Rudra

What I'm glad I might be changing your mind, but I'm not going to have a lengthy debate on the matter. (Edit: Especially if the response is to remove the purchase ability entirely.) If you have questions or concerns, I will address them for you. I'm not sure what more I can say beyond what I already did. Between the desire for things like the anniversary badges to become account-wide as stated on the OP referenced thread or having an expanded window of opportunity to get, I'm more in favor of the expanded window. However, I don't feel strongly enough on the matter to engage in a lengthy debate on the matter. If you have further questions or concerns, I will address them to the best of my ability. If you disagree with me on the full year window though? That's fine. We disagree. I'm not inclined to argue.

This isn't something I'm going to put effort into fighting for. If we disagree, we disagree.

Except it isn't. The requirement for the Exultant badge was to log in the game between 11 AM ET on Saturday May 1, 2010 and 11:59 PM ET on Monday May 31, 2010. If you did not log into the game during that window, you missed the opportunity to get that anniversary badge on that character. And yet we can go to Luna every year and buy the badge from her for 100 Reward Merits. That badge's window of opportunity is gone. And yet we can still go back and buy it. We can have 1,000 characters per server. And for players that collect badges and play lots of alts, that is a constantly growing problem of accessibility. Back on Live when we could have 48 characters per server, and only if we bought the expanded character slots? Getting limited access badges was much less difficult. There are players with hundreds of alts as opposed to Live's 48. Surely some allowance for players with lots of alts can be accommodated? The issue I have with this argument is that the only badges I am talking about are badges we can already purchase. The request isn't expanding what badges can be purchased. I wholeheartedly agree with you on not expanding what badges can be purchased. However, anniversary and winter badges can already be purchased. All I am asking for is an expanded window for those with lots of alts to do what the game already allows.

Given the discussion being held on the "Recommendations for Reworking Badges" thread, I am presenting an idea to see how it will be received. For badges we can purchase but only during a specific window of opportunity each year, like the anniversary badges and the winter badges that we get for just logging in during the event, what if we could purchase the badges we missed all year? This would help alleviate the strain on players with lots of alts that struggle to cycle through their characters for the login badges as even if they fail to cycle all their characters they want the badges on, they can still go back and buy them. The character would still have to be logged in during the event to get the badge for free, but it would take away the pressure of playing catch up on characters they couldn't log in during that window of opportunity, so they won't wind up in a compounded situation of still trying to log all desired characters on during the event and also have to go back and find the characters that missed the previous years' badges, driving them even further behind. I'm not asking for more vendors to make those badges available, just for the vendors that already sell the badges to have those badges available for purchase all year.

From what I remember, the people who post on the forums are a "fraction of a fraction" of the overall player base, so using that as a measure of what most would want does not hold water. It does show intent though. And flies in the face of the OP's "would encourage people to play the story content instead of just farming all the time." And for those characters that are not badgers, who cares if they don't have all the badges? Play what you want and don't worry about the badges then. No one is forcing anyone to pursue all the badges in the game. And I don't recall giving any numbers for complaints, so I'm not sure where you are getting an "as many posts as you have suggested" from because I have not implied any quantities of posts/comments. (What I did was state that the requests themselves are proof of intent to not play existing game content. Otherwise there should be no "problem" because the character will get those badges anyway.) Players will play what they want to play. Badges are incentives to play content and/or accomplish in game tasks. If players want badges, then they should accomplish the in game tasks that award those badges. If they don't want to do so, then oh well, don't do it, and press on. Look, I get that a lot of the badges are a pain in the keister. And at least one badge I very much hate pursuing. (The hunt down 1,000 random civilians in mayhems one. I go after it anyway because, well... badge.... However, I still think the dev that added that should be beaten for it.) There are some badges I actually understand the desire for them to be account-wide. (In this case, I can see the anniversary badges being account-wide. They are only available for a brief period of time, players with lots of alts have difficulty getting them on all the alts they want them on, and even though we can go back and buy them, we can only do so during the anniversary period when we are cycling characters for the new anniversary badge.) Story arc badges or defeat badges though? Things we can pursue all year if we want? No.

Players are going to play what they want to play. However, badges still serve as an incentive to play content. I don't have hard numbers for how many players will stop playing most content if badges become account-wide, because such numbers can't be gained except by measuring player activity after such thing were to happen, but one thing I have seen over and over is that if incentives are taken away, people stop doing a lot of it. Edit: Actually, the proof is in the requests for account-wide badges. The requests are almost universally some form of "give me all badges I may already have for all characters I may ever make so I can stop doing the content those badges come from".

Then you need to re-evaluate the powers you are prioritizing on your Scrappers, the enhancement slots you are assigning to said powers, the enhancements you are putting in said slots, and/or your approach to combat with the mobs defeating you.

When everything is the same, it is boring. For instance, Controllers are terrible tanks, however, Controllers are excellent at locking enemies down and keeping them from even fighting. A debuff based Defender or Corruptor excels at hampering foes, but some foes are resistant (or effectively immune) to some debuffs and debuffs are less effective the higher the level difference between the PC and the higher level mob, even before you add in the Purple Triangles of Doom. (Edit: For instance, good luck slowing any of the 5th Column/Council wolves.) A buff based Defender or Corruptor loses out on some abilities when running around solo, but those buffs never lose efficiency/power no matter how much higher level the ally receiving the buffs are compared to the Defender/Corruptor. And in many cases, like Force Field, that buff based Defender or Corruptor is going to be more help to the team on higher difficulty missions than the debuff based Defender or Corruptor. When it comes to support characters, there are sets that are easy to leverage while solo and there are sets that are restricted in their ability to be leveraged while solo. If your intent is to run solo, then either don't take the more team focused sets or learn how to leverage the powers they have. If your intent is to team, then take any set and learn to leverage its powers. Every set has its strengths and weaknesses, or are better optimized for certain situations than others. And that makes the game more interesting and gives players more options for how the game can be played. Not all power sets should play into the same play style.

Granted, and to be clear, I don't actually care about the OP either way, but isn't that where the rest of us come in? Showing said newer players what is what and how to identify things?

Isn't it already pretty clear in the name? They both say either "Task Force" or "Strike Force", and those are specific to sides.

It is different. Melees and Sentinels get armor sets. Armor sets are personal use only and cannot be shared with your teammates. Support sets are for helping allies. A support character is supposed to be providing others support. That is kind of the whole idea behind "support". To aid others in accomplishing goals/objectives. If a support character wants to solo? They still can. They aren't going to be as effective solo because their powers are geared towards helping others, but they can still do it. (Edit again: Just like on the battlefield, you can treat your buddy's sucking chest wound, but no way you can treat your own. You provided support, but you need someone else's support for the same thing.) (Edit: You are drawing a false equivalency.)

Not what you are looking for, I know, but you can convert shards to threads and use threads to buy super inspirations. If you don't want those, you can sell them on the AH for more inf' for your alts or to buy other things like temp powers and pets.

The arcs are not started or completed for her in Ouroboros. (Edit: And obviously they aren't started or completed for her in the contacts list. Again, he is not on her active or inactive contacts lists.) If Tavish Bell does not somehow turn up on her contacts list after all this, seeing as how we are out of options to even get him for her any more, then instead of running the arcs from Tavish Bell normally together like we were intending, we are stuck running it through Ouroboros. We should not be in this situation in the first place though. We went through every contact that introduces Tavish Bell and while I was able to get him, she has not. That is a problem. That our linked characters have to go through Ouroboros to have the same progression is annoying, but that nothing we did got her access to Tavish Bell despite them being the proper ways to get access to Tavish Bell is bullshit. (Edit: I'm not angry at the devs over this, just at the game.)

Correct, new events happen when they are released. That advances the game's time line. It does not change any previous parts of the game. Again, Penelope Yin can be found in the game simultaneously as a child in Faultline being protected by some Clockwork at her father's shop and as an older teen hero in Independence Port. The game's time line advances as the devs advance it, not as real time advances. And even when the time line advances in the game, previous content is still at its place in the game's time line.

