1VB_FIST

Well, if pistols get selectable ammunition types, lets hope that AR does as well.

Yeah, I am all for nerfing my AR toons' damage some more...not.

About 20 minutes ago those buggers were in GV.

[ QUOTE ]
First off, thank you for taking the time to answer some of our concerns about this. One of your answers was actually linked to a question I asked in the original thread, although the reply was to a different post:[ QUOTE ]
Poster: EvilGeko
Q: Will you state right here, right now, that you will not further nerf rewards on content that the playerbase learns to do quicker?

A: We can’t do that. However, we can state right here and now that we won’t take such decisions lightly. We’re going to only decrease rewards on a task if we don’t have the option of immediately making adjustments to a Task Force and we find that the majority of players are running the Task Force at a significantly reduced average time than before.

[/ QUOTE ]

My concern is how you determine the majority of players are running at a significantly reduced time, as opposed to the same group of players running the TF or SF more often at reduced times, which causes the majority of runs to have a significantly reduced time.

Because this seems to be gearing the system towards the speed runners, and leaving the "average" player who doesn't stealth the objectives with reduced rewards. This is already shown in the time estimate from the Virgil Tarikoss SF and Eden Trial - an 8-person team fighting their way through each mission will not take an average of 50 or 10 minutes to complete these, so obviously the rewards are geared towards the multiple runs of a smaller group of people.

I'm also concerned about the cost of several of the rewards and pricing of them. Do you honestly want to say that defeating 20 AVs isn't even worth one single origin enhancement, through two runs at least 24 hours apart of the Katie Hannon TF? Also, a couple of developers that aren't on the rewards team have stated that they had slightly lower estimates for how much effort should go into a random recipe roll, both listing times of around 60-75 minutes. This would put the cost of a random roll at 12-15 merits, which is honestly where I see the average completion time settling into once speed runs are done more frequently on the higher-value TFs.

I'm still wondering how failed attempts are accounted for in the average as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

My question is the same as well. Is a failed attempt automatically kicked into a longer completion time tier? I only ask this as well since I find a monthly subbed game to be a little less fruitful when a reward for efficiency is reduced as evidenced with villain SFs. Moreover, I find the merit costs to still be heavily influenced by the actual market prices for given recipes too.

While technically making potentially expensive recipes technically cheaper in terms of inf spent or time spent through merit random rolls, there are no guarantees that a casual player can still afford the time to earn enough merits for a specific recipe at a specific level.

I can really get behind merit cost reduction for level specific recipes on level specific toons, but I can also see farmers parking several toons at specific levels to continue rolling those levels. It will always be easier for upper level toons to achieve merit capacity for any level recipe costs. Maybe someone else can elaborate better on this loose idea.

Other than that, I am actually impressed with the level of response and clarity on some of the questions.

Edit: Also, after playing the game for the better part of five years now, I better be a part of the experienced majority running all content faster, more efficiently and more effectively. I dont see how the game is not being played as intended. People learn by doing and ultimately get better at doing things over and over again unless they are cretins.

Just to add a bit here, I will be trying to collect all the objective statements in this thread and posting the findings as close to completely objective as possible. Also, the subjective posts should not be frowned upon either as those will truly determine how the economy is as far as health. Economics is not just about revenue and cost. The biggest factor in economics is the subjective side from the person and people as a whole.

Other points I would like to attempt later are a possible merit exchange system for cashing in SOs. I mean come on, they cost 8 merits, we could get something back for them from a merit vendor and recycle them. Technically, there is an infinite supply for SOs and they can be bought with influence as can IO recipes. So the devs may want to rethink the SO system as well.

I have too many ideas running amok in my mind right now. I will try to sort them out and stimulate this thread some more in a non-sexual way lol. Great ideas so far though. Seems like there were a few epiphanies

Well, merits are a good idea; however, the implementation and value assignment for recipe costs and TF/Trial/Arc rewards are way off base.

Recipe costs appear to be based on the going rates in the market from a player selling average cost. The inherent failure in this is also a scaling issue for recipe levels. Do you really think an average level 10-25 character will ever gain the ridiculous merit cost for some of those recipes, let alone one?

The merit system is an excellent system, it just needs to be reevaluated in scale of cost and reward. Furthermore, an economy that is not regulated will see exactly what you see right now in real life: SNAFU. When you let individuals and cartels dictate the cost of products, that are in theory on a drop rate or drop schedule, and the common populace (ignorant and particularly no-discipline spending consumers) determine an economy, its health will deteriorate as well as supply while inflation and eventually hyper-inflation occur. Price-fixing is out due to supply issues, so dont even worry about ebil marketeers.

Point being: Merit rewards for TFs, Trials, Arcs, and every other activity in the game they should be rewarded for are way off base. Merit costs for recipes are also way off base. I understand that there are uber recipes at low levels and mid, which begin to drastically fall off above 35-40, but IOs and IO Sets are the bee's knees now whether devs intend the game to be standardized with SOs still. A merit cost reevaluation is in order. If no, that's fine, but Mister D has it right: you will go to Hell for sure lol. Anyhow, Costs and Ratios really need to be examined more closely.

As it is, real life sucks for a lot of people and the game really doesnt need to mirror how poorly run the real economy is through under-sights and gross negligence on merit costs for recipes and rewards. When you apply a "reward" or a "status" symbol in anything, you will have an overwhelming majority trying to attain an unattainable, while the select few with the time and means will attain that which is desired and consequently create a oligopoly.

Enough of my banter. Simply put, merit rewards and costs need to be adjusted to a realistic level.

/brainfry end xmission

Flash Burns Fire/Fire Tank October 2004
Hanzo Slice WP/DB Tank December 2007
Machinegun Mike AR/Elec Blaster October 2004
Sky Soldier 173D AR/Dev Blaster January 2008
Dirty Souled Hero AR/Kin Ruptor August 2008
Frenetic Fireball Fire/Kin Ruptor December 2008
Exsanguiating Wolf SoA Crab November 2008
Thermo-Fusion Rad/Rad Fender May 2005
Thermo-Death Fusion Dark/Rad Fender July 2008
Kinetic Lygophobia Kin/Dark Fender August 2008
WearyLocomotive Kin/Nrg Fender May 2005
Naberius Napalm Fire/Kin Troller January 2008
Magnus the Berzerker BS/WP Scrap February 2008
Radix Lecti DM/Regen Scrap September 2004
Ubermenschen MA/SR Scrap July 2004

Reminisce....it is always good to do this. Kind of interesting to see how this game has progressed/regressed in all aspects since release and beta too.

I am still happy with this game though. Static means boring. Dynamic means there is still thought going into the game. Albeit sometimes the thought is more narrow than broad

Me wants to cry thinking of memories past....

How about NCSoft starts up an I1, I2, I3, and I4 throw-back set of servers so we can enjoy the game in our hey-day?

That would be groovy.

There was nothing better than tanking a +10 boss with my inv/ice and a +5 mob with my DM/Regen.

I think the nerf will go like this: Instant Healing will now give you a nosebleed as your health bar bleeds out, MoG will finally just kill you outright since it kills me everytime I see a Regen take this power and use it, Revive will be eliminated since it is so damn embarrassing to use this power anyway. I would rather go to the hospital and log out in private shame.

QR, DP and Recon will have a click and recharge of however long it takes for the next issue to come out to nerf us again.


I have to be totally grim about every issue that comes out since I know regen will always get a kick in the nether-region.

Bring back Issue 1-4 servers for us nostalgic types.