Problem: Level inflation has a negative influence on newbies; but levels don't really mean anything.

Suggestion: Replace all numeric player levels with a text-only prefix/suffix system.

XP is collected the same. Skill points are still collected every 1000xp.

The Prefix relates to the players experience.
ex. a current Level 10 player will be "Harmless", a level 1000 player will be "Fearsome".

The Suffix relates to real-time player status, it refers the thing players do most of in-game (maybe linked to scoreboard)
examples of someone who: mostly PVPs = "Pirate"
flies around but not much killing/trading = "Explorer"
has taken emp "Emperor"
buy/sells a lot of goods "Merchant"
etc.

So a level 2000 player that mostly flies gal to gal would be listed as a "Master Explorer"....A level 25 player that mines asteroids for income could be "Mostly Harmless Miner" as this player levels to 100 and decides PVPing is his thing, his title would turn to "Decent Pirate"

tl;dr = Replace numeric levels (Level 3102) with a text-only prefix/suffix based on exp and real-time update on what you do most.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Added to Suggestions voting page
LINK TO VOTE PAGE

The exact terms might need some work, but I actually really like it…

Yea I like this. Once you hit past 1500, levels don't matter except for PvP range.

Thoroughly agree.

Maybe allow people to see others levels only if they look at an ingame profile.

Hmm actually does sound like a pretty good idea. However i love the fact that i can just keep lvling its one of my most favorite things in SS its like a never ending goal. I could see how its bad for new players though. Interesting dilemma

You could keep leveling; your level just wouldn't be publicly displayed in the game.

Yeah, these terms are just examples. I took the Prefix examples from the wiki http://wiki2.starsonata.com/index.php/Levels



The best part is, players will still get rewarded for levelling (by gaining a new prefix, something non-grinders won't earn) while new players aren't running into an intimidating wall of levels.

Could open doors to another use for Space Points in buying a unique suffix for players that way inclined.

If this is added then I think it merits another feature, an SP total display from skill page alongside the available SP.

I really like this idea as well
/signed!

Vorp

That should be simple to implement as well.

I am starting to notice a trend on forums..

I come on, and speak my mind.. People call me trolls.. People support my opinions (passively)... /Sigh

This would only be the case, if technology was not tied to leveling (through skill points) the idea of throwing the levels out out right is equal to removing all progression in the game, unless you replace it with a concept to access those said technology levels.

I favor this idea to some degree. What i really like about eve's progression system is that it makes no two players equal, even alts tend to get lots in it. That is a really nice thing because beyond gear, cookie cutter builds do not really exist in eve due to the impracticality of copying others, more so it is a "Recommendation" which is not required to follow to obtain good results; however eve's long progression timers on each level i find unrewarding and annoying at times. There is nothing like the satisfaction you get from "DING!" or from "nice! a new skill".

It would be better to just done play the levels, or make players select a class at start (with various characters), then have them increase with that classes power over time (leveling). It may be another way to play out this, either way i stand on the point the various parts need to be closer. i would favor adding another insane amount of skills to the game (50 or so) shared by all classes.

The problem with titles is that the specific player does not have a focus, binding
them to a class, so titles is hard to dictate (in an accurate way)

I am a big fan of EVEs progression system, the time delays force you to actually explore the content level you are at, rather than power-level to endgame like Star Sonata. That's actually the reason I've made a return here, having 17 days left on my training in EVE and wanting to revist this game.

But this is off topic, the point of this suggestion is removing the big numbers in player levels that really serve no purpose - and replacing them with something more personalised to who that player is in-game.
The prefix is easily determined (based on player level), but the suffix could be drawn from the scoreboard, from their class or from their most common actions.

I dont agree with the duration eve has, Iv always been a fan of that system with the ability to gain experience to spend in those skills (while researching even).

I may add a similar system above to my game as the research system, we are still debating it.


I have another idea on top of the OP.

One of the things i dislike about this game (SS) is that no one way of playing is value over the other with the exception of combat, which dominates most of the game.

i'd like to see the trade quests played up and to see something like exp granted for buying selling things; and the same with mining.

Then i'd go a step further for the above idea and do something like Miner (1) or trade (32) so that we know the focus on that player. the ways of play in the game need more benefit then just combat.

At least this idea has merit, for a 'space trading game' as it is supposedly advertised as, it's WAY too focused on combat.
Edit: Also +1 to OP's idea.