The idea of a playabe villain side just won't die. Every few weaks, someone comes up with it again, only to be told that it's not going to happen because it won't pay off and why the villain option in other MMOs just sucks. I'm tired of it. -.-

So, in hope to statisfy all those players who don't want to be shining paragons of justice AND staying true to COs gameplay, quest system and background, I suggest;

An Anti-Hero option, based on Dark Champions.

"Now wait," you say, "cannot be just about any player easily play as a Cable- or Deadpool-expy?" And you're right - partly. Everyone can easily dress their characters up like Liefeldian abominations and write them a dark and gritty background story. But they will still be playing Silver Age storylines, guided by the Champions and UNTIL, in the relatively bright Millenium City. Storywise, you can't be a vengeance-driven vigilante or a morally ambigous mercenary. Not in this, "Defender's" town, and right under UNTIL's nose.

But over in Hudson City...
Yes. This is the place where the law is little more than an obscure guidline, where the concept of justice has enough interpretations to be multiply inverted by a single person, were the government seems far away and the United Nations don't matter to anyone, were the police is powerless at best and downright corrupt at worst and most of all where a hero isn't necessarily a good guy.
I'm talking about Hudson as an alternative beginner zone. Simmilar to Millenium City in size, the amount of missions and levels to have content for. It would technically BE a second Millenium City, in all but looks, characters, stories and overall tone.
Chosing the path of an Anti-Hero instead of a Hero, the player would start there and do equivalents of MC's mission arcs. These would have notable different stories, but work the same way. You could go to Canada, the Desert, Monster Island, Lemuria and Vibora Bay and do the same missions as the Heroes there. Really, if you're a fan of anti-hero comics, you know that the US military and even more so the Canadian government is not necessarily good! And when UNTIL calls Anti-Heroes for help, that just shows how desperate their situation is.
Take notice: It is not Champions Online that doesn't allow you to be an anti-hero, it's Millenium City.
And still, Anti-Heroes would be able to visit Millenium City and do the same missions as heroes there, if they feel like being a little less anti-heroic. On the other hand, Heroes would be able to visit Hudson City and do Anti-Hero missions there, representing that they go undercover, had a personal crisis-induced change of personality or whatever.

Summed up: A new optional starter zone with the same amount of content, but a notably darker tone than MC. Everything else stays the same.

That could be all it takes for CO to statisfy the masses demanding "not-good" content. ;)



Edit: I know the new city zone is not going to be Hudson City, I know what a pain it is for the devs to design new zones and especially cities and I know that Dark Champions is all about non-powered characters. And I want you to know that this thread is not first of all meant to be a suggestion to the devs, but to bring up anti-heroes as an alternative to the much requested playable villains, and that in a way that would actually be possible in this game.

It's mainly a discussion thread and only secondary a rough sketch of a suggestion.

And since anti-heroes wouldn't actually be a different faction than heroes, please, don't bring up any more arguments about open PvP here.

We have no idea what Cryptic has in store for this new City they hinted about you never know doubt they will mind dont think they want to use the whole Champoins IP in one game.

One of the problems remains, that is creating content only for a part of the playerbase, while everyone is still
starving for more wider content for leveling. So for your Anti-Heroes we may have to wait 6-12 month longer
for getting the a real new Zone.

So personally i'm only for a new starter zone if every character can access it from start, and not just if you
choose a specific path.

On the other hand we have at least 2 different paths to level in the beginning, with MI and Canada/Desert,
so i'd like to see more content for 30-34 first.

Also i still think most people who cry for Villain play, still want in first Open PvP aka the ability to gank other players.

I agree on that. The new content is more important. I just wanted to come up with a good thematical alternative to villains.


But a hero would feel just as much out of place in HC as an anti-hero feels in MC. I intened them not to split the entire player community into heroes and anti-heroes and force everyone to chose and follow a path. It's more like a signpost.

Millenium City (heroic missions) ->
<- Hudson City (anti-heroic missions)

So everyone can play in his style of choice from the start, but can freely chose where to play later.
Okay, maybe making the other city accessable at level 20 wasn't such a good idea.


That's not going to happen anyway. :p

As a certified alt-aholic, I'm starving partially for new content under level 15. So, I could still get behind this.

Another option, maybe, is to create two sets of dialogue for missions, and make the game the same missions with the wording different. If you're not asked to save Lin Qui from the Cobra Lords, but instead, you are ordered to kidnap her for ransom, it becomes an anti-hero mission. Using the existing content, with only a few changes. A small group of writers could implement alternative quest text for most of the missions (some won't even need it) in a month. You choose at creation if you want hero missions or dark-hero missions.

Personal point of view: being an anti-hero is a matter of role-play, not of functionality.
I have a Chinese hit-girl sent by the Triads to MC to keep tabs on Hi-Pan, and if she helps Defender, it's only:
- a cover
- a quicker way to dispatch competition
- a nice legal bonus to her wallet...

and of course, saving the World from demented Doctors or from some angelic half-breed is just self-preservation.

You don't even need to.
Just consider you do the mission for the money your contact promised you, not for the well-being of the girl.
All "go bash this NPC" mission can be considered hits...

It's not the idea isn't appealing or that I want to shoot it down, but I'd rather have the Devs work on new stuff (like the amazing Roin'esh) that rewriting dialogs so we can feel all dark and gloomy. ^_^

I agree, but based on the (frustratingly) growing "The "Villain" Option - Please Sign" thread right now, it seems that some people have trouble roleplaying that way. I know I don't, but it appears that some of the children playing this game simply can not do it.

And, as the OP points out, it can only be taken so far in this way. You have to ignore the mission text. And some of the story lines still feel heroic. Add to that that we're starved for content, so you can't skip the ones that have you doing a heroic deed, and I guess I see the point of giving a way around those.

And you think really different dialogues would make a difference for them ? I bet most of them don't read them
and so its just work for nothing (or maybe just for pleasing 1-2% of the playerbase) ;)

I totally agree on this on all counts… I mean come ON! CO is filling with so many monsters and villain looking anti –heroes and the way the transform devices, Dark Aura, Dark Speed sell its crasy. I’m new to this game but I have NEVER seen a heroe game crying out for this, this bad. For me the first time I entered the game it seem like a city of villains, I love the irony of it.

Love all your suggestions by the way, hope they hear us. :D