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Revamping the Nemesis System (long post)
lowery150
Posts: 11 Arc User
I’ve been playing the game on and off as a Lifetime Sub since launch, I think my longest break from the game was 5 years, so I haven’t been around that much either. One thing that got me excited enough to pre-order this game with a Lifetime Sub, however, was the Nemesis system, and I have to say it was kind of a disappointment. Back in my CoH days, I’d make Nemesis characters for my heroes in CoV, and it really bummed me out that they never got to fight. When CO was announced and revealed the Nemesis system I was beyond stoked, only to find out that you rarely ever fight them, and once you start getting into end game gear they become kind of irrelevant. That’s a shame because the Nemesis system is honestly one of the best ideas to come out of this game, it just never got the love it deserved. So here are some suggestions on how to improve the system. I know this is a rather large wall of text, but not all of these suggestions are required to be implemented together. For example, you could make the first change and add the second at a later date, time permitting.
Finally, I will be listing these changes in order from, what I feel are, most important to improving the system to least important. Importance will be based on the level of quality added to the system, while prioritizing lower work loads on the dev team.
First change is Nemesis frequency. Nemesis minions spawn so infrequently that often I forget I even have an active Nemesis, and then when they do they aren’t even guaranteed to drop a clue. Instead of minions spawning and maybe dropping a clue, do away with this altogether. Make Nemesis missions a daily task, do away with the open area missions as well. Once a day, you can go to the Nemesis database and accept an instanced Nemesis mission.
As a separate suggestion related to frequency, add random chances for Nemesis encounters, this can be accomplished a few ways. One way is through Socrates, say you’re flying along Millenium City on your way to Steel Crusade, Socrates may alert you that there is a bank robbery in progress. The mission dialogue box could be simple, like a police radio transmission “Bank robbery in progress. Perpetrator confirmed to be the recently escaped [Nemesis_name]. All units please respond!” The random event could be based on the personality, for example the bank robbery could be a Mastermind mission, you might find a hostage situation at a museum for the Maniac, and the Savage could just be out on a rampage.
Another way to add random chances for Nemesis encounters could be through other missions. For example, add a random chance for your Nemesis to spawn inside any given instanced mission, or in the open world after each completed objective (Open Missions excluded). For this suggestion, this could be an opt-in/out feature available at the Nemesis database.
Finally, for both of the above suggestions on random chance encounters, have them pull from your pool of inactive Nemeses. So, say you have 5 Nemeses, and one spawns inside your instanced mission, it will not be your active Nemesis, but it would be one of the 4 inactive Nemeses you have opted-in to the system.
As a quality of life improvement related to these changes, allow players to add, edit, and remove Nemeses from the database without being required to activate them.
Last but not least, it is not important to add cutscenes to these encounters. Simple canned dialogue will do just fine. “I knew I’d find you here, [player_name]!” “Viper is paying me a fortune to keep you out of their business, [player_name]!” “It’s your fault I’ve been reduced to robbing banks like a petty thief, [player_name]!” It doesn’t need to be a huge production, sometimes we just wanna punch the Nemesis we created in the teeth and don’t want to have to jump through hoops once a week to do it. The dialogue would of course be dependent on their personality.
These changes will improve the Nemesis system by giving players consistent and frequent access to their Nemesis outside of Nemesis Confrontation and Whiteout which, at the moment, are the only two ways to fight your Nemesis consistently. These changes also offer more varied Nemesis encounters, yes you will be completing the same story arc over and over, but that still adds a lot of variety to what missions are available at any given time, and adding a random chance of Nemesis encounters from your pool of inactive Nemeses also gives you more variety in which one you’re able to fight at any given time.
