Joe brought up a question I was too tired to answer before he asked it. So here are my thoughts now that I'm awake:

Well thankfully, there was a CoX comic, so I have a decent idea how to RP it with some balance. Part of it is simply that CoX always gave the impression levels were just game mechanics and that IC side, there is no such thing as "level". Even though we, as level 20-somethings, can kick the butt of anything in Atlas Park, I'm aiming for a more comic approach where we are ALL the same level and have balanced powers, but higher level in the game means new ways to use your powers there and here. Example:

Angel is level 17 and just hits 18 in the game. This means she can now summon a medic on top of her useful idiot and cannon fodder guys. It also means she gets shadowfall now.

In RP, this means she recently got the resources to get a new recruit among the mercanaries and discovered that among her dark powers, she can twist them in a way as to cause the area around her to become darker. She always had the potential to do this, but only recently discovered it.

When you think about it, this makes sense too. In the game, you can "skip" a power until later that you could have learned right then and there. So while one hero might discover they can clap their hands to topple enemies at an early stage in their career, another might learn how to fly first and then later the clapping. Joe can never learn the clap because of axe, but everyone can eventually learn "YAY!!! I can FLY!!!" ....it all depends on what was fun for you in the game. It doesn't take 2 brain cells to figure out IC reasons for powers. So... no levels as far as how powerful you are. Simply that your hero or villain discovers new venues of their power.

On another note, levels DID have an in-game quality. For Villains, threat level. For Heroes, security level. If that isn't a big "duh", I can explain the RP aspects there too, but I think you guys have caught on to my train of thoughts by now. :)

I can see why you'd want to use such an IC system that does away with the "why cant I even TOUCH a minion from founders falls where I can totally cream a boss in Atlas?" confusion...  BUT.  In game AND in the comics, power level is very important to the plot.  If a villain were to get in a 1 on 1 with any of the cannon chars early in their carreer, they'd get creamed.  The goal of the game, (and the aspiration of no-name heroes in the comic) is to reach the point where you can challenge the cannon chars.

I say keep true to game mechanics, quirky though they may be, and simply explain it away with "that's the way things work in this world... trying to say something?"  However, if we decide to do away with level-ness, there exists a game mechanic where this happens.  Giant Monsters and Rikti Invasions.  When up against a Giant monster or a Rikti invasion, the same boss that's red to a lvl 11 will be red to a lvl 50.  The diff is that the lvl 50 will have more enhancements and powers available to them, making the lvl 50 up to 2-3 times more effective in the fight against the GM than the lvl 11 hero instead of 32billion times more effective.

Why keep to level-ness?  I'd like for experience as a hero to mean a lot.  Experienced heroes should be loads stronger than new ones in my mind.  Of course my love of this concept is part of the reason I consider RP the icing on my CoH cake, but meh...  If we end up tossing power levels, I can get my "I can cream that guy waaay easier today than last week" fix in game and just "oh well" about that joy in RP.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:47, Sat 26 July 2008.

Well it's not like we don't know who is what level, so we'll go with this for now and see how it plays out.

For the sake of NOT argument, here's the discussion we had ironing things out...


