Steelclaw's Manifesto... Or "If I win the Lottery..."

[Steelclaw]

If I win Powerball where the jackpot gives me enough money, one of the things I would do with the winnings is create my own spiritual successor to City of Heroes.

The name of this game would be Empowered.  The reason for this is that not only would your character be empowered with superhuman abilities, but the players themselves would be empowered with choices that most MMORPGs don't allow.  Basically, I want to run that balance between "OMG I can't believe the game let's me do that!" and "there are so many choices and so much micromanagement that I get overwhelmed and don't want to play it anymore."

Here are a few of the ideas I have so far...

[Steelclaw]

The Mechanics of the Multi-Verse

The comic book lovers and sci-fi fans among us are aware of the concept of alternate realities and the multi-verse.  There are likely as many definitions for "multi-verse" as there are different dimensions within it. 

For the purposes of Empowered, however, all the action takes place on Earth Nexus... not Earth Prime, Earth 5-carry-the-three, or Earth Brought to You by Chevrolet.  Earth Nexus is unique from most of its contemporaries in the fact that it exists in four Causalities at the same time.

Before we begin our brief time-line, I need to explain the nature of the multi-verse.  While each alternate reality can be considered unique and independent of one another, they may have different Causalities.  Think of Causalities as the basis of the rules and laws that govern any given reality; such as gravity, electromagnetism, momentum and so on.  Picture the multi-verse as a stack of tissue papers.  Causalities would be similar to pouring a dyed liquid onto the stack.  Not all of the tissue will be touched by the liquid and those that are will be stained to differing amounts. 

There are thousands (or more) different Causalities in the multi-verse, but for the purposes of Earth Nexus we are only concerned with four.

Science – Realities existing in an entirely Science based framework have fundamental laws that are constant throughout the system.  Laws like gravity, conservation of mass/energy, motion, etc are all consistent no matter where in the universe you are.  You can exploit these laws and perhaps work around them, but they can NOT be changed; they are fundamental.

Magic – Laws in a magical universe are more like legal/political laws in our world than they are like scientific laws.  Like most legal laws, Magical Laws have loopholes, exceptions and can be bent if not outright broken.  Also like our legal system, there are very specific rules/laws governing HOW this is to be accomplished.  So, while gravity is an absolute in a Scientific Causality, in a Magical one it can be circumvented by applying other laws in the form of incantations or prestidigitation.  Arch Mages in these worlds make Tax Law Experts look like amateurs.

Ether – Ether universes are made up entirely of Ether energy, which might have more in common with so-called "ectoplasm" or "spiritual energy" than it would energy as we know it on our world.  Ether energy is the stem-cell of the energy universe; it can change itself into nearly anything.  It is also highly responsive to thought or psychic direction.  For example, you are blindfolded and placed in the middle of an energy field of Ether.  Someone tells you that you are actually in your living room at home.  When the blindfold is removed... voila... you will likely BE in your living room, because the Ether would have automatically formed itself into the vision you had in your mind.  Now, if you and another person were put into that same field but told you were in your favorite restaurant then there would be a conflict.  If one person's mental picture/psychic strength were much stronger than the other's then it would be that person's restaurant in which both would find themselves.  If both were about even then it would a hodge-podge mix of the two, probably with certain sections still in an active state of flux.  There ARE no laws in an Ether universe.  The strongest mind in the vicinity creates reality as they see fit, with lesser minds either accepting it or fighting but only able to affect smaller changes.

Patron – In the multi-verse there are no 100% Patron Causality realities.  Patrons are incredibly powerful beings who exist outside of the multi-verse.  These beings can not directly affect our reality, instead they can only watch and grant influence to those whom would act in their stead.  In effect, our world(s) are like one big interactive television program to them.  Every Patron has his/her/its own agenda and reason for engaging in these voyeuristic activities.  While very little is known about Patrons or their home-reality, what IS known is that their powers are very real.  Although a Patron can not actively change anything in our reality, they CAN grant sentient beings the powers to do it for them.  Patrons come and go in the multi-verse like the wind.  While they are extremely powerful, most of them seem to have the attention span of a two year old who just ate all their Halloween candy in one sitting.

[Steelclaw]

A Brief History of Earth Nexus

The beginnings of Earth Nexus were much like those of our own world.  Even though both Science and Magical Causalities held sway in it, there was really no one around to alter those fundamental laws magically.  The world bubbled and boiled in molten ecstasy for a while before it began to cool, allowing the life-giving rains to fall.  Amoebas formed, danced by themselves for a while before kicking themselves out of the home by means of the ultimate expression of the "divide and conquer" philosophy.

Fish walked, dinosaurs lumbered and eventually those pesky mammals showed up.

And changed everything.

The first homosapiens to discover how to make fire did so not by striking stones together or rubbing sticks to create friction.  Instead, one of them had been on his fourth consecutive hour of rubbing sticks, blisters forming on his hands, shoulders aching like an abscessed tooth, when one of his many on lookers began to laugh at him.  The would-be fire maker pointed at the heckler and screamed "ogrek'te'cha!" 

We can perhaps forgive him for his sense of extreme satisfaction when the laughing man burst into flames.

Being able to set your enemies on fire being a great way to win arguments, he soon became leader of his tribe, which went on to dominate others in the area.  Thus, Earth Nexus saw its first Empire much earlier in its history than our own world.   Indeed, even though the Science Causality is more pervasive on Earth Nexus, Magic held sway through much of the early history of mankind.  It should be noted that while people turned to magic more often than science, the magic in question was very simple and direct, lacking the subtlety or power of its modern version. 

Around 950 BC a group of city-states known as the Phoenicians began seriously considering the benefits of science.  This was, in great part, due to their creation of one of the first written alphabets.  They discovered several benefits to science early on; first of which being that the works of science seemed to be more permanent than those of magic and the next, and more telling, that scientific discovery led to MORE scientific discovery.  The Phoenicians began unlocking secrets at an impressive rate, drawing the attention of the rest of the world.  Too much attention, as it turned out, resulting in their absorption and subsequent dispersion by the greatest mages of the time, the Persians, in 539 BC.

What is now known as the Middle East seemed to abandon science after that, although their explorations into the deeper secrets of Magic increased exponentially.  The rest of the world seemed caught between Science and Magic, with most countries or kingdoms holding to one or the other as a kind of national heritage.  This, inevitably, resulted in several vicious wars.

This ideological conflict even threatened to fundamentally redirect Nexus history from our own as the Roman expansion had ground to an absolute halt in 40 BC.  Until that time the Romans had adopted a Science-only approach that had paid amazing dividends.  However, Caesar's obsession with Cleopatra from magic-dominated Egypt caused grave ripples within the republic.  Emboldened by this, the African lands under Roman control also began revitalizing magical practices that had been long suppressed by Rome.  Caesar's fate was sealed when the Egyptian's proclaimed him Grand Magus and Pharaoh, despite his having no magical ability or training.

Following Caesar's assassination and Cleopatra's suicide, Octavian found himself in possession of an Empire on the brink of self-annihilation.  After closeted consultations with the Senate, he was declared Emperor and encouraged a climate of tolerance if not acceptance.  For the first time in history science and magic users lived peacefully (though not necessarily joyfully) within the same political environment.

This was not to last, however, with the rising power of the Roman Catholic Church in Europe.  The Church originally embraced the idea of magic and science holding equal value, but that view began to fall into disfavor after only a century or so. 

The final nail in bi-partisan acceptance by the church came in 325 AD when then Pope Alexander of Alexandria, having battled fiercely his entire life to hold a fracturing church together, stated firmly that magic "was the language of God."

This quote was soon on the lips of every clergyman in every country under the Church's influence and caused more unrest and war than any single sentence in history up till that time.  On the one hand, it decided the Catholic Church's stance on Science for centuries.  Science was not only denounced audibly and vehemently from pulpits but some of the more fundamentalist denominations began to push forward that if Magic was the language of God, then Science was, quite logically, the language of Lucifer.

The other unfortunate side effect of Pope Alexander's ill-fated observation was the belief that anyone who was practicing magic who was not ordained by the Church to do so, was, in effect, performing blasphemy.  Since much of the Middle East and extensive parts of China, India and Japan were dedicated mages, they were obviously steeped in heresy and blasphemy.  This idea lead to the Crusades, where the greatest wizards and sorcerers of Europe and Asia came against one another in a war that nearly decimated an entire generation of spell slingers.

Within the borders of Europe things weren't much better.  The Church had initiated the Inquisition, which targeted Scientists and those mages who practiced magic without Church approval.  While the Nexus version of the Inquisition was just as horrifying and bloody as our world's version, it was less arbitrary.  The use of magic in all trials prevented the truly innocent from being put to death or tortured.  Of course, since it was left to the Church to decide what constituted "innocence", the deaths still numbered in the thousands.

By the early 1400's the Church's campaigns both in Europe and abroad had begun to run down.  This was not due to a lack of religious fervor so much as a drying up of the Church's coffers to finance their continued pursuit.  The centuries long wars and persecutions, stronger in some years and lesser in others, had finally bled the Church's finances.  Scientists, long given to hiding their research for fear of religious persecution, began to be more bold and open in their art.  For the first time since the Roman Empire, Science began to limp forward once more.

The last gasp of Magic's domination of the world theater came with the time known as the Renaissance.  Scientists rose up all over the known world to declare their right to practice their craft and better understand the universe around them. 

If there was a key point of no return for the domination of the Church and Magic, it came in 1493 AD.  A prominent Scientist by the name of Leonardo da Vinci had established a workshop in the city of Florence, Italy where science could be practiced freely without fear of retribution.  Because of his amazing discoveries and advancements, Florence soon became the science hub of all Europe.  This greatly offended Rome, which was the traditional seat of the Catholic Church in Europe and much too close to Florence for the comfort of either.  Rome declared war upon Florence and both began to assemble their armies.

Da Vinci marshaled the Florence forces while those of the Church were headed by an amazing young magical prodigy by the name of Michelangelo.  At the time Michelangelo was only 18 years old and a favorite son of the Catholic Church.  Da Vinci, on the other hand, was in his early 40's and much more worldly than his innocent counterpart.  On the fields outside Florence the two armies (each with 400 of the most talented scientists and mages of the day) met in battle.

Michelangelo was not prepared for the blood and horror of real war.  One of the things that had always made him so great in his art was the love of life and zeal for flesh and form that he put into everything he did.  The twisting of his magic into such barbaric and savage ends was like a dagger to his heart.  Although not historically verified, anecdotal accounts state that after the battle, da Vinci found Michelangelo on the outskirts of the battlefield, weeping like a lost child.  The Maestro knelt by the young man's side, put his arms around him and held him until the horror had passed.  They then spent long hours in private consultation.

