For those who don't play Redside - why not?

[honoroit]

2 hours ago, AkuTenshiiZero said:

They did this in Allods Online as well, and I suggested it here a couple weeks ago.  Adding this kind of thing to CoX would probably solve the problem.  Watch all those farmers flood to the other side.  Of course, it would also be absolutely imperative that Null lose the alignment change option, which I never agreed with him having to begin with.

I don't think you'd need to lose nulls flip. 

 

People move over, people move back, recalculate every hour and issue the xp mod as a an autopower. That's not such a bad thing, brings dynamism to pop movement. 

 

They've already got the % based ones on p2w vendor, you'd just be granted an additional autopower on a schedule based on alignment, or better zone you are in (or zone where instance spawned). 

 

Can make 0% or 50% of value in ae, like they do now.

 

Vigilantes don't have to flip to travel both sides, disincentivive everyine flip purple align in similar way, mayhap 60% of calculated boost. 

[AkuTenshiiZero]

1 minute ago, honoroit said:

I don't think you'd need to lose nulls flip. 

 

People move over, people move back, recalculate every hour and issue the xp mod as a an autopower. That's not such a bad thing, brings dynamism to pop movement. 

 

They've already got the % based ones on p2w vendor, you'd just be granted an additional autopower on a schedule based on alignment, or better zone you are in (or zone where instance spawned). 

 

Can make 0% or 50% of value in ae, like they do now.

 

Vigilantes don't have to flip to travel both sides, disincentivive everyine flip purple align in similar way, mayhap 60% of calculated boost. 

I say lose the bird because it could be easily abused with some coordination.  There's not many people in each server, all it takes is a few dozen deciding to coordinate their efforts to flip sides every so often and it would create a mess.  Plus, I've been very vocal about how much I hate the quick-and-easy alignment shifts, it is IMO one of the biggest problems causing imbalance between the alignments.  No reason to even have alignments when they can be changes within minutes with no cost.

 

Heck, alternatively, just give Null a hefty cost to switch.  Anything to make alignment switching have some actual weight.

[SlimPickens]

2 hours ago, AkuTenshiiZero said:

They did this in Allods Online as well, and I suggested it here a couple weeks ago.  Adding this kind of thing to CoX would probably solve the problem.  Watch all those farmers flood to the other side.  Of course, it would also be absolutely imperative that Null lose the alignment change option, which I never agreed with him having to begin with.

What good would having all the farmers and the alts go running to redside do? They would all simply crowd up at the AE building and run their instanced farms, it would not in any way help solve the population issue for actual teaming the redside has.

 

And taking away the Null swap alignment option would just make things worse, because then players would simply pick blue and literally NEVER go over to redside for weekly task forces etc, so you would lose out on the people who do swap weekly or a couple times a month to accomplish the weekly strike targets they prefer.

 

I personally like to swap sides every so often and run mayhem missions and form strike force teams redside, but if Null wasnt an option, I would not be doing that at all either, so while I may not be a full time villain side player, you would lose out on a part time player who organizes full teams when hes there, and im sure im not the only one. So the question is, would you rather restrict this activity to "force" people to choose one side or the other, and risk losing out completely on the part timers who at least help bolster team building when they do come over? Because if it comes down to a pick one or the other, no matter what the incentives are, 90% of the playerbase has always picked blue.

[Apparition]

Yep.  If you were to remove the Null the Gull alignment change option, you may as well just close off the Rogue Isles altogether.

[Tater Todd]

As a person that has been painted as a villain since birth I find the lines between Hero and Villain are greatly blurred.  I like to play redside for the same reasons that PaxArcana mentioned, also think about this...most people are not Empathetic or caring of others be it a total stranger or someone they know unless the person is extremely close.  Most humans lean far more to the Vigilante, Rogue or Villain side of things rather than a Hero.  Pretending to be something you're not on game won't change your true nature...come...join me...embrace the darksidse join redside 😈.

[PaxArcana]

If you do an XP boost, exclude AE from it entirely.

The intent is to encourage people to play actual missions, in order to make teams easier to find/fill.  Farmers don't run those missions, they only farm.

 

What we want is to encourage people to run story arcs, Trials, TFs/SFs, and so on.

 

...

 

In a similar light, the XP boost should extend to everyone, regardless of faction, when in a co-operative zone.  Because people from the higher-pop side spending time there, means there's more opportunities for people on the LOWER-populated faction to find a team in those co-op zones.  If there was a way, maybe give the bonus to high-pop people only if they are actively teamed with a low-pop faction character ...?

[SonicMobian]

The Heroes vs. Villains has always to me been a vary touchy subject one of many reasons I try to avoid the conversation once someone pokes the tiger with a stick it will bite back kinda thing. When Champions Online came out it was just Heroes as from most of the responses everyone else was heroes but then some other people hated it that CO had no villains so it made the game worst for them, Much Much worse. But even if it had a villain side it be just a daja vu event all over again with City of Heroes with 80% on Hero side. Nothing will change that outcome. Cannot please everyone. To this day I play CO and CoH back to back as I am just a sucker for Super Hero Games as a whole.

