[Suggestion] Custom Sidekicks: Personalized Companions FTW

divitus

Alright, before I get into this concept, I want to emphasize something: I am, by no means, a game designer. Although I am taking a course in the Electronic Gaming Industry, I am no programmer. This is coming from a intermediate MMO Gamer with really crazy ideas. Because of this, I won't go into numbers and major mechanics. Instead I'll focus on the primary concept, as well as potential ways of implementing it. So, bear with me. With that out of the way, let's begin.

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So, Custom Sidekicks. What exactly do I mean by this? Well, a Custom Sidekick is an entity a player can summon via a special screen and/or non-consumable item that is tailored to the player's specifications. In essence, a Custom Sidekick is a customize-able Sidekick entity in the vain of the current Sidekick System currently in-game.

Now, this idea may sound absolutely crazy, and possibly overpowered. However, there are several ways that you can implement a custom companion system while leaving the current system just as viable.

One way is possibly the easiest, and that is to boost the power of all existing Sidekicks so that they, in theory, would still be more powerful than your custom companions, but you would still not have the customization present in the custom sidekicks. For example, your Temporary-Level Sidekicks wouldn't be as powerful as a custom companion in terms of versatility, but all current and future Permanent-Level Static Sidekicks will still be more powerful stat-wise regardless of the versatility of the Custom Sidekicks.

Also, there will be requirements, just like the Nemesis System currently in-game (which has a minimum level requirement). A fair minimum level for the custom companion system regardless of account level would be around Level 30-32, which, in a hero timeline sense, is likely where your character would have enough experience as a hero to take a junior hero under his wing. Upon reaching this threshold, you will be given the opportunity to Adopt a student from the Champion's Hall.

Now, to the basics. The Sidekick editor would be a modified version of the Nemesis Editor/Tailor Screen. Here is an example of how the Process could be set up:

1. Personality: This doesn't really have an effect on how the Sidekick functions, but this is more for how your Sidekick would react to certain situations and his overall speech style. Some Personalities could also have sub-personalities that add a bit more flavor to your sidekick's antics, i.e. a subset of the Computerized Personality could be Curious, creating a Sidekick who's functionality is that of a Robot, but has an innate curiosity as to why humans act the way they do.
   
2. Powerset: This is where you select your Sidekick's powerset. Each Powerset has a a specified role, just like Hero Archetypes, such as certain powersets having healing abilities, and some have a Heavy CC focus. Each powerset is unique in function and style, each powerset offering different approaches to combat.
   
3. Relationship: This is your Sidekicks relation to the hero. Is he a reformed villain? A person bent on revenge against a Certain Nemesis of yours? Or is he a childhood friend? This is more of a groundworks as to the interactions between your Sidekick and your hero, and (if ever implemented), could create for some really inter-party conversations if Player Heroes are given the ability to apply a Personality to your Character. That'll be a topic for another day.
   
4. Tailor: This is where you customize your Sidekicks's appearance. It is basically the same as the typical Tailor Screen, and your Apprentice will have all the Costume Pieces without any restriction except that you own the part in question. There could be some Sidekick-only pieces, but that isn't important as of now...
   

Okay, now you have your Sidekick. Now what? Well, your sidekick is still a trainee, so he won't have all the skills needed to be effective right away. Permanent Sidekicks have a static progression based solely on your Hero Level (I am unsure as to the exact mechanics, because, unfortunately, I don't own a Permanent Sidekick). Custom Sidekicks would still scale to your Hero Level/Item Level, but they will have a separate Sidekick Progression that is unique to every Sidekick you create (if you end up making multiple). This Progression is essentially your Sidekick's level of experience that mirrors your own character's progression. As I stated previously, I won't get into the nitty-gritty of how the progression will work exactly, but, to be fair, a good Progression Maximum would be around half the level cap, around 20 total levels. These progression levels would give special bonuses that are available immediately after exiting the current Combat encounter, if that is where your Sidekick leveled. Such bonuses would always give new active/passive ability every level, with a possible combination of a Health Perk, a Damage Perk, a Recovery Perk, or something else entirely, giving a Sidekick who has Progressed further an advantage over one who hasn't, but the difference will never make them more powerful than most Permanent Static Sidekicks.

