To convert an offline character to an online character, couldn’t we simply wipe the character’s inventory and equipped items?
It seems like that would resolve fairness / balance concerns, without forcing players to re-level.
Is there something I’m missing?
There is no offline to online conversion with your current characters. We all start fresh with MP release in online mode. Your offline chars and progression will still be there, localy saved on your pc.
Hm, for all the pro players this would be no problem, since they propably play naked 24/7 anyways since gear doesn’t matter in LE. 
But now to be serious:
There is no Interface for doing something like this. To implement an automated process for this kind of stuff they would have to put a lot of work into it. I asume that the whole structure of how stash and character stats are saved online is different to the current offline systems. So the data migh have to be converted. On top they need to make sure you don’t have edited your character stats, too.
That’s all too much work for that one time conversion.
Nothing could prevent somebody to edit his newly created character at lvl 1 to be lvl 100 and then upload and convert it.
There needs to be a fresh start for everybody to have equal conditions. We will see a lot of new players buy into LE with the release of MP.
I don’t get the point of having a high level character that’s largely worthless because it can’t actually kill anything or survive. I would rather start completely fresh at Level 1 than have a Level 100 character that has no items of any kind.
As far as the question, “Is there something I’m missing?”, I’d say the answers are:
Doesnt take long to get to 100. Farming blessings takes the longest.
At the moment, yes… but the devs have confirmed that they are going to adjust the XP scale - especially for the higher levels when the game launches… which will likely mean it may take a little longer from 1.0… but then again, level 100 is more of a status achievement than anything else as most builds are virtually done by lvl 90ish anyway… at least imho…
I’m a bit surprised to hear that. I think “slower rate of xp gain” isn’t something I’ve seen a lot of people asking for.
Faster rate of xp gain, sure. But not slower.
Mmmmm, I don’t get it?
I don’t really know, I would never edit/hack a file because it would make playing extremely boring (plus, I wouldn’t know how), but I was under the impression that if people can edit their items, they would also be able to edit their characters?
Not much balance/fairness if someone transfers online a naked character with 1000 vitality and 5000 strength…
And for a completely irrelevant cynical thought:
I would have agreed with that five (maybe ten) years ago. Beta-testing was generally free, usually by invitation only. And yes, when I was participating in some of these, I would expect to start from scratch at launch. It was literally testing, for a limited time, with changes deep and fast all the time.
Nowadays, with the spread of “betas” and “early access” sold to anyone and keeping the tag for years and years, sometimes forever because it is comfortable to deflect criticism, the term beta has been entirely deprived of meaning.
When I pay to buy a game sold without restrictions to anyone, I do expect to keep my characters. Be it alpha, beta, delta or zelda.
[Note: this is NOT an attack towards EHG at all, just a general thought about the industry. EHG do have a clear road map and have explained what they consider “beta” and what they define as “release”.]
This is pretty highly requested by veteran players. Once players get familiar enough with the game, it’s not out of the question to get to 100 in a long weekend.
And I’m sure you feel very empowered by trying to draw that line and then telling yourself it has meaning. It’s still an incorrect expectation.
No matter how you choose to perceive it, the facts are that you didn’t purchase a game. You purchased pre-release access to a game that you were told up front and with no equivocations was incomplete, in testing, and subject to sweeping change. You accepted those things, and the possible consequences thereof, by handing over your money. That’s all there is to it.
EHG just happens to want to be nice to all of us and let us keep what we have. But they were never obligated to do that.
As @McFluffin mentioned… There is also a side issue involved here - for me the issue of dinging level 100 - as a veteran player - is that its pretty much a damp squib achievement without much value… a few more passives doesnt really do much for a build by the time you get to lvl 90-95ish… so there is very little incentive… and with how easy it is to get to lvl 100 currently, its not even a “status” symbol either…
There are quite a few very old threads that discuss how to make level 100 a more valuable achievement and one of the items suggested was to actually make it a much harder xp grind to get there - just to make it have a little status… Personally I hope that the devs eventually tie in some sort of benefit for level 100s - even if its not power based (like unlocking monoliths for alts or something) - cause I dont even notice or care when a build hits 100 anymore…
You really expect them to implement an offline to online conversion just so you could skip leveling? 🤦
This is power unfortunately. This would cause so many people to moan and complain especially if they make the level 100 grind much longer. Suddenly people who ding 100 in a cycle get to skip the annoying normal mono grind everyone complains about and have more fun then them.
Offering anything other then a gold star for getting level 100 is a slippery slope of creating tiers of players who dont just play at different tiers of content but are actually lesser in QoL then their “MLG” counter parts. its just not a good look.
Dont agree…
I see the specific example I provided as a QoL type thing not a power thing and it would ONLY be valuable to someone intended to play additional characters - it would have zero value otherwise. Sure you could argue that it allows the player with 1 char at 100 some shortcuts to gain power for other chars faster… If there is some future Cycle reward for how fast someone could level multiple chars as the Cycle goal, then that would be a concern, but if there is no such reward then i honestly dont see an issue… If someone wanted to moan that someone else was able to skip content because they put in extra time/effort then those people can have their mommies tell them its unfair and hug them…
Now, if I suggested that level 100, would open a gate to allowing better crafting or access to a soooper way of min/maxing that character more than anyone else, then that may be an issue…
Anyway, the issue in question is to incentivise getting to Lvl 100… If that just remains a gold star, then so be it but right now its actually more like a participation medal than something worth attempting to achieve because its too easy… and I absolutely loathe participation trophies… they are one of the banes of the modern woke world… imagine rewarding mediocrity…
That value is something the community has been asking for years, slapping it behind a wall means the devs have in the eyes of the community manufactured a problem and put the solution through a grind.
The entire point the devs seem to make is to actually reduce incentive to go for 100. the idea is to not stress about going to 100 because they are going to make it harder. 5 passive points is the incentive, adding anymore means those last 5 levels are more valuable then all the ones before them.
As for it being a participation trophy that is very likely to change, mike has been pretty clear in expressing the grind to 100 will be much harder in the future.
But the core idea should be 100 wont be required for anything, it will just be a gold star to shoot for if you want for prestige.