Every week we'll post a topic and you'll tell us how you'd handle it if you were developing the game instead of us.

This week's topic was inspired by a post by "glodragons" to who we send our thanks...


Let's hear your ideas and opinions, thanks!

I would essentially copy the level matching system used by Champions and Star Trek Online with possibly some improvements to the scaling.

Players stats and level are scaled to a lower or higher degree, with the abilities they've earned still available, but scaled to match the target player's level.

I don't really understand the nitty gritty of it since I'm not a programmer, but I'm sure you guys can figure out how to do it if you decide it's the best way to go.

First determine all values needed in combat like damage, defense, heal valus, controle value, etc.

Next have a multiplier value set by default at 100% when soloing.

Any combat value is adjusted by that multipier.

When grouping, everyones value is adjusted to more or less depending on the level of the team leader.

Also its helpful to remember that the team leader isn't always the person you'd be level matching to, so allowing the system to assign a "Match leader" or "Sidekick Leader" which is seperate from the team leader and just determines who you match to helps a lot for usability.

Agree with the above posts, i think the mentor/sidekick system works well, scaling down or up via percentages allows players to group easily without feeling overly weak or strong for the content. I think it'd also be great if you added group bonuses, be it boosted xp, currency or something else entirely, team play has always been at the core of every good mmo for me.

It's also equally important not to forget the solo experience, not every superhero works with a team all the time, some stand on their own.

The following depends on how big leveling curve is. If max level can be reached in a week of power leveling it pretty useless.

Add a official mentor system. Not something that kicks in at just grouping with someone on higher level but something where a new player pledges to be the "Robin" to a higher level players "Batman". When they are together Robin gets massive bonuses and can be dragged to higher level contend Batman does which will actually teach the new player how things will look like when he becomes "Nightwing". The Mentor on the other hand as incentive to start mentoring also gets some kind of mentoring/leveling bar with some bonuses. Nothing too major, maybe more leaning into granting bonus to his protegee but something that add to the character.

Besides adding to a Superhero flair overall IMO that also adds as incentive to socialize and seek out new players which when at some point entering a established new game might be intimidated and to shy to ask for help them self.

But as said, something like that IMO only really works if the games leveling as a long journey is already the goal. If its following suit to the WoW "game starts at endgame" mentality I can hardly imagine anybody really bothering with such a mentor system.

I don't think anyone really wants to play sidekick in a superhero game. that's why DCUO sucks. Just level match and work together as a team of equals, that's all "Sidekicking" ever was in these games. it wasn't actually becoming a sidekick, that would be awful.

a mentor/exemplar system that team leader can nominate one mentor or exemplar for team to set level to (shown on portrait with a symbol of some kind), but with option for people to left click and level match any other person in party if they want.

certain zones elite areas and such that bring peoples levels down to the zone max level, leave them their powers but disable any enhancement slots earnt after whatever the level cap is(this avoids some of the issues with power scaling)

have certain dungeons and task forces automatically bring everyone's level to the minimum or maximum for that task force or bank robbery (thinking of skirmishes in never winter and how it will add a lobi to a high rank team after a delay if no one else is qued and just scale them up)

I would first probably come up with a very complex system that would be hard to follow and hard to implement. Then, I would toss that and go for a much simpler solution.

The short answer is it should be easy to determine what a characters stats would be given a certain level. They keep all of their earned powers but are scaled to the level of the mission. The mission level is set by the mission owner. All characters are scaled to the mission level. The owner can set the level between +5 for a real challenge or -5 if the group is struggling. Keep it simple.

ZeeHero wrote:
There is no sidekick system implemented in DCUO. They up & downscale everything making any levels or progression count nothing in events & event like stuff (which are not rare there). Done that excessively as DCUO devalues any progression which is always bad.

Then theres the "mentoring" which is just a choosen NPC giving you some special quests till max level and then its abandoned. No real personal touch. Then again I did not mind a little sidekick feeling at least at the beginning levels with mentors like Superman. But it did not really last. The problem IMO is that the game offers nothing to develop a personal (gamyplay supported) story on your own; its a too simple minded action game for that (although the combat feeling is mostly spot on). It lacks anything else that in terms of gameplay depth would make me want to stay in an MMO and it lacks anything else in terms of personal character storyline/world interaction that keeps me on buying comic books.

Maybe to nail that feeling a Hero MMO needs to throw 2-4 personal customizable NPCs (Work buddy, NPC sidekick, archenemy (Nemesis, best idea of CO IMO) , parents, loveinterst, etc) with a pool of theme fitting quests to each character.

Its a bit tough to think of something fitting when not sure how Valiance want to play out. Simulate a world; "traditional" MMO wise (which is the vibe I got) with long progressions (which is what I not got by max lvl30 something). Or how much difference is in each level. Will a lvl 14 be able to stand nearly toe to toe on a lvl 15; will a lvl 15 be overwhelmingly powerful to a lvl14?

The more I think about it it feels the opening question asks "You think it needs more pepper?" without even knowing what dish exactly is planned or having tasted it.

That's not what I mean. I mean the constant feeling of being a sidekick to your "mentor" NPC.

and if Champions and Star Trek online have a level matching system, in games where one can reach the level cap in a couple days, there's no reason VO should not have something similar. it's a great quality of life improvement, and not having it is a huge annoyance in games.

