Aura Ideas from Effects we already have!

ninjapiff

This is basically a place where I, or anyone else, can easily request Player-equippable auras based on effects and whatnot that already exist in game. Here are a few examples of what I mean (and some of my top personal requests):

Musical Note/Whistling/Singing Aura: The Foxbattlebots which resemble Microphones (I forget what their names were, exactly) have one attack that acts like a hold. Musical notes fly from the villain and the hero is caught in a 'stupor'. The animation your character names is similar to the 'Stunned' or 'Paralyzed' animation, however there's also musical notes emanating from around your head.

This is EXACTLY like the Hearts Aura that we already have, which was originally an effect from being hit with one of the NPC mobs Placate attacks (like the Nightwalkers of Vibora Bay or the Lassies of Snake Gulch). As this effect already exists, it probably wouldn't take too much effort to convert it to a full-time aura (like you did with the Hearts Aura).

Weapons Auras: Many of the Legacy, pre-On Alert power unlock that modified weapons added an Aura to the attacks in question. For instance, there was one with an Electrified Katana, or a Flaming axe, or whatnot. As these auras already exist in game (though it is rare to find any of these leftover, grandfathered-in items) I would STRONGLY suggest making them available as full-time Auras. As a weaponmaster myself, I can tell you I'd pay for that aura pack!

'Master of the Mind' Aura: The Master of the Mind miniset that was released a while back is a slightly lackluster group of powers, to be completely honest. I mean, unless you base your build around those powers in particular, they really don't meld too well with other builds. That being said, the thing that interested me the most about that set when it first came out was the power 'Master of the Mind' which gave you that 'Psychic Double' kind of effect. Basically looked like a projection of yourself around your actual character.

I'd say you should make this an aura, as well (or at least some sort of variation of it). It's the effect to a power that only lasts a few seconds, and the effect is really more appealing than the power itself (though the issue with the power is something that should be saved for another thread ), and I believe it'd become a fairly popular Aura if made into one.


-Bonus Bin- As I typed this up, I actually had another idea (though it's not actually included in-game... or is it?). An interesting idea would be to have 'Psi Armor' or 'Holographic Armor' as an Aura AS WELL AS a costume piece/set. For instance, what if the recent Holoforce Armor costume set was ALSO made into an Aura, though only in the 'Holohex' material? Perhaps you could split it up into different parts: the Boots would be a 'Feet Aura', the Helmet a 'Head Aura', etc. The Holoforce set, in particular, would be perfect for this since the 'Holographic' elements are suspended around the actual body of the character, anyway. Just a thought!


Now, there are plenty of other effects seen in-game that could easily (well, more easily than making them from scratch!) be ported for player-use. List some of your favorites!

battybattybats

I finally unlocked the Qularr assault rifle the other day, that green goop bullet effect is great! I'd love that to be an aura for all of a characters bullet attacks. If i could turn all bullet attacks into raygun effects on some characters i'd be sooo happy.

flyingfinn

The Green Goop effect is for Pistols, AR, MSG, SR and Gatlingun.

meedacthunist

[fun_police_mode_on]

Auras will never enable different FXes on attack powers, because attack FX are tied directly to power animation.

You are using whateverpoweryouhave rankwhateverrank and it has hard set graphical FX. No way of changing FX without swapping entire power.

Power replacers were changing graphical FX precisely because they were replacing powers. This was no longer Assault Rifle R2 fired, but Replacer Power Rankwhatever.

Which is probably why Cryptic ditched power replacers and to this time we don't have any auras affecting attacks.

With every rank of every power (this number is multipilied by every advantage available to said power) being a completely separate "spell" and each of them having precisely hard set attack FX and animation...
The whole system of atttack graphical FXes is very rigid and not very adjustable.

Unless Cryptic can justify enough interest and return of investment to jump into reworking this system from the ground up.

[/fun_police_mode_off]

rebelscum58

The one that stands out to me is the ego form buff you get from charging Telekinetic Eruption, the full body energy form thing. It's practically begging to be made into an aura.

chalupaoffury

rebelscum58 wrote: »

The one that stands out to me is the ego form buff you get from charging Telekinetic Eruption, the full body energy form thing. It's practically begging to be made into an aura.

YES.

Also, the healing effect from the power armor toggle heal. Every time I use it on Iron Sentinel I get a comment about how awesome the effect is, and since nobody ever uses the power? That's exactly why auras exist.

serpinecoh

As an aura, I want that holographic display that floats in front of your face when on the mission to identify hidden gadroon.

meedacthunist wrote: »

Auras will never enable different FXes on attack powers, because attack FX are tied directly to power animation.

Maybe *something* could be rigged in the same way the crit aura throws up the big words on the enemy: I.e. green globs could still explode from the target even if they can't be made to emit from the guns. Just theorizing.

meedacthunist

serpinecoh wrote: »

Maybe *something* could be rigged in the same way the crit aura throws up the big words on the enemy: I.e. green globs could still explode from the target even if they can't be made to emit from the guns. Just theorizing.

Thing is, this aura doesn't change any power animation. Though it does add new FX, they aren't part of power FX. They're just floating "somewhere" above the character. But the base power FX remains intact.

Now... Kinda hard to think about any FX allowing, for an example, to replace munition attacks with particle FX for dual guns.
The effect would have to be massive and very obnoxious to hide completely both muzzle flash and ejected cartridges under its own FX.

Which actually makes me sad, because I'd like to see dual laser guns in the game...

serpinecoh

meedacthunist wrote: »

The effect would have to be massive and very obnoxious to hide completely both muzzle flash and ejected cartridges under its own FX.

Well if anything is massive / obnoxious enough to do it, the green alien globs would certainly be in the running. I have some of the original weapon power replacers involved and they are such a globby wonder to behold.

ninjapiff

Just to make a note: Because of personal preference, I would rather see Melee Weapon Auras than ranged weapon/firearm aura effects. And I know there have been Melee Weapons in Power Replacers that add a weapon with an aura effect to the entire powerset the Replacer covers. That flaming sword aura could probably be ported over to any Single Blade skin, or the Electric Dual Blades aura can be ported over to any Dual Blades skin. I'd say they could do either of these two things most efficiently:

Make an Aura Set for the Cstore for each kind of Aura for Melee Weapons/Attacks. Electric Weapons Aura = MA weapons (and possibly even Heavy Weapons skins, too) that have an aura similar to that of Electric Form. Fire Weapons Aura = MA/HW aura that is similar to Fiery Form. The list goes on.

-OR-

Make an Aura set in the Cstore for each different Powerset as a bundle. Single Blade Auras = all of the variant Auras for Single Blade attack. Dual Blade Auras = same, but for Dual Blades. etc.