If you could radically overhaul 1 thing....

[tidge]

1 hour ago, Puma said:

[...] you'd be working to infiltrate and take down Longbow.

There already exists Red Side content for this; I'm not sure what Villains and Rogues would be gaining by just going to another zone.

[FoulVileTerror]

This largely goes back to the discussion that occurred about "getting people Redside," and it was brought up by several people that one of their chief barriers to entry are the Rogue Isles themselves.  Those players would be happy to play villainous content, but the thought of navigating in Redside zones was so intensely unpleasant to them that they just couldn't do it long-term.

There are, of course, other opportunities to tell interesting stories and perhaps infuse new forms of gameplay.  While strictly speaking; these problems could be addressed in other ways, there's also a "coolness factor" for a lot of people to get to experience "life on the other side, on the same side."

[tidge]

26 minutes ago, FoulVileTerror said:

 While strictly speaking; these problems could be addressed in other ways, there's also a "coolness factor" for a lot of people to get to experience "life on the other side, on the same side."

So... radically overhauling the perception of players (who feel like they are missing out on content, but unwilling to experience that content or simply unwilling to accept that there is content they don't enjoy) is off the table? 🙂

[FoulVileTerror]

If you know of some other means to achieve the desired result, I imagine the devs and community would appreciate having a breakdown on the details.  And I don't mean that with any amount of sass; I strongly encourage everyone to share ideas and criticisms of the game in an effort to improve it.

[Neogumbercules]

I would add a level up path to each power. Each power has its own experience bar which is leveled up by using that power. Each level you gain on a power slightly increases the stats of that power, like damage, recharge, end discount. These leveled up stat increases are to the baseline properties of the power and aren't counted as enhancement values. Enhancement Diversification will not have any effect on these values.

 

Once you reach a certain level with the power, you have the option to branch that power into a separate path. For example if you level up Shockwave from Claws you'll get two options: a branch that converts the power to energy damage and causes mag 3 stun but removes thr KB, and a branch that converts it to a wide melee ranged cone that deals toxic damage, adds a dot and -dam, but removes the KB effect.

 

If anyone has played ESO they will know what I'm thinking. 

 

Obviously this would be a total redesign of the power system. Probably better fit for CoH2. 

[ShardWarrior]

I would nerf Regen some more.

[Andreah]

I would make all cutscenes skippable.

[Andreah]

Another big radical overhaul would be the city environment. I don't mean graphically, but graphical improvements would have to follow I suppose, but with my GigaDollar lottery win, I'd develop a city simulator (like cities:skylines) engine and put it behind the city. It would generate and snarl traffic, produce pedestrians on actual trips, crowds of commuting/rioting/fleeing citizens, street crime, gang wars, building construction, fires, robberies, mass transit, traffic accidents, police chases, various local disasters, and so on. It would produce and have post-reactions to zone events, and generally make the city feel consistently alive.

[Replacement]

Back by zero demand:

1. Condense all primary and secondary sets down to 5 most interesting powers.
2. For the remaining 4, some will get dissolved into the 5 chosen powers, other particularly noteworthy powers will be set aside.
3. Make new pools out of those set-aside powers.
4. Deactivate epics (necessary to prevent overlap), remove the limit on number of power pools.

Obviously, some other stuff would need to change. Removing the accuracy check on Provoke replaces all Taunts. Attacks (especially melee) would need Recharge reductions. I would aim to have the new t1 attack always be high on dps while the t2 is high on utility (so Parry and Siphon Life are good example t2s).

 

Result: AT and party role is still a thing. Still matters. Just more opportunity to blur the lines as you level, more build choice.

[CursedSorcerer]

I'd change the Endgame too. Specifically I'd make it so characters can choose whether to support Primal Earth or Praetoria. I just feel like that would open up story possibilities.

[Puma]

9 hours ago, tidge said:

So... radically overhauling the perception of players (who feel like they are missing out on content, but unwilling to experience that content or simply unwilling to accept that there is content they don't enjoy) is off the table? 🙂

Im not sure if this is targetted at my idea, but  if it is, please explain how my idea "radically" overhauls the perception of any players.  Not a single player who wouldn't want to experience this is forced to, and if they don't, not a single aspect of the game would change for them, except occasionally they may see a villain in Steel Canyon and not realize it's a villain.  

