[zenith]

I would like to allow for players who are very powerful to some form of character "rebirth". Basically their accounts are given up to become NPCs, and they get to start anew.

I've visited this topic in the past, and nothing came of it unfortunately. There are those players who can't fathom giving up their account to start as a weaker player. To them power is the reason they stick around. However, there are those who enjoy the journey more than the destination.

The old topic got so confusing and riddled with exceptions that it ended up being a monstrosity of rules. I want to keep this simple and easy to understand.

Through the years, I've come across a ton of players who want to start over again. The majority of them were like Jaysin... they wanted to run from something they did and hide (in fact, he asked to create another account and retire his before the end). Only a handful have actually had no real issues they were trying to run from. They just wanted to enjoy the journey again.

My Idea :

The old character is first made an NPC. They're account is completely locked out. Once the old account is converted to NPC status, there is no way to recover it.

The new account starts off just like everyone else does, however they get a bonus from all the hard work that was put into the old account. They don't get this bonus right away, as their "ancestor" wouldn't want to create any trust-fund babies. The new account needs to earn their keep and grow to regain some of their former account's strength. Think of it as having good genes, and the rebirth gives someone a little boost along the way.

The "wealth" of the former account is based on items, cash, credits, and stats. As the new account grows, they will be given "rebirth credits" to purchase stats, bonuses, items, and other things that cannot be done without an "ancestor". Leaving your old account destitute in an attempt to get it back on the new account will defeat the purpose however, and will be reflected in the options available with the rebirth credits.

That's the thought. Discuss.