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Original post by Kazgoroth The idea of ESP is a good one, but I don't think such an ability could be effectively implemented. For one thing, it is effectively useless in multiplayer. In singleplayer, it is useful against scripted opponents, but how about those that are acting on a goals-based system? In addition to not being able to gain information for this ability to be useful, finding a good way to display it could possibly be problematic.

I can't think of a multiplayer use either but in singleplayer there are lots of uses. Not every NPC has to give vital plot information to the player. In a goals based system it could simply show the characters mood, alignment, and maybe even some comic relief. Maybe the player could get a hint about what he is up against. "Here comes Might Man! He will never guess that I am immune to his fire attacks now! I shall crush him easily." This will tell the player that perhaps he should forget about the fireballs and try a different tatict.

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I don't like the idea of flashing arrows on the screen, as I feel it would break immersion too much. Instead, 'ghost' images could be rendered visible only to the player with the ability. If they are approaching a trap, a ghost explosion goes off in front of them, warning them of a landmine. Direction of shots would have to simply be a flashing at one edge of the screen.

Maybe you could just make a blinking effect of some type around the players head. Then it could get brighter, faster or something depending on how close he is to the source of the problem

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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).

Take for example Facing Worlds from Unreal Tournament if you make the player fly using the console it is possible to go under the asteroid.

Maybe in multiplayer, ESP could be useful for determining other facts about the enemy that they wouldn't normally be privy too. Amount of health they have left, equipment carried, vulnerabilities or weaknesses - just stuff that could give the player a tactical edge because the know more than someone without ESP would.

Other powers:

Absorb and/or use other players energy/abilities.

Create hallucinations or holograms - mirror copies of yourself to confuse the enemy.

Astral walking - get "out of body" to walk around an enemy base without being noticed. Possibly even manipulate small switches or open doors. Leaves real body vulnerable, though.

Elastic body. Get to stretch body parts. Possibly controlled through a Unreal Tournament remote missile style view where the body stays behind, but the player gets to stretch an arm out and guide it through bars, around corners, etc. to see what's there, manipulate or pick up objects, maybe even attack. (I see great fun with this in a capture the flag game.)

I'll post more if I can think of any. Heh.

Well, I must say I find the idea of a Superhero FPS kindof odd, to say the least, since it seems like the bulk of common Superheroes are immune to bullets (at least in my experience).
Examples of this are immediate: Superman is invincible, Batman has armor, Wolverine regenerates, etc.

As such, bringing a railgun or rocket launcher against such characters seems a little out of place... However, I don't bar the possibility that it could be a lot of fun.

I would definitely suggest expanding the super power list A LOT. This isn't very hard; Just go to the comic book store and jot down ideas. Trust me, there are plenty of powers already oout there.

If you're still open to gameplay suggestions - a third person shooter approach might not be bad either, because you could mix in the melee / martial arts combat used by superheroes like batman and spiderman, instead of just shooting. Oni was one game I thought did this pretty well, you might want to check it out.

Good Luck and stick with it.

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Original post by Kazgoroth I shall also add in based on your ideas 'Electromancy,' and 'Chrono-alteration.' Chrono-alteration would allow the player to either slow those around them, or to increase thier own speed. (The difference in these being that slowing down time around you would also effect bullets, explosions, etc, possibly providing different advantages to increasing your own speed).

I'd be a bit wary of slowing everyone else down if this you're planning to implement online play. Otherwise it's just asking to be abused. Even if it's not abused, it could still be very annoying. I've heard stories about griefers joining NWN servers with high level mages and just casting the Time Stop spell over and over again just to annoy other players.

Alternatively you could go the Jedi Knight route and make it so that in single player, everything slows down, but in multiplayer, you speed up, although personally I think it would be better for the players to make powers consistent in both game modes.

