Character Creation Suggestion's

It's getting alot close tho. We should get some form of guideline in pace soon eough. Nice one joe

Ok I think that the jump between 2 and 3 is quite fair-ish now

Strength

1 = Weak (Can lift barely own body weight)
2 = Normal (Can lift up to 800 pounds)
3 = Enhanced Human (Can lift up to 5 tons)
4 = Super Human (Can lift up to 25 tons)
5 = Incredible Human (Can lift up to 50 tons)
6 = Monstrous Human (Can lift up to 75 tons)
7 = Hulking Human (Can lift up to 100 tons)

Well once we get this nailed down the main problem is working out how to moderate powers that fall outside the grid. Like add on effect's (Nightkill's computer hacking, Nuke's radiation, People gagdets) and generally things that are not covered by the grid.

Pin it to the power. Say Nuke's radiation beams. They cause radioactive contamination, right? And Nuke himself is also radioactive due to being the source of those beams. The radiation is linked to the powers, and therefore, falls under EP. Gadgets are items and should therefore have a seperate application in "Item Applications".
Now, Ole Nightkills hacking power is theory an item power. But since Nightkill is both the item as well as the sentient being operating the machine (He's an android, for those who don't know), it counts as a power. You could say it's mind over machine. And since the power has nothing to do with either physical or mental abilities (it's supernatural), we could also put it under 'Energy Projection'.

Sounding good to me Soap.

I do however think that example:

The Radioactive Gringo Grinder has EP 5 and his blast has contamination and radiation effects, And Commander Laser Labido (Guess where he shoots from?) has a straight up laser blast his should be the more powerful.

As I think the more effects an EP based power has the less directly damaging it should be.

I was mentioned in that topic. I'm so proud.

They use me...I'm so awesome lol.

I agree that current characters seem to be too strong. For example, my character Chainer is supposed to be just a normal character with elevated stats. The only problem is that USING a character like that would mean instant death against any other character. He was a gang member, so He's not very smart. Sure, he can take a hit and is faster than an untrained human, and he's good with a sword, but there's nothing supernatural to complement his powers. Against a character who can control any energy-based attacks, he's useless.

Also, reducing the number of points may have unexpected consequences. For example: Most characters as it is are focused on one or two high-end stats. If the total number of points are reduced, many users will try to keep those stats high and reduce other stats. Int is the bastard-child of stats, as it rarely has any effect in a fight, so many users will choose to reduce their int level. The result? Half of our superheroes will be high-school dropouts.

This is why I believe that a perfect system is nigh impossible The only reason Batman was any good as a superhero was because he was rich. Sure, he worked out at the gym. Sure, he's pretty smart. But he could never beat any of the other (good) heroes if they took away all his money. Take Lex Luthor vs Superman. Lex only gets an upper hand by buying a shite-ton of Kryptonite. Once Superman gets past that, it's So Long, Lex. On the current system, 'Natural' heroes seem too powerful. But isnt that better than nerfing all the non-natural ones? I'd rather it seem like Chainer was better than normal then making Meteo or Xyron into drooling morons or spaghetti-noodle-armed geeks. Superheroes are meant to inspire the common individual by their feats and prowess. How am I supposed to be inspired if my role model cant spell his name.

Still, I'm glad we can all get together and admit that we have problems. A lot of other sites adopt a "This is how it works, get used to it" approach that ends up burning bridges. We adapt to what the users want, and that's TRUE representation. Kudos, USS, for bringing this up AND for the work you've already put into a solution.


@ Sham: Yeah, the M&M rule set has an in-depth rule system that works wonders for character creation. But it too has some fatal flaws. For example, It takes FOREVER to make a character. On top of that, there are combinations of powers that end up being far too broke. Need I remind you of Mirage? On that note, it would mean a shift into more struchturalized RP. We'd have to end up rolling dice online and making checks every 5 minutes. And then we start having Free-will issues...

Well the MnM would only really effect powers skills and abilities.

