Dev Diary - Signature Rogues - By Positron
By
alienuterus,
Posted on: 2009-07-13 16:22 in Developers' Corner
I can't wait, I love the idea when heroes fall or villains are redeemed. In most stories (series), it is usually my favorite part. I am also getting the feeling that the switching sides will be done by a series of missions or possible just one (but one is unlikely, I mean its not like I would trust a traitor, I mean no matter which way you go, you are a traitor, after they do ONE favour for me). A system like the Respec Trail is what I see as most likely (without a lvl req.).
Some friends and I were chatting about this and here is, basically, our wild speculation on how it might realistically work condensed into a few lines.
GR allows both heroes and villains to go to Preatoria where you each have a contact. Then what?
We dismissed the following:
** A badge would be too easy to allow side switching and make the "expansion" a complete waste of our money if you could achieve this in one afternoon of work. That would make it somewhere between a $20 and $50 permission slip to switch sides.
** The same for a mission similar to the "cape missions" in the game.
** A Task Force or a story arc similar to the CoV patron story arcs. Biggest reason why is logistics. How does one accomplish this? I might have a level 1 and you might have a level 50.
Our collective guess was this: Since this is an expansion and presumably similar in size to CoV when it was released, there must be content available from 1-50. If so, our guess is that if you ding a 50 in Preatoria, (we'd get addition characters slots, create a character in Preatoria and go 1-50), you unlock the ability to travel any of your redside characters to the blueside and vice versa.
This was discussed having limited facts to make speculations from. I only posted it so you all can add to the speculation and see where it leads.
EDIT: for clarification
{QR}
Speculation on Going Rogue Trading Places Mechanics
I think that when the trading places mechanics will be based on xp earned during "typed" missions. Currently, in the game missions are either labeled as "hero", "villan", or not meaning neutral.
When playing a character in Praetoria you earn in essence 3 different types of experience, Heroic, Villainous or Neutral. When you have earned enough of the one type to make the next level you can choose to train for that type. For example, a tank in Praetoria runs nothing but villainous missions and earns enough "red" bars to make level. He can go to a villanous trainer and train as a villain.
They can either make it so that there are three running totals A red xp bar and a blue xp bar as well as the neutral xp bar or a tug -of- war type like the PVP Zones.
Also, neutral xp can be handled in different ways. Lets say at the start of the next level your toon first earns 500 neutral xp. He then earns 500 Villanous xp. The totals would be N 500 V 500 H 0. Next he earns 500 Heroic xp. This would make the xp total N 1000 V 0 H0. The heroic and villanous xp cancel out and join to fill up the neutral xp totals. This makes it easy to level at a more natural pace if you don't care about switching over and forces to you be very focused if you DO want to switch to the other side.
Additionally, they could level gate it by simply not making Hero/Villain missions until a certain level (like lvl 25). This system also means that it takes more to cross over for higher level toons.
Sir Zane (Lvl 50, Inv/SS/Nrg Tank);Atomic Jake (Lvl 50, Kin/Rad/Elec Defender)
Nikolai (Lvl 50, DM/EA/GW Brute);Raging Stallion (Lvl 50 MA/SR/Weap Scrapper)
Archmage Tristam (Lvl 50 Ill/Son/Psi Controller)
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I get the blaster thing, what I don't think I can follow is a demon summoning anything using that power for good. Just my two RP cents but if you are talking "demons" in the classic sense then why would they want the souls of those already "dammed" as it were.
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Look at Infernal's bio; that's already part of canon. Also, Shivans are unwilling servants when summoned, demons could be just as unwilling. In fact, look at Desdemona's bio, the demons are unwilling servants.
