Hello all! I'm AlienMafia or Alien for short. I am from Justice and don't really go by any one character name. Very much a Altaholic, but I did have a main named Thorns (Scrapper, Spine/Willpower). I've been lurking in the shadows of the new forums but was very active on the original MWM forums.
I'm here to post up some ideas of replicated Diablo franchise modes [Hardcore, Ladder, Paragon Levels (levels beyond max level)] that were in that game and I do believe that they are worth the time setting up but not necessary for launch of course. These ideas will add more options of how to play CoT.
The most prevailing issue on the first 2 ideas is possible division of the community if done wrong but I believe, with enough brain storming, that this can work correctly without doing too much damage to the community.
Please post with constructive criticism and provide a way to change something to make it work for CoT.
These 3 ideas are reposts from January-ish of 2013 on the old forums and each reply following this post will be its own idea.
I will edit it and add things tomorrow but for now I’ll post it.
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
Hardcore Mode:
Hardcore mode is an option in the game where a person can start in the beginning of the game and work though it with only 1 life. In hardcore mode, a player faces all the challenges that a normal mode player will face with the exception of death being permanent. Once a player dies, there is no revival, no hospital to revive at. Revive powers/inspirations will not work.
Other links for info on hardcore mode:
http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Hardcore
http://kotaku.com/5918465/this-is-what-it-looks-like-to-lose-your-level-60-diablo-iii-character-forever
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5642268710
http://www.diablowiki.net/Hardcore
This is a difficulty option and introduces new challenges to the player in the form of risks plunging into battles.
This difficulty is selectable upon character creation and will be under the defeat law at level 1 or 5 whichever the developers want. Warning to the players will be given. There is an option we can have and in the Diablo franchise there is not. In those games it is how it is described above. You have to start the character all over again from scratch once it is defeated. We can have an option upon defeat to be revived but will be no longer be in Hardcore mode and can never re-enter into hardcore mode. If this player is teamed with other Hardcore mode players, than that player will be booted from the team but not the map/task force or strike force.
Characters in this mode will be excluded from the normal auction houses and excluded from trading with any player that is not Hardcore flagged. The items that the character has upon defeat are now gone forever and cannot be reclaimed on a new character. The new character can find the same items like normal but cannot be removed from the defeated character. Items stored in SG and account storage (whatever that is at this point) will remain intact and usable by the new character you create in Hardcore mode. The only items that you lose are the ones on the character and in its "backpack".
Hardcore mode players will not be able to team with normal mode players simply because that will defeat the purpose of the difficulty if a friend can just power level the hardcore character to max level. These Hardcore mode players will be in the same world with everyone else and can communicate with anyone but have teaming and trade disabled between hardcore players and normal players. In the event of a zone event or Rikti invasion-esk event. Hardcore players will be phased out and will not see any of the action going on. The more troubling option is to have Hardcore mode players phased out for everything in open zone scenarios and will only see other Hardcore mode players. This is the situation when it comes to splitting up the community. Chat will stay intact and will not be segregated in the chat system.
I, personally, would like to have badges in this mode to show off with. These badges will be account wide to warrant only needing to do it once on any character on the account. Once earned on the character, the badge is permanently on the account even if the character defeated or deleted. These badges can be hardcore mode versions of normal mode badges or new ones. Basic ones like every 5 levels is a badge or harder ones like task forces. Which brings up a good example of what hardcore is. Think of Master of Task/Strike Forces for the entire game where the player needs to go through the game without being defeated. Some badges can include things like defeat X archvillain/elite boss and have 1 badge per archvillain/elite boss. You might ask how some characters can defeat these bosses. This is one of the challenges presented. You better level up some more before you go in there to take him/her/it on or make sure you make a character that can defeat them later on. Another badge option is to have one for each archetype at level 25 and 50 to show that you can perform all ATs in the most rugged conditions.
