= Radical Ideas= Extreme ideas for changes I wouldn't actually suggest for the existing [i]City of Heroes[/i] game but might make for interesting buffs/changes for a "COH 2" instead. (The changes are listed in patch note style, written as if they are already implemented instead of theoretical.) __TOC__ == Game Mechanics == === Critical Hits === * All archetypes are now able to [b]Critical Hit[/b] for 1.5x damage at a base rate of 5%. ** The effects of several inherent powers have been retroactively incorporated as critical hit effects.[br][i](See the Powers section for more information.)[/i] === Stealth === * All archetypes are now able to [b]Stealth Strike[/b] for 1.2x damage when attacking while invisible. ** The "Hidden" note now appears beneath the status bar for all archetypes when able to land a stealth strike. ** In cases where a stealth strike would critical hit, it crits instead. * Additional attributes have been added to the Combat Attributes window relating to stealth status: ** [b]Stealth Level[/b] displays a text description based on character visibility: *** "None" when no stealth increases are being applied. *** "Stealth" when invisible outside of melee. *** "Invisible" when invisible regardless of range. *** "Suppressed" when any amount of stealth is being suppressed while in combat. ** [b]Stealth Status[/b] displays a text description based on whether or not a character can currently Stealth Strike. *** "Visible" when a character has attacked or been attacked too recently, does not have a stealth power active, or is otherwise ineligible for a stealth strike bonus. *** "Hidden" when a character has not yet engaged in combat, not attacked, and not been attacked recently. * Hide has now been given a higher tier of stealth in the game code. ** Stalkers with Hide active should no longer be visible to mobs like Rikti Drones, ambushes, etc. that normally see through stealth unless those enemies have additional perception buffs. == Archetypes == === Epic Archetype Consolidation === * Peacebringer and Warshade have been merged into one archetype called Kheldian. ** Selecting a primary set locks the secondary set choice to its thematic match and vice-versa. ** The archetype's inherent and tier 1 secondary powers have been swapped: *** Incandescence is now the archetype inherent. [i](It and Absorption were functionally the same power.)[/i] *** Cosmic Balance is now Luminous Aura's tier 1 power; Dark Sustenance is now Umbral Aura's tier 1 power. *** On the backend, Cosmic Balance and Dark Sustenance are how the game grants the proper additional inherent powers - Energy Flight, Shadow Step, etc. *** A new Kheldian liaison greets characters on arrival to Atlas Park and introduces them to their epic archetype contact - Sunstorm or Shadowstar. [i](On the backend, this is so the liaison can see their power sets like Null the Gull does in order to know which contact to segue them to.)[/i] ** Alignment restrictions for Kheldians have been removed. They are, however, still reststricted to Primal Earth. *** A new contact has been added to Mercy Island for Kheldians who start as villains.[br][i](See the Story Arcs section for more information.)[/i] ** New ancillary power pools have been added for Kheldians. These are also thematically locked based on primary/secondary choice. Peacebringers and Warshades both have multiple ancillary pools to choose from which offer power assortments to specialize in specific playstyles: human-only, bi-form, or tri-form. * Arachnos Soldier and Arachnos Widow have been merged into one archetyped called Arachnos Soldier. ** Selecting a primary set locks the secondary set and branch choices to their thematic matches and vice-versa. ** The archetype's inherent power has been updated to Arachnos Conditioning and now provides minor Psionic and mez resistance in addition to its original effects. ** Primary and secondary power set names have been tweaked to free them for use as other sets: *** Arachnos Soldier is now Arachnos Rifle, branching into Crab Spider Backpack and Bane Spider Mace. *** Training and Gadgets is now Arachnos Armor, branching to Crab Spider Armor and Bane Spider Armor. *** Widow Training is now Arachnos Claws, branching into Widow Claws and Fortunata Psionics. *** Teamwork is now Arachnos Training, branching to Fortunata Training and Widow Training. ** Alignment restrictions for Arachnos Soldiers have been removed. They are, however, still reststricted to Primal Earth. *** A new contact has been added to Atlas Park for Arachnos Soldiers who start as heroes.[br][i](See the Story Arcs section for more information.)