Rosen_ice

Right now, heroes and villains go through the motions of fighting nameless npcs which no one but themselves know about… half the time people don’t read or don’t care about the story. In the end, it just boils down to how much experience and influence you get (sometimes a badge).

The architect system was a great idea! But, they introduced it in a way that is completely removed from the game world. It is playing a video game… inside a video game… along with the clutter and huge investment needed to create anything, it is just very difficult to get much out of it (And then, again, the reward is the same as everything else… even less because you don’t get recipes).

So, basically, how about using the architect system in a more friendly and immersive manner?

NOTE: Most of this plays out like a normal mission system. Only, the entire time the player is working towards a goal and feels they have a purpose. It spices up the task of going into map A with minions B until everything is dead. You end the mission feeling like you have moved closer to an overreaching master plan or advancement of your own personal goals in the game world… knowing eventually your work and action will have a real affect on the world and the players will get to experience all you put into it.

…………

1) Heroes and villains would begin by establishing a small personal base that is grounded in the game world (immersive). You are basically given the ability to click on any door (after doing a small arc which you try to establish yourself) in the game world and make that door your base door. You could pick a building, a manhole, the ship out in the middle of the water in talos… you also are given a fast recharging teleport to your base door (because while it is immersive and fun to put your base hidden far inside the hollows, it isn’t fun to have to run there all the time).

2) Inside the base you can decorate like normal bases (or, if easier, select one of the small maps in the game), but the base stays fairly simple (no huge maps of a billion rooms). One key piece is a computer (or magic interface) which lets you access the “big plans” systems.

3) Now, from the “big plans system” (bps), you can pick from a couple basic goals (each branching into more options).

Growth
Look for trouble
Craft a master plan


Under growth you would have options such as-

Recruit
Gather Resources
Discover / Capture new technology or power
Expand base

Look for trouble you just get a tip on where to look for other people’s events

Craft a master plan-

Secure super power / technology
Invasion
Protection


And, of course, under each of the options, you would have more details on what you would want to do (all this is to narrow down how the mission architect system should craft the event).

Recruit –

Create a General – This lets you create a stronger troop as a general… a special elite troop that you can use in key areas.

Gather Minions – This is a point system of your organization. This is generally how strong your organization is and how much resources in man-power you have to use during certain events. Doing harder things requires more minions. Minions cost X number of resources each and are added to your point total when converted. The number of minions you can gather per day is limited (but can be raised by expanding the base in different ways, such as creating a factory or recruiting station).

Upgrade – This lets you apply technology and powers to your troops (For the cost of resources). Troops start out very basic and you must discover new power before you can upgrade them (and you don’t always get the power you want when looking for it, it will take a lot of searching and missions to get exactly the ones you want).



Gather Resources-

Clean up and salvage – This is a generally non violent way of gathering resources. Like the clockwork king when he first started coming to power, his minions were discovered across the city helping to clean up… until it was later discovered they were really just gathering resources for their clockwork factory. Using this lets you deligate a number of your minion points to gathering resources an hour (so, if you have 100 minion points saved up, you can set 30 to salvage, which brings in 5 resources an hour…put 90 on salvaging and you get 15 resources an hour, at the cost of not being able to use them for other things). This also spawns your minions randomly around the map your base is in (rarely, so there isn’t mass spam of everyones minions), and like the spawn system in the game works…it only spawns if there is a player around. *Note- there is a delay on how long it takes a change in this value to take effect.. maybe an hour, so you can’t pull all minions back instantly to do something else*


Aggressive salvage –

Why wait when you can just take what you need? This is the more active option to gathering resources. You can go out personally and raid an arachnos base for parts, or beat up a gang of thugs to try and make them join you… or you can go fight alongside longbow in an attempt to inspire them to join you. This all depends on if you are a villain and what type of troops you have (this is where the mission architect system shines, it can cater a mission to your preferences pretty easily… and give a range of different aggressive salvage options to fit the character and theme of the group). Your minions don’t help in this type of quest (to level the playing field for the solo hero, like batman).

Purchase! –

Taking things and gathering things aren’t for everyone. Some people are simply rich enough to buy their own. Crey doesn’t really have a need to gather the resources it needs through those other methods… they simply put in a buy order.



Discover / capture new technology and power –

This lets you do a few missions leading you around trying to find a tip on a new technology or power. Depends on what your setting are, it could be a magic artifact or it could be a doctor that is being held hostage that has information you need. At the end, you get a special “bit of technology” salvage (non trade able) which can be used to craft different powers for your minions (maybe 10 salvage to give them a personal force field power).

