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The Energy Projection Conspiracy
daisolaar
Posts: 28 Arc User
Something about this game has been bothering me ever since I started playing it. Now, this may make me seem like a conspiracy theorist, but I swear, I'm not crazy. Let's take a moment and look at CO's interpretation of Energy Projection, shall we?
In the beginning, we had Electricity, Fire, Force, Ice, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Darkness, Infernal, & Sorcery. Each power set is great both in functionality & cosmetic appearence, and fits many toon concepts to a T. Infernal has a shadowy tinge and is usually accompanied by flies, Ice is very crystalline in appearence, Darkness loos like a lot of horrible things coming from dimensional rifts, and so on & so forth. Eventually though, some players started wanting to make toons conceptualized around cosmic, or particle, or chi energy projection, which, in current known media, doesn't have a lot of direct distinction.
Well, your average player will instantly think of Force to use for these concepts. But that never works; Force has a unique semi-transparency gimmick to all its visual effects, not to mention that knockback mechanic that tends to hinder more than help in team play. How about Fire? No, both the Fire Power Set & Fire-themed Travel Powers are quite distinct in their smoky visuals and "kindling" SFX. There's always Sorcery, right? Well sure, if you like an over-abundance of arcane runes surrounding everything you generate.
Later on, Celestial was added to the Power Set roster. These powers are not only locked to garish, uncustomizable poses, but also are accompanied by "holy chior" SFX. Wind came next, but it possesses the same knockback as Force, and even more visual transparency. Some Travel Powers have been introduced that would be ideal to use, such as Energy Slide or Power Flight, but one has an unwieldy steering mechanic that is troublesome in battle, and the other is filled to burst with Kirby Dots and has, in most players' opinions, a pretty goofy pose.
And then there's Power Armor. This set already had a couple powers whose visuals could fit the concept, and with a semi-recent update, it received even more. But out of them all, only one of them has the ability to choose emanation points. All the others are locked to certain positions and have specific poses, solidifying that they are being fired or generated from machinery, even if the toon is not technologically conceptualized. Is anyone catching on, yet? When it seems like there could be something that could be used for a generic energy projection toon, there's either a signature visual, audible, or gameplay effect that comes along with it, that tends to prevent you from realizing your concept.
Right now, some of you might be thinking I am nit-picking this to high-Hell, that I must be out of my gourd to spend as much time pondering this as I have. I grant you that; it is really nit-picky of me, especially with all the other un-favorable things the game is doing right now. Don't misunderstand me; I'm not asking for non-descript, generic energy power sets or travel powers in this thread; enough people have done that already in other threads, including me. What I'm trying to do here is bring to light something that, in my point of view, is being deftly skirted around right in front of us and no one seems to care.
So, what's up, Cryptic? What are you afraid of? Come on, you can tell us; we pay for this game's features, y'know.
In the beginning, we had Electricity, Fire, Force, Ice, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Darkness, Infernal, & Sorcery. Each power set is great both in functionality & cosmetic appearence, and fits many toon concepts to a T. Infernal has a shadowy tinge and is usually accompanied by flies, Ice is very crystalline in appearence, Darkness loos like a lot of horrible things coming from dimensional rifts, and so on & so forth. Eventually though, some players started wanting to make toons conceptualized around cosmic, or particle, or chi energy projection, which, in current known media, doesn't have a lot of direct distinction.
Well, your average player will instantly think of Force to use for these concepts. But that never works; Force has a unique semi-transparency gimmick to all its visual effects, not to mention that knockback mechanic that tends to hinder more than help in team play. How about Fire? No, both the Fire Power Set & Fire-themed Travel Powers are quite distinct in their smoky visuals and "kindling" SFX. There's always Sorcery, right? Well sure, if you like an over-abundance of arcane runes surrounding everything you generate.
Later on, Celestial was added to the Power Set roster. These powers are not only locked to garish, uncustomizable poses, but also are accompanied by "holy chior" SFX. Wind came next, but it possesses the same knockback as Force, and even more visual transparency. Some Travel Powers have been introduced that would be ideal to use, such as Energy Slide or Power Flight, but one has an unwieldy steering mechanic that is troublesome in battle, and the other is filled to burst with Kirby Dots and has, in most players' opinions, a pretty goofy pose.
And then there's Power Armor. This set already had a couple powers whose visuals could fit the concept, and with a semi-recent update, it received even more. But out of them all, only one of them has the ability to choose emanation points. All the others are locked to certain positions and have specific poses, solidifying that they are being fired or generated from machinery, even if the toon is not technologically conceptualized. Is anyone catching on, yet? When it seems like there could be something that could be used for a generic energy projection toon, there's either a signature visual, audible, or gameplay effect that comes along with it, that tends to prevent you from realizing your concept.
Right now, some of you might be thinking I am nit-picking this to high-Hell, that I must be out of my gourd to spend as much time pondering this as I have. I grant you that; it is really nit-picky of me, especially with all the other un-favorable things the game is doing right now. Don't misunderstand me; I'm not asking for non-descript, generic energy power sets or travel powers in this thread; enough people have done that already in other threads, including me. What I'm trying to do here is bring to light something that, in my point of view, is being deftly skirted around right in front of us and no one seems to care.
So, what's up, Cryptic? What are you afraid of? Come on, you can tell us; we pay for this game's features, y'know.
Post edited by daisolaar on
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Comments
And comparable melee powerset.
