New Alignments

I didn't know which category exactly to post this in, but I suppose this--City Life--category fits my thread closest.

ANYWAY, I've been thinking for a few days on this and I wondered, 'There could be two other alignments for characters.' Reading through comic lore in my life, and based on the four Primal Earth Alignments in City of Heroes, I've theorized there could be an extra two. Now both of these alignments would be in the morally gray area, like Vigilantes and Rogues, but correspond to each respectively. Think about switching back from a Hero to a Rogue, or from a Villain to a Vigilante. It wouldn't happen exactly this way; therefore, I've thought of two more alignments there could possibly be in the foreseeable future:

One of these alignments would be an Anti-Hero, corresponding with a Rogue. Now, an Anti-Hero would originally be, in the beginning, a good-natured, heart-of-gold Hero, doing noble things and expecting nothing in return. Come level 20, however, said Hero might believe his/her talents are worth paying for: money, valuables, specific items/enhancements, etc. The Hero's subsequent Alignment Tips would feature an option to do something heroic for a price. For the Anti-Hero Icon, I suggest it would be similar to the Hero Icon, except that the star in the center is flipped upside-down, maybe having the star's white color be dulled and/or cracked, as well as having the background color be purple instead of blue, symbolizing the shift from a blue-aura hero to a red-aura villain.

The other alignment I'd like to introduce is a Zealot, corresponding with a Vigilante. A Zealot, as the name suggests, is a character built upon a strong philosophy, belief, or code of honor. Instead of doing whatever a villain does because he/she wants to, a Zealot would perform actions that fit his/her way of life, or because the way of life requires these actions. Now Zealots are very, very close-minded, as opposed to open-minded, as they believe every other way of life is perhaps inferior to theirs. If it so happens that someone, or some group, were to commit a 'crime' or 'misdeed' against one's way of life, the Zealot would seek to punish the 'heretic' harshly; just as a Vigilante would punish those guilty of breaking a law. Likewise, a Zealot always believes his/her actions are justified. The Icon for a Zealot would possibly be (I didn't really think this through for that long) a head with a halo--not the ring-shaped halo, but the one that looks like a 2-dimensional circle surrounding the person's head, symbolizing holiness, moral superiority, vast intelligence, etc. The background color can probably be yellow (what, we've already used every other color except for green!), also enforcing the holiness, morals, intelligence, etc. aforementioned.

Should these alignments make their way into CoX, the circle of alignment shifts could effectively be reversed; instead of the typical 'Hero-->Vigilante-->Villain-->Rogue--Hero' cycle, it would go 'Hero-->Anti-Hero-->Villain--Zealot-->Hero' and all other changes in between.

I hope you all are intrigued by my propositions, please feel free to tell me what you think. (I sure hope one of the Devs sees this! )

Your idea...is intriguing, but...I'm confused on one bit. Are you talking about:

A) Replacing Vigilante/Rogue?

B) Adding new points in between?

C) Having an alternate path that is separate from the normal alignment scale?

If A, I think some people would have a problem with that. Indeed, it would be somewhat mean to the people that like to roleplay a fall to the dark side. If B, that is going to make the transition from hero to villain a lot longer than it needs to be. And if C, how would you propose that working? I can see how it might work, but I'd rather let you explain just in case.

It's an interesting idea. That being said, my view has always been that the various in-game alignments are really intended more as guidelines than actual limiting alignments. The current four alignments correspond by name to the most common alignments in Superhero comics but the actual in game effects for the alignments really allow for anything you want.

The analogy I like to use is the Alignment System in Dungeons and Dragons. each character has two alignments, one determines how they feel about order (Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic) and the other how they feel about good and evil (Good, Neutral and Evil) for a total of nine alignments. But then within this system you can still have a lot of variations within a single alignment category.

I see the CoX alignments in a similar system. The names of the alignments imply a certain type of morality but I don't feel they restrict you to that. An actual Vigilante would be Lawful Neutral but the Vigilante alignment in game is suitable for any Neutral but tending towards Good characters. Adding additional alignment types would be an option but honestly it doesn't seem necessary. Mechanically any new alignments would function the same way as one of the existing alignments in terms of access to content so what is the point? No matter how many alignments you add someone will always want more. I think a better option would be to keep the current alignments but add a "display alignment" feature where people can type in whatever alignment they want (similar to bio and battlecry).

I'd kind of prefer to see the Devs develop the current alignments more before adding new ones as it is. Something like Alignment specific contacts or trials/TFs/SFs or something, or some more alternate rewards or something.

Seems overly complicated. Four alignments is enough.

Can I have True Neutral alignment too?

Funny. Most Vigilante tips already play out like your Zealot alignment. Most Rogue tips already play out like your Anti-Hero alignment. Whether they should or not is an argument for another thread. Why add more?