SupaFreak

The Player Event Resource Committee would like to thank all of the base builders who entered and completed the Design Challenge - Disaster Base! Each and every one of you surprised and amazed us with your skills, creativity, and commitment to your design. This was certainly not an easy contest and it was a true pleasure to see all of the bases come to life!

Just as a reminder, the base builders were given a base with an entryway and one 3 by 3 room. They had 200 random items of "wreckage" that had to be used to complete the base and 50k in prestige as "disaster relief funds." Bases were judged based on creativity, use of the "wreckage," cohesion/theme, difficulty, and overall aesthetics.

Overall High Scores
(receiving 2 Billion Influence, an ATO set, and an Olympian Guard Costume Code (provided by Paragon Studios))


@FixR
@Layla Rei
@War Base

Honorable Mentions
(receiving 250 Million Influence)

@Blue Turbo
@Caped Canuck
@Dark Bladed
@force majeure
@Hendrake
@JZwolinski
@Potato-Head
@Sirken
@Ulysses Dare


All contestants who completed their base will receive a Luck of the Gambler +7.5% global recharge.

Thank you again to everyone for supporting this contest and the base building community! Please see Disaster Base Part 1 and Disaster Base Part 2 to view all of the bases. Contestants are welcome to post before and after pictures of their bases as well!

If anyone is interested in joining the Player Event Resource Committee or has ideas for future events, please contact Madame Pistacio or email perc.coh@gmail.com.

The Player Event Resource Committee is excited to announce the contestants for Design Challenge - Disaster Base!!


@Blue Turbo
@BRULSER
@Caped Canuck
@Dark Bladed
@Energy Aura
@FixR
@force majeure
@Hendrake
@I Burnt The Toast
@Ire Narissis
@JZwolinski
@LaLoca Mocha
@Layla Rei
@Leiter
@Potato-Head
@Queen of Eels
@Sayaki
@Sirken
@strype
@Tax E
@Tyger
@Ulysses Dare
@War Base
@zehntaur


Contestants will be sent an email with further details on the competition! If anyone has questions, please feel free to contact Madame Pistacio or Arkyaeon via private message or send an email to PERC.COH@gmail.com

Coolio. Then I can add this as my thoughts on the issues I have?

Okay, so you'd be fine if all rewards were adjusted downwards so it would take 10 hours of gameplay to purchase a random roll? (20 Merits) There's 7 arcs for First Ward with 2 Reward Merits each. Casually playing them and reading, you're looking at about 7 hours for 14 Merits. You'd be happy if the rest of the game and future content was reduced to that?


Okay, so in that manner... we can take all the story text and cut-scenes away from anything that has good rewards? I mean... what's good for the goose is good for the gander...

Oh, so the Rewards weren't adjusted downwards for Katie Hanon Task Force and Eden Trial because people were blowing through them in 15 minutes based on data logs? They were adjusted downwards because people complained they were easy?

I really don't know how to comment to this. It almost sounds like an endorsement for mandatory researching the internet for which archetype and powersets to have when playing a story arc.

Accepting these rewards as reasonable is a slap in the face to me.

To me, it's the equivilant of the following as a basis of a story arc:

Contact: Go fight Recluse.
Accept: K
Contact: Go!

Lord Recluse: Hi.

Exactly.

2 Reward Merits for 45-60 minutes of play time (with reading) is so poor, I was beyond irritated.

That's 1/4 of earning a Random Large Inspiration or Single Origin Enhancement. 4 hours of casual play to earn one of these minimum rewards is ludicrous and if I had paid for that as Premium player, I'd be outraged.

I don't want to be too negative here and would like to add that whether or not the newer arcs are everyone's bag... I will admit that I do feel the effort to be more immersive with the action within new missions is improving.

/sarcasm

Sure seems that way anymore.

Note that I did mention the other elements I enjoyed, just expressed my unhappiness with those I didn't.

If it were flipped around the other way, I'd express my concerns there too.

Note that I didn't compare to TFs or anything I need a team to do. And actually, I feel I somewhat can compare it to SSAs and Tips since they are both soloable.

While it's true Alignment (A)Merits are time-gated, they equal roughly 125 Merits for those of us who play multiple characters and when the time comes - focus on the rewards to build a new character with an established character.

Some may argue that newer arcs require less travel... you can't discard all the methods of teleportation we now have to cover ground on old arcs... making that arguement less valid.

