Curse

Zelc · May 29, 2005, 05:30 AM // 05:30

I can't take credit for thinking of having fame unlock things (urm, that's a lie! I thought of it all by myself... yup... I'm brilliant... quit staring at me like that :P), but I thought I could at least make the vacuous "fame should unlock stuff" suggestions a little more concrete. I'm really awful at writing introductions, so here's the meat and bones:

First, fame will be earnable in the Random Arenas. For each consecutive win after the first two wins in which at least three players on the opposing team die (the three player death requirement applies only to the Annihilate The Opposing Team Ruleset and does not apply to the Team With Most Kills Wins ruleset), every player on the winning team gets one fame point. For example, Team A is having a good run in the random arenas. In the first round, Team A kills all four opposing players once, since none of the opposing players brought ressurection skills. Team A then advances to the second round. Team A's second round opponents are having a bit of trouble, however. One of the opponent's members drop immediately upon entering the game, and after seeing two of his teammates drop to Team A's excellent DPS, the last member of the opposing team teleports back to the arena. Since only two players on the opposing team died, this does not count as a win for Team A. Team A advances to the third round, where they promptly kill three of the four opposing characters. The fourth opposing character, deciding it's hopeless, teleports back to the arena. This round counts as a win and all members of Team A would have gotten one fame point, but because only two players on the opposing team in round 2 died, Team A is not rewarded with fame points. In the fourth round, Team A again faces a three player team. Team A quickly takes one of the opposing players out, but he just gets ressed. Still, the three player team is no match for Team A's skills. Just before Team A can finish the last opponent (who didn't get ressed) off, he teleports back to the arena. Three players on the opposing team did not die, so this round does not count as a win and Team A does not get fame points. In the fifth round, Team A faces a normal four player team and crushes all of them. Each member of Team A finally receives a fame point. Similarly, in the sixth round, Team A faces another normal four person team and crushes them all. Each member of Team A receives one fame point.

Why did I make this so complicated? Teams should win at least three rounds before gaining fame points so they don't win fame points from getting bad opponents. I figured that it's not so hard to hit two bad teams in a row, but three is pretty rare. The three players die requirement is so a character with a very durable W/Mo equipped with stances, Healing Hands, Dolyak Signet, heals, etc. can't get fame from forcing his opponents to teleport back to the arena since they can't kill him (yes, I have faced one of these. I wasn't pleased).

Fame should be earnable in the random arenas if this is implimented. The more fame one gets, the more stuff one would be able to unlock, which makes one better, meaning one will on average earn more fame. This can crowd out those who start late, making it very difficult for them to earn fame, which makes it difficult for them to earn more fame. In the random arenas, however, it's rare that one team gets all the good characters. This makes it easier for the people who're just starting off to gain the initial fame to unlock enough items/skills to be competitive in the Tombs and Guild Battles (assuming Guild Battles grant fame).

I'm not sure whether or not fame should be granted in the Team Arena. It'd be much easier for a guild or a group of friends to build a strong four-player team build and crush the random opposition. It also does away with the randomness that keeps most teams fairly equal in skills and items unlocked. Conversely, one could think that people would "graduate" from the Random Arenas to the Team Arenas, meaning that Team Arenas should give more fame than Random Arenas, but less than the Tombs and Guild Battles.

Second, one or more [Fame Trader] or similarly titled NPC will be placed in each arena and the Tombs. These NPCs would unlock things in return for fame. Players would be able to choose which skills they want to unlock in return for fame. Non-elite skills would only require very little fame (maybe 1 or 2?) to unlock, while elite skills should probably require more fame (based on how difficult it is to get in PvE?) plus perhaps one fame point to unlock. Players will not be able to choose which items to unlock, however. Instead, the game randomly selects which upgrades/runes the player unlocks. However, the game can only select an upgrade/rune that the player does not have. For example, if a player has already unlocked the +2 energy staff head (without specifically unlocking the +1 energy staff head) and uses his fame to unlock an item, the computer will not choose from the +1 or +2 energy staff heads as possible candidates for unlocking. The amount of fame required for each roll should be balanced so it takes on average less time to find items with upgrades or runes in PvE than it does to acquire the necessary fame to roll for an item upgrade/rune in PvP. This would mean that it's initially more efficient to PvE for item upgrades, but when a player has most of the upgrades, PvP becomes more efficient since the possibility of finding redundant upgrades is eliminated. What I really like in this system is the fact that PvE still has a purpose (to unlock the first runes/upgrades), but it allows a natural transition to PvP (when it becomes more efficient to use fame for unlocks).

Third, since the amount of fame a character has changes (players spend fame to unlock skills), a mouseover of the rank box will show how much total fame the account has won.

So, watcha think (yea, I stink at conclusions too :P)?

P.S.: I'll be gone for a while, so I probably won't be able to reply. I hope someone at least likes this idea enough to defend it for me :P.

EDIT: Clarified the example.