how much would you pay to be able to dual build with different powersets?


Adeon Hawkwood

 

Posted

You pick an AT and pick your powersets. Then you can have 2 builds with different powers, slots, and enhancements.

Imagine if you could choose different powersets within the AT or even choose a different AT

I know some RPers just make alts and pretend they are all the same character using different tactics, equipment, etc.

The main functional benefit I could see would be for badgers who want to have 1 character do everything.

How valuable would this be to you - would you even care? If it were on the market how many PP would you pay to be able to do this. You can answer per character, or to unlock it for all characters.

I think I would do this. I love teaming and play tankers, controllers, etc so they work well on a team. But a solo tanker is a waste. I would love to be able to switch between a tanker and a brute depending on teaming vs soloing.

I would pay 800 points to unlock an alternate build with a different AT on all characters.


 

Posted

I wouldn't. And I'd be highly disappointed with the devs for cutting their own throats that way.

If leveling were actually... oh... a *challenge* I might feel differently. But it's not. No, not even with the "support ATs."


 

Posted

Well first off I'm pretty sure that the devs are NEVER going to let us do it. Period, no if's, and's, or's or but's. They've nixed every request for an AT/Powerset respec so I don't see them adding it and definitely not with one character.

That being said for me I'd pay a pretty high price (say $20) to get a dual-build-different-AT feature on a single character. I currently have four versions of the same character for RP reasons (AR/Dev, Traps/AR, Bots/Traps and Beam/Dev) and being able to make them actually one character (well, make three of them one character) with different builds would rock (especially for Incarnate Progression). At this point I'm actually going to have to retire two of them because trying to do Incarnate stuff on all four sucks so being able to have three characters in one would be lovely.

I still don't see the devs doing it.


 

Posted

0

If I want to switch between two different playstyles, I log out and log in another alt.

I can understand the argument from people who like having all T4 incarnates and don't enjoy the grind to get there, though. I'm not against the suggestion, it's just not my thing personally.


 

Posted

I agree that it would be a case of the devs cutting their own throats, but I'm all for a less-treacherous suggestion, such as allowing a character to pick a different secondary power set on a secondary build, IF AND ONLY IF that power set had to be leveled up independently--i.e. you would have to earn XP toward its progression while it was active. And you couldn't pick it until at least level 30, and you would have to go on a story arc to unlock your new alternate secondary, and you would be stuck with your choice forever after making it. Consequently, it would be at a lower level than your character's combat or security levels (i.e. it would have its own 1-50 level scale independent of your primary/original secondary scale), because in fairness, your character is learning to use that power set now. Along with the current 30-minute cool-down on switching builds, I see this as a fair thing.

In short, my suggestion makes a character earn an alternative secondary power set, along with a few compromises that balance it fairly (i.e. a zero sum gain) against the cost in time of starting a brand new character.

In fact, the biggest gain might simply be conceptual (imagine a power armor character who has a Mk. II suit with different secondary abilities), but isn't that what half the game is about?

Of course, I doubt that any of that is possible inside the game engine.


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Posted

From a leveling standpoint, it'd be pretty balance-breaking: one character would have two primaries, two secondaries, and however many power pools we can fit onto them. Making the AT's as separate builds means we can't use all those powers at the same time, but since the builds share XP, it'd be like leveling up two characters for the price of one. I could see people using a mechanic like that to squeeze two separate characters into one roll, to halve the XP it'd take to get each of them to 50. Sometimes that might even make thematic sense, like superpowered siblings, but in effect it'd be punishing people who aren't stacking their characters by making them work twice as hard on each one.


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Posted

given that you can level to 50 in about 4 hours if you really want to, how is doubling that to 8 hours going to make much difference?


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by dugfromthearth View Post
given that you can level to 50 in about 4 hours if you really want to, how is doubling that to 8 hours going to make much difference?
Because power-leveling through AE farming is not something that the game mechanics should actively encourage. I'm playing the game via the soloable story arcs, meaning I'm working pretty long and hard to get to level 50, and I'd be insulted if something like that was instituted and people like me were told "well go farm if you don't want to get left behind."

