So last night, as I was laying down, I came up with an idea for a game I think would be pretty fun.


The game would be a location-based Superhero vs Villain themed mobile MMO. I'm thinking it would have perma death, but only if certain conditions are met beforehand, to make it so the perma death isn't so much of a big deal, but just an interesting feature that provides more options. But I'll get into that later.


Character Creation
This is where I think the game will be the most interesting. What I would like to do with it is have it be largely random. First, you'll choose a side - hero or villain. Then you'll choose a gender. From there you will do a 15-20 question personality test which will provide modifiers on the "randomly" generated character. The answers wont have a huge effect on the outcome, but it will be enough to provide at least a bit of control over the character that is generated.

From there, you will be given a randomly generated character. This character will have an Archetype with primary and secondary powers. These ArcheTypes will be stuff like magic, elementalist, gadgeteer, mutant, accident, experiment, etc... Some Archetype will only be a possibility if your character rolled certain other traits/feats, such as Rich or Super Intelligent for Gadgeteer.

Some of the fields that would be present/chosen at character creation (all randomly, using modifiers from the personality test):
Archetype/Origin
Job
personality
Initial costume
Body-type
Intelligence


The reason for the mostly randomly generated character is so that you don't feel much attachment to it. That way you wont want to kill yourself when your character eventually dies.


Gameplay features
As I said, the game will be location based. Similar in nature to Ingress. As you have the game open and are moving around, you will have potential crimes to stop/commit (depending on your faction). I would like to have a bit of interactive combat, but not to much. I haven't thought to much about the actual mechanics of the combat yet.

But, for example, lets say you're a hero. You open the game and just wander around, or you could call it a "patrol." We all know beginner heroes spend many sleepless nights patrolling around their city/town looking for crimes to stop. As you're on this patrol and are looking for crime, random NPC crimes will pop up. These are weak crimes like muggings, purse snatching, etc...

What I would like is for the game to allow for player-submitted high-crime or crisis locations. Such as ponds having the chance to spawn a "Drowning kid" crisis, or a bank have the chance to spawn a bank robbery crime. It would also provide criminals for the chance to commit larger crimes for bigger rewards.

There will be PVP in the game, both direct and non-direct. Whenever a criminal commits a crime, it will create a marker on the game map. Heroes that are nearby (they can set what distance they want to receive alerts for) will receive an alert and can decide wether or not they want to try and stop the crime. The crime will stay up for a few hours, most likely. If no hero comes by and successfully stops the crime, the villain will receive the reward plus infamy bonuses if they defeated any heroes.

Which brings up the experience system. Fame for heroes, infamy for villains. As they gain fame/infamy, they will raise their hero/villain level. At a certain point, they will have the chance to build a secret base/HQ. This is when the permadeath starts to open up, as once you have an HQ you can get either Sidekicks or henchmen. These are randomly generated but generally are similar to your original hero with slight differences. Once you get a sidekick/henchmen, you can be killed in a PVP encounter. If you're killed, your sidekick/henchmen will inherit a bit of your original heroes stats, its money, and name.

At character creation, your character will be assigned an "Alias" which includes a real-world job. These jobs are usually part-time (as stopping/committing crime is almost a full-time job in itself), but there are chances for you to get a full-time job, an oddly high-paying job, or even a job that gives you the "Rich" modifier. These jobs will provide a weekly pay-out of money that can be used to purchase costume upgrades, equipment, etc...

Infamy and Fame will also act as a sort of currency. For example, heroes with high fame can apply for a chance to win grants of cash from the government or some other hero-overwatch type organization. It is also used to get and upgrade your sidekick/henchmen. Stuff like that.

Supergroups and cabals and whatnot would be a thing.

For each successful crime commited or stopped, heroes or villains will begin "taking" control of a city. A city with lots of crimes stopped will make it harder for further crimes to be committed (but far from impossible), and a city with more crimes committed than stopped will make it harder to stop further crime. Essentially, the winning side in an area will make it harder for the opposing faction to do their thing. I'm not sure yet how this sort of territory control feature would work out. Perhaps something to do with the HQ's/Secret bases.

The HQ's and Secret bases will be a place to provide item storage, gain sidekicks and henchmen, and other upgrades and bonuses. They are generated and placed wherever you like, you simply have to be standing in the spot you want to place it. Each player is allowed one HQ at a time, and can change it once a week using both money and infamy/fame. There is a chance for a member of the opposing faction to discover your HQ is they walk near it, and then they will know where it is from then on and can raid it and possibly destroy it.




Anyways, I have more ideas along those lines. Stayed up for an extra hour or two writing in my notebook.