[/i] == Powers == === Inherent Powers === Inherent powers have been updated and, in many cases, incorporated into the new critical hit mechanics. * Blasters > Defiance ** Blasters can now use the tier 1 and 2 powers from both their primary [u]and[/u] secondary while mezzed. ** The damage bonus portion of Defiance is now a bar, like Brutes. The bar builds and decays much faster based on outgoing attack attempts compared to Brutes. ** The additional damage portion of Blaster critical hits ignores damage resistance. * Controllers > Containment ** Controllers' chance to do additional mez magnitude is now considered their critical hit instead of additional damage. ** Controllers continue to do double damage to targets that are already disoriented, held, immobilized, or slept. (The bonus damage is not considered a critical hit.) * Defenders > Vigilance ** Defender critical hits use the full damage buff value from Vigilance regardless of team size. * Scrappers > Critical Strike ** Scrappers remain unchanged. Critical hits doing 2.0x damage and their chance scaling with enemy rank is what separates them from other archetypes' critical hits. * Tankers > Gauntlet ** Tanker critical hits now cause bruising in addition to bonus damage. Tanker tier 1 powers are still flagged to always cause bruising even without critting. (It still does [u]not[/u] stack from the same caster, even via different powers.) * Brutes > Fury ** Brute criticals build a larger amount of Fury bar and briefly freeze Fury decay in addition to bonus damage. * Stalkers > Hide ** Assassination has been replaced with Hide. *** Nothing functionally changes as Assassination's effects were baked into Stalkers' powers. *** Hide's description incorporates Assassination's description. *** Hide can still be slotted. *** Hide has been replaced in each Stalker secondary.[br][i](See the Stalkers subsection for more information.)[/i] ** Stalker stealth strikes are still considered automatic critical hits and still do double damage. Note that the extreme bonus damage from assassin strike attacks is not considered a critical hit and cannot critical hit during a hidden assassin strike, though the power can still crit outside of stealth. * Masterminds > Supremacy ** In addition to its original effects, Supremacy also allows henchmen in range to crit for 1.2x damage at a 2% chance. * Dominators > Domination ** The domination bar has been removed. Domination is no longer affected by recharge buff/debuffs. ** Dominator criticals reduce the remaining recharge time of Domination in addition to dealing bonus damage. ** Dominator critical hits outside of Domination also still provide additional magnitude/duration. ** Activating Domination still provides mez protection and fully recovers endurance. * Corruptors > Scourge ** Scourge is functionally identical. Its effects are retroactively considered a crit chance that scales with enemy missing HP and do 2.0x damage. === Armor === * Because Hide is now the Stalker inherent power, each set has received a power to replace it at varying tiers with all preceding powers moving up one tier: ** Bio Armor has received Genomic Evolution (with the effects of Defensive Adaptation baked in) at tier 7 ** Dark Armor has received Tenebrous Regeneration at tier 6 ** Electric Armor has received Lightning Clap at tier 8 ** Energy Aura has received Repelling Force at tier 6 ** Fiery Aura has received Smoke Stack (a PBAOE version of Smoke) at tier 6 ** Ice Armor has received Rime (a PBAOE version of Frostbite) at tier 8 ** Invulnerability has received Durability at tier 4 ** Ninjitsu has received Bo Ryaku at tier 6 ** Radiation Armor has received Particle Acceleration at tier 6 ** Regeneration has received Quick Recovery at tier 3 ** Shield Defense has received Advanced Cover (a non-scaling version of Phalanx Fighting) at tier 6 ** Stone Armor has received Sand Trap (a PBAOE version of Quicksand) at tier 7 ** Super Reflexes has received Bullet Time (from Urban Combat) at tier 7 ** Willpower has received Quick Recovery at tier 6 === Control === ==== Mind Control ==== * A magnitude 3 immobilization effect has been added to Mass Hypnosis for the same duration as the sleep. This power now accepts immobilization enhancements and sets. ** The immobilization is NOT tied to the sleep and does NOT wear off if the targets are woken up early by damage or sleep resistance. ** Recharge time has [i]not[/i] been changed. * Confuse and Mass Hypnosis' tiers have been swapped. Mass Hypnosis is available sooner and Confuse later. * The recharge time of Mass Confusion has been reduced to 90s. Its duration has been reduced to 15s base. === Power Pools === * Gadgetry and Utility Belt have been added based on files in the game code from Paragon Studios' days. ==== Flight ==== * Some Flight powers have been buffed to make taking this pool superior at actual flight compared to Sorcery or Gadgets: ** Hover has been given additional -Fly protection. In general, it should take at least two or three applications from most -Fly powers to be grounded while hovering. This buff does [i]not[/i] apply to NPCs. ** Afterburner has been given high -Fly resistance. This allows players to turn it on to break free from being grounded sooner. == Enhancements == === New Invention Sets === * [b]Pile Bunker[/b] for melee damage. * [b]Supernova[/b] for melee AOE damage. * [b]Railgun[/b] for ranged damage. * [b]Missile Barrage[/b] for ranged AOE damage. * [b]Orbital Strike[/b] for sniping damage. * [b]Firing Squad[/b] for pet damage. * [b]Unending Horde[/b] for recharge-intensive pet damage. * [b]True Strike[/b] for universal damage. == Missions == ==== Security Chiefs ==== * All zone security chiefs have been turned into repeatable hunt mission contacts. * Arachnos has employed their own security chiefs, dressed as Wolf Spider Huntsmen, for each zone to serve the same function. * The number of enemies to defeat in these repeatable