Leo_G

Unless you can fire up your time machine and drag this thread into the past several years, who said this thread was infringing on me? I simply don't RP in-game.

Just my 2 cents:

I honestly don't care how you RP. Do whatever you wanna do. It's really annoying how people *think* they can stand on their soap box and dictate what people *should* do, and that goes for you Demetrios, and all the others you're arguing against.

You want to god mode, go god mode with other god moders. So long as what you RP doesn't dictate that everyone *should* believe, listen or even bother with what you put out, I don't see a problem. It's a game so have fun with it.

The thing about lore and freedom is, we have the freedom to adhere to lore or not or only in part. Because some people may not like a piece of lore and choose to ignore it. Just because the lore is there doesn't mean one cannot or should not think to create their own stories or that they're any more important than other stories. Because we have freedom. If you're against freedom, call yourself a commie or something and go RP that. No one will let you take their freedom without dragging them into the bowels of hades kicking and screaming and cursing you by name.

That said, I enjoy having strong ties to the lore of the game, fleshing out things that are basically not explained, transitioned into or forgotten. Using stuff like that helps anchor a story in the world as well as expanding the world as a whole.

BUT! When it comes time the devs actually use that character whose boots you slipped into, expose that story that wasn't transitioned into or continue that forgotten element you used, then you have to compromise your freedom to accommodate the changes the devs choose. That's not *really* a problem, but you have to do it and some may not want to adapt...but you're forced to adapt...So if Aeon grabs the demon guy you play as and uses him in a one-oft mission that is canon, and he acts like a biker dragqueen, you have to explain why you acted like a dragqueen there "Because I was possessed by a dragqueen...it was very embarrassing". And Aeon comes back, makes another mission explaining you always liked motorcycles and dressing up like a lady since you were a youngling...welp, then you have to just start acting the way the lore tells you to. Basically, to use someone else's 'property', you have to give up some freedoms.

I see nothing wrong with it myself. In its purest essence, roleplaying has nothing to do with *creating* a role that you then play, just simply playing *a* role. It's all you (yess, all of you *points to everyone in the thread*) that are probably the reason I never bother RPing in game much besides character banter...you're all so uptight, it's never any fun >_>

Just like this thread. I'd have more fun replying to this than dealing with high-horses in-game.

Hmm, is that a defensive ability that lets you dodge first shots?

Debt Star is more like it.

Even all the bounties you could collect (and ignoring all the damages of course) by destroying a planet's worth of wanted criminals wouldn't even put a dent in its cost. Good thing it was destroyed before they got desperate and started robbing banks with it...

So what you're saying is Lucas should edit IV so that Han doesn't shoot at all, he just kicks Greedo in the crotch?

And yet you'll see those same people posting about the WWD? death of Statesman going on and on "you didn't establish the Phalanx as blahblahblah" and "blahblah was so rushed it had no build up" and all that jazz.

And here I'm sitting, playing the game going "Uhh, yeah. So? It's a game >_>"

How is defending one's self from a guy with a gun pointed at you being a 'cold-blooded killer'?

No, Mr. Lucas, we don't want Han to be a cold-blooded killer, we just want Han to be quick-witted and *smart* to shoot the guy before possibly getting shot himself.

You just want Han to have super jedi reflexes to dodge blaster shots at point blank range. >_>

Coolio! Thanks, I'll look into them.

Not looking for the concept of Magic + Technology (I've got, like a dozen characters in this game who use 'magitech', half of which are the same person (her name is even Magitech Maiden) and my main character owning a company that develops such things for common citizens). I've got that down and narrowed some themes, from using the voices of sirens and the wails of the dead as weapons harnessed through sound systems to just devices powered by spirits channeled through runes.

Currently working on a character who basically has dozens of grimoires on kindle and an automated search engine. A form of 'archive/database magic' leaned more toward magic with the aid of technology.

The specific concept of hacking with some element of magic to it is what I'm aiming to read about. For making such a character in-game? I don't care if I can or not, just interested in where the concept has gone and where I could take it.

Note: I'm not a hacker, nor have knowledge of what a hacker is capable of. And a magician/sorcerer can do practically anything...mix that together and I've got nothing so far >_>

Hmm, a hacker who uses magic...or maybe someone with the ability to 'hack' magic?

I'm sure it's been done! But anyone have any source material? This may be the workings of a new character for me

Obviously, Madonna and Prince have foiled one to many of Venture's schemes and now he's plotting to get rid of them once and for all, to which their real identities were necessary.

Running around with random heroes, you're bound to team up with someone with the same 'name' like Justin or Sinclair...may just be easier to remember and call someone by a code name.

