Daenks/Meridian59_103 — pull request #12 by M59Gar (2013-11-14 22:42:35+00:00)
Title: Set & Loadout

Set & Loadout eliminate regearing grind for well-organized guilds. Loadout takes loot from your hall chests and instantly and accurately restocks your gear, according to a preferred inventory you saved with Set. You must be proper rank, a member of a hall-owning guild, and in a safe area.

* Created a new class of spell called Utility Spells. These will never count toward level advancement. I did this because I simply couldn't classify Set & Loadout, and I'm pretty sure other contributors will want to add more such unclassifiable spells in the future.

* Created two Utility Spells called Set and Loadout. To summarize, Set saves an inventory list for use by Loadout, while Loadout attempts to instantly rereag the character from any safe zone using loot in the hall chests.

* Both of these spells have been added as scrolls sold by the 6 major innkeepers. The spells are not directly buyable. This way we can change or even remove the spells if they don't work out.

Now, what is my thinking behind these spells?

They are the first major boost in revamping guild halls as a PvP scenario. Set and Loadout's implementation will do many critical things.

Loadout's main intention is to attack the behavior of rereaging with invincible riija mules. This is a huge waste of time for every player, and because the mules are invincible, it's functionally useless as a dynamic. Every fight comes with 5-10 minutes of running around using a clunky interface to repeatedly offer / drop / switch / grab etc. Loadout completely eliminates that for guilded hall-owning players, restoring their inventory instantly for only the price of an 800 shilling scroll.

The consequences on player behavior spiral from there. This is obviously something most guilds will want to use, especially very large guilds and players running multiple characters. That will incentivize them to own as big a hall as possible, or go after the big ones if they are already owned. Then, it will incentivize them to keep their chests full of tons of reags and gear. Then, that will incentivize other guilds to try steal those halls, and they'll have plenty of opportunities fueled by the owning guild having to enter their hall to refill the chests.

So we've turned pointless invincible-mules-rereaging into risky pvp-generating open-your-hall-door rereaging, while nuking the grind and improving the fun for everyone involved.

In summary, Loadout:

* Eliminates a pointless grind and annoyance
* Improves the rereaging interface
* Boosts the value of halls tremendously
* Incentivizes guilds to keep tons of loot in their halls
* Organically creates PvP based on new high-value halls and loot

This should be a great boost to the Meridian 59 player experience. Not to rely on anecdotes here, but a common major reason people stop playing over time (including myself many times) is the excessive time cost involved rereaging after every battle with an interface that just isn't built for it. I'd have given anything all those times to just Loadout and then continue playing.