Cuppa_LLX

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

Even if it's limited to just attack sets, it still doesn't work, as attack sets don't follow the same progression and aren't balanced to the same end goal. Even if you pick Blaster Blast sets, you can pick one Snipe from every set and end up with something like five, for the simple fact that they don't come at the same levels. You could grab multiple control powers in the same way. On the melee side, certain sets are designed to be single-target centric, others to be more AoE-heave, some are designed to hit hard and so on. Ignoring the fact that you could double-up on Build Ups, you can actually grab Build Up AND Rage, and you could also grab Knockout Blow, Seismic Smash and Energy Transfer in the same set.

The powers are grouped as they are both to avoid people taking too many weak powers and gimping themselves, as well as to force people to take a fair bit of weaker powers to avoid overpowering them. Set balance has never existed on a power-to-power level of comparison. Sets are balanced as monolithic units, designed to be consistent within themselves. Swapping out powers ad-hoc is a great way to take that balance, crumple it up and toss it in the trash.

I'm not against mixing up attack sources, but I'd rather this were done by expanding Epic power pools to include weapons.

Originally Posted by Scythus

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I have had this question burning in my mind since i learned about Praetoria. What about Signature Villains what are they like.

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Praetoria was just the topsy-turvy Evil Earth where everyone has a goatee. The Carnies were the Carnival of Light and fought with the Praetorians. I don't think it'd be such a huge leap to think Lord Recluse is the benevolent ruler of a small resistance against the Tyrant's rule. Widow named such because Dominatrix caught old Wretch and tortured the simpleminded hero to death...Black Scorpion is still an idiot, but now a one-man war on injustice...and Captain Mako is a MERMAN. With lustrous golden hair.

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And everything is a heroic Nemesis adventure?

Originally Posted by Ironblade

Okay, and now let's take that extra step and write the thread title as it should have been: Everybody's Kung Fu Fighting.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

Anecdote: a friend of mine complained about a character he'd accidentally made Science when she should have been Technology, as her power came solely and only from her power gloves. She was too high level to reroll, so we sat down and tried to macgyver some middle ground between spin and ret-con that would retain most of his concept but fit the Science origin anyway. My suggestion was to shift the source of power in her body as the result of a scientific accident, with the gloves acting only as amplifiers and focusing devices, which would have shifted her origin far enough to call it Science. Even though Positron has much the same origin and he's Technology, but that was the point - simple methods for picking the right origin are fun to talk about, but in practice, they're loose enough that you can just explain them away even if they're "wrong."

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

Hmm... I wasn't aware he could shoot lasers out of his bare hands.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

Arcana, I agree with your general argument, but this paragraph in particular has a big hole in it. Batman may have decided to become a super hero, and would have become one technology or no technology, but in either case, the origin of his powers would have been VASTLY different. Consider a few examples:

Batman has only him body to rely on, so he trains in martial arts, builds up his body and gets himself only very basic tools to work with. He's a super hero, but he is decidedly Natural.

Batman gets a brainwave and develops staggering futuristic technology. He builds himself an anime cyber ninja suit complete with all sorts of gadgets and gizmos. He's still Batman, but his origin is much more heavily Technology.

Batman discovers an old crypt in his bat cave and finds an amulet that makes him super strong, super fast and nigh-on invulnerable as long as he has the will to control it. He's still Batman, but he is very much Magic.

What I have a problem with here is that we're putting undue impetus on intent and development, sometimes to the exclusion of the NATURE of the actual powers. I don't believe the question is which came first or which started it all or how the character feels, so much as the much simpler "is it the tools or the man who uses them that makes the hero. Take away Batman's batarangs and he'll still be able to outsmart his foes even with more spartan methods. Take away Iron Man's armour, and he's helpless (as his stories prove time and time again).

So, yes, I agree with your conclusion, with the above caveat.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

I'm not sure if I like putting on 15 gauntlets more than implanting 17 eyes into my skull.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

That was in response to the "I doubt all naturals are like that" line. They're not. Yes, all naturals are expected to train, but not all of them will train in "Back Alley Crippling Blow" (an name which raised a few eyebrows) or "Military Sprint." They train, just not necessarily in the military or in a dojo. They could have "Increased Tentacle Strength" and "Super Transparency" and so forth.

Point is, the Natural enhancements are designed for humans, which not all naturals are.

Originally Posted by GlaziusF

Except when he does.



Who said anything about the sun?



I don't think you quite get what I'm saying here. I agree that the common-sensical meaning of "origin" is "the way you got your powers", and that Superman almost certainly wasn't the subject of a Scientific experiment. (Though there are probably alternate-universe Supermen who were intended to be guinea pigs/eventual vanguards of a Kryptonian invasion.)

But that is not the mechanical effect Origins have in-game. Origins have nothing to do with "how you got your powers", aside from your little dinky temp ranged thingy. They affect how your powers change - specifically, what Enhancements you can slot into them.

Practically speaking, a martial artist who becomes partially fused with a mountain god and gains super ice powers, but returns to his old master to learn how apply his old training to his new capabilities, is Natural "origin". He got his powers through a process that would be considered Magical, but expands them through Natural training.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville

Superman does not in general perform scientific experiments upon himself to enhance his existing powers or gain new ones. You can't drop the "scientific experiments" part from "exposure to weird radiations and substances" or its not science anymore. It might not have been a deliberate scientific experiment on you personally, and it might not have been a scientific experiment conducted by you personally, but the presumption is always that the effect was a product of scientific research. The Sun is not the product of scientific research.