When Michelangelo returned to Rome, he calmly stated that the war was over and Science would remain in Florence.

An amusing epilog to this time in history came when Pope Alexander VI, declaring that his Church would not live so near to on-going blasphemy, looked into moving the Church's capitol elsewhere.  Through out history one of the most magically powerful places on the face of the planet has been Ireland.  The idea of the Vatican being located in the place where God's "language" was spoken the loudest appealed to the Pope, so he ordered construction of his new papal palace in Dublin immediately.

Unfortunately, no one had consulted with the Fey (also known as Fairies or the Fair Folk) about this.  They had long since made Ireland and much of the British Isles their home and did not take kindly to this intrusion.  After nearly twenty years of more and more spectacular (and in one memorable case, explosive) failures in construction, the Church finally gave up this endeavor and kept its Seat in Rome.

In 1533 AD, one Nicolaus Copernicus, who had made a name for himself in Scientific communities with his assertion that the Earth revolved around the sun, found another obsession to occupy his every waking hour.  During his studies of the relationship of Sun and Earth, Copernicus had come across an anomaly.  According to his data there was a cyclical alteration in gravitational force that seemed to follow the planet.  At certain times this gravity effect was stronger, actually causing sizeable tidal fluctuations, at other times it was barely noticeable.  Once his heliocentric treatise was complete, Copernicus turned all his attention to the anomaly.

Unfortunately, Science alone could not penetrate the mystery.  For the first time in recorded history, a man actively used both Magic and Science and attained a fair degree of skill in both.  No one is entirely sure what happened that night in 1542.  The only thing history is sure of is that a great light burst upwards from his studio to pierce the heavens.  Once it reached the apex of its journey it seemed to "split the sky asunder" as one Polish landowner was quoted as saying. 

Nicolaus Copernicus was found in his studio, unconscious with his eyes wide and unblinking.  He remained in a coma from that time until he eventually succumbed and died on May 24th, 1543.

Modern review of the events of that night have surmised that Copernicus somehow managed to combine Magic and Science to create an energy beam of unknown origin to "poke" the anomaly that he had been studying for years.  The anomaly, we now know, was a "thin" spot in reality between the Earth Nexus realm and a dimension composed entirely of Ether energy.  While the "poke" didn't rupture the barrier entirely, it did puncture it enough to turn it into a kind of inter-dimensional pressure relief valve.  When the energy becomes too much on the other side of the hole, Ether is forced through it to rain down upon the Earth below.  The greatest modern Mages and Scientists agree that this occurs roughly every 56 days, though no one is entirely sure just why.

At the time, no one knew that their world had just been inundated with a highly morphic form of energy called Ether.  They only knew that, all of a sudden, some people seemed to be able to make their most heartfelt desires or deepest fears a reality for a short period of time.  It was widely accepted that this new development was neither Magical nor Scientific in origin, which made it widely distrusted by both sides.  In part, this was because a very small percentage of the general population seemed capable of the mental discipline to control the Ether.  The most successful Ether manipulators were centered in China, India and especially Tibet.  So small was the number of proficient Ether-ists that they became more of a societal oddity than a threat to the existing order.

The exception to this was in the New World of America.

In 1492 the Nexus version of Christopher Columbus also made a wrong turn and ended up discovering the Bahamas.  The Native Americans he discovered there seemed largely unconcerned with either Science or Magic, instead having cultivated a long, peaceful relationship with nature and Spirits.

Power granting Patrons had been wandering about Earth Nexus almost since the dawn of man.  However, as has been mentioned before, Patrons tend to have very short attention spans and grow bored with their servants (eg- playthings) after only decades or, rarely, centuries.  Patrons had helped several cultures rise to prominence under their attention, including the Babylonians, Greeks and Vikings.  It should be noted that the individuals known as Zeus, Thor and other various gods were not the Patrons themselves but rather the ones who received the power.  Patrons are not able to cross the barrier themselves; they are only capable of communicating and granting power through it.  So, the Patrons imbued small numbers of people with fantastic abilities then sat back to watch the show.  While Patrons definitely had an impact on Nexus history, their inevitable departure left the various cultures hanging and, in many cases, doomed.

The Patrons who visited North America in the pre-colonies years may have started out the same as others of their ilk, but the patient teaching of the Native Americans changed that.  In every other interaction throughout human history the Patrons would offer unimaginable power at which point the human would greedily take all they could get and beg for more.

When the Patrons offered such power to the Native Americans it was taken, but instead of using their new abilities to make war on one another or to glorify themselves, the People used them to better understand Nature and promote their balance within it.  The Native American awe and reverence for the world around them and their steadfast belief that everything held a spirit, slowly impressed their Patrons until those incredible trans-dimensional beings began to feel the same love for the world they watched.  In the history of Earth Nexus no culture has retained so enduring and benevolent a relationship with their Patrons as the Native Americans. 

When the colonists landed the Nexus Natives let them have the eastern coast, willing to share with these strange new people.  Later, when some colonists began to move westward, the Native Americans were preoccupied with the sudden appearance of Ether in the world.  With the possible exception of the Tibetans, the Native Americans showed the most promise as Ether manipulators.  Although some might argue that this was because of their cultural bias towards Dreamwalking and certain hallucinogenic plants used in their ceremonies, it was actually due to the direct guidance of their Patrons.

These Patrons, known by such names as Bear, Coyote or Crow, had grown concerned by the acquisitive nature of the colonists.  They saw a time coming when war might arise between them and their chosen People.  In general, Patrons until this time had been petty and self-absorbed; granting powers only for their own amusement at the chaos such gifts inevitably created.  They had jealously refused to allow any individual gifted in Science or Magic access to their gifts; keeping their playthings tethered solely to them.  The Native American Patrons, however, had grown to genuinely care for their people and so they instructed their people in the secrets of Ether, making them the first Patron/Ether hybrid sourced people in the world.

In 1743 the Native Americans ousted every French government official from the mid-country French Territories in a short and brutal war that lasted less than four months.  Alarmed by this action, border squabbles between colonists and Native Americans started, escalating in 1754 until finally England declared war on them in 1756.   This became known as the Seven Years War.  In our world it was also called the French and Indian War, but in Nexus the French had nothing to do with it except to secretly cheer on the colonists.

Inevitably the more sophisticated Science and Magic of the Europeans combined with their superior numbers (once they'd been shipped across the ocean) won the war for the colonists.  The Native Americans were constrained to smaller and smaller reservations in more and more remote regions of the country until their situation closely resembles that of our world's version. 

One noteworthy difference; Native Americans are uncontested as the best Ether manipulators in the Western World.  This fact along with the continuing love and support of their Patrons has left with them with untarnished pride in their heritage and culture.  Native Americans of Nexus Earth have become greatly respected pillars of the heroic community and every year hundreds of candidates for apprenticeship apply to the People's University of Ether Studies for enrollment.

Most other things tracked the same without too much change.  While the actual fighting of the American Revolution, Civil War and other conflicts was radically different from our own, the results were pretty much the same.  The New World was largely accepting of all forms of power and the Americas found themselves a hodge-podge mix of Magic, Science, Patron and Ether. 

It was roughly around the mid 1700's that Science began to finally assert itself as the dominant Causality to be used by mankind.  In reality, Earth Nexus had always been dominated by Science, but in those earlier days Magic had just been easier to access with more impressive results.  Since Earth Nexus was stronger in Science than Magic, it meant that Science's "this is the way it is no matter what" base line had final say.  So, while a person could change things like gravity or weather with magic, those things were only temporary.  Unlike in a pure Magical Universe, Nexus mages, no matter how powerful, could only cause brief changes in Scientific laws before they reverted to "normal."

Indeed, in 1705, the Industrial Revolution was predicted by Sir Isaac Newton in a famous comment he made during a speech he gave at his own knighting ceremony.  "It's all very well for some Wizard to create a palace made of spun sugar floating on a bank of pink clouds some fifty feet off the ground, but who's to clean up the mess when the bloody thing falls out of the sky?  Science is more practical, more permanent.  In building the house of our future, we would be best served seeking the strongest foundation possible for that edifice."

In seeking that permanence the world underwent an Industrial Revolution similar to our own, though extremely different in application.  The goal of the capitalists and Industrialists who drove the movement was ruthless practical use of resources in the most efficient means possible.  Magic and, to a much lesser extent Ether, provided great opportunities for short cuts that Science just couldn't manage.  In the end, the Industrial Revolution brought about manufacturing and great advances in Science, but more than that it unified the world in finally putting aside political and cultural barriers between Science and Magic.

[Steelclaw]

Which Brings Us To the Modern Age...

Okay, so who cares? 

I mean, other than an interesting creative writing exercise and a reason for me to delve into various historical wikipedia pages, why bother with all the aforementioned balderdash?

Because in order for a world to make sense when you create it, it has to have a history.  You have to know where you're coming from before you can fully understand where you are and where you can go from there.

City of Heroes made super powers and the heroes/villains that wielded them a fairly recent event.  Sure, there were people who lived their whole lives with the knowledge of magic and humans who could fly, but on a cultural/technological level it was all still brand new, hadn't even lost that new car smell yet.  So, CoH could get away with cities that looked just like our own with only a few minor differences.

Another thing CoH did was cram all its magic into isolated zones.  You didn't see magic in the hands of the common people because they didn't have it.  Empowered is a different animal entirely.  Magic will have existed for the entire history of mankind and even Ether, though relatively new, has still been in the world for centuries.  These things are in the hands of the general populace.  In Earth Nexus you can expect to walk down the street and see people talking into their cell phones, working on their laptops and unrolling the magic carpet for a quick trip to the supermarket.

So, the world itself is going to be radically different on the surface.  Magic and Ether will have pervasive effect on the common man, much like Science has in this world.  But the basic situation will remain largely unchanged.  Think of technology in our world and how we interact with it.  Just about everybody in the U.S. knows the basics of how to operate a computer, they can turn on their television set and program the DVR to record their favorite shows, they are capable of getting in their car and driving it to a previously unknown destination by using their GPS.  On the other hand, the number of people who can BUILD a computer, car or GPS are extremely limited.  Heck, even the people who can just repair such objects are a minor percentage of the population. 

Magic is the same way.  While the common man in Earth Nexus can use magically imbued items to make their lives easier, the vast majority of them could never cast a spell if their lives depended on it.  Most of them can't even do a decent card trick.

I am approaching the idea of a world with truly superior beings on it with high cynicism.  I would prefer to call it a realistic view but I know cynical when I see it.  I have always found it very hard to believe that a world with a population of people who could fly, bench press ocean liners and melt steel with a thought would be satisfied slogging it out 9 to 5 in their secret identity then, in an incredible sustained burst of altruism, go risk their lives at night fighting crime for nothing more than a victim's thank you and the occasional damsel's chaste kiss as reward. 

