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Achievements, Mounts and Armor
ItsmeToki
Member
Recently I started the new Wow classic expansion Wotlk and it instantly catched me again. So I asked myself what elements in classic are different from WoW retail and I think I found an answer. One thing I like about classic is the fact, that you can start fresh. You dont have the feeling of missing out on any content from the past and you dont feel overwhelmed by thousands of irrelevant in game achievments you have no more touching points to but that are still in the game listed.
So what I would like to see for Ashes of Creation is, that there will not be an achievment, armor and mount recolour for every stone you chopped and every soup you cooked. Although I hope, that with later expansions, older content will still be as relevant and achievments, armor and mount rewards are only for real ingame acomplishments like becoming an Arena Master.
Otherways I am sure, that at some point in the future an reward overload will be a barrier of entry for new players and older players, that quit for some time and are trying to come back. They will be scared off of the massiv amount of content, they feel, they have to do to catch up, or they on the other hand dont feel challenged for working torwards a real ingame goal in the first place because they dont know where to start and they dont see the forest for the trees. They instead will look out for another game, where everybody can start fresh and equal.
What do you guys think about this topic?
So what I would like to see for Ashes of Creation is, that there will not be an achievment, armor and mount recolour for every stone you chopped and every soup you cooked. Although I hope, that with later expansions, older content will still be as relevant and achievments, armor and mount rewards are only for real ingame acomplishments like becoming an Arena Master.
Otherways I am sure, that at some point in the future an reward overload will be a barrier of entry for new players and older players, that quit for some time and are trying to come back. They will be scared off of the massiv amount of content, they feel, they have to do to catch up, or they on the other hand dont feel challenged for working torwards a real ingame goal in the first place because they dont know where to start and they dont see the forest for the trees. They instead will look out for another game, where everybody can start fresh and equal.
What do you guys think about this topic?
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Others could be from killing a world boss or owning your own ship as well as ones that could be temporary such as becoming mayor.
A huge list of achievements can be overwhelming, but I do think it gives people a future set of goals they can set for themselves. So by calling them titles and limiting them in number, making them be something that it's clear you can't have all of them (e.g. you cant always be mayor or be the master of each religion) then it still sets the goals in mind but it doesn't seem like too much.
Edit: had some more thought to clarify myself.
Put these titles into 3 categories: Permanent, Select and Temporary.
- Permanent would be the ones I mentioned like owning a ship could give you 'Captain'
- Select would be titles that you can't have all of at the same time, you have to pick and choose, such as ones you can get from being a Master Crafter
- Temporary would be ones you can't have permanently such as Mayor.
Then again I keep just calling them titles to be a bit more unique, you could just call them achievements that grant titles
Thats why im for a very extensive achievement system. Its simply a very good tool to increase player retention, offer some chill side content and offer another avenue of progression.
Same goes with owning a ship. Why should this be an achievement? You just own a ship so you can make naval content, cause you always wanted to sail a boat and do pirate or see shipment things...
I think based on what we've heard and seen from Steven your ideas of not having exclusive content locked from future players so they dont feel like they're missing out on mounts/achievements/titles/quests and other content has already flown the coup.
Steven has shown he revels in having limited content. Unobtainable cosmetics and unique legendaries and special one time events and limited time quests are all things he wants for players to give those who put in effort a meaningful reward and a way to set people apart and have that wow factor.
I think you missed my point. I am not talking about not having exclusive content in the game. Where did you read this in my text?...
I tryed to explain the importance of meaningfull achievements rather than having a load of irrelevant things that just are there for occupational therapy.
Really hope Intrepid doesn't skip on this.
Here. I'm pointing out that in an MMORPG full of exclusives, one off unique items and limited content nothing will ever be fresh and equal.
People can't have everything. Ashes is very much a game that's designed not to be 100%'d with these along with the consistent world changes and an already established server history. and many will find it daunting as you say when they try it.
It's not going to be for everyone.
I appreciate your thoughts to the exclusitivity of items, but this is not the topic i want to relate to in this discussion
I think achievements evolved naturally from player's desire to collect all legendary weapons and armor with special skinns.
Developers to satisfy this desire without changing the game balance, added skinns and achievements. This is also game content for those who like them.
Fight against the feeling of missing out and things will be OK.
I get that, I'm pointing out that this will still be a contributing factor to new players not engaging in the game and them feeling its bloated with content they can't achieve.
On your other points: most gear will be crafted but Stevens already mentioned that gear, along with levels will become higher as expansions progress. The thing keeping dungeons and raids relevant in the future is the need to farm for materials to fix items you already possess.
Mount colours and variants are almost all achieved through the animal husbandry system through experimentation (or buying/achieving a cosmetic skin) so more mounts in future expansions just leads to more mount breeding recipes crafters can try to attain and collect or sell.
Different titles will add different stats and abilities to your character for certain events. And you'll have seasonal dyes and cosmetics and weapon skins earned from your pvp achievments.
Basically what I'm saying is achievements will be more visually represented than a long list of things to do.
Achievements are ranking high in pvp and getting a season skin, it's completing a religious quest and getting a bishop title. It's breeding 2 mounts and getting awesome stats on a mount with an amazing colour scheme. An achievement is owning a war galley, owning a freehold, your town having a relic to provide buffs.
Will their be a list of things to complete? Maybe.
But so far the achievements were earned through player effort that had to be discovered.
I'd also like to see lots of cool, in-game gear and cosmetics tied to the unlocking of Achievements and not just a card-type reward system. If I gather 1000000 stone (for example) I want a cool Stone armor set or mining set or hammer cosmetic.
And a new mouse, probably... that's a LOT of clicking!
You call it bloat but I call it content I enjoy. Don't remove my content for no reason.
What?! That's pay-to-win! I demand no-click gameplay!