Throw the tourists a bone.

Being a tourist (Vigilante/Rogue) is awesome. Except for the rewards. Without the ability to convert merits into HVAMs, our buying power is half that of a pure alignment. I certainly understand the desire to encourage staying pure, but I think that's a bit too much of a punishment for those who enjoy touristry - I know that for me, the introduction of HVAMs moved my perception of Merits from "meh, why do I bother" to "ooh, wonder what I'll get!", while adding a useful and affordable inf sink.

Thus, my suggestion, which I take from something already in the game.

Did you know that a Tourist reaffirming his alignment, instead of a HVAM, receives 60 merits? That's only 60% the buying power of a HVAM, but 120% of a HVAM if you switch sides and convert - of course, the problem being, it takes a lot of time and effort (30 tip missions for the round trip, meaning at least six days, plus 20 hours for every HVAM you want to convert).

So in the vein of "tourists can earn more merits but pures get more bang for the buck (after an inf investment)", I propose the following:

Tourists may receive extra rewards from one red and one blue side Weekly Strike Target per week.*

Thank you for your attention.

*: Unless the WST is co-op, then they can't.

I'd be happy to throw things at the whining tourists. I prefer canned peas.

Ironically the main reason the Devs introduced the Alignment merit concept to the game was to give the "pure-bloods" some advantage to counter-balance the big advantage of being able to do almost anything red or blue at any time. I doubt the Devs would ever give Tourists some kind of -additional- benefit to counter-balance the counter-balance.

We still wouldn't have nearly as much buying power without the ability to convert merits into HVAMs. I'm well aware of the reason for the introduction of HVAMs.

And counter-balancing the counter-balance is not a bad thing if the initial counter-balance was too much the other way, IMO.

Honestly, I'm fine with rewards as they are for "tourists". Instead, I'd rather they just open up the other side's regular content. It's not particularly hard to get on (or just start) a TF regardless of which side you're on, so opening up those on the other side...meh.

Keep the system the way it is in spirit. More rewards for the "dedicated", more content for the "tourists". But actually make good on the "more content" part by letting them run arc contacts for the other side.

Every time one of these threads pops up I have to wonder; if you want HVAM buying power so bad, why not just change alignment? Obvious answer: Because you just love being able to change sides that much. If you're that stubborn about being able to keep your Rogue/Vigilante status, then obviously the payoff is worth it.

Suggestion for the OP. Make a Hero/Villain, get the merits and email purchased items to yourself. Problem solved.

The ability to buy stuff is asymetrical to the ability to play in both cities with a single character. It's apples and oranges.

I personally see staying a hero/villain to be an RP choice, and RP choices shouldn't be rewarded. But I'll set that aside.

There are so many better ways of handling this. In my dream version of coh, I'd solve this by allowing everyone to go to both sides. Pures visiting an opposing side would be attackable by pures on the home team, which would flag the attacker to be attacked back by invaders, essentially turning every non-coop zone into a PvP zone, though completely optional for those who are on their home turf.

As long as the home turfer isn't flagged from attacking an invader, they can group together, and in mixed groups, no one in the group can attack each other. In city zones, no one in the group can benefit another either. Once entering a mission, they all are temporarily rogue/vigilante, and can play normally. But completing any mission like this would possibly screw with their alignment (sorta like old school DnD characters acting outside their alignment).

Anyways, it's not like it's going to change, but to address things. The whole point is to not have to constantly switch characters, at least for me. So switching just so I can get rewards defeats the purpose. These days this game has one endgame and that's acquiring Inventions. No one really cares about anything else. Generally speaking of course. So the ability to participate in that should just be off the table.

If people can play any AT on either side, most won't care what their alignment is called, they'll just want access to the content and rewards, and will all pool in paragon, leaving the isles abandoned.

/UNSIGNED

Your reward for being Rogue/Vigilante is access, access which Heroes and Villains don't have, so you're going to have to suck it up on rewards.

WARNING: I bold names.

Access to what exactly?

Those same TFs that my alts can already do?
The story arcs I can't touch?
The exact same AE?

I wouldn't be suggesting this if there weren't precedent and it didn't sound opportunistic enough for Rogues (why a Vigilante would ever team with villains is beyond me)

I'd be more for creating special Vigilante/Rogue-only arcs.

Another one of these threads?

My reward for playing a Rogue or Vigilante is (1) access to the other side, as a "tourist", to claim badges and/or run content with friends' characters on that side; (2) the alignment/morality missions themselves, which are still interesting and fun new-ish content to me; and (3) simply having the alignment which is appropriate to the character recognized by the game.

If I want to grind merits - which I rarely do, unless it's with friends - I have several heroes and a couple of villains with which to do so. Doing so on just one or two of them, up to my daily limit, along with everything else I like to do in a typical day or evening of play, fills up my limited/casual playtime just fine.