Re-Evaluation of Merit Distribution

I've been tossing this idea around in my head since the introduction of Merits and the realization that non-mission holders do NOT receive Merits for participating on the missions (unless it's an Ouroborus team) combined with the decline of teaming outside of TFs/SFs.

I didn't want to come here submitting an idea until I has thought it through and did some number crunching to back it up. The following were my goals:

1) An easy process to transition to from the current.
2) A system that encourages teaming, but doesn't punish soloers.
3) A system that encourages and works for all developed content.

What I'm about to suggest is tracking Merits by increment and awarding a whole sum to a character when missions or tasks are completed. Please, bear with me here...

Merit Increments
+0.05
Per Team Member (Task Force/Trial/Strike Force due to the increased Merit bonus upon completion)

+0.10
Small Map
Per Collect Object
Per Arc Team Member (bonus awarded mission completion for those not running the current Story Arc)
Per Team Member (not on Story Arc/TF/Trial/SF)

+0.20
Per Free Captive
Per Free Ally
Per Defeat Boss (only Boss required)
Per Destroy Object

+.0.30
Medium Map
Per Travel to Contact (note: only Arc Holder or members of TF/SF are awarded)

+0.40
Per Escort (Rescue/Kidnap)
Per Defeat Boss (encounter or room required)
Per Defend Object

+1.00
Large Map
Defeat All

+?.??
Completion of Task Force / Strike Force (all team members)
Completion of Story Arc (player holding arc)

Yes, I am suggesting that Merits be awarded for non-Arc, non-TF/SF things such as Newspaper/Radio missions. It's all Dev-content and saving or robbing a bank should award me some Merits, just not bonus Merits.

No, I don't think the players should see the increments (unless you want to put it on Combat Attributes under Base attributes. The way I see it would work is the game would "store" excesses of whole numbers after checking to award you Merits. Example key:
Yellow = What YOU the player see
Green = What the game tracks
White = General Information

Your Salvage Inventory: Merits: 41.65

You join someone's arc as the fifth person.
Mission details: Med Map 0.30/Defeat Boss (encounter) 0.40/4 other team-mates 0.20
Mission Complete!
+0.90 (from mission) + 0.65 (from previous) = 1.55 to be awarded
You receive 1 Reward Merit

Your Salvage Inventory: Merits: 42.55

(In my haste, I thought my math was off... you can also just add the .90 to the original to get the same result.)

Some results and examples:
Positron Task Force
Team of (min) 3's 17 Mission Total: 18 Merits
Team of (max) 8's 17 Mission Total: 26.5 Merits
Positron Task Force completion bonus: 40.00 Merits
Current Reward: 66 Merits (no matter what team size)
Team of (3) Total: 58.00 Merits (18.00+40.00)
Team of (8) Total: 66.50 Merits (26.50+40.00)

Katie Hannon Task Force
Team of (min) 6's 4 Mission Total: 6.20 Merits
Team of (max) 8's 4 Mission Total: 6.60 Merits
Katie Hannon Task Force completion bonus: 3.00 Merits
Current Reward: 9 Merits
Team of (6) Total: 9.20 Merits (6.20+3.00)
Team of (8) Total: 9.60 Merits (6.60+3.00)

Virgil Tarikoss Strike Force
Team of (min) 4's 6 Mission Total: 7.60
Team of (max) 8's 6 Mission Total: 8.80
Silver Mantis Strike Force completion bonus: 10.00
Current Reward: 13 Merits (I feel it needs increased)
Team of (4) Total: 17.60 (7.60+10.00)
Team of (8) Total: 18.80 (8.80+10.00)

Silver Mantis Strike Force
Team of (min) 4's 6 Mission Total: 11.40
Team of (max) 8's 6 Mission Total: 12.60
Silver Mantis Strike Force completion bonus: 25.00
Current Reward: 42 Merits (I feel it needs reduced)
Team of (4) Total: 36.40 (11.40+25.00)
Team of (8) Total: 37.60 (12.60+25.00)

