I'm not opposed to giving people the option to automatically share their alts with friends (via the friends list, etc), BUT it should always be the choice of the player whether or not to share that information.
Example:
I spend time in game grouping with 1AD7, and decide he's good peoples, so I friend him. I tell the game he can see my account status in case he wants to get in touch with me when I'm on an alt.
I also group with Bazgrim a few times, but he seems kinda shady. So I friend him, but I don't toggle the option for him to see my account status - he can only see if I'm online when I'm actively on the character he knows.
So, as long as people have control over how that information gets shared, sure thing.
Nephele good judgment about Bazgrim - but I think this suggestion is just to show that someone is relatively new to the game and not to give any information about whether they have alts at all, much less who the alts are.
At first we all will be new - this might be more worth considering 6 months or a year after release.
dorotea said:Nephele good judgment about Bazgrim - but I think this suggestion is just to show that someone is relatively new to the game and not to give any information about whether they have alts at all, much less who the alts are.
At first we all will be new - this might be more worth considering 6 months or a year after release.
Ah, sort of like FFXIV's "sprout" symbol that they show next to character names for people with <10 (I think it's 10?) hours of play time?
Nephele said:dorotea said:Nephele good judgment about Bazgrim - but I think this suggestion is just to show that someone is relatively new to the game and not to give any information about whether they have alts at all, much less who the alts are.
At first we all will be new - this might be more worth considering 6 months or a year after release.
Ah, sort of like FFXIV's "sprout" symbol that they show next to character names for people with <10 (I think it's 10?) hours of play time?
That's not a bad idea. With Pantheon being as challenging as it is, I might even up that hour threshold a bit higher... 50 hours maybe? Onboarding new players is going to be crucial to the longterm success of Pantheon, so having some sort of tag that indicates that they are new might help those who enjoy assisting new players in finding people to show the ropes of Pantheon. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but people may also tend to be more forgiving of new people if they mess something up or play badly. But on the other hand, they may also just avoid grouping with new people altogether if they're looking for more competent players. Other downsides being that it could invite unsolicited advice or if it is an icon hanging over someone's head, the immersion junkies will likely call foul on the screen clutter. And I wouldn't really disagree with that. Of course you could always go with putting the ability to turn on/off such details in the control of the viewer. But there are still other areas you can tag these players as new. I'm just thinking off the top of my head - there are interesting pros and cons to consider. But also, I think it's worth mentioning this might help label potential spammers and the like that create throwaway accounts to sell gold, grief, etc.
In virtually every situation, erring on the side of allowing players the option to determine what they want when it comes to them is a good idea. I think an incognito mode would be a cool option for those who want to be antisocial for a while as well. I also like the idea of there being a way to assist/mentor new players because Bazgrim is right--New players will be key to the longevity of the game overall.
The way XIV does it is that the symbol will show up in front of the character's name in their nameplate, as well as in any lists that show their names (like for example, the list of who's in a zone).
The person has the ability to toggle it off if they don't want it displayed. There might be an option for people to toggle the visibility of status indicators in general (meaning you can decide if you want to see them or not), but I think it's a global toggle, not specific statuses.
Worth mentioning that XIV has other symbols for other statuses - for example, if someone's in the AFK status, there's a symbol of an empty chair there. If someone's in the "Busy" status (blocking tells, etc), there's a sort of angry bubble face symbol. I think there's even an RP symbol for people that flag themselves as roleplaying. Some statuses are set by the game based on your account/character - the new player symbol and returning player symbol are only there if you fulfill their conditions. Others are purely up to the player.
I don't know that Pantheon needs to copy the system (and certainly, anything that's done for Pantheon should make sense for Pantheon), but it's a good example to look at of how this kind of thing could be done. At least, if dorotea understood the suggestion correctly and wsan't just leading me astray :)
Maybe I understood it and was also leading you astray. Isn't multitasking supposed to be a plus?
