ImpousVileTerror

Alternatively, @Tyrannical, replace Enenra with a straight-up Decoy that has a large Taunt AoE, but just stands there until it's defeated, AND has a rather short cooldown. WHEN it gets defeated, have it explode, essentially casting Char on each target in range of the PBAoE. Something new, and fun!

Not only that, @Saikochoro, but you can customize the colour of each window individually! But it's not one of the UX-supported options, so you have to manually code your WDW files to pull it off, and any application of settings from the Windows Tab after that point resets them all to the same colour again.

Answer to your last question, @Blastit: Yes.

I don't know if that was a joke, @Patti, but frankly; it's actually a really good idea! Over in the Ambition thread, @TalynDerre mentioned overt versus covert pursuits of Ambitions. Creating a great, big "kick me" sign for your Villain is actually a great potential goal for an overt Ambition. It also has the added benefit of being relatively easier to implement than a lot of other ideas we've proposed. Granted, it would need to have some additional functions built in to it to prevent the all-too-frequent issue of a high level player leaving their ambush in a low level zone. I would propose a solution in the form of one of two methods: 1) The ambush is neutral, until such time as they get in to close proximity to their target. 2) The ambush is flagged to only treat their target as an enemy, and everyone else as neutral. The former would probably be better, but could still end up leaving high level ambushes in low level zones if the player was intentionally griefing or just really oblivious. Thanks for the interest, @longdayinrehab! The thread is at: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/18029-community-project-adding-villainous-depth-to-redside-missions-and-story-arcs/ However, given some recent feedback, I'm thinking of tweaking it from a project into an exercise instead. I'm hosting an in-game campaign session tonight, but I'll make a note to refresh that thread some time soon.

That's fair, though, Herac; 'cause that's a new feature!

You are doing good work! Let me know if you need some prizes as extra incentive on any given evenings. I'm always willing to support Redside community initiatives.

I try to stay on-theme generally, but I will often just up-and-use Temp Powers for the convenience with little justification. But locking myself to just X/X, or Y/Y, or Z/Z? GOODNESS ME, NO! Z/Y, or X/Y, or D/S; doesn't matter, so long as it makes sense thematically.

Nope. That was the work of a Pride member, not some Goon. . . . *gives shifty eyes* <mobster>I ain't incriminatin' myself, ya see?</mobster>1

It's my understanding, @Greycat, that the intent here is to work on this gameplay feature with direct supervision and input from the community. For your example, yes; we would ensure there are different paths between "burn the warehouse while no one's in it" and "burn the warehouse with people inside." Does that sound, from a developmental investment . . . Ambitious? Yup. Frankly, it is. Kiiiiiiinda part of the point, though. An important thing to note, and this applies for MANY of the suggestions in the weekly discussion thread about Redside: When implementing these kinds of new gameplay features, careful planning ahead of time can mitigate the impact to dev resources by implementing them in phases. Establish a bare-bones frst, with the specific pre-designed expectation for future elements to be introduced. Kind of like where the Legacy Devs were going with the Incarnate system. It doesn't need to be an "all or nothing" endeavour with creative deployment.

The prize pool for the three contests has raised by a couple more Billion Inf! and . . . We've got -two- artists now!

Aye. Two Daily Wins too, no less.

Hey, 24601? Someone posted something new in the Suggestions board just now which might be exactly the type of thing you're looking for: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/19762-new-redside-content-ambitions/ Hopefully we can cycle that back in to this thread, since they're so tightly related.

