Right now, heroes and villains go through the motions of fighting nameless npcs which no one but themselves know about half the time people dont read or dont care about the story. In the end, it just boils down to how much experience and influence you get (sometimes a badge).
The architect system was a great idea! But, they introduced it in a way that is completely removed from the game world. It is playing a video game inside a video game along with the clutter and huge investment needed to create anything, it is just very difficult to get much out of it (And then, again, the reward is the same as everything else even less because you dont get recipes).
So, basically, how about using the architect system in a more friendly and immersive manner?
NOTE: Most of this plays out like a normal mission system. Only, the entire time the player is working towards a goal and feels they have a purpose. It spices up the task of going into map A with minions B until everything is dead. You end the mission feeling like you have moved closer to an overreaching master plan or advancement of your own personal goals in the game world knowing eventually your work and action will have a real affect on the world and the players will get to experience all you put into it.
1) Heroes and villains would begin by establishing a small personal base that is grounded in the game world (immersive). You are basically given the ability to click on any door (after doing a small arc which you try to establish yourself) in the game world and make that door your base door. You could pick a building, a manhole, the ship out in the middle of the water in talos you also are given a fast recharging teleport to your base door (because while it is immersive and fun to put your base hidden far inside the hollows, it isnt fun to have to run there all the time).
2) Inside the base you can decorate like normal bases (or, if easier, select one of the small maps in the game), but the base stays fairly simple (no huge maps of a billion rooms). One key piece is a computer (or magic interface) which lets you access the big plans systems.
3) Now, from the big plans system (bps), you can pick from a couple basic goals (each branching into more options).
Growth
Look for trouble
Craft a master plan
Under growth you would have options such as-
Recruit
Gather Resources
Discover / Capture new technology or power
Expand base
Look for trouble you just get a tip on where to look for other peoples events
Craft a master plan-
Secure super power / technology
Invasion
Protection
And, of course, under each of the options, you would have more details on what you would want to do (all this is to narrow down how the mission architect system should craft the event).
Recruit
Create a General This lets you create a stronger troop as a general a special elite troop that you can use in key areas.
Gather Minions This is a point system of your organization. This is generally how strong your organization is and how much resources in man-power you have to use during certain events. Doing harder things requires more minions. Minions cost X number of resources each and are added to your point total when converted. The number of minions you can gather per day is limited (but can be raised by expanding the base in different ways, such as creating a factory or recruiting station).
Upgrade This lets you apply technology and powers to your troops (For the cost of resources). Troops start out very basic and you must discover new power before you can upgrade them (and you dont always get the power you want when looking for it, it will take a lot of searching and missions to get exactly the ones you want).
Gather Resources-
Clean up and salvage This is a generally non violent way of gathering resources. Like the clockwork king when he first started coming to power, his minions were discovered across the city helping to clean up until it was later discovered they were really just gathering resources for their clockwork factory. Using this lets you deligate a number of your minion points to gathering resources an hour (so, if you have 100 minion points saved up, you can set 30 to salvage, which brings in 5 resources an hour put 90 on salvaging and you get 15 resources an hour, at the cost of not being able to use them for other things). This also spawns your minions randomly around the map your base is in (rarely, so there isnt mass spam of everyones minions), and like the spawn system in the game works it only spawns if there is a player around. *Note- there is a delay on how long it takes a change in this value to take effect.. maybe an hour, so you cant pull all minions back instantly to do something else*
Aggressive salvage
Why wait when you can just take what you need? This is the more active option to gathering resources. You can go out personally and raid an arachnos base for parts, or beat up a gang of thugs to try and make them join you or you can go fight alongside longbow in an attempt to inspire them to join you. This all depends on if you are a villain and what type of troops you have (this is where the mission architect system shines, it can cater a mission to your preferences pretty easily and give a range of different aggressive salvage options to fit the character and theme of the group). Your minions dont help in this type of quest (to level the playing field for the solo hero, like batman).