....I think I'll just call you SG for short >_>

And this was another point I was going to make in my previous post but forgot because it got pretty long...

But I'd like more 'assuming' arcs. I remember playing...I can't remember which arc it was but it involved going through the Midnighter club and talking with a demon...it felt like the NPCs involved assumed you were a powerful sorcerer and what not. This made my sorceress corruptor feel very much alive.

I'd suggest, as an alternate to some of the other origin ideas, to simply make more arcs that 'assume' you're a genetic mutant, a knowledgeable scientist, an apt engineer, a hard trained fighter, an alien, and so forth.

Got a problem that it would be immersion breaking for your tech robot would to be running the genetic mutant arc and your abilities being referred to as mutations? Then *don't* run those types of arcs...that arc ain't for that character. Wanna run it anyway? Well you can just deal with it.

Heh, while I could definitely get into stuff like that myself, it still has its detractors.

I'm betting Sam will pull out one of his specialty themed characters as an example why varied dialog would somehow ruin that character's immersion and Claws could make up a list of possible ways such dialog trees would fly in the face of some concepts.

For dialog, I wish it were possible to make things more complex to add more immersion to character exchanges. Something like a tag system, similar to [male/female], [origin], [supergroup] and so on (I think the dialog command is something like $origin or something...), but rather than calling on a specific predefined string, you can create a dialog when a certain string is present...so you could do something like [$origin;magic.(add text here); technology.(add text here); mutant.(add text here); etc.].

Not sure if that's even possible currently...but It would be even cooler if they added more tags like origin, archtype and stuff but more cosmetic. [$body], [$age], [$origin_type], [$appeal], [$acquaintance], the ability to set these by costume, and go about using these tags to specialize NPC dialog/dialog option choices.

Body- you could specify if you're human, alien, cyborg, robotic, demon, undead, spectral...frankly it doesn't matter how many tags there'd be as you can choose to write dialog for each option or none of them, this would only pertain to those who want specific replies or options for a specific body type. Ex: In Dr. Graves villain arc which asks for something to identify your villain with, it replies with feedback as if you were a living creature but no option if you're a robot or undead. The current option would be under body.human while other dialog would be under body.robotic or body.undead.

Age- more straight forward. Young, old, ancient, ageless and timeless. Young for ages 1-20yrs, old for 20-80yrs, ancient for 80-200 yrs, timeless for hundreds+ years and ageless for time travelers, robots, energy beings that simply don't age or where age doesn't matter or where their creation/existance is for that term only. I put the 'young' only up to 20 because anything older you probably don't need to bother with age differentiation. Ex: your contact wouldn't offer a beer to someone younger than 20, menders would speak to you differently if you were timeless, someone speaking of ancient legends may talk more as if you know this stuff if you're ancient yourself...

Origin_Type- not sure what this may be for yet. But probably for special case origins like trained naturals, magic sorcerers, science scientists and such. And if you're not these special cases, just like all the other tags, you simply put/keep your option an .none

Appeal- This is more of a fun tag. If you want your character to look, feel, appear and be approached a certain way, this tag is for those dialog options. Sexy, Mesmerizing, Grotesque, Smelly, Innocent, Unapproachable...I can see a lot of options to set a character as. Ex: if you make a very young (13) yr old girl character, it'd be icky to have Master Midnight hit on you...but that just might be your look...you might just be that sexy >_> or if you're a male character and you're just that hot (or androgynous) that Master Midnight hits on you anyway. On the other hand, you're a woman of the right age for MM but...well, you're not all that sexy at all...in fact, you may look downright disgusting with hanging flesh and what not or just a sleek robot...what does that say about MM if he's hitting on something like that?


Acquaintance- Personally, I think this might be more automated than by choice. Not sure how, but if you've encountered an NPC before (as a foe/ally in one of *your* missions or as a contact), some kind of tag should be saved in your status...like a badge or something that triggers the tag. Tags would be .unfamiliar, .familiar_friendly and .familiar_unfriendly. Simple.

*WWOOON'T! HAPPEN!*

Back before power proliferation I suggested the sets have minor power alterations/swaps to keep the unique flavor amongst the ATs and more replay value of the set theme as a whole. I suppose, like all my other ideas, this was forgotten/ignored but any attention it did get, focused on unlinking power theme by AT goal and instead reenforce that modifiers were enough to differentiate the ATs and their respective sets.

Funny that though, there have been band-aide fixes added that typically does this such as Gauntlet applying a -res debuff on the tier 1 attack, suppressing toggles for Stalker armors, instant recharge of the buff power on Kinetic Melee, Martial Arts' Storm Kick buffing def for Tankers, Eagle's Claw buffing crits afterward and EC just doing more damage for Stalkers.

