Neuronia

Xury's list matches up with my testing vs. SR last night on live.

I had 30% to connect with SR with toggle(s) up, according to the Combat tab.

Experimented with various items such as Buld Up, small yellows and so on to see what that did to increased chances of contact.

Thanks for the list.

This is an excellent guide. I've used a similar guide, perhaps peterpeter's to similar effect.

Look people, some people like Smurphy and 4 and others have that Market knowhow but we can ALL make money. That's the great thing about the Market, game additions and removals influence the tides and sometimes you can crest them to profit!

Just be observant, be patient and have fun.

So...have the Developers explained how we are supposed to reach the various contacts?

If I plan an adventure with Crimson as a contact with missions in Talos, Kings Row and Peregrine Island, villains cannot access those zones.

Are we going to have to set two contacts and mission doors on both sides of the game?

To Obsidius: Didn't Aeon say Crey was helping out? It could be funneled through Crey Techologies.

The article was great and if we can access those great-looking devices in-game, I'll be a VERY happy camper! Can't wait for word of Beta or further Dev information.

Hero
Range:40-45
Arc: Melvin and the Mysterious Malta Group
Contact: Indigo
Merit Reward: 19 (+1)

It's Captain Pulverize, just send them a tell around 8:30 P.M. Eastern and it should get you on the team.

Maintenance is usually done around 11 a.m. Eastern so you should be good if you are up and about around then.

GReat stuff, very funny as well. Loved the one about the sidekick.

Makes me wish we had voice off mobs ingame though...I do understand the engine can't support it at this point.

TLDR

Nice additions to the backstory, I'll read tomorrow when I have more time.

I'm in for Psyche, just /t @Neuronia as a reminder of the time please.

You'll be missed Lighthouse. My only hope is you find steady work in these trying times. I know we weren't an easy bunch to please, or even to appease, but you did your best.

Cheers!

[ QUOTE ]
do you only get merits for your own story arcs?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes. The only way teams will get Merits will be by coordinating Merit runs through TFs. I'm not even sure if a team going through Ouroboros would all get the Merit reward.

With more IO salvage coming through base conversions, I can see salvage become worthless .

You get bonus Merits (I think 20) for completing or the Respec. That gives 45 Merits which should add up to your Pool D.

That's my understanding from the group that ran a Hero Respec.

Peterpeter:

Pool Cs are between 125-250.
Pool A-Bs seem to be 50
Pool Ds are at the higher end, usually around 250 or so.

Some of the prices seem wacky, even for a perma-whiner like me. Crushing Impacts and Doctored Wounds at 50 is...out there.

Devs didn't say much about the Merit system apart from Phil explaining the rationale. I have a feeling not many people took the Single Origin Enhancement so the Devs may have looked at Pool C and D and said..."How long should this take to earn?" You can get an SO for 15 Merits :s

Not tested to my knowledge.

As far as we know, only GM defeats (2 Merits), TFs, Story Arcs, Hamidon Raids and Trials award Merits. Rikti War Zone Raids are an unknown, as well as Zombie raids and such.

[ QUOTE ]
Are HO's purchasable with Merits or is the only way to get Hami's to actually visit the Hive/Abyss again?

I'm guessing the devs want to revive the all-but-dead Hami raids.

[/ QUOTE ]

They are not. Neither are Purples or Costume Recipes.

You must do STF/LRSF/Raids for HOs...by the way the Hero Hamidon Raid was 40 Merits.

[ QUOTE ]
Out of curiosity, are story arc merit rewards also given when doing that arc through Ouroboros? I doubt I'd use that as a main source of merits, but I do enjoy running the Pretorian "boss rush" arc on a regular basis.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes. Most testers used Ouroboros to get their Merit measurements...and some of us were on the last mission of an arc and autocompleted on Test. I did as much for the Praetorian War arc.

People are uneasy about the removal of a menu on completion...it changes a lot of live Tasks such as Hess, Katie, Cap and others to be sure.

Remember that Open Beta is still there; though things tend to be 'cemented' in closed and the Merit System won't be torn down, your feedback on the Merit System award iteration is important. Many will likely be quite upset at losing the reward menu.

