EverQuest II Achievement System

The Dev team was able to come up with racial abilities that are not supposed to be must haves, just flavor. I think Atan is looking for power/favor along those lines. Something distict, flavored for the achievment accomplished, not must have, yet has some meaning.

If the reward has no meaning at all, is it a reward?

(Over the top) I don't want it in the other direction either. I do not want to see 500 people camping gnolls because killing 10k of them will give you the Brell Smite Everything within 100 to death power.

(on target) A 10 damage mod vs gnolls would fit for killing 5k, maybe 25 mod for killing 10k?(only vs gnolls)

(not worth the effort) After killing 10k gnolls, in countless hours, I got this blue glow stick, that lags me when it is on screen to stick in my house(a place my closest friends have never been)

Brindle wrote:

X-Box Achievments don't give you in game effects and yet people go nuts trying to get them. The reward is really prestige.

Brindle wrote:

That's for you. For many others the nice title was enough to kill 10k of them and that's the spirit of this addition. Every one has their own cost benefits for it and lots of people will be more than happy with fluff.

Atan@Unrest wrote:

I actually think it's possible to find a middle ground where you can have the distinction and yet still have it as "fluff", Think back a few expansions to KoS and the MoA reward. You knew who had done it as they wore the symbol proudly. Now if you could tie achievements to a symbol that people could display in the way MoA was done (Yes I know a lot of work) different colors based on difficulty of the task etc you would have some originality.

Deson wrote:

And only temporarilly at that because you CAN get every Achievment in this system, while you can't with AAs. Like you said "fixing" a system in Dire need of repair by adding a new system is a bandaid at best not a fix. Also remember the LotRO Deed system only lets you equip a limited number of Deeds, so even there you will have the "Optimal" build syindrom if some are more powerful then others.
Legion11 wrote:

This system won't be capable of doing that as it will be tracking on a Per Account Baisis, not per charactor.Though someone in the Panel did ask about your Idea and they did seem reseptive to it, so I wouldn't be supprised if something like this was added down the road... but I wouldn't expect anything to come of it for a long while.
Jesdyr@Unrest wrote:

Slayer Counts are one of the things that will not be reset, they will be roled into the new system. Quest Completion Achivements also will be retroactive, as they are things you can't do again...So if you have the Claymore for exsample you will have an Achivement for that... though you won't for accually killing Trak.
Lastly, to those that that don't want to have thier Named kills reset, IF you happen to deside one day to Role a new main for whatever reason you can pick those achivements up then instead.

Argyuile@Unrest wrote:

I never said the ability would be something everyone would feel is must-have.
Just that it would be something that adds uniqueness. Given the challenge / timesink involved in completing the upper achievements, its isn't practical that many players could choose to complete them all.
An individual's top-tier completed achievements are going to better define those elements of the game they do the most. Making those achievements something that are persistant that will be seen and acknowledged by others and also somehow make me just slightly different than the guard standing next to me that finished a different set of achievements is a really good thing to add to the game.
The difference could be very, very minimal bane damage vs a creature type, bane damage in a specific zone, specific illusions, specific appearance armor / weapons. Getting a 100dmg 1/min dd with a lightning particle effect for killing 10k goblins isn't going to be some OMG UBER effect that everyone is going to rush out and kill 10k goblins for. It is however something that when it triggers, someone will realize, cool, he got his goblin slayer. This type of reward provides minimal distinction without being AUT or another damn plushy/book/wall mounting to place in my already overfilled house that no one but me sees, and I only see it when I'm going to drop off another useless fluff reward.

Argyuile@Unrest wrote:

No, but LOTRO deeds are the exact same thing and do have a reward other than prestige.
I forget what the name was in Warhammer, and they also added something more than AUT and plushies.

Rothgar wrote:

Greetings Rothgar,
Since this is my first post ever in my 7 years of everquesting, allow me to introduce myself. I am The Mighty Pahblo Esco'Bard of Nek server. Many know me as Ikcarus, but feel free to address me as Ikc. So a xbox live like acheivement system huh Hehe I once made a comment in a feedback petition that it be awesome if i could play eq2 from my xbox 360.. kinda like how FFXI can be. My question would have to be, is it safe to assume that with the xbox live like acheivements.. that someday eq2 will be able to be played from xbox 360 console?

Atan@Unrest wrote:

If your complaint is with the AA system, then the suggestion should be to improve the AA system, not create a new system to do what its intended to do. The thing with Achievements is that people will want to get them all if possible. So there is no room for distinction. Players with the same achievements will have the same rewards.
The reason the AA system only has 1 or 2 builds that are effective is because people tend to min/max and pick the best build for their class. If one AA build is even .1% better than another, people will always choose the one with the slight advantage. We could debate this all day, but that would be going off topic.

