Live Feedback: Issue 13 : Merit Reward System
By
1VB_FIST,
Posted on: 2008-12-11 18:56 in Developers' Corner
Objective Feedback:
IOs from the new sets in the TF Drop Pools are almost non-existant on the market.
Subjective analysis about that:
This indicates a serious lack of TF Drop Pool supply in general. Since merits are the only source of said recipes, it seems the system is not producing enough drops that make it to the Market.
This is probably true over all Pool C recipes, not just the new sets. The new sets are simply a lot easier to notice, and do not have the possibility that market activity may be using pre-existing Pool C's instead of new drops. I expect all Pool C recipes will be harder to find on the market now.
IMHO, TFs need to return to dropping random recipes. Merits should be applied on top of TF reward drops, so that people will over time get additional recipes, such as to offset bad luck on TF drops. (perhaps awarding fewer merits than currently, it doesn't have to directly merge the 2 amounts.) This will retain the pre-I13 supply of Pool Cs, and perhaps even increase the amount of supply of that pool on the market.
I have to say that even our group that used to be really active has totally fallen apart. We used to run TF's almost every weekend and now we just can't seem to get it together. I have spent the better part of the last 2 days just trying to get the candy canes I need to buy a few sets of the Universal travel set from winter as it seems this will be th only opportunity to get it.
Yes I'm logging in my toons and getting winter badges but thats about it. My wife and I used to spend about 20 hours a week on and now we are on less that 5 hours and when we are on we spend it all solo as we are just trying to finish arcs and get the merits. This is really sad 
. Please give us our fun back!
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Subjective:
Merits feel like a grind.
Let me emphasize that, A GRIND.
Before Issue 13, even before it went live, when the Merit System was revealed for what it was, my interest in playing the game dwindled. I lost heart.
Under the old system: Finish Task Force: Oooh, I get a shiny! Maybe it would be something good or useful to that character or that could be shared, or maybe it wouldnt, but there was instant gratification to this.
Under the new system: Finish Task Force: Oh, gee, um, merits. Kind of dry, tastes like cardboard. Gee, how many more TFs do I have to do to get my shiny? No instant gratification. Even if the task force was long enough to meet the 20 merit goal of being worthy of a random roll, the player still has to make a trip to turn them in. Theres no excitement to this.
I understand the goals, both stated and unstated, behind the Merit System. I like the OPTION to save merits to purchase a desired item, to no longer be reliant on market flippers.
What I dont like is that the zest of doing Task Forces is gone. The excitement of a reward at the end is gone. Comparing and trading rewards with your teammates is gone. I think you have underestimated the importance of this.
My experience:
I just dont feel like doing Task Forces anymore, where I used to do 5 or 6 a week. Why bother? Where I had a chance at the end of each for something great (or maybe useful to my SG or vendor fodder) I now can save up box tops for the eventual day I can buy ONE enhancement. Just ONE. Or I can invest considerably more time than I used to have to in order to obtain a random roll that I have to visit a vendor to get, also not inspiring.
I also dont like that 10 or so of the people I did Task Forces with regularly have quit the game. If I actually wanted to Task Force, most of the people I did so with on my main server Liberty are gone. The only suggestion I have for that is to have another Reactivation Weekend soon and hope some of them come back.
I haven't given up on this game, I still play, I still love my friends and family whom I play with here. I have played COH/V for 4 1/2 years and I very much disagree with the attitude that "people that leave are accounts you would have lost anyway". That is simply not true.
Look at my signature. Its there for a reason. I bought a Lifetime Account on LOTRO a month ago. Issue 13 swept me off to Middle Earth. I play both games now.
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Nailed it.
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This!
Also, it's ridiculously skewed towards Heroes, ridiculously. Villains need some VILLAIN ONLY SFs, a couple of long ones. We need the equivalent of a Villain Posi and a Villain Dr Q (except, not boring).
I'm only ladylike when compared to my sister.