I can believe that some people might do that, but all of them?  Come on.

Earth Nexus's history is one of wars brought on by super powered individuals who thought their powers justified every criminal action.  In our history rulers would hire the best warriors to be their personal guard and to maintain peace, if not justice, in their domain.  In Nexus they hired scientists and mages with the greatest power. 

This early practice has led to major Corporate "Security" firms in the modern age.  Names like Heroism Incorporated or Power for Hire can be found in the phone book along with the roto-rooter man.  As a hero you can work for these companies and receive a stipend for every job you do for them.  This streamlines the contact/mission system and helps to create a more realistic and vital in-game economy.  I'll get further into these issues a bit later.

Nexus as your character will join it is a world combining the best and worst aspects of Capitalism gone haywire.  It will seem at times to be a Nirvana "Disney-World-Vision-of-the-Future" paradise yet always be teetering on the edge of dystopian nightmare.  There are mega-corporations who have dozens if not hundreds of super powered beings on their payroll.  But what happens if some of those companies decide their profit margins aren't quite good enough?

But the world will hardly be one-dimensional.  Street gangs, megalomaniacs, cults, Patrons wanting to pierce the barrier and a hundred... a thousand other distractions and challenges will be poured in as well. 

And it's all on your Honey Do list.

[Steelclaw]

I Think My Character is Out of Alignment

The first choice in the CoH character creation process was hero or villain, at least in the original format.  In the more recent version it was your last choice.  Either way, you had to decide your character's moral compass in a single decision that instantly determined where you went, how everyone was going to react to you and what kind of people you were going to deal with.

You know what irks me the most about MMORPG's these days?  It's not my story.  I'm not telling MY story; I'm living through someone else's.  City of Heroes' greatest draw for me was that I could create my own characters and really FEEL like they were mine.  The problem was, as soon as I had finished creating them, they had to go live through the exact same story as if I had created a completely different character.

Other MMOs are even worse.  You borrow one of their characters and run it through one of their stories.  Wow.  Thanks.  Really.  I'll make sure the tank is full when I bring it back.

What I want more than anything in Empowered is for YOU to make your own story.  The game will give you the elements to do that, but what you do with those elements is entirely up to you.

So, the first thing we get rid of is the concept of Alignment and instead adopt the idea of Consequences.

In Empowered, how the average NPC wandering the street reacts to you is entirely based on your PERCEIVED actions.  In most RPGs all the NPCs follow a fairly limited script.  "Oh no! A Villain/Hero!  I am Doomed/Saved!"  In Empowered it's YOUR story; so you get a hand in guiding the world's reactions.

One of the ways I want to accomplish this is to borrow an idea from the popular Sims games.  At any given time you can click an icon on your UI or press a hotkey and it will bring up a small circle of choices around your character.  These choices are basically possible interactions with those around you.  In non specific situations like standing on the sidewalk watching civilians walk by, you might get options like "say hello" or "glare malevolently."  But if you are staring down a group of bank robbers you would get more meaningful options like "yell your catchphrase", "demand they surrender", "offer a deal" or even "offer to hire them."  You don't have to beat them up and save the day, you will have the option to let them go for a cut of the money or even ask if they want to work for you as evil henchmen. 

This option will also allow you to lead a kind of double life.  When dealing with the public you can appear as pure as the driven snow, then grab a bag of cash when no one is looking and insist "the one that got away must have taken it."

Beneath the surface will be a series of values that change depending on which decisions you make.  Hero or not, if your character selects the Intimidate option enough times even those he protects will soon be scared of him.  Batman is a prime example of this.  NPC reactions will always be checked against these values when determining how they respond to your presence.  Keep in mind that public awareness takes a while and is geographically limited.  You may be King Salmon of Minnow Pond back home, but take a trip to New York City and they'll likely have never heard of you.  More on Cities and the like later.

[Steelclaw]

A Source of Contention

I never really liked the Origin system in CoH.  It wasn't that it was a bad idea or anything, it was just that they never really DID anything with it.  Other than a minor little starter power and which enhancements you could use, it made no difference whatsoever which Origin you chose.

In Empowered your Origin story is left to RP.  If you want to be born of a pile of sludge that someone dumped toxic waste into under the full moon of the Winter Solstice right before an alien ship crashed into the spot thus causing your character to emerge from the resulting goop only to be bitten by a radioactive platypus... well... that's up to you. In this game you don't choose your Origin, you choose your Source.

Source, put simply, is the Causality that governs and fuels your powers.  It is the basis of why you are what you are and how your powers manifest themselves. 

Source is an important decision.  It helps determine your place in the world economy.  Also there are some people who just don't trust those science freaks/hocus pocus phonies/Ether mystic misfits/Patron cultists or just love them to bits.  Your skill selection (discussed in more detail below) is also dictated by your Source.  As later Issues/Expansions of the game come out there will be an emphasis on Source.  I may even decide to get the ol' Science vs Magic wars started up again.

Selectable Sources are Science, Magic, Ether, Patron, Science/Magic, Science/Ether, Science/Patron, Magic/Ether, Magic/Patron or Ether/Patron.  Having only one Source is known as being "Pure" while combining two different Sources makes you a "Hybrid."

Pure Science – Your powers and abilities are caused by either scientific accident (chemical spill, experiment gone wrong, etc) or the use of technology or deliberate scientific application.  Those with a Pure Science Source may specialize in all Technological skills.  They also gain access to Technology Research and Development at higher levels.  Pure Science Source characters can use any Science temp power so long as they meet the level requirements.  Pure Source get the maximum adjustment to NPC reaction for those who have strong feelings about Science.  Finally, Pure Science characters power up their Power Enhancers 8% more quickly than any other Source.  (More information on just what the heck that means below.) 

Hybrid Science – You may not be totally dedicated to the advancement of technology and scientific research but you're certainly willing to use that technology to your advantage.  Hybrid Scientists get access to all Technological skills but may not perform Research and Development in them at higher levels.  Hybrid Science characters can use any Science temp power so long as they meet the level requirements though they are treated as -5 their actual level for such determination.  Hybrid Science source only get 50% the reaction adjustment (good or bad) from NPCs with such adjustments.  Hybrid Science characters level up their Power Enhancers 3% more quickly than other sources but ONLY if they have a Science based enhancer equipped.

Pure Magic – You have immersed yourself in arcane study to delve deeper and deeper into the secret ways of bending the very laws that make the foundations of the universe.  Or perhaps you know no magic yourself but merely use items of eldritch power to further your own ends.  Either way, you have scorned the ways of technology to gain power of a far more personal nature.  Pure Mages get access to all Magical skills and can endeavor to undertake Arcane Research at higher levels.  Pure Magical Source allows use of any Magic temp power so long as level requirements are met.  Pure Magic characters get the maximum adjustment from NPCs (good or bad) who have such feelings about them.  Lastly, Pure Magic characters get a free token every 5 levels of advancement that allows them to get a Power Stunt for any power without having to pay the normal power slot cost. (More information about Power Stunts later.)

Hybrid Magic – Magic is good, but you don't really want to dedicate every waking hour to studying it just to learn how to turn your fireballs from red to blue.  You'll learn enough to make you more powerful... and you'll still avoid that study-by-candle-light tan.  Hybrid Mages get access to all Magical Skills but can not make use of Arcane Research at higher levels.  Hybrid Magic allows use of any Magical temp power so long as they meet the level requirements with a -5 penalty to their actual level.  Hybrid Magic characters get 50% the reaction adjustment (if any) from NPCs with strong feelings about magic.  Hybrid Magic characters get a free Power Stunt token every 10 levels.  This Power Stunt may be applied to any of their applicable powers regardless of whether the power is "magical" or not.

Pure Ether – You've always been able to sense Ether energy around you.  Training and discipline have allowed you to control it, to shape it with your mind and command it to do your bidding.  You are only limited by your imagination; which means you're not really limited at all.  Pure Ether manipulators get access to all Ether skills and will allow them to perform Ether Purification at later levels.  Pure Ethers can use only those temp powers available to every Source, but their natural ability to change Ether into anything they desire (like ammunition) means that all starting charges or later re-charges are doubled for those items.  Pure Ether characters get full adjustment from any NPC who reacts strongly to such people.  Finally, Pure Ether characters are not limited to only one Power Set when it comes to Control, Melee Offense, Ranged or Pets powers.   When selecting a new power they can choose it from any power set available but doing so "locks out" any similar powers from other sets.  For example, using City of Heroes guidelines this would mean an Ether Blaster could choose Fire Blast as his first level power which locks out a first tier power on all other power sets (eg – Ice Blast, Mental Blast, Power Blast, etc).  When he advances enough to get his next power he may select from a totally different set and get Energy Torrent, which locks out Fireball, Buckshot, Empty Clips, etc.  This reflects the fact that the Ether character is forming the Ether energy into whatever he desires rather than being limited to a single attack type.

Hybrid Ether – See, you can sense Ether energy too, but this whole training and discipline thing is for the birds.  You don't mind concentrating hard once in a while but staring at the tip of your nose while chanting ohm for hours on end just isn't your thing.  So, let the purists try changing Ether into everything... you'll be happy just changing it into one thing... gold sounds like a nice option.  Characters with Hybrid Ether Source get access to all Ether skills.  While they DO gain access to Ether Purification, they get only the first two levels of it and no further.  Hybrid Ethers get access to only those temp powers useable by every Source.  When re-charging their temp powers they get 1.5x the number of charges they would normally (drop fractions.)  Hybrid Ether characters get 50% the reaction adjustment from NPCs who have strong feelings about that Source.  Unlike Pure Ethers, Hybrids get no ability to branch out into any other power sets than the one they chose at creation.

Pure Patron – I serve Bob the All Powerful!  Bob whispers in my ears at night and tells me things... wonderful things.  In return for my service Bob has blessed me with powers in abundance!  All I have to do is obey him and my power in this world shall be unmatched!  Now, excuse me... but I have to go pick up his dry cleaning.  When choosing their skill, a Pure Patron may select choose from either Magic or Technology skills.  While they do not get Arcane Research or Research and Development access, they are able to use Patron Imbuement at higher levels.  When creating the Pure Patron character, the player must select the Patron Type.  Basically, this is like saying "I'm going to worship a war god, healing god, ice god, etc.  You will select from a list of options, each of which gives you an idea of what such a Patron might expect of you.  For example, if you pick a Patron of Battle, they might expect you to vanquish every foe.  A Patron of Protection might demand that you not let your allies suffer or fall on the battlefield.  Pure Patrons can select from any temp power useable by any Source but can also use limited tech or magic only temps as determined by what kind of Patron they chose.  Battle Patrons may allow weapon access, Protection Patrons allow access to healing items, etc.  Pure Patrons get the maximum adjustment from NPCs with reactions to that Source.  Finally, Pure Patrons get experience point rewards for adhering to the tenets of their Patron.  Upon completing any mission the character will get up to a 10% bonus to their end-of-mission reward if they performed the correct actions to earn it.  For example; say you run a character whose Patron is a Battle type.  Your Patron demands that you defeat (not necessarily kill) every opponent in the mission map before exiting to earn his favor.  Every mission you do this gets you a 10% bonus to your final xp reward.  Missions that don't involve defeating enemies or those where one enemy always escapes to further the story line make it impossible to get the bonus. 

