The Making of Laser Sword + Telepathy

trailturtle · September 2013

This week, we've got a cool peek behind the curtain at the making of powers, provided by Champions dev Chris Meyer, alias Gentleman_Crush. Find out more about the Telepathy and Laser Sword mini-sets, plus some stories from designing them!

Read the full blog here.

theravenforce · September 2013

I am glad he wrote this. It does save me having to explain why the telepathy debuffs are capped.

Hopefully people will read! :biggrin:

cascadence · September 2013

That was a quite enlightening and nice read, thanks GC for taking your sweet time to write this one...

that being said.....

Still I feel the sword powers dont synergyze well together =p just sayin xD

cptcooltastic · September 2013

Chris ?Gentleman_Crush? Meyer wrote:

After Telepathy was finished, Laser Sword began as an idea to flesh out a small quasi-set that already existed, and would tie in nicely with the tech-themed FATAL ERR0R story arc.

Unfortunately, the tie in with FATAL ERROR is what ultimately killed this new mini-set for me. What started out as New Laser Sword powers changed into a mini-set with 2 Laser Sword powers and 1 Tron Disk power which ALL have to be used together. Which means those who were looking to expand on their Laser Sword builds were left with nothing from the new set if they weren't wanting to incorporate the TRON theme into their characters. MAYBE this New Passive will at least be one new power that true Laser Sword builds will be able to use(but my judgement of that power is currently being reserved.)

Chris ?Gentleman_Crush? Meyer wrote:

With that in mind, I wanted again to focus on rewarding taking a group of powers together, with gameplay mechanics of ramping up and proc-friendly play.

Here's the thing, the new Laser Sword mini-set isn't rewarding at all! You can do superior dps by just using Lasers Edge, Laser Sword, and Plasma Cutter. It's stacking mechanics are FAR less frustrating, because you NEVER know when your actually gonna get Acceleration to proc(which is pretty darn UNFRIENDLY if you ask me.) With Laser Sword and Lasers Edge I've been able to hit up to 7 stacks of Plasma Burn, which equals up to a pretty nice Plasma Cutter rupture. You might say that Lasers Edge grants PB at random just like Accelerator procs randomly, but you don't NEED Lasers Edge to proc PB in order to make another power WORK! That 8 second cooldown on Unified Theory is so damn frustrating when you try to use the power and realize Accelerator didn't proc after having tapped it a few times. Accelerator NEEDS a way for us to KNOW when it's been proc'd beyond getting added to a cluttered up Buff Bar(nobody likes having to stare and search for icons on their buff bar!) This is why the request to change Laser Sword(the power) into a combo that procs Accelerator was pushed so hard.

Chris ?Gentleman_Crush? Meyer wrote:

With the first implementation of this there were several hiccups: Tracking your rotation felt awkward, fully ramping up just wasn?t satisfying and effective enough, and it made incorporating existing parts of the set too difficult.

All these problems STILL exist in it's released fashion. As I've already mentioned.

Chris ?Gentleman_Crush? Meyer wrote:

I experimented with different ways to bring in other Laser Sword powers that already existed, some of which involved heavily reworking Laser Sword (the power), but most of these changes made Laser Sword either way too powerful and valuable, or too prohibitive to use effectively, and ultimately it was left as it was.

If that's the case, why not transform Particle Accelerator into a Combo instead? Keep it's Cone Damage function, but allow it to proc Accelerator on the third strike automatically. That way we know when it's going to proc so we're not wasting time trying to use Unified Theory when we can't. I would even suggest adding an Advantage that has it Apply Plasma Burn to all targets hit on the 3rd strike, allowing you to keep your Plasma Burns going while trying to work your way towards a Particle Smash. Laser Sword(the power) would still have it's purpose, doing greater single target damage than Particle Accelerator and apply the Particle Debuff.

Chris ?Gentleman_Crush? Meyer wrote:

The passive ?Quantum Stabilizer? rewarded anyone using particle powers and allowed players to more flexibly choose what particle powers suited them and their concept

This is the kind of thought process you SHOULD be using when designing powers. Where was this thinking when the Tron Disk was stuck onto the finishing power of a Laser Sword power set? Not much flexibility for concept there.

