I personally prefer a butt slider for both genders since we're talking about that XD also, I agree with spinnytop, that they should resume work on already existing systems. the mechanics are already there, so it's easier. hideouts are there, why not add more to the list? a detective apartment, maybe a submarine base, etc... also the NEMESIS system! beats my mind they don't want to add to it. why not make alerts use nemesis more often? Also alerts, why not create more smash and grabs? all these systems are already in game, it should't be too hard to just add things to them. Also I'd really like if the devs could inform us on what's coming, like you know, they do in most other MMOs, it gives something to wait for. and know wht to expect.
I can never understand why a successful game that's starting to show its age......cant get a overhaul.
New Game Engine.
This game already has a great foundation just transition it to a new engine. IF you really want to be ground breaking.......remove levels.
Remove quests. Makes events that are constantly happening and changing requiring heros to participate. Heck let the world get outta hand when heros aren't participating requiring a larger call for heros.
While the Cosmics are what they are...........Lets have "Legendary/Cosmic" events that require all sorts of things to be completed all over the map. Boss battles require multiple groups to do multiple things/ other than attack the bap of hp.
I can never understand why a successful game that's starting to show its age......cant get a overhaul.
Money. The game was developed on a non-standard platform and changing the fundamentals is nightmarishly complicated and likely to break more stuff than there is money to fix, with the current playerbase.
There is no money in the hero world if you're not from Marvel or DC, and the game's survival is more down to Cryptic's shard system than owt else; it's about profit and space occupied, and the 5000-odd CO players probably pay more in terms of subscriptions and Zen per month than an equivalent number of Neverwinter FTP players. As long as we do we'll be left to muddle along with a couple of developers and the occasional bit of new content.
But New AAA mmo are CONSTANTLY being started from scratch with no real knowledge of whether they will make a profit at all.
CO should EASILY be a solid investment. Treat it LIKE a new project.......work on it in the back ground while still keeping the current player base happy. The one day POOF swap to a new/better version of the current game everybody loves.
Sure players MAY have to start again from level 1 but maybe find a way to let the keep character names and saved costumes/looks to transfer to the new system to keep current player base happy.
With NEW mmos always being made........Why NOT invest in one that is already working. I more than positive an overhaul in the works......you would see an immediate increase in our current player base getting ready for the new overhaul.
Not to mention there would be actual discussions about your game and reasons to play.....the money would start flooding in.
Right now people see this as a dying/dead game....WHY would they come here at all???
So unstretch the team. Hire new Devs to make the...."new/overhaul". Have devs work on this one to keep current player base happy while new devs work on the overhaul. Even have some hired devs to work between the 2 games float back and forth.
All this would do is bring in a LOT of money. If the current player base NEW all this was going on, I'm more than positive we could get the player base to explode for years while the overhaul is being worked on.
Sure I know its never going to happen, but if it did it would work.
they believe the money they would get by doing such a thing is no worth it, compared to what it would cost to do such a thing. if they're right or not we'll probably never know.
I think we have to tell them it WILL work and HOW it will work. There 1st step is communication, players need LOTS of communication. The more communication we have the more we realize.......the game isn't dead.
Well if SOMETHING drastic like a new game engine and game overhaul happen or even start in the works.........its only a matter of time before the game dies. Which is strange cause games like EQLive are still around today.
If a game overhaul is in the works we could even pull all the lost COH fans. Maybe an overhaul can incorporate ideas that made that game thrive.
I think we have to tell them it WILL work and HOW it will work. There 1st step is communication, players need LOTS of communication. The more communication we have the more we realize.......the game isn't dead.
Well if SOMETHING drastic like a new game engine and game overhaul happen or even start in the works.........its only a matter of time before the game dies. Which is strange cause games like EQLive are still around today.
If a game overhaul is in the works we could even pull all the lost COH fans. Maybe an overhaul can incorporate ideas that made that game thrive.
Unlikely. They would sooner put that large of an investment in the current flavors of the month like STO and Neverwinter for that amount of effort and budget (which is why the devs from CO were moved to those games in the first place). CO is surviving because the cost vs. profit ratio is still favorable. But what you're looking for is a big enough risk that the company will unlikely take unless you can prove the numbers (trust me, I've been in the executive corporate halls of companies long enough to know if you can't back it up with numbers, that investment won't fly).
Just be happy PWE isn't NCSoft which was willing to cut off the CoH arm and never give it to anyone else even though it was making a profit. But have no illusions: as soon as CO is no longer getting a profit vs. costs, true MMO death will follow. And we all don't want that.
That's why I mentioned in an earlier post to curb expectations based on what the game has right now to work with. And as you mentioned, older games like EQ and others like Anarchy Online, Ragnarok Online, Maple Story, and the like continue to thrive... but that is not because of immense changes, but steady progression despite being slow, enough to keep new players coming in and older players interested. We all want the game to improve, but within the realm of plausibility given the current status quo.
I do agree, some of the ideas and mechanics from CoH could be drawn from, but remember that CO has to do it in a way that does not directly copy CoH as NCSoft still has that IP (and that could be a whole together different mess).
So I thought about it long and hard.........there is a safe way for devs to find out and realize whether or an overhaul is worth it or not.
Kickstart.
Use a kickstarter to judge and gauge the gamer population to see if they can reach a reasonable goal. Upon doing means they have the knowledge the endeavor will be a success as well as some money to get things started. More money they put towards to the goal....the more potential money they can make.
So I thought about it long and hard.........there is a safe way for devs to find out and realize whether or an overhaul is worth it or not.
Kickstart.
Use a kickstarter to judge and gauge the gamer population to see if they can reach a reasonable goal. Upon doing means they have the knowledge the endeavor will be a success as well as some money to get things started. More money they put towards to the goal....the more potential money they can make.
That's a slippery slope. There's still risks involved, and it can have a negative effect in terms of reputation on the company itself. Crowd funding has had high profile disasters in recent years (Mighty No. 9, anyone?). And that may also impact the perspective of the other IPs the company is handling.
Even the so-called spiritual successors to CoH has had a steep uphill climb to even meet their basic goals.
There is no money in the hero world if you're not from Marvel or DC [...]
DCUO is under the studio that's been shutting down games left and right. I kind of doubt it's doing anywhere near as well as people give it credit for. I think the real problem is most companies make crappy MMOs.
At this point, I think people are so disillusioned by kickstarters and the giant flops of recent times, that getting the millions of dollars needed to create a decent MMO would be borderline impossible. Has there ever been a kickstarted MMO that launched at all?
Project Awakened had everything better than Champions Online and it's kickstarter/whatever crowd funding failed. So the developer released Nether, another post-apocalyptic zombie-like, which only has 13 players online now, down from a 10,000 player peak in just three years.
A super hero game doesn't need to be an MMO, Killing Floor 1 & 2 have both enjoyed incredible success and feels more heroic than flying around with tights and a cape beating on goons in purple suits. A lobby and five or six man super hero teams is all you need, it's worked wonderfully (sans lobby) in Champions Online for six years. Killing Floor one, a game released five months before Champions Online still enjoys five times more players online than CO does and has hundreds of player made environments to spend hours fighting in which Champions Online doesn't. You get one new zone a year here and it's quickly over played and/or ignored, example there is literally only one player in the Q-zone right now.
