SilverAgeFan

Small sidetrack:

As an alternative, would LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE to see time bomb get a secondary power button that is an optional "detonate" button. And perhaps an increase in damage on the power because it is very tricky to use well.

Plus I'd like to see the graphic for it changed or as a power customization the option to lay down the dynamite stick bomb that we've used as a glowie for years.

Would be nice!

We could do 'em one better with some prismatic auras, including a version that trails. Think buildup, but a constant prismatic halo.

But yeah, I'm kinda in the same camp. Forget the faux carebares. But the rainbow power is pretty cool despite also being very specific and potentially tragically dorky!

kinda this at this point. really.

Or that the commenting forum goers are familiar enough with our game and the arcs of game design in general that we all know to suggest the pie-in-the-sky-no-way-could-it-ever-happen-in-CoNow-sorta-stuff.

We've come a long way since release.

Gotta look even beyond that. I'm talking about ice characters being able to quickly make big blocks of ice to block falling debris. Gravity characters increasing or speeding up gravity in small localities to divert said falling debris. Fire characters creating up-drafts to change its course. Super strength characters ripping up a ribbon of tarmac to create a curtain blocking the debris. Etc etc.

Physics has been tinkered with in a number of titles in different genres. Stabs at meaningful applications have been made. Sub-genres of flash and indie games have come out that rely almost solely on integrated physics play.

Mix this with a growing subgenre of voxel based games, crowned by one particular open-world phenom, and you have the seeds for a next-next-next gen MMO.

Nothing says super villains like blowing a dam and attempting to flood the town below. And nothing says super heroes like using whatever powers bestowed you in creative ways to stop said flooding.

It may not be CoH2 that does it. But someday, some game will. Some MMO will. And that changed game will be a game changer.

But the superhero genre, IMO, seems to be the perfect stomping ground to really push this sort of gameplay. Much more-so than say a certain single player franchise from far far away. Why? Variety. In that other franchise, you need to shoehorn in the wide range of powers amongst the canon of the existing intellectual property. But in a wider, more open superhero game? The variety and wide range of powers really makes things interesting IMO. And ultimately this sort of design could lead to a wide range of replayability of many challenges within the game world.

Imagine part of the team needing to fight baddies (still a superhero combat system similar to CoH1) while others break off to deal with physics based challenges. Or using physics based powers to hem the baddies in and corner them--not just in mere terms of that overused buzzword "weaponizing"--but truly open ways. I.E. a super strength character pulling up and bending a bit of a water main to direct its forceful outflow whilst an electric character sends a constant charge through the stream. Meanwhile a magnetism character pulls a bus over behind the baddies who get washed up against said bus by the make shift shocking fire hose.

Of course, if it's truly physics based and as temperamental as current computer physics toys, things won't always go 100% as planned each time--and recovering from these potentially riotous setbacks would make the game itself feel even more alive. Combat and challenges should feel more sandboxy. Not in a traditional sandbox MMO sense, but in a loose creative sense with winning strategies being a constantly moving target surrounded by a whirlwind of mayhem as players collectively pursue victory.

Great suggestion!

And hopefully fully tintable. I have one particularly sanguine character that would have a bloody good time with that path aura!

Ahah! I knew it!

Can someone from the art department comment on whether or not such trails can include particle effects? Could this tech, say for example, be fairly rapidly adapted to create blazing footprints in your wake that have flames with a vertical element to them? (Disclaimer: by fairly rapidly I mean is the tech in place now with only the artwork development needing to be done for these sorts of complex sprite and particle paths to be created?)

My mind is tickled.

Specific claws as in Woverine style in-game claws, no. But thinking of pretty much any bit of steampunk fare and all the strapped on brass appendages and accoutrements that are used to invoke "cutting edge Victorian science"--where biology meets tinkering--seems to be only a short jump away from a fairly unique set of claws for the game.

So specific carbon copies from existing fiction, no. But something that looks akin to the ribbing on NS's concept art for those steam punk wings? Absolutely.

Speaking of which--steam punk claws kinda seem like a must for this pack. Could do some really great stuff akin to the meat doctor's spidery arms--but out the wrists of course.

I understand this and the previous sentiments and agree to a significant extent, but had a chuckle when I imagined this particular statement within the context of a romantic relationship.

Pretty much agree with this. At many points in history, comic book publishers have several things going on at once. Multi-title-mega-arcs produce customer fatigue after a time there. Some variety is nice.

Heck, that's what I like about the tip missions so much at moments--they feel like nice "one off" stories.

And if it weren't for the weird non-multi issue aspects of Faultline, like the introduction of Fusionette, she would never exist. But now, she's been called back in for cameos. In RWZ. And now even in Praetorian form in the Sutter TF. And it's all good in the hood by me.

So I says, yeah, loosen up a bit and throw in a smaller self contained one issue revamp here and there in the dead zones that expands a villain group or two. Faultline had no new enemy types (other than AV's). And with the tip missions you've got tons of supporting characters. What if someone like Overdrive (not actually my first choice, but just pulling a name out) featured prominently in two of three 8 mission arcs in DA for example?

Secret Mega Uber Incarnate Wars all the time makes for tired pandas.

I've gotten some good inky results with an all black character, kinetic melee and energy aura. Not perfect, but good for my inky pocket dimension tapping fella.

Personally, I hope Rularuu (and a few other things) get deified to the level that they are on par with the Well. The incarnates are sort of like heroes and champions of myth. But currently with the well, we're navigating what feels like a monotheistic cosmos. A pantheon would be much more open, much more interesting, much more fitting to the source material and its original source material.

Give me more godlike beings or entities on par with the well. Give me our own Galactus, Vishnu, Bast and Hera.

Edit: Oh and give me my Rularuu lore tree. I want my own wisps and giant pupil-mouthed eyeball dammit!

Noble Savage did make some remark about getting us things that we didn't even know that we wanted... And you know, if those pointy hats had "hat-capes," I think I just might want one.



IRL.





>.>

<.<




what?

Agreeing with something like this. Requiring a surgically stacked league is kinda a bummer. I've helped on a couple MoL runs--but only on my debuffer. In it's current form, I doubt I'll ever get to tag along on one as dead weight with my +3 S/L scrapper.

Well I'll complain: If this IS in fact how the system is working (and anecdotes in the dev thread indicates that some are learning to game the system so well they can kee their drops on specific characters to rares and very rares) this is utter absolute anti-cooperative motivating b*******. It means any character that has the wrong power sets, damage types, builds, slightly slower connections, older rigs with lag, and EVEN travel powers!, etc etc. will find themselves perpetually edged out by other players putting their thumb on the scale very hard. All it takes is one on the league to tip the balance if it is in fact competitive.

As others, like snowglobe, have pointed out, the criteria that seems to be emerging basically encourages players to be terrible team players. Leaders who keep things organized and are focused more on getting a successful trial are penalized. Certain types of support are penalized. Masterminds are reporting broken rewards and are penalized. Most tanks are penalized.

And the spoils go to the fastest farmer types on your team. Fairly consistently.

Rubbish. Utter rubbish of a system.

And I'm rather mad feeling like a heel, thinking that I've wasted my time on one of my favorite characters running close to 60 trials since i20 launch in the hopes of getting the "graces of the RNG" only to find out that all those trials I lead, a good quarter of them, put me in the running for an uncommon at best because I spent time teaching newcomers the trials.

Hey Paragon studios, I want my time back. kthx.

~ one currently very dissatisfied customer