DoctorParadox

a way to prvide cues as to whether a door leads to something is to have enemies either entering or leaving a building (something I'm not entirely sure about is whether these would be separate instances or just rooms of the zone, like shops.)

say you're in steel canyon, checking in with your contacts, when you suddenly see an alleyway door open , and a column of council slips out, looking furtive, before starting to run east. curious, you follow them, waiting for them to drop below the building where you perch before dropping down and beating them soundly. when pressed for informaion one of them says that they planted a bomb in the building, and were just part of a courier party to alert the local base. this marks the door on your map, and gives you the mission "Defeat all council in Office, defuse bombs," with a possible follow up of "infiltrate council base"

you ALSO could have just entered the map, at which point you would have found council swarming the place, along with a number of bombs, but you wouldn't have been aware of the council base. this is a sort of branching open mission, bu something simpler would just be to see, say, a troupe f carnies entering a warehouse and investigating.

exactly, which is why I said we should always fail in the tasks

exactly. give us the option to try to take over the world, destroy the world, get to X location, depopulate the earth, or create x object.

this would run paralell with safeguards, and villain side it would be much like a hero raid on te rogue isles, only in this they'e moving FROM their submarine to a location they intend to destroy (power station, lab, etc.) a which point they teleport out. included in the mix are longbow, perhaps wyvern, maybe they contract the local mercenaries...

the problem is that this sort of thing doesn't really happen in comics. Villains are usually singular threats that take the fight to the heroes, rather than eaming up with 30 or so other villains to defend.ah, well.

any other ideas for redside version of this?

oh! I got one

armored car procession is carrying a large amount of cash through X zone, accompanied by a heroic escort, possibly using a Hero Corp enemy group at last. among them is the hero leader, a GM or two. the convoy spawns at a place marked on the map, and heads to an unknown location. there are about five or six armored cars, eachwith EB health at least, and auto trrets on the sides. the goal is to defeat all of the armored cars before they reach the bank, causing the heroes to stop to fight you.

right, I meant essentially the same thing. I wasn't sure how it was that GM's differ from AV's, but the idea is that it would use te invasion code to make every NPC spawn as if they were equal level to everyone. meaning the AV is an AV to all.


and does anyone have additional thoughts about preventing escape? is the helicopter thing ok?

also, something else I'de like with this is to have super villains that AREN'T connected to arachnos, or really any other group. when they need muscle, they hire it out, but they're more than capable of working on their own. something I'd like to see also is the spawning of GM supervillains that just apear causing mayhem, that heroes can take down. inject some humor by making them pitiful villains like the emu queen or the green beatnik (see the comic version of smoke and mirrors), or it can be a kick off for a storyline (superpowerful Lost emerges, foretelling future doom, a troll leader goes crazy in king's row while bursting at the seams with muscles, suggesting a new strain of supes)

yeah, the idea was to have the enemies be NPCs. anothoer thing to consider would be spawning a perimeter of police with their cars as barricades that end upbeing tareted by the villains. think "doors get blown off their hinges, A villain steps through cackling maniacally, and then tosses a fireball that blows up a car or two. then come the minions. the police would arrive as soon as te alert goes out about the robbery.

oh, and the reason you can't go into the bank before they come out is because there ae like twenty or so people inside te bank with te bloodthirsty villains

also, what kind of minions would be spawning? deends on the main villain or is just Arachnos by default? or maybe based on level of the zone...

Faultline and indy spawn sky raiders... Atlas Spawns Hellions, Galaxy city and Kings row spawn skulls, Talos Island spawns Either warriors or tsoo, Steel canyon spawns outcasts, PI spawns carnies...

or erhaps the creation of new, generic flavor of bad guys? like the mastermind henchmen, only as powerful as actual minions. we'll have robots doing the bidding of a mad scientist, thugs doing the bidding of a mad scientist, soldiers doing the bidding of some bond type villain, demons for the magicians, ninjas for the cloak and dagger fellas.

or maybe using the models for those giant 5th column robots in the ruined atlas park map. I would LOVE to see that thing in steel canyon

ORIGINALLY I was exposed to CoH through that comic ad - youare referring to the one showing statesman, sister psyche and a number of others fighting 5th column bots in the streets, yes?

