anyone know what badges were new with i19.5?

while i have no beef with how these new WST badges work, i do also agree that 50 is kind of much, i think a more reasonable number would be 25, its only 15 more than the 10 badge, which would take maybe another 2 weeks depending on how much you ran tfs

Here is how I feel about the badges:

If you are like me, you already run the same TFs over and over for regular shards and the end bonus. I plan on unlocking all of the tiers for all of the boosts. I've already ran the STF/LRSF 10+ times this past week. Yes, it does burn me out and I can't wait for the next WTF to start, but hey that's me and how I play the game.

The last badge being set at 50...is kind of high, but I have no issues with getting there. Who knows when Issue 20 is coming out and this is keeping me occupied until then. If they change it to 25, I am fine with it and if they don't do any changes I am fine with that too.

I will probably do over 50 TF's this month...but I don't do alts anymore. Since CoH is an alt game, having the badges account wide would be nice, to help out the people with alts.

Making them account-wide would be great, it would completely relieve my worries that these will be some of those badges that become harder to get for an alt down the road.

Unlike some would try and have you believe, this is not actually me being an alarmist, but that's all right, since it would appear that those people use words that they heard someplace but don't know the definitions of pretty regularly. I presented examples of other activities that require teams plus repetition, and give very good rewards, that just aren't anywhere near as easy to get the badges for now as they were when they were introduced, and those are the badges for the Mothership Raids. Thankfully, the developers reduced the Demolitionist badge from 25 to 10, so it isn't some arduous task. Most servers do at least 1 scheduled raid per week, so you can get both badges for it in 10 weeks with fairly minimal effort each week. My reasoning is that WST participation will be the same, as people get their Notices for their characters and move on. It's a guess, but it's a guess that is based on simple pattern recognition.

I'll go a step further on this prediction. Instead of some nebulous "After Issue 20 launches" date, I'll give you a concrete date to look forward to, March 1st. That is when WST 5 will be announced. If I am right about Notices being the driving force behind a good part of the activity for the WST right now, as people are getting all of the level 50s that they care about the Notice to make a Rare, and later a Very Rare Alpha, then WST 5 will be noticeably less busy than previous ones were. The only caveat on this is if WST 5 is the ITF. ITFs are always extremely popular, and don't need special incentives to be so. If it is the ITF, then WST 6 will be where you see the drop-off.

I'm finally going to add my to the "like/hate 50" argument. (Not pointing this at any specific person)

Honestly, we've all done something drawn out, boring, or something we wouldn't normally do for a badge...
"Uggh! How many more of these do I have to kill?"
So PvP isn't your thing? Well it'll take you longer then the people who live for PvP.
How about the market? or crafting?
Not everybody likes doing that stuff. Not everyody is going to get those badges over a reasonable amount of time.
BUT, to get the badges, we do what it takes.
Some of us even spend time helping other people get the badges, even though we are not getting anything at all out of it.

How is this series of badges really any different? If TFs aren't your thing, it's naturally going to take you longer and/or be more annoying than it will be for people who like running repeated TFs. We can even change it up a little. If we are sick of STF, what's wrong with running LRSF instead? Then next week is something different.

Personally, I'd guage badges by the people who WILL naturally get them.
The fact that some people just aren't into TFs doesn't mean the bar is set too high, it's the fact that there are some people out there that love TFs and have no problem at all running TF after TF and happy to get these badges means the requirement is just fine. Lowering the requirement would just make it more trivial to them.

By definition, this badge series is supposed to be for helping other people get their weekly reward, even though you already got yours. It's not supposed to be about you or what you are getting out of it. It's about helping the community by doing something that you don't really have to do. If credit for these badges is designed to be earned over "months and years", then it implies the Weekly Strike Target is going to persist for at least that long... so why would anybody be selfish enough to want to get these badges right away and not want to help anybody for the next year (or more)?

Even if you just do 1 extra TF (an extra hour or two of your time at most) a week, you'll have the badges by this time next year. Look on the bright side, it'd still be faster than completing the Day Jobs.

It's a lot different than the old Empath issue where everybody said it was too high. Nobody would get that one naturally in a reasonable amount of time, hence the eventual reductions. In this case, it all boils down to play-style. If you don't like TFs and/or you don't like helping other people by re-running content later, then this badge is probably not for you. If you hate it so much that it causes rage, then go do something else that makes you happy. Nobody is forcing you to do anything you don't want to.

Well said, M-B.

Well just as an FYI Beef_Cake announced on his in-game channel tonight that he finished the new 50 count TF badge. It only took him 11 days. I've suspected for several years that he either plays this game roughly 23 hours a day or he has friends/family play his account for him half the time. If that's what it takes to make him happy then more power to him I guess.

But as far as the debate goes on whether badges like these are set too high or not people such as Beef_Cake are this game's version of those people back in school who get a 100% on a test when everyone else in the class gets a 70% or below. He simply blows the curve for everyone else. All joking aside the Devs do look at people like Beefy and say to themselves "well he got Badge X in this period of time so it must be fine". So if you ever find yourself wondering why certain badges either remain relatively difficult to get or take many years to finally get reduced you now know who to thank for that.

P.S. Just to remind everyone I still have no problem with the 50 count TF badge being set at 50. I'll get it eventually. I was just making the point that some people don't react to "challenges" in this game the same way that others do.

First, context.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turgenev Kahn TF runs take about 25-35 minutes to run. A given PUG team will probably run it a few times in a row if they have good synergy. If you do this even five times a day with a dedicated crew, that's only about 3 hours spent per day, with an ETA of about 10-12 days.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lothic You're kidding with this right? The Khan TF has only counted for WST runs since Tuesday. Even if we assume Beefy ran it 5 times a day he only had 4 days to do that. You do realize that only equals 20 right? And you're telling me MY math assumptions are really awful...

Let's avoid the straw man fallacy and just cut to the chase. Amazingly, yes, I do realize that calcs up to 20. I was using that as a casual baseline for someone whose gaming habits might be more normal - like me, for instance, since that seems to be my daily average. Normal joes like me can do this comfortably and get a fair majority of the way to the last badge within that week timespan. That's my point.

Today, tho, I think I ran it 7 times. I talked to people who ran it 14 times today, and some who'd never done it before. That 14 runner just started the WSTs yesterday, so she's behind the curve, but she can catch up faster than I will if she stays at that pace.

Your comment of "Let's just say most people, even people you would normally consider to be 'hard core' about this game, would not be able to manage that" really doesn't hold water either. PUG teams I formed on Freedom have been able to consistently hold to the 25 min timeframe, even when I invited a team of 4 tanks, 2 scraps and a rad because that's who was standing closest to me and I was more than a touch drunk at the time (and with two never having run it before). THAT team made it in 23 minutes, and we kept together for another 2 runs (with a swapout or two) because it was fun.

Make sense? The point here is that normal people can get the last badge very comfortably without having to rush - but even BC's "rush" methods aren't that far fetches from the normal. i.e., BC might be on the fringe of the curve, but I wouldn't paint him as an aberration that "either plays this game roughly 23 hours a day or he has friends/family play his account for him half the time."

Hope this helps. I think you're making extremes in regards to BC's getting it where it really isn't THAT much beyond the norm. This is an easy WST week, and lots of people are taking advantage of it for that reason.

EDIT: Then again, pics like this really don't help my argument.

@TURGENEV - Freedom Server / IRON / B.A.N.E / HORDE

Turg Fiction: Ghost in the Machine Acts III & IV coming 2012!
Turg Fiction: IX is now LIVE on Architect Entertainment!