Branching out to being the Hero/Villain you want to be

[luficia]

So with the game going official and potentially finishing out content that got left in the dirt years ago, this also leaves the option to either go with the original vision of the developers or to try to go through channels. 

 

Like, I get it, I love the incarnate path and the magic stuff. While talking with friends though, I'm noticing more and more how City of Heroes just slowly becomes City of Gods. There really isn't much to cater to people who want to play certain kind of heroes, like street level, or handle other things.

I guess my suggestion is after going forward, I think instead of branching further to the original vision that Homecoming should branch to its own vision.

 

It's a City of Heroes. City of Villains. Going Rogue brought interesting in-betweens too, but I think it opens up a lot more potential stories to cater to different needs. I absolutely love that one story with the Skulls and would like more things to cater to all levels, regardless of in-game level.

 

Magic should take a backseat for a while and cater to other things; mutations, science, technology or even just natural things. There should be more smaller stories to allow a person to want to play a street level hero despite being level 50 and able to bust up games. The opposite should be true for a villain if they want to be street level villainy.

 

This game is old so I don't know what's possible in the code or not but I think we should cater more to the name and branch out for smaller stories, showing off the lore and updating it(looking at the Trolls here) and letting players customize their experience to what kind their character wants to be. 

 

Of course, this may cater more to roleplay tastes but it could also mean more options to get neat toys too. I don't know, just thought I'd throw it out to the wind.
 

Edited January 17 by luficia

[PeregrineFalcon]

You can already do exactly what you're suggesting in game right now.

 

There's an option to turn off earning XP. So, you decide which level you want to be, match it up with the enemies your hero typically fights, and then permanently lock your XP once you reach that level.

 

If you get to a point in your personal story where your character grows and/or becomes more powerful simply unlock XP gain, go up a level or two, and then relock it.

[luficia]

9 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

You can already do exactly what you're suggesting in game right now.

 

There's an option to turn off earning XP. So, you decide which level you want to be, match it up with the enemies your hero typically fights, and then permanently lock your XP once you reach that level.

 

If you get to a point in your personal story where your character grows and/or becomes more powerful simply unlock XP gain, go up a level or two, and then relock it.

 

That's another problem though. 

 

Level 50 means your at a time level to so and so. Another suggestion is to literally let people ignore that number. You are literally forced into a choice to either forcibly cap yourself in the game to play the content you want while never reaching other levels or to go to level 50 and be capped forever. Not everyone wants to just cap one character then go use another. 

 

You can't go into Kings Row at level 50, set up a radio, and be greeted with "these are beneath you." What kind of hero says that? 

 

I suggest we treat level 50 for what it is - a level, but how that level is should be up to the player. Does that increase in power make them feared higher up to incarnate level? What if they just want to be saving the world level? Or just making gangs having to literally settle a truce to literally come at you hardcore? 

 

Something similar to villains, too. 

 

At the very least, let players be able to run radios/paper missions everywhere no matter where they are. Even if it doesn't cater to the level they are at, the option should be there. 

[PeregrineFalcon]

4 minutes ago, luficia said:

Another suggestion is to literally let people ignore that number.

Once again, this is something that the developers do not have to write code for as you can already do that yourself.

 

5 minutes ago, luficia said:

You are literally forced into a choice to either forcibly cap yourself in the game to play the content you want while never reaching other levels or to go to level 50 and be capped forever. Not everyone wants to just cap one character then go use another.

Yes, you have to choose to be either Daredevil or Galactus, but a single character doesn't get to be both.

 

7 minutes ago, luficia said:

You can't go into Kings Row at level 50, set up a radio, and be greeted with "these are beneath you." What kind of hero says that? 

Superman does. Look, how many people got robbed and/or killed while Superman was fighting against [insert villain name here] in last weeks episode? Why didn't Superman patrol the streets of Harlem or Compton or Bogusville to stop all of the muggings? Because he was fighting Mungus - eater of worlds - this week and letting Batman patrol the streets of Kings Row.

 

11 minutes ago, luficia said:

At the very least, let players be able to run radios/paper missions everywhere no matter where they are. Even if it doesn't cater to the level they are at, the option should be there. 

You can already do this. Just exempt down to someone else and run radio missions with them. Of course this would require you to... (sharp intake of breathe) *GASP* ...team up with other actual live human people.

