Yet in doing so they’d be destroying one of the core elements of the borrowed power RP they are setting up. I’m trying to seek compromise.
This makes sense conceptually, but there does need to be consideration of gameplay too. If we abandon all sense of game play for purism we’ll hurt the RP ultimately. A good DM will occasionally fudge rolls to make sure the group is having fun. I think it is possible to arrange the story to allow for fast switching while still preserving the RP, even if it means you have to do story to unlock that.
Same. Hence why the idea was more towards letting players work toward these breakpoints so they can then be free to customize as much as they want. Players who are pushing back want to keep the RP element of the choice are from what I’ve observed more of the casual playerbase. So I don’t see how my suggestion would infringe upon them since those restrictions would still be in place for them yet not affecting their gameplay to a harmful degree.
What is “people”? How many people were asking to have their gameplay seriously gimped by having to select the least worst of choices at the beginning of the next expansion? No one was asking for irrevocable choices and punishment for wanting to play more than one part of the game.
If a choice can be changed simply by clicking a few buttons it’s not very meaningful. There have been plenty of threads asking Blizzard to add choices and rpg elements that have a meaningful impact on the game.
If the choice doesn’t affect gameplay and the story it’s not a meaningful choice.
The point is that it’s basically complaining that it’s not fair that you’re getting a core point of a genre in your game that is of that genre.
Not having meaningful choice hurts my enjoyment of the game, and this removes meaningful choice from the game. I like my RPGs having, you know… RPG in it.
If people are struggling to do content because they aren’t using optimal setups that sounds more like an argument that the content is not designed very well in the first place.
Otherwise being a min/maxer takes effort above and beyond what a normal player does.
Granted I’d much rather this be at the character level and not yet another expansion specific mechanic we’re going to throw out in a few years, but it’s better than nothing.
and I imagine this forum wont like my ideas about meaningful choice at the character level if people aren’t liking this covenant thing =P
This suggestion caters to everyone. Players who aren’t interested in pushing themselves into higher content can keep the RP elements of the Covenant choice, and those who want to perform the best they can in harder content as well as players who want to do well in multiple avenues of the game aren’t having to be forced to pick which group of friends they’re going to be at their best with.
If you subtract Ralph’s thousands of posts, actually the demand has been tiny.
If the “choice” I am forced to make in order to play any content means I can only play one of 4 parts of the game, and even then would have to forgo the transmog, mount, or story that seems interesting… Please link to threads demanding this level of restriction.
Joining a Covenant isn’t about abilities or even cosmetics; it’s about being a part of a new, specific society with a unique position, duties, values, ect in the greater Shadowlands cosmology. The abilities and cosmetics are perks, not the point.
So there is an issue with this, if a choice that, I a player, make has meaningful impact on the game then it must have a mutually negative impact on everybody else if it’s real. This is by virtue of depriving them of choice. Otherwise if that choice only affects me the player then the choice isn’t meaningful and has no actual impact as the long term is never changed. I don’t think this is a meaningful choice personally. Moreover it then becomes a punishing choice due to balancing. MMORPGs are inherently impossible to have actual factual meaningful choices in unless you go the route of the players making the whole game and thus they players are the story. As long as there is an on the rails story, what’s being asked for is technically impossible and attempting to enforce it will compromise the player experience on the whole.
Nothing you have said in this post even suggests that it would in any way impact you were others to have choice. Is it that you have no self-control and need blizzard to step in and do for you what you have never valued enough to do yourself, or do you just want to see other people punished for wanting to play the game?
Sure but I’ve never been one to go for the whole “but it’s optional!” argument.
The example I like to use is a vendor that sells every item in the game for 1g. That too would be “optional” to use, but I suspect everybody here would know why it’s a really, really bad idea.
An idea that’s worth putting into the game should have more merit to it than that it’s optional.
It really hasn’t been that tiny. Well it’s tiny in that GD is a tiny portion of the playerbase, but it’s something that has been asked for by players besides Ralph for quite some time.
You’re not forced to make any kind of choice. You are willingly choosing to whichever covenant you are choosing to play with.
I think a better way to go about serving both is to reward players that stay loyal to a covenant rather than punish those who would prefer to swap around.
This way your choice to remain loyal will be meaningful in a way that actually gives players who value the RP aspects of the system something tangible.
Because with the current setup - the RP casual players don’t actually get anything tangible, and any subjective value they get could still be achieved through a flexible system.
It negates that point for the top end players who mostly value gameplay over RPG. And keep this in mind as well too. Those players can also just not do the process to change Covenants if they want to retain the RP element of choice. But you can’t just sit there and say that me making a Covenant choice should be the difference of me being much stronger in PvE but alright in other elements, but this other Covenant is strong in PvP but meh in other elements.
But then you are actively punishing people who want to push multiple avenues of playing the game. Having the ability to change Covenants, or at least the abilities you can get from Covenants, doesn’t stop people who want to stick with one Covenant for RP and Story reasons.