Hybrid Patron – Sure, I like Bob, but he's not my end-all, be-all or anything.  I mean, I have other talents, you know?  I don't mind taking the powers he offers, but I moonlight on the side.  After all, a guy's gotta have a back up plan, ya know?  And... just between you and me... Bob's a little undependable.  I mean, come on... he's an all powerful being named BOB.  Hybrid Patrons do not get any other skills to choose from other than those allowed by the other half of their Hybrid pairing, but they DO get access to Patron Imbuement at higher levels.  Like Pure Patron, the Hybrid must select the nature of their Patron when they create their character, as noted above.  Hybrid Patrons get access to temp powers as allowed by their other hybrid Source.  However, if the temp power in question is one allowed by their Patron, they can use it as though a Pure Source of that type rather than a Hybrid.  So, if a Magic/Patron who chose Battle as their Patron type got a hold of a magical weapon, they could use it as a Pure Magic Source rather than taking the -5 levels penalty.  That same character would still have to face the penalty for any magic temp power not supported by their Patron however.  Hybrid Patrons get 50% the reaction from NPCs who have adjustments to this Source.  Finally, Hybrid Patrons get experience rewards the same way Pure Patrons do, but they only get a 4% bonus rather than the usual 10%.

[Steelclaw]

Know Your Role

Role is to Empowered what Archetype was to City of Heroes. 

I didn't mind the Archetypes in CoH but they were a little bit too constraining for me.  My main goal in the character creation portion of Empowered is customization.  I want the player to be able to create the exact character they have in mind, or at least come pretty darned close to it.  That was one of the things that made me love CoH... the fact that every character I made was MINE. 

After selecting your Source, the next screen in the character creation process will have the following choices:

Control -----/----- Support
Melee Offense -----/----- Defense
Ranged -----/----- Support
Ranged -----/----- Control
Pets -----/----- Support
Pets -----/----- Control

There you go... every archetype in CoH (with the exception of Stalkers) all in one small package. 

You select which pairing you want.  Let's take Melee Offense/Defense for an example.  You click on that option which opens up a sliding scale line between the Offense and Defense options.  To start the little indicator bar will be dead center, giving you 50% power to each option.  But, let's say you wanted to run what we'd call a Tank in CoH; you click on the indicator bar and slide it towards Defense.  A numeric display would show 80% Defense, 20% Offense if slid all the way.  If you slide it all the way opposite then those numbers switch.  The most you can beef up any one side of the coin would be 80%.  For comparison let's say that the standard CoH Tank (unbuffed with no enhancements) would be around 70% defense and 30% offense.

So, you could conceivably create any Archetype you wanted and tweak it to fit your character concept.

But wait... that's not all!

When you select your line you ALSO get another option called Circumstantial Scaling.  You could also call this your Hulk Meter.  Basically C-Scaling allows you to further tweak the balance between your Primary and Secondary powers depending on what circumstances your character finds himself.  Let's say you want your Tank to be at his defensive best when on a team, but when he's solo you would rather be more like a scrapper.  You select C-Scaling and in the window that appears set the Standard Parameters to 50% offense and 50% defense.  In the Mitigating Circumstance window is a list of possible things that would affect that balance.  You select Team Size and set the target to 6.  Finally, in the Target Parameter section you set Offense to 20% and Defense to 80%. 

From this point onwards, when you play that character solo you will do so at 50% offense and defense.  Not quite Scrapper level offense, but a lot faster than your average Tank.  However, if you start picking up team mates, your Defense will upgrade for each player added until your team size is six or more, at which point you will have reached your 80% defensive top out and 20% offense.  All this will be automatic, requiring no button pressing or choices made by the player.

C-Scaling is not required.  If you want to run a 60/40 Ranged/Support (eg- Corruptor) or a 50/50 Ranged/Control (Dominator) that never changes regardless of circumstances then more power to you.  However, if you DO use C-Scaling you will have an entire list of different triggers to which you can bind it; including but not limited to hit point total, number of enemies aggro'd, how long the battle has lasted, etc.

[Steelclaw]

Power Sets, Enhancers and Stunts, Oh My!

I rather liked the way Power Sets were handled in CoH.  They gave you the ability to choose your powers while maintaining a solid theme for each set.  They were well balanced but each set brought something different to the table.

Empowered Power Sets would work much the same way but I would tweak the organization and number of powers within each set a bit.  Instead of a tier system we would have a sub-category system.  Each sub-category has different powers within it that become available as the character goes up in levels.  Not all sub-categories are selectable at first level; they also open once certain advancement minimums are met.

Example:  Let's say you've created a Pure Magic Source character with 70/30 Ranged/Control.  You select Elemental Fire for your Ranged component.

Now, Ranged Elemental Fire has the following sub-categories: Ranged Single Target, Melee Single Target, Minor Protection, Point Blank AoE and Targeted AoE.  At first level the only accessible sub-categories are Melee and Ranged Single Target.  Each one has two moves to select from, a quick low damage attack and a slower attack with higher damage. 

As your character advances in level you will be able to select from other sub-categories.  There will be enough powers per group to allow you to specialize and also let you completely ignore powers that don't fit your character concept.  Certain categories, specifically Melee and Protection in the above list will have much fewer powers and they will be underpowered compared to actual melee specific Roles.  In the case of Ranged Elemental Fire, Minor Protection only offers resistance to Cold and Fire damage as one might expect from a character with fire based powers.

While my development team may want to lynch me, my plan for Empowered is to have enough of a selection of powers to allow players to create practically any character they have in mind.  Every power in every set will have at LEAST three animations to choose from, including one science, magic and ether specific.  Since Patrons imbue their servants with power there isn't really a specific kind of casting animation for them.  It's not like the Patron shows up and throws the thunderbolt at the target themselves.

Okay, I admit it, Enhancers and Enhancements are practically the same thing.  Don't fix what isn't broken, right?  Well... almost.  Like CoH Enhancements, Enhancers are found items that drop after combat.  Enhancers can NOT be sold on the market or to vendors.  Part of the reason for this is because Enhancer drops are per character; teaming has no effect on their drop rate.  Also, the only Enhancers you will ever get will ALL be able to be used by your character.  If you are a Pure Magic character you will ONLY get Magic Enhancers in your drops.  I'm pretty sure I'd make Enhancers account-bound so, while you couldn't sell them, you can trade them among your own characters.

Enhancers are divided into categories and potency.  Categories would be Accuracy, Damage, Endurance Cost, Range, etc.  Sound familiar?  There would also be rarer Enhancers that combine two or more of these into a single slot.

Potency determines how much of a bonus in its category the Enhancer provides.  There are six levels of Potency: Poor, Typical, Good, Excellent, Incredible and Amazing.  Poor gives 25% the maximum bonus, Typical is 40%, Good is 55%, Excellent is 70%, Incredible at 85% and Amazing at 100%.  Note that if the Enhancer has multiple categories then they get the total percentage bonus divided by the number of categories and a final +5%.  So, an Accuracy/Damage/Range Enhancer of Incredible Potency would get a final ((85%/3)+5%) or 28.33+5% or 33.33% total bonus each. 

All Enhancers are available as a drop from level one mobs all the way to end-game level.  This means that you can get an Amazing Accuracy/Damage/Recharge Rate/Endurance Cost Enhancer as a drop from the very first street thug you fight.  Of course, your chances of this are roughly equivalent to winning the lottery, but there IS a chance.  This chance gets better the higher level the mob; until your chances of getting a Poor Potency Enhancer are almost as low as getting an Amazing one used to be.

The good news is that you can slot any Enhancer at any level.  You can use that Amazing Enhancer the second it drops even if you just got out of the tutorial.  More good news is that Enhancers scale with your experience level.  Bad news 1: once slotted an Enhancer can not be removed, it can only be replaced.  So if you slotted that Amazing in your level 1 Limp Wrist Flail Slap melee attack, you're stuck with it there. 

The other bad news is that even though your Amazing Enhancer has an potential maximum bonus of 100%, it doesn't start out that way.  Every Enhancer starts at zero bonus and improves over time in a process called Bonding.

Let's look at it in game world terms.  Servo the Magnificent is a Hybrid Science/Ether character.  While doing hero work he happens upon a sample of Nanobots designed to act as back up batteries in the case of system overload.  (Science Enhancer, Good Endurance Cost)  He plants the Nanos in his own Tech Armor, specifically to his Forearm Disruptors (Energy Blast).  He's disappointed to find out they weren't designed for his kind of suit and so don't perform well.  (Starting at 0% bonus to Endurance Cost for the Energy Blast move.)  However, the Nanos have adaptive programming and so each time he uses the Energy Blast power, the Nanites learn what to do.  (Each use of the power earns points specific to that Enhancer, increasing its bonus.  Since the character is a Hybrid Science Source and since the Enhancer is also Science Sourced, he gets a +3% bonus to each point, leveling up the Enhancer even faster.)  Eventually, the Nanites have adapted fully and function at full capacity.  (Reaching its Good ceiling of 55% the maximum possible bonus to this power for Endurance Cost.)

Obviously, Poor Enhancers will hit their ceiling long before Amazing ones would.  Also, keep in mind that the Enhancer Bonding has nothing to do with enemy defeats or character experience level and everything to do with how many times that individual Bonded power is used.  Also, the points are only accumulated when the power is used in appropriately challenging situations.  So, no building up your Accuracy Enhancer by beating up enemies 10 levels lower than you.  Also, no increasing your Healing Enhancer by spamming a healing aura in an area where everyone is healed and no one is fighting.

Hybrids can mix and match Enhancers on the same power with no penalty.  So Servo could slot an Incredible Ether Range Enhancer in his Energy Blast power right along side the Good Science Endurance Cost so long as he had enough slots for both.

One last note on Enhancers... While your Science character will never get a Magic Enhancer drop, if they only fight Magic Source enemies he/she may never get an Enhancer drop at all.  Some enemy groups are distinctly Source specific and, thus, only drop certain types of Enhancers.  Most enemy groups, however, are made up of multiple Sources in their membership, so this won't come up every time you play.  I don't want the Empowered world to force anyone to fight only one kind of enemy.  This is supposed to be about freedom of choice.

