How would you make Vill side better?

[Zombie Hustler]

I loved the Rogue Isles. Until Going Rogue, I tended to play almost exclusively redside (and then it became goldside). As such, there is very little I would change.

The geography was great. I loved the economy of space that was used- the developers had clearly learned a lot about travel and space usage by the time they designed City of Villains. You didn't have the excesses of open, bland territory that so many of the hero zones had (even if they still always seemed to use the same doors for missions like on hero side. "Find the fortune teller in the Circle cave there? Wasn't that just a Council base five minutes ago?")

I would love to see a few more islands in the archipelago. If the hero/villain divide was removed and some sort of changes were made to PvP, you could add in Rikti Money Island and Warburg and expand on those with some more content (or, alternatively, if you keep it, then make those two locations some kind of co-op zones).

I tend to agree with Badwolf in terms of story content. Many of the villain arcs could be made Rogue storylines, and some other strictly Villain content could be added in its place- something more along the lines of some of the most recent story arcs, such as Dean MacArthur's, or Mr. G's (from i24). Things which allowed the villain to start building his own power base and becoming more of a threat.

I also would like to see options made for allowing your villain to join other villain groups- perhaps through gaining a badge or even just for the duration of a short story arc ("Hellions Recruitment Drive!"). I think the one overall failing of redside (failing is too strong a word, though) is that it forced you to be a part of Arachnos. I can see why they did it- it's harder to write for villains in a game like this than heroes (Posi put it pretty well at one point- heroes are reactive, so you can easily create missions for them to respond to. Villains are proactive, though, and so it's harder to create missions like that in a computer game). I just wish that we could have joined Crey, or the Freakshow.

[LadyVamp]

I'd clean the place up and make it look nice.  why people equate filthy looking places with evil as well as gore is beyond me.  Evil is suppose to be seductive and sexy.  a pile of rubble is neither.  I could see Recluse jacking up one of his underlings for the filth.  In truth, I could see him slaughtering the poor fool in public to make a point.  When I think of evil, I think of Darth Vader and the imperial navy.  Clean, neat, organized, properly dressed, and evil the core.

Rogue Island was just dirty and unkept.  The stories weren't bad but really if I'm going to rob the bank, let me keep the loot.  If I'm going to steal the bank vault door gun, let me have the damned thing.  Just make it a knock back weapon with low damage against anything but a vault door.  And make it a one or two shot used up weapon.

[Zombie Hustler]

Speaking of new zones that might have been cool to see, villain side: maybe one of the islands could have been a sort of "Kowloon Walled City" like zone? Just a giant, overbuilt commercial/residential city block covering the island. All kinds of interior maps and dark alleys and things. Perhaps not part of the Rogue Isles per se (not under Recluse's/Arachnos' control), but run by a consortium of gangs competing for territory.

I know some people are saying the islands were already too dark and dirty (and many of them were), but I just love the visual aspect of that. The closest I've ever seen in a game is Cantha in Guild Wars 1 (which was so beautifully done- the city and all the surrounding areas; my favorite of the GW series).

[Safehouse]

I'd clean the place up and make it look nice.  why people equate filthy looking places with evil as well as gore is beyond me.  Evil is suppose to be seductive and sexy.  a pile of rubble is neither.  I could see Recluse jacking up one of his underlings for the filth.  In truth, I could see him slaughtering the poor fool in public to make a point.  When I think of evil, I think of Darth Vader and the imperial navy.  Clean, neat, organized, properly dressed, and evil the core.

Rogue Island was just dirty and unkept.  The stories weren't bad but really if I'm going to rob the bank, let me keep the loot.  If I'm going to steal the bank vault door gun, let me have the damned thing.  Just make it a knock back weapon with low damage against anything but a vault door.  And make it a one or two shot used up weapon.

^This. Those are some of my exact thoughts on improving redside. I always thought the dingy, dirty, dark trope - the three d's - was not an accurate portrayal of "villainy." In fact, I would even go as far as saying goldside/Praetoria was a better representation of the villain world, with an evil, controlling overlord, than the Rogue Isles. It was something that always kind of bugged me, and it was why I didn't play redside very much. I just didn't like the muted darkness.

