Every time a new management and/or creative team has taken the helm of the Champions Universe, they've built on what came before but added their own distinctive stamp to it -- just as Cryptic is doing now. Like the superhero comics that inspired it, the CU has evolved greatly over the past thirty years.
When I was a kid, I had several of the 4th edition books that addressed Europe and the Mediterranean: European Enemies, Kingdom of Champions, and Day of the Destroyer. I know a European zone dedicated to those storylines would be too much to ask, but I would absolutely love to see the cyborgs of Argent Anarky or guest cameos of the New Knights. I can see that old characters like Carpathia (giant brick,) Hood (Archery powers) and the Bastion of Budapest (force user) lend themselves very easily to powersets that already exist in the game.
I also would like to see the Cardshark organization from Dark Champions. Pokerface (a brick,) Deadman's Hand (pure burst damage,) and the card agents would make for some cool battles. However, if they make the Harbinger of Justice a villain, I quit.
Does anyone remember Atlas Unleashed? When I saw that "Laser sword" was a power option, I immediately wondered if Peacemonger would be an in-game villain. I could see Ego as a mentalist with a lot of stuns and holds instead of mind control, Uberman the brick, Polarity the blaster, and Genetic Deviant X similar to Leech in the desert. Great excuse to expand the moon base hideout props into a playable map!
Oh, and I vote for Interface, ARGENT needs some love and he's not magic.
In the PnP game continuity Interface and ARGENT are currently on the outs. The authorities picked up a lot of intel about ARGENT activities when they busted Interface and sent him to Stronghold, which set back some of ARGENT's plans significantly. ARGENT would like to extract compensation for that carelessness out of Interface's steel hide.
OTOH I've been thinking that a team-up between Interface and the Engineer would be interesting. She's been looking for another cybernetic being who could make a worthy companion. Interface likely wouldn't give two dimes for her pro-technology agenda, but would probably pretend to to get her cooperation. Their combined powers and resources would be formidable.
Eurostar, easily. Or Firewing, with a Malva location. Or Gravitar. Ooooo. Gravitar.
I'm hoping that with since the Roin'esh are apparently in the next Comic Series, that we'll see the Malvan Forum on our moon as part of the story arc. It could be a good way to bring Firewing into the game as well.
I'm curious is there a group like the 5th Column that exists in Champions lore?
If you mean an organization directly descended from the German Nazi party, dedicated to its fascist, pseudo-Nietzchean philosophy, then no. If you mean a vast hidden paramilitary force with aspirations of conquest, comprising dozens of distinct classes of agents, hundreds of cutting-edge weapons, vehicles, and robots, superhuman-class operatives, and even a smattering of the supernatural and wild martial arts, under a secretive but autocratic leadership... that's VIPER. What you've seen of VIPER in Champions Online to this point is only a fraction of the resources at the disposal of PnP VIPER.
I should qualify the above: there are Nazi villains in the PnP game world. Baron Nihil is a former German scientist and weapon-maker during WW II, fanatically devoted to the cause of the Third Reich, who is now tyrant of the extra-dimensional Kingdom of the Saguenay. The German powered-armor villain Panzer is a modern-day neo-Nazi and white supremacist, who dreams of re-establishing Aryan dominion over Germany.
However, neither villain has close to the support and resources of the 5th Column.
Hey, there are only so many names and concepts to go around. After over seventy years of comics publication, nearly everything has already been done by someone somewhere. Besides, even the published Champions Universe has duplications -- two Thunderbolts, two Warmongers, two Proteuses.
I'm sure your Panzer has enough things to make him unique.
It seems highly unlikely. Champions Universe lists both Proteuses (Protei?) as being current members of their respective teams. And there's nothing in the background write-up for the Sentinels' Proteus in Champions Universe: News Of The World about participation in Ameriforce-1.
Hey, there are only so many names and concepts to go around. After over seventy years of comics publication, nearly everything has already been done by someone somewhere.
Bulldozer...so I can whupped his Rockabilly butt ALL over M-City.
That's exactly what Bulldozer was designed for. His PnP build and described "tactics" make him thrashable by almost any competent superhero, and his attitude makes thrashing him eminently satisfying.
I'm sure these two have been echoed a hundred times by now but....
1) Mechanon
2) Firewing
followed by:
3) Eurostar
4) Ankylosaur (I know he was supposed to be in-game somewhere, so if he is forgive this entry, I just haven't seen him).