The game is stuck in 2009 and under the cruddy thumb of Perfectworld who has no vision at all.
There is no money in the hero world if you're not from Marvel or DC [...]
DCUO is under the studio that's been shutting down games left and right. I kind of doubt it's doing anywhere near as well as people give it credit for. I think the real problem is most companies make crappy MMOs.
At this point, I think people are so disillusioned by kickstarters and the giant flops of recent times, that getting the millions of dollars needed to create a decent MMO would be borderline impossible. Has there ever been a kickstarted MMO that launched at all?
This I think CO will outlive DCUO by a few years at least. WB also just bungs out another Injustice if they want to sell DC stuff to gamers. DCUO on a business term is not required.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
beats me that DCUO is not doing great, with the license from a big IP and a superhero MMO, it should be doing awesome, but t's not and it's mostly by really bad decisions. Marvel Heroes is doing pretty good in comparison now, but it's really not my kind of game, I hate the diablo like view and I hate not being able to create my own hero too.
DCUO simply isn't fun. As for Marvel Heroes..........there are much better diablo like games as well as you cant make your own character. Marvel really doesn't want you to. There was originally gonna be a Marvel Online but Marvel backed out cause they don't want players creating heroes in their universe.....go figure.
But New AAA mmo are CONSTANTLY being started from scratch with no real knowledge of whether they will make a profit at all.
Many MMOs are actually built using existing engines, not from scratch. CO, Star Trek Online, and Neverwinter all use the same engine with game-specific enhancements built around it. Looking further out at games still under the PWE umbrella, PWI and Forsaken World also use the same (really bad) engine.
Aside from maybe Final Fantasy 14, I can't think of any MMO that received a massive engine overhaul. FFXIV can get away with it because 1) Square Enix is huge/loaded and 2) Final Fantasy is their flagship IP, so having a sub-par numbered sequel is not in their best interests. As far as I know, Cryptic is nowhere near the size of Square Enix, and on top of that, the Champions IP isn't theirs specifically so there's less incentive to make it the best it can be.
Besides, even if they did, it would be more commercially sound to release it as a brand new game rather than as a huge upgrade to an existing game that isn't very successful.
(Hopefully) Useful CO Resources: HeroCreator (character planner), Cosmic Timers/Alert Checklist, Blood Moon Map, Anniversary Cat Map, and more (eventually, anyway).
yeah as far as I know cryptic uses the same engine for their games, we'll hardly see a new one only for CO. also, we should be getting tons more costumes regularly, that doesn't take long at all to make.
I'd love a Diablo/Torchlight format Champions spin-off. I was playing those the other day and had forgotten just how fun and fluid that model of combat can be, and the things they did with Torchlight II's end-game and multiplayer mode was brilliantly executed. All those ideas with customisable hero characters... yes please.
So unstretch the team. Hire new Devs to make the...."new/overhaul". Have devs work on this one to keep current player base happy while new devs work on the overhaul. Even have some hired devs to work between the 2 games float back and forth.
All this would do is bring in a LOT of money. If the current player base NEW all this was going on, I'm more than positive we could get the player base to explode for years while the overhaul is being worked on.
Sure I know its never going to happen, but if it did it would work.
o3o I remember when I had huge pie in the sky dreams for the game too. Enjoy that while it lasts! :'D
Oi, where to begin on this one. Though I should note before I even start that I don't think CO is a bad game; if I did, I wouldn't play. There are some things that could be done better, and there are some things I think could be tweaked. And, of course, I'm a former City of Heroes player, so I'm going to judge every MMO I ever play by comparing it to CoH.
INTERFACES/MENUS & STUFF The main thing I want in this is an updated crime computer.
[1] Contacts should be grouped by zone first, alphabetical order second. I don't need to see contacts from the desert when I'm in Canada, the exception being when covering level gaps. (Sometimes there's nothing my level HERE but there is THERE.)
[2] There are several repeatable missions (often 1 from each contact, sometimes 2) that keep contacts on your list long after you've outleveled the missions. An inactive tab would be a better place for these.
[3] Socrates should be the third tab. It has missions that occur at certain levels, and I do go back to Millenium City to get these off my list; if I'm just doing missions, and they're my level, yay xp. The thing is, Socrates gives you door missions, which could be made character-level rather than fixed-level. I'd like the Socrates tab to contain a variety of door missions that match your character level, and enough of them that you don't have to do the same ones all the time. Also, such missions could be added to the other regular zones (desert & Canada; the Q zone could be left out of this because of its theme). In other words, somewhat like the radio missions in CoH; there could even be a reward of some kind for completing a number of them, as an incentive to at least occasionally run them.
MAPS [1] Known contacts should be shown on the maps, even (and especially) the ones not in the crime computer. If there's an option for this that I don't know about, I'm stupid, but really this should be automatic so that you an return to known contacts without having to search; some are a little hard to find. (Note: The ability to click on a contact and have them show up on the map would be enough, though it would mean that all contacts would have to be in the CC. I guess there could be a different tab for contacts you know but can't call, but I really don't want too many different tabs.)
[2] The invisible walls should be at the map edge, not within the map. Either the map should match the walls or the walls should match the maps. There are some seriously unreasonable edges to these things, though you can easily avoid them by staying farther from the edges. It'd be nice if there was a really big open world, but let's face it, the game zones are okay.
POWERS [1] Adding stuff to the game is awesome. Leaving stuff in the game that needs fixing is not. I don't want to mention this too strongly because I once started a thread about a certain ongoing issue and it was closed without explanation. But really, there are only a few powers that have unreasonable glitches. Fix them.
[2] Maybe this is just me, but do some of the melee powers seem a little...underanimated? Take the leap attack from the Might powerset. You jump, and your fist is in the finish position before you've moved 3 feet, much less the max range. So if you hit the air before you reach the bad guy? It looks funky! Though this is not a MAJOR issue--the power works like it should, it just doesn't look like it should. The kick combo from unarmed is fine, the swings from heavy weapons combo is fine, some others are as well. Others, however, seem to be two or three frames that seem to complete before they actually hit. Maybe this is a cheap way of supposedly making the attacks look faster...but it just makes them look choppy.
[3] Maybe this is just me, but do some of the melee powers seem a little...overanimated? Take the mind sword combo for instance. The third strike has you jumping into the air and spinning your sword 360 degrees...and you hit one enemy. If it hits one target, why does it look like an AoE? It's overanimated. Then there are the melee energy builders. The one from Might looks like you're trying to pound the daylights out of something but you're failing miserably. One of the unarmed ones from Martial Arts has you jump into the air and punch downward, yet it's an EB so it does no real damage even though it looks like you're using gravity to help you hit harder. Why don't these just have simple "jab" animations? Still, not a major thing; the animation just doesn't seem (at least to me) to match what's actually happening.
[4] Then there's the Celestial set. Many of the powers cause you to float in the air. Why? Well I guess it's actually okay for some of the later powers--it makes the set different. Rebuke, however, could use an update; if you tap the power repeatedly you get ahead of the animation, which looks silly. Maybe they should use the animation from fire strike for a tap, then go the floaty route when you charge. Again, not severe because it still works.
