Power Customization

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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, and it was formerly believed to be beyond the scope of a plausible development feature until June 19, 2009 when Positron posted two images that confirmed it as an Issue 16 feature.

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 Power Sets 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
Beast Mastery** Yes Yes No No No No No
Bio Armor No No No No No Yes Yes
Dark: Dark Affinity, Dark Armor, Dark Assault, Dark Blast, Dark Control, Dark Manipulation, Dark Melee, Dark Miasma, Necromancy** No Yes No No No No No
Earth: Earth Assault, Earth Control, Stone Melee, Stone Armor** No No No Yes Yes No No
Electric: Electric Armor, Electricity Assault, Electrical Blast, Electric Control, Electricity Manipulation, Electric Melee Yes Yes No No No No No
Empathy Yes No No No No No No
Energy: Energy Aura, Energy Assault, Energy Blast, Energy Manipulation, Energy Melee Yes Yes No No No No No
Fire: Demon Summoning**, Fiery Aura, Fiery Assault, Fire Blast, Fire Control, Fire Manipulation, Fire Melee, Thermal Radiation Yes Yes No No No No No
Force Field Yes Yes No No No No No
Gadgets: Devices, Traps No No No No No No Yes
Gravity Control Yes Yes No No No No No
Ice: Cold Domination, Ice Armor, Icy Assault, Ice Blast, Ice Control, Ice Manipulation, Ice Melee No No Yes No No No No
Illusion Control Yes Yes No No No No No
Invulnerability Yes Yes No No No Yes No
Kinetic Energy: Kinetics, Kinetic Melee Yes Yes No No No No No
Nature Affinity No No No No No No Yes
Ninjitsu Yes Yes No No No Yes No
Pain Domination No Yes No No No No No
Plant Control No No No No Yes No No
Poison No Yes No No No No No
Psi: Mental Manipulation, Mind Control, Psionic Assault, Psychic Blast Yes Yes No No No No No
Radiation: Radiation Blast, Radiation Emission Yes Yes No No No No No
Regeneration Yes Yes No No No Yes No
Sonic: Sonic Blast, Sonic Resonance Yes Yes No No No No No
Spines: Spines, Thorny Assault No No No Yes Yes No Yes
Storm Summoning No No No No No No Yes
Super Reflexes Yes Yes No No No Yes No
Time Manipulation Yes Yes No No No No No
Unarmed: Martial Arts*, Street Justice, Super Strength* Yes Yes No No No No No
Water Blast Yes Yes No No No No No
Weapons: Beam Rifle, Staff Fighting, Titan Weapons Yes Yes No No No No No
Willpower 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 Power Sets which have Power Customization options for each Archetype.

Heroes Power Set(s) Villains Power Set(s)
Blaster Primaries: Beam Rifle, Dark Blast, Electrical Blast, Energy Blast, Fire Blast, Ice Blast, Psychic Blast, Radiation Blast, Sonic Attack, Water Blast Brute Primaries: Dark Melee, Earth Melee, Electrical Melee, Energy Melee, Fiery Melee, Kinetic Melee, Staff Fighting, Street Justice, Super Strength*, Titan Weapons
Secondaries: Dark Manipulation, Electricity Manipulation, Energy Manipulation, Fire Manipulation, Ice Manipulation, Mental Manipulation Secondaries: Bio Armor, Dark Armor, Electric Armor, Energy Aura, Fiery Aura, Invulnerability, Regeneration, Stone Armor**, Super Reflexes, Willpower
Controller Primaries: Dark Control, Earth Control, Electric Control, Fire Control, Gravity Control, Ice Control, Illusion Control, Mind Control, Plant Control Corruptor Primaries: Beam Rifle, Dark Blast, Electrical Blast, Energy Blast, Fire Blast, Ice Blast, Radiation Blast, Psychic Blast, Sonic Attack, Water Blast
Secondaries: Cold Domination, Dark Affinity, Empathy, Force Field, Kinetics, Nature Affinity, Poison, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Storm Summoning, Time Manipulation, Thermal Radiation Secondaries: Cold Domination, Dark Miasma, Kinetics, Nature Affinity, Pain Domination, Poison, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Storm Summoning, Time Manipulation, Traps, Thermal Radiation
Defender Primaries: Cold Domination, Dark Miasma, Empathy, Force Field, Kinetics, Nature Affinity, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Storm Summoning, Time Manipulation, Thermal Radiation, Traps Dominator Primaries: Dark Control, Earth Control, Electric Control, Fire Control, Gravity Control, Ice Control, Mind Control, Plant Control
Secondaries: Beam Rifle, Dark Blast, Electrical Blast, Energy Blast, Fire Blast, Ice Blast, Psychic Blast, Radiation Blast, Sonic Attack, Water Blast Secondaries: Dark Assault, Earth Assault, Electricity Assault, Energy Assault, Fiery Assault, Icy Assault, Psionic Assault, Thorny Assault
Scrapper Primaries: Dark Melee, Electrical Melee, Fiery Melee, Kinetic Melee, Martial Arts*, Spines, Staff Fighting, Street Justice, Titan Weapons. Mastermind Primaries: Beast Mastery**, Demon Summoning**, Necromancy**
Secondaries: Bio Armor, Dark Armor, Electric Armor, Energy Aura, Fiery Aura, Invulnerability, Regeneration, Super Reflexes, Willpower Secondaries: Dark Miasma, Force Field, Nature Affinity, Pain Domination, Poison, Sonic Resonance, Storm Summoning, Time Manipulation, Thermal Radiation, Traps
Tanker Primaries: Bio Armor, Dark Armor, Electric Armor, Fiery Aura, Ice Armor, Invulnerability, Kinetic Melee, Stone Armor**, Super Reflexes, Willpower Stalker Primaries: Dark Melee, Electrical Melee, Energy Melee, Kinetic Melee, Martial Arts*, Spines, Staff Fighting, Street Justice
Secondaries: Dark Melee, Earth Melee, Electrical Melee, Energy Melee, Fiery Melee, Ice Melee, Martial Arts, Staff Fighting, Street Justice, Super Strength*, Titan Weapons Secondaries: Bio Armor, Dark Armor, Electric Armor, Energy Aura, Ice Armor, 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

    This section contains information about changes that took place in 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 as included in the Issue 16 Overview Power Customization options - Pain Domination, Poison, and Gadgets (Traps/Devices) - were actually scheduled to include Power Customization, though he also included a caveat that Traps/Devices may have been delayed.
  • Power Customization was added to the game in Issue 16 on September 15, 2009.

Former Developer Stance

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. -- March 3rd 2008

See Also

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