I would have to agree with this idea. Ultimately, SOE have relied upon factions to help support the new player and encourage them to keep subscribing to the game. The days of the Redpill Greeters has long gone and it would be nice if there was a way in which supportive level 50s could be recognized for their efforts.
The concept which Darkangelus suggests would also provide benefits for the new player, as they could make an informed choice as to which factions are most likely to provide the promised support; the prestige levels of prospective candidates could be compared.
However, the enrichment provided to the community by planning and running an RP would be a difficult one to measure. I can't easily see how prestige points would be awarded for these: may be a positive form of /ccr could be used, where players could notify the CSRs that the RP organizer had provided a noteworthy contribution. If the RP organizer had used an alt to run the RP, the CSR could ask the account holder which character they would like to receive the prestige points.
Unfortunately, I can foresee that some might still look to abuse the system, or for points to be awarded due to friendships rather than true merit, were it to be set up... I guess that anything which encourages players to have a renewed focus on these elements, can't be bad in any form.
I think this is a good idea, would be great to see something like this implemented in game. Especially if it gets more things going ingame like player events and RP.
Hmmm... I think that the xp aspect of "prestige points" is possibly the least reflective of someone who is helping other players in the community. Every veteran will have acquired a reasonable amount of additional xp, just from running critical missions and the like. However, running missions with low level players, coding them items and abilities are possibly a very small amount of that additional xp.
As I said before, a positive form of /ccr would allow people to recognise the contribution of others, and directly reflect positive feedback; rather than just a coincidental amount of xp. Other than RP/Event organisers who I mentioned above, it would allow for people such as DJs to be "rewarded" for their contribution.
However, the flood of nominations would probably be an administrative nightmare for the CSRs. It might be that "prestige points" would have to be accepted as being worthily awarded by voter and automatically added to the nominee's details. The possible abuse could be reduced by restricting how many (1?) which each player could award per month.
It was said a long time ago, that all earned experience past maximum is still updated in the database
Mathalos wrote:It was said a long time ago, that all earned experience past maximum is still updated in the databaseI don't think that's accurate. As far as I can see in character data, it stops at 314624999.
Rarebit wrote:Mathalos wrote:It was said a long time ago, that all earned experience past maximum is still updated in the databaseI don't think that's accurate. As far as I can see in character data, it stops at 314624999.It was said in the following article that they would store data on any experience gained over the maximum.http://mxovault.ign.com/fullstory.php?id=7768
According to that article, players who at that time had XP in excess of the now-imposed XP cap had their XP at that time scribbled down somewhere in the database or in some engineer's spreadsheet. With the mentioned patch, everyone with XP equivalent to level 51 or above had their XP set to maximum (i.e. the XP cap you see in the character details) and lost their "above and beyond" XP, spare the number written down on Buddy Guy's spreadsheet. As the article states, the XP cap was imposed at the same time, which means that no one has gained a single XP beyond the cap since that time.
This also means that if your epic XP was not written down in the Chen Qui Anals at that point, you have never had XP beyond the cap, and never will. And since I'm guessing they never planned on raising the level cap, Gary's spreadsheet was probably cast into the fire during the SoE transition.
While this means that upping the level cap by changing the XP cap in some way is not impossible, it does mean that there's likely to be problems somewhere along the road if it's attempted. The better option for implementing this idea would be a second XP tracker which increments independently of the level XP tracker. If I understand the idea properly, this would be like a "helper level" and would increment only when there are multiple members of your team while you are running missions. It may not even start until you are level 50, or at maximum experience.
However, I don't foresee even the display of character level as above the cap as real feasibility without messing with core mechanics (which is not a good idea). For example, there would probably be a trouble with the database reading the character level as 51 and assigning you extra stat points and ability levels. Beside that, there's the fact that it removes some of the difference between players and Live Event characters, especially if your display level is at or equal to Niobe's or Cryptos's.
And even if working intended, displaying another simple number with no benefits or a number above 50 on your details shot, I don't think the work involved would really be worth it.
