The promised new help files for Hero status:
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[Game help] Heroes
A new age of heroes has dawned. EIGHT heroes currently walk the realms.
Little is known of these god-touched beings, as their blessings are not
visible to the naked eye. However, although all have spent years as leaders
and mentors, they still have the same physical prowess of a youth straight
out of training school. They also no longer feel hunger nor thirst. While
showing no effect of age and living longer than others of their race, heroes
are not immortal and eventually their life force still burns out.
While some may be tempted to pretend to be heroes, or disbelieve in their
existence, those who have known them swear that the stories are true. Heroes
themselves normally claim no knowledge of why they were gifted, yet believe
that their feats of valor and wisdom have gained the attention of the gods.
To know more about heroes at an OOC level, please read help hero-qa.
See also: hero-qa OOC
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[Game help] Hero Q&A
The following Hero Q&A is to be considered OOC information:
Q: What is hero status?
A: Hero status is a reward for characters who have proven over a long
period of time that they stand above the average character in areas that
are beneficial to the health of the game.
Q: How is hero status achieved?
A: Becoming a hero has multiple statistically based requirements:
- Must have played a minimum number of hours AND game years to qualify.
- The character's lifetime stats in each of four categories is scored:
roleplaying, mentorship, leadership, player vs player combat
- For each category, the average score for all current characters who
have shown any participation in that category are also calculated.
- The character's percentage relative to the average is calculated.
- The four category percentages are averaged to form a hero score.
If your hero score places you at least 25% above the average player over
the combined four categories, the gods will grant hero status.
Q: What power do heroes have beyond those of ordinary mortals?
A: - Heroes take longer (+12 years) to reach venerable age.
- Heroes do not have age penalties to their statistics.
- Heroes no longer require food or drink for sustenance.
- Heroes have a private forum for consultation with the gods.
Q: Can heroes lose their status?
A: If your hero score falls to the point where you are less than 10% above
the average player, your hero status may be revoked.
See also: age forumid hero OOC
Some finer points that are not specifically belabored above:
There is no specific level requirement to be a hero. Mentors can be heroes. Although unlikely, Novices could make hero.
Wait, didn't I just mention that mentorship is one of the categories? How could someone below Mentor make hero?
The answer is that if they did really well in the other three categories, they could make up for deficiency in the mentorship category. It would just be more difficult to achieve. The same is true for all four of the categories. You don't have to lead a faction to be a hero. You don't have to be an expert PKer in order to be a hero. (In fact, the majority of the starting heroes are not.)
On the other hand, most PKers cycle through characters too quickly to even qualify for consideration. And you can really only suck in one category and have a reasonable chance to still succeed.
There is no specific upper limit on how many people can become heroes. However, hero score is constantly being calculated based on the latest statistics of the entire player base. This means that as more people work to attain hero status, it will become incrementally harder to attain it. Those that qualify (and continue to qualify) amidst more competition will be even more heroic.