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Subjective Feedback: How it Feels? It feels really disheartening and discouraging, actually. I feel as if I have little to no chance to ever gain any of the more desirable inventions. It feels as if I've been punished for actually playing the content previously. It honestly feels as if the only factor that was considered was "This Group of People are getting these recipes too Fast!", and instead of Fixing the Problem, you Butchered the system and put in a new one, with limits designed to specifically affect those individuals that were 'Too Fast', without a thought in the world about how it would change things for the Casual Player.
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Also nailed it. This is also the same thing they did with PvP. Instead of curing the disease, they murder the patient with an axe.
I used to absolutely love this game, but after I13, I am just wondering what the [censored] happened to our devs. Bring them back, please.
I'm only ladylike when compared to my sister.
I used to run TF's to earn a recipe that I could sell and fund all the IO's for my toons. That's gone and people probably won't buy them from WW now.
ITF takes about 2.5 hours. I can solo arcs in OB for 2.5 hours and gain way more than 25 merits. Dr Q is 90 merits and takes a REALLY long time. I can get 90 merits from Arcs in less time than it takes to do Dr Q. I'll run a TF if a friend wants me to but they are not important.
Merits have cut out the whole need to build a team saving tons of time and irritation. I no longer have to teach noobs how to play, I won't have to wait for a recipe to sell, I don't have to spend hours on a mind numbing ancient TF from beta.
I am running as many arcs as I can before the devs decide that OB is preventing me from "enjoying" playing the game their way and take the merits out of OB. Wouldn't want me to miss out on all that Positron and Dr Q action. For my own good really I suppose. Shouldn't expect to buy a game and play it my own way, silly notion that.
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I used to absolutely love this game, but after I13, I am just wondering what the [censored] happened to our devs. Bring them back, please.
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Exactly. I left FFXI because that game seriously sucked and the devs wouldn't listen and couldnt' really be reached. I came back here specifically because I felt the devs listened and cared. I actually had friends move to this game when I told them that the devs read and acted on our concerns. Well I guess that went out the window.
I don't like the idea that we all had concerns and they didn't care.
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For the first time ever... I have slowed down.
I made a new hero and a new villain.
I am trying to get as many Merits as possible, while at the same time doing all the TF/SF and doing all of the badge contact story arcs.
This may sound fine and good to some of you, but this is kinda sucky for me. But its one of my new personal goals. I have to TURN OFF my exp like every level now. So I dont out level anything.
The thing I hate the most is doing contacts and getting no merits for sludging through it. Only to unlock the contact I actually wanted/needed to do.
I really hope you guys find a way to give merits for every single contact in the game. A contact like Crimson, should give like 50 Merits, if you do the whole arc. A contact like the "TV" should give 50 Merits as well, lol it would encourage people to stop farming that 1 mission... and play through the game etc.
I have now encountered several Contacts and did all their missions that dont give merits. Please change this.
[/ QUOTE ]Here is my advice to you Perfect Pain. Look up all the contacts on City of Data and Paragon Wiki. Plan your missions that way. Its kind of easy to avoid some of those mission you dont want by going to another contact. Alot of those missions are shared on heroside so all you have to do is get that hunt mission or out of the way mission from another contact and then go to the contact you really want to do. Then just drop the mission from the contact you dont want. Also for the turning off xp thing I only do it on the last bubble of a lvl that ends in 4 or 9 so that I can still keep getting the missions from contacts. Villainside its much easier to get around this but we still have to waste time on mayhems to unlock some of the contacts. Also keep in mind some contact villainside are only unlockable if you have certain badges so make sure you are getting those too so you get maximum payout.
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!!!!
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Objective Feedback:
IOs from the new sets in the TF Drop Pools are almost non-existant on the market.
Subjective analysis about that:
This indicates a serious lack of TF Drop Pool supply in general. Since merits are the only source of said recipes, it seems the system is not producing enough drops that make it to the Market.
This is probably true over all Pool C recipes, not just the new sets. The new sets are simply a lot easier to notice, and do not have the possibility that market activity may be using pre-existing Pool C's instead of new drops. I expect all Pool C recipes will be harder to find on the market now.