Please note that I will not try to make Hard-Earned Sidekicks seemed under-powered in the face of these custom companions, as there are going to be drawbacks. One drawback could be that they start out fairly weak, and their full capacity would not be apparent until you work hard with them. Second, your Sidekicks could wear out after extensive work. If a Custom Sidekick is out for an extended period of time, he would "wear-out" becoming less effective in combat. The only way to rejuvenate your Sidekick would be 1) Dismissing your Companion for a period of time based on weariness, or 2) Logging out for the same period. Using a different Toon also would work, as characters not in use by a player are considered Offline. The wearing-out of companions would happen quickly at lower levels, but as Progression gets higher, your Sidekick would get worn-out less often, allowing him/her/it to remain fresh for longer. Once maximum progression is reached, the weariness drawback could be effectively removed.

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Phew! That was a long one!
Alright, what do you guys think? Do you like the idea of having custom companions? Is there anything that can be done to improve the concept? Who would benefit from such an idea?
Also, one more thing. I actually have an RP/Gameplay question for you guys: If such a system was implemented into CO, what kind of Sidekick would you create? What would be his backstory? What would his/her/its relationship to your Character be?
Also, if you guys happen to have a full-on Permanent Sidekick currently on one of your characters, who is it, and how powerful is he in terms of gameplay? I am rather curious as to what kind of power we might have to compare these custom Sidekicks to.

P.S.: There will be more suggestions to come. But, for organization's sake, I will have each in separate threads of their own. It would also make it easier for the Devs to pick out specific Concepts that my insane mind might cook up every now and again...

themightyzenith

I can see you have thought about this and all credit to you for your thoughts and posting them. Personally I would prefer a sidekick Powerset instead of a system. That way you have to sacrifice other powers to have a sidekick. Basically like a more detailed pet.

divitus

themightyzenith said:

I can see you have thought about this and all credit to you for your thoughts and posting them. Personally I would prefer a sidekick Powerset instead of a system. That way you have to sacrifice other powers to have a sidekick. Basically like a more detailed pet.

The reason I set it up this way is because I want it to work with existing Powersets, aka Archetypes. I doubt more Archetypes will be added anytime soon, and it would just make sense to add a new system to the game instead of making a Powerset dedicated to Sidekicks.
Yes, there will have to be some beta testing to get the system working, and will most certainly not be a PvP system. That would be utterly broken.

maatmons

I really like the idea of creating a sidekick in more-or-less the same way we already create nemeses. One major alteration I would suggest though is having sets of abilities corresponding to each pre-made loyal companion. Each set is only available after you gain the pre-made loyal companion.

For example, let's say you acquire Windchill. If she's your first loyal sidekick, you get an email inviting you to make a custom sidekick. When you get into the interface, your only option for powers is "ice," which gives exactly the same powers as Windchill has. But if you get another loyal sidekick later, you get the option to duplicate his powers instead.

The big advantage here is, the AIs already created for those existing sidekicks can be reused. No need for a lot of new coding. I don't really know anything about creating AIs, but I assume it's hard to make one that can adjust its behavior to match any arbitrary selection of powers the player assigns it. So I don't think freeform sidekicks were ever in the cards anyway.

Another advantage is, the custom sidekicks are inherently balanced against the pre-made ones, because they're identical except for appearance and name. Further, you still need to acquire each pre-made loyal sidekick before you can create the equivalent custom one. This means the demand for pre-made sidekicks will not diminish.

The easiest way to work things would be to allow one custom sidekick to be designated as "on call" in the sidekick creation interface. Your custom sidekick device would summon whichever one that is. To switch out one cuystom sidekick for another, you'd need to trek back to wherever you access the interface.

