Petition for Old Scalp rewards!

[Petra]

It's a tough one, the master bloat and advantages that came with that were one of the bigger motivators to the reduction presumably, and that's understandable. However I think we've probably gone beyond that balance now.

As it stands, there are so many masters that other people mastering is more sort of levelling the field than a bloat of bonuses.

More importantly there used to be a lot more QP turnover than there currently is, due to reduced numbers and the general competence of players being a more standard, and higher, level. Nowadays we tend to see far fewer scalps for the hours of play, so in terms of 'value of QP's for time committed' I don't think that increasing the QP rewards for scalps is going to be a problem.

On top of that people tend to have a lot less time to play, so even in terms of RL time between QP growth it's probably still far less than it was when the 'new' scalp reward levels came in.

[pial]

I've gotten the 1k qp mark on 4 different characteres now and the most recent experience with doing it on Pial this summer was the worst I've ever had. The ratio of remorts and masters to normal characters is at the worst it's ever been in favor of masters/remorts. The balance of the game is simply broken for non-masters and the only class in my opinion who has a real opportunity to match fire power with the masters/remorts other than channelers of course is berserk warriors! At this point the frustration that was the qps returned for time put in during my master run was so frustrating that I can't imagine what newer players or those less experienced at pk must feel in regards to trying to muster up 1k qps.

It's my opinion that at this point more masters won't even change the dynamic of the game but the better qp rewards will certainly change the experience for the better for a lot of people.

[Eol]

The worst thing for new players isn't going to be the PK - its going to be getting their hands on a head to begin with. As long as we continue to implement new rewards people are going to chase them.

[pial]

I agree that the implementation of the rank 8 bonuses makes the qp situation even worse but the point I was trying to make is that if I, a guy who had hit 1k qps on four characters now, had a hard time for the first time ever in my career getting to master then the situation for newer people or people who aren't as experienced at pk is even worse. The state of pk in terms of balance is so wonky that having increased rewards that result in more masters wouldn't even impact the game noticeably at this point was my secondary point.

[medina]

It's a though balance but in my mind the biggest argument for raising it is in retaining new players. A newish player arriving in pk with more than 75% being masters/remorts/otherwise bonused has a hard time getting kills and gettings scalps from any kills (how many scalps has not mysteriously started disappearing lately?).

Seeing that 1000 qps goal with 1/3/5 rewards can be pretty daunting. But then again this would bring more people to rank 8 which means more bonuses for non-masters to struggle against..

[Maegon]

It sounds like the age old issue of trying to fix bonuses by "fixing" qp rewards. If you halve the rewards, a really good pker might take an extra 3 months to master. The average player might take an extra 2 years. It's like trying to fix weapon balance but master postures/damage screw everything up. So if you really care about keeping new people and helping the average player, we should be looking at upping qp rewards and balancing master bonuses.

The point system style for the r8 bonuses are definitely going in the right direction. I always forget who first post the point system for masters, Dorien or Razhak, but it was really well done and would make for different styles of masters, which also incentivise people to play new characters.

[Rig]

The new r8 bonuses are going to have more people pushing for r8 anyway. This leaves most of the non masters with scalp rewards with either 1 or 3 qp scalps because masters are going to be taking heads. Make the qp rewards 3 5 7 and we won't have people getting all bent because whoever took a ton of scalps trying to get to r8 ect ect. These also help people achieve the eventual master or r8 goal they intend on doing faster, helping them get over this phantom learning curve everyone has about fighting masters or remorts.

[Rig]

That and the amount of pk we have now is nothing compared to what it used to be. It's a bit of a hassle most of the time, and when you do get pk started its always bitching. Then when pk ends you have people who are non masters being rewarded with nothing if some master is taking all the scalps. Essentially making the 1-2 hours you just spent pking pointless.

[Razhak]

The point system style for the r8 bonuses are definitely going in the right direction. I always forget who first post the point system for masters, Dorien or Razhak, but it was really well done and would make for different styles of masters, which also incentivise people to play new characters.

it was alot of us debating back and forth and pushing eachother to think about new avenues.

However the comprehensive post I distilled out of it was different from the current situation, that I envisioned it replacing the current rigid master system with master postures, by replacing them by a stepped up point system.

You could still do it today: remove master postures, split rank 8 bonusses in a rank 7 and a rank 8 part and voila: custom masters for the same amount of effort as the current new system

[krul]

Then when pk ends you have people who are non masters being rewarded with nothing if some master is taking all the scalps. Essentially making the 1-2 hours you just spent pking pointless.

I'm confused, why do you play this game? For fun, or for in-game rewards? If you had fun, how can it be pointless?