I had forgotten the FFXIV sprout system - it actually was something I thought worked fairly well.
They did it per character since they were set up with the idea that few people would play alts. In Pantheon any "new to the game" would hopefully be based on account time /played. Though if we adopt their new character training for how to play the class that might be character based - an academic observation since I don't see us doing that. But in FFXIV it was handy to teach brand new people how to play the various roles. Gave excellent gear for the level too.
I really like the Sprout system in FFXIV. Works great at identifying new players who may need a bit more assistance. :) The game also tells you when you enter an instance if someone in that instance has never done it before (it also gives you a nice currency/xp bonus for having new players).
Displaying a symbol or icon aside the name of a new player for X amount of time, seems a useful addition to Pantheon. I might even go as far as to say, it's near to a requirement for this game. Since it possibly will be very heavy on community outreach and groupmechanics.
And indeed, one could leave the option to hide that symbol, if they want to explore things more on their own.
The question here would be, would that symbol/icon be locked to the character or to the account?
Should it relate to level of that character or to logtime of the account? Can you still be a new player on an alt, while you have a main with 200 loghours?
Or would newbies be somehow restricted to a certain region.. and would that region be designed in such a manner, that no matter what class or race, a player will have logged X hours on that toon before they can leave that region?
Riqq said:I was curious if anyone would want some kind of indication of character is a 1st char 2nd char or 3rd, Im thinking of things like helping out new characters vs helping out someones alt that could help their own alts.
That information is on a need-to-know basis, and unless I feel you need to know it, I do not want you to know it.
Nephele said:I'm not opposed to giving people the option to automatically share their alts with friends (via the friends list, etc), BUT it should always be the choice of the player whether or not to share that information.
Example:
I spend time in game grouping with 1AD7, and decide he's good peoples, so I friend him. I tell the game he can see my account status in case he wants to get in touch with me when I'm on an alt.
I also group with Bazgrim a few times, but he seems kinda shady. So I friend him, but I don't toggle the option for him to see my account status - he can only see if I'm online when I'm actively on the character he knows.
So, as long as people have control over how that information gets shared, sure thing.
I am an EVE Online player, a very competetive enviroemnt for sure and most likley different then Pantheon will ever be but i am always worried about these types of functions. In that world, if it was possible to share "account" characters with someone it would be REQUIRED in corps/Guilds. Sure its up to you to actually do it but i rather just not have the discussion at all.
Barin999 said:Displaying a symbol or icon aside the name of a new player for X amount of time, seems a useful addition to Pantheon. I might even go as far as to say, it's near to a requirement for this game. Since it possibly will be very heavy on community outreach and groupmechanics.
And indeed, one could leave the option to hide that symbol, if they want to explore things more on their own.
The question here would be, would that symbol/icon be locked to the character or to the account?
Should it relate to level of that character or to logtime of the account? Can you still be a new player on an alt, while you have a main with 200 loghours?
Or would newbies be somehow restricted to a certain region.. and would that region be designed in such a manner, that no matter what class or race, a player will have logged X hours on that toon before they can leave that region?
I disagree, there should not be any magic way to know if i play my first character or second. Ask me and i tell you if i like too.
Riqq said:I was curious if anyone would want some kind of indication of character is a 1st char 2nd char or 3rd, Im thinking of things like helping out new characters vs helping out someones alt that could help their own alts.
I hope alting is not a "thing" past people just messing around for fun. If alts become a practical reality (ie people can actually play multiple toons and level to any effective extent), then it will be another problem.
Fact is, if level progression is done right (ie taking a very long time, much like it was in release EQ), then alting will be a passing hobby where those who do it will be far behind those who only play a single toon. It was not possible for people with a job to play more than a single character without any gimmicks (boxing, power leveling, etc...) and even then it was still VERY SLOW to which the person who played only a single character was at an advantage.
If alting becomes possible past hobby play, the game will have failed to meet one of its tenants.