Liquid

UPDATED: I forgot to include breaking down components from TFs. These numbers have been updated.
UPDATED x2 : I have doubled my expected Shard drop values, as my Thread drop is not entirely accurate, and the TF estimate I gave at the end resulted in an average shard drop rate that is about half what I am used to.

So I ran several trials last week (didn't keep count, I'd guess maybe 15-20? I had a lot of extra time last week due to RL circumstances), and it looks to me like initial estimates as to the difference between Trial and non-Trial advancement rates were way off. From my experience this last week, the vast majority of threads come from completion components and Astral Merits, not Thread drops themselves. I've got a common Judgement and the rare Destiny and Lore (for the level shifts). The rare components and uncommon components were all drops, which are effectively "free" compared to non-trial content since I don't have to spend threads on them. I then converted something like 30 or 40 Astral merits to make the common components I needed. I think I got a total of about 90 actual Thread drops between Tuesday and Saturday (I wish I had an exact total for that one, but I don't. I do know that I used 60 actual Thread drops to craft my first common power (Judgement) before giving up on saving Astrals for the mysterious stuff Positron says they'll buy, and converting them to Threads on the spot to make my 2 rares. 90 is a high estimate; I am only 100% positive that I got 74, and then I ran one more Lambda, and I've never gotten more than 16 in a Lambda run).

So, there's a lot of randomness and other factors that go into this, but, assuming I'd spent this last week running regular content and converting the shards to threads instead, what would be the difference in my progress?

Theoretical Comparison of Trial vs. Non-Trial advancement based on my performance from last week

I didn't fully keep track of what I got, but I can work backwards to figure it out based on what I crafted, and what I have left. I made 1 common power (60 Threads) and 2 rare powers, and have several components and some merits left over. Here's the breakdown:

• The common power took 3 common components, which are 20 Threads each, so it cost 60 Threads
• The 2 rare powers used a total of 7 common components (3 for the common power, 2 for the uncommon, 2 for the rare) each, so that's a total of 14 x 20 = 280 Threads spent on the common components alone.
• Then, I had to use 1 uncommon and 1 rare each. An Uncommon requires 60 Threads, so that's 120 total Threads (though I didn't make either, they were rewards for completion).
• The rare components take 4 Uncommons + 100 Threads (I'm leaving inf out of it, as the actual thread costs are so astronomical that the inf is a drop in the bucket), so thats 4 x 60 + 100 = 340 per rare, so 680 Threads total for my two rares.

Total Threads used: 60 + 280 + 120 + 680 = 1,140 Threads

I also still have Astrals and Empyrians left over, and several extra uncommons, which can be broken down into 8-10 threads or used, and one Rare component. We'll assume that I'm only going to use 2 of the Uncommons (since I don't intend to go beyond Rare with that character, if I did, the others would be worth more) and break down the rest. Astrals give 4 Threads, and Empyrians give 20.

• Empyrian Merits: 6 x 20 = 120 Threads
• Astral Merits: 8 x 4 = 32 Threads
• Uncommon Components (usable): 2 x 60 = 120 Threads
• Uncommon Components (unusable): 7 x 9 = 63 Threads (going with the average for the 8-10 range)
• Rare Components: 1 = 340 Threads (as established above)

Total usable Threads remaining: 120 + 32 + 120 + 63 + 340 = 675 Threads

Total effective Thread gains for all my runs from last week: 1,140 + 675 = 1815 Threads

Had I been running full team TF content for that time, assuming that the drop rate for Threads is 5 times that of Shards (as we were told in Beta), then that means that I would have earned 18 shards for my effort instead of 90 Threads from drops. That would then be converted over 2 days into 18 Threads (obviously, I'd have waited until I had 20 Shards to convert, but you get the point). (EDIT: I'm adding component breakdowns, which I missed) Now, I couldn't actually have been running full team TF content for that time, as I couldn't devote my mornings or my lunch hour to it, as my average TF time is probably 1 hour, but if we assume I ran 9 TFs (2 per day Tues-Thurs is 6, with 2 on Friday night and 1 Saturday morning), that would be 9 more shards plus the notice, which is 4-6, so I'll say 5. That means 14 more shards, for a total of 32 Threads converted over 3 days. EDIT 2: However, if I ran 9 TFs, that would suggest that I earned 2 shards per TF from drops over an hour, which has not been my experience. I'm going to double that, as 4 per TF is probably closer to my average, which means 18 more Threads for 50 Threads total.

Trial content reward equivalent: 1815 Threads

Non-Trial content, for equivalent time: 50 Threads

That's the equivalent of 36.3 times more Threads for running trials, and I didn't even include the slot unlocks (I unlocked all 4, so that would be the equivalent of another 150 Threads). Obviously, there was some luck involved here-- I did get 3 rares, but even if those were commons (I actually found uncommons to be the most common-- I only got one common drop), the difference would be staggering.