Chris ?Gentleman_Crush? Meyer wrote:

Trying to sync all your damage bonuses up for a big Particle Smash spike felt really rewarding.

This I completely agree with! This is the one thing about the set that did feel fun to me. Trying to time everything just right to get the most out of your Particle Smash. That being said, even this has it's down side. While fun, it can take FAR to long to pull off. Which makes trying to do so impractical for the most part. Maybe if we knew when things were going to proc we could manage our timing easier and allow for some quicker DPS from this rotation.

Even still, your asking us to work pretty hard to pull off these damage spikes when we have powers like Haymaker that we can continually charge up without missing a beat for 16-20k crit spikes. Which would YOU choose?

All in all I LOVE the stacking for spike damage mechanic, but I honestly believe you've taken them to extremes that no longer fit in with Champions Online. Having to stack MULTIPLE things for ONE payoff power is to slow for the speed of this game. Epidemic is a spammable power that destroys EVERYTHING by itself! When will a New Telepathy/Laser Sword user ever have time to pull off their big spikes when teamed with players using such powers? Is the thought to make this an even more solo based MMO? I just think a quick refresher of how older powers work is in order before making any more new ones. *shrug*

rianfrost · September 2013

trailturtle wrote: »

This week, we've got a cool peek behind the curtain at the making of powers, provided by Champions dev Chris Meyer, alias Gentleman_Crush. Find out more about the Telepathy and Laser Sword mini-sets, plus some stories from designing them!

Read the full blog here.

ok, since eh asked for feedback, you know what power i'd love to see here? Some form of plant control. now at present crowd control needs to be buffed a bit, but a as coh refugee the plant control/nature power-sets were ones that i used for a number of concepts, and its blocking my main villain from making the transit over here, so can we look into working with that either as a new power framework or as an append onto earth control?

chaelk · September 2013

Feedback;
particle smash is listed as a ranged AOE power in it's description but is listed under single target melee, could you please move it to ranged aoe

riverocean · September 2013

With that in mind, I want to keep adding new powers and possibly even adding whole new sets; I want them to both explore interesting and new gameplay elements, and be visually and mechanically striking. This is a difficult task that requires support, both from us here at Cryptic, and from you, the players who help us by providing feedback and ideas that often become inspirations for new and fascinating things.

This is wonderful to read. And I'm glad to learn a little more about the thought process behind the way the new mini-sets were designed. My only complain is that both sets felt very rushed and unfinished. I'm hoping they get at least one more pass to fix minor issues and smooth out gameplay. Other than that.. they are very welcome additions to the game for me!

draogn · September 2013

Thank you GC for the insight.

Now for some feedback:
The intended synergy with other telepathy players doesn't really work well in alerts. Most of the alerts I've been in have had very little teamwork. It is usually just 5 random players zerging the boss.

theravenforce · September 2013

draogn wrote: »

Thank you GC for the insight.

Now for some feedback:
The intended synergy with other telepathy players doesn't really work well in alerts. Most of the alerts I've been in have had very little teamwork. It is usually just 5 random players zerging the boss.

Regret, Stress, Dependancy Debuffs - All stack to a max of 4. This cap can be reached by players solo or in a team. No target ever can have more than 4 stacks at anytime.

Mental Weakness and Malaise - Cannot stack in multiple instances of each other. Longest duration -should- be the presiding one. But they can be refreshed by Mental Leech and Shadow of Doubt re-applications respectively.

Mind Break - Any RDPSer/Hybrid/Tank/Support build with this power can rupture ANYONE's debuff stacks.

The above applies to every single conceivable instance with 1 or more telepath on the team. And yes, it still applies if 10 Telepaths (I hope this never happens) were to attack Gravitar, all using the debuffs and telepathy-ing all over her, she would still only ever have 4 stacks of the debuffs on her.

Other telepathy players (in the main) just detonate whenever, making it difficult to play with others effectively. The best option I find is to either be the -only- telepath on the team or team with an RDPSer or a Support Telepath (Debuffing/CC based) who knows what they are doing with Mind Break and doesn't spam or detonate whenever they see a stack.

