Removing penalties on playing multiple characters vs. maxing a single character

I posted this on the GW2 thread, but after some thought I see no reason why it couldn't be implemented into the original.

I mostly play PvE. A problem I see with PvE is that a majority of the rewards and benefits earned in PvE are in the form of titles. Now, two players can go through the game, do the exact same missions and quests, spend the exact same amount of time farming or doing challenge missions or whatever, but the player who spends all of his time on one character will have a good number of titles and rewards to show for it. The player who spreads his time across multiple characters has next to nothing to show for it, title-wise, despite doing the exact same thing. In my eyes, a player should not be penalized in this way for playing multiple characters.

What I propose is to have all of your characters on an account part of a party. With the introduction of heroes and the Nightfall theme of "a hero to lead them", the idea of a party of heroes traveling together, even though they are not all active at the same time, has been introduced. This idea should be expanded to include our own player characters. When I brought my warrior to Nightfall, instead of making a brand spanking new Dervish starting from square one, I could of been recruiting a new Dervish into my warrior's party. The Dervish would of still had to go through the tutorial section and what not, but after that, the Dervish would be part of the team, and have access to the same areas and same maps and same achievements my warrior had, because they were things earned by the party. You could even expand this to have player character's usable as heroes, if desired.

This would remove the penalty on playing multiple characters through different parts of the game, allowing them to access the same titles and achievements as people who focus only on a single character. With the advent of Hard Mode and vanquisher titles and other stuff, there is already enough of a replayability factor to cause most players to go back through early areas again with their new characters, if that is a concern with characters created late in the game. I really can't see any downside to this idea, and would really create a sense of unity between the different characters of a player.

Hmm, sort of like a 2 for 1 deal lol, i couldn't see possible drawbacks lol.
I personally wouldn't mind using my characters as my own heroes, although the mechanics of PvE skills might be tricky. Unless ranks had the same status as attributes , or something ?

/signed

I totally agree. I only played one character because of this.

/signed.

*shrug* I play all 8 of my characters. So what if they can't all get (max) titles? They'll all get as much title as they need** just through regular play anyways.

** (Oooh, so difficult to get to r5 in EotN titles so you can get the armor you want and the skills you like become quite useful. And, if I feel the need for higher, I'll just play through the quests again... If you don't have Sunspear 8 by the time a character's done with Vabbi, well, you obviously were going out of your way to avoid gaining points. And t'Hell with Luxon/Kurzick ranks since I don't like any of the skills, 'cept maybe for the Ritualist one (which doesn't need any ranks to be useful).)

one thing i could see is the possibility of no endgame rewards, or 1 per account with account wide travel, if i understand what your saying any character can go where ever another character on your account has? therefore a person can acquire as many endgame items as the number of characters they have. Depending on how you look at it i could say there are some potential drawbacks.

/Singed i have stopped playing my Necro, My Ranger my monk in PVE because of this

Well, at this point I am mostly focused on getting the rewards that will transfer to Guild Wars 2. End game rewards are nice, and the little areas where you meet up with all the NPC's are super cool, but I'm sure they could come up with a solution for this. Overall it's something I consider minor with regards to the original idea.

As another aside, one of the main reasons I made this post was to bring up the often mentioned idea of a single Hall of Monuments per account. It seems to be a common theme, at least among people concerned with transferring accomplishments to GW2, is to drop all other characters and focus on maxing out a single character so that they have at least that single, badass HoM. Rather than force players to choose between their stack of characters to whom they might be attached, and a maxed out HoM, this idea seeks to let players have both.

Also, with regards to the poster who mentioned how hard it was to get r5 in a rep title track - if all you are concerned with is bare minimums, and not maxing out everything you can, as many players are, then this thread isn't really aimed at you.

