Why don't you play on the Villain Side?

[cranebump]

Red side signature WWD and Pandora’s Box give 4X merit rewards (or 20 merits) each.

[Psyonico]

1 hour ago, cranebump said:

Red side signature WWD and Pandora’s Box give 4X merit rewards (or 20 merits) each.

So does blue side

[Replacement]

On 3/14/2020 at 4:20 PM, Chris24601 said:

Given the raw destructive power at the hands of many metahumans, that sort of deal; basically turning it into a game of wits instead of one of carnage; seems like a reasonable “unwritten rule” that a world full of supers might come up with amongst themselves just for the sake of civilization (and the survival of anything worth stealing).

This is the principle that's tenuously holding society together in the "cape" web serial Worm, which I know I mention a lot around there (WARNING: full of adult language, body horror, and lots of other triggers).  Even the municipal agencies develop a sort of nudge-nudge-wink-wink relationship with villains who aren't violent to bystanders or go too far with the heroes.  Captain Amazing from Mystery Men was right (you get sponsors, merchandising, and tourism when your city houses a popular super group.  And for that, you need villains).

[cranebump]

22 hours ago, Psyonico said:

So does blue side

Correct. I was responding to an earlier observation about the lack of commensurate merits from story arcs redside v. Blue. I should have prefaced my statements with that. That said, if you run vigilante both sides, all the way through, you can cash in for over 200 merits. Gotta be lvl 40+ to run them all at once, though.

[Snarky]

I just made a cool villain.  Then immediately went to Pocket D and slammed him Vigilante so I could actually run 4 DFBs.  While in Atlas Park level 1  I got onto  a crazy farm train (still on it, level 37 and going) So where do I want the guy to be at 35?-50?  I WANT him to be a villain.  Lets look at the Alignment powers for a Brute.  ….Villain Alignment power is near useless with a 50 Brute.  You will peg Fury in seconds of enemy contact.  Confuse?  Rogue power, good for solo story quest.  Hero power....nice.  grrr.  Vigilante power is cool.  So the best power for a Brute is the hero power.  Sad.  

 

Lets talk about content.  Okay, so we need Blueside access unless LGTF, ITF, and Incarnate TF are all you plan to do.  (and that is tempting)  

 

I take a deep breath and think about the characters backstory and look.  I am leaning toward Villain with him.  Its going to be a lot of Inf in the build but points for style are more important than an alignment power or missing Blueside TFs.  If I had not gotten onto this crazy farm I would have left him Blue to do the TFs to level.  Now I don't need to.

 

So this will be a pure Villain, as written an hour or two ago in character gen.  But I already have a Vigilante on the server with a similar build just different power sets.  this was an experiment that I got lucky with.  Most alts don't get lucky, they struggle with running Blueside off concept and start to irritate and are then abandoned.

[sonderjack]

tldr: I like quests and am a roleplayer at heart, and I just don't like the Redside stories. And I don't like being mean, even in video games.

 

Back during Live, I did have some Redside characters, but the quests and story arcs don't really fit the types of villains I'd like to play. I'd rather be a Magneto (a villain who thinks they're on the 'right side') or someone who's into using superpowers to selfish ends... or a villain who thinks Lord Recluse is doing a terrible job and wants to overthrow him and be better at world domination. But the story arcs I remember mostly tended toward "chaotic stupid", mayhem for its own sake, or the Bad Guy equivalent of going "lol im so random! xDDDD" There's nothing wrong with those kinds of villain stories, but they're just not what I enjoy.

[Snarky]

2 hours ago, sonderjack said:

tldr: I like quests and am a roleplayer at heart, and I just don't like the Redside stories. And I don't like being mean, even in video games.

 

Back during Live, I did have some Redside characters, but the quests and story arcs don't really fit the types of villains I'd like to play. I'd rather be a Magneto (a villain who thinks they're on the 'right side') or someone who's into using superpowers to selfish ends... or a villain who thinks Lord Recluse is doing a terrible job and wants to overthrow him and be better at world domination. But the story arcs I remember mostly tended toward "chaotic stupid", mayhem for its own sake, or the Bad Guy equivalent of going "lol im so random! xDDDD" There's nothing wrong with those kinds of villain stories, but they're just not what I enjoy.

This is a very well thought out critique of Redside.  While Redside arguably has some of the best storylines in the game, it is a specific type of storylines that it falls into.

 

I have said before to do Kalinda and Burke's stories if you plan to run Redside.   This is because they lay everything out so perfectly.  If you like that, dig in, there are months of the same set up for you.  This is not a perfect explanation of what they tell you, but it is not wrong either. Kalinda: Work for Arachnos.  We reward loyalty. There is no other game in town.  Watch your back.  Burke: Screw Arachnos. Work for them, but steal from them.  Oh, and some of them are honorable.  But get your cookies and keep your distance.

 

If you have a different character concept than will fit easily into running missions for the semi-organized evil organization Arachnos, whether being a loyalists or a traitorous selfish rebel, then the Redside storylines (mostly) will not work for you.  There are some exceptions.  A few of the contacts Redside offer storylines that explore meta concepts for CoH/Cov, but even these will almost always flirt with villain politics.

 

For me this has always worked out.  Somehow I just naturally click with the selfish backstabbing greedy pretend to work for you while looking for the angles world of Redside storylines.  (looks at sentence, sighs) But seriously, I enjoy running those same arcs endlessly.  Itching to run a complete all Redside contacts completionist toon again.  Had one up to low 30s and just 50'd them.  Was a Tank, horrid choice for kill alls.  Doing Brute probably, or maybe I will go nuts and try a Dom...no....that would be....hmmmmm   But yes, I do enjoy the petty villainy of CoV Redside.

 

You might enjoy Goldside.  So much more political and cerebral.  I personally hate the missions for pure politics sake.  Give me a Bank Robbery anyday.  I sort of enjoy the difficulty of Goldside, but it is a messed up place over there.  Even the street cleaning robots are politics junkies.

[MrNotorion]

Well I don't need to play redside anymore to have access to any of the AT's that once were exclusive there.  Not that I ever played much beyond low levels but I never cared much for the missions.  Really they didn't seem any different from blueside missions other than the opponent groups.  I guess I also feel that I can go along easier with my hero PC being just one of a large group - one hero in a CITY OF HEROES.  But as a villain PC you're not really choosing YOUR crimes and domination schemes, you're just another crook among a smaller cadre of crooks than heroes, but also generally (seemed to me) just a cog in the wheel of SOME OTHER criminals group.  Heroes can typically fit better as members of a team, but villains need to stand alone a lot more often as being THE threat that heroes have to stop.

[Herotu]

I don't like the villain stuff because there are varying degrees of villainy.

 

I like my villains to be quite passive - only fighting other villain groups, or robberies, kidnappings ... "harmless" stuff like that.  

Killing heroes just ... doesn't seem very cool to me.

[Snarky]

10 minutes ago, Herotu said:

I don't like the villain stuff because there are varying degrees of villainy.

This is so funny to me I do not know how to articulate it.  I just keep re-reading it and giggling.

 

seriously though, you want a Vigilante.  And just story arcs from peeps like Dr Shelly Percy.  Which...Yeah. 

 

I have to go back to giggling again.  Thanks.