119059-boa-gear-alt-endgame-incentive

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'Ello all,
 
I believe I wrote about this a bit in response to another thread some weeks ago, but I wanted to flesh out the idea and see what other players think.
 
Having read a lot of the critical feedback on these forums and in response to Wildstar articles around the net, I'd like to talk about two primary issues: Leveling grind/difficulty and lack of endgame for casual/solo players. I'm not claiming that these are the biggest or most popular issues, but they do seem to crop up frequently in games media (being pretty generic complaints in the MMO genre anyhow).After a bit of brainstorming a few weeks ago, this is my suggestion to alleviate both of these problems. The intent is to keep this as simple as possible: Add Bind on Account gear to this game. 
 
 
How it worksBoA gear binds to your account, and thus can be passed between alts. It does not have a static level requirement, but scales to the level of the wearer; however, the item usually stops scaling before endgame cap. In Wildstar it should probably be L1-40.
 
 
Pros 
 
1. Lets players who already have level 50s determine their own desired level of difficulty (if you want to spend the time to grind out a full set of BoAs, you'll have  a much faster, more action-oriented experience, similar to picking Story Mode in some games; you can enjoy the scenery, lore, and gut-bursting goodness of combat without the grind feel).
 
2. Should encourage the use of dungeons and PVP at lower levels (in the latter case, it contributes to 'twink' mentality, should there be PVP-specific BoA gear... and twinking made lower level BGs very popular in other MMO games). Keep in mind that by most accounts lower level BGs are dead in Wildstar, so I don't see twinking as something that would bring the whole scene crashing down, though I do understand the necessary imbalances twinking can create.
 
3. Gives casual players/soloers something to do at endgame. Buying BoA gear could come from a number of sources: Gold, Renown, Prestige, or as achievement drops (defeat all dungeons on bronze, silver, or gold to get one BoA from each). Any way it happens, they'd make a good incentive and can keep players happily going through the level-endgame-level cycle.
 
4. Easy to implement. This is a big assumption on my part, but I feel like this would be simple to design and code in. However, ensuring the items don't completely break the combat experience would probably not be simple.
 
 
Cons
 
?
 
 
Since I'm all for this idea I'm sure there are some negative points I'm missing, so feel free to tear this idea apart. :P  One thing I'd ask any readers to keep in mind, though: Yes I am asking for a way to scale difficulty in content. Don't assume this means I want an easier game. What I mostly want is a faster and less grindy leveling experience, because my opinion of most of Wildstar's leveling difficulty is not that it's "gameplay hard" (demands coordination, skillshots, and strategy), but rather that it's "pay attention hard" (demands you stare and move frequently).This latter kind of hard isn't a bad thing in my books, but it's taxing... it's not something I want to do after a day of work or for hours on end, most of the time. So, again, I'm asking that players be allowed the tools (earned, not given) to tweak the alt-leveling experience to something each individual feels is fun, and is less time-consuming. 
 
 
That's it... anyone agree with this idea? Has this concept been discussed by the devs in any way?	
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			It sounds like you are suggesting heirlooms from WoW, I am not sure that this is a good idea. Heirlooms became rather toxic for the community where dungeons moved into the "heirloom or bust" mentality, especially for tanks. Additionally this devalues all the gear from 1-40 from drops, quests and crafting. However this does make gearing for support roles before 50 significantly less painful if you had said items. Over all I am not sure if this would be a good idea in the long run.	
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Keep in mind that heirlooms would be optional, do not affect new players, and last... low level queues aren't really popping right now, so the idea of 'heirloom or bust' doesn't really apply. :P
 
But yes, this is pretty much a suggestion to implement heirlooms. I think they're a big incentive tool and pretty much everyone I knew in WoW made use of heirloom items. They were very popular, so far as I understand.	
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			Swtor has this its called Bind to Legacy. You can pass the gear around as long as it is bind to legacy, even cross faction as long as you are a sub. I like it.	
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I support this idea to some extend.
 
I believe heirlooms should be implemented, but not just yet. By giving 50's a chance to level up alts, the playerbase is not getting any wider. For example, If 1 person has 5 alts, the amount of money that goes to Carbine corresponds to that of 1 person. While I agree with the idea and I believe that players would have a chance to invest more time in the game if that were to happen, this is not what needs to be done at this time. Also, more people need to know about W* (through advertising) in order for Carbine to get the money and therefore the resources to be able to invest in the game and offer us the quality and content we need to be satisfied. Ultimately, your idea should be worked on and delivered to the community but at a different time.
 
-Imp	
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Meh. I liked and didn't like heirlooms in WoW. On the one hand, woah fast leveling; on the other... is 50 levels really that hard?
 
That said, leveling in WildStar is absurdly linear. A better solution to make leveling alts more engaging would be to give us more than one leveling path...	
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While I can see how this would help with the levelling problem, I dont' actually see how this would help soloers and casuals more than, well, having their own "traditional" BoP rewards distinct from the raiding scene OR being able to eventually acquire raiding gear with activities that aren't raids. What soloers need is engaging ways to progress they characters past level 50 just like the raiding folks can. Right now, all we have is "reach level 50, grind reputation for a while-wait, no, better farm gold instead and buy crafted gear off the Auction because that's better and faster than the reputation items". It's not very engaging. The Omnicore solo adventure-dungeon was a step in the right direction. Except it's rewards are kind of lackluster and it is still a mindless repetition. Just like grinding dailies in any of the first daily zones.
 
The levelling problem can be alleviated greatly by including more levelling paths and adding a very simple Quality of Life improvement: cross faction mail (even if it's restricted to characters in the same account). That way, I can move gear I acquired with one faction to my characters on the other faction. Or gold so I can decorate their houses, buy their mounts, runes, gear or whatever I can buy with that gold. 
But the levelling paths are a huge problem, if you ask me. Or should I say THE levelling path. There's no distinction between paths after level 21. If your Exile Warrior deactivated an Eldan Terraformer in Whitevale, you can be sure your Dominion Spellslinger will eventually do the same. The only change will be that instead of receiving the order from Victor Lazarin you'll receive it from Mondo Zax. Character swaps. The worst case of this is in Grimvault, were both factions are attacked by the Strain in the exact same manner, and they both have to deactivate hijacked Exanite cannons that are sitting one next to the other and share names. It's ridicolous and lazy. At the very least the levelling paths of each faction should be different from each other.
Of course, it's a bit late to revamp the levelling experience. All Carbine can realistically do from now on is to add alternative paths. That would be a huge help to fight off the lazy sameness we have currently.
 
In short, I feel like "heirlooms" would be like trying to fix a gaping wound with a tiny band aid. Might help a bit, but it's not the real solution.
 
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Keep in mind that heirlooms would be optional, do not affect new players, and last... low level queues aren't really popping right now, so the idea of 'heirloom or bust' doesn't really apply. :P
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I'm all for it, but remember WoW only implemented heirloom gear in WotLK (near the end if I remember correctly).. That's 2 xpacs in and level 80. It made sense, and it was a welcome addition. 
 
I know, I know. WildStar doesn't HAVE to fit WoW's mold, or any other game, but I still think this and the instant level 90 idea is too soon. I think it would be best if Carbine added such items with the next xpac (sometime in the future) so people could level a tad faster to get to the new content. 	
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I support this idea to some extend.
 
more people need to know about W* (through advertising) in order for Carbine to get the money and therefore the resources to be able to invest in the game and offer us the quality and content we need to be satisfied
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