Titles don't really count for much, and they won't give a huge benifit in GW2 (or we'd have a lot of angry new customers) so I really don't see what the problem is. I have 11 characters that I alternate through. I've been playing for over 3 years, and they all have had their fair share of playing time (all but 3 having been through every campaign and eotn). After playing them all through each of the campaigns I have plenty of time left to get titles if I actually want them.

It's not multiple characters that anet is "punishing" as you state, the only people who would feel that way are people who are relatively new and haven't had time to play their characters through all the campaigns. Titles were put in for the veteran players to keep them interested after three years+ of gameplay. If you want a title, stick to one character, then play another after it's done. Or don't get titles. Your choice.

But i'm agreed for the single HoM per account. Always have been.

Let me get this straight, as you never point blank stated what you want. Your asking for all the characters to be available as heroes? at their current level, weapons, armor, and only available after the tutorial (or once in post-searing for Prophecies)

Only thing I say as an addition. They are only available in towns that those characters have unlocked, that way you won't get a lvl 2 ritualist fighting Abaddon as a hero. Also, their secondary must be limited to what they have unlocked, same with skills. In other words, its like playing those characters but AI controls them instead, and you control a different character. Sounds fun (although it will be abused with running prophecies characters for yourself). The titles arn't that big of a deal for me, but I do want to get a good amount filled in my main characters HoM (for 4 mains, so kinda annoying) and its a pain to do the same mission over... and over.... and over again. Besides always wanted this. /signed.

This idea would be for those who want to reach a good rank in KoaBD on multiple characters, or fill the HoM for multiple characters. With this, you can get one of the 5 monument stands filled a lot easier, and get an to KoaBD rank 5 easier. For someone like you who doesn't care about actually maxing the titles, its rather useless (except your heroes would have better names and looks ).

But here's a question, would your characters as heroes get access to PvE-only skills? if so, thats kinda overpowering, if not, GREAT!

Other then the location and running exploit, and the PvE-only skills, I don't see how this is overpowering, overall, these new heroes would be weaker then the current heroes, as they don't get access to all unlocked skills. Again, /signed.

As for the HoM being account, I say no. But I do say that the minipet portion should be account based, and the Weapons should be dedicated/be account based. Either one for the weapons would be fine, don't want 40+ heroes having weapons they will never use that cost me a pretty penny .

@ below: It can be implemented, it just needs a good bit of coding. I don't see it happening before GW2, but it is still possible, I do think this will be a good idea for GW2 as well. But whatever happens, happens.

But seriously, how the HELL would this be implemented? Think about it logistically? With GW2 on the horizon the amount of work this would take will simply not be put into it....

having your characters available as heroes was mentioned in a single sentence towards the end of the post, and not the point of my post. the point is to have all characters have access to anything any of your other characters have access to, and to have them interchangeable inside outposts.

also, i've been playing since the beginning of the game as well, and is certainly not geared towards new players.

as far as implementation, thats not really for me to decide, as i have no idea how guild wars handles character specific information. one possibility would be for a player to choose a 'lead' character, and link his other characters to that one, granting the other characters access to anything the 'lead' character has.

Just merge titles. Not hard. Just change the options of a title from ,,title=one character'' to ,,title = account wide''. And make outposts visited by one character accessible to all characters.

/signed 1000 times. Got 7 chars... Thanks to EotN's "content", only my Mesmer and Assassin have ,,somewhat'' high titles. High = mesmer has only r7 most of the grind-titles except for vanguard (r3) and lightbringer (r1), and Assassin = r7 sunspear, r2 other titles except for lightbringer (r0) ;d. Other characters either have one or two r1-r2's or nothing.

Oh, and there was to choose which character should SS/LB farm... And since I loved (yeah, loved, since now thanks to title grinding they both are almost useless) my Ranger and Elementalist equally, both have r8 sunspear and... r4 lightbringer.

