Repairing the merit system and the markets

I don't know where to begin.

Are you talking about after merits or after inventions? I was talking about after inventions. Even including using it to PL and farm for +3 SOs (lol) I don't think people were running KH before I9 anything like they were after inventions came along and had been out a few months.

I noted that the introduction of merits, which was a gigantic supply nerf, was greeted with hosannas and open arms by the general public, to illuminate the reality that ignorant people who don't understand their environment often hold opinions that are not true.

People who don't know a birthday present from a brain tumor can think whatever they want, it doesn't affect reality.

the old debunked wives' tales are always the best, aren't they?

Purples and PvP IOs still have the enhancement bonus reduced. Only the set bonus is immune to exemplaring rules.

However any PvP quad is immune to this effect down to level 21 by virtue of rule #1 of exemplaring. Any level 43 or lower triple, and any level 24 or lower dual.

Purples are shafted straight across the board because they give higher values so always get reduced.

Right, because purples and PvP IOs have every set bonus you could possibly want, you can do a full build with them, and they are easy to acquire for all your Warshades.

Or, you know, maybe the fact that purples and PvP IOs retain their set bonuses while exemped is a sign that the devs acknowledge the choice players have to make when using everything else, and not having to make that choice is part of what makes those IOs so uber.

If you had just said "supply nerf" in the first place we could have bypassed a whole page of arguing.

Tell me this: If pool C acquisition hadn't been changed over to merits, do you honestly think 20-minute Katies would still be possible? And would they still be possible for all those rag-tag teams of whoever felt like showing up?

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but I get an hour for lunch. Since I bring my lunch with me, I do whatever I damn well please on my computer during my lunch hour. (Within reason. Obviously I don't do anything illegal or inappropriate.)

Oh, and contrary to the popular saying, we see that there actually ARE stupid questions.

From what I recall there would be always 2-3 teams looking to fill up a KHTF during the prime time hours until the wee hours, when it would reduce to around 1 TF per hour or two. I can't recall exactly when it was, but it was definitely before IOs appeared. 15 min TFs x 2 for a 4 hour stretch being advertised is quite a lot compared to what I see now.

Why not acquire them and slot them as much as you can? I wasn't commenting on the difficulty of getting them but you seem to discount them because you consider them so hard to acquire.

I was simply pointing out that your statement that players need to choose between 2 options isn't limited to the two you put forth.

User CP, "Edit Ignore List"? I know i'm still rebuilding mine...

Aura Familia: (several variations on this)
People CAN do anything they want. Not all of them will. People CAN delete their merits, but not very many people do. For instance.

(I think the optional "reward window" at the end of the TF- do you want to roll now?- will generate low level recipes something like 10% of the time, just by making it easier. This will produce two or more times as many low level recipes. I could be overestimating the number of lowbies on TFs.)

And more than that there are stupid posters.

I guess we see how you got your red rep. It would probably be more red but you are probably on a large number of ignore lists. +1

Please point me to a purple set that gives +def.

Please tell me how I am supposed to slot purples into all of my powers. Did they make them not unique while I wasn't looking? Did they add in purple heal, resistance, defense, end mod, tohit buff, tohit debuff?

Oh, and what if, horror of horrors, I don't feel like investing in purples on a character? I wasn't aware that the super-rare, shiniest of shinies were now meant to be something everyone can have on every character.

Players who cannot have the super-rare shiniest of shinies on every character have two options: Create a perfectly good build without them and choose between maximum efficiency at 50 and keeping their bonuses when they exemp, or come to the forums, whine about how much everything costs, get made fun of, and go back to option 1.

Why do you automatically assume that everything must be slotted with purples? Why do automatically assume that every build will need +def? It seems like every post you take to the extreme or only looks at things from your own POV without taking any consideration of other POVs.

If you're chasing merits you should know that set bonuses aren't even that important regardless of TF level. It's really the players behind the keyboard that make the difference once you get to the SO level. Set bonuses are nice, purples are nice, +def set bonuses are nice, but none of it really matters that much for merit hogging or TF speeding.

Chasing merits is kind of like chasing perma hasten. By the time you achieve perma hasten, it's almost like you didn't need hasten at all. The merits, once flowing, are superfluous to you because they are so easy to get. If you can earn a thousand merits then you can afford a purple set or two, or most of the PvP IOs, excepting the stupid expensive ones. If you can't, well then, I guess you can come here and whine.

But it does affect what the devs do in terms of the market.

the PERCEPTION that such a change to forced rolls now would be a nerf, is enough that the devs will NEVER make such a change.

If you don't think player perception matters to the devs when making market related changes: Costume recipe drops.

The key word here is OPTIONAL. I have no objection to an optional reward window that appears at the end of a tf. Some other in this thread saw that as a bait and switch for ignorant people. (paraphrasing).

What I object to are FORCED rolls. I think I made that pretty clear in all my statements in this thread.

I guess from your PoV purples are PvP IOs should be desirable to everyone?

Here is a PoV that is not mine, but which many players hold:

Purples are not necessary. Purples are not worth the investment. For the price of a single purple set I can completely kit out a character with decent IOs.

Now, the player that holds this PoV is back to the original choice: do I use lower level sets, because I want the bonuses while I'm exemped, at the cost of lowered performance at 50? Or do I go with the 50s, at the cost of lowered performance while I'm exemped? It isn't a question of what you NEED, it is never a question of what you NEED. It is a question of what do you WANT. If I WANT to be more powerful at level 35 than I would be with just SOs, I really don't give a flying rat's hiney whether a team will take me with just SOs. I want my set bonuses. I have more fun on that level 35 team with my set bonuses. Therefore, I will make the choice to slot level 35 sets at the cost of some performance at 50. End of discussion.

Since I am the some others, I'd like to address this. My understanding was that you would offer a random roll instead of the entire merit reward of a TF granting 20 or more merits. Now, if the idea instead was to grant all the merits, but also immediately give the option to roll 20 of them for a recipe, I'd be fine with that. In general, I'd be fine with notifying players as soon as they have 20 or more merits available that they can roll a recipe, and letting them do so right there and then. However, giving people the option to trade more than 20 merits for a random roll is what I would consider a bait and switch for the ignorant.

Gotcha.
Just so we are all on the same page, my understanding of the suggestion was:
1. Pop-up WHENEVER (arc, tf, etc) you get up to 20 merits.
2. You take the random rolls you can, and have merits left over. (if you have multiples of 20 merits).
3. You don't take ANY random rolls you keep all your merits.
4. NOTHING is forced.

Someone correct me if I'm misunderstanding.

So your suggestion is to essentially force people to make a conscious decision to save up merits rather than roll. Making the roll becomes the path of least resistance, however those who wish to save up can still do so by clicking "Do not roll."

In that case I have one additional suggestion: make it a small pop up and not the usual reward table that takes up your entire screen.

I would suggest something like this, whenever you earn merits and your total merits are over 20:

...thats me also...so now i get to scrap together a couple 100 million to buy something that i had a chance of getting via a drop(thanks merits) on the one TF a month i may get to run if that!...lol the markets!

it's not my suggestion. was just trying to recap what the suggestion was.

my suggestion: NOTHING about random rolls needs to change EXCEPT being able to pick the level of the roll. Also someone made two other good points above that I /signed. too lazy to re-post it.

EDIT: I wouldn't care if its large or the size of a small pop up.

Maybe in some other channels than I was in. I never saw that level of adverts for KHTFs until after I9 was baked in. I considered public searching for TF teams a fair rarity everywhere except the badge channels until then.