*BLEEP* the Casuals.

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As much as I agree with this sentiment and will be doing just this in the game, I know for sure that the majority of people won't be doing this. Especially not for random people on the server. You might pass down your old gear to a trusted guild member, but distributing a ton of gear to a ton of people is something only the very generous and "those who RP a good guy" people would do - and those are a rarity.

A system like the one I suggested would just add motivation to sharing your stuff with others. Just like social structures will have rewards for climbing their ladder instead of just going "oh well, you can just go RP as a thief. I bet that's gonna be enough for you". Yes, pure RP would be enough for a few dozen people on the server, but everyone else wouldn't participate in that part of the game if there weren't augments and other potential rewards within the system.

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Yes, the Thieves Guild was just given as an example to prove a point, it wasn't meant to be taken literally, as you often do.

And person who likes to RP could rp as a thief. The game could provide them with a "Thief" title and the RP player might be satisfied with just that, because they create their own gameplay on top of the tools the game provides. Or, well, at least that's what I've heard about how people RP in mmos. If your RPing is different, pls do explain the difference.

But Ashes doesn't just give you a title. It provides you benefits for participating in social orgs system. It gives you motivation to move through their ladder, because there's better benefits at the top of it. And the system I suggested would function in the same way. Of course there's pretty much no bound gear in the game, but what I suggested is not just giving a piece of gear to your mate. I suggested a system that would give out way more gear to way more people, while giving benefits to the players that provided said gear.

In my experiences of being a guild crafter of many years, you usually have waaaay more gear than what your guild requires. And that was in a game w/o an artisan profession system. From what I've seen in NW, people crafted fucking thousands of pieces of useless gear just to level up their professions. Roughly the same thing will happen in Ashes, but instead of just crafting low lvl shit to bump up your artisan XP, I suggested a system where you'd craft a good piece of gear that no one in your guild needs (because they're already overgeared or just don't require that particular piece) and you can then donate that piece to the overall gear donation system in exchange for some benefits to your character. The high lvl player benefits from this, the low lvl players benefit from it, there's no "came out of nowhere" gear acquisition mechanics that are usually tied to instanced content in mmos - as I see it, that's a win-win for all sides. And all the non-crafter players can still just buy gear from crafters/market and get their upgrades from their social org by donating that gear through the system (this would be on top of the standard planned rewards of the social org system).

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I thought the example of "go RP as a thief" in the context of "social structures" (yes, should've used Orgs instead of Structures) was obvious enough. Guess it wasn't, so I should've explained it better. My bad.

The example itself served as a functional parallel.

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And I've already addressed this. Most people won't just share their gear with random people out of the pureness of their hearts. But if they have a benefit/motivation for doing so - they will. The parallel with the Thieves Guild was to say that most people don't RP as members of said guild, but because there's a benefit for doing so in Ashes - people will become a member to reap those benefits. Functionally, my suggested system works the same way. Most people wouldn't just give away their gear, but they are more likely to do so for some reward.

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As I've said before, the goal of my suggestion was to help lowbies/newbies to gear up, while doing fast/interesting content. They're still free to craft/buy/loot the gear themselves, but now they'd have an additional way of doing so. This kind of system would also allow for latecomers to catch up quicker w/o having some "boosted xp and loot" system in the game.

A highly skilled low-time player would be able to clear more Tower floors, which would give him points for stronger gear which in turn would allow him to level up faster/easier and would bring him closer to the higher lvled people, at which point he'd be able to participate in harder party content. And any money that he farms while leveling up could go towards acquiring a freehold, a mount, some important consumables or whichever else a player will need in their future.

And all of this could be done w/o immediately finding a guild, so it would even fit Derp's request for some good solo content.

The suggestion would be because if only 5% of people behave like you do, then unless those people have enough spare gear to help 'all lowbies', then whether or not lowbies receive help is random.

This isn't even helpful because some will just reject it, and while you might continue regardless, some others who do this sort of thing are incentivized to stop after a few 'I was helping newbies but they kept shrugging me off and/or giving it back' (anecdotal memory experience, happened twice in a game I played, but this to me has some meaning because that was 2 of the 4 people that I knew in that group who would be likely to do that).

Now obviously one can't extrapolate that 'because 50% of the generous people I knew got discouraged by their gifts being rejected, that's the populace'.

But in the end, saying to one person 'Just help them out yourself' does not have much to do with whether or not a system should be in place overall. If that system is placed 'alongside' sales, and properly designed, sales will be a path some take, and donations will be a path others take for LESS benefit but not ZERO benefit.

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I mention RP because at the very start I said "you could RP as a good guy and donate w/o my suggested system". And I said so because, as I keep saying, most people in my experience, don't just share their stuff with people. But if they were RPing as a good guy - they would. And your main counter to my suggestion of "just do it" is exactly why I keep mentioning RP. Because, imo, only an RP person would just give away their gear, with maybe a few exceptionally good people that just wanna support others (like you, considering your attitude towards this kind of suggestion). But I think those are just the exception to the rule.

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And I'm suggesting to have a system similar to the Mentor one, but on a larger scale. Instead of helping just one dude (or however many they allow us to mentor), you'd be helping a ton of future players w/o spending too much time on each one of them. You'd be raising the power floor of your whole node, or maybe even the whole server, depending on how much you donate.

And, again in my experience, even within guilds people would share their stuff on the agreement of "you'll either return this to me or give me smth in return". And those were on the "gooder" side of the spectrum. The best that some people could do is to provide a small "guild discount" while selling the item to their guild mate.

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Sale of gear suggests that the newbie that just started playing will somehow have enough money to buy gear, that, by the time of them joining the game, might already cost way more than a newbie can make in reasonable time. Now obviously Intrepid might design their economy in such a perfect way that this won't be a problem at all, but I'll stay doubtful about that prospect until I see it with my own eyes.

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I was talking about any random new person on the server, not your alt char or friend. As I said before, the goal of my suggestion is to help newcomers/casuals to catch up with the more hardcore people, w/o implementing direct catchup mechanics or having instance dungeons that would provide them with gear that came outside of the open world system. Obviously any player that wants to boost a newbie/alt, can just do that by trading whatever is needed. I've done so countless times. What I want is to increase the scale of that kind of action, w/o as much involvement as a twink would require.

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Ah, it seems there's a more fundamental disagreement relative to goals then, perhaps. Only NiKr could say for sure, so I'll disengage.

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Azherae wrote: »

Ah, it seems there's a more fundamental disagreement relative to goals then, perhaps. Only NiKr could say for sure, so I'll disengage.

Yep, we just disagree on this topic then. Understandable, have a nice day yall.