Very interesting idea. I like it a great deal.
Tradeable in person, yes...but perhaps a new kind of store...something not dissimilar to a 'tavern' or 'opium den', where you can buy clues (at a scaleable price)?
Love it. It's something of a more complex version of the systems used in other games where a mob drop spawns a quest/mission.
It could have almost enumerable potential sources of this salvage. What about random glowies on missions or in the street which drop a clue and then vanish. Static clickies in some places, similar to those 'secret' clickies in the Midnighter Clubs which give out a random clue every so often, like a slot machine.
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Great idea actually, I'd love something like this
Agreed. I'd love to see this in game.
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I love this idea
/signed
I approve, let it be so.
/signed
This idea seams so intuitive that one have to wonder why it was not implemented from the beginning.
After all in the first issue of the CoH comic from Blue King Studios, Apex and War Witch start off their adventures by finding a clue (robot-zombie body part) during street sweeping.
Many mission also sends you out to beat up a certain kind of enemy group to get a member to spill the location of a hideout, or to raid hideouts for more clues to what a group is up to.
So it is almost like they was thinking in thoughts terms originally and then ditched the design for something more linier.
On a side note, skulls did not even have to drop skulls clues only, one of them might know of a hellion hideout, or something about what the CoT is up to
As for trade, maybe a system that only allowed trade of clues to clues. Kind of like: If you tell me what was so special about the amulet the CoT stole from the museum, I will tell you where you can find a council base.
Anyway just a long way to say /signed
Have you sugested this before? I recall someone a year or more ago suggesting this or something very similar...
Anyway, now, as then, it's a great idea and seems to fit into my ideas of how heroes would find out about crimes to foil and villains would decide where there was an opportunity waiting to be taken.
Much better than appearing as a fledgling hero/villain and everyone automatically wanting to shove work your way... even before you've made a name for yourself.
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Great idea, definately one for the Devs to think about.
/signed
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Have you sugested this before? I recall someone a year or more ago suggesting this or something very similar...
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I don't think it's an entirely new concept. Plenty of players with Batman-esque, detective-type heroes have wanted this kind of thing for a while. It makes your hero feel more proactive. You actively go out to street sweep, discover evidence of crimes and act on it, rather than being directed to things by contacts.
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/signed also
/signed.
Basically because this would also grant a further incentive to street-sweeping beyond badge-hunting or those despicable hunts. I think it would be even better if this opened up a new brand of story arc (silver? Then we can rename the existing ones gold and bronze rather than yellow and red).
Thoughts on how such story arcs could be structured/fit into the scheme of things are welcome - one thought that springs to mind would be that if a character has an open 'silver' story arc, they randomly spawn ambushes from the villain group they are 'hunting', which continue until the arc is complete.
This could also lead nicely into the much-desired 'Personal Nemesis' content. Love it, love it, love it.
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Love it. It's something of a more complex version of the systems used in other games where a mob drop spawns a quest/mission.
It could have almost enumerable potential sources of this salvage. What about random glowies on missions or in the street which drop a clue and then vanish. Static clickies in some places, similar to those 'secret' clickies in the Midnighter Clubs which give out a random clue every so often, like a slot machine.
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The whole random glowie thing has already started to make a slight appearance in the Orbourous story arcs but they haven't followed this up, but I agree and glowies would be a good way to do this as well.
They could change the first contacts to say, "go out and make a name for yourself see what you can find"
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
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Very good suggestion, I would love to play some of my heroes like this. 
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It should also be possible to share the Clues with your SG members by uploading the clues to the SG mission computer. The Clues would be combined there to give the missions.
I have suggested something similar using base salvage as "clues", but having the drop to be their own new type of "Clue drops" is a neat idea.
I LOVE this idea. Anything that promotes detective work is a good idea as far as I am concerned.
How about making mission chains which are unlockable only with a certain number of clues, an example might be something like this:
You need to find more clues about the [missing_widget_name]:
[ ] Clue: You might find a clue somewhere around [area_name].
[x] Clue: You found a [item_name] in [area_name], [zone_name].
[ ] Clue: The Outcast graffiti in The Hollows tells tales of woe.
(the text here could hint better at what you might find where and could be vague or specific. Clues could be like exploration badges, which you move over and it triggers (BLING! You found a clue!) or it could be something you click, like for the Midnighter Archivist badge).
The exploration-style clues could be locked until you open up the previous step in the arc, so you can't find them by accident.
Once you tick all the boxes, you get more text about which contact might know more. i.e. it unlocks a contact.
This could go on for each step of the arc, if you want it to be a single player thing, or it could just unlock the first clue then you can get a group together if you want it to be multiplayer.
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How about making mission chains which are unlockable only with a certain number of clues, an example might be something like this:
You need to find more clues about the [missing_widget_name]:
[ ] Clue: You might find a clue somewhere around [area_name].
