Yes, this has been suggested. People have been asking for a solo path (One that doesn't take years, anyway) to get the rewards from the trials since the trials came out. Usually there's three or four new threads made on the topic per day, today must be a slow day. 
More on topic, I'd point out that by the standards of the astral merit vendor, one astral merit = one reward merit. And as we know, 50 reward merits (plus 20 million inf) = 1 alignment merit. So, one alignment merit = 50 astral merits?
Yeah, I know they'd never do that.
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One Astral being worth one RM is just...ugh. It's made by the guy who made the Inf-Prestige conversion, I swear.
As for 1 Emp breaking down to 1 Astral? Yeah. Demonspawn love child with satan right there...
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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A problem with this would be that it'd mean there'd be no way for Vigilantes or Rogues to do this, as they don't get access to Hero or Villain Merits.
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Originally Posted by Kallandra
I've no idea if this has been suggested elsewhere, if it has I apologise.
It's probably a crazy idea, but I'd love to be able to use my Hero/Villain Merits to obtain Astral Merits. Not sure how many H/V Merits it would take to hand in to get an Astral, but it would at least be a way for the solo and non-iTrial player to be able to eventually afford to get a new aura or emote. |
I made a small suggestion a while ago along these lines. In Ouroborus it is possible to convert Astral merits into Reward merits. Why can't we do the same thing the other way.... so players could show up at the Astral vendor and cash in reward merits to make Astrals or even make it an option available at the Reward merits vendors scattered throughout the game.
1. this would allow any 50 level to use merits earned from completing any TF, Trial (ones besides the incarnates), or story arch into Astrals which can then be used to open the Alpha Slot and or buy vouchers for threads.
2. It would stir new interest in players doing any and all Task forces, Strike forces and trials because the merits they earn could be used to get new powers, costume pieces, emotes, etc.
3. It would stir new interest in the WST. Lets face it now that everything can be accomplished using threads not shards a lot less people are doing the WST at least on Virtue where I play and we are one of the most active servers
4. Until some Dev gets around to finally giving us Incarnate contacts so players can solo or make small teams to earn threads and components .. it would give players not interested in doing the trials, or unable to do to lag/PC issues a way to actually gain the new incarnate powers and even access the costumes and such available using astrals.
5. Since rewards merits are available even by doing Flashbacks and by something as simple as exploring zones and getting the accolade for finding all 8 of the available badges it opens up lots of ways to advance our characters through things that already exist in game.
Since I made that suggestion I have been thinking and feel like adding to it...
At present we can cash in Astral merits or Empyrean merits for Threads. That's great and I have used this method to actuall start out a new incarnate. 5 Astrals opened the Alpha slot and 150 threads opened all of the others.. then I was able to concentrate on simply slotting not earning IXP.
Okay but I also have 10 incarnates that have tier 3 or 4 enhancers in every power and as I continue to play them are accumulating a pile of threads. Sure I can hold onto these and HOPE when the next 5 powers emerge we don't wind up with a THIRD system of stuff required to open and slot them.. PLEASE don't to that again Devs. But another idea would be to allow us to convert threads into Astrals and Empyreans that we can then use to buy the costume pieces. emotes, etc available.
Now currently an Astral will buy you 4 threads and an Empyrean will buy you 18. I don't think anyone would be too upset if say 5 threads bought an Astral and say 20 or even 25 bought a Empyrean. Here is what that would allow a player to accomplish
At best a character can earn 3 Empyreans a day by doing each of the three trials available. So if a costume piece requires 10 emps he has to do that 3+ days in order to buy it. However IF he plays multiple characters in the same day there is no reason he can't earn 10 or more Emps. The problem is they are scattered between several characters and you can't email or trade an emp or astral even to yourself. However you can convert them to thread vouchers so one character keeps its Emps and the others covert to threads which the first character then claims.
Now that character purchases emps with the threads he got through the mail and buys the costume piece.. since those pieces are account wide every one of his characters now has access to that piece and it took less than 33.3% of the time.
I realize these "rewards" are supposed to take a certain amount of effort but if I logged 4 different characters on in ONE day and ran all 3 trials with each .. earning 12 Emp merits in the process how is that NOT an effort! There are plenty of players out there that wouldn't have the time to come close to doing that many trials in a single day so we may have cut their wait time down from a MONTH to a week or less with this idea. Sounds like we'd make a lot of people happy and in business isn't keeping the customer HAPPY supposed to bea good idea. LOL
It's still not a defined solo path and in my opinion we do need some Incarnate contacts, similar to Mendors, that would allow players to solo or form small 2-8 man teams and earn threads and components. It allows players that have no desire or no ability to participate in trials a way to enjoy the incarnate system and provides even those that do the trials a way to continue to progress but take a break from the constant grind of doing the same 2-3 things over and over and over.
�We�re always the good guys. In D&D, we�re lawful good. In City of Heroes we�re the heroes. In Grand Theft Auto we pay the prostitutes promptly and never hit them with a bat.� � Leonard
�Those women are prostitutes? You said they were raising money for stem cell research!� � Sheldon
Even better, how about 20 or 25 merit random incarnate salvage rolls?
I figured I'd expand a bit on my original post here. now i am sure if they read this thread there will be some die hard players beating their swords against their shield and bellowing toward the sky..
"NO! NO! These are incarnate powers meant to make us God Like that would make it easy."
Now boys take a deep breath and calm the heck down. It's already gotten easy or at least easier. I took an 5 Astrals and bought an Alpha slot for Tia Anker, my second incarnate tank, and then she claimed a ton of thread vouchers and bought IXP. Without ever getting near a trial she had all 5 incarnates open. Then between doing a few trials herself and claiming more threads she got all her powers to tier 2. As of today she did a Keyes Trial, BAF and finished with a Lambda. All her powers are at tier 3 and she is working on tier 4 for her Alpha.