If I had 1 character, I would probably have at least r2 koabd:

Protector of tyria on ranger, almost prot of cantha on ranger AND ritualist, almost protector of elona on Elementalist, eotn titles would be 3x r10, 2x maxes in SS/LB and probably, If I didn't have to waste money and time on other characters, all elite skills maxed and all cartographers completed. That's be 16 titles, not counting crap like wisdom, drunkard and so on. r3 lost, thank you very much penalties for playing multiple chars.

The purpose of keeping everything character-based rather than account-based is supposedly to give PvE more replay value. To me, it just makes it less fun and more grinding.

/sign

/signed

sadly don't see it happing for GW1.
for sure hope this, or something like it, gets in to GW2.

I'll chuck a /signed in here as well, even though I don't see it happening either.

Also, for the OP:
http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000204.htm
Click and learn.

EDIT (for Abedeus)
Perhaps this is more to your liking?

I found a mistake on that page, Bekkr. It says ,,will of'' doesn't exist. THERE IS WILL OF WISPS!!11

You could have had posted (woah, that's complicated) that a loooong time ago, btw. I'm talking to OP of course.

Able to use your characters as heroes is an awesome idea. If both my necro and ele has reached Kodash bazaar, then I should be able to add my ele into my necros group or my necro into my eles group.

If this is implemented, I wouldn't even need heroes.

and...

Give the best armor I can afford to all my characters without having to worry about heroes being a money sink.

and...

As each of my characters progress from start to different towns, each one will collect bounties (SS/LB/EoTN) which will be cumulatively added for my overall party, as the OP suggested.

/signed, i like the idea of the decendants of the Eternal Heroes of Tyria, ELona and Cantha banding together for an epic quest

/Signed

I have to work on my ele because of her titles while i love playing on my Sin atm... but i will know that my sin will never have thesame titles unless i spend another 500 hours with her... and i cant afford that...

/signed. The title points don't matter that much to me. I've just always wanted to have the different characters I've made fight side-by-side.

Some titles are character based for a good reason. Skill Hunter for example should not be account based. Some titles are already account based, like the Faction Allegiance. I can see making some titles that are character based into account based, but those topics have already been started. I myself made a topic about changing Treasure Hunter and Wisdom titles into account based.

However, the part I put in bold above says you just want to have an easier time doing things. That, or you just didn't think about what you typed. In your example, say your Warrior has Legendary Grandmaster Cartographer and Legendary Guardian. Now your Dervish would get both those titles. What would be the point in playing the Dervish? It already has credit for all missions in both NM and HM. Plus, it can map to the elite areas (Urgoz/Deep/DoA/etc.) without playing through the game.

/unsigned

/signed with this addition.

Other option would simply be making the 4 eotn tittle tracks (norn, dwarven, asuran, vanguard) account wide so you don't need to grind several times just to get the points up for the skills you're using. (add LB, SS to that list then) I dislike having to grind them at all, having to do it for every character is too much for me. If I coul;d just get all points added together and then have to grind them to the top that would be better.

Personal favourite : if they want us to play just one character, let us change primary proffessions please. Some of us actually like variety.

there should be imo a way, with that we can unlock "reached" max titles for all other of our non main characters.

Say Anet would implement now a consumeable item, that can't be sold/traded between players and can only be bought through a NPC, that is put on the Great Temple of Balthazar, that appears, when you kneel down there at a Statue of Balthazar (so an Avatar of Balthazar that appears at a Shrine, which should get implemented to the Temple)

Go talk to the NPC and with the right amount of Skill Points, yeah you hear RIGHT, Skill Points, not Balthazar Points you can buy there then from that NPC consumeable Items for the titles. All that would then also require, that the player has first to mark one of his/her characters as "Main Character" of their Account and all Max Titles, that this Character then receives, get unlocked for all other Characters of their Account to be unlocked via the Stuff, that that new NPC sells then for Skill Points and the Inventory of that NPC increases only, when your Main Character maxes a New Title.
Side Note: Also the chosen Main Character would be unable to buy from that NPC the Consumeables, the Main Character must work for everything.