This new technology and power can also grant special temporary powers for a hero or villain (which can only be used during later stages of this system, not in pvp or other PVE). These are great powers, which can give you a huge attack or super defense for a short time. ..basically, this is what the solo player goes after if they don’t want to go raise an army. The super trooper who gets decked out in order to go after his real goal… the ultimate super amazing super thing.

NOTE: because the game system probably doesn’t allow a pick and choose from any power, you instead set your minions primary and secondary powers at creation *like in the mission architect system*, and then unlock their access to these powers through this technology / power crafting system.



Expand base –

This lets you expand your operation. Establishing different places or increasing the capabilities of your organization. Needing to run missions and at the end spend resources to finish the expansion.

Such as: Build a factory or recruiting station (increase recruiting limit per day, or perhaps adding a free unit each day), building different structures needed later on (such as teleport systems which let you teleport troops into battle) or creating a super-secret-island-lab (needed to invent a giant monster).

Basically, this is all a variety of stats on your sheet and unlocks access to different capabilities. So you could look at your faction and see

Factories: 2
Monster Research: 4
Weapons Manufacturer: 2
Teleport Hub: 1

Later down the road, during a mass event, this actually becomes more relevant as players are able to fight you by attacking these different areas in a communal effort. Maybe taking down your teleport hub so you can’t teleport in troops anymore.




Craft a Master Plan:::::

This is where all the players hard work comes into play. Letting them finally put all their collecting into action as they hatch their master plans. The success of a master plan brings great reward, but they are open to intervention by other players (with different criteria depending on the scale).

Secure super power / technology-

This is a mission to get a specific great temporary power or unlock to another plan. These missions make use of your troops as you start to move your master plans into action. You are given options of capturing plans for a giant monster (or robot), plans for orbital station, or a plan for some other amazing technology that will allow you the edge you need.

During these missions, you can use things such as teleport hubs (grants you a temporary “summon troops” power, which calls in a squad of your troops to a location),

The lower level “super technology” are single player and take place in large maps. There are personal super power goals which the lone hero or villain can seek also (for those who don’t do the entire troops thing). These personal super technologies aren’t finished when you get them… you need to assemble them for the ultimate next stage (kind of like arachnos in statesmans taskforce, bwa ha ha).

Doing these missions can make you lose troops at the end (eat up resources), so you can’t run them all the time. They won’t use up a ton, but enough to weaken you a bit and make you need to recover before moving onto your next stage.


Invasion!!!-

This is the ultimate plan! After finishing whatever you need to do with your super power and technology (you don’t “have to”, but it is a good idea before invasion) you get the option to set up for the master invasion. Your goal is to take revenge on the world, loot everything you can, kill heroes (or villains) (((for the hero version, it is to stop arachnos and take the battle to the center of one of his zones)). Villains invade a hero side…heroes invade a villain side.

You must first set up though. So you run a few quests getting everything ready and pick out targets (you get freedom on what targets and objectives you want to go after, along with the strategy you use). Whatever zone you select will slowly evolve into the battle …so this isn’t sprung onto players ((perhaps it actually spawns another zone instance to handle the way the game does these things, players who zone into the zone are seamlessly put into your instance instead of the real one that existed before you began the invasion)).

So, targets could be the bank (for lots of resources and money), Wentworth (for extra power salvage), or whatever else you want. The longer the invasion continues, the bigger the reward for the person who initiates it. The losses can be heavy in terms of resources and troops, but you get access to special rewards for a well done master plan.

Because there are multiple targets, you can use strategy in how and where you deploy your troops. You could attack the hospital first with your giant robot, but then once everyone is distracted…. Go after your REAL target, the bank. Everything spawned during these events are the special “monster” versions, which scale with the players.

At the end, you can show up personally and take everyone on (but you probably won’t last too long against an army of other players unless you have a few super power or technologies to back you up).

And, during the event, players can target your factories or teleport hubs in open mission instances to try and slow down the troops (along with whatever other special things you have).

These invasions can be different in scale, depending on how much work the player put into it to prepare. And, the solo hero can decide to just invade by himself with his super powered up abilities.

Note: If you have generals, you can place them to protect different things as arch villains or elite bosses (such as inside the teleport hub, players must defeat your general before they can destroy it).

There is also a timer for how often you can invade (once every week? Or two weeks?). Because they can be on such different scales, it isn’t too much of a problem if they happen close together (they could be on the level that a single other player could stop you, or they could need 50). And, of course, you also want to be able to succeed and get the super rewards (though, it will never be without resistance, there will always be at least NPCs).