missions is the player's current level rounded down to the nearest multiple of 10 (so 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50). Characters under level 10 will be assigned 5 enemies. * These missions have a low chance to drop reward merits when completed. The bonus experience and reward merit drop chance allow for street-sweeping to be a semi-viable alternate leveling route. * Zone spawns will now detect how quickly and frequently they are being cleared and adjust to larger sizes when activity is high. Spawns will adjust down when activity lowers again, including despawning enlargened mobs for normal ones if no one has been in the area for a couple of minutes. * Security chiefs will appear in your contact list while in their level range and disappear again once you are out of it. ** Contacts will still try to give you a mission to speak to a security chief to tutorialize the process of learning about their new function. Once you have met one, no contacts will ever try to introduce you to one again. * With a few exceptions, hunt missions that are not part of story arcs have been removed from contacts on both sides. ** Remaining hunt missions from contacts have been reduced to between 5 and 30 enemies. === Story Arcs === ==== Heroes ==== * An epic story contact has been added for Arachnos Soldiers that start as heroes, centered around starting as a defected agent. ==== Villains ==== * An epic story contact has been added for Kheldians that start out as villains, centered around starting down the path of a Nictus (Peacebringers) or coming back to it (Warshades). == Zones == === Galaxy City === * The original Galaxy City has been restored as an alternate starting zone including all contacts, zone and tram connections, etc. ** Characters must play the Outbreak tutorial and choose to be sent to Galaxy City when talking to Coyote. * At level 10, or when choosing anything besides Outbreak > Galaxy City, characters will be flagged with a token that permanently changes Galaxy City to Echo: Galaxy City in the GUI. ** All zone connections will be removed. Once a character has the Entrusted with the Secret badge, Echo: Galaxy City will be added back to the tram list with an Ouroboros logo next to it. ** A temporary version of this flag will be added when teamed with a leader who already has this flag. (And vice-versa, a temporary exception will be tagged for players when teamed with a leader who does have access to Galaxy City.) * Contacts outside of Galaxy City will still not send anyone into Galaxy City, whether they can access it normally or not. === Mercy Island === * The original version of Mercy Island has been restored as an alternate starting path for villains, including starting in Fort Darwin and working towards Mercy. ** The zone is shared with the new Mercy Island and uses phasing to pick between the two for the locations of contacts, amenities, and enemies. ** Characters must play the Breakout tutorial and select Kalinda or Burke to be able to start in Mercy Island with the old layout. * At level 10, or when choosing anything besides Kalinda or Burke, characters will be flagged with a token that permanently changes it to the newlayout. ** A temporary version of this flag will be added when teamed with a leader who already has this flag. (And vice-versa, a temporary exception will be tagged for players when teamed with a leader who still has the old layout.) * At level 40+, the spawns in the center of the island will be replaced with high-level Snakes, Arachnos, and Arachnoids via similar zone phasing. === The Hollows === * Enemy group types in The Hollows have been altered. (By and large, they have been reverted to what they were before The Hollows' revamp in issue 12). ** Hellions only spawn rarely around the Atlas Park entrance. ** Lost only spawn rarely around the Skyway City entrance. ** Skulls have been removed completely. ** Coralax and Hydra remain in the Red River but spawns have been pushed away from Julius the Troll. ** Rare spawns of Slag Golems appear in Grendel's Gulch, where it meets the Red River, battling with Minions of Igneous. === Dark Astoria === * Access to the original Dark Astoria has been restored. ** It will appear as Dark Astoria and have connection through the Talos Island hazard gate until level 50. ** Upon reaching level 50, the gate in Talos will apear shut and it will register as Echo: Dark Astoria in the base teleporter UI (which is the only way to access it outside of Ouroboros' echo portal). * Most missions that used to send players to Dark Astoria will once again send them there, as long as their level range does not touch 50 (where it becomes an echo). === Destroyed Galaxy City === * A new co-op hazard zone has been added for level ranges 25-35 with separate story arcs for both heroes and villains.[br](See the Story Arcs section for more details.) === Rivera Heights === (The location of the Outbreak incident. Located in the northern edge of The Hollows.) * A new hero zone with missions and enemies in the 30-40 range. === Blinda Atoll === A new villain zone with missions and enemies in the 30-40 range. === New Galaxy City === * A new co-op zone has been added for level 45+ characters with new story arcs.[br](See the Story Arcs section for more details.)