Example: (all of them require first of your "Main Character", that they get these titles, before those Consumeables will appear in the List of that NPC here)

Medal of Honor - 750 Skill Points (unlocks for a Character the Legendary Guardian *including everything needed for it* Title)

Map of the World - 500 Skill Points (unlocks for a Character the legendary cartographer title *including...*, but Characters can enter only all those Outposts, that the Character has entried. That means, that when I for example have with my main the LC Title ,unlock then for Chara 2 with the Map the title for that chara, my second chara then can only map travel to al the outposts, that I've entered with Chara 2. So when haven't entered with Chara 2 for example yet Drognar's Forge, but unlock the title with the consumeable, the point for that outpost will be NOT visible on the map, until I enter with chara 2 the outpost.)

Artefact of Power - 750 Skill Points (unlocks for a Character the Legendary Skill Hunter Title including all the unlocked Elite Skills.)

Ring of the Death - 500 Skill Points (unlocks for a character the Legendary Vanguisher title *including everything needed for it*)
----
Angel Feather - 100 Skill Points (unlocks max Lightbrigner Title)
Sun Crystal - 100 Skill Points (unlocks max Sunspear Title)
----
Puppet of the Great Destroyer - 500 Skill Points (unlocks Master of the North Title)
Translator: Asuran - Bookah - 100 SP - (unlocks Asura Title)
Stone of Sages - 100 SP (unlocks Dwarf Title)
Sharp Charr Tooth - 100 SP (unlocks Vanguard Title)
Pelt of Fenrir - 100 SP (unlocks Norn Title)
----
New Year-Greetings Card - 250 SP (unlocks Party Animal title)
Ancient Bottle of Wine - 250 SP (unlocks Drunkard Title)
Huge Honey Melon - 250 SP (unlocks Sweettooth Title)
Old Treasure Map - 250 SP (unlocks Treasure Hunter Title)
Book of the Almighty God - 250 SP (unlocks Wisdom Title)
-----
Survivor and LDoA are not part of that Main Character Unlock-System, those 2 titles are both from the start on in the List of the NPC, that sells those Consumeables:

License for Suicide *sarcasm* - 100 SP (every death you have, when buying it, will increase the cost of it by 2 SP) - will unlock Survivor Title

Medal of Courage - 1000 SP (will unlock LDoA Title)
--------

Unlocks for PvP Titles will be also from the Start under, don't count to the Main Character System and once bought, the Titles will be automatically unlocked for all, cause of beign "account wide", but therefore, they cost alot more SP:

Hero Portrait - 5000 SP (will unlock Hero Title for Account)
4 leaved Cloverleaf - 2000 SP (will unlock Lucky Title for Account)
Into 13 Shards broken Mirror - 1000 SP(will unlock Unlucky Title for Account)
Golden Gladius - 3000 SP (will unlock Gladiator Title for Account)
Belt of the Champions - 5000 SP (will unlock Champion Title)
Lucky Dice - 2000 SP (will unlock Gamer Title)
Helm of the Commander 3000 (will unlock Commander Title)
Jade Amulet/Amber Necklace 4000 SP (will unlock either Kurzick or Luxon Title for account)
Zaishen Emblem - 5000 (will unlock Zaishen Title for Account)

So, don't take the written Numbers TOO serious, it are only suggestions, more just examples for how the whole thing "could" work.

If you think, that here is a good Idea, but for certain items you are at the opinion, that soem stuff could cost more or less SP, than I've suggested for example, then write down the item and for how much SP you want to see it get sold, and it's ok .

Imo with this being implemented, Anet could clap with it 2 flies with 1 Hit, because the game would receive more options to use huge amounts of SP, once you've unlocked all Skills, options, that are much better, than wasting Money for countless of buffing consumeables + also the game would become finally more multiple character friendly, because you would just need to max all the titles with your Main Character, and then when you want certain max Titles for your other Characters, you can just "buy" them, if you have then enough SP for them and collecting SP requires from the play just to play normally the game.

