I like the dynamic that we currently have of needing to be relatively active to gain favor, but as it stands it feels pretty negligible. Even as an officer, I'll admit that I completely forgot about my abilities to interact with the WaW's favor system, primarily because most of the benefits are fairly small and specialized. The suits feel like they're balanced more as a novelty than a benefit, especially considering Warders and monks can't use them, though the latter is a bit of a personal complaint. The armorer sells things for gold rather than favor, including the much sought after plate. Ultimately, it feels like the amount of favor you have is a pretty forgettable circumstance of being in the WaW unless we're talking about shackles (which are absolutely sweet and arguably the coolest benefit of being in the WaW) and enthrallment testers
I couldn't agree more. I earned around 40 favour points and never had a reason to use them besides getting the odd set of shackles or enthrallment tester. Of the high end powersuits, I couldn't use them, and the low end weren't worth it as far as I was concerned.
I was considering the idea of asking for implants in exchange for favour instead of the suits. I mean, the biggest suit you get costs you like 50 points and you only get to use it once.
There is a (blanked) to spend them on as well, but I ended up breaking it with my summons and no more (blanked) showed up.
Some ideas :
1. Remove armor proficiency restrictions on power suits.
2. Add special Artillery wands for warders to purchase with favor.
3. Add a warder-training animatron who teaches you a random spell for X favor, depending on the circle requested.
My favorites :
3. Add very expensive vanity permanent upgrades to Warder robes or armor (75 favors gets you 1 sleeve, 150 gets you the second sleeve...)
4. Add atmospheric, RP-friendly items (1 week paid leave official paper. Mouldercrest coupons. Voucher for one animated mini-watcher toy...)
'Rework' was probably a bit of a strong word. I was moreso looking for, as people were suggesting, additional alternatives to spend favor on. I wouldn't imagine a full plate favor buy as anything less than 30-50 points for those PC's in the Watchers that are less mechanically proficient, able to acquire the gold, or quest frequently enough, etc, to get access to fullplate. Dunwarren Breathing Apparatus sounds absolutely sweet, though.
A few suggestions for Warder-friendly Favor items:
-Items that temporarily alter Evocation element
-Per-reset or, if it's possible, X Number of Uses items to use as Conjuration Focii
-Alternate Warder robe is good, possibly also robes with different active ability than the default to reflect specialization
-Portal Detection Device, same as the ability the Portal Domain grants
-Mana Prism that alters the Magic Eater effect
-Scrying items at a preposterous cost (this will never happen, but scrying's cool)
OK I'm dragging around humongous amounts of favor without anything to spend it on. Lower the Agent wage by half, add some funky Agent stuff to do with favor.
So favor as a representation of trust within an institution to use assets as an Agent, let's see.
100 Favor : summon Artillery animatron
100 Favor : Access Toxic gas canister
100 Favor : Access teleportation device in Serena Tower
100 Favor : Use the projection device
100 Favor : Access special disguise item to go on undercover mission
100 Favor : Access Spellguard secret beach resort to chill with Operatives.
100 Favor : Access the secret Melina Bresley memorabilia gallery.
100 Favor : Access the personnel wine trove of Commander Barkely.
100 Favor : Access some other faction secret...
All per reset items.
Or maybe I'm just getting home sick of Serena Tower. It's been a long time...
It would be interesting if before sergeant/inspector/agent rank you were required to donate X amount of favor points per week or be removed from the organization. Then once you reach sergeant/inspector/agent you can donate favor points for experience points up to level 8 similar to the lair system or grant them to subordinates you want to keep within the organization. This would ensure that those below the rank of sergeant/inspector/agent were constantly striving to impress their superiors and advance in rank.
The watchers and warders get some really nice equipment, perks and a wage so it only makes sense that they should have to work hard to maintain it.
I'd suggest removing everything armour or supply based in favour of the stuff listed in Pent's post above. As it currently stands it is simply staggering the difference in supplies and levels between WaWs and other characters, and is honestly a continual issue that has plagued this setting since day one.
Quote from: Damien;n662524I'd suggest removing everything armour or supply based in favour of the stuff listed in Pent's post above. As it currently stands it is simply staggering the difference in supplies and levels between WaWs and other characters, and is honestly a continual issue that has plagued this setting since day one.
I don't recall there actually being any supplies for favor points. Just the power armor suits which are temporary and an enthrallment tester baton. Might have been something I missed though. They get all of their equipment for free, bar the full plate which is incredibly cheap.
Quote from: Anonymous Lemur;n662529I don't recall there actually being any supplies for favor points. Just the power armor suits which are temporary and an enthrallment tester baton. Might have been something I missed though. They get all of their equipment for free, bar the full plate which is incredibly cheap.
You forgot shackles.
Also, the catapults, ballistae, and barricades. And the full plate is not "increadibly cheap"!
supplies/levels may just be due to the amount of PCs available to you as questing partners/ability to leech off higher level quests as low level which propagates even more high-leveled PCs, gold, and supplies -> more of a result of population in faction/role of the faction than inherent tangible bonuses from joining it other than wage and some armor options
If we are changing anything about the favor system, Id suggest maybe making it on a longer tick the for points for favor, then ditching the less used favor battle armor and replacing it with something more usable for -all- Waw, not just a specific class. Like maybe trading them in for trinkets that give bonuses and act like temp supplies.
