SupaFreak

As a somewhat regular on Anyad's iMSRs, I gotta agree that the initial implementation of 35+ and Member of Vanguard was an overall better experience than what I experienced tonight on the new format. I'd personally prefer there be a "normal" and "advanced" versions of the instanced MSR - with the advanced being what it once was. My 3 cents... because I found an extra one on the way to this reply. PEACE!

Pretty simple request for Chapter Tags on the Pillar of Ice and Flame for Flashbacks. Simple tag for the RWZ would probably be Vanguard (?). Thanx in advance.

Been happening to me on certain missions since HC went Live but I just deal with it. Always happens on the Apex & Tin Mage TFs, that's for sure. Can't recall offhand what other missions or instances.

Note the totals below do not include Special (Who Will Die / Pandora's Box) or Archived Arcs Level 50 Hero Villain Either Total Arcs 14 39 7 Total Merits 330 423 134 (+20) Avg. Merits per Arc 24 11 19 Approximate Minutes 376 604 112 Avg. Minutes per Arc 27 15 16 Avg. Merits per Minute & Hour 0.8 / 48 0.7 / 42 1.1 / 66 Total Door Missions 91 173 35 Avg. Doors per Arc 6.5 4.4 5 Avg. Merits per Door 3.6 2.4 3.8 Levels 1-50 Totals Hero Villain Praetor Either Total Arcs 99 153 65 8 Total Merits 1974 (+140) 1702 (+40) 441 151 (+20) Avg. Merits per Arc 20 11 7 19 Approximate Minutes 2110 2083 831 128 Avg. Minutes per Arc 21 14 13 16 Avg. Merits per Minute & Hour 0.9 / 54 0.8 / 48 0.5 / 30 1.1 / 66 Total Door Missions 481 558 240 39 Avg. Doors per Arc 4.9 3.6 3.7 4.9 Avg. Merits per Door 4.1 3.1 1.8 3.8

Milestone 5 - 300 Story Arcs Completed / Tracked Actually hit the milestone last night but failed to realize it until this morning when I counted that I was at 303. Down to the final 66 which I'm sure will be complete by the end of the weekend at the rate I'm going. There's a lot of upcoming Villain Arcs I've never done before so looking forward to those. Other than that, I'll just say there's a lot of newer arcs I recently played that would awesome to do in a team setting but no way I'll be forming for them because of the dismal Merit count. Anyways, will post a final chart for 50 and Grand Total when complete. PEACE!

Began tracking Hero arcs for level 50. Note that I will NOT be tracking Dark Astoria arcs because they do not award Merits and instead have an Incarnate Reward Table. Also note that I will not be tracking Personal Stories for they only award Badges which is not the focus of this endeavor. Unless Villains have outdated Arcs on Flashback, I believe I'm done with the Archived Arcs for now. If you're sure of a listed Arc that is no longer offered by contacts and needs moved to Archive category, please let me know. Thanks!