[Puma]

9 hours ago, tidge said:

There already exists Red Side content for this; I'm not sure what Villains and Rogues would be gaining by just going to another zone.

I am thinking something more elaborate than that one contact (though he could easily be tied in) but if you're more comfortable, we could swap Longbow for Hero Corp, which I find to be underutilized anyway, or even the Freedom Phalanx.

[Sakura Tenshi]

Actually, after having thought of it, if I could do a major overhaul of one thing, technically two because they'd be tied, probably: the cities themselves and possibly the graphics engines. I wouldn't try to make the cities look next gen or anything (except MAYBE the forestry stuff?), in general a new engine would more to let it handle more of the present stuff and allow for bigger zones. And now here's where my idea would become really unpopular:

 

A lot of hero zones would get mashed together and the geography of Paragon would be overhauled to look like it's part of Rhode Island instead of some weird Massachusetts, lore would be altered to accommodate and while technically the neighborhood zones would exist individually, the idea would be that the warwall layout wasn't as clean as we see now. A rough overview would be like:

 

 

Paragon onna grid

Crey's Folly/Boomtown/Eden (merged together for a 'Nature Takes over vs. industrial neglect' theme with a shattered cityscape caught between)	(unused space, could have Boomtown here instead)	Faultline/Hollows (the nice neighborhoods destroyed)
Terra Volta (Isolated from most of the city for safety reasons, but now caught between villain haven wasteland and the rest of the city)	Atlas Park/Perez Park	Founders' Falls/Brickstown (Old town Paragon basically)
Skyway City/Steel Canyon (now with actual, city-spanning freeways!)	Skyway City/Steel Canyon	Skyway City/Steel Canyon (fills multiple cells with it's scale, also visual representation)
Independence Port/Kings Row	Kallisti Wharf/Talos/Peregrine	Galaxy City (gets to stay it's own place)

 

Additional Paragon changes that would go beyond just the city include:

• Croatoa and Dark Astoria merged and now set in Maine. Really, I'm just robbing Solomon Island zones from The Secret World
• The Zig is moved out to the US Southwest as the centerpiece of it's own zone, and yes this is stealing from Champions while I'm at it.
• Rikti War Zone is now moved out the US entirely and the Vanguard HQ proper (heroes and villains get there through a Vanguard outpost that involves a 'super jet' transport) is set in Puerto Williams in Chilie, the Southernmost city in the world with the actual warzone being set in the Antarctic Peninsula

 

Changes for the Rogue Isles would be a lot less extreme, a majority of it runs along the lines of:

• Make the 'main islands' of each zone bigger so it's a bit more believable as an independent nation rather than just city state. Also lets zones have more details
• Make the cities a bit cleaner and better maintained looking. Tourism is an industry.
• Inter-island highway or even submarine transport tunnel. Because Recluse, The Family, and plenty of other major villain groups still give a damn about logistics. (plus, toll money)
• Relatedly: make it so you can go from Port Oakes to Cap Au by crossing the mountain or going through the damn traffic tunnel. And fix their orientations so the maps are properly angled as shown on the Rogue Isles map.
• Probably move the starting position on Mercy Island to have you get dumped in the water (it's Arachnos, literal sink or swim) just outside of an impoverished-but-functional fishing ghetto. More Kingsrow than outright ruined wasteland the rest of Darwin's landing is. Point is to let you have a functional starting point but still feel accomplished when you get up to Mercy city proper.

 

Some Misc,. details I'd change to the overworld of the game:

• Hospitals and Tram buildings now each have unique building models (though remain clearly labeled) no more copy and past stuff.
• Ships will be realistically sized and no longer laughable tiny
• More car models! We need pick-up trucks, RVs, Minivans, full-sized vans, and vehicles that don't look like they're from Circa 1977!
• oh, and one more thing: Single Family houses and other such residential buildings. We see (poorly made) Farm Houses in Croatoa and Row Houses in Praetoria, so maybe we could get some Ranch, Tudor, and New England Colonial houses? Oh, also Victorian styles since we do have the Midnight/Dr. Kane mansion.

Edited September 17, 2020 by Sakura Tenshi

[Galaxy Brain]

On 9/16/2020 at 1:37 PM, Replacement said:

Back by zero demand:

1. Condense all primary and secondary sets down to 5 most interesting powers.
2. For the remaining 4, some will get dissolved into the 5 chosen powers, other particularly noteworthy powers will be set aside.
3. Make new pools out of those set-aside powers.
4. Deactivate epics (necessary to prevent overlap), remove the limit on number of power pools.