Thanks for sharing! As we discussed beforehand, I really like your idea, and I'm glad you posted this. Some critique, though, in the spirit of refining and enhancing what you've got here. I don't think we need to wait for Level 10. Level 5 is fine. Hell, even Level 1, after perhaps finishing an introductory story arc of some sort? I don't like to invoke "comic book" for anything related to this game. I feel it's more of a barrier than something aspirational. I think we shouldn't limit ourselves to thinking in terms of "what's appropriate in a comic." We can aim so much higher and so much wider. I like the idea of these Ambitions branching out. While that does add to the workload in implementing them, it gives replayability and depth that the system (and the whole game) can use to really catapult players on their characters' unique journeys! Revenge is a tricky one, and might be better served as its own new gameplay system: Archrivals! (link pending a write-up on THAT proposal) I am 100% against -requiring- Incarnate as a capstone! 150%, even! Incarnate can be its own thing, but I really do not think we should mix and match these. Honestly, I'd also want to enable accessibility to the entire Ambition system from Level 1, but I know that from a technical standpoint, it's easier to codify a progression system that piggy-backs off of the Security/Threat Level system in the game. I had posted in another thread a while back about the benefits of developing Outward Progression, as opposed to Upward Progression. I think your Ambition System offers a potential opportunity for exactly that. I like the example you give for the destabilization of the small nation! I also like the idea of "Opportunities" working like the Tip System; as you complete them, they fill a bar. This could be done in combination with the Bare-bones Approach. Fill the Opportunities Bar to unlock the Story Arc which takes the next step in The Master Plan. Additionally, once this system gets established for Villains, similar systems could be made for Rogues, Vigilantes, and maybe even Heroes; with suitable writing to give a narrative thrust which makes the most sense for those alignments. And, dare I dream! . . . maybe all of these could be alignment NON-specific, so you could tell your Heroic character's personal story of rising up against a tyrannical despot leader of a small nation, and liberating the people, only to accidentally become their new de facto governing body. While I don't think you expressly stated it, I wonder if you intended these Ambitions to be mutually exclusive? I think it would be GREAT to be able to have -multiple- ambitions on a single character, BUT the cost to achieve more than one ambition would multiply the Opportunity Cost by some factor. ie: 8 Opportunity Points to get to one Step Of The Master Plan, but if you have Two Ambitions, it's sudden 12 Opportunity Points for -each- Ambition's next Step. If you wait to complete a whole Ambition tree before starting a new one, then the cost might only be half as much. So, in the above example, having completed Ambition Alpha all the way through to the end, and then starting Ambition Beta, the Opportunity Cost is 10 for each Step. Things to consider! Your Ambitions System offers a LOT of opportunities! I fully support developmental investment! Thanks again for sharing it with the community!

Oh, geez, yeah. Poor @holymittens! https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/10968-feedback-new-story-arcs/ CRITICALLY underrated! 'mittens should have WAY more Rep and that thread should have WAY more replies. What the deuce, folks? And, well, @GM Miss, it's only Wednesday night (in my timezone, at least), and this thread has surpassed https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/18436-weekly-discussion-48-dark-armor/page/8/?tab=comments#comment-208948. I think we found a real hot topic here.

. . . a thought occurs. More Fight Clubs! Not just Rikti Monkeys, but captured Longbow! Devouring Earth critters! Snakes! Make an easily-accessible social gathering location for Villains. Add a caged pit which has random NPCs spawn inside of it, like the Rikti Monkey Fight Club. Flag the NPCs are enemies to one another. Basically an NPC-run Gladiator Arena Match-up, at set 5 minute intervals. Maybe it won't solve our population problems, but it would be damned COOL and unique, and at the very least inspire more visitors to check out what's going on in the cage. (and should this request be seen as valuable enough to implement, I do so hope you will consider immortalizing my main Villainess "Commandant Nongratis" as the one who organized the little recurring bloodbath.)

I rolled for you: 34.24, 31.78, 70.05 Blaster, Dual Pistols / Ninja Training

That's silly. Tomato, cucumber, and balsamic vinegar. It's a fruit salad! -TRUE- wisdom.

13 - Final Thoughts As others have suggested, Redside might not be popular, but it IS loved by the people who love it. Any sweeping changes made in an attempt to attract the Heroic Players are likely to just vex the current Villainous Players we have, while those Bluesiders are probably (at most) going to dip their toes in to try it, and then head back to the Blueside which they already prefer. Similarly, people who are just playing for reward grinding will flip-flop wherever the "money is at." However, if development energy focused on enhancing the Redside experience with MORE STUFF, and didn't lose anything in the process, that would be a much healthier long-term prospect. Give Redside the priority on rewriting content to provide players with more agency. Give Redside new and interesting story arcs. Give Redside the first taste of new gameplay features before they get proliferated to Yellowside and eventually Blueside. Of course, that's not to say that maybe Rogues and Vigilantes shouldn't get priority first. As demonstrated by many contributors in this thread, there are plenty of people with all kinds of different expectations and desires. Maybe Redside doesn't need more Villain'ness. Maybe it needs broader representation. The walls have been torn down, in no small part thanks to Null the Gull. Let's EMBRACE that fact! Let's move in to new territory where Redside doesn't necessarily means Villain Side, but also that Blueside doesn't necessarily mean Hero Side. We have the opportunity to blaze some new paths here! As ever; let's get wild! Let's get crazy! Let's get CREATIVE! And let us do it as a Team, together! Homecoming represents a New Sunrise. Paragon City and the Etoile Isles can still feel like home, even if we carve out entirely new experiences in both places, so long as we preserve what came before as well.

