How I Would Make Alignment
By
BBQ_Pork,
Posted on: 2009-10-31 20:48 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
I find the concept interesting.
But the first thing I would want to do is refuse to register with this organization, regardless of whether I plan to be a hero or villian, even the most patriotic ones. Haven't we seen a fair number of government agencies go too far (or go semi-rogue when a particularly bad person gets into the right position) in comic fiction?
And if it's a private organization performing the work as a contractor, double that. (I'm thinking Crey right there.)
The three (or more?) choices would be neccesary, of course, but there may be a bit of quibbling as to how you define right/wrong. Some folks would make a decision and disagree as to how many good/evil points it scored on the meter.
I'm trying to reword the acronym to make it spell S.P.A.N.D.E.X., but I got nothing so far.
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If I may kindly disagree, BBQ, I see many Heroes just looking at this sort of thing and saying "Well, I don't much like it, but I see the reasoning behind it." so they do it for the good of the city. But if you're a Hero that just feels against it, well, there's still an option.|
Originally Posted by BBQ_Pork
I find the concept interesting.
But the first thing I would want to do is refuse to register with this organization, regardless of whether I plan to be a hero or villian, even the most patriotic ones. Haven't we seen a fair number of government agencies go too far (or go semi-rogue when a particularly bad person gets into the right position) in comic fiction? And if it's a private organization performing the work as a contractor, double that. (I'm thinking Crey right there.) The three (or more?) choices would be neccesary, of course, but there may be a bit of quibbling as to how you define right/wrong. Some folks would make a decision and disagree as to how many good/evil points it scored on the meter. I'm trying to reword the acronym to make it spell S.P.A.N.D.E.X., but I got nothing so far. |
And as you could imagine, it wouldn't be impossible to start out on the road to Villainy, but then turn towards Heroics, or Heroic to Villainy, but it would certainly be more difficult. Villains would have those rare opportunities to take a more benevolent course, which would be increasingly rare as your alignment goes in one direction or another, considering that Heroes are going to be working with more Heroic people, where as Villains will be working with the more Villainous... Or maybe on their own? Who's to tell?
Edit: As for 'SPANDEX'? I'll pass. I'm a bit tired of everything having to have a name that incorporates exactly what they do, and I find it just a bit cheesy that Magic Supheroes deal with 'Magi'.
Alright. Sounds good to me.
Fred starts off as Villian for not having registered. Base -50 points. Spends career working for the greater good. Gets to the point cap (100? 200? Whatever) by L50.
Tom starts off as Hero. Base +50 points. Spends career working for the greater good. Hits the cap by L30.
Stabby McEvil starts off as a villian and kicks puppies every day. Hits the Negative Cap (-100, -200, whatever) by L30.
Works for me.
DOS-PANA it is.
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I don't exactly how the alignment would scale, per say, but I'll work on quantitative numbers if this idea proves it has any merit.|
Originally Posted by BBQ_Pork
Alright. Sounds good to me.
Fred starts off as Villian for not having registered. Base -50 points. Spends career working for the greater good. Gets to the point cap (100? 200? Whatever) by L50. Tom starts off as Hero. Base +50 points. Spends career working for the greater good. Hits the cap by L30. Stabby McEvil starts off as a villian and kicks puppies every day. Hits the Negative Cap (-100, -200, whatever) by L30. Works for me. DOS-PANA it is. |
One thing that I would like to also add that I'm sure wouldn't be too popular: Reputation.
Yes, I know that people think WoW is evil and we should never, ever try to emulate it, and while I'd rather not emulate them, it raises a valuable concern...
In CoH, why is it that every 'good' organization seems to work together? It's like the 'good guys' all seem to know that they're all th good guys and you can't do anything. Personally? I don't think someone who's working for Vanguard would too happy with Longbow in many cases, and vice versa.
If I had to do things myself, not every 'good' organization would be allied with each other. Some? Sure, but different people have different agendas. You would be able to build up your rapport with different agencies, and possibly turn old enemies into allies to help in a fight. It would be another centerpoint in the aspect of having an alignment, because sometimes I just look at faction wars and I think "Why would I want to stop The Family? I like them."
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I think I've heard this one before in some form.|
Originally Posted by Sigium
One thing that I would like to also add that I'm sure wouldn't be too popular: Reputation.
Yes, I know that people think WoW is evil and we should never, ever try to emulate it, and while I'd rather not emulate them, it raises a valuable concern... In CoH, why is it that every 'good' organization seems to work together? It's like the 'good guys' all seem to know that they're all th good guys and you can't do anything. Personally? I don't think someone who's working for Vanguard would too happy with Longbow in many cases, and vice versa. If I had to do things myself, not every 'good' organization would be allied with each other. Some? Sure, but different people have different agendas. You would be able to build up your rapport with different agencies, and possibly turn old enemies into allies to help in a fight. It would be another centerpoint in the aspect of having an alignment, because sometimes I just look at faction wars and I think "Why would I want to stop The Family? I like them." |
Trying to earn reputation with varius factions ingame.
Trying to keep a Hero/Villian meter as well as a meter for each of multiple organizations might prove difficult.
Sure, there's a number of hero factions you could do work for (PPD, Wyvernn, Longbow, Vanguard to name a few), but there's a boatload of villian factions you could do missions for (Arachnos, Freakshow, Hellions, Skulls, Trolls, Carnies, etc.).