[x] Clue: You found a [item_name] in [area_name], [zone_name].
[ ] Clue: The Outcast graffiti in The Hollows tells tales of woe.
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No, I don't think that would be very fun. You want the illusion of your character is pieceing together the clues and is the protagonist who drives the story. A "gather these clues" check list is reactive. It's an NPC, or the game, sending you out to collect shards of a red key before letting you open the red door. You're no longer driving the story, you're being driven by it, which is the problem I have with the way missions are given by NPCs today.
I agree with Leif there, I just couldn't put my finger on why I didn't like the idea.
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No, I don't think that would be very fun. You want the illusion of your character is pieceing together the clues and is the protagonist who drives the story. A "gather these clues" check list is reactive. It's an NPC, or the game, sending you out to collect shards of a red key before letting you open the red door. You're no longer driving the story, you're being driven by it, which is the problem I have with the way missions are given by NPCs today.
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I don't understand, could you please be more specific?
Do you mean that the mission exists, and you have to find it? Or it magically generates itself when it thinks you might have been in several places where you MIGHT have seen a clue? I can't put my finger on your idea, it's rather vague.
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Mission Architect 91838 - Constantinople Jones' Family Secret. A One Mission Story arc.
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I don't understand, could you please be more specific?
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It's the difference between "Go there. Do this." and "Heeeey. If I put these things together like this, I can do that." In the latter case you're acting and driving the story; in the former you're only reacting and you're being driven along by the story.
Try (re)reading the first post, it isn't vague at all.
What you are proposing is little different from existing arcs. Mission 1: find a problem. Mission 2: beat up 65 Crey to get a clue. Mission 3: react to clue by raiding warehouse. Mission 4: Use clue from warhouse... etc.
What Leif is originally proposing is something more like the salvage system. You get drops from mobs which can be combined together (perhaps automatically when the right clues are in your inventory) to result in (effectively) a radio/newspaper mission, or perhaps to unlock a small story arc or sequence of missions.
This is attractive because it works with an entire class of heroes who don't operate by getting given jobs to do by the authorities. Instead, they tend to street sweep and then may come across some important piece of information carried on some otherwise normal minion of an organisation.
Imagine it like this: Say you are in Brickstown and you lay waste to a load of Freaks. Three of them drop clues and the system says "You have noticed that many of the Freaks are carrying fliers to a 'Grand Battle' to be held in a warehouse. You have 24 hours to raid the warehouse and stop the property damage the Freaks are sure to cause."
It feels more like you are going out, discovering crimes, and sorting them out rather than being an errand boy for some reporter or dried up NSA agent.
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Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
This is a semi-formed idea that's been rattling around in my brains for a couple of days.
Today we have four main ways of getting missions: regular, progression based NPC contacts, repetetive NPC contacts, newspaper / radio and Oruborus. I'd like a fifth way: getting missions by gathering and combining clues.
I'd like to see a new type of salvage, "Clues", specific to enemy groups and city zones. So you'll have Skull clues, Nemesis clues, Crey clues, Kings Row clues, Crey's Folly clues -- each gathered by defeating enemies of the appropriate faction and street hunting in the appropriate zone (and perhaps sometimes supplied as a set-pieces in regular missions or achieving badges.)
To combine clues, you have to build a clue chain. In addition to having a parent faction, each clue has a list of factions it "links to". A "Skull: Base Location" clue might only link to other Skull clues, while a "Skull: Rumour" might link to "Skull, Troll, Hellion, Kings Row, Perez Park" clues. To build a clue chain you start with one of your clues, add another clue that's linked from the first clue, add a third clue that's linked from the second clue, and so on until you either hit on a valid combination that'll provide a mission or run out of linkeable clues.
Special content can be opened by combining clues along special (hard-coded) clue chains. "Skull -> Kings Row -> Clockwork" might provide the the Skulls vs. Clockwork mission that gives you the negotiator badge. Other combinations might provide new, story-thick missions or even story archs. Some clue chains might not provide missions at all, but instead temporary powers or badges.
It should always be possible to combine two or three clues from the same category ("Skull -> Skull", "Perez Park -> Perez Park") for a newspaper / radio type mission against that enemy or in that zone.
Personally, I'd like to see clue salvage being transferable in person, but not sellable on the consignment house or black market.
A lot of the stand-alone, regular missions could be shanghaied into a clue-based system, but to be worth it, there would have to be made new content only available through clues. I'd particularly like to see missions and story archs that delves into the background and history of the various enemies / zones.
Perhaps this could even be made into a way of integrating player-made content in the game? When making a mission you also specify a clue-chain that can trigger it, and when a player creates a clue-chain the game selects one of the available missions that matches it.