Ok. Here is the concept (not for launch).
You can buy an option to romance an NPC, even a defeated villain. You can either purchase a series of gifts like flowers for the same PC, or for a heftier price, just declare an NPC a girlfriend/fan girl. for 10 times the price you can have up to 10 fangirls. (the heftier price is the only way you can romance a villainess) Iconic characters are immune (anthem will NOT be your girlfriend)
there can be a series of 10 gifts at various shops around the city. Give the NPC all 10, and the animations become available.
Gifts can be flowers, candy, cash, salvage from a villain drop, etc.
You can then summon them like a pet.
The girls may gather around you with hearts floating about their heads. Or they will lead cheers, "Yay Cyclops!" you gain access to their actions via emotes.
The Fan Girls cannot enter missions, they are non-combat, and do not gain any agro. they are useless vanity pets.
pure cash for MWM, new animations can be purchased with new updates.
so whatdoyathink?
[img]https://s15.postimg.cc/z9bk1znkb/Black_Falcon_Sig_in_Progess.jpg[/img]
Nice idea, Cyclops!
I hope that there will be fanBOYS, too -- both Kitty and Human!
*purrs loudly at the idea of Mr. Boots as her personal Fankitty!*
[center][color=purple][size=16][b][I][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78N2SP6JFaI]Just a cat from another star![/url][/I][/b][/size][/color][/center]
Do they fight each other if they encounter themselves? Or yell and pass out?
Sounds kinda creepy, though... Unless kitties. I definitely want kitties.
[youtube]QS47v1j29ec[/youtube]
P.S. This is minor and just annoys me, but... can you change the URL in your signature to https? So I can get the broken lock ("something in this page is insecure") out of threads you post in?
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
I call First Dibs on a suave, ruggedly handsome male Red Tabby fankitty in a swashbuckling hat and high black boots!
He can read the phone book to me any. day. at. all!
(*Mr. Boots voice*) "There's no need to fear! El Gato is here!"
*swoons*
[center][color=purple][size=16][b][I][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78N2SP6JFaI]Just a cat from another star![/url][/I][/b][/size][/color][/center]
[youtube]rOVC4NY8Q-A[/youtube]
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Thanks for sharing that clip, Redlynne!
*purrs consolingly and cajolingly at Mr. Boots*
*hits Kitty Softpaws again on da noggin with a guitar!*
*dances with Mr Boots*
Ha cha cha!
[Note: That's me at 1:28]
[center][color=purple][size=16][b][I][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78N2SP6JFaI]Just a cat from another star![/url][/I][/b][/size][/color][/center]
Music provided by Rodrigo y Gabriella - 'Diablo Rojo' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT9hvyDvKHA
Be Well!
Fireheart
I saw that Mr. Boots get arrested on T.V. the other day. For having catnip and assaulting an officer!
[youtube]rvO3_orG_mg[/youtube]
-------------------------------------------
Personal rules of good roleplay
1.) Nothing goes as planned.
2.) If it goes as planned it's not good RP
I also approve of the idea of Fans vanity option.
-------------------------------------------
Personal rules of good roleplay
1.) Nothing goes as planned.
2.) If it goes as planned it's not good RP
It's for his glaucoma! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSGHfJpUHZ8
In all other cases, I would be against its use!
Kits: Kitty crack is whack. Just say NO to catnip!
*sadly thinks of her former sidekick, Timmy Terrific, who became a catnip junkie (and, later, the notorious Timmy The Tabby Terror)!*
*bows her noggin in shame*
*caterwauls mournfully*
[center][color=purple][size=16][b][I][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78N2SP6JFaI]Just a cat from another star![/url][/I][/b][/size][/color][/center]
well shoot. This thread has developed a life of its own. Forgive me for posting this to the OP so late in the party:
Here's where playing all the obscure MMORPG that come along comes in handy. There is a game called Aura Kingdom in which the character summons eidolons to fight alongside her.
Where it gets interesting is that when you open a conversation with your eidolon your affinity with that eidolon will either increase or decrease depending on your responses. Each one has its own personality and some are counterintuitive because they are dealing with their own issues, or what not. It is quite clever.
There is also a game called Dragon Nest, in which you can build relationships with all the NPCs in the city by giving them gifts and running errands for them in the dungeons. Some NPCs don’t like other NPCs so if you are close with one, another might become more distant.
Now... let's combine those two concepts and have NPCs in the world with their own personalities that you can win over, or with whom you become estranged. I imagine that this could tie in handily with the alignment system and with the faction reputation system. But it is the personalities and the personal gifts that Cyclops brings to it that make this most appealing.
Alignment and faction rep can only get you so far, but to have a personal relationship with the NPC, you have to have personal conversations and bring custom or personal gifts. You might have to find out what gifts an NPC likes by unlocking a branch in the conversation tree or maybe even by developing another contact first. Then the only unknown would be: What are the rewards to having a close personal relationship with an NPC? Is it a romance? Is it a drinking buddy? Is it some kid to take fishing with you? Is it someone to mourn when the evil mastermind comes through the neighborhood, kicking off a personal storyline mission? Who knows... but it could be GREAT.
Yeah, this could be all kinds of development-intensive, but it would be so cool.
[hr]I like to take your ideas and supersize them. This isn't criticism, it is flattery. I come with nothing but good will and a spirit of team-building. If you take what I write any other way, that is probably just because I wasn't very clear.
It's certainly an interesting idea.
On the other hand, I'm not sure I'd want CoT to become a dating simulation where I have to maintain a relationship with half the city. That could become too much work, when all I want to do is punch virtual thugs in the face.
Be Well!
Fireheart
I saw the title and at forst I was like "Pft! DUMB!"
Then I thought about it as I read the rest of the thread, and I was like "YES!" I am not huge on the fan girl/boy idea, but a romance option would be interesting. A foe turned lover, or a bf/gf option. Doesn't have to be a full mini game, but just gifts and the occasional kiss would be super cool. As long as the romance option could be either a male or female.
My DeviantArt page
http://shamanatdawn.deviantart.com/
Very true... hell I struggled with just three for a time. And I don't desire to punch anything... except maybe my boss and a couple of coworkers.
My DeviantArt page
http://shamanatdawn.deviantart.com/
At first I was thinking, "Meh". I think Huck's comments illustrate how this can go much deeper than just vanity pets. Although I don't generally care for vanity pets, they are perfectly valid and worthy of consideration in and of themselves. Sometimes people want to play a lone wolf. Other times people want to play movie star characters like Johny Cage or some model that has fans, boy/girl friends, and/or paparazzi. I do suspect it's a ton of work just to map out requirements, however pushing the envelope on these things may differentiate City Of Titans from other titles.
Other thoughts: fans, boy/girl friends, paparazzi never go psycho or become arch-villains, right?
"THE TITANS ARE COMING! THE TITANS ARE COMING!"
Ooh! You could as i said have a former foe become a lover/partner...or a partner go evil and become an arch nemesis! LOVE that idea.
My DeviantArt page
http://shamanatdawn.deviantart.com/
I think that option should always exist. I don't think quest lines and missions should EVER be affected by your [i]personal[/i] relationship with an NPC, whether it be one of friendship or animosity. But I think the further into affection you go and the further into animosity you go, there is a potential to unlock imaginative rewards and bonus content.
And this could be something they slowly develop over time. Adding to the list of relationship-possible NPCs with each new update. Maybe have one or two relationship arcs every update until three years later you've got an interpersonal web of interactive relationships...
I personally want to have a relationship with some little old widow where I do things for her and help keep her neighborhood safe, and every once in a while she'll leave some [i](momentum boosting)[/i] donuts on the fire escape for me. ...but in so doing, I chased off the neighborhood skateboarders who were always making a racket. In order to build my relationship with the skateboarders back up, I was able to build up a relationship with the local city council member and got a skate park built in a vacant lot down the street. So now, the skaters let me know when some skeevy individuals come by trying to sell drugs...
[hr]I like to take your ideas and supersize them. This isn't criticism, it is flattery. I come with nothing but good will and a spirit of team-building. If you take what I write any other way, that is probably just because I wasn't very clear.
Okay, it's official. I'm a [b]Bad Influence™[/b] on Amerikatt.
How can I tell? Her avatar changed ...
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Vanity pets are fine I guess. I would limit them to non-combat areas as an anti-griefing measure though. I am also concerned about inappropriate players and what they could do with these kind of 'fans' if there isn't proper restrictions.
I have no problem with romance options in a game but almost all of them feel very very empty. What should be an immersive element all too often ends up as gift giving, special tasks and the 'right' dialogue choice.
It's as if you are just saying/doing what the other wants to get what you want. I did enough of that when I was a kid trying to get into others pants.
If there is going to be romance options I hope they reflect real relationships better than just doing the right thing at the right time. Relationships are about sharing experiences, comparing histories and future planning (even if its just what you are doing next weekend).
Instead of taking cues from games like Skyrim, Mass Effect, Witcher and so on, look at the Sims. You don't run around doing things for them or buy gifts, you talk about inconsequential things and spend time together doing everyday things. Not every npc is perfectly compatible so building relationships isn't easy and there is a chance you can alienate the npc just by being your character. Robust dialogue trees for both the NPC and PC that includes stories, jokes, ect as well as simple everyday activities like watching TV/Movies, going out for diner (actual date as part of a romance option GASP) or just a walk on the boardwalk. The game can even throw in unique superhero dilemma's like villains targeting your love interest or a mugging while on a date to keep the superhero genre feel of the game.
