Cooperative leveling pact - Archenemy System

I'll assume everyone knows how a leveling pact works.

While pactmates are normally friends IRL, archenemies are more likely to become rivals, at the very least. You type in a friend's character name into a window, and if that character is online, he will be invited to be your archenemy. Archenemies also level together, but there are several differences.

Archenemies are opposed to each other in several ways. Firstly, if your AE (the accepted abbreviation for the remainder of this post) is eligible for a safeguard/mayhem mission, a window will appear reading "<character> is starting a safeguard/mayhem mission. Would you like to try to thwart them?" If yes, you either go into the nearest door, or are teleported to the mission. (This can also apply to certain possible missions, in which, say, you are trying to rescue/kidnap someone, and your archenemy is trying to get to them first) Heroes thwarting villains will appear in front of the vault, in place of the normal generic hero, and be given the option of trying to stop the mayhem the villain will undoubtedly wreak. Villains thwarting heroes will appear in place of the normal generic villain, with a gang of thugs following non-masterminds. If you successfully thwart your AE in a safeguard/mayhem mission, he fails the mission, and you get a single-origin enhancment or a large inspiration. If you fail to thwart your AE in any mission, YOU are kicked and the mission continues as normal.

The AE pact recieves no exp or debt for the defeat of one of the members by another.

On the topic of grouping: If a hero is, say, grouped with 3 other heroes, and his AE decides to thwart him, the AE is buffed to four times his normal power, or perhaps four levels above his normal level, for the duration of the thwarting.

Archenemies may also put aside their differences for a cooperative mission or two (a la GI Joe and COBRA did against drugs), and become an alliance. Allied characters are boosted to one more than their normal level, which means that, yes, we may well have level 51 characters. (All level boosting properties are purely optional at the discretion of the developer. this can be removed. The Alliance, though, i think, is a pretty solid idea)

AE's could also send each other "challenges" somehow over the police band or newspaper. This would occupy a top fourth slot in the radio/paper, saying something along the lines of "<villainname> issues direct challenge to <heroname>! Response unknown." The two would then have it out in an instanced area, with a tug-of-war over glowies or hostages (guarded by PPD and Arachnos, for their respective sides). The winner gets, as before, a single origin enhancement or a large inspiration.

What do you think? All elements are flexible and can be edited. I know this may be hard to code, but it could be worth it.

I like the idea in general. It's PvP... in a way that would feel a lot less out of place in a superhero game.

That was the general idea. PVP, personalized.

I like the idea though I am not sure how the multiple buffing would really work out in PvP.

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I like the idea though I am not sure how the multiple buffing would really work out in PvP.

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In Pvp, the Archenemy gets a buff equal to the number of characters on his AE's team minus how many members are on his team, with a lower limit of zero buffs. (in case your team is larger than your AE's)

This only takes effect during safeguard/mayhem missions. If you meet your AE in a PvP zone, you need a team of similar size and strength to his to combat him.

Overall concept, I like it. It's PvP, but on a personal level. The buff may need to be tweaked a bit, and I'm not sure how well certain ATs would fare vs the other (as we can see in some of the custom ArcEnt enemies).

/signed.

IMO a fantastic concept. I absolutely love the idea.

I agree that the buffing would need to be worked, but overall, I love this idea.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

Thanks for the feedback. The buffing is, mainly, both a way of providing some thematics to the struggle between sides, and a way of providing some elbow room to an archenemy caught unawares by his nemesis's strength in numbers.

I still have no idea how we could make it work balancedly. (is that a real word?)

(About a week later)

Also, Archenemies could go into leveling pacts with others of their alignment. That's FOUR people sharing exp gain.

WHOA.