Merits for Story Arcs

I have a concern here. One of CoX's strengths has always been the laid-backness towards teams. You dont need to plan raids, be a certain AT / sets. You can just log on, join a PuG and have some(normally) freindly fun.

If merits are going to be dishes out for completing story arcs, I can see this coming under severe strain. Either people will choose just to solo, or people will start arguing about whose story arc to do.

I know that technically you could all agree to do simu-runs of story arcs, but in practice even with a regular team this is difficult.

Personally, I would plead for these rewards to be removed. It potentially threatens one of CoX's strengths, for scant benefit.

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Personally I'd prefer to make merit rewards shared out in the team, and have rewards for each mission. But I'd much prefer to see all non-paper missions (not run to or hunts either) award a single merit with a bonus for story arcs.

Or make it possible to share arcs/contacts thus allowing everyone to gain bonuses from the same arc at the same time.

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Merit awards should be shared with the team. Or teaming will be even more hard then before. I like the idea of getting merrits for every non paper missions. Even if it is only a single one. Everything to make people stop doing only papers.

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I believe ouroboros story missions are also rewarded with merits? So the team can go there and do their thing together i asume?

But, teamwise, only giving the mission/story-owner merits is plain lame.

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50)Sinergy X/(50)Mika.
(50)MaceX/(50)Encore

Sign the petition, dont let CoH go down! SIGN!

Cant see a problem myself, if you dont like what the team's doing, leave it.

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Cant see a problem myself, if you dont like what the team's doing, leave it.

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Welcome to City of Solo Play.

CoX is until now been really good at encouraging people to play in teams, this change more than any other will reverse that ethic. While some people will be quite good at sharing out whose missions are done I'm betting most PuGs won't.

I don't want it exploitable allowing people to get easy merits by just doing some story arc missions. But at the moment it goes to far the other way. Especially as even if everyone in the same team has the same contact there is no garantee that they will get the same arc, or even get an arc at all.

All it will mean is that everyone who wants lost of merits will farm TFs.

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But Merits do not equal xp how are all these people soloing their way through the game gonna level as quickly? Patrol bonus? Rolling an easy to solo toon? but then this would become an argument about those features and ease of soloing not merits.

At the moment the person who owns the story arc gets a reward on completion, an SO and an XP/Inf bonus as well, now the SO has been practically useless for some time now but that's a tangible reward the rest of the team haven't been getting for an age. I believe that merits for arcs give this reward a much needed boost post i9 etc. It also allows people to gain merits who may not be able to run TF's as frequently as they like. Keep 'em I say

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Kneeling girls! Statues driving cars! What's going on? Ten years ago a man was arrested in the area for driving statues around in a car. Was it him?

@Ted Maul - The Echelon

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While some people will be quite good at sharing out whose missions are done I'm betting most PuGs won't.


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So as i just said leave it, and find a team more to your way of thinking, or start ya own.


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All it will mean is that everyone who wants lost of merits will farm TFs.

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And that changes from what happens now how?

That's all anyone who wants lots of recipes does at the moment.

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Everyone seems to be underestimating most people's desire to earn EXPEEZ. Quite a lot of non-forumites won't care overly much.

I can't foresee many casual PuGs getting all worked up over missing out on 2-3 Merits from the completion of an entire story arc, compared to X experience to the next level.

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Everyone seems to be underestimating most people's desire to earn EXPEEZ. Quite a lot of non-forumites won't care overly much.

I can't foresee many casual PuGs getting all worked up over missing out on 2-3 Merits from the completion of an entire story arc, compared to X experience to the next level.

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I doubt many forumites will give a monkeys about them either, unless of course they all suddenly become very recipe hungry, which of course they all go to great lengths to say they aint.

Me now i love a recipe, and will continue to farm TF's with all speed.

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Cant see a problem myself, if you dont like what the team's doing, leave it.

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Welcome to City of Solo Play.

CoX is until now been really good at encouraging people to play in teams, this change more than any other will reverse that ethic. While some people will be quite good at sharing out whose missions are done I'm betting most PuGs won't.


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You know... Many many moons ago, before the advent of the Inventions system, people said EXACTLY THE SAME THING about recipes. That it would kill team play and encourage people to be selfish. Well, you know what? That didn't actually happen, did it?

I do think it would be nice if everyone on the team got a merit for mission completion; but maybe you could have it as a mission parameter? You get a merit for completion, or you get the mission bonus XP...

