Arch-Enemy NPCs and power sets

[Menelruin]

53 minutes ago, TyrantMikey said:

 

Nah. For Will Power, you want something that drains endurance, and drains it hard and irresistibly. Couple that with teleportation.

 

For example, consider my main, Prodigal. He's a WP/SS tank. He can stomp just about anything in the yard.  The only time he might get a real challenge going is if you hit him with significant amounts of endurance drain and forced his toggles to drop. Then he's in trouble.

 

Whatever we came up with has to take both primary and secondary abilities we have, but I'm not sure I'd want those abilities auto-selected for us. It'd be too cookie-cutter. 

I was going more thematic counters than tactical ones.  Like Captain America vs. Winter Soldier.

[MetaVileTerror]

I personally think the best solution to this problem is to put it in the hands of the player community.

Rather than have the Homecoming Team or OuroDevs program a whole new game system to procedurally generate an Archrival for your character, make it an opt-in system where you create an Archrival for a different player, who is then randomly assigned to that player who also opted-in.  To make sure there's a good supply, players should be able to craft and publish up to 5 Archrivals per account, like AE Arcs.  These Archrivals could also have a list of in-game enemy factions that they would be likely to work with, so missions could be populated with some lackeys.

 

Yeah, we'll probably see quite a few lame creations.  In response to that, I say give players the option to permanently defeat an Archrival they find more annoying than engaging.  That Archrival is cycled out, and a new one rises up.  However, if the player rates their assigned Archrival as a great creation, then it can stick around as a constant thorn in their side.  And if a particular Archrival gets enough positive feedback from other players, then maybe that creator-player could be rewarded with another slot to unlock.

 

Providing such Archrivals with consistent and appropriate dialogue should probably be left to prewritten "bundles" which the original creator can choose from.  Such as "moody killer," or "boastful megalomaniac," or "proud hero."  Sure, the dialogue will get predictable over time, but it's probably safer than leaving it to be written by the player-creator.  You'd get some serious "phone it in" dialogue for probably half or more of the Archrivals in that case, if player-character backstories are anything to judge by.  Similarly to above; players with proven positive ratings could potentially be offered the chance to write additional dialogue for submitted approval.

 

This also provides players with a meaningful way to engage with the game world, rather than just the whole "theme park" thing that a lot of people have been talking about lately.  There's some potential satisfaction in knowing that a hero or villain you created has brought enjoyment to another player's gaming experience.

[boggo2300]

59 minutes ago, MetaVileTerror said:

I personally think the best solution to this problem is to put it in the hands of the player community.

Rather than have the Homecoming Team or OuroDevs program a whole new game system to procedurally generate an Archrival for your character, make it an opt-in system where you create an Archrival for a different player, who is then randomly assigned to that player who also opted-in.  To make sure there's a good supply, players should be able to craft and publish up to 5 Archrivals per account, like AE Arcs.  These Archrivals could also have a list of in-game enemy factions that they would be likely to work with, so missions could be populated with some lackeys.

 

Yeah, we'll probably see quite a few lame creations.  In response to that, I say give players the option to permanently defeat an Archrival they find more annoying than engaging.  That Archrival is cycled out, and a new one rises up.  However, if the player rates their assigned Archrival as a great creation, then it can stick around as a constant thorn in their side.  And if a particular Archrival gets enough positive feedback from other players, then maybe that creator-player could be rewarded with another slot to unlock.

 

Providing such Archrivals with consistent and appropriate dialogue should probably be left to prewritten "bundles" which the original creator can choose from.  Such as "moody killer," or "boastful megalomaniac," or "proud hero."  Sure, the dialogue will get predictable over time, but it's probably safer than leaving it to be written by the player-creator.  You'd get some serious "phone it in" dialogue for probably half or more of the Archrivals in that case, if player-character backstories are anything to judge by.  Similarly to above; players with proven positive ratings could potentially be offered the chance to write additional dialogue for submitted approval.

 

This also provides players with a meaningful way to engage with the game world, rather than just the whole "theme park" thing that a lot of people have been talking about lately.  There's some potential satisfaction in knowing that a hero or villain you created has brought enjoyment to another player's gaming experience.

thats kinda cool actually, adds some nice level of OH I didn't expect that!