How many rewards can you name?

Let's see if I can name all the rewards currently in this game...

Experience
Influence
Prestiege
Enhancements
Inspirations
Temp Powers
Badges
Accolade Powers
Salvage Drops
Recipe Drops
Day Jobs (kind of an accolade power, but not the same because it acts differently)
Reward Merits
Architect Tickets
Alignment Merits
Incarnate Shards
Incarnate Threads
Astral Merits
Empyrian Merits
Super Insperations
Attuned Enhancements
Catalyts
Converters

That's everything I can think of... and I tried to get them in the order they were released (everything down to badges I believe was in the original release). Each one of these rewards has some kind of confusing bizarre behavioral trait that you must understand fully in order to maximize your rate of obtaining them and using them. Some of them convert to others. Some can be converted back and forth using the market for gain. All conversions where you change back and forth using non-player interactions come at a cost, although converting reward merits to alignment merits always seems to be a positive move. (unless you want a converter today, but that's supposed to be getting fixed, but didn't get fixed with the last patch... so... um... moving on).

Anyway... my point is this. The whole reward system in this game is getting rediculously complicated. I've been here since the beginning and I'm not sure I even understand it all. Granted... this is a computer game, so figuring out complicated systems is kind of what all of us do for a hobby. But am I the only one who thinks this is getting silly?

Super Inspirations is just another grade of inspirations.

Enhancements is system of customization of powers in which one can earn or be rewarded with parts to constantly upgrade within that system. So, it wouldn't be fair to talk of all the different types of Enhancements (TO/DO/SO/HO/Purple/PvP/SBE/ATO) and their customizers (Boosters/Catalysts/Converters) as separate reward systems. It is complex, but when it comes to customizing powers, I doubt the majority of the playerbase can't get enough of options in this regard.

In the same way, the Incarnate System is just one system with different parts: Shards, Shard-components, Threads, Thread-components, Astrals, and Empyreans. The Devs are on record that they would not only not add new layers to this system, but take a look at removing the Shard and Shard-components.

Don't forget that Base Salvage was removed as a drop/reward. And that Influence, Infamy, and Information were merged into one.

Separate systems are separate systems. They allow specific tasks to work toward specific goals. It wouldn't make sense that opening Gamesters presents advances one in Incarnate powers... so, you can't make an Incarnate power with Candy Canes.

Part of the game for hard core players is mastering a system. Casual players can ignore most systems and still enjoy the game. I think a good balance has been struck.

Do points count as a reward?

Personally, I don't think having a bunch of different rewards is a problem, at least not any more than having a bunch of different invention salvage is a problem. Less than that, in fact, since the various rewards generally stand on their own, unlike salvage where you need specific unguessable combinations for each recipe, and inventory space for most currencies is not an issue.

Still, some people apparently do dislike it, which is a decent reason to be wary of adding new currencies unnecessarily.

Ooops, I forgot Vangard merits

I think where it starts to get silly is when they added Incarnate Threads and didn't just use shards again. It seems they wanted to lock certain rewards behind the iTrials so you couldn't progress through the incarnate rewards beyond alpha slot, solo?

I'm not really saying I think something should change. I just think it's getting funny.

Didn't they say on a ustream that they're planning to get rid of shards entirely?

It is the incarnate rewards that complicate it for me, having to run different things for different rewards that may not even be what you want and having to make stuff to use to make more stuff! It is just one layer too many for me, and that isn't mentioning the grind.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aggelakis PrincessDarkstar: "RAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH SOMEONE IS *WRONG* ON THE INTERNET!"

I would love to have the heavy commander's abilities

Your list is interesting but lets see things in a dfferent light.

Inspirations, super inspirations: In any other MMO these would be potions that drops into bag.

Enhancements, temp powers, attuned enhancements: These are akin to various equipments that drops into bags in other MMO's.

Recipes, salvages, converters, catalysts: these are various crafting tools and components in any other MMO that again drop into bag.

Reward Merits, Architect Tickets, Alignment Merits, Incarnate Shards, Incarnate Threads, Astral Merits, Empyrian Merits: These are like special tokens in other games that can be used to purchase some specific items in other MMO's usually even in other MMO's these have their own spaces and usually have a large cap that may not be reached. (hell the new WoW in space has so many of these you would puke)

Badges: Many other MMO also has achievements.

Prestige: I don't knowany other MMO that has this but I won't be surprised if there were some MMO's that let you collect base or guild specific gold.

Influence: Gold or credit in other MMO's.

So what is really confusing in here? Incarnate drops? many games have similiar drops to purchase specific equipment and usually PvP oriented ones. In a matter of fact in CoH we have the luxury of having seperate spaces for all the drops in most games people need to purchase extra bags or containers to put everything together.