Arch-Nemesis

bobgreenwade · September 2012

(Here I'm reviving something I'd posted previously in a single, long post that is now Archived. That post got too full for me to keep adding ideas, so I'm splitting it up.)

The Arch-Nemesis is that enemy who is always there, and never seems to get captured and put in prison. In the comics, sometimes the Arch-Nemesis does get put away, as with the Joker or Green Goblin, but he either gets out easily or can still call the shots from there. Other Arch-Nemesis examples from comics, movies, and cartoons include Lex Luthor, Magneto, Doctor Doom, Darkseid, Shredder, General Parvo, etc.

First, there are a few items I'd like to see across all Nemeses, but would be especially good for an Arch-Nemesis even if not implemented system-wide:

Voice Actors. Get two voice actors (one male, one female) for each Personality type. Then allow the player to add optional effects to the voice, such as mechanization (Cyberlord), echo (Ghost Veil), pitch adjustment, and so forth so even Nemeses with the same Personality type can sound distinctive. (I personally would love to do the Male Maniac, and would happily accept payment in Cryptic Points.)
Specialization. Base the selection of Nemesis Missions (including Alerts and anything else that comes up) on the Nemesis' Power Set, Personality, and Minion selection (both type and Power Set). For example, a Gadgeteering Nemesis whose Robot Minions use Powered Armor abilities wouldn't likely pursue a mystical item, while a Primal Sorcery Nemesis whose Demon Minions use Dark Magic wouldn't likely go after a piece of advanced technology. It's possible, but very unlikely.
Minion Personalities: I've noticed that Minions always "speak" with the same vocabulary regardless of type. The dialogue currently in use is fine for Thugs, Mafiosi, and tights-wearing types, but don't quite fit for robots and demons. A selection of Minion Personalities would be helpful here.
Minion Team Colors. The minimum level of customization should be the selection of team colors, like those for Supergroups. This would mean that, even if two Nemeses use the same type of Minion (whether for the same player or during a multi-Nemesis Mission such as NemCon) they'd look distinctive.
Faction Names. It seems a little silly to have every type of Nemesis Minion be called a "Nemesis Minion." Why not let us name them as a group? That would be a little more distinctive.
Weapon Customization. We should be able to customize the Nemesis' weapon skin in the Costume Creator, and preferably those of his/her Minions as well.
Custom Dialogue. There are some good opportunities for us to create what the Nemesis says when he (or she, or it) shows up in Nemesis Alerts, Whiteout, and other occasions. I don't think I'd extend this to the regular Nemesis Missions, except perhaps for select moments (such as while walking out of the jail cell in Prison Break); mostly this is for when they'd appear where other players would encounter them.
More Alerts. Currently Nemeses only show up in Alerts for Dockside Dustup or Bank Robbery. I think they'd also be appropriate for Two-Minute Drill, Trainstopping, A Day at the Mall, and Museum Heist, at the very least.

The Arch-Nemesis would distinctly have features as detailed in the first few Replies of mine. I'll continue to edit in any new ideas that occur to me, or that are brought up by others.

bobgreenwade · September 2012

Selection

When an Arch-Nemesis is selected is up for whatever seems best. It could automatically be your first Nemesis; you may have to have a minimum number of Nemeses, such as 3 or 5; or you could be allowed to declare it any time after achieving Level 40. Personally I'd require Level 40 and a minimum of 5 Nemeses, but that's just me and it depends somewhat on how much of the following is also implemented.

bobgreenwade · September 2012

Minions

Most Nemeses have just four Nemesis types: Melee Henchman, Ranged Henchman, Melee Villain, and Ranged Villain. The Arch-Nemesis gains four more, each of which can be any of those four or Melee or Ranged Enforcer.

Further, all Arch-Nemesis Minions are fully customizable using the Costume Creator, and the Power Set can be selected separately for each one. (If a Power Set is only useful for Ranged or Melee and not the other, then that Power Set will only be an option for the one it's useful for.) And since each Power Set would have different Powers, the Power Color should be selectable for each Minion type.

Each Nemesis also gets a Lieutenant, at the level of Master Villain, who is fully customizable. This character is a one-of-a-kind, and unlike the other Minions does not duplicate. He can take the place of certain "guest" villains in the Instanced Nemesis Missions, such as Vengeance in "Jailbreak" or Double Dealer in "Deathray Demolition."

As an extended possibility, all Minions except Lieutenants could, at the player's option, have two appearance versions: one male, and one female. If both are used, the player can assign a percentage chance for each to appear, for each type. This can be either a fully-fluid slider with 1-100% chance of each, or a selection tool for something like 0/25/50/75/100% chance.

bobgreenwade · September 2012

Arch-Nemesis Missions

It's entirely possible that the Arch-Nemesis would be treated just like any other Nemesis. But I'm assuming that the Arch-Nemesis would be one of those "unkeepable" types who are always around.