IMHO, TFs need to return to dropping random recipes. Merits should be applied on top of TF reward drops, so that people will over time get additional recipes, such as to offset bad luck on TF drops. (perhaps awarding fewer merits than currently, it doesn't have to directly merge the 2 amounts.) This will retain the pre-I13 supply of Pool Cs, and perhaps even increase the amount of supply of that pool on the market.
[/ QUOTE ]No thanks I want to keep my merits for tfs. No sense in decreasing my merits since I know I will be getting garbage random drops anyways in pool C. I would rather have my full 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!!!!
What EvilGeko has to say pretty much said what I wanted too, only better.
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# The 24 hour timer on TF, Trial, etc. - I understand the reason for it. You obviously don't want people doing the same thing every day, farmer or no. You apparently want people to vary up their content. Understandable, but if this is what you're going to do, then I would suggest a UI improvement. Other games (which have even more draconian lockout timers) give you an indication that you're locked out of a particular instance and for how long. We need that here. Just some UI indication of what's going on.
# Pool C and D - There is no longer anything other than an artificial differentiation among these pools. Trials and TFs both give merits. It is confusing for people who were not frequent market watchers to even know what is in each pool. To correct this I would suggest that you:
1) Create one random drop pool that cost 20 merits to roll. Yes, this screws people on Pool D, see below.
2) Add information to the Merit vendors about what recipes are in the random pool.
# SOs and Common IOs - I really don't see why you're charging so much for SOs., but 8/12 merits is literally criminal. That's not subjective. The in game value of these recipes is very low compared to the value of merits.
It appears that you are pricing these to be consistent with the old ability to get a SO from a TF or Trial, but that was never a good deal.
# Supply issues - It's already starting, but even though more people that I would have expected are taking the random roll, the supply is starting to dry up. To correct this I would suggest adding Pool C and D to the enemy drop tables as a separate pool (like the costume drops). Since costumes only drop off minions, you might consider having these recipes only drop from Lts. or above. This would increase supply and insure that the market remains an alternative for those who don't want to have to use merits for everything.
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Steele_Magnolia pretty much said how I feel, I just tweaked it to my personal feelings:
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Subjective:
Merits feel like a grind.
Let me emphasize that, A GRIND.
Under the old system: Finish Task Force: Oooh, I get a shiny! Maybe it would be something good or useful to that character or that could be shared, or maybe it wouldnt, but there was instant gratification to this.
Under the new system: Finish Task Force: Oh, gee, um, merits...Yay!? Um, so, how many more TFs do I have to do to get my shiny? No instant gratification. Even if the task force was long enough to meet the 20 merit goal of being worthy of a random roll, the player still has to make a trip to turn them in. Theres no excitement to this.
I understand the goals, both stated and unstated, behind the Merit System. I like the OPTION to save merits to purchase a desired item, to no longer be reliant on market flippers.
The excitement of a reward at the end is gone. Comparing and trading rewards with your teammates is gone. I think you have underestimated the importance of this.
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The system is also skewed heavily in favor of Heroes.
I realize this system is in it's infancy yet, but I have noticed a drop off of Villian side teaming, and this is on one of the heavier populated servers. I play Villians 90% of the time and hop onto my Heroes when friends want to play theirs.
I would love it if we had the option to choose from the appropriate IO pool or Merits at the end of a Strike Force/ Task Force. Granted, we may not get what we wanted or could use, but that's the chance we take with lady luck.
This has been a very informative thread and a lot of good points have been raised here. I play City of Heroes too and I see a lot of room for growth and improvement in the Merit system. I wanted to let you all know that we are listening even if we're not always posting. I plan on making some tweaks to the system to make Merits, as a whole, more approachable and enjoyable for everyone, though changes take time. Keep the feedback coming; the more constructive, the better. I'd appreciate feedback using the Objective/Subjective format detailed in Ex Libris' original post. We're listening and will take it into consideration in future updates.
Thanks,
Synapse
First post after a redname! Woot!
That said, while I'm enjoying many aspects of the merit system, it makes me regret my and my hubby's altaholism. A bunch of merits spread over 12 different toons, that would add up to something, but in turn currently gets us nothing = sad faces.