How did she accomplish it so fast.. simple I have 10 other incarnates that are already at tier 3 or 4 on all powers and they converted ever Empyrean and Astral they earned into Thread vouchers. So the Devs have already come up with a way to make getting your characters the new powers easier. Now as time went on I also started slowly using a few Astrals here and there to buy some of the costume pieces and every single character I own, incarnate or not, shared in those rewards. You tell me how my idea is any different than what the devs have already given us. What it does is allows players that 1) can't do the trials due to the lag and PC issues OR 2) players that hate the trial concept and simple don't want to use it a method to still benefit from the new powers.
Now I have seen posts in other threads where people claim.. "Well if they are not doing the trials why do they need those powers anyway!" Well the short answer is they don't. Players were successfully completing the STF, LRSF, Kahn TF, Baraccuda SF, ITF and LGFT long before Alpha, Judgement, interface, Destiny or Lore existed but they do now and they allow players to do one of two things:
1. Breeze through 45-50 level TF/SF and truly feel like demi-gods
OR
2. increase the difficulty to +4 and still enjoy the TF/SF along with the challenge.
Why shouldn't they have access to everything... they pay the same amount of cash each month we do. Personally I enjoy the trials but using the new system saved me a ton of time trying to earn IXP since they made it even more of a grind earning it by doing trials. But even I get to a point where I simply say NO MORE and go play one of my lower levels for as much as a week to break the constant 1-2-3 rinse and repeat we currently have.
I think this will make it possible to open up more characters to incarnate powers and gives players other, legitimate, options for opening them without the trials.. (casue I am sorry takes months and hundreds of millions in INF to accomplish what I can do in days or at most a week hardly seems fair). As mentioned before I still think the game needs an incarnate contact or two that will allow players to solo or form smaller teams (2-8 members max) and earn thread and components. It offers every player an alternantive to doing the same 3 things over and over and over.
�We�re always the good guys. In D&D, we�re lawful good. In City of Heroes we�re the heroes. In Grand Theft Auto we pay the prostitutes promptly and never hit them with a bat.� � Leonard
�Those women are prostitutes? You said they were raising money for stem cell research!� � Sheldon
I just want a way of being able to earn Astral Merits and Empyrean Merits without having to do an iTrial.
At the moment I'm doing the WST (on one character only as it's the only one that the iAbilities would actually fit concept wise) and upgrading the Notice of the Well to 40 Threads, which I then use to either unlock iXP or make components to go in my unlocked Incarnate Abilities.
The only thing that I can't currently do is purchase Auras or Emotes as I can't get Astral Merits or Empyrean Merits from anything other than iTrials, which I am not doing. I just want a way to change either Villain/Hero Merits, Merit Rewards (from completing story arcs etc) or something to get Astral Merits. Empyrean Merits could stay behind the iTrials to make the armour more special, but I don't see why auras and emotes have to be locked behind end-game content that I have no wish to do.
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Originally Posted by Kallandra
I just want a way of being able to earn Astral Merits and Empyrean Merits without having to do an iTrial.
At the moment I'm doing the WST (on one character only as it's the only one that the iAbilities would actually fit concept wise) and upgrading the Notice of the Well to 40 Threads, which I then use to either unlock iXP or make components to go in my unlocked Incarnate Abilities. The only thing that I can't currently do is purchase Auras or Emotes as I can't get Astral Merits or Empyrean Merits from anything other than iTrials, which I am not doing. I just want a way to change either Villain/Hero Merits, Merit Rewards (from completing story arcs etc) or something to get Astral Merits. Empyrean Merits could stay behind the iTrials to make the armour more special, but I don't see why auras and emotes have to be locked behind end-game content that I have no wish to do. |
I don't see a reason why you shouldn't have access to both. Let's keep in mind we are not JUST talking some costume pieces and emote here. You can buy rare recipes with Astrals and very rares (purples) with Empyreans. Not that there are not other ways to obtain these in game, including A merits, but again going back to the You pay the same amount of cash as everyone else arguement... they all have access to those same methods but simply because they (including me) are willing to do multiple trials they get a method to buy them that you don't.
We just keep adding more and more disfucntional forms of currency into this game ..
Influnece/infamy/information - just about anything
Reward merits - salvage, recipes (including rares) and inspirations Hero/Villain merits - rare and very rare recipes
AE Tickets - salvage, recipes (including rares), enhancements and inspirations
Pretsige - only good for base building and paying rent
and now Astral and Empyrean merits rare and very rare recipes along with costume pieces, aura and emotes
And lets not forget that as of July 1st we are building VIP points that can be used in the new in game stores to even but bits and pieced of booster packs. Some of these work together to an extent and others are useless if you are short in some other area. At this point we aren't even sure if when the next batch of imcarnate powers arrives we won't need to start collecting a whole batch of new components and something completely different that threads or shards. So far I am keeping up but I play with some 7 year VETS that had to have me explain how it all works to them LOL I am still working on year 6.
�We�re always the good guys. In D&D, we�re lawful good. In City of Heroes we�re the heroes. In Grand Theft Auto we pay the prostitutes promptly and never hit them with a bat.� � Leonard
�Those women are prostitutes? You said they were raising money for stem cell research!� � Sheldon
I've no idea if this has been suggested elsewhere, if it has I apologise.
It's probably a crazy idea, but I'd love to be able to use my Hero/Villain Merits to obtain Astral Merits. Not sure how many H/V Merits it would take to hand in to get an Astral, but it would at least be a way for the solo and non-iTrial player to be able to eventually afford to get a new aura or emote.
Help Dirk Knightly the freelance detective solve a case in Arc ID:368097