If you could radically overhaul 1 thing....

[Chris24601]

So, tiny update on my "replace all the old ugly Paragon City buildings with ones from Praetoria" idea. I took some in game measurements of zone sizes using the maps and the handy thumbtack and then grabbing the footprints of various areas in Paragon City and overlaying them on Imperial City and there is EASILY enough buildings just in Imperial City to replace the entire core of Steel Canyon and everything on the central island of Talos (excepting the docks which don't need updating) and only duplicate a building if Imperial City did.

 

Throw in the extra buildings in Nova, Neutropolis and the non-destroyed (just rundown looking) buildings from First Ward (which despite my previous comments would add some spice to Kings row if some were interspersed there) and I think there's enough there to do Kings Row, Steel Canyon, Talos Island, Founders Falls and Peregrine Island (Brickstown getting more rundown buildings from First Ward might even put it on the table too).

 

An extreme stretch goal would be to update some of the really fake looking ruined skyscrapers in Boomtown, Eden and the RWZ to those from First Ward's core with their much more realistic look (including torn off sections where you can see the individual floors instead of it being clear its just a solid skyscraper shaped block with holes put in it as the old hazard zone ruined skyscrapers are).

 

Sadly (or not... I've advocated for it getting the Galaxy City treatment for a while now) Skyway City would have to be skipped... perhaps blown up entirely (with the zone events moved to Steel Canyon) and a new tram station added to Faultline to keep it connected.

 

A related upgrade I'd actually like to see because it would make the zone MUCH more distinctive, is to take the lava-crater map from the SSA and use it to replace the huge pit in the Hollows. Many of the missions got relocated in its revamp to be closer to the Atlas gate, but the few that would be in the lava could be relocated to the lava lake's perimeter. Having a lava lake (complete with the way it lit up the sky) would really push what a disaster area/crisis zone the Hollows are and why the War Walls are actually still a good idea in that they can keep such a disaster contained even though Atlas Park is basically next door to it.

[gourdhead]

3 hours ago, MTeague said:

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. 

That opens up great big can of worms, that should best be consumed in person over adult beverages 🙂  I've never had an issue with content being gated, because it always annoyed me that 1 character was meant to play all the content, when content could be radically different in tone and playstyle.  Of course, I also think badges should be account based not character based, so that's just me 🙂

[Hexquisite]

19 hours ago, MTeague said:

• Completely remove Arachnos, Lord Recluse, the Patrons, and Longbow from existence.

You know, M, I often find myself in agreement with you. And I’m down with many of the suggestions you made.

 

But if you remove my beloved Ghost Widow from existence, we are going to have words.

[MTeague]

6 minutes ago, Hexquisite said:

You know, M, I often find myself in agreement with you. And I’m down with many of the suggestions you made.

 

But if you remove my beloved Ghost Widow from existence, we are going to have words.

lol.  Well, it's not like I think the idea has a snowball's chance in hell.  I think GW has pretty good job security.

 

But I guess my main objection is that Arachnos is so completely dominant over everything.  If they were on more of an equal footing with Crey, or the Council, or Malta, or Nemesis, then I wouldn't care so much about the named NPC's.  I get that my redside characters have to start out as a nobody. I get that nobody gets to be treated like Doctor Doom or Emma Frost at lvl 1.  But I hate that even by the time I'm lvl 50, I still have various Arbiter's talking smack to me, and I'm only considered worthy to be a servant and join a faction, instead of really being treated like a power in my own right. 

 

The Mr. G arc and Pandora's Box help somewhat, but I still reallllly would like to see Arachnos having less of a "we control everything and if you really piss us off we'll go back in time and erase your genetic line" type of attitude.  Because it just makes me want to do it to them FIRST.

[Twisted Toon]

4 hours ago, MTeague said:

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. 

If I recall correctly, and I'm 99.7% certain I am, Issue 0 CoH pretty much had that.

 

You started as a Science origin, you had a contact that sent you after the Vahzilok, at level 1.

I believe there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth about that.

There wasn't as much complaining about the contact for Technology sending you after Clockwork at level 1. (before Fitness was inherent)

 

I think most people tended to choose Natural origins because that sent you up against the 5th Column.

[MTeague]

13 minutes ago, Twisted Toon said:

If I recall correctly, and I'm 99.7% certain I am, Issue 0 CoH pretty much had that.

 

You started as a Science origin, you had a contact that sent you after the Vahzilok, at level 1.

I believe there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth about that.

There wasn't as much complaining about the contact for Technology sending you after Clockwork at level 1. (before Fitness was inherent)

 

I think most people tended to choose Natural origins because that sent you up against the 5th Column.

Issue 0 memory is very fuzzy, but that sounds right.  I dont' think I really noticed that much of a pattern to who they sent me after at first.  The differences certainly didn't last to too high a lvl though.

[Chris24601]

1 minute ago, Hexquisite said:

But if you remove my beloved Ghost Widow from existence, we are going to have words.

Whatever happened to Praetorian Belladonna? Would losing Ghost Widow, but gaining Praetorian Belladonna (perhaps with a sleeker more GW-inspired costume)  maybe taking over the forces allied by the now deceased Calvin Scott (the United something something) work as an alternative?

