"So, We Meet Again!"

I don't know why I haven't thought of this sooner.. or why it couldn't be done fairly easily in game. Every hero in the comics has a Nemesis. Sure, they're always fighting the regular group of villains, but there's always that one guy ...that Lex Luthor or Green Goblin... who has dedicated himself to ruining the hero. Why couldn't heroes in Paragon City have them too? At any time after hero creation, the player should have the option to create one arch nemesis for him... designing his costume and choosing his archetype and power sets. (He doesn't get to guide the individual power selections, those are handled randomly by the game computer.) The nemesis would gain in level as the hero advances, always staying 1-3 levels ahead of the hero. Name duplication wouldn't be an issue, as no other hero is going to meet your nemesis. Sure, teaming heroes might run into nemeses with the same name as theirs, but who care? Do you think villains care if they've chosen a name for themselves that another villain already has? No! They're villains! They'll do as they please!

The hero's nemesis would show up in random missions and/or could have specific missions designed around their appearance. Probably not too often (although a "frequency of appearance" variable could be set during nemesis creation... who am I to decide how often your nemesis shows up?).

By extension of all this, super groups could also have their own SG nemesis that the group would encounter regularly. They'd just need a number of their members to coordinate their nemeses designs, choosing the same names, costumes, and powers. Further, there might be an additional effect of "supergroup mode" that causes one or more of the SG members' nemeses to "team up" against the heroes (ie, appear in the same mission) during missions where 2 or more members of the SG are teaming.

I'm excited about this idea. Hopefully Cryptic is, in fact, reading my blog.