Purchase!
Taking things and gathering things arent for everyone. Some people are simply rich enough to buy their own. Crey doesnt really have a need to gather the resources it needs through those other methods they simply put in a buy order.
Discover / capture new technology and power
This lets you do a few missions leading you around trying to find a tip on a new technology or power. Depends on what your setting are, it could be a magic artifact or it could be a doctor that is being held hostage that has information you need. At the end, you get a special bit of technology salvage (non trade able) which can be used to craft different powers for your minions (maybe 10 salvage to give them a personal force field power).
This new technology and power can also grant special temporary powers for a hero or villain (which can only be used during later stages of this system, not in pvp or other PVE). These are great powers, which can give you a huge attack or super defense for a short time. ..basically, this is what the solo player goes after if they dont want to go raise an army. The super trooper who gets decked out in order to go after his real goal the ultimate super amazing super thing.
NOTE: because the game system probably doesnt allow a pick and choose from any power, you instead set your minions primary and secondary powers at creation *like in the mission architect system*, and then unlock their access to these powers through this technology / power crafting system.
Expand base
This lets you expand your operation. Establishing different places or increasing the capabilities of your organization. Needing to run missions and at the end spend resources to finish the expansion.
Such as: Build a factory or recruiting station (increase recruiting limit per day, or perhaps adding a free unit each day), building different structures needed later on (such as teleport systems which let you teleport troops into battle) or creating a super-secret-island-lab (needed to invent a giant monster).
Basically, this is all a variety of stats on your sheet and unlocks access to different capabilities. So you could look at your faction and see
Later down the road, during a mass event, this actually becomes more relevant as players are able to fight you by attacking these different areas in a communal effort. Maybe taking down your teleport hub so you cant teleport in troops anymore.
Craft a Master Plan:::::
This is where all the players hard work comes into play. Letting them finally put all their collecting into action as they hatch their master plans. The success of a master plan brings great reward, but they are open to intervention by other players (with different criteria depending on the scale).
Secure super power / technology-
This is a mission to get a specific great temporary power or unlock to another plan. These missions make use of your troops as you start to move your master plans into action. You are given options of capturing plans for a giant monster (or robot), plans for orbital station, or a plan for some other amazing technology that will allow you the edge you need.
During these missions, you can use things such as teleport hubs (grants you a temporary summon troops power, which calls in a squad of your troops to a location),
The lower level super technology are single player and take place in large maps. There are personal super power goals which the lone hero or villain can seek also (for those who dont do the entire troops thing). These personal super technologies arent finished when you get them you need to assemble them for the ultimate next stage (kind of like arachnos in statesmans taskforce, bwa ha ha).
Doing these missions can make you lose troops at the end (eat up resources), so you cant run them all the time. They wont use up a ton, but enough to weaken you a bit and make you need to recover before moving onto your next stage.
Invasion!!!-
This is the ultimate plan! After finishing whatever you need to do with your super power and technology (you dont have to, but it is a good idea before invasion) you get the option to set up for the master invasion. Your goal is to take revenge on the world, loot everything you can, kill heroes (or villains) (((for the hero version, it is to stop arachnos and take the battle to the center of one of his zones)). Villains invade a hero side heroes invade a villain side.
You must first set up though. So you run a few quests getting everything ready and pick out targets (you get freedom on what targets and objectives you want to go after, along with the strategy you use). Whatever zone you select will slowly evolve into the battle so this isnt sprung onto players ((perhaps it actually spawns another zone instance to handle the way the game does these things, players who zone into the zone are seamlessly put into your instance instead of the real one that existed before you began the invasion)).
So, targets could be the bank (for lots of resources and money), Wentworth (for extra power salvage), or whatever else you want. The longer the invasion continues, the bigger the reward for the person who initiates it. The losses can be heavy in terms of resources and troops, but you get access to special rewards for a well done master plan.
