JackHamer

Ya, the bading area may not be the most appropriate way. I guess in the end, in the other games I've played there was always something unattainable. There was always this benchmark and future goal that was nearly impossible that kept you working towards it. I think I only made it into the lvl80s on that one game and I played for years. But boy, when you saw a lvl90+ it was really something.

I miss that aspect with this game. I figured if I was runnign around Atlas and saw a lvl53 because he collected more than 750 badges, that same feeling would be rekindled. It would give me a reason to really work at the badging aspect, although I know less than 1 percent would ever be able to do it.

I get spam messges all the time saying "Level to 50 for $100!" and it's just rediculous. I get these spam messages all the time promoting web sites selling all this influence and powerleveling. Anyone playing the game for one day can pay a couple hundred dollars to be leveled to 50 and then buy all the purple IO sets they want ... where's the prestige in that? I know that's life, but there should be some way of acknowledging the people who really dedicate themselves. Some way of acknowledging the people out there who dedicate themselves to playing their characters. Badging seemed like the natural fit to this, because I really don't see how it could fit into a business model for these web sites. How much would you have to pay them to dedicate their employees to playing your toon for years to earn some of these?

I just want to walk around Atlas, and see something immediately to know that one of the big dudes is in town. I remember when I first started playing the game and saw my first 50 in Atlas, I couldn't believe it! And he gave me like 50,000 influence! I was so stunned, he was a really nice guy and he made me really want to work towards getting to that level. Now that I've been playing a few years, and understand that it takes $100 to reach that ... it's just sad.

How do you differentiat the hero's hero from the heros is the question.

True Saint lol. But I'm trying to find a more tangible, meaningful and visible reward for the guys who are spending their lives at the monotonous and tedious task of badging. Perhaps hunting badges wouldn't be seen as such a waste of time if there was something "real" as a reward.

I'll go ahead and reply for all of you so you don't have to waste your time:

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Perhaps hunting badges wouldn't be seen as such a waste of time if there was something "real" as a reward.

[/ QUOTE ]
They do have something real, it's called a badge.

[/ QUOTE ]
~Sigh~

I agree the suggestion of my original post wouldn't work. So how about this, for every 250 badges, you gain one level after level 50. Those levels would add nothing to your character in the form of improvement, other than showing as a higher level. Like a mask?

I do agree the devs shouldn't spend time on this, they have way more important things to do. This is just an idea.

[ QUOTE ]
No?

[/ QUOTE ]
I understand and agree with your point here, but I’m suggesting something new without revolutionizing the entire game. My basic point, is for those guys who spend a bagillion hours playing every aspect of the game on one character, be rewarded.

[ QUOTE ]
If the level cap is 50, and you make more levels after that, you have... wait for it... raised the level cap. Cap = "There is nothing beyond this." If there is something beyond that, it is no longer a cap for that.

[/ QUOTE ]
Once again you’re right, there’s nothing beyond lvl54. My suggestion, is to allow player controlled characters into the +4 levels. It’s not a perfect idea, but a constructive conversation could potentially work out the bugs.

[ QUOTE ]
... and when people get higher level, they tend to want challenges. Why do you see people asking for pads in PI? Some are for farms, yes. Others are for tanks, scrappers, etc. to get huge spawns so they feel challenged. How would making things not as challenging be rewarding? You've just gutted the point of the difficulty slider.

[/ QUOTE ]
Everyone could remain level 50. It takes years to earn those badges. You literally have to labor for months and months to reach them. If someone was playing for challenge, they wouldn’t have to go for those levels if they didn’t want too. It’s their choice.

[ QUOTE ]
And you're assuming as well. Pot, meet kettle.

[/ QUOTE ]
I’m not assuming, what I said is basic fact, people play the game for a multitude of reasons, one of which is for a challenge.

[ QUOTE ]
Some people take years to get to 50. Why should one small subset of the activity - badge hunting - be the only one to get these extra levels?

[/ QUOTE ]
Simple, badge hunting is the most time consuming, tedious and boring aspect of the game. Because reaching 610 badges (no, I’m nowhere near that and probably never will be) is almost impossible. The same can be said for lvl99 in the previous game I mentioned, but it was always there as an unattainable goal that always left something else to the game.

