Community Challenges/Guilds?

So I've been thinking on something like this for awhile, and I don't think we need any additional mechanics for these two ideas in particular, as long as everyone plays fair.

Anyways, I've been looking for more reasons to play differently than I normally would - and I have a couple ideas to that end, but they'd only be worth doing if there was a fair amount of interest.

So for challenge one:

You have to make a new character. You can only trade/party with people also participating in the challenge; you cannot trade with your other characters. The character must be otherwise independent. If you die (excluding death through falling through the world, or otherwise unavoidable deaths), you're out of the league.

Leader-board is based on notoriety. Edit: Plus endurance & lore, for a total score. Characters can prove creation via /age, and screen shot other stats when they die.

So the challenge is simple; live long enough to gain as much notoriety as you possibly can. When you die, post in the guild/community thread what your notoriety was, and what killed you.

Signed up:
1) Hood
2) Vzi
3) ProfessorCat
4)Aedorn

I'm currently attempting this challenge, with my first character dying fairly early to a stupid mistake (see page 2).

As a final addition for the sake of clarification - You cannot pick up items off the ground or buy items from the used-by tab. The only way you should get items is from your own work (or trading with another person participating in the challenge).

It's actually pretty fun, even the tutorial island can be lethal if you're not careful.

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And for Challenge two:

Each player is assigned a random animal form; you cannot trade (but you may party) with people not in this challenge. You cannot dispel this form. I.e. you cannot, through any means, acquire materials like lumber, or otherwise craft goods yourself unless an animal can get that particular skill.
The exception is endurance; you may unlock this through whatever means necessary (i.e. getting lumber from an alt for the NPC and a word of power to talk to her) as this skill is a necessity.

Edit: Illusions, including the spider illusion, are not allowed except for Endurance training. This challenge is not competitive, but rather endurance; how long can you play a character under these restrictions?

Signed Up:
1) Vzi

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And a third bonus challenge:

Gain as much notoriety on a new character as possible (without high level help), within an hour of its creation.

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Anyways, that's what I've got so far. Again, we'd need a fair few people to make these challenges worthwhile. Prizes and incentives would make this more appealing as well, I'd imagine (*cough cough*), but it's mostly just to mix things up. For the most part, we'd need to assume that people wouldn't cheat, but I believe very few people actually would, given it's entirely voluntary anyway.

So anyone interested in something like this?

Edit: Post here or let Vzi (me) know in-game if you're interested!

Edit 2: If you'd like to add additional rules, post 'em below and I'll update the main post. People in that challenge can vote on any rules that are particularly controversial.

Edit 3: Before we can work on the issues (i.e. the honor code), it's important we muster enough interest! So please post here and let me know what challenge you're interested in!

A similar idea would be a cooperative challenge. X number of people start new characters and can't trade and try to overcome Y obstacle in Z time.

I'm definitely interested in Challenges 1 & 3. Mostly Challenge 1. Hardcore mode here is really cool, but permadeath is true hardcore mode in Diablo 3, which is what I'm used to. I will say though that for both of these challenges, there needs to be a tertiary goal other than notoriety farming. Any ideas? The leaderboard can't be determined off of just 1 statistic.

Honestly, for a lot of people making a character specifically to compete in that challenge, I'd imagine that character dying would essentially mark its death - but there's no obligation to delete it if you wanted to use it as an alt.

It's kind of hard to determine what scoring system could be used. I'd imagine endurance plus primary skill level, but then certain skills definitely have an advantage (as they get bonus levels easier, plus various skills have different caps). Notoriety just felt like the most fair measure - and it's easy to track, as long as people don't cheat and use higher level players, or those outside of the challenge, to get kills on those monsters.

As for co-operative challenges, that's certainly a good idea - but I feel like, as a starting point, we need challenges people can join at any time, so that might be something to consider if these challenges pan out.

Interested in challenge 1 - permadeath alt sounds good!

I think these are great ideas. I'd be most interested in The hardcore challenge.

My only reservation is that if it remains player ran, it's based off the honor system of not receiving outside help, as well as actually staying in HC mode (though deaths would show either way)

It would also be great if there was a way to start as a HC player on the island, rather than waiting until you reach serbule to change over.

Count me in for the initial race!

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Originally Posted by ProfessorCat

My only reservation is that if it remains player ran, it's based off the honor system of not receiving outside help, as well as actually staying in HC mode (though deaths would show either way)

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We definitely can't postpone it to wait for devs to get involved.

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It would also be great if there was a way to start as a HC player on the island, rather than waiting until you reach serbule to change over.

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This shouldn't be an issue, given if you die once you're out of the challenge (on that character) regardless; /age and your death level should be able to prove what killed you (and people should be able to weigh the legitimacy of your progress)

Ideally, we'd simply have a flag "Immortal" - for new characters that have never died (excluding deaths through falling through the map) to easily identify others in the challenge.

