Account wide achievements

[Brasidas]

Maxxing plat on all 50 toons on the account.
-A bling cosmetic Leprechaun hat and a Pot of gold cosmetic pet.

Been there, done that! Except it's 51 toons, not 50!

 

[Blu]

The problem with shared past lives is people doing all their lives on first life burner alts for the 1/3 xp curve

That is the whole point. It's not a problem at all, it's the best solution that still requires playing all classes/races, this would just speed it up more.

 

[CBDunk]

One thing that might help these discussions would be consistent terminology. As I see it, there are four types of persistent rewards;

Life - Only apply to a single character, are lost when the character undergoes any 'full reincarnation', and may be re-earned each life.
Character - Only apply to a single character, persist through 'full reincarnation', and may be earned separately on each character.
Server - Apply to all current and future characters on a server and may be earned separately on each server.
Account - Apply to all current and future characters on all servers. Currently all are only available from DDO & cash stores.

So, by these definitions, the OP was actually suggesting Server wide achievements. Contradictions abound in actual game terminology as well; in the Monster Manual, "Character" deeds are actually per Life and "Account" deeds are actually per Server. As to specific views;

Favor rewards: I'd like to see class and race unlocks moved from per Server to Account based. Inventory and bank space unlocks would be better as per Character than having to be re-earned each Life.

Past Lives: Sharing these to multiple characters seems like a massive power multiplier to me... the rewards for years of work suddenly being inflated to what would have required DECADES. I've instead suggested an option to treat alts as 'remembered past lives' of another character. The alt undergoes reincarnation, but the results are added to a different character. Concerns about people doing lots of 1st life alts might be addressed by requiring the character being reincarnated to be on at least their second life, but still only passing the results of a single reincarnation to the receiving character.

Reaper points: As above, too much of a force multiplier to just give those benefits to every character. However, might be reasonable to have the reincarnation idea above include adding any reaper XP from the reincarnating character to the receiving character's total.

 

[Lazuli]

The problem with shared past lives is people doing all their lives on first life burner alts for the 1/3 xp curve

When it became clear that SSG did not want to share all the PLs, I proposed an intermediate solution: share only a third of the PLs. Thus, there would be a character similar to "The guide" in Lammania, where a character with three PLs of the same race or class or epic life could go. By talking to him, that race or class would be marked as comparable by other of your characters on the same server. And from then on, your alts, after a reincarnation in the class or race you want to receive the PL, could talk to him to receive the xp up to the cap (20 or 30 depending on the type of reincarnation). Only once for that race o class, of course, the idea is share 1 life from 3.

Advantages:
* There is no problem of farming everything with first life characters , because you need 3 PL for share 1.
* Only a third of the PL is shared, so the alts become more acceptable as they are not so weak, but they still have a long grind to finish
* As the alts are more desirable, people will want to invest more storage, tomes, astral shards, etc. in them, therefore more money for SSG. SSG has to be realistic, few people are going to invest a lot of otto boxes in alts if they perceive the grind to be too long.
* This system is respectful of the current reincarnation system, so practically all of the current code could be reused, adding only the part of storing the PL and verifying that your alt is in the class or race that you are going to share. "The Guide" already exists and the reincarnation process itself is not touched.
* If someone has the philosophy that their characters should grind absolutely everything separately, they are not affected by this system.

All advantages.

But SSG has to realize that they have gone too far with the number of PLs. It's crazy. They have to stop suffocating alts and start thinking about helping them instead of burying them deeper and deeper.

And yes, this would be server based, not account based,. so no problemas on HC. Don't put the sharing npc there.

 

[droid327]

My preferred solution has always been a % XP bonus for alts, depending on the difference between the character and your highest-past-life character on the server

So if your main has 50 total past lives, and your alt has 5, you'd get (50-5 =) 45 increments of a bonus, maybe 3%. The bonus might treat EPLs and Race/Class PLs separately, where EPLs give a bonus only in Epic, and HPLs give a bonus only in Heroic, like XP tomes. Obviously not for RXP either.

That makes it only useful for catch-up on alts, being more useful the more catching up you need to do.

