Power Customization

Overview

Blue Fire Dominator

Purple Fire Controller

Power Customization is the ability to alter the colors of the particle effects emitted by powers, allowing for thematic and aesthetic customization of a character's powers (such as wielding blue fire or yellow energy).

This feature was consistently requested by the player base over the history of the game, but as it required a tremendous amount of work to implement due to the previous structure of the power code, there was no ETA for its implementation until June 19, 2009 when Positron posted two images that confirmed it as an Issue 16 feature. It was announced officially and explicitly on July 15, 2009 when the Issue 16 Overview page was added to the Official Game Update Overview.

It should be noted that Weapon Customization required significantly different modifications than Power Customization did, which explains its significantly earlier implementation (in Issue 11).

Customization Tables

Palette Table

This is a list of the Powersets which have Power Customization options, and the color palettes that each has access to.

Power Set(s)	Bright	Dark	Ice	Earth	Lava/Crystal	NoFX	Standard Palette
{{{power sets}}}	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No}}
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
{{{power sets}}}	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
{{{power sets}}}	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
{{{power sets}}}	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
Power Set(s)	Bright	Dark	Ice	Earth	Lava/Crystal	NoFX	Standard Palette

Archetype Table

This is a list of the Powersets which have Power Customization options for each Archetype.

Heroes	Powerset(s)	Villains	Powerset(s)
Blaster	Primaries: Electrical Blast, Energy Blast, Fire Blast, Ice Blast, Psychic Blast, Radiation Blast, Sonic Attack	Brute	Primaries: Dark Melee, Earth Melee, Electrical Melee, Energy Melee, Fiery Melee, Super Strength*
	Secondaries: Electricity Manipulation, Energy Manipulation, Fire Manipulation, Ice Manipulation, Mental Manipulation		Secondaries: Dark Armor, Electric Armor, Energy Aura, Fiery Aura, Invulnerability, Stone Armor**, Super Reflexes, Willpower
Controller	Primaries: Earth Control, Fire Control, Gravity Control, Ice Control, Illusion Control, Mind Control, Plant Control	Corruptor	Primaries: Dark Blast, Electrical Blast, Energy Blast, Fire Blast, Ice Blast, Radiation Blast, Sonic Attack
	Secondaries: Cold Domination, Empathy, Force Field, Kinetics, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Storm Summoning, Thermal Radiation		Secondaries: Cold Domination, Dark Miasma, Kinetics, Pain Domination, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Storm Summoning, Traps, Thermal Radiation
Defender	Primaries: Cold Domination, Dark Miasma, Empathy, Force Field, Kinetics, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Storm Summoning, Traps	Dominator	Primaries: Earth Control, Fire Control, Gravity Control, Ice Control, Mind Control, Plant Control
	Secondaries: Dark Blast, Electrical Blast, Energy Blast, Ice Blast, Psychic Blast, Radiation Blast, Sonic Attack		Secondaries: Earth Assault, Electricity Assault, Energy Assault, Fiery Assault, Icy Assault, Psionic Assault, Thorny Assault
Scrapper	Primaries: Dark Melee, Electrical Melee, Fiery Melee, Martial Arts*, Spines.	Mastermind	Primaries: Necromancy**
	Secondaries: Dark Armor, Electric Armor, Fiery Aura, Invulnerability, Regeneration, Super Reflexes, Willpower		Secondaries: Dark Miasma, Force Field, Pain Domination, Poison, Storm Summoning, Traps, Thermal Radiation
Tanker	Primaries: Dark Armor, Electric Armor, Fiery Aura, Ice Armor, Invulnerability, Stone Armor**, Willpower	Stalker	Primaries: Dark Melee, Electrical Melee, Energy Melee, Martial Arts*, Spines
	Secondaries: Dark Melee, Earth Melee, Electrical Melee, Energy Melee, Fiery Melee, Ice Melee, Super Strength*		Secondaries: Dark Armor, Electric Armor, Energy Aura, Ninjitsu, Regeneration, Super Reflexes, Willpower
Peacebringer	Primaries: None	Arachnos Soldier	Primaries: None
	Secondaries: None		Secondaries: None
Warshade	Primaries: None	Arachnos Widow	Primaries: None
	Secondaries: None		Secondaries: None

* Includes Animation Customization.
** Limited Customization.

Historical Information

This section contains information that no longer applies to the current version of City of Heroes: Rebirth. The content provided may refer to City of Heroes Freedom. It is provided for historical purposes.

Back Alley Brawler confirmed on the official forum that at least three sets which were not initially listed (Pain Domination, Poison, and Traps/Devices) will actually feature Power Customization, though Traps/Devices may be delayed.

The following quotes depict the previous attitude of the developers towards Power Customization and reflect a design decision that has (obviously) been reconsidered.

"As much as I would love to have a purple energy blast or green fire, I don’t see it happening anytime soon. The problem stems from both the way the powers were made, and the sheer amount of powers we have, some of which are obviously un-colorable. We did some internal experimentation with power colorization back before City of Villains launched, and while pleased with the results, it in reality proved to us that undertaking the task of adding this to the game was going to be monumental. Time and money would simply be better spent making content for the game that actually meant something to the power of your character as opposed to something purely cosmetic." -- Positron, February 2nd 2007

"We've basically made the decision that it's not going to happen. [...] Of course, if one of our genius engineers figures out a way we could do it and still get you 3 updates a year, you can guarentee it will be back on the schedule and I'll be the first to tell you." -- Positron, February 2nd 2007

"Extending the ability to customize your avatar through the costume editor would probably be universally applauded if it were applied to FX and animations. We know this. Trust us." -- Back Alley Brawler, April 18th 2007

"Geometry particles can't be tinted on the fly[...], which is another one of those stumbling blocks for power FX customization." -- Back Alley Brawler, May 31st, 2007

"I really can't stress this enough, there's nothing insurmountably difficult about power color customization, it's just a tremendous amount of time to pull it off." -- Back Alley Brawler, September 4th 2007

"It would completely dominate some of the artists' time for multiple issues. That would prevent any content from being developed that required any animation or FX. [...] I couldn't even begin to tell you the things programming would have to do to make this happen, but it's significant enough to cut into other features, bug fixes, or performance/stability improvements." -- Back Alley Brawler, September 4th 2007

The following link is a forum post by Back Alley Brawler that provides details on the Power Customization feature, and the reasoning that, for a long time, it was considered a hopeless request.

Power Customization F.A.Q.

See Also

• Animation Customization
• Shield Customization
• Weapon Customization