Next Big Thing: Engagement!

Cooper

Why would I pay 50k for a crit bonus that might help me bash 3% faster, only to be capped out at 160k. The cost is like...astronomical to the benefit you get. I thought they were joking on release, and that the actual cost was going to be 5k for the bonuses. Even then I wouldn't use it all the time.

Taryius

Cooper said:

Why would I pay 50k for a crit bonus that might help me bash 3% faster, only to be capped out at 160k. The cost is like...astronomical to the benefit you get. I thought they were joking on release, and that the actual cost was going to be 5k for the bonuses. Even then I wouldn't use it all the time.

Its a 100k

I think the costs are pretty reasonable for how long they last, and paying for them up front is probably never the right thing to do unless you really want to speed yourself up without caring about gold gain. That's why the gold that gets skimmed from you as you approach gold cap goes into the hoard.

I do wish the boons were more impactful, they only really benefit a very small percent of players that spend lots of time in dragonform and also bash a lot. I'd also love to see more ways to expand Dragon Lairs, make them feel more clubhouse-y rather than just 4 empty rooms. But I really did love the release, and the quest and lore portions building up to it.

Farrah

I wouldn't pay for the lair bonuses directly, but I notice we have them up decently often. I assume most of the gold comes from bashing past gold cap. In that situation, it's really a free bonus since you wouldn't have been able to do anything else with the gold. So, I like it.

I do understand the lack of interest of top bashers who don't use dform anyway, though. It's basically neither a loss nor a benefit then. I happen to bash in dragon regularly (when I do bash) because I like the tankiness.

Torinn

Bashing is one of the most boring and tedious parts of the game.  Rewards centered around having people bash more is not a great idea in my opinion.  Once I got level 100 I haven't bashed a single additional second, so these rewards simply don't mean anything to me.  I'll probably still do some just to see what they're like but it'll be a temporary and passing thing like "oh neato" and that'll be it.

Jiraishin

I'm a bit late on this, but it's counter-intuitive to me to make all the adventure rewards bashing related. The purpose of the 'adventures', if I understood this thread correctly, is to have people engage more with the world around them. The reward for engagement is... a bonus that encourages you to go mash your class's denizen attack until the bonus wears off. Seems a bit off to me.

Penwize

I'd like to suggest that adventures could reward some kind of currency that can be exchanged for all of these rewards, and leave it up to the player to decide how and when they want to convert them.  Some people might make use of a gold cap increase, crit boost, or exp buff, but a lot of people wouldn't at all.  For others, saving up adventuring currency for bigger purchases like a monthly rotation of talisman caches, minipets, rare minerals, or even entry level artefacts might make more sense. 

There's an opportunity to make the reward structure diverse that way, I think.

Taryius

I'm not sure if anything ever happened to the idea to add more resolutions to the game, but adding a resolution to complete a number of these daily tasks would be an excellent way to give adventurers who aren't as invested in bashing or PK a chance to earn mementoes as well as further encourage participating in this system.

Klendathu

Do we really want another new currency? Mementos are underused - (anecdotally) hardly anyone bothers to complete resolutions to get mementos because there's nothing Tinker Druck sells that people want consistently. I'm sat on nearly 400 mementos (because I'm a sad-act try-hard who keeps taking the bashing resolutions).

Maybe if mementos could be used to purchase talisman pieces at some high exchange rate (5 = 1 credit?), the resolutions would get more love. Another alternative could be Tinker Druck adding talisman caches to his stock for a certain number of mementos. Mementos could then also be used for adventuring rewards too, although maybe they would need to be revalued so more come from resolutions, which take multiple days to complete, and 1 / 2 / 3 bound mementos are the reward for a daily adventure.

Addendum: Could even make all existing mementos bound, or all mementos earned from a certain announced point onwards from resolutions, etc, to prevent the market being flooded...

Trey

Klendathu said:

Do we really want another new currency? Mementos are underused - (anecdotally) hardly anyone bothers to complete resolutions to get mementos because there's nothing Tinker Druck sells that people want consistently. I'm sat on nearly 400 mementos (because I'm a sad-act try-hard who keeps taking the bashing resolutions).

Maybe if mementos could be used to purchase talisman pieces at some high exchange rate (5 = 1 credit?), the resolutions would get more love. Another alternative could be Tinker Druck adding talisman caches to his stock for a certain number of mementos. Mementos could then also be used for adventuring rewards too, although maybe they would need to be revalued so more come from resolutions, which take multiple days to complete, and 1 / 2 / 3 bound mementos are the reward for a daily adventure.

