The Honor System

[Astrov]

Hello everyone, I want to introduce a reputation system dubbed "The Honor System". It's a record of a player's prestige, fame, status, and reputation. Every player will be recorded in THS (unofficial term), and will be listed according to their social interactions. This may be because of their sincerity or insincerity, depends on each individual and how they want to be perceived.

 

Let's imagine a scenario of a player committing vandalism, theft, and hostility within a community. Most likely they would get a negative reputation in the honor system and this will affect all their social interactions, maybe being denied certain services, while having access to services exclusive to that reputation.

 

There will be two extremes, good and evil, very much like paragon and renegade in Mass Effect. I'm not sure if there will be a neutral status like paragade, so that's open for discussion.

 

Players will also be able to gain status and become famous, whether it be by a "wanted" poster or otherwise. Ultimately becoming good or evil, depending on choices, and there will be benefits and consequences to both sides that I haven't thought out yet.

 

I think this is perfect for any role-player out there!

[Dreamstar]

I have been wondering if such a system might be in place.

 

I'm not sure what the scale of it could be, or if players will up vote or down vote you, or if its based more around the kinds of actions you commit, player killing, stealing from containers you dont have permission to and so forth.

 

I might have a hard time maintaining my golden halo, as the leader of a crime syndicate.

[Comrademoco]

Oh hey... I just posted on the "guild concept" thread, something along the lines... hehe, sorry I think I might've took your idea unintentionally...

 

I like the idea. This allows players to choose the route they want to pursue, good or evil...

 

One the side of being denied "certain" services, maybe adding the options to gain some other services for going evil... I don't know...

 

I do like the idea... That's all I can really say...

[Astrov]

Oh hey... I just posted on the "guild concept" thread, something along the lines... hehe, sorry I think I might've took your idea unintentionally...

 

I like the idea. This allows players to choose the route they want to pursue, good or evil...

 

One the side of being denied "certain" services, maybe adding the options to gain some other services for going evil... I don't know...

 

I do like the idea... That's all I can really say...

The idea was already hinted around, namely by Astrophil in the guild concept thread, so I'm not taking credit because I've only organized it into a topic for more discussion. I think it's great that people are emphasizing on this concept, it's not necessarily "taking" it haha.

 

As for services, perhaps if a player is evil enough they'll be able to become a mercenary for hire, which will be exclusive to that reputation. As will other things be exclusive, and many benefits/drawbacks depending what's on THS. I just haven't thought of exactly what they are.

[Dreamstar]

On the wiki page http://dualuniverse.gamepedia.com/Dual_Universe_Wiki
We can see a section named "Skills" though theres no content there yet.

 

They probably have a plan in place for the skills, but there could be flavor style perks.

 

A bad guy might get 1% more crit chance

10% chance of better loot
a good guy might get 1% more accuracy

10% chance of a better craft

 

You unlock a special hat for your' Pet; a Devil Hat or Halo. *cough(nanomaid)cough*

[Astrov]

On the wiki page http://dualuniverse.gamepedia.com/Dual_Universe_Wiki

We can see a section named "Skills" though theres no content there yet.

 

They probably have a plan in place for the skills, but there could be flavor style perks.

 

A bad guy might get 1% more crit chance

10% chance of better loot

a good guy might get 1% more accuracy

10% chance of a better craft

 

You unlock a special hat for your' Pet; a Devil Hat or Halo. *cough(nanomaid)cough*

I was going to propose something like this. Unfortunately, there's not much information on the gameplay mechanics for me to make a list. But special skills, items, stats, etc. should definitely be a reward based on reputation.

 

I may have oversimplified the good/evil concept a bit, what's your take on neutrality or 'in between' reps?

[Dreamstar]

Well, my idea isnt as developed as it could be, I have never given much thought to the mechanics of honor and good and evil.

 

I'd like to see something more complex generated a square graph,

Left is Honorable, Right is Dishonorable, Up is good, down is bad.

 

You might be an honorable bad guy so you are in the left bottom. Like you saved some kids, by buying them from a slaver.

against

Being a dishonorable, good guy, in the upper right of the rectangle. You saved the kids by killing the slaver.

 

Neutrality is just a zone in the middle of the square, where you have made the choice to do something Good and Something Honorable, and then did Something Bad and Dishonorable to move yourself back to the middle.

 

the point of being neutral is mainly to avoid the Disadvantages of being good or bad, or loved or hated for being honorable or dishonorable, and not to gain something staying in line with the concept of being neutral.

[Astrov]

Thanks for your input, Saffi.

 

Okay, maybe a tier system will suffice. Something like this:

http://cs622220.vk.me/v622220445/63f9/Dbq5b_bQa7o.jpg(From Infamous: SS)

 

There's different 'levels' to good and evil that's being represented. This means that players won't always be on one extreme (maintaining neutrality somewhat). In the image you can also see both birds (or feathers) in each box until there's only one in the last pair of boxes. This is what I would imagine the honor system to be like, having both good and evil qualities until one dominates the other. Which is better than the idea I initially had (being on one side or the other) and this will add neutrality into the mix.

 

Each tier could include unique benefits, which makes it probable that players will stick with the 'in between' depending on their play style. If there were, let's say, three tiers of good/evil respectively, maybe it would be better to be 2/3 good and 1/3 evil to gain the benefit of that (specific) combination than being 3/3 good.

[Dreamstar]

I do find this fascinating, it will be good to hear what anyone else has to think about a built in system like this. It could be that in this environment it is best left as something you write into your biography, and just the way you act becoming more known in the community as a badass pirate, or a protector of innocents. a trusted politician, that builder that never returns extra materials to the guild.

 

The development team is really the only ones that know if this add's depth to gameplay or not.

 

I think the worst thing for this system would be if its just an extra layer, forced ontop of trying to play. but if it is a tangible, working thing then it could be great

[Michaelc]

Eh, not sure on this after thinking about it more for a while.

 

Editited*

[Dreamstar]

I have to stop and ask myself, just how is it going to affect things on a few levels.

1.) Who is going to care about us being good or bad? will here even be that many NPC's

2.) If I want to sell contraband, but Im a good guy and the game literally prevents me from doing so, Im gonna have a big frown on my face.

 

How can the game differentiate between Han Solo, a good guy that does some bad things. and Batman, a bad guy that does good things.

Its not i think its a bad idea, for instance if players could click your profile and vote on you being good or bad or something. and then people would might be able to get an idea of what kind of person you are at a glance, like youtube thumbs up thumbs down. Im just having a hard time conceptualizing fair and balanced use of it in a sandbox.

[NQ-Nyzaltar]

Hi everyone !

 

We have already though of several direction for a reputation system. But nothing has been clearly defined yet. 

Two directions already mentioned in this topic are currently explored:

 

- Automatized system:
You do an action considered "bad" by the game, your reputation score goes down.
You do an action considered "good" by the game, your reputation score goes up.

 

- Socialized system:

You reputation score fluctuates depending of how other players "rate" your behavior or the quality of your work.

(very similar to what you can find as ratings in social medias)

 

But this is still too early stage to discuss about this feature. There will be later a DevBlog post to talk about it in the future.

 

One thing is pretty certain though: There shouldn't be bonus/malus other than social consequences for reputation score: being able to access (or not) to goods or services, or just stay in a specific area, depending of your reputation with the involved group/person/faction. Bonus/malus affecting combat or loot (if any) should be gained through skill training and maybe real time training (by repeating a specific kind of activity regularly), not gained because of moral choices.

 

Best Regards,

Nyzaltar.