Feature Request: Social XP

I have an idea. Create something that links with player events. For example the player event book would be what people use to get XP. The game could code that IF said player spends X amount of time at Y event and gain Z amount of XP. Now the question is what would Y event consist of. Well in the player book there are areas that have these player events. The code would only give XP if that person is standing in the zone of the event.

Now how to we get the abusers to not get XP? The event planners would have to send the devs a attendance list.

Now the devs can be like well yes you were in the zone but not in attendance no xp for you.

Then players would have to register for events and show up!

 

Also I am just throwing around ideas.

Your post is the best I have seen in some time.

BIG KUDOS!

 

It might be hard to get people to register, and then calculating their attendance and submiting it would be a real drag on the event hosts. Maybe if it was something like an AoE that would cause social XP to go up within a certain distance from the event.

 

I do know the devs have all these tools that count everything. So yes I am sure there is something that can tell them where x player was standing at y time. Good idea!

I bet they can even know if you said anything or moved etc.

 

Calculating event attendance isn't a problem. NWN had a good system to do that. The real issue with granted event XP lies with those running events.

What's to stop someone for example.. from running a private event in their basement with just their friends?

Relying on Portalarium staff is a bit unrealistic. They'll be busy working on the next EP. Volunteer GMs with dev oversight maybe.. but that'd still be a pain for Portalarium and all the drama that would come from unprofessional, non-paid staff.

So you'd need some sort of in-game way to get an event sanctioned to grant XP to attendees.. such as the host having to pay some kind of public event license that would grant them temporary powers. or having to rent out lots or scenes.. come to think of it I'm pretty sure that line of thinking has been discussed before. (It wasn't this thread was it? I forget heh).

 

There's no reason for social XP, and I'll tell you why.

Quests and events will have their own mechanics for getting involved in the game, socially, with their own rewards.

For a tournament, there's usually some sort of prize. You're involved with other players by default.
For a quest, there's usually some sort of payout (even XP, but possibly something else). Great quests will encourage players joining other players.
For events like parties, you're there for the experience (not the XP). That's the reward. You never know what might come up at an event like this. Lord British himself might even make an appearance. Would you prefer you just got a bit of XP instead? I didn't think so.

 

On the other hand.. if they wanted to add say.. a dancing skill.. would you put that with the adventuring skills? How about a non-magical knowledge based skill like lore?

There might not be a technical need.. but a social and/or non-adventure skill tree would open up a lot of possibilities.

 

Social XP might not be something that everyone is interested in pursuing, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be a great addition to the game. I think with the periodic wipes and parts of the game that are currently (or formerly) not functioning, the one thing that has really shone through is the desire of the community (a large subsection, anyway) to get together for events. I thought the turn out for the theatre troupe's performance was really good, and the last FireLotus party had the biggest turnout to date. Social XP would give players another way to customize their characters that doesn't have to do with cutting down trees or killing mobs, and I don't see anything wrong with that. It would be a place to put skills related to playing musical instruments, printing books, dancing... all things this game already has or plans to have.

 

Social XP could be great. Combine this with "The World Is A Stage" stretch goal that was met, you can grant xp for attending (and more for organizing/performing) in a social event. You can grant xp for teaching emotes (not just performing them). You could even get social xp for grouping, more xp if you group with different players.

Now what social xp would provide should be limited. Access to other emotes, some titles, and features for performance (such as costuming, musical instrument options, etc) would be ideal. Social XP should not provide any skill points for Combat or Crafting, although increasing levels in those might provide some small amount of social points.

I think this idea has merit, and would provide a lot of opportunity to enhance that "third leg" of the Combat-Crafting-Community tripod.

 

Can't say I read the whole thread (sorry), but I did want to chime in. Social XP can be a dangerous thing. I am not a fan of Level Tiers. Crafting vs Adventuring I think makes sense, but PVP XP and levels worries me a bit. Adding Social on top of this seems a little overkill to me. I definitely think there should be rewards (xp or otherwise) for more than Adventuring or Crafting, but I would caution of making too many tiers with their own special rewards/advancement. It could be as simple as a Steam Achievement (not sure how to reward non-Steam users... badges?), but that would not help for encouraging repeat behaviors.

In NWN there was activity XP on some servers. Basically servers would test different things like are you online, are you moving, are you talking, etc. and give you XP on a timer when the preferred activity was detected. This created forced social behaviors where people would stay logged in AFK, macro walking in circles or just spout garbage to meet the requirement. Some would allow users to grant other users a certain amount of XP, but rather than truly reward good behaviors people just tapped their friends. These things are way rewarding "Social" or RP behavior is difficult and dangerous.

I think it would be a great idea for POT owners to reward people involved in social events, or if there was a mechanic where social events would allow the coordinator to issue rewards for contributors. Or perhaps this would be spread to users in proximity of the event as it ended. However, these would need to be limited and have some sort of oversight either human or algorithmic.

I am all for Social and RP stuff to be rewarded as this can encourage these activities. However, it will always be taken as far as it can but those than just want to maximize their gains through any means.

 

Social Exp could be a good thing, but it should be separate from Adventuring and Crafting skills. You don't get better at wearing platemail or cutting down trees because you stood around drinking at a party.

Though a social based skill tree could add a lot of flavour, though I wouldn't expect it for Episode 1, if the devs did like the idea.

 

I don't know. We will be able to kill skeletons with a sword to improve our skills with a mace or armor. Exposure to the arts can also inspire creativity that leads to innovation and new discoveries. Obviously any XP reward would be much less than actually doing a task, but I think you could even argue that Adventuring and Crafting skills might have cross over. I see XP as more what you do with the knowledge and training you gain and not necessary divided into groups.

I get a lot better at some things by looking them up on Google. Of course, maybe that is the opposite of social.

 

I like the idea suggested in this thread. However, I am not sure it is feasible. This might be too easy to exploit and it might be very hard to program a system that properly rewards all social game play. If something like this gets implemented it should not lead to real powers that have any use/meaning to someone who is not truly a social player and it should probably be level capped.

 

I agree that nothing in the Social tree should have any impact on combat or crafting at all; these are simply things that will reward players who prefer to roleplay. Things like titles, emotes, etc. No reason for players to exploit it.