Loose Ends

Hotfixed Beta 0.75.1 Rulebook PDF - http://www.mediafire.com/view/?jj034imq1ihiz5f

Howdy folks! I know it's a bit early and everyone's probably a bit hungover from a night of sad or bitter drinking, but I figured now that the beta is out I should go ahead and explain some thing about our game, both as it is now and what's in the pipeline.

First, some excuses and explanations about the game:

1) Why so rushed?

Well, we set our deadline to the 30th for obvious reasons.

But unfortunately fate conspired against us in the final months. Between jobs, schooling, and a hurricane, we lost about 1-2 solid weeks of work time. And that's on top of us being terrible at scheduling.

Given the options of "hold back another month and a half" and "give the community something to fuss over, even if it's not finished" we decided on the latter.

2) Where's X powerset??

Most of the powersets we left out were left out for sensible reasons. Considering we basically revamped every single powerset from the ground up as it is, we didn't want to split our attention even further by tackling more complex powersets that just would not naturally work in a tabletop setting.

Illusions is the biggie, considering its age. Similarly, powersets that relied on systems our game just simply doesn't have at all, like Titan Weapons, posed a serious challenge. We do have some ideas floating around for how to fit some of the missing powersets in, and others are just a matter of adapting what's there (Dark and Elec Control, for instance).

Energy Melee's exclusion may very well have been an honest mistake or an intentional choice, I can't remember. We've always felt that a melee set that procs hard mez on every single attack is a bit much though, so it's going to need work one way or the other.

3) Where's Y power??

In most cases, powers were removed or shifted around because they didn't have a tangible place in the game. The old powers Flashfire and Stalagmites, for instance, were AoE stuns found in sets with non-standard AoE holds, but were really just AoE holds in everything but name anyway (recharged far faster, too). With Controllers being a bit more standardized, those powers lost a reason to exist.

Something that we are aware of are losses of "signature" powers within sets. Defender Storm Summoning is really cool, but it probably shouldn't be missing Lightning Storm, especially when Controllers still get a variant of it.

4) Where's Z system??

While I've spoken about things like enhancements elsewhere before, I can pretty much answer any question of a missing system with "Either we didn't need it or want it, or you're right and we should put it in." Anything more than that would require lengthy explanations of why we did what we did, and different ones for each system.

Some upcoming stuff that we're working on (after a break, because I think the crunch time nearly killed us):

1) Additional powersets and powerset clean-up. No-brainer.

2) A few campaigns. I'm personally piecing together "The Heart of the Hollows" and I know others are in the works.

3) Coming along with campaigns, the badge system. In short, adventures will award a badge on completion that gives a small bonus themed to the adventure. Characters can only wear one badge at a time but are encouraged to either keep one they really like or try out many as they come across them.

4) Cleaning up villain groups including adding demeanor stat blocks. We always intended diplomacy (or intimidation) to be possible with villains, we just didn't get a opportunity to stat everything out and add it.

Also, over time, we'll be adding additional villain groups as well as what are currently being called "Villain Mods". In essence, small modules that can be used to customize any villain group further. Two we have in mind are the Rikti Technology Pack (enabling Rikti Freaks, Crey armed with Rikti gear, or even the Warriors with Rikti swords) and the Ziggursky Correctional Pack (a set of restraints, props, weapons, and other things that give villains some "just escaped from prison" flavor).

5) Crimes in Progress, which are essentially our scanner missions. Basically just randomly-rolled, basic, plot-light missions for groups that want to get straight into the action or just want a short interlude between story arcs.

6) Infusing the game with even more character customization in the form of unique attributes. These are likely to be small bonuses designed to flesh out your character's personality. As such, they'll be rules modifiers that blur the line between powers and skills. Does your vigilante hate guns? +10% damage to any foe that fired a gun on the previous turn. Things like that.

7) The super special secret level 20 surprise system.

Hopefully that gives you some further insight into what's going on over here at GreatForge Studios. Have fun and fly high, folks!

Hotfixed Beta 0.75.1 Rulebook PDF - http://www.mediafire.com/view/?jj034imq1ihiz5f