ZeeHero wrote:
Its not just a feeling; its what the story designates you to be till lvl30 & finishing of the mentor quest line. Its just that they suck as mentors the way DCUO tells it

At some point I had even this mental image of Batman and Robin sitting in a Burger joint, Batman: "Hey, check this out; they do anything" dials my char and gets all serious voice "Batman here, go to the sewers and look out for suspicious activity" while Robin tries not burst in laughter.

IMO the feeling do stops around the time the dungeon hopping and boredom sets in.... I digress.

Well if its all about reaching the max asap then maybe. Dunno, usually I try to take the long road. With Alts I try to rush on occasion.

Star Trek is a bad example IMO since there almost everything scales to anything. Levels are only to access stuff and to move skillpoints in a way that hopefully does not make you suck more than at a lower level. Doing a beginners mission with max level char pimps all encounters in that mission to max level too. Getting more powerful there means "get the biggest gun your level allows".

Champions Online, as crappy as the content design is, is actually a good example however. New players and max level players can choose a difficulty and team together and be scaled down or up to match a certain level. it's far from a perfect system but it allows people to play together who otherwise would be inconvenienced by waiting. I know that one reason I never got into City of Heroes was I didn't have anyone else to play with. Not being able to level match contributes to this because someone would -have- to have a character of similar level for you to play together.

I would not copy other systems. I would make it simple.

step 1: Set the ultimate level cap - 100 for example

step 2: create 3 or 4 divisions out of it
division1 = level 1 - 24
division2 = level 25 - 50
division3 = level 51 - 75
division4 = level 76 - 100

(if the level cap is lower you will need only 3 divisions)

step3: set the team up bonus
If a division1 player joins a division2 player in a team: his stats will be raised by 5% for the time he is in the team.
If a division1 player joins a division3 player in a team: his stats will be raised by 8% for the time he is in the team.
If a division1 player joins a division4 player in a team: his stats will be raised by 10% for the time he is in the team.
If a division2 player joins a division3 player in a team: his stats will be raised by 5% for the time he is in the team.
If a division2 player joins a division4 player in a team: his stats will be raised by 8% for the time he is in the team.
If a division3 player joins a division4 player in a team: his stats will be raised by 5% for the time he is in the team.

Of course you can change the overall stats rising percentage. This is just an example.

The higher level player will always know he has a backup
The lower level player will always know he is a little stronger when teaming up

I like the sidekick system. I don't like the auto-level everywhere you go idea of something like ESO. I thought I would like it but progression feels almost meaningless there.

Well your gear can still heavily affect how powerful you are despite the scaling in ESO, so if you reach a higher level and are able to equip more powerful gear, that will affect your performance in all content.

Still for this type of game I'd prefer a at will type of level matching. Sidekicking is really a poor word for it since not many people really want to play sidekicks. People who play super hero games generally want to feel like the big hero, or one of the big heroes.

One thing Champions online actually did well. because the NPC heroes were so unspectacular, it meant the PLAYER heroes were the important ones. A major win for CO, and something neither CoH or DCUO did right. DCUO did it worst though, with the mandatory NPC mentors.

Like I said, I thought I would like the system. I don't and its not like I'm skipping using gear. To me, the feel of progression was definitely lessened because of that system. There is an argument for the system though if it keeps all zones busy instead of becoming a ghost town once you outleveld it. Given my apathy for that type of system, I'm not sure if doing something like the monster attacks of CoH would be enough to keep a zone alive so there may not be a choice unless you can make lower zones hubs of other gaming activities. ESO seems to keep zones populated as opposed to CoH's pre-20 zones.

In retrospect, I liked that I couldn't enter a zone because I would get crushed but then became powerful enough to handle it as opposed to ESO where I can travel anywhere. Since I didn't earn the ability to enter the zone, something was lost and it became like the last zone but with different monsters at same difficulty.

I rather the system be more active like getting a shrink ray to make foes at or near your level, doing some mini-game or puzzle in a mission that debuffs foes and yes, getting a mentor. Unfortunately, making it more active may make it less feasible to implement.

The less story involved these minor mechanics are the better. Leaving things open to the imagination is the best way to foster RP potential in a game.

To much focus on gear is IMO one of the VERY big wrongdoings in DCUO. Max level is 30 but after that item level literally takes over for everything; which does mean you need drop luck (or grind to death; or dump absurd amount of cash in the lockboxes) to gain access to the next step of content.

I have thought a bit about it some more and overall too much comfort functions IMO always fire back in some way (and mostly killed the social part of the games). Be it back then in WoW when they introduced group finders + instant teleports for their dungeons and killing of the social come together chats (which did lead to ppl also talking about other stuff while waiting, building a community); be it other games in which everything is scaled no matter what removing any incentive to level (even more so in most cases makes you feel more squishy at higher levels since low level battles where more quickly over).

I like solo play. I like lots of options for solo play. And I like getting cool stuff from solo play. What I miss most in current MMOs is finding, chatting and getting to know to other people (trash talk about current world politics in general chat does not count). And while I do think a MMO should have a solid solo part (even more so an MMO that is about Superheros) it absolutely needs to have desirable elements which requires the players to "go out of their shells"; to seek out others. Not for them to get stuff, even if they might think so, but it needs it to build a community.

And the more I think about that the more I'm against a simple scaling system. Maybe for PvP; disable all equip and match to same lvl to have even ground (someone who actually does like PvP might have a better idea). While it might boost a player faster to max in PvE all games in the past I played that went too far with their comfort options became more stale; kind of lifeless.

hmm... ok, thats not really about matchmaking specifically anymore but it all goes hand in hand in the end.