Protection-

This is the epic defensive version of invasion. Instead of setting up aggressively attacking something… you trigger an epic invasion which you play the key role in defending against. Same thing, you get to show off all your mighty work and master plans and super powers you have worked to get. Basically, you turn the entire zone into an epic battle where you rise above all the other heroes and villains around you as you save everyone. You need to protect key points and fight off the attackers (there could be several versions of invasion, but each of them should force other heroes away at key points for you to shine. … such as a super enemy appears surrounded by a shield that only you can enter in the middle of the city… but everyone can see through it and watch the 2 of you battle as they fight off the lesser invaders with the help of your troops.




Thoughts on if you win. Perhaps as a reward for winning the epic master-plans. Your troops might take over the zone for a period (or, in protection, would spawn in various parts fighting off badguys).

Ok, first a question Can we make moving advertisments with after effects? *grins*

Second, a suggestion! How about giving the top winner a prize of claiming a building in the game and put in a badge.

So, if they do an ad that wins for a coffee shop...you put up a sign for the coffee shop somewhere and let people enter into a small loby with a badge in it (or if the ad is a business, you put in a door on a skyscrapper that does the same thing with a loby and a badge for the business / corporation).

I think a lot of people would really go after that!

Jump Kick

Fast recharge and ok activation with knockup melee attack!

Which means it can be slotted with knockback damage proc and a slew of other melee damage procs...turning it into a pretty dangerous spamable attack (with a soft control)!!! Put in the purple melee damage proc and suddenly you have a very fast recharging monster on your hands.

ugg, is that the same with all damage procs? only working in the attacks that do it? :|

Hiya, I looked around but couldn't find anyone addressing this question. Does the damage proc on the ninja level 1 summon really work? I have had it in my pets for a while but haven't noticed it going off. Maybe it only applied to one of their powers that they rarely use?.... I always thought it applied to all their powers even the ones without the knockback component.

The monster was just dropping by to say hi I'm still sooo far from finished, need to do background even still :| For some reason, this one is taking foreverrr to finish (but at least it is a lot cleaner than normal )

I'll be going off and on tonight (just eating dinner now and might go save the world for an hour... but I'll go back on from about 12amish to 3 or 4am *when I need to switch to after effects and put together a video for tomorrow :P*). I wanted to finish the one I am working on tonight...but I don't think I am going to make it (it goes sooo slow with 4 characters! lol)

Hehe, I went back to my first posts and found temporal scout (my first hero i started drawing ) was able to escape the mass-coverup of starting arts ><

If anyone gets super bored, I'm going to live-stream as I work on this next picture I'll be working on it off and on a lot tonight (dinner breaks are important! P. It's at www.livestream.com/ivoryoasis (i hate their ads though :|

You don't tackle the problem by banning / deleting the trial accounts that do the spamming...you tackle it by getting rid of the level 50's they have which are feeding the money.

All the devs need to do is go to the websites and purchase a couple dollars worth of influence.

Once the money is sent to them, they go and start tracking it back through the characters to see where it is coming from (along with looking into patterns of people who are playing with those farmers *they probably have little groups which they opperate with, maybe even supergroups on obscure servers*)

Then, they keep doing this and after a while they run out of the high characters they have which are feeding all the massive amounts of influence.

The devs have the power and tools needed to tackle the problem... they just need to put someone on it.

Thanks I keep playing with her costume and claws to try different things out. I think I like the more delicate direction of this one, so next time will try to do more delicate designs on the body itself P:

Oh, and the round robot on the left is named "Copper Top" :P Because he has a pipe that looks like a tophat haha. I was thinking the tin tower could be more like a place that heroes can go to and get upgrades or fixes or things like that when in a pinch... kind of like that magic guys tower in the DC universe (dr strange i think?). Explains why things are kept small

I think I need to do a full view / design next... I haven't done too many structure concepts yet ><

Hiya, I decided to start another thread for Clockwork Scout / The Tin Tower (her little base ) instead of using the "I'm back!" thread. So I'll post all new things here P:

Anyhow! Just finished the picture of her in the tin tower looking out over the city. I like how it turned out!

((She took off her goggles for this picture :P ))

Maybe they found out about my secret plot :| I was planning to do some pretty evil things with the influence P:

Decorating a superbase for Clockwork Scout! Nuuuu!

Yup it was mod'ed.... so continuing it here or making a deviant art account to do it would be a bad idea (they sent me a message saying it was against the rules). I don't want people to get banned over fan-art :P

Just an update on the influence auction... the moderators found it and deleted the thread (turns out art for influence is against the rules :|

Oh well, I have a feeling there will still be some nice pieces showing up :P

Well, I made her base last night where she can rest from saving the world. The Tin Tower !

and then wanted to draw something having to do with it P: here is a WIP of her inside the tower looking out (it was once a modest clock-tower in the city, so going to try and reflect the city in a window that she is looking out of )

Tomorrow I'm gonna put in color and finish robotificationing her .