[ QUOTE ]
Why not PVP?

[/ QUOTE ]
Because PvP is already apart of badge hunting and is already included in my idea.

[ QUOTE ]
Why not costume creation?

[/ QUOTE ]
I would be interested to hear your ideas on how NCSoft could officially reward costume creation.

[ QUOTE ]
Why not extra levels for having over X many alts?

[/ QUOTE ]
It’s not that challenging to create a basic character to fill a slot. You’re comparing apples and oranges.

[ QUOTE ]
Some of the PVPers do that exclusively. Do they not count? Should they not be rewarded for only working on PVP?

[/ QUOTE ]
They are rewarded for PvP, which is already included in the badge-hunting and thus into my suggestion. PvP and badge hunting work hand in hand … look at accolade powers. My suggestion only benchmark on that – be a massive accolade per se.

[ QUOTE ]
No, they aren't. They are *going after badges.* That is all they are "dedicating themselves" to. Exploration badges? History badges? They can run over (or run up and click) those and never know what they're about. How is that dedicating themselves to anything but a number? PVP badges? They can be - and are - farmed. How is that dedicating themselves to the PVP aspect? It isn't. Healing, Damage, SKing? Farmed. Kills? Farmable. I'm 50 and don't have "Kill skulls" or "Gravedigger?" I doubt I'd need half an hour in Perez Park. I can snag several other no-risk easy kill badges there, too.

Yeah, that's dedication.... no, wait, that's farming.

[/ QUOTE ]
You’re right again. The only addition is that farming takes dedication. How anybody could say farming 200 Toxic Tarantulas isn’t dedication baffles me. Or 10,000 inventions or a billion influence. It’s dedication at it’s finest. Going and killing 100 skulls is boring and tedious with little reward but a little graphic amongst many. That’s what prompted my idea in the first place. What if doing all of this work actually meant something in the long haul? What if badge hunting were more than tedious anti-climatic little pictures? It would add a whole new aspect to the game.

[ QUOTE ]
And with that I say you're being foolish. What's so hard about badge hunting? It's not hard, it's tedious for some of them, yes, but not hard. I can rack up a load of badges (the explorations) in less than an hour. Am I dedicated? Heck, if I go to Infinity, I don't even have to do the work to find them! Just wait for the Taxibots to do a tour!

[/ QUOTE ]
I may be foolish, but this is a simple suggestion to add some real meat to a system of tiny little graphics people taut around on their third tab within their profiles.

[ QUOTE ]
Yes, I've read through the badgers. "Hard?" "Dedication?" "Here. We'll leave accounts set up overnight to take damage and heal each other instead of play. PVP badges? Let's farm them."

[/ QUOTE ]
I hate those dam badges. It sucks how to get them, that epic healing one takes people six months to a year or something to earn it – even setting their stuff up overnight. I’ve never done it. I’ve never been dedicated to it enough. It’s too hard.

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah. that's what should be rewarded. Of course, for those doing it... getting those badges is its own reward. Don't paint it like the in-game equivalent of fifteen years of medical school (or whatever it takes for some of these specialties.)

Plus, as mentioned, some are solely for veteran status. Some are solely for purchasing specific game items (VIP/Destined One/Pocket D Gold Club or whatever it's called.) Tying those to a reward like extra levels? Absolutely not.

[/ QUOTE ]
All of that would be included in the idea. You would have to have ALL of those badges to be able to attain the lvl54 status. The game would stop at 1,000 badges. That’s where my suggestion runs out of steam because then you have to ask “When do they stop issuing veteran rewards?” The idea is that less than 1 percent of the CoH population would ever reach lvl54. Look at the military, congress mandates less than one percent of the enlisted ranks can be the highest rank(E-9). Everyone else below them works their butt off to reach that goal. This badge idea would be the same premise. You have to work your butt off for years and years if you want it. The way it stands now, you can go to Web sites and pay real money to be the best – this would help differentiate the truly addicted from the scum who pay real money for everything in the game.