 

[Shear-buckler]

Personally speaking a "catch up mechanic" is not enough to get me to play alts. After thousands of hours of playtime I am still "catching up" on my main. Even if it's sped up by a factor of 5-10 I can't see me ever doing it with another character. I really want to play alts to be able to play new builds without TR:ing, but I am not going to do so if the alts are severly gimped compared to my main with no way to catch up.
If past lives were shared there would still be a huge reaper exp grind to do for alts, but that is a lot more engaging to grind and involves playing the completed build. You wouldn't have to "prime" your alts with beneficial past lives by playing other builds than the one you made the alt to for.

 

[Lazuli]

My preferred solution has always been a % XP bonus for alts, depending on the difference between the character and your highest-past-life character on the server

So if your main has 50 total past lives, and your alt has 5, you'd get (50-5 =) 45 increments of a bonus, maybe 3%. The bonus might treat EPLs and Race/Class PLs separately, where EPLs give a bonus only in Epic, and HPLs give a bonus only in Heroic, like XP tomes. Obviously not for RXP either.

That makes it only useful for catch-up on alts, being more useful the more catching up you need to do.

Honestly, 3% doesn't make any difference. And if there was a significant xp bonus, it would be a problem, since it would create problems when leveling with other players' characters. Right now I'm leveling one of my alts with hardly any past lives with my BF's character who has many more PLs. This would make my character have more xp bonus than his, but I would not take advantage of it by going up together and not wanting to overlevel him. So no thanks.

I like more my solution of the third of shared lives better.

 

[Lazuli]

Personally speaking a "catch up mechanic" is not enough to get me to play alts. After thousands of hours of playtime I am still "catching up" on my main. Even if it's sped up by a factor of 5-10 I can't see me ever doing it with another character. I really want to play alts to be able to play new builds without TR:ing, but I am not going to do so if the alts are severly gimped compared to my main with no way to catch up.
If past lives were shared there would still be a huge reaper exp grind to do for alts, but that is a lot more engaging to grind and involves playing the completed build. You wouldn't have to "prime" your alts with beneficial past lives by playing other builds than the one you made the alt to for.

I also want a full PL share, but I doubt that request will be considered by the devs. On the other hand, a partial sharing could be better received, or at least considered. It is better to be realistic in our requests.

 

[Shear-buckler]

I also want a full PL share, but I doubt that request will be considered by the devs. On the other hand, a partial sharing could be better received, or at least considered. It is better to be realistic in our requests.

Well, it's better to state what you actually want and would make you spend more time and money on the game. A compromise that makes no one satisfied will just be sad.

 

[droid327]

Honestly, 3% doesn't make any difference. And if there was a significant xp bonus, it would be a problem, since it would create problems when leveling with other players' characters. Right now I'm leveling one of my alts with hardly any past lives with my BF's character who has many more PLs. This would make my character have more xp bonus than his, but I would not take advantage of it by going up together and not wanting to overlevel him. So no thanks.

I like more my solution of the third of shared lives better.

OK if that's how you want to play this lol

That idea isnt great because it requires you to get 3x a life before it does any good. That's just backloading an already backloaded system, and really only helps you much once you're getting close to triple comp. All the progress you've made on your main for 1x or 2x lives is ignored. And while people might play 3x racial lives in a row, most people arent going to do 3x heroic before they do 1x of everything. XP bonus would help everyone's alts at every level of investment.

Also it would only help catch you up to a certain point (1 of each life), you're still leaving 66% of the total RPL progress for alts in the lurch, while a scaling XP bonus gives you a proportionate advantage throughout the entire process.

Plus, if leveling evenly with friends matters to you more than quickly accruing PLs...then just level with friends, and if you bluebar and arent ready to level up yet, then just dont No one ever forces you to, after all.

Also, how is 3% per PL difference insignificant? I mean you could always tweak it up to 5% or however much you think it needs to be...but 3% seems pretty generous to me. How much do people spend on 50% pots? You'd get the same effect with only a 17 PL difference. A full comp (21x3 racial/iconic, 16 class) would get a 237% bonus to a fresh alt lol...they'd be able to catch up reeeeally quickly with that running on top of everything else.

(also worth noting that everyone here tends to treat every suggestion as mutually exclusive with every other suggestion, and the one monolithic idea that's meant to completely solve a problem. It isnt. You could have a system where both of these ideas are implemented, and both contribute to solve the catch-up gap)

 

[Lazuli]

OK if that's how you want to play this lol

That idea isnt great because it requires you to get 3x a life before it does any good. That's just backloading an already backloaded system, and really only helps you much once you're getting close to triple comp. And while people might play 3x racial lives in a row, most people arent going to do 3x heroic before they do 1x of everything. XP bonus would help everyone's alts at every level of investment.

