SMerc

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I have a question, if this is public knowledge or if something devs want to comment on.

I understand that missions are cross-faction. Will the players be able to see anything about the person who made it?

Of course, for maximum exposure I intend to make a mission that either heroes or villains can do without feeling like they're playing for the wrong team, but I'd rather create it on a villain character since it's the one I'll be playing the most and be getting architect badges and unlocks with. So will people be able to see that a Night Widow made the mission they're about to do, and skip over it because they think it's not a mission intended for heroes? Is there any sort of short summary we can put to note that the arc is intended for both heroes and villains?

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Or, alternatively, could we perhaps use the Hero and Villain tags that a large proportion of the game's missions now have for this purpose? Is that exactly why they were instituted to begin with? It does serve as pondering fuel. MA mishes could then be flagged hero, villain, or neither, depending on content, and only people of the appropriate flag could play them. If this isn't the plan, I kind of think it should be.

A few questions of my own to throw into the ring:

1. Will we be able to use Giant Monsters, as has been suggested?

2. Will we be able to create our own Giant Monsters, if #1 is a yes?

3. We can only have 3 published arcs at a time, but arcs save as a text file that we can keep on our own computer, correct? So we can have an unlimited number of arcs created, but only 3 uploaded to the server at once as "published". Am I correct in this?

4. I have seen it stated elsewhere that we can play unpublished missions in a "test" mode, and even bring teams with us to do so. Is this true?

5. If I am correct about #3 and #4, does this mean we can have an unlimited number of missions that we have saved on our computer, easily accessible for private/SG use?

A lot of people are asking for the ability to put in custom created AV's or EB's for their missions. I really doubt this is a possibility, because that would take more data storage on NCSoft's end than is really feasible. Every created enemy would be like an additional character slot they're giving us on their server.

So that got me thinking; why not allow this and tie it -to- our character slots? Let us create a character using the character creator, pick their power sets, appearance, and everything like usual, and allow that character to take up one of our character slots. This character could then be used in our custom created missions, at the cost of one of our regularly allotted slots.

Or one step further: allow the custom mission creator to use any character existing in our slots on a given server in our mishes. The game already has many eloquent systems in place to allow this to happen. If I place my level 30 brute as a villain in a level 50 arc? He gets sked up to 50 to fight. If I place him as a villain in a level 10 arc, he gets exemped down to level 10 to fight.

This would allow us to make whatever we want for custom bosses, whether heroic or villainous, and at the same time require that we give up something in return, character slots. So there'd be a hard cap on how many we could have, and it wouldn't require any additional data storage on NC's end: just code the mission to call up that character's stored information.

I just posted this in another thread, but I figure it might belong here also:

I just picked up my pre-order, regular edition of CoV, and got Lord Recluse out of it. Isn't he only supposed to be in the collector's edition?

I just wanted to seperate this post because it's sorta a seperate, and difficult, concept for an emote. I'm referring to the Display of Power emote I mentioned in my earlier post.

There's nothing that shows a villain's confidence like an uneccessary, superficial, contemptous display of their powers. The difficulty of implementing this is that you'd have to have a different emote for every power. I'll give some examples to show what I mean, and to start off the thoughts for other sets.

If you used devices (or explosives), for example: Toss a small grenade near the hero(es) and chuckle (if you've ever seen Rolento in Cap/SNK 2, you'll know what I mean)

If you use some sort of super strength, furiously SLAM your hands into the ground, with an accompanying thunderous sound effect and temporary cracks in the floor.

If you're a gunslinger, shoot at the hero/minion's feet in a classic "Dance!"

If you use martial arts, do a small portion of a kata (the taunting kind used in action movies) Similarly, if you use a sword, do a spinning/technique display.

If you're an ice blaster, imitate sub-zero (first MK movie, right before Liu Kang kills him..just with no actual effect). If you're electric, have arcs of lightning that shoot off your body and sweep across the area (best example of this is Vegeta charging up for the Final Blast/Flash against perfect cell...the powerup that took an entire episode!). If you're firey, extend your open upturned hand that is burning/has a fire ball hanging over it. For energy blasters; sorry to reference DBZ again, but it's powerups are almost perfect for such an idea.

Just some basic ideas on what you could do. Definitely a nice emote to display before a villain/hero fight, or just to cow your minions.

Ok, a LOT of good things have been said so far. I officially second many of them, including but not limited to:
Walking
Mr. Burns Excellent
Dracula cape across the face, also the vampire seeing sunlight hand across the face.
Very swirly capes, especially the "cape swirls as I turn away" emote
Master plans, excellent
Standing Hover/Fly (if you want to see a particularly creepy example, watch the "Hush" Episode of Buffy)
Slow clapping
Various drats, curses, foiled, etc.
Sound effects for evil laughs (I'd like to see at least three different choices, based on different kinds of villains).
Some more dramatic (and not TARZAN) screams
Simple Vader imitations
Limb Cracking (knuckle/neck/etc.)
Finger Snapping (summoning minions)
Villain thought process: Earth, laser, laser destroys earth

I'd also like to suggest a few of my own, including:
Disingenuous handshake (either simply sarcastic or perhaps a joy buzzer, a la Joker).
Nosferatu hands (refer again to the Gentlemen in Hush)
Display of Power (I'm going to elaborate in another post)
Wind (a mysterious wind comes up and flaps your cape etc.)

Jekyll/Hyde (drink a potion (or not), tear at your clothes, fall to your knees, head down, claw at the ground, etc. Good for mad scientists, werewolves, or anyone who transforms (lots of villains don't have pleasant transformations) Macro it with a costume change, and you've got a good time).

And the greatest, vilest and thus far ignored emote:

"If you were REALLY evil, you would....EAT THIS KITTEN!"