Because there are multiple targets, you can use strategy in how and where you deploy your troops. You could attack the hospital first with your giant robot, but then once everyone is distracted . Go after your REAL target, the bank. Everything spawned during these events are the special monster versions, which scale with the players.
At the end, you can show up personally and take everyone on (but you probably wont last too long against an army of other players unless you have a few super power or technologies to back you up).
And, during the event, players can target your factories or teleport hubs in open mission instances to try and slow down the troops (along with whatever other special things you have).
These invasions can be different in scale, depending on how much work the player put into it to prepare. And, the solo hero can decide to just invade by himself with his super powered up abilities.
Note: If you have generals, you can place them to protect different things as arch villains or elite bosses (such as inside the teleport hub, players must defeat your general before they can destroy it).
There is also a timer for how often you can invade (once every week? Or two weeks?). Because they can be on such different scales, it isnt too much of a problem if they happen close together (they could be on the level that a single other player could stop you, or they could need 50). And, of course, you also want to be able to succeed and get the super rewards (though, it will never be without resistance, there will always be at least NPCs).
Protection-
This is the epic defensive version of invasion. Instead of setting up aggressively attacking something you trigger an epic invasion which you play the key role in defending against. Same thing, you get to show off all your mighty work and master plans and super powers you have worked to get. Basically, you turn the entire zone into an epic battle where you rise above all the other heroes and villains around you as you save everyone. You need to protect key points and fight off the attackers (there could be several versions of invasion, but each of them should force other heroes away at key points for you to shine. such as a super enemy appears surrounded by a shield that only you can enter in the middle of the city but everyone can see through it and watch the 2 of you battle as they fight off the lesser invaders with the help of your troops.
Thoughts on if you win. Perhaps as a reward for winning the epic master-plans. Your troops might take over the zone for a period (or, in protection, would spawn in various parts fighting off badguys).
Right now, heroes and villains go through the motions of fighting nameless npcs which no one but themselves know about half the time people dont read or dont care about the story. In the end, it just boils down to how much experience and influence you get (sometimes a badge).
The architect system was a great idea! But, they introduced it in a way that is completely removed from the game world. It is playing a video game inside a video game along with the clutter and huge investment needed to create anything, it is just very difficult to get much out of it (And then, again, the reward is the same as everything else even less because you dont get recipes).
So, basically, how about using the architect system in a more friendly and immersive manner?
NOTE: Most of this plays out like a normal mission system. Only, the entire time the player is working towards a goal and feels they have a purpose. It spices up the task of going into map A with minions B until everything is dead. You end the mission feeling like you have moved closer to an overreaching master plan or advancement of your own personal goals in the game world knowing eventually your work and action will have a real affect on the world and the players will get to experience all you put into it.
1) Heroes and villains would begin by establishing a small personal base that is grounded in the game world (immersive). You are basically given the ability to click on any door (after doing a small arc which you try to establish yourself) in the game world and make that door your base door. You could pick a building, a manhole, the ship out in the middle of the water in talos you also are given a fast recharging teleport to your base door (because while it is immersive and fun to put your base hidden far inside the hollows, it isnt fun to have to run there all the time).
2) Inside the base you can decorate like normal bases (or, if easier, select one of the small maps in the game), but the base stays fairly simple (no huge maps of a billion rooms). One key piece is a computer (or magic interface) which lets you access the big plans systems.
3) Now, from the big plans system (bps), you can pick from a couple basic goals (each branching into more options).
Growth
Look for trouble
Craft a master plan
Under growth you would have options such as-
Recruit
Gather Resources
Discover / Capture new technology or power
Expand base
Look for trouble you just get a tip on where to look for other peoples events
Craft a master plan-
Secure super power / technology
Invasion
Protection
And, of course, under each of the options, you would have more details on what you would want to do (all this is to narrow down how the mission architect system should craft the event).
