Topics

1

General Suggestions and Feedback / Day Job Badge Needed

« on: July 03, 2023, 10:55:47 am »

Even if it doesn't result in an Accolade, there needs to be an all-alignments Day Job badge for logging out while Secondary Mutation has misfired and devolved the character into a Rikti monkey. If an Accolade is possible, it might be alongside a reasonable count on the number of times the character has been a Rikti monkey. An Accolade power could be Voluntary Devolution, where the character changes to a powerless Rikti monkey (with only Rikti monkey movement) for a short time, and is ignored by enemies while so. Near the end of the period, the player sees a flashing to warn that it's coming to an end - as the power ends, the character gets a very short proc-Stealth while at full unpowered movement and then can reactivate toggles and activate other powers. I think it might be too difficult to code in a toggle suppression, like for kheldians, but that might be nice.

2

General Suggestions and Feedback / Personal Force Field

« on: March 01, 2023, 09:36:40 am »

https://forum.cityofheroesrebirth.com/index.php/topic,3564.0.html

The Force Field Revamp indicates that the Personal Force Field is now not two-way blocking for the first 30 seconds of activation.  I wanted to ask if the PFF in Blaster Force Mastery is updated to the same standard.

3

General Suggestions and Feedback / Plants Mastermind

« on: September 27, 2022, 02:03:57 pm »

This is a direct copy of my Plants Mastermind suggestion from the original City boards:
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This Mastermind primary powerset offers the ability to summon various plant monsters to fight for the caster. The personal attacks are from the Thorny Assault powerset, and the pets draw their abilities from Thorny Assault, Plant Control, Poison, and Super Strength. The pets defenses are a mix of the listed defenses of the Fly Trap (Resist (Smashing, Psionic, Toxic), Defense vs Psionic, Vulnerable (Negative, Fire, Cold)) and the Regeneration powerset (including small chance for self rez on defeat).

Level 1 - Thorny Darts - Ranged Minor Damage (Lethal), DoT (Toxic), -Defense

This power is identical to the Thorny Assault power of the same name.

Level 1 - Plant Briars - Summon Briars

This power summons 1-3 Briars to do your bidding. These pets aren't especially tough, but they can come back sometimes after being defeated. They start off as melee combatants but gain a couple ranged attacks along the way. The animation would be a tossing of seeds to the targetted area, followed by the rapid growth and forming of the Briars, who tear themselves from their roots.

Basic: Briars are about the size of a mid-level Red Cap, with twisting vines, spines, and a plant-colored appearance. Briars hop along like Red Caps or Imps.
Barb Swipe - Melee Minor Damage (Lethal), DoT (Toxic), -Speed, -Recharge {highly spammable}
Weed - Self Rez (very limited chance)
Fertilize: Briars spines grow longer, with more vines.
Lunge - Melee Moderate Damage (Lethal), DoT (Toxic), -Speed, -Recharge
Spine Burst - PBAoE Melee Moderate Damage (Lethal), DoT (Toxic), -Speed, -Recharge
Awaken Plants: Briars gain more color in their vines, spines, and bodies (purples, yellows, reds).
Impale - Ranged High Damage (Lethal), DoT (Toxic), Immobilize, -Recharge, -Fly
Weed - Self Rez (limited chance)

Level 2 - Fling Thorns - Ranged (Cone) Moderate Damage (Lethal), DoT (Toxic), -Defense

This power is identical to the Thorny Assault power of the same name.

Level 6 - Fertilizer - Ranged, Enhance Plant Henchmen

This power offers the first set of upgrades to a Plant Mastermind's pets. The animation is essentially a tossing of a packet of powder over the pet's head, which burst open and drops the powder onto the pet. The pet's plant accessories (vines, petals, spines) will extend and thicken. Fertilizer will improve the regeneration rates of the pets it is applied to.

Briars gain Lunge and Spine Burst, Flowers gain Alkaloid and Pollen Sack, and Shamblers gain Batter and Strangler.

Level 8 - Impale - Ranged High Damage (Lethal), DoT (Toxic), Immobilize, -Defense/Speed/Fly/Jump

This power is identical to the Thorny Assault power of the same name.