Obviously, some other stuff would need to change. Removing the accuracy check on Provoke replaces all Taunts. Attacks (especially melee) would need Recharge reductions. I would aim to have the new t1 attack always be high on dps while the t2 is high on utility (so Parry and Siphon Life are good example t2s).

 

Result: AT and party role is still a thing. Still matters. Just more opportunity to blur the lines as you level, more build choice.

 

Hot take: but this makes total sense. 

 

Think about ALL the powers in the game that are literal copy/paste of the same power but with a different secondary effect (at least mechanically). Like every t1/t2 attack for 90% of powersets, every T1/T2 control power, a good chunk of Armor powers where its like "this is your S/L resist power". There are only a few "unique" powers out there when you really think of it 😕 

[EmperorSteele]

I dunno if it counts as "One" thing, but I'd rework some of the ATs and their role(s) on a team.

The issue I have with ATs is two-fold. One: The Villain archetypes were made with soloing in mind, and also were supposed to represent a "dark mirror" of sorts to the heroside ATs. It's not one-for one, obviously, but it's not hard to see that Brutes are "just angry tankers" and that stalkers are "just invisible scrappers with controllable crits, lol". Adding onto that, all the "mirror" ATs share most of the same powersets. Especially sets that came later in the game's life. And this was all FINE while the two games were separate. But now that you can have any AT on any side at any time? Well, while it's nice to just do what you want, it has made some ATs a bit superfluous when you're talking about the endgame or meta or what have you.

One specific idea I've had was to rework Stalkers: Instead of being "Scrappers but with AS and mandatory Hide", I'd do something a little more creative with them. Think about, say, Batman. He hides in the shadows, and uses tricks, gadgets, and subterfuge to manipulate and finally take down his foes. For Stalkers, I'd bring this a bit more into play. Remove most of their armor powers, and give them light mezzes and debuffs. Sure, you might only have 12.5% defense, but you could also assail the baddies with flashbangs, fears, immobs, confusion, and other effect to keep you safe and pick them off. This would A) Make them more than just "Invizibul skrapperz lol", and B) give them some utility on a team besides just DPS. Ninjitsu is already a bit like this, but they dropped the ball on the other secondaries.

I'd do other things, like make Tanks more AoE-centric, give Controllers a way to compete with Domination (maybe by extending Containment to all mez types?), etc. But the Stalkers one is something I've actually put some thought into. Though I should add that I don't expect HC to actually do this. We're just spitballing here, right? 😃
 

[MTeague]

• Completely remove Arachnos, Lord Recluse, the Patrons, and Longbow from existence. 
• Instead have different parts of the Rogue Isles controlled by multiple factions all competiting with one another (Crey, Cage Consortium, the Tsoo, the Family, The Council, Malta, Circle of Thorns, Nemesis, etc.).  Make it more of a No-Man's Land / Wild West / Anything Goes, rather than "Under the Dominion of one unconditionally unchallengeable NPC boss".  
  • Yes, I'm completely aware that would savage a decade or more of in-game lore, and require rewrites of multple TF's and story arcs.
  • I'd do it anyway.
• Let the player choose which factions (if any) to ally themselves with, and play a few factions against each other.
• Remove all War Walls.  
• Remove all zone barriers.
• You should be able to run/walk/swim/jump from the Golden Giza to Atlas Park City Hall without "loading please wait" even once.

These will never happen. 

But they've been on my personal wishlist for awhile.

[Chris24601]

In line with the geography changes mentioned above, I’d like to see a graphical zone revamp to bring Steel, Talos, PI and either Bricks or FF up the the standards of Praetoria, revamped Atlas and Kallisti Wharf (King’s Row is supposed to be run down so it’s fine as is).

 

It’s hard for me to think of Steel Canyon as the financial heart of Paragon City when the core of it is a bunch of virtually identical in height and design Brutalist-style skyscrapers that went out fashion in the late 70s/early 80s... particularly when compared to the varied skyline of Imperial City that demonstrates a variety of architectural styles from different eras (not to mention differing heights and footprints).

