[ QUOTE ]
They stated expressely that it was a goal of the market to serve as a mini-game.
[/ QUOTE ]
Where?
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
They stated expressely that it was a goal of the market to serve as a mini-game.
[/ QUOTE ]
Where?
[/ QUOTE ]
Both here and on external sites during I9's beta. No I'm not going to go searching for a link. If you don't believe me, that's fine.
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
[ QUOTE ]
Hello again, Synapse here. I wanted to take a moment to answer a few more of your questions. I also wanted to address a few concerns I've heard in this thread repeatedly. I'd like to reiterate the fact that we have no intention of carelessly "nerfing" or "buffing" merit rewards. [u]Making any changes to the number of merits a task gives out will be done with very careful consideration, ample data and after exhausting our other options.[u]
[/ QUOTE ]
In light of the nerfing of the rewards of the KHTF, Cap SF and Eden Trial, how is this true?
The development team did not exhaust all its options here, instead nerfing the rewards rather than making the TFs longer. Your stated reason in the OP, is because you didn't have time to do it. However, you had time to create this merit system. You had time to change the reward screens. You had time to datamine. You had time to do a lot of things, but you CHOSE not to fix those things about the content you no longer deem worthy of a random roll.
If you're wondering why people are worried, consider this.
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
[ QUOTE ]
We feel that players will take that chance on the random roll tables for that chance at the reward they want. There will always be that temptation to roll on the Pool C rewards 12 times instead of buying that one shiny IO. If a player doesn't get what they want, they can post these items on the markets. Also consider that before only players running Task Forces and Strike Forces were contributing Pool C and D items to the market, now even solo/casual players will be able to do so.
[/ QUOTE ]
Do you really expect that people will consistently and long-term gamble 8% of the price of a Pool C purchase for a ~1.1% chance of getting what they want? Do you really expect that the return on those who do make that gamble will consistently supply the market? Do you think that the market price ratios between "desirable" Pool Cs and "nondesirables" will be consistent with the gamble you're expecting players to take? What is the contingency if you're wrong on these counts?
Also, given that the "casual/solo player" is earning their reward at 40% (at best, probably much less) the rate of the TF/SF runner, do you really see them as being more willing to funnel those rewards into the market, as opposed to their own character development?
And a personal question: Since we're assured that all devs play the game just like us regular folks, what do you anticipate your personal strategy to be for playing with the merit system as it stands now? And how has that strategy worked for you so far in internal testing?
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Poster: EvilGeko
Q: What about the market? Do you care about the players who enjoy that aspect of the game? Do you have any plans for how to address the supply issues in the market that this system will cause for Pool C and D drops?
A: We feel that players will take that chance on the random roll tables for that chance at the reward they want. There will always be that temptation to roll on the Pool C rewards 12 times instead of buying that one shiny IO. If a player doesn't get what they want, they can post these items on the markets. Also consider that before only players running Task Forces and Strike Forces were contributing Pool C and D items to the market, now even solo/casual players will be able to do so.
[/ QUOTE ]
I agree with Pool D. That's a rational decision. Pool C is a fool's errand and that will become clear to people soon.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yep. Pool C is loaded with junk. If you're looking for something specific, you've got a 1 in 78 chance of getting what you want (based on the live pools as listed on Paragonwiki, in I13 it will be an even lower chance due to the new sets).
Pool D, on the other hand, has a 1 in 9 chance (again, according to Paragonwiki, which may be slightly off, given that some recipes haven't been listed in a pool) of getting what you want.
There is such a high chance for junk (meaning recipes for powers that are, individually, not common compared to other powers like melee, ranged, PBAoE, TAoE, def, res, and heal powers, therefore of much lower value due to a much lower demand) in Pool C-- Snipes, Immobilizes, Fears, Sleeps, Confuses, Stuns, Slows, Def Debuffs, ToHit Debuffs, ToHitBuffs, and Heroside Pet Damage-- that it's just not worth the randomness. This wouldn't be the case if you killed Snipe recipes and made Snipes accept Range sets, and killed all the individual status and debuff recipes and instead had just "status" and "buff/debuff" recipes like HOs have.
