Veteran Rewards

[Tantalyr]

As a general rule, players of MMORPG's like (a) unique appearances for their characters and possessions, such as houses, plots and lairs, to distinguish them from other players' characters, and (b) to be rewarded, indeed recognized, for their longevity in the game.

I would therefore recommend that the developers implement a reward program for players based upon the age of their accounts. The rewards, in my view, should not affect game balance (e.g., the holder of say, a three-year-old account would not receive the "Sword of Uberness" with +500 to two-handed slash), but would instead be marks of distinctiveness to the character of the player's choice.

The type of rewards would be limited solely by the developers' creativity and coding limitations, but here are a few examples of such rewards:

1) Placeable plot decorations, such as statues, flowers, rose bushes and the like. These decorations would not be buildable, per se, but would appear in a biped character's backpack and simply be placeable somewhere on the character's plot. They would also be freely tradeable/sellable.

2) Placeable lair decorations, such as murals, dungeon-related items such as hanging skeletons, and the like, with the same features as plot decorations described above.

3) Hoardable items with increasing values per age of the account (e.g., a 100,000 hoard value item for a one-year-old account, a 250,000 hoard value item for a second year account, etc.).

4) Unique clothing/armor/scale that either (or both) (a) possesses colors not available in game via dye kits, and/or (b) grants some small increases to a stat or skill not otherwise available in game (e.g., a platemail chest piece that adds +30 to ethereal armor).

5) A one-shot ability to change a character's hair style or color, or for dragons, to change or at least tweak the colors and highlights of his scales, perhaps in colors not available in the character creation menu.

6) Progressive titles based upon age of account. For example, a character on a one year old account would have "Sir" or "Madame" added before their names, "Baron/Baroness" for second year accounts, and so on.

[Alladania]

If they wanted to do something like this, they could easily create an attuned emblem with some sort of title.

[Tzael]

As long as such a reward system takes the duration of paid subscription into account as opposed to an account of a certain age receiving such benefits regardless of paid status. The one big difference with Horizons compared to most other mmorpgs is that character data is not wiped (or suggested that it will be wiped even if it takes a month or six longer than the time specified) which is why I'm suggesting this addendum to the original post.

I like the idea of a choice of rewards as Tantalyr suggests, much better than everyone ending up with identical rewards because there is no choice.

[Tantalyr]

Agreed Tzael, the account age should be measured by the period of time that it is a paying subscription. Any "gaps" in payment would be subtracted in determining account age.

Moreover, and to clarify my original post a bit, I would suggest that on account anniversary dates (or perhaps once a year for everyone if the former is too much for the database to track) each player get a "menu" of reward choices. And while one year accounts might only choose one from their menus, older accounts might be able to make multiple choices from theirs.

[LaughingOtter]

As we see with ARoP, character age can be a quest restriction. That won't work for a longevity-based reward, though, since it is time since creation, not time the account has been active without interruption. That information may or may not be something that can be used as a quest restriction.

Regardless of means or mechanism, I do think some type of longevity reward or recognition is overdue. The subscription renewal discount was welcome and much appreciated, but it was not a longevity reward as it was available to all.

[imported_Frith-Rae]

ooh Tant I like your ideas, especially the one about the certain title....

..this would also help newcomers (titles or other viewable changes) know who the "vetereans" in the game were, who could POSSIBLY be better sources of information as they run across them in the world...

They would know that a "Sir" or "Madam" had been with the game for a year, a "General" or "Admiral" or "Queen" *grins* or whatever title types you want to use, would been with the game for two years - and so on up :).

I was semi-serious/joking in dragon chat last night about wanting a crown for my dragon that was viewable by all (it was a successful attempt to derail a stupid discussion...;)). Now I was talking about ONLY me getting to have a crown...but that could be an example of an age-reward that people could choose to wear, or not, at their leisure :).

[ssylva]

I have never liked the idea of veteran rewards. This includes games where I have characters that would get them like everquest. Everyone pays their money for the game and everyone should be treated the same. Making the playing field uneven by giving measurable rewards to people who have had an open account the longest just turns off new players which is what horizons needs more than anything else. It also smacks of being able to BUY stuff for your character from the game company(IE in everquest they made it so you got an extra year of "tenure" if you changed your subscription to yearly renewal).
I left before they went down that road.

[Aamer Khan]

To every coin, there are two sides.

There are emblems that can be gained by effort, for newbies, and high level alike. However there are only one form of Jman emblem and thats laircrafter. Perhaps, adding simple jman crafter emblems would be a start?

As to vet rewards, fluff is the right idea to me as well. Nothing to overpower already powerful players. There are a ton of decorations and furniture already created ingame. The only thing limiting their implementation seems to be that the game does not support items placed in player buildable structures. I would really like to see seating in the T4 GH we have. Perhaps a few banners, or tapestries.


In our guild, we have ranks that reflect the members accomplishments. Sentinel for protectors, Artisans for multiclass lvl 100 crafters, Captain of the Guard for adventure leader types, etc...

Titles like this would be great fun and go a long way in helping to identify what kind of player you run across.

[cauri_order]

UO did , and they still do it. Vet rewards, nothing really game breaking balance-wise.

House decorations, dye tubs, etheral mounts......hrmm I wonder if I remember to cancel that account.

Anyways, was very nice AND it was based of paid subscription months.