I also had a bit of an issue with the storyline, and with the villains themselves. When I listen to Lord Recluse's big speech, where he talks about how the "days of truth and justice" are no more, I kind of wish there had been more to it than that. Some sort of underlying motive, some reason that he thought his path was justified. I would have liked to give the villains more personality than just saying "because we're villains; this is what we do" when someone asks "why do you do it?"

[Charged Mastermind]

Personally I didn't really like the story behind some of the missions. I don't remember exactly why, but I just remember that steering me away from it.

Also, before they let us choose travel powers at level 4 (right?), I wasn't happy about having to go from one end of the island and back

[Golden Girl]

The dirt and decay of red side was the best way to visually display the anarchy of Recluse's insane survival of the fittest world view - power is the only thing that matters in the Rogue Isles - gaining it, or holding on to it - it's all about self-preservation, serving those more powerful than you and oppressing those weaker than you.
Beautifying the place with parks or having regular trash collection services isn't a priority, because none of that helps gain or retain power - it's a dictatorship, so the citizens don't matter. And don't forget that Recluse openly refers to himself and his followers as villains - there's no pretending to be working for the greater good, or making harsh choices today for a better tomorrow.
The dirty evil design of the Rogue Isles was a great bit of visual storytelling, just like the clean evil of Tyrant's sterile, lifeless city of drugged zombies in GR was an equally great bit of visual storytelling to show how his world view had shaped his territory just as strongly as Recluse's world view had shaped his.

[houtex]

To be honest?  I WANTED to right out ki...er, 'defeat' all those wandering idiots that I can't touch.  You know, the ones with *incredible* superhuman strength forcefields that shoved your character out of the way whilst they walked.

I also wanted to kidnap some of them, and take them to my secret lair... not for ransom, no.  But for.. um.. villainous things.

I also wanted to hot wire a car and take it on a joy ride.

And while I'm at it, yes, I actually wanted to plant a bomb or two in a house or such and *blow it the hell up*.

For a Villain is not always about scheming to rule the world or take over something or being a mob boss or such... nope.  Being a Villain is sometimes about being... bad.  Horrible.  I mean.. Cerise Dawn, as insane as she was, I couldn't even get her to tear people apart like that scene in Mission to Mars (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9aYYYtG08I) where the guy is flung apart.  I always wanted to have a 'rend from limb to limb' for her, because she *would* do that.  She was a bad bad person.  Much like the Joker... some people want to watch the world burn.  That was Cerise.  EVERYONE was a target, and nothing should stand before her should she desire it to fall, not even Grandville's tower, for she was pure evil. 
 
She would have been the Bloodbender, and not a good one.

But no.  I had to be all tame and just have a 'throw up and down' button.  LAME.

---

That being said, it's important to note that I'm slightly insane, and while this would be *awesome* for me... it's not PG enough to be in the game.  So I understand why my so-called Villains weren't truly there.  Just sorta bad people, overall.

[silvers1]

I really, really didn't like the rogue isles.   Didn't like the look and feel, and just trying to get around some of the zones was a major pain.

The change I would make is to get rid of those zones, and have all villainous contacts and arcs occur within
Paragon City itself.   Would save a ton on zone maintenance and encourage more players to play villains.

[MaidMercury]

I only played a villain for a few weeks or so, then returned to Blue side.
....just wasn't me

I did love the snake people, they were scary......
Only saw them again in Cimerora running some TF, think Sister Solaris? 

[Thunder Glove]

I liked the looks of Paragon City better, but I hated the layout.  All of the zones seemed larger than they needed to be, particularly Independence Port, which was two or three times as large as it needed to be, making getting around it a time-consuming chore, even with a travel power.  They were clearly designed as timesinks and little else.  On top of that, so many Blueside missions deliberately sent you into other zones, making it a double timesink.  (They fixed that somewhat in later issues with new arcs, but the old missions were still there)

I didn't like the "all red skies, all the time" aesthetic of the villain zones, but I found them so much easier to get around that I much preferred staying there. Add in that I found Mayhem missions a lot more fun than Safeguard missions, and I wound up with far more Villains and Rogues than Heroes (and barely any Vigilantes at all).

I would hate it if redside were just removed.