Red is dead?
It's curious how often people prefer playing the hero to the villain. It would seem to fly in the face of so much of human nature.
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I think that's why people gravitate more toward playing heroes than villains in games even on a subconscious level: it's easy to act villainous but it's strangely difficult to purposely pre-label yourself as a villain. That... and as we all know the Devs hate the redside anyway.
![Wink](images/smilies/wink.gif)
Loth 50 Fire/Rad Controller [1392 Badges] [300 non-AE Souvenirs]
Ryver 50 Ele� Blaster [1392 Badges]
Silandra 50 Peacebringer [1138 Badges] [No Redside Badges]
--{=====> Virtue ♀
Now that the traditionally red-side people have largely moved blue-side, I've started playing red-side more and more. Take that how you will, but I see a fair number of people any time I'm playing. Then again, I solo almost exclusively so numbers don't matter much to me.
Main Character: Ice/Storm/Ice Controller (Justice, 1340 badges)
3. I want TERRITORY. I want to be able to make areas under MY influence and then if someone butts in (NPC's) I want to have the chance to go after them and then the missions could play out that I am attacking the Lost because they encroached on my turf.
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Granted, PvP environment vs PvE, but it really was kind of fun to "own" the zone, and being the evil overseer as members of your faction scurried about as the beneficiaries of the power you exerted over the area. So, in summary, it's exactly as awesome as you imagine it to be. But you can't do it now, and only us oldbies got to experience it.
So nyah.
@Mindshadow
Redside for life for me.
Blueside is just too clean.
I like my slums.
In my experience, red side has always had a lower population than blue. Some will even cite that as a merit of playing red side. I wouldn't be surprised if the population has gotten even more sparse since the ability to switch sides came about, not to mention the ability to just *start* with most villain ATs on blue side.
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When CoV first came out Vside had more than heroside. After a couple of months, people slowly started to head back to heroside. After 6 months or so, it was roughly 50/50 then its been Heroside having the most people ever since.
H: Blaster 50, Defender 50, Tank 50, Scrapper 50, Controller 50, PB 50, WS 50
V: Brute 50, Corruptor 50, MM 50, Dominator 50, Stalker 50, AW 50, AS 50
Top 4: Controller, Brute, Scrapper, Corruptor
Bottom 4: (Peacebringer) way below everything else, Mastermind, Dominator, Blaster
CoH in WQHD
![Smile](images/smilies/smile.gif)
I recently got a few family members to signup. They were sooo excited to show me their new -heroes- ... I was like 'um.. yay!?... I'll meet you in Bloody Bay *EG*'
COV-4-Me!!
I don't think open world PVP is what they meant, at least that's not how I read that suggestion. I read it more along the lines of a villain coming into Paragon to do a PVE mission, and the results of that mission have a real world effect on the heroes in that area of Paragon for X amount of time. But, not the kind of indirect effects that the PVP zones have for buffing or debuffing people. More like, for example, the villain mission was to sabotage the Wentworth's in Steel Canyon. If successful, as a result heroes in Steel would not be able to use the Wentworth's there for 30 minutes or whatever. Just an example.
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When I mentioned walking into Paragon as a Villain I meant give me missions where I get to fight the CLONES of active heroes currently on the Blueside!
The mission looks at active heroes -takes a random hero/heroes and plops them into a mission. Redside would do the same for heros.
Come on now we have this wonderful clone thing going now lets extend it out logically!
How much fun would it be to be a Villain stand at the local train and see hero XXX and say - you ain't so tough I whipped you yesterday.......Sorry I didn't run the thought to completion but I was actually working at work!
It's a problem that keeps contributing to itself. Redside is dead, so nobody plays it.
http://www.virtueverse.net/wiki/Shadow_Mokadara
I like redside stories more tbh. But the blueside rewards are sooooooooooooooooooo much better.
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Hew in drag baby
I don't think adding a feature which allows redside players to inconvenience blueside players at will (or vice versa) would ever be very popular. If you want your villain to come into Paragon and cause trouble, that's exactly what Mayhem missions are for. If you want to go to a zone where your villain can compete against player controlled heroes and alter the environment to favor one side over the other, that's what PVP zones are for. But allowing players to negatively impact other players in a separate PVE zone whether they want to participate in the rivalry or not? No thanks.
