Single account/Main character incentives

kertvon · 2012-05-29, 01:07 PM

I have been seeing a lot of posts about people being concerned that the F2P model will be a detriment to the many beneficial side effects of sub based gameplay.

What about implementing a basic introductory progression for each character that is maybe 3 levels or so. Make it a mandatory training or something that would be easy to complete, but just annoying enough to make the account recreation process too tedious for annoying players to abuse.

Any additional characters created under an existing account that has already completed the introduction could bypass the introduction therefore encouraging players to make alts rather than entirely new accounts. If additional accounts were needed to be made for legitimate purposes, a player could tie their new account to their existing account and also bypass the intro, but make the original account traceable in a database of some sort where players can sort out the roots of prospect players themselves. This would prevent excess moderation on SOE's part and give the players the power to make decisions on how they handle spies/outfit/squad members.

On top of that, maybe implement some perks for main characters per empire per account to deter abusing alts a bit as well. Maybe an xp debuff for the first few levels or xp/weapon/etc. buffs for mains that are not available to alts.

Pozidriv · 2012-05-29, 01:13 PM

1. Get interested in PS2

2. Make account

3. Fire up game

4. Get frustrated at the hand holding mandatory tutorial.

5. Play CoD

TBH, i think a tutorial would be great, but having a mandatory tutorial to discourage people isn't a good idea.

Sledgecrushr · 2012-05-29, 01:18 PM

I think once a guy or gal gets involved in community they will most likely stay with that community regardless of how many alt accounts they have created.

Neurotoxin · 2012-05-29, 01:23 PM

Originally Posted by Pozidriv

4. Get frustrated at the hand holding mandatory tutorial.

Nah, I'm sure it'll start the players in the thick of battle. In PS1, when you made a new character, you could either go home and prepare or go Instant Action.

Instant Action thrusts the player with no certs or weapon loadouts into the hottest battle going on in the game.

I have a feeling it'll just be Instant Action, maybe the loadout and cert stuff can be done before logging the character into the game world.

Dreamcast · 2012-05-29, 01:57 PM

I don't understand what is the problem.

Isn't having a character that has a lot of things unlocked an incentive enough to have a main character?

I mean I don't see what other incentives need to be in the game other than that so people will stick with a main character.

Spies will always exist, it will have nothing to do with F2P.....

Pozidriv · 2012-05-29, 02:01 PM

How about this as an incentive. VIP, become a VIP with your first ingame money purchase. When you buy "Planetside bucks" (any amount will suffice) and buy something you get elevated to VIP status and get some bonus/es.

Like 50% more exp :P. That itself would promote loyalty to a single account.

kertvon · 2012-05-29, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by Dreamcast

I don't understand what is the problem.

Isn't having a character that has a lot of things unlocked an incentive enough to have a main character?

I mean I don't see what other incentives need to be in the game other than that so people will stick with a main character.

Spies will always exist, it will have nothing to do with F2P.....

well, it isn't really a problem for most, and as you have stated, a progressed character is plenty of incentive for the average player. The deterrent would be to cripple abusers, so the incentive buffs would be a moot point for the majority of players. Of course it will not totally stop spies, but it will better enable players to ward them off. I know Higby said spying is meta game, therefore I don't necessarily think spying should be disabled as it is a real world tactic, but the more tools players have to weed them out the better.

Personally I could care less about spies, just proposing an idea. Also, just like was stated above, the intro would be something similar to the training in PS1. A light orientation, but nothing anywhere near what the intro is for EVE. That was painful...

JPalmer · 2012-05-29, 02:06 PM

As long as they handle hackers. Then I have zero problems of multiple accounts. If you want to spy, go ahead. If you want to get EXP by killing a dummy character over and over. Go ahead.

Just handle the hackers. Because if they can make unlimited accounts it is all over.

RNFB · 2012-05-29, 03:09 PM

I think the item shop will persuade most people to stick to one account, as it wouldn't be very fun to lose all your purchases

Sledgecrushr · 2012-05-29, 03:34 PM

Originally Posted by Pozidriv

How about this as an incentive. VIP, become a VIP with your first ingame money purchase. When you buy "Planetside bucks" (any amount will suffice) and buy something you get elevated to VIP status and get some bonus/es.