Now, let's talk about Power Stunts. 

Power Stunts are ways of altering or "turbo-charging" existing powers to make them more unique and to give them extra little boosts.  They are also cool ways to make your character just a little more different from everyone else out there.  While most Power Stunts are not game changers, there are a few per power set that give definite advantage.

Every few levels characters will be given Stunt Tokens.  (Magic Source characters get bonus tokens as described in their description above.)  Stunt Tokens can be saved or spent immediately.  You can only add a Power Stunt to a Power that you currently possess.  Also, not all Power Stunts are created equal, some only cost one token while others may cost as much as two or three.

As an example of what Power Stunts you might find in the game let's consider the travel power Super Speed.  When you first choose that power it behaves pretty much exactly like the CoH version.  Now you get your first Stunt Token and give the possible Power Stunts a glance.  For one token you could purchase Water Walking which allows you to run on the surface of lakes and oceans as though it were solid ground.  While not the most incredible boost, it would keep you from slowing down (since super speed swimming isn't as fast as running) and it would look supremely awesome.  Keeping that one in mind you notice another possible Power Stunt for Super Speed is Vertical Ascent.  Vertical Ascent means that if you run full speed into a building wall or cliff face, you switch axis and simply run UP it without losing a step.  Likewise you could Super Speed down sheer faces without falling so long as you maintain speed and not stop.  Vertical Ascent is also only one token.  A two token Stunt is Impervious Trail.  When you run you leave a blurry after image for a distance behind you.  Impervious Trail makes this hazy streak solid for a few seconds after you go by.  Running between your allies and enemies makes a barrier than can't be walked through and may allow your team to regroup or even escape.  The barrier is only your character's height however, so it can still be leapt or flown over.  The final, three token power is Blazing Speed.  This is similar to Impervious Trail but now you actually set fire to the ground you pass over, doing damage over time to any who step in that fiery path.

Other possibilities might be Fire Ball with a knock-back component, Lightning Bolt with health drain, Impale with Bleed damage over time, and so on.

Finally, you are not limited only to your Power Sets when selecting your powers.  Like CoH there will be general power pools from which everyone can choose.  One thing I am firm about... travel powers will be a freebie at first level.  There will be "non-super" options similar to Ninja Run or Beast Run for those players whose character concept requires a more sedate approach.  Also, I plan to borrow from WoW a bit and have mounts and vehicles as an option.

[Steelclaw]

It's a Game of Skill

I used to love playing with the CoH Auction House system.  It was an easy way to make money even if you didn't farm a blessed thing.  I had 10 characters called Traderbots that did nothing but buy expensive salvage items at low prices then immediately turn them over to sell at a reasonable profit.  On average I made between 200 to 400 million influence a week that way, which isn't too bad considering I wasn't that much of a big spender anyway.

Since CoH shut down I've been playing a lot of WoW.  The Auction House system there is even more robust and active, the primary reason for this is because players don't just turn in what they find but don't want... they also sell things they MAKE.  You select a profession or two and start skinning critters and making leather goods or other possibilities if the idea of turning Bambi's pelt into a belt doesn't appeal to you.

One aspect of CoH that I always thought they dropped the ball with was the temp powers.  Stay with me, I'm not going off on a Zwillinger tangent, I swear.  Most of the temp powers weren't really worth having in the first place (a baseball bat... really?), had a low number of uses and no easy means of recharge (Shivan Shard) or had cool downs that took entirely too long (team transport). 

In Empowered the temp powers are excellent ways of rounding out your character and really creating exactly what you had in mind.  Temp powers will allow you to shore up weaknesses and buff your strengths.  The best part about Empowered temp powers?  YOU make them.

That's right.  At a relatively low level your character will get the option to select a skill that allows them to build a specific kind of temp power.  There will be skills that anyone can do as well as Source-specific skills.  To be honest, Magic and Science will mirror each other fairly closely in function if not in form.  Both will have the ability to create protective armor, ranged weapons, melee weapons, temp buffs, healing devices and so on.  There will also be skill sets that allow you to make larger weapons for base protection and zone event use only.

Lower level temp powers can be used by anyone.  Just about every person in America could pick up a gun and shoot it.  You don't have to be a Scientist to do so.  On the other hand, your average man on the street might have slightly more difficulty in firing a cruise missile.  You increase your skill by using it.  Every object you create increases your overall skill points, allowing access to better and better temp powers to manufacture.

Pure Science and Magic characters will eventually access Research and Development and Arcane Research which are essentially the same thing.  These abilities allow you to roll the dice in an effort to tweak one of your temp power items in a specific way.  Let's say that you can produce an Elite Sniper Rifle by collecting the correct salvage and investing $125.  A normal ESR will do 120 dmg, have an automatic +5 accuracy and be effective to a range of 100 game yards.  But EVERY Gunsmith of your level can make the exact same thing.  The only way you can tempt people to buy your version over someone else's is if you sell it at a lower price than everyone else.  And, of course, some bozo just put their ESR in at a $125 buy out, obviously just wanting to get the skill points and break even cost-wise.

What's a poor money-grubber to do?  Well, you can use Research and Development (or Arcane Research for Mages) to try to improve your base weapon.  When you create the weapon there is an option to make it for R&D purposes.  When you click that square the first thing you notice is that the price to create just jumped from $125 to $250.  When you try to invent something new, it costs more as your machine shops don't have the presets, the materials aren't already in stock, etc.  Now, as you're recovering from the doubling in price, you see another window of options asking if you want to research Payload (damage), Scope (accuracy) or Barrel Length/Rifling (range).  You choose Scope and roll the dice.  The first time you do research on an improvement your chances are fairly low for success.  Let's say only 10%.  However, every time you research the same improvement you increase your chances by a cumulative 3% until you finally succeed. 

There are limits to how much you can improve any given temp power.  Each temp power has a hard cap to the amount of research buffs it can get.  Once you reach those limits the option to R&D will gray out.

Now when you put your ESR on the market it will have an advantage over other more common versions.  Also, you will have created a brand name.  On the market list instead of Elite Sniper Rifle it may now read Exodar Sniper Rifle, assuming your character's name is Exodar of course.  You could actually get a reputation in the community for the quality of your work and have a following of people who claim that YOUR product is far superior to Folger's Crystals.

Or something like that.

Pure and Hybrid Ether characters are a little different.  As Ether is an energy form that allows the Ether Manipulator to shape it into a wide variety of matter or energy, the Ether character can opt to become an Ether Shaper.  Since only Ether characters can see the energy in the first place, they are the only ones who can get Ether as a salvage drop.  They can also get Ether that has already been shaped into physical objects.  They are able to discern these items from normal ones by simply touching them.  Ether that has been changed into a solid object will be preceded by a determination of age such as new, used, old or ancient.  The longer Ether has been locked into a shape the more resistant it is to be changed back into pure Ether so it can be reshaped once more. 

Not too many pieces of pottery can be turned back into the original clay.

This is where Ether Purification comes in.  At later levels Ether Shapers with Ether Purification can take solid Ether and change it back into its original energy form.  Each level of Purification grants a 40% chance to transform new, 20% chance to revert used, 10% to change old and 5% for ancient.  Every successful reversion grants progress towards the next level of ability. 

This makes Ether Shapers the ultimate materials vendors of the Empowered world.  At low levels they can only make simple, easy to find salvage items (Simple Chemical anyone?)  But as they grow in experience they'll be able to make rarer and more complicated items.  (Wow... so if I just made a Deific Weapon... doesn't that make me a deity by definition?) 

Also, only Ether Source characters can tell what's Ether and what's not.  So enterprising Shapers might buy up a dozen or so cheap and plentiful salvage items like the old Computer Virus.  In an Ether character's inventory those items would divide into piles of Computer Virus, New Computer Virus, Used Computer Virus and so on.  Don't ask me to explain how a Computer Virus could be Ancient... it's above your security clearance.  They can then take the salvage formerly known as Ether and attempt to transmute it back to original form.

Only one attempt can be made per solidified Ether object.  Failure indicates the item has hardened permanently and will never be Ether again.

Temp powers will never be as powerful as their Power Set equivalents, but they'll come darned close in some cases.  They are not intended to replace Power Sets but rather to supplement them.  If you want to want to make a Weapons Master character then you could just choose Melee Broad Sword as your primary power set then go buy a rifle, grenade launcher, throwing knife or whatever you like to flesh out the concept.

Temp Powers will have charges.  As you use the power the charges run out.  When they are completely depleted you do NOT lose the temp power, you just lose the ability to use it until you get more charges.  The best example of this is a gun.  Say you bought Exodar's Sniper Rifle, which comes with a three full boxes of ammo free-of-charge!  That works out to 60 charges or 60 times you can fire the weapon before you run out of bullets.  Now, you don't have to go back to Exodar to get bullets for this gun, you just have to go to the local gun shop and buy the correct caliber.  While you have to buy temp powers through the Auction House or direct from other characters, you will be able to buy recharges through NPC vendors located throughout the game. 

Recharges will vary in cost from item to item.  It's a heck of a lot cheaper to get more ammo for your slingshot than it would be to recharge the batteries in your Static Repulsor Vest.   

Also, some items are one shot deals.  You can't recharge a guided missile, land mine or pocket nuke.  On the other hand, some items have automatic recharging, so that if you give them enough time they'll be functional again.   EMPs and some magical effects come to mind. 

You get one skill for free at a relatively low level.  If you want to have more than one skill, you may sacrifice a power slot to get it.  This would allow Ether characters to have a production-type skill as well as their Ether Shaping, potentially eliminating the need for extensive farming or Auction House scrounging to get the raw materials for their items.  Or you could create a tinker character that does nothing but make items to supply your alts with both temp powers and a fair amount of lucrative income.

[Steelclaw]

Loner: No Longer One Letter Away From 'Loser'

Recently there has been a lot of flack in the industry about whether or not having a required internet connection to play a game is a good idea.  Well, since I've been going on and on about Empowering the players and telling you that you can "play it YOUR way" it wouldn't make much sense for me to now say "that's it... you're playing on line and you're gonna LIKE it pal!"

Okay, so how in the hairy eyeballed heck am I going to make an MMORPG that allows you to play off line?

Give me a minute to answer... sheesh.

Batman has Gotham City.  Superman has Metropolis.  You have <insert city name here>.

You have two ways to play Empowered.  You can play in a city that is only available to your characters and those you invite.  You can play in a massive city that is open to all players.  Or you can take turns and play a little in each.

