POLL: Changing how your secrets-found is shown to others

[Ceridwel]

Poll based on discussion at https://abandonedrealms.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14212

[Ceridwel]

This might be the ugliest fucking poll I've ever seen btw. Yuck.

[Esivole]

voted 3rd option. I remember always redoing the secrets (quests at the time) over and over on lowbie toons and having a blast doing em. It also gives characters a thing to do instead of just sitting in a guild.

(maybe add some incentive to actually do them per character still instead of just leeching account based learning. i.e. gold, xp, trainings boots, etc.)

[hamsandwich]

Ceridwel you did great. But I do have to agree that it isn't the prettiest poll.

In fact I have questions (sorry)

So the first 3 options all leave the learning bonus untouched, and just change what happens to the text that others can see? (3rd option has the bonus of new characters get to earn their own text (importantly only text, not training boost))

But the 4th option gives everyone the same boost as those with max secrets, as well as the prospect of completely new features tied to secrets?
____ edit -> made what I meant to say more clear, I worded it weird before.

Just some disparity between the 4th option and the others as I understand it so wanted to clarify.

Also, the theoretical new features tied to secrets - what will happen to secrets? Are they staying account based or does each new character have to earn their own theoretical rewards? Or at this point it's too hypothetical to have an answer to that?

[Mogu]

I think option 4 is saying everyone gets the max learning bonus that those with max secrets currently have. Secrets progress would instead be tied to different things like aesthetic purchases at certain shopkeepers, for example.

[Ceridwel]

That new 4th option came from Dav so I'll defer to him to confirm for sure.

[Dogran]

I voted for option 4 because it sounds cool to have new toys.

[Kedaleam]

What I expect to see from this poll is...

People who already have most secrets done, voting for 1.

People who don't are definitely going to vote for 4.

Simply because now they get the training boost for no effort, so why wouldn't they?

[dead]

Nah. I have all secrets and voted 4. New stuff! I don't have any wish to keep others down.

[Davairus]

Just to clarify first, I'm simply answering the question about what did #4 actually mean. Some of the secrets are themselves already important discoveries, like finding a free way to identify for instance, unlocking nexus combos and the like. they all help to better learn the areas. I think they give exp, and they can be fun too.. searching for extra descs seems fun. The unlocked many secrets title thing is about as cosmetic as any reward could get.

I'm pretty certain that getting absolutely all of them done is a task best left for completionists. Any new option #4 rewards would have to have minimal gameplay impact, like cool goblin pet or whatever - something that's cool and useful but doesn't hurt the game to do without it. The point is just to keep things fair. decoupling the training rate buff was in the idea because of that same reason - fairness for training. Just let me know if you have any other questions about the option.

[Scrynor]

I voted #4 just because I've always worried the learning bonus occluded the newbie experience from the most influential players when a "should training be faster" conversation comes up. Also just always vets level and train way faster than newbies already just by raw game knowledge, why double down?

But new stuff is always super cool too! I always dig earnable cosmetics in games.

[hamsandwich]

Thanks for the explanation Dav. Appreciate it.

Yeah I, like most it seems, like #4.
Fairness in the training boost just seems proper. And more things to earn and work towards are always appreciated.

And you're right Dav, I like doing the secrets! Unfortunately I've kind of reached the point where the relatively small number I don't already have are ones I'm just incapable of finding (believe me, I've tried) and so it's lost its charm. But whenever a new area is made or I notice a list of unfound secrets in an area that seems longer than before, I always rush over there to scope things out.

And one of my proudest days in AR, many many years ago, was when I finally earned the unlocked many secrets title. I was stoked.

[Mogu]

I also have all the secrets and voted #4. I love secret hunting, it is one of my favorite things to do in AR. The recent addition of highlighting observable objects in a room's description made a lot of them much easier to find, FYI.

[BlackWidow]

I have a concern which these options don't address: when you look at somebody, you still see "X has just opened their eyes to the world." or "[s]he is a master explorer." or "[s]he is an experienced explorer." or the like one line after their description ends.

[Davairus]

If the secrets are decoupled from training rates, then that reduces the concern that people are secretly smurf training, i.e. it removes a helpful thing it is doing. Without that problem, I can just put in additional option into 'showsecrets' so that you can choose which cosmetic title you'd like to display, and default it to the "eyes have just opened up to the world". We don't have to stop there either. That cosmetic string is cool and could have a ton of extra options, including something for killing Order (specific to character), customized RP reward of some sort, etc. We really underuse it.

[Mogu]

I noticed this status change is now in effect. To clarify, the status you select for your character does not impact learning bonus, correct? If that's the case wouldn't it be worth announcing that max learning bonus has been applied to all characters regardless of mystery status? Seems like a pretty noteworthy quality of life improvement.

[Davairus]

I only finished half of the coding so I didn't update the helpfile yet. Eventually you will see this "announced" in the form of the helpfile updated and some sort of short motd note.

update: done