Baryonyx

Hi everyone,

For:

Hello everyone,

As I mentioned in my previous post, we have been looking at your feedback and our own internal data and coming up with some improvements for a few aspects of the Incarnate System. I'd like to thank you for patiently waiting while we sort out the details, some of which I go into below. Before that, let’s address some general concerns that have come up, particularly in relation to the reward system.

• All throughout beta and since Issue 20 went live, we’ve been tracking data on the reward system. After evaluating the data since the launch of Issue 20 we’ve found that players are being rewarded with the Uncommon table more frequently than we anticipated. An adjustment for this that improves the availability and frequency of Common, Rare and Very Rare salvage will be included in an upcoming patch.
• The participation system's primary function is to qualify players for the component reward tables.
• Once a player qualifies for a component reward, the final block of choices presented to the player are rolled randomly. If you qualified for a component reward, you reached the level of participation for yourself and your league needed to have a chance at any component type.
  • We will continue to monitor the data from the trials, and if we find instances where this is not the case, we will correct them to ensure that this is the case.
  • It has never been possible to guarantee that you will receive a Very Rare. Once the participation system has done a handoff to the random table, it no longer has any effect on your reward. While reports of multiple Very Rares are not unexpected, these occurrences are evidence of consistent league success combined with a large amount of good luck.
• The 10 Thread table is present to make sure that everyone receives something for their efforts in completing the trial, regardless of whether they had to leave their computer temporarily, suffered numerous disconnections or any of another host of circumstances that could happen when content is out in the wild.
  • We are aware that this also awards the door-sitters, which leads to the perception that this is a consolation prize.
  • We are also aware that this is a point of consternation, because it is possible to get this table through acts of nature or acts of league beyond your control.
  • The second item above is exactly why we felt it was better to offer some minimum tangible reward (which is the equivalent of half a Common component) to everyone for their efforts, even if they are affected by events beyond their control, rather than reward nothing.
• You are cooperating together against the challenges of the Trial. Rewards earned by you at the end of the trial have no bearing on what rewards other players can potentially receive. This is not a case of “there are only so many Very Rares to go around.” There’s no group loot table: everyone is rewarded independently and has the potential to qualify individually for a Very Rare. If your league does well, and you are a factor in that success, this will only increase your opportunity to earn a Very Rare component. You are not in competition with other players.
• To illustrate this in a different way: team and league contributions for completion of goals found in the trials are an extremely important part of your overall individual participation score.
  • When your league is successful, you are successful, and your efforts at achieving goals help everyone else in the league. A rising tide lifts all boats.
  • This aspect of the system is why people can sometimes seem to be rewarded for aberrant behavior. Your league has succeeded in meeting the goals of the trial, and their success carries over to you.
• Earning a decent individual participation score does not require an immense amount of effort, but it does require consistent effort. This is specifically because we are aware of the limited nature of some power sets in regards what they can throw at the enemies encountered.
  • We know that leading one of these trials can take significant effort on the leader’s part, which is why our threshold for participation takes that into account.
  • We also actively monitor the data from the trials to assess whether the thresholds are achieving what we hoped. We have made adjustments in the past, and will continue to do so as necessary.
• Four things that definitely do not affect your level of participation:
  • Tagging targets
  • Healing points or damage points
  • Interrupting powers mid-cast
  • Cycling powers on and off
• Any success that may have been achieved while performing actions which do not affect your level of participation listed above is, as noted, due to the success of your league and random chance.

Now, on to other topics:

• We will be adding free downwards conversions of higher rarity Incarnate Components to your choice of a lower tier, as well as sidegrade conversions of Incarnate Components to your choice of another component in the same rarity tier for the additional cost of some Incarnate Threads. This will be coming in a near-future patch.
• In terms of breaking down higher tier components into more threads than they currently do, the preference is to leave those costs alone. The breakdown to threads should be the most expensive proposition, because they have the most significant utility. In lieu of this, we have added the downward and sidegrade conversions.
• On the subject of balancing Lambda Sector's rewards with the mutually exclusive nature of the badge challenges, we will increase by 1 the number of merits awarded by the badges which ask that you completely ignore one side of the interior. Defeating Marauder will award 2 Merits, replacing the one awarded for "all 20 powers", to ensure that no successful badge run results in fewer merits than any other.
  • The extra Merit is being added to Marauder in order to help Lambda Sector behave more like the BAF, which has no “missable” merits of any kind. Adding the extra merit to Marauder takes us further in that direction, without placing too much weight on the badges. Not every Lambda run should need to be a badge run.
  • However, due to the unique nature of the challenges in Lambda Sector and its length, we will not be increasing the per run potential for Merits at this time. If you would like to make a suggestion on ways to improve the Merit income from Lambda without watering down the challenges, please PM me.
• In regards to "what other ways we'll earn threads in the future," yes, new Incarnate Trials are a part of that. They are not the only part, but anything else is in such early stages of development that it would be one promise too far. I will, however, say that we do have some things in mind like Incarnate Story Arcs and Repeatable Missions.
• I also wanted to add a quick reminder: Astral and Empyrean Merits will in the coming months be able to be used to acquire other rewards. To that end, these changes are partially intended to place less pressure on you to use Merits to fill in the gaps for your Incarnate components.