Currently there are three types of Missions involving one's Nemesis: regular Nemesis Missions, Nemesis Alerts, and guest appearances (NemCon, Whiteout #3).

There would have to be a percentage chance that a given type of Mission would involve one's Arch-Nemesis rather than the current regular Nemesis. By default, I think I'd make this 20% for regular Nemesis Missions, 80% for guest appearances, and 50% for Alerts. If it's possible in the engine, it would be ideal to allow the player to adjust these.

Naturally there should be some weighting on any of these depending on the respective interests of the Arch-Nemesis and active regular Nemesis. For example, suppose the selected Alert is Pyrimid Power. If the character's Arch-Nemesis is a Gadgeteer with Robot Minions but his active Nemesis is a Sorcerer with Demon Minions, then the latter would be featured automatically (or almost so).

Speaking of NemCon specifically, there could also be two different versions: one that works as it currently does, and one specifically with Arch-Nemeses and their wider variety of Minions, including special functions for their Lieutenants. For example, the Lieutenants could be the ones taunting the heroes in the cells, or helping patrol the corridors leading to their boss' locations. There could even be a spot (somewhere between where the heroes all gather together and where they start going wherever they need to for confronting the Nemeses) where five Lieutenants are gathered together, and the five heroes fight them in a group battle.

Also, if the Arch-Nemesis comes up for Bunker Buster (or the Lair Missions, below), he would have to either escape in the end or immediately have a Jailbreak.

bobgreenwade · September 2012

Lairs

The Arch-Nemesis could also have Missions specifically designed for that function. What I think would work best would be Arch-Nemesis Lairs.

On each Zone Map there are some spaces that are left unused. These could be places to put some building, cave, bunker, or other structure that a Nemesis can use as a Lair. The list of candidates I came up with are:

Millennium City: In the sewers, near the jail; Downtown, in the basement of a building near the Qlophothic Rift; the top of the same building; an expanded version of the map where we confront Kevin Poe the second time (in Poe-wned).
Canada: A cave in Lynx's Fold; a former VIPER base under Fallen Sun Forest; a cave in Hoarfrost Hills; the VIPER Clutch Lab in Rime Woods (with Redstone hosting on behalf of VIPER); the wreckage of the Roin'esh ship, sunken into Great Bear Lake.
Desert: An astronomy station along the western edge; a cave near Stronghold; the abandoned mine at the north end of the Atomic Wasteland (where we fight Leech and, later, Ghost Veil); the area at the north end covered by an energy done (what the heck is that ,anyway?); an unused building in Snake Gulch.
Monster Island: The outpost station near Raptor Run; the buried ruins of Teleios' old base (from MI Crisis); a lava cave in Andrithal; the secret Manimal hideout in Plummet's Lost Cave.
Lemuria: A submarine near the north end of Rastrinfhar's Abyss; one of the caves west of the Aegir (the same group where some of the UNITY Missions are done); an ancient Lemurian temple in the Caliginous Depths.

These are all places that could serve as an Arch-Nemesis' Lair. (Despite the number of possibilities I listed here, each Zone would probably have only two or three actual Lairs.) Generally, the final goal in the Lair would be simply to defeat the Arch-Nemesis, but each could also have additional goals. Among the possibilities -- and, preferably, one that happens frequently, if not every time -- would be to break up a meeting with one or more other villains, including other players' Nemeses. (If run solo, it could feature either your current regular Nemesis, or one or more "stock" villains such as Cyberlord, Eclipse, Phoenix, Teleios, the Slug, and so forth -- even some of the "new" Alert Villains such as Rockjaw or Devana Hawke.)

Anything involving other Nemeses or Lore Villains would also involve their minions in appropriate areas, such as near the entrance, any guest quarters, guarding any cargo their master has brought, and of course near their master.

A possibility (not vital, just something that would be cool) would be to be able to select from a short menu of decor possibilities so a given Arch-Nemesis Lair looks different based on who's occupying it at the time. I think a selection of maybe a half-dozen general styles (utilizing items from the Hideouts and existing Instances), along with a couple of color choices and maybe an optional Emblem. The basic architecture would stay the same, but furnishings and other ambiance would change each time around. (Some of these features could even be used when the Arch-Nemesis is featured in other Instanced Missions, where appropriate.)

It would seem incongruous for a hero to just walk up to a Lair location and discover that his Arch-Nemesis just happens to be in the place. At the same time, it would be frustrating to have to wait for a Nemesis Clue drop to go do one of these. What I'd propose for this is to have Arch-Nemesis Lair Missions available at UNITY HQ. They could be part of UNITY Overwatch, or given out by Dr. Black. Better yet, put Myrmidon at the desk opposite Dr. Black and let him give out these Missions as a different way to exchange UNITY Intelligence for UNITY Merits.