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
Ladder mode:
In Diablo 2 it was called Ladder. They changed to Season in Diablo 3
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/15198713/
http://www.diablowiki.net/Seasons
Ladder mode is a competitive mode in which players create a character and try to reach max level and/or power (have to come up with some way to rate a character’s strength) first or keep improving and staying first by the time the ladder season ends. In other words, the old ladder system was competing to reach level 99 first before anyone else and once you reached level 99 that was it and you stayed number 1 if you got their first. In the new “Season” system, it looks like it is a competition to be the strongest character by the time the season ends and that is how they rank players. When ladder mode resets after x amount of time, everyone will start out with nothing. There is no transferring from 1 season to another or from normal to ladder.
A competitive ladder would be great to have in CoT to provide another angle on the game in which teams of heroes strive to reach max level/power the fastest. It opens up another option to players who strive for that kind of stuff. This sort of seasonal event would need to include some other post max level system which is the third idea because in diablo 2, which is the system we want, is based on reaching max level first. Reaching max level in City of Heroes was fast to begin with which means that the competition is over too fast unless we decrease the time in which players have to get there. In Diablo 2, it would take playing alone 24/7 about 8 weeks to reach level 99. Casual players would be over 1 year. This would be perfect time range for us if we run 2 ladders a year on a 6 month cycle. Give players 6 months to race to max level. Now remember 24/7 for 8 weeks alone. If you team with people, that number drops dramatically. This might be too less experience and might need to increase it based on testing. Level 99 in Diablo 2 was a total of 3,520,485,254 experience. City of Heroes max level was 39,149,119 experience. Diablo 2’s level 48 was 38,935,798 experience which was 1.10598% of the total amount of experience for max level.
This runs the same as hardcore mode in the sense that teaming with normal mode players and trading of any kind will be prohibited. These simply ruin the reason for having Ladder mode. Teaming and trading will only be between other ladder players. Ladder players on the other hand may run around in the same zones as normal players and chat with them just like any other normal mode character. This can be an option and maybe at first you can phase yourself out if street sweeping is too hard with other normal players defeating enemies. This is the other case in which, if done wrong, will split the community which is bad.
I do not like having badges involved with Ladder mode unless the badges are not competitive and are easy to get due to knowing that most players do not have the kind of time to compete against the players who play more. With that said I do like to have some type of reward system in which ONLY ladder players who achieve it are rewarded it and is not tradable. Such as tiers of rewards (ex. Levels) that is account wide which will allow your normal mode characters to use to show that you have achieved X level by the time Ladder ends after 6 months. The end reward for reaching max level is unique after every Ladder season. So to entice people to play ladder for these rewards but these rewards are cosmetic or something else and do not provide power to character.
Something new to Diablo 3 Ladder system is that you get to keep your characters that were part of the season. The characters are transferred to you normal mode and allows you to keep playing on that character even after ladder ends. I would love to keep this with City of Titans. Something will have to be done for transferring characters from ladder because of character slots. One example is if your account has 3 character slots free, than the top 3 characters from ladder with the most experience will be playable after becoming normal mode characters. The rest of the characters you had on ladder will still be transferred but will be greyed out and you cannot play them until a purchase of slots is acquired or however the developers are going to do for character slots.
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
Paragon Levels:
http://www.diablowiki.net/Paragon
50 Levels beyond max level that total 3.5 billion-ish experience at paragon level 50.
Paragon level 100 in Diablo 3 requires 10,454,400,000 experience to reach max level which is only what is beyond their max level of 70. So in Diablo 3 your character would be level 70+100 while in our game it is Level 50+50 or whichever our developers want to work out if they decide to put this on the table.
This is a progression system for post 50 characters that gather experience even after becoming level 50. Much of our 50s that we played had been maxed out for some time and even after incarnate stuff came out, there was still no place for the experience to go.
These addition levels do not increase the power of your character against enemies so a Level 50 and a Level 50+50 are still the same power as each other. In Diablo 3 does have a difference in strength because they have a stat point system too (we could have stat points of some kind from what Ive read over the years but that option may still be on the table and possible be upgraded based on these extra levels). There are variations and other things to reward per level based on what is available but at this point we do not know much of what the character progression is like outside of what City of Heroes had.
The reward for such levels can be a variation of:
x% more Currency
x% more SG base Currency
x% more chance to find salvage
x% more chance to find Enhancements
x% more chance to find Large Inspirations
Badges at certain levels
Level 50+25 and level 50+50 could provide a Title and a costume set. Title could be "Half Way There".
Other options (based on balancing problems)
1. Every 10 levels awards you 1 Enhancement slot
2. Every 25 levels (max 2 because of cap for paragon level is 50) awards you 1 level about cap [50+(0-24) to 51+(25-49) to 52+50]. These 2 levels above 50 will not provide anything outside of being 2 levels higher (similar to tier 3 incarnate pieces)
3. Level 50+25 and level 50+50 could provide a Title and a costume set. Title could be "Half Way There".
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
Reserved
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
I havent played Diablo(s), but when i made [url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/end-game-hit-replay]My Suggestion[/url], some forum members said it was a little like Diablo and it seemed like they were not thrilled with it. :P
I read your post. It has nothing to do with what ive posted.
The paragon level system does not involve playing any of the content again. Ill ellaborate tomorrow when i get a chance. Click on the links and you can read about it from them
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
Hardcore could be interesting, although I expect that implementing it might be a beast. I tend to 'unofficial' hardcore many of my alts, trying to see how long I can play them before the first inevitable death.
The ladder system in Diablo 2 struck me as rather pointless after a bit. I remember one reset where within 24 hours the ladder was filled with new characters that had rocketed to maximum level. They were played by dedicated teams of people, if I recall correctly.
I don't have any experience with Paragon levels ( Diablo 3 was unable to hold my attention as Diablo 2 had ), but a quick review of the linked site gives me the impression that it's basically that max level characters continue to earn experience, gaining small boosts to various stats/abilities as they gain Paragon levels. In a way, they're similar to the Incarnate feature in CoH in that you continue to improve your character beyond max level, but instead of discrete powers, you gain +1% to defense or +1% to accuracy.
I was in the middle of elaborating the paragon system in how we would implement it. Check out what I typed up.
In Diablo 2 now. It is broken and there are ways to level really fast but back then it would take roughly 8 weeks of 24/7 playing to get to max. I think the ladder system would work with us like it did for them in the old days (early 2000s). Max level should be attainable by at least 1/4 of the way through the "season" ~1.5 months. This would include the paragon system because if it was just like CoH, then it would work because lvl 50 is just to fast and I would agree with you when it is like that. So basically ladder and Paragon levels would go hand in hand.
Hardcore doesn't seem to be too hard to implement except when it comes down to resurrecting into a normal mode character and continuing on TFs and teams in the map. The basics to hardcore are not complicated but given that most of our player base won't like losing their character when it dies permanently so trying to implement something to allow them to continue will be troubling. With Diablo it is permanent and can't continue so changing for us has never been done.
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
The problem I have with Hardcore mode is that death WILL happen. I know that there were a few people in the Repeat Offenders Network that tried something similar to this. They would roll up a character and play it until it died, once it did they would delete it and roll up a new one. I don't recall any of them ever making it very far before having to delete and re-roll. The other drawback is that not many people will try to enhance the Hardcore character with any special or rare enhancements as they do not wish to lose such items if they spent a lot of money to get them or took a long time grinding to get them.
Ladder mode will certainly encourage Power Leveling at it's finest. This will push people to definitely look for the most XP bang for their buck. I'm not sure that's a good idea either. While I know there will be people who will do this regardless, I don't see a point to trying to emphasize this.
Paragon Mode I'd rather see implemented more to the likes of the Incarnate System. I'm not sure rewarding max level characters with greater loot or money drops is a good idea. This might lead to inflating the market too much.
I got chills! They're multiplyin'. And I'm losin' control. Cuz the power, I'm supplyin'. Why it's ELECTRIFYIN'!!
That is the draw to hardcore mode to begin with. That is the point. Risk everything and it has been very successful in Diablo franchises. That is the challenge. I have done hardcore in diablo 3 and I completed the hardest difficulty on my very first time attempting hardcore. I'm a decent player but i did it with no help and no items. Took my time and made sure i was high enough of a level/gear for upcoming areas to not be at a big enough risk
Can't power level that easily in Ladder. Every time ladder is reset. Everyone has to restart with nothing which means nothing in storage, no other characters, auction house is empty, no friends at high places. All the characters and items you had on previous ladder is now moved to normal mode and not accessible to the new season of ladder.
Paragon level can reward anything. does not have to be loot/currency but paragon levels need to take a long time to get for the reward. The fastest person in Diablo 3 is Alkaizer and he went from Paragon level 1-100 in 2 weeks. That is massive amounts of hours farming doing the same runs. What can you give player who are that dedicated to playing that amount of time? I added a few other options for rewards but can anyone think of any rewards that are good enough for that amount of work. If 1-50 in city of heroes was 39 million experience and Alkaizer did 3+ billion in 2 weeks. That's amazing. That is the equivalent of pushing 77 characters from 1-50 in 2 weeks. I want that same insane amount of experience for 50 levels instead of 100. Also 50 levels is 50% more currency. Level 54 Bosses in City of Heroes gave how much? now times that by 0.5. Is your answer that absurdly higher than base for 336 hours straight playing? take it that it will take 2 weeks to get that in City of Titans
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
I suppose it's possible the Devs of CoT could eventually adapt things like Diablo's Hardcore, Ladders and Paragon levels into the game. But it's also easy to argue that Diablo needed those extra metagame goals/tricks because its basic character class and leveling systems were so simplistic and arcade-like that it was hardly worth replaying more than a few times without them.
I'm hoping CoT provides for enough character creation options that it'll be fun to play a bunch of alts without needing too many other fancy "tricks" to make us want to keep playing.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I have reservations as to how many people would really be all that interested in Hardcore Mode. I think it would be a very low population that would be interested in doing it. Not too sure it would be worth the Developers time to try to implement something like that.
Ladder mode, I understand what you are saying. What I'm trying to say is that people will look for the best maps to XP farm in a game to begin with, trying to encourage people to gain XP as fast as they can in a certain time frame will only encourage more people to find more maps to gain XP as fast as they can. This has been hashed over many times in many threads. The majority of those people in those threads are highly against fast XP gain and instead want people to experience the game at a slower rate so that all the content will be played.
Paragon Mode, I like the title, just doesn't sound very fun to play. While people want XP to be gained at a slow rate so that they can enjoy the content, there is also a rate that is TOO slow. When people have to wait too long before they get their next level they have a tendency to get bored really easily and quit.
Anytime you give somebody the ability to make more money faster than someone else, or better drops over someone else, will tip the scales greatly in the economy. That will give certain people greater control over the prices in the market. We don't want that. That is one of the big arguments about the market that is going on right now. Think about the future of the game. Not everybody will play the game from day one. So the people that start from day one and work on Paragon Mode will start making more money and better drops than the person that starts 2 years down the road. When they jump in the market will be extremely high and seem impossible for them to reach. So while it might not seem like much to you only getting 50% more gold dropped from an enemy, it's quite a bit more compared to the person who can not get an extra 50% more gold dropped. After several thousand defeats that adds up to quite a bit.
I got chills! They're multiplyin'. And I'm losin' control. Cuz the power, I'm supplyin'. Why it's ELECTRIFYIN'!!
I do agree with you Lothic on your points. Diablo is built with these options in mind to round out their game as a whole. Without them, they wouldn't have a game worth playing for any sort of time. Lack of longevity.
CoT will have no problem with longevity and no problem with dynamic and interesting playing especially for altaholics like myself. Diablo 2 had good altism but Diablo 3 ruined that.
These suggestions are meant to be other options to play the same game in different ways. Some would like a greater challenge of hardcore or some individuals/SG groups (for bragging rights) want the challenge to compete in a race with others to the top. I also know of a few people who quit playing City of Heroes because it was too easy and fast to complete the game (People who don't Alt it). Paragon Leveling system makes players feel like they are gaining something post max level.Mainly for the non altaholics but at the same time still benefits the altaholics when they are on each and every character.
How long did people play City of Heroes at max level without getting anything out of it? At least until incarnates. Which came out how many years since its launch?
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
I played CoH from Issue 3 until close. I had a ton of level 50's. I enjoyed playing them all the time. Couldn't tell you how many ITF's I ran with all of my 50's. Seriously. Thousands? Tens of thousands? No idea. There were only a few 50's I Incarnated.
I got chills! They're multiplyin'. And I'm losin' control. Cuz the power, I'm supplyin'. Why it's ELECTRIFYIN'!!
The Diablo team says it is about 5% of the character population. 5% of all characters that have been made are in Hardcore mode. It is true if it is too hard to implement, then it wouldn't be worth it. That's something that would have to be looked into. I for one would love the option to select it at character creation to play in such a mode, even if it is basic like Diablo where there is no continuation when defeated. Very different take on the game even if it isn't clear to people. There is definitely no clear answer to this except from a Dev, but would be nice to have more options on playing the game as a whole. I'm obviously down to playing the game different ways other than only 1 way (1 way does not include the multiple story paths).
This will happen either way. People did it in City of Heroes right off the bat. I know. I'm one of them. Did you farm low level maps without gearing? Hollows missions 0/8 alone? I believe it will be too hard for people to farm missions at lower levels especially with lack enhancement because of ladder reset. People will find way to gain XP fast in any game. CoT will have ways to get fast xp but do you think fast xp is achievable without someone carrying you? (take it that there is no exploits).
It wont affect the first 1-50 and it not something that you play just to reach the end. It's a means of giving you little bonus for when you play the character. Think of your main character, wouldn't you like to have some progression for how many hours you played that character no matter what content you played? Have some little bonus that puts you apart from your other characters based on your dedication to your main? Rewards and bragging rights for the characters that you play the most.
If it is too fast then the bonus for each level would have to be lowered and if that happens then why do it at all? It needs to be slow but nothing about it is required for any content. No content should be made for a particular paragon level.
The rewards don't have to be any of that. These are just some I could think of. With a new game comes new things that can be placed on that list. Would like to re-iterate, its not Paragon mode but Paragon Levels which only start after one has reached max level. Impossible to start Paragon Leveling before Level 50.
In the end, Paragon Levels is just 1 option to give to the players for post 50 EXPERIENCE progression.
[URL=http://s1101.photobucket.com/user/AlienMafia/media/VXFDNA3S9D0M1345154452638_zps06ede870.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g422/AlienMafia/VXFDNA3S9D0M1345154452638_zps06ede870.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
Wouldn't it be nice to have some small bonuses to your tons of characters for how much you played them after lvl 50 wouldn't you :P joking with you.
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
By the end of CoH I had a couple dozen level 50 alts but I actually continued to play my original main for literally 10,000+ hours AFTER I got her to 50. This included during the many years before the Devs ever dreamt up the Incarnate system.
Not saying I didn't enjoy the addition of the Incarnate system or that I would hate something like your Paragon level idea for CoT. Just saying not everyone needs built-in metagame enticements* to keep playing their favorite characters.
[I]*To be fair my main did end up being a badge hunter with around 99.8% of the badges in the game (damn you Bug Hunter and Passport) but beyond badges the only direct motivation I had to keep playing her after 50 was the basic fun I had doing it. Incarnate-ism was just icing on the cake for me.[/I]
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
This many times this! Played my main for thousands of hours after she hit 50, the majority of those there was no Incarnate system. And this was also true with numerous of my other 50's before Incarnates came out, though Greta undoubtedly got the most hours.
Also with the D3 Paragon Levels ALL Characters could access the extra bonuses and assign them individually to that level. To help explain:
Main Character = Monk Level 70+20 (Max Level with 20 Paragon Levels).
I have 20 points spread across 4 categories to assign as I see fit (Offence/Defence/Utility/Core)
I now make a Level 1 Wizard. This character has access to 20 Paragon Levels - 20 points spread across 4 categories to assign as I see fit (Offence/Defence/Utility/Core).
Im not against this idea (not that my opinion caries any weight mind you :)) but are you suggestion the Paragon levels only apply to that Toon or to all Toons?
