As we all know, the actions of a certain, well-known person made it rather difficult for newbies and newbie-like characters to grow in strength effectively. (that is, buying credits at reasonable prices) While some other thread here (Additional Lessons) suggests some solutions for this situation, I have something else to offer.

The whole idea is based on these 2 points:
1. A way to get lessons (weak people very rarely use credits for something else, mostly it's lessons) without OOC influence (buying credits), but in such a way that it won't hurt the game's OOC economy.
2. It should be doable and rather easy (but not too easy) to receive those additional lessons, even for total newbies. However, the quanity of lessons received should be small enough that the more experienced (skill-wise) players won't grow even more powerful too quickly, and large enough to qualify the idea as a reasonable solution.

So, here is my idea, which is both simple and rewards IC commitment to the game - in a way, more like a "loyalty to the game" offer. Plus, it has an IC explanation.
Characters simply learn as they live and get older. Therefore, it should be logical that they receive lessons while spending time in the realms. For example, 1 lesson per every 30 minutes. If the idea gets approved (which I hope will happen), I leave the exact lesson/time gain rate to the admins - I'm sure they are able to set it good enough not to break the game's balance. The change could be retroactive, since we know how much time everyone spent in the realms - it's in their STAT after all.

Possible modifications:
1. Set a limit on how many lessons/neocredits can a character gain in a week/month/day.
2. The more lessons/neocredits a character received this way, the more time must pass until he receives another one.
3. (bad idea, IMO) You receive lessons not for time spent in the realms, but for time the character lived in the realms - if we have a 16-year old char who spent 100 hours in Lusternia during 5 IC years, he gets lessons for these 5 years, not 100 hours.

Ideas, comments? Constructive feedback appreciated.

Encourages AFK, and gives a way for people to trans all skills without ever touching a single credit. Which means bought OOC or IC, bought equate to lost sales, which inturn means less funds for Lusternia to turn into things like time, faster servers, etc. By time I mean, employees that can code skills and other new additions. As well as advertisement funding, which bring in more players.

Edit: Ha, ninja'd both of you.

I think people fear idling.

I don't like this simply because it encourages idling, and rewards those who can afford to sit for hours doing nothing as opposed to those who can only have brief periods in which to get as much done as they can.

Edit: Double 'd!

To Hajamin:


Will that neocredit a week or something like that (speaking from a perspective of a rarely-played novice char) really ruin the game's credit sales? I doubt it, and even small quanities of lessons would improve the newbies' morale. Besides, you can't buy artifacts with neocredits or lessons.
As for skills: transing would be possible. But it'd take (almost) forever.


Solution to idling/spending too much time in Lusternia:

Make the limit small enough that it won't matter if a player spends 10 or 100 hours in game/week. And of course, we'd have to tighten up the AFK rules.

Chill out already. I didn't make the credit market go up to 6k -myself-. And really, it would have happened without me. This is just another instance where I've made myself sound more important than I really am, and people believed me.

And... Your idea encourages AFK. Which encourages shrubbing, and PKing of said AFK people, which results in issues.

Cuber, we have something like what you're asking for already built into the game. It's called LEVELLING. It's easy for newbies and those of newbieish strength, doesn't affect the game's economy at all, slows down as you progress, and rewards time spent in the game.

All methods of gaining credits involve doing something to aid Lusternia. It's a pretty simple concept. You add to the lore of the land through the bardic contests. You help pay for server upkeep, bandwidth, and the professional coders' paychecks. You volunteer your coding or building talents, when needed. You give up time on your character to help newbies get acquainted with the world.

Your reward for playing the game is playing the game.

I still think being able to buy lessons for gold in game from a mob for a set price is a good idea.

Well, that or give out more neocredits, but I think that would have to be approved by IRE

Boom. That's the key right there. Here's my suggestion.

Reward a little lesson whenever the character discovers something.

Examples:
- Explores a new area (Going to Astral for the first time, etc)
- Becomes Fabled at one of the guild skills (something like that)
- Wins a spar for the first time (once and only once)
- Influences villagers for the first time
- Gets promotion in a guild
- Does an honor quest for the time
- Does a commodity quest for the first time
- Donates power for the first time
- Makes a news post for the first time

Now, these are all one shot experiences, which makes sense. You're obviously going to learn more while you're younger. Once you do it once, you know how to do it for life, generally speaking. Newbie gets rewarded for learning more about the game and being actively involved in many aspects of it.

I hope you all realize it's only wishful thinking, nothing more?

I think the accessive amount of lessons needed in various skillsets keeps the playerbase down.

If you're going to use the "learn more as you get older" thing, it wouldn't be based off of play time then, would it? It would be based off of character age.

It's no different than the other IRE games. Thank god we got rid of miniskills.

I think it's about the same amount in other realms, isn't it?

It costs 4500cr to trans all skills, which comes out to somewhere over $1200... holy crap. Yeah, that -is- a lot.

But still, like I said, its no diferent than most other IRE games, costs about the same to get ombi-trans. I think we've had, what, two people do it here so far?

Geb and Tuek I think yeah.

Sierus as well. I'm coming up close behind them. So, at least three then.

Lazul too.

Its VERY different.

other IRE games you get RIFT for free.
Other IRE games don't have influence which is important for for communities.
Other IRE games combines Discipline and Enviornments and doesn't make it two seperate skills.

To trans everything in Imperian costs... 3000 credits, not 4500 (assuming 300 per skillset)

Ok, but Rift is only 25 lessons, come on.
As for influencing, discipline and environment, touche.