If you could redesign a canon faction (or two)

So, if you were ever allowed to redesign and redo some of the stories on canon factions, which ones would you pick and what would you change, add, and/or remove and what kind of things would you do to the story?

For me, my two picks are Longbow and the Skulls.
Longbow, but it's more proactive than some OTHER super groups *Cough*FreedomPhalanx*Cough*DawnPatrol*Cough*, it's only problem is that what it has in zeal it has lost out on common sense, decency, and understanding of international laws.
There's a lot I would do to the faction units itself, namely be structuring them to end up like a cross between their current selves, the Vanguard, the PPD, and a little bit of Crey thrown in.
I would also have them re-purposed in story terms as mostly a relief organization you would encounter along the coasts and docks of places like Mercy, Port Oaks, and with an off shore series of Freighters serving as an HQ in Nerva, working to get people who need to, out of the Rogue isles while also sending food and clothing to those in need. At least when your villain starts out, but the idea being that as your character continues and moves up in their story, Longbow is forced into more and more drastic steps till they're that borderline fascist Knight Templars who have stopped caring about helping and more focus on bringing down villains at no matter the cost.

For the Skulls, because they seriously have less story behind them than the Hellions, and that's just pathetic.
I'd basically redesign them from the ground up as a nihilist group and still have a creepy thing for the concept of death, a cabal of sociopaths and homocidally emo thugs who draw pleasure in dragging people down in their dark perspective and snuffing out the light of life with wicked glee. Also, I'd change the leaders and let them be AVs you'd encounter. In particular, as a contrast to the above listed characteristics of the group, to have one of the leaders be a shockingly bubbly, cheerful, and cute girl who sincerely loves humanity and the world, but has a twisted belief that because death is the ultimate thing all people have in common, that everyone will get together and be happier when everyone is dead.

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

Banished Pantheon - specifically the 'Wheel of Destruction' arc as they are 'guest stars' in other arcs they appear in. They do appear in the 40+ range but I believe that's a one-off Portal Corps mish.

The BP are pretty awesome, in my opinion, and as their name suggests they were once very powerful gods who were banished for whatever reason. I say tie them up to the game lore a bit more, make them supporters of Rularuu who promised them the permanent resurrection of Adamastor and a return to their seat of power.

Thanks for clearing that up Thirty-Seven. I never knew that.

Well, I retract my post (but would still like to see more stuff about the Pantheon!).

*scurries off to the MA to dream up arcs for them*

The Circle of Thorns. It's not that I dislike their existing stories, but they are massively overused and in the second half of the game I spend so much time strolling casually in and out of Oranbega I start wondering why the PTA doesn't run a train service there, it becomes so routine. In the early part of the game they're one of the scarier enemy groups to face, but post-40 they're pushovers compared to say Malta, KoA or Arachnos, so I'd definately toughen them up a bit.

(...and get them out of the Portal Corp parking lot.)

I'd give *all* the lesser used groups more game-time.
Let's see now;

Hellions
Skulls
Infected
Goldbrickers
Luddites
Hydra

Theres probably more. They all have a distinct backstory and all, but no real development. Who is Midas? What is it in the water that makes the Infected what they are? More development of Hydra, bar a never done trial run. Give the Skulls and Hellions some actual arcs?
That, and dont get me started on costume re-designs...

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Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

The Warriors.
Yes, the laughing-stock of Talos.
I'd add about ten levels to thier current upper limit and give them access to the Shields defensive set, at least amongst amongst the new, higher-level section.

Yea I believe repacing some CoT arcs with Banished Pantheon instead would be good on both blue/redsides.

Less Longblow arcs on redside more Warriors/Trolls/Outcasts.

Coralax arcs and Luddite arcs.

Sorta off topic;
Maybe new Obo arcs relating to the history of CoX,example as a villain assisting Mako with the defeat of Scrapyard or as a hero trying to stop it.

The fall of Dark Astoria during the Rikti war,villains helping the BP and heroes trying to prevent it,etc.

would love to see the Vazhilok retconned to be a much more important group. They are an ace enemy and get outlevelled way too quick. I'd like to see them like the CoT & Council who travel with you through your levelling arc.

I also agree the Skulls could seriously be given some love!

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

I actually dislike the multiple versions of the signature characters. Apparently GR will have the alternate versions, Cimerora has the ancient versions, etc. Why? Why not make new supers all together. Most of the signature heroes are pretty cheezy and the villain side revolves far too much around Arachnos and everyone getting to be a 'chosen one' Give me a break hahaha.

Make some new and exciting factions that are modern and cool looking. Just my 2 cents.

Some good suggestions here. I didn't really intend this to be an AE arc ad, but like, I imagine, a lot of players, I ended up using AE arcs to promote and flesh out some of my favorite underdeveloped factions.

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Originally Posted by BBQ_Pork The Warriors. Yes, the laughing-stock of Talos. I'd add about ten levels to thier current upper limit and give them access to the Shields defensive set, at least amongst amongst the new, higher-level section.