The Phoenix Rising Initiative Rules Lawyer
No i am not. I'm suggesting the old paragon level system pre-reaper of souls. Individual characters.
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
I personally dislike the idea of a system where brand new characters gain automatic unearned benefits based on the activities of other characters I play.
I realize many modern computer games favor/allow for this kind of thing, but I'm an old school pen-n-paper RPGer and to me it sounds a little like rolling up a brand new level 1 figther with a +5 vorpal sword just because I also played a different level 40 character in a completely different campaign last year. To put it in a superhero context why would my brand new villain character gain any tangible in-game benefit from my level 50 hero alt I played last week? Do these two characters even know each other in game?
To me "characters" in MMORPGs are unique entities - they aren't just different avatars of me, the player. That's the main difference between an arcade-styled game like Diablo and a real RPG.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Agreed. Im not interested in benefiting new characters with any sort of buffs because of other characters you have played in the past.
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
It is worth noting that "hardcore mode" is something that can easily be done [i]voluntarily[/i]. It technically requires no support from the devs. Minimal support from the devs might include a "defeat counter," which allows you to display how many times your character has been defeated (and maybe how many defeats he'd suffered at the point when he earned such-and-such badge/accolade/whatever). I would not expect even that much, especially at first, but that would be all the support that would be needed for any sort of bragging rights associated with it to "stick," I think.
The ladder mode comment about players finding "the most efficient maps to XP farm" is interesting. I wonder if some manipulation of a ladder-like system could actively encourage use of [i]under-[/i]utilized maps. Perhaps "ladder points" are earned in specific maps designated for the competition, and those change "season" to "season." I don't know; just spitballing here.
[color=#ff0000]Business Manager[/color]
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Iron Eagles (Supergroup on Justice) - If you were on the SG roster you had not been defeated. While it was encouraged for you to retire your character from the game the only real requirement was you had to leave the SG once defeated. And obviously you had to join the SG right after creation. Mine made it to 20th before I messed up and drew more aggro than I could handle. At that time some of the group were in their upper 30's.
Side note. HEY SEGEV!!!!! Haven't seen you post as much as you did back on MWM forums. Good to see you.
Ladder points seems restrictive to particular story paths. Would have to be brain-stormed by tech team.
This brought up a good idea for tracking people for HC and Ladder modes. Upon character creation, you check a back to be on a HC monitoring board* or a Ladder monitoring board* that will keep track of players that are in the race or haven't died. Once placed on this board, you cannot team or trade with normal mode players. Sorry but teaming and trading will ruin the reason behind doing it. Once defeat has happened, you are automatically dropped from the board. This will not be the same as the SG that Doomguide had said but a leaderboard type of style.
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
I'm uncertain as to the necessity of a leader board to track undefeated status, especially for what would most likely amount to resolve issues for a very small percentage of players. Although I'm tempted to propose a way to harass badge hunters by suggesting a series of badges based off defeats. First defeat nets the character the first badge - now all a player need do is check the character's badge tab to see if they have the first defeated badge. Its the most simple solution.
Then have a separate badge for undefeated status, get a new badge every 10 levels for something hehe. Its not necessary but it'll drive completionists nuts...wait I tend to be a completionist...
[hr]I don't use a nerf bat, I have a magic crowbar!
- Combat Mechanic -
[color=#ff0000]Tech Team. [/color]
Even as an avid badge completionist I wouldn't have a problem with the following idea:
Let's say the game has a series of 5 "Undefeated" badges and 5 "Defeat" badges. These would all be character-based badges. For every 10 levels you manage to play a character undefeated it would get one of the Undefeated badges. This would be a main way to track Hardcore status. If you finally get killed you automatically lose any Undefeated badges you had, but at that point you could start collecting the "Defeat" badges (which could be based on an ever-increasing number of defeats suffered).
The net effect is you could either have the hard-to-get Undefeated badges or the relatively easier "Defeat" badges but either way you could only have badges from one series or the other. The total number of badges you could earn would be equal regardless but there would be a chance for extra prestige with having the Undefeated badges.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I'd do something similar but not exactly the same.