[5] In spite of the greater flexibility of freeforms, CoH had a greater variety of powers. Why, for instance, is there not a basic energy blast set? Or electric melee powers? The short answer is, this is CO, not CoH. And that's definitely true. A few more options would still be nice. The closest thing to an energy blast power is power gauntlet, but I can't see myself using a power that shuts off every time you block. Frankly, that silly delay could be removed from the game.
[6] Ego sprites used to be targeted AoE, now it's PBAoE. I did not like this when it was changed. Now I think it has some good points. The Mind did need an earlier PBAoE than ego storm. However, I still miss the old ego sprites at times. So I wonder why ego sprites can't be treated like laser sword and have different effects on different powers. I now like both the projectable version and the point blank version, depending on the situation. A healing version would also be nice, since the advantage that makes the sprites return and heal you is useless; it depends on doing the maximum damage before returning, and your main source of healing in that situation would be minions, who die too fast for that to ever happen.
[7] Too many healing powers are tied to the Supernatural theme. There's another theme which should be good at healing--Gadgeteering. The experimental blaster should be more flexible and more like laser sword/ego sword. It should have a healing beam like the support drones. Other healing options are possible too; some people don't like the way bionic shielding works because it only heals in combat. Sometimes that's not what's needed.
And that's enough. I wouldn't want this post to be any longer.
Previous one was long enough--maybe too long--but there is some other stuff. (Man, I have too many ideas about this.)
REWARDS I solo. It's what I do. I've soloed Mechanon, though it was with a tank and my fingers were really tired at the end. But since I don't do certain aspects of the game, I don't get questionite. Now, I can understand doing alerts for increased questionite, but since questionite is required for certain things, shouldn't it be gained in other content? For example, I have soloed Teleios' Tower in Canada (NOT Teleios Ascendant) with several builds, including one whose armor power was aura of radiant protection. The mobs in that mission are upgraded to "hard", but you don't get any particular reward (that I currently recall) from completing the mission. Basically all you get is that dweeb Teleios telling you that you're still inferior before he leaves like a blanking coward. You really should get questionite for completing lairs; it doesn't have to be as much as you get for doing alerts. Also, the lairs should go by character level, not a level limit.
What I'm saying is, people who prefer to do missions shouldn't be penalized for not doing alerts. My brother plays another game where part of the character development required PvP. My brother hates PvP because his experience is that it brings out the worst in people. (NOTE: His experience, not yours; we all have our own experiences and preferences.) Last year, however, that was changed so that he didn't have to PvP to fully develop his character. He could do so with his preferred content, just a fair bit more slowly. I would like CO to also remove such blocks from the game.
ZONES Compared to City of Heroes, Champions Online feels small. Not tiny, just small. If you stay with the normal PvE stuff, you get Millenium City, the Desert, Canada, Monster Island, and Lemuria. That's it. I would like to see these expanded (I alluded to this, to a degree, in my previous post.) Think about it: the US and Canada are COUNTRIES, not neighborhoods. Some adjoining zones would be nice, so maybe 3 MC zones, 5 Desert zones--something along those lines. And with that, maybe some kind of reward for completing so many mission per zone set (minimum of 25 per subzone, maybe).
Honestly, who wouldn't like more max-level zones? Think about it: if you reach level 40 knowing that you'll have to revisit MC, the Desert, Canada, etc., to get map completion, then you would be more likely to look forward to the variety of max-level content.
And yeah, I know most of the stuff I've stated in these two posts will never happen. A guy can dream, right? And I do want Champions Online 2, eventually.
ADDED Whoops, remembered another couple o' power things.
[1] Arcane Vitality. You heal in a cone, or you heal yourself only. Why? This game seriously lacks variety (and usefulness) as far as group healing is concerned. This power should be able to heal in a cone or a PBAoE.
[2] Vala's Light. Ah, finally an area heal! Too bad it reeks. It doesn't heal enough, even when charged, and the cooldown they added just makes it more useless. Powers should be useful, not avoidable. There are just better options. Much better option. And that's a shame, because if I'm not mistaken this one can heal around you or around a target within 50 feet.
[3] Knocks are overabundant--that's the general consensus and I don't disagree. Some should be removed, some should be replaced with knockdown.
[4] Travel powers...hmm. Why are we reduced to minimum speed by hits? Characters who are getting destroyed should be able to abandon combat and MOVE. This is especially true of AT's that don't have any way to heal themselves; you can't always be assured that a healer will save you--they go down, too.
Indeed so. Hudson City, pitched between Vibora Bay and the Q Zone in terms of difficulty, would be a blast. And something specific like that could be crowdfunded if PWE were able to come up with a reasonable plan. Despite the "it's not CoH" comments and what seems to be general animosity to CO in the gaming media, I think there's a load of people with some affection for the game who might come back if there was something big and new to do.
[4] Travel powers...hmm. Why are we reduced to minimum speed by hits? Characters who are getting destroyed should be able to abandon combat and MOVE. This is especially true of AT's that don't have any way to heal themselves; you can't always be assured that a healer will save you--they go down, too.
And now, since I was forced to get a new computer (old one is dying on me), I've found that I can see things in the game I've never seen before. On my old computer flight did not have those energy burst effects as it speeds up. Frankly, they're a waste of animation. I liked the quieter hover/fly system in CoH better, but hey, flight still works, and I'll get used to it.
Something always looked funny on my old computer: Infernal Blast. It looked like the blast aftereffect was off center. Now that I have a new computer, I see why--the blast doesn't come off your hands, it comes out of the blast effect area, which is too far to the left of your character's hands. Weird. But I guess it still works.
There's no reason that the tailor on CO should have body scaling less than what STO has. (NWO I could understand; everyone's meant to be shaped similarly because same species). I think that we should have far more body scaling options than we currently have.
There are several things, with differing levels of complexity/time/money involved.
I have started to respond to this three different times now and each ended in something I felt was entirely too long.
So cutting the ideas and explanations down to a minimum, here are a few of my basic thoughts:
1) Super-cheap C-store items - I am talking about things priced at 150 zen or less.
2) More social zones - Ravenswood, MCPD, Hospital, Fire department, the Barlowe, and more.
3) Revamp the UI - Specifically when it comes to contacts and missions, and this would include changing a few contact locations on the map.
4) Skull level everything.
5) More missions - This, along with #4, means that every zone would become a 1-40 zone if anyone wanted their hero to spend all of their time in a single zone.
need more details on #7. I think a good first step is to simply make Nemesii appear in more places. And of course to make it so that the default villain nemeses actually use random powersets....
I think Circular saws are more Mortal Kombat than Superhero. Admittedly we have Gauntlet Chainsaw ("Reliable and Effective!" says Donald Trump) but that's probably best left to VIPER....
Re: Nemesis
Yup. More of this. Nothing has cheered me up more in CO recently than playing an old character I'd been ignoring and suddenly getting given a Nemesis mission ("Recumbent Incumbents") that I'd never seen before. Where did that come from? The character is on their fifth Nemesis, and I thought I'd seen them all....
