Irongron wrote: ↑Mon Jul 25, 2022 2:57 pm
While the basics of the point buy system are agreed upon, there is a lot more to decide upon, ideally alongside discussion with the community.
I definitely don't envy the position of designing a reward system that will satisfy players; what a careful line to dance! But glad the team is giving it due thought. My response to your ideas here:
Irongron wrote: ↑Mon Jul 25, 2022 2:57 pm
We could introduce set numbers of exotic reward options alongside each rotation, for example only 15 aasimar would be available, and players could enter a lottery to receive one (should they have enough points to 'buy' it) it would be a sure fire way to control rarity.
I agree it's a surefire way to control rarity, though I'm not certain it's the best option from a player's perspective. It continues to be RNG and disenfranchises players of making choices about their future characters themselves. If you had saved up 4 precious "character" points over a year of playing and rolling characters and gambled them all on maybe getting an aasimar and then lost the auction, boy would that sting. All those rolls resulted in nothing.
Additionally, if you want to have a hard cap on the number of
x exotic race, then there should be some DM supervision about the active characters of that race in the game world to go alongside the system. It would be annoying if you wanted to play a gloaming and the server had already reached its cap of 10/10 gloamings allowed, but 9/10 of those gloamings were shelved and not getting played at all.
Irongron wrote: ↑Mon Jul 25, 2022 2:57 pm
Another option would be that players can only have x number of rare races in their vault. The option to buy another would be in red (blocked) while they already have such a character.
This I really like. It puts the choice in the hands of the player about what kind of characters they want to play while simultaneously reducing the total number of exotic races on the server at any one time.
Irongron wrote: ↑Mon Jul 25, 2022 2:57 pm
There will be a lot of options to discuss, and I'd like this all to be done via a new custom 'shop' menu, available both in game, and offline.
It really could be great. Essentially I want everyone to have equal opportunity to access these options, but also enough customization to make something unique; this can encompass more than races, but also items, animal companions, special steeds and so on.
If your vision is to play a boar riding wild dwarf wielding his ghost summoning ancestral spear, this is how we can do it.
So long as this theoretical menu has a nice, easy to navigate UI I'm all for it. Using the point buy system to purchase accessory rewards for your character like these special steeds, unique items, so on? Love it. So long as there's strict mechanical oversight. It was before my time but I understand there were once "Artifacts" on Arelith that were hecka powerful. I'm all for the point buy system allowing custom accessories but not if those custom accessories are stronger than any regularly available in-game accessory.
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Without knowing the details of the proposed point buy system it's hard to offer feedback. If you're looking for suggestions, then here's a thought.
Earning points on a character you roll should be affected by a wider variety of factors than earning a reward in the current system. Currently, to max out your chances on earning a high reward, you have to be level 26+ and have a total gold value in your inventory at the time of rolling equal to or greater than 1 million gold.
I don't think there should be just two key "ingredients" to earning high points in the point buy system. Rather, I'd enjoy seeing a system in which there are 10-20 different factors in play that each earn your character 1 point. Having a million gold value in your inventory at the time of rolling could be worth 1 point, and being level 26+ could be worth 1 point. Having led a faction with at least 10 members could be worth 1 point, and having won a settlement election could be worth 1 point. Having killed 10 distinct endgame dungeon "boss" monsters could be worth 1 point, and having set foot on every island available in the sailing system could be worth 1 point. Having hosted 5 public events could be worth 1 point, and having played a character for 100 hours could be worth 1 point.
And, most importantly, while there would be these 10-20 different ways to earn points, each character roll would only be worth a maximum of say, 5 points. So in order to reach your "maximum roll value" of 5 points you don't have to earn all 10-20 achievements, but rather just the handful of them that are accessible to you depending on the nature of your character and the kind of roleplay you're into as a player.
In order to prevent gaming the system, you might optionally consider
not informing the playerbase of how you earn points. Keep the methods hidden, force players to just...live in the world and try new things if they want points.
All of the above are off-the-cuff examples; you'd need to give these kinds of point offerings more thought than I did, but you get my drift. The idea is that this kind of system rewards players for engaging in many different aspects of Arelith rather than just leveling up and getting gold.