Dreams of Peace and Acts of War via Serpent Drummer
Team of (min) 1's 9 Mission Total: 6.00 Merits
Team of (max) 8's Bonus Total: +5.60 (.7 per Other Member x 8 Door Missions)
Mission Holder's Story Arc completion bonus: 4.50 Merits
Current Reward: 10 Merits (Mission Holder only)
Mission Holder's Suggested Total: 10.50 Merits (6.00+4.50)
8 Participant's Suggested Total: 11.60 Merits (6.00+5.60)

The Origin of the Snakes via Matthew Burke
Team of (min) 1's 3 Mission Total: 3.80 Merits
Team of (max) 8's Bonus Total: +2.10 Merits (.7 per Other Member x 3 Door Missions)
Mission Holder's Story Arc completion bonus:
Current Reward: 6 Merits (Mission Holder only)
Mission Holder's Suggested Total: 5.80 Merits (3.80+2.00)
8 Participant's Suggested Total: 5.90 Merits (3.80+2.10)

Current Bank Mission (level 50) Example
Side Mission Merits Awarded upon Exit (per player):
SAFEGUARDS
Stop the Robbery: (Defeat Boss encounter) 0.40 Merits +0.10 per Other player
Stop Jewelry Theft: (Protect Object) + 0.20 Merits +0.10 per Other player
Stop the Arson: (4 Collections) +0.40 Merits +0.10 per Other player
Stop the Breakout: (Defeat Boss encounter) +0.40 Merits +0.10 per Other player
Stop Sewer Bombing: (4 Collections) +0.40 Merits +0.10 per Other player
Stop Weapons Deal: (1 Collection) +0.10 Merits +0.10 per Other player
TOTAL SOLO: 1.90 Merits vs TOTAL TEAM of 8: 6.40 Merits

MAYHEMS
Rob the Bank: (Collection/Defeat Boss Encounter) 0.50 Merits +0.10 per Other player
Rob Jewelry Store: (Destroy Object/2 Collections) +0.40 Merits +0.10 per Other player
Torch the Building: (4 Collections) +0.40 Merits +0.10 per Other player
Kidnapping: (1 Escort) +0.40 Merits +0.10 per Other player
Break Out a Villain: (1 Destroy Object) +0.20 Merits +0.10 per Other player
Raid Weapons Deal: (1 Collection) +0.10 Merits +0.10 per Other player
TOTAL SOLO: 2.00 Merits vs TOTAL TEAM of 8: 6.50 Merits

Notes:
1)This is assuming Mission Archictect is a similar tool to those the development team use and the details can be easily tracked.
2)If unique maps don't have a size, simply add a hidden value of small/med/large to those maps.
3)Defeat X mobs: is a situation that could be a problem. Perhaps +0.01 for each enemy defeated on these missions by team members. So "Defeat 10 Tsoo" would = +0.10 (only enemies that award XP provide the +0.01).
4)Outside of a TF/SF/Trial, you will have to be eligible for mission XP to receive the Merits.
5)The bonus XP at the end of an Arc should make up for the difference for Arc holders if their value ends up slightly under Merit total of 8 man team.

I dunno, wanted to get the idea outta my head and onto text tho. Got things to do today. Smell ya laterz & peace out!

/signed

overall i think this is a very good idea, as it would encourage more teaming and such and it would give more ways to earn merits (even if it is only 1), i dont know how easy or hard this would be to implement in the current system, but it definitly sounds like something the devs could look at

i think for tfs and such, he was implying that the over time awards would add up, but would still only be awarded at the end for anyone that still stayed on the team.

as for the bank mission rewards, you can only get the temp power ONE time per toon, hes talking about a reward thats given out every time

i honestly like this idea, it would allow for slightly easier solo merit-gaining ability because right now tfs/sfs are the only things that give merits worthy of rerunning

ouroboros sfs/tfs and flashbacks give out a tiny reward and lock you in so you cant get people to join part way through, and according to his system, it would allow poeple to join in middle because the merit rewards are calculated individually and the completion amount would just be what the person earned according to his requirements

