Hi all. So I saw a comment on the homecoming Discord in the Brute chat, mentioning it would be cool to have npc assistants in more missions on a more permanent basis. I have had this thought for a new system for a while now, and it seemed a relevant time to post it. I appreciate this likely to be just a pipe dream, as I'd imagine this would be quite a complicated system to install, but here goes anyway!
Sidekick / Lackey system background and unlock process What if we could get a new sidekick/lackey (referred to as SK/L henceforth) system, broadly based on the 'nemesis' system from Champions Online? The way I see it in my mind, is that your toon would get to a certain level (say 20) and then a new optional unlockable contact would open up. This contact asks you do undertake a 'trial' mission to prove yourself, after which you are given a mission to rescue a junior hero/villain that's in over their head. Before you start this mission, you get to fully create said hero/villain (as in full character creation, you can pick their origin, AT, powersets, costume, give them a backstory [if desired] and even pick a 'personality type' from a pre-set list - this would just provide a minor aesthetic value of given them different interaction dialog). I also think there could be a small number of stock pre-created SK/Ls for people who are less creative (or lazy), but that would detract from what is realistically the biggest part of the system.
You then go and complete the rest of the story arc, including the mission to save them, after which they ask to become your sk/l. You then go on to complete a couple of missions from the new contact with your sk/l (similar to radio/paper missions - they would meet you inside at the mission entrance), during which your sk/l cons as being a green Lt rank compared to your level (so yes, purposefully pretty weak). After a couple of these missions, you get the arc's finale, where you undertake a tougher mission with your sk/l (this time, they go on ahead and you have to rescue them again, but this time they carry on fighting along side you to the end of the mission). Upon completing this mission (and the story arc), you unlock the 'summon sidekick/lackey' power, and you can then summon your created SK/L as a permanent pet (like mastermind pets, you'd also get to command your SK/L to tell them to stay, be defensive, be aggressive etc.). So it would go roughly like this:
Mission 1 -> Trial mission (no SK/L) -> e.g. go defeat a random enemy group named boss that has been prolifically attacking new heroes/villains;
Mission 2 -> Rescue SK/L mission -> e.g. Fight through a random enemy warehouse and clear the final room/named boss to rescue your SK/L, who then thanks you and asks to become your SK/L (depending on your allegiance);
Mission 3 -> With your SK/L -> Rescue a random civilian from a random enemy group;
Mission 4 -> With your SK/L -> Recover a random item from a random enemy group;
Mission 5 (finale) -> Two objectives, first to rescue your SK/L (near the front of the mission), then defeat a named boss with your SK/L at the back of the mission. Return to contact, arc complete, unlock summon ability, gg ez.
To give some sense of balance, the summon power would go on cooldown for say 10m - 15m if your SK/L is defeated (i.e. the time they spend recovering in the hospital, before they are fit to fight again). However, I'd like this to be made so that inspirations could be used on the SK/L, including awakening inspirations (if dropped onto your SK/L within say 20 seconds of them being defeated, otherwise they get teleported away to the hospital, and the power goes on CD).
Rank up system
To make it a bit more interesting/interactive, I'd envision a training system to be in place once you have unlocked the summon power. Your sk/l would automatically level up as your character does, but when you first get them, they con as a green lt rank compared to you, and you have to get a certain amount of experience (doing missions etc.) with your sk/l to further level up their 'rank'.
Eventually, after accumulating enough exp, they'd grow in power and 'rank up', conning as a green boss rank after getting a certain amount of exp, then a blue boss rank, and then finally con as an equal level boss rank (which would be the highest they should get, to keep the feeling that your toon is the main hero/villain and more powerful character). So it would go roughly like this: Rank 1 -> Your SK/L cons as a green lieutenant rank;
Rank 2 -> Your SK/L cons as a green boss rank;
Rank 3 -> Your SK/L cons as a blue boss rank;
Rank 4 (final rank) -> Your SK/L cons as a white boss rank.
Arguably, this may not seem that strong, but that is the point, this isn't meant to be a longer lasting signature summon 2.0.
