City of Heroes

I know the discussion of new powersets comes up every so often, specifically for Scrappers and Tankers who've are lacking and have been left out of more recent additions.

Well those of you who feel like that may be interested in this poll here. They are asking players to vote on what sets get prioritized in development:

Melee Sets
O Street Fighting
O Electric Hammer
O Energy Blade
O Psionic Weaponry
O Dual Blades
O Ball and Chain *
O Shield Fighting *

Defensive Sets
O Density Control
O Force Field
O Willpower
O Vibration
O Growth *
O Shield Defense *

* These powers might take longer to implement for technical reasons.

They would be tentatively scheduled for i11 as i10 is pretty much out of design and well into implementation by now.

Thoughts?

For my two cents, I think it might be worth the wait on the technically complex ones (Shields, Ball & Chain, Growth), as they sound pretty cool.

I figure Psi Weapon would be popular for PvPers. But I think I'm going to vote for Energy Blade, it concepts easily.

For the defensive sets, I figure Density and Willpower would be Resistance sets, Vibration would be Def/Resist, Growth would probably be healing / resistance, and Force Field and Shield would be defense.

Based on that, Growth gets the nod from me.

Street Brawling would be a good scrapper set, attack with brass knuckles, baseball bats etc...

Tanker side I would think since they have 3 elemental type attack sets, stone (earth), ice (water), fiery (fire) that they could add Sonic for the air one.

Depending on which of those Cryptic picks, i *might* be willing to come back and try something new.

It will be interesting when this occurs.

Originally posted by Amarsir

I know the discussion of new powersets comes up every so often, specifically for Scrappers and Tankers who've are lacking and have been left out of more recent additions.

Well those of you who feel like that may be interested in this poll here. They are asking players to vote on what sets get prioritized in development:

Melee Sets
O Street Fighting
O Electric Hammer
O Energy Blade
O Psionic Weaponry
O Dual Blades
O Ball and Chain *
O Shield Fighting *

Defensive Sets
O Density Control
O Force Field
O Willpower
O Vibration
O Growth *
O Shield Defense *

* These powers might take longer to implement for technical reasons.

They would be tentatively scheduled for i11 as i10 is pretty much out of design and well into implementation by now.

Thoughts?

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Originally posted by Jpizzle
Issue 11 pretty much means a year from now.  So, the “extra time” thing should be moot. 12 months is plenty of time to design and implement.

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Consider the Ball & Chain. It should have a little range, say 10-15 feet? Right now anything in the game that reaches out of melee (5 feet) has particles that extend out and hit / miss the target. But the ball & chain would have to be a continuous object that animates out and back again. Nothing in the entire game works that way, and if this requires an engine overhaul then a year with 1-2 coders isn't nearly enough manpower. That's a completely different schedule than a "normal" set, and it would be ridiculous of us to expect one in the same amount of time.

And that's not to mention any other effects we might expect from a ball & chain - for example, the ability to wrap around someone's legs, knock them down, and pull them forward. That would be a great effect, but can the game handle it?

Or consider Growth. Presumably the character should, you know, grow. Even if you ignore basic clipping issues (especially in doorways), consider the problem of animations. There's no guarantee that animations designed to fit characters from 4-8 feet will work just as well on one at 20 (to say nothing of any issues that already arise from those discrepancies). And just like quality degrades when you zoom in, will a larger character have lousy facial features and other details when seen that large? You'll notice the monsters that appear this size are very simply done.

There are any number of problems that could pop up with these more complex designs. And if they're going to do them they should be done right - no copouts like the trenchcoats. The last thing I want to see is a new "Ball & Chain" set rolled out only to have to start calling it "limp sword." (Phallic subtexts notwithstanding.)