Revised Post:
ORIGINS:
Origins is a layered concept.
ORIGINS would be a game component through the game. It would be first seen and used in Character Creation.
CHARACTER CREATION:
The first thing a player would creat, is his "Secret Identity" -
Secret Identity:
This would include his or her real name, occupation, and self-interest.
Occupations:
The players character occupation would give their characters starting abilities.
EXAMPLES: Police Officer, Private Detective, College Student, Journalist, etc.
Each occupation would have starter skills which would also reflect passive skills or pluses to Stats, i.e. a Private Detective would have the skill interogation which would give a plus to his Perception Stat.
Whatever occupation your character picks will also open exclusive NPC Contacts for Occupation Missions. These would be side missions, only available for the occupation that your character has selected.
Self-interst:
The players character self-interst would be used as the key to "Archetype" path. Such as, Science, Technology, Mysticism, etc. which would open "Archetype Missions" and it would be used for crafting.
Self-interst would guide your character with their starting identity down the road to getting into a situation that would arlter their life forever, making them into a new Hero or Super Villain.
AFTER CHARACTER CREATION:
Once A Hero/Super Villain Always a Hero/Super Villain: (or hhhhm? that hhhm will be another post)
Once your character is a Hero or Super Villain, then they are off and running, leaping, or flying off to combat evil or smash those that oppose them. But they can't change the fact that they are also this other person, that might have a life.
Identity Toggle:
A player can tap a key to toggle their characters identy from Super Identity to Secret Identity.
When a player toggles their character to Secret Identity then they have access to Missions only available to non-hero types.
These story arch missions may start off using Secret Identity skill sets, but will often end up with the player having to toggle their character to a Hero or Super Villain to get the mission done.
This will give the player the feel that their character is really this Hero or this Super Villain. I believe it will add depth and realism to the game.
Switching from Secret Identity will be also used for crafting.
I'm sure there is much more that can be done with this concept.
And remember it is just a concept. Concepts must have a begining, and they need refinement, compliments and critisims for them to evolve and perhaps transition from concept to actuality.
The End.
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Original Post:
In my opinion, there are a lot of heroes and villains that have an origin. And it seems that a lot of heroes and villains have two identities. The first being who they are, the second who they became.
i.e. Peter Parker: a college student, freelance photographer working for the Daily Bugle.
Maybe I'm wrong in thinking it might be fun to start our characters as some regular person or millionaire, etc. And our character having whatever occupation and or pursuit.
For example: a boxer that pursues tech devices, or a doctor that works for a research company.
One path will lead your character to this origin and these core super powers, that same character takes another path which leads to another origin and a different set of core super powers.
Character development for both roles our characters portray.
Use Peter Parker again as an example.
When he's Peter Parker, certain "Missions" or "Jobs" are made available for Peter to take on, in which, might lead to Peter needing to be Spider Man.
And when Peter Parker changes costumes to Spider Man, then different "Missions" are made available.
So. When creating our character, we get a regular character costume slot where we make our character look how our character would look in his or her true identity, and when our character becomes a hero or super villain, then we gain a new costume slot in which we design how we want our hero to look.
Maybe this Origin can be a noobie starter zone/tutorial/continuation through the game type of concept.
It just seems, CoX threw players into being instant heroes or super villains and I LOVED CoX, but the same goes for Champions as is the case with DC Universe Online, and forget Marvel Online, you have no choice other then to be the Hulk or Iron Man, etc.
But to see my character become that super hero or super villain, it would seem to be the cherry on the top, at least for me.
Oh. I'm sure there is much more that can be considered and applied to this idea/concept. It's now up to other forum members and devs.
The End.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
i like it +1
whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster and when you look into the abyss, the abyss also look into you, -Friedrich
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Sounds to me like you're looking at Secret Identity and Super Identity. In effect, you're wanting to start the game [i]in your Secret Identity[/i] and then during the course of the Tutorial/Newbie Zone in effect [i]develop[/i] your Super Identity.
This sort of formulation works "just fine" in a comic book or a movie where EVERYTHING is decided in advance and essentially "fixed" to be only one way in time for publication. Certain problems can occur however in an MMORPG context where you don't have someone directing/editing/policing the choices that Players make (other than limiting the options that they CAN make to particular defined avenues).
Star Trek Online has what amounts to two games inside of it. A space game and a ground game, all running on the same game engine. With good and clever writing these two elements can be interwoven with each other to create unique stories. If I'm reading you right, it's sounding a bit like what you're actually asking for is a way to play City of Titans in both a Secret Identity and a Super Identity, with each reinforcing the other.
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
I distinctly recall CoX having a tailor that let you have another costume set starting at level 20. If you started the game dressed as your secret identity and came back at level 20 for a super identity, then you could easily get the best of both worlds. The main problem with that is that your secret identity wouldn't normally have access to all the super powers as your super identity, so you would have to make 2 separate toons where your character is either undercover or God.
Of course, if certain instanced missions forced you to use your secret identity, then it could be possible to build 2 characters per toon, complete with separate costumes and powers to match the secret and super toons. I'd imagine it would be very awesome, although the character customization screen would easily become two steps longer and the coders for toon switching would probably loathe you.
<==========)===O|TtDd|O===(==========>
[url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/toon-profiles-nnekonnin-llabanttselel-aalbusuumbra-aagimundr-sstaalsol-and-doctor]My original character profiles![/url]
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I think origins make a great basis for Backstory, but I wouldn't want to have to put my super-heroic career on hold, while I search for some 'cosmic green goo' to get it started. I don't see a way to Play a non-generic origin story.
Be Well!
