A side benefit to Going Rogue

What about Paragon Universe Online?

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What about Paragon Universe Online?

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PUO

Sounds like POO.

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Be well, people of CoH.

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Those who think there need to be huge restrictions against using an expansion that is heavily hyped make my brain hurt.

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I certainly don't believe in penalizing side-switchers by disallowing access to epics. That's just silly. But continuing to allow ONLY the Patrons/APPs that have always been available on each side seems to me the most interesting choice. It makes rogue ATs slightly different than those who remain on their original side of the fence. Some will argue better/worse. Quite frankly, I think if I switched my AR/Dark corr and lost Black Scorpion's pool, it'd be for the worse. Still... I'd support the idea, just because it adds something new.

Give everybody access to everything or just leave them all with their current epics, even if they change sides and... you have a recipe for *boring* when you had an opportunity to mix things up.

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Villains: Annie Alias, Dr. Amperical, Shade Golem, Knight Marksman
Heroes: The Clockwork Mime, Soccerpunch, The Fissioneer, Samurai Houston, Oversteer

Join The X-Patriots on Virtue!

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I believe the most likely "barrier" to switching is going to be content, not penalties..

Based on the survey last fall, I actually expect people with a sufficiently grey/neutral rating to be able to switch back and forth with some degree of ease. Maybe not just walk up to the portal and click it ease, but certainly not dramatic undoing of your character.

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Again, lol, this.


Uberguy has pretty much hit the nail on the head. The dev's aren't going to want to "extremely penalize" paying customers for even considering swapping factions. This would not only severely discourage anyone from ever buying their new expansion in the first place, but place more problems on themselves down the road through complaints and lack of profit.


The Morality Compass, which was discussed a very long while back, is the most likely scenario with side-switching. As discussed in the intros for CoH:GR, Heroes and Villains will be able to explore the "grey lines" between "good and evil." Combine that with the Morality Compass, and we can assume that we will not simply wake-up one morning and declare ourselves a "new faction" without having FIRST built up enough either "good" or "bad" points (to put it simply) to declare it. We can even assume that by this statement in the press release:

"Clearly marked missions, in addition to behaviors and decisions made by the player, will move a hero's or villain's moral compass, which could eventually change the hero's or villain's alignment"

Basically, we'll most likely be forced to run a hefty number of "clearly marked missions" in order to gain enough "Morality Points" for us to side switch. The exact number of missions and deeds that we must do are what we don't know. I'm betting that we're looking at a pretty decent amount of time investment required to be able to swap sides though. I'm SURE the dev's don't want people being able to swap sides on an hourly or "at whim" basis.


It might not be several "days" worth of mission hours, but most likely it will be more than just a "couple" quick missions. My guess would be about [u]2-3 Strike Forces worth in time investment[u] for comparison, since it is clearly stated as with enough missions you could "eventually" change your alliance. Eventually in the MMO world can mean a decent amount of time investment in many cases.


I do doubt, however, that you will lose your badges, money, levels, enhancements, etc. There's a chance that we may lose stored "loot" such as salvage/recipes, but even that may not happen as that in and of itself would be quite a severe penalty for any player.


[u]As far as Ancillary and Patron Pools are concerned, my bet is one of two[u]:

A.) We'll either simply "keep" our Ancillary or Patron Pools normally, as it was a time investment the dev's didn't care to apply right now.

B.) Or we will simply be allowed to respec into the new faction's Ancillary or Patron Pools upon side swap. This will either be handled as a "free respec" such as Villains gain when they complete their Patron Arc for the first time (meaning that each time you switch factions, you'll gain a "free faction respec"), or you will simply attain a chance to "respec" your lvl 40+ Ancillary/Patron powers upon side switch, in order to just choose new ones (heroes "may" have to run villain patron arcs).


The Dev's might even make it a "mission" which you'll have to complete in order to recieve your new factions Ancillary or Patron Pools, make it sort of a "Prove yourself to your NEW faction and gain access to a new Ancillary/Patron Pool!" type thing. However, I'm truely betting that upon faction switch, you WILL be granted a free-respec, in similar fashion to how the Villains are currently granted a free-respec upon completion of their Patron Arcs. Afterall, you will be putting in PLENTY of time (more than a regular respec missions worth) to make it a justifiable reward.


Also, I think that our "faction builds" will come into play with the recent ability they granted us to have "2" builds. [u]I don't think, however, that we will be given a total of 4 changeable builds.[u] I think that they dev's granted us the recent ability to have "2 builds" with CoH:GR in mind, and with full intent and preparation for faction swapping. Now, you can have a "Hero build" and a "Villain build" if you swap. It's that simple.


Anyways, those are my "predictions" on the table. Just a head's up, my logic is pretty sound on this

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Anyways, those are my "predictions" on the table. Just a head's up, my logic is pretty sound on this

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It's the logic the devs use that I'd be concerned about. At times they seem to stand on principle about things that concern RP-integrity and concept and at other times look the other way. Anybody's guess which this will be.

That's not a knock, exactly, by the way. They have to strike a balance between the two. After all, it's a business.

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Villains: Annie Alias, Dr. Amperical, Shade Golem, Knight Marksman
Heroes: The Clockwork Mime, Soccerpunch, The Fissioneer, Samurai Houston, Oversteer

Join The X-Patriots on Virtue!

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So, heroes and villains will get to change sides in the new expansion.

Villains are going to need some ancillary power pools for when they turn good.

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Way, way back, when side switching was first discussed in earnest (when they added names for the same badges on both sides), Statesman, who was still in charge, suggested that you'd lose EPP/PPPs and have ro respec into PPP/EPPs.

That was ages ago now, so who knows, but that makes sense to me.