Now, that said...

Quote:
I agree that it would be a case of the devs cutting their own throats, but I'm all for a less-treacherous suggestion, such as allowing a character to pick a different secondary power set on a secondary build, IF AND ONLY IF that power set had to be leveled up independently--i.e. you would have to earn XP toward its progression while it was active. And you couldn't pick it until at least level 30, and you would have to go on a story arc to unlock your new alternate secondary, and you would be stuck with your choice forever after making it. Consequently, it would be at a lower level than your character's combat or security levels (i.e. it would have its own 1-50 level scale independent of your primary/original secondary scale), because in fairness, your character is learning to use that power set now. Along with the current 30-minute cool-down on switching builds, I see this as a fair thing.
That would solve that problem. Though it might be easier at that point to just log out and in...


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by dugfromthearth View Post
given that you can level to 50 in about 4 hours if you really want to, how is doubling that to 8 hours going to make much difference?
You are aware how the other builds work right? All builds are equal to your primary build level. So if you power level your primary build to 50 and then switch to your secondary build it's also level 50. You just have to assign the powers and slots.

/agree with the others that the devs would be cutting their throats if they allowed this.


 

Posted

Precisely $0.00. After all, I can already...

Build 1: Fortunata
Build 2: Night Widow

...so there's that. And it's neat, but really not as great as it sounds.


 

Posted

Zero, since I can just PL myself 1-50 in no time flat.
I would still pay for account-wide, pvp-zone only Accolade powers.


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Posted

I wouldn't part with a single point for it.

If I want a specific AT/Powerset, I can just roll one and play it. Seems pretty silly to me.

As for getting badges....I confess at one time I would have loved to make my badger switch from ice/ice blaster to ill/rad controller -- but then I'd have to slot him...and one perma PA/AM/Hasten ill/rad is quite enough.

Sure, there are some things an ill/rad could do that my ice blaster can't -- but there are some things my ice blaster can do that the ill/rad can't. I suspect this is true for just about any AT/powerset combo.

The pitfalls of such a thing being available:

Me over global channel: iTrial forming, pst.
recently converted to Energy blaster: I'll join!
Me over global channel: We're doing an MoM, hope you can control that kb so you don't KB the voids or the bosses while trying to mez Shalice.

A silly example, but that would be my fear; people teaming up and having very little idea as to how to play their character. (not that this couldn't be overcome with making the second build actually start the character off as level 1 and making them earn the xp all over again. )

I just don't see it ever happening. Too many slots available.


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Posted

I wouldn't pay anything. This is not a feature that would interest me.


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Posted

I want to pay for an AT respec. And I'm talking $50.00 to be able to overhaul an old character with all of its badges and such into something different. The pricepoint would be steep enough that it won't cut into regular leveling.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hqnk View Post
I want to pay for an AT respec. And I'm talking $50.00 to be able to overhaul an old character with all of its badges and such into something different. The pricepoint would be steep enough that it won't cut into regular leveling.
And every time someone gets a dev response to this idea they tell us they aren't considering working on it because it undermines all the work they've put into making the game alt friendly.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by dugfromthearth View Post
You pick an AT and pick your powersets. Then you can have 2 builds with different powers, slots, and enhancements.
I have two accounts. Back in the days of Leveling Pacts, I could do pretty much this by linking a new character on each account.

The allure quickly fades. Trust me.


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rabid_M View Post
I have two accounts. Back in the days of Leveling Pacts, I could do pretty much this by linking a new character on each account.

The allure quickly fades. Trust me.
I think your missing what some people like about the idea.

1. They could level up one character and using different builds with different power sets get 2-3 different characters without buying extra character slots. They can even have different costumes for each build.

2. They could choose one build with power sets that are easy to run at low levels, then switch builds to power sets that are easy to run at high levels.

3. They could unlock things that normally have to be unlocked seperately on each character and instead unlock it once for what is essentially 2-3 different characters. Like accolades, and weapon customization from bages.

