural to provide threats of cunning, hard work, and aliens
We have mutants to provide threats of a biological nature.

It can all make sense when we view all of these as different forms of knowledge. A biological but naturally occurring threat could quite easily satisfy the need for mutation based storylines, so it isn't quite necessary for it to be that whole discrimination/segregation/X-men angle.

Outside of segregation, I really have come up with three ideas that could easily be a mutant based story. The one that I called dibs is when an individual amasses a mutant army in an attempt to be the progenitor of neo-mankind. I actually came up with a story like this that I have as a reoccurring theme for all of my mutants. I call it the Bartholomew Legacy, and the story goes that Dr. Adrian Bartholomew some 20-25 years ago discovered he had genetic hotspot that would cause super powers in his children. Long story short he has a big ego, declared himself "the future", then used his employment at fertility clinics and sperm banks to "sow his seed" through the population of California. Next thing we know a bunch of red-haired mixed-race babies with frighteningly strong superpowers are born en mass. Fragmented, segregated, scared, and distrusting of society many of Bartholomew's half-children who didn't turn to heroism began to eagerly await Bartholomew's return from prison. My "dibs" would be if they did this story, the main villain behind it would be Dre. Adrian Bartholomew.

The second idea is quite simple, and it plays off of a biological fear that we have: the swarm. If you see one mouse, it may scare you. If you see 10 mice, it most likely will scare you. If you see 1000 mice, there is no doubt that it will scare you. The idea is basically an individual develops the capacity to manufacture an army out of whatever biological process they have. Maybe they bud out plant life, or maybe they go through mitosis and make multiple copies that way, or maybe they have a messed up reproduction cycle that lays 1000 small eggs that develop freakishly quick once hatched. It could be cool if you make the mission right, and just pack together the spawns and then inflate their sizes but only make them minions. Definition of Zerg rush right there. However... this story is quite similar to Hamidon.

The last idea is yet another biological fear: the plague. Distinct from the swarm in the sense that they are microscopic, the plague is the boogeyman of the modern day. An arc that I had toying around with in my head (I do that a lot, since fully making an AE arc to my perferred specs can take several weeks) is one where a plague has symptoms so severe that it is fully incapacitating the entire population... except for mutants whom are immune (along with other other things such as robots and aliens). The world starts to go gang-land-with-super-powers; organizations like the vanguard and the midnighters quickly find themselves fleeting and paralyzed by an enemy that they can't fight. While organizations fall left and right, the missions in the game would have the actual mission population (NPCs, enemies, all) dwindling really quickly, with most of the streets empty with the odd individual passed out in the streets. The only enemies you find would be that odd boss-level enemy who is a mutant loitering around. It can't be done in AE, but the fun part would be having your character afflicted by the plague, with their stats decreased while inside each of the missions. Enemies would be scaled accordingly. Of course, the source of the plague would be a mutant who produces it (and thus himself is immune to it), and the fight would be heavily based in toxic damage.

Well of furies... perhaps it is magical but I think it's more like ancient and mystical source of undefined energy.

Magic origin is not necessarily same that magical powers. My Dr Watson is martial artist but he learned his skills from old mystical books and he uses magic for time traveling. So his origin is magic, but he does not use spells in combat. Generally I'm usin all origins. More important thing is they fits in my consepts.

Maybe there is a lot of magic but also there is a lot of science and technology. I would like if they focus also other origins in future. Mutant would be cool. ...and natural of course.

edit. or perhaps Dr Watson is really surprisingly magical guy. Once he scorched my graphic card with one kick.

Maxim 24: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a big gun.

Xmen
Avengers
Spiderman
Fantastic Four
Daredevil
Punisher
Superman
Batman
Green Lantern
JLA
Teen Titans


I don't get why this game doesn't take more inspiration from the above?

They are all very popular superhero concepts in mass media. Film, movies, video games. They do have magic sprinkled in there. (E.g. Dr. Fate, Dr. Strange, Scarlett Witch...Thor at a stretch.) But it was always a secondary focus. These are the sort of things people are interested in.

Inb4 "that one episode of teen titans when magic..."

Gotta side with the OP.

CoH is extremely magic heavy, and a lot of the diversity falls away in the later levels.

To the point establishing all super powers are essentially mystical in origin coming from The Well. Don't think the Well is mysitical? If it looks, walks and quacks like a duck, the Well is one very magical duck, despite claims otherwise.

To boot, the last several zones like DA and First Ward have all been "magic" oriented, as has the SSA and the second SSA smells a lot like it from what I've seen as well.

On the whole, the game is too much of a generic fantasy and has long ago lost touch with its super hero roots, IMO.

I would like nothing more than for them to reaffirm their commitment to super heroes in all ways. That includes power sets. If a power set the devs are thinking about doing is equally at home in a FPS or sword and sorcery game, I'd rather they did something else. We've got tons of swords already, lots of guns, but still many iconic super powers left unrepresented because medieval and martial arts weapons are more cost effective I guess.

I've said it before and I still believe it: if you can buy it at a ren faire or out of the trunk of some skeezy guy's car out by the airport with the serial numbers filed off, it ain't a super power.



.

Zatanna.

Zatara.

Doctor Fate.

Phantom Stranger.

Klarion the Witch Boy.

Etrigan (The Demon).

The Shining Knight.

Mr. Mxyzptlk.

Silver Banshee.

Madame Xanadu.

Abra Kadabra.

John Constantine.

The Spectre.

Kid Eternity.

Gentleman Ghost.

I could go on, but you get the gist.

And these are just DC characters.

Obviously, superhero comics have nothing to do with magic.

The majority of the magic themed stories are still linked to the CoT too, as they're still really the only major magical enemy group.

Other than Prometheus and Ramiel in Ouroboros, the Well is barely ever mentioned. BAF, Lambda, Keyes, and TPN are pure science/tech, and UG/MoM have magic only in a cameo role. Apex had us fighting an invasion based on giant robots and nanites; Tin Mage had us disabling a giant technological portal and the mad scientist that built it. Praetoria as a whole is so devoid of magic that its mere presence puts First Ward in stark contrast to the rest of the dimension, even though half the zone has you fighting psychic apparitions and DUST soldiers. Even the SSA, despite its overarching magical theme, concludes with a massive nuclear salvo and a battle in space.

For recent powersets, we've gotten Time Manipulation and Beam Rifle, two sets straight out of sci-fi. We've gotten Street Justice, which is about as comic book as it gets. Looking back a bit further, we got Kinetic Melee and Dual Pistols, based on physics and modern technology, respectively. Demon Summoning is the only definitely magical set we've gotten in quite some time, the rest are theme-neutral at best.

There's been lots of magic too, and with DA still new and shiny it might even feel dominant. But it is not, by any measure, the only or even the main thing in the game. So, let me turn this around: there's origins and story themes other than science, k?

JB, all of the things you mention are more complex than you make them out to be. Portal Corp has magicians in its parking lot, mutant monsters on the hills around it, and natural soldiers just outside the front gate. The story arcs from the contacts there run the gamut from werewolves to robots to natural assassins to booger monsters. The same can be said of Arachnos: Mu is but one of the four main factions, others of which include mutation, technology, science, and natural training. Then you've got your Arachnoids, your Scorpion Armor, and whatever else. The Midnighter Club's whole purpose is that it's a melange of anyone who is capable of and interested in helping.

The more fleshed out anything gets in this game, the harder it is to pigeon hole it as based on one origin. I say they've always done a good job of that and they haven't gotten any worse at it.