 

[Rudra]

The reason why the contacts tell your character that missions/tasks are below your character is because the capabilities of the opposition is progressively no longer a threat to your character. Since the game is apparently unable to exemplar characters down to the requisite level without either having a lower level character to link to or going through the TF system, mechanically the game cannot support making enemies a threat when you level higher. You can see it every time you exemplar. Even if you discount or choose not to use the powers you have that exemplaring still allows you to use, enemies are basically a joke to your character when you exemplar down to them because the game cannot and so does not disable enhancement slots you gained past that level. So your character will always be more powerful than enemies can contend with even while you are exemplared. And the higher the level you achieved, and the more complete the enhancements you possess on the character, the less of a threat those enemies are even with you being exemplared to their level.

 

Look at it this way, a starting hero will fight basic thugs and even sometimes be tasked with basic tasks like helping a neighbor bring their groceries in. As that hero becomes better known and deals with more world threatening challenges, those that work with said hero stop asking the hero to deal with basic thugs or helping bring in their groceries or help with the store. The hero may choose to deal with those basic thugs and the people will be appreciative of it, and the hero can still help that neighbor with the groceries or the store owner with the store and they will be appreciative, but they will also remind the hero that they can handle those things with still available help from others and they will not likely ask the hero to help them with those situations.

 

So like @PeregrineFalcon said, the easiest way to replicate that is to lock your character at the level for the content you see the character doing.

[StarseedWarrior]

1 minute ago, Rudra said:

The reason why the contacts tell your character that missions/tasks are below your character is because the capabilities of the opposition is progressively no longer a threat to your character. Since the game is apparently unable to exemplar characters down to the requisite level without either having a lower level character to link to or going through the TF system, mechanically the game cannot support making enemies a threat when you level higher. You can see it every time you exemplar. Even if you discount or choose not to use the powers you have that exemplaring still allows you to use, enemies are basically a joke to your character when you exemplar down to them because the game cannot and so does not disable enhancement slots you gained past that level. So your character will always be more powerful than enemies can contend with even while you are exemplared. And the higher the level you achieved, and the more complete the enhancements you possess on the character, the less of a threat those enemies are even with you being exemplared to their level.

 

Look at it this way, a starting hero will fight basic thugs and even sometimes be tasked with basic tasks like helping a neighbor bring their groceries in. As that hero becomes better known and deals with more world threatening challenges, those that work with said hero stop asking the hero to deal with basic thugs or helping bring in their groceries or help with the store. The hero may choose to deal with those basic thugs and the people will be appreciative of it, and the hero can still help that neighbor with the groceries or the store owner with the store and they will be appreciative, but they will also remind the hero that they can handle those things with still available help from others and they will not likely ask the hero to help them with those situations.

 

So like @PeregrineFalcon said, the easiest way to replicate that is to lock your character at the level for the content you see the character doing.

I do wish certain story archs would notify you better your main ones and the main lines your choosing. Maybe pop up the ones first that follow if your being good or evil to would go a long ways in areas of the game.

[Rudra]

2 minutes ago, StarseedWarrior said:

I do wish certain story archs would notify you better your main ones and the main lines your choosing. Maybe pop up the ones first that follow if your being good or evil to would go a long ways in areas of the game.

Until then, you can check the wiki for such information. Both wikis are linked on the heading bar at the top of the page.

[Oubliette_Red]

30 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Once again, this is something that the developers do not have to write code for as you can already do that yourself.

 

Yes, you have to choose to be either Daredevil or Galactus, but a single character doesn't get to be both.

 

Superman does. Look, how many people got robbed and/or killed while Superman was fighting against [insert villain name here] in last weeks episode? Why didn't Superman patrol the streets of Harlem or Compton or Bogusville to stop all of the muggings? Because he was fighting Mungus - eater of worlds - this week and letting Batman patrol the streets of Kings Row.

 

You can already do this. Just exempt down to someone else and run radio missions with them. Of course this would require you to... (sharp intake of breathe) *GASP* ...team up with other actual live human people.

 

 

Another option would be to run a second account, create multiple characters that are held at 5-level increments, and team up with them to exemplar down with.

 

[PeregrineFalcon]

8 hours ago, Oubliette_Red said:

Another option would be to run a second account, create multiple characters that are held at 5-level increments, and team up with them to exemplar down with.

It just seems sad to me that you'd rather go to all of the effort to create another account, and level up a bunch of characters, just so you don't have to team with another human being.

[Oubliette_Red]

2 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

It just seems sad to me that you'd rather go to all of the effort to create another account, and level up a bunch of characters, just so you don't have to team with another human being.

 

I just said it's an option. I don't even have a second account.