Marcian Tobay

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Hmm, maybe these could be a set of 'inherents' you get at various levels to expand and diversify your character. Maybe have 5 powers to each backstory and then you get them at lvls 5, 15, 25, 35 and 45 (Or maybe somewhat earlier as they are backstory feats). One could call them 'feats' as to differentiate them from the "real" powers.

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This idea has been proposed, but I don't begrudge you for not reading 6 pages of month old post.

Yeah, the common consensus is to make them inherents that are optional. A powerfully recommended idea by Empress is that these be Origins, alongside Magic, Science, and Natural.

Either way, the popular vote has people gradually and naturally learning them, as oppossed to choosing them over other powers.

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Good job...shall we start a comprehensive list of the ones we want then?

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A Master list will be included in the aforementioned "Back Story Power Pools V. 2.0".

Off the top of my head, here are the ideas:

Rogue: Increases Newspaper Mission fun.
Student: Dedicate one's self to sidekick.
Mentor: Dedicate one's self to teaching others.
Genius: Receives Items at an increased pace.
Lone Wolf: Excellent for Soloing Missions.
Divine: Receives minimal punishments for death, enabling a "reckless" playing style.
Merchant: Favors Story Contacts, with whom purchases and sales are very profitable.

and more when I think of them...

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I love the idea, and the values seem workable (though I'm sure tweaks would have to be made here and there). Here's a concern I have though. Won't Student become useless at higher levels?

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I see your concern for that, especially since it is the exact same concern I had for that specific BSPP when I designed it. The best thing I can say for it is this: The game of CoX has always been about level TO level 50, not what you do once you get there. This game has been infamously lacking on End game content, though reveling in an overabundance of things to do while leveling.

This BSPP would emphasize that style of playing. It would become moot when reaching level 48, but I think it will really be fun on the way.

If worse comes to worse, though, one can always respect out of it. Not the ideal solution, I know, but can someone suggest a better one?

When can we expect more? Let's see some time shifty- story!

Those are incredible! Thanks for sharing!

In Statesman's recent interview, Jack Emmert answered my question (whoot!), and then went on to add: "I wish we could add something into each mission that would allow someone to be a scientist. Or a doctor. Or a thief. Or whatever."

This comment resonated with me entirely because of this thread. I am going to revise the idea based on the feedback that has been given. In the meantime, however, I have revived this topic in order to allow people to compare it to Mr. Emmert's comments, discussing and giving feedback that may influence my revised idea.

Thank you.

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i am split about it... on one hand it is nice... on the other hand the whole you HAVE to team with a villain feels abit drab... I'm on the fence here... Winter event was better... And next year it would be nice to see a new event.

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Having to team with the opposite side was part of the charm for me. Personally, it provided great roleplaying opportunities to have to work with people that my character normally wouldn't like.

My villain verbally abused his hero partner out of bitterness for having to work with them.

My hero tried to understand her partner better, giving him a pep talk and such.

All in all, that was quite delightful! Besides, it was only for one mission.

I loved it! It was a bit exhausting to have to do the same battle five times in a row (The DJ Zero Mission).

Five times you had to do that mission to get the prizes. Snaptooth appeared three times in that mission.

Fifteen Snaptooth fights.

I, personally, didn't mind, but I can see why people wouldn't like him.

He's a great antagonist, because he has no goals besides "be an jerk". It works out well, because he can unite heroes and villains constantly.

I like him, but it may be time to shake things up a bit.

Other than that, the missions ruled!

Reaver's head reminds me of Eyeclops from Kid Chameleon.

Of course, I'm probably just dating myself, now...

First post after a green name!

Oh, that is a fantastic work of art!

It's fantastic!

...

Of course, there is a severe chance that that character will be generic-ed, now that their existence is public.

Costume piece! It's a costume piece!

Blackavaar, there are several theories on how to deal with this issue being easier to obtain. As a matter of fact, the past four pages have been nothing but Empress and I debating different methods of delivering these powers.

The consenus is at the bottom of page 6. You may read it there, and see that you are not that far off.

As a matter of fact, your idea sounds to be similar to ideas around pages low five high six (we've being doing LOTS of talking).

Read this and get back to me.

What does QR mean?

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I'd forgotten about this for awhile 'till I saw it on my favorite topics. Someone needs to ask _Castle_ at his Ask a Dev about it... or perhaps we all spam it for every dev interview citing that it "could" be done...

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Choose to view this thread under the option "Threaded" at the top of the menu. This will allow you to pick out the Redname posts easily.

