Relative to 7.4.2 (heretofore 7.4.2a):

• Sub-skills: better implemented as feats. So, feats also get to keep existing, and skills don't reabsorb them.
• Magic power source still needs a few changes, no disagreement with 7.4.2a
• Free knowledge skills: yes
• New core attributes: meh.
• Damage model: probably.

• All powers should be equally versatile.
  • Fire, rank 1: good.
  • Hand Blasters: bad.
  • If Hand Blasters implied energy ray, cone, bomb, etc, then good.
  • Vampy Speed should include movement (tactical and overland), blurry dodge, pseudo-teleport, etc. No reason to separate them.
• Don't counterbalance Superpowers against versatility. Everyone needs versatility. Instead, counterbalance them against other superpowers, or against resources.
  • For example: Vi has vampy superpowers, Mac has an Iron Man suit. Great. James doesn't have super-strength, but he does have an organization behidn him...and let's not forget all those casual superpowers that wizards don't have to pay for (long life, wizard sight, soulgaze, death curse, etc).
  • "Versatility" refers to having a lot of choices in combat. It doesn't mean you have 47 feats and powers. In this system, you select your skills, feats, and powers. Skills are simple and easy. Powers and feats can be complicated...unless you choose simple stuff like +1 str and +1 hit power.

• Power Skills no longer exist. They were not really adding anything, and they weren't acting as first-class citizens of the power world.
• Powers will no longer be so specific (e.g. Blood Boil, Grip, Mind Link). They will instead be broader and more versatile (e.g. Blood rank 1, Telekinesis rank 1, Telepathy rank 1)
• This will resemble 7.3.1 quite a bit. So why go back?
  • The idea of grouping similar powers together into 5 ranks wasn't flawed. The real flaws were twofold: one, the hackish mechanic of "paths" was really evidence that some powers just needed to be split up (and they already have, e.g. Thaumaturgy and Invocation), and two, the original implementation focused only on spellcasters and neglected equipment-based abilities like Armortech.
  • In this system, a "power" will be any core ability that seems more or less atomic, but implies a decent breadth of uses. For example, Telekinesis should be its own power, as Force is too broad, but Fire is probably just broad enough--no need to drill it down into 3 or 15 sub-powers. When in doubt, powers can always be broken up or merged back together; there is no need for a rigid structure such as 4 schools, 4 powers per school, 3 paths per power. It's just powers and ranks.
  • When it comes to non-magical powers, the logic should be the same. Thus, to fully describe a powersuited hero, you might take the Powersuit power (granting protection, basic attacks) with the Jet Pack power (flight, dodge rockets, etc; should work the same whether you have armor or not) and the Weapon Master power (so you can have a rocket launcher, blaster cannon, freeze ray, maser, etc all loaded up at the same time).

Ideas:

• No more power points
• Power skills give you general access to all powers in that skill
  • It's not based on rank, but rather DC. You have to hit the DC on Spellcraft (or whatever) to actually use the power, and failure can be a problem. Taking 10 is an option. You can bundle this check with the attack roll, where appropriate.
  • TBD: what ability score modifies power skills?
• You can "master" any power by spending a feat. You have to be able to pass the check conceivably (so, take 20?). Now, you can't fail at the basic manifestation.
• Lots of new feats:
  • Simple stat buffs from power source or race (+str, +dex, etc)
  • Secondary stat buffs from skill (+hpow, +crit with melee, etc)
  • Resource feats (vehicles, contacts, weapons, money, fame, etc)