A staple in the superhero genre is a mission where the hero can't use his powers for some reason or another. I'm certain everyone reading this can think of enough examples of this that I don't need to go in detail. If this was taken to the City of Titans video game it would add a layer of variety in game play. Players might have to sneak around enemies they would other wise annihilate without thinking about. There might be a greater emphasis on using the tools in your environment to your advantage. And of course, our daring hero would need to get his powers back somehow.
Sun, 05/04/2014 - 02:01
#1
WISH LIST 29: Depowered Missions
Extra Credits: Like a Ninja > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC22ZF21Llk and Extra Credits: Minority https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suf0Jdt2Hpo
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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Reading this made me thing about a youtube video of a guy Speedrunning Final Fantasy 8, where at the end of it:
[SPOILER ALERT]
You have all your special abilities locked away, and you need to defeat bosses to be given the option to unlock ONE ability a you defeat a boss
[/SPOILER ALERT]
So for this, sure, he knew how to do it (and do it efficiently) but it meant that he was unable to use the *same tactics* that he had used previously in the game. I enjoyed watching it.
And in case you are wondering: He completed it in under 12 hours
This could work into the replay value of missions: some missions could give the player a choice to avoid or minimize contact with the enemy in order to achieve the goal. Or there could be standard 'powers detection' person / device (perhaps even as the macguffin) which will immediately alert the enemy if powers are used.[color=red]*[/color] Even a comedic arc that has the authorities or insurance agency demand that the character tone down the collateral damage. Of the types of missions that actively prevent power use there should be very few, since this is something that will become trite very quickly.
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[color=red]*[/color] Since such story lines are typically quite gimmicky, anyway, one needn't worry about the character's power set. How would one not use super strength, anyway?
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Support [url=http://cityoftitans.com/comment/52149#comment-52149]trap clowns[/url] for CoT!
Another staple of the comics genre is the people turning on the hero suddenly just because some OTHER gonk put on a similar costume and ran around being a villain for a day. Guess what? Those ideas suck IMHO.
Every scenario where the heroes were depowered or turned into kids? Yeah...I skip those.
Not everything in the comics needs to be in the game. Comics work the way they do because they're scripted that way. I'm not playing a superhero game to try and figure out how I'll sneak past guards and pick locks. I'll play Thief if I want that.
I remember when Star Wars was cool...a long, long time ago...
Unless I am mistaken, the larger idea is a variety in mission types and goals. Which is a good thing in my opinion. In fact I remember the Devs saying something along the ideas of mission variety in an interview so we will probably see missions that don't require just clicking powers and watching foes fall. This makes me happy.
I would like to see mission where you're not able to use, for example, stealth powers. Or you can activate them for added Def but not -perception, or something like that. In all cases though, I would want it to be somewhat realistic in terms of WHY the powers are unusable. I don't just want "Professor Evil has perfected his Sooper Power Neutralization Ray (TM) which takes away your Sooper Powers, no matter how they work." Because that's just dumb.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
My thoughts toward this are similar to that of which I posted in the "Weaknesses" thread. I enjoy such encounters, it gets me thinking of alternatives to thrive. Vulnerability can be one of the most intriguing subjects.
Of course, these events should not be common-place as some of the posters here seem to fear. Also, there should be alternative tasks available for the player so they are not completely useless.
I had a few ideas that would incorporate "depowering" into PvP objectives, such as neutralizing a certain travel-power like Flight of the enemy faction.
When they first added Longbow to CoX, this is the kind of situation into which I thought the Nullifiers were gonna put my villains. To be honest, I was rather disappointed they didn't, which must mean I like this idea on some level.
Spurn all ye kindle.
There was some talk in another thread about being able to do investigation/infiltration missions either in disguise or as your civilian alter-ego. These were put forward as an alternative/optional way for some characters who don't want to just roll through missions, guns blazing. The idea was that you could, if you wanted, do a mission that takes you out of the spandex temporarily to gather intelligence that would help you in a "regular" mission.
I personally love the idea. Not as an annoying puzzle that I'm forced to complete to progress, but as an alternative way for certain characters to play more within their concept.