And Where are the Phone Booths?

I don't play on the "unofficial roleplaying" servers, but I imagine secret identities (or lack thereof) stick in some craws there. I admit, back during Issue 2's alien invasions, it would have been cool to be a mild mannered reporter on the street, and when a bunch of aliens suddenly appeared to threaten the city, to tear off my outer clothing to reveal my costume, and leap into action!

It seems to me that secret identities could open up a lot of interesting, experience-enriching options for the game. I haven't mulled through all the pros and cons of this... it started as a notion to allow heroes to take an alternative name with each costume slot to allow them to have a secret ID to change into and out of... But it's expanded in my head to provide a whole new layer to the player experience. Here's what I'm envisioning...

-During character creation, the player has the option of setting up the hero's secret identity, or a "choose later" option allowing players to completely disregard this aspect of the game if they're not interested.
-A secret ID involves choosing: an alternative name (i.e. civilian ID), alternative "costume" (i.e. civilian clothes), a civilian occupation, a potential selection of friends/relatives, and whether or not a hero's civilian identity is "secret" (kept secret from the public) or "public" (the public knows the hero and his civilian ID are one and the same).
-Civilian Identity: Enter an civilian name for your hero (Calab Kent, Paul Parker, etc.) and choose how they dress. This is basically designing a second costume from a selection of street clothes, most of which we already see on CoH civilians. (This could also involve choosing a different body type, for Hulk-like heroes.) Civilian clothes can be changed at any time. Also choose a method of changing into your hero identity from a short list of graphics-based options... tearing off outer clothing, gradually transforming, changing in a flash of light, etc. Players need not worry about choosing a unique civilian name, as it has no in-game significance... It's like part of a costume. Besides, how many John Smiths are there out there?
-Occupation: Choose your hero's civilian occupation from a list of things like reporter, photographer, student, policeman, etc. Each of these options comes with one or more civilian contacts (contactable only in civilian ID) who has civilian "missions." However, instead of the character calling his contact, civilian contacts call the character. At random times during game play, a small flashing telephone icon will appear next to the character's "Contacts" menu. This means that a character's civilian contact has a mission for him. A player may choose to ignore this call, but the sooner the character completes the mission, the more Influence he'll get from it. A hero may also choose "none" from the occupation list to not explore this aspect of the game.
-Friends & Family: Choose a number of the hero's close friends and relatives from a list of possibilities (father, grandmother, daughter, girlfriend, coworker, etc.), give each a name, and choose what they look like from a selection of images appropriate to each relationship. I don't think full fledged costume design is necessary here; a selection of randomly created CoH civilians should suffice. In comic books, friends and family members are always getting into trouble that the hero must save them from. In game, friends and family members represent potential bonuses or penalties in missions. When a mission is generated, it has a small percent chance of a hero's F&F member being somehow involved. In mission, they appear as someone who must be saved and protected throughout the mission. Successfully doing so brings a bonus at mission's end, failing to do so means a penalty to the normal bonus. (To keep team members from abandoning a hero in mission, all team members share this bonus/penalty.) A hero may also simply choose to not have any friends or family to ignore this aspect of game play.
-Secret/Public ID: How the hero's civilian ID is shown in game. See below.

Life as a Civilian
While a hero is in his "civilian identity," he appears on the street as a civilian, dressed in his civilian clothes and showing his civilian name. If the hero chose a "public identity," his civilian name will appear over his head (just as it does in his hero ID) and his hero name will appear below his civilian name. If the hero chose "secret identity," the hero appears jut like any other man on the street. His civilian name is only visible if he is "moused over" like any other civilian. His hero name is not shown.

When in his civilian ID, the hero has none of his powers and cannot attack or be attacked. (If targeted by a villain, a hero is unable to change into his civilian ID until he is no longer targeted.) If a player doesn't like this disadvantage, he should just choose civilian clothing as a normal costume option for his hero (and perhaps here, the ability to choose an alternate name, like any other costume option, might be appropriate).

That's what I've got at this point. Rereading it, it looks pretty solid and do-able from a programming standpoint.