Meanwhile, Pool D only has 2 out of the 9 recipes that are only used by a small portion of the population (Sovereign Right: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance and Sting of the Manticore: Damage/Interrupt/Recharge).
As time goes on and you add more recipes to these pools, the odds of getting something you want from a random drop will just get worse, making the set costs that much more desirable.
Please try my custom mission arcs!
Legacy of a Rogue (ID 459586, Entry for Dr. Aeon's Third Challenge)
Death for Dollars! (ID 1050)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare (ID 1218)
Win the Past, Own the Future (ID 1429)
Synapse - Is the weighting of Pool C recipes ever going to be looked at to put into balance the count disperancy of high utility IO sets (Melee, AOE, PBAOE, Ranged, Defense) versus low utility IO sets (Snipe, Sleep, Confuse, Stun, Immobilize, Debuffing)? Right now in Pool C these are all weighted evenly with a much greater number of Low Utility sets than High Utility Sets in the pool. Power Counts below:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre> Power Type Hero Villain Total 45-50 45-50 Power
Powers Powers Powers Pool C % No. %
AOE 41 39 80 2 4.5% 8.9%
PBAOE 42 38 80 2 4.5% 8.9%
Melee 63 59 122 2 4.5% 13.5%
Ranged 43 56 99 2 4.5% 11.0%
Defense 38 41 79 2 4.5% 8.8%
Resist 39 38 77 2 4.5% 8.5%
Heal 36 33 69 2 4.5% 7.7%
Hold 40 25 65 2 4.5% 7.2%
Slow 27 19 46 2 4.5% 5.1%
Immob 21 17 38 2 4.5% 4.2%
Stun 19 16 35 2 4.5% 3.9%
Pet 9 26 35 2 4.5% 3.9%
Sleep 13 8 21 2 4.5% 2.3%
Snipe 11 8 19 4 9.1% 2.1%
Travel 7 7 14 4 9.1% 1.6%
Fear 7 7 14 2 4.5% 1.6%
Confuse 4 4 8 2 4.5% 0.9%
Total Powers 460 441 901 44 </pre><hr />
Pool C distribution numbers below from Positron dated 19 February:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre> Ok guys, I said that the drops were equal for each Recipe and I meant it.
Here is the drop table for level 45 to 50 Task Forces. This is STRAIGHT out of the
.def file read by the game:
Code:
________________________________________
{
Recipe 1 Perfect_Zinger_D
Recipe 1 Force_Feedback_D
Recipe 1 Performance_Shifter_D
Recipe 1 Gaussians_Synchronized_FireControl_D
Recipe 1 Dark_Watchers_Despair_D
Recipe 1 Touch_of_Lady_Grey_D
Recipe 1 Aegis_C
Recipe 1 Aegis_F
Recipe 1 Call_of_the_Sandman_E
Recipe 1 Call_of_the_Sandman_F
Recipe 1 Celerity_C
Recipe 1 Devastation_C
Recipe 1 Devastation_F
Recipe 1 Executioners_Contract_E
Recipe 1 Executioners_Contract_F
Recipe 1 Freebird_C
Recipe 1 Ghost_Widows_Embrace_E
Recipe 1 Ghost_Widows_Embrace_F
Recipe 1 Glimpse_of_the_Abyss_E
Recipe 1 Glimpse_of_the_Abyss_F
Recipe 1 Luck_of_the_Gambler_C
Recipe 1 Luck_of_the_Gambler_F
Recipe 1 Makos_Bite_C
Recipe 1 Makos_Bite_F
Recipe 1 Malaises_Illusions_E
Recipe 1 Malaises_Illusions_F
Recipe 1 Numinas_Convalesence_C
Recipe 1 Numinas_Convalesence_F
Recipe 1 Pacing_of_the_Turtle_E
Recipe 1 Pacing_of_the_Turtle_F
Recipe 1 Positrons_Blast_E
Recipe 1 Positrons_Blast_F
Recipe 1 Sciroccos_Dervish_E
Recipe 1 Sciroccos_Dervish_F
Recipe 1 Sovereign_Right_C
Recipe 1 Sovereign_Right_F
Recipe 1 Sting_of_the_Manticore_C
Recipe 1 Sting_of_the_Manticore_F
Recipe 1 Stupefy_E
Recipe 1 Stupefy_F
Recipe 1 TimeSpace_Manipulation_C
Recipe 1 Trap_of_the_Hunter_E
Recipe 1 Trap_of_the_Hunter_F
Recipe 1 Unbounded_Leap_C
}
