Character Mastery: What is it?
Character Mastery is a collection of Glyphs that a player creates, equips, and ranks up to become more powerful, as well as specializing into a play style they want or are comfortable with.
Glyph Slots:
Glyph Slots are opened up upon reaching a new Mastery LVL. Each slot opens up at a certain Mastery LVL where a glyph can be equipped.
Upon reaching Mastery LVL 20, an 'epic' slot is unlocked where epic grade glyphs can be equipped. Epic glyphs can be duplicates of standard glyphs that stack together, or unique glyphs with special traits not found in standard glyphs.
Example Glyph:
A Choice: To Ascend or Not.
The Maximum Mastery LVL a player can achieve is 20. Upon reaching Mastery LVL 20, a player can chose to Ascend, resetting their Mastery LVL, but increasing their Ascension LVL.
Note: This will not reset the amount of Mastery EXP you need to gain Mastery LVL's! The more you ascend, the more it will take to gain Mastery LVL's.
What does Ascension Do?:
Ascending to the next tier ranks up your cosmetic icon on your character. Not only does your cosmetic icon change, but ascending will provide a large amount of Creation Pts and provide 5 Mastery Pts.
Creation Pts:
Creation Pts are used to 'Create' Glyphs in the Glyph Codex. Glyphs can only be created in this area, and are limited to the amount of tasks you complete each day.
Tasks:
Tasks are exactly as they sound, a set of objectives you take on in order to increase your Mastery EXP, and earn Creation Pts.
Each task yields different results, and can award bonus rewards if certain criteria are met. These bonuses vary, so be sure to check the Info panel to know not only what the bonus is, but how to qualify for it.
Mastery Pts:
Mastery Pts are used to 'increase' the rank of the Glyph slot specifically. It is objectively better to increase the rank of the earlier slots, so as you continue your Ascension process, the first slots you open, are the strongest. However, ranking up your epic slot, should you decide not to Ascend any further, could also benefit your character more.
The choice is yours.
Why a Mastery system:
With the current state of ROSE, we need a progression system that isn't based on the consumption of items. Not only could a Mastery system greatly diversify character builds, it could greatly reduce the incentive [depending on the influence of the system if implemented] to abuse item based progression systems currently in play.
Staff Investment:
This is the part I want to spend the most time explaining.
First, I've already covered why a non-item based progression system would be a smart move. But there's other factors going into it.
Item Mall stagnation:
There's currently an item in the Item Mall that's not longer utilized, Valor Quest Tickets.
By simply changing the reward to award 1 Creation Pt, you'd instantly have a reason not only for this system to exist, but for players to purchase the tickets, increasing your micro transactions.
Premium Service:
I'd like to first state that I fully understand the thought process behind why Premium was made trade-able. The general notion being that the people who currently purchase the service, might purchase even more if they were able to sell it. Sadly, that is not currently the case, due to exploitation in the community recently. With recent fixes aimed at the solution, this isn't as much of a loss anymore, but it definitely hurt.
But here's the rub. Premium only provides 3 essential services, and only two are used frequently in the reasoning process behind activating the service on an account.
- Increased Rates / Caps on certain currency/rate gains.
- Access Storage from anywhere.
- The most common reason, Unlimited GA energy.
The daily boxes, and other misc benefits are almost never a consideration in the decision behind purchasing / consuming the service.
Now, here's where I work in some features that have synergy with the Mastery System and Premium.
- 5 Creation Pts per day with premium service activated.
- 25% Increased Mastery EXP per task completed.
- +1 Creation Pt per Task Completion.
- Unique Glyph Creation Chance: +2%
With those types of bonuses, no one would be able to argue that premium wouldn't have a valuable incentive. Not only would it offer incentive for early access / new players, even fully geared + runed players would see value in the Premium Service again.
Finally, Expansion Potential:
There really wouldn't be a 'cap' to the system. Glyphs could all be made on a Statistic / Rating system, providing longevity and flexibility in the future with possible updates, changes, balances or expansions to the game. And with those expansions, a renewal in the value of the premium service arises.
The systems mutually benefit each other.
To the community:
I fully understand, and sympathize with the majority of you who are asking 'why in the world would I want to pay for anything in ROSE when it's in the state it's currently in?'
Support.
It's as plain and simple as that. Support the game, support the development team, and budgets could allow for more quality, faster development and more staff over-all on the team. Is it a mental struggle to give money to a game that's struggling, of course. But that struggle is what hurts the game more than anything. Losing faith in the game that's given you entertainment for weeks, months, years, and even in some cases, over a decade, that can't happen. That's why if this system is implemented, I simply ask you support it, purchase premium even if it's only once or twice a year. If you can't don't worry about it, spread the word, enjoy the game and encourage others to invest a few dollars here n there. You'd pay for a movie you've never seen, why not pay for the future of a game you can't see?
Disclaimer:
I know that I only gave one example in terms of glyph strengths, and that's intentional. My goal was to present the idea, the core model and the benefits of the system. Numbers can always be adjusted and tweaked to provide the best results. If I'm given any say in how the glyph system is managed and balanced, I'll do my best to ensure fair, even results to the best of my ability. If I'm not, I'll be right there like I usually am, stern, stubborn and like a wall of steel until the right decision is made. I hope you enjoyed this presentation, I look forward to your responses, feedback and discussions.
Also, if you like the idea and want to show your support, comment, like this post, and vote on the ★★★★★ system.
~Feuer
Edited by Feuer, 10 August 2017 - 05:14 PM.