Merit changes NOT based on average times

Singstar how can you accuse me of trying to start i fight when you cant leave me to my oppinion?
i feel like saying a lot of things to you right now (most of them could get me banned from these boards) because ive never meet someone with as thick a skull as you have but you probably wouldnt understand so i'll just leave the word to Dr. Cox

now please understand that i will never agree with your suggestion!

JB out!

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/un-signed
i do not agree with the OP.
Vet players has and will always get faster/better rewards than non-vets.
Your suggestions does not change anything at all.
I'd rather have rewards based on how good the players are than how good the devs + friends are.

on another note:
starting your suggestion post with...
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Ok, I'm slightly annoyed now, no... I'm really annoyed!

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kinda makes the rest seem "bla blabla blabla blaBLAAAA!!!"
not a good way to make suggestions if you want the devs to read this


JB out!

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I don't like cars that are green.

Another reply that makes no sense.

Whether or not you like how I said it is besides the point.

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[ QUOTE ]
Singstar how can you accuse me of trying to start i fight when you cant leave me to my oppinion?
i feel like saying a lot of things to you right now (most of them could get me banned from these boards) because ive never meet someone with as thick a skull as you have but you probably wouldnt understand so i'll just leave the word to Dr. Cox

now please understand that i will never agree with your suggestion!

JB out!

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You're sliding into the pool of unending insults. Two wrongs doesn't, etc etc.

OT

I think Villain SF's in general need a look at and some loving. Also, personally, I'm sick and tired of the Devs penalising people that are casual gamers over the '1337' breed who can speedrun things. Putting rewards on a timer of any sort is, IMO, asking for trouble.

All this messing around with rewards is getting to be a headache. Either the Devs want rewards to be easy to obtain, or hard to obtain. The constantly shifting middle ground is doing no one, least of all the players, any favours.

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I too personally would prefer a reward-based-on-difficulty system. RSF and STF are hard and should give more merits. Yes, you can make them easier with vengeance, shivans etc but that would take time (get shivans, nukes etc) and "special builds" (vengance etc).

I don't think it's wrong to datamine and look at the times, but if the devs ONLY look at the average times (and it seems like that is in fact what they've done) it's a problem.

I can agree that, for example, positron could be worth more merits since it is a low level TF and some people might actually play it at those levels for xp etc. Having some 49's in an ITF is not a problem, having some lower levels in a low level TF is.

Of course I might actually be wrong, the devs might have taken a lot into consideration, but it still ended up being imbalanced. One thing to take into account is the fact that having a villain side is valuable to the game and while the hero side is obviously more important, givin' some luvin' feeeelin' to the Reds could be a good long-term strategy. (Of course, I'd still rather see more content, than more merits. I don't really need merits at the moment anyway).

Let's just say, I'm curious for the next update to the merits.

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I think the did say they havd used a difficulty based multiplier when calculating the merit reward (do we still care about merits now we can get those enhancements so easily with tickets?)

Anyway, villains have a new SF on test today, and it's rewards aren't based on avarage times (because there aren't any yet)!

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I really should do something about this signature.

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I can agree that, for example, positron could be worth more merits since it is a low level TF and some people might actually play it at those levels for xp etc. Having some 49's in an ITF is not a problem, having some lower levels in a low level TF is.


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Just a minor point, but lower levels aren't necessarily a problem for the lower CoH TFs. As the level ranges are so small and the characters can generally level pretty quickly. The TF Omega challenge showed that teams full of characters starting a TF at the bottom of the level range can still put up some excellent fast times.

The biggest issue with some of the early TFs is more an issue of them being many people's first experience of TFs when they may still be reasonably new to the game or at least new to the character. It's more a problem of possible player inexperience rather than character inexperience/low-level.

I've done TFC on many characters now - and often run Posi at the level for xp. You certainly don't need an uber-team of seasoned pros to do good times.

