Apolagies in advance for the long post. I'm designing a game where players will play as superheroes (or villains), and each player will select superpowers at the beginning of the game to customise thier character.

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Firstly, all players will have a number of common attributes: Strength: Effects how much melee-damage the player can deal, as well as how much equipment they can carry. Is also used as a modifier for damage-resistance, and in calculating max HP. Speed: This effects the movement speed of players, altering thier max walking and running speeds. It also effects how quickly they can manouvre in combat. Also effects rate of attack for melee combat. Agility: This effects how well/far the player can jump and/or roll. Also helps with such things as climbing. Endurance: This effects the player performing at maximum potential. Endurance is used by constant activity, and a players abilities degrade if it is significantly reduced or completely drained. The players abilities cannot however drain to an unusable state. Endurance regenerates over time, but the attribute as set here is the maximum. When the endurance is at a higher level it will recharge faster, thereby making it much less likely for players with higher endurance to have thier abilities crippled. These abilities range in numerical value from 0-40, with 10 being the average human level in any given ability. Players are initially given 60 points to assign as they wish to these abilities, allowing for characters to excel in a particular area, or to be above average in all areas. Players could possibly assign certain abilities BELOW average if they wish.

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In addition, players will choose 2 'superpowers.' Those I currently have are: Flying - Allows the character to fly. The potential uses of this are fairly obvious. Exceptional Grip - Players can climb walls. In addition, they cannot be disarmed in melee combat without an exceptional attack being made. Teleporting - Allows the player to teleport. The player can only teleport where there is line of sight, and cannot take objects other than regular inventory with them. As discussed in this thread. Invisibility - The player can become invisible for an amount of time. Potential uses of this include sneak attacks, or getting places without being noticed. Also useful for escaping. Players cannot make items other than regular inventory invisible. Liquifying - Allows the player to 'melt' through smaller spaces than they could normally fit through. Players with this abilitiy will naturally absorb a certain amount of damage from attacks without negative effect. Also allows a VERY temporary shapeshift into an object of choice. Pyromancer - Players have an innate ability to summon fireballs, which then may be used as a projectile. Also allows the setting of fires on other objects. Melee-attackers of players with this ability will take a small amount of damage. X-ray Vision - Allows the player to see through walls and objects. The player controls this ability with a depth-guide allowing them to choose how many layers of material to look through. The depth to which this vision penetrates is finite. The player has a 'power-pool' from which both of thier chosen powers will draw power. This gradually regenerates over time. More complex or sustained usage of powers will drain the pool faster. ie. teleporting 5 meters will take more power than teleporting 2 meters.

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I'm looking for any feedback on the system and the powers and abilities themselves, as well as suggestions for any additional powers that can be thought of. Powers should all be comicbook style. Thanks in advance for your thoughts. [smile]

What type of game is this going to be?

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Exceptional Grip - Players can climb walls. In addition, they cannot be disarmed in melee combat without an exceptional attack being made.

I would extend this abitly to be able to climb ceilings.

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Original post by gamegod3001 What type of game is this going to be? Quote: Exceptional Grip - Players can climb walls. In addition, they cannot be disarmed in melee combat without an exceptional attack being made. I would extend this abitly to be able to climb ceilings.

Sorry, I should have put the type of game in my first post. It'll be an FPS, with an optional over-the-shoulder 3rd person view to allow players to better control tricky manouvres in combat. Basically you either build your ultimate superhero using the powers provided and hunt your archnemesis, or you take the opposing role as a supervillain wreaking havok. The design should also lend itself well to multiplayer.

And yes, I actually intended the gripping ability to be useable on ceilings as well, but forgot to mention it. Due to the nature of it, this would drain the players power-reserve faster than using it on a vertical surface.

Some more suggestions/questions.

Exceptional Grip- Will the player be able to fire there weapons well they are climing the walls ceilings? If not well flying it should also be impossible.

Flying- I would advice on making height and depth limits, excpecialy in capture the flag type matches, or making it so they can't fly with a flag. This would prevent someone from grabing the flag, and souring out of firing range for the trip back.

Sounds a bit like City of Heroes.

Freedom Force comes to mind (it was earlier than CoH).

Anyway, I would make Agility be a to-hit modifier, and Speed be a defense modifier, and Strength be a damage-dealth modifier. That makes the different statistics a little more well weighted, and makes each one more pure (IMO).

You're probably going to need other super powers, like super strength, super-healing, and alien technology, to round out the heros. Also, unless the game is all about stealth missions, it's likely you'll need more fighting-style powers, and/or turn the powers you talk about into more of a power ladder (CoH style) where specific abilities within a specific super power are earned when you level somehow.

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Originally posted by RazorsKiss Sounds a bit like City of Heroes.

