Battlefield Experience - A proposal of a new reward system

Saltz

I was toying with this idea yesterday, but it made so much sense to me I decided to properly articulate it and offer it to the others on forums. As the name suggests, it's the proposal of a new reward system which I call the Battlefield Experience.

What?
A path of progression, in which there are milestones that gift you special cosmetics, combat artifacts, class slots.

How?
You accumulate through participating in combat, kills/deaths/completing objectives all these can earn you small numbers in this endless pool. At certain thresholds, you can get access to class related cosmetics that hint you are a seasoned combatant, small increases to your knowledge in the class skillsets/miniskills, and if you work hard enough there can even be class related combat artifacts, or a free class slot that you can get through this path. There can be different paths for different classes, and/or there can be a total experience branch. This is essentially highly reminiscent of the Sect Vendor, I know. But it's better, because it's not limited to single combat experience and it has a more linear sense of progress whereas in Sect, your progress is more back and forth with points won and lost. (Eventhough it's skewed towards winning, I think.)

Why?
First of all, it's more organic that way.

So was this all for the memes? Yes.

It makes sense for a character to slowly transcend their class abilities, through actually using them in combat. Especially, when that's compared to just dumping credits onto a tutor. It also makes sense for a character who sticked with a class for real life years to have access to cosmetics that display that experience. From a RP standpoint, i think it's not wrong to assume that Character knows the classes he fought against a bit better than the others and through that they've reached a better understanding of combat. (Looking at the free class spots suggestion). These are just rewards I thought about, you can obviously come up with whatever makes sense to you. Paths of progression are an example of a reward system that exists in most successful games. They set goals for players to strive for, especially in games where the content might be a bit lacking with players unsure about what to do next. I understand that some of the stuff I suggested here directly conflict with the business method of IRE, nevertheless if I was running Aetolia, I'd still implement this in some form. Not because it solves a problem, but because it would enhance the gameplay.

Saltz

Because I was told this needed clarification, let me show you an example:



You'll notice that the artifacts included are QoL artifacts, that the class does not really rely upon, however they are always welcome. It's just a path that in the end you become a more complete user of the class. It's a journey that builds you. That's especially true if you were not a transcendant to being with. And the honors line is just your congrats, you've completed the combat path of this class. I don't know how applicable the path system is, but I really like the idea as a whole.

Saltz

Okay, okay I just had an epiphany because this could be the coolest thing EVER. Think of it like the fishing levels and how quests unlock at certain thresholds. These milestones could unlock CLASS SPECIFIC QUESTS for you! And you could get those rewards by completing those quests/solving the puzzles. IT COULD BE SO GOOD.

Chimalmatko

Not gonna lie, this would be exactly what I would need in order to dip into PvP. 100+ endorsement for all that it's worth.

Wjoltyr

I can see you put a lot of thought and effort into articulating this. My understanding is you're looking for a system to enhance gameplay and provide a path for progression that includes group combat in obtaining progress, as well as participation rather than being punishing for not being on the winning side.

Your proposal certain would achieve those goals. However, I feel as though much of it could be accomplished with current systems. Daily milestones can obtain all of the credits required for the class artifacts, some classes get free customizations and other customizations aren't overly difficult to obtain. Perhaps someone who puts in 1+ year of Val-level effort and whatnot might not have bought those artifacts, but if they have then what? The value move would be to delay getting those QoL artifacts until you get the points under your system, lest you buy then trade in at a loss. It becomes a flat credit reward as I see it. Do all classes have such QoL artifacts? I don't even know what Scio QoL artifacts exist. I'll have to check that out.

While you state your goal would be to not necessarily entice players into group PvP, the first reply suggests it might have that impact. I would caution that interpreting it as "There isn't enough reason to PvP, we need carrots!" would miss the reasoning why I do not pursue PvP anymore. It would be more accurate to characterize why I do not PvP as "There isn't a delicious enough carrot to entice me to drink from that toxic well."

I'm not opposed to this idea, I just think there is some iterative collaboration possible to make it something appealing to everyone.

Saltz

I think you bring up some valid points, and I'll just try to give counter-arguments to the points I disagree with. If paths would be rudimentary because we already have milestones rewarding player participation/activity. Then by the same argument, milestones should've been rudimentary because we already had the city reward systems. They are different systems, obviously, but fundamentally they reward the same activities. I will have to repeat myself here, but I think the advantages of the path system are, the linear sense of progress and the clear vision of which objectives you've to meet, (Think of it like lvl200 and how everyone knows what they are getting out of it, and they are just trying to fill the exp bar to get there) along with the really exciting potential of implementing class-specific questlines. Needless to say, content of rewards, and the paths themselves are up for a lot of debate, my example paths were just hastily put together drafts to visualize how I envisioned this for other people.

And yes, you caught it right, why people do not do combat is not within the scope of this proposal. That'd require a lot of dynamics to be reviewed mechanical, personal and even cultural. This is just to another potential answer to why people should participate. And I read that response as a positive reaction towards that goal.

Chimalmatko

For what it's worth, it was the QoL/cosmetic additions that were intriguing to me, not so much as the lesson rewards.