My Own Debt Alternative: Reputation

Please, PLEASE hear me out! I'm not requesting a WoW-style system of Reputation!

Debt, in the world of Paragon City, is a joke. I don't mean to offend anyone when I say that, but between debt reduction, the fact it's not much of a punishment to begin with, and Patrol XP? Debt is no more frightening than an issue of MAD Magazine.

No, I'd like to suggest Reputation as a form of 'Debt' alternative... But what exactly IS reputation?

Reputation is how Paragon City perceives you. It is what distinguishes the good from the bad, the better from the worse, and the Heroic from the Average.

Reputation is a variable that your character will have based upon successful missions vs. defeats, and depending on how your reputation is, on a scale of -10 to 10, will determine how the city reacts to you. Every character will start out at 0 -- a neutral point in the Reputation.

Let's go through some examples...

You start a mission, but find that you die 10 times along the way. This will take 10 points off your reputation; if you were at 0, you're now at -10, and if you're at 10, you're now at 0. Let's say you finish the mission, and you gain 1 Reputation for completing it, so the net loss is -9.

Now, your contact notes this, and he/she's disappointed... This is Paragon City, darnit! You're not the only Hero running around looking to help them, and they're gonna see about other inquiries until you've got the proper reputation.

Now, let's say you've got -9... Your contact no longer wants to speak to you at your current level of reputation, nor do... Any contacts, for that matter! You're trapped, until you open up your contact list and find the scanner just aching for some action!

Therefore, you are able to raise your reputation via scanner missions, up to where your contact will take your help on further tasks, as you've 'redeemed' yourself. You go on with your life, and chalk that last mission of 10 defeats as a fluke, and you're off!

But wait, there's more!

Upon reaching a high-enough reputation, it will unlock contacts, depending on what zone you're in, and your level range! That's right... Say, you've done 9 successful missions without fault? The word's gonna spread, and more people are gonna want YOUR help! These people can offer SO much new content to the game for EVERY level group, and every zone!

This system would work for Heroes AND Villains, as you might've noticed, and I think would make the game a great deal better. I hope you'll consider Reputation, and see all it has to offer Paragon City.

An interesting idea, and could possibly open the door for "man on the street" missions depending on how it's done.

Sadly, I don't see it happening without a complete revamp of the contact network both sides (and blueside needs one badly), and despite wanting one so bad I'm not sure how likely it is to happen.

Before I read the OP's suggestion, I thought "reputation" was going to be tied somehow to influence/infamy. For example, every time you die, or drop a mission, prices go up/down by 10% to a maximimum of 100%.

In other words, if you die three times in a mission, when you go to sell the recipies and enhancements that dropped, the store will only give you 70% of the normal value for them. Or, if you need to replace the enhancements you've outleveled, they charge you 130% of the normal going rate.

The two problems I see with this though, are that there's no fair way to make it affect the market, and I don't have any idea how you'd improve your reputation - one completed mission to offset each death? That might be a little too harsh.

My only concern about this system would be that my defeat is not always my fault.

We've all teamed with overzealous zergonauts responsible for numerous team wipes. Why should I be penalized for their style of play?

Even if the team leader kicks the zergonaut from the team, or if I quit the team, the reputation has already been applied. I think I'd have a problem with that.

Maybe have the death proportional to the mission? I.E: You effectively gain back 50% percent of reputation lost in the mission. It would still lower your reputation but it means that people who die frequently won't be restricted to Paper/Radio missions.

Also, how about it affects inf(luence/famy) and Prestige? Afterall, a hero with a good reputation would be more influential and get a better name for his/her SG.

Aside from slight balancing issues I think this idea would be fantastic.

Let's face it, Photon, at the moment Blasters are popular out of proportion to their survivability, and Tankers the reverse. If everybody were suddenly punished for having a Blaster on the team, because Blasters die more often, it'd be harder for them to get teams than it is now.

Those archetypes that are already shunned may continue to be, but for different reasons.