I think Circular saws are more Mortal Kombat than Superhero. Admittedly we have Gauntlet Chainsaw ("Reliable and Effective!" says Donald Trump) but that's probably best left to VIPER....
OK. OK. How about big barrels of acid and power drill weapons then. Are those heroic?
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
When they say big I think they meant an expansion that expands all areas of the game at once. Now the likelyhood of us ever getting an expansion based on this game's budget . . .
need more details on #7. I think a good first step is to simply make Nemesii appear in more places. And of course to make it so that the default villain nemeses actually use random powersets....
A lot of parts, some of which may require other parts, some of which that may require other ideas I stated, and some of which could stand alone.
1) Every AT in the game should be available as a nemesis choice other than freeform*. The only thing is that the player will have to have unlocked the AT in order to use it.
This could encourage sales of ATs as now not only will it allow the player to make a particular character, but also to create a nemesis of that type.
If a player was a subscriber and then stopped, they could not activate any nemesis of any AT that they had not unlocked as a silver, but would be allowed to continue the story of any such AT that was already active.
* An exception I would make here would be a "mirror" nemesis that had all the same powers that your character had. Nemesis missions offer rewards based upon certain assumptions. A free form nemesis could be built to be terrible and the rewards would be far out of proportion to the challenge.
If the nemesis had the exact same powers as the character, though, then in order to create a terrible nemesis the hero would have to be terrible as well. The challenge would be in line. Even if the player used a retcon to make themselves terrible and hoped to use a permanent sidekick and other devices to carry the day, that only goes so far and retcons cost money; There are only so many free tokens to be had.
This option could also be monetized.
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2) More minion types - Our nemeses are not canon, so what is the harm of adding Viper agents, Gadroon, or Demon to the available minion types to name just a few? There are a lot of minions out there that we can not have. I think this should change.
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3) Lore villains - Rather than having players create their own villains, what if they could choose to select a nemesis from amongst a number of villains from lore?
There are a number of villains that would not be on the list; No hero should have Dr. Destroyer, Firewing, or Mechanon as their personal nemesis to name a few, and primarily group members would be out as well.
Still, that leaves literally hundreds of possible villains that could be added. Also, these guys would replace the lame defaults in nemesis alerts if they decide to use the "nemesis" of a player that has none.
These guys would also come with their own (not necessarily unique) minions. There would be no customization, you would just get to fight some lore villain.
Note that these would not replace the current nemeses, just be added as an option for players that may not want to create their own or that may want to add some old favorite lore villain to their character's story. That being said, I suppose if they wanted to they could replace the existing system with this one. I would expect them to add a lot of lore villains if they did so, however.
Option: Sell lore villain nemesis slots in the C-store. Bonus: If the lore villains came with exclusive minions, maybe purchasing that lore villain for use in a nemesis slot could unlock those minions for any nemesis you wished to create.
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4) Limited minion customization - I am thinking color changes only. No costume changes.
This could be monetized. A c-store purchase for minion color customization.
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5) Villain backgrounds - Just as our heroes can select from the arms, mysticism, and science skills, so too should our nemeses have a background in one of those areas.
This would affect drops that I would like to see added, and possibly throw some new titles into the mix. A science nemesis, for example, could offer up a unique title and maybe drop some science-themed device only available from nemesis stories (or possibly also in the nemesis vendor store).
This is really a springboard for the next item.
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6) More missions - This has three different degrees, each one involving more time and effort.
A) At it's simplest, it basically comes down to there being nemesis story "A" and nemesis story "B", with which story your hero is running determined at random by the first clue you get.
Not as much detail but also not as much work, and later on they could add more stories.
They would be one size fits all, of course.
B ) More advanced is that each personality or background type (personality would be my preference) would have a different nemesis story.
I have to ask: If your mastermind nemesis came up with the same plan as your maniac and savage nemeses did, just how smart are they really?
And this would still allow for, over time, the game to add alternate mission paths still restricted to a particular nemesis type. Rather than just doing "story "A"" or "story "B"", you would be doing "mastermind story "A"" or "mastermind story "B""
D) Most advanced is to go back to #4 and create a separate story for each personality and background type.
As it is now that would mean 9 different nemesis stories out of the gate, still with options to add alternate stories over time.
I would also incentivize people for running different nemeses types. Again, titles and special drops only available through specific storylines.
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7) More personality types - If we get to where they are tailoring missions to personality types then that really opens up the possibilities for this.
An "animal" personality, for example, where the nemesis isn't behind the schemes, but is the muscle it's "handlers" (minions) are using to reach their goals.
As it is now, though, there is no place for a truly savage nemesis. The nemesis drives the plot and a character like a near-mindless Hulk, Titano, or Grond if I was to dip into lore for an example, have no place in that story.
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8) More nemesis appearances - I see the nemesis as an ideal candidate for filling the old "Hunted by" disadvantage.
Not always, and nothing more than minions in the open world, but any time you enter an instance there should be a chance for your nemesis and/or their minions to appear.
Now maybe this doesn't work out so well. Maybe they just can't do the "random appearance thing". Okay then, select a number of missions where the nemesis will appear. Change the mission dialog to adjust to it.
Save a citizen missions would also be great places for a nemesis to appear.
=============
9) Revamp Nemcon - Shadow Destroyer sort of has his other thing going on now, so dump him.
Even if the mission remains mostly unchanged it needs a new driving force behind it and the rewards need to be brought up to snuff, so make whatever changes are needed.
Maybe make it a cosmic lair with each nemesis occupying a different room/floor and all having to be defeated in order to claim victory. Some lore villain could be added here to justify the boost in power. Just have to find a villain that could facilitate such a thing.
Or do both. No reason why we can't have a "regular" nemcon and a "cosmic" nemcon.
And I do not necessarily mean two versions of the same mission. They could be entirely different things.
OK. OK. How about big barrels of acid and power drill weapons then. Are those heroic?
Those are a) the thing you fall into to get superpowers and b) no, not heroic unless maxed up to the size of Thunderbird 4 and used to mine tunnels under a giant robot enemy.
And with regards to the Q warzone and any future content.... I think the Q Zone doesn't work because it isn't like the rest of the game, really. Level 45 Team Content as a precusor to a series of complex Open-World boss fights doesn't support either a) people who like to solo stuff, b) people who play when there's no-one around to team with, c) people who play ATs or theme FF builds, d) people who don't like CO boss fights or Cosmics.
It probably would have worked better if they'd made a level 41 mini zone for people to farm for currency/rewards/rare drops, some instanced Lairs and a new Rampage or two.
1: sounds good, and probably not too much work, except the unlock part. that would require more coding.
2: nem minions each have their own kill perks associated, so I don't think it's that easy.
3: massive amount of work for the devs I think. they'd have to make new versions of all the characters just for Nem.
4: good idea, but.... probably a lot of work to change the costumes to be recolorable.
5: hmmm.... this is too much of a vague concept to be evaluated on it's own.
6: yes, sounds very good. massive work, but a very good concept.
7: um sure, sounds good.
8: this is probably the easiest, and in many ways best idea too! Nems are very rarely encountered unless you're actively looking for them at present. Thus their existence is largely irrelevent.
9: nah... this is what SD did before moving to the QBZ. Well, a new version without SD could be nice thouogh.
