Unique Policy

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Feneon
Posts: 1747
Joined: Sat Dec 19, 2015 5:02 pm

Unique Policy

Post by Feneon » Mon May 23, 2022 10:06 am

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=300&p=1041#p1041

In preparation for the re-introduction of a few uniques and to test a new policy to see if it achieves the desire affect we are announcing this change and opening it to questions before the items release.

Namely the policy is this:

If you have a unique then you can only play the character that has the unique. If you want to play alts then you can give it away, but if you have it then you are active on that character.

If you are inactive with a unique then your character will be jailed till a turn-in so that the unique can be reintroduced to the game. Inactivity is defined as not active play over the course of two weeks. Active play will be ultimately discretionary, but as a baseline: spending two hours a day online idling or spending two hours over the course of two weeks would be seen as inactive.

We do not want people to trade the item back and forth in order to avoid the intention of this rule which is: if you have a unique you are actively playing it. There are instances where you may want to give this to a friend to hold so you can attend an RP or clan event. This is reasonable. What is not reasonable is alternating the object at a regular pace with the intention of not actively playing it. (e.g. if you traded it every other day so you could play your alts then over 14 days the unique would only see 7 days of play).

Once you have a unique (not Justice or Malfeasor) show it to either Jeheran in Falme, the Dreadlord in Keep, or Lord Dremond in Fal Dara.

It would be against the spirit of the rules to transfer a unique cross-race and that unique would be removed. However, you can transfer it on the same side if you end up with the item. For this we would consider Light Side, Seanchan Side, Darkfriends, and Dark Side all cross-race transfer.

**These items should be fun, sought-after, encourage risk-taking, and good. Please help us by making sure that you understand the intent of this ruling and when you have a unique abide by it. Have fun with it and enjoy the challenges that come with being targeted!


From the immortal perspective:

We like the uniques. They are items that can provide a lot of power. They are fun to have and they lead to more engagements and more risk taking.

We like loading uniques, it gives us the opportunity to do larger awards for player activities and can lead to spur of the moment questing with good gains.

We like seeing them in play, it often becomes a rallying cry in PK for people who are looking for loot.

And while we do not like policing the policy, we feel that this, along with clearly stated intentions around use will lead to more people having more opportunities to try them.

The largest issue we'd see in the past with uniques was not that players wouldn't play them, it was that they would opt to play their characters without them to lower the risk of losing them. We do not want these to be vanity items, we want them to be active in the game and discretion means that if individuals are playing them in a way to subvert or avoid our intentions and the stated policy then we will put the character in unique jail and reload the item.

Unique jail is simply a room where if you drop your unique you will be returned to the land. These items should therefore be opportunities to rally around or, if you win one in a lotto and you don't want to use it, a collect of 250 turn points.

Are there any questions around this?

Razhak
Posts: 1396
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 7:43 am

Re: Unique Policy

Post by Razhak » Mon May 23, 2022 10:14 am

Sounds reasonable to me.

Perhaps there will turn up some snags and loopholes in the rules we cant anticipate yet, but I'd say just start with these rules and then work with them.

Prykor
Posts: 180
Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2022 8:56 pm

Re: Unique Policy

Post by Prykor » Mon May 23, 2022 10:49 am

I would recommend changing the DS 'show' mob to one that doesn't wander around, such as DL J sitting on this throne in the Shadowspawn stronghold.

I do not believe the flat turn-in reward for uniques will work. I understand the intent behind it to get some value for the unique when your chracter is unable to make use of it otherwise, but I see the 5 qp and 5 crafting tokens for turning in those TPS as being more useful for character progression than what would be achieved through using any of the uniques.
Especially for abs uniques, as that means they get nearly instantly turned in similar to the Xmas heron greatswords (before that option was removed).

I would recommend either removing the turn-in reward completely, or some other means to ensure that it gets used prior to being turned in such as not eligible to be turned in prior to an X day timeframe, or above a certain durability on the weapon.

Naerin
Posts: 310
Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 12:29 pm

Re: Unique Policy

Post by Naerin » Mon May 23, 2022 11:21 am

I also like the outcome that creates in conjunction with the activity policy - if you don't want the unique and won't be 'active', you don't go in on the split for it because you have nothing to gain.

Draz
Posts: 559
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2017 9:14 pm

Re: Unique Policy

Post by Draz » Mon May 23, 2022 11:22 am

Honestly I’d probably suggest that people be able to log Alts for short periods without the intent of non pk or smob activities; and have a requirement that they pray upon logging in. Whether that’s to rank someone, attend a class, transfer some vials for the alt with the unique…

Draz
Posts: 559
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2017 9:14 pm

Re: Unique Policy

Post by Draz » Mon May 23, 2022 11:24 am

Honestly I’d probably suggest that people be able to log Alts for short periods without the intent of non pk or smob activities; and have a requirement that they pray upon logging in. Whether that’s to rank someone, attend a class, transfer some vials for the alt with the unique…

Naerin
Posts: 310
Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 12:29 pm

Re: Unique Policy

Post by Naerin » Mon May 23, 2022 11:26 am

Also, if I'm understanding this right, there are two stipulations for activity?

1) While you own a unique, you may only play the character with the unique, no exceptions.
2) In addition to that, you must play enough (again, on that character only) to be considered active, where activity is discretionary.

With a QoL policy where if you have a clan event on some other alt, and where activity rule #1 would normally prevent you from playing that alt, you can temporarily give the unique away, giving you back the ability to play other alts, attend the event, and then get the unique back and resume only playing the alt with the unique.

Aloisa
Posts: 968
Joined: Tue May 30, 2017 8:24 pm

Re: Unique Policy

Post by Aloisa » Mon May 23, 2022 11:43 am

One unique per character would help ensure that more people got to experience uniques (and maybe let imms reintroduce non-weapon uniques).

Rig
Posts: 2226
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2015 8:00 pm
Location: JESUS

Re: Unique Policy

Post by Rig » Mon May 23, 2022 12:02 pm

Seems good. I don’t like the idea above of turning in uniques if you can’t use it, you don’t go in for it.

I’d also recommend that you can’t alt the unique. As soon as you acquire said unique, we can have a thread that’s updated here with who has what. Then when they die, someone or the person with the unique can post here and update it again.

Naerin
Posts: 310
Joined: Sat May 23, 2015 12:29 pm

Re: Unique Policy

Post by Naerin » Mon May 23, 2022 12:08 pm

I think alting uniques should still be allowed - it's pretty common to be contributing to a kill but not on a character that can reset to it, even if you'd use it with the activity restrictions.

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