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@FloatingFatMan

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Maybe that's something to be used as a parameter when Architect arrives.

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Proud Coleader of: Fuerza Letal (H), Liga de las Sombras (V), Legion del Fenix (H), Infernal Justice (H), and a happy member of GammaForce (H) and D.O.A. (V).

My alts: http://cit.cohtitan.com/profile/13494

I think that merits should be awarded to all players in a team. One merit per non newspaper/radio mission would solve the problem of the team leader doing just their own arcs or someone joining for a couple of missions then leaving the team.

I understand when people say that only the arc owner gets the xp reward and the SO but I've been in no end of pugs where the leader has ignored other peoples missions and just done their own and it can be quite irritating. It isn't so bad if you are doing something like the praetorian arc which is best done with a full team, but it is nice when you can get some of your other team mates missions completed as well.

Now there are certain ATs that can solo quite cheerfully, but other more team oriented ATs are going to be at a serious disadvantage if they are after merits. My empathy defender rarely did his own missions. I was always teamed with other people doing their arcs, having a blast and loving the buffing. I don't have that much time to do TFs/SFs regularly so I can see a similar empath reaching 50 with very few merits.

I like the idea of merits, but I think someone round the table has overcomplicated the system. If i was going to award them I would do it as follows.

1) 1 merit awarded per mission.
2) 1 merit per mission in arc as arc completion bonus.
3) 2 merits per EB defeated in mission.
4) 4 merits per AV defeated in mission.

I'd probably use that formula for TFs/SFs too with every team member getting number 2).

Trials like Eden i'd give 10 or 20 merits.

Giant monsters I'd possibly give 5 merits but as they are so easy to farm I'm not sure.

So thats my thoughts and ideas to simplify the system. I'm not saying it is a perfect system but it would make the awards a bit fairer.

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I haven't been on Test at all, due to my laptop throwing a hissy fit when it goes near it.
But ONLY giving the merits to the team leader? Thats just wrong. I don't see anyone being unhappy with being able to save for rare things like procs, LotG and suchlike, far from it. I know that I would like a chance at getting some decent rewards, rather than a bloomin Essence of Furies worth 600k and a mailaise uselessness from the ITF we did last night. The only good thing I did get was a lvl and a half, but I woulda *liked* to get a rare recipe that was useful/worth something.

/Signed to all on the team getting at least some Merits

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Out of interest, I wonder what will happen if you are on a team and do a mission that is the same as one you have?

Will it autocomplete yours AND give a merit to you as its yours too?

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Zhaan, Chakyra, Fiorina 161, Aeryn, Polly Nation, Dee Pression, Shazanne, Night Jester and too many more to mention.

Network Hell 47640
Valley of the Harpies 74519
Green and Pleasant Land 75966

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You know... Many many moons ago, before the advent of the Inventions system, people said EXACTLY THE SAME THING about recipes. That it would kill team play and encourage people to be selfish. Well, you know what? That didn't actually happen, did it?

I do think it would be nice if everyone on the team got a merit for mission completion; but maybe you could have it as a mission parameter? You get a merit for completion, or you get the mission bonus XP...

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When IOs came out the original plan was to give a drop for completion of story arc. That was changed to 10% chance of a drop at end of every mission. I think the reason was *precisly* this concern; there would be squabbling over who does the story arcs.

There really can be no doubt that story arc bonuses will in increase PuG squabbling and encourage soloing. THe only question is how much.

I am sure there are some solutions. There should be some way in which a solo toon can get the odd merit or three without teaming. E.g. halving the bonus but letting anyone on the final mission get the bonus. Making the merit bonus Ouroborous only.

I just think the system as it stands it throwing a barb into one standout strength of CoX. And its addressable.

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Cant see a problem myself, if you dont like what the team's doing, leave it.

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Welcome to City of Solo Play.

CoX is until now been really good at encouraging people to play in teams, this change more than any other will reverse that ethic. While some people will be quite good at sharing out whose missions are done I'm betting most PuGs won't.


[/ QUOTE ]

You know... Many many moons ago, before the advent of the Inventions system, people said EXACTLY THE SAME THING about recipes. That it would kill team play and encourage people to be selfish. Well, you know what? That didn't actually happen, did it?

I do think it would be nice if everyone on the team got a merit for mission completion; but maybe you could have it as a mission parameter? You get a merit for completion, or you get the mission bonus XP...