Addendum: Could even make all existing mementos bound, or all mementos earned from a certain announced point onwards from resolutions, etc, to prevent the market being flooded...

On paper I like it. It's something people can work towards that doesn't cost anything but time, and the people who don't care about it don't have to.

Penwize

Resolutions and mementos should probably stay as an insulated system as they are right now.  The tome of muses combined with certain resolutions has sort of broken the ability to generate mementos, and exposing that to the credit market and economy at large would probably be very dangerous.  Doable, but require a lot of rebalancing and some significant memento sinks put in place.

I don't see why adding another currency for adventuring rewards would be a problem at all.  Mementos are their own thing, let them stay as their own thing.  Add a currency that is from adventuring and only from adventuring, so they can fine-tune (and adjust seasonally/monthly) the rewards specifically for adventuring.

Vinzent

There are already enough if not too many forms of currency. Adding another is unnecessary.

Iloisee

I like Accipiter's idea of an object you can charge with the bonus from completing an adventure, if the reward absolutely must be bashing-related.

Agree more with the feeling that it shouldn't be bashing-related. 

Astarod

Ictinus said:

Adventures are split into difficulty tiers (easy, medium, hard, loosely), and rewards will scale appropriately to the difficulty as you might expect.

Initial completion of an adventure will offer a choice between a crit buff, an xp buff, OR an expansion to your gold cap for the day - more difficult tiers will reward better crit and xp buffs, and bigger expansions to the gold cap (likely in the region of 10k extra, 30k extra, and 50k extra as the difficulty tiers increase).

My first thought is- this the exact stuff people who spin the wheel and get are like, meh. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't seem like that'll pull anyone unless they're going to dragon. Perhaps for the 'easy' tiers, have these rewards to help people grow, which imo would be appropriate. 

However, for the medium and hard tiers, I don't see myself completing some sort of difficult task that requires me to think, and then being like, y'know what I want to do, I wanna bash for 1-2 hours to hit my extended gold cap! No. Just no. 

Some stuff I'd like to see in reward sets:
-Exclusive mini-pets tied to adventuring. 
-Maybe class/health artefacts, or something that can function as one for a period of time. Could simply be Con+1 for such and such hours upon activation. 
-Currency to credits somehow, via tradein or other. 
-Unique deathsight messages. 
-Maybe a weapon like Atlatls, something that's useful and available to everyone in combat. 

I still think this'll be something that'll really be cool, but I don't think using the reject prizes from monthly promotions to get people interested is a great idea if these adventures are going to be difficult at all. 

Iloisee

I didn't have time to write this out earlier but here's my suggested idea...

The adventures system is supposed to increase engagement with game content, right? So rather than bashing bonuses, the rewards should be beneficial to interacting with a variety of the game's features.  

Next, it should not create or rely on a new tradeable currency or generate tradeable items. Because buying your engagement rewards is not engagement (of the intended kind!)

Accipiter's 'adventurer stone' is a pretty good idea that I'd like to build on.

The rewards are random and are attuned to the stone, and when you're ready you can ACTIVATE STONE FOR <reward>. Or DISCARD <reward> FROM STONE for things you don't want at all (e.g. gold cap increase when you're level 80). The stone could act like a legendary card where it has a maximum number of charges (rewards) it holds and a cooldown for using it.

The rewards could include the crit bonus, gold cap increase, etc., but also include rewards that are more relevant to other player types. Instants: lessons, the rare bound credit, gold, comms. Artefact/legenddeck/talisman powers lasting an appropriate amount of time, such as the lucrescent nut power, flying/wings, whitesight, faster gathering, mana/health regen, sips, resists, on and on. (This possibility already exists with the loaning of artefacts, so it is known not to unbalance the game!)

The way I imagine it in action, when you probe the stone it would look like:

<Description of stone>

It weighs 1000 lb.

It bears the mark of Iloisee.

It will reset to you.

It contains 4/5 attunements.

It is attuned with:

a small windfall of gold sovereigns

a 3% critical hit bonus

the power of flying

the power of whitesight

An adventurer's stone grants the power of increased mana regeneration for another 10 minutes.

An adventurer's stone can be activated again in 15 minutes.

The cooldown would prevent accumulating a bunch of combat buffs and activating them all at once, not that that wouldn't be awesome.

The difficulty of the quest would determine the bank of rewards.

The reason I suggest a large bank of temporary artefact-type powers is it allows players to experience a whole bunch of neat stuff they can't afford to have permanently (yet). And maybe they will decide it was great and they'll go and buy some credits to get it permanently.

