Ultimate Power "State of the Lab" address

[Colen]

Hello everyone,

I apologise for the late announcement of this - events beyond our control (the health issues mentioned elsewhere on the board) meant that we couldn't be 100% certain of any plans until today. Thankfully, everything is now resolved to some extent, and we can now announce our plans and begin moving forward.

The good news is: the Ultimate Power content is very close to being finished (hooray!). However, we still need to add some infrastructure to Hero Lab to properly support it.

For example, if you try to load a hero created with Ultimate Power into the core version of Hero Lab, an appropriate warning needs to be shown, letting you know that some powers might be missing. This, and a few other similar things, still need to be tackled before we can publically release the Ultimate Power supplement.

Our goal is to get these last few issues wrapped up by the end of this week (October 3rd). At that point, we'll be sending a beta version of HL 2.3 into Green Ronin for their approval. If they're as fast with this as they were with the initial M&M release, we should be able to publically release it before next weekend (October 10th-ish).

Summary: Our target for the release of Ultimate Power is October 10th. Hooray for concrete dates!

Tell me more about the Ultimate Power addon, Colen! What does it include?

The tentatively named "Ultimate Power & Mastermind's Manual Supplement Package" is targeted for release on October 10th, 2008. It will be purchasable from the Lone Wolf Development online store for $19.99, and will require you to own Hero Lab with the core Mutants & Masterminds data files to use. (You'll still be able to test it out in demo mode if you want.)

The Ultimate Power & Mastermind's Manual Supplement Package will include the following content at release:

• Ultimate Power sourcebook - all new powers, power modifiers, and changes to existing powers.
• Mastermind's Manual sourcebook - many of the optional rules from the Mastermind's Manual will be supported.

The list of initially supported Mastermind's Manual rules is as follows:

• Chapter 1: Basics
• Drawbacks Limited to NxPL - you may not take more points of drawbacks than N times the Power Level.
• Grapple Limited to NxPL - your total Grapple bonus (including strength, attack bonus and all other factors) is limited to N times the Power Level.
• Max NxPL Feats - you may only pick a number of feats equal to N times the Power Level.
• No Power Points Limit - heroes are no longer subject to the Power Points limit, although they must still obey all relevant Power Level limits.
• Power Cost Limited to NxPL - you may not add powers that have a total cost of more than N times the Power Level.
• Power Rank Limited to NxPL - you may not add powers that have more ranks than N times the Power Level.
  Chapter 2: Abilities
• Insight Saving Throw - adds the Insight Saving Throw to the list of saving throws.
• Stability Saving Throw - adds the Stability Saving Throw to the list of saving throws.
  Chapter 3: Skills
• Broad Skills - the normal list of skills are removed, and replaced with the list of Broad Skills.
• Narrow Skills - narrow skills, more specific versions of existing skills, are added to the list of skills.
• New Skills - adds new "normal" skills to the list of skills.
  Chapter 4: Feats
• Fighting Styles - new fighting styles are added to the list of feats.
• Optional Feats - the new optional feats are added to the list of feats, including Challenge Feats.
• Powers as Feats - the list of feats based on 1-point powers is added to the core list of feats.
  Chapter 5: Powers
• Alternate Power as a Flaw - Alternate Powers have a 1-point flaw, instead of being a 1-point power feat. This makes them much more expensive.
• Energy Points - adds support for Energy Points, including an Energy Points entry to the Combat table on the abilities tab, an Energy Points table on the In-Play tab, and new power feats and modifiers related to Energy Points. Buttons appear on the powers tab, allowing you to easily spend energy points.
• Wide Arrays Extra - adds the Wide Array extra, allowing you to spread more points around dynamic alternate powers in an array.
  Chapter 6: Characteristics
• Reputation - adds a Reputation entry to the Feats tab, as well as new reputation-related Feats.
  Chapter 7: Devices & Equipment
• Proficiencies - adds proficiency feats to the list. Weapons and armor you aren't proficient with give you penalties to attack and defense.
  Chapter 8: Combat
• Attacks of Opportunity - adds the optional Opportunity feats to the list of feats.
• Extra Attacks Power - adds the optional Extra Attacks power to the list of powers.
• Fatigue Level: Weary - adds the Weary fatigue level (between Exhausted and Unconscious).
• Fatigue Level: Winded - adds the Winded fatigue level (before Fatigued).

All of these new rules will be optional - you can choose to enable or disable as many of them as you like.

In addition, game content (other than archetypes and NPCs) will be added to this supplement in the future:

• Further Mastermind's Manual optional rules
• Agents of Freedom
• A More Perfect Union
• Book of Magic
• Golden Age
• Hero High
• Iron Age
• Lockdown
• Paragons

All content added to the supplement after release will be a free download for anyone who already bought the supplement package.

The Ultimate Power & Mastermind's Manual Supplement Package is a Libra, and enjoys skydiving and long walks on the beach.

If you have any questions or comments, please let us know here in this thread. Thanks!