The next changes are related to challenge level. After a while your Nemesis becomes kind of a joke, the fights get gradually easier with each iteration as you acquire better gear with each iteration. The suggestion here is to have your Nemesis scale to your stats. The higher your stats, the higher theirs become. If you have a full set of cosmic gear bound to you, your Nemesis should scale to, and be a challenge for, you with that gear on, to keep it engaging, and if you set the difficulty to epic then you might even wanna bring a few friends. Note that I said they should scale to your bound gear, more specifically, your highest rated bound gear (my best current loadout on my main is OV gloves, Cosmic def secondary, eyepiece of determination, heroic primaries, so it would scale to that gear regardless of what I have equipped). This way you can’t accept the mission with nothing equipped, and then put your gear back on once you enter the mission to simply blow through it. This distinction will be important for the next suggestion.
If your Nemesis scales to your bound gear, make the rewards match the difficulty as well. 5 SCR/500 Questionite for each completed daily Nemesis mission and 10 SCR/2,000 Questionite for each completed story arc (Deathray). This way, Nemesis missions can be a decent daily for people who need to start earning endgame gear. Due to the difficulty scaling to you, the rewards will always be fair. Lastly, you may help other players with their Nemesis missions, but you receive diminishing rewards for each completion per day. 2/5 SCR and 250/1,000 Q for the second completion, 1/2 SCR and 100/500 Q for the third, no rewards after that. The exact numbers for SCR/Q rewards can be tweaked and discussed, but I believe these numbers are fair.
The final suggestions are placed here in order of importance due to the amount of work it will require. I understand the dev team is quite small at the moment, and I believe these suggestions will be the most workload demanding, however these suggestions are otherwise, arguably, the most important and they provide the most variety to the Nemesis system. First we will discuss Powersets, and after Personalities.
Nemesis Powersets are a bit too limited, currently available sets are: Archery, Bestial Superntural, Celestial, Darkness, Electricity, Fire, Force, Gadgeteering, Ice, Infernal Supernatural, Dual Blades, Fighting Claws, Single Blade, Martial Arts, Might, Munitions, Power Armor, Sorcery, Telekinesis, Telepathy. Pretty much every Framework available at launch +Celestial. Heavy Weapons, Earth, and even Wind powers are all missing. Beyond that this doesn’t account for “freeform” villains. I mean, what if I wanted a Deadpool inspired Nemesis? I can’t have a Dual Blade/Munitions Nemesis. Munitions combos with pretty much all of the MA Frameworks in terms of hero/villain concepts, Ice/Fire is common, Wind/Electricity/Ice, Might/PA, Gadgets/MA, there are so many different combos that are just unaccounted for. The simple solution is to add more powersets to Nemeses, and an easy place to start would be archetypes. The Specialist, the Squall, the Unleashed, the Night Avenger, the Rockstar, and the Mountain would be good places to start.
A better solution would be more time consuming to begin with as it would require changing a lot of code, but would be better in the long run as it would eliminate the need to add more powersets to the system over time: add secondary powersets to Nemeses. So, say you’re creating your Nemesis, you get to the power select screen, all the basic frameworks are there (including Wind/Stone/Heavy Weapons), the next screen brings up all the same options, and you pick one as a secondary. How this works is: take each framework currently on the live build, remove 2-3 powers and throw them into the secondary set. For example, munitions could have Lead Tempest, Bullet Ballet, and Execution Shot in the secondary set, so you pick Dual Blades as the primary, and the Nemesis still behaves primarily as a Dual Blades Nemesis, but they also have these three powers tacked on to their attack list if you choose Munitions as the Secondary. You may choose the same Framework for both primary and secondary if you just want a straight Dual Blades or straight Munitions nemesis, but this at least allows for some variety.
I did not recommend full freeform for Nemeses because of the above suggestion for improved rewards from Nemesis missions. Full Freeform would allow players to make a Nemesis that has all Tier 0 attacks and blow through the missions for easy rewards. With that said, I believe it’s possible to go Full Freeform on Nemeses without this problem, but any solution I can think up becomes too convoluted to even write down, so I can’t imagine trying to code it. If anyone has any simple suggestions feel free to comment down below.