12 - Socialization One of the hurdles that exists is communication. Players looking for groups and teams have to expressly state which side they're on, which sometimes leads to resentment, from what I've witnessed in the LFG channel from time to time. I've even heard that the game still apparently has cross-alignment chat in Shard-wide channels shut off by default. Is that true? If so, that's pretty awful, and should be corrected. I think the solution there is to further improve the ease of use for existing social tools, which has the added benefit of improving quality of life for all players regardless of alignment. A little tag in the chat to see which alignment someone is when they send messages would also be handy. H = Hero, G = viGilante, R = Rogue, V = Villain, P = Power, S = reSponsibility, W = Warden, C = Crusader. (While we're at it, getting a numerical value next to a character's name based on your Rating of that Player could be a handy feature, as suggested in another thread, but I digress!). A dedicated social space Redside might help. I do my best to run the Rikti Monkey Fight Club Events in Sharkhead Isles ( https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/15702-monkey-fight-club-its-not-a-secret-anymore/ ) . . . but that's not nearly as accessible as what Blueside has in Atlas Park (and -had- in Galaxy City). Some additional spaces made expressly for roleplay would be wonderful. Perhaps in that Arachnos building which Redside players now start next to . . . post some signage, indicating which doors players can enter. THEN, add 5 rooms to it. A meeting room similar to Lord Recluse's Lieutenants Chamber in Grandville. A Magical room. A Technology room. A Science room. And something else flavourful . . . like a prison full of Longbow and would-be heroes. BONUS POINTS! Add a feature so that as you complete various Redside missions, Heroes that you defeat will show up in these prison cells, much like how Hestaby's spouse shows up next to him when you complete the Atlas Park Story Arcs. Player-run-and-GM-supported, or even GM-run Redside events would also be a HUGE motivator. Have some contests or other events where GMs can reward Merits to attendees. At the very least it might convince a few people to -visit- the Isles for a while. And once they're visiting, maybe they'll do a little bit more.

11 - Archetypes and Null Sheen, Chummer Honestly, I don't see Null the Gull as a problem. Crazy, I know, right? I like that players have choices. The fact that Null exists does change the dynamic of the alignment system, but I really like how divorced from the original gameplay alignments have become. Alignments, as far as I'm concerned, should primarily relate to the player's definition of their own characters. Using alignment to gate content . . . eh, I'm not a fan of gated content in general, but at least there's some thematic cohesion there. On the flipside of that, I think it would also be nice if we leaned in to Null's function with some in-lore justification. Falsified Hero Licences/Arachnos Villain Registration, stuff like that. So, our characters aren't necessarily "True Heroes" or "True Villains," but instead using Null (or a replacement NPC/Contact) to get a "day pass" to the other side. In other words: Make it ludonarratively resonant, rather than something that's merely a "gameplay cheat." Similarly, if you lock off Archetypes, you're just punishing players' creativity. This will just end up with bitter resentment, and it won't actually inspire anyone to play Redside; just power-level through it until they can switch sides. Forcing players "to stay" on Redside? That will just breed contempt for Redside. Providing motivation for players to CHOOSE to stay on Redside is what will win people over.

10 - Rewards As addressed numerous times here and in other threads; if you flat-out increase rewards to be better than Blueside, you're not attracting players who want to experience Villain content. You're attracting people looking for rewards. These people will just go wherever whenever they want. I certainly can't see people who are chiefly motivated by Inf or Merits or anything like that as the target audience of this weekly discussion. Of course, -balancing- rewards is a must. As it stands, Redside seems to have a LOT of Defeat All missions in story arcs which have single-digit Merit rewards tied to them. That's just a pain in the ass. A system which automatically balances rewards based on Shard's alignment population could also be interesting, if a nightmare to implement. But we shouldn't forget Yellowside if that comes up!

9 - Zone Events These pretty much already exist in every zone except Mercy, to some degree or another . . . but I dunno. They're all rather one-and-done and reactionary, like the Hero Zone Events. If we don't invest in some of the other ideas proposed, perhaps Villain Zone events could take some inspiration from: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/17554-make-red-side-great-again/?tab=comments#comment-194213 Give players the authority to trigger the Zone Events. Maybe have three to five events per Zone. This can circle back to our other ideas about motivation as well. A Zone Event that's about stealing. A Zone Event that's about becoming infamous. A Zone Event that's about gathering loyal followers. Each of these in each Redside Zone.

