This is all for fun so contribute if you like.

One of the things I heard talked about most often was the desire for personal vehicles so I'll begin with that. After much thought I've come to the same conclusion that the 'City of Heroes' developers originally came to. Personal vehicles were simply a poor idea for the game they were designing. It wasn't a bad idea it's just that it wasn't feasible for the game.

>Reality Factor<
Most players would have loved to drive/pilot a car, plane/jet, VTOL craft, boat, submarine or motorcycle bristling with weapons and cool devices with which to fight crime and protect the populace from harm. They looked so cool, relatively easy to operate and even commonplace in the cartoons and movies that it seemed only natural to include them in a super-hero mmo. The reality of such vehicles in an actual world would have obviously been much different. You put high-speed vehicles anywhere there are people and the world becomes like 'Grand Theft Auto'. Accidents WILL happen, property damage WILL occur and civilians WILL die. That's something real heroes "normally" can't risk.
Vehicles could still be a part of an mmo but their placement and operations would have to be thought out in advance. Without manual control in populated areas I can see only two options for vehicles: 1. Specific "destination only" travel for going to and from missions and 2. Instanced missions/areas for vehicular combat or maneuvers where civilian hazards and property damage are not a concern.
In the final years of CoH we got some extra options in travel abilities. Two were flight abilities, the rocketboard and the magic carpet, while the other was the Team Transport power. They were good to have even if they weren't customizable for a unique appearance.

Moving on we come to individual travel methods and abilities. The four travel ability pools covered movement quite well but they were generic and unmodifiable so they couldn't be personalized to make each character's travel ability significantly unique to them. Sure, you could go to a tailor/facemaker and add wings or special boots to your character but those were nothing more than pure visualizations for the same powersets available to everyone.
During my second year of playing CoH I really started feeling how generic many things were when it came to character origins and their gameplay.
-For example: Your character has the same flight method as everyone else. Their flight manner and operational costs are always the same regardless of how you look or how your bio says you obtained your powers. I believe travel methods should be more specific to a character's origin. If your origin is technology or natural then I'd expect you to be using devices such as 1. jet packs or boots that require fuel 2. anti-gravity harnesses or teleportation apparatus that requires large ammounts of power or 3. grappling hooks or similar devices that need power or explosive charges to continue operating or possibly even wings if your character was naturally born with them. Similar thought should be given to the other origins in regards to travel ability appearance, operational method and cost while cross-origin power usage per specific travel method should be expected in certain cases.

Keeping with the topics of travel powers and generic appearances I thought about stealth powers found in certain elemental type powersets and the generic stealth powers. I thought "Why not have (non-team) elemental stealth powers or elemental stealth travel abilities as standard options for characters with specific elemental sets?" I came up with four ideas.
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1. [Heatwave]/[Mirage] for Fire users
2. [Lightning Bolt]/[Ride the Lightning] for Weather controllers or Electricity users
3. [Whiteout] for Ice/Cold manipulators
4. [Tunnel]/[Burrow] for Earth manipulators *ability found in 'Champions Online'*
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I figure that elemental travel powers or elemental stealth travel powers should come with either reduced power consumption and/or no movement restrictions seeing as how they would be in-line with your character's natural abilities. Powers like Steamy Mist and Cloaking Device were already free of movement restrictions and that was a good thing.

I'm pretty sure most every player noticed the suppression of Fly and/or Super Jump during combat. Since the moment it was implimented I hated it. Admittedly there were times when it wasn't a big issue, however there were situations when it was a HUGE problem and caused headaches when you needed speed and maneuverability. The most notable case came during aerial combat. The developers didn't take it into account when they added travel power suppression, either that or they just didn't want any form of aerial combat.
Aside from quickly needing to escape a fight that had gone terribly wrong the absolute last place you need automatic travel suppression is when you encounter a swift moving enemy that you can't slow, immobilize or hold in some manner. During the final two weeks of CoH's life players on Protector server got together for what "may have been" the first organized attempts to bring down Rikti Dropships "on that server". Out of three attempts on three seperate leagues I managed to assist in bringing down two dropships. (*The rewards for which were absolute crap due to the effort necessary to destroy them.*) Flight suppression made it insanely difficult to keep up with the dropships and that was probably a contributing reason why so few attempts were made to attack them. If any of you are playing a game where a similar restriction is in place I highly recommend considerable effort be made to have it removed.

The last thing I have to mention is water travel. For the type of game CoH was I'd have to say that the limited means available for traveling on and across bodies of water were appropriate. Diving and surfing could be things to consider for a new game but they probably aren't necessary or wouldn't be necessary for the majority of gameplay.

That concludes my examination of in-game and potential travel abilities. Feel free to discuss or make suggestions. If you like this thread but haven't read my original thread please look over "We lost our heroes before their time. Lets build a new City of Heroes" and add any topics I may have missed for possible future discussion.
Thanks for reading.

Why yes. Yes it was.

* points to title --> Lets Build a new City of Heroes <-- *

* points to first line of thread --> This is all for fun so contribute if you like. <-- *