Character Merge

[Umagon 23]

Idea: option to 'character merge'. what that actually means is that  you pick a character to keep. and another you don't want to keep. All your badges and accolades are pushed to the surviving character. the other is deleted. Possibly all the enhancements are mailed to that other character.

 

Why? Some times you make a character, level it to max, then realize you hate the powerset, or that some other powerset fits your concept better. or the powerset you started with was radically changed by updates. Toss that character into the wood chipper and move badges to the one you enjoy!

 

My actual real dream would be being able to change powersets on characters and remain the same character (like changing jobs in final fantasy 14), but I know the game is ancient and can't do all these things.

 

Thank you for reading my ill-conceived idea! ❤️

[Safehouse]

Not sure how the logistics would work but I think it's an interesting idea.

 

Case in point: my current main, Astellus, is a level 50 kinetic/energy/mu scrapper. As a result of a suggestion from the save kinetic melee thread, I'm now trying out a kinetic/energy/mu stalker. I've found the stalker to be really amazing. In this case, it's a matter of the exact same character concept/sets feeling better on another AT. I've more than once thought "gee, I wish I had built out the character this way originally, but now i have all these badges/achievements and I've invested all this time in kitting out Astellus..."

 

So I think I would be interested in something like this, even if it's a one-time thing, or a two or three-time thing.

[Umagon 23]

13 minutes ago, Safehouse said:

So I think I would be interested in something like this, even if it's a one-time thing, or a two or three-time thing.

I think if you have to wood-chipper the old character, to merge into another, then you won't have it happen very often. ALTHOUGH i suppose people could make disposable characters to merge in? would that be a beneficial thing? hmm.

[captainstar]

2 hours ago, Umagon 23 said:

Idea: option to 'character merge'. what that actually means is that  you pick a character to keep. and another you don't want to keep. All your badges and accolades are pushed to the surviving character. the other is deleted. Possibly all the enhancements are mailed to that other character.

 

Why? Some times you make a character, level it to max, then realize you hate the powerset, or that some other powerset fits your concept better. or the powerset you started with was radically changed by updates. Toss that character into the wood chipper and move badges to the one you enjoy!

 

My actual real dream would be being able to change powersets on characters and remain the same character (like changing jobs in final fantasy 14), but I know the game is ancient and can't do all these things.

 

Thank you for reading my ill-conceived idea! ❤️

[Razor Cure]

Personally I dont think I would ever use this idea..BUT..the concept is good. It is far and away better than some of the 'reroll/respec entire power set' ideas, which usually wanna get things for nothing. This has a obvious cost.

As as additional 'cost' I'd suggest than the 2nd toon (the one you are GIVING all teh badges) needs to be level 50. Perhaps even having at LEAST 50/100/X badges themselves, to stop people just AE'ing the 2nd toon to 50 in a few hours.

 

[Doc_Scorpion]

6 minutes ago, Razor Cure said:

As as additional 'cost' I'd suggest than the 2nd toon (the one you are GIVING all teh badges) needs to be level 50. Perhaps even having at LEAST 50/100/X badges themselves, to stop people just AE'ing the 2nd toon to 50 in a few hours.

<nods>  Something like that.

[WanderingAries]

I think this is why a lot of people have a dedicated "Badger" toon. As far as actually Doing the thing, it would likely require a manual, server side edit of the character database and I can see that being a PITA as you likely have to take things like alignment and such into account. IDK off hand, but there is possibly an issue with an alt getting say an annual badge from a year before the desired Badger even existed. So many things that only those who understand the "hidden" design of the game would have any true insight on. Feels like a headache for the devs when in use to me, but an interesting concept. I think it would be easier to make Badges a global unlock TBH.

[Outrider_01]

Badges do nothing but unlock accolades while accolades boost the character regardless of powersets.

 

So its not an  option to not over invest in the Characters for badges and accolades until you know for a fact you like the powersets? 

 

l found that Savage/Fire is kind of meh for farming.  Why would I invest for accolades and badges for something I didn't like?

 

I don't get it 🤔.  Unless you are regen and it gets nerfed more, no set has been heavily nerfed so its up to the player to decide if they like the set and then throw a fortune and time into it.

[Umagon 23]

Right some times changes make things worse for you, but often people don't realize how the play style of somethin gwil lbe till they're level 50 with all their enhancements in place. 

 

newer players will often try to smell all the roses they can when they level up. purposely doing TF's when they level, or getting all their exploration badges. it feels bad to do all that, and then to later realize that your powerset plays poorly, or unfun. Or you discover a powerset you like more.  There's a lot of reasons. a simpler answer may be "badge unlocks are account wide".

 

some badges do other things besides accolades. this is also especially pertinent with the teleport changes where you have to go to all the zones and stand on a plate to use the group TP. 

