Cottage Rule

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The Cottage Rule is a rule of thumb for the developers, used when talking about altering an existing power.

Overview

The term was coined by Castle on the official forums around the time Defiance was altered (December 11, 2007) and discussed.

Castle's original post has been lost to forum purges, but the rule, in summary, is this:

An existing power will not have its core functionality and purpose changed, though its strength may be altered and effects secondary to the power's true purpose may be added or removed.

This rule does not apply to new powers still in beta testing. The rule was so named with the example of "Build Up" -- with this rule, the developers will never change Build Up (which grants the user a temporary surge in damage and tohit) into a power which "builds up" a small cottage.