To Ironblade: Eden gets completed in 10-15 minutes on average, no typo.

To Cobaltix: Correct, you get awarded Merits or a choice of Merit/SHO/Titan-O/Hydra-O. Respecs give you Merits + Respec or bonus Merits.

There was a lot of discussion on that topic. Unfortunately, no new SFs in this patch. Villains will have to run Ice Mistral/ITF or run some arcs like Mender Lazarus or Von Grun to pad their Merits.

To peterperter:

You choose any level you wish when you buy at the Vendor.

Example:

Neuronia has 300 Merits. She buys at Miracle: Heal at level 35. She buys at Numina: +Regeneration +Recovery at level 35. Think you can get 'odd levels' as well.

For the Random rolls, there is a level band and my only Random roll was for a Trial at level 14...which got me a new recipe. I'd think those would tag to your level.

[ QUOTE ]
Also do merits got anything to do with the brainstorm idea? I found some laboratory earlier in port oaks.

[/ QUOTE ]

No.


Brainstorms are made from converting Base Salvage to Brainstorms. You can turn Brainstorms into Invention Salvage...for use in your base or recipes. Not getting into that though.

[ QUOTE ]
Neuronia, can you add...

1) Merits are not traded player to player
2) Merits are not traded on WW/BM

[/ QUOTE ]

Done.

You used to be able to get the slider to 53 and 20. I think some IO set recipes only start at 25 though.

Anytime.

To be fair I didn't have time to do multiple TFs in the Training Room, but word is if you do the same TF consecutively the Merits go down by an increment (Don't know how much, though Leandro and some others might help there since they were busier in the TR).

All pricings as of October 31 P.M. Eastern, Enjoy!

Collected Data for Merit Structure:

Merits are a new reward system that replaces the Task Force menu that previously gave you a choice of Single Origin, Rare Recipe and sometimes Synthetic Hamidon Enhancement, Hydra Origin Enhancement or Crystal Titan Enhancement. Instead, a player will be awarded a number of Merits on completion of story arcs, Task Forces, Trials and other tasks such as Giant Monster defeats. These Merits will degrade if the same task is repeated over a short period. Generally, much longer tasks give a commensurate Merit reward.

Merits are not tradeable between players or saleable at Wentworth's, Black Market or Vendors.

Methodology for Merit Pricing:

Via Castle via Phil:

"We determined the number of merits earned per task by taking the average time to complete these tasks and then awarding 1 merit for every 5 minutes of time. This value is then further modified by a task modifier. We then multiply this number by 1.0 if the task has met datamining requirements for number of times run, if there isn't sufficient data then the number of merits is multiplied by a lesser value. Next the value gets a small merit bonus for every hundred minutes of the average time. This way longer tasks will give greater rewards. Then some tasks received an artificial modifier to make sure they gave the rewards we wanted. In most cases this is an upward bump of 1-7 merits. This artificial modifier allows us to take things into consideration like difficulty and other miscellaneous factors. In very few cases are there any tasks with artificially reduced merit rewards.

Next, the Merit Reward cost of items on the merit vendor are a bit more complex. The factors that go into determining the costs are: rarity, the drop table they originally came from, set bonuses, and then a few modifiers like perceived value and whether they are unique or not. You end up with some really powerful enhancements like Numina's Convalescence: +Regen/+Recovery as being very expensive as you would imagine because, it's high level, has good set bonuses, has a high perceived value, and drops from a Task Force reward table. This particular recipe goes for 250 merits. Another set I've seen mentioned a number of times is Crushing Impact. Some players wonder why its so cheap, only going for 50 merits each. The reason this set is so much cheaper is: it's an uncommon drop (not rare), has good (but not amazing set bonuses), and its perceived value varies. They can get up there in cost on the Auction Houses, but they're no Numina's.

The plan is to periodically datamine and adjust the merit rewards for each task as well, so some tasks that have a penalty on them simply because we don't have enough data on them, we'll remove that penalty. So, there you have it. I hope this helps you all understand this a bit."

