Sig Story Arc rewards

So, recently the sig rewards were changed, so you had to have confirmed your alignment (hero.villain) before you could pick the A merit.

Fair enough.

I don't mind the change but..NOWHERE does it actually mention, in game, that this needs to be done. Are the devs simply that slack, or stupid? Or both? A change that screws the rewards, yet people are meant to be checking the forums constantly, in order to actually find out about it?

But again, that isnt my issue.

Just now, I ran the arc with a few friends, on my MM, who began as a villain, and switched to 100% hero, about..5 months ago. Since then, I had not actually done another set of tips with him (because he is poison and its junk). But he is STILL a hero. The last morality mission I did..a HERO one.

SO, we finish the arc, and the A merit option has the following message:
'You must have completed your most recent Morality Mission as a Hero reinforcing your Hero alignment to claim this reward.'

MMmm. Say WHAT? My most recent alignment? Which was a HERO! Or maybe I 'accidently' did 10 rogue tips as a Villain, came to paragon then accidently did another 10 Hero tips, plus Morality...and again, all accidently, became a Hero??

How does swapping sides NOT reinforce my alignment? The alignment is CHANGED! Clearly, I am reinforcing it.

And the very fact that there is no mention at all of this, or even having to have done any alignment, before starting the arc, is a load of total rubbish. How hard can it be? One line of text..'Have a moral mission done.' Super tricky stuff. Nice work devs.

I like being insulting. I have this weird condition..when I see something that is stupid..I call it STUPID. Having no warning AT ALL about how the rewards change, is, guess what..stupid. Make any argument you like, go on. I will wait. Oh, that's right..you can't, cause it is stupid.

Can you seriously tell me it would take them a long time to add two lines of text??

And for the record, I can see your points too. Technically, doing a side switch isnt reinofcing your alignment..because it is a switch.

But, can you honestly say it actually makes sense? As I said, how does twenty tips and 2 moral missions, NOT count as reinforcing it? When I did that..I got the CtJ temp power, right? Tell me..DO you get that power, when you create a new toon, as a hero? Right, you do not. So, since I got said power, swapping from red to blue, WHY isnt that confirming myself as a Hero?

You can't even make the argument that if the system worked that way, it would be an unfair advantage, since people could just pick a toon, switch alignment, and be qualified to get A merits (without that alignment reinforcement). Why can't you argue that? Because it take 22 missions to switch sides! Or, you could stay on the same side, and confirm it in 11 missions. So again, even if the system did work in that way..no one would actually do it.

Also, if you think I am over reacting, or being rude (yes, I am, I admit it), I also sent an ingame petition, saying sorry for being rude, but the system is total garbage and I want an A merit. Not diplomatic, but hey, I am annoyed.

I also think its stupid. For a long time hero character, that can get into Fort Trident, to have to reaffirm he is a hero to get a hero merit from an SSA arc which is meant to save old heros. Saving Numina is not a good reaffirmation?

Also, how is someone under lvl 20 supposed to do this? Tips dont fall, and the first SSA is given in Skyway to anyone over lvl 10.

Agreed Largo..oh I saved two members of teh FP..but..no, I am not 100% sure I am a hero yet! Gimme a break.

And another thing, the whole reinforcement issue REALLY sucks if you are a mid level toon and happen to have switched alignment.

I am playing a duo with a friend, lvl 27 atm. And we started hero side, in order to get the shiny new Twinshot badges. Then, we decided to go red, since she has not done much red content.

Because of that, we choose not to run the sig story arc, because we would only get reward merits, and lock ourselves out of the Bonus reward, for doing each bit for the first time.

Meaning, we had to do 10 tips + moral, to go vigilante. Then another 10 + moral, to become what is apparently a totally not sure if I really am a villain, villain.

Which is where we are now. But oh no, it can't end there! We have to do ANOTHER 11 missions, just to confirm our villain status. That's 33 missions,just because we wanted to, ya know, play the content.

I don't know about anyone else, but that load of crap makes me what to say bad bad words about the Sig arc system and never do it again.

Also, as Largo said, why do you NEED to reinforce your alignment in the first place, when the first arc is 10+, yet you cant get tips that level! And if the awarding of A merits without alignment reinforcing was SO broken (maybe a lil), why the hell did the arcs even get the option for A merits?? For 10-20 mins work, compared to 22+ missions, to earn the same reward normally.

It is things like this that make me wonder if they even play, or know how, to play their own game. Especially given the lack of any warnings or explanations on how said rewards work.

Yeah I understand why the change came in Grouchy...but like you say, the fix is stupid. Well, you did not literally say that..but anyway.

When the arcs were being tested, just the fact you could get two A merits, back to back, with no prior work, SHOULD have raised a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig red flag. Waved it with a damn chorus of trumpets playing too.

But..it didn't. Or if it did, it still went Live. Sometimes I wonder why this game even has a Test server, if things go live that are broken to anyone with half a days knowledge of gameplay mechanics.

The upshot being, anyone switching sides, anyone under 20, anyone who through no fault of their own, hasn't done 11 missions....gets shafted out of a reward (without doing the stupid things needed naturally) because...some genius designer did not realise that giving out 2 A merits for 20 mins time IS broken.

Another thought...a better fix would have been simple to scrap the A merit option altogether, and simple go with reward merits. Any thoughts on why that wasnt done? Here is my view.

The sig arc, unless you are a VIP and get it anyway, costs money to access. Now, I LIKE the sig arcs, they are fun, varied, interesting. Would I PAY for them, if I did not have access? A big flat resounding NO.

If they didnt have an A merit reward, I very much doubt people would play them, at least not more than once. Three missions in 20 minutes is hardly a massive undertaking. So they got people hooked with the nice easy merits..

Until..du du dun..*cue big comic lightblub* Wait a minute..2 merits in 20 mins? WHAT were we thinking?! Wtf indeed Sir Dev.

Hands up please if this reminds you of anything. Nice rewards, suddenly working out that it is too good, a quick, heavy handed nerf.

AE anyone? Hami farms, mm pet farms, ambush farms..all resulting in nerfs, as what should have been obvious from the start, gets squashed.

I see a pattern! And I am not even a mathematician.
To quote a favourite TV show..'The answer to treating car crash victims is not better medical care, it's seatbelts.'

The answer to these 'issues' is not to slap them with the nerf bat..the answer should have been the common sense to see what was going to happen.

The fact that any hero or villain could get an alignment merit, even those who had never run a tip mission in their life, was obviously a bug that was eventually going to be fixed. And when it was fixed it was announced in the same way that most changes are announced, on the main COH Patch Notes web page (no forum access necessary):

October 19th Patch Notes

So the announcement is well over a week old and publicly available to those that cared to look.

It is now working like it should have all along - those that qualify to get alignment merits via tips can get them via signature arcs. I'm sorry you didn't get the reward you thought you deserved but Paragon Studios DID in fact disclose the change well before you ran the arc.