Level 12 - Plant Flowers - Summon Flowers

This power summons 1-2 Flowers to do your bidding. These pets act similarly to Defenders or Corruptors, weakening enemies and helping their fellow henchmen. Like Briars, Flowers have a limited ability to come back after being defeated (although not as often). Similar to Briars, Flowers grow from their seeds, but come up tall and slender, form bulbs, bloom, and step from their roots.

Basic: Flowers appear like female characters with petal head and shoulder accessories, and leafy outfits. Petals faces are in solid yellows and reds to start, and all other features are in shades of green. Flowers move smoothly and quickly through all types of terrain.
Poison Thorn - Ranged Minor Damage (Lethal), DoT (Toxic), -Speed, -Recharge {less lethal, more toxic, more debuff than Thorn Darts}
Alkaloid - Ally Heal, +Resist(Toxic)
Weed - Self Rez (extremely limited chance)
Fertilize: Petals grow longer and fuller, with more vines.
Pollen Sack - Ranged AoE DoT(Lethal/Toxic), Fear {throws a pod at target, bursts and sends pollen onto targets, draws insect swarms that damage and distract targets}
Weaken - Ranged Foe -Damage, -ToHit, -Special
Awaken Plants: Petals change to multiple glaring colors (a sign in plant/animal world of being deadly}
Antidote - Ally +Resist(Disorient, Fear, Confusion, Hold, Sleep, Immobilize, Slow, Cold, Toxic)
Soothing Pheromones - Toggle PBAoE Melee Sleep, -Speed, -Recharge {foes near Flowers may go to Sleep, but are more likely to just suffer Speed and Recharge debuffs}
Weeds - Self Rez (very limited chance)

Level 18 - Grow Thistles - Summon Pets (Thistles)

This power can be used when the caster has access to enemy bodies. Casting this power on enemy bodies may summon forth Thistles, which act like Seeker Drones. The more Thistles created, the greater the Endurance cost.

Thistles rise from the bodies and stay near the caster for the duration of the power. If an enemy gets within range, Thistles will move toward the target and attempt to attach. Once attached, Thistles do Lethal and Toxic damage for a few seconds before bursting into a small cloud (AoE coughing fit).

Level 26 - Call Shambler - Summon Shambler

This power summons a Shambler to do your bidding. This pet is very tough to keep down, with excellent regeneration and good mez protection. This pet acts like a mixture of a Tanker and a Controller, pummelling opponents it can reach and locking down targets it can't get to yet. Like the Briars, the Shambler is sometimes able to come back after being defeated. The Shambler grows quickly out in a pattern of vines that rise in the center, and split off their limbs.

Basic: A Huge creature, covered in a mixture of smooth and thorny vines (similar in appearance to Huu the Plant Bender, from "Avatar: The Last Airbender", though not as large). The Shambler slides along the ground in kind-of skating motion, moving slowly in combat, but able to reach decent speed between combats (this can be handled by good base speed, but suppression during combat).
Bludgeon - Melee High Damage (Smash), Knockup {similar to Haymaker, but using the "vine stump" of an arm)
Entangle - Ranged Moderate DoT (Smash/Lethal), Immobilize
Weed - Self Rez (very limited chance)
Fertilize: Vines become longer, livelier, and cover more of Shambler.
Batter - Melee (Cone) High Damage (Smash), Knockback {a Melee Cone version of Bludgeon, but KB instead of KU; uses a sweep of arm that lengthens out}
Strangler - Ranged Moderate DoT (Smashing), Hold
Awaken: Thorns on vines change to brighter colors, add small brightly colored flowers across body.
Timber - PBAoE Melee Moderate Damage (Smashing), Knockback {a version of Foot Stomp, but with a double "fist" hit of the ground versus stomping of the foot}
Viscious Roots - Ranged AoE Moderate DoT (Smash/Lethal), Immobilize {a more damaging version of Roots}
Weed - Self Rez (limited chance)

Level 32 - Awaken Plants - Ranged, Enhance Plant Henchmen

This power offers the second set of upgrades to a Plant Mastermind's pets. The animation is similar to the Confuse power, but with a green tint. Colors will become brighter and more glaring. Awaken Plants will improve the chance for Self Rez and the regeneration rates of the pets it is applied to.