[Zauhesi]

21 hours ago, Umagon 23 said:

I think if you have to wood-chipper the old character, to merge into another, then you won't have it happen very often. ALTHOUGH i suppose people could make disposable characters to merge in? would that be a beneficial thing? hmm.

A disposable character wouldn’t be collecting that many badges and whatnot worth saving I imagine. Maybe if someone had a farming account they wanted to grab badges on then transfer off to their mercs MM?

[Umagon 23]

that makes sense. I think it'd be really specific, like...lets say you have a natural character with no travel powers. you could do all the exploration on a flier then woodchipper them over to sally-walking-shoes. 

[Outrider_01]

4 hours ago, Umagon 23 said:

eople don't realize how the play style of somethin gwil lbe till they're level 50 with all their enhancements in place

Thats why you don't invest heavily.  Get to know the characteristics of the sets before suppung your Toyota to a Lamborghini.  I did it with that Savage melee farmer, my mistake but nearly all popular farmer sets have a huge damage hit attack as a minion killer, SM is mostly DoT and the 32 attack is reliant on max range with manual clicking.  Stupid annoying, but its my fault for assuming, wanted to make one last farmer and just gonna drop all the IO on him to another combo that I am familiar with.

 

4 hours ago, Umagon 23 said:

newer players will often try to smell all the roses they can when they level up. purposely doing TF's when they level, or getting all their exploration badges. it feels bad to do all that, and then to later realize that your powerset plays poorly, or unfun. Or you discover a powerset you like more.  There's a lot of reasons. a simpler answer may be "badge unlocks are account wide".

Again, don't invest.  New players will figure it out sooner rather then later at 50, and TF/SF are kind of a joke at this point.  As for badge unlocks account wide, exclude damage/heal/inf/accolade required badges and I wouldn't complain.

 

Only reason I am counter to the suggestion it sounds like a thinly veiled suggestion to "wanna keep my name and accomplishments as I am done with this character and try something new so why Can't I just swap ATs."  Its a game, enjoy the ride don't take a Concord Jet to cross the street when you can just take a stroll.

 

Also keeping the characters allow you to go back to it if you change your mind. 

 

Otherwise if I would to agree to it, crap shoot lottery on the badges where half will disappear on the toon with the higher count  while accolades are locked out for 30 days and hope you roll high for the accolade required; nothing should be free if  you already "invested" the time but didn't invest in the character or powers.

 

4 hours ago, Umagon 23 said:

some badges do other things besides accolades. this is also especially pertinent with the teleport changes where you have to go to all the zones and stand on a plate to use the group TP

Don't want to sound like an ass but in ye old days of yore the only teleport was a power set, a train, and zone/mission door.  Sprint to 14, Super Jump to 50 on all character save a few flight, all on SO.  The fact its called Homecoming is like returning to those days, with an optional addition of instant travel.  Its not a requirement, its a bonus other wise they wouldn't of removed/enterbase command.

[Vanden]

Guys, I think Rularuu is posting under a sock puppet again

[Doc_Scorpion]

6 hours ago, Umagon 23 said:

often people don't realize how the play style of somethin gwil lbe till they're level 50 with all their enhancements in place.

newer players will often try to smell all the roses they can when they level up. purposely doing TF's when they level, or getting all their exploration badges. it feels bad to do all that, and then to later realize that your powerset plays poorly, or unfun.

I read this earlier and pondered on it...  and it just doesn't make any sense.  How do you get 50 (and invest the work and time needed to get any significant number of badges), and not realize how the toon/AT/powerset will play?  Heck, how do you get from 30 to 40 without realizing it?

 

6 hours ago, Umagon 23 said:

Or you discover a powerset you like more.

This is Homecoming.  We have (literally) a thousand slots...  Go build a new character.

 

6 hours ago, Umagon 23 said:

this is also especially pertinent with the teleport changes where you have to go to all the zones and stand on a plate to use the group TP.

Other than getting that first accolade at low levels, it's not like this is all that hard.  Grab a badge every time you go to a new zone.  Heck, just with random grabbing easy/obvious exploration badges as I happened to pass by over the past year....  Almost all of my characters entered the new era with a nice assortment of teleport destinations already in their list.

[Jacke]

On 12/4/2020 at 1:14 AM, WanderingAries said:

IDK off hand, but there is possibly an issue with an alt getting say an annual badge from a year before the desired Badger even existed.

 

You can get all the Anniversary Event Badges a toon doesn't have for 100 Reward Merits each every May from Luna in Ouroboros.

 

Interesting idea.  Would be very demanding to code to take part of one character and add that to another.  And as others said, there are likely other stumbling blocks based upon the database details of characters we just don't know about.