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Friends and More??? EQN Friends List Response
Burdoc101
Member UncommonPosts: 283
EQN team responds to the round table Friend's List with the power of choice. You will be able to choose to give friends account wide friendship or just a character by character base. Allowing you the convenience and privacy that you want.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZtW_pO9qz0
This is a smart and reasonable decision for SOE; I think that was a no-brainer. What was more interesting, however, was the topic brought up at the end of the conversation. Borrowing a written transcript from shayalan's discussion on the matter (http://www.eqhammer.com/news/devs-talk-friends-lists-round-table-response-8-written-transcript):
"Omeed Dariani: So, we’re looking at this as a convenience thing primarily. And so that’s where we’re going, is that we’re looking at character-based or account-based... letting you guys make the decision. One of the things that we’ve been discussing, too, is does it make sense for there to be other things that are traditionally character-based that could become account-based.
Terry Michaels: Right. And so this... because of this sort of change in the way we’re playing the game, the way we’re creating the game, the multiclass thing, all of these ideas, the emergent AI... we’re reevaluating a lot of the things that people take for granted as the way they work in MMOs. So, we’re actually interested, do you guys have other ideas for things that have been stereotypically character-based that you would like to see account-based?
Omeed Dariani: You know, like, your faction unlock, right?
Terry Michaels: Yeah, what factions you have open to talk to, or even what classes you’ve found and unlocked for your main character. Would you want those to be available on an alt that you’ve created?
Omeed Dariani: That seems like a fantastic question. We would really love to hear about that, so tweet us, hop on the Round Table forum, discuss that, you know, just right on this question. We would love to hear your ideas about other ways we can make things account-based that have traditionally been character-based. So, that’s going to do it for us today. Thanks to Terry for joining us, and thank you guys very much for participating in the Round Table. It’s always helpful and we enjoy the conversation."
I personally feel mixed about unlocking things for my entire account from one character. The gameplay for EQN, from what we know so far, is about the journey and creating unique experiences for your character development from rallying calls and how the AI system is suppose to react to your character.
I could see the advantage of having the convenience of wanting to play the way I want without having to spend time to re-unlock the class. That might ruin the fun of developing said character though; without going through the trials and factions required for the experience. (Unless they include the faction "hits" or changes that come with the requirement of the class.) It makes me wonder how character creation for said system would work.
I would like to hear your thoughts and have listed some questions below to ponder on, please add upon if you wish. Thank you for your time.
Do I want to be able to unlock classes for my account?
...unlock factions for my account?
...unlock mounts or pets for my account?
...unlock fast travel, way-points or portal access for my account?
Comments
Well, making things account-wide is more of a convenience than actual affecting gameplay. GW2 pulled in one of the last patches the account wide currency, and i think its great for People who play more then one Character, done are the days where you have to mail money to your alts or have to lay it in the bank to later withdraw it with another Character. Also the account shared bank is great. Maybe you find an item that is great but useless for what you play now, but great for your alt. Or gathering resources, again i like the way GW2 handles that.
But thinks like Faction should be per Character, besides the Factions is a no-brainer, like a PVP-Faction that only awards you for how many PVP fights you made, things like that should be account-wide, but not Faction like Ogre vs Elf. This Factions should be per Character to have consequences on that part.
For Class unlocking i'm on the fence. We dont know how hard or easy it is to unlock them. If they are hard/random it could add a kind of replayability to the game if they are account unlocked and then with your next character you can choose instead of the 8 starter classes from 12 or 30 or 40+ and go on the find the missing ones, that could be blocked for your first character based on the decisions you made.
But if they are easy and fast to unlock then i would say, no, not account-wide.
I would like communication / friends list / ignore list to be account based
- like GuildWars1 and GuildWars2
i hate keeping track of alt names for friends or friends not knowing my new alts
EQ2 fan sites
Have everything account based and have a select option in your character selection screen just before you log on (invisable or Visable) log on invisable, no one can see you on their friends list, log on Visable everyong can see you.
