A new archetype: The Gadgeteer

The Gadgeteer:

Several years ago, I proposed an invention-oriented archetype I called The Gadgeteer. It was a mostly pie-in-the-sky suggestion at the time. The game's internal systems have evolved radically in the intervening years, and with the arrival of custom-colored pool powers in I-24, the feasibility of potentially realizing the idea is great enough that I felt like revisiting it.

Summary: The Gadgeteer is an archetype that derives its powers and possibly even it's power animations from crafting and equipping special IO's and inserting them into its enhancement slots.

The unenhanced powerset would effectively be a blank slate. The powers would do nothing at all without enhancements or would empower only very basic and low-powered effects. I will address the ideas that follow in the form of an archetype, given that an archetype can be created with inherent limits and abilities to help balance what might well be competely unbalancable (and hence impractical).

However, at it's most fully realized, what I'm really describing is a game sytem that could allow any player to custom-design their own powers. In fact, in the current version of the game, incarnate powers are just such a system. The Gadgeteer could be envisioned as an archetype that embodies the incarnate power creation system as its basic game mechanic, possibly in combination with special IO's that utilize the ability to make archetype-specific IO's to add new effects and modifications to the base powers.

Concept: The Gadgeteer was one of the more interesting templates proposed in the inital versions of City of Heroes.

The Gadgeteer is someone who does not have inherent super powers. Rather, his or her powers are granted by a "gadget": that is, a device, or an artifact or an object that acts as a source and a focus for the player's powers.

The powers would be embodied in the gadget itself, so that any exercise of the powers would involve some invocation of the gadget, whether that means pulling a trigger or waving it in an incantation or just holding it aloft.

It might also mean wearing the gadget as a costume element under certain circumstances. In any case, it would require that an assortment of gadget costume elements would be available as "weapon" customizations.

Mechanics: The Gadgeteer would acquire powers differently than a typical powerset.

The gadgeteer has a "tinkering" tree similar in nature and function to an incarnate power tree. The base function of a new power slot is determined by the root node of that power's tree. It could be that it would be completely neutral and undefined, but that would probably be a balancing nightmare.

More likely, the root node would have a base performance level determined by design or experimentation to be the most desirable at that experience level.

Note the possibility that there could be multiple kinds of Gadgeteers, such that a scrapper Gadgeteer could have all melee-related root nodes while a controller could have all hold/control root nodes.

For the purposes of discussion, I'll assume that we're talking about a single distinct archetype but it's entirely possible that it could be something that acts, instead, as an adjunct to any existing archetype, in the fashion of a pool power.

Unlike ordinary powers that have a fixed base performance level, the tinkering trees would allow a Gadgeteer to improve and even expand upon the base powers of the root node. The nodes of the tinker tree would be pre-defined, so there would be limits to these that would help prevent it from being completely unmanagable from a balance perspective.

Similarly to the incarnate crafting process, the creation and upgrading of the tinker nodes would require that a Gadgeteer acquire special salvage items, most likely through earning reward merits and/or alignment merits and using them to purchase the required materials.

If it sounds like playing a Gadgeteer would be a lot more work and micromanagement than playing a more typical archetype, then you're right. It would be. That's part of the point, really. The Gadgeteer would appeal most to the sort of player who likes to control as many details as possible and eke out every possible performance boost that she's able to acquire, even if that might mean lowering the performance in other areas of a power family.

In addition to the tinker trees, another avenue of customization would be the Gadgeteer archetype-specific inventions. Like similar inventions associated with conventional archetypes, these would carry the "unique" trait and they would take up a standard enhancement slot.

These inventions would allow the Gadgeteer to add specialized procs to their powers and/or control the way the power is displayed when it is activated. The latter would be quite interesting but is not currently feasible (that I'm aware of) without some changes to the inventions systems that would likely preclude such a function. Ideally, though, that would be one of the abilities - in essence, to apply a battle aura to individual powers controlling how the activation animation of the power is played out.

The rest of a Gadgeteer's enhancements would be slotted out like any other more conventional character would do so.

Conclusion: Taken to its logical extreme, this system turns the game into a "design your own archetype" game. Whether that's desirable or not is a different question but the potential is there.

The fact is that the building blocks for this already exist and it's likely that the studio has at least considered the ramifications of their technology, even if they've never seriously considered expanding on it in such a way.

