A suggested solution for the anniversary badges

Summary:
While watching today's twitchtv broadcast, Positron said the reason for not making the badges global was because of lack of authbits. However there is another mechanism already in place that could handle global tracking of the anniversary badges: the market system.

What can be done:
Now I'm not talking about making the badges available on the market. What I mean is that each item on the market has an unique identifier that can be assigned by the game. You can check this yourself by using the /mypurchases command in game.

For instance, take the ascension set bought by Incarnate Vendors:

Code:

Name				Purchased		Used		Expires	Product
Ascension Boots		1			1		Never	CTIAANBO
Ascension Belt			1			1		Never	CTIAANBT
Ascension Cape			1			1		Never	CTIAANCA
Ascension Emblem		1			1		Never	CTIAANCE
Ascension Gloves		1			1		Never	CTIAANGL
Ascension Mask		1			1		Never	CTIAANMK
Ascension Shoulders		1			1		Never	CTIAANSP

The store codes are what I'm talking about: CTIAANBO, CTIAANBT, CTIAANCA, CTIAANCE, CTIAANGL, CTIAANMK, CTIAANSP

A player can take a character which the anniversary badges to Null the Gull, and ask him about the anniversary badges. At that point Null tells the market system that the player has the anniversary badges with the appropriate store codes. Seeing the market system applies codes to every character on the account the badges will award globally. Any future anniversary or other global badges could just need the player to talk to the gull after they get the badge.

At no point badges are in danger of being lost as the characters that qualified for the specific badge would have already earned it and this would just be another means to earn the badge for the characters that haven't earned it. It wouldn't tie up cycles in the game (the game doesn't need to constantly check for the badges), it uses existing tech (store ids), and I'm pretty sure the market has plenty of room for growth of new codes.

The programming hurdles would be limited to giving the badges a new "earn" condition and giving Null the ability to let the market know which badges have been earned. We're talking less than 10 badges and the code for one badge can pretty much be copy/pasted (changing the store ids) to the others. So the badge conditions programming (and yes, I've seen how the game checks for "earn" conditions) isn't terribly time consuming.

The largest programming cost will be to Null the Gull.

In the future existing authbits (Collector's editions) could also be transferred to the market system, though most of the boosters have already have this done to them.

Pros:

• This is an OPT-IN process. If you don't care about the badges, you don't have to ask Null to anything with the badges. In other words, no one is forced to turn the anniversary badges account wide.
• People happy to have the badges globally.
• Not much development time needed. Can be done with far faster schedule than it would have otherwise.
• Future use can free up existing authbits.
• No potential badge loss.
• Limited game cycles needed to check for the badges, and only when the player requests it.
• No need to take down the servers and run a script to check for the badges.
• Does not require NCsoft Austin to run a script and isn't as costly on an ongoing basis because it isn't asking them to do this.
• Doesn't take down the servers for any length of time while the server scans the entire character database.
• Doesn't award badges that the player hasn't earned.
• BecauseThis is an OPT-IN process. If you don't care about the badges, you don't have to ask Null to anything with the badges. In other words, no one is forced to turn the anniversary badges account wide.
• Makes Null even more useful.

Cons:

• Not automatic.
• It will take some time away from other development, but hopefully not too much.
• Null the Gull needs to be able to communicate with the Market Server.
• Players will have to go to Null the Gull for every new anniversary (or similar) badge.
• The bird (and market) will be initially swarmed/swamped. This will happen about once a year.
• Makes Null even more useful.

Conclusion:
This is a time and resource -light request that gets around the need to use authbits to grant anniversary badges globally. So any comments, suggestions, or details that need to be explained?

PS. I'm still looking for bug hunter.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

So what you're saying is, you would take a character that already has all the badges to Null, and then Null would throw a dart that will stick them to the rest of your characters?

Pretty much, yes.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

Works for me, assuming it works for the devs. I'm tired of having only one character left with those badges.

Yes please!

would work for me, only toon i worry about badges on is my main but he already has all of the anniversary badges that i am able to get, but i know this will be handy

also while your at it any way you think they could fix/deal with the yearly badges like "1 year vet" ect? since they are essentially broken indefinitely in their current form

If they have a way of implementing this, they also (probably?) already have the ability to just make a script of some kind to parse the list and just add the badge onto all existing characters in an account that one character already has the badge. Personally I like the options that were put under Null The Gull, but would have rather them taken the time to just have them on the options menu rather than have to travel to Pocket D. I understand it was probably a quick-and-dirty solution to appease players but at this point, they should be moved.

My point, if the tech exists with minimal programming to integrate some running of the scripts to add the badges to players through the game interface, then there should be a way for them to just do it in the background without the necessity of players to hit up a contact to do it. If they can do that, they should be able to just run a script every so often (like on patches or issue updates) that applies the badge to characters on an account missing the badges that other characters on the same account have.

/Signed.
I am happy to go to Null the Gull even though he creeps me out but can't they set up the market system itself to keep track and hand out badges?

/Signed! I only have one character left with the Pursuer/Elusive badge and would love to be able to copy it over to the character I actually collect badges on.

Several replies in one post:

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Reply to Necrotech_Master
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Quote:

Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master also while your at it any way you think they could fix/deal with the yearly badges like "1 year vet" ect? since they are essentially broken indefinitely in their current form

While I can try, no promises. Those badges are a far greater problem than the anniversary badges.