Also it would only help catch you up to a certain point (1 of each life), you're still leaving 66% of the total RPL progress for alts in the lurch, while a scaling XP bonus gives you a proportionate advantage throughout the entire process.

Plus, if leveling evenly with friends matters to you more than quickly accruing PLs...then just level with friends, and if you bluebar and arent ready to level up yet, then just dont No one ever forces you to, after all.

Also, how is 3% per PL difference insignificant? I mean you could always tweak it up to 5% or however much you think it needs to be...but 3% seems pretty generous to me. How much do people spend on 50% pots? You'd get the same effect with only a 17 PL difference. A full comp (21x3 racial/iconic, 16 class) would get a 237% bonus to a fresh alt lol...they'd be able to catch up reeeeally quickly with that running on top of everything else.

Well, I had understood 3% in total, not for life, which is more acceptable, but the problem of creating differences when it comes to leveling is still there. On the other hand, yes, my system requires having made 3 PL with a character, but your system also vastly benefits those who have a character with a lot of lives, since someone with three PL simply barely gives any benefit.

Worse yet, at least my system is not focused on the fact that only one character can share her PLs. In your case, it benefits players who have a super main, but it would discriminate against those who have the same number of PLs but distributed among several characters. Do those players who have played a single character deserve a greater bonus than others who have played as much as them but distributing their PLs among several alts?

I am interested in both things, improving my alts and playing with my friends. That's why I'm playing my alt instead of my main. But a catch up system has to be respectful of grouping, or it will only create more problems than it solves.

And yes, my proposal only gives limited progress to the alts. That's intentional, as the devs expressed fear that people would run out of things to do if they finished their main and everything is shared. A third of sharing already gives the alts a good base, and although it leaves a long grind ahead, at least it gives the alts something palatable to enjoy and a goal that is not so desperately distant.

 

[droid327]

vastly benefits those who have a character with a lot of lives, since someone with three PL simply barely gives any benefit.

Well the question here is addressing the alt gap - so yes, if your alt is close to your main already, or if your main hasnt made much progress, there isnt much gap to cover

The gap between vets and newbies is a problem too, but a separate one

I am interested in both things, improving my alts and playing with my friends. That's why I'm playing my alt instead of my main. But a catch up system has to be respectful of grouping, or it will only create more problems than it solves.

Ultimately it seems like these are competing interests. You cant say you want to accelerate your progress, but also say you want to lock your progress to your friends' rate of progress. That severely hamstrings you for what you can and cant do to address the problem for everyone who isnt in a static group - when, again, static-groupers can just not take levels, if they want to balance progress rate with social play.

 

[Shear-buckler]

Ultimately it seems like these are competing interests. You cant say you want to accelerate your progress, but also say you want to lock your progress to your friends' rate of progress. That severely hamstrings you for what you can and cant do to address the problem for everyone who isnt in a static group - when, again, static-groupers can just not take levels, if they want to balance progress rate with social play.

They are only competing interests under your specific suggestion. There is no reason why you could not make a system that does not force you to choose between progessing your character and playing with your friends.

 

[rabidfox]

I envision it as a server specific thing. So you would have to start over on another server. I'd definitely be open to the main servers being the same but IMO a different server should be a fresh start.

Currently one can't move shards, pets, mounts, monster manuals (monster manuals even break for some folks when they transfer), nor guild stuff when doing a server transfer; which is problematic for anyone who wants to move servers. Account linked past life progress would be another nail in the system there.

 

[Coffey]

Crapshoot with all of your progress lol!

Im sorry but it seems your account is unfixable. Better luck next time.

 

[droid327]

They are only competing interests under your specific suggestion. There is no reason why you could not make a system that does not force you to choose between progessing your character and playing with your friends.

You could, but it limits the kind of things you can still offer to address the shortfall - which leads to all the issues I raised with her suggestion, particularly the granularity.

I really think any complete solution needs to be based off how far behind your alt is, compared to your main...ie the size of the PL gap. That's the only way to provide help where it's needed most, and to prevent it from becoming a "rich get richer" situation for those who aren't facing a big gap for alts

 

[Chacka]

I suggested account-based progression years ago, and therefore, it's no surprise that I'm still convinced this is a good idea.