________________________________________
The "1" in there is the weighting that that recipe has in relation to all the others. Each has
a 1 in 44 chance of dropping. If the 1 was a 2, then that recipe would drop twice as often
as any other (2 in 45), if it was a 10, it would drop 10 times as often as any other (10 in
54). As you can see, the game data itself has every recipe in the list as a 1, which means
that ANY of those has the SAME chance as coming up as ANY of the rest.
</pre><hr />
By weighting the pool appropriately you can have people more satisfied with the random roll option.
Protector Server
Woeful Knight (BS/Regen/Body Scrapper)
Kevin Christian (MC/FF/Primal Controller)
SilverCybernaut (Eng/Dev/Munitions Blaster)
Apixie OhNo (Fire/Fire/Pyre Tanker)
Y'ru Glowen (Rad/Rad/Psy Defender)
[ QUOTE ]
Or give more merits based on % of critters killed. 99% or more doubles the bonus. 8-p
Ok, that'd be a nightmare, so It'd take more research than that, but I do think it's a good idea. This system is rewarding only the farmers and speed runners, not the average player that tends to take twice as long per TF as the professionals.
[/ QUOTE ]
If it's possible to track kills, this is a brilliant idea, though I wouldn't just double the reward based on kills.
You could assign ranges to the percentages and base the rewards for completing a TF within the range on datamined time for people who completed it within that range. That way, people who clear the entire TF aren't getting the same rewards as people who only kill exactly what is necessary to complete it.
People who beat Eden in 10 minutes because they only kill the bare minimum of foes would get 2 merits.
People who beat Eden in 60 minutes because they 70-80% of the foes in the TF would get 12 merits.
People who beat Eden in 60 minutes because they kill the bare minimum but stand around for 50 minutes would still only get 2 merits!
Please try my custom mission arcs!
Legacy of a Rogue (ID 459586, Entry for Dr. Aeon's Third Challenge)
Death for Dollars! (ID 1050)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare (ID 1218)
Win the Past, Own the Future (ID 1429)
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
A: We feel that players will take that chance on the random roll tables for that chance at the reward they want. There will always be that temptation to roll on the Pool C rewards 12 times instead of buying that one shiny IO. If a player doesn't get what they want, they can post these items on the markets. Also consider that before only players running Task Forces and Strike Forces were contributing Pool C and D items to the market, now even solo/casual players will be able to do so.
[/ QUOTE ]
You guys seriously believe this? I have to question your understanding of human nature then.
[/ QUOTE ]
No offense, but I have to agree with Heartbreaker here about your staff psychologist. You guys need to get a second opinion. 
Nobody who's ever run a TF before is going to spend 20 merits on a random roll. We all know the odds of getting the drop that we want, and given human nature they're perceived as even worse than they actually are (murphy's law etc). With the current odds of getting something "good" from a random roll, people are going to go for the sure thing.
HOWEVER
[ QUOTE ]
It's an unfortunate fact that the VAST Majority of drops in Pool C arent worth anything near that.