5) Tyrannon
What makes Firewing ideal for use in a PnP Champions game actually makes him trickier to use in an MMO. Firewing is out for the glory of battle against challenging foes. He has no grand plan or hidden objectives; usually he just shows up, makes his challenge, and starts kicking butt. He's incredibly easy to drop into any PnP session when you want to run a challenging straight-up fight. But he doesn't readily fit into the structure of MMOs, with heroes wading through gangs of grunts on their way to a boss battle. By his power and stature Firewing is a de facto boss, but he fights alone to keep all the glory, has no minions working for him, and other villains rarely have anything he wants enough for Firewing to work with or for them. I'm not saying that bringing him into Champions Online is impossible, but it will require some creative thinking to justify in a satisfying manner.
well, what if Firewing is being accosted by an enemy force, like VIPER or someone, who is trying to capture him. You wade through the troops and bust him free, but instead of thanking you he wants to challenge you, for he views you as a worthy opponent.
"Firewings raison detre is to test himself in combat against other superhumans and prove himself superior; he has no interest in using his power to conquer the world or commit crimes (except to the extent necessary to get superheroes to fight him). He often shows up out of the blue and challenges a hero to battle. He cares little how much destruction and death he causes, provided he gets a good fight." (Champions Villains Vol. 3, p. 114)
"When he issues his challenges, and fights his battles, Firewing tends to destroy huge swaths of major urban areas. The collateral damage from his fire-based powers alone has already soared into the billions of dollars and thousands of deaths, and the direct damage isnt far behind that. No one knows where hell next appear, or when, or who hell call to battle him, but his arrival will undoubtedly cause mass panic." (Champions Universe p. 111)
Altho it breaks the overall "theme" that Firewing possesses in the PnP, potential minions/followers of his could be something like Malvan Gladiators or Malvans themselves. Firewing's powers are "holy" ,so to speak, for some of the Malvan people. The original/pure/true Firewing is a divinity in their culture and so Firewing(the villain) could perhaps gather followers to aid him. In other cases he could be manipulated or controlled to assist/serve the goals of another villain. Plus, there's that "ancient prophecy of Firewing" that speaks of the greater destiny he may, perhaps, have on the Malvan Empire.
Some Earthly villains have attempted to trick Firewing into serving their purposes. That's not easy to do -- Firewing is far more intelligent than Grond -- and if Firewing discovers he's been tricked he'll be furious and burn the trickster to ash. That might be one route in the game to first fighting with Firewing, discovering he's been used by someone else, then possibly teaming with him to take down the mastermind.
Sounds like he's the kind of guy that would show up in some kind of a alert
The qualifying phrase to Lord Liaden's statement would be "satisfying manner." While his M.O. certainly meets the qualifications of one of the new alerts, I would like to see him involved in certainly something more epic.
I read some of the above scenarios listed, and I would think an instanced 5-Man Lair would be the best way to involve in-game. Here is a scenario I was playing around with in my head:
Firewing wants to be tested, right? He also only wants to face the best, most powerful opponents possible. He arranges a "gauntlet" of baddies that consist of the 5 super-heroes nemeses and their minions, each placed in a section of an instanced, crisis city map. The Heroes Nemeses get the chance to destroy their arch-enemy and a few of his friends, Firewing gets to test his new opponents, and they only have a certain amount of time to find and defeat the teams of Nemeses and their henchmen, before Firewing starts wrecking havoc on the instanced part of the city. If they fail to complete the timed objective (think timed part of one of the open missions), the team will then have large groups of their enemies and their minions to defeat all at once, PLUS put out the building fires Firewing had started. Either way, no matter if the timed objective was completed or the heroes managed to put out all the fires, they finally get to face Firewing. I know it's not perfect, but in my defense most of this was just pulled out of my arse.
Why didn't they hire Steve Long to write some of the story arcs for this game? The villains would have stuck to PnP canon more closely, and the dialog and stories surely would have been more engaging than some of the silly stuff that comprise the quests now.
Comments
I also would like to see the Cardshark organization from Dark Champions. Pokerface (a brick,) Deadman's Hand (pure burst damage,) and the card agents would make for some cool battles. However, if they make the Harbinger of Justice a villain, I quit.
Does anyone remember Atlas Unleashed? When I saw that "Laser sword" was a power option, I immediately wondered if Peacemonger would be an in-game villain. I could see Ego as a mentalist with a lot of stuns and holds instead of mind control, Uberman the brick, Polarity the blaster, and Genetic Deviant X similar to Leech in the desert. Great excuse to expand the moon base hideout props into a playable map!