In conclusion: Yeah, your mileage may vary, but let's stop using the "5 times as long" value. It's closer to 35 for me. It would have taken me 36 weeks to do what I did last week if I tried to use the Shard conversion to do it, and that's assuming that same level of activity on a full team for the full 36 weeks, never playing another character. That's about 9 months.

If anyone else kept track of theirs, please post in here, and maybe we can attempt to get a good average estimate of the difference.

This is a helpful idea, but I think what they really need to do is to find a way to allow the trial to start when everyone is in a different zone.

If they can whip up a Trial Staging area in the meantime, that would be great, but I think their long term goal should be to eliminate the requirement to be in the same zone.

A teammate of mine last night said that Build Up, red inspirations, and possibly AAO were all buffing her common Ion Judgement. She says she used Build Up and downed a bunch of reds and tripled her damage with it.

This is not supposed to be the case according to the patch notes, and it wasn't the case the last time I tested it in Beta (though I tested it with Rage and Fury, not Build Up and red insps or AAO). She /bugged it, and I posted about it in the Incarnate Slots bug thread in the Beta forums.

Has anyone else tested this? I don't have Judgement yet on live, so I can't, and the Beta server is locked.

I'm really enjoying this discussion about how the search/ranking system could be, but I feel the need to cynically say that I think that at this point, I don't think it matters. Too many design mistakes were made at I14 launch, and the AE is unfixable without a radical overhaul and some way to convince the players that, yes, it really is different.

I think one of the biggest mistakes was the theme. It effectively labels all content as "fake" content. I know that it was done to separate player and developer content, so that players knew if they were doing player or developer content, but they should have separated it via the User Interface for the player, not via lore for the character. Were I to have designed the system, I'd have had a tab next to Contacts for accessing player content, and it would be explicitly labeled as such in the nav bar. Custom contacts would have been scattered around the zones as generic NPCs when not active (instead of holograms). In short, it should have been designed to appear as similar as possible to regular content in execution, but labeled clearly for the player to know that it's custom content.

I also think it was a mistake to have a hard cap on slots. If I was willing to continue to make arcs due to other issues being resolved, I'd be willing to keep paying them for more slots.

If you think I'm being overly pessimistic, please do attempt to convince me not to be. I'd love for this feature to be all that it could be.

It depends on my character.

I have characters that shouldn't have the ability to call lightning from the sky. Those will take the mechanically powerful one with no visual effect.

My characters that should have the ability to call lightning from the sky will absolutely take that over the more mechanically powerful power.

I've been so unmotivated that I've been having trouble finding the motivation to even post in this thread.

I've received some great feedback about the last arc I wrote, and I'm proud of it, and want to improve it, but since I feel like it doesn't really matter because so few people will play it, I have trouble finding the motivation to work on it.

I agree with the Youtube goal. Ideally, as a player, I'd be able to eventually find authors that I like, but also players that I agree with. I could follow them, and share favorites, and I could completely avoid the farms because we'd create our own ecosystem of story-focused players and authors.

As an author, my goal would be to find someone known who I knew liked the kind of arcs that I wanted to create, and I could then ask them to try my arcs. If they liked them, they would add them to their lists and I would get the kind of people that I want to play my arcs to play my arcs. As an author, I don't want everyone to play my arcs. I just want people that want to play the kind of arcs I write. Though Arcanaville talks about authors being left out in the cold, it still would be better than our current system.

There are also definite problems with the system that stem from a reward system that differs from the rest of the game. Patrol XP doesn't work in it, you can't get Shards or H/V-merits, etc. I also have trouble as a player because I hate that all the stories take place in a VR arcade. Sure, it can tell me my character is going to Atlas or wherever, but I see her just uploading herself into the big yellow column in Dr. Aeon's Funhouse.

All of this contributes to my apathy about the AE, which is too bad, because it's the one feature that I think has the most potential in this game.

I really enjoyed Ally McBeal. I hated the main character, but the supporting cast was fantastic, and the writing was great.

I just want Wonder Woman to be treated with respect. I think this whole "Themyscera Industries" idea isn't treating her with respect. Wonder Woman sells Wonder Woman merchandise? That's intensely self-centered, and goes against everything she stands for. Wonder Woman is about love, honor, forgiveness, generosity, selflessness, strength, and integrity. Not the superficiality that I saw in the pilot synopsis.

She-Hulk can be superficial sometimes, and it's fun and light-hearted. But she's She-Hulk. Wonder Woman isn't like that. And yeah, if this succeeds and replaces the public's view of what Wonder Woman is, I'll be very unhappy. If it fails, it will have been a waste of a chance for the character.

I'll watch the first episode and hope that I'm wrong about it not treating Wonder Woman with respect, but from what I've seen, it doesn't look good.