Forcing content: Disproportionate Rewards

At first, I was super stoked about the new incarnate system. ANY level 50 content I did would easily put me along the path of the incarnate, and every TF housed a unique component, that made it worth while to do every TF, or each as they applied to the incar-power of choice at least.

All this meant, was regular level 50 shenanigans (missions and farms) were one way to approach power, and just as equally were the TF's if you wanted to do them. basically, shards vs specifics.

Now however, the Weekly Strike Targets have caused level 50's to abandon almost all level 50 content, and keeps them from playing any pre-50 content and trials trading this all for the chance at either double rewards or the notice of the well (for each character).

The result being that there is a far greater reward for repetitively throwing yourself into the same content again, and again, and again and again until your sick of it that week, or you could also choose just to play alone, or on a tip team

And there's another thing.

Tips. We're glad to have some more content, really, we are. But why do tips, which usually have a tenuous plot at best (when trying to interconnect them), which are played like radio missions, require little dedication and attention, give 50! merits the first time, and an A-Merit every time you complete 10 of them. While most story arcs, which require the team to travel around, have decent stories, with interesting content (that the entire game revolved around previously) give insignificant rewards comparatively, with no means of progressing as a team to the reward unless you are perfectly synced up.

__________________________________________________ __________

Now lets simplify the problem with tips (not WST's) with a direct comparison.

Given that:

1 Allignment Merit = 50 Reward Merits + 20,000,000 inf

10 tips + 1 Morality = 50 Merits(1st time), and 50 Merits + 20m inf(1A-M) (every repeat).

Harvey Maylors: Upon the Psychic Plane Story Arc, comprised of 14 Door Missions (4 Defeat All), 2 Hunts, 4 Talks, and 2 AVs gives .... 49 Reward Merits, the highest of any arc reward.

That means at best, a story arc can almost reward the equivalent of a repeated morality mission minus the 20 million inf that you'll have to spend if you want to convert those reward merits into A-Merits. Even if they require more missions in number, harder missions in difficulty, longer missions by requirement, and more inconvenient missions by travel. And only those with the specific contact (of over a hundred) at the specific mission being played in the arc, get a stab at the reward.

Which begs to question: "Why should anyone play the story anymore?"
Which unfortunately is added on to the original complaint
"Why aren't level 50's playing the TF's and trials they enjoy?"

With the ultimate answer being, there is little reward for playing the game we want to, there is only reward for playing the game you want us to.

What this means, is that when those things coincide, this game is more fun and rewarding than ever. It also means when they don't, it is more boring and lonely than ever.

Play the game the way you want to and have fun. Don't worry about the rewards.

I have not had a problem putting together a non-WST team on Champion.

Who's forcing you to do anything?

Well, feedback is feedback. Supports nice, criticisms fine if explained also. All about the promoting of discussion here.

If I came off as ranty or extremist, it's only because I've been playing a character solo and trying to earn badges while I'm at it. (Something I really haven't done much of). What I'd found is that the game is really quite cool when you use the contacts for your merits and leveling, and the underused hazard zones for slashing and burning (that is, farming for profit and because you like killing large mobs).

To SHARE that, I'm just encouraging equality of reward. It allows for a more even spread within the community among the modern content, the old stuff, the end leveled and the rising characters. That way on a highly populated server, you would be more likely to find people to team with doing the same (rather than grinding out cash/levels the most efficient ways possible).

While I'm willing to sacrifice some for that (especially since I've already got my infdaddy characters) many are not, or are simply ignorant (by definition) of the cooler zones, and more interesting story available in the game.

So, wait a minute. What is it that OP wants, precisely? Larger rewards for completing old story arcs?

Ideally, I'd like reward equality, but given the history of this game, I prefer having intentive to run different TFs every week than just ITF - farm - ITF - farm all year long.

Not to mention the old story arcs are pretty boring, so I'd be in favor of revamping the content before revamping the rewards (although obviously the latter is faster than the former).

I have to ask. How many 50's do you have? And how many of them are incarnates?

Yes, 50's are doing the WST for the Notice. Makes sense, but after they get it once, it's not like there's a real point to repeating it, other than a badge, for a single 50.

I've also formed different TFs this last week that weren't Apex (the WST), STF, ITF, Posi...

If people are repeating the the WST on a single 50, it's likely because that's what they consider fun or for some other reason, because really, the double merits, notice, only happens once on the WST.

I do not want higher rewards for older content because older content is horribly grindy, unfun, and the actual story is filled with filler and often not very well written. The tip missions have better mechanics and better stories than the 20 mission story arcs.

I don't play the tips instead of story arcs because of the rewards, but because they are just better, all things considered.

When radio/paper missions were the only thing around, it seemed most teams just ran that over and over again instead of contacts. The rewards were not better in any way whatsoever. Now with Tips, it seems most teams run those over and over. At least for these there's a very good prize at the end.

I do have to agree with the OP in that incentive-wise, there's very little reason to do normal story arcs.

But then again, given that most people are terrified of forming their own teams, it falls into the hands of the few people that actually make teams to chose what to run. And I normally run arcs with all the teams I put together.

Yeah, if only we could go back to the days when people ran old story arcs instead of newspaper/radios and the ITF over and over again.

Oh, wait.

I've done Worldwide Red, I've done To Save a Thousand Worlds, I've done a bunch of the old story arcs, and you know what? They're terrible. Bunch of repetitive missions against the same enemy groups that send you all over the city, and the story barely manages to tie them together anyway.