This represents a paradigm shift, and I believe the positive effects outweigh possible downsides by far.

Moreover, I think this change not only benefits players but could also lead to significantly increased sales of items in the DDO store if implemented. Even though some may see it as a contradiction, I anticipate that players would engage with multiple characters more frequently if progression affects all characters, not just one designated 'main.'

Additionally, players who enjoy playing alts might find more value in Ottos Boxes. Consequently, I expect an overall increase in the sale of Ottos Boxes by SSG, even if a few high-spending players, sometimes referred to as 'super whales,' who buy such boxes for alts, may purchase slightly fewer. (Is this merely theoretical, or do such players actually exist?)

For the Hardcore server, I don't see a significant problem even if the progression is shared with this server. The primary objective of playing Hardcore would still be preserved—you can only die once. This would also enhance motivation to play on a Hardcore server, as playing in this mode wouldn't be considered a 'waste' of time. Currently, playing on the Hardcore server means you cannot progress your so-called 'main' on your primary server.
I would also predict not only more fun for the players and also significantly increased sales in the DDO store for the Hardcore server if each character played on the Hardcore server is transferred, along with all your purchases, to a server of your choice. This transfer would instantly grant the character the same power as your current main character.

But, in general, it is, of course, also an option for this account-based progression to be server-based, even though I believe this would be the second-best solution.

And while we're on the topic, why aren't astral shards account-based, even though the DDO Store states that purchasing astral shards is an account buy?

I would also like to see all mounts and companions become account-based. Hopefully, if we get a UI for cosmetics similar to the mount and companion UI in the future, it should be account-based as well.

Additionally, having DDO on one mega server would be fantastic. For example, the auction house could be server-wide, allowing for cross-server grouping. Guilds could also be server-wide, and with these features, we would be very close to a 'mega server' concept.

 

[owl]

Would definitely like to see this.

We do have this with Monster Manual - would like to see more of it.

 

[Shear-buckler]

You could, but it limits the kind of things you can still offer to address the shortfall - which leads to all the issues I raised with her suggestion, particularly the granularity.

I really think any complete solution needs to be based off how far behind your alt is, compared to your main...ie the size of the PL gap. That's the only way to provide help where it's needed most, and to prevent it from becoming a "rich get richer" situation for those who aren't facing a big gap for alts

If you level faster based on how many past lives your main has that is literally a "rich get richer" situation.

 

[Lazuli]

Well the question here is addressing the alt gap - so yes, if your alt is close to your main already, or if your main hasnt made much progress, there isnt much gap to cover

The gap between vets and newbies is a problem too, but a separate one



Ultimately it seems like these are competing interests. You cant say you want to accelerate your progress, but also say you want to lock your progress to your friends' rate of progress. That severely hamstrings you for what you can and cant do to address the problem for everyone who isnt in a static group - when, again, static-groupers can just not take levels, if they want to balance progress rate with social play.

I don't see why implement a system that harms grouping, when there are solutions that don't. And no, the goal is not to bring your alts closer to your main. The goal is to make it more attractive to play multiple characters, regardless of whether you have a main or not.

Not only does your system disproportionately benefit those who play a single character, but it encourages new players to focus on a single character first, and then get a greater bonus on their alts. It's not a fair system with people who likes play multiple characters. Better is a system that equally favors those who have played or are going to play multiple characters and those who have a supermain. If someone has 150 PL among four characters, they should not be disadvantaged compared to someone who has 150 PL in a single character. They have both played the same.

Imagine a player who has 80 PLs in a single character, while another has 4 characters with 20 PLs each. With your system, the first player's characters would receive a bonus 4 times greater than the second player's, even though both have worked to get 80 PLs. It's not fair, especially when the player who currently has alts is more likely to enjoy the concept of multiple characters than the one who currently only has one character. The ideal is to design proposals that equally help players who play alts as well as those who have a supermain and find daunting the idea of starting an alt from scratch. It's neither fair nor necessary to discriminate against multi-character players with a system that's meant to encourage multi-character play.

And as I say, I would like the sharing to be greater than a third of PLs, but I have set a modest limit because I believe that devs will welcome the idea better than something greater or a total sharing.