An Evolving World - Taking Disappearing Contacts to the Next Level

Standard Code Rant Applies

It's a good thing to keep in mind for the future though.

In Praetoria, certain contacts vanish after certain story events have been completed. This is not a new technology. It's the same tech that allows Stalkers to sneak up behind you and sink pointy things in your back, and it's been available for years.

The MMO-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named refers to this system as "Phasing". And unless The-Company-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named copyrighted that phase, that's what I'm going to refer to this as.

...If it is copyrighted, forgive me. Please don't send your death eaters after me, Company-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named.


Anyway, the cool thing about Phasing is that it allows you to drastically modify the world's appearance, depending on the events your character takes part in. With the advent of Praetoria, I think this would be a wonderful addition to the game, for new and old zones alike. Here are a few examples:

-Billbored: Paragon City, Praetoria, and the Rogue Isles are covered in Billboards. In Atlas Park, these advertisements offer an interesting glimpse into the mindset of the people of Atlas at the start of gameplay. You see lots of Vanguard Advertisements and Anti-Alien propaganda, for instance.
You also see a lot of advertisements for Crey, and other companies.

Using Atlas Park as an example, these billboards could be modified after certain missions. For example, when you complete Crey Missions, the billboards for Crey could be vandalized, and then eventually replaced.

Completing missions that improve Rikti - Human Relations could cause the number of Earth for Humans billboards to drop as well.

-NPCs: The game is full of incidental NPCs. As your character completes missions, the nature of these NPCs could change to reflect the status of the world. Some examples...

• Crey NPCs could serve in low level zones as Guard NPCs until they've been outed as evil. They could be replaced with PPD NPCs upon returning to those zones.
• Rikti Traditionalists could take a larger role in society as characters work through the Vanguard Missions. First in Vanguard Bases, then at Portal Corp or D.A.T.A., and so on. By the time you complete the Dark Watcher's arc, you might even see a "Rikti Traditionalist" Pedestrian roaming the streets! (This would be perfect if you ever release a Rikti AT by the way. <_< ))
• As players complete missions with Praetorian Content (and as more Praetorians become Expatriots) the worlds could change to reflect each other. Clockwork could appear in Paragon City, for instance.

That could work if it were a solo game. But this is an MMO. You may make certain choices but someone else may make different choices to yours.

So very /signed! Great suggestion! There are some things to take into consideration in regards to teaming and Oroborous but I fully support this kind of change!


>

In Beta, I suggested:

Saved NPCs appear in zones. Let's say you save Amazing Klondo the Juggler from the Carnies. Next time you're running around Atlas, you see him in the zone juggling on a corner.