If EQ devs stopped nerfing everything, they wouldn't have a job. Some things need to be left alone for player enjoyment. If exploits arise, fix them. Don't nerf everything ahead of time to ruin everything for everyone. This may be the worse feature ever released as an expansion seller.
Most players do not yet realize how much potential APs do have, until the bugs got fixed. The biggest downside is the price because it does include and upsell the Hero's Forge ornamentation feature afaik. Lowering the price from 1500 to 989 db would be a fair compromise because not everyone does want or like Hero's Forge and plenty players do still use the classic PC models, which are not affected by Hero's Forge. I would say that it is the most powerfull and interesting expansion feature right after mercenaries, even that it is half-baked. The AP feature is a wolf in sheep's clothing. In a few years the players that got used to them, will like APs as much as they do like mercs.
It all feels like a waste of time and money. The only clear advantage APs have over making alts is having the same name on them all.
Can you explain how this feature is so powerful? Not being sarcastic, I seriously can't see any benefit of APs, that would make me choose that over an alt.
Most expansion features like keyrings had not granted much power, so it is easy to beat them. The power bonus is coming from the flexibility and progression bonuses, and is rather subtle. Here a few examples: Switching to another archtype class and basically to any other class in a short time while keeping all progression bonuses does grant much more flexibility than alts. The leveling procedure can be even easier and faster because of the already unlocked bonuses, and possibly better gear, than on alts. Untradeable gear could be reused for archtype classes and saving time and money. The equipment situation for rotting loot is much better. No need to run over or park an alt for gear drops when the player does rely on APs, so less gear will rot. Superbuff and superport mules are also possible with APs, which can replace a few alts. Same for tradeskill mules.
making any new character a Persona instead of an Alt starts them out with access to your main character's : Explorers Slayers Trophy slots Trophies to go in those Hero's Fortitude, Vitality, and Resolution Tradeskills and their stuff: Jann's, Mount, Familiar, Bravery, Coating, Skull of Null Bifold, Dark Rites, Immaculate Light, Venenium, Chandrok's Stein, Feather, Horn clickers for Shrink & Lev, plus Invis if you're war/pal/cle
Persona slots are per account and unlock on all characters on all servers when purchased. Not quite as silly as the Hero's Forge.
I have been toying with the thought of an AP, for stuff like this -- I want to be able to switch between classes on one account, so I don't have to flag two different characters (or even more...) but I've also heard things like MPG trials, and DON advancement, and Banestrike are yet to be carried over between personas... i don't want to end up creating a persona that can't be deleted just to find out a week from now they figured out how to do it but it only applies to new personas.
And ALL of that could have been accomplished by simply applying the code already in game to existing alts. There was never a need to devise an entirely new system.
Micker99 didn't ask what other, entirely hypothetical things could do or might have done. Micker99 asked what Personas do.
I want to give it a go, but I'm concerned with using a Heroic token on an character that's used a Heroic token previously. I saw that bug post, where they lost their inventory.
I 100% absolutely positively guarantee you the persona system was far less work than what you are proposing.
It does not. Oakwynd just makes most no drop items heirloom. It does not do the rest of any of the things listed. Overseer achievements are not "shared," they are a different type of achievement that is account-based rather than character-based.
Its server based, i do overseers on both servers i play on, and i do them at the same time .. so definitely server based, NOT account based
Yes, but as Daybreak does not want to give away Hero's Forge for APs for free, the marketplace price of Hero's Forge (1,200 db per character) has been calculated into the price of AP slot unlockers (1,500 db). The first three AP slots do get payed by buying the expansion (which is a bundle) or the AP bundle at the end of the next year. This intertwining is problematic and puzzling. Most players won't notice it at all but will be wondering why an AP slot does cost 1,500 db, which is a lot. That will not further AP slot unlocker sales and most players might only use the three slots that they bought together with the expansion. Those players that are used to create many new characters and to whom the Alternate Persona feature is dedicated (regarding to Jennifer Chan), will not buy AP slot unlockers if they do cost that much. And they do only cost that much because the Hero's Forge price got calculated into them. Those players are not interested in Hero's Forge at all I think. They are only interested in the leveling process and do usually always take the same PL route. Sometimes they do even delete some of their characters before they do start new ones. APs however cannot be deleted which does make them further uninteresting to that target group. It was basically developed without the target group in mind and not knowing them.
They're account based. That doesn't mean it applies to every server. Account based lockouts from AoC raids don't apply to characters on another server either, they're still account based.
The key word, of course, is new. A lot of veteran players who have 1+ alts as is do not have the time to make a new character. Which is the disappointment of releasing alternate personas, a fantastic feature, 24 years after game release.
My main disappointment is sharing lockout timers. I like to run my box group through missions for currency, and keep my main freed up for guild runs. I’d have liked to consolidated my characters under one, but this misses the mark.
