Cliffhangers and sudden entrances

[temnix]

Most of social interaction in this game happens within supergroups and temporary groups players form to take on task forces and such. Other than this the most involvement other characters can have in one's life is when some passing player casts a boost on you (outside of PvP). There is also a background presence of others in the form of consignments, but by and large people just lead parallel lives. I am interested in mechanics that would get them to cross paths. Two possibilities can be called cliffhangers and sudden entrances.

 

By cliffhangers I mean interrupted adventures that are resumed later. In comics books this is due to the scope of the story that must be spread over two or more issues, in TV series both because of that and commercial breaks. Either way the story halts at something enticing, and sometimes these breaks are literally moments when the hero is hanging off a cliff on the top of which the villain stands gloating with his whole gang. It makes one cry foul when, fading out of the commercial, the hero is somehow found standing up on the cliff, the villain is not that close, the situation is a lot better than when we left the scene. And not infrequently another hero appears just then to change the balance. Now, this is all cheating and bad writing, but it does create opportunities for stories.

 

To implement these cliffhanger moments here I suggest giving characters a temporary power once a week or even two weeks. This is a power of emergency log-off. When the character's hit points are very low, under 20% let's say, he activates this power and is safely logged-off, but becomes unavailable for play for entire three days - the space of "To Be Continued"... The mission and the situation are captured; when the character is played again, the player returns to the same area and the same point on its map instead of materializing outside, as usual, with perhaps half hit points but also with all of the enemies still there, and maybe slightly teleported around for different breaks. (Trials etc. would be excluded.) By itself this mechanic would only make life a little easier for players, and there is no need for extra help, but it would be worthwhile with a social element included: logging back in takes a whole minute in limbo, and during this time and for a minute afterwards the mission is advertised server-wide in a special channel. Any number of other characters can hop into it with one click, exemplared up or down, and appear next to this hero to fight alongside for the remainder of the mission or simply to help him out, if outside.

 

Sudden entrances would be similar, but without the need for logging off and spending time away from the character. Instead all characters get a toggle: while this is on and the character's hit points are low, he is listed on the server roster of sudden entrance invitations, like a standing distress call. The toggle is on by default, somewhere left of panel 1, and it can be kept going even at high health, but the character only appears on the list while he is wounded and for a minute afterwards. If switched off, i.e. if the player opts out, the toggle has a slow recharge time. As long as a character is listed as valid for a rescue, others can instantly jump into the mission. A defeated character can keep the toggle on instead of teleporting to the hospital, if it was enabled before he went down; his listing then indicates that he needs revival. Members of the supergroup get pop-up windows when one of their own is in trouble. My inspiration for this is one of the countless moments when, say, Spiderman is losing to Venom and the Iron Man flies in.

 

Both of these mechanics would give players a chance to actually do something heroic and not motivated by powergaming and greed the way task forces usually are. Instead of banding with others for rewards let's band for others. And it should be interesting, rescuing others from unknown enemies in unfamiliar places. What the implementation would need is a good interface - a clear, simple panel for quick dispatch to one of the standing cliffhanger and sudden entrance opportunities. Those would be blinking in and out all of the time. There should also be an option for pop-up notifications and a "Respond to first call" option. Some characters might even make a name for themselves specializing in deliverances.

Edited March 17 by temnix

[Saiyajinzoningen]

I like this idea 

but its implementation seems a bit complex

at least to me it does

so maybe we have random heroes appear during missions randomly to aid you.

this would only occur while soloing

and the chance of hero appearing would be low, maybe 10%?

perhaps for solo support chars like defenders that percentage could be bumped up to 15% or something?

[CrusaderDroid]

This looks like a solution in search of a problem. Getting defeated in this game is barely a punishment - you level a little slower for a little bit and have to walk back to your previous point. This isn't a consequence that requires a three day pause to avoid.

 

Sudden entrances especially are as simple as posting in LFG "need help with mission, lfm". There's no problem either of these mechanics are addressing.

4 hours ago, temnix said:

Both of these mechanics would give players a chance to actually do something heroic and not motivated by powergaming and greed the way task forces usually are.

That's one hell of an accusation to level at the playerbase. Don't do this - it's rude.

 

[Saiyajinzoningen]

3 minutes ago, CrusaderDroid said:

This looks like a solution in search of a problem. Getting defeated in this game is barely a punishment - you level a little slower for a little bit and have to walk back to your previous point. This isn't a consequence that requires a three day pause to avoid.

 

Sudden entrances especially are as simple as posting in LFG "need help with mission, lfm". There's no problem either of these mechanics are addressing.

That's one hell of an accusation to level at the playerbase. Don't do this - it's rude.

 

 

I think that's just the way OP talks, based on his other posts

I am from NY so I'm used to folks speaking in a hmm, discourteous manner

I am in no way condoning the behavior just explaining it.

I do my best to assume goodwill which is admittedly tough nowadays.

Once when leaving a supermarket I said to the cashier "have a nice day"

and she responded with "don't tell me what to do"

so yeah good times 🙂 

[Rudra]

I have to agree with @CrusaderDroid. If defeated, just talk to the nurse at the hospital to buy inspirations, then go back to the missions and stomp what defeated you. Or ask an online friend for help. Or ask in a chat channel for help. If you are about to be defeated and don't want to be, then run away. Take the time to heal up, maybe go buy some inspirations or send a message asking for help as previously mentioned. The whole reason why there even is a logoff timer keeping your character in play for a little while after logging off is specifically to prevent characters from avoiding defeat by logging off. Add in the OMG levels of coding complexity the OP asks for, adding the ability to take a mission "snapshot" at the time of the Cliffhanger feature was used, fully preserving mobs defeated, then randomizing where surviving mobs are, sending out a server wide message that Player X is logging back into a (presumably) almost completed mission and needs help, then spawning random responders into Player X's mission before Player X even loads in to deal with the problem? Yeah, that's a very complicated ask. And if the responding player is a support character there to help Player X survive but now is facing off against Elite Boss of Doom alone because Player X isn't even there yet, well now that player's character probably suffered a defeat they wouldn't have if they had just kept playing and not responded to the message.