Soloability and End Game

Well, so much for feeling better.

Right now, doing the BAF Trial gives you both of those at once

Here are all the numbers:

- Common Salvage: 4 shards
- Uncommon Salvage: 12 shards (8+Common)
- Notice of the Well: 88 shards (40+Uncommon*4) + 100,000,000 Inf
- Favor of the Well: 208 shards (32+Notice*2)

Using these numbers, the Alpha slot thingies cost:

- Common Alpha: 12 shards
- Uncommon Alpha: 32 shards (20+Common)
- Rare Alpha: 128 shards (96+Uncommon) + 100,000,000 Inf
- Very Rare Alpha: 480 shards (224+Rare*2) + 400,000,000 Inf

Please keep in mind, we don't know if the number is final yet. Just because it was visible on the Sneak Peek doesn't mean it's final. Let's have some civil feedback, not torches and pitchforks, please.

A Very Rare boost costs a bare minimum of 56 shards, no matter how you earn other parts (three uncommon components at 8 shards each and a Favour of the Well at 32 shards).

32 gets you an Uncommon (12 for a Common, 20 more for the Uncommon part; this uses up the Common.) You will need two Uncommons (so you can make two Rares) to get a Very Rare, so that's 64 already.

88 Shards for a Notice - you'll need two of these, for two Rares. 176.
Now you need two more, to make a Favour. 176 + 32 = 208.
That's Leandro's 384. It's not counting any other costs. That's just the Notices/Favour.

Two more common components for each Rare - that's another 8 each, 16 total. We're up to 464.

The Very Rare costs another common and uncommon - 16 more.

Total cost for a Very Rare from scratch is 480 shards (and apparently 400 million inf.) Those gaining Notices in other ways only need 128 shards (some of which can come in batches of 4 by gaining common components through TFs).

If you lower the cost of a Notice to 24 shards (which was my suggestion), that makes the total cost 224 - almost a hundred more than those gaining notices in other ways.

So no, I didn't expect it to cost "a hundred or so". I was expecting a couple hundred. Considering solo shard drop rates (even running at x8), that would be months of play.

If I wanted to tell you to deal with it or go play something else, I would do so. The fact that I didn't do that should tell you that I wasn't thinking that.

Also, I embrace all attempted insults that accuse me of being more than minimally functionally literate. I use words. And I string them into complete sentences. Those sentences express complex thoughts. I freely admit this. I don't specifically do it to impress people, but if it seems like a lot of work to you, well, it just takes practice.

It was on +0/x2/With bosses

There's something to be said for communicating in a clear, concise fashion rather than typing primarily to hear oneself type. "Brevity is the soul of wit." There comes a point where the exercise is clearly no longer intended to inform with precision and accuracy, or to express an opinion with eloquence... but simply to provide fluff and noise.

Sometimes it's merely someone who dearly loves to hear themselves type or who needs to show off their vocabulary in a form of linquistic self-bongering, but in debate it's a popular method distraction and evasion. Of blowing smoke in an attempt to pass off things like the cat barfing in the salad at an elaborate dinner party as something noble and enlightened rather than simple and ugly as well, a cat barfing in the salad.

Or that a devoper's decision to strongarm more players into things like team play or PvP is some sort of deeply philosophical and and esoteric process rather than an attempt to plaster over cracks in content that perhaps isn't strong enough on it's own merit to draw enough players without using some sort of advancement chokehold.

The "if you don't like it, go play something else" is taken as implied by the wall of text which you required to say "We reward team play and discourage solo play because we just want people to team rather than solo."

Thanks for the info there. I appreciate it.

Well I was guessing 100 shards per Notice, so I for one am pleasantly surprised.

Measured as Shards per player per enemy defeated, the drop rate is identical between teams and solo. (The Shard drop mechanics are different to normal salvage drop mechanics, in that instead of checking for a drop and then assigning it to a random member of the team, it checks for every player individually.)

So, if you defeat ten thousand enemies, you'll on average end up with exactly as many shards as someone who defeated ten thousand enemies while playing in a team of eight -- they're just likely to have done it rather more quickly.

Thanks for that.

Just wondering Eiko, but how many hours (on average) do you spend a week playing the game?

See, there you go, you're actually being realistic, compared to most people in the thread, and yet, the Devs surprise you *grins*

That's an awful lot of words for "Waaaaah, I want everything to be given to me easily on a silver platter because people find it irritating to team with me for some reason."

Deal with it or go read something else.

Generally, I either don't play at all (as has been the case for the past while), or several hours (2 to 4) a night (as was the case when I was trying to get my first Uncommon boost.)

Ok, thanks for answering that, for i generally play about 6 hours a week (or so) as I do have another MMO I play (it has no "end game" content as such for you can potentially drop a day old character into "end game" content over there, which I do find refreshing...)

It probably averages out to me playing City about twice as much as you do, once you factor in the off weeks.

Leandro figured an "optimal" (killing a boss a minute on a constant rate) time of 400 hours to get the requisite shards. That's half as long as I've played my main all told in three years, and those 800 hours include a lot of RP time (and a fair bit of crafting; she has the Field Crafter accolade).

Aww, listen to the fanboi. It's a pity I'm not the one who needs the dev's to force people to team with me. If I were, then maybe you'd have a point there. Thing is, it's more likely that it's the irritating, childish and obnoxious players who can't find a team without relying on the developers to strip other player's choices away. I'm not the smelly kid at the dance trying to justify forcing other people to interact with me. That's the players who need teaming to be forced on others.

As for your bunkus silver platter claim, I've said quite clearly I don't want stuff for free, I just don't want to have to team to get it and I want to be able to get it without having to do some Everquest style grind. If you couldn't grasp that, then I can see why you need other people to help you play the game and feel threatened that they don't need you to play with them.

So "a year" was generous, I suppose.

Make it four+ years. Or "there really still isn't a casual friendly option".