Suggestion for semi-permanent player statues and other history markers

Azreil

Since the story of AoC will primarily be driven by the players themselves, no two servers will be alike, or have the same history of events. It would therefore be cool if the players could be given some tools to showcase this history in various ways.

One thing that comes to mind is the erection of statues modeled after a player character, based on some specific achievement. For example, a player claiming a castle could get to erect a statue based on their character somewhere (courtyard?). Previous statues could be placed along the walls of some corridor in the castle, each with a commemorative plaque. Or maybe the new king can choose what happens to the previous statue, by either choosing to destroy it, or place it in the corridor. History is written by the victors, after all.

Other achievements could be used to create statues in towns, for example tied to the clearing of corruption in the world or defence of the node.

It would also be cool if whoever gets to make the decision can choose whom the statue will be based on (from any player on the server) and decide what's written on the plaque. Taking it one step further one could even allow for some customisability of the statue pose. I imagine someone could want to make a distasteful statue of someone they dislike, rather than one glorifying themself.

If done right, I think this type of story-creation could be very powerful in furthering the feeling that the story is in the hands of the players. It should however only be used for things that can be consider major achievements, and shouldn't be granted or overwritten too often. Having a statue change every week would make it feel much less special than if it's once every few months. It's not a participation trophy.

unknownsystemerror

There are already permanent player statues planned. It was a Kickstarter perk.

Azreil

I never claimed to have invented the concept of statues.

While I don’t mind the permanent statues for the 84 Kickstarter backers who paid $2500+, my suggestion is obviously different from someone having paid money for a statue more than half a decade before launch.

Yuyukoyay

I'm more interested in gameplay having lasting change on the world. Things like this often end up as just clutter when most of the players don't understand the significance of it. I think a better implementation of it might be if they added these kinds of things to quest lines instead. Since the game would introduce everyone to the story line equally.

The problem is that most people aren't going to care about the achievements of some rando on the server. Even if half the server knew him and even respected him. The other half wouldn't care about him, his statue, or probably even know him. People are going to be more drawn to things like this when it happens with events they were involved in.

The major problem with my implementation it is relies on good writing. Which is so subjective that it's impossible to tell if it even succeeded or not until after release.

Both depend on what kind of community we end up with. It's a bad idea if 50% or more ignores the feature completely. It has the potential to be a cool unique idea in the game if that isn't the case, but it simply may not be worth the time investment.