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Multiple Builds on One Character

championshewolfchampionshewolf Posts: 4,375 Arc User
edited September 2019 in Suggestions Box
In the world of super heroes a single hero is often expected and sometimes even required to fill in multiple roles or just has at least some capability to do so. In Champions, this is not so much the case. While an argument can be made that it can be done, it usually comes at great sacrifice to do so, such as not being able to really fit in that extra role. Your set up and the horribly designed starting system basically throws any chance of inching too far out of your main roles boundaries difficult, to say the least. The stat system also being a major problem of this but that is a major overhaul I don’t think the team is able to tackle at this time.

To start at basics, if anyone has a freeform character, they might have noticed that there is a builds tab and those six buttons that appear next to your passive slot in game. Now originally, those weren’t just for making your character wear a different outfit, and of course these days it is allowing people to swap around devices at the very least, but in the past the actual idea involved being able to swap out power trays for completely different build set up to fulfill different roles back in beta. This notion was later dropped due to both time constraints and a vocal minority that demanded every power be on the hot bar at once using the false statement of “batman does not leave without his gadgets on his utility belt” as a way of arguing for that very thing.

But that was then, this is now, and how powers work now and the system as a whole is a vastly different beast. So, this is my proposal on the whole thing; the ability to buy build slots for a single character, much like aura slots. This will allow a player to be able to have very different builds on the same character. It will allow them to fill in multiple roles instead of having to level up different characters, because not everyone enjoys doing that, and for those who have ideals of what their character can and cannot do, it will allow them to fill those in. This will also help alleviate the one problem some people use as a hang up, differentiating their solo, team, raid and PvP builds. The prospect of this has multiple applications and can be used to help out the long-term health of the game. And to aid further in that regard, I think builds should be competitively prices against new character slots, maybe costing a bit more, with a limit of five extra builds on one single character, much like the current build slot.

Some arguments against though include things like gearing, as some will say that having one character with multiple builds will make it so they don’t have to gear those builds up. This is a bit myopic in thought, as making different builds will require different modding and gearing choices and unless someone is willing to constantly be spending tons of questionite to throw at the ether, the end result will be having to gain different mods for different pieces of gear to have to fill in those various roles. A person, for instance, will want to have a tank, dps and healing set for those roles, if they choose to go that route, and possibly even a set for PvP, and a solo set on top of that. And that doesn’t include myriad gear pieces to mix and match in, like specific resistance tank gear for specific cosmic fights. Grant it there could be that one person who decides to just make the same role type or character build in all their 6 build slots, that is their choice but is that any different from today?

Another argument is the statement this will kill people’s desire to alt. Not really, as alting will still be the primary way to maximize currency in this game. While you can use your main to fulfill any role, you are still limited by that character’s daily cap of questionite, event currencies, and the like. So, for those that see this as a way to just drop characters as a result will actually see a drop-in return. Add onto this, there are people out there that look at alts for build concepts and themes, their singular hero isn’t going to fit that, but those that just don’t want to really bother with alts should also have an avenue for that to. And then you come to the people that would actually look at having multi builds across multiple characters, not exactly a negative.

A major argument is that builds would be OP because people would just stack the best builds and swap between them for maximum buffing. First, there is a long CD on build swapping when in combat, so not something you can maximize. This is already hard coded. Secondly, to combat this, the solution to that is to have any personal buffs wiped the moment a build is swapped. A build swap in combat should only really occur when things go south and an immediate change is needed. Grant it, there will be some that try to troll, but most would actually use this option just to fill in a role to help out instead when things might be going south. The argument that makes no sense falls flat when people use those harbinger devices for that very reason.

On the flip side, we have some reasoning's why; it would give players more flexibility in their character concepts they actually have. Some create a character they want to work on that character. I know there is a number of people who see alting as their endgame, that’s great and all, but not everyone wants to do that or enjoys that. Some just prefer to play the one character, or couple of characters, they work on and have the flexibility to join in the content.

Now, before the mistake is made that I think this would be easy, I don’t. I know this will probably take resources and time to do, but I think it would be a worthwhile development and addition to the game. The impact it would have on other aspects of the game would be minimal and any complaints that it would make it where people would not bother getting extra gear is founded on faulty logic, at best. But this would allow flexibility to Champions, which a lot of people would love more of. And I think it would actually help boost interest in the game. Not having to deal with constant logging and relogging would probably help out a lot to especially with people and slower computers.