The reasoning behind the change, from what I understand, is that the debuffs themselves work outside DR, so they are meant to debuff foes by a real 24% (when stacked to 4). I have been told the cap for debuffing bosses is somewhere around 25% or so. If they were to stack higher, this would be akin to the old interrupt system where encounters could be shut down by a single telepath simply because Interrupt Mechanic is the ultimate crowd control and is too powerful (which is why they were changed from interrupts to debuffs).

As explained in the blog post, the intention is for RDPS Telepaths to be rupturing for high damage and Support Telepaths to be debuffing, stacking and suppressing the target in question.

Even though this isn't what I personally find pleasing (as I was looking forward to teaming with other telepaths) it makes sense since it is how the powers function.

If you really want to try and get synergy with other telepaths, look hard for RDPS ones who know what they are doing. Two RDPSers is perfectly fine as they are just there for damage and damage spikes.

As a Support Telepath, I am yet to find an RDPSer who actually understands what my role is in debuffing, how the debuffs work and when to rupture stacks. (Only found one and he is levelling.)

superalfgorn · September 2013

Interesting read.

I playtested a bit on the PTS so I got to see the different versions. Both mini sets got definitely better with each iteration. But Laser Sword powers needed a bit more polish, perhaps.

I like how Telepathy turned out, even if the powers seem a bit weak -particularly if you cherry pick them- and Master of the Mind is cool, but almost unusable (no defenses etc). All in all, though, the final iteration fits the design goal.

Laser Sword powers started off really clunky. Now they are much better, and I like how you can use either all of them or take one of the two paths. Still, the fact that the Accelerator buff procs randomly is annoying. And the long charge time on Unified Theory is pointless: you will never use it without Accelerator... make the charge time normal, but put it on cooldown if you use it without Accelerator (like Rimefire Burst).

deadman20 · September 2013

Chris Gentlemen Crush Meyer wrote:

With that in mind, I want to keep adding new powers and possibly even adding whole new sets; I want them to both explore interesting and new gameplay elements, and be visually and mechanically striking. This is a difficult task that requires support, both from us here at Cryptic, and from you, the players who help us by providing feedback and ideas that often become inspirations for new and fascinating things.

We've got plenty of ideas for you guys in the Suggestions section of the forums. There's several powers and sets that I think would work wonders. If you'd like a list of new powers I think you should develop I'd be happy to provide one.

rianfrost wrote: »

ok, since eh asked for feedback, you know what power i'd love to see here? Some form of plant control. now at present crowd control needs to be buffed a bit, but a as coh refugee the plant control/nature power-sets were ones that i used for a number of concepts, and its blocking my main villain from making the transit over here, so can we look into working with that either as a new power framework or as an append onto earth control?

Since Plants are in season and very much desired, I'm gonna go ahead and throw the link to my original thread as an example of a list of powers to look at.

theravenforce · September 2013

superalfgorn wrote: »

Still, the fact that the Accelerator buff procs randomly is annoying. And the long charge time on Unified Theory is pointless: you will never use it without Accelerator... make the charge time normal, but put it on cooldown if you use it without Accelerator (like Rimefire Burst).

Agreed. But I did find in tests and asking GMC about it, that the chance is increased based on how many targets you attack per swing. I think the max target for the power is 5?

I was able to proc Accelerator more often with more targets hit. But it does feel a little impractical and a bit annoying on bosses.

rianfrost · September 2013

deadman20 wrote: »

Since Plants are in season and very much desired, I'm gonna go ahead and throw the link to my original thread as an example of a list of powers to look at.

thanks for the link. that list is growing on me. :P

draogn · September 2013

theravenforce wrote: »

Regret, Stress, Dependancy Debuffs - All stack to a max of 4. This cap can be reached by players solo or in a team. No target ever can have more than 4 stacks at anytime.

Mental Weakness and Malaise - Cannot stack in multiple instances of each other. Longest duration -should- be the presiding one. But they can be refreshed by Mental Leech and Shadow of Doubt re-applications respectively.

Mind Break - Any RDPSer/Hybrid/Tank/Support build with this power can rupture ANYONE's debuff stacks.

