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Clan Avatar feedback
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Mod Moltare and I have sat down today and have some thoughts and answers to some of the feedback from this thread and others.
One of the most common pieces of feedback is the request that the Avatar provide a 6% instead of a 5% experience buff. We are aware that almost all those requests were made by players who currently serve as Avatar Wardens and therefore benefit from the current 6% maximum. The suggested changes would result in a lot more players gaining the maximum benefit and therefore it is unlikely we will be able to move beyond the 5%. We will continue to discuss it with the Balancing team, but it is not a battle we are likely to win.
We are currently favouring option B in line with the strong preference shown by the community but are minded to award a base 2% + 1% per rank of fealty as was suggested by a number of players who provided feedback. This would allow for ease of communication, simple understanding in game and still maintain the 5% cap we are likely to face.
We are aware that the suggested changes do remove the "reason to cluster" that some clans really like. Sadly it is not the case that this is a common experience - from what we see of player behaviours most players, outside of Avatar Wardens, do not take advantage of these effects and therefore clustering is not a key consideration for any changes to the Avatar.
These changes do not lessen your Clan's capability to organise events - while they will not provide a direct benefit from the Avatar, events are still valid as social and community based occasions for your friends and clan mates.
The Clan Avatar as it stands is not a pleasant piece of code to work with - it communicates across multiple modules, has a very complicated interface for the benefits provided and is a major constraint on potential future development for Clans. This change is designed with simplification of the existing systems in mind, improving both the player interaction and the code base itself, allowing for improvement again when we have opportunity.
Unfortunately this does mean we need to look at the existing buffs, the benefits they provide, the use they are seeing and the complication of transferring them across to the new Avatar system. The current proposal would mean we would need to lose some of the niche and low impact features to allow us to provide the core benefits to many more Clan players. We will be looking at where we can re-add the more "characterful" buffs in the future.
We are intending to review further the current benefits clannies get from the Citadel - we are not in a position to consider a complete rework, as that is a massive piece of development, but we are aware that some players feel the rewards are slight compared to the time involved. This will be a separate project to the Clan Avatar changes though.
Just to reiterate, this is a temporary time locked buff that was provided for results from a previous Jagex run Clan Cup in 2015. We are not looking to make it permanent, add it to clans that won other cups or are even planning to give it as a reward currently. It is however an existing part of the code base that we need to maintain and therefore was considered in the design proposal.
The tier 1 version of the Avatar plot would be required to provide all Clan Avatar features, This proposal would mean that tiers 2 and 3 of the Avatar Plot would be a cosmetic addition to the Citadel - perhaps ironically it is already listed as a cosmetic upgrade in the build interface
Some Clans use the title Avatar Warden as a reward within their clan systems and structures. The title will remain as a Cosmetic title, but will not carry the current feature set it did.
Several players made suggestions of lots of new rewards they would like to see added for Orts to be spent on. This is beyond the scope of this project - specifically the aim of this review is making a series of small changes to the Avatar with an objective of improving player interaction with and the code base for the Clan Avatar. We do not have the development or QA resource for expanding the project beyond that scope, especially when looking at Clan or Citadel based rewards that would require significant testing. Mod MattHe | Former Community Manager, now in Events & occasional Lore Monkey
6% Experience Buff
One of the most common pieces of feedback is the request that the Avatar provide a 6% instead of a 5% experience buff. We are aware that almost all those requests were made by players who currently serve as Avatar Wardens and therefore benefit from the current 6% maximum. The suggested changes would result in a lot more players gaining the maximum benefit and therefore it is unlikely we will be able to move beyond the 5%. We will continue to discuss it with the Balancing team, but it is not a battle we are likely to win.
We are currently favouring option B in line with the strong preference shown by the community but are minded to award a base 2% + 1% per rank of fealty as was suggested by a number of players who provided feedback. This would allow for ease of communication, simple understanding in game and still maintain the 5% cap we are likely to face.
Community aspects of the Avatar
We are aware that the suggested changes do remove the "reason to cluster" that some clans really like. Sadly it is not the case that this is a common experience - from what we see of player behaviours most players, outside of Avatar Wardens, do not take advantage of these effects and therefore clustering is not a key consideration for any changes to the Avatar.
These changes do not lessen your Clan's capability to organise events - while they will not provide a direct benefit from the Avatar, events are still valid as social and community based occasions for your friends and clan mates.
Loss of other "characterful" buffs
The Clan Avatar as it stands is not a pleasant piece of code to work with - it communicates across multiple modules, has a very complicated interface for the benefits provided and is a major constraint on potential future development for Clans. This change is designed with simplification of the existing systems in mind, improving both the player interaction and the code base itself, allowing for improvement again when we have opportunity.
Unfortunately this does mean we need to look at the existing buffs, the benefits they provide, the use they are seeing and the complication of transferring them across to the new Avatar system. The current proposal would mean we would need to lose some of the niche and low impact features to allow us to provide the core benefits to many more Clan players. We will be looking at where we can re-add the more "characterful" buffs in the future.
Citadels
We are intending to review further the current benefits clannies get from the Citadel - we are not in a position to consider a complete rework, as that is a massive piece of development, but we are aware that some players feel the rewards are slight compared to the time involved. This will be a separate project to the Clan Avatar changes though.
Clan Cup Winners
Just to reiterate, this is a temporary time locked buff that was provided for results from a previous Jagex run Clan Cup in 2015. We are not looking to make it permanent, add it to clans that won other cups or are even planning to give it as a reward currently. It is however an existing part of the code base that we need to maintain and therefore was considered in the design proposal.
The Avatar Plot
The tier 1 version of the Avatar plot would be required to provide all Clan Avatar features, This proposal would mean that tiers 2 and 3 of the Avatar Plot would be a cosmetic addition to the Citadel - perhaps ironically it is already listed as a cosmetic upgrade in the build interface
Avatar Warden Title
Some Clans use the title Avatar Warden as a reward within their clan systems and structures. The title will remain as a Cosmetic title, but will not carry the current feature set it did.
Adding New rewards
Several players made suggestions of lots of new rewards they would like to see added for Orts to be spent on. This is beyond the scope of this project - specifically the aim of this review is making a series of small changes to the Avatar with an objective of improving player interaction with and the code base for the Clan Avatar. We do not have the development or QA resource for expanding the project beyond that scope, especially when looking at Clan or Citadel based rewards that would require significant testing. Mod MattHe | Former Community Manager, now in Events & occasional Lore Monkey
27-Jan-2017 15:00:15
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