Though obviously flagging for HC has it perks, so people will probably do that anyway - there's no particular rush for it.

I'd like to imagine when someone dies - the community as a whole may be losing a proficient crafter, tank or healer, and things like necromancy runs will be that much more exciting. I just really hope people can stick with an honour code.

I'm probably not going to accept this challenge at this point. I just changed my build and need to get my combat skills back to max level (that for me is 60/60). But I find it interesting how many people would be willing to do challenge 1. Alts don't have a lot of value right and we are given at least 4 character slots. You can probably continue with challenges like this for newly created characters.

[MENTION=109]Spiritfingers[/MENTION]

Yeah, the challenges are for new characters. Just a bit of fun to mix things up, I don't expect these characters to retain much value beyond the challenge - and certainly, being limited to 4 character slots is a bit of a hindrance (although it's possible to make a new account, I suppose)

As for the first challenge, I personally think it's exciting when you change from "when" to "if" a character will achieve a certain goal, though it's definitely not something that will appeal to everyone.

We can work on other challenges later, though, if you had anything specific you'd like to try.

I'd be intersted in a Gajus solo challenge. Who can solo Gajus at the lowest skill level, gear level, & endurance level?

I'd still be interested in some smaller challenge like that [MENTION=177]Hood[/MENTION] even with just a few people competing - but we may need to wait a bit for the new influx of players to settle down regardless.

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Originally Posted by Oxlazr

I'd still be interested in some smaller challenge like that @Hood even with just a few people competing - but we may need to wait a bit for the new influx of players to settle down regardless.

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Great :) looking forward to it!

Gave the perma-death alt a run, ended up underestimating some monsters at the crypt, so I didn't get very far.

Going to give it another round shortly, though. Feel free to join me (anyone at all) whenever you'd like.

I will say I think dropping lore as a score might be a wise move to save some time running around the tutorial & towns clicking on things, but we'll see how we go.

Edit:

http://i.imgur.com/FIVSeSy.png

RIP Vzii, never forget.

Inc Vziii.

Edit 2:

RIP Vziii. This is harder than I thought it'd be :D

I set that bar low for ya.

I'm getting excited to try this now as well. It'll have to wait a week I think though. Hood is in a development crisis.

So far, my third character (VzIV), is alive and well. I've killed a few outside bosses, and leveled sword/psych to 16/12, before managing to enrage (and survive) a rage attack from the cow boss to get cursed, so now I'm leveling cow/psychology.

A few notes, though -
Cheese - The Mild Cheddar you get from the tutorial island is extremely powerful, seeing as you can't buy/trade for food. I'm nearly out of this, as I wasted a bit of it for favour to make bacon, and I'm not entirely sure what an easy replacement would be.

Bacon - I grinded a bunch of this, looking for pig potions (which I didn't find), and it's been a life-saver.

Ruggediser - I tried to go pig this way, but it didn't want to work (even chugging 50 or so of the stuff) - but if you don't mind risking it, it's a good early-game survival item.

I'm probably missing some strategies here, but that's what I've done so far.

I should mention I nearly died in Crypt as someone trained the big spider on me. I would advise staying away from the Crypt until much later (the interior). Kinda sucks, but what can you do?

A final note - when I say "no trading" I've also excluded myself from buying items in the used tab.

This is very cool, and it's something I imagined the "behavior badges" would eventually be useful for. For instance, if you want to do a no-shirt challenge, and you live long enough, you'll eventually get the Shirtless behavior badge, which is proof you didn't cheat. The down side of the current system is that you have to stay alive for a few weeks before the badges kick in. But it's something we might be able to evolve in a way that helps make player-challenges more enforceable. If this challenge (or challenges like this) catch on, we might give that tech a bit more priority than it would otherwise have.

[MENTION=59]Citan[/MENTION]

Is there a badge for not dying in the game already? I wonder as I've not seen any alts running around with it. I know I've seen pacifist and nudist before, which are interesting badges in of themselves, but are typically seen on bank alts - maybe some sort of endurance threshold would make these badges more interesting?

At anyrate, I'm enjoying going through the lower level content on a new character, instead of just leveling new skills on my existing ones - I wager the main deterrent of veteran players attempting these challenges is the limited number of character slots. That subscription going live anytime soon? :P

Ideally, I'd see these events lasting for a few months, then giving a reward to your main character. I'd dish out rewards if I could, but I tend to give away anything valuable I have arbitrarily.

Getting people to participate is a problem, though. I just think of fulling up a 40 man raid - the first 20 or so slots are difficult to get, but once you have those numbers, others join pretty quickly as the foundation is already there. I definitely think it needs a bit of a developer nudge to really take off for this reason.