[/ QUOTE ]
What remains to be seen is if, once the market dries up and many Pool C recipes have 0 for sale, will they still be worth so little? I think they're betting that the increased scarcity in Pool C from people hoarding merits will drive up the prices of the lesser-used ones and make the random roll a more attractive option.
People do use Trap of the Hunter, Pacing of the Turtle, and Sting of the Manticore (which is actually a pretty nice snipe set). The problem right now is that with so many random drops entering the market, the supply is much higher than the demand for them.
If nothing else it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Synapse, hi. Thanks again for taking the time to have this exchange with us on the merit system. Whether or not I agree with everything you've been laying out, I do appreciate that you are taking the time to do it.
One concern that I did not see addressed is the impact of having story arc merit awards go to the arc holder only. Since story arcs are going to be my primary source of merits, I obviously plan to be running as many as possible. I am concerned though that I will have to do so mostly solo. For example, today when teaming with my SG mates in RO I really pay no attention to whether I'm SK'ing up or running my arcs or any of that. I expect that to change once I13 goes live and if it changes for my SG mates as well that could make team formation harder.
So I'm curious, do you share the same concern or is the current assumption that most players will just view the story arc merits as a nice bonus, just as they view the existing arc bonuses? Have you given any more consideration to the possibility of providing the arc merits to all of the participants and not just to the arc holder? If you don't think that is workable I'd like to better understand why.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
People are saying that it's a reduction in rewards, because it is. Return the random roll as a choice to all TFs and watch people magically stop saying that.
[/ QUOTE ]It's only a reduction in rewards for Tarkoss, Katie, and Eden. All other non-Ouro TFs/SFs are worth at least the cost of a random roll...and in most cases, more. Thus, an increase in rewards.
If random rolls *were* for some reason returned, I can imagine it would be these three that they wouldn't be returned to.
[/ QUOTE ]
Not quite actually.
Ernesto Hess and the 3rd Villain Respec Trial are worth 15 a piece. (At the bottom of the screen, click Merit Rewards)
Deamus the Fallen - 50 DM/EA Brute - Lib
Dragos Bahtiam - 50 Fire/Ice Blaster - Lib
/facepalm - Apply Directly to the Forehead!
Formally Dragos_Bahtiam - Abbreviate to DSL - Warning, may contain sarcasm
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Shubbie
Im very good at taking a problem and making it worse.
|
[ QUOTE ]
Not quite actually.
Ernesto Hess and the 3rd Villain Respec Trial are worth 15 a piece. (At the bottom of the screen, click Merit Rewards)
[/ QUOTE ]Okay, then there are 5 total. That's still quite a minority that were reduced.
[ QUOTE ]
Synapse - Is the weighting of Pool C recipes ever going to be looked at to put into balance the count disperancy of high utility IO sets (Melee, AOE, PBAOE, Ranged, Defense) versus low utility IO sets (Snipe, Sleep, Confuse, Stun, Immobilize, Debuffing)? Right now in Pool C these are all weighted evenly with a much greater number of Low Utility sets than High Utility Sets in the pool. Power Counts below:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre> Power Type Hero Villain Total 45-50 45-50 Power
Powers Powers Powers Pool C % No. %
AOE 41 39 80 2 4.5% 8.9%
PBAOE 42 38 80 2 4.5% 8.9%
Melee 63 59 122 2 4.5% 13.5%
Ranged 43 56 99 2 4.5% 11.0%
Defense 38 41 79 2 4.5% 8.8%
Resist 39 38 77 2 4.5% 8.5%
Heal 36 33 69 2 4.5% 7.7%
Hold 40 25 65 2 4.5% 7.2%
Slow 27 19 46 2 4.5% 5.1%
Immob 21 17 38 2 4.5% 4.2%
Stun 19 16 35 2 4.5% 3.9%
Pet 9 26 35 2 4.5% 3.9%
Sleep 13 8 21 2 4.5% 2.3%
Snipe 11 8 19 4 9.1% 2.1%
Travel 7 7 14 4 9.1% 1.6%
Fear 7 7 14 2 4.5% 1.6%
Confuse 4 4 8 2 4.5% 0.9%
Total Powers 460 441 901 44 </pre><hr />
<snip Positron's Pool Weighting post>
By weighting the pool appropriately you can have people more satisfied with the random roll option.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, this would do a lot for making the Random Pool C option more desirable. I'd prefer condensing the power types like HOs do, but it's way too late for that now-- that was probably only a reasonable option in Issue 9 beta.
