Vic Raiden

Sounds interesting. Kinda like Devices, but primary-- hold on, if this is a ranged powerset, which I doubt will be a Defender exclusive forever, wouldn't that allow one to have a double Taser attack?

As it currently stands, the jetpack is part of a shoulder detail, which is pretty weird if you ask me. But yeah, Wyvern costume pieces in general would be great to have.

Here's what I got for Nemesis: Are you racist? If so, how much do you show that online? Are you into steampunk? Do you mind wearing a goofy GLORIOUS Prussian-inspired uniform? Are you smart enough to keep track of complex multi-layered gambits AND know how to operate an overly ornate gun? Are you okay with being potentially stuffed into a giant robot forever when you inevitably die for our lord's sake? Can you tell if I'm an automaton?

Uuuuuuuhhhhhhhh... What?

Yeah, and the redside routine-ness of that is quite a problem. I get that evil doesn't cooperate well with evil, but come on!

Okay, sure, blueside toons start small as well... but do you ever feel bossed around, taken advantage of, or otherwise disrespected by blueside contacts? I, personally, don't. Maybe it's just a different mindset, where you're just helping people in need because it's the right thing to do.

You got me there. I guess it's just kinda less annoying because you're still doing hero work like you signed up for?

Well... Sure, the highest levels do let one do a lot of epic stuff and be respected for it by the NPCs, but there's quite a lot of leveling to be done before that - you're indeed mostly a lackey/mercenary throughout the first three zones. And I suspect that progression could be turning away some of those who'd be interested in playing a villain, because let's face it, few people would include rising from a lone newbie villain to a world-class (but still one) supervillain in their fantasy. Most, admittedly myself included, would probably rather already start at the desired threat level, without common folks telling them what to do.

For me, it's gonna be: The entire "Council giant mech base" series That one Praetorian bio-tech lab whose layout kinda lines up with the Praetorian hospital model if you entered it through the "EMERGENCY" door Arbiter Sands' getaway submarine dock Pretty much any one of the Longbow bases, but especially the one labeled as "Large 22" in the Mission Architect Dr. Vahzilok's lab in the sewers Small Circle of Thorns map #10, because it's just about the only one where that cool temple room's main entrance is actually the entrance Medium 20 and Large 19 from the Tech Standard set (the former reminds me of a space station)

Spent a longer while browsing the various old threads about thinking of ways to make redside more engaging... I really vibe with the idea of letting redside players stir up invasions and other events for bluesiders to deal with. Ideally, it could be something both sides can benefit from.

Still, Arachnos overdose may be a problem for some people. There's just no challenging them in a meaningful way, almost every other mission is all about either furthering their interests at the cost of other forces of evil, or sabotaging them in some way that can still be argued to be beneficial to Arachnos because social darwinism. And no matter what you do, you're doomed to being another one of Lord Recluse's personal lackeys at most, with zero opportunities to be your own master. It's just so far removed from an average supervillain fantasy that it's not even funny. Sorry if I'm starting to sound like a broken record, by the way.

Looking at the old Prima guide reminded me that Arachnos apparently didn't even use to exist prior to CoV's launch, and apparently was only made so that redside players could have some overarching master/support network like blueside's Freedom Corps. Except it kinda falls flat because not only are Arachnos troops valid enemies everywhere except overworld Mercy, but the content is kind of schizophrenic about whether you're supposed to be working for, alongside, or against Arachnos - and even at the highest levels, your actions mean almost nothing beyond clapping some redside-exclusive competing villain forces. And even apparentlier, some old plan for CoV was that you'd be able to join one of the pre-established forces of evil depending on your character's origin. All I can say here is I wish that indeed came to pass...

See, this is a whole other can of worms... Back in the day, being a superhero used to actually mean something. You were special, somebody the common folk would look up to and place their faith in. Nowadays? Supers are a dime a dozen, so much so that there exists a whole dedicated government bureau specifically for categorizing and monitoring them, and all the specialness of being one is just GONE. Now literally EVERYONE can be a superhero because sources of superpowers are being sold in publicly accessible shops.