Problem solved, you can mail me my check.
Your not alone; its a smart tactic to create steady hype and talk for the game, but they are listening and using forum examples from discussions.
Luckily it sounds like we will have that option. Im glad I can create a private alt character though for some alone time.
i love your idea but I'm not a game dev
EQ2 fan sites
Could you further explain the PVP-faction? Like are you talking horde vs alliance or your main character joins X guild and so account wide your other characters are apart of it?
I feel EQN is going to have a lot of grey areas and would hate to make my main a good cleric and force my shadwknight alt to be apart of the same PVP guild.
With PvP-Faction i mean like it is in GW2 for the WvWvW PvP. there you get "World Ranks" with that you can unlock some goodies for PVP, but this is per Character. So if you change to another alt/Class you start at zero which can gives some disadvantages compared to your long played PVP Character.
In a Game like World of Warcraft where you have Player Factions(horde/alliance, templar/illuminati/dragon, good/evil, whatever), a PVP Faction shows how much you play for your Player faction. But even this could be accountwide in my opinion for all of your character of the same allegiance.
But if the game offers multiple PvP-Factions instead of preset Player Faction at Chacter Creation that dictates your PVP side, thats a whole difference.
Say you have 6 different PVP Factions in the game. Faction 1 and 2 dont like each other and you can decide which you support. And with that you can battle players who choosed to help the other Faction. But here is to talk if this is open world PVP or not.
In a open world PVP envoirment multiple PVP Factions you could join that dont hate each other could bring the option that you meet a player who has one PVP Faction like yourself, so he is a friend. Also he has a PVP Faction that is neutral to your PVP Faction, would make him a neutral target. But what if he also has a PVP Faction that is the enemy of a PVP Faction you choose? the other player would be at the same time your ally, enemy and neutral.
quite the chaos.
But it looks a loot better if its non-open world PVP. You would have Arenas/battlegorund/dedicated areas where Faction 1 and 2 are at war, and other places where Faction 1,3 and 6 are at war, and maybe one free for all area. Many choices and not so chaotic with openworld and multiple PvP Factions.
And now i think a derailed something...
P.S.: Sorry if my english is confusing
I have to disagree with you on all your points, because I so happen to love chaos and randomness.
In the World vs World (server vs server), and PVP battlegrounds/arenas in general, you gained those items from your skill of that class. It would be unfair to me for your alt to gain PVP items based on your experiences with your Main character that you are better suited and skilled with. If there were fun or cosmetic items you gained from PVP, I could see those be used account wide, but I feel you should have to acquire items for each character. Likewise this is the same for PVE such as raid items. You should have to earn your place with your characters you create, because they will obviously play differently from your main.
Account wide PVP factions work for WoW with the preset Horde vs Alliance or SWTOR with the Republic vs Empire. You are forced to pick one side or the other right away and open PVP allowed you to only fight the opposing faction.
However Everquest franchise has been grey with how you play from PVE to PVP. In EQ 1 your factions in the world was determined by your class, race, charisma, deity (religion) and sometimes quests. As an Iksar you were hated by the world, but you could earn to be friendly with other races by killing certain creatures to gain favor; and slowly, but surely you could be friendly with other factions and races. However, there were some people you could just not gain favor with either, because of who you were in general.
Raids and mob spawns in the PVE were competed by guilds in the open world and open world dungeons for the gear. There were no instances until later expansions in the form of adventures or less type raids.
Now besides the PVE aspect of the game, when it came to PVP; anyone could kill anyone no matter what faction you were. It did not lock you on your decisions or factions that you were friendly with. Even in PVE you could kill any NPC that you were friends with. That did not matter and thats how i feel PVP Open world should be; let the players decide who to kill and reep the rewards and consequences from your actions.
In an open world pvp of my description where players decide who they can kill without being locked; would allow for guilds to have open world sieges in EQN and not be reduced to an instanced. With EQN capable of allowing you to create castles and buildings, imagine open world PVP in a game built on destructable voxels by the players. Its reminds me of Shadowbane.