New efforts!

[Eskreema]

I'm not sure what you mean by that, but there were powers that did strange things to targets that were odd side effects of the way the power worked, separate from the power's explicit power effects.

Lol, you're thinking too much, but that's why you are so endearing.  I liked that it could interrupt friendlies.  Someone looked annoying to me? Flying disc him/her out of what they were doing by making them catch.  It was always in my trays. I didn't have many powers like this on my scraps, tanks, brutes, etc.

[darkgob]

I just wish some time between his internment and his adulthood Erik Lensherr took a physics course.  He'd have given the Sentinels a real run for their money.

Their bodies were constructed with polymers, not metals.  Nevertheless he actually did manage to control them by embedding steel beams throughout their bodies.

[Codewalker]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but those aren't actually real projectiles, are they?  I always thought effects like that were actually stretched geometric FX.  Instead of a projectile flying through space, you were seeing an effect moving like a wave through an invisible object that connected the caster and the target.

You are wrong, they are particle fx under the control of the client and are independent particles. They are actually part of the hit fx that is played on each target hit, but are set up 'backwards' so that the particle travels from the "target" (which is really the source when you're dealing with hit fx) to the critter who was hit.

Many many extra lines snipped to not make the post super huge. This is from powers.bin:

Code Select Expand

FullName = Peacebringer_Offensive.Luminous_Blast.Proton_Scatter
DisplayName = Proton Scatter (P1547003542)
AttackFX = POWERS/COSMICPOWERS/PEACEBRINGER/ENERGYDRONES/PEACEDRONEHANDS2.FX
HitFX = POWERS/COSMICPOWERS/PEACEBRINGER/PEACEQUICKBLAST/PEACEMULTIPLEATTACKSMALLBLAST.FX
FramesBeforeHit = 29
DelayedHit = False


and fxinfo.bin:

Code Select Expand

Name = POWERS/COSMICPOWERS/PEACEBRINGER/PEACEQUICKBLAST/PEACEMULTIPLEATTACKSMALLBLAST.FX
    -------- Condition 1 --------
    On = Time
    Time = 2
    Event =
        -------- Event 0 --------
        Name = Prime
        Type = Start (4)
        At = T_mystic
        Magnet = Chest (Chest)
        LookAt = Chest (Chest)
        Bhvr = :QuickBlastProjectile4.bhvr
            -------- Part 0 --------
            Name =
              POWERS/COSMICPOWERS/PEACEBRINGER/PEACEQUICKBLAST/SmallBlastHeadCore.part
(...)
            -------- Part 5 --------
            Name =
              POWERS/COSMICPOWERS/PEACEBRINGER/PEACEQUICKBLAST/SmallBlastHeadStreaks.part


and from behaviors.bin

Code Select Expand


Name = FX/POWERS/COSMICPOWERS/PEACEBRINGER/PEACEQUICKBLAST/QUICKBLASTPROJECTILE4.BHVR
Gravity = 0
TrackRate = 5
TrackMethod = 2
LifeSpan = -1
AnimScale = 0.01


I am also wrong. It doesn't follow a set timeline like I thought but rather travels like an ordinary projectile. The only difference is that since DelayedHit is false, the server has no knowledge that it's a projectile and applies the damage at the power's FrameBeforeHit (29/30) seconds, or right before the projectiles actually start traveling towards their targets.

For those who aren't Arcana, the data above sets up a particle that travels from the "target"s 'Mystic' bone, which IIRC sits a little bit in front of the right hand, and travels on a path toward the critter's Chest bone at a rate of 5 * 0.01 = 0.05 world units per frame (1/30th of a second), or 1.5 feet per second.

I also just mistyped QUICKBLAST as BUICKBLAST while doing the search to find that and came up with an idea for a new powerset.

[Arcana]

Their bodies were constructed with polymers, not metals.  Nevertheless he actually did manage to control them by embedding steel beams throughout their bodies.

In Days of Future Past he threw the Blackbird into the heart of the Sentinels and let Storm blow it up.  He could have ripped the Blackbird apart and used the cloud of Blackbird dust to rip the Sentinels apart without the resulting shrapnel which quickly took him out of the fight.  We know he still had the ability to do that, because he eventually does something like that to barricade the door.