Sorry sorry about the cross-post! It is just that not many people wander over to the art-forum... and this type of thing seems more accessible to people who normally don't consider getting custom character art made


Head on over to the link if you are interested in bidding, that way it can be in one thread

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...28#post3330928


--- Repost ----

I am offering up a custom piece of work (see below to get details on it) for influence (it turns out you can send influence with mail! so... any server now ).

How bidding works. Well, I really want to get started, so, I was thinking of making the bidding till Sunday Afternoon (12:00PM pacific, noon). Just post here with bids and the highest bid at the deadline wins

So, I saw the other thread about people who do commissions for influence.. . and that seemed kinda fun! But, I have no idea how far influence goes now aday (things have changed a bunch while I been gone!!), so thought an auction would be a good solution! Also, I don’t really do commissions so making it a one time thing seemed like a good idea to do some game art of other characters without getting swamped.

Why? Well, I want to make a laboratory for Clockwork Scout and equipment costs moneys!! Hehe. I also hate farming.. .and need to make some killer pieces for my portfolio.. .so. ..win / win / win!

Anyway, the details!

1) Any size piece, want it big enough to print out onto a poster? No problem! Everything will be digital and I can work in any size, just make sure to tell me what size you want ((well, I will ask.. .so.. . you don’t really need to remember that :P

2) The piece will be very detailed in my shaded semi-realistic style *sorry, no line-art or cartoony* (I plan to put a lot of time into it, because I really want to push myself in what I can do. So full detail, textures, background, lighting. .. I want to really try and bringing it to life.)

3) Up to 3-ish characters (this is negotiable, if you are a mastermind you will probably want your pets and / or some friends in there. I just trying to avoid someone getting me to draw their supergroup of 105 heroes all lined up lol, this is a more intimate piece.. .remember, the more characters you have, the more the focus of the picture starts going wonky as everyone is crammed in :P ). So, you can pool together resources with friends and make one bid together!

4) Any location! Have a room in your superbase or somewhere special? Just get me a screenshot and I can do it

5) Concept work a plus! Have a character / pet / object that isn’t really reflected by the in-game models? No problem! I would love to work out concepts of it before moving into the final piece (rough and quicker, before really digging into it in the final). This is kind of a bonus, because it is nice to flex concept design muscles even if it is more work.




The process!

1) First, I start off with some sketches. Rough just to give you an idea and possibilities of what I am thinking. Then I send them to you and we go back and forth until we have an idea that really rocks.

2) Second, I start shading in black and white. This takes.. .forever. But it is worth it. Things are fairly easily changed at this stage and I can send you WIP’s as I go along to avoid any major problems. As much or as little feedback at this stage as you want to give. I don’t mind you sending me a list of things that are important to you to make sure I keep an eye on (like the connection of a belt being not what you imagined, or the folds on the clothes just don’t look good enough).

3) Then I start going in and texturing things and adding color and all the other bits and pieces. This doesn’t take too long





Here are some examples from my Clockwork Scout thread, but the piece I am planning to do for the winner will be more advanced. Like I said, I plan to really push myself and take the time to make it amazing! ((And, if I end up making something that I don’t think lives up to what I know I can do, well, I’ll make you another one free!))

Woaa, you can transfer inf between servers now? o.O Things really have changed!!!

Errmm, hmmm, I should probably delete this thread and put it in general chat instead >< Spam is so annoying, but just so little people come to art forum o.O

Woops, thanks for the tip Adeon Hmm, ignore this thread....

Anddd, here is a new one Went back to my older style of doing it (black and white first, takes longer...but able to play with lighting more).

Also, decided to give her a pet spider / lady bug...named professor creepy. :P

No no no, it isn't grim! Was just thinking of an arc and wanted to draw it to help me think about it P:

The idea with her is she is really just a small relic which produced a faint energy. It was taken by Arachnos and discovered to actually be a lifeform which was blind / numb to the world. So over time they hooked it up to various things and it began to start living in the world through new senses (eventually becoming scout and turning hero, because she has a good heart!).

In the future something happens which ends up killing everyone. But, she can't really die, even if her body is broken. So, she takes on more of a behind the scenes role as she tries to rebuild and keep fighting. ((Because she is a crab and uses her spider pets a lot, I am thinking she will go that direction more. So she creates these small things which become her eyes and ears and slowly builds a base from which to operate...sending them out to explore for more things to help her. Hmmm I need to figure out concepts for them I think.)

I think I need to figure out a better placement for her and work out the entire base she has more. I got lazy last night and just wanted to finish to go to bed lol.

Here one for today Starting to think about how she would be in the future P: