Letter from the Game Director: 14 January 2008

[Omigawd]

Sil,

Could it be possible to make sure that people who are not in the PvP level range of the tower field not be able to place laser tagging devices? If they were able to, it would make one of the changes useless. Players could simply log TL5 characters and place devices on a TL7 base without having to worry about being attacked.

[DecemberSky]

I didn't really like the new solo names, so here is a list I thought would be more appropriate. I appologize if I listed off names already taken ( I havent memorized alien titles.) I'll add more. ( I like some of Mastablasta's list too (especially Legend!))


Lower Ranks

Green
Adequate
Minor
Beginner
Common


Mid Ranks
Sufficient
Capable
Competent
Accomplished

Higher Ranks:

Exalted
Veteran
Skilled
Superb
Advanced
Practiced
Proficient
Savvy
Versant
Victor

[Hacre]

WTB Nemesis title

[Dolfindwe]

Ya Bump for those Solo Title Names, please change them, atm they all kinda look the same, and it's clearly impossible to know what one is better than the other intuitivly, so maybe use a mix of players suggestions, would be very cool.

Beside that, everything seems great, even if, if it's not too much to ask, some balancing between professions for duels and even general pvp would be really great. I know you already said that balancing 1vs1 situations was not your goal, however I believe that some minor changes could help a lot, and makes pvp a lot more enjoyable for professions that are not naturally good at it (thinking to some support profs etc.) Some pvp only nanos, as the nemesis ones, or some pvp specific weapons could change a lot of things, just my 2 cents, since it's a pvp patch

Team pvp is a nice option, however profs not able to kill by themselves may have the feeling of being leeching and Solo/Duels title system mean that everybody should have a chance of killing other players having about the same level/gear. It is clearly not the situation today.

[Warhead]

You are oversimplifying. It doesnt need to be 'death counter' hugging, because you still need to kill and engage in fights to high title, and i personally believe that most pvpers would rather farm kill ratio then care about death ratio. Change like that will not totally remove backyard hugging or running away or any other form of avoiding death. Its just that focus will be now on offensive side.

You didnt think it through. Titles are finite. You'll end up at the final titel and cant lose it. What to do now? Right, boast with your kills and deaths. And if there is only a death counter (like it was mentioned by Silirrion as a possibilty), people will just try to avoid deaths by all means while they climb up the title ladder, just like they do now.

Just a kill counter would certainly alleviate the problem, but the worst thing to do (i.e. nullifying the desired effect) would be a kill/death ratio or just a death counter.

Are you really that naive to think it wont happen this way? The people we are talking about are as predictable as the sunrise every morning...

[wertewrtey]

-Streetjudge
-Bountyhunter
-Vigilante
-Guerilla
-Commando
-Specialist
-Elite
-Ace
-Nemesis
-Legend

Sounds good to me, just so long as we don't get that horrid list currently being implemented...

[Mastablasta]

Anyways, pull out Nemesis (doesn't fit anyways), and add Destroyer of worlds at the end

And Quetzatcoatl/Destroyer of Worlds does? I figured that as we hit the higher titles we'd need something a bit more drastic, and I couldn't really come up with something other than that to put there, and since there was already a slew of low titles in use, putting in more low-lvl names seemed a bad idea. But they're just suggestions after all

[Silentslashy]

Streetjudge sux!

Nemesis + Legend! AWESOME

others fit in with ao nicely

[Rktim]

Ok heres the deal, over all it all sounds AWESOME....
Exept for the solo titles and the re-use of duel titles (that will render our legacy titles usless, might as well remove them if your going to use the same names in duels anyway..)

Other then that... Great patch ^_^

[Wakizaka]

WTB My last title to be 'Omni Zerg Beware'

[Mavritanic]

My version for solo ranks:

1st dan
2nd dan
3rd dan
Expert
Master
Virtuoso
Champion
Sage
Legend
Divine Fist

[Omigawd]

Ok heres the deal, over all it all sounds AWESOME....
Exept for the solo titles and the re-use of duel titles (that will render our legacy titles usless, might as well remove them if your going to use the same names in duels anyway..)

Other then that... Great patch ^_^

Master title isn't being put into the duel titles.

[DecemberSky]

Virtuoso is commonly used for Musicians....not fighters :P

[Omigawd]

Virtuoso is commonly used for Musicians....not fighters :P

I think you stopped reading the Wikipedia of Virtuoso a little too early

[DecemberSky]

I didn't read wikepidia. Im telling you from personal experience. I wasn't really knocking the title, but more or less, the only people known as "virtuoso's" are musicians (although you can probably apply it to anything). If you want the title Virtuoso, great. I just don't think it fits, that's all. Wasn't meaning to spark a debate lol.

[Mavritanic]

BTW, FC can do different ranks for omni, clans and neuts. Thats be fun! =)

[Doctorhyde]

I still prefer a title decay mechanic, it seems to make the most sense.

I was thinking about this over lunch and I also agree that a time-based degradation would be a welcome addition.

Perhaps they can track the "highest title achieved" in the stats similar to the kill/death counter, while still degrading your -current- title over time so that you have to maintain it if you want to retain it.

[Saevitia]

WTB knight sounding titles for keepers!

- Squire
- Templar
- Crusader
- Reaver
- Cavalier
- Exalted

finish off with Inquisitor just for jokes

[Neista]

Well, looking at the other lists and keeping with the theme of progression and coherence in them, and reminiscing a bit on sci-fi stories and old-school AO, I spent a little time coming up with these suggestions:

-Streetjudge
-Bountyhunter
-Vigilante
-Guerilla
-Commando
-Specialist
-Elite
-Ace
-Nemesis
-Legend

Has an internal coherence and progression, is different from the other title lists, yet not too different, and all are individual-achievement entoned.




On the concern of never losing titles, might it be an idea to let titles decay over time if you do not participate in pvp?

The titles sound good, tho i love the idea of profession titles, title decay is a must IMO and this whole system sounds pretty tight.

(this from someone who rarely pvp's btw......but is prepared to be convinced)

[Omigawd]

I didn't read wikepidia. Im telling you from personal experience. I wasn't really knocking the title, but more or less, the only people known as "virtuoso's" are musicians (although you can probably apply it to anything).

Yeah generally it is applied to musicians, sorry for assuming you didn't know the whole history behind it. It isn't really a word commonly used. Which is why I thought you were jumping to conclusions