Collectibles System verhaul

[dwise2426]

The first thing that we have to do is acknowledge that the collectibles system is in fact broken. Here I've listed several things that that i think are wrong with the current system.

A): the current system is not very user friendly. while most other reward systems in the game feature some sort of icon-centric U.I. while the collectibles interface and reward system are text only. while the rewards for collection may be diverse and useful in many cases, this diversity is not brought to the players attention. With the text only interface each transaction yields only a small brief bit of gray text at the top of their screen alerting the player to the item received, this results in the player not feeling rewarded for or even having turned in an item at all. the concept of advancement and reward are at the center of all MMO's and indeed most modern video games, when the player does not feel rewarded for his/her actions in the game then the makers have failed.

B): The majority of DDO was made to accommodate what is now only the first half to of the game (levels 1-12). Since the introduction of higher character levels much of the games content has had to change or be upgraded in order for there to be some semblance of balance. The problem is that at many pointsthe rewards are not balanced for the character level receiving them. While this is obviously not a problem solely with the collectibles system, it is prevalent, and should be fixed.

C): Many collectibles have other uses in game and the current system makes no distinction between what is and is not valuable outside of the rewards that it gives. This problem may seem secondary and that it can simply be circumvented by player experience however the friendliness of the game and the quality of its systems have proven often to determine if a new player stays and for how long. when a new player finds out that an item that they casually swapped for a random reward actually had great value, they feel disheartened and often times blame the system for not providing proper warnings or rewards (as it should).



Solution:

I would first like to point those reading this to a thread that has already written on this topic since it is not my idea alone http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=282811.

The answer to the first problem seems to be to replace the text based interface with an icon-centric interface, fortunately for developers a system was recently used in the Halloween event that i think would fit nicely as a replacement to the collection system. The system introduced at the Mabar event included a drag and drop style window where different items could be submitted for a series of rewards, sometimes requiring a variety of items. This system Might be used to solve the other two problems as well with a greater quantity of collectibles submitted for higher level rewards and the less common multi-use collectibles becoming a requirement for other special items.



This is my first time posting and don't know how often the developers look at the forums but i think if there is a big enough positive reaction for this sort of change, that eventually it might change. I would love some developer feedback on the feasibility of implementing this sort of system and of course the support of players who see the need for it.

If you feel the need for this sort of change please consider this a petition and sign it
Feedback is also welcome