When they say big I think they meant an expansion that expands all areas of the game at once. Now the likelyhood of us ever getting an expansion based on this game's budget . . .
Yep. "big enough" and "good", both subjective concepts when it comes to expansions. I've never been impressed with size - more into quality m'self.
When they say big I think they meant an expansion that expands all areas of the game at once. Now the likelyhood of us ever getting an expansion based on this game's budget . . .
Yep. "big enough" and "good", both subjective concepts when it comes to expansions. I've never been impressed with size - more into quality m'self.
Annnnnnd there is a joke in here that I'm refraining myself from saying lest I be banned.
Expansions don't need to be long, they just need to be girthy.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
POWERFRAME REVAMPS, NEW POWERS and BUG FIXES > Recycled Content and Events and even costumes at this point Introvert guy who use CO to make his characters playable and get experimental with Viable FF Theme builds! Running out of Unique FF builds due to the lack of updates and synergies! Playing since 1 February 2011 128 + Characters (21 ATs, 107 FFs) ALTitis for Life!
3: massive amount of work for the devs I think. they'd have to make new versions of all the characters just for Nem.
Well, I am not so much looking for them to make "new versions of existing villains" as to just make a bunch of new villains.
None of these would be a permanent part of anyone's rogues gallery. When you go to make/activate a nemesis you would have an option for "Champions Villain" or something like that and there would be a large list to choose from.
Plenty of villains out there that could be fit into the powers that we have. More that could be forced into a framework even if the fit wasn't perfect.
But there are worse things than them deciding to make some villain that needs some new framework/powers to really make them work and so then giving the players those new frameworks/powers to use themselves.
Making a nemesis appear in more missions in the game only goes so far when we are so limited in what our nemeses can be.
Want more ideas?
1) Make the game more challenging - At every level. Skull level everything might help some, but the difficulty slider should mean more than it currently does. I do not need greater rewards for greater difficulty, and many people might argue that without greater rewards the slider is pointless.
Now I am not arguing that many people would set the slider at higher difficulties if there was no greater reward for doing so, and because of that it is almost certainly more trouble than it's worth, but it is something that I would like to see.
I also understand that there may only be so much that they can do with open world stuff. They can work out the details for skull level everything, but making it so that they are X much tougher for this person and Y much tougher for that person might be a little too much.
2) More power sets/animation options - There are more power possibilities out there than what we have. There are more ways to present those powers than what we have. Some powers or advantages, even though they can be taken by anyone, do not work (or work as well) unless they are backed up by other powers/advantages.
Resurgence, for example, is a simple power in concept; You get to self-heal for a certain amount all at once. But the power gives a boost to people that use regen. That means that people that take it without regen aren't getting "full value" from the power.
Why do so many powers not allow me to select the emanation points? Wasn't this supposed to be a thing? If I want fire breath I have to have my character literally breath fire. Could someone explain how it would be broken if characters could project that same cone of fire from their hands?
I get it with power armor because they set that up to work differently, but that became a problem itself.
What? Too much work? Not my problem.
I was asked how I would improve the game, not "what do I think the devs can manage given their limited budget and manpower".
Fought aagainst fire henchmen using ice powers being led by "High Voltage" (using the supernatural powers that are the only powers those default nemeses ever use now) recently.
Somehow I am supposed to care that fighting against Purple Gang minions being led by Arrowhead, using powers that the Arrowhead character from Champions has, is too much trouble?
1) Unlock Vibora Bay when you hit 40. Having to do the VBA repeatedly is tedious work if you want to do it for every character.
2) Unlock all the hidden areas in the Hideouts. I don't care if the special features are active; I just want to be able to use those rooms for RP.
3 )Expanded range of emotes. Frankly, I find the number currently available is rather small.
4) Ability to replay completed missions.
5) Make available old weapon skins and costume pieces from way, way back. I look at the weapon displays in the hideouts and wonder why many of these simply aren't available.
Finally, a suggestion: an underground "mole-man" city zone might be fun, although I recognize it might be too much work for your smallish staff to do.
Comments
also, I agree with spinnytop, that they should resume work on already existing systems. the mechanics are already there, so it's easier. hideouts are there, why not add more to the list? a detective apartment, maybe a submarine base, etc... also the NEMESIS system! beats my mind they don't want to add to it. why not make alerts use nemesis more often? Also alerts, why not create more smash and grabs?
all these systems are already in game, it should't be too hard to just add things to them.
Also I'd really like if the devs could inform us on what's coming, like you know, they do in most other MMOs, it gives something to wait for. and know wht to expect.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
New Game Engine.
This game already has a great foundation just transition it to a new engine. IF you really want to be ground breaking.......remove levels.
Remove quests. Makes events that are constantly happening and changing requiring heros to participate. Heck let the world get outta hand when heros aren't participating requiring a larger call for heros.
While the Cosmics are what they are...........Lets have "Legendary/Cosmic" events that require all sorts of things to be completed all over the map. Boss battles require multiple groups to do multiple things/ other than attack the bap of hp.
But that's just a dream we will never see.
Money. The game was developed on a non-standard platform and changing the fundamentals is nightmarishly complicated and likely to break more stuff than there is money to fix, with the current playerbase.
There is no money in the hero world if you're not from Marvel or DC, and the game's survival is more down to Cryptic's shard system than owt else; it's about profit and space occupied, and the 5000-odd CO players probably pay more in terms of subscriptions and Zen per month than an equivalent number of Neverwinter FTP players. As long as we do we'll be left to muddle along with a couple of developers and the occasional bit of new content.
CO should EASILY be a solid investment. Treat it LIKE a new project.......work on it in the back ground while still keeping the current player base happy. The one day POOF swap to a new/better version of the current game everybody loves.
Sure players MAY have to start again from level 1 but maybe find a way to let the keep character names and saved costumes/looks to transfer to the new system to keep current player base happy.
With NEW mmos always being made........Why NOT invest in one that is already working. I more than positive an overhaul in the works......you would see an immediate increase in our current player base getting ready for the new overhaul.
Not to mention there would be actual discussions about your game and reasons to play.....the money would start flooding in.
Right now people see this as a dying/dead game....WHY would they come here at all???
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
All this would do is bring in a LOT of money. If the current player base NEW all this was going on, I'm more than positive we could get the player base to explode for years while the overhaul is being worked on.
Sure I know its never going to happen, but if it did it would work.
Well if SOMETHING drastic like a new game engine and game overhaul happen or even start in the works.........its only a matter of time before the game dies. Which is strange cause games like EQLive are still around today.
If a game overhaul is in the works we could even pull all the lost COH fans. Maybe an overhaul can incorporate ideas that made that game thrive.
Just be happy PWE isn't NCSoft which was willing to cut off the CoH arm and never give it to anyone else even though it was making a profit. But have no illusions: as soon as CO is no longer getting a profit vs. costs, true MMO death will follow. And we all don't want that.
That's why I mentioned in an earlier post to curb expectations based on what the game has right now to work with. And as you mentioned, older games like EQ and others like Anarchy Online, Ragnarok Online, Maple Story, and the like continue to thrive... but that is not because of immense changes, but steady progression despite being slow, enough to keep new players coming in and older players interested. We all want the game to improve, but within the realm of plausibility given the current status quo.