Oh, and lets teach contacts to always give their arc in order and make it easier for anyone on the team to "step into" a contact with an eligible teamate so that they can get the merits to. This is an MMO, not solo-for-profit.
I'd like to see storyarcs bumped up by about 1-2 merits per arc, particularly those with major named kills, like killing the sea witch in lorenzo's arc in sharkhead. I'd like to see GMs bumped up another two to three merits. I'm sad for what the merit changes will bring to ITF when its been datamined from all the speed runners. I wish villains had a few more SF options as I go through several of them regularly and pickings are slim.
Just my 2.5 cents, adjusted for inflation.
Thank you, Synapse.
*Edit* You beat me to it!!!!!! GRRRRRR!!!!
Subjectively, Merits have indeed sapped the fun out of the game for me. Truthfully, I haven't even begun earning them because soloing my Arch Blaster and my Khelds just plain isn't fun. I've been running PUGs/Radios/Papers and getting 0 merits for them.
TFs are a bore without the random recipe roll. Posi is STILL too torturous to run, Dr Q. even more so.
I haven't left, and don't plan to, but I echo the "grindy" sentiments mentioned in this thread.
If merits won't be rolled back or made an addition to the reward table, find a way for a TEAM to earn Merits other than running TFs.
Objective Opinion: When rolling for random recipes, you cannot fine-tune the result level, only in level ranges.
Subjective Opinion: The ability to do just that was one of the things I looked to most in I13. I'm sad you can't do that, and am forced to roll TF farming characters in the levels where I want recipes from.
What shall claim a Sky Kings' Ransom?
PPD & Resistance Epic Archetypes
[u]Objective[u]
- With the Merit system as it stands, it is no longer possible to get SO enhancements at an early level from doing the Positron Task Force.
- Many low-level recipes have outrageous costs in Merits. These recipes are not the ones that high-level players would be buying for use at high levels - so why are there recipes that cost 150+ merits for a low-level recipe?
- No Trials give enough merits for a Trial recipe roll. That is odd.
[u]Subjective[u]
- It is much easier to obtain some rare recipes such as the Miracle: +Recovery and Luck of the Gambler: 7.5% recharge.
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Objective Feedback:
IOs from the new sets in the TF Drop Pools are almost non-existant on the market.
Subjective analysis about that:
This indicates a serious lack of TF Drop Pool supply in general. Since merits are the only source of said recipes, it seems the system is not producing enough drops that make it to the Market.
This is probably true over all Pool C recipes, not just the new sets. The new sets are simply a lot easier to notice, and do not have the possibility that market activity may be using pre-existing Pool C's instead of new drops. I expect all Pool C recipes will be harder to find on the market now.
IMHO, TFs need to return to dropping random recipes. Merits should be applied on top of TF reward drops, so that people will over time get additional recipes, such as to offset bad luck on TF drops. (perhaps awarding fewer merits than currently, it doesn't have to directly merge the 2 amounts.) This will retain the pre-I13 supply of Pool Cs, and perhaps even increase the amount of supply of that pool on the market.
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Bingo, this says a lot of what I wanted to say. I've been looking for the low level accurate defence debuff set proc. It's not an uber IO, just a "chance of damage" but it's 200 merits or more. Less than 10 have been sold excluding level 30s, where 5 or more have sold, so don't know how many have dropped.
Suggestion - modify the merit awards to give say a random drop + 40 merits from posi, 7 merits from Katie, 2 drops +60 from Dr Q etc.
It's true. This game is NOT rocket surgery. - BillZBubba
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[u]Objective[u]
- With the Merit system as it stands, it is no longer possible to get SO enhancements at an early level from doing the Positron Task Force.
- Many low-level recipes have outrageous costs in Merits. These recipes are not the ones that high-level players would be buying for use at high levels - so why are there recipes that cost 150+ merits for a low-level recipe?
- No Trials give enough merits for a Trial recipe roll. That is odd.