Which means completely taking out aspects of the creator. Many facets of the engine are meta-game features, meaning that they would do absolutely nothing outside the context of the game. Some powers require other feats, some feats affect powers, and even some skills are implemented in the power-creation process. M&M works as a package, and surgically removing bits and pieces will take a while... with the chance that it wont even fix our problem.

And I know this sounds bad, but is there really a way to balance this? In any given universe, all heroes are not created equal. Iceman is a stronger class of mutant than Spike (the blowfish guy), and that's just common sense. Our problem is that we need to make a way to balance characters in an unbalanced world. If someone nows a way to do this without making weak characters stronger or strong characters weaker, let me know.

Bringing the star system back to life?

That won't go well. New members will e pissed because they can't stand up at all to the older ones.

Stfu about MnM.

No.... I like MnM and I really want to see what we can draft up for it.

I have had a good read about the MnM's rule conversion and there is nothing we can really take from it. It would just be too complicated and like Keil said it would certainly cut down on the freeform rpg aspects.

Just a quick brainwave on balance tho, how about stat's cost more points when you take them past 4? Like they cost double.

So a stat of 6 would cost 8 points, While 5 would cost 6. But again as keil pointed out that would probably just lead to lots of people having 1's on stats to free up the points for the "Two big stats".

To be honest I think the main problem is in the fact that nearly all of the character's generated are designed to fight other players and are 2D apart from fighting skills.

Now im not bashing anyone as I love a fight as much as anyone and it is gratifying. Violence, Sex etc.. Should be used as a plot device it should mean something, should serve a purpose to expand the character or move the plot.

Could you imagine anyone buying a comic book if all that's happened cover to cover, issue to issue was just a fight? Nothing involved just two people fighting because? What in my opinion makes movie fights and comic fights so amazing is the personal stake's involved and the motivations that started it. Spiderman battling the Green Goblin after the death of gwen stacey. Iron Man fighting the Iron Monger for control of Stark enterprises. and the greatest of all when Bane broke the Batman! even the biggest of them all can lose for the sake of plot. Just pure awesome!

I think that as we are based on the Superhero Genre would should embrace it a abit more. Be willing to lose to further plot goals and have our characters become character's with depth.

Just my two cent's usual disclaimer tho it is just my opinion and no offence is meant to anybody.

I would LOVE to see more development in here! As it is, the meager portions of plot we actually get to experience are tied up in the chapter storylines. But those are so few and far between that we only get a taste before it's lost in the mindless bashing. That, and it seems like the fights always end up deteriorating as one or more members forget about it. Of all the topics in the 'Complete' section, I would guess only around 7 of them to be fight topics.

Right now, we have some good plot threads in the works, but it seems to be dragging on. For example: Shamgarel leading the Hand of Justice into the depths of Hell to save his beloved (can we start that now? please?), Magtok becoming enslaved to Nightkill to save his own hide (lol, silly maggy), the Death throes of SCAR and the rise of FEAR (post, cult!), and etc.. Unfortunately, these seem to vanish completely under the deluge of fight topics. I believe that's why the quests were implemented (to promote more meaningful RP), but they seem to have fallen under the same curse as before; no one wants to finish them.

And I totally agree on that last part. Not the offense thing (they can get over it, we're trying to make the site more enjoyable for all ), but the Losing for the Sake of Story part:

U.S.Sentinel wrote:Be willing to lose to further plot goals and have our characters become character's with depth.

Which is one of the reasons I advocated against this rule:

Pain wrote:* Secondary characters MAY DIE in a fight with out your permission, meaning if you lose to a villain or hero, they CAN KILL YOU!

This'll keep even the best of us from taking the fall, in fear of losing a character that we spent so much time on. Yes, in the real superhero world, people would die. But this is still a game, and there's no fun in losing your characters without permission.

Aaanyway, I've been at this post for FAR too long already, and I'm in need of some lunch. So I'll stop here. I tend to ramble while I rant (and whistle while I work ).