Hehe, too many games to count have a mercenary system. It's not as if Guild Wars came up with it first. City of Heroes would not get sued.
Bad Voodoo by @Beyond Reach. Arc ID #373659. Level 20-24. Mr. Bocor has fallen victim to a group of hooded vigilantes who have been plaguing Port Oakes, interfering with illegal operations and pacifying villain's powers. He demands that revenge is taken on these miscreants and his powers are returned! You look like just the villain for the job. Challenging.
I actually like this idea, think of those heroes on the loading screen that we don't know who they are, they would be perfect as a 'hero for hire'.
Thing is, what would we be willing to sacrifice to take them? XP? not likely, Inf? the way the market is likely to go after the MA changes, probably not.
/signed anyway
I had a similar idea. You would be able to gain a proper "sidekick", rather than the temporary player sidekicks we have now. Like in SWTRO, the "sidekick" would be a good conduit for weakness and story - for instance, by having the sidekick kidnapped or vulnerable to permadeath (this should not easily happen) the player should be more protective of them.
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Mission Architect 54161 - Michael Mundano, Megan Malloney and the Secret Senate.
Mission Architect 91838 - Constantinople Jones' Family Secret. A One Mission Story arc.
I like the sidekick idea. At a certain point a player can gain a sidekick NPC who is binded to that player until the NPC dies (in which case you go through a mission or something to gain another). I'd like that especially if the NPC was customisable by the player (powers, outfit, looks etc..).
The NPC wouldn't have as many powers as the player and would be weaker.. the only issue is NPC AI
The only way you could do it which would be balanced would be like the MA people you rescue, where they technically aren't part of your team so damage they do wouldn't go towards XP.
Even then the MA Allies are still pretty exploitable, you can make Standard Blast / Extreme Support ones that give your character a hell of an edge.
It'd also step on the toes of Masterminds pretty strongly and it would throw game balance out by a lot.
I like the idea, I'm just not sure how one could do it in a fair, unexploitable way.
Actually, how about having an official sidekick for your toon?
For every toon you can select a single permanent sidekick that you can customize at the tailors for looks. You can select from a few AT types and powersets and he will always be a level lower then you are. Using the sk will count for teamsize but does not give the bigger team xp reward. If the SK dies, you will need to pay for his or her debt as if you died yourself.
Of course, you can only have one sk, so when another player needs to be sk'ed you can't mentor your own sk. You also cannot increase the teamsize above 8.
Guild Wars is already pretty much a single player game while levelling. Making CoH one too would not be a good idea IMO. Making it easier for people to solo will just mean its even harder to find teams.
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Guild Wars is already pretty much a single player game while levelling. Making CoH one too would not be a good idea IMO. Making it easier for people to solo will just mean its even harder to find teams.
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Oops! Too late.
Please fight My Brute: http://2hero.mybrute.com
Mission Architect 54161 - Michael Mundano, Megan Malloney and the Secret Senate.
Mission Architect 91838 - Constantinople Jones' Family Secret. A One Mission Story arc.
Eh... COV? lol I whole heartedly agree with a GW style SK hero help that you can customize to a particular extent (like GW you collect types of characters say)
Would save some time if you just want to get on with it but dont have people... i'd definitely play some of my characters more if i had NPC help.
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Actually, how about having an official sidekick for your toon?
For every toon you can select a single permanent sidekick that you can customize at the tailors for looks. You can select from a few AT types and powersets and he will always be a level lower then you are. Using the sk will count for teamsize but does not give the bigger team xp reward. If the SK dies, you will need to pay for his or her debt as if you died yourself.
Of course, you can only have one sk, so when another player needs to be sk'ed you can't mentor your own sk. You also cannot increase the teamsize above 8.
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This seems like a decent enough idea.
I wonder what it would do to Villains though, there's already a hell of a lot of Brutes and Masterminds over there. If each could have their very own customized Support Sidekick, built to their exact needs it could spell the end for the less played ATs.
I do like the side kick idea but as others have said if it was implemented wrongly then it could result in teaming becoming even more scarce.
Hows about making a it a combination of the SK system and the leveling packed system.
You would create your sidekick at say lvl10 or so using a modified character creator. the side kick would level up as if they were a player character so when they reach level 2 they get a power when they reach level 3 they get slots ext ext.
