Rogue Theories

There are comic book characters who do follow the neutal or at least argueably path. Punisher, Deadpool and Vigilante are the most noteable. They aren't heros (unless you consider an assasin a hero) and they aren't true villains (they aren't looking to hurt innocentsor or steal).

There are a few straight Mercs in comics but they tend to not be very popular.

IMO the difference is:

Hero - follows society's rules and had a strong moral structure
Villain - ignores society's rules and lacks moral structure
Merc/Neutral - follows his own rules (possibly very strict ones) or works around society's, lacks moral structure but may not realize it.

A moral structure is closely related to societal rules. We live in a society and people who make up their own rules to live by and ignore everyone else are not sane.

I don't understand why everyone seems to think that if a villainous archetype goes heroic that they would have to have access to the ancillary power-sets, or if a heroic archetype going villainous will get access to the current patron power-sets. They may add more power-sets in the patron/ancillary area but I highly doubt that all the sudden a Blaster will get access to the Mu Mastery patron power-sets. Some of the schemes people come up with for this just seem very over complicated.

My prediction is that one of two things will happen:

1) They will just remove the arc completion requirement from the patron power-sets so they are essentially the same as the ancillary power-sets in that they just open up at level 41. The arcs will remain to actually do, maybe with a respec reward upon completion, but you won't have to complete them to get access to the powers. With the current patron power-set included as being able to be respec'd, the patron arc completion is less significant before and doesn't really hold the same meaning other than you did 1 of 4 arcs, when before it was arc XYZ got you ABC powers. That could be a sign of them just removing the requirement all-together.

2) They will just introduce heroic equivalents for the rogue villainous archetypes to do unlocking patron arcs for. The power sets will be identical to the current Mu/Leviathan/Mace/Soul Mastery. The patron could be the praetorian versions of the patrons. Missions could be nearly identical as well. Rogue heroic archetypes just have their ancillary pools open up at level 41 as they do now.

The whole idea that because a Blaster is villainous they now have to chose between the Dominator patron pools, or because a Mastermind is heroic they get access to the Tanker ancillary powersets (or whatever ATs you pick, just using as examples) sounds overly complicated and prone to bugs and balance issues since the current sets are balanced and designed for their specific archetypes.

I doubt they would give more respecs to us every time we switch sides so change out the ancillary and patron pools based on our morality because that would kill their micro-transaction setup they currently have for it. Why pay $10 when you could just switch sides and get a freespec.

I think your classifications are bit too stringent. Not all heroes are totally good. And not all villains are totally evil. There is a lot of grey area. From the CoH world, we have Manticore. He's been know to stretch or even break the rules, for the common good. From the DC world, we have Batman. Batman doesn't let the law not society's rules get in the way of Justice. Batman has files on his fellow heroes on their weakness in order to take them out, just in case. And the who Brother Eye thing from the latest Crisis series. And from Mavel we have Silver Sable. she's certainly a mercenary and has cross paths with heroes many times, but has requested heroes help as well. She doe have a very moral structure, but it's that of a noble of the State of Symkaria. And the another group from the Marvel Universe, Heroes for Hire. A set of heroes truing to run a business to make money. A set of mercanaries from their appearance. But they are a group of heroes, which will do the right thing then the situation calls for it. Like getting hired by a boy searching for his mother, and paying with a jar of coin which is all the money the boy has.

Oo, I like random speculation! Ok, lets see...

They go back and altered it so each mission/arc currently existing in the game had a good/evil factor to it. Anything from Westin Phipps gives tons of "Evil points" where as stopping bank robberies gives tons of "Good points."

Pretoria has missions available for both sides that give Good and/or Evil points. Obviously most missions in Paragon/The Isles are going to give Hero/Villain points. Your alignment is decided by how many points you have of both sides. Might also include a a "Grey" alignment too. If you have tons of Good points and little to none Evil, you get to be a "True Hero" and get access to special rewards for sticking with the Light Side™

Same is true for villain side.

A roughly equal mix of them gives you either an Anti-Hero, Anti-Villain, or Neutral. Anti-Hero has more Good points then Evil. But it's still awful close to even. Anti-Villain is the other way around. Neutral is either more "Grey" points, if they exist. Or roughly even in points.

Personally, I see "Grey" points as a better option then trying to force players to balence doing good/evil missions to maintain a character that floats between the two.

I cant believe no one read the survey. Most of it is being done or being put in I16 or has been confirmed in comic-con(except for moonzone). In going rogue with the info from the survey we will all be able to switch even if we are not in Pretoria. We Might or will use a Morality compass if you put the compass on good and your a villain you will be given contacts that give you good karma missions which means there could be Good,Neutral,Evil contacts in all three sides. You could also get rewards for not switching. Also we might start characters as neutral as another poster said. at the end of the tutorial we will choose what side we want to be.


Also does anyone know if I make a villain lvl 39 and make him hero will he still have patron powers vice versa.

I don't think switching would be restricted to just Praetoria (I always want to say Petoria ; ' ) If anything, the Rogue Isles will see more life if younglings switch early, tempted by the Widows.

What would be REALLLLY nice is if we see the equivalent of the TEF (Temporary Enemy Flag from Star Wars Galaxies*) implemented and thus allow optional PVP in the zones. Yes, hero powers will be available in the RI as a villain, but if actual heroes can go to RI (and vice versa), then we can start seeing some intense fun in the game.

*Regarding TEF. in SWG you could set a flag if you were interested in PVP. In addition, for people like Jedi who revealed their lightsaber or powers, they got a TEF which means that anyone could attack them. Something akin to optional pvp in the zones would be sweeeeeeet.

Okay, back to reality. My alter-ego must run the push-mower over the lawn.