Thanks to Bionic_Flea, Leandro, Gargoyle KDR, HelinCarnate, Lemur_Lad, Catwhoorg, Pengy, Big Mike, Ms Mesmer, Zloth, BurninUp, LuxumS, MrHunter, MagicFlyingHippy, Jaded Angel and more still for data gathering during Beta:

A group of Beta testers helped gather information on Merit rewards for the various Task Forces, Trials and arcs ingame for Merit awards. Here is an admittedly incomplete list.

That said, the Data:

Heroes: Task Forces
Positron: 55
Synapse: 45 (bug pre-17/10: only one team member got them)
Citadel: 30
Manticore: 25 (bug 30/10: only one member got them)
Numina: 27 (bug 20/10: only team leader got them)
Statesman: 30
Justin Augustine: 35
Faathim: 55 (bug 18/10: only team leader got them)
Ernesto Hess: 15
Katie Hannon: 7
Twilight Son: 4
Mender Lazarus: 6
Mender Silos: 7
Cavern of Trascendence: 6
Eden Trial: 2
Dr. Quaterfield: 90 (as per Back Alley Brawler)
3rd Respec Trial: 25 (assumed from patch notes; needs testing)

Heroes: Protector of Innocents (Level 1-15)
Flux the Outcast: 6 (Flux)
Julius the Kind Hearted Troll: 3 (Julius The Troll)
The Heart of the Hollows: 9 (Talshak the Mystic)
Officer Wincott vs. The Trolls: 2 (David Wincott)
The Clockwork Captive: 7 (Athena Currie)
Bonefire: 7 (Lorenzo DiCosta)
The Vahzilok Pollutant Plot: 7 (Jill Pastor)
Break up the Clockwork and Skulls: 1 (Maurice Feldon)
Rescue the Mystic from the Circle of Thorns: 1 (Dr. Trevor Seaborn)

Heroes: Guardian (Level 16-19)
Rumblings of the Past : 3 (Jim Tremblor)
I Lost my Daddy!: 3 (Penny Yin)
The Mind of a King: 5 (Colleen Saramago)
Tsoo Shenanigans: 5 (Kong Bao)
The Vahzilok Plague: 4 (Dr. Anne-Marie Engles)
Vahzilok Wasting Disease: 1 (Dr. Ann-Marie Engles)

Heroes: Keeper of Peace (Level 20-24)
A Faultline in the Sands of Time: 5 (Agent G)
The Buried Past: 2 (Doc Delilah)
Hear and Now: 5 (Long Jack)
Ring of Peebles: 9 (Stephanie Peebles)
The Wheel of Destruction: 4 (Andrea Mitchell)
Hand of Iron: 4 (Andrew Fiore)
The Sky Raider Secret: 5 (Barry Gosford)
The Tsoo Coup: 8 (Amanda Loomis)
Stop the Mystic Madmen: 2 (Andrea Mitchell)
Retrieve Stolen Weapons From the Freakshow: 1 (Andrew Fiore)

Heroes: Champion (Level 25-29)
Piercing the Veil: 8 (Gordon Bower)
War of the Fir Bolg: 5 (Skipper Le Grange)
Crown of Glory: 3 (Mercedes Sheldon)
Dirge of Chaos: 3 (Mercedes Sheldon)
The Magic Man: 3 (Mercedes Sheldon)
A Madman's Council: 4 (Lars Hansen)
Return to Vampyr Mountain: 4 (Tobias Hansen)
The Scroll of Tielekku: 7 (Miriam Bloechl)

Heroes: Defender of Truth (Level 30-34)
Crossing Over: 6 (Buck Salinger)
Hatred's Hungry Heart:4 (Kelly Nemmers)

Heroes: Vindicator (Level 35-39)
The Arrival of the Oranbegans: 3 (Cadao Kestrel)

Heroes: Justice Incarnate (Level 40-45)
The Praetorian War: 22 (Tina MacIntyre)
The Clockwork King's Psychic Signal: 0 (Tina MacIntyre)

Heroes: Hero of the City (Level 46-50)
Future Threat: 3 (Daedalus)
Stolen Power: 3 (Daedalus)
The Origin of Power: 2 (Percy Winkley)
Ouroboros Initiation: 2 (The Pilgrim)
Lost and Found: 3 (Montague Castanella)
Upon the Psychic Plane : 19 (Harvey Maylor)
To Save a Thousand Worlds: 16 (Unai Kemen)
A Hero's Hero: 19 (Maria Jenkins)