 

The fact that a LOT of the buildings in Steel are just copy-pastes (and not even unique ones, the same skyscrapers show up on Talos, Bricks and PI... the brownstones are just endless repeats of the ones that also turn up in Kings Row and Bricks, etc.) just does NOT do the zone any favors and rob a LOT of blue-side of areas that feel distinct.

 

If anything, Steel Canyon as it exists presently feels like it should be the heart of Cole’s efficient but soulless dystopia (where it was all built as directed by the Cole administration) while Imperial looks like the sort of thriving finacial district that grew up organically like you see in New York, Tokyo, Dubai, etc.

 

So my radical proposal is this... starting with Steel Canyon, replace the old buildings with models from Praetoria. I stopped counting at a hundred distinct skyscrapers just in Imperial. Swap out the billboard/banner propaganda art and you’ve got a ton of models to choose from to actually give Steel Canyon some character.

 

Then move on to Talos Island and do it again. Given the Dirge of Chaos arc establishes a radio station there, I’d take a not-so-reskinned TPN (Total Paragon News) campus and place it on the island.

 

Snag the shorter residential buildings from Nova Praetoria and outdoor cafes from Imperial to replace those monolithic brownstones in Founder’s Falls and make it look more like an upscale residential/boutique shopping district.

 

Pick a theme for Peregrine Island instead of the confused mess it is now... like super-science... and replace those same old buildings with the most modern/sci-fi looking Praetorian buildings so the Portal Corps campus fits right in.

 

The difference between playing in revamped Atlas, in Praetoria and while flying around Kallisti Wharf compared to the rest of Paragon City is almost painful and, since so much of that beauty is either quickly outleveled (Atlas), has nothing going on there (Kallisti) or is skipped because of the greater difficulty (Praetoria), I’d like to see that beauty spread to where more players will actually see it.

[EmperorSteele]

1 hour ago, MTeague said:

• Completely remove Arachnos, Lord Recluse, the Patrons, and Longbow from existence. 
• Instead have different parts of the Rogue Isles controlled by multiple factions all competiting with one another (Crey, Cage Consortium, the Tsoo, the Family, The Council, Malta, Circle of Thorns, Nemesis, etc.).  Make it more of a No-Man's Land / Wild West / Anything Goes, rather than "Under the Dominion of one unconditionally unchallengeable NPC boss".  
  • Yes, I'm completely aware that would savage a decade or more of in-game lore, and require rewrites of multple TF's and story arcs.
  • I'd do it anyway.
• Let the player choose which factions (if any) to ally themselves with, and play a few factions against each other.

 

So apparently the original plan for CoV WAS to pick a faction to join, buuuut seeing as the 5th Column were literal Nazis, well... the idea didn't keep. But then they wound up replacing the 5th with the Council before CoV launched anyway, but by that time it was way too late to go back to the original plan.

[Sakura Tenshi]

4 hours ago, Chris24601 said:

design Brutalist-style skyscrapers

Funny thing is that if you look close enough, you realize Paragon city's major buildingers are supposed to be Art Deco, but the graphical limitations made it impossible to properly render.

 

5 hours ago, MTeague said:

Completely remove Arachnos, Lord Recluse, the Patrons

I understand this feeling, it's kind of straining to imagine such a flagrant terrorist organizations running a whole country and not get nuked to the stone age, not to mention as well put together as Arachnos is in terms of unit tactics, they're still a lot of the same 'big, giant, even army' we see with The Council, Nemesis, and Malta. Their style is also kind of ugly and painful to look at, which I guess is the point since they're EVIL and it distinguishes them visually from the more conventionally military looks of the three mentioned. And lastly there's the fact that from the start of your villain career until Incarnate, everything you do will swing around Arachnos.

 

But I am willing to play a devil's advocate and say I'd personally like to just have Arachnos' presence massively reduced. Make them a little more 'the man behind the man' in the Isles. There's a legit government in place, but Recluse pulls the strings, though sometimes said government is fully capable of pulling back. Make them feel like a mysterious benefactor who intervened on the villain player's behalf to get you the isles, then backed off, lets you build up your career, but leaving bread crumbs for you to follow. Not hard to figure out who they are, they're a big name, but working out the why and learning the depth becomes the interesting part.

[tidge]

5 hours ago, Sakura Tenshi said:

I understand this feeling, it's kind of straining to imagine such a flagrant terrorist organizations running a whole country and not get nuked to the stone age...