[u]Subjective[u]
- It is much easier to obtain some rare recipes such as the Miracle: +Recovery and Luck of the Gambler: 7.5% recharge.
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Yes, I think they might as well stop calling it the trial recipe pool due to no trial giving enough merits to reward a roll. Actually, they should introduce *more* "trial" pool like choices. E.g. The Defense Pool that drops only healing, def buff, or resistance sets. I think charging 35 would be fair for those as they are likely to be super high quality. (The mez pool, probably should be back at 25 though)
I think they need to continue to make sure that the majority of TF's give at least 20 merits so that they are worth at least a random roll, and only adjust the merits of the outliers to bring rewards up or down as appropriate. Actually, I think they should forget about precise timings and just make a value judgment as to whether it is worth a roll or not, and if it is if it is worth bonuses due to extreme length/difficulty.
To be honest, there is a world of difference between running STF/RSF with SO's and fully decked out. They *need* to take distinctions like that into account as well, instead of punishing the lower tier people due to the higher people basically slamming through content like it was nothing.
Also, this game is not WoW which consists of continually grinding content for exactly 1 character. Merits need to either be tied to an account, or at least tradeable.
I understand that it's a design decision, and there are other games that this exact same system (WoW has had merit equivalent rewards for a long while now) and it works very well for them, but COX is vastly different in that it rewards extreme altism and this system is very, very unfriendly to that.
(BTW, I'll come back to edit this later, but I'm posting buzzed right now and I know editing things will continue to make this post worse 
)
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Objective Feedback:
IOs from the new sets in the TF Drop Pools are almost non-existant on the market.
Subjective analysis about that:
This indicates a serious lack of TF Drop Pool supply in general. Since merits are the only source of said recipes, it seems the system is not producing enough drops that make it to the Market.
This is probably true over all Pool C recipes, not just the new sets. The new sets are simply a lot easier to notice, and do not have the possibility that market activity may be using pre-existing Pool C's instead of new drops. I expect all Pool C recipes will be harder to find on the market now.
IMHO, TFs need to return to dropping random recipes. Merits should be applied on top of TF reward drops, so that people will over time get additional recipes, such as to offset bad luck on TF drops. (perhaps awarding fewer merits than currently, it doesn't have to directly merge the 2 amounts.) This will retain the pre-I13 supply of Pool Cs, and perhaps even increase the amount of supply of that pool on the market.
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Bingo, this says a lot of what I wanted to say. I've been looking for the low level accurate defence debuff set proc. It's not an uber IO, just a "chance of damage" but it's 200 merits or more. Less than 10 have been sold excluding level 30s, where 5 or more have sold, so don't know how many have dropped.
Suggestion - modify the merit awards to give say a random drop + 40 merits from posi, 7 merits from Katie, 2 drops +60 from Dr Q etc.
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I really like this idea. Big thumbs up. It does two things, continues giving variable rate merits that allows the devs to continue to tweak rewards, and B) *forces* random drops so that the market will continue to be fed.
The bad side, is that it still continues the idea that pool C recipes have to be slown down by 300% or so.
Subjective Feedback: I am honestly confused why any TF/Trial is lower then 20 merits. I understand that you wanted to curtail the speed runs (particularly of KHTF, Eden, and Cap). But, with the creation of the merit system in combination DR of those merits setting them below one random roll was overkill. In my view, 1 roll should have been the baseline and give incentive to run the others by granting more merits for them.
Even if someone runs the same TF over and over, they would take around the same time or longer (especially the more they run them) to get another roll then doing another TF still achieving your objective.
Take 30 minute Edens as an example (rounding up when needed):
1) 20 merits
2) 10 merits
3) 5 merits
4) 3 merits
5) 2 merits
------------------- > Second roll (2 1/2 hours later. This is a bit under the 1 per 15 minute goal by 6 merits)
6) 1 merit ... ad infinitum
------------------- > Third roll (10 hours later. Way under the 1 per 15 minute goal by design)
And if that still is too much of a reward. Round down:
1) 20 merits
2) 10 merits
3) 5 merits
4) 2 merits
5) 1 merits
6) 1 merits
7) 1 merits
------------------- > Second roll (3 1/2 hours later)
I also agree the timer should be 20 hours instead of 24 for the reasons given above. Most play about the same time when they can.