Fireheart
@ Redlynne: Thanks for providing better wording, Secret Identity and Super Identity; sounds much better.
First. Not two games or two characters; more like a Starter Secret Identity Costume Slot with a "Secret Identity Name" over head.
A player would pick a career, which would give certain starter skills; (A police officer for example might have these skill sets: hand guns, self defense, investigations (+ to Perception), etc.).
Then a player would pick a Self-interest, which would lead to the "Archetype" paths; in example- Science, Technology, Mysticism, etc. - Which would trigger a "Archetype" story arc series of missions, which would end in our players character becoming a Hero or Super Villain.
There could be a toggle to make the phone booth costume change quick and easy.
@ AAlbus Uumbra Thanks for the reply. And I remember those days of opening costume slots with the tailor.
I'd like to bring up that toggling powers was CoX forte, i.e. the Hero and Sidekick. The Sidekick's powers would adjust provided that the Sidekick was in the team with the Mentor and in the vicinity of the Mentor.
So then. A player once they became a Hero or Super Villain then they could toggle whenever they wanted. When a player was in Secret Identity they would have access to certain missions. In turn, half way through a mission or a series of missions would require that players character to be a Hero or Super Villain. And when the players character is a Hero or Super Villain, then only Hero or Super Villain missions are available. I think that is a rather simple concept to pull off for developers, which I believe would enrich the game and be the first to really give a player the feeling that their character is becoming that Hero or Super Villain. Popularity Points is another post.
Fireheart I concur. I would not want to put my Superheroic career on hold either. And you wouldn't be, you would be creating it at the beginning of the game, and once your character became a Hero or Super Villain, you would be building that Hero or Super Villain's fame.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Sounds like a lot of extra work for not a great deal of return on investment.
Don't get me wrong, the RP crowd would absolutely love it ... but everyone else would be in the "What's My Motivation?" mode for all of this. It's essentially setting up hoops to jump through. I'm thinking this is something which is (honestly) handled a lot better with Flavor Text in a Biography than through actual Mission Content (and everything that implies).
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
There was some discussion early on about an entirely optional but fairly deep secret identity system, and it was noted as a good idea by development team members at that time. I am not certain if it has remained intact. I specifically recall that there was to be an alternate costume slot for it, as well as the means to track alignment separately for the two identities, so that contacts and missions would behave differently for each identity. However, it was not planned with rigid links to occupations / origins / crafting, so as to provide maximum flexibility for the player.
Unfortunately, I am not aware of a publicly-available planned feature list to which I can direct you (and others who propose ideas that have already been discussed / planned in depth / set aside).
Secret ID stuff is off the table for now. Our table is pretty full just getting game proper set up. But a brief history on the Secret ID stuff so its understood why we aren't delving into it at this time.
The way the secret id system was being discussed basically amounted to an entirely different game than the major focus of the game itself. It required a separate costume slot, rules for if / when powers could and couldn't be used in this costume slot, rules about the alignment system, rules for the faction rep system, rules for interactions with other players and npcs. As it was being described in the documents of intent, it was an almost entirely different game than CoT.
To tie them together of course, the Secret ID had to have an impact in some ways for the masked iD and the masked ID to impact secret ID. This requires seperate content be specifically deisgned to work with the Secret ID system. Those who were majorly pushing for this separate but interwoven system took things a step further and in order to give the Secret ID things to do that didn't absolutely require the masked ID's use of powers wanted to create a Skill system. The Skills System was an entirely different system from how the Powers System was being built.
The result was an entirely different game that wanted to be inserted into the main focus of the game but under the hood was required a different set of resources and systems to implement. Due to all of these reasons the Secret ID system was put off the table. What was in part culled from the Secret ID system was the Skills System. It has gone through multiple revisions, peeling back the layers until it could be designed with the current Power Design System in mind and implemented not as 'skills' but as non-combat powers.
Instead of having the skills of Pick Locks, Hacking, Demolitions, there is a power that deals with object interaction which can negotiate locked doors, hack a computer, disarm a bomb...This power can have custom animations just like combat powers. It can look like a 'skill' by using tools / hands to work on the object, it can be a magic spell by casting runes just like the character casts fire balls with magic runes, it can be psychic ability...and so on.
These powers don't impact the combat power picks of a character's build, and are still optional. RIght now there is no special content designed around requiring a noncombat power, instead the noncombat powers provide alternatives to the strictly action oriented play style. Some of them may even be able to influence combat indirectly but don't themselves affect combat performance. So Sniper Skill that provides +Accuracy is not happening.
And to be clear, even this system isn't confirmed for implementation yet. We still have several aspects of it to discuss so far as game play is concerned and several technical pieces to deal with. It may be altogether scrapped and implemented in an entirely different way if ever.
We may revisist the Secret ID system in the future in some form or another, for now though we are focusing on the game proper; building a Super persona and having it able to fight.
[hr]I don't use a nerf bat, I have a magic crowbar!
- Combat Mechanic -
[color=#ff0000]Tech Team. [/color]
I believe most of us would love a core game verses a game that would take much longer to have lot's and lot's of extra's that we players might enjoy seeing. Glad to see someone with the team give a shout out on this post. Again, keep up the good work! It seems this POST has been WRAPPED UP and is Finished. Yay!
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
In itself a nice idea, but one thing about it bothers me a little: it seems to assume the superhero or -villain started his life as a human being. For most that is surely the case, but there are others. I met and created a lot of characters who would not fit easily in such a system. Lifeforms from other dimensions, animals that mutated and became sentient somehow, robots, golems, mystical creatures, to offer just a few examples. Can the secret identity creation really be flexible enough to allow such things?