Testing Shards to Incarnate Progression

Crawled out from under the wrong bridge this morning eh?

What you're overlooking is the fact that the trials (which not everyone can participate in due to time constraints, or the fact that they're viewed as "not fun", or that their computers simply aren't capable of dealing with the problems that the League system causes, inducing crashes) are GUARANTEED rewards. "Do A and you WILL get B".

Shard drops are "If you do A, maybe you'll get B, which, after you grind enough of them, can be converted to C, which, after you grind enough of them, can be converted to D, which, after you accumulate enough, can be converted to the desired E"

Simply because YOU happen to fall into the demographic best suited for grinding out incarnate rewards doesn't give you the right to be a richard to those who aren't Tony. So please, try to keep it tucked back a bit.

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There, problem solved. EVERYONE please look at this!

Sounds good to me.

200 Merits for the LotG: def/+recharge, or 2 A-merits

EDIT: 500 Vanguard does seem as little high for soloist to get a common, but the idea is right.

You obviously aren't reading so good.

The people doing it in days are those GRINDING TRIALS.

Not everyone wants or is able to GRIND TRIALS.

Those NOT GRINDING TRIALS are given an arbitrary system that ramps up the time necessary to generate the same results from days or weeks to months or years.

And I'm not even going to do the "well you aren't the intended player" and "don't play them then" and "You don't NEED them" arguments the favor of calling them "disingenuous". They're outright, blindly, boneheadedly missing the entire blithering point.

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That's a lot of polarized points based on comparing hard core grinders against what amounts to soloers or VERY casual players. Why can't you play a few iTrials a week while generating shards solo and converting Notices to threads? That's certainly on the casual side and it wouldn't take very long to augment a character with incarnate abilities. Solo content contributing? Check. Task Forces contributing? Check. And of course iTrials are the bread and butter-- as they should be.

This stance is such bull...
MMORPGS are not all about teaming for missions.
Players who solo (or duo or trio or whatever-o) still buy things, sell things, interact to things in-between missions, show up to social events...
Just because your focus is on whatever you deem important doesn't make it so for everyone else.
And so you really think the reason for teaming is only because soloing isn't viable? And you think that's a good thing?
So, people who would rather solo or do smaller things should, instead, take part in larger teaming events so that others can take part in larger teaming events?

In that case, everyone should be required to role-play and take part in costume contests, build bases, badge hunt, buy and sell things regularly on the market (if not, you're hurting the game's overall economy, after all)...

Oh, do you not care about those things as much as teaming being superior and more justifiable than soloing?
Too bad, mate.

Or...
We could just all agree to allow reasonable levels of viability for it all and have a happy community of varied players (many of whom enjoy a bit of everything, by the way, even if their main preference and focus is one extreme or the other).

Grow beyond your own limited view of things.

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I would go a few steps further and just say get rid of the different types of components as well.

Make threads drop more than they shards do, maybe half or a third as commonly as threads do in the iTrials, but the shard drop rate is FAR too slow.

Add a 'Incarnate Mode' for the upper level task forces that make them harder, but you get thread drops at the iTrial rates as well. Have people get the option of a component, a number of threads, or astral merits. Have the WST offer the option of a rare component, more astral merits, or an emperian merit. Not sure of the exact numbers that should be but that'll work itself out.

Then instead of having 8 common types, 4 uncommon, etc...just make the pieces:

Threads,
Common = 20 threads
Uncommon = 60 threads = 3 common
Rare = 4 uncommon
Very Rare = 4 very rare

One type of each level. Keep it simple. Keep the requirements for the various incarnate powers the same (3 common for T1, 1 uncommon 2 common for T2, 1 rare and 2 common for T3, 2 T3 1 very rare and 2 common for T4).

you mean Very Rare = 4 Rares, right?

I don't feel like editing my post over and over again. It's 150 Vanguard merits for a Gr'ai Matter, which is a common. Oddly enough you could make it via 4 shards as well and my guess is you'll get the shards before the merits.