Baryonyx

Hi everyone,

By now, many of you are well versed in the new Incarnate Trial content and have successfully completed both the BAF and the Lambda Sector multiple times. You have answered the challenge of Emperor Cole and it is great to see so many players well on their way to greater levels of Incarnate power.

Since Issue 20’s launch, we’ve been following your posts on the forums and taking note of not only your feedback, but also of questions being asked about the Trials. I would like to take a few moments of your time to answer some of those burning questions:

Badges
There have been a few questions about the Well-Stocked, Antacid and Lambda Looter badges and how they are acquired. The hints for these particular badges don't go far enough in explaining the details. There’s additional confusion due to a bug where one of the badges is improperly awarding the other two. Both of these issues will be rectified soon, but until then here's a quick guide on how these badges are intended to work so you can be prepared when the bug is fixed:

• If your league is working on the Antacid or Well-Stocked badges, the objectives are:
  • The league gathers all 10 of one type of power without acquiring any of the other. The league can enter the other area, but cannot actually destroy any of the power-granting targets there.
  • After the Sabotage phase, the league does not use any of the gathered powers.
  • Also, during the final battle, the league does not make use of the Shipments to acquire any powers.
  • More succinctly: the league gathers all the powers in one area only within 5 minutes and then completes the event without using any of the gathered powers.

• If your league is working on the Lambda Looter Badge, the objectives are:
  • The league gathers all powers during the Sabotage phase (all 10 Acids and all 10 Grenades).
  • After the Sabotage phase, the league does not use any of the gathered powers.
  • Also, during the final battle, the league does not make use of the Shipments to acquire any powers.
  • More succinctly: the league gathers all the powers in one area within 15 minutes and then completes the event without using any of the gathered powers.

• If the league gathers one of both powers, the intention is that your league can only attempt the Lambda Looter badge. The Antacid and Well-Stocked badges are actually the harder pair of the three, since both have the same basic requirements of Lambda Looter, but also feature an additional time pressure of gathering 10 powers in one area within 5 minutes.

Incarnate Threads
Another common question we’ve seen concerns Incarnate Threads and the means of acquiring them, specifically, can they be earned from places other than trials. The answer is “yes”:

• Incarnate Threads can be earned via the Tin Mage Task Force and the Apex Task Force, each rewarding 2 Incarnate Threads each for completion.
• Further, Incarnate Shards can used as part of a recipe to craft Incarnate Threads, though this has some additional costs associated and is not meant to be the primary means of acquiring threads.
• Additionally, future issues will include additional methods of obtaining Incarnate Threads.

Incarnate XP
There’s been some curiosity about the amount of Incarnate XP required to unlock each slot. To help sate that curiosity, here are the actual amounts of XP required to unlock each slot:

• Alpha Slot: 1,000,000
• Judgement & Interface Slots: 1,500,000
• Lore and Destiny Slots: 2,250,000

Team Up Teleporter
The Team Up Teleporter feature has been raising some questions from players experiencing it for the first time. There’s some important things to keep in mind when using the Team Up Teleporter:

• When you’re queued, you cannot enter any instanced maps. This includes Mission maps and SG/VG Bases. If you do enter such a map, you will be removed from the queue.
• Conversely, you cannot queue using the Team Up Teleporter while on an instanced map.
• If you’re in a cross-faction team or league and you move into a setting or map which makes you ineligible to remain on that team, you will be removed from the queue. The best zones for assembling such a league are the co-op zones, like Pocket D and Rikti War Zone.
• Also, please keep in mind that there is a lot of information displayed in the tooltips of the League window and UI. If you have disabled your tooltips, try activating them and reading through the help provided in those windows.

Reward System
Last, but certainly not least, we have been paying attention to your feedback and questions concerning the rewards from Incarnate Trials. Particularly, we understand the curiosity surrounding the way in which the Incarnate Trial Reward Tables are awarded. While we’re not going to give away the keys to the castle, here’s a few points we wanted to share with you:

• As Second Measure previously said, the system rewards participation.
• The Trials are a group effort, so working together to complete the objectives of the event will provide a more rewarding experience for all members of the league.
• While there is an element of randomness, the system is not completely random.
• Don’t forget that higher tier rewards can be broken down into lower tier components.
• We are actively monitoring the reward system to ensure it continues to reward players for their participation as fairly and equitably as possible.
• When a part of our community shows concern, such as Masterminds have, we will investigate the rewards and make tweaks as needed. In fact, you can expect to see some changes from the first round of metrics and feedback in an upcoming patch.

That’s all I have for today everyone. Thank you for your patience as we process all of your feedback and commentary. Good luck and happy hunting!

Chris “Baryonyx” Behrens