Rothgar wrote:

My complaint / suggestions have nothing to do with the AA system. My suggestions have to do with lack of character uniqueness and I see the Achievement system as being a good target to add that flavor to the game. I really don't see the AA system as a means of character uniqueness for the very same reasons you just mentioned.
I also don't see how given the lists of things thrown out, it is remotely possible for many if anyone to get them all. Do you have a metric on how many players have all Slayer tittles? I agree people with the same achievements will have the same rewards, but I think designing the achievements that require significant effort to add some minor distinction will add alot of value to this system.
I don't want to debate it all day, I think I've detailed my feedback on how this could be a better system. I knew when I spoke up on the topic what I thought was best for the system was outside your initial scope for the project, but I wanted to throw it out there as I feel it could add enough value to the game to warrant re-evaluating the scope.

Pahblo@Nektulos wrote:

Greetings Ikcarus. Thanks for being a long term EverQuest'or!
I'm sorry to report that EQII will not be heading to the console. SOE is certainly considering that market for many of our up-and-coming titles but it takes a lot of planning and design to make sure a game is fun on both types of systems. Unfortunately EQII was not created with the console market in mind and I'm afraid the experience might be less-than-steller if we tried to hack it in.

Atan@Unrest wrote:

I certainly do appreciate you putting the idea out there, and all ideas are welcome to be discussed. I just think that opening this system to rewards that alter game balance could potentially ruin a fun system in the eyes of many people. If the rewards are fun and fluff, people can choose to participate in the system or ignore it without the feeling they are missing out or that they are no longer able to compete with other people.
How would you like it if you went to get a group and people looked at your inspect window and said "Sorry, you only have 600 achievement points. We're looking for players with 5000+ achievement points"?
Sure, if the rewards were very minor, this might not happen. But by the same token, if they are too minor to matter, you won't get the distinction you're looking for. I really don't see a way to have both noticable distinction, but keep the system optional enough that players don't feel they HAVE to go out and slay 10k orcs to be competitive.
From a technical standpoint, we also don't want to add 50 more buffs to a player that are always running in the background checking on every swing if you should get a bonus for this type of mob. *shudder at the thought of more lag*

*nods* Understood Still looking forward to these achievements. As a long timer xbox live subscriber as well, the achievements add a new level to gaming. Rewarded for your efforts makes any gamer a happy gamer. Also adds a certain "showoff to you friends/enemies" aspect. It will be nice to not have to defend silly comments in lvl chats, saying that someones dps "sucks" lol

Rothgar wrote:

I think of things like the old eq1 rogue assassinate. It was really cool, but if in eq2 if it only works on mobs 10 levels or more below you and non-epic, it really doesn't affect game balance, but provides something cool and could be appropriate for some master slayer achievement.
I can appreciate the concern on passive effects adding to lag, but alas thats a challenge for you developer types, not really my concern =)
I certainly don't want the rewards to be something that could affect ballance in any meaningful way, and wouldn't want that to ever be a basis on selecting a player for group/raid. But I still feel it could go way beyond titles and house items to add distinction without also affecting balance.

For rewards, it would be nice to have customisations, VISUAL ones. Things like additional hair styles or colours unlocked, a sparkly effect for a weapon slot, appearance items (not necessarily full on illusions), maybe even the ability to "dye" one item slot or apply a colour wash to an item.
Things like that wouldn't be game breaking at all, but would serve to make it possible to make one's character a bit more unique and even to show off accomplishments.

Rijacki wrote:

Perhaps something reminiscent of Warhammer's trophy system? Little doo-dads that can be attached to your character model, and add a little visual customization.

Interesting idea Rothgar. I like it - I, too, find the xBox achievement system to be a good thing. It's mostly fluff, but it is a nice addition, and it does keep me playing xBox games longer than I might otherwise.
Another point I'd like to make. Excellent job on this thread. I think that this level of interaction and back and forth, including the detailed thinking and responses should be a model for how to do this kind of discussion.

How about, as part of the inevitable (wishful thinking by me) upgrade of the guild heraldry system, you introduce a sort of integrated heraldry which builds a personal heraldic design from your achievements and guild etc.. then this is displayed on your cloak/banners/shield etc like a guild heraldry would be?
As a base you would choose your colours, then some simpler achievements could give you elements/devices you can add to the design, the big advancements could add a crest or supporters to it (maybe the real top ones could give things like a lion head crest etc) Your guild heraldry could be available as a split field etc.
Theres an amazingly solid system for this in real world heraldry already to base it on.. it would be actually not that hard to make a tool which you use to build your crest from the elements available to you.
I think it would be extremely popular, and if it was possible to add to new appearance shields or surcoats designed to use the same design as the cloak.. I think people would love it.
Shaun

I like the Idea it sounds like a nice addition once all of the class balance issues get resolved!!!

Germs666 wrote:

Why once all of the class balance issues get solved?
Class balance and this addition are responsibilities of different developers, so one will not affect the other at all.