Like 50% more exp :P. That itself would promote loyalty to a single account.

I think begging for freebies from a f2p game is kind of pathetic.

Mr DeCastellac · 2012-05-29, 03:44 PM

Tutorial? Awesome idea!
Mandatory Tutorial? Please no.

Take Crimecraft as an example. I started playing it, and it was nice to have a tutorial just to see how they managed to blend a WoW-like MMO with a third-person shooter. It was interesting to learn about crafting and such, but after a while it just turned into "SEE THAT ENEMY? LOOK AT HIM AND PULL THE TRIGGER!"

But the tutorial was 1-2 hours long, and it being mandatory really got on my nerves after a half hour or so. In addition, I couldn't get any of my friends to play because they wanted to jump right into the PvP action instead of soloing NPCs for an hour and a half, which is understandable.

While I think a mandatory tutorial would be good for keeping away hackers who just make new accounts, it would also keep away a lot of legitimate, interested players. Being an open-world, massive-battle MMOFPS, we need as many players as we can get, at least after seeing what happened to Planetside 1 near the end.

Edit: Also, on the subject of spies (I'm assuming you're talking about players making two or more accounts to see what the enemy teams are up to), they could just do what they did in Planetside 1. You could have VS, TR, and NC characters, but if you were in the game for more than a few minutes with, say, your NC character, you would have to wait 8 hours or so to access your TR or VS characters.

Pozidriv · 2012-05-29, 04:33 PM

Originally Posted by Sledgecrushr

I think begging for freebies from a f2p game is kind of pathetic.

Ummm, freebies? You have to put money on the line my friend. That is hardly a freebie, more of an incentive for the player to make that investment to the game and buy that skin / upgrade thingamabob.

This same concept was used in Tribes, buy something and get VIP. (it is just a flat 50% xp gained)

kertvon · 2012-05-29, 08:10 PM

Originally Posted by Mr DeCastellac

Tutorial? Awesome idea!
Mandatory Tutorial? Please no.

Take Crimecraft as an example. I started playing it, and it was nice to have a tutorial just to see how they managed to blend a WoW-like MMO with a third-person shooter. It was interesting to learn about crafting and such, but after a while it just turned into "SEE THAT ENEMY? LOOK AT HIM AND PULL THE TRIGGER!"

But the tutorial was 1-2 hours long, and it being mandatory really got on my nerves after a half hour or so. In addition, I couldn't get any of my friends to play because they wanted to jump right into the PvP action instead of soloing NPCs for an hour and a half, which is understandable.

While I think a mandatory tutorial would be good for keeping away hackers who just make new accounts, it would also keep away a lot of legitimate, interested players. Being an open-world, massive-battle MMOFPS, we need as many players as we can get, at least after seeing what happened to Planetside 1 near the end.

Edit: Also, on the subject of spies (I'm assuming you're talking about players making two or more accounts to see what the enemy teams are up to), they could just do what they did in Planetside 1. You could have VS, TR, and NC characters, but if you were in the game for more than a few minutes with, say, your NC character, you would have to wait 8 hours or so to access your TR or VS characters.

The last point is a good point and would definitely deter spies.

Your reasons for not having a mandatory tutorial are very valid, hence the reason the original idea was to make the tutorial super short, but long enough to deter making a bunch of alt accounts. I remember jumping into EVE online for the first and the tutorial was ridiculous! I downloaded it late night and didn't complete the tutorial before I was bobbing to sleep. This must be avoided.

One way to remedy friends not being able to jump right in would be to enable bypassing the intro if a player is invited and the account created by means of an invite(although a player could abuse this and send multiple invites to themselves on multiple emails... at which point they have nothing better to do and they need a life :P). I am assuming the log-ins will be handled through cloud means and if they made sending invites as easy as jumping on the website to send an invite, then that could be avoided as well.

As you stated though, you don't want a system that cripples legitimate newcomers either. I would assume that newcomers to the game without friends that are established players may require an introduction to the game though, so it may be an non issue.

I played PS1 for over a year back in its prime and I was in a few outfits doing OA's at the time; I jumped on after not playing for 5+ years. I actually went to the tutorials myself to get a good refresher. so hopefully PS2 keeps the same spirit of making the game complex enough to make you feel like there is something to learn.