Example: An item maybe called.. "watcher augmenter".
1 use of Greater bull str or cats grace, 3 uses of bulls str and cats grace, 2 uses of flame blade, 2 uses of ghost, 5 uses of retreat cost: 100 gold and 2-3 favor points. only usable by: Monk, Barb, Rogue, Bard, Fighter, and Ranger
or another example...
Watch catcher
1 use of slow, 2 uses of hold person, 3 ray of enfeeblement (6), 4 tanglefoot.
Costs: 250 and 2-3 favor points
All trinkets vanish on reset and one cannot hold multiple versions of the same item. Perhaps even make it a quest so people cant grab more than one a reset. If you keep the lesser used battle suits, then I would suggest one thing. You add a weight reducer and a place to put them when they are all used up, the armor is heavy and most pc's already have a near max carry weight.
I don't see what the problem is with the power-suits other than the added weight which, altough bothersome, must be dealt with like any other hinderance you routinely encounter in the server. Besides, it is an awesome concept which considerably adds to the "medieval high-tech" feeling of the server.
But for those who cannot use these suits, or who prefer other ways of using flavour, I like the idea of animatron henchmen. Animatrons with a limited battery / power core which last only one reset, not very powerful, which can be used with a few favour points. Make several types of them so they can encompass most of the situations faction members could encounter.
Pentaxius' list is fine, except for rank-and-file Watchers / Warders who would need like 3 months to accumulate all these points.
It takes 3 months for Agents too to accumulate 100 favor. These were Agent-related suggestions, not for all waw. These perks should be more flavor than power.
The Power-suits are amazingly cool.
Something I feel would add to them, is the addition of an item called "Pilot's helmet" specifically for Engineers. The Helmet would come with heavy armor prof. I feel Engineers should be the expert in using Power-suits, but because they lack heavy armor prof, they can't make use of them.
Warders, and agents definetly need some more perks out of the WAW favor system. I would even go as far as to say implement something similar to the house of knowledge where for 2-5 favor points you get a random scroll, book, report/animatron/dunwarren themed loot...Or even a special projection room that lets you gain a small amount of XP, and watch projections of important events from the previous chapter's of EFU.
Badges.
Watchers no longer receive badges when they join the association. Originally, they would receive Iron Badges upon induction, and Steel Badges upon promotion. Each would give a colored text emote upon being flashed. I'd like to see these brought back in some capacity! Perhaps as vanity items which can be acquired through favor, an analogue to Adept's Robe that veteran Warders can acquire?
"Iron Badge of the Watchers" for 5 favor?
"Steel Badge of the Watchers" for 25 favor?
"Mithril Badge of the Watchers" for 100 favor?
Et cetera!
This is an excellent idea stranger. Metals as vanity marks for badges, acting as a distant proxy for the amount of time spent in the organization.
Extreme second on the above motion.
Just a reminder that some of us are intently reading this and other new faction suggestion threads... good ideas in here.
I like the theme of favor being used to buy toys designed to help out with the day to day of Watcher business. The Power Suits are great for extreme circumstances, of course, but some things for smaller situations would be nice too. Maybe a stun baton that only lasts 30 rounds but had bonuses to help quell riots and other outbursts? Or some minor thowables to help break up crowds. You could make them vanish on reset to avoid the temptation to horde them.
Another thing might be to consider is normal supplies. As it is, I read favor as how much kit the WaW will outfit you with, or at least how much they're willing to pull 'off the books' per se in order to aid you. So supplying you with more advanced/rare equipment. In this case, why not small bundles of useful supplies? Not enough to replace just buying them, but something to represent the Watchers and Warders being willing to kit you up a bit because you're either useful or the right people don't want you to die. Sort of like a standard issue requisition - you pay X favor for Y potions or other consumables, and not using it means that you can request alternatives because you're not consuming Sanctuary's resources to be battle-ready (and perhaps put in some incentive to maintain a certain amount of kit so it isn't "you just are banking your favor rather than getting standard issue"
Though on the side of armor; perhaps upgrades to the standard kit as well? as it is the main difference between a Duty Plate and something from Tagnar's is that the Duty Plate counts as on-duty, and you can upgrade your stuff from Tagnar but not from the WaW. Perhaps something like that to keep the on-duty kit viable? Most of it already has a player's name, plus it could be tied into the above (your favor being expended is the WaW seeing you as an asset worth protecting, though don't expect more favors until you prove that the investment was well spent). It can be viable for all levels of armor from the standard tunic/mail/leathers to Warder robes as well as plate (and given that it'd be far more useful to many more given there are those who can't use the heavier power suits), and on top of that it provides a sort of show of growth for players who are actively earning and using favor.
That said I also like the idea of more fluffy perks too. Perhaps some things that Watchers can use to reward (un)deserving allies, sort of like those old Appreication Tokens like what was given out by House Sharbenoth to the vets of Red Elient? They don't need to be major boosts like what those had, but even a small 1/day Cure Minor pin that has a text to flash can be helpful to issue out for those that want to try and promote patriotism to Sanctuary and think shiny medals are good proof. Sort of like that iron/steel/mithril pin idea, maybe taken a little further. Plus, it allows for the favoritism that seems to be the norm these days...