Why couldn't they just have done this in the first place? Replace Storm Kick with a new power for Tankers that does [whatever], Replace Siphon Power with a new power that does [whatever] for Scrappers, Give Stalkers a new power instead of Chilling Embrace that does [whatever], all balanced to *do* whatever you need it to do for the AT rather than needing to prospectively fix the AT to accommodate the sets?

/rant

I still think offensive additions to a power would be better for SR. An idea: Quickness could give a short duration (like 10sec) moderate recharge buff (20-30%) upon landing a critical hit in addition to its base buff. ATs that don't crit, changing the +res passives to kick in earlier would be grand...of course, in addition to perhaps making the AoE defense available earlier for Scrappers and Stalkers.

And I agree with the thought too. More epics, more powers, more varied choices. It can be done and it would be amazing.

But the posts I was getting at in the thread is plain as day: It *won't* happen.

If the devs can't be arsed to give Blasters a Psi Mastery epic, Stalkers/Scrappers an Electric Epic, Defenders a Fire epic, Controllers a Dark epic...just to round out the fact they have similar themes in their primaries/secondaries, what makes you think we'll get Sonic, Dual Pistols, Katana, or some other nonsense within the next 5 years? Or ever since it'd take so long you might as well forget it?

Worse yet, the desired goal of the change you're aiming with this change would alter the very fabric of the system itself, you may as well just make a new game.

But Kick and Punch are generic powers. I think the particular point of adding such options (and more early on) is that it would improve customization/make characters more unique. Punch and Kick are generic, but whipping out an axe or ball lightning fist has more flare.

That's why I kinda suggesting just making an AT pool of a dozen or so powers where, as a Defender, you can yank out a 'signature move' (relative for Defenders) like Fire Sword or Crane Kick (some other Defenders might grab Shadow Maul or Clobber). You'd only be able to pick that one move but you don't *need* a whole set of powers that are all lynchpinned together by theme.

But since no one commented on the suggestion, I figure no one likes it. Makes perfect sense to me though. You make a Batman-esque character, you don't need a 'Batarrang' pool, just *a* batarrang power. Black Canary doesn't need a sonic blast set, just *a* sonic blast type attack. Superman doesn't need an eye beam set, he just need *an* eye beam power (technically, Superman needs a Superman pool since his powers are all over the place...Whirlwind, super speed, eye beams, cold breath, flight, super flight, etc...but that's beside the point...).

I'd think the trouble lies in what you'd put in every AT pool and what types of powers wouldn't be allowed and for those powers, what would be decent stand-ins in their place. Just picking from some of my current characters:

Kat/SR Scrapper- Gale from Storm Summoning would be his signature ability.

Spines/DA Stalker- Needs some kind of psionic power...an attack, a control a debuff...something psionic...currently using Presence pool as a stand-in but something ontop of that would be lovely.

Various Doms- Need a sword or katana for some of their themes.

Peacebringer- Mine makes use of as many crafted temp powers as he can but Propel would fit perfectly with his theme.

Fire/Shield Brute- The character himself took on a life of his own...while his fire/SD version encapsulates one aspect of him, Stone Armor, Stone Melee and Super Strength could also work. Any 'spectral' or 'bone' powers, necromancy too but only if it involved dragons...breath attacks of the Ice, Fire, Dark, Lightning, Air, Toxic, Sonic variety...so any powers that have any of those themes would be scooped up by this character or any sideways remakes.