An I betcha he's still overpowered.
Oh, and I vote for Interface, ARGENT needs some love and he's not magic.
In the PnP game continuity Interface and ARGENT are currently on the outs. The authorities picked up a lot of intel about ARGENT activities when they busted Interface and sent him to Stronghold, which set back some of ARGENT's plans significantly. ARGENT would like to extract compensation for that carelessness out of Interface's steel hide.
OTOH I've been thinking that a team-up between Interface and the Engineer would be interesting. She's been looking for another cybernetic being who could make a worthy companion. Interface likely wouldn't give two dimes for her pro-technology agenda, but would probably pretend to to get her cooperation. Their combined powers and resources would be formidable.
I'm hoping that with since the Roin'esh are apparently in the next Comic Series, that we'll see the Malvan Forum on our moon as part of the story arc. It could be a good way to bring Firewing into the game as well.
If you mean an organization directly descended from the German Nazi party, dedicated to its fascist, pseudo-Nietzchean philosophy, then no. If you mean a vast hidden paramilitary force with aspirations of conquest, comprising dozens of distinct classes of agents, hundreds of cutting-edge weapons, vehicles, and robots, superhuman-class operatives, and even a smattering of the supernatural and wild martial arts, under a secretive but autocratic leadership... that's VIPER. What you've seen of VIPER in Champions Online to this point is only a fraction of the resources at the disposal of PnP VIPER.
If you mean something else, please specify.
However, neither villain has close to the support and resources of the 5th Column.
Darn. There's a german powered-armor villain named Panzer? Now one of my Nemeses looks like a ripoff...
I'm sure your Panzer has enough things to make him unique.
Very true.
Shiela Swanson from Everyman
Green Dragon sister since one of My Characters in my campaign is dating her...and Green Dragon is ****sed.
That's exactly what Bulldozer was designed for. His PnP build and described "tactics" make him thrashable by almost any competent superhero, and his attitude makes thrashing him eminently satisfying.
1) Mechanon
2) Firewing
followed by:
3) Eurostar
4) Ankylosaur (I know he was supposed to be in-game somewhere, so if he is forgive this entry, I just haven't seen him).
5) Tyrannon
I'll add more later as I think of them.
Oh....oh wow, is Firewing really that bad?
"Firewings raison detre is to test himself in combat against other superhumans and prove himself superior; he has no interest in using his power to conquer the world or commit crimes (except to the extent necessary to get superheroes to fight him). He often shows up out of the blue and challenges a hero to battle. He cares little how much destruction and death he causes, provided he gets a good fight." (Champions Villains Vol. 3, p. 114)
"When he issues his challenges, and fights his battles, Firewing tends to destroy huge swaths of major urban areas. The collateral damage from his fire-based powers alone has already soared into the billions of dollars and thousands of deaths, and the direct damage isnt far behind that. No one knows where hell next appear, or when, or who hell call to battle him, but his arrival will undoubtedly cause mass panic." (Champions Universe p. 111)
Sounds more like raid material to me. If he's that destructive.
An instanced raid in which heroes have finally tracked FW back to his lair would be awesome.
The qualifying phrase to Lord Liaden's statement would be "satisfying manner." While his M.O. certainly meets the qualifications of one of the new alerts, I would like to see him involved in certainly something more epic.
I read some of the above scenarios listed, and I would think an instanced 5-Man Lair would be the best way to involve in-game. Here is a scenario I was playing around with in my head:
Firewing wants to be tested, right? He also only wants to face the best, most powerful opponents possible. He arranges a "gauntlet" of baddies that consist of the 5 super-heroes nemeses and their minions, each placed in a section of an instanced, crisis city map. The Heroes Nemeses get the chance to destroy their arch-enemy and a few of his friends, Firewing gets to test his new opponents, and they only have a certain amount of time to find and defeat the teams of Nemeses and their henchmen, before Firewing starts wrecking havoc on the instanced part of the city. If they fail to complete the timed objective (think timed part of one of the open missions), the team will then have large groups of their enemies and their minions to defeat all at once, PLUS put out the building fires Firewing had started. Either way, no matter if the timed objective was completed or the heroes managed to put out all the fires, they finally get to face Firewing. I know it's not perfect, but in my defense most of this was just pulled out of my arse.
Why didn't they hire Steve Long to write some of the story arcs for this game? The villains would have stuck to PnP canon more closely, and the dialog and stories surely would have been more engaging than some of the silly stuff that comprise the quests now.