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By my mohawk shall ye know me!
my toons
Funny: Ee-Ai-Ee-Ai-Oh! #3662 * The foul-mouthed Handyman! #1076 * City of Norms #132944
Serious: To Save A Single World (#83744) * Marketing Opportunity (#83747)

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There are several factors that "ruined" the datamining in favour of heroes:
- Many TFs being longer than SFs means that teams have the chance to really rack up some time until completion with players getting tired and more breaks for all kinds of purposes with the timer running, so that TFs give a few more merits per actual content.
- With blue-side being closer to "traditional" MMORPG playstyle with tank-healer-damage as an option it lends itself better to a "slow and safe" method while red-side "peace through superiour firepower" is as safe as any other method most times. This leads to the average villain team going at a faster pace than the average hero team, thus further leading to a better merit per content ratio for heroes.
- I do not know demographic statistics, but I am quite sure that blue-side the average age is significantly lower than red-side. (Either that or it is just a matter of maturity, but the effects are basically the same.) I do not want to offend anybody with uncalled-for generalisations, but I think that many of us have already been in a situation where even one single immature player slowed down the team`s progress and if my assumption is correct the chance of this happening is higher for heroes.

These factors slow down average hero-teams in comparison and make it easier to be "ahead of schedule" in a good team.

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There is also the fact that villains have ATs that are designed to keep up a high pace. Brutes and Dominators both have inherents that reward play with minimal pauses/stops.

In CoH there is practically no downside (other than time spent) to pausing between mobs and getting back to full health/end etc - so many teams, particularly those newer to the game, may do this and take a slow and careful approach. Any teams doing this obviously push up the average time a little, making it easier for non-stop teams to beat the average time.

In CoV there is a definite downside to pausing between mobs in the loss of a serious damage boost for brutes and loss of extra control/damage for dominators. Since the system promotes 'keeping going' the average doesn't rise as much as teams don't tend to stop between spawns so much - so the average is kept quicker.

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By my mohawk shall ye know me!
my toons
Funny: Ee-Ai-Ee-Ai-Oh! #3662 * The foul-mouthed Handyman! #1076 * City of Norms #132944
Serious: To Save A Single World (#83744) * Marketing Opportunity (#83747)

What also surprises me is how unwilling heroes seem to be to use insps. In villains, you keep shewing blue's for the reason you stated, but heroes would rather rest!

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I'd just like to point out that the Dominator inherent only ever so slightly supports not stopping. As my Dominator I stop for a minute or two, decide the best course of action all the time. Because Domination lowers REALLY slowly, and you can use Domination when the Domination bar is above 90% not 100%. If it was 100% I MIGHT think twice, but it's easy to start at 75% and get up to Dom range in one or two attacks.

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Bad Voodoo by @Beyond Reach. Arc ID #373659. Level 20-24. Mr. Bocor has fallen victim to a group of hooded vigilantes who have been plaguing Port Oakes, interfering with illegal operations and pacifying villain's powers. He demands that revenge is taken on these miscreants and his powers are returned! You look like just the villain for the job. Challenging.

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I'd just like to point out that the Dominator inherent only ever so slightly supports not stopping.

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True - but it still encourages not stopping. And the effect on individual players will vary greatly - some players won't want to loose any form of minor benefit.

And the simple fact that both ATs with greater benefits from continuous play are in CoV could easily lead to teams often having one or more of these in them. This can lead to a faster playstyle for all as no-one wants to be the one person lagging behind and possibly holding up the group.

I'd guess that when you get used to play at a faster pace it's possible that you'll carry the faster-playstyle over to your other characters.

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By my mohawk shall ye know me!
my toons
Funny: Ee-Ai-Ee-Ai-Oh! #3662 * The foul-mouthed Handyman! #1076 * City of Norms #132944
Serious: To Save A Single World (#83744) * Marketing Opportunity (#83747)

Then again, most people villain side seem to play corruptors (team) or MMs (solo, might team).

MMs takes time, as do stalkers (slightly), to play and corruptors usually don't benefit from non-stop action, unless their like our corr team, Dave! (loads of kins/rads)
...Then again, we do stop to AM/SB, don't we?

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