Briars gain Impale, Flowers gain Antidote and Soothing Pheromones, and Shamblers gain Timber and Viscious Roots.

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General Suggestions and Feedback / Thought Control Mastermind

« on: September 27, 2022, 12:24:20 pm »

This is a slight revision of the suggestion I had back on the old City boards, which was originally written back before Masterminds could transition to or start on the blue side. I've tried to correct any clear villain-only viewpoints.
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The Thought Control Mastermind is a master of bending others to his will, forcing them to do things they otherwise would not (and maybe could not) do. Thought Control MM’s take ordinary civilians, police officers, paramedics, and even minor heroes/villains, and put them under their control, improving their natural abilities and instilling portions of the MM’s psyche within them.

All Thought Control henchmen are fairly resistant to psychic attacks and moderately resistant to Confusion and Taunt effects, and have a decent bonus to Defense. Thought Control henchmen have the same movement abilities as other human henchmen, except for the Enthralled Hero.

The Thought Control Mastermind can also utilize several psychic blast attacks, as well as the ability to Confuse others around them.

Level 1 - Mental Blast - Ranged Moderate Damage (Psionic), -Recharge

This power is the same as the Psychic Blast power of the same name.

Level 1 – Control Puppets – Summon Puppets

This power summons 1-3 Puppets to do your bidding. Puppets are civilians who have been mind controlled, and so have the fewest intrinsic abilities to utilize. At first, the Thought Control Mastermind is only able to tap into their hysterical strength, but is later able to add portions of his own psyche into them to allow them the use of some psychic abilities.

The summon animation for Control Puppets has each Puppet move across on a line in front of the Mastermind, walking normally. The MM then gestures out to the Puppet, similar to the Confuse power, while the Puppet goes rigid, glows briefly around the head, and shuffles to the MM. If possible, Puppets should be summoned in the order of male, female, and male, with appropriate clothing (could have skirts or pants for female). These Puppets have comparable defenses to the Genin henchmen from the Ninjas powerset at the beginning, but gain more Psionic defenses later on (balanced by less overall Defense increases).

Basic: Puppets wear casual street clothes, like regular civilians walking around Paragon City or the Rogue Isles.
Puppet Brawl – Near identical to the Zombie Brawl power from the Necromancy powerset
Rock - Identical to the Contaminated power of the same name
Unleash Id: Puppets change into business suits.
Kick – Identical to the Fighting power of the same name
Brick - A stronger version of the Rock power shown above.
Base Speed +5%
Imbue: Puppets’ eyes glow and gain a slowly pulsating spiked aura (light pink) around their heads.
Telekinetic Blast – Identical to the Psychic Blast power of the same name
Drain Psyche – Identical to the Psionic Assault power of the same name
Base Speed +5% (stacks with Unleash Id)

Level 2 – Telekinetic Blast – Ranged Moderate Damage (Psionic/Smashing), Knockback

This power is the same as the Psychic Blast power of the same name.

Level 6 – Unleash Id – Ranged, Enhance Thought Control Henchmen

This power offers the first set of upgrades to a Thought Control Mastermind’s pets, by further tapping into and releasing their aggressive and chaotic subconscious desires.

Level 8 – Mind Lance – Ranged (Sniper) Superior Damage (Psionic), -Recharge

This power is identical to the Psychic Blast power of the same name.

Level 12 – Manipulate Agents – Summon Agents

This power summons 1-2 Agents to do your bidding. The Agents include a male policeman and a female paramedic. (I would love to have the policeman wear the uniform of a Rogue Island Police “Ripper” lieutenant when the MM summons this Agent in an Arachnos zone, and a Paragon Police Department “PPD Sergeant” lieutenant when summoned in a Paragon City zone.) With these henchmen, the Mastermind starts with skilled individuals and pushes them beyond their normal limits.

The summoning animation for Manipulate Agents is similar to Control Puppets, with the only difference being Agent enters cautiously, followed by the controlling effects. Both of these Agents have similar defenses to Spec Ops henchmen from the Mercenaries powerset, except that their Defense improvements again skew more towards Psionic.