One could argue that those numbers aren't accurate, as while Snipes may make up 2.1% of the power choices, far less characters likely actually take them than have access to them, while the vast majority of characters take a Travel Power, but at least it's a starting point.
If datamining TF completion times can affect TF rewards, then maybe it's now arguable that it would be reasonable to have drop frequency affected by datamining recipe usage within the same drop pool and rarity.
Please try my custom mission arcs!
Legacy of a Rogue (ID 459586, Entry for Dr. Aeon's Third Challenge)
Death for Dollars! (ID 1050)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare (ID 1218)
Win the Past, Own the Future (ID 1429)
[ QUOTE ]
A: You can earn an infinite number of merits through Ouroboros by running your favorite story arcs over again. I don't suspect you'd be able to purchase all of those IOs by simply running through all the story arcs once. However, you might be able to spend some of those merits on random rolls and simply selling what you don't need on the market.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry, but saying Ouro is a good way to earn merits has been stupid from the beginning.
Unless you have time to run the arc in one sitting you are locked out of using that character for anything else unless you quit the Ouro 'TF'.
How is that different from not having time to run the regular TFs?
Missions need to include merit awards in some fashion. Either one per mission for every member of the team on completion or random merit drops included in the regular drop tables.
My Deviant Art Page
I know merits are only awarded to the owner of a story arc normally but are merits awarded to only the owner of a story arc done through ouroborus?
Alien 51 - Emp/Energy/Energy Defender
Average Bob - Rifle/Devices/Munitions Blaster
Fusion Avatar - Triform Warshade
Grumpy - Nec/Poison/Mu Mastermind
Metallic Guy - Kat/Inv/Weapons Scrapper
Post removed. - Everything I said had been said in the last couple of posts (that I hadn't read yet) before mine.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Hello again, Synapse here. I wanted to take a moment to answer a few more of your questions. I also wanted to address a few concerns I've heard in this thread repeatedly. I'd like to reiterate the fact that we have no intention of carelessly "nerfing" or "buffing" merit rewards. [u]Making any changes to the number of merits a task gives out will be done with very careful consideration, ample data and after exhausting our other options.[u]
[/ QUOTE ]
In light of the nerfing of the rewards of the KHTF, Cap SF and Eden Trial, how is this true?
The development team did not exhaust all its options here, instead nerfing the rewards rather than making the TFs longer. Your stated reason in the OP, is because you didn't have time to do it. However, you had time to create this merit system. You had time to change the reward screens. You had time to datamine. You had time to do a lot of things, but you CHOSE not to fix those things about the content you no longer deem worthy of a random roll.
If you're wondering why people are worried, consider this.
[/ QUOTE ]I can see why you are worried given their past track record on resolving issues. We still got missions that are bugged to this day even when we have sent bug reports on some stuff since like issue 6. So I dont see them fixing anything until about issue 20 or so. Good example is how long it took them to fix the LRSF first mission with the retarded tech. There is no reason this issue should have been broken for so long. It wasnt until we [censored] about having to soft load the first mission of the sf that it got fixed because they nerfed the softloading of tf/sfs. It should never have come to that.
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!
Post deleted by Niviene
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Not quite actually.
Ernesto Hess and the 3rd Villain Respec Trial are worth 15 a piece. (At the bottom of the screen, click Merit Rewards)
[/ QUOTE ]Okay, then there are 5 total. That's still quite a minority that were reduced.