Recruit
Create a General This lets you create a stronger troop as a general a special elite troop that you can use in key areas.
Gather Minions This is a point system of your organization. This is generally how strong your organization is and how much resources in man-power you have to use during certain events. Doing harder things requires more minions. Minions cost X number of resources each and are added to your point total when converted. The number of minions you can gather per day is limited (but can be raised by expanding the base in different ways, such as creating a factory or recruiting station).
Upgrade This lets you apply technology and powers to your troops (For the cost of resources). Troops start out very basic and you must discover new power before you can upgrade them (and you dont always get the power you want when looking for it, it will take a lot of searching and missions to get exactly the ones you want).
Gather Resources-
Clean up and salvage This is a generally non violent way of gathering resources. Like the clockwork king when he first started coming to power, his minions were discovered across the city helping to clean up until it was later discovered they were really just gathering resources for their clockwork factory. Using this lets you deligate a number of your minion points to gathering resources an hour (so, if you have 100 minion points saved up, you can set 30 to salvage, which brings in 5 resources an hour put 90 on salvaging and you get 15 resources an hour, at the cost of not being able to use them for other things). This also spawns your minions randomly around the map your base is in (rarely, so there isnt mass spam of everyones minions), and like the spawn system in the game works it only spawns if there is a player around. *Note- there is a delay on how long it takes a change in this value to take effect.. maybe an hour, so you cant pull all minions back instantly to do something else*
Aggressive salvage
Why wait when you can just take what you need? This is the more active option to gathering resources. You can go out personally and raid an arachnos base for parts, or beat up a gang of thugs to try and make them join you or you can go fight alongside longbow in an attempt to inspire them to join you. This all depends on if you are a villain and what type of troops you have (this is where the mission architect system shines, it can cater a mission to your preferences pretty easily and give a range of different aggressive salvage options to fit the character and theme of the group). Your minions dont help in this type of quest (to level the playing field for the solo hero, like batman).
Purchase!
Taking things and gathering things arent for everyone. Some people are simply rich enough to buy their own. Crey doesnt really have a need to gather the resources it needs through those other methods they simply put in a buy order.
Discover / capture new technology and power
This lets you do a few missions leading you around trying to find a tip on a new technology or power. Depends on what your setting are, it could be a magic artifact or it could be a doctor that is being held hostage that has information you need. At the end, you get a special bit of technology salvage (non trade able) which can be used to craft different powers for your minions (maybe 10 salvage to give them a personal force field power).
This new technology and power can also grant special temporary powers for a hero or villain (which can only be used during later stages of this system, not in pvp or other PVE). These are great powers, which can give you a huge attack or super defense for a short time. ..basically, this is what the solo player goes after if they dont want to go raise an army. The super trooper who gets decked out in order to go after his real goal the ultimate super amazing super thing.
NOTE: because the game system probably doesnt allow a pick and choose from any power, you instead set your minions primary and secondary powers at creation *like in the mission architect system*, and then unlock their access to these powers through this technology / power crafting system.
Expand base
This lets you expand your operation. Establishing different places or increasing the capabilities of your organization. Needing to run missions and at the end spend resources to finish the expansion.
Such as: Build a factory or recruiting station (increase recruiting limit per day, or perhaps adding a free unit each day), building different structures needed later on (such as teleport systems which let you teleport troops into battle) or creating a super-secret-island-lab (needed to invent a giant monster).
Basically, this is all a variety of stats on your sheet and unlocks access to different capabilities. So you could look at your faction and see
Factories: 2
Monster Research: 4
Weapons Manufacturer: 2
Teleport Hub: 1
Later down the road, during a mass event, this actually becomes more relevant as players are able to fight you by attacking these different areas in a communal effort. Maybe taking down your teleport hub so you cant teleport in troops anymore.
