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Player Features and Ideas Discussion

 
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Proposal : Changing the EVE account to develop a loyalty program
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Gokyo Ri
State War Academy
Caldari State
#1 - 2012-01-27 15:26:59 UTC  |  Edited by: Gokyo Ri
Introduction

It was recently highlighted at the CSM meeting that there may be a need for some sort of loyalty reward scheme for long term subscribers.

Some of the suggestions floated were ‘master accounts’, but the details weren’t specified. It is likely that some or all of this mirrors those proposals.

Anyway, these are my thoughts.
Gokyo Ri
State War Academy
Caldari State
#2 - 2012-01-27 15:27:07 UTC  |  Edited by: Gokyo Ri
Proposal

A standard EVE account comes with three character slots. Generally one is a primary character which a player trains actively, and the other two are secondary characters that are used as scouts, etc.

With each period of continuous subscription, for example 6 months, an additional character slot is made available.

As is currently the case, the account subscription allows only one of these accounts to train skills at a time. For definition purposes, this account is called the Master character, and all other characters are secondary characters.

The master character can be selected from the available characters at any time via the login screen, but if a Master character is downgraded to a secondary character then any training ongoing ceases immediately though the training queue is preserved.

When a Secondary character is selected to become a Master character, any skills pending in the training queue will restart training automatically. If no skill is pending in the queue, it is the players responsibility to ensure a new skill begins training.
Gokyo Ri
State War Academy
Caldari State
#3 - 2012-01-27 15:27:14 UTC  |  Edited by: Gokyo Ri
Micro Transactions

Having multiple characters in a single account carries the limitation that only a single character can train a skill at a time, and that only one character per account can log in at a time.

With the above model it would be possible to have a several characters under an account, but still only develop one and play one at a time. This makes a rewarding by providing additional character slots an extremely limited benefit.

Allow plex to be used to buy training and server time for any secondary characters on the account on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ model.

So, a plex will buy 30 days of training time and/or 30 days of server time, ‘billed’ by the minute. This balance only decreases with use.

So, for training, any and all secondary characters may train skills, but the total amount of training between all characters will be limited to a total of 30 days (43200 minutes). Any un-used training time remains a credit balance, but is only available if the account is currently subscribed.

Gametime is available to all secondary characters concurrently, so in addition to the Master character, any and all secondary characters can log in at the same time, but is limited to a total of 30 days (43200 minutes) between all secondary characters; any amount of time that the Master character is logged in does not detract from this balance. That means, if two secondary characters are logged in at the same time for a total of 60 minutes, this will debit 120 minutes from the game time balance. Game timers start once station environment has loaded or ship has finished warping into game grid. Game timer stops when client logs off or exits. When game time remaining drops below an appropriate level, a warning is displayed on all logged in secondary character clients currently logged in so that they have time to either reload with gametime or seek a safe logoff point. It is the players responsibility to ensure they are safe when gametime expires.

A major issue here, depending on the style of a players gameplay, is that secondary accounts may accrue a significant balance of either gametime or training time. Perhaps rather than a plex buying 43200 minutes of gametime and 43200 minutes of training time, allow players to by 86400 minutes of ‘time’ and specify how much they wish to be apportioned to each of the two time balances, or that a single balance is used, and training time and game time both debit from this. The second option allows maximum flexibility for the player.

If account subscription lapses, the secondary character training and game time is not accessible, but unused credit remains and does not expire. Any secondary character skills in training when the account subscription lapses will pause in the same way Master character skills cease to train as they do at present.

Unused training time or game time cannot be converted back to plex, or passed to other accounts/players.
Gokyo Ri
State War Academy
Caldari State
#4 - 2012-01-27 15:27:23 UTC  |  Edited by: Gokyo Ri
Intended benefits

• Allows players to aggregate characters to a single account over time as a reward for ongoing subscription

• Allows secondary characters/slots to participate and evolve meaningfully within EVE rather than stagnate as the majority do due to players focusing on their primary character

• Does not disadvantage player in terms of plex use, in that a plex used in this manner will provide 30 days of game time and training in same manner a second account would, but with benefit that it can be paused when not used.

• Promotes additional use of plex in a manner that is already accepted, but allows greater flexability for the player in that it can be split between multiple secondary characters

• If player circumstances change, and do not allow funding of secondary character game time and training time, the characters and their resources remain accessible, by redesignating them Master characters, whereas if a player is unable to fund a second account then those resources are unavailable until the player can then fund the account again.
Gokyo Ri
State War Academy
Caldari State
#5 - 2012-01-27 15:34:08 UTC  |  Edited by: Gokyo Ri
So, that's the thought.

It is not a polished idea, and undoubtedly there are issues with it that I have not considered, but still.

Wasn't sure if posting here or the Assembly Hall would be better, so if you think this would be better there, let me know. Last time I posted an unfinished idea there, it was suggested I post here.

Discuss?


GR