I don't know what to view that as. Either the authorities have cracked down so hard on crime that they send literally everyone to the maximum-security prison regardless of committed crimes or posed threat, or it's literally the only prison around designed specifically for as wide a variety of inmates as possible. Either way, the logic of superhero settings is wack.

...on the other hand, we're talking about a world where even mundane weapons and martial arts are somehow considered superpowers, which does muddle things more than a bit, if you ask me.

CoV wouldn't really let you play a Lex Luthor character anyway. What many large-scale supervillains like him do just isn't very compatible with the MMORPG gameplay loop of running around and doing quests for NPCs. As far as commanding legions of minions go, the Mastermind archetype is the closest thing and it doesn't even let you have any more than six minions at a time barring the Thugs primary's Gang War attack. And even then you're stuck running errands for random questgivers.

Right, thanks for clarifying. I really don't know what to add to this thread anymore without rehashing previous points, such as the inconsistently-characterized-lackey-for-hire syndrome the bulk of content suffers from. From what I've seen, many people avoid redside either because they'd rather play hero, because playing a villain doesn't feel as satisfying as expected, or because blueside has more content/more players/whatever. Not even sure how much could be done, much less in short term, given CoX's current state...

Yeah, I don't deny that. It's every bit as much of a pipe dream as either getting the option to backstab every contact one doesn't like, or having a tailor-made tip-like mission chain for personal ambition... Just a matter of letting the player feel more in control of their own villainy, or at least not as a fall guy to some random fellas. Once again, that's what I like about the dedicated rogue arcs: the open-endedness in giving multiple ways of going about them.

You know... One thing I just thought of, perhaps best applied to all sides and not just redside, is to add an option for a player to select their character's in-universe experience level. Mostly because it's kind of frustrating to always be treated as a noob by the lower-level contacts and missions. Also because, looking back at the Breakout tutorial, it's kind of stupid that every random newbie criminal would be put straight in the Zig, a prison supposedly built for the biggest deals in the world of villainy.

A few other things I'd like to see added, particularly as far as custom enemies go: - The ability to rename an enemy group after making it. This one's self-explanatory, having to delete the entire group file and rebuild it from scratch just because I changed my mind about its name is a needlessly frustrating experience. - Related, the ability to set an enemy group's display name separately from the name it's saved as. It's doable when making individual boss details, but it's annoying that I can't make a big umbrella-term faction with several subfactions in the vein of Arachnos or the Council. - NPC dialogue details. A lot of missions give you a friendly NPC (character or destructible object) you need to talk to before triggering some other event, like an enemy ambush or a door unlock, it'd be fun to be able to do that as well. - On that note, conditionally locked doors which don't open until you complete a prior objective. Again, another staple of pre-made missions, I don't think making it doable by players would be that difficult.

Well, he is part of the Power storyline, which is only available to characters who are Loyalist-aligned at the time.

I think it'd check out given Mu Mystics are the only type of human Arachnos soldier not to be playable. Cool as it sounds, though, I doubt it'd be nearly as easy to implement as Spiders and Widows due to being stuck hovering in one fully bandaged pose all the time. Also, that'd call for a third HEAT to even things out.

What is it with some balance suggestions erupting into lengthy flame wars, again?

Me and the boys after raiding Area 51: (actually the second mission in Transmuter's arc. Kinda amazed by how tough Stern, Warrant and Zane are compared to Aria and Riptide)

As stated above, using Beam Rifle as a primary lets me equip nearly any other weapon-based powerset as a secondary. I think I also somehow got Dual Pistols/Titan Weapon to work. All without meddling with the files. ...that said, I did find out that holstered weapons turning invisible is kind of normal both for AE critters and player characters, but it still doesn't really excuse weapons sometimes being forcibly reverted to their respective default models.