 

I started as a Villain on my first character when CoH was new, I don't regret my choice but when Going Rouge went live I swapped to a Rouge, My Character was about money and power but I will never kill defenseless civilians there is no profit in making money if there dead.

 

So yea, It's my least favorite topic to talk about sense whenever I bring up CO and CoH the debate gets heated and I rather not go down that rocky road.

Edited July 25, 2019 by SonicMobian
Minor word corrections

[krj12]

I'd have to say most of the options apply, except for the morality one.

I'd also have to add:  I don't like having to play second fiddle to Lord Recluse or anyone else.

The zones are all dark and depressing, and in general it brings my mood down after a while playing in red side.

 

What they should have done is to have villains play in the exact same zones as heroes, and implement logic to prevent cross faction grouping.

The Rogue Isles, or something else, should have been accessible to both sides.

 

[Six-Six]

I didn't vote, because none of the choices were true for me:

Population: I don't mind the low population. In fact I'm on Reunion BECAUSE of the low population. I'm in Asia where internet speed is not as fast and reliable so I must avoid high load shards to fend off rubberbanding.

Content: I love redside content. the fact that you get to "break the witness' legs" right off the bat is awesome sauce! I do find that some stories are a little too campy, but hey, I get the vibe.
 

Atmosphere: Is on point. Have you been in one of the redside hospitals? almost pissed myself the first time. Contrary to popular belief, the sun also rises in redside. You should see Night Ward, now that's gloomy.
 

Variety: I can't comment on this since I haven't played enough redside/goldside to compare.

Morality: I think this is the only motivation that I would pick TO PLAY redside. I've always rooted for villains in movies and comics. I think the good ones have their characters well-developed in the plot (i.e vulture in Spiderman), and most villains suffer from underdevelopment and stereotype casting by the writers; some are even sacrificed so that the hero will triumph. Some villains are also heroes in their own minds, not just out to do "bad things." 

My main reason for not playing redside is my noob status. I've only played for less than a month, and I'm still trying to get a good grip on the dynamics and mechanics of the game. I missed a few story nuggets when I unknowingly out-levelled them, or because I did not know I was supposed to go to that contact. When I did give in to take a dip redside, I found myself confused: I got some of the story reference to blueside, but didn't appreciate it at the time. I also found myself automatically thinking cops won't attack me or that skulls will. So what I'm saying is, I can't wait to play redside. My time in blue is just training so I can go red. 

 

 

[Clave Dark 5]

On 7/25/2019 at 11:35 AM, AkuTenshiiZero said:

I say lose the bird because it could be easily abused with some coordination.  There's not many people in each server, all it takes is a few dozen deciding to coordinate their efforts to flip sides every so often and it would create a mess.  Plus, I've been very vocal about how much I hate the quick-and-easy alignment shifts, it is IMO one of the biggest problems causing imbalance between the alignments.  No reason to even have alignments when they can be changes within minutes with no cost.

 

Heck, alternatively, just give Null a hefty cost to switch.  Anything to make alignment switching have some actual weight.

I'd love to hear how people could coordinate to abuse this and create a mess.

[Without_Pause]

I saw a red side team forming. I flipped over to red side and got about three levels for my time and had fun. At the end of the one team we were waiting around for the lead. They came back and said they were sorry about taking time away. Before they left they gave another player and myself a purple recipe as a way of saying thanks. I had switched sides previously for patron reasons. Honestly, I'll likely do it all the more often since it is so simple to do so.

[Omnishambles]

For me the biggest turn-off is the visual aesthetic.

 

Every single zone in CoV is dingy and dark, with muted colour palettes of brown or grey. It's just visually ugly. I know that the design idea was that it would reflect the miserable and downtrodden Isles under Arachnos' jackboot, but it's possible to depict oppressive atmospheres without the atmosphere being, y'know, oppressive. Take a look at how cyberpunk showcases dystopias which tell stories visually but are also interesting and beautiful to look at. 

 

I think it's possible to ameliorate the issue without too much work, actually. We know that it's fairly easy to swap "atmospheres" (lighting, clouds, colour toning) due to previous apparently accidental swaps. It would make a big difference to switch CoV zones onto CoH 'atmospheres'.

[Clave Dark 5]

On 7/27/2019 at 11:44 PM, Without_Pause said:

I saw a red side team forming. I flipped over to red side and got about three levels for my time and had fun. At the end of the one team we were waiting around for the lead. They came back and said they were sorry about taking time away. Before they left they gave another player and myself a purple recipe as a way of saying thanks. I had switched sides previously for patron reasons. Honestly, I'll likely do it all the more often since it is so simple to do so.

I've been taking the time - oh such an imposition! - to hop on a redside team whenever I need a team and see the flag go up in the LFG channel, and it's been working out well.  It helps because in the poor population, they're usually will to team with any level, which again is one of those great things about CoH, you can literally team with any level.  Still, seems like I don't see that as often blue side.

[WumpusRat]

Back on live, I played villains almost exclusively once CoV came out. Now in HC, most of my characters are heroes. I still have about 15-20 villains out of the 90 or so characters I have, but the majority are heroes (or vigilantes). I tend to go where the RP is.