Same. In fact, I wrote an arc that does this. It's #175660, "The Heart of Talos, for you Warrior fans out there. Unfortunately, the Grant Cover power doesn't seem to be working for enemies, which takes a lot of the challenge out of shield-using enemies. (It certainly does work for Cimerorans, who have it built in.) Incidentally, I suspect that part of the reason nothing more has been done with the Warriors is that Cimerorans are, mechanically, much like what higher-level or updated Warriors would be.

I'd like to see a bit more done with the Legacy Chain. Their background is one of the most interesting in the game, but in missions in which they appear, they're little more than a low-level, magical version of Longbow. Perhaps for this reason, they, too, have spawned a number of AE arcs, including one Dev's Choice ("Whole Sale Soul Sale," I think), and my own #193451, "The Key and the Chain," which features the underused Banished Pantheon, too (note to lore pedants: that arc takes place before the Cap au Diable Strike Force).

I'd also like to see a bit more use of Rularuu, more as a background force than an enemy group. I'd really enjoy it if you'd go through, say, thirty levels of hearing the occasional invocation or mention of Rularuu, only to run into his trippy minions in the 40's. Preferably in some well-written stories, rather that the series of one-off missions and interminable i2 Task Forces we have now. It's sad to think that Rularuu are better used in CoV, where they appear in just a few missions (but are referenced by a lower-level contact), than in CoH, where they have four whole zones dedicated to them. (I also have a longstanding desire to see one Rularuu enemy show up in a low-level mission about Hellions biting off more than they can chew . . . hmmm)

Nemesis has exactly the opposite problem. He's used as an explanation for seemingly everything in the background material, but the actual faction is fairly uninteresting. Even its archvillain looks just like a regular boss. (Yes, I do realize that's the idea.) The thing I find strangest is that, while it's called the "Nemesis Army," we rarely see it do any of the things an army of villains would normally do. Additionally, Nemesis enemies are fairly limited in nature. Putting aside automata, we have two kinds of mechanical bosses, Jaeger, and, mostly, a gazillion ranks of guys wearing pickelhaubs that are all nearly the same to fight. Wouldn't something based on a 19th century army have cavalry (cue Flying Nemesis Horsie image), artillery, skirmishers. . . the list goes on. Additionally, Nemesis needs some straightforward brute force to counterbalance all that plotting. With all that in mind, when I decided to write a "challenge" arc to test my knowledge of AE mechanics, I used Nemesis. (It's arc #255713, "Urban Renewal," for those who can't get enough Nemesis. No AV's, but can get away from you easily if you're not careful. Additionally, the final mission is often buggy, refusing to spawn chained objectives. I don't generally recommend this arc unless you're interested in AE mechanics or really, really like fighting Nemesis.)

I'd also like to see more done with the Coralax. I suspect this group has suffered from being connnected with a scrapped Epic Archetype; I imagine there's a whole backstory out there (or even several) that's never been polished up for release. Coralax, incidentally, are another group that vanishes inexplicably at higher levels, despite the fact that they're fairly challenging, as low-level enemies go. Interesting Coralax trivia: all Coralax emit an irritating, whining hum at all times. Stand next to one without using any powers and listen.

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EDIT:

How could I forget? One thing I'd really, really like to see is more use of unique bosses in regular arcs. Not necessarily Elite Bosses or AV's; just unique characters. We get one every five levels in our Safeguard and Mayhem missions, and that's about it. In existing arcs, the only examples I can think of are the Civic Squad (a special case, since they spawn as a group of bosses), the Midnighter characters in Darrin Wade's arc, and a couple of incidental CoV characters like Romulus the Warshade. I, for one, know that I'd be much more likely to do, say, "Bonefire" for the 15th time if I ran into some interesting-looking Skulls and Hellion bosses with unique dialogue during the course of it.

I would alter longbow to be more varied, like the ppd. as it stands they all look the same, I'd have powersuited longbow, magical longbow, ninja longbow, and then at the lower level, the guncrazy spandex longbow we see now. It jsut seems that for a large organization, they lack variety, other than at the warden level.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

I would like to see more done with the Knives of Artemis, both in terms of expanding their story and just adding more variety to the group itself. Caltrop spam gets annoying, and you get some tantalizing hints that they are more than just a bunch of hired swords for Malta, but not much beyond that.

Malta cuz they suck.

I'll throw in another vote for a complete redesign of Longbow.

I'd add 5 or so unique hero factions, and have them take over most of the existing Longbow content, and probably muscle in on a lot of the Villains vs. Villains content too (probably stuff featuring groups that only make a brief appearance Redside to vex badge hunters, so that there'd remain roughly as many unique factions per side). In fact, I think all I'd leave Longbow as they currently exist with is PvP Zones and Mayhem Missions. Maybe their supporting role in some of the RWZ arcs too. Everything else they do would be replaced by some other hero group.

I'm also all for an expansion of the Banished Pantheon. They seem like too serious of a threat to only matter during the middle levels.

