Start adding alignment changes before level 20

[temnix]

When I had just started playing a villain and didn't know that I would have to wait for level 20 to start seeing special missions to change alignment (my intent being to play an antihero), I believed that some of the actions in missions I was undertaking represented a moral choice. For example, there was that prisoner of the Longbow, a former stage magician, whom I was at liberty to save, kill or let die. When I saved him, I thought that I was making a meaningful choice. Later on, at the end of the Fire Wire arc, after I defeated Fire Wire, I could decide whether to let him live or kill him. He had annoyed me a great deal and I saw no exonerating circumstances, so I gave in to anger. That, it seemed, would move the needle of alignment towards villain again. Some time later still, in the mission to free Fort Darwin with that traitor from Longbow, I could either support his villainous actions or condemn him, which again promised to make a difference.

 

I expected more of these situations as I played, and when they were not forthcoming and all of the quests were of the simple kill-destroy variety, I ascribed that to my bad fortune or to a lack of effort on the developers' part. They could have added more alignment-affecting decisions in missions so that I might manifest my personality sooner, I thought. But nothing was happening for the longest time. It was not until much after (after reading up on the topic in the wiki, in fact) that I realized that none of my actions in missions or dealings with NPC had any importance whatsoever and that moral choice was a completely formal process: after level 20 I would receive drops of missions, had to perform a set number of them in a particular way, and then I would count as reformed. I would even get a badge to wear for it.

 

Needless to say, that is too little, too late. I wasn't and aren't satisfied with pretending in my head that I am a reformed villain or a morally ambiguous, even indefinable, character. Anthony Perkins in "Psycho" dressed up in his mother's clothes and sat in her rocking chair talking to himself - that is role-playing in one's head and all the difference that it makes. There is no point in letting people invent complex costumes and, for those who bother, character backgrounds without laying out choices in front. As things are, all of the individuation is behind characters: in the bio, in what happened up to the time they ventured into Paragon City or the Rogue Isles (or Praetoria) there can be all sorts of motives and ambiguity, but as soon as we actually get to live the life, it is the same straight and narrow road for everybody. Or we can cheat and go to Null the Gull, sure. That makes even less sense than waiting for level 20.

 

The solution is simple, though it would take work: begin connecting alignment to characters' actions and write more missions (and rewrite prevous missions) to include more of these choices. If it takes 10 steps to change alignment, let it still be 10 steps. Show or don't show moral choice panels, like in "Galaxy's Last Stand," it doesn't matter. If we can read the mission briefing, we ought to understand that breaking a prisoner's neck after interrogating him is a Bad Thing (an example from a mission about D. U. S. T. in First Ward, where the choice is remarkably indifferent).

[Lockely]

You can simply go to Null the Gull if you need to do an alignment swap before 20. 

[Rudra]

1 hour ago, temnix said:

There is no point in letting people invent complex costumes and, for those who bother, character backgrounds without laying out choices in front.

The point is to define and style your character. You don't need alignment tip missions or the morality mission at the end of the 10 to define your character's nature, you do that with your character's bio and how you choose to roleplay the character. And if starting out as a vigilante or rogue at level 1 is important, then like @Lockely said, go talk to Null the Gull in Pocket D and have him make your character a level 1 vigilante or rogue. After all, if your character starts out as one, then why should your character have to wait through 10 missions to have the correct alignment?

[Lockely]

14 minutes ago, Rudra said:

The point is to define and style your character. You don't need alignment tip missions or the morality mission at the end of the 10 to define your character's nature, you do that with your character's bio and how you choose to roleplay the character. And if starting out as a vigilante or rogue at level 1 is important, then like @Lockely said, go talk to Null the Gull in Pocket D and have him make your character a level 1 vigilante or rogue. After all, if your character starts out as one, then why should your character have to wait through 10 missions to have the correct alignment?

 

I wouldn't be adverse to choosing Vigilante or Rogue from the get-go and redefining what those actually means (i.e. not fallen hero or redeeming villain, but more something like anti-hero and anti-villain), but at the very start your character shouldn't be suddenly changing alignment outside of pure gameplay necessity and, as I said before, we have Null for that.

[lemming]

That would be closer to Praetoria's version of pre-20 play where there are choices at the end of arcs.

 

Tip missions for Blue & Red haven't been scaled for the 1-20 play though and would take a lot of work, which to be honest, would be drudgery for little gain.

[golstat2003]

Not wotrth the dev time this would take. As has been said, Null the Gull is available in Pocket D

[GM Tock]

Thread locked.  Let's spend time on another topic.