Close enough to popping off!
This is sorta a repost of a suggestion I brainstormed a few days ago. I promised that I would repost the idea in Suggestions if it “pops off”. This is a repost with slightly better formatting and maybe a little more.
At max level, players unlock a new xp bar. When this bar fills up via obtaining xp normally, you automatically get a stat reset and the bar resets.
Image taken from wiki.
The XP requirement
The XP required to obtain a stat reset should be really large. I suggest having the XP required be:
(XP required to go from x → x + 1) * y
Where x = [Level Cap] and y = [Any number, 20 suggested].
For example, if x = 140 and y = 20, to get a stat reset you would have to get enough XP to level up from level 140 to level 141 twenty times without scaling. (i can’t find any data on the exact xp required so you’ll have to bear with these comparisons)
The amount required can be balanced to whatever is appropriate. The example I’m giving comes from my memory of how long it took for me to level up by farming treasure charts and every diving point I found, which took a few hours. Just… please don’t make it obscenely long.
- The XP required should not be egregiously high, something anyone can reasonably accomplish if they were tired of a file and wanted to change it. Maybe a few hours?
Clarification & Edge Cases
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You should not be able to stack stat resets with this. The bar should not consume if you already have a stat reset.
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If a player has progress on this XP bar and the level cap raises, their progress should be halted until they reach level cap. When this happens, the bar should resume progression with their exact amount of XP retained and the XP required scaled to the appropriate level.
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Percentage based XP gain sources should instead give XP equal to [Percent] * ([Level Cap] → [Level cap] + 1). Basically, if the level cap is 140, then doing something like a treasure chart (gives 50% XP on completion iirc) would give XP equal to half of 140 → 141. I think it’s obvious why it should work like this. If not, getting the stat reset would be trivial.
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(Optional) The bar should have it’s XP gain nerfed if you already have a stat reset. Some ideas listed in the original post are: XP gain is halted at 50% completion, XP gain is halved, XP gain becomes exponentially slower as you fill it up. (All examples only for if you have a stat reset)
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(Description of possible UI change) The XP bar should become white with a cycling rainbow overlay to represent that it had changed from getting to max level. It should be reminiscent of the Prometheus Acrimony.
Additionally, if this gets added, then please consider slightly redesigning the usage of XP to account for this. For example, buff XP rates for highly profitable or deep Dark Sea runs to make doing them a viable method of focusing on obtaining this guaranteed stat reset. Or make exotic+ treasure charts give more XP cause they kinda suck right now, even in their intended purpose of assisting in 𝓰𝓪𝓶𝓫𝓵𝓮𝓬𝓸𝓻𝓮.
Why use XP?
*Didin’t feel like completely cutting a sidenote from the original post on how XP is currently used in AO, so here’s a whole section for it, compressed to stop it from scaring people away. *
Why use XP?
Experience points are used because they are currently useless at max level yet the main focus when progressing through the story. They’re the natural reward for doing anything as you progress in this game, but at max level they are completely useless as rewards for doing content, which is really jarring for how the game is designed.
This means that all endgame PvE content, such as the Dark Sea or diving spots or treasure charts, completely boils down to “gamblecore”. Neither XP or Galleons are a sufficient reward for doing things in the late game, only grinding for rare items which is frankly not fun†. Doing stuff like unfinished quests is completely pointless aside from working towards the explorer badges or simply clearing your mind when you’re bored, and the mindless grinding the game encourages can feel unfulfilling when you get streaks of bad luck (which is basically regular luck with odds in the thousands).
Choosing to make XP be used to gain stat resets will make players feel like their PvE gameplay (and frankly anything they do) is more valuable as they’ll always be working towards something no matter what they are doing. And also it’s just an unused thing.
† I find this quite an issue when brainstorming suggestions, such as an expansion on that mirror shard suggestion with mechanics inspired by Refraction Railway 2 (don’t panic limbus players).
(end of details)
Pros & Cons
Pros
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Players get to objectively have more fun as they get to experiment with more builds and get to play more of the content that was created for the game. It’s a pretty hard sell to convince someone to lay down 5-8 hours to create and level a new file, not to mention how they have to track their items on multiple files and spend god knows how long grinding for a working build for it. Making stat resets more available than an extremely rare item that most casual players have no clue exists and will soon realize they’ll never get just objectively makes the game more fun for them and everyone.
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The second point in the original post was about making XP useful again, but that’s already explained in the section above so yeah. Nobody likes a skinny set of only two bullet points! (Or maybe it’s just me)
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Of course adding this would lower the price of the acrimony, but I see that as a positive. It just makes stat resets more available for everyone. Acrimony will (probably… lol) not die since it’s still two on-demand stat resets. (And for the record, I happen to have 3 stocks in acrimonies… which I have no plans of using myself just cause of how valuable they are…)
Cons
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This feature would be actively detrimental to the games “”“engagement”“” and premium payout profits as it removes the highly frequent need to grind for an incredibly rare and expensive item with no pity. This sentence is meant to be some sort of grim sarcasm, but I’d like to mention that I know that AO is F2P and pratices like this (grind and RNG) are incredibly common in MMORPG’s, so having a feature like this sort of conflicts with that and I can completely see this being silently declined just 'cause.
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Negatively affects the stock market
Obligatory polls because I like making them
- I like it
- I almost like it, but it needs some tweaks
- Neutral/Has good and bad elements
- I dislike it
- I would personally benefit from this
- This wouldn’t really affect me/I don’t need this
- I would personally detriment from this (lose inventory value)
- Whether I would personally gain or lose from a suggestion affects how I vote (Kinda lame to think like this ngl…)
- I am none of the below
- I have a “valuable inventory”
- I am in the “endgame”
- I am a “trader”
- I want a stat reset right now
Demographics poll to end it off! No proper conclusion necessary because I think I’m bad at writing them!