Policeman – Basic: As stated above, standard uniform for a RIP or PPD lieutenant, but no sunglasses.
Single Shot – Identical to the RIP power of the same name
Riot Baton – Identical to the PPD Cop power of the same name
Taser Dart – Identical to the Origin power of the same name
Unleash Id: Switch to RIP/PPD variations on the PPD SWAT Officer uniform.
Burst – Identical to the Assault Rifle power of the same name
Flashbang Grenade – Identical to the PPD Ghost power of the same name
Tear Gas Grenade – Identical to the PPD Ghost power of the same name
Imbue: Agent’s eyes glow and gain a slowly pulsating spiked aura (light pink) around their head.
Levitate – Identical to the Mind Control power of the same name.
Dominate – Identical to the Mind Control power of the same name.

Paramedic – Basic: Green jumpsuit with medical emblems.
Knife – Identical to the Blood Brother Slicer power of the same name (among others).
Throwing Knives – Identical to the Origin power of the same name.
Aid Other – Identical to the Medicine Power Pool power of the same name.
Unleash Id: Similar to the Policeman appearance (vest and helmet), but still with medical colors and emblems.
Defibrillator – Melee (ST), Moderate Dmg (Energy), animation similar to Jacob’s Ladder.
Tranquilizer Darts – Similar to the Origin power of the same name (probably stronger).
Stimulant – Identical to the Medicine Power Pool power of the same name.
Imbue: Agent’s eyes glow and gain a slowly pulsating spiked aura (light pink) around their head.
Will Domination – Identical to the Psychic Blast (Blaster) power of the same name.
Mass Hypnosis – Identical to the Mind Control power of the same name.
Fortitude – Identical to the Empathy power of the same name (used on fellow Pets only).

Level 18 - Confuse - Ranged Foe Confuse

This power is identical to the Mind Control power of the same name.

Level 26 – Enthrall Super – Summon Thrall

This power summons an enthralled hero/villain (or Thrall) to do your bidding. The Thrall starts off as essentially a Sonic/Energy Blaster/Defender hybrid (or a Rebirth Guardian), with Sonic blasts, Sonic buffs and debuffs, and Energy melee attacks. As the Thrall is upgraded, they add more abilities, including Flight and Psionic effects. With this henchman, the Thought Control Mastermind finally has a powerful individual that they can mold to their whims.

As with previous henchmen, the summoning animation for the Thrall has the hero landing at the summoning point in a combat stance, followed by the controlling animations. The Thrall is either male or female*, wearing any of a variety of stock hero/villain costumes. Each costume should be stylized enough to be recognizable as a Mastermind Pet, with coordinating costume elements, and emblems or patterns that emphasize their Sonic or Energy powers. While the Thrall could always wear a costume that stays more heroic or villainous, depending on their origin, they could instead start in their original costume that would then change during upgrades to something more heroic or villainous (e.g., a Hero or Vigilante MM would summon a heroic Thrall, starting with a hero's costume that morphs over to a dark hero's costume with Unleash Id and a full villain's costume with Imbue).

* I don't know how getting a definite male or female Thrall would work here. It could be handled as a specific power selection variant, where two powers are offered but only one can be picked - a respec or specific build could allow the character to switch their choice. There could be a concurrent power similar to Staff Mastery automatically gained upon picking up Enthrall Super, with icons for male and female Thralls (and leaving both deactivated means the Thrall is randomly male or female on summoning). The rename function could have separate entries for male and female Thralls, if possible. Most likely costumes would come randomly from a collection hard-coded in, versus any sort of customization available to the player - if customization is a possibility, I have another Epic AT suggestion that would definitely want that.

The Thralls defensive powers are limited only to the powers they can employ at the beginning, but they do gain some Defense to Psionics with their second upgrade.

