Issue 16: Power Spectrum

[MJB]

Officially announced today- Issue 16: Power Spectrum.

Here's the quick list of updates:

• New Character Creator
  
• Customizable Powers
  
• More Powerset Proliferation
  
• Enhanced Difficulty Options
  
• "more to be announced"
  

Official Announcement

Overview Page

[BlueBard]

Very nice.  A lot more powersets open for color customization than I thought there would be, and some key powerset proliferation. I feel a new bout of alt-itis coming on...

[Tortuga]

I love this game of "cat and mouse" between CoH and CO.  Hurray for the consumer!

[Funeral-Pyre]

Between i16 and the Going Rogue Expansion, I can't wait!  I want it, and I wan't it now!

[Midnight]

EEEEEEE!!!! ELECTRIC TANKS.

[MikeB7]

Very cool!  I'm looking forward to Stone Assault.  Was really hoping Brutes would get Broadswords first.     Hopefully they'll allow modification of the Hasten power, too. 

[BlueBard]

If anyone read the signature character materials for "Going Rogue", they might have noticed mention of two new powersets for the expansion:  Dual Pistols (apparently for Blasters) and Demon Summoning (for MM's).  Don't care a bit for DS, but DP is another story...

One other thing I'd like to see is a beam weapon powerset for blasters, corruptors, and defenders.  Or even an option to attach certain ranged attack effects to a beam weapon.  SciFi characters just don't get enough love...

[RTTingle]

I been waiting for Dual Pistols for a loooooooooooooooooooooooooong time.

[NeoDarke]

and finally Stalkers get to swing their own mighty Broadsword.

Sweet!

/em looks down

I think I need new pants after reading all of that...

[Figure Fan]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy cool.

[Funeral-Pyre]

It's all too much for me!  Stony assault!  Dual pistols!  Power color customization!  Broadsword for stalkers!  DS for MMs!

[MJB]

If anyone read the signature character materials for "Going Rogue", they might have noticed mention of two new powersets for the expansion:  Dual Pistols (apparently for Blasters) and Demon Summoning (for MM's).  Don't care a bit for DS, but DP is another story...

Just to be crystal clear here... Issue 16 is not "Going Rogue". There has been no mention that Dual Pistols and Demon Summoning will be included in I16. It is far more likely that they will be in the Going Rogue expansion.

Just wanted to clear that up in case people got confused and re-subscribed hoping for DP or DS.

[MJB]

Issue 16 is now in Open Beta.

[Kommando]

Actually, adding therm to MM has me interested.  A thugs or robots/therm build could be pretty nasty once you get your shields and forge.

[Midnight]

Fun fact for those who haven't made it to test: Martial arts has alternate animations for Storm Kick, Crippling Axe Kick, and Eagle's Claw. The alternate animations are all punches.

[Lionheart]

Several of the alternate animations for Super Strength are cool as well. The alternate on Haymaker (two-handed swing) is awesome with a shield -- it looks like a powerful shield blow.

[Xenolith]

Man, too bad those alterante animations are a little too late for me.  I like the MA alternates, and it would have been great for my golden age inspired character I deleted because he was doing kicks, not punches. 

[Midnight]

Several of the alternate animations for Super Strength are cool as well. The alternate on Haymaker (two-handed swing) is awesome with a shield -- it looks like a powerful shield blow.

I'm glad they made Foot Stomp's alternate a ground punch. My two SSers are wearing heels, and well...

[BlueBard]

Fun fact for those who haven't made it to test: Martial arts has alternate animations for Storm Kick, Crippling Axe Kick, and Eagle's Claw. The alternate animations are all punches.

Yes!!!

Now here's a question:  Do you choose the alternate animations on a power-by-power basis?  Are you able to mix and match?  Like use a punch ani for Storm Kick and a kick ani for Crippling Axe?  That would be the ultimate.

