New Signature Heroes & Archvillains

[Player2]

Am I the only one who thinks we're long overdue for new NPC content?

 

On the blue side, we've lost Statesman and Sister Psyche.  On the red side, the core AVs of Arachnos were already fairly slim pickings with the main boss and 4 subordinates.  But beyond that, when running bank missions, it's always the same 2 heroes (in Mayhem missions) and 2 villains (in Safeguard missions) appropriate to the mission level.

 

We had the addition of Foreshadow and Mirror Spirit with the addition of the Hollows and revamp of Faultline, as well as Rose Star & Spark Blade to the game lore even though they were never added to the game...  and there's Faultline and Fusionette who show up in various places, which is the kind of thing I like seeing.  The Shining Stars (Twinshot, Proton, Flambeaux, and Dillo) are another example of this.  You can find them hanging out in the world and they have their own story arc to play through...  would be nice if more than Flambeaux made appearances in the low level Safeguard missions.

 

I'd love to see additions to the Paragon Heroes group that shows up in Mayhem missions and Rogue Isle Villains that show up in Safeguard missions.  In a city full of heroes (and the isles full of up and coming villains), I think it would be nice to see a little more diversity.

 

Why not make a contest of it?  Let players submit their ideas perhaps in a small map AE mission so they can not only be seen in costume but with their chosen powers in action, as well as character bio when you right click on them... or, if that's too much, then maybe screen shots with costume file attached, along with a description that includes selected powersets and a short bio.  With the level ranges split into 9 categories, doubled for hero and villain, that's 18 total "winners" to choose... if it's not too much trouble to add new characters to the Paragon Heroes and Rogue Isle Villains, maybe even pick 2 winners for each alignment and level range for a total of 36 winners.  Possibly create a new badge for the winners symbolizing their contribution to the game content, throw them some bonus merits or some other nice award (custom title, one of your fancy new enhancements, or whatever), and boom you've got new content and player participation to make everyone feel good about it.

[Greycat]

4 hours ago, Player2 said:

Am I the only one who thinks we're long overdue for new NPC content?

 

Yes!

 

... kidding, obviously. But something I hope the dev team keeps in mind while creating new content in general - I'm not sure how hard it is to add NPCs to these "buckets" for things like safeguards/mayhems, but yeah, it'd be worthwhile.

[Mr. Apocalypse]

I had an idea, to use Player characters for this.  player must be lvl 50, and have certain combo of achievements/accolades/incarnate abilities and obviously user consent. Maybe you have to retire the character before being elevated to npc or have a window of like 30-90 days before you can play character again, if you want to enter the program.  I know there are a lot of details that would have to be sorted, but I  would be pretty cool, to have a random encounter with one of your alts while on a bank mission.

[The_Warpact]

/Signed

 

An excellent idea!

 

And as a villain I nominate myself. 😈

[Mr. Apocalypse]

I just ran a mission for contact: Mr. G. in st martial, called "attack the carnival of shadows".  The final npc was a Doppelganger of my character (bots MM). It looked like my character except different colors  and started dropping bots etc. so I know there is already a mechanic to convert players including chosen powersets, etc to NPC on the fly.  This should really be looked into for more content variety.

[MTeague]

I do think it would be interesting if when it chose to vary from the "standard" heroes/villains, if it always chose one of your OWN alts to make that work. 

 

a) would need to be some filtering by alignment, hero won't be robbing a bank, villain won't be protecting it. 

b) I also think your alt should also have access to every single one of their set bonuses, and if the encounter is 45+, should have access to any incarnate powers that character has. It shouldn't be a kittenized / nerfed version of your alt. 

Edited January 24, 2022 by MTeague

[Six-Six]

I think you need to widen your horizons more.

Villain Alignment Tips have you fighting a few other heroes, including Flambeaux.
Doc Buzzsaw's arc has 3 of the shining stars in their stronger selves as well as Hopkins, Indigo and (weaker) Vandal

Red side doesn't just have Recluse's Fab 4, but also the Fab 4's top Lieutenants (who also happen to be AVs) Silver Mantis, Barracuda, Ice Mistral--The Wretch is the only one you don't get to fight.
most level 45+ villain contacts will have you tangling with an AV, Vindicators, Synapse, etc. I bet you've never fought The Radio -- not as easy as he looks.
And then you have Gold Side.

Also, the recent Aeon SF is a sign of more good things to come.
 

[Clave Dark 5]

I'm not hurting for them, but any "more" is probably a good thing.  I think the original design ethos used to be to make them very signature by giving them outfits bits players couldn't have, so that might slow things down, but of course we needn't stick to it.  I think setting up Incarnate NPCs would be OK too, but only if players opt in for that level of fight, like the new TF settings.  I'd really hate to go fight in a bank and find out it's my Vet Level 30 hero, for example.  I avoid PvP for a reason!  😃

[BurtHutt]

I was hoping the Dev team would do this and somewhat depart from what was being done before.

 

So, new signature NPCs. New content involving new characters, groups etc.

 

A change to the style and look as well. As much as possible.

 

Instead it feels like a lot of the same old which is a bit deflating.