"Aging past Ascension" or "The answer to the level cap..."

I think the real reason people are CRYING for higher levels is that they need some sort of BADGE for playing the game hundreds of hours in a few months. I don't disagree, but I think there would be other ways to do it.

The cool thing about playing the original EverQuest for me was after a few months, getting my character up to where people BELOW me were jealous. However, the WORST part about that game was the grind to get there... So there has to be a system that rewards someone for playing a long time, but allows for less/no grind, while balancing the game enough so that they dont need to add extra content for those below the MAXIMUM level!

I think the term LEVEL is what throws everyone else off. I think they could do some sort of AGING system in Guild Wars... Think about it, everyone in real life gets to their highest physical peak say around 25, but they don't STOP aging. This would be like that.

City of Heroes tried to achieve this with badges and titles... would that work here? I don't think so. I don't the Dangerous Character Name really adds any value to that character. Badges wouldn't either, as they are merely personal, and you can brag with them.

So you could add ages. The system would start where after level 20, the first time you fill the XP bar four times, you gain an age. Then your "level" would be 21, or somewhere else on your character it would say 21. Then it would go, so on and so forth.

There would have to be a cap, as only some characters would make sense after age 50 or so, especially the hot lookin' females... BUT this is where some other cool effects could come in. At certain ages, say 30, 40, and 50, you could change the apperance of your character, and you would UNLOCK different hairstyles and faces at those ages.

I personally think it would be badass to be running around with a 60 year old Sean Connery looking warrior, complete with greying beard, kicking the hell out of some Charr.

I think the only real problem here would be game lineage... will the next expansion mention how much time has passed since we killed the Undead P_____ R_____ , or since the searing of Ascalon? I would think not, as many people will take many different times to do it.

What do you all think? Is it a legitimate form of compensation for spending hours in their game? Would it be better if you could toggle the age off and on, or if you could CHOOSE what age to stop at? I am a strictly PvE player, and LOOOVE Rpg's, and it's always been cool in games when you age.

Aging wouldn't add anything but a number, and possible some cool effects to our characters, and the BADGE that can say, "Hey I'm more of a geek than you, and I spend 7 hours a night on the game and you don't"!!!!

So, it's not just me that wants to stand out from the crowd! Phew!!

How about special "unique" items for people who really do make great achievements?
I played one game that awarded you with special edition weapons/items when you sucessfully mentored a pupil to a certain level. It was pretty cool.

Sean Connery, LOL. I want a Clint Eastwood, complete with a scrubby hat, stubble and a big honking cigar!

I was about to skip this topic after seeing the title, but after reading the post, it's an applaudable idea. I don't think your character should be forced to age (my elementalist has 700K exp and I don't want to look like a bag of bones ), but being able to choose your hair styles and appearance is a good idea.

As for the new unlockable hair styles, I'm fine with it (if Arenanet has the time to spend modeling them), but I definitely think that you should be able to re-select parts of appearance such as hair color at some point in the game. (The other idea is having a stylist NPC.) Doing so at ascension seems reasonable.

Sounds like a pretty good idea. Now all the grind freaks can have something to brag about

I wouldn't mind a hairdresser, as apparently I have the same taste in hair as 90% of the other players with female monks.

Everyone has the dual-bun hairstyle on their monk it seems, and over half of them are blondes

It would be cool to have cosmetic effects come from reaching experience milestones, beating the last mission, clearing UW or FoW, etc. 15k armor is an example of something like this that is already in the game.

What about the age idea though, the actual number? Or perhaps there is another way to combine lvl, rank, and time played to come up with a numeric figure...

Or is numeric the way to go? Maybe it should be like pets, where we can get to be "elder" or "experienced"...

There could be different ones for EACH COMBINATION of classes.. which would also solve the issue where people want to call each combo something different... (wizards, paladins, etc)

Aging would be nice, only if you can choose to do so. For example: You achieve 'age 40', you can choose if you want age 20-40 now (perhaps in the hero menu?)

I wouldn't want to be running around with an old man carrying a bow...

Exactly. 50 would be a good number I think, people are still athletically prime in their 40's with the right training...

Age would probably be an art-heavy thing to implement. However, since ANet is going to be adding armours anyway, and since armour can't get "any better" than the PvP armour....

(although I wish they'd add more variations in abilities - c'mon, I want a Physical protection vs. Elem protection tradeoff for my Elem armours! I want to choose between energy bonuses and health! I want to choose between Energy Regen vs. Armour Level!)

So, why not make the various COSMETIC additions that they will make to the game, only available to those who have reached various milestones?
(Ascended only armour! Underworld only armour! 100 hours played only armor! 500k XP only armour! Max gold only armour! Top 10 Guild Ladder only Armour!) - replace armour with hairstyle, faces, /emotes, dances, and other stuff that they will eventually add to the game.

I think that those characters who go through the game should have their guild cape upgraded to a more mink-like to mimic royalty. Or just some way to show a royal/legendary symbol. Like maybe a different colored name?