[Alaric]

Fun fact for those who haven't made it to test: Martial arts has alternate animations for Storm Kick, Crippling Axe Kick, and Eagle's Claw. The alternate animations are all punches.

Yes!!!

Now here's a question:  Do you choose the alternate animations on a power-by-power basis?  Are you able to mix and match?  Like use a punch ani for Storm Kick and a kick ani for Crippling Axe?  That would be the ultimate.

No, you can't choose the animations on a power-by-power basis, but they already do what you're talking about. The "punch"-type animations for Storm Kick, Crane Kick, and Dragon's Tail are the same as the originals- still kicks. The devs figured that those were generic-enough kicks that they'd still work with "punchy-er" martial artists.

Yes, while I'm mostly playing CO now, I have tried out I16 a bit- it may well bring me back to the game, at least part time. The power customization is great (I even created a light-based scrapper, choosing Radiation for my primary and recoloring it white and yellow- works amazingly well), but it's the new difficulty options that really might bring me back. Usually, the first thing I do when I create a new CoH character is first, skip the tutorial, then go beat up a group of Hellions or something to get some cash, and then go and raise my difficulty rating by one, before taking any missions. As my character advances, at certain intervals, I'll raise the difficulty a notch at a time. With the new system, instead of raising my effective level, I raise the number of heroes I'm equivalent to to two- it's much more fun, adds an entirely new element to those early missions.

On the other hand, the basic combat system is still the same old boring one. There are new ways to effectively spice it up a little- make it look different, add more opponents, etc.- but I'm still fundamentally bored with it. So, I doubt I'll be pulled that deeply back in, for now.

[Viking]

No, you can't choose the animations on a power-by-power basis, but they already do what you're talking about. The "punch"-type animations for Storm Kick, Crane Kick, and Dragon's Tail are the same as the originals- still kicks. The devs figured that those were generic-enough kicks that they'd still work with "punchy-er" martial artists.

Pardon?  That seems to be contradicted by what I'm presently seeing on Test in Open Beta.

Specificially, in character creation, when you get to the power customization screen, selecting one of your power trees opens up a list of the powers within that tree.  It is possible to:

1) Select a group theme for all powers in the set (E.g., for Super Strength, "Original," "Bright FX," "Dark FX," "Bright Heroic," or "Dark Heroic")

2) Select the theme for individual powers within the set (E.g., for Super Strength, leave Jab under "Original," give Punch the "Bright FX" setting, give KO Blow the "Bright Heroic" setting, and Footstomp the "Dark Heroic" setting, in which case the setting for the whole power tree is listed as "Custom.")

3) Assign a color palette to powers individually, or by the entire set to ensure consistency.  

[Alaric]

No, you can't choose the animations on a power-by-power basis, but they already do what you're talking about. The "punch"-type animations for Storm Kick, Crane Kick, and Dragon's Tail are the same as the originals- still kicks. The devs figured that those were generic-enough kicks that they'd still work with "punchy-er" martial artists.

Pardon?  That seems to be contradicted by what I'm presently seeing on Test in Open Beta.

Specificially, in character creation, when you get to the power customization screen, selecting one of your power trees opens up a list of the powers within that tree.  It is possible to:

1) Select a group theme for all powers in the set (E.g., for Super Strength, "Original," "Bright FX," "Dark FX," "Bright Heroic," or "Dark Heroic")

2) Select the theme for individual powers within the set (E.g., for Super Strength, leave Jab under "Original," give Punch the "Bright FX" setting, give KO Blow the "Bright Heroic" setting, and Footstomp the "Dark Heroic" setting, in which case the setting for the whole power tree is listed as "Custom.")

3) Assign a color palette to powers individually, or by the entire set to ensure consistency.  

Hmm... You're right. It's strange, I had tried setting the animations separately no less than twice, and it didn't give me that option either time- let me change the colors individually, but not the animations- , now it does...

Does make me wonder why they didn't include Punch options for Thunder Kick and crane Kick, though. It would have made some sense if you had to choose the entire set of animations.