Igneous

Why? Because low level they are great fun to play against [requires actual concentration without it being too hard] and could quite easily fit a few rampaging igneous in the city for a few missions

I'd simply extend the lvl of the Tsoo to 50.

I would create a separate fraction of the Lost to scale up to 50. Personally I find them visually more interesting than most of the other enemies we face (though the Redesigned Ritki are definitely an improvement over the old ones).

If I had my druthers, I'd create a branch of Rogue Lost who have no interest in joining the Rikti or returning to humanity ... they want to carve out their own path to power.

If there is ever a resolution to the Earth-Rikti War, I could see that happening. From what I've read, the Traditionalists look down upon converted Lost and will require them to undergo a series of steps that might last decades before they are considered "true" Rikti, so if the Traditionalists win the Lost may find themselves unwilling to go through the process to become full Rikti .. or to return to human form.

I'd like to see a Hero Corp faction, that actually DID something. Right now, despite a few contacts and the operatives that change your difficulty Blue side, Hero Corp might as well not exist, yet its implied that it's a huge organization. They'd be a good alternative for Longbow in a few places, I think. Similarly, I'd like to see the Midnight Squad in action more than once...

I would like to see more with the "Flash-in-a-Pan" enemy groups: Sky Raiders, Tsoo, Warriors, Banished Pantheon... Groups that you out level so fast, you can miss them entirely.

And that's just Blue Side. Red side there are even more. And while some - like Luddites and Mooks - have plot based restrictions upon them, others (Goldbrickers in particular) could easily be expanded upon.

Speaking of Red Side, could we maybe expand upon the Legacy Chain and Wyvern? Then use them instead of Longbow several places. Between them and Hero Corps, I think we finally break the reflexive groan most villain players get when faced with more red & white...

You know that group of supervillains and superheroes that you can only fight during safeguards and mayhems? I'd give them their own group of flunkies, maybe flesh out Hero Corps for the superheroes and plug them into radios and newspaper missions. Probably re-skin Longbow, Council and Sky Raiders, for both villain flunkies and new Hero Corps for the minion level guys. Could even repurpose/re-color some of those PPD hardsuits and big bots to add a little more flavor.

Also, make a bunch more supervillains and superheroes to fill out their ranks a bit more too. Could re-skin and re-name a bunch of Longbow and Paragon Protector Bosses for this one. The Lts. for their flunkies could be costumed/spandexed guys in their own right. Just add a little more hero/villain/comic book flair, so that we're not always fighting militants/cultists/demons.
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Beef up the Outcasts, so that we see them into the 30s and 40s, with the later tier of them doing the full-on tights-wearing villain route. Yeah, I know, Marvel's done the Mutant thing. So, just make the Outcasts fully mired in their crime sprees, and veer away from any Mutant rights/supremacy fiddle faddle. Throw some Supatrolls into the mix as Lts and Bosses too, to mix up their look a bit.

It's a comic book MMO, let's add a little more tights to the game.

I would redesign Malta as a Illuminati-like secret society that focuses on exterminating all superhumans. I'd also put them on the same level of power as Nemesis and Arachnos. As a matter of fact, I'd replace most of the high-level Nemesis arcs with Malta.

I would make some of the gangs to be proxies of some of the major players. The Hellions would be ultimately controlled by the CoT, the Skulls by the BP, similar to how the Lost are tied to the Rikti.

Some factions would show up more as mercenaries than as cabals with their own agenda. The Knives would show up in arcs and mobs of factions like Malta, Arachnos, or Council, maybe even Wyvern. The Carnies, the Tsoo, the midnighters (as a hero-side version of this), and Vahzilok would also lend their services to other groups.

I would also give Rularuu more arcs based outside the shard. I always looked at this group as the CoX equivalent of Cthulhu and the Old Ones. An ancient and mysterious force that develops cults to Rularuu on Earth in order to break down his magical barriers.

Rikti. For transdimensional alien invaders, they don't pack much of a punch, particularly compared to other 40-50 groups like Malta, Vanguard Sword and Nemesis. They carry few buffs, no debuffs, no ToHitBuffs, no troublesome powers that turn the tide of a fight (Vengeance, Sapper guns) and all that makes them a threat is that they're very mez heavy.

I'd keep the current Rikti faction the same for levels 30-40; at this point you are going up against the frontline troops that are a threat to human militaries but not too dangerous to powerful supers. From 40-50 you should face elite troops intended to specifically fight super-powered beings. The Rikti would deploy powersuited troops exclusively (Chief Soldiers, all the Mentalists, Headmen Gunmen) and boss versions of Rikti Magi, Rikti Priests and Heavy Assault Suits. Heavy Assault Suits should get a swarm missile attack and AI that keeps them at range where they can use their superior firepower. Rikti Priests should get some Empathy buffs instead of being another Dominate/Mental Blast spammer and I'd like to see some unit types that were only hinted at be fleshed-out and implemented as minions (e.g. Psi-Scouts). No, this will never happen and if it did the whining would be deafening but it's fun to think about.