Finally, Nemeses should have travel powers available. Viper-X can fly, Oubliette has super speed, simply adding this option would add variety to the Nemesis system (adding super speed instantly allows for speedster villains). The travel powers available to your villain should be identical to the ones you have unlocked (I can give my Nemesis bubble flight if I have it unlocked).
I saved the most workload intense suggestion for last: Personalities.
As of right now, there are only three Nemesis personalities: Mastermind, Savage, Maniac. They have little to no impact on how your arc plays out. Dialogue is really the only change. My suggestion is to add personalities and have the story arc change based on each personality.
Mastermind:
This will be the deathray story arc, no changes necessary.
Savage:
This story arc will be about a villain who is only motivated by destruction and havoc. They kill, vandalize, and terrorize the city because they can and therefore should. Instead of the Museum Heist mission, this story arc introduces your Nemesis by having you check up on a report of panic in Downtown Millenium City. After creating this Nemesis, start by going to Champions HQ, where Defender offers to show you an updated prototype version of the crime computer. The crime computer picks up on multiple calls to 911 of a Savage monster terrorizing citizens. As you leave Champions HQ, you enter an instanced version of Millenium City, a section of Downtown has been all but destroyed, there are cars on fire, citizens running around in panic, and at the center of it all is your Nemesis, threatening to kill anyone in sight. When you get their health low enough, they cause a distraction, maybe they put a citizen in harm’s way and you have to save them while they escape. The Story arc centers around you trying to catch up to them after a series of attacks throughout MC and VB, maybe even one mission has them preying on npc “newbie” heroes in an instanced Powerhouse until, finally, you corner them. This Nemesis is simply too powerful to keep locked up in the MC prison. They’re sent to the Desert, and that’s where their Jailbreak mission takes place.
Maniac:
This story arc will be about a villain whose only goal is infamy. They idolize villains and strive to become the most infamous and feared villain in the world. The intro mission for this Nemesis will be similar to the Foxbat TV station mission. After creating your Nemesis, the police chief alerts you of a silent alarm at the TV station in Westside. You rush over as soon as you can to find your Nemesis holding the crew hostage and (they think) broadcasting themself live and their intentions live to every screen in the world, only to discover that none of the cameras were rolling during their entire monologue. They attempt to figure out how to work the cameras as you fight your way through the station, and they get it working just as you reach them, causing them to mistakenly broadcast the ensuing beatdown live. When their health gets low they reveal that they’ve planned for this and rigged the station to blow, they click a button and nothing happens, so they order their minions to dogpile you while they escape, throw in a “You haven’t seen the last of me [player_name]!” for good measure. The rest of the arc revolves around you stopping their highly public heists, highly dangerous heists, as they attempt to sacrifice civilians, in broad daylight, to the Kings of Edom in hopes of gaining power, or as they attempt to steal Draysha from VIPER (this mission ends with them gassing a mob of their minions for you to deal with before escaping), and all kinds of other shenanigans in an attempt to become the greatest and most powerful villain on the planet. The arc ends with you tracking them down to their hideout where you believe they are planning their next big heist, but this turns out to be a trap for you, as they intentionally left clues leading you there so they could finally defeat you, “and then nothing will stand in [their] way of world domination!”
The changes to these arcs would be the first of more to come. Other personalities could be added at later dates, and this content could even be available to purchase through Zen to justify the workload, I know no one likes microtransactions, but the devs certainly deserve something for their hard work, and these arcs would require a lot of time and energy to create. As it does not cost Zen to create one of the 3 basic Nemeses, you’re not being locked out of content either, you might argue that these personalities add purely cosmetic options in a way.
The Mercenary:
This Nemesis is a professional for hire. They are only motivated by money, and they are among the best for-hire villains on the planet. The image can be Viper-X. Purchasing this Nemesis will also unlock the stealth option for all Nemeses; enabling this option will cause your Nemesis and their minions to ambush you from stealth during missions and random encounters.