What would really be nice though is somehow having a separate device for each custom sidekick. That way you could switch from one to another wherever you are. I think there would need to be a button on whatever screen lets you review your custom sidekicks that adds a device to your inventory keyed to that specific sidekick. If it is possible to have multiple different custom sidekicks on standby like this, you might want to limit the number of custom sidekick slots in the editor to the number of normal loyal sidekicks you've acquired. That way, if a player wants to be able to switch between a bunch of different sidekicks in battle, he still need to get hold of a bunch of loyal sidekicks the normal way first.

divitus

maatmons said:

I really like the idea of creating a sidekick in more-or-less the same way we already create nemeses. One major alteration I would suggest though is having sets of abilities corresponding to each pre-made loyal companion. Each set is only available after you gain the pre-made loyal companion.

For example, let's say you acquire Windchill. If she's your first loyal sidekick, you get an email inviting you to make a custom sidekick. When you get into the interface, your only option for powers is "ice," which gives exactly the same powers as Windchill has. But if you get another loyal sidekick later, you get the option to duplicate his powers instead.

The big advantage here is, the AIs already created for those existing sidekicks can be reused. No need for a lot of new coding. I don't really know anything about creating AIs, but I assume it's hard to make one that can adjust its behavior to match any arbitrary selection of powers the player assigns it. So I don't think freeform sidekicks were ever in the cards anyway.

Another advantage is, the custom sidekicks are inherently balanced against the pre-made ones, because they're identical except for appearance and name. Further, you still need to acquire each pre-made loyal sidekick before you can create the equivalent custom one. This means the demand for pre-made sidekicks will not diminish.

The easiest way to work things would be to allow one custom sidekick to be designated as "on call" in the sidekick creation interface. Your custom sidekick device would summon whichever one that is. To switch out one cuystom sidekick for another, you'd need to trek back to wherever you access the interface.

What would really be nice though is somehow having a separate device for each custom sidekick. That way you could switch from one to another wherever you are. I think there would need to be a button on whatever screen lets you review your custom sidekicks that adds a device to your inventory keyed to that specific sidekick. If it is possible to have multiple different custom sidekicks on standby like this, you might want to limit the number of custom sidekick slots in the editor to the number of normal loyal sidekicks you've acquired. That way, if a player wants to be able to switch between a bunch of different sidekicks in battle, he still need to get hold of a bunch of loyal sidekicks the normal way first.

I like the idea you have. Except for one thing. At the minimum level I set (30-32, as I stated), the chances of you having a Permanent Sidekick in your inventory would be incredibly small, as I have already reached level 35 and haven't acquired a single one. Of course, I didn't do any of the Adventure Zones (I have done Adventure Packs, just not the Zones), so I'm not sure if you get any in any of the zones. So far, the only one I am familiar with acquiring is in the recently released Lockbox, with Winterchill. Due to the absurdly low drop rate and the pricing of the individual keys, I doubt I will be acquiring her anytime soon.

However, what about this: Yes, you can acquire the Powersets from Sidekicks you obtain, but you will also get a set of default Powersets (around 5-6) that only require access to Custom Sidekicks. By collecting new Permanent Sidekicks, you gain new Powersets, and possibly enhance old ones.
However, the naming of these acquired powersets would be based on the Sidekick you acquired it from, i.e. the Powerset of Winterchill will be called Winterchill, the Black Talon Powerset would be called Black Talon, and so forth. This will make identifying which powerset came from who much easier.
The default Powersets? Well, we can start with the most common powersets, but also the weakest/most basic. We could assign "Lesser Martial Arts", "Lesser Superstrength", and "Lesser Fire" to your Sidekicks, as an example. Acquiring more powerful/complex Powersets either requires maxing a Sidekick's Progression Level and retraining (basically resetting your Sidekick's level to progress) to acquire a powerset down a Progression Tree (an untested theory), Looting off Primary and certain Secondary Bosses via an extremely rare drop (or guaranteed, if the boss is based on the Main Story and/or is designed to be difficult), or by shelling out Questionite or Zen (for the impatient or rich). Pick your poison.

