Accolade for playing the game.

[branefabricator]

Accolade Name: Original Grit
 

Description: You recall the times when every battle tested your resolve, when progress came from facing real challenges, not quick solutions. No endless simulations, no outside aid—only the trials of true heroes and villains. This accolade honors those who stand on their own, forging their path through sheer determination. True perseverance earns true power.

Requirement: No P2W XP boosts, no traded/emailed enhancements slotted, no outside financial assistance beyond a modest 10 million influence, Require that at least 60% of total XP gained must come from any source other than sidekicked play above +5(Excluding TFs).

Effect: Unenchantable 2% +Def upon obtaining Level 50

 

Existing characters cannot earn the badge, however, if the accolade is earned on a new character, it is applied account wide to all characters.

Previous proposal:

Quote

 

Accolade Name: True Grit

Description: Awarded to those who rise through the ranks with nothing but their own strength and determination. This accolade is granted only to heroes and villains who have never taken shortcuts—no AE missions entered before L50, no P2W XP boosts, no enhancement trades, and no outside financial assistance beyond a modest 10 million influence. True perseverance earns true power.

Effect: Unenchantable 3% +Res and +Def upon obtaining Level 50

 

Reward: One full set of choice in UNTRADEABLE Superior AT enhancements upon obtaining Level 50

 

 

Edited 16 hours ago by branefabricator

[Rudra]

Problems with proposal:

 

1- There is no way for existing characters to get said accolade.

2- If the game does not currently do so, then how is the game supposed to track where inf' or enhancements come from per character?

3- Why would it be necessary to penalize characters by denying them the ability to get the badge/accolade because others wanted to help? (I've had friends simply walk up to my characters and drop enhancements on that character to help me get by. And by the OP, that would render that character unable to get said badge/accolade through no fault of my own.)

4- Why should any specific play style be rewarded over any other play styles?

[branefabricator]

1. Existing chars would need some challenge to obtain the accolade, perhaps completion of all available 4 star TFs
2-3. developer magics
4. not my problem just an idea
 

[Rudra]

4 minutes ago, branefabricator said:

1. Existing chars would need some challenge to obtain the accolade, perhaps completion of all available 4 star TFs

Then any character that leveled to 50 in any way, including PL'ing in AE, using XP boosts, and using financial assistance or accepting enhancements from others would also be able to get the accolade. That renders your accolade requirements pointless.

[branefabricator]

That's why I said Existing characters, not new. I wouldn't want a badge hunter to have to roll a new character.

[Rudra]

2 minutes ago, branefabricator said:

That's why I said Existing characters, not new. I wouldn't want a badge hunter to have to roll a new character.

Except that makes for differentiated requirements. Anyone that did any prohibited act for the accolade could turn around and justifiably say that they are unfairly being denied the accolade for their new characters. Their existing characters that got PL'ed in AE using XP boosts and receiving inf' and enhancements from others were able to get the accolade by doing the 4-star TFs/SFs, so why can't their new characters get it the same way?

[branefabricator]

Allowing existing characters to earn the accolade through 4-star TF/SFs is a necessary concession to ensure they have a path to eligibility without forcing rerolls.
The 4-star TF/SF requirement for existing characters is a way to give them an alternative challenge to prove their skill without invalidating the spirit of the accolade.

[Rudra]

5 minutes ago, branefabricator said:

Allowing existing characters to earn the accolade through 4-star TF/SFs is a necessary concession to ensure they have a path to eligibility without forcing rerolls.
The 4-star TF/SF requirement for existing characters is a way to give them an alternative challenge to prove their skill without invalidating the spirit of the accolade.

Allowing any characters to bypass the OP set accolade requirements means that all characters should also be allowed to bypass the OP set accolade requirements. After all, the alternate means of acquiring the accolade already allows for characters that did the prohibited acts for the accolade to still get the accolade.

 

Edit: And this is before even considering how excessive the rewards for the accolade are.

 

Edited yesterday at 12:59 AM by Rudra

[branefabricator]

It serves as a corrective measure rather than an alternative path for those who had no reason to follow the restrictions before. For new characters, there is no such justification—they have a clear choice from level one: earn True Grit properly or not at all.

Regarding having a random enhancement dropped on you, surely there could be some solution. Maybe it is only invalidated if you actually slot an IO that was traded.

[Biff Pow]

Pretty much all the accolades can only be unlocked by playing the game.

[BassAckwards]

As much as I am always happy to hear an idea for a new badge, denying players a reward because they choose to play THEIR game a certain way is never going to be received well.

[Excraft]

No.  There is no way to know what existing characters played "the correct/righteous way" in order to get the badge.

[branefabricator]

If a player chooses to play their own way and never complete a task force, why are they being denied the task force commander accolade for their choice in play?

[BassAckwards]

52 minutes ago, branefabricator said:

If a player chooses to play their own way and never complete a task force, why are they being denied the task force commander accolade for their choice in play?

They aren’t being denied TF Commander, they just have not performed the requisite tasks, and can complete those tasks at any time. 
 

We understand that you aren’t happy with the state of AE, power leveling, and its impact on the game. I agree it’s not a good way for new comers to learn the game. This game has a lot to offer on the way to lvl 50. But just because someone chooses to play this way doesn’t mean they aren’t a valued member of this community. 
 