Basic: As above, with no back detail.
Energy Punch – Identical to the Energy Manipulation power of the same name.
Scream – Identical to the Sonic Blast power of the same name.
Disruption Field – Self-version of the Sonic Resonance power of the same name.
Unleash Id: Thralls add a cape to their costume. Alternately, the costume could gain significant “villainous” elements. Thralls can also Fly.
Bone Smasher – Identical to the Energy Manipulation power of the same name.
Shout – Identical to the Sonic Blast power of the same name.
Sonic Dispersion – Identical to the Sonic Resonance power of the same name.
Imbue: Thrall’s eyes glow and gain a slowly pulsating spiked aura (light pink) around their head. Alternately, the costume could gain additional "villainous" elements. Thralls with both upgrades have increased Fly speed and greater air control; those with just Imbue only have the standard Fly ability of Unleash Id.
Scramble Thoughts – Identical to the Psychic Blast power of the same name.
Psychic Scream – Identical to the Mental Manipulation power of the same name.
World of Confusion – Identical to the Mental Manipulation power of the same name.

Level 32 – Imbue – Ranged, Enhance Thought Control Henchmen

This power offers the second set of upgrades to a Thought Control Mastermind’s pets, transferring some of the mental power of the MM to each henchman. Upgrades offered with this power center around Psionic effects that mirror the style of earlier powers available to each henchman.
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I was particularly hard on the suggestion by Joshex, and I would be more than willing to subject my suggestion to similar scrutiny. I have more suggestions that I want to post, including another MM powerset (Plant). Thanks for taking a look!

5

General Suggestions and Feedback / P&P RPG Powers in CoH: Rebirth

« on: July 14, 2022, 12:15:50 pm »

In addition to superhero comic books themselves, I will often look at some of the pen & paper role-playing game books that I have (some quite old) to see what hasn't already been added to City of Heroes: Rebirth, to see if they could conceivably work in City.

To start this off, I'm looking at the Mutants & Masterminds RPG, 2002 edition from Green Ronin Publishing, which used a variant of the D20 system rules started by Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition.  They had a Shapeshift power that I thought might be a starting point for a Mutant Epic AT (non-aligned versus Hero Kheldians and Villain Arachnos Soldiers/Widows).  The actual change of appearance ability I thought could be handled as a type of Stealth/Invisibility/Hide power, where the character activates one power that gives them the appearance of a given enemy unit, similar to existing Halloween costume powers.  On activation of any aggro'ing power, the character's appearance reverts to normal and they generate aggro as normal.  Establishing or resetting the power would require selecting an active or defeated enemy and then activating - I would probably want to see the toggle suppression being developed for Kheldians to work here, rather than necessarily trying have someone figure out how to get all of the player power effects to work on all enemy models.  Personally, I don't think this aspect is TOO far out of bounds, although whether a given disguise would work against all enemy groups within a given area might bump into suspension of disbelief issues (i.e., I wouldn't want to force a player to constantly reset their Disguise power(s) whenever they meet another enemy group on a given map).

The M&M Shapeshift power also has "extras", other types of powers that can be added onto a given power under a single point cost.  One of the "extras" for Shapeshift is Mimic, which allows the character to copy and use an enemy's specific powers.  I think this would be an absolute nightmare to code, so I'm not really even wanting to bring it up, but I wanted to make sure you knew that I knew about the concern.

I've got more after this, but I figured to get this started here.

6

General Suggestions and Feedback / Sonic for Guardians

« on: December 03, 2021, 03:26:06 pm »

Sonic could work for both powerset types for Guardians:

Composition
1) self-version Sonic Barrier
2) Sonic Siphon
3) self-version Sonic Haven
4) Sonic Cage
5) self-version/auto Clarity (maybe drop StatusProt from this Sonic Dispersion)
6) (modified?) Sonic Dispersion
7) (self-version?) Disruption Field
Sonic Repulsion
9) Liquefy

Assault
1) Shriek
2) Kinetic's Quick Jab
3) Scream
4) Howl
5) Shout
6) Amplify
7) Super Strength's Hand Clap
Siren's Song
9) Dreadful Wail

7

General Suggestions and Feedback / Gender Diversification

« on: October 19, 2021, 01:46:03 pm »

Are there any opportunities for additional gender diversification (i.e., adding female members) in enemy groups, at different tiers? For example, the old days saw the introduction of female minions, lieutenants, and bosses for the Skulls, while the Hellions only added Girlfriends From Hell - could Blood Sister Slicers and female Fallen Gunners be added?