I guess I should stress where I see the overall problem:
TIPS - SOLO (rewards focused)
1 (A)Merit = @125 Merits
1 (A)Merit = @60 minutes per character over 2 days
1 (A)Merit = @125 Merits / hour

SOLO (rewards focused)
Unnamed Old Arcs = @25 Merits / hour
New Arcs since Issue 10 = 3-14 Merits / hour

Merits are becoming less and less valuable. (A)Merits are 5x more valuable than old arcs and up to 40x more valuable than new arcs.

Is this a good formula for prolonged success? To herd those seeking rewards on content into farming Tips & SSAs when solo? Heck, doing this with multiple characters right now is probably more rewarding than teaming on Weekly Strike Tasks.

And can Reward Merits (not Alignment) even be obtained by free/premium accounts?

If not, then this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to have less Rewards on newer story arcs... if it's a VIP Reward (of sorts).

I just wish "Story Arcs" rewards were in-line and competitive with other rewards for ALL so that they would become a viable option for teaming in an MMO.

I really don't want to get myself into posting suggestions/ideas here regarding this since that kinda belongs in those Forums... but it's honestly been the trend since Issue 10 "Invasion" in regards to story arcs and the Merit Rewards... and they are gradually getting worse.

I've expressed my discontent with "Merits for mission holder only" through tells to red-names in the past as well as offering suggestions.

After opening my Rewards-Tracking excel sheet, I will just say there are certain pre-I10 arcs that award upwards of 24 Merits per hour in that level range and everything since Issue 10 awards 14 or less... regardless of level range.

I've been here since Beta and trust me, I love this game and want to see it thrive... but I feel when a good chunk of our content is unrewarding to play and it begins to feel like you're being herded into "farming" limited content to be rewarded... it's easy to see why some possible subscribers look the other way. "Eye Candy" only goes so far.

Yea, I thought it was odd LB wasn't customized to fit the alternate universe.

I do believe you're right.

Indeed, this series of arcs are intended for advanced builds / incarnates. Paragon knows you well and wanted to reflect that no one really questions your moral standing.

I really, really, really wanted the Soul Mage as the LT in the group and at this time, the reflections are the only ones available. That being the case, I wanted the minions to be in-line with the look of the LT... so I opted to use the reflections version of them as well. Until we get a possible DA update to the group, I kinda figure it's a side effect of the rituals they're performing.

Pondering if I should delete the combat analysis thing on the custom critters completely. It's really only there for those that pay attention to that and scout the bios in advance. I guess I should go 100% either way with the Standard and Customs.

Right, there's 2 per mission. Winners of a contest I held and totally optional EB Allies/Enemies (per request).

I actually implemented it this way with clues/Nav based on previous feedback that "I feel like I have to follow Nav" when there's only 3 objectives until the end room on a pretty linear map. I'm not a fan of failable missions unless it's for an optional finale. Therefore, I don't have the "should be required" Midnighters as required. I was concerned the ever-changing objectives would be off-setting. I do like your suggestions and gonna have a relook at that.

Trust me... this is the most complicated mission I have planned because you're getting introduced to 6 of the 10 main characters. Yea, the profanity filter bites (think I may try to spell them Phant0m Strike & Jade Sc0rpion until that gets fixed). Couple of notes:

*I need to recheck, but Escorts set to Follow after they reach their destination were buggy before... Neverest is set to Wander at this time. If it's fixed, I'll set him back to Follow.
*Impressive you took Phantom Strike on as AV, especially with the chaos that ensues during the fight.

Yea, my spin on Morality missions that stick to an overall story. Since we now have no cap on the amount of Mission slots we can have, I'll be dedicating 16 seperate missions (slots) to this depending on the choices you make with different/recurring contacts along the way. I do hope people realize that while there's like 32+ guest appearances from others + 2 of mine present throughout... we're all just a supporting cast to it all.

I do greatly appreciate the play and feedback, which will definitely be reflected in modifications. Fortunately it's just in the text and not the mechanics (which I've spent countless hours testing for balance on various ATs).

Edit: After reworking my Nav based on Columb's feedback and looking at my recent comments about "finding Nav confusing" in some of my review notes... I kinda feel like I'm contradicting myself. I guess what's "easy on the eyes" for me is when key elements or different objectives are color coded differently vs all white Nav of say... 3-5 objectives. This is a personal issue with me, and not really slamming anyone that does the standard all-white.