Apparently. I've never played it. This will be cel-shaded to give it the proper comic-book feel, which I don't believe City of Heroes is. Also, I'm under the impression CoH is an MMO, which this will most definately not be - I intend to focus mainly on the singleplayer, with a few multiplayer options such as a simple 'deathmatch' and capture-the-flag.

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Originally posted by gamegod3001 Exceptional Grip- Will the player be able to fire there weapons well they are climing the walls ceilings? If not well flying it should also be impossible.

The player will be able to fire smaller weapons, as well as using melee weapons while climbing. Eg. A climbing player can use a pistol, but not a rifle. This is due to the awkwardness of such an action. Flying players will not experience the same restriction, but should have increased difficulty aiming due to being unable to remain stationary during flight.

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Originally posted by gamegod3001 Flying- I would advice on making height and depth limits, excpecialy in capture the flag type matches, or making it so they can't fly with a flag. This would prevent someone from grabing the flag, and souring out of firing range for the trip back.

Depth limits? I call it the ground... unless you mean something else? Could you please clarify what you mean by depth? There will definately be a height-limit to the flying power. Players cannot carry items other than regular inventory when flying (this would apply to flags).

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Originally posted by hplus0603 Anyway, I would make Agility be a to-hit modifier, and Speed be a defense modifier, and Strength be a damage-dealth modifier. That makes the different statistics a little more well weighted, and makes each one more pure (IMO).

This is an excellent suggestion, and one that I believe I'll use as-is. [smile]

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Originally posted by hplus0603 You're probably going to need other super powers, like super strength, super-healing, and alien technology, to round out the heros.

'Super' strength can be achieved by setting the strength attribute at or near maximum. Doing so would obviously require creating a weakness in another statistic.

I'd considered super-healing, but am unsure on how it could actually be implemented? Being a super-power, it obviously needs to draw on the players energy-pool. Some options I see are to give them a better healing rate, and simply retard regeneration of power for use with the second ability, or to make it work like a medkit, taking away an appropriate amount of power upon usage.
I'm still looking for ideas on additional powers (other than the obvious shooting of spider-webs, which I feel obliged to leave out), so any further suggestions for this would be great.

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Originally posted by hplus0603 Also, unless the game is all about stealth missions, it's likely you'll need more fighting-style powers, and/or turn the powers you talk about into more of a power ladder (CoH style) where specific abilities within a specific super power are earned when you level somehow.

In singleplayer, which will be the focus, the player will face one or more supervillain, as well as non-superpowered 'henchmen.' I intend to allow them to approach this using whatever method they feel best, based on thier selection of powers. Obviously there are some very good applications for the existing powers for stealth, but with the existing list of possibilities players can also create some very interesting combative options. For example, a player with Str=30, Speed=10, Agil=10, Endurance=10, Exceptional Grip and Flying could make some very interesting assaults upon thier enemy.

In multiplayer obviously it will be up to the players to either use a more combative style, or to sneak around the map.

I do still intend to add more powers, and considering the applications of the current ones, some more directly applicable to combat would be an excellent addition.

Thanks for the input everyone. [smile]

Ice Based:

Ice slide - create a sheet of ice under the player that allows him to slide around at a high rate of speed.

Freeze - freeze a bad guy’s legs in a slab of ice... then beat the crap out of him

Ice ball - projectile type attack

Electricity Based:

Lightning blot - bolt comes from the sky or player and does some damage maybe even adds in a stun or knock back.

Electric ball - ball of energy that can stun/damage several attackers at once

Time Based:

Stop Time: Everything around the player (bad guys, bullets, fireballs, etc.) freezes in place but the player can move around as normal for a few seconds.

Slow Time: reduce the movement of everything around the player for a few seconds

Protection:

Fire Shield - protects against physical and ice based attacks maybe does some damage

Ice Shield - protects against physical and fire based attacks maybe does some damage

Electric - protects against physical based attacks and stuns the attacker

Rock Shield - complete protection but maybe it slows the player down

Bullet Shield - a magical barrier that deflects high speed projectiles

Reflection shield - a magical barrier that can bounce a fire ball or similar attack back on to the attacker

Mental:

Telekinesis - flip a switch across the room

ESP - read the bad guys mind, learn where the bomb is

Danger sense - uses flashing arrows on the screen that tell the player where danger is.

Knock back – push the bad guys back away from you

Physical:

Super Strength – pick up and throw things like cars

Super Speed – run, punch, etc. really fast


Misc:

Quake – super string player stomps the ground and knocks everyone around him down

Whirl Wind – create a gust of wind that sends the bad guys spinning off into the distance

Copy Cat (mimic) – make yourself look like anyone else. Take out a goon, mimic him, walk freely into the bad guy’s layer

Plant control – vines spring up out of the ground and entangle the bad guy so you can easily beat the crap out of him.

The AP with the super power list above was me... forgot to log in sorry :(