new posi TF review/merit whine

Sadly until people run it more, the devs wont have an idea of how many merits Posi is worth. Since the merits are so low few people want to run it. Its a never ending cycle, kinda like Markets and thier non merger stance and strangely low iq people telling others to just play redside.

I usually ran any TF at least 1 per toon to help maintain the fiction in my mind that he is actually a hero really solving problems than just grinding his way to 50.

That said if I was running around doing missions and arcs and someone sent a tell asking if I am interested in a TF I will try and switch to someone who hasn't run it UNLESS they are looking for a specific AT (healer, tank, etc) in which I play what's needed.

But I certainly wouldn't say no to a team just because I already had ran it. Teaming can be fun and so sign me up!

I assume he's using the Alt-O-Holic definition of 'exploit', which is "any game behavior I don't personally engage in".

Nah, just trollin' a bit. Though I do seriously wonder how high the merit rewards would have to be before everyone would go from "this TF stinks" to "This tf ROCKS!". The first half can't be more than 19 merits, otherwise people would just run that over and over without technically finishing the job. Dunno about the second half... can that be run over and over if you've done the first mission once? If so, i'd say 19 merits for that, too. I don't think either half should be worth a full reward roll, but maybe that's just my GM-like mindset.

Besides which fact is, even with smaller rewards now, redside players are still griping about the merit dispairity. Raising the rewards too high would only make the whargble louder /=.

Well the missions can be short, you can even speed run them and that might be one of the reason, the mission Arc aren't really log so it sound reasonable to me. Hey that Taskforce isn't about the Merits, more for the Accalade then anything and people did did complain about it being long in the first place.

Mmm...

The issue with merits and how one decides its good or bad is likely based at where you stand, its a perspective. If you are trying to level, you want long missions with losts of mobs to destroy, and the merits are simply gravy. If you are already 50 and trying to purchase via merits those way market over-priced recipes, then you want high yield merit wise per unit of time TFs. Because we have two dramatically positions, both reasonable, players both in game and in forums often collides over this.

I have argued, quite often, that the developer adopted metric of merits earned over time is essentially a poor way of doing business. Frankly such a metric encourages sloppy playing, meaningless leadershp, no creativity and discourages good leadership, good teaming practices, creative ways to solve problems, etc.

When you look at those who wants to maximise exp gain through TFs, any creative way to shorten the experience is quickly accused of being an exploit, etc. Those experienced players trying to get the merits for their recipe are consistently annoyed at lowbies going out of their way to gain un-needed aggroe.

Frankly, I don't believe merits should be based on time "sunk" in a mission, ifyou take the time to kill everything in the map, your reward is all those precious exp from all those mobs. I would suggest a game mechanic change, in behalf of the kill all players, let the end of mission exp bonus be a one to one match in exp as its similarly done in AE tickets. Don't limit this bonus to just TFs, should be for anything.

I would also encourage that merits should be paid off at the end of each mission, not as big nothing or all proposition. This way if a player is doing a thread, everyone who helps that player gets something for their effort as well; and perhaps increase thw willingness to help other players with their threads.

I would like to see the Oro merit penalty removed, if I do a Positron in a team of say 3, do we experience any less challenge than had it been a non-Ouro environment? So why get 40 merits for the 66 merit effort?

Now to the issue of how to assign merits for a TF or any mission, where its not time based but challenge based?

There are several ways to go about it, but the easiest is to do it based on the mobs you fought and the objective they were guarding or trying to keep you from.

I would say, first you award merits for each mission, and then a bonus merits for the completion for the set of missions. The bonus could be in fact 1 merit per mission completed in the set. So if you do a TF with 16 Missions, your TF completion bonus is 16. In the case of the Eden trial which is a huge one mission event, you can break down the effort into discreet portions, such the breaking of each wall, collecting EoEs, etc.

Now for the mission itself...

Each AV defeated is worth to each player that participated 2 merits
Each EV defeated is worth to each player that participated 1 merit
Each 4 x Bosses defeated is worth to each player that participated 1 merit
Each Mob Defended Glowy is worth to each player 1 merit
Each Mob Defended Destructible item destoryed is worth to each player 1 merit

This set up is actually beneficial for both the exp monger and the merit monger, because it provides and incentive to maximize your kills for mertis for the merit minded player, and it also satisfies the need for experience for those players trying to level. Thus ending the conflict between both attitudes.

Hugs

Stormy

People as a collective strive to do things faster and better than their predecessors. I for one am glad of that.