i think it would be a good idea to even be able to get 1 merit from paper mishs, and this system prevents abuse because the merits are calculated individually with a variable holding a merit value for each person (can be tied to global, but not sure about details), therefore tfs/sfs wouldnt give a default amount, but an amount based on how many mishs you were in and how long you were in the tf, if you ended early, your merit value was reset (only reset the whole number part of the merit value) and you get no reward

the merit value would reset when you started a tf/sf and if you dropped early before the reward was given. the merit variable would reset whenever an award was given

if someone did join at the very end of something, the reward would be less than value of 1 most likely and thus ignored by the system based on how the suggested system works

as for the bank mishs and stuff, i never want to do a bank mish more than once because it only awards the temp power once (with the exception of the one side mish that awards a random temp power), but those may or may not show up and makes the bank mish not worth the effort except to get a new contact, but once you have all the contacts and done all of them, there really is no point to doing bank mishs unless you need a badge for an accolade

i think bank mishs are fun, especially at upper lvls on large teams because theres a chance a hero can show up, but most poeple wont even do the upper lvl bank mishs because its just not worth the time right now

Maybe the goal was 20 Merits per hour on TF/SF, but it's greater than that in practice. I'm not Min/Maxxing here, just from my observations:

Posi TF for me average 2 hours at 66 Merits? 33 per hour.

Katie? 9 for 15 minutes? 36 per hour (if there were no diminishing returns)

Silver Mantis? 45 for about 45 minutes (sometimes less) = 60 per hour

Origin of the Snakes? 6 Merits for about 12 minutes. = 30 per hour

Virgil SF? 13 for 40 minutes on a speed run? = 17 per hour

Dreams of Peace... 10 for 40 minutes + Vang Merit drops = 15 per hour

The Clockwork Captive (arc) 13 Merits for @20 minutes = 36 per hour

I've lost some research data it seems, but I've got quite a few listed. Some arcs are as poor as 2 per hour. Datamining isn't an exact science, I'm sure... and I do thank you for your constructive criticism and not flaming my suggestion.

But, here's what it boils down to:
The way Merits are now, it's encouraging me to FARM certain TFs/SFs to make the most of my limited time when during the session Merits are my goal. It's great to know I can experience other content that's less rewarding in which effort was put into to create... but I just feel the current system is flawed and can be improved upon.

My eyes glazed over at all the mathy stuff, although I understand your basic concept. It would be nice to have Story Arcs grant merits to all on the team - if only there was a way to do it that could not be exploited. I don't think this system is quite the way to do it, though.

I don't really like the idea of "partial credit" merits. Going back thru all the missions to put in the calculation seems like a lot of programming (caveat: not a programmer, so all I can rely on here is SCR applies). Even if a lot of it could be done by assigning values to the "spreadsheet" that tracks all the story arcs & TF/SFs, there would still be the manual assignment of values for unique maps. Lots of places for stuff to get entered incorrectly and therefore lots of places where values would have to be maintained and/or tweaked.


I *really* don't like this part of your concept:

Minor correction:

Story arcs were bumped by 50%, IIRC it was about a year ago, but the target for story arcs is 12 merits/hour of median completion.

I have a PM from Synapse confirming the 'Task Modifier' is currently 0.6 for Story arcs (versus the 1.0 for a TF).

Of course we are about due for another sweep of normalization to the current medians, maybe with GR , and those numbers may change again.

I'd be happy if they just normalised the merit rewards for scale of challenge as well as time taken. Redside really suffers in terms of merits, and only because its story arcs aren't rammed full of filler. It may take you ten minutes to visit Indigo AGAIN in Crimson's arcs, say, but there is zero risk involved in it. Why should it contribute to the same extent that an intensely difficult timed mission does, say, Efficiency Expert Pither's? Fifteen minutes to walk across town and fifteen minutes to clear out a Malta base are two very diffrent chalenges and should be recognised as such.

I'ld really like some merit rewards for story arcs you particpate in - you'd have to either inflate the merit and merit prices or give a merit fraction. Be very hard to scale right.
IMO paper/radio missions dont need merits, as less travel time, lead to badges, temp powers, accloade etc.

And I agree that the redside get shaft, needs to be a lesser merit rate for FEDEXing.