If the game also allows for some kind of secret identity the point when your character reveals their super persona to their partner becomes this frightening moment that could drive them away or pull them closer. It becomes more visceral and immersive.
This kind of thing could work for friendship simulation as well.
This isn't an easy thing to do though. It would require multiple diverse personalities for the NPCs and a whole bunch of (in many cases) long dialogue options, a generic way for the character 'talk' to the NPC that doesn't assume too much, mechanics that track a characters history so it can be shared with NPCs, mechanics for building the relationship and so forth.
I would like to say that if there is relationship option I really really really do not want any kind of overt sexual component to it. Kissing and hugging is enough to get the point across.
I also think that despite how it could be done it isn't an overly important feature to me so don't take my suggestion as all that well thought out or researched.
Mr. Boots: "Keess me ... if you dare!"
Amerikatt: *swoons*
[center][color=purple][size=16][b][I][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78N2SP6JFaI]Just a cat from another star![/url][/I][/b][/size][/color][/center]
Yeah, this.
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
[i][b]Sorry for the semi-necro post to this thread - just got back to port from being at sea for a month where this website is still blocked (by the US Navy) due to bad certificate issues. I know Lin Chiao Feng works hard at keeping the website going but this problem has been around for a few years now. I understand I'm likely just about the only regular poster to this forum that's affected by this so it may always remain a very low priority issue, but if there is in fact some kind of lingering certificate issue with this website this might eventually affect other people as well. Just putting this out there for Dev FYI purposes. Now on to my actual response to this thread...[/b][/i]
I like the overall idea Cyclops had here for a "romance/fangirl" vanity pet. It's actually very similar to an idea I've mentioned several times here (and even as far back as the old CoH forums) about being able to get what I called a "customizable sidekick" vanity pet. I think that my basic idea dovetails nicely with what Cyclops mentioned.
My more generic idea was to have a vanity pet that could be 100% customizable by its owner using the same costume creator interface used for player characters. The pet would essentially have a dedicated (and editable) costume slot assigned to it just like a PC so that it could be as cosmetically unique as you'd want it to be. Once you designed your "sidekick" it could then behave just like the CoH vanity pets did or maybe (as an option) it could behave like Cyclops envisioned with the whole romance mini-game thing. Ultimately if the idea got sophisticated enough players might be able to buy optional "personalities" (in the form of emote/pose sets) for their pet so that they could behave more specifically like a romantic love interest, a fanboi/girl, an annoying paparazzi, an ever-loyal teenaged sidekick or so on.
A generic "sidekick vanity" pet could be bought directly from the cash store without having to worry about dealing with "a dating simulation where you'd have to maintain a relationship with half the city" if you didn't want to - the whole romance mini-game idea that Cyclops described could simply be one of many completely optional things you could do with these kinds of pets.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Thanks for your service, Lothic!
*salutes*
I like the idea of a shoulder kitty who has access to the costume creator! I may be a *bit* biased, though!
*cajoling kitty eyes*
[center][color=purple][size=16][b][I][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78N2SP6JFaI]Just a cat from another star![/url][/I][/b][/size][/color][/center]
Thanks but to be perfectly fair I'm merely a civilian defense contractor (not military) who works on Military Sealift Command ships (not technically the "real" US Navy) to support the operation and maintenance of systems sponsored and overseen by the US Air Force. Basically I'm an Air Force contractor who rides ships at sea for a living so while in some vague sense I'm "serving the country" the reality of it almost couldn't be more convoluted if I tried. ;)
The basic concept was just to have the "sidekick vanity" pet use the standard male and female body models used by the player characters to make the whole thing as easy as possible for the Devs to implement. I guess if they ever got around to giving us non-humanoid critters as pets they'd eventually allow those to be customizable as well.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I think this is an interesting idea, and it's kinda similar to an idea that proposed: customized NPC contact. Rather than being a vanity pet that followed you, it was an personalized NPC that could serve as a mission contact or NPC to be placed in a random mission. For example, if you were Batman, this personalized NPC would be James Gordon or Robin. If you were Superman, it would Lois Lane. It would be customized in a similar vein as Champion's Online nemesis system. They might occasionally appear in public during your missions.
To tie this in to Fangirl/Romance vanity idea. Perhaps the romance character could be an NPC that appears as a hostage that your hero need to rescue from time-to-time. I think it plays into one of fantasy elements of being a hero: rescuing a person in distress.
