Is It Too Late to Add a Faction System?
By
je_saist,
Posted on: 2011-07-02 13:33 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
I'm sure people have talked about it before.
Why don't you think on what you would want out of the system try to flesh out a proposal and toss it up of on the Suggestion Forum to bounce it off the critics?
They don't talk there often but the Devs read up and if you can really put something together maybe it'll make it in one day.
Quote:
When it comes to adding software capabilities, time proceeded from a from a previous point in time is rarely a factor.|
Originally Posted by Rubberlad
So let's say you want to work up an alliance with the Council - who have a beef with Knives of Artemis. You run a few missions for the Council, earn faction loyalty points which can be redeemed for exclusive NPC costume parts and badges but you also risk increasing ambushes by Knives of Artemis whenever you enter one of their "owned" zones...
Or scratch that idea entirely because its completely lame. But is it really too late to add *some* kind of NPC Faction system to the game? It would add a whole new level of interaction and meaning, I should think. |
Such is the case here. "Too Late" simply does not exist in regards to your suggestion.
However, it isn't going to happen.
Back when Cryptic Studios developed City of Heroes the developers went out of their way to place players into the storyline separate from the existing NPC groups. Players, by default, are not part of any of the existing NPC factions outside of role-playing as one of those factions.
When Cryptic Studios developed the Hero Epic Arctypes the writing staff went out of it's way to place players into a canon storyline involving an Alien NPC race. As of yet the Peacebringers as embodied by Sunstorm and the WarShades as embodied by Shadow Star are not NPC factions unto themselves. While Kheldian opponents do exist in the game they belong to either the Council or the Paragon Police Department, neither making their own Kheldian faction.
When Cryptic Studios developed City of Villains the writing staff at the time went out of their way to create story arcs that placed the player-character separate from the existing villains. These plotlines also focused on the player escaping Arachnos's "Project Destiny". The storylines were also crafted to give several plausible reasons as to why Arachnos forces would target and fight against player characters, including but not limited to players taking part in existing infighting; orders from Arachnos with more authority; mercenary contracts; and allowing the player to tick off Arachnos on their own accord.
When Paragon Studios developed the Villain Epic Archtypes the writing staff didn't put much effort into the storyline. There's a pretty flimsy excuse for joining Project Destiny. The plotline holes are in some aspects hand-waved away via the original CoV story arcs which already were built to separate the player from the NPC factions.
When Paragon Studios developed the Praetorian mission for Going Rogue the writing staff at the time went out of their way to create story arcs that placed players in position of being separate from the NPC factions, while at the same time being part of two new factions. The developers created plausible reasons for the players to be working for the Resistance and the Loyalist factions at the same time.
If you've noticed a pattern here, you've seen why your faction idea isn't going to get considered for inclusion.
Between both Paragon Studios and Cryptic Studios the developers have had ample time and resources to implement faction-based systems in major expansions, as per other MMO's where players grind faction points.
Both development staffs, Cryptic Studios AND Paragon Studios, determined that the faction-grind systems as implemented in other games... was not for this game, City of Heroes.
The lack of a faction system is not because the engine cannot do factions, or the code needs to be added.
The lack of a faction system is because the Developers Do Not Want To Do Factions.
Quote:
Yet...
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Originally Posted by je_saist
The lack of a faction system is because the Developers Do Not Want To Do Factions.
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Granted, you have to take everything Je_saist says with a grain of salt. As a matter of fact, an entire salt mine can cover all the hot air he posts here.
Quote:
Well he's not completely wrong, however current game development (the new grindy raids) kinda point out that just because the Devs haven't worked on a system yet doesn't mean they won't do it later. If they can see a place for it in a game and a way flesh it out to their liking it will one day find a place.|
Originally Posted by Scythus
Granted, you have to take everything Je_saist says with a grain of salt. As a matter of fact, an entire salt mine can cover all the hot air he posts here.
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--edit--
Also developing a balanced faction system would take more time then the current story options. Something they may not have been able to invest in with previous systems, since it would most likely go all the way from 1-50 and require faction missions to be created for every faction, as well as custom art for any rewards (such as costume parts for faction's you've built a standing with). This would be close to how much work was invested into the content of CoV (stories and the missions they take place in not all the powers made for CoV).
So let's say you want to work up an alliance with the Council - who have a beef with Knives of Artemis. You run a few missions for the Council, earn faction loyalty points which can be redeemed for exclusive NPC costume parts and badges but you also risk increasing ambushes by Knives of Artemis whenever you enter one of their "owned" zones...
Or scratch that idea entirely because its completely lame. But is it really too late to add *some* kind of NPC Faction system to the game? It would add a whole new level of interaction and meaning, I should think.