09-02-2024, 08:06 PM
Not a massive fan of this, for a handful of reasons.
Mythics being transitory unless you’re active for them/good enough/“legendary” for them feels very… pointedly against the idea that Mythic level signatures are earned. It means that a Mythic can be taken away with little fanfare or warning, and when these come with RPP costs and heavy character implications, losing them outright can make someone just… apply to get them again. Which kind of defeats the purpose of reducing apps. Or, they could get discouraged that they aren’t an exact fit— and that leads someone to burnout or outright quitting.
The requirements for Master/Exalted signatures are also really, really strange, and presents a new problem: much as how people “farm” dangers for their second mastery token, so too will people fish around and beg for commends, influence (or class resources), faction ranks, showing up to public events/raids/etc. When you put it out into the air like this, giving hardline rules for how to achieve specific tiers of signatures, people will immediately work towards gaming this system. Same as faction armor when that first released, from what I’ve seen, and same as when the policy of upgrading or getting a free Master signature at 230 RPL.
My last concern: establishing new characters. Attaching price tags for vital faction/class resources for a signature means that someone who wants a signature has to grind all of these things out— not easy given how a lot of people have different ideas for what their experience in Eternia should be. And with how power-heavy the game is, it can feel needed at times to have a signature— this means it’ll skew people to working towards their chosen tier instead of doing what they enjoy more.
To that end, I far more enjoy what Madsen’s suggestion is, but I’d still prefer to use apps over a merit based system. I don’t like clear policies that can be abused to finagle a signature with Chance’s proposal, and I don’t like how nebulous the merit system is, either— but if I had to choose one, merit is what I’d go off of.
Just my waking-up thoughts.
Mythics being transitory unless you’re active for them/good enough/“legendary” for them feels very… pointedly against the idea that Mythic level signatures are earned. It means that a Mythic can be taken away with little fanfare or warning, and when these come with RPP costs and heavy character implications, losing them outright can make someone just… apply to get them again. Which kind of defeats the purpose of reducing apps. Or, they could get discouraged that they aren’t an exact fit— and that leads someone to burnout or outright quitting.
The requirements for Master/Exalted signatures are also really, really strange, and presents a new problem: much as how people “farm” dangers for their second mastery token, so too will people fish around and beg for commends, influence (or class resources), faction ranks, showing up to public events/raids/etc. When you put it out into the air like this, giving hardline rules for how to achieve specific tiers of signatures, people will immediately work towards gaming this system. Same as faction armor when that first released, from what I’ve seen, and same as when the policy of upgrading or getting a free Master signature at 230 RPL.
My last concern: establishing new characters. Attaching price tags for vital faction/class resources for a signature means that someone who wants a signature has to grind all of these things out— not easy given how a lot of people have different ideas for what their experience in Eternia should be. And with how power-heavy the game is, it can feel needed at times to have a signature— this means it’ll skew people to working towards their chosen tier instead of doing what they enjoy more.
To that end, I far more enjoy what Madsen’s suggestion is, but I’d still prefer to use apps over a merit based system. I don’t like clear policies that can be abused to finagle a signature with Chance’s proposal, and I don’t like how nebulous the merit system is, either— but if I had to choose one, merit is what I’d go off of.
Just my waking-up thoughts.