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 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}}} Yes Yes No No No No No
{{{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 Yes Yes No Yes
{{{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 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 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: Beam Rifle, Dark Blast, 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, Kinetic Melee, Staff Fighting, Street Justice, Super Strength*, Titan Weapons
Secondaries: Dark Manipulation, Electricity Manipulation, Energy Manipulation, Fire Manipulation, Ice Manipulation, Mental Manipulation Secondaries: 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
Secondaries: Cold Domination, Dark Affinity, Empathy, Force Field, Kinetics, Poison, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Storm Summoning, Time Manipulation, Thermal Radiation Secondaries: Cold Domination, Dark Miasma, Kinetics, Pain Domination, Poison, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Storm Summoning, Time Manipulation, Traps, Thermal Radiation
Defender Primaries: Cold Domination, Dark Miasma, Empathy, Force Field, Kinetics, 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 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: Dark Armor, Electric Armor, Energy Aura, Fiery Aura, Invulnerability, Regeneration, Super Reflexes, Willpower Secondaries: Dark Miasma, Force Field, Pain Domination, Poison, Sonic Resonance, Storm Summoning, Time Manipulation, Thermal Radiation, Traps
Tanker Primaries: 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: 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/Villains. 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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