Any possibility of getting an option for Prestige SG progression?

So I noticed that in i25, Prestige has been removed from the game. Now, before I get REE'd off the forums (as I so regularly do in help chat), let me make my case.

What I'm asking for is the choice, not the change. A little toggle somewhere that lets players like myself (I know they exist, there's been a few on my side) use the Prestige system as their own personal progression counter. Just a little something that's satisfying to those of us that like the grind.

Are there any plans to potentially give us that option, or will there be now it's been asked about? I thought it was kind of a shame that it was ever changed. I found it fun to work towards a base and I find it just so hollow to be able to get everything immediately.

A possible way to implement this could be to change it outright, then add a vendor off in the corner somewhere that just gives you a silly amount of prestige for free. Seems like an easy way to implement it, at least from a layperson's point of view.

My biggest issue with Prestige is that, for a long time, it halved the amount of Influence one could make when in SG mode, to help balance the game economy. However, it hampered a character's ability to earn enough Influence to afford things like IO recipes and competing in the WW market.

I'd be fine with Prestige as long as it didn't do anything besides perhaps, as you say, be a measure of work towards the SG/VG, without affecting the ability to create bases or earn Influence. There are many base builders who love having free range to create whatever we like without the constraints of Prestige, especially since Base Raids aren't a thing anymore (well before the original game closed).

That's fair, though to be honest I never minded the influence penalty. That's my personal opinion though and I get why that probably would be a bad thing for most people.

My biggest issue with Prestige is that, for a long time, it halved the amount of Influence one could make when in SG mode, to help balance the game economy. However, it hampered a character's ability to earn enough Influence to afford things like IO recipes and competing in the WW market.

 

 

I'd be fine with Prestige as long as it didn't do anything besides perhaps, as you say, be a measure of work towards the SG/VG, without affecting the ability to create bases or earn Influence. There are many base builders who love having free range to create whatever we like without the constraints of Prestige, especially since Base Raids aren't a thing anymore (well before the original game closed).

This x3000

Eh, I'm more inclined to agree with the OP. Note that the OP didn't ask for all the free items in the base editor to suddenly NOT be free. Just for a way to gain prestige again.

Although why were we so concerned about AE farming giving people "free 50's" (essentially) and none of us are toe least bit worried about every character on every account basically getting their own fortress of solitude with teleports to every zone in the game and all the workstations and fixins of a large active sg for absolutely free?

:shrug: not that I'm complaining about free stuff. Quite the opposite. Now that there's no reason to band together with other players in a large sg, all of my alts will have all the individual lairs I have the patience to build.

UNLESS someone can think of a reason to join a super group? Maybe there's a way to activate prestige and spend it on things for sg's that aren't base components (like double exp buffs or ptw powers or something?

I kinda miss having to work for something for a group, but don't want that to come at the expense of base builders.

UNLESS someone can think of a reason to join a super group?

I mean, a lot of people do it just for the social aspect. ;)

As for prestige, I think it's a tricky issue.  I like the idea of a vendor being able to bypass it for those that don't want to do it, or perhaps some way for individuals to toggle it on and off for their own SGs, maybe?

I always remember it being complained about a lot in chat when the game was live, and I don't see nearly as many people complaining about it being gone.  However, variety is good, and if it's possible to somehow have both options then I'm all for it.

I mean, a lot of people do it just for the social aspect. ;)

Hm, so a Supergroup has been relegated to a list of global friends, but with a visual symbol.

OOooookaaaay, but I see your point.

Wasn't it always basically a global list of friends?  Once the base was built, the amount of prestige anyone was earning didn't really matter.  Prestige only ever mattered to me on live when I was building a solo base for fun.

Wasn't it always basically a global list of friends?  Once the base was built, the amount of prestige anyone was earning didn't really matter.  Prestige only ever mattered to me on live when I was building a solo base for fun.

Exactly. SGs and SG alliances at some point or another just became a way to find easy teams and locate friends more easily, once an SG had enough Prestige to build the base they wanted and pay for its upkeep.

Personally, I'm fine with bases being easily accessible, although it sort of breaks the RP (how does a brand new hero have enough prestige or infamy to build a grand manse? :P ). But still, it's a bit of work to build it out just to get power, some TP pads, and whatever beacons you want. The work is really about building the base to be functional IMPO. And people can easily RP reasons behind huge bases (rich super hero orphan, squatting in an abandoned base, etc.), so I'm fine with the system as-is.

As a background, two of the main reasons bases ended up in their current state, before the game went offline the first time was 1) base raids hadn't been working for a while and the devs decided to abandon the whole idea, and 2) to give players the option of making personal bases/ player apartments using the existing system. When they did that, Prestige was more or less a deprecated currency - although I can appreciate it being used strictly as a metric so long as it doesn't deter from the fun that base builders currently enjoy.

I notice you mentioned upkeep: I think upkeep would be the one thing that would need to be removed. It was an unnecessary, arbitrary number that, to be perfectly selfish, a solo base builder like me would be crippled by. I guess at that point, though, we start running in to the problem of "where do we draw the line".

I should've thought this one through a bit more i guess.

Upkeep was also a function of plot size: the larger the plot, the more the upkeep cost. I can't remember, but other things could have factored in too, like number of rooms, power sources, etc. Basically, the larger the base was, the more Prestige it cost per real life month in upkeep.

The idea was that, with larger supergroups, this wouldn't be a big deal since more members meant more help in generating Prestige and helping with upkeep, along with building new things. The problem was that, with Prestige decreasing the amount of Influence a character made, fewer and fewer wanted to play in SG mode, especially when the economy was bolstered by the auction house. Suddenly things like HOs and IOs had a tangible Influence value, and characters who had spent their careers building Prestige were suddenly at a severe disadvantage in buying power when it came to clotting out decent enhancement sets in the end game.

Eventually, the dev team decided to scrap Prestige altogether, since they could never fully squash all the issues with base raids, like ensuring that base assets that were meant to be targets during raids weren't completely blocked by builders who knew how to stack objects, for example, or that Items of Power actually granted benefits to all SG members and also disappeared after a month (if no one raided them). Without base raids, there wasn't a reason to charge SGs for upkeep on large secure rooms and plots (because secure rooms and plots were a thing and cost more Prestige to add defensive items, etc.), and without those items or upkeep, there was no real reason for Prestige anyhow.

After that, PvP was strictly for PvP zones and Arenas, and bases were turned into player-made roleplaying environments. And this was even before he game originally shut down in 2012, and way before the current "I25" build.

No, prestige was there right until the end of the servers.

WRT to why we should group now, the biggest solo player advantage to being in a group was us of the porters, rez in base (with quick access to storage/store), and crafting. Coalitions allowed for groups to share one functional base (conserving need for prestige) and the left could do whatever (group storage, etc).

Back in the day, our SG was the biggest (in terms of earning Prestige) on Union. When we all got back we were all surprised to see it wasn't possible to earn it anymore. We'd like Prestige back just to have the sense of competitiveness back. It's also useful for players looking for a SG to see which groups are active.