I do agree, some of the ideas and mechanics from CoH could be drawn from, but remember that CO has to do it in a way that does not directly copy CoH as NCSoft still has that IP (and that could be a whole together different mess).
Kickstart.
Use a kickstarter to judge and gauge the gamer population to see if they can reach a reasonable goal. Upon doing means they have the knowledge the endeavor will be a success as well as some money to get things started. More money they put towards to the goal....the more potential money they can make.
Even the so-called spiritual successors to CoH has had a steep uphill climb to even meet their basic goals.
DCUO is under the studio that's been shutting down games left and right. I kind of doubt it's doing anywhere near as well as people give it credit for. I think the real problem is most companies make crappy MMOs.
At this point, I think people are so disillusioned by kickstarters and the giant flops of recent times, that getting the millions of dollars needed to create a decent MMO would be borderline impossible. Has there ever been a kickstarted MMO that launched at all?
[at]riviania Member since Aug 2009
A super hero game doesn't need to be an MMO, Killing Floor 1 & 2 have both enjoyed incredible success and feels more heroic than flying around with tights and a cape beating on goons in purple suits. A lobby and five or six man super hero teams is all you need, it's worked wonderfully (sans lobby) in Champions Online for six years. Killing Floor one, a game released five months before Champions Online still enjoys five times more players online than CO does and has hundreds of player made environments to spend hours fighting in which Champions Online doesn't. You get one new zone a year here and it's quickly over played and/or ignored, example there is literally only one player in the Q-zone right now.
The game is stuck in 2009 and under the cruddy thumb of Perfectworld who has no vision at all.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Marvel Heroes is doing pretty good in comparison now, but it's really not my kind of game, I hate the diablo like view and I hate not being able to create my own hero too.
Aside from maybe Final Fantasy 14, I can't think of any MMO that received a massive engine overhaul. FFXIV can get away with it because 1) Square Enix is huge/loaded and 2) Final Fantasy is their flagship IP, so having a sub-par numbered sequel is not in their best interests. As far as I know, Cryptic is nowhere near the size of Square Enix, and on top of that, the Champions IP isn't theirs specifically so there's less incentive to make it the best it can be.
Besides, even if they did, it would be more commercially sound to release it as a brand new game rather than as a huge upgrade to an existing game that isn't very successful.
also, we should be getting tons more costumes regularly, that doesn't take long at all to make.
I remember when I had huge pie in the sky dreams for the game too. Enjoy that while it lasts! :'D
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
INTERFACES/MENUS & STUFF
The main thing I want in this is an updated crime computer.
[1] Contacts should be grouped by zone first, alphabetical order second. I don't need to see contacts from the desert when I'm in Canada, the exception being when covering level gaps. (Sometimes there's nothing my level HERE but there is THERE.)
[2] There are several repeatable missions (often 1 from each contact, sometimes 2) that keep contacts on your list long after you've outleveled the missions. An inactive tab would be a better place for these.
[3] Socrates should be the third tab. It has missions that occur at certain levels, and I do go back to Millenium City to get these off my list; if I'm just doing missions, and they're my level, yay xp. The thing is, Socrates gives you door missions, which could be made character-level rather than fixed-level. I'd like the Socrates tab to contain a variety of door missions that match your character level, and enough of them that you don't have to do the same ones all the time. Also, such missions could be added to the other regular zones (desert & Canada; the Q zone could be left out of this because of its theme). In other words, somewhat like the radio missions in CoH; there could even be a reward of some kind for completing a number of them, as an incentive to at least occasionally run them.
MAPS
[1] Known contacts should be shown on the maps, even (and especially) the ones not in the crime computer. If there's an option for this that I don't know about, I'm stupid, but really this should be automatic so that you an return to known contacts without having to search; some are a little hard to find. (Note: The ability to click on a contact and have them show up on the map would be enough, though it would mean that all contacts would have to be in the CC. I guess there could be a different tab for contacts you know but can't call, but I really don't want too many different tabs.)
[2] The invisible walls should be at the map edge, not within the map. Either the map should match the walls or the walls should match the maps. There are some seriously unreasonable edges to these things, though you can easily avoid them by staying farther from the edges. It'd be nice if there was a really big open world, but let's face it, the game zones are okay.
POWERS
[1] Adding stuff to the game is awesome. Leaving stuff in the game that needs fixing is not. I don't want to mention this too strongly because I once started a thread about a certain ongoing issue and it was closed without explanation. But really, there are only a few powers that have unreasonable glitches. Fix them.
[2] Maybe this is just me, but do some of the melee powers seem a little...underanimated? Take the leap attack from the Might powerset. You jump, and your fist is in the finish position before you've moved 3 feet, much less the max range. So if you hit the air before you reach the bad guy? It looks funky! Though this is not a MAJOR issue--the power works like it should, it just doesn't look like it should. The kick combo from unarmed is fine, the swings from heavy weapons combo is fine, some others are as well. Others, however, seem to be two or three frames that seem to complete before they actually hit. Maybe this is a cheap way of supposedly making the attacks look faster...but it just makes them look choppy.
[3] Maybe this is just me, but do some of the melee powers seem a little...overanimated? Take the mind sword combo for instance. The third strike has you jumping into the air and spinning your sword 360 degrees...and you hit one enemy. If it hits one target, why does it look like an AoE? It's overanimated. Then there are the melee energy builders. The one from Might looks like you're trying to pound the daylights out of something but you're failing miserably. One of the unarmed ones from Martial Arts has you jump into the air and punch downward, yet it's an EB so it does no real damage even though it looks like you're using gravity to help you hit harder. Why don't these just have simple "jab" animations? Still, not a major thing; the animation just doesn't seem (at least to me) to match what's actually happening.
[4] Then there's the Celestial set. Many of the powers cause you to float in the air. Why? Well I guess it's actually okay for some of the later powers--it makes the set different. Rebuke, however, could use an update; if you tap the power repeatedly you get ahead of the animation, which looks silly. Maybe they should use the animation from fire strike for a tap, then go the floaty route when you charge. Again, not severe because it still works.
[5] In spite of the greater flexibility of freeforms, CoH had a greater variety of powers. Why, for instance, is there not a basic energy blast set? Or electric melee powers? The short answer is, this is CO, not CoH. And that's definitely true. A few more options would still be nice. The closest thing to an energy blast power is power gauntlet, but I can't see myself using a power that shuts off every time you block. Frankly, that silly delay could be removed from the game.
[6] Ego sprites used to be targeted AoE, now it's PBAoE. I did not like this when it was changed. Now I think it has some good points. The Mind did need an earlier PBAoE than ego storm. However, I still miss the old ego sprites at times. So I wonder why ego sprites can't be treated like laser sword and have different effects on different powers. I now like both the projectable version and the point blank version, depending on the situation. A healing version would also be nice, since the advantage that makes the sprites return and heal you is useless; it depends on doing the maximum damage before returning, and your main source of healing in that situation would be minions, who die too fast for that to ever happen.
