From the team
Coding by Ice
Based on a design by Hoodoo
With NUI expertise of Amnesy
Assisted by GrumpyCat
Reviewed thoroughly by backlands
Cemented with a nod from Irongron
The New Award System
What:
The new system introduces point-based currency that is mainly gained through playtime. Award Points (AP) will be used henceforth to gain access to awards.
How:
Playing!
AP is gained every IG hourly tick and added both to your character and your account, with a standard split of 80%/20%.
AP in your account is free to use. AP in your character must be released first, by the act of the Epic Sacrifice your character. Deleting your character to earn awards is no longer required, but it is encouraged.
The awards are still tiered, purchasable only with AP.
- Minor - 40000
- Normal - 100000
- Greater - 400000
- Major - 800000
Gaining AP:
Every minute you receive 10 AP, however, there's a monthly cap of 36000 points shared across your characters, achieved by playing 60 hours.
Adventure XP from all sources (except writs and the -adventure mode) will reward a small amount of AP.
The d100 roll on Epic Sacrifice still exists, and it can reward anywhere between 6000 to 30000 AP.
DM Awards:
DMs are now capable of awarding PCs directly various sums of AP.
RPR plays a small factor in your AP earnings. RPR 30/40/50 will add 10/15/20% multiplier to your AP gains.
Conversion:
Awards in your account will be turned into points of the equivalent value to a maximum of 3 million points.
At this time existing characters will have their past playtime converted to points and stored to the database table for the character. In the future we will introduce a system to earn these points to your account pool.
For further information please read the full announcement at the link below.
Refunds
Characters past level 11 that have accumulated 60 hours of playtime will be eligible for a partial refund of their awards on delete/remake, in the amounts:
- Minor - 36000
- Normal - 67000
- Greater - 160000
- Major - 160000
Why:
The award system is a crucial component of Arelith, meant to regulate the access to exotic races and reward players with unique boons, all with as little active staff involvement as possible. While it has served that purpose for a long, long time, Arelith has grown into a truly magnificent and sizable roleplaying community - and the award system needed to evolve.
We've seen its growing pains - or lack thereof - as a sore point for the community and the 'feel' of the game.
Nowadays, the award system is mostly regarded with contempt and disdain, for many reasons - its luck-based nature is akin to gambling, it is skewed to favor grinding and rolling of disposable characters, and roleplay has no bearing on your success. All things that we've been meaning to address for a long time, but committing to the act of reworking it was an ordeal that needed to be approached from many angles, programmatic, systematic, ethics, and as a component of the game that encouraged players to keep playing and feel excited for the future.
The goal is a system where all players can feel rewarded for the act of merely playing, without feeling the urgency to level up as quickly as possible or that they could be 'playing the game wrong'. The goal is a system that rewards roleplay first, and where mechanics and leveling efficiency are largely irrelevant.
We know this system is also not perfect, but we feel it is a more balanced approach. Not to mention it allows us to work in a far more flexible way to do things we couldn't do before.
Questions/Answers:
Q: But It'd take like 2 years to get a major in this system!
A: The numbers will change. Since we expect a huge conversion of AP, many players will have instant access to one or more Majors worth of points. We expect the numbers to generally decrease over time, but exotic races that are exceedingly popular may increase in cost.
Q: It's still 2 years!
A: Only if you don't account for all the other AP sources. We expect it'd take less time to earn a major award, but we will be adjusting as we see the new system being used.
Q: Won't a lot of people have a major after the conversion?
A: Yes, it's one of our main concerns, but we decided to go forward regardless. We fully expect a period of more than usual award races and will monitor this closely.
Q: But I just rolled the character I've been playing for the last bazillion years! Can I get the points I would have otherwise?
A: Unfortunately, no. There's no way to make the transition clean and seamless where no one is negatively affected, so we can only hope to make it fair.
Q: Can I refund my current character to earn AP?
A: Yes! All characters will be handled by the new system.
Q: How do I qualify for a refund?
A: Characters that have never crossed the level 10 threshold will get a full refund on delete or remake. Characters that have crossed the threshold must accumulate 60 hours of playtime to qualify for a partial refund. This requirement may be adjusted in the future.
Q: Can I play 60 hours with a character to hit the cap, and then do it with another?
A: No, the cap is shared across your account. While we want to reward playing and loyalty, we don't want people to feel 'compelled' to grind in a different way. This limit may be adjusted as we see the system evolve.
Q: Do all points contribute to the 60 hours cap?
A: No, only time is capped. Other points are not because we feel they are less significant to the overall accumulation of points and they are PC-locked.
Q: When does the cap reset?
A: Exactly 30 days after you log in, every month.
Q: How can I see my points?
A: Use the -awards command.
Q: Does -adventure count as a source of adventure XP?
A: No, only one-time events and unique monster kills do. This includes first-time events like finding a portal, killing a race, finding a special location, finding a lasso spot, crafting an item, visiting an area, or killing a yellow name monster.
Q: How is the AP you get sorted?
A: All AP you get from adventure XP goes to your character only. DM-awarded AP can go to either. Time-based AP is split 20/80% - 20% to your account, 80% to your PC. AP awarded through the first time system initialization goes to the character if it's a legacy (has not been played in the last 5 years) character, or split 20-80 account-character if it has any playtime recorded in the last 5~ years.
Q: When does RPR come into effect?
A: Almost always. Notably, points awarded through refund and the 5% roll are not affected by RPR.
Q: Is there still a cooldown on epic sacrifice?
Y: Yes, but it only affects the extra AP from the epic sacrifice roll (that value between 6000 to 30000). The formula for the old 5% roll is still about the same, requiring a million GP and level 26 > to get the best results. This intentionally has a less significant impact to total points.
Q: Don't you think that X is too many/not enough points for doing Y?
A: We'll be monitoring the impact of every component of the system and adjusting everything accordingly. New systems take time to smooth out and we plan to be proactive.
Q: Do I need to be in epic levels to release the points?
A: No, you can release your points at any moment, using either the delete or remake character commands, with the above mentioned refund limits.
Q: Why do I have like 56 minors awards at creation?!
A: The awards you see in the award purchase dialog are calculated dynamically, so you will see how many awards of that type you could purchase with your total amount. That means that if you have, say, about 400,000 points in your account, you would be able to purchase 10 minor awards, 4 normals, or 1 greater. Of course, using a minor award will deduct 40,000 points from your account, so with your remaining points you will be able to purchase 9 minors, 3 normals, and no greater or major.
Q: I found a bug!
A: Report it in the forum!
Q: This is cool, but why doesn't it do X and Y too?
A: This is the first phase of a larger award overhaul project. Many more features are planned for the future, such as possibilities like the ability to choose awards for existing characters, the ability to choose multiple awards, or dynamic and individual prices for the awards.
Q: But why didn't you code it already?
A: Too much code. This project has been on hold for a reason or another for the last 5 years (five years. Five!). In order to start moving forward, we've decided to take any step first, no matter how small.
Q: When are we seeing those other updates?
A: Do not hold your breath. We will have to spend some time monitoring the state of the game and addressing unforeseen issues, thus it would be risky to rush to implement the next update without ascertaining that it is safe to do so first. So, hopefully Soon(TM).