The intro mission begins with a report of an attempt to assassinate James Harmon. You arrive at Harmon Labs to find the lobby overrun with minions who have taken hostages, as they all discuss how the boss should have aborted the mission because it’s taking too long. As you make your way down the elevator, you discover that the Nemesis has turned Harmon’s defense systems against you. After fighting your way through waves of minions and rescue some hostages, you come to a room where your Nemesis has captured Defender and is trying to interrogate him to find James Harmon’s location. As they escape they curse you for causing them to fail their first contract. Defender thanks you for your assist and assures you that “James Harmon is someplace safe.” The rest of the arc revolves around you thwarting several more high profile assassinations, including Mayor Biselle, Kodiak, and Dr. Ka. For the final mission, you believe you have arrived too late to stop an assassination, only for them to reveal that you were the target. As an Easter Egg, this Nemesis could reveal that one of your inactive Nemeses is the one that hired them, for example “[Nemesis_name] offered me a fortune for this job, but to take you down, I would’ve done it for free!”
The CEO:
This Nemesis is a respectable businessman by day, their position makes their resources as well as their reach vast, and gathering enough evidence to jail them will prove difficult. The image would be Franklin Stone. Purchasing this Nemesis will unlock transformations for all Nemeses; you may design two costumes for your Nemesis, one for when they are neutral, and another for when they agro you, this transformation may use any transformation unlocked for your character (suit up, energy burst, light show, etc.)
The story arc begins with you investigating an up and coming gang in the Westside, you break into a warehouse to find minions from all different gangs (Purple Gang, Red Banner, Maniacs, etc.) and your Nemesis’s minions patrolling the halls. After fighting your way through mobs of different gangs and Nemesis minions, you reach a room where your Nemesis is attempting to take control of these gangs through threats of power. The leaders scatter when they see you, leaving just you and your Nemesis to duke it out. The rest of the arc revolves around you chasing after your Nemesis as they go around trying to recruit different gangs and organizations, each time you fight your Nemesis they allow you to apprehend various leaders/high ranking villains of various organizations (Kevin Poe, Medusa, Sweetland, etc.) in order to cover their escape, and leaving behind evidence each time. The final confrontation involves you obtaining a warrant for their arrest (much like the Nighthawk mission) and confronting them in their boardroom.
The Incarnate:
This Nemesis is a force of nature. They can not be bargained or reasoned with, they exist only to do what destiny or fate has predetermined for them. The image for this Nemesis is one of the Kings of Edom. Purchasing this Nemesis unlocks the Cosmic option for all Nemeses; Cosmic Nemeses will have dramatically increased stats and may require a team to take down (this stat boost does not take effect during random encounters, only during daily missions).
The arc introduces this Nemesis with a report of an UNTIL moon base going dark, the base had scientists studying some celestial event when suddenly communications stopped, you’re sent to find survivors. Upon reaching the base you search for survivors, fighting through mindless minions along the way. When you reach the control room, you find your Nemesis who explains that they came because this world must end. When their health gets low they knock you back, stating that they are too weak at the moment, but that you two will meet again. The arc revolves around you chasing your Nemesis across the planet, MC, VB, Desert, Canada, MI, and Lemuria, each time failing to stop them from gaining more power. The final confrontation takes place back on the moon where you fought originally, they have enough power to destroy the planet and it’s up to you to put a stop to them. This Nemesis is not jailed, when this Nemesis is finally beaten they are banished back out to the cosmos from which they came, re-activating this Nemesis will not use a jail-break mission, instead you receive a report of a strange energy being detected in the Qliphothic Warzone, you enter the portal and must attempt (and fail) to hold back this Nemesis from crossing over into our world.
These are just three examples of Personalities/Story Arcs that could be added to give the Nemesis system a lot more variety. More could be added as well, each one offering new customization options for all Nemeses.
Anyways, these are changes to the Nemesis system that I think would drastically improve the system for all players, allowing us more opportunities to fight our Nemesis is most important and changing it to a daily quest would be a good first step. Adding random encounters for inactive Nemeses would also be a great addition as well, giving us plenty of opportunity and variety for Nemesis encounters. New Personalities and Story Arcs designed around those personalities is also a long overdue addition, and more customization in terms of powers would greatly improve the system and allow for more player creativity.
