OK, I'm to lazy to find if anyone ever put this out. And I apologize for the following: I was playing Guild Wars (ducks rotten tomatoes
) and I was hunting with my NPC team ganking baddies being healed and having additional damage etc. without having to deal with teammate delays, inane babble et al. Not that teaming is not fun, I just like to 'solo' when short on gaming time, and PUGs can sometimes be more trouble than theyre worth.
So cut to me back on CoH trying to get a Posi TF going on Champion. Two of us for nearly twenty minutes trying to recruit and totally failing. I thought to myself "Man if I was on Guild Wars I could just head out with my NPC team." Then I thought what everyone else does "Why doesn't Posi get off his stump and help." And WHAMO! The idea that has probably been mentioned but I am to lazy to seek.
What if you could start a TF/SF and 'fill' with AI Pet characters?
I mean really both sides have a collection of NPC adversaries you run into on Safeguard/Mayhems alone. If we had been able to get No Mind, Doc Quantum, Arc Flash, etc. we could have gotten our Posi TF rolling.
And on hero side, you could even have the contact be part of the mission, so Posi could be picked for Posi TF. Then each signature hero could be available for the following TFs. So then Synapse and Posi could be picked for the Synapse TF. Posi, Synapse, and Sister Psyche for Sister Psyche TF and so on until you get to the Statesman TF where, if you so desired, you could run it with yourself and all signature heroes. Each NPC would be placed at Max level for whichever TF and not be run on Hero settings but as Pets. Knowing the fixed level for the Pets they could be outfitted with the most common powers choices for their archetypes. I figure maybe the leader of the TF could get a temp tray panel with the 3 basic Mastermind controls to herd the cats that NPCs can become in missions. Now chances of completing something like the STF with all Pets is highly unlikely, but if you had seven and just needed one more to get started it could be considered worth it, right?
Of course rewards would be decreased as if split by actual live players, so as to offset the smaller risk factor. But Im not a numbers guy, obviously, but a dreamer.
I realize there are several bumps that make this seem unlikely but Im sure they can be worked out. If the NPC's die in mission, Rez powers should be auto hit, so if your NPC teammate or yourself fires one, they get up. If no Rez available and mission gets completed, they are simply up and running for the next one, like going to the hospital. When missions are complete they go into a hold type phase where they will not appear again until you are on your next mission map. Just a few ideas. Spitballing really.
Again I know it sounds crazy and completely not doable, and its not like I would expect it for say I15 or anytime soon, but maybe to be considered somewhere along the line.
Anyways, the idea just came to me and I started writing. Its probably why most of it makes no sense, but just ideas.
You may now commence with the shredding of it.
Galaxy City will no longer be available as a starting zone - once you do the new tutorial in the ruins of Galaxy City, you can choose to go to Atlas Park or Mercy Island.