Thanks BBQ, your right about the horizontal growth, I would definately be on board for something like that. Perhaps enhanced accolades for certain badge benchmarks which could do verious things. So if you earn 250, 500 or whatever amount of badges you get an accolade for it. Who knows. Great topic of discussion though. Your dead on talking about what to do about the HOs and everything. The only thing I could imagine is to do nothing for it. Since IOs don't degrade with level, that would be the best route to take for the 10 - 20 people working towards those kinds of levels. The slotting of new IOs at lvl54 would be a problem though.

[ QUOTE ]
If you already know they won't... why would you ask?

[/ QUOTE ]
Because I'm not suggesting the level cap be raised, only award players for their dedication. LVL54s are already out there...

[ QUOTE ]
As far as "Level 54," it's so there's a challenge at the highest level for level 50s. There's no level 55. In order to maintain a challenge, if you got to level 54, there'd have to be level 58s. At which point you'd ask "Why not...." and we get into the level chase that's already been discussed.

[/ QUOTE ]
I never suggested the level of bad guys be raised either. Life would be a lot easier for the lvl54s since all the toughest baddies in the game would be your level. Your perspective assumes higher level bad guys are the main reason the game is fun at level 50 – which is inaccurate. There are many reasons the game is fun, which is why a lot of classes, such as stone/stone tanks or empathy defenders keep playing. It’s that team base and community which keeps a lot of people coming back.

Plus, if you want to keep the bad guys at a higher level than you, and you’re not interested in badges, the answer is simple – don’t hunt badges. But for the rest of the people who enjoy achieving every benchmark in the game by setting and reaching goals that take months, and in some cases years, let them be rewarded.

[ QUOTE ]
And tying them to badges? No. Also, no tying them to PVP, to having full sets of IOs, to having red in your costume, to having pink in your costume, to being part of a SG, to having run every task/strike force, etc. Just because it's one activity you enjoy, you shouldn't tie a "reward" of this sort to it.

[/ QUOTE ]
I agree with what you’re saying here in principle. But there’s a dramatic difference between receiving one badge and what these guys are doing. They aren’t completing one task force and then doing a little bit of PvP. They are experiencing and dedicating themselves to every angle of the game the developers are designing – I can only imagine how many hours these top 25 have dedicated to this game. This isn’t about rewarding a pink costume, this isn’t about rewarding years of paying monthly subscriptions, this is about rewarding sheer dedication and time spent achieving goals. I’m afraid 99.999% of the community will disagree with this idea because there are only .001% of people willing to dedicate themselves like this – and the rest would riot because they could never do it.

I'm sure someone has thought of this already, but I thought I would bring it up. I believe that for every 250 badges you earn you should earn an additional level once you hit lvl50.

So if you’re a lvl50 and you earn 250 badges, you get lvl51. If and when you earn 500 you level to 52. 750 = level 53 and for 1,000 you hit lvl54. (Which the last two aren't even possible yet).

I played another MMORG for years and the level cap was 99. It took a team of German students playing 24/7 nearly a year (If I remember right) to make that level. Although the goal was almost impossible to reach, it still gave people something to aim for.
According to Badge Hunter, there are only 25 people out of all CoH servers that have more than 610 badges at the moment. As the years pass and badges and badges are added to the game, it would be awesome to reward these people for the hundreds of additional hours it takes them to earn these badges. What it takes to earn that many is absolutely insane and the reward should mimic that.

I recently read a post from Castle talking about why they won't raise the level cap - and I 100 percent agree. But if there are toons out there at lvl54, then why can't player toons reach that "Arch-XX" status also?

The game experience and dedication to one toon should reward something amazing. That dedication should show not only if someone right clicks and views their information, but blazing in the information box that they have accomplished something amazing.

If I were king of dreamland, I would reward the badge levels like this:
LVL51 = +3 Slots
LVL52 = +3 Slots
LVL53 = ANY Power in the game
LVL54 = +3 Slots

Castle already said, in regard to raising the level cap, "Why? Because those [additional powers, slots and inspiration slots potentially earned after lvl50 if they raised the cap] are already at a point where players can do nearly anything."

Very true, but when someone spends more than 1,500 hours playing a single toon to earn badges and during the journey gaining real experience understanding the game dynamics, then they I believe they have earned the privilege of being unrivaled gods.