8 - The Level 8 Strike Force (honestly, this numbering just happened by fluke) I've been slowly writing a Level 8 Strike Force titled "Not A Lackey" Set in Port Oakes, the premise is: A property tycoon wants to build some new grand towers on the south-eastern coast of Port Oakes, but needs to scare some locals out of their homes so that his construction crew stop objecting to the work orders to bulldoze homes. Since the tycoon can't find construction crews that are professionally competent AND psychotic enough to just bulldoze people's homes with the people still in them, he's hiring Villains to do that dirty work for him. The thing is, he's going to be completely insufferable. Dismissive. Grandiose. Egocentric. Complete megalomaniac. And to top it off, he'll finish his mission recruitment screed with the line: "Now shut up, and do what I'm paying you for, you worthless lackey." At that point, the mission leader can either choose to take the job, which will be underwhelming and end the Strike Force after a single mission with a pitiful reward, and no Badge. OR The team leader can select the reply which is tantamount to "I'm not your lackey" which launches the -actual- Strike Force, where the player-villains go around Port Oakes absolutely ANNIHILATING all of the businessman's assets, just to prove the point. During this rampage, hints will be dropped to a big score, which leads in to the rest of the story arc. The grand finale would find the player-villains coming back around to apply a coup du grac to the tycoon's "little empire," while scoring a big payout from the grateful, but terrified Port Oakes locals. This Strike Force would award the badge "Not A Lackey" for player-villains to wear proudly (until they get something more appropriate). So, it sounds a little "heroic" on paper, and I would be taking my own advice and writing the arc with less of a firm hand on player-character motivation . . . but generally the idea is to provide an experience for low level villains which says "you can, and may blaze your own path, despite what you Contact wants from you." While that would set a poor precedent if nothing else changes on Redside, I think it would be a great first step to vitalizing Redside with an example of what COULD be offered. @holymittens . . . is this something we might be able to collaborate on?

7 - "There Are Plenty of Islands in the Isles" I notice some people are asking to take over the Rogue Isles. Ambitious! Also impractical for several reasons. However, that doesn't mean that player-villains couldn't potentially take over -some- islands. Naturally, we can already roleplay that much, and just play pretend. The free Base Building fills that role nicely. But it would also be nice if the game rewarded us with something of this nature. Perhaps tied to the likes of the Motivation Contact mentioned above, or linked to existing Strike Forces or similar challenging content. An island fortress for every villain who dares prove themself strong enough! Truly inspiring! The developmental resources to make something like this, however, would be monumental. We'd be looking at a whole new Expansion to the game if we really wanted to deliver on this idea to its basic level of necessity. I hope to some day find myself with the time and capacity to write a design document along these lines, including a breakdown of stages of implementation to make it more accessible for development . . . but that's a distant dream right now. If someone else wants to tackle it, I would be happy to be a consultant! Having representation of the material and resources used to maintain the Isles would also be good. We have Sharkhead as the primary industry island, and Cap au Diablo as the main information technology hub. But Port Oakes isn't QUITE port enough. And while I don't know if the official lore expressly states it anywhere . . . yeah, krill farms are -totally- a thing. Using people as the only ingredient in NutriPaste would be silly. Obviously the human meat and human meat by-product content in each tube of NutriPaste is less than 2%. Factory accidents. And the fact that they're generally DNA matches for people who were enemies of the Family are TOTALLY coincidental. Not to mention that there are EXPRESSLY stated to be uncharted islands south of the Arachnos-controlled Etoile Islands. The Isles are RIPE for expansion!

6 - Arachnos Again, I'm kind of a dissenting voice here, but I -like- Arachnos. I like the aesthetic. I like the lore. I like the potential they have for telling interesting stories from both the players and from the mission/content authors. I like the transhumanism and social Darwinism turned up to Eleventy-billion, with both the messy and ugly ramifications of each. They really are a great tool to use to justify so much of the limitations that come up with creating a setting where morality and rules of law are antagonistic to the player-characters. If anything, I think Arachnos should be demonstrated to be -more- competent and effective. They're not perfect; oh no, I'm not -that- delusional. But they DO have a stranglehold on the Isles for a series of good, narratively-justified reasons. They should be threatening and menacing, but continue to appreciate the "free agents" which the player-villains represent. That said . . . "underground" / anti-Arachnos paths for player-villains would NOT be a bad thing in the slightest. Having non-Arachnos Hospitals and Trainers in every zone, and the possibility to piss off Arachnos enough for them to become hostile to the player-character would be a breath of fresh air for a LOT of players. Each Island could have its own underground. Vahzilok in Mercy. Family in Oakes. Goldbrickers in Cap. Sky Raiders in Sharkhead. Tsoo in Martial. Crey in Grandville. All of these organizations do not necessarily need to be hostile to player-villains. They could offer the amenities to the villains in exchange for all sorts of favours, or just because they're afraid of the player-villains. Lots of options here! And, dating back to the old Jenkins meme during City of Villains Beta, there was this thread where a player was under the impression that City of Villains was going to be all about the player's rise through various existing villain factions in the game. The thread was a bit on the toxic side of things, as I recall, and it became the Jenkins meme to squelch some ranty complaints . . . but the idea still has some potential legs to stand on. Not at all a small undertaking (are ANY of these ideas, though?), but creating a Faction Reputation system, which player-villains could navigate to try and make various NPC Villain Factions either Neutral or even Allies. That has a very compelling ring to it . . . but I can see it being an undertaking that would require the equivalent of a whole new expansion's worth of code and content.