In your character's city you have the option to play off line if you want.  While you CAN play it off line, keep in mind that patches, critical fixes and new content will only be available for download if you sign on.  Even if you decide to play in your home city while on line, you will still be playing alone.

You can also open your private city to guests if you so desire.  You can do this one of two ways.  You create a "city name" for yourself which is basically the address on the servers where friends can find you.  If you want to open this up to the general public you can publish the city name and let anyone interested send you a tell requesting entry.  You can also keep the city name hidden and off the list if you don't want to be bothered by strangers.  Either way, others can only enter the city if you send them an invite.  You will also retain the ability to kick them from your city at any moment.  Finally, if you get booted off line then everyone who was in your city will be booted as well.

The "real" copy of your private city will be stored on your computer.  Every time you sign on to Empowered Servers the game will make a back up copy in your account information of both your current character and city information.  This is done so that in the event of catastrophic failure, virus or other loss of information, you will be able to recover your character/city from the last time you logged on.

So, even though you CAN play off line, it would behoove you to log on at least once in a while.

For those of you with alt-itis, you have the option of giving every one of your alts their own private city or piling them all in the same one.  The choice is entirely up to you.

So, other than not having to play with other people who will most likely just annoy you anyway, what are the benefits to playing in a private city?

Well, first of all, the private cities are going to be as organic as possible.  The aim of giving you your own playground is to make the hero/villain experience that much more REAL to you.

Your actions will have far reaching consequences.  People in the town will react to you based on what you have done in the past.  The town itself will grow or die based on what you do. 

For example, let's say you get a mission where a local store is being held up.  You go in, powers blazing and confront the bad guy.  During the ensuing battle, one of the robber's bullets goes wild and hits a young teenage girl named Amanda Huggenkiz.  You save the store.  You save all the other patrons.  You arrest the bad guy.  The paper writes you up as a hero while the town cheers.  However, Mrs Huggenkiz, Amanda's mother, will never forgive you for not saving her daughter.  When you pass her in the street in your hero garb, she never passes up the opportunity to make a cutting remark.

Let's say things go even further south.  Instead of you saving the day, your fire powers killed the store robber and set the store on fire, destroying it and killing three innocents, including the store owner, in the process.  In disgust, you sign off for the night and promise yourself never to drink that heavily while playing again.  This isn't Pinnacle, after all.  The next time you sign on you notice that where the store used to be on the city map is a burned out husk.  On the sidewalk in front of the remains is a small cluster of homemade memorials for the owner and the others who died there.

It will take you a while to get back in the good graces of the community.

Once again, it's YOUR story.  You have nominal control over what happens in your city.  When you first start out there will be a few random street gangs, maybe a semi-legal militia with paranoid tendencies or some other small time problems.  As you rise in levels though you might want greater challenges.

Let's say Issue 12 of the game introduces invading Aliens that seem to be comprised of mostly tentacles with a proclivity for Japanese school girls.  Well, darn it, you LIKE Japanese school girls and think they deserve protection!  You go into the City Options tab of your UI and select Import Story.  You select Tentacled Alien Scum and click Ok.  Voila!  In short order your City will begin the story line for that issue.  On the other hand, if you can't stand tentacles after that unfortunate incident in the seafood restaurant, you can skip it and keep the Japanese school girls in your town innocent just a little while longer.

Let's say you wanted to become a villain rather than a hero.  You can terrorize your small city all you want.  Entice various young civilians into becoming your henchmen, rob the local bank until the Feds refuse to cover their losses any longer, it's all up to you!  Every mission you run can go several different ways.  You may have shot Amanda yourself then asked the robber if he had career goals beyond petty larceny (that is, wanna work for me kid?) 

There will be two different modes in which you can run while in your private City; Forgiveness and Realistic.  Forgiveness mode is just that.  If you mess up a mission or you just can't stand the fact that Amanda died, you can opt to re-do the mission, losing all the experience and loot you might have earned during it and starting over again.  In Realistic mode accidents happen and they have far reaching consequences.  I think you're off Mrs. Huggenkiz's Christmas Card list for a while.

Another fun part of playing in your own City is the ability to set your Nemesis.  You can either select them from existing NPC enemies or create one yourself.  Your Nemesis will appear every so often with specific plots set aside specifically for them.  These plots will be more dramatic and personal than the usual "rob the bank", "mug the waitress" sort of mission sets.  They will also generally have a better pay off reward and story wise.

Finally, your city grow or die according to your actions.  If you are a true hero and thwart threat after threat, the City may get such awards as "Safest City in Ariziowadaho".  They may erect a statue in your honor in your very own memorial park.  The city will grow and thrive under your constant care, becoming cleaner and more impressive.  These changes will be literal.  If your character takes a walk down main street of your City when first created and then again when he's invested many levels and missions into it, it will be a completely different view each time.  New buildings, a neighborhood clean up program that succeeds admirably, a lot of little changes that make the city grow organically in his care.

Unless, of course, you decide that Doctor Doom having his own Country to rule makes him the perfect role model. 

You can also turn your City into a dystopian nightmare.  Build your evil fortress where the City Hall USED to be.  Have the former High School Football Coach become the personal physical trainer to your minions.  That beautiful, picturesque lake?  Great place to put your robot laser sharks!  You can do things like this, but keep in mind that being a public villain attracts heroes.  Your openly evil lifestyle may attract freedom fighters in the local populace, wannabe super heroes from other surrounding towns as well as any story lines you want to import from Issues or Expansions.

One disadvantage to turning your City into your own evil fairground is you tend to use up the resources fairly quickly, forcing your character to go to the big city to bankroll his endeavors.

[Steelclaw]

One Big Happy... Dysfunctional... Family

Public Cities are based on actual cities around America and (in later expansions) the World.  When going from your town to a Public City you can pick from choices like Yoo Nork, Less Angles, Lost Wages or Detroit.  Each Public City will be different and have their own problems.  Yoo Nork may have a giant ape trying to trash a down town skyscraper, while Lost Wages giant neon signs could be brought spontaneously to life by some Wizard who lost it big at the blackjack tables.

You give up control of your story a bit by coming to the Public City since you are now sharing the story along with everyone else.  Every Issue that has story line advances will be optional in the Private towns but automatic in the Public Cities.  So those Japanese school girls had best look out or move to the suburbs.

Public Cities will be much larger than Private ones.  A single Public City might be as big as Paragon was while the Private ones are more like Independence Port, although instanced areas will make both seem much bigger. 

Since there are no alignments, only consequences, you will never know if another player is a hero or villain until you get to know them.  PvP is NOT open in the streets, but it IS an option in certain circumstances.

Let me give yet another example.

You are playing Notary U.S., a former Notary Public who turned to a life of crime soon after learning you can't earn a living just officiating documents.  You robbed your private City's bank only a few days ago and they haven't replenished yet, so you're looking for scratch.  You go to a Public City and set your sites on the big time, not just a bank but a Federal Depository.  Now, in the old CoV days, you would have to go to a contact, get the bank mission for a specific bank in your level, show up to find that your contact apparently alerted everyone that you were on the way, etc, etc.

In Empowered you can just walk up to the bank and click on the doors to enter it.  You are sent to an instanced map.  Now, in CoV the room would immediately run away from you because they KNEW you were there to rob the place since your contact told everyone, they were just hoping you'd show up after they managed to make a big withdrawal from their personal accounts.  In Empowered, they will react to you, after all, you are wearing a costume, but they will react ACCORDINGLY.  If you have a reputation for evil in the Public City (note that your reputation from your Private city only carries over if it gets high enough for national notice) they may run.  Otherwise, they might just look you over, assume you're another costumed hero type and just stand in line for their turn.  Some of them might ask if you're a hero they might recognize.

You can walk around the lobby, eye the security guards, enjoy a free mint... and then open fire with impunity. 

If you were in your Private Town this action might result in NPC cops being called via silent alarm or your NPC Nemesis (who would be a hero) being summoned.  But you're in the Public City, so this starts a count down instead.  You can just take the money the tellers have and run or you can try for the vault.  Now, in our example you aren't at a bank, you're at the Federal Depository for the city which only has a vault... filled with armloads... truckloads... of cash.  While you blast your way through NPC security guards and various other defense measures like gates and vault doors, the timer is slowly ticking away.

In game terms the timer is marking the passage of events as the silent alarm is triggered, the police call the Depository's number to get details and so on.  When the timer runs out an announcement goes out over a chat channel known as Police Band.

"Robbery Alert!  The Federal Depository of Yoo Nork is being robbed!  Suspect's identity is unknown at this time, male, and possessing super powers.  Consider extremely dangerous!  All available units respond."

At this point, any player in the City is free to head on over to the Federal Depository and try to stop you.  Hopefully, you're not trying this during peak play times.

Now, before you roll your eyes and say "I HATE PvP!  I won't be trying that anytime soon"  I would like to point out that, unlike CoH, the monetary unit in Empowered is... well... money.   What I mean is, if you successfully rob the Federal Depository, your character will get away with whatever he can grab and be able to keep/spend it.  This will likely be a necessity if you are trying to build an evil army because you WILL be expected to pay them.  Even robots cost money for raw resources to build. 

One thing you will never run out of in Empowered is a place to sink your in-game currency.

Another version of PvP that will be available is that of Zone Events.  Say you have amassed a small army in your Private City and decide it's time to see if they are up to snuff or not.  You enter the Public City and click on a button that brings up something called the Zone Event Queue.  From there you can decide which area you want to attack.  Let's say you have enough money from your recent Depository robbery but the fact that the cops didn't know who you were really steams you.  You decide to make a name for yourself by destroying the Statue of the Freedom Lady.  You select Destroy Landmark, enter how many minions you will dedicate of those you have to the task, add any major components like giant robots, magically summoned creatures, mutants, etc.  When done you click Okay.

If there is no one ahead of you the system processes your request and begins immediately.  In order to allow people who enjoy that sort of thing the opportunity to play, there will only be one Zone Event going in any given city at one time.  If one is already underway you will get a message telling you your place in the queue and asking if you want to wait.  The event itself is instanced around the Statue of the Freedom Lady.  The event is announced and everyone who wants to participate will travel to the Statue, as they approach they will cross an invisible barrier, get a quick loading screen then enter the instance. 

Your minions drop from the sky or teleport in just like Rikti in a Rikti Invasion.  If enough heroes show up (or you didn't bring enough minions with you) they may repel your efforts and leave the statue intact.  Or, you may rule the day and destroy it.  Either way, this is one of the pay offs for having spent money building up your army.  Objectives can be monetary (knocking over Fort Hardknox or an art Museum), power increasing (getting a nice little temp power or very rare salvage from a military research facility) or just getting some infamy (destroying a national landmark).

