Post-Cap Discussions, Part 5: Remorting

I’ve played in MUDs before that did something like the dual classing. Once you hit max level you had the option to start over at level 1 again, and all your abilities get a small boost, such that once you are back up to lvl 100 again, you’d have all the same skills and abilities but they’d be 10% more powerful than before. Do it again and you’d be 20% more powerful than a person who had just reached cap for the first time, etc.

Not suggesting it as an option here, that’s far too broad of a boost and the coding would be a nightmare. Just saying, it didn’t collapse that game to do it. I think something like Dual Classing could be done here without a problem, just not sure the resources exist to pull that off.

I don’t even like when people […] RP as if they never followed their previous Arkati or spirit, but [an] intercession [is] a completely IC mechanic[…]

For [remorting], there could be things like a powerful magical artifact stripping a character of their abilities, Zelia screwing with their mind, a different Arkati putting them through a trial, etc. Or just let players make up a justification, which we already do when we use fixskills.

I started out a School Teacher, moved to IT, got laid off from my IT job, went on the road as a Ren Faire Jouster, then became a Bench Jeweler, and finally moved back into IT once the economy picked back up.

Why on Elanthia should characters logically be locked into one profession? Mechanically, there are reasons, because that is the way the game is built, but from a RP perspective? Makes no sense to me whatsoever.

I do believe roleplaying has a certain literary quality and judging things against whether or not they make sense in real life is not the ultimate measure for whether something is good or bad.

I could write more about my on-the-fence thinking over whether this would be too great a departure from the integrity of Gemstone or the “spirit of Gemstone,” whatever that means. But this dual class stuff seems like the most idle of post cap fancies and I’ve never heard a hint from the game staff suggesting they would do something this drastic.

If [a triple capped] player can simply sacrifice 7.57m exp to pick their second profession immediately, then we have a problem from a developer perspective: what would the point be of designing a system based on a second 0-100 grind if a player could skip it all by sticking to their capped routine long enough?

On the other hand, if this player would have to go back to level 0[…] we have a problem from a player perspective. Now this capped player either has to sacrifice any gameplay-oriented events and services they offer–scheduled MHO group hunts, bounty help, CHE spellups, locksmithing, etc.–while they get back to cap or they continue hosting while sacrificing any chance of multi-classing. Either way, it discourages community-building.

Why is your level tied to what events you offer? Maybe that is part of the problem? Spellups, locksmithing/bashing, bounties can all be done by someone who is level 20 and simply wants to help.

[…] Frankly, I don’t want to sound too preachy, but I think all the stuff you mentioned KILLS the community, it doesn’t build it. I believe these things build community:

1) Not being able to recharge your gold wands unless you make 2 or 3 friends and have them send you mana over and over again.

2) Needing your entire CHE to send you mana so you can offer a spellup night, instead of 1 person logging in their capped wizard and cleric at the same time

3) Having regular hunts that aren’t huge groups of capped adventurers rolling through Reim. Maybe there’s 2 or 3 level brackets with 2 or 3 people each. They can talk and RP during the hunt and get to meet people.

Locksmithing is already a very hurting field, where people frequently go to NPCs[…] I’d see it as getting even worse if multiple capped rogues […] reset themselves to level 0 of another profession, reducing the pool of locksmiths who even have the ability to pick higher end boxes in the first place.

[…] the Drakes Vanguard holds almost-daily group hunts with characters of all levels invited. Having capped Drakes members along for the hunts means they’re able to bring characters of any level to [dangerous areas], which can be great fun for the lower level characters to see and fight enemies they wouldn’t see solo[…]

It’s a completely different feel from like-level people (capped or otherwise) grouping up and hunting things they usually hunt[…]

I do see your point in that…day 1 of this hypothetical probably never gonna happen system coming out, you have 200 capped characters all become 200 level 0 characters, and this all happens on the same day.

I think the initial smack will be a tough one. You will have a lot of people reset, which will undoubtedly be a shock to the system. I would take it as a fun challenge more than some scary hit to Gemstone. Imagine the level 20 newbie who suddenly becomes the biggest baddest guy in town? That to me is an amazing reversal that would spark new interactions and relationships, as well as just a cool thing to turn over in my head, how that might change things. I have to imagine there would be a novelty for that guy aside from the fact he can’t attend the group hunts for a short time.

[…] you will eventually have characters rolling into cap and rolling back and it won’t [a]ffect anything very much, as it will all be staggered.