TLDR: All your characters now have an extra rank based on the tier of gear they're wearing. When you first log in after this update, you'll have a chance to "rank up" to your current level by un-equipping and re-equipping any item. This ranking up event will be greeted with a server wide shout out for your character - and all ranks have names but we'll let you discover those for yourselves. Please read on as there's lots more details about where we're going with this!
Going live in this update is the first step we're taking in helping us create future content much more easily by adding a new metric for ranking players based on their gear.
As you know once you get to level 70 you then start on the tiered content starting from Sszra Temple at tier 1 all the way up to Tier 9 with DSK 3, Vex Thal and Causeway.
We've modified the database so that all items are now marked according to the tier level that they drop in. This rank is then used to Rank a player based on how many items of a certain tier that they have. This new metric can then be used to unlock new content such as new spells, aa's, quests, zones and anything else we might think would be fun.
In this update to start with you have a few new commands that should prove useful to help identify where you need to upgrade items on your character:
#myrank
This command will show your current rank and list all the items you're currently wearing, showing by con color which items are a lower tier and need upgrading. It will also show empty slots.
You can also filter the list by tier, so for example, use "#myrank 5" to list all items you're wearing up to tier 5, plus you can also do "#myrank 5 only" to list only items you're wearing that are tier 5.
In addition to this, there are also the following commands that don't have much use yet but they are metrics that we might use in later content:
#mygrouprank
#myraidrank
#myguildrank
Note: Guild ranks are currently calculated based on the average tier of the first 18 highest tiered characters in the guild.
So other then a useful way for players to see what to upgrade next where are we going with this? A rough road map looks something like this (none of this is completely set in stone):
- GM tools where we can easily import Mobs from the PEQ database and scale them in difficulty to any tier we want. I'll probably do some live testing with this by scaling up a random zone to a tier and letting you all explore it for fun
Obviously once this is working nicely we can create new zones with new loot more quickly and easily. - Mobs will be getting new special abilities in the server code so that we can spend less time scripting events.
- We want to introduce a new chest drop system where any mob has a chance to drop a rare chest with loot according to the tier of mob it drops from (yes all mobs are now also marked according to their tier). This will help us fill gaps in gear which this tier system helps us to identify much more easily.
- New spell lines based on tier. For example we like the idea of more traditional EQ combat mechanics making a comeback where mezzing and crowd control are important, so a line of mezz/snare/root/charm spells that will only work on mobs up to a certain tier (and can only be scribed if you're a high enough rank). Of course some mobs would still be immune.
- New AAs that become accessible once you reach a certain tier. This will help us manage class progression more easily and buff up some lacking classes in a much more measured and controlled way.
Plus lots of other possibilities we've thought about, but this will be an iterative process as we go on.
For now with this update, please let us know about any items that are either missing a tier, or don't have the correct tier. The first thing you'll probably notice is that if you're a veteran tier 9 player you might struggle to actually get rank 9 as this has highlighted a lack of tier 9 augs, so we'll be addressing that very soon!
I'll try and get magelo updated too to show character and item ranks there as well.
Also in this update:
- The tick rate of idle zones has been increased a bit to help scripts continue to process events.
- HP regen cap is now based on character rank, so for each rank the cap is raised by 100.