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Ten Ton Hammer: What about setting different emanation points? Is that something you can do within the power set?

Roper: The Power Armor set does *not* let you play around with the emanation points, because they’re built into the mechanics. We had talked about allowing players to do that and keeping certain powers on the same timer, but then it just got kinda confusing. Having them emanate from other points messed with our descriptions of the actual powers along with the natural thought process players had with those powers.

If we ever add to the power set, we may try to do it that way, but right now you’re not really able to choose emanation points.

Ten Ton Hammer: What about the power replacers? Are either of these sets that would use the power replacer items?

Roper: As far as I know, there aren’t any power replacers for these two sets. Most of the power replacers are for those that have weapons in them and that sort of thing. Swords, guns, and those sorts of things, or some that you can add on to your different techs.

There are some you can use, but I don’t know how much they’d impact what you’re doing. For example, you can get gloves that add fire effects to your hands, and this does add some additional fire damage to your melee punches. This would definitely add to the Might set, because it’s adding on to your natural character.

We could certainly make power replacers for the Power Armor set, different shoulder blasters and chest blasters and that sort of thing. I just don’t believe we’ve actually implemented any of these into the game yet, due to our effort to get shipped.

Ten Ton Hammer: Do you see these two sets as single target sort of abilities? Or can they do AoE damage?

Roper: The both definitely have AoE damage. Might in particular has some good area of effect powers. You definitely have to be within melee range, but you’ll be hitting guys in an arc in front of you or doing a full rotating attack with your avatar as the origination point. We tried to at least add a bit of this into each power set, simply so that players who solo have every chance to succeed in combat.

Power Armor also has plenty of solid area of effect attacks as well. They’re both really strong for soloing. We’re obviously doing a lot of tuning and tweaking right now to make that work. Players always enjoy being at range from their enemies, but Might already does a lot more initial damage than a ranged attacker, so you’ll be taking guys out quicker.

We’re continuing to work on different aspects, like right now you can take your basic attack in the Might set, and if you use it against someone that’s far away from you, you’re basically tagging that enemy and challenging them to come fight you. They’ll come towards you, and you’ll also “tag” them so you’re doing more damage. Some of the melee sets – not all – do that now, and Might was one of them that we targeted.

So now you don’t have to rush in, you can actually challenge a guy to come and fight you. Or – as you get higher up – there are different abilities you can use that allow you to jump into the middle of combat.

Since we’re so close to shipping the product now, we’re basically just focusing on polishing everything up and doing tons and tons of balancing. Might is one of those power sets where we want to make sure that it’s not only great in group combat, but is also a really, really fun set for soloing as well.  

Ten Ton Hammer: Are there advantages built into the Might set that influence the aggro building in the set?

Roper: On all the advantages in the Might set, while not only enhancing your damage output, they tend to jack up your aggro generation as well. I mean, might is all about getting in there and getting people’s attention.

Ten Ton Hammer: What would you say sets Might apart from the Unarmed set?

Roper: I think that the Might set is really focused on bigger damage that happens at a slower pace than the Unarmed set. While you kinda have to build up to stunning with the Unarmed set, you’ll do this with a series of quick attacks rather than one big attack.

You could definitely take the two and have a nice mix of fast burst and big hit powers, and either stun them to set up your Unarmed combo or knock off a flurry of hits to pound them into the ground.

Ten Ton Hammer: Well that’s all the questions we have for you, Bill. We look forward to talking with you again soon!