 

* * * *

 

As an alternative to just wiping Arachnos out completely, what if instead time travel shenanigans were used so that Recluse and each of the patrons became a separate Rogue Isles faction.

 

So Recluse keeps the Bane/Wolf Spiders and basically becomes another AV vying with the 5th Column/Nemesis for world domination.

 

Black Scorpion becomes his own faction of tech thieves with “Scorpions” in place of the Crab Spiders and Scorp-bots in place of the Arachnobots (sorta high end Gold Brickers).

 

Mako becomes a Corallax AV along with Barracuda.

 

Scirocco, Ice Mistral and the Mu Mystics are something like a darker version of the Midnight Squad or Legacy Chain (stealing mystic artifacts for use in a secret war against the Circle of Thorns)

 

Ghost Widow and the Widows are merged into a general Knives of Artemis revamp with the idea that they’re not exclusively tied to Malta but freelancers. Frankly, given the mystical undertones of the Knives, having the elites develop psi powers as part of their training/conditioning would make sense; and the integrated blade/flechette weaponry of the widows would make sense for more elite Knives as well.

 

Then you could even keep them as patrons, but then add patrons for Nemesis, the Carnies, Council, Crey, etc. as additional patron options.

[Andreah]

14 minutes ago, MTeague said:

Issue 0 memory is very fuzzy, but that sounds right.  I dont' think I really noticed that much of a pattern to who they sent me after at first.  The differences certainly didn't last to too high a lvl though.

I'm pretty sure it still worked this way when I first started playing in spring 2008.

[Hexquisite]

4 hours ago, MTeague said:

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. 

 

See, now, I would love this. One of my favorite things from WoW, sadly removed for the most part until they brought it back, kinda, in Legion, was the class-specific quests. Many of those were to obtain class-specific things ( poisons for Rogues, totems for Shamans, animal forms for Druids, etc ) and were all eventually just given to them for free as the game simplified itself. But it was never about the rewards for those, for me; it was the fun of doing something that was just for me (and everyone else of that class, fine, but it felt like it was for me), in having the game acknowledge what I was. There could totally be the same for Origins. Only a Science could obtain a Science origin storyline, but anyone could join in on playing it. 

 

My initial idea would be, something like, at level 1, and then every tenth level, you unlock a new Origin arc, or several Origin arcs that you could choose from ( so you'd have something new when leveling a different character ). No special rewards beyond the XP and story arc completion merits. If there were a special reward, like a temp power or whatever, it'd be given to every Origin who completed the level 30 or whatever Origin-specific story arc, so no gatekeeping beyond simply doing the mission.

 

But they can keep the bonus stuff; above all, I just want the stories.

[Hexquisite]

6 minutes ago, Chris24601 said:

Whatever happened to Praetorian Belladonna? Would losing Ghost Widow, but gaining Praetorian Belladonna (perhaps with a sleeker more GW-inspired costume)  maybe taking over the forces allied by the now deceased Calvin Scott (the United something something) work as an alternative?

 

 

[Twisted Toon]

21 minutes ago, MTeague said:

Issue 0 memory is very fuzzy, but that sounds right.  I dont' think I really noticed that much of a pattern to who they sent me after at first.  The differences certainly didn't last to too high a lvl though.

It was just the starting contacts, I believe they branched off. Generally starting with the other matching pairs for the DO enhancements.

Meaning that Science could send you to a Technology, or a....natural(?) contact.

That, I am a little (a lot) less certain of.

 

I do know that your starting contact was based on your origin.

 

5 minutes ago, Hexquisite said:

 

The entire fabric of the multi-verse would implode resulting in a large bowl of butterscotch pudding that no one would be left to complain about. (or eat)

[EmmySky]

1 minute ago, Twisted Toon said:

It was just the starting contacts, I believe they branched off. Generally starting with the other matching pairs for the DO enhancements.

Meaning that Science could send you to a Technology, or a....natural(?) contact.

That, I am a little (a lot) less certain of.

 

I do know that your starting contact was based on your origin.

 

The entire fabric of the multi-verse would implode resulting in a large bowl of butterscotch pudding that no one would be left to complain about. (or eat)

Mmm butterscotch pudding.  

 

Can we rewrite the game code to reward me with pudding instead of inf?

[Andreah]

I'd like origin to give you visual options for how your powers animate or appear. 

 

Or scrap origin, but give me a handful of variations on each power that look more natural, more mutant, more magical, more sciency, more technological, etc., and I'll pick and choose.

 

[Andreah]

I would overhaul influence and monetary currencies.

 

I really like "influence/infamy" as concepts, but I don't think they work well as monies. Make money into monies, and have an influence/infamy system that makes sense. And include being gifted, begging for, or demanding money from contacts we have influence or infamy with.

[gourdhead]

46 minutes ago, Twisted Toon said:

If I recall correctly, and I'm 99.7% certain I am, Issue 0 CoH pretty much had that.

 

You started as a Science origin, you had a contact that sent you after the Vahzilok, at level 1.

I believe there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth about that.