Finally, I will be listing these changes in order from, what I feel are, most important to improving the system to least important. Importance will be based on the level of quality added to the system, while prioritizing lower work loads on the dev team.
First change is Nemesis frequency. Nemesis minions spawn so infrequently that often I forget I even have an active Nemesis, and then when they do they aren’t even guaranteed to drop a clue. Instead of minions spawning and maybe dropping a clue, do away with this altogether. Make Nemesis missions a daily task, do away with the open area missions as well. Once a day, you can go to the Nemesis database and accept an instanced Nemesis mission.
As a separate suggestion related to frequency, add random chances for Nemesis encounters, this can be accomplished a few ways. One way is through Socrates, say you’re flying along Millenium City on your way to Steel Crusade, Socrates may alert you that there is a bank robbery in progress. The mission dialogue box could be simple, like a police radio transmission “Bank robbery in progress. Perpetrator confirmed to be the recently escaped [Nemesis_name]. All units please respond!” The random event could be based on the personality, for example the bank robbery could be a Mastermind mission, you might find a hostage situation at a museum for the Maniac, and the Savage could just be out on a rampage.
Another way to add random chances for Nemesis encounters could be through other missions. For example, add a random chance for your Nemesis to spawn inside any given instanced mission, or in the open world after each completed objective (Open Missions excluded). For this suggestion, this could be an opt-in/out feature available at the Nemesis database.
Finally, for both of the above suggestions on random chance encounters, have them pull from your pool of inactive Nemeses. So, say you have 5 Nemeses, and one spawns inside your instanced mission, it will not be your active Nemesis, but it would be one of the 4 inactive Nemeses you have opted-in to the system.
As a quality of life improvement related to these changes, allow players to add, edit, and remove Nemeses from the database without being required to activate them.
Last but not least, it is not important to add cutscenes to these encounters. Simple canned dialogue will do just fine. “I knew I’d find you here, [player_name]!” “Viper is paying me a fortune to keep you out of their business, [player_name]!” “It’s your fault I’ve been reduced to robbing banks like a petty thief, [player_name]!” It doesn’t need to be a huge production, sometimes we just wanna punch the Nemesis we created in the teeth and don’t want to have to jump through hoops once a week to do it. The dialogue would of course be dependent on their personality.
These changes will improve the Nemesis system by giving players consistent and frequent access to their Nemesis outside of Nemesis Confrontation and Whiteout which, at the moment, are the only two ways to fight your Nemesis consistently. These changes also offer more varied Nemesis encounters, yes you will be completing the same story arc over and over, but that still adds a lot of variety to what missions are available at any given time, and adding a random chance of Nemesis encounters from your pool of inactive Nemeses also gives you more variety in which one you’re able to fight at any given time.
The next changes are related to challenge level. After a while your Nemesis becomes kind of a joke, the fights get gradually easier with each iteration as you acquire better gear with each iteration. The suggestion here is to have your Nemesis scale to your stats. The higher your stats, the higher theirs become. If you have a full set of cosmic gear bound to you, your Nemesis should scale to, and be a challenge for, you with that gear on, to keep it engaging, and if you set the difficulty to epic then you might even wanna bring a few friends. Note that I said they should scale to your bound gear, more specifically, your highest rated bound gear (my best current loadout on my main is OV gloves, Cosmic def secondary, eyepiece of determination, heroic primaries, so it would scale to that gear regardless of what I have equipped). This way you can’t accept the mission with nothing equipped, and then put your gear back on once you enter the mission to simply blow through it. This distinction will be important for the next suggestion.