Gaining reputation in the Public City is a challenge.  You CAN get it through running regular missions but that is a time consuming process that improves your notoriety incrementally.  Less patient players will have to take down "name" NPCs in public throw downs or some other "saved the City" scenario.   But don't worry, those will be readily available as well.  Some will be randomly occurring events while others will be the natural end point of certain story lines.

I would like to give the ability to create their own Zone Event to those choosing the heroic path as well, but haven't come up with a logical seeming method for that yet.  The only method I've thought of so far is that of a public celebration.  Perhaps Heroes will generate Good Will with all their acts of kindness resulting in a "We Love Supah Dupah Good Guy" parade or a ceremony presenting him with the key to the city.  This would be announced in the chat window and allow any naughty characters to come disrupt the proceedings if they wanted to give it a go. 

Regardless of how it is eventually managed, the ability to start your own Zone Event is a hard-earned one.  It will take a long time to build up an army of minions or get enough Good Will to earn city-wide recognition.  Because the effort to get the honor is a long, hard climb, the potential benefits of winning your own Zone Event will be exceptional. 

Empowered's public zones are going to be like any huge city, they don't know you, they don't want to know you and they're going to ignore you until you force them to pay attention.  In your Private City everyone has an opinion about you, in the Public Cities you're just the girl in the hot pink and purple striped pajamas with the bunny tail on her butt until proven otherwise.

Like the Private Towns, the Public Zones will show the after effects of failed missions or damage from epic battles, it just won't last as long.  Constructi-Corps is a private corporation who contracts to clean up any super powered messes, for a nominal fee of course.  After your failed mission ends with a building being destroyed, the robots and mages of Constructi-Corps will shortly arrive on the scene and begin to repair the damages.  The building will be rebuilt in about two hours back to its original state.

[Steelclaw]

It's Not Just a Job... It's an Adventure!

The Contact system in CoH was fairly clunky.  Don't get me wrong, it was effective, just not graceful.  Empowered will use several different methods to get your character running missions for good or ill.  These will be in addition to the usual tried-and-true Contacts.

24 Hour Quickie Mart Missions – Basically, these are missions that are always ready to go whenever you like.  If you're of an evil bent it could be a bank that's just sitting there like a solid steel present with cash inside.  If heroism is more your thing then there might be a camp of gang members making plans in an abandoned building just waiting for you to put them back on the straight and narrow.  While these kinds of missions are available to start at pretty much any time, they take a while to recharge as the bank gets it's Federal insurance money or the gang repopulates enough to try again.

Organic Clue Finding – I've always thought that CoH missed an opportunity with street sweeping.  In Empowered you will have a random chance of any non-gray conning enemy defeated dropping a "clue."  Said clue could be a sobbing admission that he didn't no nuffin about no gun shipment in a nearby warehouse.  It might be a folded map with several large red circles on it.  It might even be one villain getting away and running through a nearby door.  When your character tries the same door... voila... it opens!

A Funny Thing Happened On My Way to Work – You are riding a train to a new area... you're super speeding through a tunnel... you're passing through a very dark alleyway... And all of a sudden the screen goes black and you find yourself surrounded... you find yourself face to face with a mysterious quest giver... you find the ground dropping out from under you and you're plummeting into an unused section of the sewers.  Such events will be completely random and open up new gaming areas and opportunities.  Since I am aware not everyone wants their well-ordered life to be interrupted players will be given an opportunity to opt out of these insta-missions.

Mission Specific Chat Channels – Think of these as an updated version of the CoH Police Scanner.  Instead of you bringing up your scanner as a contact though, it will be more like a real scanner.  There will be various channels that are server controlled; you won't be able to talk on them but you will be able to see alerts; rather like the Zone Event announcements in CoH.  At certain intervals you will see text appear in the chat window just like a normal police dispatch.  The alerts will always be in your level range and will always be in the general vicinity of your location.  While you can ignore them, there is a time limit on their availability.  If you wait too long the icon will disappear from your map and the opportunity is lost.

Heroes for Hire – I mentioned earlier the idea of mega-corporations with all super powered employees who lease their services for various jobs the regular police can't handle.  In Empowered the civilian police force is responsible for misdemeanors, traffic violations and the like.  Each Public City contracts directly with Super Powered Merc organizations for anything more dangerous.  Now... here's the cool part... You can work for these Corporations and get paid a cash fee for every job you do... or...

You can start your own.

These are Empowered's version of Super Groups.  At a certain level you will be able to register and build your own Group and build a base for it.  When you start out you may only get a single floor or even just a small office on a floor of the sky scrapers that exist there.  As your company grows, however, you may eventually own an entire building. 

Here's how it works.  You and a buddy of yours start a small office consisting of one room, two desks and a bathroom.  No one knows you so no government contracts for you.  At best you can hope for the occasional "see if my husband is cheating on me" and "get my poor Fluffy out of the tree" missions.  The IRS is very attentive to such businesses so when you get paid, a percentage goes to the one doing the mission as a fee while the rest goes into the business coffers for use in advertising, expansion and that indoor swimming pool you always wanted in your office.

As the Super Group grows the leader can opt to either personally pass out mission assignments or can just put up a first-come-first-served bulletin board.  Either way, every player working those missions will get paid for their efforts while the rest goes into the Group's bank roll.  Bases will have all the amenities like personal member storage, in-house trainers, salvage sharing, etc.

Failure on missions received in this manner not only harms the reputation of the character who botched it, but also the Super Group.  It is highly advisable that you keep a portion of your cash liquid as the law states Corporations are responsible for any damages caused by their employees.  Failing to save a building rigged with explosives could put a real dent in your Corporate cash flow.

[Steelclaw]

Failure IS an Option

Now, I must admit to being a bit of a hypocrite, because while I frequently complained about mission failures in CoH not meaning anything... I also took full advantage of that fact.

Unfortunately, Empowered wouldn't be like that.  Not only is it possible to fail a mission, it can also have far reaching consequences.  The consequences might be minor like "oh no the robber got away with the cash" which only means the shop owner isn't going to be a big fan of yours for awhile.  Or they could be major as in "you failed to oust the terrorists from the city hall" so now there is a hostile enemy force using your town as a base of operations. 

Obviously there will be a huge difference between failures in your Private City versus those in the Public zones.  Public fails will tend to cause smaller ripples since yours is not the ONLY story going on.  On the other hand, Public missions will NOT have the option for a "do-over" like the private ones will (unless you've clicked the "realistic" option).

Another aspect to failure in the game is that most of these missions will run in as close to real-time as possible.  This will make defeats a much more critical issue.  Let's say you're running the "Vahzilok are going to blow up the sewers!" mission alone.  You get about halfway in and meet your maker.  Now, just like CoH there is an option to teleport somewhere (hospital, super group, your mother's basement) or self rezz.  You realize you're all out of wakies (or whatever they'll be called) and have to go to the hospital. 

Unfortunately, it's a long way from the hospital to the sewer entrance.  You fly as quick as you can and duck back in to the fetid underground.  You get to the bomb just in time to see the countdown ticker reach 2... 1...

And you need another hospital port.  Not only that but that section of town is now knee deep in raw sewage and the Contructi-Corps mages are out cleaning it up with clothespins on their noses.

Good work.

Since I know real life intrudes, there will be the option to hit Esc and pause the real-time mission countdown.  This does NOT pause game time (unless you're in a Private City) and will automatically shut off if your character moves or performs any action other than inventory searches, etc.  Basically this just helps if your mother chooses THAT particular moment to phone and complain that you never call her anymore.  If you are on a team then ALL members of the team must use the escape option to freeze time.

Another aspect of real time missions is that enemies will move and flow naturally as the mission progresses.  It makes no sense in a bomb-the-sewers mission for the enemies to all just sit around and wait for heroes to show up.  In Empowered the bad guys got there about five minutes before you did.  They left a guard force near the entrance while the rest are moving towards their assigned bomb-drop points.  If you move quickly enough you might disable the bombs before they ever arrive.  Those that do get to their spots will need time to set up and arm.  Once armed the enemies will run for the exit.  So, if you were late getting to the party and enter the mission only to see a hundred gang members swarming past you to evacuate, you may just want to go with them.

[Steelclaw]

And a List...

A few other things that occurred to me that didn't warrant their own section:

•   Marketing, marketing, marketing.  The best way to advertise a product is word of mouth, which these days means social networking.  Character information can be uploaded/updated to your Facebook page with one button press.  Likewise, you can twitter your achievements automatically as well.

•   Along those lines, I would hire our own Dark_Respite not only to make videos and cut scenes for the game but also to help devise the easiest, most user-friendly in-game video creation and editing system around.  I want to give the opportunity to everyone to make movies about their characters or the game itself.  Let's flood Youtube!

•   Everything these days is Apps.  I am very disappointed in the gaming industry for not taking advantage of this opportunity more than they have.  While you will not be able to actually play on your tablet or cell phone, you WILL be able to get Apps for showing others your characters, access the Auction House to buy items or to manage the ones your trying to sell, access your Super Group information center at any time to bid for available missions or just read the quote of the day.  Those are just a few ideas... the possibilities are endless.

•   Load screens will no longer be a static image or a tip you learned by your second day of playing.  Instead they will be the front page of a newspaper.  It will be the Newspaper of whatever area you are in or going to.  These will not be generic headlines but actual news of recent or even on-going events in the game.  If your character just rescued Miss Private Town 2013 from zombie cheerleaders then it will be a picture of you both with an appropriate headline.  If you haven't done anything noteworthy then it might not be about you at all.  You get the hot topic of the moment.  That means if you're in a Public City and just stopped the dam from blowing up and drowning them all, it will be YOUR news headline on everyone's computer who has a loading screen going at that moment.  People in Australia might be wondering "Who's this SuperDuperDude I keep hearing about?"

[Steelclaw]

The Cast

A few ideas I had for possible NPCs in Empowered.

Veet
It has made appearances all over the world.  A strange symbol that looks like a T superimposed on a larger V.  Whispers in the underground of a mastermind.  Rumors that grow like wind only to dissipate just as quickly.  IS someone manipulating heroes and villains alike for their own ends?  No one knows if Veet exists.  No one even knows if that is his... her... real name.  Just a string of strange, inexplicable events that seem unrelated until one final mind-bending reveal and those two letters.  Is it all just a hoax?  Some kind of urban legend?  Or is Veet real?  And if Veet IS real... what is it's goal?

Veet is my answer to Lord Nemesis.  There was always a joke about everything being a Nemesis plot but it was sort of ruined by the fact that Nemesis was so available and in your face.  We all acknowledged his genius but never questioned his actual existence.  In Empowered Veet will be a ghost.  Every time you're sure you've about proven Veet IS real... something will happen to make you question all your facts.