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Mayhem Missions are pretty limp, in my opinion, in making me feel like I roughed up Paragon City and made any differece. I know that what I'm doing is impacting nobody, so it doesn't make me feel like I'm causing mayhem at all.
Main Character: Ice/Storm/Ice Controller (Justice, 1340 badges)
I have a few more minutes currenly let me run some of my earlier thoughts to completion:
1. Territory - I want to be able to slowly undermine the contacts if I choose by stiffing them of their cut of the loot, or working with people they say are trying to take over. Let's say a contact asks me if I want in on a job. They say we are working to steal some cash/weapon/gizmo from the Arachnos. I could go to a contact that would show in the choice menu like you do for Morality missions. I go to that contact and they then give me a chance to turn the tables on my first guy.
This makes an enemy - who then tries to ambush me in missions (of course you win). As I level and out grow the contact I take over his territory. Then other villains running the arcs may get a chance to fight MY CLONE! As the arcs are completed you are added to the Clone database and they end up having to deal with past Villains who claimed that territory.
2. Paragon City - As a villain I get a chance to stick it to the man and head to Paragon and fight missions against actual Hero Clones. It would be a normal mission with an ambush at the end where the heroes step in to try and stop you. I would have some of these as failable in a sense that they stopped you from completing an objective. If the heroes win you still complete the mission you just didn't get everything.
I think we have all of these fun abilities now and have barely touched the surface of what they could do to add depth.
And of course it would work BOTH ways Heroes could come foil Villainous plots as well.
I played for years redside freedom, which is about as busy as it gets. And...not busy. Sure sometimes were busier than others, but nothing like Blueside on a busy server.
Redsiders are by and large solitary types, or small teams of pros. Except when thats not true and you have teams of amateurs doing crazy things, but you get that anywhere, even on dead servers. But by and large a smaller playerbase.
Redside is written better than Blueside, but not as good as what is currently coming out. People stay Blueside because there are more people Blueside, and therefore there are more people Blueside. Ya see? People certainly do not stay Blueside because they are heroic, becausee I see a lot more camaraderie, and honor, and looking out for one another redside than I do blueside. 'cept when I don't. ya see?
Now don't take what I've said about this the wrong way - I have many level 50 villains and have played redside for many hundreds of hours over the years. It's just that to -me- the villains side of it will always be a "tacked on" part of the game. *shrugs*
Loth 50 Fire/Rad Controller [1392 Badges] [300 non-AE Souvenirs]
Ryver 50 Ele� Blaster [1392 Badges]
Silandra 50 Peacebringer [1138 Badges] [No Redside Badges]
--{=====> Virtue ♀
If they want to pump some LIFE back into villain zone then they need to add content specific to that area that is absent from hero-side. Villain side started very strong for it's mayhem missions and newspaper dealies, but grew weaker when Heroes got the same exact thing, and while I do like the feature, it's really hurting pretty badly now that I can make any arche-type on any side.
So if they add in something like 'territories', or what have you, it needs to stay villain specific.
If they want to pump some LIFE back into villain zone then they need to add content specific to that area that is absent from hero-side. Villain side started very strong for it's mayhem missions and newspaper dealies, but grew weaker when Heroes got the same exact thing, and while I do like the feature, it's really hurting pretty badly now that I can make any arche-type on any side.
So if they add in something like 'territories', or what have you, it needs to stay villain specific. |
http://www.virtueverse.net/wiki/Shadow_Mokadara
While the new Dark Astoria is a co-op zone, and the storyline revolves around stopping the world being destoryed, there are several points in the storyline where Villains can make evil choices, including an epic jerk move right at the end.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
http://www.virtueverse.net/wiki/Shadow_Mokadara
This depth could be simply added but would be a HUGE draw to players. You would be a villain living in your world and your "team" would be the lackeys you hired to help you sort out the interlopers.