09-18-2020, 04:28 AM
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Planar Protector
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 2,198
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Interesting idea. Sort of an alternate take on Project M.
http://web.archive.org/web/200003100...ue4/ascend.htm
Quote:
Ascension
Superman?
All right. Let's pretend, shall we? I've been playing EverQuest for six months or maybe a year. I play a lot. I only play one character. This character has become unusually powerful. He can actually defeat a dragon on his own. I hear rumors that there are some very powerful demons that some wizard has gated in. They killed him, and now heroes are dying left and right trying to send them back to the underworld. I travel half the world to meet these creatures. It turns out that they, while very tough, are no match for me. I no longer feel challenged. Or maybe I just get tired of playing the character after that much time.
So what now?
What other challenges are there for this character? Maybe there are some other player characters out there that I can challenge. Well, boredom is the worst reason to kill someone, even in a fantasy game. Now I know that the developers at Sony will make certain that the day any character is too powerful will be a long time coming. But it will eventually come. Unless… Here is the part where I tell you what I would like to see in the game. I want to call it the ascension system, so I will. Outlining this may be complicated, so bear with me.
Let us assume that there are threshold levels. Levels where characters might find too few challenges in the world of Norrath. I am going to suggest that there will be two levels, but there could easily be more. Let's pretend the first is at 30th level. At this time a character might have difficulty finding challenges. He is powerful enough to rival the toughest monsters. And the player might want to make a change. As soon as the character reaches this level, the player will be given a new choice. At the sign in screen, after choosing the character, the player would get an option button. At this level, the option would be "mutate".
If the player (and I want to emphasize 'player') chooses this option he would find himself at the mutation option screen. Here he would decide what kind of mutation he wants for the character. The options would all be things that are unavailable to starting characters. For example: vampire, demon, centaur, ghost, alchemist, ninja, etc. These would be races or classes that are somewhat more powerful than the standard types. The player would make the choices needed to outline the mutation for his character and click OK. Let's suppose that I chose vampire. Then I just enter the game and play the character. At some point I will fall victim to an assault by a few very powerful vampires and join them (or a ninja gives the character the opportunity to join them, whatever is appropriate). It may not happen for several sessions, or even several weeks, leaving some element of surprise for the player. Then the character would be remade as a "starting" vampire, which would certainly be weaker than he was before, but significantly more powerful than other starting characters. And I now get to role play the experience for the character.
This article concludes on page 2
I emphasized player before because the player makes the decision. The character might not want the change, but the player does. Nobody really wants to be cursed to the darkness and feeding off the essences of others. At least I hope not.
But if the player is still enjoying the character he keeps playing. From then on the "mutate" option will be available. If he keeps playing he will reach the second threshold level, let's say that it's 50th level. Now when he logs in and chooses this character he will have three options: mutate, retire, and ascend. Mutate you already know about. Let's take the other two. Retire. A pretty simple option. The character retires. He is no longer under the control of the player. The player would write a biography for the character explaining the circumstances of the characters retired life. The character could have been called of by his god to serve that god directly. Maybe he runs a tavern in his home town. Maybe he dies of old age. Perhaps he dies trying to defeat his arch nemesis. Whatever the player feels is the best way for the character to finish his adventuring career. A SISA game master will review this document and work with the player to make it fit Norrath and to meet any literary standards that Sony wishes to employ. Once done, this document joins the history of Norrath. The character is then available to the game masters as an NPC, perhaps to deliver messages from the characters god, to start quests, or just as a local tavern keeper. The player is rewarded for the time put into the character this way. He also gets to start a new character. This new character would have advantages over other starting characters or would be of a race or class that in otherwise not an option to starting characters, much the same as the mutate option. Ascension is even more interesting. If the player chooses to have the character ascend, the character will come to reside on the plane of the gods. Here this great and powerful adventurer will become the weakest of the residents. This plane of the gods would exist on its own server. A place where only very powerful characters get to go, where they interact directly with the gods. Sort of EQ II.
This would allow people to either continue a great old character in a new situation (mutate), play in a new world where the character ain't so tough any more, or retire the character as a hero and a legend and start a new one with some bonuses.
Well, in the spirit of pre-beta angst that I am suffering waiting for EverQuest, it was nice to indulge in a little "Here's what I want!" Thanks for reading all the way through it.
Article by Absor
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