NovaFang

Ok, unlike my other thread, I don't have any mock-ups this time around because I don't feel like spending several hours in Photoshop trying to capture the visual awesome that comes to mind when I think about these powers.

As with my Halloween/Gothic set, this is intended to be an unlocked power pool, possibly having to do with some combination of Time Lord, Centurion and maybe something involving the kheldians (look up Shadowstar on the wiki and you'll know why). Since there has been a another recent call for all things Egyptian, I decided to throw this power pool together and hopefully it will meet with your approval.

As always, I welcome suggestions for improvement, rebalancing, etc.

Scorpion's Snare (Click)
Attack (Teleport Foe)
You lash out at a distant enemy with sand-encrusted bandages and wrappings and drag them ever closer to you. Further, the affectd enemy is snared for a prolonged period such that if they are affected by knockback, attempt to flee or teleport away, they are again hurled unceremoniously at your feet.


Sunbarque (Click)
+Zone-wide Teleport
You evoke passage up on the Sunbarque, ascending into the radiant heavens on a beam of light (or descending into the tenebrous underworld) only to arrive moments later at your destination.

(Note: Unlike teleportation, this power would open a map and allow you to select your arrival point. This power will not work underground nor indoors, nor will it work on instance maps. During daytime hours, a beam of light descends from the sky and you ascend, turning into sunlight and similarly arrive at your destination, emerging from another beam of light. During the night, however, when the Sunbarque travels the underworld, you descend into the dark depths only to emerge from deep underground at your destination.)


Kiss of Anubis (Click)
+Resurrection(Special)
The jackal-god has seen fit to grant you one last breath of life to enact vengeance upon those who have killed you, but that which he grants, he soon shall take away.

(Note: If dead, you can use this power to temporarily resurrect yourself at full health and endurance, however no matter what happens, 15 seconds later, you will die again. The second death is not interruptable.)


Three Wishes (Click)
+Regen, +Recovery or +Dam, +Resist or Special
Calling upon the mysterious powers of the djinn, you are granted one of three magical boons -- health, wealth or power -- for a brief period of time.

(Note: Very long recharge similar to secondary mutation, except that the buff you gain is short term and either grants a bonus fo regeneration and recovery (the wish for health), grants a bonus to damage and damage resistance (the wish for power), or grants a boost to influence, prestige and XP granted (the wish for wealth). The wish granted is random. For amusement, a very rare fourth wish could be granted -- one that drops a lamp and sucks you inside for 10 seconds.)


Unlike my Halloween/Gothic set, I ended up creating two alternate powers for this one, so if one of the above needed to be replaced for coding reasons or if the pool could be expanded to five or so, we have some alternatives...

Scarab Swarm (Click)
Attack (DOT, Slow)
This attack creates a long range, ground based cone attack of swarming scarabs that race along the earth to plague any unfortunate being to cross their path. The swarm only affects enemies that are on the ground. As the scarabs swarm, your enemies are slowed and subjected to minor DOT thanks to the thousands of insects crawling over them and underfoot.


Shifting Sands (Click)
Special
By stomping your foot against the earth, you call upon the power of Geb to churn the very soil beneath you. While this power does no actual damage to your enemies, it has a chance to destroy all ground-based trap and AOE type affects such as oil slick, caltrops, ice slick, etc. that it overlaps.

This is an idea I've been musing on for a while. I'm always a little hesitant to suggest new power sets but considering the new opportunites presented by Freedom, I figured I'd propose something new.

The idea behind this set is obviously your typical Halloween/gothic type concept. That being said, I don't think it is thematically appropriate to simply gain access to it like every other power pool. Instead, I would recommend that the power pool only be available during the Halloween event (meaning that you can gain access to it then, and once you have access you can keep it) or it has to be unlocked by securing an accolade (such as Geas of the Kind Ones or the ones for the various Halloween, zombie or apocalypse events).

Again, this would be a power pool ONLY. Not a primary. I have not sat down and number crunched or critically analyzed the balance versus other pools, so I very much welcome your input and suggestions.


Ghost Light (Toggle)
+Acc, +Perception
By summoning ghostly candles, you are able to increase your accuracy slightly as well as your perception.


Mistwalking (Toggle)
+Stealth, +Flight, -Speed, +Def(Special), -Dam(Special)
When using this travel power, while you move very slowly, you are stealthed and visible only at short range. While in mist form, you receive a significant defensive bonus against smashing and lethal and a smaller defensive bonus against all other damage types except psionic. However, while you are well protected against most attacks, your attacks are similarly weakened while in this form.


Tainted Earth (Click)
Heal(Special), Create Tainted Earth
When afflicted with an attack that performs damage over time, you are able to leach the toxins and afflictions from your body and fliter them into the soil at your feet, creating a patch of unhallow soil that instead will toxic damage over time to those who set foot upon it.

(Note: This ability removes one damage-over-time effect currently afflicting your character and creates a land-mine type item called Tainted Earth at your feet approximately the size of an ice slick. Any enemies stepping on the soil are subject to toxic DOT. The damage caused by Tainted Earth, in an ideal circumstance, would directly reflect the damage potential of the removed DOT effect. You must be in contact with the ground to use this ability.)