Defeated Badge gets awarded upon first Defeat.
Undefeated Badge records how many missions you have completed since the last time you were Defeated. When you get Defeated, the counter on this Badge reverts back to zero.
For Hardcore Mode, the Defeated Badge needs to NOT be present on the character, and "bragging rights" are apportioned by the Undefeated Badge showing how long you've gone Undefeated. Ensure that these two Badges appear together in the UI (so you don't have to scroll from one to the other) and you've got your simple solution.
One of the features mandated by Hardcore vs Softcore in Diablo that I would NOT recommend for City of Titans was the segregation of the markets, in addition to the sociability of players. Hardcore could only play with Hardcore. Softcore could only play with Softcore. Hardcore loot drops could only acquired by Hardcore characters, because Softcore and Hardcore never mixed in any way other than in the chat channel outside of the actual gameplay. I'm thinking that this kind of playerbase segregation would be bad for an MMORPG like City of Titans.
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
That is why i was hoping to use the phasing ability or keep them in the same zone but with different color name to indicate the difference in hardcore vs. softcore to allow the playerbase to stay together. But not being allowed to team with normal mode players is a must, if it is implemented otherwise someone can just power level the hardcore player with a normal character and that defeats the purpose.
I like the mode and would be nice to have that challenge again in my future favorite game ;P
-AlienMafia (Justice Server)
Main: Thorns 13xx Badges
The Iron Eagles did have various rules for things like crafting, the markets, passing loot from alts and teaming. Wish I remembered more of the specifics better. But in general you had to be self sufficient when it came to crafting and the markets (and 'playing' the market as I recall was one of those things semi-discouraged by not disallowed per se). Don't recall exactly how teaming with non-Iron Eagles worked, I do remember there being a fair bit of discussion on the subject during the formation and initial leveling by the founding players on the pros and cons of the matter. Running on +4/x8 with a 'bad' PuG could obviously be very risky. I would be far less interested and agree it would be a bad thing to do any segregation of the characters, markets or rewards for going HC ... it's supposed to be its own reward and shouldn't need any further enticement to engage in (beyond bragging/badge rights).
Having the Player Name show up in a different color if they don't have a Defeated Badge ought to be easy enough to do.
As for the Undefeated Badge suggestion above, ideally I'd want it to only record New Missions that your character has completed, so that it can't be farmed using the same Mission repeatedly. So the first time you complete Mission (insert ID here) you'll get a +1 on your Undefeated Badge ... but if you do that same Mission again, you don't get a +1 on your Undefeated Badge. This would, of course, get reset after a Defeat so that you could "start from scratch" to begin working up your Undefeated Badge count again. The key notion here is that to advance the Undefeated Badge you have to do a [i]variety of content[/i], rather than just farming [i]the same content[/i] repeatedly.
I'm thinking that implementing that "wrinkle" onto the Undefeated Badge would in effect weed out most Powerleveling strategies, simply because in order to achieve the goal you'd actually have to PLAY THE GAME as a whole ... honestly ... rather than merely confining yourself to an overly farmed specific piece of it and ignoring anything beyond that (ie. AE Babies).
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[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Yeah getting power leveled or running with a bunch of supportive friends who aren't HC and know you are is against the spirit of playing HC rather severely. For us in the Iron Eagles it rather obviously came down to an honor system. There was no real way (as far as I can recall) for anyone to know if you were power leveled or actually did get defeated but didn't drop from the SG. Still I'm not sure I'd want to have any segregation or indication of ones status beyond having the badge. I'm not sure you still couldn't get power leveled and I'm guessing there would be other ways around not to dissimilar to having a level 50 Empath running around in the Sewers healing the lowbies that even if not power leveling are clearly against the spirit of the concept. If phasing prevented the above Empath from helping you or even a random Kinetic dropping Speed Boost as you entered the Hollows on you (so to speak) I'm not sure if you aren't essentially already separating the player base. Bottom line is I think a bit of honor system is still necessary part of the equation if segregating the player/characters is to be avoided, as I think it should be.