City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Make ATOs available with aMerits!

Aggelakis

By Aggelakis,
Posted on: 2012-02-25 14:49 in Suggestions and Ideas

 

Posted

tl;dr: You should be able to purchase ATOs with Alignment Merits.

I am glad that we can get ATOs from Astral and Reward Merits, but I'm curious, Why can't we get them from Alignment Merits. They're definitely not easier to get a hold of than Astrals...

Let's see...
43 Astrals/day maximum from iTrials, if you ran them all once, (16 minimum)
Possible 11 more from converting Empyreans from completing each iTrial,
6 Astrals/day max from SSAs so far.
That's a possible max total of 59 Astrals (~1.1 ATOs/Day)

You can get:
.5 Hero Merits/Day
~.86 Hero Merits/Day maximum from SSAs so far
1 Hero Merit/Day from converting from Reward Merits at 20,000,000 Inf/Merit
That brings us to a maximum total of about 2.4 Alignment Merits/day. If we use the same Merit cost pattern as the other items available use (100 Reward merits=1 Aligment Merit), that means we can get ATOs at a rate of ~0.6 ATOs/day.

I think it wouldn't really hit game balance to allow the use of Alignment merits to purchase ATOs, considering the fact that it takes twice as long to get the equivalent to 400 Reward Merits in Alignment Merits as it does to get 55 Astrals, and if it really made them to easy to get, you could raise the aMerit price up to, I dunno, 6 or 8?

Thoughts, anybody?

Open Archetype Suggestion thread!, Kirsten's Epic Weapon Pools, Feudal Japan, Etc., Alignment specific Rularuu iTrials!
If Masterminds didn't suck, they'd be the most powerful AT in the game.

 

Posted

I agree with you. Considering that we have Alignment Merit to Reward Merit ratios and even Astral Merit to Reward Merit, it seems odd that Alignment Merits are left out of this equation. It's also worthy noting that a person can only gain Alignment Merits by purchasing the Alignment system or paying the monthly sub so there is conceivably a financial reason for making them a viable option as well.

 

Posted

All of the merits should be able to buy ALL of the items any other merits can. Gated recipes/items buy merits BLOWS LARGE UNEVEN CHUNKS.

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

 

Posted

Has there ever been official word on why they're not purchasable with Alignment Merits? It's so obvious a choice that I would have to assume that it was deliberately excluded for some reason.

In Camazotz all are equal. Everybody is the same as everybody else.

 

Posted

I thought it was a nice bonus for Rogues and Vigilantes that you could get them with merits but not alignment merits.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aggelakis View Post
Coming soon. Your wish is granted.
For people with apparent reading comprehension problems.


Also, aren't tl;dr's meant to go at the end of a post?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zwillinger View Post
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain_Photon View Post
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aggelakis View Post
Coming soon. Your wish is granted.
Ooh, cool. I haven't heard about this change, is it on beta or what?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha View Post
Also, aren't tl;dr's meant to go at the end of a post?
No, it can also go at the beginning. The TL;DR crowd may not bother to skip to the end of the post to see if there's a summary, anyway, and having it at the beginning also sometimes serves as a "this is my thesis, bear with me as I explain it" even to people reading the full post.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by MajorDecoy View Post
I thought it was a nice bonus for Rogues and Vigilantes that you could get them with merits but not alignment merits.
This was pretty much my thinking.

I kind of like that they're only available with non-alignment merits; it makes the grey alignments a little more attractive (or "less unattractive," at least) than they were before. Creates a reason to go rogue/vig and actually stay there instead of just using it as a bridge between red and blue.

FUN FACT: That burst of light when you level up is actually the effectiveness escaping from your enhancements all at once.

 

Posted

I highly doubt I would use my A-merits on ATOs. The only thing I use my A-merits on are glad armor procs. Nevertheless I still agree that you should be able to get ATOs with A-merits. More options is good.

Also it's not really a bonus for rogues/vigilantes that you can't get them with A-merits. It's just a disadvantage for heroes/villains.

 

Posted

Rogues/vigilantes get reward merits for morality missions, so they really are strictly better at obtaining ATOs that way, not just "lacking a disadvantage". And advantage/disadvantage are relative concepts, anyway.

 

Posted

I've never actually heard of anyone that farms tips on a vig/rogue for the 50 reward merits. In the time it takes to do 10+1 tips you could get more reward merits doing tfs or have gotten an A-merit which is more valuable.