It's all about manipulating and cheating the system for the least amount of effort and money.


 

Posted

I'd like to be able to do it, if just for the fact that I have 3 level 50's on my main server that are the same guy in different suits of power armor. If I could have attached them to the same name, that would have been awesome! As it is, I have V2 and V3 at the end.

My main caveat would be that if you did it, that powerset combo/AT would start at level 1. You'd still have to level it up. I haven't PL'd a single character yet in any way I consider power leveling, and I wouldn't have traded that time leveling them for all the world (it was fun-that's the point!)

The advantages, as far as I'm concerned, would be keeping the same name/character with an easy change between builds, not requiring to log out. The other would be more server space. I've unlocked all the server slots on my home server, and they're slowly getting filled as more powersets (and concept ideas in my head) come up. I just recently transferred a Bow/Dark Blaster to another server because Water/Poision Corrupter fit the character better. I would have loved to just start another build of the same character with that different AT/powerset combo at level 1, and not lose the 31 levels I had on my Blaster (didn't lose it per-se, but I don't see going to that other server to play him any time soon in lieu of the new one I just made).

Other advantages would help players that finally found the 'perfect' powerset for their 'main' but couldn't get all the badges they had back (like anniversary, etc) while also allowing them to experience old (and new content previously unavailable) directly with those characters (actually having the contacts and filling them in, unlike in Oroborous).

Basically, this idea has merit, and shouldn't be dismissed out of turn. At the same time, it shouldn't be a 'free different 50 with no effort' option either. A character with new powers (or power armor) has to learn it from the ground up, like they did with their first one.

Plus I basically get more server slots out of it! That alone is worth something to me!


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I couldn't agree more.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lycantropus View Post
Other advantages would help players that finally found the 'perfect' powerset for their 'main' but couldn't get all the badges they had back (like anniversary, etc) while also allowing them to experience old (and new content previously unavailable) directly with those characters (actually having the contacts and filling them in, unlike in Oroborous).
Or the devs could just make the badges like te anniversary badges account wide.

Quote:
Basically, this idea has merit, and shouldn't be dismissed out of turn.
Not according to the devs, and their the ones whose opinions matter.


 

Posted

I have so many characters I have absolutely no need for this. I would not pay for this. Ever.


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by dugfromthearth View Post
You pick an AT and pick your powersets. Then you can have 2 builds with different powers, slots, and enhancements.

Imagine if you could choose different powersets within the AT or even choose a different AT
If this functionality were added for free, I'd use it. I see no reason why my main would use a Broadsword exclusively, and I'd love to make Axe and Mace builds for him. I can't think of anywhere else I'd use it, so there's no way I'd ever pay for it.

Quote:
I know some RPers just make alts and pretend they are all the same character using different tactics, equipment, etc.
I've done this before, but never stuck with it, because I have to pick a different name, and that annoys me - if it's the same character, they should be the same guy. I don't want He-Man, Battle Armor He-Man, Thunder-Punch He-Man, and so on. I'm not a fan of non-unique naming, but I would love it if the devs made it so that once you have a certain name, you can make as many characters (up to your server limit) with the same name.


@Roderick

 

Posted

Quote:
Because power-leveling through AE farming is not something that the game mechanics should actively encourage. I'm playing the game via the soloable story arcs, meaning I'm working pretty long and hard to get to level 50, and I'd be insulted if something like that was instituted and people like me were told "well go farm if you don't want to get left behind."
There is no sense whatsoever to this particular retort. If different powerset dual builds would be implemented, it wouldn't change the ratio of farm xp to normal XP one bit. The only argument you could make is actually against your position, that is, being able to essentially level two different characters in one go can make farming less important and hence less attractive.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill View Post
I wouldn't. And I'd be highly disappointed with the devs for cutting their own throats that way.
This.



 

Posted

Isn't this just a different approach to all the previous Powerset respec threads?

"Wait! The dev's won't let us respec into a different powerset, maybe we can trick them by suggesting this!!!"...

Gotcha...


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