[/ QUOTE ]
It's probably safe to assume the other 2 villain respecs are also 15, though they've not been tested yet.
and since trial rolls cost 30, the hero respecs got nerfed to less than the drop it used to give.
Unless you think the ability to convert a respec run into a Pool C is a buff - and I can't buy that since the pricing of the random rolls tells me a Pool D was considered a greater reward by the devs.
That's 10 nerfs. any more not listed?
and note that the ENTIRE SOURCE of Pool D gets dealt a blow from this change. The previous balance of 1 Respec = 1 Pool D simply does not exist anymore.
That is definitely something worth studying in the market - how will the new source of Pool D's from other Merit sources stack up against the new reduction of less than one Pool D per Respec run?
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Poster: MadScientist
Q: Have you considered simply adding 1 Merit per AV?
A: Yes, Archvillains and Monsters are just too easily farmed. There are missions where they are very easily ghosted to and defeated.
[/ QUOTE ]
And with Diminishing Returns I don't see a problem. First AV/HERO/GM 1 Merit, Second AV/HERO/GM 0.5 Rounded up to 1 Merit ... Third AV 0.25 Rounded down to 0.....
So someone can get 1-2 Merits in an afternoon, big deal. To prevent farming: Tie the Merit to the (Completion of the Mission + Defeat of the AV (AV Only, EB doesn't Count)) so that the mission cannot be outright farmed. Easy, and then it's not meaningless if someone gets a wild hair and decides to go Kill <insert Zone AV GM> or Whatever then Run a few missions out of their Patron Arc. They get at most a couple of merits for an afternoon's play. That sounds more than fair to me.
You could even make it Limit 1 only per 24 hours for a GM/HERO/AV, but if you did that, I'd make it 3 separate timers.
You CAN reward casual play without creating farming havens.
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't know about the AVs (but I solo alot, so I see less of them than many others), but I would love to see people get 1 merit for being involved in the takedown of a named GM (none of those guys on monster island and such, and probably not Sally either). It would provide a bit of much needed motivation for people to actually go out and take these things down. There's so many times that Lusca just sits there for days at a time.
"Hey, there's a giant monster threatening the bay!"
"Nah, I already got that badge..."
I could see putting a timer on it to prevent abuse if a GM just happens to keep respawning, but because of the scale I think a 6 hour per named GM would be sufficient. Even for those that do put a party together to run around hunting down GMs, the time spent doing that would definitely be less efficient than taking part in any TF or even story arc, but it would still inspire teams to form for just that purpose, which I think is a fitting purpose in the genre.
Dear NCsoft, if you go through with this shutdown you've guaranteed you'll not see another dime from me on any project you put out, ever.
http://xx-starhammer-xx.deviantart.com/
[ QUOTE ]
Q: Have you considered simply adding 1 Merit per AV?
A: Yes, Archvillains and Monsters are just too easily farmed. There are missions where they are very easily ghosted to and defeated.
[/ QUOTE ]
but haven't you already flagged certain AVs in the system as unfarmable? Doesn't that cover it?
and yes, you can farm Arcs repeatedly, but then you're mixing in non-AV missions to get up to the AVs.
even when "easily" defeated, would that be less than the benchmark of 5 minutes per merit (per non-farmable AV) when accounting for things like travel time?
[ QUOTE ]
Do you care about people who play the market as part of their fun in the game?
I hope not.
[/ QUOTE ]
You know, people assume I would be mad if the devs said they did not intend the market to be played as a game. I would not. But the market interface and system needs substantial changes if that is the case.
That's actually why I asked the question. Because where I point my feedback in the future is dependent on the answer. If the answer is that they want to encourage the "market PvP" then they need to encourage it. If the answer is no, then they need an overhaul of the system to make it a transparent, true consignment system.
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Poster: MadScientist
Q: Have you considered simply adding 1 Merit per AV?
A: Yes, Archvillains and Monsters are just too easily farmed. There are missions where they are very easily ghosted to and defeated.