Powersets vs. Rank
Carrying on. Each time your sk/l ranks up, they get to unlock another powerslot. Initially, when you first unlock them, I see them as having 4 abilities (that you pick) - a combination of up to 3 from the primary power pool and up to 2 from the secondary power pool (i.e. they could start with two primary powers and two secondary powers, or three primary powers and one secondary, but they couldn't have more than two secondary powers or three primary powers until they rank up) - with the existing level cap in place (so a level 22 sidekick brute with Super Strength as their primary can't get foot stomp as a selectable power until level 32). When they first rank up, they get a fifth ability, then a sixth ability, with seven abilities at their max rank. You would visit the aforementioned unlockable contact to select/respec your SK/L's powers at anytime, but like a player respec, you could only change your SK/L's powers, not the powersets. So it would go roughly like this:
Rank 1 -> Your SK/L has four selectable abilities maximum, which would be a combination of up to 3 primary powerset abilities and 2 secondary powerset abilities;
Rank 2 -> Your SK/L has five selectable abilities maximum, which would be a combination of up to 3 primary powerset abilities and 2 secondary powerset abilities;
Rank 3 -> Your SK/L has six selectable abilities maximum, which would be a combination of up to 4 primary powerset abilities and 2 secondary powerset abilities;
Rank 4 -> Your SK/L has seven selectable abilities maximum, which would be a combination of 4 primary powerset abilities and 3 secondary powerset abilities.
To help address some level of balance with player Stalkers, if you are a Stalker, your SK/L would automatically gain a weaker version of hide (which would only be active whilst the player is hidden). This wouldn't take up a power slot. Likewise, to keep it inherent and not to force a choice, a created Stalker SK/L would inherently get hide, not forcing the player to have to use a powerslot pick to get this ability (so a created Stalker SK/L would get hide automatically + 3 secondary powerset picks at maximum rank). Admittedly, I have not considered epic ATs (PBs, WSs, VEATs) appropriate for this system.
In terms of travel powers, I'd imagine they'd have the same limitations as the AE system, but it would be cool if you could pick one of the full range of flight, TP, Super speed (or stick with the inherent SJ). I don't see the created SK/Ls getting access to any other pool powers.
Additional content
I'd see this as a repeatable process (once you have ranked your first SK/L up to the top rank), so you would re-run the arc (minus the first 'trial' mission after you have ranked up your first SK/L) to unlock multiple sidekicks/lackeys (and you would pick your active SK/L at the unlockable contact). Whilst re-running your arc, your active SK/L power wouldn't be useable.
I'd see reckon that you could have say 6 slots maximum at any one time, and to free up a slot, you could pick a SK/L to support on a one off mission to help them become a fully fledged hero/villain, thus removing them permanently from your SK/L list. If you wanted them back, you'd have to go through the process of re-creating them, rescuing them and retraining them again. I'd also like to see this system allowing you to save your created SK/Ls account wide, so you could select a pre-created SK/L if you wanted to have the same SK/L across different toons. Also, I think for ease, if you change alignment, your SK/Ls will also change, it would be quite a faff having different SKs and Ls (but either way could also be a do-able I suppose).
MOAR BADGES!!!
Naturally, there would be various badges associated with this system, a couple of initial ideas being:
Unlock and create your first SK/L;
Unlock three and create SK/Ls;
Unlock six and create SK/Ls;
Complete a certain number of missions with your SK/L;
Train your SK/L for a certain number of hours [as a separate series of badges to the existing for being a team leader for x amount of hours];
Get rescued by one of your past SK/L X number of times (as a little bonus feature of this system - if you are struggling on a mission and are defeated X number of times, a random former SK/L that you have helped to become a fully fledged hero/villain may spawn inside that mission to provide you some bonus support. Upon completing that mission in this situation, you would be awarded 1 point towards that badge counter. I'd also see the active SK/L and the 'fledged' hero/villain interacting with each other, subject to the picked personality types, they might become jealous or borderline hostile to each other - again, mostly for the aesthetic and to give this system more RP feeling to it).
PvP
How this power would work in terms of PvP, well I'm not sure. I'd imagine this power would need to be unusable in arena, and your SK/L nerfed slightly in PvP zones (or at the very least, nerfed against actual players, if not NPCs in PvP zones).
Conclusion
I think this would give newer players a bit of a boost as they approach tougher content, and veteran players would have a new system to amuse themselves with. I also think it would have some good RP potential, so it would tick multiple boxes of game dimensions, and if nothing else, it would allow your toon to cover up an element of it's inherent weaknesses (i.e. a player controller could create a brute or scrapper SK/L to give them the damage boost they are missing, or a player brute could create themselves a defender as pocket healer/buffer).
If you have read this far, congrats! I appreciate this was quite a bombshell of information, I'd be curious to hear any other thoughts or suggestions on this system!
Cheers,
(@ Stonestrike - Reunion)
