Hi guys,
Longtime Greydogger, first time poster. When I read Hive was making a 1991 mod for Marvel, I was thrilled, since that was the peak of my comics enjoying childhood. But when I saw that it wasn’t ready yet, I thought maybe I would make myself a little mod to tide me over. I figured I could just use those Marvel cards, since they had set strength/agility/stamina ratings and I wouldn’t have to do a lot of ratings estimation and balancing. I started planning to make 100 characters and a few locations and just noodle about. That was more than a month ago. Now I things have grown beyond my original scope, and I have about 450 characters, 28 locations and 40 teams in my mod, all with relationships. I couldn't stop. Here’s a summary of what I’ve done so far, and I would estimate that I’m about 75% complete with a “version 0.9” of the Marvel mod.
Characters: 450+
I’ve tried to put in more Villains than Heroes, to balance things as the Default universe is, but I’ve ended up with a lot more Anti-Heroes and Wild Cards than I expected. I’ve stretched the roster quite a bit, including nobodies like Bobster (aka Hyperton 1.0, who fought Spider-man all of once) and Coldheart (best known for blowing up) as unknowns. As far as Marvel timelines, most characters are in kind of a mid-90s medley. Nowhere specific, just where I remember their storyline the best, or where they are most iconic. For example, Spider-man is probably post “Maximum Carnage,” but X-Factor still has the original X-Men running it. I also made the Hulk stupid, because that is the only way he is interesting. Generally my comics knowledge runs right up to what I like to call the “Onslaught Wall”, which is right about when I stopped reading and started liking girls instead. I have included some “yet to debut” characters (Exiles, some Generation X mutants) or characters that were killed (Doug Ramsey, Beyonder) to create a situation where they debut or resurrect.
Completion: 66%. I’ve got vitals, abilities and schemes done on everyone. Attributes, travel and personality done on about 25%, and Power and Dialogue done on 0%. Alternates are also at 0%, but my understanding of how those really work is lacking.
Teams: 40
I’ve included a lot more teams than originally intended, everyone from the mainstays like the Avengers to the unknowns like the B-Team and Technet. I’m a little unclear on how the “team type” dynamic works, or if teams with rotating membership will be able to function like that. Otherwise I’ve tried to make some permanent teams “loyal” using relationships and companion status. The Imperial Guard, for instance, has everyone allies and companions with Gladiator, so they follow him everywhere. Some species I’ve also made into teams, so the Skrulls and the Kree can have populations and a monarch.
ATD: Areas, 3; Timeline, 1; Dimensions, 2
The areas are Earth, Space, and The Rift.
Earth consists of urban cities (China, Japan, Europe, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Madripoor and Portland, where I live now), some rural areas (Canada and Scottsbluff, NE where I grew up, which represents kind of a middle of nowhere escape for the Hulk to sulk in), some remote jungles (Genosha, Wakanda, South America, The Savage Land) and a few bases for the groups (Xaviers, Asteroid M, Atlantis, The Moon).
Space consists of some homeworlds (Hala for the Kree, Tarnax for the Skrulls, Chandilar for the Shi’ar), some wildcard planets (Zenn-La, Titan, Mojoworld and Battleworld), and then “Deep Space”, a nebulous cluster**** for creatures between worlds like the Brood or Galactus. I’ve chosen to put extra-dimensional enemies like Mojo and Annihilus in Space rather than the Mojoverse or the Negative Zone just so they show up more often and have more to do.
The Rift is all alternate dimensions. Asgard and Limbo are all I’ve put in here, with Limbo being more of a repository for all the evil demons like Mephisto, Dormammu, etc. Otherwise there are too many hell dimensions in the Marvel Universe.
Overall, the locations are admittedly unbalanced when it comes to hero/villain content. I’m hoping that won’t be an issue, but we shall see.
Only put in one timeline, because that shit gets too confusing.
Relationships: 575+
I’ve tried to use my knowledge of pre-90s comics to include everyone’s likes, dislikes, loves, hates and families, but I’ve been leaning heavy on the Marvel Wiki. I went through these characters one by one and tried to include every important relationship, and believe me with incestuous ****ers like the Asgardians and the Inhumans, it gets tough.
So where it stands, it’s a good news/bad news situation.
The Good news:
I’m confident in my knowledge of the comics. I wasted a fair potion of my childhood on this stuff, and they’re stories I remember pretty well. I put together a spreadsheet with about 30 tabs (possibly an exaggeration) to try and make the abilities reasonably representative. I think I did a fair job representing space and other dimension while still making it about Earth-616. The relationships are pretty thorough, and the teams are mostly there. I think this is going to make a damn good starting place for anyone who wants to make their own Marvel mod, and I’m totally willing to let them. I’ll share the half baked file and the methodology I used to concoct everything. Go nuts, whoever wants to.
The Bad news:
Powers. I’m stumped on how to balance these. I’ve investigated the default universe, but I can’t figure how to represent these adequately. Probably has something to do with me spending 99% of my time in the game using the editor and 1% playing the game. This is where I need the help of intrepid modders like yourself. I’ve also decided not to include alternates (Dark Phoenix and Puny Bruce Banner would be nice, but I don’t know how to create them so they don’t show up constantly or get stuck that way) or dialogue (way more effort than it’s worth). Also, nothing has been playtested yet. Shit could go sideways from the word go. Venom might marry Aunt May, Galactus might eat Wolverine, I don’t know. Like I said, my experience actually playing the game is limited. I’m a database dork at heart. I did the same thing with the WMMA games.
Another final caveat:
This universe isn’t accurate. I’ve tailored it to my remembrances, and while I did read a lot of comics and comic summaries, I was an X-Men/Spider-Man/Excalibur reader. I don’t know two shits about the Avengers other than the big stuff. I don’t know much about Iron Man. There might be gaps, missing villains or civilians. Also, since this is a game, there might be some “Oh that shit would NEVER happen” moments. For instance, Galactus/Beyonder characters are a little bit neutered. Sure, they’re the most power guys in the game, but someone like Thor or Hulk might have a punchers chance of winning.
Ok, whew. Shit. If you’ve read through this much, congrats, you’re a goddamn champ. Maybe you’re interested in helping. My plan is to finish the attributes/travel/personalities then make the universe file available to you guys publicly. Maybe someone will finish the powers and we’ll all have a working Marvel mod, or maybe someone will use this shell to create something wholly different. Either way, fine with me.
PS, if you would like to play with the file now, or look over my spreadsheet, PM me. I’m glad to share any and all.