If your Nemesis scales to your bound gear, make the rewards match the difficulty as well. 5 SCR/500 Questionite for each completed daily Nemesis mission and 10 SCR/2,000 Questionite for each completed story arc (Deathray). This way, Nemesis missions can be a decent daily for people who need to start earning endgame gear. Due to the difficulty scaling to you, the rewards will always be fair. Lastly, you may help other players with their Nemesis missions, but you receive diminishing rewards for each completion per day. 2/5 SCR and 250/1,000 Q for the second completion, 1/2 SCR and 100/500 Q for the third, no rewards after that. The exact numbers for SCR/Q rewards can be tweaked and discussed, but I believe these numbers are fair.
The final suggestions are placed here in order of importance due to the amount of work it will require. I understand the dev team is quite small at the moment, and I believe these suggestions will be the most workload demanding, however these suggestions are otherwise, arguably, the most important and they provide the most variety to the Nemesis system. First we will discuss Powersets, and after Personalities.
Nemesis Powersets are a bit too limited, currently available sets are: Archery, Bestial Superntural, Celestial, Darkness, Electricity, Fire, Force, Gadgeteering, Ice, Infernal Supernatural, Dual Blades, Fighting Claws, Single Blade, Martial Arts, Might, Munitions, Power Armor, Sorcery, Telekinesis, Telepathy. Pretty much every Framework available at launch +Celestial. Heavy Weapons, Earth, and even Wind powers are all missing. Beyond that this doesn’t account for “freeform” villains. I mean, what if I wanted a Deadpool inspired Nemesis? I can’t have a Dual Blade/Munitions Nemesis. Munitions combos with pretty much all of the MA Frameworks in terms of hero/villain concepts, Ice/Fire is common, Wind/Electricity/Ice, Might/PA, Gadgets/MA, there are so many different combos that are just unaccounted for. The simple solution is to add more powersets to Nemeses, and an easy place to start would be archetypes. The Specialist, the Squall, the Unleashed, the Night Avenger, the Rockstar, and the Mountain would be good places to start.
A better solution would be more time consuming to begin with as it would require changing a lot of code, but would be better in the long run as it would eliminate the need to add more powersets to the system over time: add secondary powersets to Nemeses. So, say you’re creating your Nemesis, you get to the power select screen, all the basic frameworks are there (including Wind/Stone/Heavy Weapons), the next screen brings up all the same options, and you pick one as a secondary. How this works is: take each framework currently on the live build, remove 2-3 powers and throw them into the secondary set. For example, munitions could have Lead Tempest, Bullet Ballet, and Execution Shot in the secondary set, so you pick Dual Blades as the primary, and the Nemesis still behaves primarily as a Dual Blades Nemesis, but they also have these three powers tacked on to their attack list if you choose Munitions as the Secondary. You may choose the same Framework for both primary and secondary if you just want a straight Dual Blades or straight Munitions nemesis, but this at least allows for some variety.
I did not recommend full freeform for Nemeses because of the above suggestion for improved rewards from Nemesis missions. Full Freeform would allow players to make a Nemesis that has all Tier 0 attacks and blow through the missions for easy rewards. With that said, I believe it’s possible to go Full Freeform on Nemeses without this problem, but any solution I can think up becomes too convoluted to even write down, so I can’t imagine trying to code it. If anyone has any simple suggestions feel free to comment down below.
Finally, Nemeses should have travel powers available. Viper-X can fly, Oubliette has super speed, simply adding this option would add variety to the Nemesis system (adding super speed instantly allows for speedster villains). The travel powers available to your villain should be identical to the ones you have unlocked (I can give my Nemesis bubble flight if I have it unlocked).
I saved the most workload intense suggestion for last: Personalities.
As of right now, there are only three Nemesis personalities: Mastermind, Savage, Maniac. They have little to no impact on how your arc plays out. Dialogue is really the only change. My suggestion is to add personalities and have the story arc change based on each personality.
Mastermind:
This will be the deathray story arc, no changes necessary.