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Easiest, best solution to me. Also having to be lvl 1 all over again would DEFINITELY be a deal breaker for many.

On the other hand starting at lvl 30 or 35 is a different story.

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Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!

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I believe the most likely "barrier" to switching is going to be content, not penalties..

Based on the survey last fall, I actually expect people with a sufficiently grey/neutral rating to be able to switch back and forth with some degree of ease. Maybe not just walk up to the portal and click it ease, but certainly not dramatic undoing of your character.

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This.


Uberguy has pretty much hit the nail on the head. The dev's aren't going to want to "extremely penalize" paying customers for even considering swapping factions. This would not only severely discourage anyone from ever buying their new expansion in the first place, but place more problems on themselves down the road through complaints and lack of profit.


The Morality Compass, which was discussed a very long while back, is the most likely scenario with side-switching. As discussed in the intros for CoH:GR, Heroes and Villains will be able to explore the "grey lines" between "good and evil." Combine that with the Morality Compass, and we can assume that we will not simply wake-up one morning and declare ourselves a "new faction" without having FIRST built up enough either "good" or "bad" points (to put it simply) to declare it. We can even assume that by this statement in the press release:

"Clearly marked missions, in addition to behaviors and decisions made by the player, will move a hero's or villain's moral compass, which could eventually change the hero's or villain's alignment"

Basically, we'll most likely be forced to run a hefty number of "clearly marked missions" in order to gain enough "Morality Points" for us to side switch. The exact number of missions and deeds that we must do are what we don't know. I'm betting that we're looking at a pretty decent amount of time investment required to be able to swap sides though. I'm SURE the dev's don't want people being able to swap sides on an hourly or "at whim" basis.


It might not be several "days" worth of mission hours, but most likely it will be more than just a "couple" quick missions. My guess would be about [u]2-3 Strike Forces worth in time investment[u] for comparison, since it is clearly stated as with enough missions you could "eventually" change your alliance. Eventually in the MMO world can mean a decent amount of time investment in many cases.


I do doubt, however, that you will lose your badges, money, levels, enhancements, etc. There's a chance that we may lose stored "loot" such as salvage/recipes, but even that may not happen as that in and of itself would be quite a severe penalty for any player.


[u]As far as Ancillary and Patron Pools are concerned, my bet is one of two[u]:

A.) We'll either simply "keep" our Ancillary or Patron Pools normally, as it was a time investment the dev's didn't care to apply right now.

B.) Or we will simply be allowed to respec into the new faction's Ancillary or Patron Pools upon side swap. This will either be handled as a "free respec" such as Villains gain when they complete their Patron Arc for the first time (meaning that each time you switch factions, you'll gain a "free faction respec"), or you will simply attain a chance to "respec" your lvl 40+ Ancillary/Patron powers upon side switch, in order to just choose new ones (heroes "may" have to run villain patron arcs).


The Dev's might even make it a "mission" which you'll have to complete in order to recieve your new factions Ancillary or Patron Pools, make it sort of a "Prove yourself to your NEW faction and gain access to a new Ancillary/Patron Pool!" type thing. However, I'm truely betting that upon faction switch, you WILL be granted a free-respec, in similar fashion to how the Villains are currently granted a free-respec upon completion of their Patron Arcs. Afterall, you will be putting in PLENTY of time (more than a regular respec missions worth) to make it a justifiable reward.


Also, I think that our "faction builds" will come into play with the recent ability they granted us to have "2" builds. [u]I don't think, however, that we will be given a total of 4 changeable builds.[u] I think that they dev's granted us the recent ability to have "2 builds" with CoH:GR in mind, and with full intent and preparation for faction swapping. Now, you can have a "Hero build" and a "Villain build" if you swap. It's that simple.


Anyways, those are my "predictions" on the table. Just a head's up, my logic is pretty sound on this

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What if the MA missions counted for this?

For instance the more you run villanous MA and dev countent the more you go dark, the more you run heroic MA and dev content the more you go white. The could have the MA content count 2-3 times as much as the dev content.

Ofcourse this doesn't say what "neutral" would count for.

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Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!

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What if the MA missions counted for this?

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/broadcast Morality farm LFM! PST!

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Villains: Annie Alias, Dr. Amperical, Shade Golem, Knight Marksman
Heroes: The Clockwork Mime, Soccerpunch, The Fissioneer, Samurai Houston, Oversteer

Join The X-Patriots on Virtue!

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What if the MA missions counted for this?

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/broadcast Morality farm LFM! PST!

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LOL, I wouldn't put it past them, and yes, I could see that broadcast happening if it did end up working that way. However, I wouldn't place any bets on it. That may make it "too easy" for us to change our morality's in their eyes. Heck, we already farm AE missions for all they're worth as it is


But yes, it's a possibility.

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The cheap and dirty solution of course would just be to auto-unlock all the patron pools when you hit 40 blueside. In other words, just pretend they are APPs. Not a solution that respects "concept" but then again neither is allowing people to switch back and forth multiple times, yet apparently that's going to be allowed nonetheless.

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You are correct, no character in any story has ever changed sides more than one time.

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The cheap and dirty solution of course would just be to auto-unlock all the patron pools when you hit 40 blueside. In other words, just pretend they are APPs. Not a solution that respects "concept" but then again neither is allowing people to switch back and forth multiple times, yet apparently that's going to be allowed nonetheless.

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You are correct, no character in any story has ever changed sides more than one time.

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lol, your comment oozes with sarcasm haha

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OP has a point. If I'm a good brute at level 40, why would I go back to the rogue isles to work for one of the patrons to unlock the PPPs?

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To quote Godfather Part III.

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Just when I thought I was out, they drag me back in!

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