The above applies to every single conceivable instance with 1 or more telepath on the team. And yes, it still applies if 10 Telepaths (I hope this never happens) were to attack Gravitar, all using the debuffs and telepathy-ing all over her, she would still only ever have 4 stacks of the debuffs on her.

Other telepathy players (in the main) just detonate whenever, making it difficult to play with others effectively. The best option I find is to either be the -only- telepath on the team or team with an RDPSer or a Support Telepath (Debuffing/CC based) who knows what they are doing with Mind Break and doesn't spam or detonate whenever they see a stack.

The reasoning behind the change, from what I understand, is that the debuffs themselves work outside DR, so they are meant to debuff foes by a real 24% (when stacked to 4). I have been told the cap for debuffing bosses is somewhere around 25% or so. If they were to stack higher, this would be akin to the old interrupt system where encounters could be shut down by a single telepath simply because Interrupt Mechanic is the ultimate crowd control and is too powerful (which is why they were changed from interrupts to debuffs).

As explained in the blog post, the intention is for RDPS Telepaths to be rupturing for high damage and Support Telepaths to be debuffing, stacking and suppressing the target in question.

Even though this isn't what I personally find pleasing (as I was looking forward to teaming with other telepaths) it makes sense since it is how the powers function.

If you really want to try and get synergy with other telepaths, look hard for RDPS ones who know what they are doing. Two RDPSers is perfectly fine as they are just there for damage and damage spikes.

As a Support Telepath, I am yet to find an RDPSer who actually understands what my role is in debuffing, how the debuffs work and when to rupture stacks. (Only found one and he is levelling.)

Yes I understand how the powers work, and I get the intention behind the change. But from my experience it doesn't work in an environment like alerts where there is no teamwork. This synergy rarely has happened when I am placed in a group with another telepath.

goodwillout · September 2013

Interesting read! I've not really tinkered with the new laser sword powers but I'm currently using the new telepathy powers and am really loving them. This could be the first character in a while that makes it to 40 as I'm actually enjoying the mechanics behind adding more stacks and then exploding them for high damage. I'm even loving the Master Of The Mind power (which a lot of people have called unusable). I can completely SHED an Alert boss with that power as long as there's either a good tank present, or I'm careful to avoid taking on too much damage.

Will have to try out the laser sword at some point - probably when this new passive is released.

cy83rn3tdra90n · September 2013

add water power Archetype. add plant power Archetype. add shape shifting power Archetype. add magnetic power Archetype. add gravity power Archetype. add a power that can freeze time for a few

crypticbuxom · September 2013

They can't add archetypes for powers that don't exist.

But maybe we'll get powers we want sometime that aren't remnants of old existing powers.

theravenforce · September 2013

draogn wrote: »

Yes I understand how the powers work, and I get the intention behind the change. But from my experience it doesn't work in an environment like alerts where there is no teamwork. This synergy rarely has happened when I am placed in a group with another telepath.

I hear you completely. I think pre made alert groups are the best things to do honestly. It goes by so much faster when everyone knows what they should be doing.

cptcooltastic · September 2013

superalfgorn wrote: »

Laser Sword powers started off really clunky. Now they are much better, and I like how you can use either all of them or take one of the two paths. Still, the fact that the Accelerator buff procs randomly is annoying. And the long charge time on Unified Theory is pointless: you will never use it without Accelerator... make the charge time normal, but put it on cooldown if you use it without Accelerator (like Rimefire Burst).

^This is an interesting idea, but is open to abuse. A way around that abuse would be to use a Lockdown instead of a Cooldown.

Give Unified Theory a 0.5-1Sec Charge time. Unified Theory now goes on a 15sec LOCKDOWN(just like Particle Smash's 30sec Lockdown.) The Lockdown can only be broken by gaining the Accelerator Buff.

Lockdown: A Cooldown that can not be reduced by any means. Includes INT stat, Gear, Nanobot Swarm, etc.

What does this do for the set?