Also, to say that creating an AI that adapts based on powerset isn't exactly necessary, since it already exists in-game. The Nemesis already does that, because every Nemesis has a Powerset, and every Powerset functions somewhat differently. The AI is just different for every Powerset. The same can be done with the Sidekicks, just modify the AI so that it is more in line with the Sidekick. To say that you would need a whole new AI for the system to work wouldn't be entirely true. Of course, I don't program games, so the actual work that goes into this stuff doesn't exactly come to me easily. Take my word with a grain of salt...

maatmons

All right, so, merging the idea I split off earlier back into this thread: custom sidekick duos, like the Harajuku twins. Obviously, each member of the duo would need to be weaker than a normal sidekick. I assume that's how the twins work now.

Now, previously I was thinking of some generalized method of combining preexisting companions. I figured it would be good to allow mixing and matching with the previous companions. Now that I think about it though, if we get a custom sidekick system that includes the option to create duos, we wouldn't need to mix and match existing companions. We could just make one of the members of the custom duo resemble the preexisting sidekick we were interested in.

For implementation, I'd suggest the first screen have "standard" and "duo" as options. If you chose duo, you'd need to design two costumes, enter two names, choose two power sets (possibly both the same), et cetera. Ideally, this would later be expanded to even larger groups of individually weaker sidekicks. As much as I'd like to summon a swarm of custom-themed henchmen though, it's not the top priority.

An alternative would be to implement the choice in the same location where power sets are chosen. For example, in addition to the "fire" and "ice" options that would presumably be available, there would be a "duo: fire and ice" option. I don't advocate this method though, because the developers would have to manually create each pairing in order for it to be available.

divitus said:

At the minimum level I set (30-32, as I stated), the chances of you having a Permanent Sidekick in your inventory would be incredibly small, as I have already reached level 35 and haven't acquired a single one.

I was imagining the option would be unlocked for all characters on the account if you got the loyal sidekick for at least one character of the account. I suppose that would only make sense if sidekicks were changed to be account bound though. If they're set on selling you a sidekick for a single character only, any unlocks like the ones I mentioned would work on a single character only.

divitus said:

However, what about this: Yes, you can acquire the Powersets from Sidekicks you obtain, but you will also get a set of default Powersets (around 5-6) that only require access to Custom Sidekicks. By collecting new Permanent Sidekicks, you gain new Powersets, and possibly enhance old ones.

That could work too. Just so long as there's an incentive for people to keep buying the existing sidekicks (or keys to try to get the sidekicks). I think they're too interested in those to implement a system that makes them obsolete.

I suppose one more option would be be to create a few "lesser" loyal sidekicks and give players one of their choosing. Maybe as part of a small quest chain that introduces the introduces everyone to custom sidekicks. That way, every player would definitely have a set of powers unlocked.

divitus

maatmons said:

All right, so, merging the idea I split off earlier back into this thread: custom sidekick duos, like the Harajuku twins. Obviously, each member of the duo would need to be weaker than a normal sidekick. I assume that's how the twins work now.

Now, previously I was thinking of some generalized method of combining preexisting companions. I figured it would be good to allow mixing and matching with the previous companions. Now that I think about it though, if we get a custom sidekick system that includes the option to create duos, we wouldn't need to mix and match existing companions. We could just make one of the members of the custom duo resemble the preexisting sidekick we were interested in.

For implementation, I'd suggest the first screen have "standard" and "duo" as options. If you chose duo, you'd need to design two costumes, enter two names, choose two power sets (possibly both the same), et cetera. Ideally, this would later be expanded to even larger groups of individually weaker sidekicks. As much as I'd like to summon a swarm of custom-themed henchmen though, it's not the top priority.

An alternative would be to implement the choice in the same location where power sets are chosen. For example, in addition to the "fire" and "ice" options that would presumably be available, there would be a "duo: fire and ice" option. I don't advocate this method though, because the developers would have to manually create each pairing in order for it to be available.

divitus said:

At the minimum level I set (30-32, as I stated), the chances of you having a Permanent Sidekick in your inventory would be incredibly small, as I have already reached level 35 and haven't acquired a single one.