I believe it was a teen titans comic or somesuch, some sort of invasion on an island kingdom of supervillains, I don't really remember it all that well. there were a lot of both heroes and villains, so it was entertaining enough. anyway, the ad really caught my eye, and I would pause over it every time I read the comic, pondering how it was the game went about creating original superheroes, wondering how much variety there was to the powers, etc.
eventually, I forgot about the ad, but somehow over a number of years, the name stuck with me, and I was reading through he PVP webcomic when I saw the short series about the game, and I got excited remembering it. I finally plugged it into google, found the home site, and in another two months I was bashing vahzilok in atlas park.


I think that something that's vital to underline in advertisements is the sheer variety of customization, and the amount of stuff to do. I think the old comercial did wellwith those final shots, showing several hundred heroes all gathered in atlas Plaza, but in future I'de reccomend using the actual graphics, perhaps an amalgamation of some large events, or even just a group photo.

(by the way, I was a bit disapointed to find that there weren't anysort of 5th column invasion evens or anything. why don't the military style goups do that? I could totally see a Nemesis invasion being done in calm, orderly ranks.)

Edit: and another thing, CONTRACT DARK RESPITE, her work goes beyond awesome and outdoes any comercial you've made yet. the voice acting in the GR trailer was... jarring, to say the least. hersuff tends to be on the subtler side. GO! make it so!

totally /signed.

cities can get boring after a time, but the problem I have with other kinds of settings is that superheroes are cityfolk by nature. Cities are where the most peoplle are to be helped, not somewhere in the mountains.

in contrast, moonbase is the perfect mix of these two. it would be wildernessy, foreign, yet its'undeniable that there are things going on here that bear investigating. there are people here with a reason for being here (what's up with the civillinas in siren's call?), and they need help.

redside, cities are where mmost crime can be done, and there ae most things going on that you can shift to your liking. out here, IT'S A FREAKING NEXUS OF MAgGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL POWER, able to draw even the most jaded of would be world conquerers.

often in comics, heroes and villains come across odd situations that they have to deal with on the fly, bizarre scenarios that they attempt to either make right, ir tip to their own advantage.

enter open missions, doors in locations that beg questions, that lead into one-time missions that seek to answer said questions (what are those three boats doing out in Talos Island's harbor? what is the natural cavern in the southwest corner of brickstown? where do the portals in pocket D go? who is currently i the former Paragon Dance party? why does that store have an "open" sign, but with all the lights out? that's a nice bank over there...)

essentially I'm pushing for more proactive heroism and villainy, stuff that isn't hand fed to you by contacts, 1 mission at a time. It seems too often that we're nothing but powered flunkies who do the punching rather than any of the thinking, and while that may be fine for your Hulk types out there, I generally play heroes who think thingss through.

feedback? suggestions?

something a bit more crime-ey for an event.

every so often, triggeed by something I haven't thought of yet, an alert would go out that a bank in x zone was being robbed, and the place would then be marked on maps of the zone. a few minutes later, the doors of whatever was being robbed gets blown open, and out come a horde of invasion spawned minions, along with an archvillain, who are trying to make it to a specific point, most likely a helicopter of some sor, which is UNmarked, and guarded by more of the minions. if the helicopter is destroyed, then the robbers can't escape, or they have to improvise by going for a different location (i.e. a sewer entrance, a river, mayhaps a helipad where a secnd helicopter arrives, I'm not sure.)

this basically gives a smaller scale event than an invasion, but it's still something to conider a threat. I'm pretty sure something like this could be done, but if I'm wrong, by all means, point out how.

also, heroside, I mentioned the presence of a villain group that isn't usually in the zone to start a mini arc: along those lines could be spawning a unique boss in the midst of a crime, or the preparations of a crime, whom you can confront, and then investigate. like, say...

In Brickstown, a power armored villain accompanied by henchmen in crey powersuits is sighted fleeing a bank robbery, making for an unknown point. said villain could be doing any number of things, from just going on a crime spree or attempting to bankroll world takeover, but mechanically, it would look similar to the Ghost of Scrapyard's nature, spawning at a door, and then taking a long route through the city. the villain himself would likely be a boss, so that a single hero could take them down.