[7] Too many healing powers are tied to the Supernatural theme. There's another theme which should be good at healing--Gadgeteering. The experimental blaster should be more flexible and more like laser sword/ego sword. It should have a healing beam like the support drones. Other healing options are possible too; some people don't like the way bionic shielding works because it only heals in combat. Sometimes that's not what's needed.
And that's enough. I wouldn't want this post to be any longer.
REWARDS
I solo. It's what I do. I've soloed Mechanon, though it was with a tank and my fingers were really tired at the end. But since I don't do certain aspects of the game, I don't get questionite. Now, I can understand doing alerts for increased questionite, but since questionite is required for certain things, shouldn't it be gained in other content? For example, I have soloed Teleios' Tower in Canada (NOT Teleios Ascendant) with several builds, including one whose armor power was aura of radiant protection. The mobs in that mission are upgraded to "hard", but you don't get any particular reward (that I currently recall) from completing the mission. Basically all you get is that dweeb Teleios telling you that you're still inferior before he leaves like a blanking coward. You really should get questionite for completing lairs; it doesn't have to be as much as you get for doing alerts. Also, the lairs should go by character level, not a level limit.
What I'm saying is, people who prefer to do missions shouldn't be penalized for not doing alerts. My brother plays another game where part of the character development required PvP. My brother hates PvP because his experience is that it brings out the worst in people. (NOTE: His experience, not yours; we all have our own experiences and preferences.) Last year, however, that was changed so that he didn't have to PvP to fully develop his character. He could do so with his preferred content, just a fair bit more slowly. I would like CO to also remove such blocks from the game.
ZONES
Compared to City of Heroes, Champions Online feels small. Not tiny, just small. If you stay with the normal PvE stuff, you get Millenium City, the Desert, Canada, Monster Island, and Lemuria. That's it. I would like to see these expanded (I alluded to this, to a degree, in my previous post.) Think about it: the US and Canada are COUNTRIES, not neighborhoods. Some adjoining zones would be nice, so maybe 3 MC zones, 5 Desert zones--something along those lines. And with that, maybe some kind of reward for completing so many mission per zone set (minimum of 25 per subzone, maybe).
Honestly, who wouldn't like more max-level zones? Think about it: if you reach level 40 knowing that you'll have to revisit MC, the Desert, Canada, etc., to get map completion, then you would be more likely to look forward to the variety of max-level content.
And yeah, I know most of the stuff I've stated in these two posts will never happen. A guy can dream, right? And I do want Champions Online 2, eventually.
ADDED
Whoops, remembered another couple o' power things.
[1] Arcane Vitality. You heal in a cone, or you heal yourself only. Why? This game seriously lacks variety (and usefulness) as far as group healing is concerned. This power should be able to heal in a cone or a PBAoE.
[2] Vala's Light. Ah, finally an area heal! Too bad it reeks. It doesn't heal enough, even when charged, and the cooldown they added just makes it more useless. Powers should be useful, not avoidable. There are just better options. Much better option. And that's a shame, because if I'm not mistaken this one can heal around you or around a target within 50 feet.
[3] Knocks are overabundant--that's the general consensus and I don't disagree. Some should be removed, some should be replaced with knockdown.
[4] Travel powers...hmm. Why are we reduced to minimum speed by hits? Characters who are getting destroyed should be able to abandon combat and MOVE. This is especially true of AT's that don't have any way to heal themselves; you can't always be assured that a healer will save you--they go down, too.
Indeed so. Hudson City, pitched between Vibora Bay and the Q Zone in terms of difficulty, would be a blast. And something specific like that could be crowdfunded if PWE were able to come up with a reasonable plan. Despite the "it's not CoH" comments and what seems to be general animosity to CO in the gaming media, I think there's a load of people with some affection for the game who might come back if there was something big and new to do.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Something always looked funny on my old computer: Infernal Blast. It looked like the blast aftereffect was off center. Now that I have a new computer, I see why--the blast doesn't come off your hands, it comes out of the blast effect area, which is too far to the left of your character's hands. Weird. But I guess it still works.
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I have started to respond to this three different times now and each ended in something I felt was entirely too long.
So cutting the ideas and explanations down to a minimum, here are a few of my basic thoughts:
1) Super-cheap C-store items - I am talking about things priced at 150 zen or less.
2) More social zones - Ravenswood, MCPD, Hospital, Fire department, the Barlowe, and more.
3) Revamp the UI - Specifically when it comes to contacts and missions, and this would include changing a few contact locations on the map.
4) Skull level everything.
5) More missions - This, along with #4, means that every zone would become a 1-40 zone if anyone wanted their hero to spend all of their time in a single zone.
6) More villains from the lore into the game.
7) Revamp the nemesis system.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
My characters
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Re: Nemesis
Yup. More of this. Nothing has cheered me up more in CO recently than playing an old character I'd been ignoring and suddenly getting given a Nemesis mission ("Recumbent Incumbents") that I'd never seen before. Where did that come from? The character is on their fifth Nemesis, and I thought I'd seen them all....
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
A lot of parts, some of which may require other parts, some of which that may require other ideas I stated, and some of which could stand alone.
1) Every AT in the game should be available as a nemesis choice other than freeform*.
The only thing is that the player will have to have unlocked the AT in order to use it.
This could encourage sales of ATs as now not only will it allow the player to make a particular character, but also to create a nemesis of that type.
If a player was a subscriber and then stopped, they could not activate any nemesis of any AT that they had not unlocked as a silver, but would be allowed to continue the story of any such AT that was already active.
* An exception I would make here would be a "mirror" nemesis that had all the same powers that your character had.
Nemesis missions offer rewards based upon certain assumptions. A free form nemesis could be built to be terrible and the rewards would be far out of proportion to the challenge.
If the nemesis had the exact same powers as the character, though, then in order to create a terrible nemesis the hero would have to be terrible as well. The challenge would be in line.
Even if the player used a retcon to make themselves terrible and hoped to use a permanent sidekick and other devices to carry the day, that only goes so far and retcons cost money; There are only so many free tokens to be had.
This option could also be monetized.
=============
2) More minion types - Our nemeses are not canon, so what is the harm of adding Viper agents, Gadroon, or Demon to the available minion types to name just a few?
There are a lot of minions out there that we can not have. I think this should change.
=============
3) Lore villains - Rather than having players create their own villains, what if they could choose to select a nemesis from amongst a number of villains from lore?
There are a number of villains that would not be on the list; No hero should have Dr. Destroyer, Firewing, or Mechanon as their personal nemesis to name a few, and primarily group members would be out as well.
Still, that leaves literally hundreds of possible villains that could be added.
Also, these guys would replace the lame defaults in nemesis alerts if they decide to use the "nemesis" of a player that has none.
These guys would also come with their own (not necessarily unique) minions. There would be no customization, you would just get to fight some lore villain.
Note that these would not replace the current nemeses, just be added as an option for players that may not want to create their own or that may want to add some old favorite lore villain to their character's story.
That being said, I suppose if they wanted to they could replace the existing system with this one.
I would expect them to add a lot of lore villains if they did so, however.
Option: Sell lore villain nemesis slots in the C-store.
Bonus: If the lore villains came with exclusive minions, maybe purchasing that lore villain for use in a nemesis slot could unlock those minions for any nemesis you wished to create.