In those posts, they have already stated that there NEVER will be a red ball, and why it is physically impossible.

Sorry. I want it as much as the next person.

Empress, I don't know why I didn't fully realize your suggestion before, but now that I read it again, I like it.

/signed.

^_^ BSPPs for life!

Hm. Therein lay the difficulty.

Okay, let's say that we were to have these BSPPs side by side with the other origins (If I understand you correctly). Is it your intention to add Back Story Powers to the origins like "Magic" and "Science"? Or are their inherent abilities satisfactory?

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I only read about half the replies, so I might be repeating someone else.

I have a couple of possible suggestions:

One: Make one power that can be taken called "Back Story" or something such as that, and then this unlocks the actual power pool which doesn't come out of your normal power choices. Then how often you get a new power can be say every 5, or so levels. I'm not entirely sure how many powers you would want a given character to have from these, so the level could be adjusted.


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This could be a good idea, but I would like them to have the opportunity to gain the powers at an accelerated rate if they so choose. People who are choosing "Student" would probably want it rather early on.

Still, I can see the wisdom in this. How about every 3 Levels, though? 4 Levels?

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Two: Based off of the previous, but with a slightly larger power-hit: One pool power/back story: I.e. you take a power such as "Rogue Back Story" and that unlocks the Rogue power pool, and then if you want something from another you have to take that power pool. This hurts multi-dippers though, but it feels more appropriate this way, and makes it so that the players decide how many of the backstory power pools they want in spite of a 1/level type thing.


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I like this quite a bit, and feel it should go hand in hand with the first idea as well. Making it very easy to get one power pool full, but upping the disadvantage for multiple pools is a great idea, as I wanted to encourage diversity.

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Three: The strictist and most limiting would be to make it another choice like Origin at the beginning, but this would limit you to one power pool.

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This has been suggested before by Empress. While I liked her ideas very much, the more I think about it, the more uncomfortable I am with tying these ideas to origin, as it forces people to choose these powers, and then only have one.

I don't want to force people to give this idea a try, as that seems counter to the basic idea of the new concepts (Mayhem Missions, Inventions), which is to make them optional.

Only letting someone pick one also seems limiting. I'd rather strike this idea and meld your first two together.

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Bottom-Line: I don't think it should be one power choice/power in power pool. I also don't think it should be completely free. It needs to fit somewhere in-between, there are a few suggestions that fit this that could work. I'm almost in favor of the enhancement slot replacement, because, especially at the beginning, it feels like you have too many, so it would feel natural to take a power instead, though one might wish they hadn't when they get towards the end.

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I agree with this utterly, and maintain that BSPPs as an alternate choice to slots is a good idea, but it may become less viable now that we know Inventions will "require" so many slots per power to fully appreciate.

Thanks for your input! Let's keep the conversation going!

I've sent this issue to both Posi and _Castle_. I will update in that vein when the time comes. ^_^

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Did you send this to one of the red names? I'd very much like to see these implimented into the game, as it seems like there wouldn't be alot of balancing issue's, unless they work different from AT to AT.

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Is it appropriate to send it to the Devs? I'm relatively new to good ideas, and I don't know the etiquette for informing them. It was my impression that I'm to wait here patiently for attention.

/signed

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[and there should be more of them.

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Like I said in the original post, there were several ideas that I had not posted previously, as I just wanted to get the point across and not quibble over a specific power.

Those ideas were: Survivalist, Immortal, Divine, Mentor, Genius.. others that I left not at my workdesk.

I would love tons of them! That would, however, be for the devs to decide, assuming they like this idea in the first place.

It is interesting to me that people have been picking out "Lone Wolf" as the one most openly discussed. I am most fascinated with "Student" and "Rogue". If these are implemented, my main would get "Merchant" that day to celebrate.

I think if it made it easier to start on a specific pool, that could work.

You mean something along the lines of "One free 'Genius' for Technology, one free 'Long Wolf' for Mutant"?

That is different than my original theory, but I think both ideas can coexist.

Personally, mixing the origins and the Backstories feels uncomfortable to me, because I cannot imagine people NOT min/max'ing that up the wazoo.

I do like starting with it, but the origins, in my opinion, are fine as they are.

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(btw, you need an "Olympic Athlete" history pool too...)

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Like I said in the original post, there were several ideas that I had not posted previously, as I just wanted to get the point across and not quibble over a specific power.

Those ideas were: Survivalist, Immortal, Divine, Mentor, Genius.. others that I left not at my workdesk. Olympic Athlete is a good one, though. ^_^