I was imagining the option would be unlocked for all characters on the account if you got the loyal sidekick for at least one character of the account. I suppose that would only make sense if sidekicks were changed to be account bound though. If they're set on selling you a sidekick for a single character only, any unlocks like the ones I mentioned would work on a single character only.

divitus said:

However, what about this: Yes, you can acquire the Powersets from Sidekicks you obtain, but you will also get a set of default Powersets (around 5-6) that only require access to Custom Sidekicks. By collecting new Permanent Sidekicks, you gain new Powersets, and possibly enhance old ones.

That could work too. Just so long as there's an incentive for people to keep buying the existing sidekicks (or keys to try to get the sidekicks). I think they're too interested in those to implement a system that makes them obsolete.

I suppose one more option would be be to create a few "lesser" loyal sidekicks and give players one of their choosing. Maybe as part of a small quest chain that introduces the introduces everyone to custom sidekicks. That way, every player would definitely have a set of powers unlocked.

Actually, that kind of makes sense. Give players new to the system "lesser" sidekicks to toy around with. They do that in Star Trek Online, giving you a Very Rare Bridge Officer, and 4 Uncommon Ones to start off the game. The Very Rare Officer you get is non-customizable in terms of personalization (i.e. name and biography change), but every other one is. Then make the other sidekicks unlockable via story or lockbox, or by other means, and it might just work.
It'll need some refinement to make it unique, but I never intended to make other systems obsolete. The only reason I would do that is if the system is incredibly annoying or unfair to those who don't take advantage of it.

chaelk

There are only TWO permanent sidekicks, both are recent, as in within the last month.
One a RARE drop from a lockbox and one $15 in the zen store. So not having one at level 35 is not really surprising or anything unusual.​​

divitus

chaelk said:

There are only TWO permanent sidekicks, both are recent, as in within the last month.

One a RARE drop from a lockbox and one $15 in the zen store. So not having one at level 35 is not really surprising or anything unusual.​​

Aye...

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roughbearmattach

I think it would be wonderful to have custom sidekicks. There are definitely concerns about ToS violations, of course.

My bigger concern, though, is that this would generally make characters even more powerful. Being able to choose a powerset allows for even more synergies for your hero. If nothing else, a healer sidekick would be an extremely powerful and popular choice.

Why is that a problem? Because the game lacks challenging content in the first place. Imagine a group of 10 heroes in a Rampage with 10 sidekicks, each chosen to complement the main hero.

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roughbearmattach

a1fighter said:

Also, doing battlefields with AI was much more challenging than with PCs. Trust were not strong perse, but good enough. There was still a good chance you could wipe with trust companions.

But Champs doesn't really have content with a risk of a wipe, except perhaps Fire and Ice and the hardest lairs.

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divitus

a1fighter said:

Its all good then; would really like to see this implemented. Any devs around? Has a dev ever commented on this topic? I am late to the party, so no clue.

Unfortunately, not yet. I have been told that they do look at the Suggestion Box, but they don't comment regardless of the quality. I'm not sure what the whole thing is about, but I'm just going to be patient about it.

roughbearmattach said:

I think it would be wonderful to have custom sidekicks. There are definitely concerns about ToS violations, of course.

My bigger concern, though, is that this would generally make characters even more powerful. Being able to choose a powerset allows for even more synergies for your hero. If nothing else, a healer sidekick would be an extremely powerful and popular choice.

Why is that a problem? Because the game lacks challenging content in the first place. Imagine a group of 10 heroes in a Rampage with 10 sidekicks, each chosen to complement the main hero.

It honestly depends, based on how the system is handled. As a1fighter mentioned, making such a sidekick part of the party could alleviate the problem, but the primary problem of doing this is that the party structure would have to be reworked to accommodate the feature.

Another option is to just make it so Sidekicks are primarily for solo play and/or small party play (1-2 extra players). Star Wars: The Old Republic makes it so that the maximum player count for a normal party was always four, and when a player party exceeds 2, companions are disabled so that there is always a 4-player max, i.e. 2 players and two companions, 3 players and one companion, and 4 players and no companions. In other words, 4-player Flashpoints (the dungeons), will never have companions enabled in a full party.

A similar thing can be done here, I just don't think making the Sidekicks part of the party is a good idea. Maybe add it as a pet-portrait?