=============
4) Limited minion customization - I am thinking color changes only. No costume changes.
This could be monetized. A c-store purchase for minion color customization.
=============
5) Villain backgrounds - Just as our heroes can select from the arms, mysticism, and science skills, so too should our nemeses have a background in one of those areas.
This would affect drops that I would like to see added, and possibly throw some new titles into the mix.
A science nemesis, for example, could offer up a unique title and maybe drop some science-themed device only available from nemesis stories (or possibly also in the nemesis vendor store).
This is really a springboard for the next item.
=============
6) More missions - This has three different degrees, each one involving more time and effort.
A) At it's simplest, it basically comes down to there being nemesis story "A" and nemesis story "B", with which story your hero is running determined at random by the first clue you get.
Not as much detail but also not as much work, and later on they could add more stories.
They would be one size fits all, of course.
B ) More advanced is that each personality or background type (personality would be my preference) would have a different nemesis story.
I have to ask: If your mastermind nemesis came up with the same plan as your maniac and savage nemeses did, just how smart are they really?
And this would still allow for, over time, the game to add alternate mission paths still restricted to a particular nemesis type.
Rather than just doing "story "A"" or "story "B"", you would be doing "mastermind story "A"" or "mastermind story "B""
D) Most advanced is to go back to #4 and create a separate story for each personality and background type.
As it is now that would mean 9 different nemesis stories out of the gate, still with options to add alternate stories over time.
I would also incentivize people for running different nemeses types.
Again, titles and special drops only available through specific storylines.
=============
7) More personality types - If we get to where they are tailoring missions to personality types then that really opens up the possibilities for this.
An "animal" personality, for example, where the nemesis isn't behind the schemes, but is the muscle it's "handlers" (minions) are using to reach their goals.
As it is now, though, there is no place for a truly savage nemesis.
The nemesis drives the plot and a character like a near-mindless Hulk, Titano, or Grond if I was to dip into lore for an example, have no place in that story.
=============
8) More nemesis appearances - I see the nemesis as an ideal candidate for filling the old "Hunted by" disadvantage.
Not always, and nothing more than minions in the open world, but any time you enter an instance there should be a chance for your nemesis and/or their minions to appear.
Now maybe this doesn't work out so well. Maybe they just can't do the "random appearance thing". Okay then, select a number of missions where the nemesis will appear.
Change the mission dialog to adjust to it.
Save a citizen missions would also be great places for a nemesis to appear.
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9) Revamp Nemcon - Shadow Destroyer sort of has his other thing going on now, so dump him.
Even if the mission remains mostly unchanged it needs a new driving force behind it and the rewards need to be brought up to snuff, so make whatever changes are needed.
Maybe make it a cosmic lair with each nemesis occupying a different room/floor and all having to be defeated in order to claim victory.
Some lore villain could be added here to justify the boost in power. Just have to find a villain that could facilitate such a thing.
Or do both. No reason why we can't have a "regular" nemcon and a "cosmic" nemcon.
And I do not necessarily mean two versions of the same mission. They could be entirely different things.
Those are a) the thing you fall into to get superpowers and b) no, not heroic unless maxed up to the size of Thunderbird 4 and used to mine tunnels under a giant robot enemy.
And with regards to the Q warzone and any future content.... I think the Q Zone doesn't work because it isn't like the rest of the game, really. Level 45 Team Content as a precusor to a series of complex Open-World boss fights doesn't support either a) people who like to solo stuff, b) people who play when there's no-one around to team with, c) people who play ATs or theme FF builds, d) people who don't like CO boss fights or Cosmics.
It probably would have worked better if they'd made a level 41 mini zone for people to farm for currency/rewards/rare drops, some instanced Lairs and a new Rampage or two.
2: nem minions each have their own kill perks associated, so I don't think it's that easy.
3: massive amount of work for the devs I think. they'd have to make new versions of all the characters just for Nem.
4: good idea, but.... probably a lot of work to change the costumes to be recolorable.
5: hmmm.... this is too much of a vague concept to be evaluated on it's own.
6: yes, sounds very good. massive work, but a very good concept.
7: um sure, sounds good.
8: this is probably the easiest, and in many ways best idea too! Nems are very rarely encountered unless you're actively looking for them at present. Thus their existence is largely irrelevent.
9: nah... this is what SD did before moving to the QBZ. Well, a new version without SD could be nice thouogh.
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My characters
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
None of these would be a permanent part of anyone's rogues gallery.
When you go to make/activate a nemesis you would have an option for "Champions Villain" or something like that and there would be a large list to choose from.
Plenty of villains out there that could be fit into the powers that we have.
More that could be forced into a framework even if the fit wasn't perfect.
But there are worse things than them deciding to make some villain that needs some new framework/powers to really make them work and so then giving the players those new frameworks/powers to use themselves.
Making a nemesis appear in more missions in the game only goes so far when we are so limited in what our nemeses can be.
Want more ideas?
1) Make the game more challenging - At every level. Skull level everything might help some, but the difficulty slider should mean more than it currently does.
I do not need greater rewards for greater difficulty, and many people might argue that without greater rewards the slider is pointless.
Now I am not arguing that many people would set the slider at higher difficulties if there was no greater reward for doing so, and because of that it is almost certainly more trouble than it's worth, but it is something that I would like to see.
I also understand that there may only be so much that they can do with open world stuff. They can work out the details for skull level everything, but making it so that they are X much tougher for this person and Y much tougher for that person might be a little too much.
2) More power sets/animation options - There are more power possibilities out there than what we have. There are more ways to present those powers than what we have. Some powers or advantages, even though they can be taken by anyone, do not work (or work as well) unless they are backed up by other powers/advantages.
Resurgence, for example, is a simple power in concept; You get to self-heal for a certain amount all at once. But the power gives a boost to people that use regen.
That means that people that take it without regen aren't getting "full value" from the power.
Why do so many powers not allow me to select the emanation points? Wasn't this supposed to be a thing? If I want fire breath I have to have my character literally breath fire. Could someone explain how it would be broken if characters could project that same cone of fire from their hands?
I get it with power armor because they set that up to work differently, but that became a problem itself.
What? Too much work? Not my problem.
I was asked how I would improve the game, not "what do I think the devs can manage given their limited budget and manpower".
Fought aagainst fire henchmen using ice powers being led by "High Voltage" (using the supernatural powers that are the only powers those default nemeses ever use now) recently.
Somehow I am supposed to care that fighting against Purple Gang minions being led by Arrowhead, using powers that the Arrowhead character from Champions has, is too much trouble?
1) Unlock Vibora Bay when you hit 40. Having to do the VBA repeatedly is tedious work if you want to do it for every character.
2) Unlock all the hidden areas in the Hideouts. I don't care if the special features are active; I just want to be able to use those rooms for RP.
3 )Expanded range of emotes. Frankly, I find the number currently available is rather small.
4) Ability to replay completed missions.
5) Make available old weapon skins and costume pieces from way, way back. I look at the weapon displays in the hideouts and wonder why many of these simply aren't available.
Finally, a suggestion: an underground "mole-man" city zone might be fun, although I recognize it might be too much work for your smallish staff to do.