The variety also has a better chance of hitting on what the player likes to do or hasn't done enough of.

Uhhh so ok bye.

Telinus

Iloisee said:

I didn't have time to write this out earlier but here's my suggested idea...

The adventures system is supposed to increase engagement with game content, right? So rather than bashing bonuses, the rewards should be beneficial to interacting with a variety of the game's features.  

Next, it should not create or rely on a new tradeable currency or generate tradeable items. Because buying your engagement rewards is not engagement (of the intended kind!)

Accipiter's 'adventurer stone' is a pretty good idea that I'd like to build on.

The rewards are random and are attuned to the stone, and when you're ready you can ACTIVATE STONE FOR <reward>. Or DISCARD <reward> FROM STONE for things you don't want at all (e.g. gold cap increase when you're level 80). The stone could act like a legendary card where it has a maximum number of charges (rewards) it holds and a cooldown for using it.

The rewards could include the crit bonus, gold cap increase, etc., but also include rewards that are more relevant to other player types. Instants: lessons, the rare bound credit, gold, comms. Artefact/legenddeck/talisman powers lasting an appropriate amount of time, such as the lucrescent nut power, flying/wings, whitesight, faster gathering, mana/health regen, sips, resists, on and on. (This possibility already exists with the loaning of artefacts, so it is known not to unbalance the game!)

The way I imagine it in action, when you probe the stone it would look like:

<Description of stone>

It weighs 1000 lb.

It bears the mark of Iloisee.

It will reset to you.

It contains 4/5 attunements.

It is attuned with:

a small windfall of gold sovereigns

a 3% critical hit bonus

the power of flying

the power of whitesight

An adventurer's stone grants the power of increased mana regeneration for another 10 minutes.

An adventurer's stone can be activated again in 15 minutes.

The cooldown would prevent accumulating a bunch of combat buffs and activating them all at once, not that that wouldn't be awesome.

The difficulty of the quest would determine the bank of rewards.

The reason I suggest a large bank of temporary artefact-type powers is it allows players to experience a whole bunch of neat stuff they can't afford to have permanently (yet). And maybe they will decide it was great and they'll go and buy some credits to get it permanently.

The variety also has a better chance of hitting on what the player likes to do or hasn't done enough of.

Uhhh so ok bye.

I really love this idea. A lot.

I would love to see it expanded for cool and unique items as well that would decay ( with these sorts of abilities )

Farrah

Iloisee said:

I didn't have time to write this out earlier but here's my suggested idea...

The adventures system is supposed to increase engagement with game content, right? So rather than bashing bonuses, the rewards should be beneficial to interacting with a variety of the game's features.  

Next, it should not create or rely on a new tradeable currency or generate tradeable items. Because buying your engagement rewards is not engagement (of the intended kind!)

Accipiter's 'adventurer stone' is a pretty good idea that I'd like to build on.

The rewards are random and are attuned to the stone, and when you're ready you can ACTIVATE STONE FOR <reward>. Or DISCARD <reward> FROM STONE for things you don't want at all (e.g. gold cap increase when you're level 80). The stone could act like a legendary card where it has a maximum number of charges (rewards) it holds and a cooldown for using it.

The rewards could include the crit bonus, gold cap increase, etc., but also include rewards that are more relevant to other player types. Instants: lessons, the rare bound credit, gold, comms. Artefact/legenddeck/talisman powers lasting an appropriate amount of time, such as the lucrescent nut power, flying/wings, whitesight, faster gathering, mana/health regen, sips, resists, on and on. (This possibility already exists with the loaning of artefacts, so it is known not to unbalance the game!)

The way I imagine it in action, when you probe the stone it would look like:

<Description of stone>

It weighs 1000 lb.

It bears the mark of Iloisee.

It will reset to you.

It contains 4/5 attunements.

It is attuned with:

a small windfall of gold sovereigns

a 3% critical hit bonus

the power of flying

the power of whitesight

An adventurer's stone grants the power of increased mana regeneration for another 10 minutes.

An adventurer's stone can be activated again in 15 minutes.

The cooldown would prevent accumulating a bunch of combat buffs and activating them all at once, not that that wouldn't be awesome.

The difficulty of the quest would determine the bank of rewards.

The reason I suggest a large bank of temporary artefact-type powers is it allows players to experience a whole bunch of neat stuff they can't afford to have permanently (yet). And maybe they will decide it was great and they'll go and buy some credits to get it permanently.

The variety also has a better chance of hitting on what the player likes to do or hasn't done enough of.

Uhhh so ok bye.

