Promotiong Interfaction Strife: A think tank.

Okay, so then.

-Needs worthwhile rewards
-Needs at least basic customisation
-Needs basic control over where/when/why/who
-Possible options of the Arch-Nemesis being NPC or player controlled

The way I can see this working is you talk to a contact either at level 50 or maybe after doing your first Alignment mission so it's set in stone, you do a few tutorial missions.. I can picture that you go to check some security footage of someone who stole information on your from Freedom Corps/Arachnos (glowie, no enemies), then you have to recreate what you saw (Arch-Nemesis creation) so you can get a positive ID on them, then you track them down and have you first fight with the new enemy, ending wth them teleporting out at the last second, 1 or 2 reward merits on completion.

Thereafter, each mission you do has a small chance of spawning the A-N with an ambush of whichever villain group you tied to them upon mission completion, with additional options on creation or edited thereafter with a bodyguard service (you pay them inf to protect you during X or Y activities, or pay inf for them to leave you alone and keep quiet about the whole ordeal, controlling where you'll meet your A-N), with options such as Teams, Solo, Missions, TFs, PvP zone ambush ect.

Rewards for defeating your A-N could range from a single reward merit per defeat or a garunteed random rare recipe to drop, possibly a badge at 5, 10, 25 and 50 A-N defeats and, as with titles, the option to also change the foe every 5-10 levels then at a whim at level 50.

As for putting PvP into the equasion, what about making it a new Arena match? One player has to go through a mission and complete the objectives while the other's task is to down them. You choose mission type, map and enemy group (Defeat boss in a Crey lab while fighting Banished Pantheon, for example ) then have at ye!

Of course, it can also be put down to a match-making system in Arena, perhaps a bounty board? You can sign up to the board and then you're available for someone to take a hit on you. When they do, you get character name/AT/global and the option to accept or decline. If you accept, either of you can use the board while the other is in a mission to spawn there as PvP flagged, of course it'd be shut off if they're in a team. By the end of a set time (1, 2, 5, 24, 48 hours?) the kills/deaths will be tallied up the winner given a PvP IO and XP/Inf reward too depending on how it was (over a longer amount of time, more kills but less deaths, both getting a high K/D and it being very close ect could all contribute to a higher reward for either or both players).

My only point here was that fighting an arch of my own creation sounds about as much fun as playing an arc of my own creation.

Sure, I might design a fun arc, but I already know exactly how that arc is going to play and react to me because I designed it. It's like looking up a TF on the wiki before you play it for the first time. You've got all the spoilers, and you've already spoiled your own fun.

Any WoW or UT players out there ?

I know my suggestion is far from original, but what if there were instanced zone events in which teams formed on each side and upon entering the instance one or several possible win conditions were available. The event could be timed and involve any number of NPCs for each side. Players would queue up for an event and once the minimum participants was met AND the server could free up an Instance the timed Battlefield event would begin. Points could be awarded for kills (inlcuding Key NPCs) and the winner of the event would be determined after the timer runs out. This would encourage defeating enemy players as well as enemy NPCs, and for completing event goals, like defeating an enemy AV, capturing one of several strongholds of the enemy.

Players could be awarded PvP tickets which could be redeemed for PvP recipes, which would encourage repeating the Instanced event.

As I say, its not original, but it is fun as heck when done right.

I agree that the game lacks incentives to play AGAINST the other side rather than side by side with it. (I was a bit disappointed that longbow or cops don't randomly try to arrest me as a Rogue in Paragon city btw.)

What I miss is a an option for a Villain to rob a bank (e.g.), not in some stupid mission full of cops but in a realistic scenario, that will be a cakewalk, just taking time, UNLESS a hero decides to jump in and PvP the Villain.

No uber-stuffed-ness with cops, maybe some villain troops that help, no hitting exit button.

Villain wins because no Hero shows up, Villains gets lots of goodies.
Villain wins although Hero(es!) show up, Villain gets (much!) more goodies.
Hero/es win/s, Hero/es get/s goodies.

Lots of real Hero / Villain action with random enemies.

Maybe make possible to do with a team, have timer for the Heroes to gather, maybe add option to 'raid a Villain base' for Heroes that works the other way around (though I wouln't mind Heroes having to be more REactive than Villains). Fun and true to lore. Not?

I didn't suggest anything in an open zone, but thanks for your clear opinion.

You could be in an instance that is not full of cops.

What's all this talk about a Player-created "nemesis system" when the problem posited by the OP is "WHY ARE HEROES AND VILLAINS GETTING ALONG SO WELL? Or at all, rather?"

Sam, please, forget your rabid anti-PvP stance just long enough to answer that question. Because right now the game has pretty much devolved into "Go-Carting With Bowser" and you can't tell me that's 100% satisfactory in a genre that relies on Good guys beating up Bad guys!

I realize agreeing with that point could segue into advocating more PvP. But it doesn't have to. But we need more ways for Players to mess with one another in order to keep that hero/villain distinction.

For example, a Villain can do a series of missions to, say, call down an orbital strike on Atlas Park. Heroes would learn of this via a contact or zone alert message and can try to stop it by raiding the weapons platform and fighting off goons. The players would never meet, but try to advance their goals from separate locations. If the villain succeeds, nothing actually happens to AP, but he'd still get rewarded for "winning".

See? No direct PvP, but it's still Villains and Heroes doing what they do best: antagonizing and thwarting one another.

As I said before, I love the idea of being able to create (relatively) real-time scenarios that will mess with or thwart the opposing faction. As to "how easy would it be to impliment," I'm not sure, since I don't know what would be involved in making a completed action one side have a consequence on the other side. But if there is a way, I am all for it.

It would have to be something tangible and threatening. Something that would get everyone's attention. Then the player could choose to respond or not to respond. The trick would be making it so that it did not intrude too much on the player experience of those that chose not to respond. To Steele's orbital strike example, perhaps a countdown starts, like the one you get when entering a PvP zone. Maybe it starts with 5 minutes, alerting every minute until the last 30 seconds, which would countdown the same as the PvP zones. Players have 5 minutes to "seek shelter," whether that is an instanced mission, exiting the zone, or being in an existing public building like a store or the AE. (I'm just brainstorming, not considering any consequences or downsides at the moment.)

But yes, I would be in favor of a way to fight the other side that does not involve going to Warburg and waiting for the Stalker to get me in the back. I want to hate and despise and be annoyed and frustrated with villains, not the players who play them.