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My personal guess is that it's going to be similar to this, but over a larger number of missions than just one. First of all there are the "Hero" and "Villain" missions that have been pointed out. Plus, there's games like Knights of the Old Republic that have an alignment system that could be easily adapted here. |
Originally Posted by Knuckledragger
Possibly a choice must be made. If choice 1 is made you walk in darkness if choice 2 is made cotuine the path of justice. Perhaps we're going to get branching arcs
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In short, the more "Hero" missions you play, the more heroic you become. The more "Villain" missions you play, the more villainous you become. There will likely be "Neutral" missions introduced in Going Rogue that allow you to do more questionable acts if you are a Hero, or some good deeds if you are a Villain. I like the idea of being given multiple choices, and I hope that shows up, too.
So a Hero becoming a Villain is something that will take effort. First of all, you will have to become Neutral, which will require taking more Neutral missions than Heroic ones. Then, presuming you get access to the Rogue Isles, you'll have to start taking Villain missions over there to truly "Become Fallen". Praetorian Earth and its shared missions, where you will obviously be teaming with both Heroes and Villains, will be the path to that.
Now, for those who don't want to wait, I understand you will be able to create characters already Neutral. So you'll already be halfway there, you won't have to work as hard to "switch sides". You can start your character off grey to start with, or work your character to that point and stay there. (I know I will have a bunch of characters that will "go grey")
nice i got a dual blade brute named "Iago" mabey a hero named othello is needed next 
I'm going to petition Maelstrom as soon as I see him in game. That's a Marvel character, a kin actually.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maelstrom_(comics)
*I am just kidding so please don't give me your own maelstrom of fury about why petitioning would be wrong.
Nevertheless, it wouldn't hurt to make sure the devs know this is a Marvel character (see: Bastion)
Global = Hedgefund (or some derivation thereof)
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Did this make anyone else feel good about their own intelligence? Just wondering! I don't feel dumb anymore! lol |
Originally Posted by Inquizitor
Dual pistols and Demon Summoning. Plus I think this is the first time it's actually been confirmed that they are allowing Side Switching.
More input. |
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Well Posi did state how he came up with it. As long as it's not an exact character copy I don't see how they could get too angry lol... Then again it is Marvel... O well! We'll see how that goes!|
Originally Posted by Deacon_NA
I'm going to petition Maelstrom as soon as I see him in game. That's a Marvel character, a kin actually.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maelstrom_(comics) *I am just kidding so please don't give me your own maelstrom of fury about why petitioning would be wrong. Nevertheless, it wouldn't hurt to make sure the devs know this is a Marvel character (see: Bastion) |
On the note of copying characters, me and my friend "tried" the so called "competition" that is called CO... The fact the some are calling it competition is quite hilarious I might add.... Anyway we were in the beta. You can make an almost exact copy of Stateman in it! You can even name him Statesman, although they blocked Marvel super hero names... So I made him and walked around the tutorial zone asking everyone where the competition was, since I couldn't find any lol! Just thought you would all get a kick out of it!
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you can probably make statesman since Statesman is Copyrighted to Jack AND CoH and since Jack is lead dev of CO....|
Originally Posted by ZanderCross
Well Posi did state how he came up with it. As long as it's not an exact character copy I don't see how they could get too angry lol... Then again it is Marvel... O well! We'll see how that goes!
On the note of copying characters, me and my friend "tried" the so called "competition" that is called CO... The fact the some are calling it competition is quite hilarious I might add.... Anyway we were in the beta. You can make an almost exact copy of Stateman in it! You can even name him Statesman, although they blocked Marvel super hero names... So I made him and walked around the tutorial zone asking everyone where the competition was, since I couldn't find any lol! Just thought you would all get a kick out of it! |
just speculating though.
AE # 67087: Journey through the Looking Glass - Save the World
LLX VirtueVerse! - Check out my crazy Toons
This is the size of group that we have balanced AVs for, 6.
