New Character-related Content

I don't know about anyone else, but one of the things I love the most about City of Heroes (from here on Villains fall under this) is the ability to make 'your own' hero, full with background and unique look. However, I think this is something that could be expanded on even further. For example:

Costume Descriptions
When a hero selects their costume (or their only costume) there will be a new tab in their Personal Info box, next to Description, called 'Costume'. In this tab there will be a box where you can write up to 1000 letters (or whatever), and a 'Save' button underneath. When saved, the box becomes unchangeable (like the Description tab) unless the 'Edit' button (replaces Save) is clicked, which makes it editable again.

This tab will be specific to each costume, depending on which is selected, and selecting a different costume will load that one's last saved description. By having this dynamic, players can write backstories on their heroes' costumes, perhaps explaining why they are currently robotic, or surging with electricity.

With such a small change on the developer's part, players that enjoy 'writing their characters to life' can feel their characters are explained that much better!

Pet Descriptions
This is mainly for Mastermind villains, but could also apply to Controller heroes.
Similar to the above idea: When you click on a pet's Info and the box with the pet type's description comes up, this would become tabbed under 'Description' with (something like) 'Personal Info' next to it. Using the same process as before, this box can be edited and is saved in the same way that pet names are, with each pet having its own unique description if desired.

Again, this will let players who enjoy broadening their characters write backstories for their pets and their motivation for following the player's character. It will be left blank for players who don't care, but again such a small change could make players feel more connected to their characters.

Hero Timeline
This would be completely different to anything previously seen in City of Heroes. Without wanting to make this sound like a stolen idea, this would be similar to the timeline found in Spore.
Essentially this would be on its own screen, somewhat like when you open the Architect window, and would be found in the Menu just under I.D. When opened you would be greeted with a timeline that began at Lv.1 on the left-handside, then progressing with a intersecting line at each day passed (this could be real days or game days, depending on how much self-gratification the designers think players need - I vote real). Within this graph there would be two main bars: one ever-increasing XP bar in purple, and one in blue or red for influence or infamy. There would also be a black one for debt and a yellow one for prestige, which can be toggled on and off.

For the XP bar, it would begin in the bottom-left (at Lv.1) and reach toward the top-right for the next level (eg. Lv.2). The angle of this would be determined by the speed at which XP was gained over the course of that day. When the next level is gained, the already-owned XP would be pushed down to make room for the new amount of XP needed, up to Lv.50 where the bar would finally reach the top-right and flat-line.
Similarly the Influence or Infamy bar would be more like a jagged line, going from bottom-left to top-right (with top-right being the most you've ever had at once), then dropping down to the bottom-right when you spend some (with the very bottom being 0).

To begin with this would all be on one page, then as days progress a scrollbar would appear to let you side to the right. There would also be options to view it as Daily, Monthly and Yearly.

The main appeal of this timeline would be that is marks any major achievements (or all achievements), such as badges awarded, respects completed, deaths, story arcs completed and new costumes made. These would be pointed out with icons around the XP bar, which show a little information when moused-over. Also, (and this is where some Spore influence might come in) when you save a new costume it should save a small .jpeg file on your computer - this way when you mouse over any costume changes in the timeline, you can see just what it was you looked like - even have nostalgic flashbacks to your first ever costume at Lv.1.

This timeline could even be brought into a person's Info, when right-clicked. Like, a small week-long timeline showing any recent badges or level-ups. Considering the inclusion of Ouroboros it would make an excellent addition to the whole idea of time in the City of Heroes universe.


Please, let me know what you think. I'd love to get some feedback on these ideas

I'd be okay with this as a "if we have time" addition. I'd rather they not divert manpower and resources to this unless their goals for an issue were already met.

I, and probably a lot of others would rather see new content, zones, missions, task forces, powersets, etc. first.

I'm not against the idea, I just think it should be a stretch goal rather than a focus point.