[09:21] Timothius: And yeah... rikti invasions were the nail in the coffin that had me convinced everyone was supposed to be the same level
[09:22] Mittens 8D: didn't know if u were aware of the GM / rikti thing.
[09:23] Timothius: I'm aware of rikti invasions. And all rikti are the same level to anyone
[09:24] Mittens 8D: and yet not so in any other case.  like when in missions or in the rikti war zone.  in the war zone you'd get creamed by one of their monkeys.
[09:25] Timothius: Trust me... bringing levels and I'm more powerful than you into an RP setting is asking for trouble. But since it's just us, we can give it a shot
[09:25] Mittens 8D: well yeah i wasn't expecting you to invite strangers.
[09:26] Timothius: Not unless they play CoX. I doubt any of the others in our guild are RPers
[09:26] Mittens 8D: i was just thinking of "otherwise why the heck not aggro much more powerful *computer* foes I.C.?"
[09:27] Mittens 8D: i could put out the invitation
[09:27] Mittens 8D: oh... and i think keeping true to level also prevents low levels from claiming they can do more than they should
[09:28] Mittens 8D: yeah and pooty tang is awesome too
[09:28] Timothius: That's true.
[09:28] Timothius: And l
[09:28] Timothius: Bet you didn't know the 101 after science was leet speak for LOL
[09:28] Mittens 8D: lol!
[09:30] Timothius: Another problem with bringing levels is that Mittens is going to be the only player in the RP who can do much of anything. You are level 50 for goodness sake. And the rest of us (Me especially) won't catch up for a looong time
[09:31] Timothius: It's like "Oh no! We're in trouble! Let's call for headmaster Mittens!" Mittens leaves, comes back as lvl 50 tens. Danger over.
[09:31] Mittens 8D: "do much of anything" i disagree.  "has the golden ticket to enter forbidden zones" i agree.  if joe had the golden ticket i'd take him to the rikti zone rather than paragrin island.
[09:32] Mittens 8D: and yes.  that's what i do in-game IF asked to.  "would you rather this be fun or should i get my 50 and bulldoze 'em?"
[09:33] Mittens 8D: it's another case of "why don't those powerful heroes that train you step in and sweep the floor with the baddies creaming you in front of their faces."
[09:33] Timothius: So you want this to be a world where heroes are heroic not because it's dangerous but because it's fun and there is no danger involved? Because psychologically speaking, RP-wise if anyone were in the shoes of those heroes, they would say "Yes! Bulldoze these freaks! They are hurting innocent people!"
[09:33] Mittens 8D: it's simple.  it'd spoil the plot.
[09:34] Mittens 8D: if we want 2 apply logic to it, heroes would band together in groups larger than 8 and clean the city in a day.
[09:35] Timothius: Here's what we'll do to excuse it...
[09:36] Timothius: Tens saves lvl 50 for bigger problems. Like Superman saving some of his strength for in case something huge comes up
[09:36] Mittens 8D: my thinking is that 'cause we're not playing with outsiders, just roll with the sillyness of game mechanics rather than just try and do a work-around or we'll wind up in the same oofish place over barakians and blissians.
[09:37] Mittens 8D: and yes it's very mittens to want a challenge more than victory
[09:37] Mittens 8D: otherwise why ever exemp?  why bother with other "jobs?"

This message was deleted by the player at 22:56, Sat 26 July 2008.

  And by the same amusing side of things for ‘longer time spent as a hero means better’, all those ancient demons and semi deities for BG sorts getting destroyed by beginning of game Hobos just as hard as the plotwise newbs with Double Arrow style.

  Poking at the mechanics of ‘reality’ was probably going to be a gag concept with me anyways.  Joe might wonder when Natural human meant shrugging bullets and killing military robots with common everyday items from day one, and Metal Mettle might wonder why nobody uses the invulnerable civilians as shielding instead of hostages.
  And I see Mittens is showcasing the joys of furniture arrangement quirks.

  I’m not too worried how things will go through the wonders of ‘Tim is Sane’.  But it was something to wonder about.

  Besides, when your power set is ‘stab things with an axe, and as hard to kill as Jason’ for the most part, how ‘level’ affects you is even more vague.

  El Edit: Chronic Alt-itis as a game mechanic.  Can't say they didn't work for it though, heh.  And glad you're having fun with the pic aspect.  I was also surprised to find a helpful help section for once.  (Yet another reason I like this place)
This message was last edited by the player at 05:22, Sun 27 July 2008.

LMAO!  You're hillarious, Joe!  I'm so glad we decided to keep to game mechanics!  XD

  Yes,  Joe is what happens when entry level mission NPC’s get tired of waiting.  Shame he lost the complete invulnerability in exchange for being able to kill arrest the hell out of things.

  Besides, if being Nigh Invulnerable works for The Tick, it should be good enough for any hero.

Hey Joe... if you're not posting Villain side, then I'll go ahead and post in soon. But so far, I've been waitin' on you. :)

Meep, post away -.-;

 Diff name to pretend I’m not double postin.  While getting amusement and some posting guidelines from the game mechanics will work out, the SK/Exemplar bits among other things seem like the sort of thing that could, if done in the complete proper way, lead to annoyance.

  Such as the joys of not having someone else handy to SK a lower level person.  Case in point, having ‘someone’ SK Dre...  What someone?

 Of course, it’s not like this would be abusive in any way here if we sidestepped the issue.  As a LV 50 person SKing an entire team wouldn't result in mass power leveling.

I was thinking of NPCs named "Powerman5k" or "Hell Oh Kitty" or whatever.  Didn't name 'em just in case Dre wanted to.

And in the spirit of keeping to game mechanics, should they not be alts of ours since teaming up with one of your alts is literally impossible? Or can we overlook that particular detail?

  Err...


  Yeah.  I think we've already run over that particular detail with a truck.

My bad. :p Totally take alts for granted... as seen by my previous statement.

  *Eyes his last post*  A bit of an interesting situation for Mettle.  As by BBoard timing, he'd have spontaneously developed teleportation abilities in the 30 seconds between his offer and however Animus responds.

  Oh, now I know why I didn't think this came updated in a bit.  It did but I accidentally removed it from my sticky list without noticing.

  I are SMARTZ.

rawr. Keeping the place from deletion and wondering what to do plotwise.