In Peregrine Island, a former hero accompanied by Rikti has been riktified, and is holding the area in a grip of terror, spouting forshowdowing about a large attack, or possibly just an event that impacts the Rikti in some way. to pull this off, spawn the villain him/herself and some Rikti, along with a perimeter of destructable police cars and police officers. inside the perimeter there could be any number of detructable objects, and the villain is just blowing them all to hell.

In King's Row, a plant-like villain is attacking one of the factories with a crew of Hydra, with the intent to *blank.* they're set to wander around an area until attacked, at which point they scatter, only fighting back if they themselves are engaged.

all of these would use the invasion code to make them spawn at an equal level to any hero.

feedback?

look at the title. can anyone help?

what about for a "Rewind" power, it's AoE and reverses all dmage dealt to allies in the last five seconds. very long recharge, used for when the planet teeters on the brink of destruction, your teammates are down, and you suddenly reverse time 5 seconds to save the world.

or, to make it simpler and lacking in the possibility of a mass rez, just make it an AoE heal that sends out a rippling light distortion that causes some kind of blurring around thoe affected

Here's my first arc, in all it's introductory glory. I've rewritten in twice, and I'm pretty pleased with the result. it serves as an introduction to a number of arcs I plan to write, one of which I already have. it uses almost exclusively custom mobs, so it's best for 20+.

Basically, the premise is that you've been contacted with an urgent message from one agent Drive of the longbow, with news than an anonymous hacker has stolen Longbow's access codes to global defenses - Nuclear ordinance, automated security, battle robots, you name it. with this in mind, it's up to you to find this hacker before he's able to put his plan into effect.

the rest of the stories are basically stories following your initial encounter with the villain (he seeks revenge, he dies or does he, et.)

let the thread dying commence.

Joe, evidently, people aren't interested. Bumping doesn't change that. and when people DO look at this thread, they won't be impressed by your tactics.

ok, regarding the detonation argument:

with free willed henchmen, why would they have the explosives rigged to them if they didn't expect them to be activated at som point? by definition, free-willed henchmen choose to work for you, and choose to fight for you in whatever way you end up asking them to. also, if they can set down the charge before running for it, then doesn't that mean there's some kind of warning before it blows?

besides, why even put a bomb on a perfectly good soldier, rather than just using a grenade? the whole thing has a feeling of said henchmen being a willing part of the plan.

and on the RP side, I greatly like the idea of RPing it as the henchmen doing it themselves, to the dismay of the mastermind.

the respective numbers escape me, but I REALLY loved

Crown of Iron, Heart of Steel part 1
the custom foes is where it really shines through, giving the whole thing a very nice sheen. all of the maps used had the right feeling for what the author was trying to convey, and I liked the use of Nemesis.

Penny for your thoughts
this may be my favorite arc of all time. it's heavily canon, and connects a lot of things about the Clockwork king in a way that's clear, but not all shoved in your face. the repetition is great, and the final mission made me feel terrible for doing what I did. because I didn't have to do it. how would you react to something like this?

Standing in the Mists
this one REALLY made me feel like a villain. I made the plan, I did the deeds, and I was the one responsible for how it all came out. the contacts reaction to what you do is spot on, and so are the maps for the second and the last mission. a perfect villain arc.

so, I'm writing a number of arccs in a set chronology based around one villain, the brilliant computer criminal Fathom, who is bent on world domination as yet, I only have 2 arcs published, but I'm pretty happy with them, an I have Ideas for about 4 more.

in case anyone is at all interested in giving them a look, some feedback would be much appreciated.

Circuit Breaker {Fathom, Part 1}
Arc ID: 360268
4 missions
heroic, with and EB and an AV.
When an anonymous genius hacks into Longbow's database, Agent drive contacts you to help uncover a plot that threatens to engulf the planet! but who is the elusive Fathom, and to what lengths will he go to ensure that his made scheme succeeds?

(In)Justice {Fathom, Part 2}
Arc ID: 378095
4 missions
heroic
after you are framed for the murder of a number of civilians, you find that Fathom has reemerged - and is bent on wreaking his brand of "Justice" on you for stopping his plan for world takeover!

/signed. JETPACK HUZZAH!

"Circuit Breaker {Fathom, Part I}" arc ID: 360268. I'd really love some feedback and plays on this one, as it's the building point for a number of future arcs. 20 and up, as it's prety much all custom foes.