--Rad
Edit: correcting maths.
Edit2: added rounding down example.
/whereami:
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This has been a very informative thread and a lot of good points have been raised here. I play City of Heroes too and I see a lot of room for growth and improvement in the Merit system. I wanted to let you all know that we are listening even if we're not always posting. I plan on making some tweaks to the system to make Merits, as a whole, more approachable and enjoyable for everyone, though changes take time. Keep the feedback coming; the more constructive, the better. I'd appreciate feedback using the Objective/Subjective format detailed in Ex Libris' original post. We're listening and will take it into consideration in future updates.
Thanks,
Synapse
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It is not just the Merit System, all drops have been decreased by a factor of 10. Did the Augustine TF last night, got 4 basic recipes, a stupify, and a few pieces of common salvage. That's how its gone since I13 went live. At this moment, I think the merit/reward system is broken, and, would like to go back to the I12 system.
As for purple IOs I understand they would cost way too much merits to add to the merits vender's. How about a random roll for a purple IO. It would cost less and if we don't get what we want we can sell it for enough inf to help get what we want.
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
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Under the old system: Finish Task Force: Oooh, I get a shiny!
vs.
Under the new system: Finish Task Force: Oh, gee, um, merits. Kind of dry, tastes like cardboard. Gee, how many more TFs do I have to do to get my shiny?
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I think the simple solution for this is, for those TFs/SFs/trials deemed to have suffient effort vs. value, add the option for a random recipe to the reward screen which also includes merits.
I suspect that many people who do not use the forum are somewhat puzzled by the whole "merits" thing. At least with inventions there was the intro story arc to get people up to speed.
Back to the actaul format of the thread:
Objective
<ul type="square">[*] Provides a way to get specific recipes rather than hoping for a random roll. The random roll, given that all the recipes had equal weight, resulted in many, many recipe drops that were unusable by the receiver and by most of the other players as well (snipes, slows, confuses, etc.)[*] Provides a way to get a recipe that is outside of the normal drop range for a character. I have a few alts that lived at level 35 because they had the chance of getting a Miracle unique as a drop, while my primary character is level 50 and would never see them outside of the market. Even this was not ideal as if I wanted to outfit a character with a set of level 25 miracles (not just the unique), I had a long process of trying to get all the recipes/IOs needed.[/list]
Subjective
<ul type="square">[*] I've lost most of my ability to do task forces and I miss this alot. Task forces are THE teaming environment. Pick up groups for missions are OK but lack the commitment and comeraderie.
I can't commit more than one continuous hour to the game; I have too many other things I have to do. Doing the the Katie TFs is now passe because of the lack of a good reward, but it was the only TF I could do that I was sure could recruited and completed in a timeframe I could work with.
[*] Merits are a bit demotivating for me because I know it is going to be forever before I can do something meaningful with them. Because I don't do the big-ticket tasks, it means I earn them in 2s and 5s and getting anything cool seems a LONG way off.
[*] As mentioned by others, I think the integration of merit vendors in the game is very non-immersive. If it's supposed to be a store, just make it a store, but I'd rather have seen something that was tied to the universities, or city hall, or some other infrastructural part of Paragon and the Rogue Isles.[/list]
Z
"I don't have an angel and a devil on my shoulder, I have Rocky and Bullwinkle." - Lore Sj�berg
Objective:
There is no way to know officially what pool a recipe is in. Sure there are player made guides and such but sometimes those have errors or they are incomplete. So how is it fair to expect someone to do a random roll but not know what exactly is in the pool that they are rolling for. There needs to be way to select the recipe level on a random roll. Currently the way the system works it forces lowbies to wait till they are 50 to cash in on random rolls because they want the highest level of the recipe. Likewise there is no way for a level 50 to make the recipes lower unless they outright purchase them for the exact level costing tons of merits. There should be a random roll for pool A and B as well but for fewer merits than the tf/trial rolls.