You're laboring under the misapprehension that people ARE asking for this. They're NOT. Some of this stuff can be completed in a few days by relentless grinding of the trials. Great, fine and wonderful for those that want to do it that way.

But those that don't wish to grind trials, or are simply unable/unwilling to play them (for whatever reason) are being given a alternate system that kicks up the time necessary to generate similar rewards by an order of magnitude or more.

Do the math from Bill's original post. See how long and expensive it'd be to unlock each of the 4 tiers simply by relying on random shard drops.

Then tell me it's a load of crap.

And how much Inf did you burn in the shard-to-thread and thread-to-exp conversion? Is it realistic to tell someone to save up for 7+ months, then spend a few hundred million?

What'd be nice would be a series of missions (like Tips) that'd generate an Astral or two every day you ran the set of missions, then would generate an Empyrean at the end of an arc with an "alignment mission" type finishing mission. That and random thread drops here and there. Or better yet, if the missions are multi-objective, thread drops for completing the objectives.

It'd be SLOWER than relentlessly grinding trials, but not "a few days vs 7-12 months" slower.

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The point is that the solo contribution is so negligible in comparison to the teaming route that it shouldn't even be considered. Your opinion is that the itrials should be the bread and butter. Ok, fine.

My opinion is that the current comparison amounts to the itrials being the bread and butter while the solo contribution amounts to fraction of a crumb and that this is unacceptable.

There have been a number of suggestions like this, and I would love them to be done.

Who's saying that? I know all I've said is that it exists; not that it's a good option, just that it's the only option if you want to solo.

*I* CAN. Because I'm actually playing on the servers during their populous "prime time".

There are others who cannot. Due to schedule, network, or system limitations.

There's also the fact that there are social calendars in the game as well. I host a Fire/Rad group every Monday of mixed levels.

Tanker Tuesdays are...well...Tuesdays. Again, mixed levels.

I have a regular spot on Ship raids Wednesday nights. Again, mixed levels.

You're suggesting that people simply...stop... participating in any community but the raid community?

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I think that's a good suggestion-- but that system would allow stockpiled tokens to be redeemed for incarnate abilities up to tier 3 without ever running iTrials or any content what so ever, either new or old. Such stockpiled tokens are the reason this wasn't implemented initially, and possibly the reason that something like that never will be. The developers want you running iTrials, Task Forces or missions after the incentive system (incarnate powers) has been created, as the reward and the task are symbiotically designed.

If you can come up with a similar plan that does not allow for stockpiled tokens to be used, it would be viable. Attaching thread rewards as an option on some older content might work, but these will need to be meted by the time formula that constrains reward merits. If an optimized team can beat it in 25 minutes, you're not going to get much when most teams take an hour. But it's a start.

That wasn't what he was suggesting at all.

And I would suggest again, what if reasonable goals are simply unlocking the incarnate slots and putting a tier 1 power in them?

Some of the people posting in this thread have stated that in other threads. Everything else you just stated is true.

It is not a good option for soloists. It is the only option for soloists.

Some of us, I dare say, many of us, consider this a mistake that needs to be corrected.

This is the best damn comment in this thread

Ok, I understand your point. But, may I suggest that at this point the majority of people that had a GET IT NOW, have done the grinding the "usual" way. Enough so I feel comfortable calling them a majority.

I would say that for the remaining Solo-ers, those that have a stock pile of certain merits, would then be able to catch up to their peers. And be able to function better, if they did choose to join with other people, but would not be forced to do so.

I only made that post as an example. Maybe a starting point. But after I posted it, and someone replied that is would be 2 hero merits to equal 200 reward merits to buy something like a LotG +7.5%, that I came up with another idea. I'll post it in a sec.

That reasonable goal is easily done by what I suggested. Simply running one iTrial a week to augment the solo path is a HUGE increase in speed. Add in converting notices from one Task Force and your goal is reasonable.