(Original Post has been updated 1/20/13 see "To be or not to be")
Justice
The Next Gen Hero MMORPG
In the Aftermath of the sun-setting of the beloved City of Heroes, many people scramble to find a new home. While many look to other games. Then there are the few like myself, who believe there is only one true way to heal our broken hearts. That way is to create our own spiritual successor of fallen game, and make right this injustice. I want Justice. Justice for me. Justice for all.
So what is Justice?
Justice is a super-powered MMORPG concept, that places the super powered player in a evolving open world. The player armed with a variety of powers and special abilities, will be left to make choices that affect the world around them.
The World.
Set in the near future, the world has moved on since the devastating events that destroyed one of America's great cities (Paragon City, but will never be official said). A new city was born from the ashes, Its name is Nova City. Nova City (My default city) is a robust metropolis filled with people, jobs, homes, and a variety of venues. A wonderful place for many but no city is without crime(Line I stole from the Dark Knight Rises). Nova City has its fair share of crime, and it will be the player's choice on how to deal with it.
Genesis Strain: The Genesis Strain is a strain of DNA found in about 60% of people. Scientist have researched and found that it is responsible for the recent news of people with abnormal gifts and abilities. Most of the 60% don't know the Genesis Strain even exist, and won't even experience any changes. Researchers say its origin can be dated back nearly a thousand years. Alexander Global is a International Corporation which monitors activity around the world, and provides assistance and security against global threats from the Genesis strain.
A personal touch.
City of Heroes/Villains/Going Rogue allowed players an almost unlimited options to customize their character. Justice as a successor should be nothing short of that. The player will have seemingly endless options from the start, and plenty of extras along the way.
Slice of life
.
The Slice of life is a introduction to One of Justice's key features. To accompany the evolving world and player choices, a slice of life is a new dynamic feature to add to game play. While many will fully take on their persona of honor or evil, their will be others that may take a different approach. Justice allows players a chance to also interact with the world outside of the fighting. Players can try to find that balance, while others can decide to not save the world or destroy it. City made it easy to RP normal lives, Justice takes it a bit further. As player, the normal life is your choice.
Universe.
In addition to your choice of character, the player will have the choice of his enemies. The city is plentiful with its own baddies. The player can choose the type of enemies he interacts with more often. That could be the enemies of the city or player made enemies. Teaming with other players and friends, players have the opportunity to match up against the enemies of others.
Man on a mission.
Missions are very important to life of the super-abled. Each mission is brings one closer to a defining moment. A moment that can set in motion a chain of events that can change a character forever. Well not forever, but a very interesting take on justice's next feature "mission choices". Mission choices are apart of dynamic set/ or story arc missions. Dynamic missions aren't the simple stop a robbery type missions. During or near completion , players will have to make choice. These choices will vary. For an example: let's say one is trying to take down a major drug ring. After some heavy battling, you come across kingpin. A prompt will ask you " Set free, Arrest, or kill." Depending on the choice the player makes will set in motion a series of missions with a dramatic ending. Now I won't go into what those endings will be, the possibilities can be endless. While in a group, the leader makes the choices. The teams have the option to join the arc and the leader's universe.
To be or not to be
I've been trying to figure out how to balance proper teaming structure while still providing a sense of Freeform. There's a few problems I ran across. I had to consider first memberships and free-gamer, or whether that was going to be an issue. Then second was I going to do full freeform or something different. So this is what I've the decided as of now, There will be Origin ArchTypes Melee (Tank, Bruiser), Range, And Control. Each origin Archtype has a level of freeform from the other two types. The power pools are arranged in Tiers and tapping into the other origin Archtype's Power Tier takes longer than one's original Type. Lastly there are Hybrids (Most likely for gold memberships if that is the route I choose.), which do not worry about Tier restrictions. Hybrids are able to tap into each origin Type's Tier power pool at the same time. Despite being open to all powers pools, Hybrids have a power reduction.
Ride around and I'm gettin it.
Since the destruction of that famous city, many strives have been taken in safety and technology. An example of how those two have come together would be with public and personal transportation. Driving is now more automated. Men and women no longer physically drive, instead operate a control panel. In justice players can purchase all types of vehicles. These vehicles allow players to travel great distances faster and more stylish, if you're into that sort of thing. Another bonus is, these vehicles can transport multiple players at once, and can be traded, sold, or simply given away or loaned to other players.
*NOTE*:
Vehicles provide alternative to travel powers. Its also replaces things we were use to such as Ouro. Vehicles don't apply to just missions either. Why not drop new some SG members to ICONS for new uniforms . Possession of vehicles will be represented by keys that can be placed in power tray for easy access.Hero I'm home
Whether you RP or not, most players can appreciate a place to crash. Justice separates homes with SG headquarters, also not not limiting the player to just one. Homes work similar to vehicles. They can be fully customized, sold, traded, loaned. As the owner of the home, the player can grant access and certain permissions to other players. Plots come in a variety of ways from Penthouse loft to low scale urban housing apartment.
Uber groups?/Justice team (league)?
Whether you decide to save, destroy, or just sit around and party together, Supergroups are a must right? Accompanied with a group's HQ, the group will be able to do more than ever before. Inside an HQ, groups will be able to simulate events for practice, house their SG vehicles, search for teams, missions, create custom events, even imprison other NPC enemies. Similar to homes, groups won't be limited to one HQ but allowed two. Each HQ is capable of have multiple levels. Plots vary: Warehouse or Corporate building.
Other ideas:
Counter ability: I pull inspiration for this idea from other games like Batman:Arkham City and Assassin's Creed, how you can counter attacks from foes. The interface of MMO's are a bit different, at least when one is trying to keep things similar to City of heroes. So I thought, why not make it a pool power of sorts or similar to how a brute or scrapper, etc has toggles for defense. Counter will work on scale or percentage like all other things, but adds a little fun and surprise to a fight when you counter a foe's attack.
Fight style: Before I get into this I thought I would change one thing. I'm basing this next idea on a secondary idea of not having archtype. I want to rid the game of dividing players between control, melee, range, etc. Fight style is a secondary set of skills for combat. Its in a category separate from the power pool. Sometimes just having a power isn't enough. The character has to sometimes know how to fight. Possibly giving the character a martial art can improve his/her chances. The fighting pool unlike the power pool is a little less endurance costing. This could be helpful for those who's abilities are endurance draining. The fighting pool can keep you fighting while you regain endurance.
Combo Tray: The combo tray is a new feature I thought up. Players will be given 5 trays to create different combos consisting of attacks from both the fight and power pool. Its an automated set, once clicked it will run the entire combo tray unless disrupted. Each tray will allow up to 7 or so attacks.
Let me know if I'm wasting my time and you wouldn't dream of playing anything like this. Its your choice.