Between the previous enemy groups that included (if not entirely consisted of) female members and then the groups that were diversified later on, I think the concerns that defeating (through shooting, slicing, burning, etc.) female NPCs would be too much to allow, balanced against (I'm totally assuming) the more limited liability this private server has versus a commercial endeavor, should be fairly small at this point. If there are any enemy groups that make no sense to include female members (just as there would be those where male participation wouldn't make sense), then by all means leave those as is.

On a related note: I'm sure that there are costume assets held by enemy groups (or even civilians) that have not previously been made available to player-characters because they haven't been tested for clipping, etc., against the full range of player-character costume options. However, there are a number of costume options that already have those issues depending on what they're paired up with, and it might be good to further flesh out the costume options, using mostly existing assets.

8

General Suggestions and Feedback / Power Proliferation: Red Defenders/Controllers

« on: September 24, 2021, 10:04:18 am »

I'm working through an assessment of gaps in Support Sets, and got through all of the primaries for Defenders, loading all of the details of the powers so that I could get a thorough and accurate assessment. I was running some sorts and such and referring back to archived Paragon Wiki, when I just happened to look at the archetype entry for Masterminds and noticed that two of the secondary sets there hadn't been viewed yet: Pain Domination and Poison. As I'm running the assessment on all Support Sets, I'll be adding those in to the list, but seeing as they're currently only for Corruptors and Masterminds, they'll be going in as secondary sets only.

This brings up the question: with both Praetoria and the chooseable Galaxy City tutorial allowing for Corruptors and Masterminds to start as "good" characters, even with PD and Poison (never mind Demon Summoning and Necromancy), should Defenders and Controllers also have access to these previously red-side-only powersets? In a similar vein, should Cold Dom (MM), Empathy (both), FF (Cor), Kinetics (MM), and Rad Em (MM) be proliferated as well? The choices of appropriateness should maybe be left to players' role playing, not limitations of archetype.

9

General / Reading Power Descriptions on Wiki

« on: September 20, 2021, 10:02:55 am »

Back in the Old Days, I had done up a series of assessments of the various powersets used by each archetype, to find where there were gaps in coverage and opportunities in coming up with new sets. One area in particular that I didn't cover was the support powersets (primary for Defenders, secondary for Controllers, Corruptors, Masterminds). As I've been loading the individual effects from the archived Paragon Wiki into an Excel spreadsheet to get everything organized to run the assessment, I've been dealing with some oddness in how powers and power effects are described:

• Some powers are said to affect Allies and some Team-only - I disagreed with some of the interpretations given, based on my decade-old memories, but I'm quite likely wrong. What powers are legitimately Team-only versus affecting any Allies? Never mind, I got it straight: Team is intended for effects on both Allies and Self (although there are powers that make sense as Team that are marked Ally).
• Slow shows up in the Wiki as a status effect in and of itself, but also has component effects of -Speed and -Recharge - some powers only have one or the other effect, but many (Infrigidate, Snow Storm (both ColdDom and Storm), Sleet, Howling Twilight, Lingering Radiation, Freezing Rain, Time Crawl, Distortion Field, Web Grenade, Entangling Arrow, Glue Arrow, Ice Arrow) have both without it being called Slow. I see that there are four powers (Arctic Fog, Adrenaline Boost, Speed Boost, Thaw) that offer +Resist (Slow), but none that offer +Resist for Speed or Recharge debuffs - is this working as intended?
• Some Ally/Team individual shields/buffs are listed as "Targeted AoE" (e.g., Deflection Shield), while others are listed without that designation (e.g., Ice Shield). Again, my memory is that those were always individual buffs, but those might have been changed before the Old Days' demise.

I'll probably have more questions like this - stay tuned.

10

General Suggestions and Feedback / Power Customization: Flamethrowers and Cold Guns

« on: September 13, 2021, 01:23:33 pm »

Way back when Paragon Studios first announced power customization, I was hoping that we would get an alternate set of animations for many ranged powers, to have them come not from our characters' hands, eyes, etc., but from some type of gun or such (e.g., magic wand or staff).

Everything kept in mind regarding time and capabilities of our team, is this something that could be done? Would the same or similar animations work across a number of powersets?