Villains: Strike Forces
Virgil Tarikoss: 10
Ice Mistral: 25
Silver Mantis: 35
Lord Recluse: 25
Mender Tesseract: 5
Mender Silos: 5
3rd Respec Trial: 15

Villains: Soldier (Level 1-15)
The Vahzilok Conference: 4 (Dmitri Krylov)
Spy Hunt: 5 (Dmitri Krylov)
Midas Touched: 3 (Dr. Shelly Percy)
Breaking Bows: 2 (Peter Themari)
Weird Science: 2 (Doctor Creed)
The Origins of Snakes: 2 (Matthew Burke)
The Hit List: 2 (The Radio)
Family War: 5 (Billie Heck)
The Book and the Burning: 3 (Mr. Bocor)

Villains: Insider (Level 20-24)
The Origin of Power: 2 (Ashley McKnight)

Villains: Undesirable (Level 25-29)
Aurora Fades: 1 (Darla Mavis)
Power Mine: 2 (Darla Mavis)
Midnight Draws Near: 5 (Darrin Wade)
Die by the Freak!: 3 (Doc Buzzsaw)
On the Trail of the Leviathan: 1 (Operative Kirkland)

Villains: Wiseguy (Level 30-34)
Brawling with the Big Boys: 2 (Crimson Revenant)
Offer Soul of Akarist: 1 (Archmage Tarixus)

Villains: Criminal (Level 35-39)
The Devil's Card Deck: 3 (Mercedes Sheldon)
The Unlucky Artifact: 1 (Hard Luck)

Villains: Captain (Level 40-45)
Selestar: 1 (Mage-Killer Zuhkara)

Villains: Made (Level 46-50)
Power from the Past: 3 (Sister Airlia)
Politics, Cimerora Style: 3 (Sister Airlia)
Alone in the Darque: 2 (Efficiency Expert Pither)
Video Killed the Radio: 1 (Television)
Von Grun's Redemption: 12 (Vernon Von Grun's)
If At First You Don't Succeed: 1 (Fortunata Hamilton)

Cooperative: Strask Forces
Imperious: 25
Lady Grey: 30

Cooperative: Hero of the City/Made (Level 46-50)
The Strange Case of Benjamin A. Decker: 2 (Levantera)
Welcome to the Vanguard: 3 (Levantera)
Dreams of Peace and Acts of War: 5 (Serpent Drummer)
The Red and the Black: 4 (Gaussian)
The Horror of War: 6 (Dark Watcher)

Merit Store prices:
As of Oct 31 2008

The stores are located at various busy spots in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. Offhand, there are stores in Pocket D and near Wentworth’s/Black Market. They are denoted on your mini-map by a “$” similar to that for other stores.

Clicking on the contact will open a menu with a slider and several dropdown choices.

The slider indicates a level band from 1-50. Below that will be several categories, including Enhancements (Single Origin Enhancements, selling for 15 Merits and spanning levels 20-50), Recipe (IO Set, listed by category as in the market interface), or Reward Rolls.

Reward Rolls cover Inspirations, Invention Salvage, Task Force Random Recipe Rolls and Trial Random Recipe Rolls.

Inspiration rolls cost one Merit and grant you one Random Large Inspiration, assigned randomly. I got a Resurgence for my one Merit when I tested this.

Rare salvage costs 30 Merits at all level bands and is listed under several categories.

The categories and their contents follow.

Salvage

10-25 Rare Salvage: Alien Blood Sample, Enriched Plutonium, Source Code, Complex Chemical Formula, Plasma Capacitor, Heads up Display, Lament Box, Strand of Fate, Psionically Charged Brass, Page from the Malleus Mundi, Psionic Manifestation or Symbiotic Armor.

10-25 Tech Salvage: Alien Blood Sample, Enriched Plutonium, Source Code, Complex Chemical Formula, Plasma Capacitor or Heads up Display.

