Suggestion: The RCR Token

[Akroma666]

With the RCR going away and everyone having mixed feelings about it, I wanted to offer a mrm3ntalist comment inspired suggestion, the RCR token!

A token that acts as a currency for the RCR vendor that allows a single 100% RCR. These token can be tradeable for an ooc market or non-tradeable if we don't want ooc auctions. Everyone can be granted one in game by DM staff to start. After that, they can be given out as exception rewards by DM's, birthday gifts (continue to get one annually), server birthdays, campaign completions, or maybe on big content releases, we can make the 100% RCR not even require the token for big promotional weekends.

Just a thought, let me know what you think of the RCR token, and with all my ideas, there is a poll.

Revision: vote on should tokens be available for birthdays, server events, and other rare annual policies TBD. Not for just DM only review cases.

[Progressive-Psy]

The only issue I see with this is the added work for the DM team when they have to hand them out on Birthdays and whatnot.

[mrm3ntalist]

This system already exists. However tokens wotn be handed out for any reason but one:

To fix critical issues caused by an update etc.

Nothing else.

[Karond]

This system already exists. However tokens wotn be handed out for any reason but one:

To fix critical issues caused by an update etc.

Nothing else.

I feel like the exception should be to each every character who, for future purposes, promises to kill all owlbears on sight should be rewarded a token...

[chad878262]

The issue is 100% RCR opens up potential exploits when not overseen by a DM. As M3ntalist indicated for critical issues/defects caused by updates the tokes already exist, but must be administered/monitored by a DM (which has the benefit of also preventing exploitation). Any form of unmonitored RCR would require reworking our rules or finding new ways (potentially time intensive for developers) to prevent exploitation of the rules via RCR.

From a player standpoint, I vote no to this on the principle of RP'ing your character long term. It's been said so many times, but RCR originally was not an option, we should be careful of the slippery slope that leads to this essentially being an action server with little-to-no meaningful role play available. 100% RCR, IMO just leads to further focus on the 'build' instead of the 'character'.

[Eclypticon]

I suggested this a long time ago before we even started doing 100% RCRs. The system exists from what I understand now. The only question is whether we should make some changes to the way we RCR. There are some changes that are for certain, which I fully support, 100% RCR to level 30 will be removed and you will only be able to level up to 20 max.

How the future RCR is determined has yet to be finalized (I assume this is public knowledge). My opinion as a player is that we should be more lenient with lower level RCRs. I'd like to see more players averaging levels in what I call the "sweet spot." I think higher XP returns for lower levels will make the PW a better place. New players would have an easier time starting over as they get to know the PW, and DMs may be able to run more events targeted below L15 which is easier to do in my personal experience than 20+.

[Darkcloud777]

This system already exists. However tokens wotn be handed out for any reason but one:

To fix critical issues caused by an update etc.

Nothing else.

I feel like the exception should be to each every character who, for future purposes, promises to kill all owlbears on sight should be rewarded a token...

But....... but owl bears are extinct! * rolls eyes *

[Akroma666]

Added a revision. Basically rewards for big deal things or birthdays. Would be nice if we had a role called "Community Director" which could be responsible for RCR birthday tokens and wishes. Also promotion of server content, recruitment, and event promotions.
Edit: I nominate LISA100595

[Mallore]

As a new player I was greatful you all had an rcr for free at 100 percent because as I was playing I soon notice this server has an interesting quirk. Shadow dancer dex at 19. This meant I had to have less balanced stats or wait till level 16 to start SD and 15 levels of pure rogue is a nightmare on any server.

I was able to rcr at 8 when I would have been able to start my SD. This made me happy and I felt like I wasn't being punished for being a rules/build guru and I can get on with what I came here for which was rp.


Now I like your token idea. I feel they should only be handed out at character generation first time. Non transferable as this is your ops I messed up. Oh cool this is how this feat combo works. I think dms should have discretion to hand out tokens with in reason. Not just critical bug. But broken feats or long term rp demands it. Nothing worse the a sorcerer who picks spells then finds out they do not work well on this server. Either they be combat or rp. Worse yet a class who sinks skill points into something and you find the server not to accommodate that. These are all things new players run into and being to harsh is not only unfriendly it is also punishing. The forums can only help so much.


I would like to see free rcr up to level 10. After that you should know what your doing or caught your error or learned the server. Really little excuse after that.