And if in the case surely for enough players this is still too slow, then there exist still "Stars of Transference", which could be bought from other players or transfered from your Main Char to your other Charas, so that they get quicker the required amount of SP for the Consumeables, that you want for your Non Main Charas.

Thats my concept, discuss it if you like it, or let it, but I think, such a System would solve the whole issue about GW beign too unfriendly in its gameplay, about multiple characters. I can only agree for so long time (sicne release of factions), that players which have chosen to play multiple characters, should not be PUNISHED for their decision, but thats exactly the point in GW1, you get punished for playing more than 1 character, because all of those character based titles are way too much of a grind, than you could afford time for them to max those titles all with each single character. The whole thign would not play a role, if GW2 would have been not mentioned. But due to the fact, that GW2 is coming, people are now all under time pressure. People want to get finished with GW1 now as fast as possible, so that they become ready for GW2 and don't have to be in fear about, that they could eventually miss something, what we receive through the Hall of Monuments for GW2, as GW1 Veterans...

Would be nice I have maxed titles on several chars but I don't like playing just one so I don't have KOBD on any of them.

Having one supercharacter -> only one character gets benefits in GW2.

Having multiple good characters -> many characters get slight benefits in GW2.

How's there a penalty for playing multiple chars again?

The penalty comes from requiring repeating of the same things (titles!) on multiple characters.

OP's idea is also pretty nice and I /SIGN it, but it doesn't solve the problems with current character-based rewarding system (multiple crappy HoMs instead of 1 phat one, the Survivor issue, ...)
And there has to be a restriction on accessible towns and outposts, or else players will create new characters and port them to endgame missions for quick infinite greens.

Yeah. This is one of the mayor flaws in GW.
At least:
- Grind titles.
- Devotion monument.
- Valor Monument.
- Unlocked outposts (Keeping locked some until you advance in the plot, but unlocking all those that can be reachd once you pass a certain mission and have been visited with other characters).
Should be account wide.

A 'family' feel is better in games. Characters work for the 'family', and the merits of the family are the merits of the player. Delete a character, and any merits not related to the character development itself (Quests, skills, missions, equipment) stay with the family (Reputation, Titles, Ranks...)

I have about 30+ characters across accounts, quite a few are storage mules, but most have done their campaigns or even the most of them. I've done all 3 + GW:EN on 12 characters..... why? Because I like the different challenges.

Title wise.. my main has 26 and my 2nd main (on 2nd account) has 16.... to be honest titles aint that hard once you know what your doing. Yes it takes time but that is all it is....

Why you want titles? For HoM and GW2? Sheesh there is years yet so I am sure you can get them.... I plan to have my 2 mains at 30 maxed titles for then and quite a few other chars at least having 10 a piece.... for my sins I also have 2 Legendary Survivors and working on 3 others...

No freebies for titles.... they are easy to get, yes some are grind, but you can't expect stuff to be handed to you... that is just being lazy.....

Always believed if you want something you have to be prepared to work for it.

So I do...

^^/signed for that don't really care if they have the benefit of not.

We have a thing called life. I don't have time to get titles on all 7 characters. Maybe you do, but I don't. And a lot of people have to choose which titles to get and which not.

Hmmm,
My two cents...

Yes, what I enjoyed the most about Guild Wars PvE was being able to great several characters and get each one their respective max titles (Sweet tooth for the mesmer, Drunkard for the Dervish, Wisdom for the Warrior etc.). The PvE-only title grind (together with other changes) killed this for me totally.

However I really don't see a turn around at this point of the game anymore. I personally gave up on PvE and did focus on PvP from then on.

To Holy Masamune:
The problem is that we don't know if GW2 favors having multiple characters or not so the supercharacter choice is benefiting in either way, while the other option might not.

/signed however I don't see this really happening. Any reward for spreading game time over several characters (similar to the train of thought by Phoenix Tears) would be very welcome.