Now the question comes down to price now. New characters run at 100 zen starting, 400 for five packs, and 700 for ten packs. However, due to certain aspects of a character, such as the aura slot, I think a build slot should come in at a bare minimum of 300 to 500 zen, especially given the work that would probably be involved to code, with a maximum of 5 purchase rounding out at 2000 zen max to unlock all 5 slots with one pack.

In the end I think this would be very good for Champions long term, it would allow people to make different builds for different things. It would not just be for PvE, but also cover the gamut of PvP to. People could create different builds for different situation such as PvE vs PvP, team vs solo, or the various roles. Just would be a long term thing that many would enjoy.
Champions Online player since September of 2008, forumite since February of 2008.
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Post edited by championshewolf on

Comments

  • championshewolfchampionshewolf Posts: 4,375 Arc User
    Another argument that might come up, I just realized I forgot is the price of retconning. What to do if a single character has a lot of parts to retcon. Honestly, that is the price of having multiple builds on a single character and would be a downside to it. Each build would have to be retconned individually, and in the case of free retcons because of power choices, outside of invalid builds forcing one, the free retcon can only be applied to one build. So basically there's that.
    Champions Online player since September of 2008, forumite since February of 2008.
    Silverspar on PRIMUS
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  • spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    I like this idea. This gets a thumbs up from me.​​
  • neverwinter has this, and that has far, FAR less character customization than CO, yet people still make new characters there

    i don't see it being much of an issue here either, especially if other reasons to create characters are run *cough*defender's training program repeats*cough*​​
    #LegalizeAwoo
  • rugrothrumborrugrothrumbor Posts: 534 Arc User
    Suggested this a long time ago.
  • championshewolfchampionshewolf Posts: 4,375 Arc User
    Yes, I did. I am resuggesting it since it has been a few years.
    Champions Online player since September of 2008, forumite since February of 2008.
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  • avianosavianos Posts: 6,022 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    I still want this to happen and I embrace it
    This would enchante a lot of my characters' theme build and provide me with more DPS-Tanks and DPS-Healers so i can change on a dime

    the build swap feature is USELESS beyond being used for costumes and devices, and the few dual-roles builds get even more harder to maintain witch each powerframe revamp (Poor Tanks)​​
    Post edited by avianos on
    POWERFRAME REVAMPS, NEW POWERS and BUG FIXES > Recycled Content and Events and even costumes at this point Introvert guy who use CO to make his characters playable and get experimental with Viable FF Theme builds! Running out of Unique FF builds due to the lack of updates and synergiesPlaying since 1 February 2011 98+ Characters (7 ATs, 91 FFs) ALTitis for Life!
  • theravenforcetheravenforce Posts: 7,065 Arc User
    Again, I really like this idea. Often times, I've just forced a build into a character that could perform like a DPS in some situations but because I wanted to rep the support side...I've gone with that.

    I think it would be really nice and wouldn't stop people from farming for gear or making new characters.
  • avianosavianos Posts: 6,022 Arc User
    I think it would be really nice and wouldn't stop people from farming for gear or making new characters.
    Not only it WOULD NOT Discourage my ALTitis but also embrace it because I have a lot of characters who were never made into CO because of the lack of Multi-build 👀​​
    POWERFRAME REVAMPS, NEW POWERS and BUG FIXES > Recycled Content and Events and even costumes at this point Introvert guy who use CO to make his characters playable and get experimental with Viable FF Theme builds! Running out of Unique FF builds due to the lack of updates and synergiesPlaying since 1 February 2011 98+ Characters (7 ATs, 91 FFs) ALTitis for Life!
  • mordray001mordray001 Posts: 218 Arc User
    This would make my life a lot easier... no more needing to compromise my vision of the character to fit the limits of the single build system.
  • panthrax77panthrax77 Posts: 309 Arc User
    This is something I can get behind, as someone who already has a couple multi-build characters that could use some love.
  • cptmillenniumcptmillennium Posts: 449 Arc User
    I'd like to see this happen as well. Even taking more than one passive doesn't really let you fill two roles effectively. A tank will want different specializations and advantages than a DPS, maybe even different superstats.
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