Nobility System adjustments

[Summerstream]

Relevant Link for understanding.

The nobility system is something unique to heRO. However, the ranking system was designed without accounting for long absences or people who have gotten these ranks, but then left the server.

As it stands currently, the system ranks those who have given more than 200 bullions to the server's nobility system in order from the most given, to the least, regardless of activity or last login. This makes it difficult for new players to access a unique part of the system that required drop rates to be tweaked so it wasn't easy to access the upper ranks with ease. As it stands now, in order to reach the lowest rank, you need to give over 600 Royal Gold Bullion to the Royal Treasurer in order to reach the Baron/Baroness gem (Green). Put into perspective, that's 1800 Gold in total.

I understand that this system was designed to be a sink. However, if we expect new players to be able to compete with those who currently have ranks, a change has to be made. If it will take over 600 to reach the lowest ranks (10th highest on the server), imagine how many it must take to reach the first place spot, and to have the Masterpoporing castle in Poring Smash to be named after your character. I wouldn't be surprised if this number surpassed 10,000 bullions (or 30k gold).

What I'm proposing is an activity system for the current, and future Baronet/Baronetess. For those who haven't clicked the link at the top of the post, this rank is achieved when your total Bullion donated is greater than, or equal to 200.

So, I suggest the following:

A player who has achieved the rank of Baronet or Baronetess will have an activity flag added to their nobility. This flag is updated with the last date at which a bullion was donated to the treasury. If the player does not donate a bullion for more than one month (30 days) they will be stripped of their current applicable "rank" if it is equal to or greater than Baron/Baroness (AKA: Ranked at the Nobility Herald, and a green nobility gem).

In order to regain their former title, the player would then have to give enough Royal Gold Bullion to achieve basic nobility (50 Bullion/150 gold) as a "tax" to prove that they are still active and contributing to the crown. Once this is done, their former donation count will be restored, and the player will be ranked accordingly. The bullions that the player has to give as tax will not be added to their current total. Only bullions given when a player is considered an "Active Noble" will count towards their total.

In order to prevent this from happening, players with Baronet/Baronetess (blue nobility gems) will have to give 1 Royal Gold Bullion (number up for debate) in order to retain their spot in the ranking, or be flagged by the server as active.

Summary:
- Change to where if you don't give any bullions in a month (30 days?) to you losing your title, if ranked (to a basic blue gem).

- To reobtain the title when this happens, simply give enough bullions for basic nobility to the Advisor, and you will get your title back.

- These bullions given to reobtain the title WILL NOT count towards the total.

Example: (I can think up more if needed)

Player A is a Duke/Duchess (red gem), and hasn't donated bullion to the crown for a year. Upon implentation, the player will be flagged by the server as an "Inactive Noble", and their nobility rank will be set to Baronet/Baronetess (blue gem). Player A logs in and gives 50 Royal Gold Bullion to the treasurer, and his flag is set to "Active Noble", and is then reranked according to the current list of "Active Nobles". They then would either:
A) Regularly contribute Bullion to the Treasury, and keep the flag of "Active Noble" or,
B) Stop contributing and become an "Inactive Noble" once more. They would then have to donate 50 bullion again to be re-ranked.

Please feel free to comment and suggest other changes. I intend this as a discussion as to how players can access the current ranking system.

[Story Teller]

I demand Democracy! (/o_o)/ But yeah, you get balance by taxing the rich like IRL.

[Menace651]

TL:DR but i disagree. Telling the GM's to reset or modify ranked characters who are no longer active is like saying we should take people out of major league sports hall of fame just because they are no longer alive. These people paid and earned their way to get the rankings. If new players want the ranking they should have to put in the same amount of time and money. Granted most people probably got rich abusing events or farming techniques but the underlying principle is still the same. Just my 2 cents.

[ChaosPrince]

@Menace: What if they were doped? Ex. Lance Armstrong?
I like the idea, I did propose a reset of the ranking, just wipe clean the one's who are perma banned and haven't logged in/donated in over 6 months. I have paid my 600 to get to where I'm at, so I won't be affected as I have as much gold as the United States of America to support my rank (that's without calculating the millions of zeny I'm sitting on).

But if you do change this, it should also be applicable for brewing/crafting/TK/BG. As in, if a TK doesn't gain a point in a 30 day period or a Creo doesn't get a point during that period, they need to pay a tax to get back into the top 10.

[Summerstream]

TL:DR but i disagree. Telling the GM's to reset or modify ranked characters who are no longer active is like saying we should take people out of major league sports hall of fame just because they are no longer alive. These people paid and earned their way to get the rankings. If new players want the ranking they should have to put in the same amount of time and money. Granted most people probably got rich abusing events or farming techniques but the underlying principle is still the same. Just my 2 cents.

I'm not saying that they will lose their contribuation. Assuming this works as I've tried to explain, there is the option to have an "Inactive" flag added. Their contribuation values didn't change, the only thing that would hypothetically change are the names displayed and if they get the benefits.

Do you have any suggestions perhaps, Menace?

@Chaos: I am not proposing a reset.

It is a proposal to flag the noble players as "Active" or "Inactive". From there, those who are flagged as "Active" will be ranked by the NPC.

[Menace651]

TL:DR but i disagree. Telling the GM's to reset or modify ranked characters who are no longer active is like saying we should take people out of major league sports hall of fame just because they are no longer alive. These people paid and earned their way to get the rankings. If new players want the ranking they should have to put in the same amount of time and money. Granted most people probably got rich abusing events or farming techniques but the underlying principle is still the same. Just my 2 cents.

I'm not saying that they will lose their contribuation. Assuming this works as I've tried to explain, there is the option to have an "Inactive" flag added. Their contribuation values didn't change, the only thing that would hypothetically change are the names displayed and if they get the benefits.

Do you have any suggestions perhaps, Menace?

@Chaos: I am not proposing a reset.

It is a proposal to flag the noble players as "Active" or "Inactive". From there, those who are flagged as "Active" will be ranked by the NPC.

I will agree that banned players should be removed from the ranking list since they can no longer contribute. But as far as changing or modifying non-banned current rankings it's kind of like you are invalidating all the hard work and zeny people have put into it. Ranked brewers and smiths spent millions of zeny and countless hours farming mats to get top 10.

The only real fair way would be to do a complete wipe...but that is probably not gonna happen. Yeah it sucks because most active/new players won't have access to the added benefits of being a top 10 or noble but it's something that should be earned and not just handed out.

GM's could extend the list to like top 20 to make it easier for players to get ranked/noble or maybe start a new ranking list but keep a separate list of the old ranked players as recognition.

[Summerstream]

Mmm, I was trying to think of a way that would keep the hard work people have already put in, but also allow the more active players to access the ranks. Either way, your feedback is appreciated~

But yeah, the alch and forger ranks need addressing. Perhaps in a similar way? I'm not sure. We could debate about that too.