Negatively connotated and impunitive badges like this are not good for the game. If you don’t like the way someone plays the game, 1-star them, don’t team with them, and move on. But you might find yourself soloing everything quicker than you think. 

[branefabricator]

But just because someone chooses to play this way doesn’t mean they aren’t a valued member of this community.  you might find yourself soloing everything quicker than you think. 

This whole post is quite passive aggressive and I don't appreciate the tone at all. I have no issue with the AE farming, people can still do it the same without the proposed accolade exactly the same.

This idea would give people both a reason to run more 4-star TFs because of how many existing characters there are, and all low level content to be run more often because people want the accolade on new characters.
 

Edited yesterday at 05:48 PM by branefabricator

[macskull]

I log on and do whatever I want with my character and am “playing the game.” Do I get the accolade?

[Ghost]

2 minutes ago, macskull said:

I log on and do whatever I want with my character and am “playing the game.” Do I get the accolade?

[Rudra]

21 minutes ago, branefabricator said:

This idea would give people both a reason to run more 4-star TFs because of how many existing characters there are, and all low level content to be run more often because people want the accolade on new characters.

But only for existing characters, yes? That's what you said? In order to get the accolade, people have to play the way you want unless they are existing characters in which case they and only they can get the accolade by doing 4-star TFs and SF. That is what you said, yes? So you still aren't encouraging 4-star content. And the low level content can still be played by players that are not playing by your approved method just fine. There are players that PL to 50 and then go back and do the low level content because they want to have developed characters for it. Since they didn't do so the way you approve of though, they aren't eligible for the accolade.

 

Edit: An accolade that still gives a ridiculously generous reward that you have not addressed yet. (Edit again: Seriously, your proposed reward grants a +3% defense boost (presumably for all 11 defenses) plus a +3% damage resist boost (presumably for all 8 resist types) plus the equivalent of 720 reward merits. I'm surprised you didn't also include 6 free enhancement unslotters too.)

 

Edited yesterday at 06:07 PM by Rudra

[branefabricator]

Why should heroes and villains automatically get accolades for switching sides when the badge requirements are entirely different?
No need to discuss the effect or reward if the premise of the badge is dismissed.

[Skyhawke]

49 minutes ago, Ghost said:

 

There's not an accolade under my chair.

 

 

[macskull]

1 hour ago, branefabricator said:

Why should heroes and villains automatically get accolades for switching sides when the badge requirements are entirely different?
No need to discuss the effect or reward if the premise of the badge is dismissed.

To prevent them from doubling up on effort and having to unlock all the accolades twice. These are tied to specific badges, and the premise makes complete sense in that context.

[branefabricator]

Doesn't make sense to me. Getting an accolade for completing none of the badges required for it. If someone wanted to only play villains they are disadvantaged by the mostly hero character base that has no reason to ever do villain accolade content. Maybe there is 1 or 2 that is easier to get on either side, in this case it's a concession to make the game even easier.

[Rudra]

9 minutes ago, branefabricator said:

Doesn't make sense to me. Getting an accolade for completing none of the badges required for it. If someone wanted to only play villains they are disadvantaged by the mostly hero character base that has no reason to ever do villain accolade content. Maybe there is 1 or 2 that is easier to get on either side, in this case it's a concession to make the game even easier.

Accolades were created with both a hero version and a villain version so both sides could get the same accolades. At the time, if you went red for alignment after having earned a blue side accolade, you lost access to the hero versions of the accolades; and if you went blue for alignment you lost access to the villain versions of the accolades. So that players could retain access to the accolades they had already earned, if they changed to an alignment that was not correct for the accolade they had, they were automatically awarded the other version of the accolade so that players would not have to go back and go through all the requirements of getting an accolade they already had for now being the wrong alignment for it.

 

Edit: Exactly as @macskull posted in the post preceding yours.

 

Edited yesterday at 08:12 PM by Rudra

[PoptartsNinja]

To elaborate further: not having access to the acolades they'd already unlocked made side switching even less desirable back when swapping sides required 32 missions and multiple days of effort. IIRC you could only change alignment once a week back then? But I might be misremembering.

 

Removing access to the redside acolades would make people even less likely to do redside content.

 

The barrier to people playing redside is population, not a lack of things to do. CoH had a real problem with splitting its playerbase and making itself feel less populated than it actually was, which is a problem that still impacts the game.

[El D]

I have sincere doubts that Homecoming would allow XP boosters and freely encourage them to be used for years, then all of the sudden add any sort of badge that a character only obtains by never using them. Much less including the other restrictions of no AE, no enhancement trades, and no influence over X amount. The 'You played the game The Real Way™!' approach to reward design is both entirely arbitrary in an MMO like CoH and its own slippery slope of recursive difficulty that just keeps increasing. 'I got the badge for not using AE!' 'Well I got the badge for not using AE and using Brawl as my only attack power!'

 

Badges are rewards specifically for playing various aspects of the game. The only abstention badges are for rejecting inspirations/recipes and day jobs earned while logged out, neither of which lock players out of any content or choice of progression.