SOs vs generic IOs- more thoughts on Cas-uality

So, what's easier for our theoretical 'casual player' when they reach that level of development where it's time to swap out your mish-mash of training and DO enhancements for The New Hotness?


This comparison was inspired by the automatic assumption in another thread that our hypothetical 'casual' player would OF COURSE be using SOs, not those newfangled, expensive, complicated IOs.

First, let's consider the process for kitting out with SOs.

Find the right store for your origin, pull up the vendor menu, navigate an unsorted list of enhancements with intentionally confusing names, eventually find Damage or whatever, rinse and repeat for each additional power function you care to enhance.

For cost, let's multiply the price of a level 25 Damage SO by 36 slots (counting inherents); 1,080,000 inf.

And, of course, their performance degrades and they need replacement every few levels. And lets not forget if you want level 30's, you have to find the right contact for your origin and run some missions before they'll cough up.


Now, generic IOs.

Let's pretend our Casual friend isn't savvy enough to know that you can pick up crafted generics from the market for less than crafting cost and has to pay retail.

After learning the ropes at the University, where recipes are clearly labeled by their effects (Hooray, Damage is called Damage, not Portacio Industries Internal Munitions!) it's time to go shopping.
Bench cost for a level 25 damage recipe: 17,750
Basic crafting cost: 35,500
Salvage cost for Brass & Inanimate Carbon Rod: let's say 10k, because I don't have any idea what either of them are selling for lately.

So, 36 slots x 63k = 2,268,000, again ignoring all of the possible ways to shave off costs (buying crafted from badgers, buying recipes cheap overnight, buying salvage cheap overnight).


The up front cost is twice as much, which sounds unappealing until you remember that these level 25s can take you all the way to 50 if you need them too. Replacing your expired 25s with 30s (after you find the 'store' and run the missions) means filling up 41 slots at 36,000 each, another 1,476,000 (2,556,000 total for level 25 and 30).
Upgrading your IOs can be done piecemeal, since they don't expire- a major convenience.


Both routes have their annoyances.
SOs are tedious to select, lose power as you level and require mass replacement every few levels.
IOs have a higher initial base cost and require gathering salvage and visiting a crafting station.


From the perspective of a veteran gamer IOs are the clear winner.
Not having to deal with declining power levels and eventual expiration is more than worth the higher setup investment.

From the perspective of a 'casual' gamer? I'm not sure.
But I don't think it's a slam dunk that SOs are the default for everyone entering the game.

Comments, opinions, additions, corrections?

I use a mix. My first character leveled almost entirely on common IOs. I was a newb and kept replacing them every 5 levels so I didn't actually save any money but I did get a lot of credit for Field Crafter.

My characters since then have used a mix of SOs and IOs. I sometimes craft common IOs and slot them, particuarly if I have the salvage available but I take the lazy man's route and pay worktable prices for my recipes. A lot of the time I just use SOs anyway since I rarely bother to buy salvage for common IOs unless I'm working on Field Crafter.

With the addition of the non-mission related stores (Midnighter, Vanguard and Cimerora) and the removal of the limits on the RWZ it's very easy to get 35+ SOs and I don't even bother with the regular store contacts.

my personal approach for the past few issues has been buying crafted IOs from badgers at a deep discount, often less than crafting cost.

I put up lowball bids on the harder to get stuff waaaay before I need it and usually have all my ducks in a row by the time I hit 22.

But this approach wouldn't be obvious to our friend the 'casual' gamer.

Personally when I do Field Crafter I keep all of the useful IOs (Damage, Accuracy, Recharge, Endurance, Defense, Resistance) in my base and use them for leveling up new characters. It doesn't supply all fo my needs but it means I have soem mid-level ones on hand.

I don't think casual players are necessarily all using SOs, but they're a useful baseline for comparison because casual players should at least have SOs (past level 23).

If I don't have a set-based build worked out from a low level then I'll slot generic IOs as they drop, starting at level 22. Once I get to 40 I'll buy recipes and craft them to fill any slots that are still using SOs. This allows a compromise between the reduced cost of slotting IOs at a lower level and the reduced effectiveness of level 25 IOs vs level 40s.

