Shattered Kingdoms

I think this is a decent idea. The version I would like to see is this: you can get to champion (1) via the normal methods. To progress beyond that you must do quests and/or get RP enlightenments. It would make getting to GM a real achievement. If a paragon flag also required you to get to enough XP while a GM to be eligible to advance, it would make paragon a mega-achievement. In order to make this sort of change feasible the item theft code would have to be altered so that champions would no longer be subject to losing items to thieves between logins.

This would certainly slow down advancement, and it would reward RP in a big way.

Another method that would work along these lines would be to keep advancement the way it is now, but to allow anyone who acquires enough XP through RP rewards to advance to Hero level. There would not be a limited number of heroes. Anyone who managed to get there would be able to advance. In that case, the paragon system could be left largely as-is (and heroes would not automatically get to give out rewards). I would, however, only allow paragons to give out small rewards. Medium and above would only be for immortals. [Or the 2 for 1 system could supplant the paragon system in this case, also with the small-only restriction for mortal rewards.]

In either event, I would still want to see rewards also include a mentor point component (as previously discussed).

That's understandable, especially in a transition phase while the player base was learning... but perhaps in the interrum, it would not be a total stop of advancement, just requiring more XP to advance up until a certain point when the transition was over.

Furthermore... the issue with someone not being able to advance because another player doesn't like them isn't entirely a BAD thing completely... look at an office environment... some people advance quicker than others because of their personalities... in the IC world, the consequences of going off the end over something stupid would have to be weighed by a player then.

Sorry, but this idea is horrible. The paragon system is already complete BS because the only people we see getting the paragon title are mudsexx0rs and they reward people for mudsexxing with them.

Sorry, but that is the truth.

Then there may be a need to adjust the paragon system to incorporate this change into it... perhaps the paragons themselves would be required to receive +1's from the IMMs in order to remain paragons.

These are awful ideas, and Opey hit the nail on the head. PAR has nothing to do with the actual events in the game.

Does anyone who currently has the PAR flag actually....do anything meaningful in the game? No.


[PAR Sco] Kirlin - The Cycle's Favored Wolf Sage
[PAR ---] Venthekymi Kilervs, Tenebrous Bloom of Flames.
[PAR ---] Suzume Kurozaki - Young Songstress of the South
[PAR ---] Vhenris is travelling the paths Unknown <----- ROFL
[PAR Pri] Kyla Rose - High Priestess of the End of the River

On a related note. Retiring (and spamming say OOC WHO THE [REDACTED] ARE YOU!!?@?!?@!) should wipe all your enlights, and ban you from ever being eligible for PAR and set you back to level -10.

Quoted for truth. The idea that other players can control the level advancement of others based on their RP is, unfortunately - and only in my own eye - absolute trash. Roleplay IS required right now - if you fail to RP, you can and will be cursed. If you do not have an adj/desc, you will (inevitably) be helled until you do.

The current system is "get punished/stopped from playing if you are not doing it." I think the system you guys are proposing - "you must do it in such a way that pleases enough of your peers to get you advanced" promotes all the wrong sort of ideas, especially when you are at the whim of people being online and in a location for you to RP with to advance your character level-wise. The idea that we must rely on eachother should be a matter of enjoyment for it, not obligation if one wants to move past level X.

Putting sudden and poorly reasoned barricades up over previously-unguarded achievements in the game - especially to artificially slow advancement, let alone just to have people "prove" they're RPing - is not the answer to this. This goes back to the "being social gets rewarded with obligation/jobs/normal stuff" problem. Everyone else gets achievement, RPers pretty much get "lol sweet you're not going to get deleted, here's some more responsibilities."

I would just like to point out that's not the truth. That's hyperbole.

No...that's straight up pretty accurate. You will occasionally get 1 or 2 people who genuinely deserve PAR, but usually, no.

For example, Kyla's fine, no problem with the lady, but she's not exactly what I want to hold up as a Paragon of Role-Playing Virtue. She's basically your run of the mill, average RPer with nothing particularly interesting about her character.

I'm not sure why you need a reward for RPing, anyways.

You're either having fun doing it, or you aren't.

Players can already contribute to the advancement of others by way of being willing to help them plevel and mentor them. This just adds an extra dimension to that. This would just be another way that "we rely on each other to have a good time." Besides which, if mortals are limited to small rewards, we would mostly be relying on immortals for advancement.



If slowing advancement by way of inhibiting a path of pure PvE pleveling from amateur to grandmaster is unpalatable to you (though I do propose continued advancement should come from rewards and quests), then consider the second idea I proposed of reintroducing the possibility of reaching hero level through XP accumulated after GM. Presumably that one extra level would carry enough reasonable gameplay advantages that would encourage people to stick around with their GM characters and put in the RP effort to attain it.