New Incarnate Merit Salvage


Agent White

 

Posted

Don't know if this has been posted elsewhere already or not, but check it out:
We already know about Astral and Empyrean merits, but how about Transcendent, Celestial, and Cosmic merits?! O.o


 

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Exactly what we need.
More currencies!
Positron please stop this madness. Getting thousands of currencies not going to get newbies to keep playing this game, is hard even for veterans to remember all those currencies and salvage crap we got.


 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Angelxman81 View Post
Exactly what we need.
More currencies!
Positron please stop this madness. Getting thousands of currencies not going to get newbies to keep playing this game, is hard even for veterans to remember all those currencies and salvage crap we got.
Yes, hyperbole will save the day.

There's a lot, but they're all pretty stupid easy to remember what they do and what they're for. You're never going to wonder why you have all these alignment merits and why the merit vendors don't take them or acrue Vanguard merits and be lost as to why you can't make them into your incarnate abilities.


 

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Those currencies have been in the game files/chat-linkable for quite some time - since Astrals/Emps were introduced, I believe, if not earlier. That doesn't mean they will soon be used, and indeed, if more recent dev comments are to be believed, they won't be used.

In short: it's interesting that these exist, but not a cause for alarm.


 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hopeling View Post
...it's interesting that these exist, but not a cause for alarm.
I agree!


 

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All that said, it is perfectly reasonable to express an opinion: i happen to agree with the position that adding currencies is an unoriginal, lazy attempt to solve a problem, that doesn't at all consider the playability of the game. I'm not going to go all doom-and-gloom but if every incarnate bump introduces a new currency i, for one, will get tired of it, which will result in my playing less, which will result in me cancelling my subscription sooner than later. The devs should know that, hope they read this stuff.


 

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The Cosmic Merit is purty!

I think I'd keep an extra around just to have it in my inventory.

Personally, I'm not fazed by extra currencies. It gives a way to gate and segregate content to some degree. Have Vanguard Merits as a distinct currency, for example, lets the Devs have specific rewards to doing Mothership raids. Alignment Merits give you a reason to use the tip missions other than switching alignments. Empyrean Merits give a way to get those Rares and Very Rares if you are unlucky at drops, while Astrals are "cheap enough" as part of the Incarnate system that the Devs can put them as rewards to the SSAs / Apex / Tin Mage without throwing rewards out of balance.

On the one hand, I personally wouldn't mind these 3 new merits. I'm assuming that Transcendental and Celestial would be related to the next 4 Incarnate Slots unlocked, and Cosmic Merits would be tied to the Omega Slot.

However, I can see that implementing these merits could be a turn off to some of the player base, and that does worry me. But the Devs may see a balance need to use these new Merit types, in order to ensure that it's easier to progress in the upper Incarnate slots by doing higher level Trials, instead of just doing BAF over and over again.

Glad I'm not in Positron's shoes, and having to make the final decision whether to use these Merits or not.


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Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthracite View Post
All that said, it is perfectly reasonable to express an opinion: i happen to agree with the position that adding currencies is an unoriginal, lazy attempt to solve a problem, that doesn't at all consider the playability of the game. I'm not going to go all doom-and-gloom but if every incarnate bump introduces a new currency i, for one, will get tired of it, which will result in my playing less, which will result in me cancelling my subscription sooner than later. The devs should know that, hope they read this stuff.



When the devs added the incarnate powers that came after the Alpha, shards did not become useless. Instead you could use them to make threads to create components to make the new powers or even to create the Alpha.

So if the dev's keep with that same methodology then Transcendent, Celestial and Cosmic merits may just be a different denomination of component needed to make/buy other components needed to build the new incarnate powersets that come out at a later date.


 

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yes but people will balk regardless because they can't just dump everything they've hoarded and get to T4 on everything new.

having an opinion is fine, but just poking into almost any other MMO shows that City's system is dead simple with relatively few currencies.


 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shagster View Post
Personally, I'm not fazed by extra currencies. It gives a way to gate and segregate content to some degree.
Personally, I agree. I think complaints of currency overload are usually massively overblown, in a game where we have an effectively unlimited inventory (merits cap at 9999, if I recall) for such things and, if you can't remember what they're for, a right-click->Info or a quick search on Paragonwiki tells you. Even so, having separate currencies for completely separate things (reward merits, vanguard merits, tickets, enhancement boosters, unslotters), which are usually given names that make their purpose immediately obvious, is a somewhat separate issue from having a bunch of separate currencies for a single system (5 different kinds of Incarnate merits, all with generic and interchangeable names), so I can at least see where people are coming from on this.


 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by UNB0UND_4_LIFE View Post
Metroid Merits?


 

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I personally love all the different salvage currencies merits etc... How can you not love new shinies?!


 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kheldarn View Post
I was wondering when I'd see a post about these. I've known of their existance for months now.

Anyway, they have said that they don't want to introduce more currencies to the game, so I doubt those will ever see the light of day.
They said they don't -want- to, but that doesn't mean they won't -have- to if they can't think of a better solution.


 

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Add another vote for "no new currency".


 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Agent White View Post
They said they don't -want- to, but that doesn't mean they won't -have- to if they can't think of a better solution.
Probably means it is coming. Oh well, I'll take that over the ideas that were being floated that were worse than this...


The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.

 

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If the devs don't want people to unlock the upcoming incarnate slots on day one, there are several solutions they can use that don't involve adding new salvage for crafting them.

The most obvious is to use a new iXP type, and initially disallow using threads to buy that iXP. I generally get the salvage I need to craft T3 powers before I have enough iXP to unlock it. They can make it as fast or slow as needed. Some of the existing trials could be modified to award the new iXP as appropriate.

The only downside of this is that people who have hoarded large amounts of incarnate salvage will be able to craft T4 powers on day one. This could be resolved by changing the unlocking mechanism for the new incarnate powers so that each tier is unlocked when you hit a percentage of the total.

For example, when you hit 10% of iXP needed for a slot you unlock the Tier 1 power, at 25% you unlock Tier 2 powers, 50% for Tier three and 100% Tier 4. By adjusting how much total iXP is needed they can control how fast you progress.

This would also help to resolve the issue of speed trials. Because players who've already unlocked slots don't need any more iXP, they tend to favor speed trials that minimize the number of mobs defeated. That means players who need that iXP can have a hard time finding a trial that gets them iXP at a decent clip.

If it took you about the same amount of time to accrue the iXP needed to unlock a T4 power as it took you to get the salvage to craft it, speed trials would be favored by fewer players.