Heck, maybe Veet isn't real at all... it might just be a practical joke I'm playing on all of you.

Shackled Eternity
Professor Skip Morganson was a brilliant theoretical physicist with an obsession with the possibility of time travel.  He was sure that a combination of science and his own talents with Ether manipulation could pierce the barrier and allow him to travel back in history.  His obsession stemmed from a tragedy in his past, the loss of a loved one that he might have otherwise saved.  Late one August night, after years of fruitless striving, he at last had some form of success.  No one is sure what happened, but the fact that he somehow interacted with the time stream is undeniable.  Now he is caught in a constant state of temporal flux.  To look at him is to see dozens if not hundreds of him all moving independently, shadowy wraith forms of various versions of himself, tethered to the same reality.  He has the ultimate case of multiple personality disorder, but in his case, the personalities are all him.

Morganson is my warning to the universe that time travel is going to be a very dangerous and tricky thing.  Basically the Professor entered the time stream and made ALL his possible realities real... all at the same time... and forced him to be the anchor for all those divergent possibilities.  Visually I see him represented as a solid body with half-visible spirit like versions trying to pull away from him in a constantly moving aura.  Some of the versions might not be aware of their circumstance.  Another interesting thing about his situation is that every time Morganson passes a "milestone" decision in his life, some of the clinging possibilities cease to exist.  If he decides to kill the hostage then all the versions of himself that were from "didn't kill the hostage" possibilities will vanish from him.

No one knows how many alternates Morganson has.  It is obvious that his "dominant personality" has been driven insane by his circumstances.  It remains to be seen if he will slowly regain his sanity as his everyday choices reduce the number of personalities in his head.  It is also unclear if finally ridding himself of all of them will only occur once he's dead.

Jak
In 1941 there lived a boy named Billy Caldwell.  Unbeknownst to the world at large, Billy was the most naturally gifted Ether manipulator to ever walk the earth.  At the age of six, Billy was a lonely child, growing up in the coal mining towns of Pennsylvania where his father worked.  Uneducated and faced with daily trips into a soot-laced hell had made Carson Caldwell a dour, angry man.  The death of his wife when Billy was only three had only added to his personal misery and he sought solace at the bottom of a bottle.

Despite his father's dark, brooding silences, Billy was an inquisitive and fun loving child.  It was hard in the mining town, where children of a certain age were expected to pitch in with the work.  He didn't have any friends to speak of, so when his sixth birthday came, Billy wished for an imaginary friend of his very own.  It is believed that this sincere wish, so pure and strong, was unconsciously granted by Billy himself through his Ether talents.  And so, Jak was born.

Like any good imaginary friend, Jak could only be seen by Billy.  This led to many escalating arguments between Billy and his father.  By the time Billy was ten, Carson was convinced that he was too old for such nonsense and began to discipline his son severely whenever the subject of Jak was brought up.  The problem was, Jak had taken on his own volition and become self-willed.  Jak was everything Billy wanted in a friend; fun, possessed of irreverent humor and mischievous.  Jak did not like Billy's father, but was so inherently childlike that he wasn't capable of expressing it in a violent way.  The tricks and jokes he played on the man were all blamed on Billy. 

Miserable and half mad from the poisons he poured and breathed into his body on a daily basis, Billy's father waged a constant battle between his inarticulate rage and the waning control his fractured sanity could maintain. Then, one fateful night, Carson woke to find himself bound hand and foot, suspended above the drainage pit just below the town's pig pens.  In the vague twilight of waking he thought he heard a wicked giggle just above him then the rope holding him aloft was cut. 

He was still stinking of pig filth and run off when the police arrested him.  They had to pry his hands from around his son's neck, which bore the welts for weeks afterwards.  Billy was turned over to the state for care.  He told them over and over again that it was Jak's fault.  At ten years old, Billy believed that if he could just explain to his father that Jak had done the deed, had thought it would be a funny joke... If he could just get him to understand then he could go home.  He could be with his father again.  And maybe, if his father could finally understand, maybe his father would love him again.

The state turned him over to a well known psychiatric hospital.  His insistence that Jak was real and habit of talking to what appeared to be empty air had his doctors gravely concerned and wickedly pleased.  The stern men and women of the hospital would tell him they would fix him as they strapped him in the chair.  They would insist that it would all be better soon and that Jak would go away forever as they wedged the piece of wood between his teeth. 

The electroshock therapy began to erode his memory, making him confused and disoriented.  When Jak tried to talk to his friend, Billy couldn't seem to focus enough to answer him.  For the first time in his existence Jak became frightened because Billy didn't see him any more.  Jak spent hours begging Billy to talk to him.  He did all the things that used to delight his young friend; juggling balls of light and fire, removing his own head to do a ventriloquist act, but none of it reached the boy.

The doctors, noting that their charge no longer talked to himself, counted the treatment a complete success.

Unfortunately the procedure was too much for the frail boy and had rendered him vulnerable to illness.  By the time the tuberculosis had been diagnosed, it was too late to administer the recently developed streptomycin to save him.  In the waning light and life of his hospital room, Jak watched his little friend grow weaker and weaker.

Jak concentrated.  He concentrated everything he was... everything he had... on one thing.  On one solitary wish.  And in that moment, Jak became real.  Real so that everyone could see him, adult or not.  He reached out to touch his friend's head with one long fingered hand.  A light caress that was filled with so much love and concern that Billy responded to it as he had no other kind of therapy.

"Jak," he said and smiled.  "You're real."

"I always have been," Jak replied with a comic roll of his eyes.

"And you always will be," Billy said and something went out of him.  Something huge and beautiful went out of him and seemed to hover in the air between them.  Jak could see it there, complex and simple, elegant and chaotic all at the same time. 

"I love you, Jak," Billy said in a whisper that was more breath than voice.  "You're the best friend ever..."

Billy died.  And what was between them moved fully into Jak and it was Billy's talent of Ether Manipulation.  It empowered him and made him real.  It made him real forever.

Jak is not a villain, nor is he a hero.  He is pure childlike mischief without any concern for consequence or outcome other than the fun of the act.  He is pure Ether and can be and do just about anything he wants.  While Jak is not a villain per se, his interest in practical jokes and mischief tends to put him on the wrong side of the law more often than not.  Because of his origins Jak does NOT like or trust adult men.  He will go out of his way to make them look like fools.  He has a soft spot for women, not because of any sexual interest but likely due to Billy's eternal longing for a mother.  Finally, Jak is the champion of children everywhere, and can actually grow stronger the more of them channel their belief.  Of course, given his nature he gets the children he talks to into trouble more often than not, but they don't seem to mind.

As an interesting side-line, the noted Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud once did a study on the entity known as Jak.  He even made a long winded speech about how Jak proved many of his theories about the Id and Super Ego.  He claimed darkly that Jak was the direct result of a suppressed inner child gone horribly wrong and went home vastly pleased with himself.

That night Jak visited Doctor Freud.  The next morning the good Doctor was found tied to a chair with a Rorschach like ink blot smeared across his face.  A sign pinned to Freud's shirt had an arrow pointing up at his face and the words "Looks like a jackass to me... What do YOU see?" written upon it.

Equalizer, Inc.
Equalizer, Inc. has come under some scrutiny lately by not only the government but other hero-for-hire corporations for a number of highly unusual business practices.  While most such organizations advertise the leasing of super powered individuals for the purposes of crime prevention, security and criminal apprehension, Equalizer Inc has taken their promises a significant step further.

While they DO offer such services, they also claim to enable customers to take care of the problem themselves.  The details behind this claim were largely unknown until more and more Equalizer customers were turning up as Equalizer employees.  It became apparent that the company was somehow capable of imbuing interested customers with super powers of their own.  What was not known is just how this was being accomplished and why the people who accepted these abilities were wearing Equalizer uniforms themselves.

Is Equalizer, Inc. obeying the Mercenary Laws?  Are they forcing their customers to become new members in their growing army of super minions?  And as their numbers steadily swell; just what IS their ultimate agenda?

The Grotesquerie
He is sometimes known as The Surgeon and sometimes The Artiste.  His canvas is flesh and his brush the scalpel.  His visions he works into the bodies of his followers, rendering them hideous and malformed, making of them walking, slouching works of his personal art collection.  Those he touches are called the Grotesquerie, they are the surgery addicts, the ill seeking a cure of any kind and at any cost, they are the body modifiers and revilers.

They adore him, worship him and ecstatically give up their flesh so that he may allow them ascend to a higher plane of existence... no longer human... but now living art.

The Grotesquerie and their leader have been officially deemed a cult by the American government.  There is a standing warrant/bounty for any members apprehended and any information leading to the capture of their leader, The Surgeon.

[Steelclaw]

Well, that's enough for now.  I may post other ideas I have as I have them if there seems to be any interest in this thread.

God willing, I will someday come into obscene amounts of cash and be able to make all this hot air into reality. 

[TonyV]

Okay, this is far beyond a typical "Hey guys, I have some ideas for a game!" post.  Are you currently affiliated with any of the Plan Z projects?

(And no, I haven't read the entire thread yet, just the Mechanics post so far, but I'm going to over the course of today.)

[Steelclaw]

Okay, this is far beyond a typical "Hey guys, I have some ideas for a game!" post.  Are you currently affiliated with any of the Plan Z projects?

(And no, I haven't read the entire thread yet, just the Mechanics post so far, but I'm going to over the course of today.)

I'm not affiliated with any on-going projects at the moment.  What you read above is more of a "pie in the sky" dream of mine than an actual plea for help in making it.

For one thing the project as I envision it is massive.  I would plan on at least 3 or 4 Public zones each as large as Paragon right out of the gate.  Basically I'd be STARTING with a game the size of CoH, CoV and Praetoria.  Add to that the Private Cities, skills system and all the other bells and whistles I would want to be bundled in the first release and you realize I won't be paying my developers so much as BRIBING them not to give in to exhaustion and hopelessness.

I am quite serious when I say it would take Powerball winnings to accomplish.  I figure it would be at LEAST 6 years of solid work time before we'd even have something worthy of taking to beta testing.  That's a long time with a lot of money going in and none coming back.  But, I will also say this... in my case it would be a labor of love and I would gladly sacrifice lottery winnings just for the experience of TRYING to create this monstrosity.

While you may think what I've written above is complicated and involved, it's not even a small percentage of what I have in mind and what will occur to me during creation if I ever get the chance to actually do it.

[The White Rager]

I dunno, it just seems a shame to lock up that much serious game design capacity on 'maybe someday' when Missing Worlds Media is working towards a reality now. It's not like joining them means you can never win the Powerball and leave to make this thing.

[Eco]

I've been buying lottery tickets ever since I discovered the Kickstarter lol.

Eco