Anyway, it's rather pointless of me to ramble on. Not sure if others have the same view and maybe I'm looking at the OP the wrong way. More APPs are good...personally, I'd prefer more Patron Pools. Themed powers after in-game NPCs have the advantage of using flashier effects (the APPs are pretty boring...Ghost Widow's hold is awesome though) and if you wanted to make a character whose an ex-PPD or an active member of the Carnival of Light, a pool for that (or one-off powers with that theme) is far more flexible, IMO.


~~~

tl;dr: I agree. Your suggestion would be nice but won't happen (at least in the near future). If we got such attention, AT pools and some themed PPPs for later would be better, IMO.

Dang it UG! Your smarmy BS ain't doing nothin but taking up space!!1

Go make your own thread to fill with your unproductive snark

So long as you realize what you're doing and make a note of this option.

That is to say, if you find yourself (despite how tough you are now and tougher you will be with all your new sets) not tough enough, it was because of compromises you decided upon with the build.

And I'm not pointing this out to be a ****, I'm pointing this out because it'd be a tool you can use for another character who you *do* want to be tougher. Rather than run to the boards to ask what you should do, you'd be savvy enough to say "well, I could replace these Crushing Impacts with [X] and these Cleaving Blows with [Y] to give me Q extra defense and blahblahblah".

For future reference, there are multiple powers in the Stalker armor sets that work similar to Disrupt. Those powers are Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom from Dark Armor and Chilling Embrace from Ice Armor.

Like explained by the above posters, Stalkers get a special use from these powers as the effects from those powers will suppress after 8sec so long as you do not attack or take damage. That means, the toggles will still remain on and consume endurance but will not have any effect until you are no longer hidden at which point, the powers will instantly take effect.

Yes and no.

No, if you're in Hidden status and turn on Disrupt in the middle of a group of foes, nothing will happen until you stop being hidden.

Yes, it will affect Placate which seems to not act the same way as normal Hidden status. Since Hide does not unsuppress when you use placate but instead only gives you an extra crit, Disrupt will still be in effect after you use placate. If a foe happens to be around you when you use placate, Disrupt may instantly unhide you...and I say 'may instantly' because powers like Disrupt and Cloak of Fear have to actually take a 'tic' to apply their affect and it's not all that fast (like every 2 sec or something) but powers like Chilling Embrace have tics set to some fraction of a second, making it seem instant.

My advice to you, if you want to use Disrupt or any other PBAoE aura power on a Stalker is:
-Don't use Placate with foes around you or else you may disable your extra crit.
-Don't have the Aura on when you use Placate to insure a better chance to get your extra crit.
-Don't Placate something standing next to you and they'll stay oblivious to you.
-Just skip Placate and fight normally...although for Kinetic Melee, you'll miss out on the insta-recharge of BU feature that Concentrated Strike has...the feature's still there but you'll have to rely on randomness or waiting to rehide.

I didn't say it was easy, just not hard. Besides, I don't think that's the overarching reason that Praetoria is empty. It could be a fault that people consider when choosing, yes, but I'd like to imagine players are more adventurous than to let a few ambushes get in the path of new stories.

But other posters bring up a valid point I hadn't considered but share. That you ultimately can't be a true Praetorian. That once you get to a certain level, that's it...Praetoria over.

I've got 4 Praetorians myself, 2 of which have gone a long way past Prae toward the lvl 50s because it fit their concept. But had I the option of sticking to Praetoria, I'd make at least 3 more characters linked with the firsts I made because it makes sense.

So perhaps that's why the gold side is barren. It's a run and dun affair...

Which recipes? If you're talking about level 50s, just because there aren't any listed doesn't mean there is no supply.

Like was mentioned several posts before me, it's not that they're aren't any, they're just being bought fast. The easiest (in most cases) enhancement recipes to get are max level ones.

Agreed. While the Praetoria content is challenging, it's not really that hard. You have to think, some of the missions are short. Some you can just outrun the foes (stealth) or outright ignore the foes (tanker/brute) to get and complete the objectives.

It's not laid back and easy like Primal earth content, but much of that wears on my attention as is. Soloing primal missions, I may manage 3 or 4 before I start thinking of turning the game off. Praetoria and 1st Ward, I can run a whole contact's missions and still be interested in what the next mission may hold.

But difficulty aside, why Praetoria is so empty is probably the same reason Red side is somewhat empty. Blue side hogs all the players, and as it hogs all the players, it encourages them to repeat the same content over and over (Death from Below). Leveling my old defenders, I had to start putting in my search comments that I didn't want to team on that anymore. The times I was on DfB teams, noobs were astonished there was actually so much more to the game when I explained what that tip does that they just got.

Yes, the emptiness of Praetoria is an issue, but it's just one of the symptoms of a bigger problem with game content.

If you were able to make over a billion, I don't see what the problem is. It only takes 600mil, maybe 800mil for a decent (at the 'buy it now' rate) IO build.

You can actually make builds comprised of some rare recipes for only 200mil if you're not picky with the levels. But I've never had a character with over 600mil in their pocket. Popping over to non-actives to buy alignment merits ultimately eats into getting such figures.

Thought exercise: You are tasked with the project as a dev of CoH, to make origins have greater purpose within the game, be it better concept integration, game mechanics, cosmetic, item acquisition or some such. And you're *a* dev in the company...there are others that will do the job (possibly not as well as you could) if you cannot/will not fulfill the task.

How (if at all) would you assess origins?
What design goals would you aim for with your new/improved/expanded system?
What are some possible creations one can achieve with this system over what we currently can create?

*shrugs*

If it's fun...but I'd personally suggest IOing something that is only semi-stellar. If a build already works really well, you'll have to start pushing for limits to notice a big difference.

Do you have a particular build strategy for this SS brute, like better ST dmg or quicker cycling Footstomp? Or outlier special tactics like maximized ranged attacks from /Energy APP?