-even tho you create them at level 10 so there combat level is 9 they still start as a level 1 for the purposes of powers and slots
-they would always be -1 level to you
-XP would be shared between you and your side kick in the same way its shared in a leveling packed
-If the side kick is defeated you get there debt[1]
-if you are defeated your side kick will fight on for X amount of time before despawning (this would count as a defeat)
[1] this could be changed to debt + a percentage based on your combat level so if your level 10 and your side kick gets defeated you would get say debt + 1% but if you were level 50 you would get debt + 100%
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Guild Wars is already pretty much a single player game while levelling. Making CoH one too would not be a good idea IMO. Making it easier for people to solo will just mean its even harder to find teams.
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Guild wars is only single player if you choose to play it like that.. like coh. The good thing is tho.. If there are no teams about you dont have to rely on other people you *can* continue with a full team of heros. (i've completed entire campaigns without having to play and vise versa)
The thing i like about GW heros is that they level up with you and you can unlock new ones as you progress. excluding that you can also customize powers and armour.
(S)He could be someone who doesn't do battles but makes "helpful" (though unfortunately not essential) contributions in terms of story (obviously these would have to be written in at mission creation, and take into account that the player may not want/have a sidekick and thus cannot be essential to the plot).
The sidekick doesn't always have to be with the player, so the player can do missions alone or with a team (in which case, imo, the sidekick shouldn't be available), and can often be captured - this is how I see the main role of the sidekick, to be the captive - someone the player has developed an affection for and doesn't want to lose - this would give more incentive to complete timed missions, perhaps?
Please fight My Brute: http://2hero.mybrute.com
Mission Architect 54161 - Michael Mundano, Megan Malloney and the Secret Senate.
Mission Architect 91838 - Constantinople Jones' Family Secret. A One Mission Story arc.
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Actually, how about having an official sidekick for your toon?
For every toon you can select a single permanent sidekick that you can customize at the tailors for looks. You can select from a few AT types and powersets and he will always be a level lower then you are. Using the sk will count for teamsize but does not give the bigger team xp reward. If the SK dies, you will need to pay for his or her debt as if you died yourself.
Of course, you can only have one sk, so when another player needs to be sk'ed you can't mentor your own sk. You also cannot increase the teamsize above 8.
[/ QUOTE ]
This seems like a decent enough idea.
I wonder what it would do to Villains though, there's already a hell of a lot of Brutes and Masterminds over there. If each could have their very own customized Support Sidekick, built to their exact needs it could spell the end for the less played ATs.
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That is a danger true, on the other hand you could play a support class with a brute lackey and not be forced to wait or search for a team to be able to play the game.
I know that my empath would have hit 50 A LOT sooner if I could have had an Attack AT to take with me.
This would be really handy for 'fenders and Trollers since they're more of a support class rather than an attacking class and they sort of need a team.
Maybe the sidekicks that AT's who can handle themselves are weaker than the one for 'fenders etc?
Well if you can design a sk and adopt the system used for the MA, then I would suggest that your sk only got the 'normal' powerset. Meaning that taking the real deal with you should be better then having your own sk with you.
An emp defender sk can heal you fine, but no goody buffies and that scrapper sk you are supporting got some nice moves, but not as flashy as that of a real scrapper.
Hello again.
I read your replies, and come up with some changes 
Since alot of you are concerned about people teaming less if they can just do a "singleplayer" group.
But we can just add a few downsides to the support heroes.
1. They "leech" Exp, meaning having them gives you less. (This was always the idea, but now we have it on the list)
2. Less mob spawns, for every 3 support hero, there will spawn the same as if 2 player was in the group. (Giving you a 3 man spawn with a group of 4 to 6, or 5 man spawn with a group of 7 or 8.(These numbers are with you included in group)) This way, you can do missions alone, but the exp will not be as good as if you found a real group.
Hope you like my Changes.
Edit: About the suggestion of a Sidekick. Maybe it could be implanted, by some mission.
The sidekick will be stronger then other support heroes, BUT!... He will also take up 2 Team slots ?
This way, you would still be able to make a 5 spawn group, but only have 7 minions instead of 8.
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Personally as a player who has done a lot of CoH and Cov solo I think this is not a good idea... after all it is a MMORPg and if you can't find a team so what ... In the old days when debt was a killer it actually gave you time to do other missions that you would normally have out levelled...
As I said this is my opinion and it counts for naught .
I've been wondering, one of the most commen problems in CoH/CoV while leveling, is finding a group...
So, why dont City of Heroes ger a simulare system as the Mercenaries in Guild Wars.
It's all NCPlay right, so cant they just use it, without getting sewed ? :P
Also take some of the Guild Wars hairstyles XD
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