Subjective:
As the others have said before me its like the merit amounts were slanted to give heroes the advantage. In many cases where the mission setup for the arc is similar the hero would still come out ahead despite having an easier time with their missions in the arc. Task Forces Vs Strike Forces its the same thing. The statesman TF is way easier with a balanced team then say the LRSF with a balanced team. I know the devs had done their so called datamining but did they look at a few facts. Initially folks got so good at the LRSF because building a balanced team made it harder versus just going with several */rad corrupters and a single stone brute. If they did the dataming based on just balanced teams they would see where the disconnect here is. The statesman tf was designed so that having a balanced team made it easier where as the LRSF was no where close to that. Please keep that in mind when placing merits on future content. Hamidon is another example where there is a disconnect. Despite villains having their "empathy" powerset now they still do not have the tools within the powerset to make the raids easier because they dont get recovery aura. From what I seen players end up having to go to pvp zones to get warburg buffs to make up for what they should have gotten in their powerset. That extra setup time of having to go get the nukes isnt even taken into consideration. Villainside hami should give slightly more merits due 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!!!!
Objectively...
I'd like Merits to arrive on my Global as a single reward.
If narrowed, on a server/blue vs.. redside as needed.
Beyond that, this system is great for those who play one toon. If you are an alt-a-holic, it makes one throw your arms up and ask why to bother, imho.
Objective: The devs feel that the time it took to get a pool c or d was too fast, as folks were running katie and cap over and over. If that's the case then, then those tfs must be made longer so that all tfs always give you at least 20 merits. If that can't be done quickly, then simply strip both of these rewards (and instead give a different reward for both) until both can be made longer, then make it so that every tf (including the newly lengthened katie and cap) are eqaual to 20 merits. Same idea for Speeden and other trials.
Subjective: NO TF should EVER give less than a random tf roll's amount of merits. NO Trial should EVER give less than a trail roll's worth of merits.
I get what the devs are thinking of, but it can be tweaked so that its not so grindy for some. (People with no time to do tfs, who were using the markets as a way to make up for this lack of time).
I also agree with EvilGeko's idea. But I would refine it as such: Combine pool c and d into a new pool e, f, or whatever letter that's next and let EBs and AVs have the chance of dropping them upon their defeat AND the mission's overall complete. (meaning you MUST complete the mission to get that drop chance from the EB or AV that was in it). This prevents the farming that the devs were afraid in the initial run of the missions those are in. and probably much more palatable than sticking it on lts and regular bosses. (much more palatable for the anti-farmers among the dev team, or upper management team. don't mean that to be insulting btw, just stating what I believe is the mixed view about farming overall at NCSOFT).
If folks want to flashback to them I don't think the devs have a problem with that as you can already flashback to those arcs anyway.
NO ARC should give less than 5 merits. Period.
EDIT: Create an sg base item, pocket d item (for RP purposes make it a Went's circular/Bm underground newsletter), and city hall/mercy island item that anyone can access at any time that shows what EXACTLY is in each pool. With the real numbers path you are start it makes no logical sense to make finding out what's in each pool difficult. You shouldn't have to go to a guide outside the game to know. We are not talking about the drop rates here, we are talking about what is in each pool EXACTLY.
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
For the first time ever... I have slowed down.
I made a new hero and a new villain.
I am trying to get as many Merits as possible, while at the same time doing all the TF/SF and doing all of the badge contact story arcs.
This may sound fine and good to some of you, but this is kinda sucky for me. But its one of my new personal goals. I have to TURN OFF my exp like every level now. So I dont out level anything.
The thing I hate the most is doing contacts and getting no merits for sludging through it. Only to unlock the contact I actually wanted/needed to do.
I really hope you guys find a way to give merits for every single contact in the game. A contact like Crimson, should give like 50 Merits, if you do the whole arc. A contact like the "TV" should give 50 Merits as well, lol it would encourage people to stop farming that 1 mission... and play through the game etc.
I have now encountered several Contacts and did all their missions that dont give merits. Please change this.