-Allow's Unified to be taken as it's own power without being completely locked behind another.
-Removes the frustration of getting stuck with an 8sec charge do to Accelerations random procs.
-Speeds up the rotation(as you can now begin your rotation with Unified Theory) when using all 3 New Powers together for a faster more CO friendly experience.
-Particle Accelerator's role in the set becomes more defined, as it functions to ACCELERATE how often you can use Unified Theory and Particle Smash.
-Allow's players the ability to choose weather they want to use Particle Accelerator to unlock Unified Theory quicker for faster spike damage uses, or wait for Unified Theory to unlock naturally while spamming laser Sword and Plasma Cutter in between the Lockdown times for better DPS. THIS is HUGE for the synergy of the set!!!

All this time I thought Particle Accelerator was the problem, thank you Superalfgorn for setting me straight!:biggrin:

EDIT: Come to think of it, I'm not sure if Particle Smash uses a Lockdown as I described or not. I just know the power automatically comes off cooldown when you proc Accelerator. So hopefully I was correct. Even if I wasn't, doesn't change the suggestion above in the least bit.

cptmillennium · September 2013

Great read GC. I really like hearing more about the thought process that goes into creating and testing powers, how you approach balance and content issues, etc. Hope to see a lot more new powers added (I humbly suggest an energy unlock for Might!) over the coming months and years.

Keep up the great work!

cy83rn3tdra90n · September 2013

add a slash wave move

cptcooltastic · September 2013

cptmillennium wrote: »

Great read GC. I really like hearing more about the thought process that goes into creating and testing powers, how you approach balance and content issues, etc. Hope to see a lot more new powers added (I humbly suggest an energy unlock for Might!) over the coming months and years.

Keep up the great work!

Might technically has energy locks built directly into it's two passives, Defiance and Unstoppable. The Energy Return from Defiance scales with CON, and I believe the Energy Return from Unstoppable scales with REC.

Enrage(also in the Might framework) has an Energy Return mechanic that scales with STR.

If you need EVEN MOAR energy on top of those, you can always pick up something like Molecular Self-Assembly which Scales with INT and grants an Energy Return Over Time buff that procs off powers coming off cooldown.

Hope that helps ya.

draogn · September 2013

theravenforce wrote: »

I hear you completely. I think pre made alert groups are the best things to do honestly. It goes by so much faster when everyone knows what they should be doing.

That may be, but not everyone has that luxury. It is certainly not something everyone will do or even want to do. Especially for alerts, in a game that has done everything it can to benefit the solo player vs the team player.

It would be awesome if there was more content that took advantage of teamwork and this synergy. It also doesn't help that many of the bosses are immune to many of the new telepath debuffs.

superalfgorn · September 2013

cptcooltastic wrote: »

^This is an interesting idea, but is open to abuse. A way around that abuse would be to use a Lockdown instead of a Cooldown.

Give Unified Theory a 0.5-1Sec Charge time. Unified Theory now goes on a 15sec LOCKDOWN(just like Particle Smash's 30sec Lockdown.) The Lockdown can only be broken by gaining the Accelerator Buff.

Lockdown: A Cooldown that can not be reduced by any means. Includes INT stat, Gear, Nanobot Swarm, etc.

What does this do for the set?

-Allow's Unified to be taken as it's own power without being completely locked behind another.
-Removes the frustration of getting stuck with an 8sec charge do to Accelerations random procs.
-Speeds up the rotation(as you can now begin your rotation with Unified Theory) when using all 3 New Powers together for a faster more CO friendly experience.
-Particle Accelerator's role in the set becomes more defined, as it functions to ACCELERATE how often you can use Unified Theory and Particle Smash.
-Allow's players the ability to choose weather they want to use Particle Accelerator to unlock Unified Theory quicker for faster spike damage uses, or wait for Unified Theory to unlock naturally while spamming laser Sword and Plasma Cutter in between the Lockdown times for better DPS. THIS is HUGE for the synergy of the set!!!

All this time I thought Particle Accelerator was the problem, thank you Superalfgorn for setting me straight!:biggrin:

EDIT: Come to think of it, I'm not sure if Particle Smash uses a Lockdown as I described or not. I just know the power automatically comes off cooldown when you proc Accelerator. So hopefully I was correct. Even if I wasn't, doesn't change the suggestion above in the least bit.