Also, there should also be Fanboys, and they need to start internet arguments about whether or not Little Red Ragnarok can take Anthem in a fight. :-)
FTFY.
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
I really wish I knew what issues you had, because things have been working well over here. We had a renewal glitch a few weeks back, but that only lasted a couple hours.
I'm wondering if there isn't some other problem.
Trust me, Lothic, I don't know of anyone else affected, and until you posted this I thought your case was fixed. I'm stuck because I don't know why it's not making it out to your end. All I can ask is that, when it happens again, you get screenshots of all the screens you can (the initial failure screen, any "advanced" screens or "show certificate" screens, and so forth) and send them over to me if at all possible. I can't reproduce this problem right now.
Notice to everyone: [b]If you have website troubles, PM me.[/b] I don't always check every thread of every forum, but when I'm on, I check if I've got PMs [i]first.[/i]
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
Thanks for your overall efforts but sadly I'm not really sure there's anything you can easily do about this very unique situation.
The problem isn't that the [b]current[/b] certificates/settings for this website are bad/wrong. My guess is that the US Navy apparently put this website on a semi-permanent blacklist due to the unfortunate problems this website had in the past. There's a long and convoluted process to petition to have websites like this un-blacklisted but from what I've heard websites like this one (which would be considered purely for "entertainment" purposes) don't often get reinstated. I don't know how often they ever review blocked sites to unilaterally unblock them - all I know is that this site has been blocked like this for at least a couple of years now.
Basically as long as this website remains at "cityoftitans.com" it could be blocked by the Navy indefinitely. Obviously I have no expectations that the URL will be changed just for this. But the point I want to make is still important: You should make all efforts to keep this site working properly because if it isn't there could be other major ISP-type organizations that may choose to blacklist it simply for "vague/possible" security concerns.
As I mentioned at worst this affects me maybe 4-5 months of the year but it might affect anyone else serving in the military now or in the future. I'll let you know if the situation ever changes (i.e. the site is no longer blocked).
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
That sounds very likely.
Is that a process you would start or we would? I mean, may as well [i]try...[/i]
Hmm...
Of course not. But that might not be our only option. We've got plenty of time to toss ideas around.
Definitely. I wouldn't be surprised if this happened already elsewhere and we just don't know about it.
It's only logical to expect any customer on deployment to be affected as well.
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
I wonder why cityoftitans.com would be blacklisted as a security risk. People on deployment (especially) need a way to reduce the stress levels inherent in their jobs.
*crosses forepaws that the situation is resolved favorably in the very near future*
[center][color=purple][size=16][b][I][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78N2SP6JFaI]Just a cat from another star![/url][/I][/b][/size][/color][/center]
Information security more than national security in this case. Up until April we had no encryption on the site. HTTP only.
Everyone's focused on the game.
That's the nasty thing about blacklists: it's not always possible to get off of them. Nobody wants to be the guy who took someone off a blacklist who later commita a crime. So the least risk is in never taking anyone off the list, no matter how strong the evidence.
[i]Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...[/i]
Thanks, Lin!
This smacks a bit of McCarthyism!
Still, I can understand it -- to a degree -- even if I do not agree with it.
[center][color=purple][size=16][b][I][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78N2SP6JFaI]Just a cat from another star![/url][/I][/b][/size][/color][/center]
I share the notion that we might as well "try" to get it unblocked at least in theory. But part of the petition process (as far as active contractors like me are concerned) requires proof you need access to the third party site in question for legitimate job/program related tasks. As much as I love to read and post on this website there's really no way I can ethically make the case that I "need" this website to do my job. I'm simply not free to petition for it - I'm sure you'll understand.
Even though this particular blocking of the CoT website negatively affects me and other potential CoT players I accept and agree with the circumstances behind why it likely happened and why it continues to be blocked.
Yes, it's arguable the military organizations involved might be too conservative with their blacklisting (I happen to know of other seemingly innocent sites that are blacklisted like this that most people might find surprising) but frankly given the nature of what my co-workers and I do for a living I'd rather our collective communications folks be over reactive when it comes to things like this. Calling this "McCarthyism" is really not a fair way to characterize this scenario. The Navy likely doesn't specifically think CoT itself is a threat - to them this was just a "non-essential website" that was flagged as a potential security risk.
Also I'll point out that many of our military personnel around the world wouldn't necessarily be as restricted with this as I am in this case. Many of them live in relatively civilized areas where they are allowed some kind of off-base commercial Internet access that would not block the CoT site. What makes my situation exceptionally unique is that I tend to work at sea continuously for weeks at a time and that makes it hard to pop down to the local Starbucks to surf the net like many people take for granted. I'm at the complete mercy of what Internet access the Navy will strictly allow.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]