Home » Site News » Free To Play redevelopment - A wish list.
This message is long. It's core premise is that as a free to play game a cash shop will be introduced. Rather than offer complaints about cash shops Im making some profitable suggestions for the cash shop itself that may enhance and improve the game.
Basic Cash Shop Items
Mannequin - A purchase of one of these will allow the player to avoid PeP loss on death, once.
XP Crystal - Feel like you have to grind? Did you make the authorities mad at you, and now your Quest XP isnt earning you much. This gives you 1 hour of double XP while grinding. This is not stackable.
Cosmetics - This would allow a player to change their skin, hair, facial features, and tattoos - once.
Horse - 7 day, 30 day, lifetime. These would allow a player to obtain various types of mounts for the listed duration of the item, at varying prices. Some mounts could be issued on a limited basis, depending on available artwork.
Clothing - 7 day, 30 day, lifetime. This clothing would be unique artwork not available ingame through normal means. A player could replace their normal clothing with these items. Artwork would likely have to be created for these items.
Betrayal! - This allows a character to abandon their current house! This flags a character OUTCAST for 1 week, regardless of kill count.
Shard Crystal - This awesome item allows players access to new shards and zones when they are created. Players have completely free access to the game as it stands now, however further territories would be paid for based on desire to explore them, only.
Crafting Related Items
Smiths Hammer - This hammer when used on an item at the forge allows the character a chance to change the sigil slots available on an item. Full description of this proposed item can be found here: http://phpbb.acclaim.com/spellborn/viewtopic.php?t=5739
Player vs Player related Items
Declaration of War - A guild may declare war on another guild for 30 days by purchasing one of these orders.
Olive Branch - A guild may terminate a war by purchasing one of these orders. This offer is immediately accepted by the opposing guild, and does not result in a surrender.
White Flag - This would allow a guild to terminate a war with another guild. While it is immediately accepted, it results in a surrender broadcast and a loss count of 1 being attributed to the guild.
I'm sorry! - This clears the kill count of any player by 7 kills.
Writ of Absolution - This official document from the Enclave clears the individual of all crimes.
Guild and Social Related Items
Guild Charter - A guild charter would only be purchased through the cash shop. Otherwise characters are restricted to being members only of houses.
Family Charter - A player could opt to have a last name by purchasing a family charter. Families would have their own logo, and be able to share a home.
Dissolution Order - A family can only be dissolved by purchasing this item.
Adoption Certificate - A player could petition to join a family with this, taking on their last name. This player would have access to the family home.
Disownment Order - A family member could be removed only by purchasing this item.
Marriage Certificate - A player could, upon encountering another player with a certificate of the opposite gender, opt to marry that individual. This would allow an unrelated player to share a home.
Divorce Certificate - Dissolving a marriage can only be done with the purchase of this item.
Items relating to Property
Writ of Ownership - The first step in owning a house is taken by purchasing a writ of ownership.
Writ of Ascendance - In order to own a guild hall, you must first prove yourself to be of higher standing than the average citizen. This document grants you this.
Rule Changes to the Game
Think some of the items I suggested sound unusual? Here's some rule changes I thought of to make things more interesting (while not destroy the game I hope!)
Social Status
Citizen - A citizen is a normal player ingame. There is no difference from how the game is played at this level. A player is allowed 1 free kill at this level, which decays at a rate of 1 every 24 hours.
Criminal - A player who initiates combat with another player is flagged as a Criminal. This flag lasts for 5 minutes after Player vs Player combat ceases (this means after damage from players also ceases! Very important to make sure exploits dont happen), regardless of action. Guards will attack a Criminal. NPC's will not talk to a Criminal. This player can be attacked by any other player without penalty.
Outcast - An Outcast has more than 1 kill count. They do not lose stats for being an Outcast, or XP on death, nor do they lose town access as long as they are not flagged Criminal. An outcast gains 1/2 experience from all quests ingame for the duration of their time as an outcast. An Outcast's prices are also doubled at all NPC's. Kill counts decay at a rate of 1 every 24 hours. In short an Outcast may have to grind a bit for their levels and money.
Kinship - Through the cash shop players can declare kinship with others through Marriage or Adoption. Kinship allows a player to share housing, giving them access to enhanced game storage, but also these players share in the penalty status of their kin. For example, if your adopted son kills 14 people unprovoked and becomes an Outcast, the entire family also becomes outcast until this persons kill count is reduced to 1, or that person is banished from the family.
Guild Status
War - Guilds at war may kill each other freely whether in town or otherwise. A guild may have unlimited wars, however wars are regulated by the cash shop, therefore noob guilds and griefers would be curtailed to a certain extent by the actual cost of indiscriminate warfare. During a guild war Kill Counts are silently tallied up. At the end of the war (whether by 30 days or by use of cash shop item) the guild with the most kills wins, and gains 1 ranking on the Guild Championship Boards.
Guild Championship - The top 10 guilds on the server receive unique armor and weapons according to their rankings. They may also receive championship quests with varying amounts of XP. Guild Championship ranking is determined by looking at the total amount of wins vs losses. Negative rankings are possible.
Property Status
Home Ownership - A player or family of players may own a home. In Lieu of Banks, the home provides up to 5 storage chests that can be assigned to different members of the family, shared between multiple members, or used by a single player with a hoarding compulsion! Homes would come in three levels. Small, Medium, and Large, and would be available based on existing real estate ingame. Simply clicking on the door of an existing dwelling a player could tell whether it was for sale, what size it was, and what the initial cost and upkeep costs would be. Suggested initial costs: Small home (1 chest) - 1 Writ of Ownership + 2 random resource items. Medium Home (3 chests) - 2 Writs of Ownership + 2 random resource items. Large House (5 chests) - 5 Writs of Ownership + 2 resource items.
Every month a player would have to pay a maintenance cost, in gold and resource items, in order to keep the house. This resource cost could be paid in part or in full by family members as well.
Guild Hall Ownership - The same concept applies to a guild hall as to housing, except that a guild hall offers storage access for guild members, assignable by guild rank. A guild hall comes with 10 chests. A guild hall would also offer guilds with the opportunity to wage 1 free war a month, which lasts for 30 days, and have an additional quest chain on the Shard where the Guild Hall resides that both explores that shard and offers daily missions to enemy guild shards. NPCs in a guild shard would be House Representatives, Dockmasters (providing mainland access and access to enemy shards), and Forge NPCs. No other shops.
A guild hall would cost 10 Writs of Ascendance to Purchase, and would cost 5 Writs of Ascendance + a large sum of gold + 5 random resource items per month to maintain.
Whats with all the writs? Simple: They replace subscription fees! A writ might cost only $5, however needing multiple writs ensures that multiple people (or one very rich person) contributes monetarily to the game on a monthly basis.
While the game itself is free to play, has unlimited access to all existing zones, and is fundamentally unchanged the additions below allow for a modest budget to be given to this game, and for large online organizations to foot the majority of the bill for operating costs, saving the casual player the need to spend large sums to have fun in game.
Please reply with any modifications or suggestions below.
Thanks for reading!