Turn Reaper into a seasonal thing like Hardcore

[STDGames]

And reset all the reaper XP end of every season.

- A step to the right direction to tightening the gap of power between players.
- Gives players that can't keep up right now, the chance to move up along with more experienced/skilled players every season.
- Players that have.. "counterfeit" lives obtained by cheating over the years (and SSG failing to catch them), will be curbed off in power to new players and non-cheaters :cool: (also SSG you kind of owe it to us for creating this huge powergap thanks to your bugs)
- Players will stop complaining for more challenge because starting over will always be a challenge :rolleyes:

An incentive to play reaper this way would be if players were to receive rewards after every season based off their RXP score, like on Hardcore.
Astral Shards? Threads of Fate? Raid Runes of choice? The new SM mats, of choice? Cosmetics and items that are in the Silver/Gold rolls table?

Thanks for saying Yes ;)

[slarden]

I think a reaper TR would be a better idea so it's optional. If people with X # of reaper points give up all their reaper points they get some special cosmetic and start over at 0.

As long as the cosmetic was good I would sign up day 1.

Doing this involuntarily is just going to result in attrition.

[Carpone]

And reset all the reaper XP end of every season.
Improve your gameplay instead of dragging everyone else down to your level of competence.

[anangel22]

I can relate, the other place (tm) really has become a bit inactive and boring.

[fatherpirate]

good luck putting that genii back in the bottle

[Marshal_Lannes]

Reaper points are not a zero sum equation. There is no need to take from Peter to elevate Paul. The best solution to the power gap continues to be a catch-up mechanic where players are given X amount past lives and reaper points so they meet a developer agreed upon threshold required to be competitive in the game. This should occur when the level cap is increased.

[TedSandyman]

I think this is a great idea. I think this is one of the best ideas I've heard on the forums in a while.

Unfortunately, there is no way it would ever be implemented now. Not on the regular servers.

Too many people have spend unimaginable amounts of time grinding every bit of fun out of reaper simply to get to the end first so they can complain about how bored they are now and want to leave.

The complainers (not all the reaper zergers, just the complainers) didn't even realize how much the grind WAS their life and how much it gave them purpose for 6 months or so and KEPT them playing the game like nothing else could. Those people played and played and played day after day, spending money on pots and eating up each quest and all the xp they could get. And loved every minute of it. So why wouldn't they want to repeat it?

A lot of people said the reaper trees were a bad idea, and they were. But a reaper tree that isn't permanent wouldn't have been so bad.

Imagine if they had originally designed it so that if you get 1,000,000 reaper points in a year, and you get something special. Then it starts over next year.

It would have given those reaper zergers something to do forever. Every year the zergers would actually be LOOKING FORWARD to the new season instead of sitting there bored out of their minds.

As it sits now, a large number of them are bored because they farmed all the fun out of it in a zerg and are complaining (some of them) that they are bored and ready to leave.

I would like SSG to implement a new server with a definite time limit, that doesn't have the permadeath component. And, every so often, 6 months or every year, the server is stopped, the stats are tallied and rewards given. Then, WITHOUT DELETING ALL THE CHARACTERS, simply restart the server with all xp and rxp wiped for the next season.

Hardcore has been a raving success. Yeah, some of you don't like it, I know. But the biggest complaint I see is that everyone is playing hardcore and it really affects the numbers on the other servers. Because a large number of people are FLOCKING to hardcore, because it is fun as heck.

The first few weeks there are tons of players and lfms and groups doing anything and everything you could want to run. The first few weeks of hardcore are exactly what many ask for, a server merge.

I personally believe a hardcore season without the permadeath would be just as successful if not more so. The biggest thing that causes people to quit hardcore is when they die around level 14 and above. Yeah, if you don't die, you love it. But many of you who love it know what I mean because you give up after dying a few times because other people are stupid or the lag monster gets you.

You spend all of that time getting your toon built up and to that level and then, it is gone. And starting over seems so hard at that point. And you are angry at the person who got you killed, or the lag that got you killed. You think of all the gear you've lost and all the time to get back to that level. You lose a level 1 through 5, its not so big a deal. But after you've lost a few higher level toons, it just gets to be too much and people quit.

Don't get me wrong, I love the hardcore. I think it is very much the future of this game. Getting stuck and end game and complaining about it endlessly isn't fun. Being a casual player seeing that everyone is way too advanced to play with you and knowing you can never catch up isn't fun.

Putting everyone on equal footing every so often is fun as heck. That is mostly why hardcore is fun. Lots to do. Lots of advancement potential. Lots of zerg potential. Lots of people around the same level. Lots of LFMs. Lots of working together. The whole experience is better, except for when lag kills you. And it falls off after a few weeks because people stop playing.

A season without the permadeath, I think, would be highly received. Something like what the OP was suggesting.

You would have to raise the limits to get rewards of course. More of a challenge for the zergers. And it would keep people from rage quitting over dying. It would allow us to be a little less conservative in what we run, allowing higher level content (and more xp of course).

Since you can re-use the toon next season, there will be less reluctance to buy things like tomes and bank space, if you KNOW they wont be worthless on death or at the end of the season.

Don't have a reincarnation cache, for sure. But do have a LIMITED season bank for each toon, and only the things put there carry over from one season to the next. So you WILL have to choose what named items to keep. You can keep some, but not all. This will limit the power creep caused by gear.

Don't call it a hardcore season, call it a challenge season. I am not even suggesting we get rid of hardcore, run them at the same time, or alternate. Or maybe even make it a new permanent server that resets once a year.

I would be there like a shot.

[acemonkey]

Well, personally I've worked pretty hard earning each RP myself from 0 points soloing. So any recommendation to just delete all of that earned XP boils down to trolling the playerbase.

It's about as asinine as the recommendation to delete past lives.

Well, 2-3 years ago you’d have had a point. In today’s DDO the devs regularly pick things they’ve sold the players, take half or more away, and then try to repackage and sell what they took. Taking all your reaper xp in the name of game balance or game health is starting to look pretty reasonable from a DDO developer point of view imo.

A strange game, the only winning move is not to pay/play.

[Cantor]

The way to do it right imo. Is to have account based advancements that can transfer at the end of a HC season. That is the way to level the playing field and allow progression. But there have been lots of requests for account based pl rxp etc and it doesn't seem likely.

[rabidfox]

The best solution to the power gap continues to be a catch-up mechanic where players are given X amount past lives and reaper points so they meet a developer agreed upon threshold required to be competitive in the game. This should occur when the level cap is increased.
A fresh newly created character with a good build who spends the time to farm out a full set of gear can run any quest/raid in the game (one can actually get away with less than that) albeit at a difficulty setting that's appropriate. Anything beyond that is where one is pushing progressive content; do new players/casuals really need to be pushing progressive content?