Alternate Travel Animations

Alternate Animations/Color schemes in Issue 16 weren't the first time NC Soft and Paragon added a level of customization to the mix when it came to powers.

Issue 11 saw Weapons get moved to the Costume Creator

Issue 9 (yes 9!) saw a funky(as in complicated as all get) ways to customize flight, and only flight so help you flight...

Why not bake those Issue 9 adaptations into the customization menus in the tailor, and once we figure that out, go for more!

Note - This quote from Back Alley Brawler from a FAQ on Power Customization before it was a thing may shed some light on a direction for the consolidation of power customization.

  Q: Why not make a version for each power that you can chose, and then assign a pre-colored FX script to those. Red Flares, Blue Flares, Green Flares, etc?

  A: Duplicating powers and PFX in that way makes it very difficult to maintain those powers. We did this for the prestige sprints and it certainly can work, but if we were to do that for every player power then that's a huge amount of duplicate data just to have the visuals changed. The likelihood of bugs related to powers would increase exponentially.

Pool Powers

Flight/Mystic Flight

Way, way, way back in Issue 9, alternate Flight poses were introduced to City of heroes, but accessing them was (and still is a PiTA) Each emote had to be used during flight. There is no banking animation, and they can easily be interrupted.

flypose1: arms fully outstretched in front

flypose2: one arm in front, one arm pulled back to side, and one knee pulled upward, as if flying to punch something

flypose3: arms stretched forward and to the side in a Y-formation

flypose4: head up and arms pulled back to side, in an "I dare you to shoot at me" pose

Imagine flex1 (flexa): Fists raised, flexing arms stance, except laying down, facing forward

Imagine what we could do if we got these as alternate animations?

Super Jump

Add an option for the Ninja Run's back flips?

Super Speed

Have the look of Beast Run, Ninja Run or (most importantly) ice slide?

Inherent Powers

Yeah, everybody gets them, but they're so basic.... why not jazz them up a little?

Sprint

There are four "prestige" skins of sprint in game already.

Prestige Power Surge: this is a rainbow aura effect around your character (no trail)

Prestige Power Dash: more of a wave effect in a rainbow aura that trails behind your character

Prestige Power Quick: streaks of light that are still visible when standing still (awesome for a future speedster

Prestige Power Rush: A similar to Surge, but it is a trail behind you, not an aura

All they do is add an bright or rainbow effect to the basic Sprint dust cloud, but they sit there as an extra power just clogging up your power window, giving you more things to scroll past. Why not pull the effects and pull them in as alternate animations for Sprint?

In theory we could even turn the trail auras into sprint skins what's one more toggle, anyway?

Walk

Walk? why would we want an alternate walk animation? For role play and greater immersion of course!
Imagine a random NPC(or your toon):

power walking (no speed boost, but just that exaggerated 'quick' step)

walking down the street with their shoulders slumped just kicking at the dirt.

that vampy sashay, with a wide sway of the hips

cellphone up to the ear

The possibilities are only as endless as your imagination!

Prestige Power Slide

Ah, the purple cloud beneath your feet that you can ride on. why not look into color options for the effects, or even proliferate the Prestige Sprints into the effect options? Quick Slide? Yum!

Prestige Travel

Prestige Teleports

other mystical poses, or the devices route of tapping on the arm to key up the teleport?

Beast Run

Idle animation to randomly scratch an ear with a hand or foot?

Ninja Run

What if I wanted to run with both arms trailing backward, or just have the backflips when I jumped?