The Accolades

There used to be a time, and it is still here, that the basic Accolades (like the Vanguard, the Crey Pistol, and so on) marked the difference between a player interested in getting the maximum from the game and the new 50 or new player. With inventions some of that has changed. Just Tuesday night we formed a team to earn a rather oddball badge when a player remarked "why are we doing this again?". The player was again advised to which he replied "what good are badges or Accolades... I/Os out do them anyway". That set me to thinking of how our game economy is a bit (not totally) ruined with cheap influence/infamy purchases from Gold Farmers (which inflate prices) and how I see so many 50s now without even the basic Atlas Medallion (that includes some pretty awesome PvP builds).

Couldn't something be done to either expand the basic Accolades, like one that gives better recharge or accuracy (they seem more focused on Health and Stamina)? How about ones that offer small amouts of Mez Protection or ones that earn Knockback protection? These basic Accolades took time, effort, planning to achieve and are not exactly able to be purchased. Couldn't something be done to re-encourage players to seek them? It need not be a serious need, nor an adjustment that causes the game to flop over to Accolades over I/Os, just something that makes players pause and reconsider them into their builds.

I can't speak to your experience, but I can tell you that I have several level 50s that don't have all the accolades. Some don't have any. My namesake character and my main villain have them all.

Some of the badges needed to get those accolades can be real boring grinds, although they've recently been improved. I just can't be bothered with getting the accolades for all my 50s. There's so much other stuff to do, including leveling up my next 50!

Like Ron White says "you can't fix stupid". If people don't want 20% more HP or 10% more end, even on top of IO set bonuses, I don't know what to say about them.

For me, I end up getting both of these through regular game play with the exception of Fake Nems for heros and, sometimes, the damage badge for villains, especially for MMs. Oh yeah, boss Marcone's for vills too. Well, then I have to go click on a few plaques as well and stand on a few exploration markers. So add another 10-20 minutes for that.

I'd certainly welcome new accolades that included other bonuses, but the "big 4" are fine as is.

Edited to clarify that I'm not using Mr. White's quote to say anyone that doesn't seek accolades is stupid, just that anyone that takes the time to IO out their characters and then poo-poos accolade bonuses, well, they kinda are.

Leave out the gold farmers are ruining the economy bit next time, the economy is fine.
The biggest problem is player hoard redside (of which I am as guilty as anyone), preventing items from reaching the BM, rather than rampant inflation.

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Invent...nt_Set_Bonuses

The very best +endurance power available through IOs theoretically is (0.90%x 4) or +3.6 End

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Catego...rove_Endurance
The actual biggest ones available in the game currently are 2.25 End

Each of the +End accolades is 5 end, and there are 2 of them, so they are much more significant than the +End from sets.

+Health sets are more common, but still cap out at 3% versus the 5 or 10% for an accolade
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Catego...improve_Health

As far as accolades that increase recharge and accuracy there is one (Geas/Force of Nature) that is kept as a click power on a long recharge. Maybe the devs could consider low powered autos, but they would be significantly less powerful than this click.

Okay, first of all, you're coming from a flawed premise: that people without the Accolades (even the Atlas Medallion) are people who purchase Influence from gold farmers. I think that that is very far from the truth.

I have a character that is almost level 42 now, that does not have the Atlas Medallion. He has all of the badges for it, though, except for the history one. That is because I haven't really felt the need to get it yet. Maybe that's because I already have good Endurance management tools on the character, an Elec/DB Tanker, and don't really feel that 5 more endurance would be that useful. Maybe it's because I've gotten that history badge so many times before, I'm just not in any rush to go to Perez to get a few more plaques.

IOs, even cheap IOs, have allowed people to build their characters with more endurance reduction in them, which lessens the need for 5 more endurance again.

There's also a lot more to do in the game now. Before, there was nothing else really to do at level 50, other than try to grind for some of the Accolade requirements. Now, with Ouroborus, AE, and several other tools in the game, there's less of a desire to just grind things out, I feel. So there's another reason why people might not go for the accolades.

So, I wouldn't blame it, even at all, on the Gold Farmers. They're not the reason why people don't go for accolades.


Now, would I like to see some of the accolades improved? Sure, why not. But let's at least figure out what the root causes are for people to not go for them, so that we can create a solution that works with that in mind.

I´m trying to have all accolades on my main characters, but as it was said before some of them are quite boring to get for a third or fourth time... Even with the powers attached to them.
What I think could be changed is to shorten the recharge time of the click ones, so they become a litle more useful instead of just a small "show-off reward".

As someone with a severe case of altitis (22 alts on Justice alone) I've only focused on getting Accolades for a few of my characters, not all. I have a few lvl 50's with none of them, and a few with most of them.

The reason for that: Some need them, some don't, and working towards some of them can be downright booooring.....

I don't pick up accolades for one simple reason. Not that "IOs outperform them" or anything, simply this:

I don't care.

Yeah, the min/maxer might. I don't. If I get them along the way, hey, great. They don't unlock new content for me, they're not required to get anything done. I've got a good size stable of alts and I don't feel like grinding.

See my Guides and Tutorials

I am a character creator and I only use accolades if they fit the character. I have a couple of characters that seek out all objects of mystic power, so getting the magic accolades makes sense.

I think it's fair to say that Inventions aren't the only reason that Accolade-grabbing has fallen to the wayside.

A fair number of people have looked at the Accolades and seen that for many of them, there are badges included that they feel are a "grind-fest" to get.
For me, there are a number of badges that I won't seek.
For Born in Battle: "Suffer 1 million Damage", formerly "Suffer 10 million". If it happens, which for some of my characters it will, fine. But I won't go out of my way to farm for it.
I don't mind "Raider" (5 hours in Siren's), but "Lanista" (win a Gladiator match) is not for me.
Marshal requires "Annihilator" badge from the LRSF. Sorry, locked (team-only) content to me.
Megalomaniac requires "Crystal Keeper" from Ice Mistral SF. Locked out.

Some Accolades are fairly easy for me. High Pain Threshold, Invader (If I'm careful enough to grab the explores w/o outleveling the mayhems, since you can't Ouro the Mayhems), Force of Nature and Demonic spring to mind.

But some folks get the picture of Accolades requiring farming/grinding in a way that is unpleasant to them, so they blow off bothering to get any of them.
Add this to the new-ness and the "Shiny" wearing off and you have fewer people questing for accolades.

Ingame, what would tell new players to look for Accolades, other than one vague hint that occasionally pops up in the loading screen?
I see very little documentation, other than here in the forums (and via a Wiki) of HOW to get the hinted-at accolades. Where IO's are everywhere and you can tell exactly what IOs give what set bonuses by simply perusing the Market.