There's a ton of resources available for power abilities - watch a few episodes of the X-Men or look through the spell lists of any RPG for inspiration. (there is at least one superhero PnP RPG as well, which will be chock full of stuff) Myra Main covered a good selection, but here's a few more completely random ideas off the top of my head:

Illusion: Character can create illusions of things like walls, monsters, etc. which will confuse and distract their opponents.

Possession: Character can possess other characters. There could be some kind of meta game representing the possessed player's fight to regain control of their body, so they aren't sitting around doing nothing, and to limit the effectiveness of this power.

Absorption: Character can absorb the power of another attack used against them. To avoid this becoming too powerful, it would have to be activated as a defence rather than always on.

Just a point,

Abilities, even in the 'SUPER' level may vary.

SpiderMan can lift a car, but its no match against Rhino. And Rhino its no match against Hulk. (Hulk is about Superman level based on the Marvel/DC comics). But even them are no match against SilverSurfer level... which may be like DragonballZ Super Sayan 4 Goku level. I guess Galactus may beat them all.

So, try not to stick to simple table rules. As the computers can crunch number a lot faster than pen&pencil players just create a great scale system, then you may place your heroes in that power level scale.

Powers, armors and materials may also be in that level. SpiderMan 'danger sense' its more like a mild 'see the future' power. Apprentice Jean Grey Psychic powers are nothing compared to Charles Xavier... at least until she becomes Phoenix. Wolverine Adamantium Claws may but a reinforced steel door but have a very hard time against Juggernaut's magic armor.

Hey... now try to compare Flash speed against any Golden Warrior in the Saint Seya saga. And of course... Goku can beat them all in a fight in a moment...

So, try to create a big scheme power level (say... max level 100millions), then put your average heroe in that level scheme.

Luck!
Guimo

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Original post by Kazgoroth I don't like the idea of flashing arrows on the screen, as I feel it would break immersion too much. Instead, 'ghost' images could be rendered visible only to the player with the ability. If they are approaching a trap, a ghost explosion goes off in front of them, warning them of a landmine. Direction of shots would have to simply be a flashing at one edge of the screen.

This would be good in a paranormal video game or something. The character is either a channeler or something that can conjure a ghost to give him information. Or, the character's a mostly-powerless demi-god who has so much good karma built up that someone on high helps him, or the ghosts of people he helped in the past come back to give him warnings. Just my initial thoughts.

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Originally posted by NoSuchMethod Well, I must say I find the idea of a Superhero FPS kindof odd, to say the least, since it seems like the bulk of common Superheroes are immune to bullets (at least in my experience).

Well, in most FPS games, players can take a fair amount of hits without dying, whereas in real life a single bullet is likely to stop a person. I figure I can keep much the same mechanics as usual, but it will actually make sense for a change due to players being 'super.' The heroes and villains will be vastly outnumbered by fairly regular henchmen and whathaveyou in singleplay - obviously in multiplay this doesnt really have a place.

Also, although players can potentially make themselves very difficult to kill with traditional weapons, many of the options may be highly useful in other ways, but leave players relatively standard in thier susceptibility to gunfire, etc. For eg. a player who has made themselves very fast, and chosen Exceptional Grip and Invisibility will be able to sneak around very well, attack from various directions, and should be fairly good at dodging gunfire. However, compared to someone very strong with Elasticity (known as 'liquifying' on my original list) and whatever other power, they wont be able to take nearly as many hits. Obviously this will require some balancing of the various powers.

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Originally posted by NoSuchMethod If you're still open to gameplay suggestions - a third person shooter approach might not be bad either, because you could mix in the melee / martial arts combat used by superheroes like batman and spiderman, instead of just shooting.

I'm already intending to have users able to toggle between 1st person and 3rd person 'over-the-shoulder' views, allowing for easier use of melee combat and some abilities. Climbing using Exceptional Grip might be easier from a 3rd person view for example.

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Originally posted by gamegod3001 Take for example Facing Worlds from Unreal Tournament if you make the player fly using the console it is possible to go under the asteroid.