Pick a stance. Either you want players to play the content or you don't.

If you discount the level badges (including vet levels), there is a very large percentage that are tied to specific missions and arcs. If those badges become account wide, then there is less incentive to do regular content than to just farm rather than more reason to do so. A very large number of badges are held by TFs/SFs, iTrials, and other story arcs. If they are account wide, why is there a reason to run that content when you can just sit in a farm and max out because you automatically got all the badges from a previous character? Edit: Also, if you can't find a team that is running the specific patron content you want? Then either form your own team for it or just solo it. The patrons are not difficult and you only need the first arc for the pool unlocks. (Any patron arc unlocks all the patron pools.)

I did ask. And the author's provided clarity was "salvage". Even after asking if the author only meant incarnate salvage, the response was simply "salvage". If the author had responded with anything clarifying only meant incarnate salvage, the discussion would not still be ongoing and it would obviously have been my own misunderstanding. Edit: When a request for clarity is given and the originator of what is in contention refuses to make a simple statement, and instead maintains the original stance without added clarity or makes attempts at inference rather than clarity, then the inference being presented to me by others is wrong. Edit again: My mistake. In the author's post 3 up, (s)he/they do specify incarnate salvage. So my opposition is rescinded.

I live in a world where clarity and lack of specifics matters. You did not provide specifics, so specifics don't matter. Your provided the rate at which emp's can be converted to incarnate salvage, but that just means you established a baseline for your followup conversion rate. This is something I have to do a lot. Take an element from one matter and use it as a reference for another. Lack of specifics will always tell me it is open-ended. So if you only mean incarnate salvage, say so instead of trying to be so coy about it. You provided your own definition of what farming was in the statement I responded to about what farming is. You specifically said: So my response is to tell you that is not what farming is, but just one part of what farming is. Edit: Oh, right. As far as your question about chain doing TinPexes? Yes, absolutely. TFs/SFs can absolutely be farmed. Not all of them are conducive to it, especially ones like Citadel that keep bouncing you around zones, but TFs and SFs can be farmed. If you are chain running anything for the rewards, regardless of whether you are pursuing rapid mob defeat xp and inf' or task completion reward tables like in the Dark Astoria arcs? You are absolutely farming.

Your title says "Conversion of salvage to Empyrian merits".

Yes, you said salvage. And as long as your intent is salvage, I oppose your suggestion. If your intent is only incarnate salvage, then I am no longer opposed. And your response now saying just salvage tells me you are not limiting it to just incarnate salvage. So my opposition remains.

Farming is taking any mission and running it repeatedly for xp and inf'. AE makes it easy in that you can set up a one-shot mission and complete it, then restart it very quickly over and over. However, farming can also be done outside of AE and that was how farming was done prior to AE. And in many cases, how farming is still done. For instance, the Council mission with the 20 portals that have to be closed is a popular farming mission. As long as the portals are not all closed, the map can be completely cleared safely, the mission reset, and then run over repeatedly.

Or maybe just put out a request on your server for someone that enjoys base building to temporarily join your SG and put your base together? I've joined others' SGs only long enough to either fix or build their bases for them. And I know at least a few others do so as well.

Then the author can clarify that and my opposition is rescinded.

No, I didn't. I asked if it was. If it is, then I rescind my opposition just like I said I would. (Edit: Because the title just says salvage and regular salvage also comes in white, yellow, and orange varieties.)

Earth Affinity (Possible rework idea): Tier 1 Rough Ground (Can be similar to Shoal Rush or Caltrops) (Any suitable animation) (Either Foe -DEF + -Speed or Foe DoT (lethal) + -Speed) or Anticlinal Trap Tier 2 Geothermal Spring (Minor regeneration boost so it isn't just a renamed Spirit Tree + team +recharge) Tier 3 Volcanic Vent (Location AoE Foe -Perception, -ToHit) Tier 4 Reflective Crystals (As OP) Tier 5 Beryl Crystals (As OP?) Tier 6 I don't know Tier 7 I don't know Tier 8 Stone Barrier (As OP?) Tier 9 Stone Sentry