Power Customization

Overview

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 had been 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 had been 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).

Customizable Powers

Issue 16's launch heralds the (assumable) first wave of Power Customization to hit the City of Heroes/Villains. The following powersets have been confirmed to be customizable in the initial launch of Issue 16 either via the Official Game Update Overview page or through forum posts made by Back Alley Brawler.

This list includes newly Proliferated Powersets in Issue 16.

Heroes

Blaster

Primary: Electrical Blast, Energy Blast, Fire Blast, Ice Blast, Psychic Blast, Radiation Blast*, Sonic Attack.

Secondary: Electricity Manipulation, Energy Manipulation, Fire Manipulation, Ice Manipulation, Mental Manipulation.

Controller

Primary: Earth Control, Fire Control, Gravity Control, Ice Control, Illusion Control, Mind Control, Plant Control.

Secondary: Cold Domination*, Empathy, Force Field, Kinetics, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Storm Summoning, Thermal Radiation.

Defender

Primary: Cold Domination, Dark Miasma, Empathy, Force Field, Kinetics, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Storm Summoning, Traps*.

Secondary: Dark Blast, Electrical Blast, Energy Blast, Ice Blast, Psychic Blast, Radiation Blast, Sonic Attack.

Scrapper

Primary: Dark Melee, Electrical Melee*, Fiery Melee, Martial Arts**, Spines.

Secondary: Dark Armor, Electric Armor*, Fiery Aura, Invulnerability, Regeneration, Super Reflexes, Willpower.

Tanker

Primary: Dark Armor, Electric Armor*, Fiery Aura, Ice Armor, Invulnerability, Stone Armor***, Willpower.

Secondary: Dark Melee, Earth Melee, Electrical Melee*, Energy Melee, Fiery Melee, Ice Melee, Super Strength**.

Villains

Brute

Primary: Dark Melee, Earth Melee, Electrical Melee, Energy Melee, Fiery Melee, Super Strength**.

Secondary: Dark Armor, Electric Armor, Energy Aura, Fiery Aura, Invulnerability, Stone Armor***, Super Reflexes, Willpower.

Corruptor

Primary: Dark Blast, Electrical Blast, Energy Blast, Fire Blast, Ice Blast, Radiation Blast, Sonic Attack.

Secondary: Cold Domination, Dark Miasma, Kinetics, Pain Domination, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Storm Summoning, Traps, Thermal Radiation.

Dominator

Primary: Earth Control, Fire Control, Gravity Control, Ice Control, Mind Control, Plant Control.

Secondary: Earth Assault, Electricity Assault, Energy Assault, Fiery Assault, Icy Assault, Psionic Assault, Thorny Assault.

Mastermind

Primary: Necromancy***.

Secondary: Dark Miasma, Force Field, Pain Domination, Poison, Storm Summoning, Traps, Thermal Radiation*.

Stalker

Primary: Dark Melee, Electrical Melee, Energy Melee, Martial Arts**, Spines.

Secondary: Dark Armor, Electric Armor, Energy Aura, Regeneration, Super Reflexes, Willpower.

* Proliferated in Issue 16.

** Includes Alternate Animations.

*** Limited Customization.

Additional Information

So far there has been no official mention of Power Customization for Ancillary Power Pools, Patron Power Pools, or Power Pools.

Additionally, any powerset not listed above has not been officially mentioned as included in Issue 16's Power Customization feature. That said, Back Alley Brawler has confirmed on the official forum that at least three sets which were not initially listed (Pain Domination, Poison, and Traps) will actually feature Power Customization. Until Issue 16 is deployed for beta testing, further conclusions as to the extensiveness of the feature cannot be accurately made.

Historical Information

This section contains information that no longer applies to the current version of City of Heroes Freedom. It is provided for historical purposes.

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.