Infamy and Alt Abuse

[skyler1212 Lvl 100 USTexasPolar BearPosts: 31]

A large portion of the updates have been about finding ways to protect newer and lower level players. It makes sense why this is necessary if we want the game to grow.

However, the solutions that have been implemented are often used as tools by trolls to aid trollish behavior. At times it can even feel like being a higher level player is a disadvantage when that should really never be the case. I think the more we go in this direction the less interest there will be in the game overall because it will feel more and more like we are losing the power to create the kind of world we want to build. I think any sandbox game’s primary function should be player choice.

As things are now, there’s really nothing to balance out infamy baiting and alt abuse. It’s very easy for someone to make a fresh toon, level it to 5, leave noobville and instantly wreak havoc because they are essentially untouchable and death has no consequence at all for them and yet killing them can be very dangerous and annoying because of infamy and experience negation. That isn’t balanced.

So here are a few idea I thought of that might be able to help balance out the infamy system.

1) Virtue – a new status for toons
We already have infamy and serenity as different states our toon can be in. I propose a third one, it could be called “virtue” or something, and you accrue it by not having infamy for a certain length of time, in the same way serenity is accrued by being in Wellington for a certain length of time.
The benefits could be bonuses to stats, like the opposite of infamy, and if you really wanted to make it enticing to players there could even be a special ability that only players in virtue could use.
So the basic goal of virtue would be to give players some special incentive to avoid infamous behavior and not flippantly murder people.

2)Primary/Secondary Accounts
Right now almost every player uses alts, and in many ways it cheats the spirit of the game. It’s just smart to use alts with how the game is structured but at the same time it makes the game feel lamer. There’s no risk anymore because you can just keep all your stuff on vault accounts, or if a war breaks out, you can just use your level 9 alt to go try and infamy bait people or grief the base or even just stand in the way. No risk = no excitement = no fun. And in addition to all that, your alt is given all the protections that are intended for new players, making them untouchable.
So I think every player should have a designated primary account, and any other accounts that they make will be secondary accounts. The difference between the two is that the rules of infamy would only apply to primary accounts. Killing secondary accounts can never result in infamy. This makes it so that alt abuse is way easier to deal with and a player who uses their alts to influence gameplay can’t receive protections that are intended for legitimately newer/weaker players.

3)Permadeath
Probably not gonna be a popular opinion but w/e.
I think any account that dies a certain number of times within a given frame of time should be permanently deleted. Like if you die 10 times within an hour your toon is just permadead.
It could happen to any toon but it would mostly be applicable to alts that are used to help during raids. If your alt has already died 9 times for example you have to make a choice to either not come back for a while or face permadeath.

[Gank Lvl 108 USWest2Polar BearPosts: 49]

I hope and pray this never ever happens. You want a social card for fantasy role-playing game. You want to put real life virtues and morals into this. This is an escape and place to have fun. Bonuses for being a “good” person in a open world 2d PvP game? Sounds ridiculous. This happens me and every other pvp player will quit.

[NerdyName Lvl 60 USEastPolar BearPosts: 44]

1) No, PvP on someone without infamy has enough draconian consequences as is right now.
2) Kinda, it’d be neat to have alts be easier to create in a sense because if you want to do anything in Welly you need an alt, but not sure about infamy.
3) Hard no, honestly this game does not handle well enough to have a permadeath system and it screws over carners.

[lucas100vzs Lvl 119 BrazilGoblinPosts: 82]

RandomHardcorePlayer: I Have 200 Reincarnations!

*PermaDeath+lag+spawn bug+mandatory damage screwing up defense*: Hold my beer…

[Calypso Lvl 33 USEastWolfPosts: 22]

Cry me a river. Did you forget Welli exists to stop higher levels from abusing the game? You act like everyone is so moral when there are people on USE who kill everyone they see and only let the people who they like live. And its incredibly easy to be on their bad sides, whether it be hitting a wall or making a simple joke in global. They’ve had like the past years to terrorize players all they want, but now they don’t get to anymore. Just because you can’t get your hands on everyone, doesn’t NOT put you at a disadvantage. This is not your game anymore.

[Zork9000 Lvl 146 USEastPolar BearPosts: 25]

-1000
This more of the same stuff that causes all these issues in the first place and would cause more discontent and abuse.

[skyler1212 Lvl 100 USTexasPolar BearPosts: 31]

@IMPK
All sandbox games are inherently moral because they revolve around player choice. That’s what makes the game compelling. There are already penalties for being a “bad person” so it’s consistent to have bonuses for being a “good person.” In general I think it’s a better idea to incentivize people and promote choice than it is to punish and restrict people.

@lucas100vzs
The permadeath idea would only affect toons that die over and over again in a very short period of time. I’m talking like 10-15 deaths in an hour or so. It isn’t something that you could just accidentally lag into. And if you were at your maximum deaths for that hour, you could also choose to stop coming back until the time had passed. This isn’t intended for normal toons it’s intended to stop low-level alts from influencing gameplay with no penalty. I’ve never seen a regular toon die that many times that quickly unless it was on purpose. The only time it really happens is when someone is using an alt to cheese the game.

@calypso
I’m just writing some ideas to fix what I think are some problems with the way infamy and alts are handled because they can easily be abused with the way things are now.

I have no idea why you are trying to make this personally about me or why you are being hostile with “this is not your game anymore.”

I have played this game for almost two years and can count the number of times I’ve killed people on one hand. I don’t know who you are and I have never done anything to you.

In fact I don’t even know what you’re talking about.
I didn’t even write anything about Wellington.
The only thing I know about you is you started a thread about walling off a “troll’s base” in Wellington and then got confused when your walls were gone and said it was dumb so if anyone is trying to abuse the serene inhabitants of Wellington it’s you.

[Calypso Lvl 33 USEastWolfPosts: 22]

KOS Skyler

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