For now, though, going through lowbie gameplay again lets me find new bugs, and play trivial content again meaningfully. It's a good little experiment for now, and I really do hope more people jump on board.

http://i.imgur.com/YCkBL1d.png

A sad ending, died to inescapable lag - couldn't even log back into the game until I changed DNS. But I'm gonna set the bar there for now, dying to lag is a bit of a buzzkill given I could've died without it several times prior :(

Anyway, if you do give it a go [MENTION=177]Hood[/MENTION] let me know.

Currently:

Spoiler:

Ox, my current situation on Hood is that I've invested a lot of time farming up councils so I could uncap skills & purchase abilities for combat & crafting skills that I've decided, after some time playing, not to use as my main build. I tried sword/psych & had to level both from level 1. The build I made was far too glassy for my playstyle. I abandoned it and uncapped Staff. I then uncapped Carpentry but decided not to use my Redwalls on it so I uncapped Leatherworking & Tanning and haven't dont anything with it. I then decided not to go with Staff/Psych for playstyle reasons as well. So that's 3 combat skills and 1 crafting skill that I've unwisely chosen. Anyway, I'm sticking with Cow but levelling it now as well.

As you can see, I've been a bit dumb with my main character and feel....behind, unfocused, and once again close to burned out on combat.

Sorry this is so drawn out.

These challenges are intensely interesting for me, but I won't attempt # 1, # 2, or # 3 for another week at the least. I know you're not pressuring me to participate. I want to keep the initiative alive! For the short term, this topic and anything related to it have my utmost support & attention. I would love to read and participate in discussion regarding them!

Notes on your attempt:

Spoiler:

I don't think the cheese is too OP to allow. I don't think you've implied that should be done, but to add my POV, these cheeses are found on the tutorial island to assist new players in survival. It's an advantage that will simply make it possible for there to be level 50 or 60 or even 100 hardcore, rogue-like characters one day. The importance of Cheesemaking in this challenge are obvious considering the number of Snack cheeses and Cheese cheeses (separate health buffs!). Neglecting buffs and crafting skills will definitely result in an early death.

Craftable hardcore gear will vary our builds immensely. Challenge # 1 and # 2 will always make players lean toward very tanky builds (something I prefer on Hood anyway), but craftable hardcore gear with Armor advantages would greatly increase our survivability.

In Response to Citan

Spoiler:

In addition, thank you, Citan[\MENTION] for your enthusiasm aboutour new fan project! I agree that the features in the game are not currently very rewarding for this project. Honestly, I'm refreshed by this wonderful initiative. I like the Hardcore feature in-game, but I do agree with you and others that it needs some work (and is still a work in progress). The Hardcore mode communities that are presently and continually active in Path of Exile & Diablo 3 are enthusiastic about permadeath, despite our sudden rage and even depression when our character dies.

The truth is, and many many who don't enjoy permadeath playstyle will disagree, that playing this way is its own reward! It is a fantastic way to break and remake strategic play; the meta can change with every update! It would be amazing if the behavioral badge system could track Death count. I think this badge could be created by counting Dying xp on a character, tracking how long it has been since the character last received XP (it wouldn't do for someone to have the hardcore badge due to no deaths and simply standing in town). Another badge for achieving level 50 without a death would be very impressive, although this badge would definitely promote a lot of solo play.

Vzi, what has been the most thrilling part of this challenge for you in action thus far?

[MENTION=177]Hood[/MENTION]

That spoiler thing is kinda neat.

As for Vzi, after a break it's hard to pick up and start again when you don't really remember what your motivations were, so starting fresh with a twist is always fun. Character slots, though. They're a problem.

As for the cheese, I went back and farmed a bunch of it. It's not that it's broken over-powered, but it helps you realise flaws in other parts of the game - i.e. the crafted food cannot compete with the cheese for a long time. It just gives you a bit of perspective playing through lowbie stuff as a veteran - could potentially help with balancing as well, finding out what skills are least likely to lead to an untimely death.

That lag spike, though. Ugh (I couldn't even reconnect for 10 minutes to see what happened!). I was going pretty well until that stage too. The lag was definitely on my end, though, and that's just a consequence of choosing that style of play, so I can't discredit it. I'll definitely wait until at least you make an attempt before going for another round, though.

For reasons like that I think it's important to have more accessible challenges, but again, it served as a good trial and example of how they could work.

The slow leveling really pushes you forward to try riskier things to get more experience, though. I killed a lot of the outdoor bosses a lot sooner than I could've largely to keep things interesting.

Today I created an alt named HoodChallenge that I will soon begin levelling up. I've almost reached stability again on my main character.

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Originally Posted by Hood

Today I created an alt named HoodChallenge that I will soon begin levelling up. I've almost reached stability again on my main character.

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How is it going?

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Originally Posted by Easylivin

How is it going?

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That one picked up an item someone else dropped on the tutorial isle, so I started over with HoodChallenge2. She's trying to get a pig potion still.