It's strange and sad, when only Kirby dots are on a few Darkness attacks and one travel power.
Makes me really wonder about CO distinctive lack of coherent artistic direction.
It always seemed to me that they didn't have Western comic books in mind when creating the game. Instead, it seems they just had CoH in mind, and rehashing whatever they had there. There was never a focus on Western superheroes. It's always been superheroes and monsters and demons and ninjas and robots and everything else. It really comes out in things like Firebreath. If they had Western superheroes in mind, it would have been called flamethrower or something, and had a default hand emanation point, with other selectable emanation points. But instead superhero attack, they chose monster attack.
Before the hordes of "BUT THIS CHARACTER BREATHED FIRE," show up, I know they exist. Thanks.
As to the topic, I think the answer is pretty simple. You can't tailor to everyone's specific needs. Personally, I've never thought "Hmm, Force powers don't look right for what I want to do," unless I'm trying to put together a way left-field concept. I mean, your problem is opacity? For every person that wants it more opaque, there'll be one that wants it less. Unless that was part of the power customization process, then the effects are just how the artist conceptualized/designed. No conspiracy to keep you from doing what you want. You just can't design everything in every way possible, unless the goal from the start is to give the players that kind of control.
Cryptic also seems to be averse to pure damage blasters in general. Every set, in both CO and CoH, has a secondary effect. CO Electricity is probably closest to being pure damage* because the secondary effects are rather vague and tied up in advantages. Other blast sets usually have clear effects (slows, DoTs, knocks, debuffs, etc). Even the Power Armor beam attacks have some combination of knocks or burns.
*: Personally, I think they did that to make up for how weak Electric blasters were in CoH. Even after ED forced us to slot Endurance Mod enhancements instead of six-slotting for Damage, anything lower in rank than a Boss would be dead before the effect kicked in. It was the only set whose secondary effect had no practical benefit against trash mobs.**
**: Bosses, of course, were another story. By level 50, I could charge bosses, drop Short Circuit and Power Sink back-to-back, and have my way with them because they'd be completely sapped and capped. Can't chain-mez when you can only Brawl, can ya, Rikti Chief Mesmerist?
They're not there in the beginning, but when your story ends / Gonna last with you longer than your friends
However, that would require a pretty significant overhaul, and I'm guessing by the time the idea came up they were already in their current state of "scared to do too much for fear the whole thing will break".
As it is, the freeform system is sort of stuck between "maximum customization" and "realistic representation".
I'm not sure what the conspiracy was supposed to be though...
Champions Online: Be the hero you wish you could be in a better game.
Cosmic is a pretty wide definition of a power type in the comics weilding cosmic power is more a definition of there power level than a discriptionof there actual powers. That said If i was doing a cosmic type charachter I would be looking at darkness powers (black hole), celestial (specifically teh blast looks like your chucking a star at the target) and power armour for some general energy blasts)
Partical projection is a tuff one but can be done using the existing power armour attacks tho a non light up like a xmas tree passive would be apreciated
as for chi energy projection that I have no idea as I've never considered it as a blasting type set tho as I've now thought about it a bit I would be tempted to go with fire as Chi seems to be depicted as fire quite a bit maybe a fire/celestial hybrid.
I echo this sentiment, Smacky. When I first came here from the closure of that game...it struck me VERY hard and right in the face how.....-copied- everything seemed.
It is as if Mr. Emmert was throwing a tantrum and wanted to make the closest copy he could without copyright infringement.
It did strike me as odd that there was not some form of energy projection even close to an energy blaster, though.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5Dp7IdFPOg
I'm guessing that is what you meant by power effects?
Occam's Razor makes the cutting clean.
Man. I would pay like five or ten bucks at the C Store for them to take Force, duplicate it, and just add Kirby Dot effects to it like in that video. Premium Powerset reskins would be dope.
If you want a Chi character that does thing right, go for Force+Martial Arts.
The concept of Chi (气) first came from Chinese Wuxia novels, in which it's described as a kind of Force that can adjust your body, knock people away, enhance your fists, prolong your life and is the basis of everything else.
They are nothing like blasting people away with a round ball of light or fire. Maybe you're mistaking it for Ki Blasts used in Dragonball?
In the place where they come from, if some master shoot fires or energy out of their bare hands, other's first reaction is that the master could have some kind of device/machine hidden that allows them to do that.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
...the ultimate Contrast Moe (or not).
Problem solved.
Assuming that's the main gripe of the topic: Every powerset other than MA or Brick being about energy projection more than anything else. If the main gripe is instead about how the effects look, then holy nitpicking Batman.
Ok. But then you say ...
Uh ... what? Those Kirby Dots, that's sort of what you wanted right? Silver Surfer style Power Cosmic? Created by the king himself? Kirby? What's the problem with the power flight having Kirby dots?
Power Flight doesn't have Kirby dots, it has KIRBY DOTS!!!!!!!1!1!1
They are a wee bit over the top.
They're not there in the beginning, but when your story ends / Gonna last with you longer than your friends
Sadly, I alone am not a big enough market to justify the work required...
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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You can never have too many dots.
Champions Online: Be the hero you wish you could be in a better game.
That's essential Kirby. I mean seriously. Galactus? The Fourth World? Read the Fourth World. EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE ENDS WITH AN EXCLAMATION POINT! !!!!! It's like he permanently had caps lock on inside his head.
But that's Kirby you know? It's part of the charm.