Ah, right, I see. Players will be restricted to the map area, so will be unable to leave the boundaries, go above a certain height, or go under the ground.

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Originally posted by Sandman I'd be a bit wary of slowing everyone else down if this you're planning to implement online play. Otherwise it's just asking to be abused. Even if it's not abused, it could still be very annoying. I've heard stories about griefers joining NWN servers with high level mages and just casting the Time Stop spell over and over again just to annoy other players.

The thought had occured to me. The effect won't be anywhere near the extreme of actually stopping time. In addition to this, I was thinking that perhaps in multiplayer I could just make usage of this particular power more draining than usual, so players can't use it constantly or repeatedly, instead having to save it for specific moments.

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Originally posted by Taolung Maybe in multiplayer, ESP could be useful for determining other facts about the enemy that they wouldn't normally be privy too. Amount of health they have left, equipment carried, vulnerabilities or weaknesses - just stuff that could give the player a tactical edge because the know more than someone without ESP would. ...*snip*... I'll post more if I can think of any. Heh.

Thankyou for the suggestions, and for your thoughts on ESP. If I can think of a way to implement the display of this sort of information in a way that shouldn't break immersion overly much, I may consider putting in ESP.

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Originally posted by Guimo Abilities, even in the 'SUPER' level may vary. ...*snip*... So, try to create a big scheme power level (say... max level 100millions), then put your average heroe in that level scheme.

Excellent observations, but not all that useful with the current system. I think the uses of this would be more suited if powers were selected using a pointbuy system instead of a fixed choice of two powers, and while this would certainly add depth and many additional gameplay opportunities (a character who has weak abilities in MANY powers, etc), I feel that for simplicity I'd rather stay with a selection of 2 powers.

Throughout a game however I plan for players to be able to earn additional ability points for thier attributes (Str, Agil, Speed, End). Perhaps they could also become more proficient in thier selected powers, unlocking further uses, or reducing the power-consumption of current uses.

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Originally posted by orionx103 This would be good in a paranormal video game or something. The character is either a channeler or something that can conjure a ghost to give him information. Or, the character's a mostly-powerless demi-god who has so much good karma built up that someone on high helps him, or the ghosts of people he helped in the past come back to give him warnings. Just my initial thoughts.

An excellent potential backstory for a character created with this ability. [smile]

I'm intending quite a dark setting for the game - the city in which it will be set will be fairly dark and dirty, and will be in the middle of a desert wasteland, allowing for plenty of possibilities for how a hero or villain was driven to what they are. A paranormal-based type character would fit in quite well.

I haven't read this entire thread, but I saw how long the list was beginning to stretch, so I thought I would add in a little comment about that.

If anyone has ever googled behavioral psychology with respect to decision-making, they would quickly find a number of articles talking about the disadvantages of too many choices. One of those disadvantages is that a player given too many choices may suffer from post-decision anxiety. They may decide to go with a particular specialty and then wish that they would have chosen something else. For those who played Diablo 2, you may have spent "too much time" stressing over which new spell you should receive or which one you should upgrade. I am actually quite surprised that the "postmortem" of Diablo 2 in Game Developer Magazine did not address the negative side of the skill tree feature that "went right". This anxiety is certainly not enjoyable, even though a long list of specific options may sound like a good idea on paper. Many people have trouble and increased stress when dealing with complex and difficult decisions, so sometimes helping the player means making their decisions much simpler. If nothing else, it will make your game infinitely easier to pick up and play.

As Miyamoto is commonly quoted, "easy to pick up and play, but difficult to master". Make the game easy to pick up and play and allow the player's in-game decision-making to find interesting and creative uses of those features. That will give them the simplicity of making a decision, but variety in the way that the game is played so that they feel that their character's action are uniquely their own. That may prove to be too complex to incorporate, but in the least--simplicity is not always a con and complexity is not always a pro.

http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/?040301crbo_books
http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun04/toomany.html
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20020204/hopson_01.htm