Savage:
This story arc will be about a villain who is only motivated by destruction and havoc. They kill, vandalize, and terrorize the city because they can and therefore should. Instead of the Museum Heist mission, this story arc introduces your Nemesis by having you check up on a report of panic in Downtown Millenium City. After creating this Nemesis, start by going to Champions HQ, where Defender offers to show you an updated prototype version of the crime computer. The crime computer picks up on multiple calls to 911 of a Savage monster terrorizing citizens. As you leave Champions HQ, you enter an instanced version of Millenium City, a section of Downtown has been all but destroyed, there are cars on fire, citizens running around in panic, and at the center of it all is your Nemesis, threatening to kill anyone in sight. When you get their health low enough, they cause a distraction, maybe they put a citizen in harm’s way and you have to save them while they escape. The Story arc centers around you trying to catch up to them after a series of attacks throughout MC and VB, maybe even one mission has them preying on npc “newbie” heroes in an instanced Powerhouse until, finally, you corner them. This Nemesis is simply too powerful to keep locked up in the MC prison. They’re sent to the Desert, and that’s where their Jailbreak mission takes place.
Maniac:
This story arc will be about a villain whose only goal is infamy. They idolize villains and strive to become the most infamous and feared villain in the world. The intro mission for this Nemesis will be similar to the Foxbat TV station mission. After creating your Nemesis, the police chief alerts you of a silent alarm at the TV station in Westside. You rush over as soon as you can to find your Nemesis holding the crew hostage and (they think) broadcasting themself live and their intentions live to every screen in the world, only to discover that none of the cameras were rolling during their entire monologue. They attempt to figure out how to work the cameras as you fight your way through the station, and they get it working just as you reach them, causing them to mistakenly broadcast the ensuing beatdown live. When their health gets low they reveal that they’ve planned for this and rigged the station to blow, they click a button and nothing happens, so they order their minions to dogpile you while they escape, throw in a “You haven’t seen the last of me [player_name]!” for good measure. The rest of the arc revolves around you stopping their highly public heists, highly dangerous heists, as they attempt to sacrifice civilians, in broad daylight, to the Kings of Edom in hopes of gaining power, or as they attempt to steal Draysha from VIPER (this mission ends with them gassing a mob of their minions for you to deal with before escaping), and all kinds of other shenanigans in an attempt to become the greatest and most powerful villain on the planet. The arc ends with you tracking them down to their hideout where you believe they are planning their next big heist, but this turns out to be a trap for you, as they intentionally left clues leading you there so they could finally defeat you, “and then nothing will stand in [their] way of world domination!”
The changes to these arcs would be the first of more to come. Other personalities could be added at later dates, and this content could even be available to purchase through Zen to justify the workload, I know no one likes microtransactions, but the devs certainly deserve something for their hard work, and these arcs would require a lot of time and energy to create. As it does not cost Zen to create one of the 3 basic Nemeses, you’re not being locked out of content either, you might argue that these personalities add purely cosmetic options in a way.
The Mercenary:
This Nemesis is a professional for hire. They are only motivated by money, and they are among the best for-hire villains on the planet. The image can be Viper-X. Purchasing this Nemesis will also unlock the stealth option for all Nemeses; enabling this option will cause your Nemesis and their minions to ambush you from stealth during missions and random encounters.
The intro mission begins with a report of an attempt to assassinate James Harmon. You arrive at Harmon Labs to find the lobby overrun with minions who have taken hostages, as they all discuss how the boss should have aborted the mission because it’s taking too long. As you make your way down the elevator, you discover that the Nemesis has turned Harmon’s defense systems against you. After fighting your way through waves of minions and rescue some hostages, you come to a room where your Nemesis has captured Defender and is trying to interrogate him to find James Harmon’s location. As they escape they curse you for causing them to fail their first contract. Defender thanks you for your assist and assures you that “James Harmon is someplace safe.” The rest of the arc revolves around you thwarting several more high profile assassinations, including Mayor Biselle, Kodiak, and Dr. Ka. For the final mission, you believe you have arrived too late to stop an assassination, only for them to reveal that you were the target. As an Easter Egg, this Nemesis could reveal that one of your inactive Nemeses is the one that hired them, for example “[Nemesis_name] offered me a fortune for this job, but to take you down, I would’ve done it for free!”
