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Flashbacks ... and Other You(s)

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Redlynne
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Flashbacks ... and Other You(s)

So ... Flashbacks. Being able to replay through content that you have played through before.

In City of Heroes, the game handled Flashbacks using the Pillar of Ice and Flame which could either be found in Ouroboros or inside a Super Group Base. Minimum requirement for use was Level 25.

Setting aside the MEANS for engaging a Flashback System (and all of the UI work that doing that implies), what I'd like to focus on for the moment is the question of WHEN a specific character should become eligible to make use of a Game Replay styled Flashback System.

My starting position is that by default, Flashbacks ought to be something of an endgame styled system, with respect to voluntary Flashbacks to "ordinary" Missions (again, set explicitly group oriented content like Task Forces aside for the moment). That would then mean that engaging the Flashback System would be a "reward" of sorts for having reached Level Cap. Note that in the City of Titans context, the game is intended to launch with a Level Cap of 30 but with the intent of having that get raised as the game progresses forward with post-Launch developments.

So ... Flashbacks to repeat previously completed "ordinary" Mission content ... becomes available at Level Cap (whatever that may be).

However ... doing that then creates an opportunity for a Perk ... early access to the Flashback system prior to reaching the Level Cap. How could such a Perk be obtained, you ask? One of two ways ... either by subscription or through payment/purchase of Stars. That way, access to the Flashback System is something that EVERYONE will have access to EVENTUALLY, but for Players who simply don't have the patience (or the attention span?) to wait that long, there's a way to "pay up" to get access to it early. Pricing and all that kind of thing would be for Marketing to decide on, but it would be an example of another kind of service which can potentially be monetized to allow the "terminally impatient" to have access to the feature sooner than is otherwise nominal.

A very simple payment scheme that I can think of is that it costs (Level Cap - PC's Level) in Stars per use of the Flashback system. Got a Level 20 PC that you want to do a Flashback Mission with? That'll cost you 10 Stars (I'm assuming an exchange rate of like 1 Star = 1¢) ... in other words, a mere pittance. Obviously, at Level Cap, the cost to do a Flashback Mission would be "free" for all intents and purposes. If you're a subscriber, this fee in Stars could easily be waived.


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Radiac
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I didn't use Ouroboros that

I didn't use Ouroboros that much, except as a place to buy stuff from the angels and maybe do a mission or two, so I can't speculate on the success of this idea, but I wouldn't be against it.

I wonder if CoT will have as much content that could be missed the first time through as CoX had by the end though. Something makes me wonder if this will even be a necessary thing, or rather WHEN it might become a necessary thing.

R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising

Redlynne
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If you've got branching paths

If you've got branching paths, you're GOING TO MISS SOMETHING the first time through ... by definition. Hence my thought that it would be best to get out in front of this sort of conundrum ("I picked the wrong thing and now I hate my life!") and plan for the future, even if the impact of it isn't immediately felt, um ... immediately. It's one of those things where it's best to PLAN for what that game is intended to grow into becoming.


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RottenLuck
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That is true if there is a

That is true if there is a Flashback system we could do the other paths. Perhaps have it where if you do use the system to explore the other paths it won't affect your Honor, Lawful, and Violence rating. That way you can just enjoy playing with no fear that when you are done the HERO you been playing now a Villain.

Maybe Lore wise it stuff happening in other realities so it's not a Flashback, but Multiverse.

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Izzy
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Well, If i changed my mind

Well, If i changed my mind about the path i was led down on, I would like to go back and Fix it... Butterfly Effect! ;D

RottenLuck
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Maybe a means of turning the

Maybe a means of turning the effects of the alignment system off and on. That way it's a choice to affect your character or not.

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Personal rules of good roleplay
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2.) If it goes as planned it's not good RP

Redlynne
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BAKA!

BAKA!

/emote bops RottenLuck on the head

If it's really that important for you to UNDO what you DID in taking the alternate path, just go REDO what you were DOING and DO the OTHER THING!

Sheesh.


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RottenLuck
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Ow Yeah didn't think about

Ow Yeah didn't think about fixing mistakes. Just thi
thought of enjoying the other paths for fun, rewards, and badges. Have a way to turn off the alignment system seems to be a good idea. For this and other events, missions where you don't want it affecting the alignment. Days where you just want to.bash foes comes to mind.

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Personal rules of good roleplay
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Redlynne
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Hey, I GET the notion of

Hey, I GET the notion of wanting to "Do All The Things" ... I really do. My main on Virtue, Redlynne was a Hero since Issue 2 ... but after Issue 18 came out it became possible to "go around the wheel" and become a Villain and then return to being a Hero again. Turns out, I wanted Redlynne to have Soul Mastery as her post-40 powerset, but that would mean becoming a Villain(!) and taking Ghost Widow as her Patron!

But there were also BADGES to get along the way! Stay in each of the alignments for 7 days and then "reaffirm" your alignment (vigilante, villain, rogue, hero) and you get an extra badge as a reward. So even though I could have done the round trip faster, I decided (strategically) to take the Scenic Route on my way to picking up Soul Mastery. Whole thing took me a little over a calendar month to complete! But in the end, Redlynne was a Hero again, who had Heard the Call and become Fearsome until she grew Frenzied in service to Ghost Widow on her way to becoming a Trickster until she had finally Come Full Circle back to being a Hero again.