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To be honest, teaming has resented since invention system due to the poor team drop rate.-

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At the moment only the player whos story arc it is gets the reward (the enhancement table), all that its doing is changing the reward.
Before IOs came out no1 complained about the whole team NOT getting the SO reward.
This should in theory encourage people to start their own teams up to actually go through the content of the game instead of nonstop radio/paper mishs. Besides it'll take the player something like 7/8 arcs just to get a chance to roll a random recipe? May as well just do a quick tf if the player is that desperate for merits that they will moan about it.

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@Damz Find me on the global channel Union Chat. One of the best "chat channels" ingame!

I'd go with giving everyone on the team a merit. Even if it's just the one, cant see why they wouldn't do it, seeing as they already award everyone in the team for a TF.

Then again I think the Merits are going to be one of those things that a few people absolutely crave, but the vast majority of people will just be fine with. For some it will be a hassle to acquire them, and they'll stick to the market and the normal random drops that happen no matter what; plus there's the Chronologist Day job for logging out in Oroborous which will help.

I see it purely as a nifty new dynamic that will slot neatly into normal play.

Though it would be nice if everyone on a team got them :P

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I don't wanna save my soul now,
I just wanna lose control,
And even if it takes a lifetime, to learn:
I'll learn!

Wouldn't it make sense to look to the xp reward system for inspiration? Yes it has a few flaws, and gets exploited a bit, but whatever system you invent will inevitably have the same problems and for the large part, the xp reward system is very fair and it encourages teaming.

I.e. make merit rewards operate the same way as xp mission bonuses. Everyone gets some for mission completion, and the story arc owner gets a bonus at the end of the story arc. Note you might have to lower the value of merits for this to work properly, but that's not hard, you just increase the merit cost of everything.

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I know many people wont mind, but I suspect some will.

Perviously the relatively small xp bonus and an SO would be nothing to shout about.

However, 5 merits would count towards (say) 2.5% of a Miracle +Recovery Recipe. They go for about 50 million at bare minimum. 5 merits is thus around 1.25 million influence. Thats an awful lot more than the aproximate bonus of around 100k tops you get at the moment. And thats just considering level 50.

To my mind a reasonable solution would be 1 merit to every team member completing the last mission of the arc.

Ouroborous missions, keep the same system.

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Given how few merits you accumulate as you lvl I forsee the problem being that even getting to 50 wouldn't ensure you a top merit recipe.Silver and I have been running our test shield scrappers in a lvling pact duo we're up to lvl 18 and have only 11 merits. At that rate a casual type player who doesn't have time to do TFs may never accumulate enough merits for that 250 merit recipe.

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But one thing you forget is that the merit system is a complement to the current system not a replacement, so you can still get recipes from the AH etc.

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Zhaan, Chakyra, Fiorina 161, Aeryn, Polly Nation, Dee Pression, Shazanne, Night Jester and too many more to mention.

Network Hell 47640
Valley of the Harpies 74519
Green and Pleasant Land 75966

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I know many people wont mind, but I suspect some will.

Perviously the relatively small xp bonus and an SO would be nothing to shout about.

However, 5 merits would count towards (say) 2.5% of a Miracle +Recovery Recipe. They go for about 50 million at bare minimum. 5 merits is thus around 1.25 million influence. Thats an awful lot more than the aproximate bonus of around 100k tops you get at the moment. And thats just considering level 50.

To my mind a reasonable solution would be 1 merit to every team member completing the last mission of the arc.

Ouroborous missions, keep the same system.

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^ This
Not getting an SO reward is no huge deal, seeing as you afford them in forkfulls by the time you hit fifty.

Saying this system is complimentary to the AH/BM only really works if this deals a KO to the stupidly high prices on Procs and globals. 11 mil, 20mil, 50mil...those just aren't options for a lot of people, and I just hope that the Merit system somehow helps that, and doesnt just make it a whole lot worse...

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Saying this system is complimentary to the AH/BM only really works if this deals a KO to the stupidly high prices on Procs and globals. 11 mil, 20mil, 50mil...those just aren't options for a lot of people, and I just hope that the Merit system somehow helps that, and doesnt just make it a whole lot worse...

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Hopefully it will, though purples will remain really high, which is fair enough, but the drop rates are sooooo rare.

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Zhaan, Chakyra, Fiorina 161, Aeryn, Polly Nation, Dee Pression, Shazanne, Night Jester and too many more to mention.

Network Hell 47640
Valley of the Harpies 74519
Green and Pleasant Land 75966