There wasn't as much complaining about the contact for Technology sending you after Clockwork at level 1. (before Fitness was inherent)

 

I think most people tended to choose Natural origins because that sent you up against the 5th Column.

I STILL do that.  Its just reflex.  Do the tutorial. zone into Atlas, level, then head into city hall and go see the origin contact.  I'm a creature of habit.

[Hexquisite]

In all (or at least partial) seriousness, I do like the idea of toning down Arachnos a bit. Give them Grandvile, then split the other islands up between the other factions to fight over, with Arachnos pulling the strings in the shadows, pitting the factions against each other as part of their Darwinistic mindset. Island story arcs can have you aiding one side against another, with opportunities to betray, and maybe even gain favor with one faction. Like that arc on Mercy, where if you help the Skulls, and save whatshisface, they show up in the final mission to help you out. Do enough jobs for the Family on Port Oakes, and the Family pays you back by sending some triggermen to back you up on a big job.

 

Or, work against all factions as you build your own criminal empire. Some kind of scheme system, maybe obtained like tips, maybe somehow crafted, I don’t know, but jobs you out together and pull off to benefit you and you alone. 

 

 

[gourdhead]

54 minutes ago, Hexquisite said:

 

See, now, I would love this. One of my favorite things from WoW, sadly removed for the most part until they brought it back, kinda, in Legion, was the class-specific quests. Many of those were to obtain class-specific things ( poisons for Rogues, totems for Shamans, animal forms for Druids, etc ) and were all eventually just given to them for free as the game simplified itself. But it was never about the rewards for those, for me; it was the fun of doing something that was just for me (and everyone else of that class, fine, but it felt like it was for me), in having the game acknowledge what I was. There could totally be the same for Origins. Only a Science could obtain a Science origin storyline, but anyone could join in on playing it. 

 

My initial idea would be, something like, at level 1, and then every tenth level, you unlock a new Origin arc, or several Origin arcs that you could choose from ( so you'd have something new when leveling a different character ). No special rewards beyond the XP and story arc completion merits. If there were a special reward, like a temp power or whatever, it'd be given to every Origin who completed the level 30 or whatever Origin-specific story arc, so no gatekeeping beyond simply doing the mission.

 

But they can keep the bonus stuff; above all, I just want the stories.

I've always thought there should be a shit ton of gated content 🙂  AT specific, origin specific, team size specific...the list goes on.  But again, that's just me. 

 

Also, how about origin specific power pools, that you unlock by doing the origin arcs?  There are already Willpower (natural), and Sorcery (magic), and isn't Utility Belt (tech) in the works?

 

This might be pushing it a bit, but since the AT's have inherents, why not origins as well?  Small buffs/debuffs, that 1) only come into play against similar origin villain groups, and 2) are stackable, so that teaming with similar origin characters is like the Leadership pool?  It always feels a little weird that my natural scrapper is teaming up with someone who glows purple and shoots rays out of their eyes 🙂  "Calling all magic heroes, team forming to stomp on Circle of Thorns".

 

Edited to add-The origin buff/debuff would also aid in the whole "getting your ass kicked by Vahz at level 2" problem 🙂

 

Edited September 18, 2020 by gourdhead

[Luminara]

45 minutes ago, EmmySky said:

Mmm butterscotch pudding.  

 

Can we rewrite the game code to reward me with pudding instead of inf?

 

*loads a catapult with pudding*

 

...

 

*throws a pineapple into the middle*

 

INCOMING!

[FoulVileTerror]

Send me your Inf, @EmmySky, and I'll send you my butterscotch pudding.

[Luminara]

3 minutes ago, FoulVileTerror said:

Send me your Inf, @EmmySky, and I'll send you my butterscotch pudding.

 

I beaned her with a pineapple.  Just loot the corpse.  😉

[FoulVileTerror]

I ain't touching that pineapple's corpse, thankyouverymuch!

[EmmySky]

51 minutes ago, Luminara said:

 

I beaned her with a pineapple.  Just loot the corpse.  😉

I ate the pineapple?  OH you meant core.  😝

[gourdhead]

I hate all you people.  Now I want butterscotch pudding.

 

[Luminara]

3 minutes ago, gourdhead said:

I hate all you people.  Now I want butterscotch pudding.

 

 

*reloads catapult*

 

FIRE IN THE HOLE!

[ClawsandEffect]

Not going to read every single post, but my idea: 

 

Superheroic (or villainous) stuff to do that doesn't involve variations of "beat this guy up". 

 

Rescue people from burning buildings, stop out of control monorails, shore up a damaged building before it collapses so people can get out safely, etc. 

 

You know, the non-combat stuff superheroes do in the comics all the time. 

 

As an added bonus, I would add a mechanic that gives you different options to do those things depending on your AT and powerset. 

 

Burning building example: 

 

Your ice themed character can slow down the flames so people can escape. Meanwhile your super strong character can knock a hole in the wall to circumvent a blocked exit. Your tech character can repair damaged sprinkler systems. And so on. 

 

I don't know what the villainous equivalent to those things should be, but it would be nice to be able to be a hero and not spend all your time beating the shit out of the bad guys. 

 

And it would open up a way to play the type of character that has useful but not combat effective powers.