I'm not opposed to your overall suggestion but I don't think it should aim to replace things that already exist. A lot of artefact powers are already temporarily available IG through other mechanics:

Flying (quest)
Duanathar (mementos)
+2 con/str/int/dex (rare minerals)
Health/mana regen (rare minerals)

Zhedan

Don't worry guys, Engagement rewards are already here. Check FRAGMENTS

Ictinus

Hi everyone!

I'm back with what will probably be the last pre-release update on adventures!

Firstly, I'm pleased to inform you that after reviewing all the feedback and comments on our initially proposed reward structure, we've revised it entirely.

Adventure completions will now award points. These will be fully visible on score and act as a currency that can be spent on a variety of rewards including gold cap increases, buffs, lessons, and things of that nature. It's our hope that this opens up greater flexibility and doesn't pigeonhole anyone into a specific game mode in order to make use of the reward.

Daily rewards (spins, and promotional-related things) will still go ahead and be tied to adventure completion to obtain.

As recent event stuff has been unfolding and time is at a premium, we are setting a release date for adventures of Thursday 2nd May!

Post-release, we will eventually revisit the culled categories and be highly receptive to feedback as we monitor the system in live play. 

I also wanted to personally thank everyone for the feedback and commentary - it's had a definite impact on our design decisions throughout this process and is a method we are likely to use again going forward.

Cailin

Re: culled categories

While I do hunt, sail, explore, and fight a little, and enjoy them to various degrees, I also agree with Lenn - merchanting and RP are a very big part of what I enjoy about Achaea, and probably my favorites.

I definitely agree with culling the Life category - who needs a reward for using the bank?? But it would be really awesome if we could have some sort of Just Chilling category that includes tradeskills (who doesn't have at least one tradeskill? you get one slot for free) and things like attending a ritual, sermon, party, or concert (this could perhaps be checked off by the city).

That being said, the system sounds pretty cool already, and I appreciate the effort that's gone into it and the way you guys have taken in everyone's feedback.

Astarod

Cailin said:

Re: culled categories

While I do hunt, sail, explore, and fight a little, and enjoy them to various degrees, I also agree with Lenn - merchanting and RP are a very big part of what I enjoy about Achaea, and probably my favorites.

I definitely agree with culling the Life category - who needs a reward for using the bank?? But it would be really awesome if we could have some sort of Just Chilling category that includes tradeskills (who doesn't have at least one tradeskill? you get one slot for free) and things like attending a ritual, sermon, party, or concert (this could perhaps be checked off by the city).

That being said, the system sounds pretty cool already, and I appreciate the effort that's gone into it and the way you guys have taken in everyone's feedback.

I can kill perfectly fine without inkmillling so I haven’t invested in it. Plenty of people don’t have tradeskills! It’s not free, because you have to pay lessons for it!!!

That small mini rant aside, I think that should make it more paramount for tradeskills to be involved in this process. As, I believe some may sacrifice class skills for merchanting skills- and some definitely sacrifice PvP skills. Wonderful work so far and excited for the release!

Iloisee

Now this sounds awesome. Well done on putting together a great idea and all the players for giving solid feedback to make it even better. I'm so excited for this to release!

Ictinus

I've copied Nicola's announce post here as adventures is now LIVE!

We're happy to present you with the first iteration of the ADVENTURE system! Going forward, this will integrate further into various parts of the wide world that we love expanding on, contributing to, and experimenting in (and hope you do all that as well).

 

While you have adventures of your own every day in Achaea's world, the game offers more than many have a chance to experience. With the introduction of the Adventure system, Phileo in Delos will be rewarding people who complete his varied tasks with renown! But this isn't just something that will give you bragging rights at your tavern of choice, renown can be spent on a variety of rewards, including gold, lessons, and even artefacts!

 

As of this release, there are currently four adventure themes: Conflict, Seafaring, Hunting, and Exploration/Questing.

 

Adventures are offered in a cyclical system. The theme will change four times every in-game year. These changes will take place on the first day of Sarapin, Miraman, Valnuary, and Chronos.

 

While a theme is active, you are able to choose whether you want an Easy, Medium, or Hard adventure. Once you've chosen, you have until the theme changes to complete it!

 

You might get an adventure that is too difficult or not to your taste. But do not fret! You can REJECT this adventure, which will allocate a new one for you for a gold cost. This can only be done once per theme period, however, so be careful!

 

Once you complete an adventure, you will gain renown. It is rewarded for the completion, and your current level of renown is available on SCORE RESOURCES.

