In another thread (or two) I had suggested that a way to make villains seem villainous was to allow them to plan heists IN GAME. So rather than going to contacts and doing what they want, which tends to make villain players feel more like pawns rather than evil genius masters of their destiny, I say that they should be able to plan heists in game. It seems to me that a mission creator is a logical place to start with something like that.
My idea is not that villains would go in and create a whole mission, with dialog, etc., but that they would be granted access to certain pre-selected parameters as they level up, and create a personal instance for their shenanigans. So a low-level villain might choose from "steal some cars" or "rob some ATMs", while a higher level villain might gain access to "rob a bank" or "hijack a train" or what have you. They select their heist, part of the city it's in, how much fear they want to strike in the hearts of the populace (i.e. how stealthy they need to be), difficulty level, and are presented with an instance that they go to to complete their evil deeds.
Obviously the full mission creator is much more involved than that, but I can see potential for a "light" version like this for a quick customizable experience. It would work for heroes, too, although it might be something more like "patrol for ___ gang" or "follow lead on ___ villain" in ____ city area.
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I would buy the game JUST for this if it worked right! One problem with MMOs is that some players burn through content WAY too fast. Player-generated content keeps things fresher but has to be regulated to prevented breaking something. If this could be done well, players could create heists and post them for others to pull off. Same goes for heroes and missions.
I remember when Star Wars was cool...a long, long time ago...
Posting heists for others to pull off is an interesting idea... I think that's more in line with the actual mission creator, like what Architect was or what STO's Foundry is. My idea is more of a VERY light "pick your own adventure". You pick a place (downtown, for example), an action (bank heist or patrol, for examples), and a difficulty. That's... sort of it, for the basics. Beyond that, certain goals might be customizable. For villains, they would maybe pick a specific item or items (cash & a rare jewel for a bank heist, fantastitope from a lab, documents and photos from a gov't installation) or tasks (break X vault doors, scare X tellers, defeat X security guards). Heroes would do the same, but with tasks like defeat X ne'er-do-wells, or stop X robberies, and their "items" might be more like "stop villain so-an-so from doing X".
The hero thing isn't as good conceptually, because heroes tend to be more reactionary, and it seems like it would be pointless to create a personal instance for a hero to patrol for bad guys in. The idea is really meant more for villains, so they can actually plan their own schemes in game, rather than being errand runners for their contacts.
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Those are all great ideas. It would be cool if the heist's could be able to tie into pvp too or rather hero vs villain. Like a player created dynamic event. Villain is robbing a bank, heroes in the area get the option to try to stop them before they escape or the time runs out (as long as they aren't horribly out leveling them), or a villain has started a fire, heroes can try to put it out. There would have to be interactive buildings and such for villains. But it would a great for content to be created. Probably hard to pull off and needs to be thought out more, but I'd love to see it.
the events could even escalate. Magic villain steals a magic item, hero fails to stop it, magic villain performs a ritual, hero fails to stop it in time, magic villain unleashes zombie apocalypse. Lots of heroes heroes have to stop that. Heroes have fun, Villain gets fame and xp. Everyone wins....except the zombies, and the heroes that failed.
I absolutely LOVE this idea. It would mean that success or failure has real in game consequences.
That scenario is the exact kind of thing I have been hoping could be in the game. Actually I had the idea that it could start with Heroes running an armored truck escort mission. Any Villains in the area have the option of attacking the convoy. But that idea of escalation is awesome. What if such events could affect the zone, or the whole city even. Even if such events never became as huge as that, it still would be a whole lot of fun