Often, the villian contacts usually have you fighting other villians, (with the exception of the PPD in Mayhems, a stack of Longbow and a few Wyvernn) while this has an obvious effect on your reputation meter with each of the two factions, does it affect your Hero/Villian meter?
The hero contacts almost always have you fighting villians.
Just seems that it might prove difficult to achieve the faction-rep you want with existing red-side story arcs. Newspaper missions though, would be great for cherry-picking who you want to fear you.
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Well, two different 'benevolent' organizations can easily have different motives.|
Originally Posted by BBQ_Pork
I think I've heard this one before in some form.
Trying to earn reputation with varius factions ingame. Trying to keep a Hero/Villian meter as well as a meter for each of multiple organizations might prove difficult. Sure, there's a number of hero factions you could do work for (PPD, Wyvernn, Longbow, Vanguard to name a few), but there's a boatload of villian factions you could do missions for (Arachnos, Freakshow, Hellions, Skulls, Trolls, Carnies, etc.). Often, the villian contacts usually have you fighting other villians, (with the exception of the PPD in Mayhems, a stack of Longbow and a few Wyvernn) while this has an obvious effect on your reputation meter with each of the two factions, does it affect your Hero/Villian meter? The hero contacts almost always have you fighting villians. Just seems that it might prove difficult to achieve the faction-rep you want with existing red-side story arcs. Newspaper missions though, would be great for cherry-picking who you want to fear you. |
I'll cite Mass Effect on this one, a particular instance on one of the first planets:
You're asked for help by a civilian to get his wife's body back, but the military needs it to examine what killed her in the war and to build a vaccine/defense against it for the future. Do you get the distraight man's wife's body back or do you let them have it to save possibly more lives in the future?
What I'm looking for it a better test of moral code than the standard of kicking babies vs. giving your grandma a hug. Heroic and Villainous acts are still very gray, but I don't think working for a certain company would guarantee an alignment shift, unless it were directly heroic/villainous.
Kinda disappointed about no replies though. Anyone wanna tear into this thing and tell me why it sucks and I should suck, too?
Or: "If I Had My Own City of Heroes/Villains"
First and foremost; I apologize if this does not belong here. You can -Rep me for my insolence of posting such a thing here if you'd like.
I'd like to sorta... I don't wanna say I'd like to pitch my own game here, but I'd like some critique on something. I posted something along the lines of my 'own game' in the Suggestions forums, but as you could imagine... These aren't suggestions for CoH.
If I ever had the privilege to produce a Superhero game (which I don't plan to in this lifetime, but it's nice to dream) it wouldn't always be telling a tale about Heroes and Villains, but also those caught in between.
Imagine this: To start the game, you begin as a character of neutral morality-- for those who like pure Heroes/Villains, keep reading-- and you start after the 'War of the Capes' as many had deemed it; a massive civil war that had broken out amongst Heroes and their factions. Villains thought it was a good idea, but guess what villains tend to do with power? They want to fight for it... So while you've got Heroes fighting for their own regimes, you've got Villains fighting for who can take advantage of the weakened state of the Heroes.
Finally, the dust settled and there weren't nearly as many worthy of calling themselves a 'Hero' after the bouts of destruction and carnage caused. It was also cause for a new agency to arise:
DOS-PANA: Documentation Of Super-Powered Abilities and Network Agendas
It was the first organization to have the controversial mission to document the superpowers of all those who would wish to have a good standing in the city. As you can imagine, that would cause some trouble for some people.
For Heroes-in-the-making, you could go right ahead and document yourself for the good of the city, and prove that you have nothing to hide. For all you no-good Villains out there, you would have the option of beginning your route to darkness by refusing to document yourself, breaking out of DOS-PANA's facility and going about your business. As you make your daring escape, the guards (that you presumably defeated) will say that they collected information during the fight, and it's enough to create enough of a profile for you in their database... But certainly not in good standing.
So, you've got neutrality... And it would be a sort of 'meter' like Knights of the Old Republic, but without the whole 'Kill a box of kittens vs. Donate your kidney to a dying child' sort of choice. For most contacts there would be a heroic option, a neutral option, and an evil option... Perhaps more in some situations, but who's counting? There would be levels of good and evil, of course... For the Heroic scale, you've got the Neutral, Do-Gooder, Crime-Stopper, Vigilante, Role-Model, Paragon, and then Hero. An alternative scale would work for villains, and it would often determine what contacts would want your help.
And then, what about those who just want to start OUT as a Hero/Villain? Well... We have Epic Archetypes at the moment. I don't see why reaching the maximum level couldn't open up alternate beginnings for Heroes/Villains; instead of registering your powers, you're already so Heroic you've done it already and are out stopping crime, and your first task would be to defeat some sort of terrorizing whatever... You get the idea, where as a Villains' first task would be to take over a small business/radio station/iconic local building and show that they're not afraid of anything!
So, yeah. That would be my take on a great alignment system. I'm sure it's not the best out there, and I'm sure that some of you will outright hate it for either being too cliche, or too much of a rip-off, or just not like the idea of having an alignment system in general! Still, this is my own little 'For Fun' post, so I hope you won't rip too far into it.
Once again, I apologize for posting this if this topic does not belong in this forum!