 

- Easy adventures award 10 Renown

- Medium adventures award 20 Renown

- Hard adventures award 30 Renown

 

Renown does not decay, cannot be transferred or traded, and cannot be dropped.

 

Renown can be spent on the following rewards:

 

1 hour xp bonus (10%) - 10 renown

1 hour crit bonus (2%) - 10 renown

10,000 gold - 15 renown

6 lessons - 15 renown

30k gold cap increase - 20 renown

3 hour xp bonus (10%) - 25 renown

3 hour crit bonus (2%) - 25 renown

60 lessons - 140 renown

600 lessons - 1300 renown

an adventurer's giftbox* - 2000 renown

 

Notes regarding rewards:

 

1. The gold cap boost can only be purchased if you don't already have one in effect.

2. XP and crit bonuses will extend the timer if you purchase more than one.

3. Artefacts from the adventurer's giftbox CAN NOT be traded in.

 

Commands!

 

ADVENTURE See the current theme and related commands.

ADVENTURE EMBARK <EASY/MEDIUM/HARD> Choose your adventure.

ADVENTURE REJECT Reroll your adventure, this has a gold

cost and can only be done once per theme.

ADVENTURE RECALL What adventure are you working on?

SCORE RESOURCES or RENOWN See how much renown you have earned.

ADVENTURE REWARDS LIST See what you can buy with your renown.

ADVENTURE REWARDS CLAIM <reward> Spend your hard earned renown.

 

Note: We may add more themes as time goes on! Completion time, Renown, and prizes will be adjusted if this happens.

 

HELP ADVENTURES has all of the details, and the giftbox prize list!

 

Have fun, and happy adventuring!

 
I'll leave this thread open for the next two weeks or so until a full cycle has been completed. Please feel free to feed back on your experiences, and I want to add that we'll be continually adding new adventures to the (hundreds-long already) list as we go!

Cooper

Looks amazing!!

Thaisen

This is fantastic.... but now I’m afraid I’ll be too busy adventuring to fight off the Tsol’teth

Cooper

Adventure 1: kill a tsol'teth

Kresslack

Are these giftboxes the same type from last month's promotion?

Taryius

Kresslack said:

Are these giftboxes the same type from last month's promotion?

Not quite. They have a choice of artefacts, which all seem to look like level 1 class arties, for people to choose from. From HELP ADVENTURES.

* The giftbox contains a choice of the following artefacts:

Mayan bracelets

a blackened rapier

a wreath of lycopod vines

a talisman of greater cultivation

a band of fire

Adchachel's lament

Rakia's flame

a prankster's blackjack

a sorcerer's notebook

copper knuckles

a karmic knot

an iron shoe

an Odyssean mace

a bronze hand mirror

a spiked steel spear

a defender's trident

a sylvan axe

an assassin's dirk

an obsidian skull pendant

a wreath of golden leaves

an orcsplitter battleaxe

a scimitar of hawks

a mutilator flail

a barbarian's morningstar

a Dawnrender bastard sword

a stonesmith's maul

a mithril broadsword

a meteoric longsword

an insignia of mastery

a cincture of the devoted

     Artefacts from the adventurer's giftbox CAN NOT be traded in.

Minifie

Hnnng the devs listened, absolutely thrilled!

Cailin

The helpfile says 

"The giftbox contains a choice of the following artefacts"

Does that mean we would get to choose which one? Or is it random?

Kaedan

Mayan bracelets<br>a blackened rapier<br>a wreath of lycopod vines<br>a talisman of greater cultivation<br>a band of fire<br>Adchachel's lament<br>Rakia's flame<br>a prankster's blackjack<br>a sorcerer's notebook<br>copper knuckles<br>a karmic knot<br>an iron shoe<br>an Odyssean mace<br>a bronze hand mirror<br>a spiked steel spear<br>a defender's trident<br>a sylvan axe<br>an assassin's dirk<br>an obsidian skull pendant<br>a wreath of golden leaves<br>an orcsplitter battleaxe<br>a scimitar of hawks<br>a mutilator flail<br>a barbarian's morningstar<br>a Dawnrender bastard sword<br>a stonesmith's maul<br>a mithril broadsword<br>a meteoric longsword<br>an insignia of mastery<br>a cincture of the devoted

Those are the things you can choose from a giftbox. A little weird that dirks are there but not lashes/whips, but otherwise pretty decent. Some classes have more options than others (Serpents get dirk, but a Paladin gets a cincture, insignia, and weapon or two, Sentinels get their choice of skirmishing weapon, an axe, and knuckles for maul damage, etc.)