As I near hero with yet another nameless character, I become depressed knowing that I'll probably get bored pretty quick at the hero ranks. My skills will become perfected because the last skill I'll have learned was in the early forties, my enemies will either be too numerous and always travel in packs, or conversely, too few to hunt, sets will be attained and lost, blah, blah, blah. Sure, for many, the hero ranks are glamorous. Yet, there is an ever-growing trend of people who delete under 150 hours, half that spent just getting to hero. Part of the mystique, fun and challenge of CF is achieving the pinnacle, but once you get there, its like all the greatest problems have been surmounted. I've been spending some time thinking about this, and here are some ideas to spice up the final level:

Hero skills based on class and time spent at hero. This could be a handful of minor improvements to a class' skill set, or new skills altogether. Could call it "Class mastery" or "Warrior Mastery" or whatever-have-you. Obviously, you wouldn't want super-duper unbeatable characters, but it would give a newer meaning to "Hero" that isn't solely based on equipment sets. This would also give motivation to those who level sit mid-40s for the bigger pk range to get trucking to hero ranks.

How it might work:

Just turning level 51, you get your class mastery skill. This could be as simple as a 1%-2% increase in all existing skills, or a 1%-2% decrease in mana cost for skills/powers/spells, or something like that. Nothing hugely powerful, but subtle and useful.

After 20 hours spent at hero, you discover insights into greater class mastery. This is where it would get more diverse. For a warrior, all your weapon skills jump 10%, up to and included 100% (thus making the need for endless weapons practice less urgent), for rangers, their entangle ability would cut movement by 3/4 instead of 1/2, for a thief, you pick up another thief skill at random (only what would be currently offered by a guildmaster at its current tree path i.e. detect traps if nothing else has been learned), and so on.

From there, it could be added more stuff at 50 hours, 125 hours, and 250 hours spent just at hero.

I would love to hear opinions on this from everyone, whether good or bad. Thanks for a great game, everyone.

Yet, there is an ever-growing trend of people who delete under 150 hours, half that spent just getting to hero.

This is not an "ever-growing trend". If anything, characters are longer-lived now than in the past few years. Rage deletion code has done a lot there, among other factors.

Just turning level 51, you get your class mastery skill. This could be as simple as a 1%-2% increase in all existing skills, or a 1%-2% decrease in mana cost for skills/powers/spells, or something like that. Nothing hugely powerful, but subtle and useful.... From there, it could be added more stuff at 50 hours, 125 hours, and 250 hours spent just at hero.

Redundant and unneeded. As written in 'help skill improvement', both longevity and level factor into skill improvement, and heroes are at the top end of both.

As for enhancing abilities just for hitting hero ranks (Entangle takes 75% moves, etc.), I think all that would do is make it hard to PK during the 40's ranks, when a large section of your range is composed of heroes.

This would also give motivation to those who level sit mid-40s for the bigger pk range to get trucking to hero ranks.

Could you cite an example of someone who has done this? I don't recall seeing it.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

If anything people sit at 40 or 41 solely to AVOID hero ranks. The only class I can think of that sits in the mid-40s is spectres at 47 for obvious reasons.

Is heroing (especially your very first hero) is in my mind, the most anti-climactic accomplishment in CF.

nuf said

Of course, a single example from 2004 isn't terribly compelling in terms of changing the game around it. Most people try to rank quickly through the 40's so that they don't have to deal with people above their own rank (somewhat overrated), and so they don't need to worry about XP loss from non-PC deaths.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

So I gave you one.

See a trend? I think Marcus just likes the bigger range, and the perks you get between 48-51 aren't always that great. Why not hang out where you have your class maxed out enough to hang with the heroes, while also being able to pounce on the people who are just outside of hero pk range?

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As I near hero with yet another nameless character

How about achieving a name for your character? Kind of pointless deleting after ranking when no-one would remember you afterwards.

Things you can do as Hero:

-Explore areas. Make a journey that becomes a part of the story. Exploration is an achievement on its own.

-Interact with people and leave a mark of yourself to their minds. That way, you can achieve a place for your character in Thera and it helps to define who (s)he is.

If your character is something more than a hollow throwaway with no life(has your character lived that time or did you just mechanically rank rank rank?) or personality, hold on to that character.

And what comes to people becoming better adventurers over time, it already happens in the form of skill % going up.

But think of it more in terms of the ~character~. Is he/she going to get old? Develop quirks? Become jaded? Just downright always get beat up? Become somehow legendary? Get a last name/tat just for sticking it out (As a side note, I'd like to see more imm-given rewards for longevity just for merely sticking it out a long time)? You'll see others come and go. Quitters . You? You stick it out and probably you'll know a couple, few, or even several generations of heros come and go.

When I'm done with a character I want people to say oh snap, I knew you with this character, that character, and this other... nice.

Maybe that's just a pipe dream for me because I've never age died/con died, but I'm gonna try sometime.

Personally, I dislike the idea of characters getting stronger just by logging hours. Plus, this is already in effect, sort of, in that most characters don't perfect certain really-hard-to-perfect skills until they've logged 100 or so hours at hero.

I agree.

Plus, if you don't play a char that camos often (since you seem to have a preference for outlanders), you might find things more interesting as more can speak with you and more can attack you.

Personally, my char will never perfect all his skills.