Costume Auras as Toggle Powers

I rarely use auras. Mostly because I don't want to run them permanently, or limit them to only when I'm using attack powers. When I see an aura I like, I want to be able to turn it on and off at will. As a costume part I can see why that's not possible, but what if it was a toggle power instead?

It would provide zero statistical benefit, all it would do is turn on that particular aura while it was active. (If it absolutely HAD to have some stat adjustment then I guess it could provide a 0.0001% run speed boost.) It could be exclusive amongst its kind, so you can only run one aura toggle at a time.

It would give players a choice of which auras they want to run at a given time, without needing a new costume for each version. It would allow players who wished to, to run two different auras simultaneously. Or the same aura twice with two different color schemes. It may also have the potential to give characters with weapon powersets a way to have their weapon always drawn. I'm sure plenty of people would pay 80pp per aura for either of those abilities (account wide of course).

The major limitation is that, not being part of the tailor screen, these wouldn't be colorable. You'd be restricted to the default appearance for each aura. Which is really no different from how travel powers like the rocket board and coyote work now, so I'm sure that would be more than enough for many players.

However a solution to that, which would require some UI work in addition to the programming aspects, would be to add a new category to the tailor screen called "Inherent Powers". Similar to how incarnate power customization works, each character would have an entry in this category for every aura toggle their account has unlocked. You can go to the tailor at any time to change their appearance. This feature could potentially be applied to a select list of existing and future powers as well, making powers such as the Rocket Board or Sands of Mu colorable. It could also provide alternate models or textures to certain powers, for example when *you* throw a Flying Disc it has the Resistance chevron or the Brute fist on it.

I dunno, maybe this has been suggested before and there's some ridiculously obvious reason why it wouldn't work... wouldn't be my first time! I think it has potential though. Any thoughts?

As interesting as this idea is, I am afraid it would be a ton of work to do for little benefit. You would essentially need to make a power for every single aura and have it so the character could get ahold of these aura powers in a manner that wouldn't completely clutter the powers tab with all of those auras.

We have path auras and combat auras that allow you to kind of turn them on and off. But, if you really wanted to cease using an aura, there is another way around it. First, duplicate the costume of your character into another costume slot. Then, in this second slot, change the costume so the aura is off. Then, in the game, if you wanted to turn the aura on and off, just type "/cc #" where the # is the slot where you have put the costume with the aura that is on or off.

BRA's suggestion on multiple costume slots is absolutely the best way to do this.

But I don't know that you'd necessarily need a new power for every single aura. I think they could probably create a command to toggle on or off a costume part, and you could bind it to a macro. The functionality seems to exist to do this (see: SG Mode). It's a bit speculative, though. (Also, it's even more up in the air whether you could pick an aura on the fly, or if you would just have to have an on/off switch for whatever aura was in your costume. It seems like the SGMode functionality would allow for the former, but eh.)

I'd definitely love to have those options. It's not the first time someone has suggested this, so you are not alone.
I can see many hurdles in making it happen, but, as a fan/player, I'd certainly love to have these options.

I also want them to give us back the option to have wings with the bolero that they removed as a "bug" just after they released the Magic Booster.