Alternately, the Arch-Nemesis Lair could be put into the Alert system. The problem with it is that it doesn't, at least to my mind, fit very well into the Smash/Grab/Burst trinity, nor does it seem appropriate for the Special Alert slot, so something else would have to be worked out. It could even become a special type of Alert all its own, showing up only on (say) a player's birthday, as a kind of Epic Alert.

Another possibility would be to use this as an alternative to the Deathray Demolition transition Mission.

Significantly, this is a feature that can be added after the rest of what's in this post is in place. I don't think work on it would even need to be started until the rest of the Arch-Nemesis system is live, except maybe to put "hooks" in the system to make later work on it easier.

bobgreenwade · September 2012

C-Store Expansion

Certain bits could be added to an Arch-Nemesis through the C-Store. For example, one might buy four more Minion slots for, say, 320 CP.. An extra Lieutenant could cost 160 CP. (One of my own Arch-Nemesis candidates would need one or two of those sets of Minion slots; another would need five extra Lieutenants.)

It might even be possible to allow a player to buy Arch-Nemesis-like customization for additional Nemeses, though still only one would actually be the hero's Arch-Nemesis.

That's About It

I welcome any feedback on these ideas. This is just what I've come up with for this, and I'm sure the wonderfully creative community here can come up with some better thoughts, or even have the insight to find parts of my ideas that wouldn't work in this game engine.

magemighty1 · September 2012

Loving these ideas and would love for them to be implemented but it's a shame that it likely never will

trinimilitia · September 2012

There was an idea suggested in other threads where you can have your alts act as your sidekick.The Arch-Nemesis could use a similar system where one of your alts' nemesis act as minions.This could help in tying the stories of your alts together since a lot of people make their alts related to each other.

flyingfinn · September 2012

Yes. Nemesis System needs an overhaul.
Something like this could be implementet.

magemighty1 · October 2012

I love the idea, very well thought out, I have a nemesis that would fit this system really well and thanks for using my idea :biggrin:

dataweaver42 · October 2012

In terms of improving existing Nemeses, a few ideas:

1. Archetypes. Instead of the existing power sets, define a Nemesis by selecting an Archetype for it. Nemesis ATs should have all Powers, Advantages, Talents, and Specializations predefined by the developers, in two varieties per AT: one that gets used if the champion is an AT, and a beefier alternative that gets used if the champion is a Freeform.

2. Travel Powers. Every Nemesis should be able to have one. In particular, if the Nemesis has wings or a jet pack in his costume, proper selection of a TP should let him use them.

3. Themed Missions. Give the player a way of choosing what sorts of goals his Nemesis will pursue. This might be done through the choice or Personality (which would almost certainly require expanding the list), the choice of AT (rough idea: go by the Energy Projector/Technology/Martial Arts/Psionics/Brick/Mystic division), a combination of the two, or a manual decision by the player (e.g., Arms/Mystical/Science); but certain missions should be more likely for certain Nemeses than for others; and the first and last missions should depend on the chosen theme.

4. More could be done with the Nemesis Vendor. I for one would love to be able to purchase Nemesis Clues from the Nemesis Vendor; possibly go with two prices: a cheap Nemesis Clue gives you a popcorn mission, and a more expensive Nemesis Clue gives you an instanced mission. For the most part, the cost in Nemesis Tokens for a Clue should be at least equal to the Nemesis Token award from that mission, possibly a little higher (say, 10%?): purchased Nemesis Missions would be done primarily for the other loot (xp, resources, drops) and to give the player a way to proactively advance the Nemesis' story. It might also be worthwhile to put Nemesis Clues in the Q-Store, so that there's a way to get Nemesis Clues other than waiting for Minions to randomly spawn; this would give you a means to grind for Nemesis Gear if that's what you're after: do something to earn some Questionite, spend it to acquire a Nemesis Clue, complete the resulting mission to earn Nemesis Tokens, and spend those tokens on the desired Nemesis Gear.

In conjunction with the above, I would be inclined to say that the Nemesis' final mission should only be available for purchase from the Nemesis Vendor, and only after appropriate prerequisites have been met. This leaves the question of whether a particular Nemesis is "just" another bad guy or is in fact your Archnemesis entirely up to the player: if he likes the Nemesis he's got, he simply never buys that final mission and spends the Nemesis Tokens on other things, and the Nemesis is, de facto, his Archnemesis. If this is the case, then the final mission would be the exception to the "mission costs more Nemesis Tokens than it gives you" rule; in fact, I'd set its cost equal to the current Nemesis Token reward for completing it, and then double the reward. Personally, I vastly prefer this approach to the idea of an Archnemesis that will never go away no matter how sick and tired of him the player gets.

I'd translate your suggested C-Store purchases idea into Nemesis Vendor purchases, and I'd also consider expanding it further: for instance, the Nemesis Vendor would be a perfect way to introduce a Foundry-like system to Champions Online, letting players create Nemesis content for the game.

Arch-Nemesis

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