I'm sure I don't qualify as "casual", but this is the same approach I used before I really got my head around the invention system so I don't think it's a massive leap of logic to think that a casual player might at least slot the IOs that drop during play.

Another advantage of SOs is real-world time. SOs are readily available for slotting right when you need them.

With IOs you either have to invest the time to craft them (and at times salvage can be very expensive) and invest the time to wait for a badger to fill your order (I may not understand badgers, but I LOVE 'em!).

Also, SOs have better enhancement values until level 33 or so (this is somewhat offset by the fact IOs never expire, which can be very nice).

Personally, I go with TOs, DOs and SOs until I can slot level 35 Generics, then I buy crafted ones from the market (crafting them yourself can mean looking at expenses of 4-5 million or even more, depending on the prevailing winds of the salvage market).

From there I plan out a set bonus build to respec to at 50.

And BTW level 50 set IOs are far easier to get ahold of than ones in the 25-35 level range, so I end up using the much rarer low-level stuff only on my PvP builds.

WARNING: I bold names.

I know I don't fit in the casual gamer category. But I have some toons I play casually.

Here is the build for the one I play for the blueside midlevel crisis. She wasn't supposed to start out as a casual toon. She was originally created for the 100 levels of Frad superteam on virtue. When that disintegrated she was shelved and then taken off the shelf for the midlevel crisis frad superteam and moved to freedom.

here is her build as it stands. This toon is level locked at 32 so its just a matter of putting in the last pieces.



Only gets played for taskforces once a week. Gotta think that is as casual as it gets. Even so there are no TOs, DOs, Or SOs here. Franken slotting is just that much better even at low levels. It wasn't particularly hard to do this. I think my total cost has been something like 5-7 million with another 3 or 4 to be spent. I may buy a stealth at some point but I am not going to lose sleep over when.

I don't want to sound elitist or anything but I think if SOs were all I could build with I would ragequit at this point. It doesn't matter how often or much I play the toon it would be annoying to know it was subpar.


I read this thread and one thing leaped to mind, Who is this casual gamer ?

I don't know about 'casual' but as a new player in mid-2008, I never even tried DO/SOs. I looked at the 'degrades every few levels' thing, and decided that IOs were obviously the way to go. Before having a base for salvage and IOs, I did slot some of the enhancements that dropped, but generally, the University in Steel is so convenient for WW I just found it no big deal to get the recipes and salvage and craft the IOs. I think the only time I have ever bought SOs from a store was when I levelled during in the ITF and wanted to sling some quick recharge into the new slots.

A pure casual player will probably do what anyone does the first time you play this game and figure out what slots mean: buy TOs until they are no longer offered, then DOs until they are no longer offered, then SOs.

A less casual player might do something like: nothing until lvl 12, then lvl 15 IOs until 22, then upgrading SOs until 32, then lvl 35+ IOs as they become necessary.

...and today I learned something! Well that and the properties of black chrome.

By the time I had my second character to the SO range, I had all the colors of SOs and DOs figured out (odd exception like intangibility of course)....also, despite the names SOs are listed in alphabetical order by what they do. Of course figuring that out took me a lot longer..

Oh, now I see what my color blind SG mate was always complaining about...suddenly I feel less smart....

The problem I always have with these discussions is the definition of "casual."

Is it a new player or one that has been here for 5 years? Is it a player who reads anything outside the game? Does the player belong to an SG? Does the player log 5 hours a week, a month, a year?

In my opinion, a casual player does not sweat the details, or worry about min/maxing. They just like to punch or shoot things every once in a while. Going with that definition, I think our mythical casual player would slot whatever dropped that worked for their character.

After the casual player has been around for awhile, they would be more concerned with "red" colored enhancers and would probably of heard of E.D. or at least gotten the advice not to slot more than 3 of any type of enhancer in a power.

I also think that the casual player would craft drops that he could and slot those, whether those are common or sets. I don't think that casual players actively go after set bonuses, but I could be wrong. I think that the casual player would see it as too much of a time investment to learn and plan and bid and build.

But all that's assuming that the casual player has more then 3 brain cells and isn't a TOTAL moron, that's assuming a whole freakin lot.