Character Progression Resource Consolidation - 2020

Introduction

Having multiple character progression resources certainly has its benefits. Wrel has said that in part it is to reduce the ability for veterans to buy up new content immediately, however with any resources players will amass that resource and new ones will have to be continually introduced, as we have seen with ISO-4, A7 and Merit.

However it also makes certain systems pointless once a player has unlocked everything, as anybody with all implants unlocked for example no longer cares about any ISO-4 reward until the devs get around to introducing new implants, at which point the player can finally spend their stockpile of that resource and likely get them immediately.

Proposal

All spendable character progression resources would be merged into certs.

Certs would then unlock everything certs, ASP, ISO-4, A7 and Merit can currently be used for.

Implant packs would stay as they are but be purchased for certs, and when recycled give you back fewer cert point than you put in initially. This does effectively allow you to buy certs with DBC, but we can already do that via boosts and they would be much more lucrative for any player than the amount of certs you get from recycling implant packs. If this is still not acceptable the option to purchase implants could disappear and be rolled into membership, say getting 3 free deluxe packs monthly.

To replace ASP points we could simply have them as options that appear once you get to the equivalent battle ranks' experience level with clear signs that you can only unlock one of these advanced roles until the next required amount of experience.

Note:

There are four unmanageable measures of character progression; Experience, Battle Rank, Loyalty and Directive Score.

Experience and directive score would remain separate as experience earns Certifications while Battle Rank gates access to other things such as ASP.

Loyalty would remain separate as it pushes people into joining outfits, which, ignoring leaderless zergfits, can only be a good thing. However I would change Loyalty to reward… loyalty… dropping to zero if you leave an outfit. Loyalty would unlock access to different things as it does currently, but players would spend their certs to unlock what they want.

Directive score would remain the same as it is to recognise players achievements and drive trying out different playstyles and ultimately drive weapon sales to keep the game alive.