The CEO:
This Nemesis is a respectable businessman by day, their position makes their resources as well as their reach vast, and gathering enough evidence to jail them will prove difficult. The image would be Franklin Stone. Purchasing this Nemesis will unlock transformations for all Nemeses; you may design two costumes for your Nemesis, one for when they are neutral, and another for when they agro you, this transformation may use any transformation unlocked for your character (suit up, energy burst, light show, etc.)
The story arc begins with you investigating an up and coming gang in the Westside, you break into a warehouse to find minions from all different gangs (Purple Gang, Red Banner, Maniacs, etc.) and your Nemesis’s minions patrolling the halls. After fighting your way through mobs of different gangs and Nemesis minions, you reach a room where your Nemesis is attempting to take control of these gangs through threats of power. The leaders scatter when they see you, leaving just you and your Nemesis to duke it out. The rest of the arc revolves around you chasing after your Nemesis as they go around trying to recruit different gangs and organizations, each time you fight your Nemesis they allow you to apprehend various leaders/high ranking villains of various organizations (Kevin Poe, Medusa, Sweetland, etc.) in order to cover their escape, and leaving behind evidence each time. The final confrontation involves you obtaining a warrant for their arrest (much like the Nighthawk mission) and confronting them in their boardroom.
The Incarnate:
This Nemesis is a force of nature. They can not be bargained or reasoned with, they exist only to do what destiny or fate has predetermined for them. The image for this Nemesis is one of the Kings of Edom. Purchasing this Nemesis unlocks the Cosmic option for all Nemeses; Cosmic Nemeses will have dramatically increased stats and may require a team to take down (this stat boost does not take effect during random encounters, only during daily missions).
The arc introduces this Nemesis with a report of an UNTIL moon base going dark, the base had scientists studying some celestial event when suddenly communications stopped, you’re sent to find survivors. Upon reaching the base you search for survivors, fighting through mindless minions along the way. When you reach the control room, you find your Nemesis who explains that they came because this world must end. When their health gets low they knock you back, stating that they are too weak at the moment, but that you two will meet again. The arc revolves around you chasing your Nemesis across the planet, MC, VB, Desert, Canada, MI, and Lemuria, each time failing to stop them from gaining more power. The final confrontation takes place back on the moon where you fought originally, they have enough power to destroy the planet and it’s up to you to put a stop to them. This Nemesis is not jailed, when this Nemesis is finally beaten they are banished back out to the cosmos from which they came, re-activating this Nemesis will not use a jail-break mission, instead you receive a report of a strange energy being detected in the Qliphothic Warzone, you enter the portal and must attempt (and fail) to hold back this Nemesis from crossing over into our world.
These are just three examples of Personalities/Story Arcs that could be added to give the Nemesis system a lot more variety. More could be added as well, each one offering new customization options for all Nemeses.
Anyways, these are changes to the Nemesis system that I think would drastically improve the system for all players, allowing us more opportunities to fight our Nemesis is most important and changing it to a daily quest would be a good first step. Adding random encounters for inactive Nemeses would also be a great addition as well, giving us plenty of opportunity and variety for Nemesis encounters. New Personalities and Story Arcs designed around those personalities is also a long overdue addition, and more customization in terms of powers would greatly improve the system and allow for more player creativity.
Post edited by lowery150 on
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All of these changes together would require an overwhelming amount of time and resources from the team as is, true. That is why I structured my post the way I did. The team could start with small changes (random encounters) and expand from there, time permitting. That is also why I recommended microtransactions on the most demanding aspect of this overhaul, profit would justify the workload. That is also why I recommended microtransactions last, update the other aspects to get people excited about the Nemesis system again, then ask for money if those changes are well received.
Knowing the game's code, you'd need to pull a A Realm Reborn on CO.