In X3, which I guess even Magneto tried to forget, he used bridge parts to make a shield to protect himself from the plastic cure projectiles.  He didn't do that in the Sentinel fight either in DoFP.

But I think the most powerful Magneto weapon might have been mercury.  Accumulate enough of it, and use it as a weapon against the Sentinels.  Once they are hit by it, Magneto could use it to destroy them from the inside out.  Best part is every time Kitty reset the timeline, they'd get to use it all over again.

[Surelle]

Codewalker,

Re:  Buickblast, I immediately thought of Gravity Controllers throwing their cars.   :P

If you're going to dream up a new power set, how about a rock-n-roll band themed one with all the major instruments?  You could even make it a Mastermind set and eventually the whole band could be out at once, playing together.   ;D

*ducks*

[Arcana]

the data above sets up a particle that travels from the "target"s 'Mystic' bone, which IIRC sits a little bit in front of the right hand, and travels on a path toward the critter's Chest bone at a rate of 5 * 0.01 = 0.05 world units per frame (1/30th of a second), or 1.5 feet per second.

On top of everything else, Peacebringers fired energy attacks at their enemies at one mile per hour?  No wonder the Battalion turned them into space-fuel.  Their home planet could have been taken over by an aggressive sixth grade dodgeball team.

[Codewalker]

On top of everything else, Peacebringers fired energy attacks at their enemies at one mile per hour?  No wonder the Battalion turned them into space-fuel.  Their home planet could have been taken over by an aggressive sixth grade dodgeball team.

Hmm, that does seem much slower than I remember. Perhaps I'm looking at the wrong AnimScale and it's the one in the FxInfo that matters, not the particle behavior. It's 1.0 for the parent Fx, which would make it a much more chipper 150 fps (argh, and all my physics knowledge is ingrained in m/s) or 102 mph.

Re:  Buickblast, I immediately thought of Gravity Controllers throwing their cars.   :P

Yes, the rusted out car shell being flung by Propel was what immediately came to mind for me as well. :)

[Arcana]

Yes, the rusted out car shell being flung by Propel was what immediately came to mind for me as well. :)

I always thought the damage from propel should have been random commensurate with the particle you drew.  So like an old fan would do 1.0, that big air tank would do 1.96, and once in a while it would crit for 3.56 when you threw that rust bucket at them.

[Eskreema]

Codewalker,
Long story short: i am hit (have effects and animations and the thing that hits me plays animations in my direction) because I have felt the effects of the power (been hit), and I have a mystic bone!?

[Vee]

Of course if they'd made Blink anything like the comics Mags and the rest could have sat around playing chess while she quickly teleported the sentinels or pieces thereof (for style) into the Earth's core :D

Oh and 1 mph projectiles should be ported over to Buickblast, along with the Left Blinker power, a massive aoe slow with moderate psi damage.

[Von Krieger]

Codewalker,
Long story short: i am hit (have effects and animations and the thing that hits me plays animations in my direction) because I have felt the effects of the power (been hit), and I have a mystic bone!?

Having few characters with resistance to End drain, I often found myself boned by Mu Mystics.

[Solitaire]

Having few characters with resistance to End drain, I often found myself boned by Mu Mystics.

Malta Sappers had the same effect, whenever teaming against Malta first targets would be the Sappers, the Malta were one of my favourite Villain groups.

[Arcana]

Malta Sappers had the same effect, whenever teaming against Malta first targets would be the Sappers, the Malta were one of my favourite Villain groups.

Back in the days of perma-Elude, we used to just plain ignore sappers.  One, we had high defense so they rarely hit us.  Two, Elude was a click so you couldn't detoggle it regardless.  Three, with Elude crashing all the time we didn't have any endurance to sap anyway.

One of the saddest things to see in I2 was a perma-Elude scrapper that forgot to refresh Practiced Brawler get stunned by a +7 sapper, and then have to sit there and pray he or she could break the mez before Elude ran out.  I used to see that all the time.

Ok, I used to do that all the time which is why I saw it so often.  But it wasn't only me, and I rarely died because of it.  I came close a few times, but usually the high defense would make it hard for the sapper to keep you mezzed long enough.  Although the duration of mez at +7 could get kind of scary.

[Solitaire]

At +7 were you hitting anything?

Would like to know what Primary you were running with your SR Scrapper.