Thanks.

[Boddynock]

While personally I hate the idea of 100% RCRs being a long term thing, for multitudinous reasons, I also know from personal experience that this particular game has a lot of little quirks that you cannot possibly know until you find them out first hand. For example, this blurb from the class description of bard:

Starting at 8th level, and every three levels after, bards can replace one known spell with a new spell of the same level.

Which would mean you could switch out a spell at levels 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, and 29. But you can't, what the class description doesn't tell you is that since spell progression stops at level 20, the prompt to learn new spells, which is where you would switch out spells as well, ceases to show up during post 20 level ups. In fact, I can't find a single source on the entirety of the internet that will tell you that the class description is wrong (though I admit I have not searched the whole internet, none of my searches have found anything).

So to me, despite my desire to have RCRing be a rare thing, and encouraged to stay rare due to the heavy toll you pay to do it, this game is too finicky, the information available too spotty, and over all too all over the place to not have some middle ground here.

I think this sort of RCR token is a decent middle ground that, if executed properly, can both keep RCRs rare and allow for the correction of tiny bits of missed nuance without punishing the player too harshly.

What does executed properly mean? Well it could be any number of things really. Perhaps these sorts of event tokens aren't a full 100% exp level 30 RCR, but let you keep 100% exp up to lvl 25. Or 75% exp up to level 30. Or anything in between really. Basically I don't think this has to be an "all or nothing" type gambit to be successful.

[V'rass]

100% RCR should be kept for many reasons. For one, i know about 30 different players who have said that if 100% RCR goes away they will leave the server, never come back, and a few even said they would tell potential new players not to come to this server. Losing 30 people is a major population hit. Having these tokens allows RCR to stay as it is but keeps its use strictly limited. If people are exploiting certain aspects of the system then put scripts or mechanisms in place to counter it. 100% RCR that can only be used once every few months or even years would be a reasonable compromise.

[Maecius]

If true, then we'll unfortunately take a short-term population hit in order to maintain the long-term viability of the server.

But as has been stated, 100% and 75% tokens do already exist. We introduced them to deal with build breaking changes, like when we ruled that druid-monk combos were illegal (100%), and to reward story-supported permadeaths by taking some of the edge off the loss of those players who allow a beloved character to die to enhance the game or campaign's poignancy and meaning for the survivors (75%).

The latter may or may not be supported by the current DM team (hasn't really been discussed). The former is what the tokens will primarily be available for (e.g. when we boost barbarians we plan to allow existing barbarians a rebuild).

[Tsidkenu]

I'm still a supporter of Maecius' original implementation of the Retired Character Rebuilder. It is supposed to be a mechanism for players to bring one character concept to a complete end and take a portion of the XP as a token of appreciation for all the hours/months/years of RP that was put into the retired toon.

It is not, and never has been intended to be, the Character Rebuilder, despite being used for exactly that purpose by many folks.

Rebuild tokens shall apply to those players whose characters are directly impacted by future changes, eg. up-and-coming class kits, class rebalancing and improvements.

I might possibly consider the option of a 'birthday' Rebuild, if it is not too hard to script a 1/year Rebuild conversation option from the RCR NPC which is recorded in SQL database for 364 days thereafter. Of course such rebuilds do not actually need to be claimed on a 'birthday', but only 1/year.

[Blame The Rogue]

i voted yes

the issue, in my eyes, is the amount of time it takes a player, especially a casual player, to get a character from lvl 21-30

as posted previously, incorrect class descriptions, game quirks/bugs, db site errors, new server changes, and lack of knowledge, can cause the necessity of a rebuild/fix of a character build. this will be painful for casual players with epic characters, once the 100% RCRs go away

i'm all for anything that is good for rp, and/or makes the game more fun

i'm far from a casual player, but i do care about them. #CasualPlayersMatter

[ragnarok1983]

I voted yes... if for no other reason than due to frustration when you build your character over a lengthy period of time only to figure out (due to player ignorance or poor coding) just how miserably bad your character is at everything to include your original concept... or worse... the inability to reflect character changes over time due to interactions in the game.

So yes to 100% RCR when... at... uhm... whenever the heck you guys decide to dole it out.

I wouldn't mind a NON tradable, once-every-six-months token per character. Coded in. Requiring no DM support. Characters are still subject to all the previous build rules anyway.