Yeah I agree completely!

solunitus · September 2013

I always appreciate learning something new. Especially when it keeps me from looking like an **** in the forums when I demand something unreasonable due to an ignorance of the hows and whys.

theravenforce · September 2013

draogn wrote: »

It would be awesome if there was more content that took advantage of teamwork and this synergy. It also doesn't help that many of the bosses are immune to many of the new telepath debuffs.

No boss in game is immune to Stress, Dependancy, Regret, Mental Weakness or Malaise.

I reckon the issue is that there isn't really any noticeable difference that players can directly see.

I think if Malaise and Mental Weakness especially scaled with CC strength for their actual strength purposes (so the 15%) instead of just the duration (which is refreshable anyway) that might be more productive.

However, I am not a Dev, I have no idea how such a change would affect encounters, I'd hate to be nerfed because my playstyle "ruins" encounters for other players. I guess that perhaps it was considered and it would make the powers too valuable or too powerful. But since they don't stack, I guess maybe it could be looked into? Highest CC strength would be the dominating debuff though.

Oh well, I am happy they work and I can solo things!

Having said that, I do agree if more team content to take advantage of synergies was out there it would be very cool.

theravenforce · September 2013

cptcooltastic wrote: »

^This is an interesting idea, but is open to abuse. A way around that abuse would be to use a Lockdown instead of a Cooldown.

Give Unified Theory a 0.5-1Sec Charge time. Unified Theory now goes on a 15sec LOCKDOWN(just like Particle Smash's 30sec Lockdown.) The Lockdown can only be broken by gaining the Accelerator Buff.

Lockdown: A Cooldown that can not be reduced by any means. Includes INT stat, Gear, Nanobot Swarm, etc.

What does this do for the set?

-Allow's Unified to be taken as it's own power without being completely locked behind another.
-Removes the frustration of getting stuck with an 8sec charge do to Accelerations random procs.
-Speeds up the rotation(as you can now begin your rotation with Unified Theory) when using all 3 New Powers together for a faster more CO friendly experience.
-Particle Accelerator's role in the set becomes more defined, as it functions to ACCELERATE how often you can use Unified Theory and Particle Smash.
-Allow's players the ability to choose weather they want to use Particle Accelerator to unlock Unified Theory quicker for faster spike damage uses, or wait for Unified Theory to unlock naturally while spamming laser Sword and Plasma Cutter in between the Lockdown times for better DPS. THIS is HUGE for the synergy of the set!!!

All this time I thought Particle Accelerator was the problem, thank you Superalfgorn for setting me straight!:biggrin:

EDIT: Come to think of it, I'm not sure if Particle Smash uses a Lockdown as I described or not. I just know the power automatically comes off cooldown when you proc Accelerator. So hopefully I was correct. Even if I wasn't, doesn't change the suggestion above in the least bit.

Very very nice. I agree.

And yes, I tested Laser Sword abilities last night whilst getting values. The Particle Smash Power is a bit weird, I wasn't able to get Accelerator Buff to stop the lockout, but it seemed to occur randomly, not based on Accelerator Buff gaining at all.

I think in a similar fashion to Accelerator Buff, it may have a higher chance of resetting PS's Lockdown with the more targets you hit.

I figure the power Particle Accelerator itself has the chance to reset it rather than the accelerator buff. So it rolls for Accelerator per hit (increased chance to gain Accelerator if more targets are caught in swipe) and rolls for CD reset on Particle Smash if it is on CD.

cptcooltastic · September 2013

cptcooltastic wrote: »

Give Unified Theory a 0.5-1Sec Charge Time. Unified Theory now goes on a 20sec LOCKDOWN(just like Particle Smash's 30sec Lockdown.) The Lockdown can only be broken by gaining the Accelerator Buff which instantly refreshes Unified Theory and Particle Smash(This allows the RANDOM proc chance on Accelerator to make MUCH more sense!)

Lockdown: A Cooldown that can not be reduced by any means. Includes INT stat, Gear, Nanobot Swarm, etc.

^Edited the quote above for increased clarity! Also, changed the Lockdown time on Unified Theory from 15sec to 20sec. This is because of the fact that you would now be able to get your first stack of Unified Theory right away, only having to endure 2 Lockdown times before being able to use a fully buffed Particle Smash. That would put the wait time to use a fully buffed Particle Smash at only 30sec(this is if your are NOT using Particle Accelerator.) 30secs seemed a bit fast for such a hard hitting attack, so I upped that time to 40secs which seems more reasonable and makes using Particle Accelerator more desirable. Thoughts?

ALSO... Since it's been realized that Unified Theory is the main power that needs adjusting in the New Laser Sword mini-set, I'd like to suggest a small addition to the power since it needs to be worked on anyway. These additions would make the power more useful to use with ALL Laser Sword powers, and not just used as a "GO BETWEEN" for the New mini-set. Here's my suggestion...

UNIFIED THEORY: NEW 2pt ADVANTAGE: Each stack of the buff granted from Unified Theory ALSO buffs your Critical Chance by 4% to all Particle Damage Attacks! Allows for a MAX Critical Chance buff of 12%. Or just make this buff part of the base power, that works too.

PS: I also have a small suggestion to make Particle Accelerator more important to the entire set. What if we had Particle Accelerator ACCELERATE the particle residue left in your enemies wounds? Basically what I mean is, when Accelerator procs ALL stacks of Plasma Burn currently on your target are REFRESHED(does not add any additional stacks.) This gives Particle Accelerator purpose outside of the Mini-Set. WARNING: If this is done Plasma Burns might need to have a stack cap put on it, I recommend 8 stacks as I've been able to hit Cauterize up to 7 on LIVE. Allowing a power to refresh PB's would just make things a bit easier.

chalupaoffury · September 2013

I just can't wait for the new passive. I wanna use the new powers, but I've got nothing thematic to do with em at the moment.

Also, if they're looking for set suggestions? A fencing mini set based on stacking a defensive buff on yourself, then rupturing it for a big spike damage (the riposte) would be amazing.

drewbicus · September 2013

I read the blog post.

Whie I appreciate how hard you worked to devise new power sets there is one frustrating aspect of this, related to how you worked on the Laser Sword powers: all the effort went into designing new powers while leaving the existing laser sword powers broken.

The chief problem with the basic set of laser sword powers is simply that they don't compare remotely with other similar sets of powers. Laser Sword itself has the issues of overly-high energy cost coupled with the fact that it does not work with the Power Armor set's own energy unlock, for example.

It seems a shame that with all the effort put into developing new laser sword powers that fixes to the existing items were omitted. Making the basic Laser Sword a maintain (keeps swinging as lon as you hold down the button) would have helped immensely, for example.

Also, from what I have seen in the Power House, the new powers look interesting but they require an *enormous* amount of management to make their effects proc and even with perfect management to capitalize on the synergies between powers the buildup is so long that the effective damage over time for it is really very, very small.

I guess in the long run the point is to start with fixing the problems with existing powers before adding new ones; and when adding new ones it would be more helpful if the new powers were of similar effectiveness to other avenues a player can take.

trailturtle wrote: »

This week, we've got a cool peek behind the curtain at the making of powers, provided by Champions dev Chris Meyer, alias Gentleman_Crush. Find out more about the Telepathy and Laser Sword mini-sets, plus some stories from designing them!

Read the full blog here.

chalupaoffury · September 2013

True. I was just thinking about mini-sets though, which seem to be what we're getting. I'd love to see plant, but I can see fencing being a quicker and more compact set to create.

leonafiora · September 2013

What I'd like to see them do before going through the 'painstakingly slow process' of creating new powers is to maybe fix some of the frameworks already in the game first, but that's just me.

pugdaddy · October 2013

Trailturtle, thanks for keeping us updated. It was interesting to learn some of the "insides" of the power creation process. I hope the same attention to detail is used when creating the Plant mini-set for Toxic.
The link below has a good description of what a Plant mini-set would need. 3/4 or more of it is just re-skinning of existing powers -such as Grasping Shadows.
http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=148553&highlight=plant

The Making of Laser Sword + Telepathy

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