Lycanthropy (Click)
+Acc, +Dam, +Regen, Chance to Afflict Enemy w/Lycanthropy
For ages, those afflicted with lycanthropy have roamed the moonlit nights wreaking terrible, bloody violence against any who cross their path. While under the affects of lycanthropy, you gain a bonus to both accuracy and damage and recover from all but the most potent of attacks with uncanny speed. However, as with all curses, you risk passing this dreaded afflcition to your enemies with attack and if they become so afflicted, while they may not take the form of the wolf, they will share in its deadly gifts as well.

(Note: For example, for each attack against an enemy while you are affected by Lycanthropy could cause a 5% chance that they would gain the benefits of Lycanthropy as well (+Acc, +Dam, +Regen) although they would not physically change shape. And while I realize there are certain pitfalls with shapechanging, this proposal would basically replace the head, chest, hands, tail and legs of the current costume model and would lock you into that costume until the lycanthropy affect fades.)

I would like to recommend two possible upgrades for the crafting process. The first is probably very easy to put into effect, the latter not so much but I think these would be great QOL improvements.

First, when crafting, there should be an option (like a checkbox in the interfact) that allows us to search and use our stored salvage, not just the salvage on hand.

The second options would be applicable for supergroups, but like with trade crafting in EQ, you could use salvage items stored at your base -- as long as you have access to the specific storage racks they come from -- for crafting as well. You could also require the player to actually be crafting in the superbase for this to be viable (so no crafting in the university or on portable workbench).

Ideally, the crafting system would consume salvage from on-hand salvage first, then personal storage, then supergroup salvage.

I'd love to see some more Egyptian themed costume choices as well... maybe if we go make puppy dog eyes at JLove...?

Hrm.. an interesting concept. I suppose if every temp power was somehow flagged as a tier 1 through tier 5 power for the pool, you could then go through and when you first select the pool, set a tier 1 or 2 power just like we currently would get on a normal pool set. Further, the set could have additional limitations such as only one summoning power, so if you set your T3 power as a snow beast, you could not then have a T4 RV Heavy or something like that.

It would require significant balancing but I think this would be a very enticing and versatile power set.

Frankly I'd like to see some cultural theme packs. We had a taste of asian style with the martial arts back. How about an Egyptian Theme pack or something with a little African flavor or something to boost the Greco-Roman items? Indian and Native American? ...

Pharonic hats, hieroglyphic imagery, head dresses, tribal face and body paints, spirit masks, loin cloths, etc. I think it would lend to a greater diversification of styles.

I sincerely doubt it's Statesman. He is the counter part to Recluse, the only fully hero-sided incarnate and voice of the well. He has his own TF and is an iconic figure. He also features prominently in the new Maria Jenkins arc, shows up several times and is the goal of the final mission.

It isn't BABs or Sis... they have a whole new purpose with the new starting zone experience unless one of them dies DURING that starting zone experience... which doesn't exactly strike me as a signature story arc.

That leaves Citadel, Numina, Manti, Syanpse and Posi. Posi's TFs were recently remodeled so I don't think it's him -- he's also only "recently" been re-humanized by being able to take off his mask. I doubt it's Manticore because as everyone has said, he's part of the wedded duo. Citadel... you're right. Hard to get emotionally attached when you can build Citadel 2.0 with spare parts from Radio Shack and the battery from your car.

That leaves Synapse and Numina. Of the two... which one's TF needs the most revision? Numina's. It's a stretch of logic but honestly, neither one is particularly involved in the affairs of the players and of the two, Numina has the most nasty rival-- Ghost Widow. Plus, if you throw in Infernal's mother and Diabolique, she really does start to stack up a nasty set of enemies. She also does currently send you to single handedly rough up almost every major original faction in the game during her TF. By comparison, Synapse having a mad-on for the Clockwork King and a minor, unrealized beef with Crey... it seems insignificant.

My money is on Numina.

All I can say is after seeing that video, it just confirms how much I want to play in Praetoria... All Hail Emperor Cole. Bring on the urban renewal, baby.

Something I would love to see (and I realize this would be stretching thigns) is cross-server SGs. There's little reason that the base itself can't be accessible from players in mutiple servers, even if they're never physically in the base together. They all contribute to the global prestige in sgmode, get access to all the same porters, storage, crafting, etc. Maybe give them a local and global SG channel.

Mind you it would probably mean some healthy revision to coalitions, etc., but I'd love it.

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Can't tell you guys how many times I've been hidden, hanging out in a populated area, trying to test an emote...and mistyped it, revealing to everyone in the area that there's an invisible redname.

So, I like this suggestion...and I'm going to pass this suggestion along to programming...but I can't say how difficult it might be to actually implement, whether they have time to do so, or if they even think it's a good idea as well.

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BABs, you're always welcome to hide out in my SG base on Guardian... plenty of space to practice emotes. That's where I practice mine most of the time.

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Whereas exemplary villains would just get shafted cause we hate them.

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This all FINALLY clicked for me...

Going Rogue is all a ploy by the Devs to get all the Villains to switch from the Red side to the Blue side. Day of release, there will be a "bug" that will allow Villains to become Heroes, but won't allow Heroes to become Villains. Oh sure, the fix will be on the Test server quick enough... but it will be pushed back. All the while, rewards for 'Going Good' will keep looking sweeter and sweeter. Finally, once the population is about 90% / 10% (sure that won't take long), BAM! the Devs cut their losses and turn off all the Red Side content. They totally drop everything to do with CoV and become a Hero only game.

And why you might ask? So they can finally stop saying they work for CoX. Diabolical!

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This *JUST* occurred to you? Hell, I figured this out the day Going Rogue was prematurely announced!