I'd like to tell a little story which will indicate the direction of this POST!
An established online mmo company, CCP Games; for a duration of time, had a project that they were working on, "World of Darkness" a Vampire the Masquerade mmorpg. Though they pulled the plug, there was a concept that I can visualize in City of Titans.
World of Darkness concept:
In World of Darkness lore, Princes are vampires who have claimed leadership over cities. To gain that kind of power you'll need to get voted in by other players, who'll have their own hidden agendas. World of Darkness will take the unforgiving permanence of EVE Online, and place it in a more accessible, faux-real world setting.
Reynir Hardarson: Politics are taken to a new level in this game, especially as we have positions with actual powers. This is the way the old Vampire the Masquerade game has been run - we have princes and you have harpies and you have positions in the evil hierarchy. In this game we give power to the players. There's no NPC who is the artificial prince of the city - players set the rules and they have the positions and that's really - that's where the politics come in.
It also means that if your playstyle doesn't have to be PvP or PvE... maybe your playstyle is just social. There's a lot of power in that, because social power has actual power in this game. Hanging out at bars could be a very powerful play.
CITY OF HEROES
Back in the day, City of Heroes/Villains had a basic system, Prestige and Influence. It was this Prestige and Influence that was used to build Super Bases.
Altering an old concept and adapting a new concept.
THE GREATEST HEROES AND GREATEST VILLAINS
Hero Super Groups would gain Prestige
Villain Super Groups would gain Infamy
Each moth there would be a race so to speak for all the Super Groups on the Hero side and Villain side to become deemed the Greatest Hero or Greatest Villain Super Group. The Super Group with the most Prestige or Infamy would be that victor.
The Victor would claim a Great Super Base for one week. At the end of the week all Super Groups Prestige and Infamy would be cleared or reset, so that the race to the top could start over.
Once a year, the Super Group on both sides that accumulated the most wins for the year, the following year that Super Group would be advertised on signs or billboards, etc.
I'm sure there is much more that could be applied and added to this concept.
Now it's up to the players to make replied, and eventually a Developer to reply to see if this could be a concept to be implemented or not.
The End.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
I'm not feeling this idea. Maybe it's because it feels too much like High School, popular kids rule!, or Survivor, tribe has spoken and you have been voted off the island, but this just doesn't sit right with me. I think it will take the focus off of playing the game and more about trying to ensure you are the bestest super hero evah!, and in with the coolest of the cool crowd. I'm also not sure I want to introduce politics into the game. My grandfather told me, "Fastest way to lose friends is to start talking about Religion and Politics.". I've found that to be a very true statement.
I got chills! They're multiplyin'. And I'm losin' control. Cuz the power, I'm supplyin'. Why it's ELECTRIFYIN'!!
@ oO StaticOo Those are two topics to avoid, your grandmother is smart.
We all know of "the Justice League"?? Why can't one of our Super Groups become something similar to that for a week?
I do agree that I'm not hip on the whole cool kids thing.
Another approach to this, could be a "King of the Mountain" sort of PvP battle of Hero's vs. Villains. And the victor of this would claim the title for a week. I believe that players like to do more then just do Missions and PvP Arenas. This would be a side thing for players to do.
See. Often games cater to the PvP or the PvE, and very, very, very rarely do they cater to the RP.
I have observed about two games that tried to include RP, by having RP world events, and participating in these events often was rewarding and there were some rewards to harvest too.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
One thing you could do is tie stuff like this to events. For example, have a "Rikti Killer" Trophy. During the summer "Rikti Invasion Days" event, the SG that records the most Rikti defeats (or racks up the most Rikti Defeat Points, those being defined such that bosses count more than minions, etc) wins the "Rikti Killer" Trophy, which resides in that SG's base's trophy case. Next year there will be another invasion event, and another trophy will be given out, etc. Billboards etc in game could exalt the winning SG, etc.
You could even have ongoing SG contests like the House Cup in the Harry Potter books. Whenever someone from your SG complete's a misssion, TF, Trial, TF, defeats an elite boss or better, etc, they earn generla SG points for the SG, then that SG witht he most points wins at the end of the year and get's some neato in-game kudos right around Christmas time or New Years.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
One problem with doing this is that once your SG is big enough to win there will be little stopping you. If we have the same 2-3 SGs winning all the time then to other players it will look like a rotating fan club or something.
It could work if each SG that won would be barred from winning again for a year but that might be a lot of record-keeping on someone's part.
I don't mind the idea so much but it will have to be properly implemented in order to not make others feel left out.
I remember when Star Wars was cool...a long, long time ago...
Also, does my kills credit go to Every SG I'm linked to or a equal split? If Equal SGs will ban multi aliened members. If all then some SGs will just invite everyone active with a 72 hour kick policy. I see this failing hard when you add in the ability to be in more then 1 SG. I advise a redesign baed on not assuming 1 SG per character.
The line between knowing and understanding is often blurred.
Cute Kitsune the Anti Villain of Phoenix Rising.
I have more fervor then empathy, I still like you.~Me to a friend
It applies here too, I'm passionate not hostile.
As a thought, it may be wise to only allow a character to [i]represent[/i] one SG at a time. It could be an easily-swapped title or badge or something that you have displayed as part of your character identification, but actions you take while representing one SG only reflect on that one SG. This would greatly simplify coding and game rule design, and it makes a certain amount of sense: if your actions are reflecting on an organization, that means people are seeing that organization through you rather than seeing "you," personally.
While arguments can be made that Joey the Kangaroo Kid is going to be remembered for his actions, if people are ascribing Joey's deeds to the Marsupial Milleaux, they're less likely to also be thinking, "but wait, Joey's also in the Kickboxers' Konclave." If they ARE, then it's more likely they're thinking of Joey, personally, in his reputation, rather than any group to which he belongs.
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For what it's worth, I'm okay with making each toon be in at most one SG, period, but if Segev's idea above happens, that's better. I don't absolutely require a way that my toon can represent multiple SGs all at the same time, personally.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
Does that mean that in one of the arcs missions, the Enemy NPC's will recognize the Mission Holders SG and try and attack the SG's Base? :o
That's certainly an idea; I am not about to commit to it at this stage, though. Too early in development of too many moving parts to make something like that happen.
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