Suggestion: Merge The World

I think that the problem of Villains in Atlas would be solved by not letting them go there - rather than oopenign up every zone, it migth be easier to simply reduce the amount of blue zones to roughly the same number as the red zones, and then make everything else shared - so blue side would "lose" places like Eden, Crey's Folly, the Hollows, Boomtown, Faultline and maybe Brickstown and even Independence Port - but would keep enough zones at all levels to allow a pure 1-50 Hero path without needing to enter a shared zone, just like red side currently offers a pure 1-50 Villain path, even though it has far fewer zones than blue side.

I really don't see a problem with villains in Atlas, though I guess that I can understand why folks would want a few Blue or Red only alignment restricted zones. Fort Trident and The Crucible would, of course, have to remain alignment restricted. With I23 and the conclusion of the Praetorian war, perhaps the lower level Gold side toons should finally be able to travel Primal earth as well, rather than having to wait till level 20 to get booted there.

When Praetoria was released, the Dev's introduced the 'neutral' targeting faction. IE, the 'gold reticle'.

This is a TREMENDOUS feature. It allows enormous storytelling flexibility, and is the key technology that would allow free transit to all zones.

If you are a villain going to Paragon, all those Longbow patrols, all those PPD all over the place, they are no long untargetable NPC's, they are now gold box neutrals. They aren't SURE you're up to no good, but as soon as you take a swing....they know.

Add in the 'Seers-like' ability to radio for backup (PPD BACKUP RADIO!) and this makes things much more interesting.

Honestly, I have been a bit disappointed that the Dev's have not exploited the gold reticle a bit more. It is a tremendous tool for making dynamic content, just tremendous.

For example: "Lowby" zones tend to be a bit underused. King's Row, IP, etc. It would be fairly simple to sprinkle in a fair dose of neutral-set high level badguys. They're on patrol, but they're just chillin', because this is easy detail....Until it's not. Take a swing, and they go off on you.

You could have entire neutral factions, even. Heck, all of Malta and Cage SHOULD be set to neutral on the streets, and maybe in most missions. Malta isn't going to bother with a street battle, and Cage is curious to know if you have any cash on you before they start shooting.

Carnies should be a neutral faction. The Shadows aren't fighters, they're LOVERS, they just want to have fun and party and suck in the innocent and the unwary for a little soul-searching. Punching supers in the face is not a party activity.

Etc, etc, etc.

Granted, this would be a lot of work to implement, but it'd be cooool.

Why not use the "zone morphing" tech from Recluse' Victory? In these zones where heroes and villains have competing objectives, us this tech with a measure based on mission completions.

The gold target is exactly what is needed to make it work.

I think its easier to make a case that all players should be Rogues or Vigilantes upon entering the game and THEN use the alignment system to shift towards a heavier Hero or Villain leaning. This would allow new players to group with anyone regardless of side which is something that they should be encouraged to do.

The downside would be existing characters.. they would need to figure out a way to either grandfather existing characters that don't have access to the alignment system or to force a change to a Vig or Rogue choice upon those players that do not have access to the alignment system.

Rogue and Vig missions could then be added to the various zones which are sorely needed now and would make these alignments more worthwhile then the Hero/villain alignments.

It does exactly what the OP is talking about and uses an existing system to do it with. If they just open all the zones then there is zero incentive to using the alignment system at all.. just go Hero or villain and get the only perk that ultimately matters for the Vigs and Rogues.

Maybe for villains, hero zones could = hazard zones and vice versa?

I think it'd be cool to have like a PVP TF, not necessarily fighting against each other (although it could happen), but maybe a sort of race to finish first and get certain objectives/temps, etc.

Wouldn't this basically kill vigilante/rogues dead? Why bother going for a grey faction (and losing access to the H/V merits) if you can go anywhere?

I could've sworn I've seen an idea like this before. I think it was about how Praetorian content should've been done.

Anyway, I support the idea of having villain contacts and content in paragon, hero content and contacts in the rogue isles, and also letting villains and heroes go to both sides. One of the funnest parts about Praetoria was the side switching and how different missions would play off of each other and take place in the same locations. It really did feel like there was a war going on if you played through more than one arc.

This would have to double the amount of content that was in the game, so it would be a lot of work, but if this could be done I am all for it.

Now that we have phasing tech, I see no reason why this shouldn't happen. Let villains enter hero zones, but be phased out so they never actually interact with heroes. If a villain is invited to a hero team, THEN have him phase into the hero version of the zone and from that point on the need to fight the villain is removed, since heroes are vouching for him.

Frankly, I've always found the "tale of two cities" approach to the game to be unimpressive. A "city of heroes" is just a metaphor for a city that has many heroes in it, but Paragon City still has many, many, MANY villains in there, too. If Moment can keep breaking out of the Zig and if Nazi can recruit on street corners, then why couldn't player villains exist in Paragon City the same way NPC villains do? A "city of villains" is just absurd, by contrast, especially since CoV still has heroes in it. Plus, wouldn't that be exactly the kind of place that a hero might want to go to and protect it? Clean it up, maybe? Or are Arachnos cartoonishly evil enough to have passed a law banning the presence of any "heroes?" If "fat cat" Wenkler, a family-values moral guardian of a US councilman can snag a visa and go party in St. Martial, what's to stop a hero from putting on his loud Hawaiian shirt and old man shorts and booking a flight there?

We don't need to mess with PvP, we don't need to mess with cooperative objectives and we don't even need to worry about putting contacts in the zones. Just so long as people can play together, that fine.

"But wait!" you say. "Wouldn't that make the transition alignments pointless?" They were pointless to begin with, part of a system that has since been circumvented. I say just open up Hero/Villain merits to those guys and let everyone travel between the factions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I'd rather see a shared world with each faction having it's own contacts and content in each zone, including the Rogues and Vigilantes. I don't think it needs to be co-op zoned, just shared space. Villains are in Paragon pursuing their own plans, from an RP standpoint this is really freeing, as I've never cared for the destined one angle. For heroes they have a way to do good in an area where it counts most. Set up contacts that are part of a resistance to free the Isles and drive off Arachnos.

I don't think we have the tech, but it would be great if there was optional co-op contacts in each zone, but I would be fine with each faction having their own goals and contacts/content.

This would also be a great way to give the grey alignments something to do. Honestly whether they merge the zones or not ever, not having Rogue/Vigilante arcs is a huge waste of storytelling opportunity.