[FoulVileTerror]

Yeah . . . 

 

I mean, avoiding any real-world analogies, as I recall Arachnos is expressly stated to have insiders with the United Nations and all the nuclear powers in the world.  Probably have people in the governments of several other nations as well.  Not to mention that -using- nukes is a bad time for lots of people, not just the ones you're targeting, and the civilians which Recluse undoubtedly holds hostage.  Hell, with the controversy surrounding Longbow, Arachnos apologists probably propose that the U.N. has already violated their own regulations in allowing Longbow to invade and set up an occupational force.  Recluse probably even allows Longbow to remain a 'threat' to further his own aims and gain sympathy on a global stage.

 

In a setting where people can leap tall buildings, the sociopolitical layout of the Etoiles versus the rest of the world aren't that difficult to justify.

[Andreah]

I would presume that the Etoille Islands itself would be a conventional nuclear power, and at that level, there is a sort of mutual deterrence with the rest of the world.

 

Of course, nukes would no longer be the "The Last Argument of Kings" in the game world, that being the role of each nations loyal and on-call super powered people, but surely they would still be pretty dang important.

[Galaxy Brain]

12 hours ago, EmperorSteele said:

I dunno if it counts as "One" thing, but I'd rework some of the ATs and their role(s) on a team.

The issue I have with ATs is two-fold. One: The Villain archetypes were made with soloing in mind, and also were supposed to represent a "dark mirror" of sorts to the heroside ATs. It's not one-for one, obviously, but it's not hard to see that Brutes are "just angry tankers" and that stalkers are "just invisible scrappers with controllable crits, lol". Adding onto that, all the "mirror" ATs share most of the same powersets. Especially sets that came later in the game's life. And this was all FINE while the two games were separate. But now that you can have any AT on any side at any time? Well, while it's nice to just do what you want, it has made some ATs a bit superfluous when you're talking about the endgame or meta or what have you.

One specific idea I've had was to rework Stalkers: Instead of being "Scrappers but with AS and mandatory Hide", I'd do something a little more creative with them. Think about, say, Batman. He hides in the shadows, and uses tricks, gadgets, and subterfuge to manipulate and finally take down his foes. For Stalkers, I'd bring this a bit more into play. Remove most of their armor powers, and give them light mezzes and debuffs. Sure, you might only have 12.5% defense, but you could also assail the baddies with flashbangs, fears, immobs, confusion, and other effect to keep you safe and pick them off. This would A) Make them more than just "Invizibul skrapperz lol", and B) give them some utility on a team besides just DPS. Ninjitsu is already a bit like this, but they dropped the ball on the other secondaries.

I'd do other things, like make Tanks more AoE-centric, give Controllers a way to compete with Domination (maybe by extending Containment to all mez types?), etc. But the Stalkers one is something I've actually put some thought into. Though I should add that I don't expect HC to actually do this. We're just spitballing here, right? 😃
 

While I agree with the premise, the examples here I feel are a bit off?

 

Stalkers already play very much differently than Scrappers, as well as have different powers in their Primaries and Secondaries even outside of the mandatory Hide/Assassin's Strike. Would I love more diversity to make them stand out a bit more? Absolutely! Just like with your /Nin example compared to Scrapper /Nin, they could definitely use more tools to make them different but I don't think removing armor should be one of them.

 

Tankers likewise are much more AoE focused now with their changes to Radius and Target Caps, tho again having more focus on that would be cool, much like how their Fire Melee has another AoE (poor tho it may be) compared to other Melee AT's Fire Melees. Like, why should Tanker X set be the same as Scrapper X set aside from different values? The AoE increases help but still.

 

Adding more variety per AT would still be awesome

 

 

 

 

[gourdhead]

Late to the game on this, and apologies if its already been dragged through the dirt :).  I've always wished, since day 1, that origin MATTERED. 

[MTeague]

58 minutes ago, gourdhead said:

Late to the game on this, and apologies if its already been dragged through the dirt :).  I've always wished, since day 1, that origin MATTERED. 

Devil is completely in the details.  Matters how?  What would you change?  I'd be willing to talk turkey, but I'd be leery of anything that created mission arcs that were ONLY obtainable based on a certain Origin, or which provided different combat benefits to certain Origins (inevitably making one origin the "best" min/max origin....), etc.