So, for me, I have stopped playing until I can create my next characters on a server that has NO pvp content or activities, as I am tired of all the pvp bias in this game for the last 9 months, and all three of my 60th level characters are boring and dead ends currently.
I would want to have something for all my previous trouble and effort, and here are some of my thoughts…
Legacy characters: If the servers were shutdown, and everyone started over, I would want perks for the 2,000+ hours I already put into this game, not in terms of characters or items so much as account buffs.
First off, each account right now can have 10 characters, and from now on, I would want to have the ability to make them all on the same server if I so chose, so none of this $15 server transfer predatory money grubbing stuff and forcing folks to spread their accounts’ characters on different servers and regions. Shared storage, for all the character on a single account/server would be needed, so my crafter character could make items for all my other characters, and just leave them in the shared storage section, and then all the other characters I have on that server, could just come and get them. Item binding for folks that craft their own items would be changed to binding to one account, and not one character, so if my crafter character make items, any character on that account/server could freely equip such items, and then pass them around as needed. If I bought/found/traded for someone else’s items, instead of crafting them myself, then those items should be bound to a single, specific character.
Infinite progression through a prestige up system, so that the biggest failure, the dead end end game, is replaced by a method to be able to continue building your character up, to powers that a one and done 60th level character could never dream of.
Additionally, make character level and weapons level tied to the specific, individual character, but have all the trade skills kept track of at the account level.
What this would mean is that leveling your character to 60th (character level) and 20th level (weapons mastery) would be just as it currently is, for each new character you create, or each old character that you choose to prestige up.
Gathering skills, if tracked at the account level, would unlock things, and once these things are unlocked, they then remain unlocked for all future characters on the account.
For example, say I get my first character to 200 mining. 200 mining unlocks being able to mine every resource mining allows in the game, so all my new characters can mine Orichalcum right off the bat, and this would mean faster leveling up of their mining profession. If my first (or any character on my account) got logging to 200, then all subsequent new characters (or restarted old characters I choose to prestige up), would also have all logging things unlocked, which would make re-leveling logging skills very much faster than right now, and the same would apply to all other gathering skills. Refining and Crafting skills would need a similar system.
I would not want to keep any of my existing characters or items, but would want to have my account treated as a ‘legacy account’, where the things I have unlocked, still unlocked.
Other things I would want, would be restrictions on getting experience points for refining raw materials gained from gathering skills basic functions {green wood from young trees, but not anything else uncommon/rare}, that were not personally gathered by a character, so you couldn’t just buy/trade for green wood and turn it into timber, and level up your woodworking skill. Only personally gathered green wood could do that, all other green wood would just refine into timber (or charcoal, or whatever), but would not level up your skills. This would apply to all refining actions, including town board missions, so the only way to level up your refining skills is to personally go and gather the raw materials.
Crafting would likewise need personally gathered resources, refined into materials, that could then be used to gain crafting skill experience. Only personally gathered resources would create personal materials that would grant XP to the crafting process, and any materials not personally gathered/refined would only be useful for creating items, but would not allow for leveling up the crafting skill. Thus, the only way to level up your crafting skills, is to use your own personally gathered/refined stuff, so no amount of gold will help you level your skills up, you have to EARN these levels.
This would address the problem of mass crafters all getting every skill to 200, and greatly reduce the number of folks that can craft max.
The other part of the equation, is that currently, crafting leveling is far too much of a grind, so make the leveling process require far less XP overall.
Combining the above two ideas, those that want to get 1 or more crafting skills to 200 can, but they have to actually do all the work themselves to get there, no just buying resources and materials and BAM, instant 200 everything, but the actual grind itself would be much faster for those that wanted it.
The final thing I would want, when your character reaches 200 in any trade skill, the next time that particular character prestige ups, any new and improved trade skill tier is unlocked, and going back through the Gathering + Refining + Crafting skills gives access to more and better methods.
For example, perhaps for Gathering skills, your character gains several things (or perhaps, one of several choices of things), but also always gets +1 to any basic gathering skill loot, so fishing for instance would yield 2 fish instead of one, Orichalcum would yield +1 Ore, and so on. Each time you get a particular skill up to 200, you would get a yield increase like this. It isn’t much, but it would start to add up. Just a thought, I personally wouldn’t want this to work for uncommon/rare/unique drops, but I would leave that up for debate.