-Positron 06/07/06 07:27 PM
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Sadly, Pepto Bismol (tm) will not fix this. |
Originally Posted by Thirty_Seven
My gut says you are right on all counts. My gut doesn't usually lie. But sometimes, when I burp I hear it mutter to me about being misleading on occasion just to mess with me.
 |
Where to find me after the end:
The Secret World - Arcadia - Shinzo
Rift - Faeblight - Bloodspeaker
LotRO - Gladden - Aranelion
STO - Holodeck - @Captain_Thiraas
Obviously, I don't care about NCSoft's forum rules, now.
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I suspect, as someone else pointed out later, that it will be far closer to the second idea. For one thing, the data handling would be simpler, I imagine. For another XP is XP- whoEVER you're fighting, you're growing in experience and strength. You're becoming a more powerful character, not villain/hero/neutral.|
Originally Posted by Sir_Zane
{QR}
I think that when the trading places mechanics will be based on xp earned during "typed" missions. Currently, in the game missions are either labeled as "hero", "villan", or not meaning neutral. When playing a character in Praetoria you earn in essence 3 different types of experience, Heroic, Villainous or Neutral. When you have earned enough of the one type to make the next level you can choose to train for that type. For example, a tank in Praetoria runs nothing but villainous missions and earns enough "red" bars to make level. He can go to a villanous trainer and train as a villain. They can either make it so that there are three running totals A red xp bar and a blue xp bar as well as the neutral xp bar or a tug -of- war type like the PVP Zones. |
I anticipate a single sliding scale that keeps track of hero and villain 'points' for lack of a better term, with neutrals perhaps counting to move you back towards the center but not beyond it in either direction.
It would be nice if your position on this scale determines what contacts are available to you, but obviously i have no idea if that's possible in the system the devs have envisioned and built.
I HOPE it's something like this, at least, not a single, simple branching path, where switching alignment becomes sort like flicking a...well, you know...switch.
Things to remember:
-Common sense ain't;
-Overkill is the only kill;
-If someone asks if you're a god, run away.
Here's some questions:
When a Villain has access to Hero zones and maps, would the Villain's SG then be able to house porters to blueside maps?
Also, would a global storage facility become a feature?
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you probably would be auto-kicked from the sg since you cant make villian+hero sgs...
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Originally Posted by Vyolet
Here's some questions:
When a Villain has access to Hero zones and maps, would the Villain's SG then be able to house porters to blueside maps? Also, would a global storage facility become a feature? |
Quote:
Regardless of RP sense (which is often foiled by changes in game lore/too many attempts to tie in game mechanics with IC action => IC consequence - imho of course | I get the blaster thing, what I don't think I can follow is a demon summoning anything using that power for good. Just my two RP cents but if you are talking "demons" in the classic sense then why would they want the souls of those already "damned" as it were. |
) Infernal is a Hero that uses Demons. And I'm still unsure just how heroic the power Beheader is too...
***
In other news - more shiny CGI please! And info.
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Unless they make Hero/Villain SGs.|
Originally Posted by toilet_monster
you probably would be auto-kicked from the sg since you cant make villian+hero sgs...
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Edit: Or add new/modified classifications. In other words loyalist SG and Rebal SG.
I've been a fan of the game since 2005. With that being said, the Going Rogue component is really a great addition. In classic comic book form, now a character
that you loved to hate can for whatever reasons change sides and be one of the
best additions to a Team.
I know I'm preaching to the choir here folks, but Going Rogue stands to not only
breath new life into our standard CO-X experience but really in my opinion almost
re-invent MMOs (At least for me.)
Now that I've wasted all of our valuable time, I just wanted to offer a very sincere
thank you for this highly anticipated feature. Can't wait!
Personaly I find the idea of Going rogue to be Fantastic.
The only thing i'm worried about is the shoe-horning in of characters.
In Scirroco's contact info, it sais that he is cursed by his weapon, and forced to do evil deeds.
I would have LOVED to see him switch to Hero-Side,
And see Malaise turn red-side.
but the new guys work fine.
Just make sure, Devs, that you don't shoe horn people into the game.
I would LOVE Demon summoning!
Demons FTW!!!