Craft a Master Plan:::::
This is where all the players hard work comes into play. Letting them finally put all their collecting into action as they hatch their master plans. The success of a master plan brings great reward, but they are open to intervention by other players (with different criteria depending on the scale).
Secure super power / technology-
This is a mission to get a specific great temporary power or unlock to another plan. These missions make use of your troops as you start to move your master plans into action. You are given options of capturing plans for a giant monster (or robot), plans for orbital station, or a plan for some other amazing technology that will allow you the edge you need.
During these missions, you can use things such as teleport hubs (grants you a temporary summon troops power, which calls in a squad of your troops to a location),
The lower level super technology are single player and take place in large maps. There are personal super power goals which the lone hero or villain can seek also (for those who dont do the entire troops thing). These personal super technologies arent finished when you get them you need to assemble them for the ultimate next stage (kind of like arachnos in statesmans taskforce, bwa ha ha).
Doing these missions can make you lose troops at the end (eat up resources), so you cant run them all the time. They wont use up a ton, but enough to weaken you a bit and make you need to recover before moving onto your next stage.
Invasion!!!-
This is the ultimate plan! After finishing whatever you need to do with your super power and technology (you dont have to, but it is a good idea before invasion) you get the option to set up for the master invasion. Your goal is to take revenge on the world, loot everything you can, kill heroes (or villains) (((for the hero version, it is to stop arachnos and take the battle to the center of one of his zones)). Villains invade a hero side heroes invade a villain side.
You must first set up though. So you run a few quests getting everything ready and pick out targets (you get freedom on what targets and objectives you want to go after, along with the strategy you use). Whatever zone you select will slowly evolve into the battle so this isnt sprung onto players ((perhaps it actually spawns another zone instance to handle the way the game does these things, players who zone into the zone are seamlessly put into your instance instead of the real one that existed before you began the invasion)).
So, targets could be the bank (for lots of resources and money), Wentworth (for extra power salvage), or whatever else you want. The longer the invasion continues, the bigger the reward for the person who initiates it. The losses can be heavy in terms of resources and troops, but you get access to special rewards for a well done master plan.
Because there are multiple targets, you can use strategy in how and where you deploy your troops. You could attack the hospital first with your giant robot, but then once everyone is distracted . Go after your REAL target, the bank. Everything spawned during these events are the special monster versions, which scale with the players.
At the end, you can show up personally and take everyone on (but you probably wont last too long against an army of other players unless you have a few super power or technologies to back you up).
And, during the event, players can target your factories or teleport hubs in open mission instances to try and slow down the troops (along with whatever other special things you have).
These invasions can be different in scale, depending on how much work the player put into it to prepare. And, the solo hero can decide to just invade by himself with his super powered up abilities.
Note: If you have generals, you can place them to protect different things as arch villains or elite bosses (such as inside the teleport hub, players must defeat your general before they can destroy it).
There is also a timer for how often you can invade (once every week? Or two weeks?). Because they can be on such different scales, it isnt too much of a problem if they happen close together (they could be on the level that a single other player could stop you, or they could need 50). And, of course, you also want to be able to succeed and get the super rewards (though, it will never be without resistance, there will always be at least NPCs).
Protection-
This is the epic defensive version of invasion. Instead of setting up aggressively attacking something you trigger an epic invasion which you play the key role in defending against. Same thing, you get to show off all your mighty work and master plans and super powers you have worked to get. Basically, you turn the entire zone into an epic battle where you rise above all the other heroes and villains around you as you save everyone. You need to protect key points and fight off the attackers (there could be several versions of invasion, but each of them should force other heroes away at key points for you to shine. such as a super enemy appears surrounded by a shield that only you can enter in the middle of the city but everyone can see through it and watch the 2 of you battle as they fight off the lesser invaders with the help of your troops.
Thoughts on if you win. Perhaps as a reward for winning the epic master-plans. Your troops might take over the zone for a period (or, in protection, would spawn in various parts fighting off badguys).
Mew