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What About When We're Not a Prototype?

January 21st, 2014 at 9:55pm
 
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CHAOS_FANTAZY
CHAOS_FANTAZY
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7 TP | 121 PP
So I've graduated from the Plotline part of MMRPG Prototype, and am now a licensed Star Hunter. While working on my first Star-Hunting Project ("Somebody Set Us Up the Bomb, Man", in which I attempt to get every +Explosive Star), it occurred to me: what is this all worth? Is this even going to matter, once the game comes out? Say I do set up the Bomb, Man. Isn't my blatantly overpowered (As it has been noted, it is) Star Force going to be taken from me once the game's actual plotline is finished and released?

Which got me thinking. How are we going to handle the transition of veteran players to the new game once we're out of MMRPG Prototype and into MMRPG?

The big two questions are, what can we give to the Prototype veterans, and when can we give it to them? These questions relate to the following:
- Character Levels
- Battle Points
- Database Entries
- Star Forces

So what this boils down to is what's reasonable. In one extreme, letting me start the game with the Level 100 "Buster Expert" Roll I have here in the Prototype isn't fair; she's just too darned good for beginning-game material. In the other extreme, tearing away the Star Forces forever, from so many people that worked so hard to earn so many Stars, is also unfair. Some form of balance needs to be stricken.

I'm led to believe I'm bringing up a topic that hasn't been mentioned or thought of before, so I'd like to hear some other people's thoughts (Specifically, Adrian's) before I start talking about how I would do it.
Discuss.
What About When We're Not a Prototype?
Posted by CHAOS_FANTAZY on January 21st, 2014 at 9:55pm
Viewed 1177 Times

5 Comments

ProtoMan
 
ProtoMan
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3 TP | 30 PP
Posted on January 21st, 2014 at 9:59pm
Posted 2014/01/21 at 9:59pm
#1
I agree completely. Once the full game comes out where would the veteran players from the Prototype end up? Take away all of the hard earned progress and starting them all over would be blatantly, well, not unreasonable, but unfair. Yet letting veterans start out with their Level 100s would also be unfair to the new players who came after the prototype.

Personally, I believe we have a right to what we earned through hard work. All of our Battle Points and Stars, Levels, ect. But there needs to be some sort of balance to those who were not present during the prototype. What I would do, is reset character levels, but allow them to keep all of their previously gained special weapons and player abilities, as well as keeping already unlocked characters, just bumped to level one. Then give veterans an XP boost of sorts so they can get back to the way they were more easily. I would also lock all of the player's Star Forces until post game, once you beat the campaign, you get back all of your previously earned Star Forces from the Prototype, every single one you earned in fact. Battle Points wise, I am still debating over that, because personally I am against a leader board wipe, because that is unfair as well. Yet not having some sort of reset is unfair to those who came after. Database entries, I would allow veterans to keep all of their database entries. Mostly because, in my opinion, it seems to be more of a miscellaneous feature.

There you have it. That is my opinion, still a work in progress however, so I'm willing to make changes.
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Brorman
 
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Brorman
3,516,752 BP
15 TP | 139 PP
Posted on January 22nd, 2014 at 2:41am
Posted 2014/01/22 at 2:41am
#2
Once the game is out of prototype - which should take a good while - some of the things should be wiped, including leaderboards, since they matter the least gameplay-wise, and fresh leaderboards for a fresh new game sounds like a good idea. As a token of gratitude, every "veteran" as you say, should get a badge on their profile, and some minor benefits maybe.

I really like the idea of storaging collected stuff and unlocking it again once post-game, such as Star Force, collected stat ups, abilities and so on (depending on if these features change a lot during development, then a wipe would a better idea of course). This way everyone could get to experience the full game completely, from square one. Getting your game progress wiped isn't bad if you like the game. I dunno, the full release is still far far in the future so you shouldn't even bother thinking about this.
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CHAOS_FANTAZY
 
Contributor
CHAOS_FANTAZY
3,879,253 BP
7 TP | 121 PP
Posted on January 22nd, 2014 at 1:17pm
Posted 2014/01/22 at 1:17pm
#3
The primary reasons I bring it up now is, for one, I don't have much to worry about right now as far as the development of this game goes; and, two, I don't want to sink hour after bleeding hour of my time into doing things in the Prototype if I'm just going to lose it all. While it is true that plans could change over the course of the Prototype as game mechanics etc. change, I'd like to at least have some form of ground plan.

Now, if I were in charge, I'd probably handle it something like this:

> Wipe the leaderboards of all the Battle Points. As noted elsewhere, there are a handful of exploits in the system which allow for mass BP harvesting, and in general it seems to be unclear just what BP are representative of anyway, aside from being arbitrary points earned for completing missions.
> Let players keep their database entries. They exist only to show what you've seen and own; much like a Pokedex, you gain no real advantages from having them (Aside from the advantage of knowledge, but veterans would have that anyway!).
> It might just be easier to toss Prototype character levels and abilities. Previously, a system where you can transfer them in once you beat the game a la Pokemon seemed best, but that could lead to complications like there being two of the same Robot with a player, and chances are by the end of the campaign, we'd have all the levels and abilities we had before (And more!).
> Star Forces, likewise, can be reinstated once the player beats MMRPG (e.g., defeats the Final Boss), provided that the bonuses provided by it have no impact in online Player vs. Player (A feature Adrian wants to add), and perhaps can be turned on and off at will.
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Ageman20XX
 
Developer
Ageman20XX
9,228,071 BP
221 TP | 575 PP
Posted on January 25th, 2014 at 9:52pm
Posted 2014/01/25 at 9:52pm
#4
This is an excellent thread and discussion to have, and I'm glad someone formally brought it up.

I can assure you that I want to keep as much of your files as possible, regardless of how the game progresses. As some of you know from past updates, dramatic changes in story/mission structure have required me resetting people's completed missions a few times, but I've always tried to keep all the robots and abilities and especially battle points.

The battle point exploit found by Gigggas has been fixed so that shouldn't be too much of a concern anymore - yes he has a really high score, but I know someone will eventually surpass it even with the rule change and they'll feel better as a result. Absolute worst-case scenario is that I reset battle points and give +1000 for every robot, every ability, etc. or something similar... but I don't see that happening any time soon.

For everything else, you guys have fantastic ideas. I like the idea of locking the field stars until post-game but not removing them entirely, but for the robots and abilities it's definitely something we should continue thinking about. We obviously have a lot of time before we have to choose, but it's good to put this out there now.

At the end of the day though, my number one priority in this development cycle is keeping progress and stats accumulated over the prototype stage and rewarding veterans when it's all done. If it's ever done. But I will always make sure the veterans get something for their hard work.

I should also note that the "final version" that I keep talking about is not going to just appear one day. It's something that you'll all be a part of the entire way there and most if not all progress is gonna carry over unless a specific aspect of the game changes completely. Also, the prototype gets updated with new features all the time - new characters, new mechanics, new abilities, new fields - and it may never actually be "done". Even when we have all the robots in the entire database complete (years from now), there's still so much more we can do and I believe we may never truly have a "final version".

Either way though, good topic and keep discussing ideas if you want - just know that I DO value the veteran players and will do my best to accommodate them in any way I can.
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Shadownnico
 
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Shadownnico
43,853,141 BP
13 TP | 182 PP
Posted on January 27th, 2014 at 3:16pm
Posted 2014/01/27 at 3:16pm
#5
I think maybe the robots would lose their levels, but keep their bonus stats. The abilities could either be kept or unlocked after you beat the game/reach a certain point, same with the items.
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5 Comments

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