Furthermore you're attempting to make the case that what affects Superman's capabilities the most is exposure to the sun, not his intrinsic Kryptonian biology. In effect, you're saying that a human being standing in the sun is intrinsically closer to having superpowers than a Kryptonian on Krypton, because the Kryptonian must still get to a yellow sun, which is more than what the human being has to do, which is only become Kryptonian.

I don't think that is likely to match most people's definition of "affects the most." Its his Kryptonian physiology that is most responsible for his capabilities: yellow sunlight only unlocks that ability without actually changing his physiology in any way (that has ever been stated as far as I know).

Originally Posted by GlaziusF

Okay, here's one for you.

Counterintuitively, "origin" has no effect on how you actually get your powers. The one game effect "origin" does have is on how your powers change, aside from just practicing on your own.

Natural? You take Training from experts in the field and apply their knowledge to tweak your powers.

Magic? You make a contact with a Dimensional Entity - something outside yourself - and add its power to yours.

Mutant? Your best bet is to undergo a Secondary Mutation. Somehow. No, really, somehow. They can be grouped into classes with the same effect, but how you actually trigger yours is anybody's guess.

Technology? Cybernetics. Upgrade the tech you're made from or the tech you use.

Science? Perform Experiments (or have them performed on you), exposing yourself to all manner of weird radiations and substances which given your existing powers have predictable effects.

What affects Superman's capabilities the most? Weird radiations and other controlled substances. Occasionally he makes use of a Kryptonian Invention, or one from Star Labs, or something derived from him undergoes a Genetic Alteration.

But, clearly, he's otherwise a man of Science.

Originally Posted by fibblins

hahahahaha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNH5jOhWVE

e; I fully support this booster pack under the condition that the parts would only be accessible to characters on Virtue.

Originally Posted by je_saist

Lesse... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Savage Dragon. Wolverine. Beast. Batman. That's just off the top of my head of real comic book characters who feature animal inspired: aka: FURRY designs.

So I'm not really getting where your saying that you want real comic book stuff... but you don't want stuff that actually already is in comic books.

Originally Posted by je_saist

CO doesn't use the same engine. There was a revision break way back when Champions Online was still Marvel Universe Online and was being manufactured as the replacement to City of Heroes.

Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill

/signed.

Not least because I'd love to get some ancient gods (and ancient-god-derived characters) in game. I have wanted a bird head, a decent dog head, snake head, etc. for a long time. (And I'm not that fond of the female reptile head.)

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

And by such a small amount you can't actually tell.

Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper

While you can have Sprint and Fly running at the same time, they don't "stack" - you don't fly faster with Sprint on, and you don't run faster with Fly on. The same applies to Super Jump.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

Err... If by "yet" you mean by the time I posted, perhaps. By NOW, they have been given multiple times. And anyone has access to that information by typing [ninja run] in their chat line. You don't need to have the power to see its stats. As well, it IS a hell of a lot faster than Sprint partly because it STACKS with Sprint, which everyone has, and partly because it has twice the speed, something I listed way back in the beginning of the thread, myself.

And "don't he hatin'" just makes me laugh. Really, it does. I sat here for, like, 5 minutes straight trying to think of an answer to that and I can help but just chuckle, so I'm afraid that chuckle is going to have to do for a reply.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

Even better since the actual like goes: "Everybody WAS kung fu fighting." Yeah, it bugs me every time I click on this thread.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

I've seen it in action. It's not quite Super Speed, but it's a HELL of a lot faster than anything you can get short of a travel power, and with a lot of air mobility, too. Speed it up a bit, give it a bit more air and it IS a travel power on par with Super Jump easily. It just seems... Unfair that they're handing that around without a power pick at level 4 in a paid booster pack. On of the BIG things with Booster Packs is that they've had anything that gave any real, big gameplay benefits, and this does.

Originally Posted by BBQ_Pork

Oh, yes. And headless, with a (floating) hat, too.

Originally Posted by jwbullfrog

I would hazard a guess at using every option at his disposal up to and including nuclear-class weapons.

If anyone is going to rule the world, it's going to be him. Even if it's a blasted, scarred wasteland.

Originally Posted by Stardrive

OK I have a question based on some RP with my villain group.

Keeping this in the simplest of terms... How would Lord Recluse react to a MAJOR villain assault on Paragon City? In my VG's case we're talking 4 meyhem mishes in a row run with the entore map cleared in each case.

The general concensus elsewhere on the forums was as long as he had plausible deniability, he wouldn't care & would probably be happy with it. HOWEVER, in my group's case the offenders were all essentially Arachnos poster children/flag wavers. Addenda here; they also RP'ed the riads as exceptionally violent; wanting to send a message to the city. This tied things directly to Recluse, and my assumption is he'd be... rather upset over it. My reasoning being that while he IS extremely powerful, he knows that he & the Rogue Isles couldn't withstand a major counterstrike/invasion lead by heroes. Wanton wholesale destruction tied directly to him risks a reaction similar to that immediately following 9/11.

Is my reasoning sound here, or is Recluse less of a chess player and more of an egomaniac than I'm perceiving?