In order to do all that, I had to KNOW what my choices were and I had to PLAN for the outcome I wanted to achieve. Once the cycle was complete, you better believe I was rather proud of myself for having pulled all of that off. I did essentially the same thing with my Praetorian characters so as to gain the Moral High Ground.

My point being, those kinds of rewards (in this case, Badges) were a direct result of my knowing what I wanted to accomplish and then going out and getting it ... Because It Was There. Heck, one of my Praetorians ... Sidhe Bang ... did ALL of the story arcs in Praetoria, switching loyalties every single time, and ended as a Loyalist and met Marcus Cole/Tyrant in a warehouse in Talos Island ... with every intent of betraying his invasion of the Prime Dimension, because she switched sides EVERY TIME. And the bummer of it was, I had to do it going "UP" in Levels, because there was no way to Flashback into Praetoria to redo missed content! Got a huge stack of Badges for all my troubles, and again, I was quite proud of myself.

In other words, I made the effort to go out of my to go and get ALL of the alternatives, rather than just doing "whatever" and not really caring about how things fit together. For the completionists out there (and I'll freely admit to being one of them), I have no problem with making it POSSIBLE to undertake all tasks from all angles ... but I *DO* have a problem with allowing some of those multiple angles to be rendered meaningless just for the sake of convenience (or as I prefer to think of it, laziness). After all, the fewer hoops you have to jump through, the less rewarding/satisfying/fulfilling your ultimate accomplishment will feel for you.


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Greyhawk
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I loved the Flashback system.

I loved the Flashback system. Since I plan to subscribe to get full content in City of Titans (assuming they follow through on everything they are hoping to achieve, naturally), if they wanted to put select content (User Generated Content Tools, Flashbacks, Certain Task Forces, Guild/Supergroup membership, certain badge sets, etc.) behind the pay wall to encourage more people to subscribe I would definitely support such a decision.

Restricting Flashback to characters at the level cap, not so much. I can certainly see advantages and justifications, but I'm not sure such a choice would please me.

Loading 60% of the game behind a pay wall is one thing. Restricting 60% of the game to characters at the level cap is something entirely different.

I'm not a fan of this weird idea that there must be a magical "endgame" only available to the powerlevelers who can't be bothered to read storylines, hunt badges, craft, or do anything except hit the cap in the shortest time possible. Allowing powerleveling is inevitable. Encouraging it is not something I think a MMORPG should be doing.

It takes years to create a MMORPG. I feel powerleveling is kind of rude. I know people will do it, because that is how they play, but it strikes me as highly disrespectful of the very real work that goes into creating a viable, consistent, coherent virtual world.

It's also one of the reasons I don't think they should cater to PvP. PvP must be possible, but to my way of thinking there is nothing more condescending and disrespectful of both developers and the community of players than powerleveling to the level cap, doing nothing but PvP, and then whining in the forums about how unbalanced PvP is. Such behavior strikes me as childish in the extreme.

But I know I'm a minority in that feeling. Possibly even a minority of one. After all, League of Legends is making millions by providing exactly what I dislike most.

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Redlynne
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No offense, Greyhawk, but

No offense, Greyhawk, but this sounds (at least in part) like a Square Peg Round Hole sort of objection.

Putting the Flashback System at the Level Cap by design won't in and of itself "encourage" Power Leveling. I say that because anyone who is in a tremendous hurry to reach the Level Cap (just for the sake of the Level Cap) isn't then going to be interested in doing a 180ª turn and then start playing all of the content they missed on the way to the Level Cap by Power Leveling.

I mean ... seriously ... that's one of these as far as Motivations To Power Level goes.


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Greyhawk
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Redlynne wrote:
Redlynne wrote:

I mean ... seriously ... that's one of these ...

Now that's bloody brilliant! I love it! A machine you turn on so that it can turn itself off. Sheer genius! Seriously. I bet it took ten post-graduate students, two professors, and billions in federal grants to succeed!

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RottenLuck wrote:
RottenLuck wrote:

Ow Yeah didn't think about fixing mistakes. Just thi
thought of enjoying the other paths for fun, rewards, and badges. Have a way to turn off the alignment system seems to be a good idea. For this and other events, missions where you don't want it affecting the alignment. Days where you just want to.bash foes comes to mind.

Just bashing foes has no influence on your alignment, as far as I understood so far. You can beat up as many as you want, after all you are just arresting criminals. And they try to resist the arrest. The violence you use is therefore completely justified (Hooray!) .

It is only when you are facing story- decisions like
-just hand over the villain who surrendered to the police,
-break his legs first or
-kill him
that influences your peaceful/ violent alignment.

That said, the idea of charging characters below max level for the flashback system sounds good to me. It is not necessary to complete the game at all so it can be considered luxury. And if you really want to use it and do not want to spend money on it you can just wait until you have reached max level.

Some special deals might be nice though, like a ticket that allows access to it for a whole day.