Today's Dev Chat Highlights

Well, just as a dissenting opinion in this thread: I like the new game content. It's brought me back to the game, and it's made me want to stay in a way that previous content hasn't.

Kudos Devs, keep it up!

Zortel: You make a lot of good points. Obviously, the end-game content wasn't designed with your interests in mind, and that kinda sucks. Especially since it has rewards you want. Though I'd like to point out a couple things and respond to them directly:

I suspect that veteran badges (and the other account-wide badges, originating from serials applied to the account) check the NCSoft account for whether or not to make them available to the character. The only account-wide badge that does this differently (AFAIK) is the Author badge, but that probably checks your Global name stuff (which probably works in some way similarly to the email, or separately through MA).

Thus this would be the most readily-available system to them for having an in-game-originating purchase affecting other characters on the account. All other account-wide things originate from outside the game (and possibly from servers outside of Paragon's control, ie the NCSoft account servers). Look but not touch.

It's probably possible for them to create a new account-level database that they control, that can be checked during character creation, that can store items; but that would be new development and require its own maintenance once completed. The email system already exists. (And support should already be familiar with recovering emails in the event of something getting lost.)

I'm also not sure why not being able to use something at the tailor until level 50 means you can't unlock it sooner (you just can't make use of what you've unlocked yet). So you should be able to claim stuff at level 1, even if it won't be usable for a while.

All of those are MA badges like Author, which I posited are awarded because of something associated with your Global (either your Global itself, or because the MA system operates based on Globals to begin with - and I'm leaning towards it being MA-specific).

The Flames of Prometheus badge originates on the same character that acquired the power. The problem I'm seeing is: what systems are there for getting rewards from one character to another? Global email and MA are the only ones in-place right now, and email is the only one capable of handling diverse items. Certificates are kind of a "set it up and not worry about how it works later" system. The certificate is wrapped around the reward and doesn't care what the reward is. Let's say the badge-based reward claim was an option: now every update to the incarnate global unlocks store also requires an update to the badge system. We don't know who has those responsibilities or the authority to make those kinds of updates, and it also adds more steps to creating the content and making sure everything's been designed properly - potentially long, communication-critical steps if one person can't do it alone. Certificates, on the other hand, are generic containers, some kind of extension to the existing email attachments.

It's speculation on my part since I don't work for Paragon, but I've faced similar complications when trying to add functionality to an online game that I worked on. Everyone wants the time and resources to make a new system, but finding new ways to use what you've already got is always faster to make and less likely to break.

Re: Unlocked for account, just can't use yet:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Second Measure The Incarnate (Empyrean/Astral) Merit Rewards are account-unlocked. Once you have one unlocked for one character on an account, you have unlocked it for all. You will need to be level 50 to use the Ascension Armor costume parts, but every character on the account will have it ready once they get to that level.

He mentions the level lock for using the parts themselves, but hasn't said anything about claiming a voucher/certificate for level-locked parts. Although the Ascension Armor currently looks to be the only thing like that, as he mentioned elsewhere that the auras have the same availability (once claimed) as booster items: even if you don't have normal auras available yet, you can use these auras. (He's comparing how it works once you've got it, not how you get it - I mention that just to avoid confusion about why it's [probably?] not available during creation.)

Authbit looks like it checks your NCSoft account. (All the things listed under it refer to the boosters/packs/ordered editions, which as I said before are acquired outside the game.) There's still no indication that an authbit can be added to an account from within the game. (Hence why a voucher/certificate needs to be claimed first, and won't be available at creation.)

Other than the MA hidden badges, and "Global_Badges_25"/50/500K (which might not actually have anything to do with "Global" as we mean it), I don't see any badges that hop from character-to-character. The list is up to Going Rogue, and there haven't been any new global unlocks not associated with veteran status or special editions, which probably check authbit before awarding. I'm still seeing the setup as, when you log in, your global association with MA is checked and then any badges that should be earned are awarded.

It's likely that when you claim a certificate it will award a hidden badge for the unlock, as with other costume pieces.

With certificates, there's no difference between them except the attachment. Each badge, however, is unique. Hidden badges don't take up UI space, don't have descriptions, etc., and the same hidden badge can be used for both a voucher and a certificate (in case you can buy something for a specific character cheaper than buying account-wide) (assuming that these badges aren't truly account-level, otherwise you'd think someone would realize, "hey, we're moving this hidden badge around using the email, why not just use global badges?").

I'd be surprised if they did have global badges capable of being awarded from within the game because then certificates shouldn't exist. But it's precisely because certificates exist that I'm guessing things work as above. I'd rather believe they're working with their limitations than forgetting what they've got available to them.

@reiella: I did mention earlier that new development (a new database for flagging incarnate rewards) should be possible (most things are possible, given enough resources) but it would be a new development and require its own maintenance after creation. Whereas there's already a system capable of delivering attachments, that with some tweaking has been repurposed to provide persistent emails claimable on multiple characters, and already has established support procedures.

Doing it the global badge way would most likely take longer to set up and cost more to maintain, and you're getting the same net effect. If the "there's something red in my inbox every time I log in a character that hasn't claimed something yet" situation is a problem, it shouldn't be too difficult to have reward-class emails be ignored by the indicator (since they will already ignore certain other limitations of the email system).

@Lord_Kalistoh: That depends on whether or not my speculation is right, and there is no true global badge system - only badges that check your NCSoft-controlled account, outside of Paragon's direct/casual/daily control, and badges that check the MA system.

Ultimately, if it was possible to award an in-game-earned* badge across multiple characters simultaneously, then doing the work for certificates doesn't make sense. (Vouchers would still make sense, but not certificates.) Dismissing the faster, easier solution because you don't want to introduce too many new badges to the game... you'd have to be amazing at fighting for resources to get even consider that!

* In-game-earned vs. NCSoft-account-earned may be an important distinction. We learned that the server list merge was possible with special cooperation between NCSoft and Paragon to do whatever database work was necessary to move and rename accounts. But their normal relationship is account/purchase history handled by NCSoft, with Paragon holding the game database (characters, arcs and so forth).