Future Morality?

Do you think in the future we will get new story arcs for Paragon City and Rogue Isle which take advantage of this new tech? Example, a new story arc in Paragon City which lets you choose between Hero and Vigilante. Save the hostages or kill the Villain responsible. Would be cool to see this intergrated into more missions, and it could even count towards your tips. Of course, it would also be annoying if they are all single-player only. We need a popup menu "The Team Leader has chosen Morality X, do you agree with this?" :-)

I think it's very likely that going forward they are going to add actual arcs with moral choices as new content, not just the Tip missions - so instead of being given the good or bad options before the missions starts, we'd be given them at improtant points in the missions, like in Praetoria.

I would hope. the feedback has generally be favorable, with some disliking it and some really liking it, but i think by and large, it is appreciated and is not common in mmos, and as such feels fresh. so my fervant hope is that the feedback is taken to heart, and more primal content gets options for us to be really heroic, or blingdingly evil. obviously, writing all the content to have 4 perspectives would be work intensive, and might slow down the content, but id like to see some of it pop up here and there.

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

"Morality missions" as a general thing already exist, and I can name at least a few off the top of my head:

Destroy Amanda Vines' generators to prevent the truth from getting out, or let the people know and take her money.

Recapture Miss Francine and hand her off to Arachnos or let her go and punch Westin in the face.

Stop the Council Spy and earn "brownie points with the Spiders," or let him go to spite Mr. Mary Sue.

Yes, all of those are villainous, but all of those exist and make use of the horribly assy "let the mission fail" mechanic which isn't really a question of choice but a question of kludge. I would love to see these missions redone with actual moral choices, rather than play-pretend ones.

HOWEVER, and this is a big thing, I would like to see morality missions which DO NOT SWAP YOUR ALIGNMENT. I really enjoy the morality missions in Going Rogue, but the one thing that spoils them for me is that the choices are weighted. Not only do I have to consider which alignment would look to be "better" to my character, but I must also consider which faction I want to keep him as, which oftentimes makes my choices for me. Let me make Morality choices as they come without instantly swapping my alignment. If need be, add those up to my hero or villain alignment points.

In fact... You know what I'd have liked to see in Praetoria? The same Resistance/Loyalist metres as we get for Hero, Vigilante, Rogue and Villain, where we don't back-and-forth instantly, but are allowed to make choices in favour of one or the other and swap sides only when we make too many of them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Totally agreed with that, Samuel. I had to reroll a Brute I'd made specifically to be a Resistance Crusader in Praetoria and I came to one of the first Morality Missions there (in Nova) and made a choice which made sense for my character but made me a Loyalist. Upon enquiring, I discovered I would have to run all the Loyalist content in Imperial City before I'd get a chance to change sides again. In addition to that, I was totally locked out from getting to Resistance contacts that I already had.

So yes, I'd definitely be in favor of morality meters in Praetoria as well. I think this would also help tremendously in the Rogue Isles. In discussion with some friends, we came to the conclusion that if you had a factional system with Khalinda and Burke (your starting contacts), the whole story of the 'Chosen One' would be given an extra depth. Imagine choosing not to do Recluse's bidding in his project and saying 'no, I'm gonna do it my way'.

Choice and even the illusion of choice gives a player so much more input and investment into their characters, and this has to be encouraged more and more. And honestly, I can't see new players who have played through Praetoria coming into Paragon or the Isles not wanting a similar amount of depth in their Primal lives.


S.

Yeah, City of Villains could really benefit from a trace through its story arcs to pit pro-Arachnos and anti-Arachnos decisions in more places. I'm not sure if I'd want to specifically tie that to the Villain and Rogue metres, as those are more abstract than "Are you with Lord Recluse or not?" but I'd definitely look to add a "spite Arachnos anyway" option wherever plausible.

As far as how to do Moral Choices, here's what I had in mind with the missions I mentioned before:

With Amanda Vines, instead of having her offer you money the mission before, have her do it at the end of the last mission. Have the mission objective be "destroy the generators" with the last one being in the basement of the building. However, before you can take the stairs down, Amanda meets you and offers you money if you just walk away. If you accept, mission ends, you get full credit and you get Amanda's souvenir. If you decline, she disappears, you take the stairs down, break the generator, mission ends with full credit and you get Brass' souvenir.

With Miss Francine, instead of just having another hostage to "kidnap," have the player speak with her. She makes a case, makes a passionate plea, then you get a choice. If you choose to take her in, she becomes an escort and you have to fight through waves of Freakshow to escape. If you choose to let her go, she disappears and you're beset by waves of Arachnos soldiers looking for her. Maybe even have her be escortable either way, only in one case you turn her in and in another case you set her free.

With the Council Spy, use the mechanic where you beat someone enough and then he talks. Instead of the Spymaster making the offer for money, have the Spy himself make the offer. You beat him to about half health, he turns blue and wants to speak with you. Then he makes you an offer - let him go, at which point he disappears and you're beset by Arachnos soldiers because you're an intruder, or fight him some more, at which point you're beset by Council soldiers looking to extract him.

Oh, and before I forget, the end of Kelly Uqua's arc. Instead of it being a simple fight against a Ballista where success or failure determines the outcome, have it act like the Spymaster mission I described. You fight the Ballista, he's almost dead and at 10-20% health he goes down and you can speak with him. He tries to tell you that Kelly is a Rikti spy and gives you a choice between... Actually I don't know. Getting paid off and staying true to Uqua? I don't know. But he offers you a choice where you can either slap him around the remaining 10-20%, or you can let him finish the upload.

None of that has to affect a meter or give points. Just like the Clone mission where you can save a clone or not, then rob a bank or not, it doesn't have to have mechanical consequences. It's enough that it feels like a choice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Personally, I am hoping for the patron arcs being redone with the new mission tech and writing quality.

I envision a world where the "Project D.E.S.T.I.N.Y" level 50 arc contains several options to gain "Rogue" points at the appropriate spot. Given, ya know... stuff.

City of Villains has a lot of storylines where the arc ends "And because you are a blackhearted and despicable villain, you will walk this path of loneliness forever..."

As a blanket statement, everyone of those could do with a Going Rogue overhaul.

I want the options both to be convinced by Hardcase that my ways are sinful... as well as to look at Westin Phipps and say "Why are you holding back? Let me do show you how it's done."