It happened AGAIN.

I'm not going to try to quote and point out all the fail; I'll just cut to the chase.

City is predicated on the notion that the character does jobs for other people. That is it. It's not a sandbox game and it never will be. Playing a villain in this game means playing a mercenary doing black-bag jobs and it always will. No, having the NPCs who are actually calling the shots the whole time kiss up to the PC does not help. It comes off like this.

Thus my earlier comment "if you're trying to score a touchdown in bowling, ur doin it wrong". Players have to create characters that fit the game. Adjust your expectations accordingly or go play something that better fits them. If you play villains here you're not going to be the mastermind and you're not going to change the status quo, end of story.

My stance on this is simple.

If the devs want to shoehorn villains into cooperating with heroes I will not do the villain arc. Waste of resources, but when garbage goes in...garbage comes out.

Have a nice day.

The problem with the "villains are mercenaries" angle is that Going Rogue changed that: Villains are supposed to be in it for the power and the glory, while Rogues are in it for the money... but most villain missions written before Going Rogue have them just in it for the money as well.

Newspaper missions that have you stealing things are particularly bad at this. You find some fabulous piece of technology or magic, and instead of using it, you're told your character just sells it to "someone a little higher up on the food chain" because "a buck's a buck". (Both direct quotes from the missions)

Why can't I use that Sonic Device or the "weird weapon"? Why can't I make the Crown of Enos work for me? Why can't I become powerful enough to control the Dagger of Erishkigel? Keeping things like that to give the character more power for further schemes would be more villainous (as the game defines "Villainous") than just selling them and forgetting them. Give me the option to sell them (for a larger Inf bonus on mission completion) or keep them (for a limited-use temporary power).

Newspaper missions also treat you as if you're a former jailbird - which, to be fair, you were, according to the old Tutorial, but that doesn't apply anymore - who's living in a tiny apartment with walls so thin that your neighbors can hear your every action, even if you're a newly-arrived space alien who has his own supervillain group base.

The Dean MacArthur quest is an example of how to do a story arc that isn't about your villain working for someone else. Dean is working for you, and you gather even more people to work for you as the plot goes on. (Sure, it still ends in failure, restoring the Status Quo, but at least the trip there isn't full of the contact belittling and insulting you)

The Mayhem missions are also good about this, in that they don't ascribe any motive to you at ALL, letting you decide why your character is doing the mission. One player can say their character robs a bank because they want the money (which he'll spend on making himself comfortable), but someone else's character robs a bank because they want the notoriety (including the chance to take down a hero).

A villain doesn't have to be an Omnicidal Maniac to not want to work for other people, and just because you, the player, know that your character isn't going to get to rule the world doesn't mean the character shouldn't be allowed to try.

Here's an idea that would hopefully not be too difficult to implement. Add actual, for-real money in-game, but not something which can be used to purchase enhancements or whatever, just as something that can be used to fund various nefarious schemes. It shouldn't take more than a few lines (again, hopefully) to add in a cash prize to most missions, whether they're contacts, newspaper, or whatever.

Nefarious schemes don't do anything; they're gold sinks. Maybe add a badge for completing all of them or something. Inexpensive things would involve buying up Dyne labs or distribution centers, more expensive ones would involve stealing the Axe of Exceptionally Unpleasant Magic from a museum or assassinating the mayor of Paragon's sister city who's stopped in for a visit. Really expensive ones involve instigating a coup to take over your very own island nation.

It's better than nothing, and hopefully not hard to implement...Personally, though, I'd give Redside a more developed scheme-based mission system. Basically, you know how every so often you'd get a chance to choose Loyalist or Resistance in Praetoria? Let Villains make similar choices, but more concerning what kind of evil they want to perpetuate (i.e. "sell the death ray to Arachnos or keep it for yourself?"). Heroes, too, while we're at it.

working on his retort

My previous post had a rated M version of a story arc that I thought might be more satisfying to you but it was largely ignored in favor of more pointless arguements on the internet. You would think with the large number of in my opinion very intelligent people on these boards there would be more brainstorming and less bickering. Who cares who is right and who is wrong. Let me try to break this down into simpler terms.

The basic premise of most storylines in City of Heroes from radio missions to full arcs and TFs is "Some noun did some verb so now you must go verb his noun."

The basic premise in City of Villains is "Some noun wants you to go do some verb so now you must go verb some nouns."

The disparity between the two seems to be that Heroes often get to be the decision maker. Nobody is telling you what to do. You are doing what you need to do in order to protect people and stop criminals. Villains are often told what they are going to do by other villains. Newspaper missions are really some of the only content where You are choosing what You will do and who You will do it to. Nobody wants to be a gopher for another villains plans.

Also with co-op content heroes are never forced to make tough choices for the greater good or to save the world. Villains are always having to help save the day out of their own self interest but they are never allowed to do it their way. Nor at any point are they allowed to twist things in such a way as they benefit.

The biggest problem is that any solutions that we the players come up with likely will not be cost effective and/or coding nightmares. They could add optional objectives that are coded to appear depending on if your flagged as a hero or a villain. They could do many things.

Either way one problem which may be simpler to solve is just writing future arc's stories so that villains are treated as either equals or the ones in charge.