[/ QUOTE ]
And with Diminishing Returns I don't see a problem. First AV/HERO/GM 1 Merit, Second AV/HERO/GM 0.5 Rounded up to 1 Merit ... Third AV 0.25 Rounded down to 0.....
So someone can get 1-2 Merits in an afternoon, big deal. To prevent farming: Tie the Merit to the (Completion of the Mission + Defeat of the AV (AV Only, EB doesn't Count)) so that the mission cannot be outright farmed. Easy, and then it's not meaningless if someone gets a wild hair and decides to go Kill <insert Zone AV GM> or Whatever then Run a few missions out of their Patron Arc. They get at most a couple of merits for an afternoon's play. That sounds more than fair to me.
You could even make it Limit 1 only per 24 hours for a GM/HERO/AV, but if you did that, I'd make it 3 separate timers.
You CAN reward casual play without creating farming havens.
[/ QUOTE ]
I would just say outrightly you cant earn more then 1 merit per AV per mission. If you think about the arcs that really concentrate on AVs like maria Jenkins, that a fricken hella long arc to begin with for the small reward for the arc completion. Figure 1 merit per av 1 time per mission raises the value of that arc and those like it to a more acceptable level for the effort. Not only that but would encourage people to join teams running these arcs that might not be sticking around for the whole arc to earn the reward.
[ QUOTE ]
Poster: MadScientist
Q: Have you considered simply adding 1 Merit per AV?
A: Yes, Archvillains and Monsters are just too easily farmed. There are missions where they are very easily ghosted to and defeated.
[/ QUOTE ]
What about adjust the reward of reward of the story arc and giving a team award of a merit to the team for defeating the AV?
You don't want merits to be farmed, that's fine. You've made them non-transferrable to prevent that. I could even see the risk of having people Ghost the AV mish to do it. The problem is weighed against casual teaming as in no one will want to bother doing insanely hard AV mishes when they can grind Freak Paper/Radio mishes all day.
"Steady as a mountain, attack like fire, still as a wood, swift as the wind.
In heaven and earth I alone am to be revered."
- Motto on the war banner of Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)
I think it could be data-mined to the point where the percentage of the exact powers taken could be used to balance the pool but that might be asking too much. If you just take the power distribution info by AT and a normal count of powers taken at the median level and at 50 you could weight the pool even better.
Another suggestion I would have would be to take some of the Low Utility Sets that have 2 IO recipes in the pool and reduce that to 1 recipe and put the other in Pool B.
Protector Server
Woeful Knight (BS/Regen/Body Scrapper)
Kevin Christian (MC/FF/Primal Controller)
SilverCybernaut (Eng/Dev/Munitions Blaster)
Apixie OhNo (Fire/Fire/Pyre Tanker)
Y'ru Glowen (Rad/Rad/Psy Defender)
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Unless it's changed and I missed the patch notes, GMs already give 2 Merits each.
[/ QUOTE ]
I must hve missed it.
That still leaves AVs and HEROES.
[/ QUOTE ]
Well, he did say they can't do that due to making them farmer bait. Rough translation anyway.
At the moment, I'm assuming they can't fraction merit rewards that are given on the spot just yet. They have the programing for Taskforce/Trials that will alter the end reward. It was kind of already there, so no big programing changes. No idea how other reward codes work but in the case of merits as programed for Giant Monsters, applying it to AV/Heroes and placeing a diminishing return on the reward to lessen the farming of them might not work without entirely new programing.
[/ QUOTE ]Personally I am not buying the whole bit on not making them farmable. The minute they created Ouroboros every single av became farmable. They could easily just do one thing hold all merits to the end of the arc or TF/SF and add the av merit bonus in, then its not quite merit farmable. They have the technology to do this, anyone remember when they nerfed the faultline AVs that gave SOs? They then changed it where you get 4 SOs instead of 3 but only after the mission was completed. They can do the samething with merits.
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!