What Factions Would You Want to See From the Inside?

So at first I found myself thinking about what sort of Epic ATs could be set up for certain Enemy Factions in the game (Rikti, COT, Malta, etc) and then I found myself thinking that what I'd REALLY like to see would be Fraction Specific Storylines that go from 1-50 in a fashion similar to the Kheldian or Arachnos storylines.

Ideally, these stories would reveal the backstory of the individual fractions. (Granted, most of the information we need would already be in the Game, but this would be a way to centralize some of the more obscure information as well as give the Devs a chance to add some personality to some of the more notable NPCs we fight in the game.)

While I do like the idea of more Epic ATs, I'm looking more for characterization and Lore rather than powersets here.

For example, maybe you start out as an undercover Malta Agent assigned to "hero" or "villain" duty. Along the way you're given the option of (covertly) betraying Malta either for self advancement or to serve the greater good.

Maybe you're a Mage from the Circle of Thorns who's just gotten his first new body in ages and have the option of serving Baron Zoria or working with Akarist to try to redeem the legacy of your people.

Maybe you're a Rikti Agent assigned by Hro'Dtohz to gain intel about the human super powered community. Slowly, you discover the true cause of the Human-Rikti War and must decide where you stand ...

Characters could take whatever existing AT or Powerset that already exists in the game. Perhaps there's a Faction Power Pool or Faction Specific TF that finishes the storyline.


As a spy or undercover agent, the character could still have the option of doing existing content like any other hero or villain, but he'd also have a separate set of contacts that furthered his story as a member of his faction.


What Enemy Group would you like to have a character be a part of?

Praetorian DE,

Carnival of Shadows

Rikti.

Pretty much it.

I would think that being a Crey Corp "employee" would yield many opportunities for traveling from white to grey to black and back again, morally speaking. Lots of stories that could be told from the standpoint of being a cog in the Crey machine to being the person calling the shots on projects of questionable ethics and even more questionable morality, and then there's the whole story of the Countess that can intertwine your character's story to whatever degree is interesting.

I am not sure if having additional alignments (well, sort of) like playing from level one as an undercover malta agent would work. A heap of current content would need extra dialogue and mission options. Not saying it would not be awesome..just a lot of work.

What about...contained stories along those lines, but set up like the Summer Event? An event where you and your team 'become' the malta agents, putting down some rogue supers or whatever?

That way, they could add extra temp powers into the mission (like the hacker's Stealth etc, but more useful) without worrying about upsetting balance outside of the event (like would happen if your Malta Agent AT got say a free machine gun power from lvl 1).

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.

An open letter to NCsoft

I really like this idea. I imagine a simpler series of story arcs tied to the levels of the enemy groups. So when your villain is a high enough level to meet the Tsoo, you can get a Tsoo contact and do missions side-by-side with the Tsoo, learning more about them, gaining badges and temp powers and costume bits, and so on.

And on the hero side, you could spend some time working closely with various hero groups in the city. I guess we already do this in a way with Vanguard, for example, but those stories don't really make me feel like I'm a part of Vanguard.

Malta. Nothing else is even close.

Unfortunately as of the Roy Cooling arc the current team has amply demonstrated that if they were to do a serious "expose" on Malta it would be utterly terrible.

To my surprise, when I thought this through, I came up with "none of them." All the factions seemed limited in what they could offer in terms of character individuality (Coralax, DE, Rikti, carnies), too simple to sustain a multilevel story (Freaks, Sky Raiders, most of the "gang" factions), or just plain uninteresting (Crey, Malta). I'll even provide a bit more on each point.

On the first, CoH has many factions where the threat they represent is a loss of individuality. Sometimes this is literal, as with the Devouring Earth, Carnival, or Praetorian Seers (the "group mind" factions), while other times it is more metaphysical, as with the Talons of Vengeance and Banished Pantheon (the "cult" factions), and still others it's on the level of metaphor, as with the 5th Column, Malta, and Praetorian Resistance (the "anything for the cause" factions). Take away that forced lack of individuality, and you take away what makes the faction the faction. While you could have a story about the one guy who tries to break free of the conditioning, it is my opinion that once you do that on a large scale, as with a whole AT, it diminishes the entire faction. Moreover, I just can't see a free-willed rock monster as part of the Devouring Earth, even if it looks just like a Granite or a Boulder.

The second point is simple. Most of the low-level factions are one-trick ponies. For instance, Warriors smuggle artifacts and geek out over ancient stuff. Once the Warrior AT has had its arc about where the artifacts come from and its arc about the ancient stuff, what more is there?

The last point is personal opinion and design philosophy. I've always felt that the so-called "realistic" factions were not only nothing of the kind, but also incredibly dull. It continues to surprise me that these factions are so beloved by players (at least in story terms).

So, all in all, I'd prefer not to have a faction-based AT. I wouldn't mind some faction-focused arcs, but I submit that we have those already. They just don't meet everyone's standards.

I'd still love to have Rikti as an Epic AT option...

Honestly, while it would be interesting to get some more insight into certain groups, I'm not sure if having a path where you are one of the members of the faction is that great of an idea. I can see it getting too limiting or lore clashes resulting that would just drive the people most likely to be interested in the concept mad.

Also, I've made and seen others create members of NPC factions that do a decent job of integrating the concepts into their costumes/powers/backstories already. I'd love to get more faction-specific costume pieces available to make certain looks easier to copy, though.

Signed,
Not a Nemesis Agent
AR/Time Corruptor

the ability to belong to Crey, Longbow, Vanguard, Legacy Chain, Outcasts, and maybe a few others would be interesting.

You could get missions from them in addition to the normal arcs