[Arcana]

At +7 were you hitting anything?

Would like to know what Primary you were running with your SR Scrapper.

MA/SR.  2acc3dmg1end.  When you're 42 and almost literally impossible to hit, you find yourself doing some crazy things.  Teaming with 44's running invincible is one of them (and at one time -2s couldn't side kick up).  So they'd be fighting 49s at +5, and you'd be fighting +7s.  Perma-Elude and Aid Self FTW.  Or rather, for the not-lose.  It could take two minutes to solo kill a +7 Lt.  I once got surrounded by six +7 Lts and minions, and at +7 they were a legitimate threat.  I have never before nor since knocked something down with Dragon's Tail so many times and have it still be able to get back up again.

I didn't know it then with precision, but today I can say I had a whole 14% chance to hit those targets with 2acc and MA's inherent accuracy bonus.

[Surelle]

I always thought the damage from propel should have been random commensurate with the particle you drew.  So like an old fan would do 1.0, that big air tank would do 1.96, and once in a while it would crit for 3.56 when you threw that rust bucket at them.

Oh yeah, baby!  And I was forever hoping for that car every time anyway!

Funny launch-era Grav troller story:  My parents, my daughter and I all rolled absolutely identical Natural grav/rad trollers in green suits on Virtue.  I made the original and helped my daughter copy hers, then went to my parents' house to help them with the exact costume parts.  We each called our creation Emerald Image, and through using the "capital I/lowercase l tricks" even their names looked identical (except in their bios). 

We would stand around in Atlas Park and people would circle us, saying,

"How did you do that?"  And we would all hit our macros of "Someone's been imbibing a little too freely in the Paragon City Tavern!"  at the same time, lol.

Or my daughter and I would park our two nose to nose when we'd have to AFK, and they'd be saying, "Does this dress make me look fat?"   :P

But teaming with the four of them became a nightmare.  "Did you just throw that immob or did I?"  And leveling the team was an absolute crawl.

Ah, that was classic though.  Good times, good times....

[Solitaire]

MA/SR.  2acc3dmg1end.  When you're 42 and almost literally impossible to hit, you find yourself doing some crazy things.  Teaming with 44's running invincible is one of them (and at one time -2s couldn't side kick up).  So they'd be fighting 49s at +5, and you'd be fighting +7s.  Perma-Elude and Aid Self FTW.  Or rather, for the not-lose.  It could take two minutes to solo kill a +7 Lt.  I once got surrounded by six +7 Lts and minions, and at +7 they were a legitimate threat.  I have never before nor since knocked something down with Dragon's Tail so many times and have it still be able to get back up again.

I didn't know it then with precision, but today I can say I had a whole 14% chance to hit those targets with 2acc and MA's inherent accuracy bonus.

Impressed it only took you 2 minutes to solo a Lt at +7, but I bet the xp was worth it back then, remember hearing people complain that fighting +4s where to hard  :o

[FloatingFatMan]

Right. Most of the super strength characters, especially Superman, cannot lift the things that they lift, because the things would fall apart in their hands. Pick up and throw a bus? No, you'd pull the bumper off the bus and throw it, or whatever other part of the bus you tried to use to "pick it up". Just as a quick example.

That's almost word for word by my character always told people too. She was strong enough to smack a villain in the face with a bus, but the bus wasn't strong enough to get picked up by a 5.7" woman with tiny hands... She just ripped bits off it...

[Minotaur]

I always thought the damage from propel should have been random commensurate with the particle you drew.  So like an old fan would do 1.0, that big air tank would do 1.96, and once in a while it would crit for 3.56 when you threw that rust bucket at them.

I'd rather you were able to choose your projectile if you wanted, but they all did the same damage. The Monty Python fan in me wanted to throw cows at people.

[Minotaur]

At +7 were you hitting anything?

Would like to know what Primary you were running with your SR Scrapper.

One of the most stupid things I did was to run the then Citadel TF with my SG with a set team for which everything was too easy. We were level 25 and set it to invincible. This was fine for the first mission where we faced 30/31s, then it got brutal on the second where we faced mainly 32s. We completed the mission, but it wasn't fast or pretty. (Sonic/FF defs, tank, scrapper, kintroller, blaster, PB) - the cysts were messy at that difficulty