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Reply to Risko_Vinsheen
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Quote:

Originally Posted by Risko_Vinsheen /Signed! I only have one character left with the Pursuer/Elusive badge and would love to be able to copy it over to the character I actually collect badges on.

Well, my suggestion would give all your characters the badges, not just one. I don't see an easy way to target it.

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Reply to _Klaw_
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Quote:

Originally Posted by _Klaw_ I am happy to go to Null the Gull even though he creeps me out but can't they set up the market system itself to keep track and hand out badges?

From all comments, I have serious doubts that the market can take that kind of initiative. Putting them on the market would force an honor system that both Zwillinger and Positron rolled their eyes at on yesterday's coffee talk. I would have to agree. Null would be acting as a broker vouching to the market that the player has the required badges.

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Reply to AquaJAWS
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Quote:

Originally Posted by AquaJAWS I get that it takes time to run the script, which is why I said maybe only do it when they are already taking down the servers, like for patch updates, maintenance, or issue updates. If they get the script written correctly (which I know will also take time) they could just run it each time that happens with little extra work.

I'm guessing that you'd think running such a script would take minutes. I'm fairly sure that you'd be wrong. I'm pretty sure that such a script would take hours (as in most of a day), if not days, to run. Even if they'd run it once a year, I doubt players would put up with that.

What you are asking for is at least the equivalent of the Global Server Access downtime which took 8 hours, and you want to run it on a regular basis for 9 badges? I don't think you could convince anyone of need for that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AquaJAWS Standard code rant applies, since I'm not completely familiar with how their system works of course. Just saying if they have the tech it one player at a time when a player does something in game, then they likely can just do it during the maintenance sessions without additional player interaction, which would be preferable to me.

Would it be preferable that the game isn't available for a couple days so people can get a few badges? I'm one of the more notable badge collectors out there and even I'm going to say that would be completely unacceptable. The result doesn't come close to meeting a cost/benefit ratio.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AquaJAWS Not so much complaining to take 5-10 minutes once a year. That honestly wouldn't bother me if I really cared about the badges. The point I was trying to make is that I question why Null still exists with the same options at this point.

He exists. If you want to discuss why he exists, that isn't remotely related to this suggestion. May I suggest asking that in the General Discussions section?

Quote:

Originally Posted by AquaJAWS Maybe I misunderstood when it was first announced and discussed, but I thought Null was a stop-gap/quick and dirty fix for them to get the options in the game quickly, without the menu UI work, and within the next issue or two they were going to get actual options in the player's option menu UI for them, or something else was going to be done. Maybe I was wrong, but at this point, I would rather have some of the player power effect options be moved to a more consistent place, like the options menu, and maybe move anything they can't to someplace like maybe the hero corp/fateweavers interface rather than only having one contact in a kinda out of the way location.

They don't have an interface developer, and I know how much I've complained about that fact. I asked for commands to do what Null did, and that went unanswered. The ship has sailed on the time to remove the bird. The battle is over, so I figured "Why not add some functional aspects to him?" I'll probably post a few more suggestions concerning the bird in the future.

As Zwillinger has said:

Quote:

Originally Posted by zwillinger I'm sure that Black Scorpion can confirm this, but to answer the question as to why Null's wonderful reality bending capabilities are not put into a UI/Options window: UI work takes a significant amount of time. Creating an NPC that offers these toggles takes significantly less time. It is possible that at a later date these toggles could be turned into options menu item, however it's not within scope at this time. Why not wait until later to add it when we do have time on the schedule to make pretty UI options? Remember, Null is being added as a response to players concerns regarding the AoE buffs QOL improvement.

Arcanaville lost a bet about Paragon Studios removing Null:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazarillo Hey, remember back in the i20½ beta, when I said "if the Null to Gull options go live without being part of the Options UI, they never will", and you said that it was just a stopgap? And then you proposed we make a bet on who was right? As my note dictates, this was your post for the terms of how the bet would be decided: Quote: Originally Posted by Arcanaville By I23 would be more fair. I21 is toast. I22 is iffy, but the interstitial time between I21 and I22, or more likely between I22 and I23, would be reasonable. If they are going to do it at all, I22 maybe, I23 definitely. Past that point, and I would have to concede they are not interested. I don't really need anything in-game. So we'll make the bet something more intangible. Whoever loses must post a picture of themselves bowing before Null the Gull while extolling the foresight of the other. Which actually levels the playing field tremendously, because there are devs that would deliberately delay the change to I23.5 just to see me have to do that. So then...I believe you have a picture to post.

Given the complete lack of developer comments since, and even Arcanaville's guess turned out wrong, I doubt that you will get any satisfaction concerning the removal of the bird.

Given that Null is a permanent fixture at this point, why not add an extra benefit to talking to him?

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

Your idea is interesting, however there may be a simpler solution, although this may be more of a quick-fix or stop gap:

1. During the Winter Event: log in anytime during the event and as a holiday gift your character receives ALL current anniversary badges, be they the early blueside or redside anniversary badges as well as the anniversary badges after they unified them.

Example: a villain alt that was created when Cov first launched wouldn't have Celebrant, log in during the event and receive Celebrant and any other missing anniversary badges.

Alternatively such a plan to award all anniversary badges could wait until the next game anniversary.

Of course this would mean logging in all your alts, but if it is quicker then reprogramming the badges to be account based then so be it.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Thanks for bringing up a couple excellent points, Triplash. Original post updated.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters