Biospark

I think the biggest thing that hurt the game as far as subscriber base (If there was anything at all) was GDN and ED. Those were pretty harsh pills for most avid players to swallow. Thats around the time I left to try other games, but NOT the reason I left.

Certainly Endurance woes existed before these events AND after them, but I highly doubt a significant percentage of the original player base left due to that aspect of the game.

And NOW, with the addition of IOs and all that they can do to help out, Endurance issues only exist for players prior to Stamina and not even for all of them. Some AT/Combos are worse off than some, but no one can Honestly say that the game is not fun because of this.

Seriously people, I enjoy the game just as much today as I did that day 6 years ago, when shooting Energy blasts at a Villain can knock him halfway across a room, possibly slamming him against a wall. You could say I enjoy it more since we have "rag-doll" physics now as well. If I have to sit still once in awhile to rest, so be it.

Think about where we are compared to games like EQ for instance. You want to talk about "resting" ! Endurance constraints exist for a reason, whether we agree with them or not, yet CoX has in it the most extensive tools to alter that constraint than any other game I have played. If this constraint is too distracting to your enjoyment of the game, there are plenty of other choices out there. Some games are just going to be popular for a smaller, select, and discerning fanbase.

For me City of Heroes is THAT game !
They will have to majorly screw it up in order to send me packing.

Welcome to the world of Defenders !

It is truly an enjoyable team support character, and speaking as someone who has played support roles in many other MMOs, I always get a good feeling after a successful team, knowing that my contribution was a major part of the success. Damage isnt the only thing that matters on a team

I especially enjoy groups where everyone congratulates every other AT in the team except the Defender(s). Puts a huge smile on my face knowing that my contribution is subtle and hard to quantify.

You will find the forums pretty helpful when you have questions, but you should be prepared to take criticism well, since there are more ways to play your Defender than you may be used to on other ATs.

Congrats for seeing how fun this AT can be.

Although I don't have particular ideas regarding how to "improve" AV fights, the idea of AVs scaling up in power based on team-size appeals to me. One of the big draws to this game as opposed to other MMOs is that you don't need a particular team mix OR a maximum team size. Got 8 people online, group up and go. Only can find 5 people, hey, still good to go. Want to solo, go for it. Team Size is not a limiting factor. Try to do a Heroic dungeon in WoW with only 4 people. Good Luck, unless you are so far above the level of the Dungeon that the rewards are not even worth the time spent.

Additionally, I would be opposed to anything which caused team make-up to be MORE important than it currently is. Being as how my main is a support character, you might figure that this would appeal to me and make my Hero more "in-demand", but I really like how the game is flexible in team make-up. Anyone that has played the original "Everquest" knows what it was like waiting around in the Nexus trying to recruit an Enchanter, or a Cleric. No Thanks! Definitely do not want that.

Fire/Rad Corruptor sounds positively EVIL.

You get good ST, good AoE, and the nice AV hunting debuffs.

Dont take my word for it since I don't do AV soloing, but I like the potential of that combination. Probably would need to consider hover to keep big hitters off you.

I dont see anything particularly wrong with your build.

Global recharge is great. Slotting on your empathy powers is good.

Absorb pain is not something I use on my Empath, but thats a personal choice.
You could consider Vengeance at 49 instead and be able to slot one more LotG.

Overall, If I made an Emp/DP I would probably do a few things different, but your build has nothing that stands out to me as needing to fix.

Thanks for the suggestions I will look into these Villain options.

You can see how this illustrates my point that character concepts have to make concessions. Since this system is not free-form, you are better off working from a combination and then building a concept that doesnt sacrifice the best "stuff" in a powerset.

The counterpoints expressed here by Memphis_Bill really crystalize perhaps the reason the inherent powers we have are so... uhm, small.

I have to conceed the point that Origin related powers would create issues for role-play.

However, my feeling that just about every character I make that is role-play focused has to make "concessions" because the whole system is inherently "limited". Every MMO, in fact cannot hold a candle to the imaginations of the player base, so making any character will involve cutting corners.

This is not a very good example, but its one of my own in-game troubles that I still don't have a decent solution for. I want to play a Magician that controls Light and Darkness.
He wants limited mind control thru his Illusions, as well as light blasts and Invisibility, but NO PETS. There are alot of options to attempt this character concept, but they involve choices that leave off some of the best powers in a powerset for concept. (( Challenge issued : How to build a pet-less Illusionist))

Very good discussion in this thread. Thanks everyone

Yeah, I have no doubt that running animations are alot of work.

But we also know the Devs use a pretty simple meter on whether to do something; that being "Is it Fun ?". I would even be one of the nay-sayers on running animations if they had not already added ninja-run.

So, having a Beast-like character able to run on all fours is just super-cool.
The standstill animation could be a crouch (which we also have currently as an emote).

Its all good to me

In reference to Temp powers, does anyone know if they are seperate from standard recipe drops. I have noticed the amount of temp power drops are considerable, but cannot tell if the regular recipes have been impacted (aka reduced). This is my main concern, since I like the idea of temp powers, but not if it makes regular recipes harder to get.

On the idea of a Gadget Powerset, I would definitely like to see something like this available for melee characters. Whether it were to be a primary power pool, or improvement to an existing ancillary, or a whole new powerset doesnt matter. It would just be nice to see it.

I would be happy with more head, claw, feet options.
Also really like the idea of alternate skin and face options.

Could we get a cat-like run option ? Maybe a Hoppy-toad run option as well.

Rolling curled up in a ball like a salamander ?

Lots of running animations I probably havent thought of

Re: Responses

Samuel and Memphis,

I understand your points and really appreciate the feedback. Also I apologize for my comments regarding magic characters, this should have been worded differently.
The whole point of the thread is to discuss ideas like these, but without being offended, so if I accidentily offended anyone, it was not my intent.

One thing that I may have failed to indicate is that the system would be free and not change any of your existing powers and enhancement slots, unless you devoted slots to the sub-set powers. Much the same as Kheldians can go all-human and skip the forms, the origins could be completely optional.
Also, I would expect that existing characters would gain all the benefit of the origins. It wouldn't be something only for brand new characters.

Another thing that Lisar brought up is that every origin could be allowed to choose from up to 3 of the 5 choices, which increases your flexibility considerably. So if you Natural character didnt want to take "guns" or "blades", they could choose a more passive option like "Tech" and gain the benefit of being able to memorize temp powers.

Finally, my suggestions are just one idea. I am sure there are other more generic choices that would be appealing. The fact that the game is fine as is, to me, doesnt mean we should not have more "cool stuff" added. In fact, every MMO needs to continually add to it's game or risk players taking their $15 somewhere else.

Going forward with CoX, one of my thoughts was to bring the character origins more into the lime-light in some way. The inherent attacks are an interesting idea, and I even use them with new characters (for a brief time). But I would like to see Origins explored more.

Here are some thoughts on how to bring the Origin of a character into their overall powersets. Feel free to suggest other ideas that could help the Devs with future additions to the game.

TECHNOLOGY: Well my first thought was that Techs are inventors and the temporary powers would be a great way to distingush them from other origins, unfortunately everyone can create these currently. So....perhaps allowing Tech origin characters to memorize these recipes would work.

NATURAL: I envision these characters as being able to use all manner of hand-held mundane gear. Perhaps several mini-powersets could be created (ala Kheldian forms), which would give each character a small power sub-set to utilize. You would only be able to choose one of these sub-sets and the powers would be lower-tier strength.
Examples:
BLADES : (fully customizable) would allow the use of a weapon in one hand and powers would be sufficient to create a meaningful attack chain using the item.
GUNS : (customizable, 1-handed) again to allow a 3-4 power ranged attack chain.
GADGETS : Assorted powers which could offer single target powers like immobilize, sleep etc..
Each mini-powerset would contain NO AOE powers and all powers would be at Tier 1,2 or 3 maximum strength so they do not step on the toes of other Full Powersets.

MAGIC: Every character that I recall reading about had sentient devices or pets/companions assisting them, and many folks love pets as an in-game feature.
How about giving an array of usable pets that can either function as
combat, buff or defbuff/control for the Hero/Villain.
A combat pet would not be stronger than a single fire imp, while buff/debuff pets would have basic defense and one special power, but would otherwise not attack.
The pets could be themed and customizable as follows; You would first choose your pet skin; Wolf, Drake, Imp, Snake, Cat etc...
Then you would choose your pets focus; Combat, Defensive
Then you give your pet his ONE power; Attack for combat pets, Buff, Debuff or Control for a defensive pet.

MUTATION: One Idea that I had was to enable a mutant to specialize ONE power every 10 levels starting at 20th. What they could do is choose an enhancement type for the power and have it applied at SO strength. It would not have a slot like other enhancements, so would not allow more than 6 IOs in the power, but would generically increase the ACC, DMG, Recharge, Endurance etc... of the power. This boost "could" be seperate from ED, but if that were too powerful, would simply allow 4 powers to be enhanced outside of the normal slotting process. This idea is meant to simulate that Mutant powers evolve over time.

SCIENCE: This origin is a difficult one. Hopefully others will have some ideas that are better than mine. What I did think was to have Science be a "potpouri" and have a dozen or more single powers added to a special science power pool. The themes would be a broad span of lower tier powers such that you could pick ONE power to supplement the character.
Then as a secondary benefit, Science characters could choose a single "generic" improvement that would be a global effect at approximately DO strength (Maybe lower). So if they wanted to be more accurate they choose ACC, more DMG, recharge etc...

I look forward to any revisions, additions or alternate concepts reagrding character origin.
Please be gentle on the flaming. These are just ideas that are open to discussion.

Bio