I would very much like to see this sort of thing come to pass, however, and expand these systems from something available only to incarnates into something that anyone can build a character around. It's certainly a way to monetize the incarnate system beyond just subscriptions and package it into something that anyone would want to spend their Paragon Points on.

I don't think that what you're suggesting as an archetype is at all feasible. If I'm reading it correctly, you're looking for:

- Each of the powers of the set to be like the Incarnate powers, undefined by anything but the basic boundaries until...
- The powers are slotted with Incarnate-style inventions that give substance and effectiveness to each power. Each power is therefore completely built and split off into multiple variations, depending on the particular style and effect the player wants for that character and build.
- The inventions would use a completely separate grouping of salvage, different from the current Inventions and Incarnate systems, without which the Gadgeteer's powers are pathetic.
- The powers would then also be eligible for standard enhancement slotting, on top of the increasing effectiveness of the power invention.

You are asking for a single archetype that is capable of replicating most of the powers in nearly all of the other archetypes in the game. Or, to put it another way, a project equal to a complete rebuild of the internal workings of all the other archetypes put together, while not being able to rely on the previous system for building and balancing those powers, to create a single do-it-any-way-you-want archetype that is likely more powerful than any of them.

Beyond the general idea of an insanely difficult and time-consuming project, we pass through the slapped-on overpowered balance nightmare that you've suggested. There wouldn't be any point in going through that much pain and effort to come up with something that is just a little side-dish to the existing systems. City, originally, was intended to be more of a "build-a-Hero" system, with some of the concepts you've indicated here. If they actually managed to come up with a system to be able to create any hero/villain this way, it would be as a replacement for the ENTIRE EXISTING SYSTEM. And I don't think they're prepared to do that just yet.

If you want to look at a Gadgeteer-type epic archetype, try these options:

- Use something similar to the alternate form power groupings like the Kheldians have, except each grouping has the character select a different weapon gadget (variable-ammo pistol, wizard's staff, morphic "hands") to open up a variety of powers. When you have the weapon gadget out, you have a number of sub-powers available, slotted similar to PB/WS form powers, with primary powerset choices that unlock additional powers and/or variations. You could probably also have the gadget power itself offer bonuses and effects, similar to the Kheldian forms themselves.
- Include random effect powers, for the character to use on themselves, transfer to teammates, or cast on enemies. Either have the powers be set as automatically affecting (or trying to affect) a particular target or by having the power come up as a temp ability that the character then spends as they want or disposes if not wanted.
- Allow the Gadgeteer to build a power (from a limited list) on the spot, e.g., a debuff power that can be -ToHit for one mission, -Res on another, -Regen on a third. The character enters an interruptible phase, "assembles" the power, and is then able to use it until a different option is selected. The power would allow for basic elements to be enhanced, like endurance cost or recharge, but not the effect itself, as there would likely be too many to cover or slot effectively.

Don't really have more time right now to establish this alternate type of Gadgeteer, but hopefully you get an idea of what I'm shooting for. If there's interest in seeing it fleshed out, I'll try to do so.

I'm not entirely sure what this suggestion would add. Could you maybe give soem examples of what you envision these powers being?

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlickRiptide In addition to the tinker trees, another avenue of customization would be the Gadgeteer archetype-specific inventions. Like similar inventions associated with conventional archetypes, these would carry the "unique" trait and they would take up a standard enhancement slot. These inventions would allow the Gadgeteer to add specialized procs to their powers and/or control the way the power is displayed when it is activated. The latter would be quite interesting but is not currently feasible (that I'm aware of) without some changes to the inventions systems that would likely preclude such a function. Ideally, though, that would be one of the abilities - in essence, to apply a battle aura to individual powers controlling how the activation animation of the power is played out.

So, I have to choose between making my power better or making look how I want it to look? How is that an improvement over the existing alternate animations, which do the same thing whilst keeping cosmetic changes seperate from gameplay?

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlickRiptide I would very much like to see this sort of thing come to pass, however, and expand these systems from something available only to incarnates into something that anyone can build a character around. It's certainly a way to monetize the incarnate system beyond just subscriptions and package it into something that anyone would want to spend their Paragon Points on.

I don't enjoy the Incarnate power system, so I doubt I'd spend my points on this.