10-25 Arcane Salvage: Lament Box, Strand of Fate, Psionically Charged Brass, Page from the Malleus Mundi, Psionic Manifestation or Symbiotic Armor.

26-40 Rare Salvage: Miltary Cybernetic, Reactive Gas, Conspirational Evidence, Holographic Memory, Mutating Genome, Impervium, Deific Weapon, Empowered Sigil, Black Blood of the Earth, Enchanted Impervium, Mu Vestment or Soul Trapped Gem.

26-40 Tech Salvage: Miltary Cybernetic, Reactive Gas, Conspirational Evidence, Holographic Memory, Mutating Genome or Impervium.

26-40 Arcane Salvage: Deific Weapon, Empowered Sigil, Black Blood of the Earth, Enchanted Impervium, Mu Vestment or Soul Trapped Gem.

41-53 Rare Salvage: Photonic Weapon, Chronal Skip, Rikti Alloy, Positronic Matrix, Synthetic Intelligence Unit, Pangean Soil, Prophecy, Diamond, Magical Conspiracy, Essence of the Furies or Hamidon Goo.

41-53 Tech Salvage: Photonic Weapon, Chronal Skip, Rikti Alloy, Positronic Matrix or Synthetic Intelligence Unit.

41-53 Arcane Salvage: Pangean Soil, Prophecy, Diamond, Magical Conspiracy, Essence of the Furies or Hamidon Goo.

Recipes

You can select a Recipe of your choice at any level range from 25-50. At first glance, it seems uncommon sets such as Doctored Wounds, Harmonized Healing, Crushing Impact et al. cost 50 Merits per item, regardless of ‘category’ (IE a Doctored Wounds Heal or a Crushing Impact triple all cost the same 50).


Prices are the same on both sides of the game! A LOTG 7.5 is worth 200 Merits redside or blueside, same with salvage rolls and so on.

Standard Invention Enhancement Recipes (ie: Invention: Damage) cost 20 Merits regardless of level.

Random Task Force Rolls all cost 25 Merits and are listed from levels 10-14, 15-19, 20-24. 25-30, 30-34, 35-39. 40-45, 46-50 and .

Random Trial Rolls cost 35 Merits and are listed from 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-45 and 46-50.

Interestingly, Villains ALSO have the 30-34 band covered in rolls, potentially ending much wringing of hands as to that level band NOT being covered contentwise, but at least rewardwise!

Out of curiosity I used the level 10-14 band on my namesake and got an Eradication Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge.


Scattered Merit Prices:

Miracle: Healing/End: 50 Merits
Karma Knockback : 50 Merits
Crushing Impact (Any): 50 Merits
Steafast Res/Defense: 125 Merits
Force Feedback +Recharge: 125 Merits
Performance Shifter Proc: 125 Merits
Imp Skin Status Resist:125 Merits
Steadfast : Knockback : 125 Merits
Miracle: End/Recharge/Healing Recharge: 150 Merits
Trap of the Hunter Accuracy/End: 150 Merits
Achilles' Heel: Chance for Resistance Debuff: 150 Merits
Decimation Proc: 150 Merits
Miracle: Healing or Healing/End/Recharge: 150 Merits
Regenerative Tissue: Regeneration: 200 Merits
LOTG 7.5: 200 Merits
Touch of Death Accuracy/Damage/End: 200 Merits
Devastation Proc: 220 Merits
Impervium Armor Psi Resist: 220 Merits
Blessing of the Zephyr Knockback (-4): 240 Merits
Miracle Unique: 240 Merits
Aegis Psi/Mez Resist: 240 Merits
Unbounded Leap Stealth: 240 Merits
Numina Unique:250 Merits
LOTG Triple: 250 Merits
Decimation Accurace/Damage/Recharge:250

Will these prices affect the market? They sure will! I know I’ll enjoy spending merits to get a multitude of Karma and Steadfast Knockback resists instead of shelling out coin for them.
Markets suffer shakeups from outside forces and now ours will as well.

If nothing else, this at least equalizes and ‘merges’ the markets at an ideas level. With the same items available from vendors at the same price on both sides, there is no need for any pricing disparities between both Markets.

Discuss!!