WOW Patch 4.1 - Valor Point Changes - Alternative? (again!)

So WoW Insider put up an article regarding the valor point changes in WoW. It basically details the fact that the Daily Heroic system is changing. In my opinion it is changing for the better, but alas, my pessimistic mind has rooted out a number of problems this may cause that make it not seem like a fantastic change to me...

Currently the first random heroic you do each day gives bonus points and awards. This is a fairly nice system that encourages players to try to login regularly and go do at least one run each day. The downside to this is that if you are not able to login for a day or three, or are unable to random it up due to other commitments then you don't get to claim those rewards.

The new system basically allows you to do randoms until you have done all 7. This then refreshes every week. Advantage: If you miss a day or two, you can still do them when you are free. This adds great flexibility to the game and reduces the pressures to login when you do not want to play just to claim those points.

The negatives?

Cluster questing:
As soon as the weekly quest allotment refreshes, people will start cramming in early runs. Think of it like "payday" - for many: you get paid, you go out and buy all the stuff you want/need or just party or go on a shopping spree. You are then left scraping to make ends meet until the next payday, which in turn encourages you to go straight out as soon as you get paid again and start spending. A bad habit. With this system I see it being pretty much the same. The quests refresh - and you hit the randoms to claim those rewards, and keep doing it until you have none left. This makes sense - if you know you are free to do them in the first day or two but don't know if you will have time later in the week, or have other in game commitments then you might miss out on rewards, and you are inclined you do the randoms as soon as you can.

I had a couple of other points that I have nullified whilst re-reading the article. At least with the system in place they avoid one problem that I anticipated:


Chain-lockout:
Undoubtedly there is always one dungeon that people just don't like, don't enjoy or cannot get their head around. If you were required to actually go collect the quests one at a time and progress through them in a linear fashion - then what if this dungeon becomes your daily? you would be stuck with it until you get it done, or possibly until the next weeks refresh. As it is explained it is the first 7 heroics that you complete that give you these rewards, which makes perfect sense to me as long as they are clear in displaying that you are in a dungeon that will give you the bonus rewards and you don't have to manually track.

Personally I would like to see the system get a further tweak - an alternative so to speak:
To avoid this initial cluster of dungeon romping, they could perhaps allow for the first random in a day you complete be your daily heroic - and if you miss a day, then you get to "stockpile" that daily so the next day you can do 2, if you dont do one that day, the next you can do 3, etc. This basically differs the rewards to reduce the initial influx - and to keep people questing throughout the week without them getting penalised for missing a day. At the end of the week if you have a number of unclaimed heroics, they can rollover into your allotment for the following week. Allow each player to have say, 10 stockpiled daily rewards to claim - and if people are having a break from the game, or go on holiday or are really busy and cannot do their daily randoms, then when they come back they have access to all these rewards and are encouraged to start doing the randoms.

Follow this example:

Tuesday: Patch day& Daily Allotment Refresh. 1 Reward available.
Wednesday: 2 rewards available.
Thursday: 3 rewards available. you do 2 randoms and get the daily heroic reward for both. 1 day rolls over.
Friday: 2 rewards available
Saturday: 3 rewards available
Sunday: 4 rewards available
Monday: 5 rewards available - do 2 randoms and get the daily heroic for both. 3 days roll over.
Tuesday: Patch day& Daily Allotment Refresh. 4 rewards available.

Etc, Etc. Or is this system too convoluted/complicated to implement in a game that is aiming to be fairly simple when some people we stumble seem to lack the cognitive capacity to pick their nose? Anyway, I think it could be an interesting system although I will admit, I am quite happy with the change they are making. After writing this I answered some of my own critical analysis queries so that it didn't have as many holes as I was expecting!

/Ramble.
-V

Wow: Account wide achievements. Nay, Achievement Inheritance?

I have been reading an article on Wow Insider (again) that piqued my interests. The topic was on making achievements account wide. I understand why folk want this to be done - if you have done a particular heroic/raid boss on one character and got the achievement, then surely you should be able to prove to that pug raid that is asking for the achievement to be linked as a requirement for entry. You earned it, why cant you prove it? There are also achievement score points and rewards that go hand in hand with gaining certain achievements.

My thoughts on all this after the quote:

Q: When will achievements finally be awarded account-wide?

A: Making achievements Battle.net account-wide is something we'd like to do, but it's not a goal we could provide a current timetable for. All of the original World of Warcraft coding was done with the expectation that the data on every realm would always be independent. Now that we are trying to make as many things as possible account-wide, we’re having to rebuild all of those systems. It is absolutely something we want to do, but it will take a lot of time away from other features.

I fully understand the mechanics behind this. Over 6 years worth of archived data, as well as live data would need to be transferred onto a new database system with a different architecture to allow for Blizzard to make things account-wide. I'm not sure why they couldn't just modify the database so that achievements tie to account owner instead of character, I guess its cleaner and if it is something they are going to do anyway it makes no sense to go through the motions of implementing "A" feature, when doing it properly will unlock loads of features (allowing anything about a character to be account related, not just achievements.)

As for making the achievements themselves account bound... I was not so keen on the idea at first:

1. I actually like gaining the achievements as I level an alt. It makes it feel like I am achieving something as I play (OMG Rly!?)
2. Just because you gained an achievement on a Raid Boss on one character does not prove you can do it on another. You will have different gearing, a different level of experience with that character and possibly a different role. 
3. Seasonal/Holiday achievements and awards (E.G what a long strange trip it's been) should probably be shared, but how to work it? Different characters will have different stages on these achievements - and its tricky to roll them into the one big achievement...

I thought it would make more sense to implement some way for players to reference an alt/main that has said achievement, and for it to be tagged as the same account as the player linking... But, as I was typing point 3 above something occured to me: Achievement Inheritance.

Make the achievements account bound - BUT have the achievement state which of your characters has actually earned the achievement... E.G my priest may be flying a Violet Proto-Drake but when people look up my achievements or I link them - they will see that it is my Mage's character that is the named earner and that the priest has inherited the achievement benefits. 

Sound reasonable? Your achievement benefits and points are awarded account bound - but you can see both account and character achievements seperately (Simply have your achievements table have an account-tab with the first character who achieved it to be named, and any others who have earned it to be listed aswell... This opens up other potential achievements like: Level a character of each race to level 20, 30, etc, etc.) This should be no more difficult to implement than what they are already thinking of doing - but will cater to both sides of the coin (those wanting to earn, those wanting to have achievements be shared) as well as allowing those that are linked achievements to see that you have done the work to earn it - but that it may be on a different character (or multiple characters). This could be a good or a bad thing as far as pug raid leaders are concerned, but hey: If the person has done the achievement on another character and they can see that the player is sufficiently geared, whats not to like?

Anyway, I hope that waffle gave some food for thought.

-V