Since the recent License Agreement with NC Soft announcement, I've found myself trying to look at City of Heroes from a new player's perspective and not so much as a 13-year veteran of the game. I find myself evaluating the existing core systems of the game and where the glaring flaws are that the Homecoming team inherited and have yet to address. I ask myself what is going to get newcomers here and wanting to stay and what can be done on the development side with minimum effort for maximum results. And that's what has led me to this suggestion that's been on my mind since Live... Suggestion: Reward Merit Re-Evaluation Some of you had to know something along these lines was coming from me since I've been posting the data on my current "W.I.P. Feedback on Merit Distribution through Flashback" thread. Giant Monsters post 27 page 7 I feel the changes made were a great step in the right direction here. Lusca got the proper treatment for time invested and the overall experience for Monster Hunting teams just got the boost it needed to be a viable option for something rewarding to do from time to time. Part 1: Set Clear Standard Guidelines for Base Reward Merits The following would result in Reward Merits for some existing Story Arcs to go down, others up. This part of the Suggestion I hope most would agree would be for the betterment of the game. The Perceived Current Problem Right now there are arcs we can speed run and earn over 90 Merits an hour on, while there are others we can't earn a single Merit on. My speculation of what the Paragon Studios originally had in mind during Issue 13 when Reward Merits were introduced vs where they ended up at Sunset appear to be spot on. They got lazy and players experiencing Praetoria got hit the worst by the flat "9 Merits per Arc no matter how long they take to complete" approach. And honestly as much as I'm proud of the Homecoming team, I am concerned the flat "20 Merits per Arc no matter how long they take to complete" is a band-aid to a problem that I perceive as long overdue for re-evaluation. It's in my belief based on research of numbers that the original design goal was based on solo Speed+Stealth+Damage characters to top out at "60 Merits per Hour" for speed runs of any given Story Arc. A simple max value of 1 Merit per Minute. There's a handful right now that would need the Reward Merit nerf hammer brought down on them. However, there's actually more that would have the nerf air compressor *clap clap* pump them up! 1-A) Possible Guidelines - Data Mined for fastest runs if possible. Story Arcs -------> 1 Merit per Minute ( based on solo play ) <--- what it appears they were originally designed to be. TFs / SFs --------> 1.5 Merits per Minute ( based on teams of 4+ ) <--- what most approximately are currently. Incarnate TFs ---> 2.5 Merits per Minute ( based on teams of 4+ ) <--- what they currently are (Apex / Tin Mage). 1-B) End Results Possibilities & Examples: Low Level Arcs -----> A good chunk would go up 4 or more Reward Merits per Arc. Praetorian Arcs -----> A good chunk would go up 5 or more Reward Merits per Arc. Hero Arcs -----------> Some would reduce Reward Merits, some would increase. Villain Arcs ----------> Few would reduce Reward Merits, most would increase. 1-C) ***** Low Levels vs High Levels ***** In my opinion, with this game's ability to Exemplar down on Task/Strike Forces, Story Arcs, etc. there's no reason why a level 45+ (non-Incarnate) Miss Liberty TF should be more Reward Merit attractive than a level 8+ Positron TF. Same sentiment goes for Story Arcs. Level is just a number.... plus powers. Part 2: Consider Adding Reward Merit Distribution to Pick-Up Groups doing Certain Content. Note this suggestion may seem a bit radical at first, but please evaluate what the end result might be before passing harsh judgment. The Perceived Current Problem This is an MMO and aside from Badges for those who pursue those, there's little to no current in-game method to incentivize players into joining a player leveling up on their story arcs, doing Alignment Tip Missions or Safeguard/Mayhem Missions. In my opinion, there should be a way to cater to the casual / non-speed crowd in some capacity that can't be exploited and/or abused by power gamers. Merits have become a core and essential part of many players building their arsenal of characters and I'm simply trying to come up with alternatives for newcomers and veterans alike in leveling up their characters to acquire those sought after Reward Merits. As it stands right now, the mission holder gets the Merits - everyone else on the team gets squat as far as Merits. Not a great design from where I'm sitting. As it stands, I can see how newcomers might feel strong-armed and bottle-necked into having to do TFs/SFs to get the most bang for their buck or they can succumb to the seductive lure of A/E farms to fund their builds. Then they soon get burnt out and disheartened by the lack of a plethora of options to cleanse their reward-seeking palettes and move on to other ventures not titled 'City of Heroes'. Story Arcs (non-Flashback) Remove Reward Merits awarded at the end for the mission holder, keep that strictly for dedicated soloists or teams doing Flashbacks. So, yea... this means 2 versions of each arc in a sense - or at least a toggle for the system to determine if Flashback is on or off. Would that be complicated to do? *shrug* If it's easy enough, I truly believe this would help newcomers a massive amount. (see 2-B & 2-C below) Alignment/Morality Missions Remove the 40 Reward Merits upon completion of 10 Alignment + 1 Morality mission. Replace with 7 Reward Merits. (see 2-B & 2-D below) Safeguard/Mayhem Missions A tad complicated but would grant the ability to earn between 3-5 Reward Merits per low-level banks up to 8 per high level banks. (see 2-B & 2-E below) 2-A) Possible Guideline - not designed for nor based on speed - encourage casual play. Door / Tip / Bank Missions -----> 0.75 Merit per Minute Keep in mind - players can join and drop out as they wish at any time on these and are not committed long-term as they are in Part 1. 2-B) How it could work for Door Missions for each player on the team via System Check: System Check Requirement: Flashback or Task/Strike Force ( includes A/E ) = False System Check Requirement: Repeatable Mission ( Newspaper, Radio, Dark Astoria, etc ) = False Eligibility for Reward Merit upon Completion = True How team members are awarded upon door Mission Complete: If player present 180 seconds or more = True, award 3 Reward Merits / if False, go to next check (3 minutes or greater) If player present 90 to 179 seconds = True, award 2 Reward Merits / if False, go to next check (1.5 minutes to 3 minutes) If player present 30 to 89 seconds = True, award 1 Reward Merit / If False, award 0 Reward Merits. (0.5 to 1.5 minutes) 2-C) ***** Story Arcs ***** I've already checked the results against 278 Arcs (all pre-50) and if those are properly balanced for time and Reward Merits, then this method would never match doing the flashback version. Flashback version factors in travel time, cut-scenes, "fed-ex"s, zone hunts, etc. This only factors in Door Missions. The only cases where it can surpass Flashback is if you slow-play a single badge mission arc. If you want to take 3 minutes to get 3 Merits on something that can be sped for 2 Merits in under 2 minutes... go for it. It's still 1 Merit per Minute either way. However, Flashbacks can be repeated, your contact only offers it to you once. As mentioned earlier - there would be no Merits awarded for completing Hunts, Talk to NPCs, Zone Clicks/Glowies or anything non-door (instance) related. If need be, I believe a system similar to Astral vs Empyrean for Reward Merits would be have to be implemented and don't want to dabble in that Suggestion at this time because it's either a new "currency" or rebranding one currently underused. ( Jeez, that's vague *cough* Brainstorm and you'll figure it out. *cough* ) 2-D) ***** Alignment/Morality Tip Missions ***** Currently you need to do 10 Alignment + 1 Morality to get the 40 Reward Merits. In this scenario, if you casually play the 10, you will get 30 Merits max. Casually do the Morality and get another 3 Merits + the completion bonus of 7 Bonus Merits and your journey of 11 door missions grants you the same 40 as before. Speed through them, you'll get less. As a plus, this method would allow a Vigilante (for example) to join a Hero or Villain on their Tips and still be rewarded without being committed to changing their Morality. Casual Play Example: Vigilante casually does 10 tips at 3 minutes apiece per door for a total of 30 minutes. They still burn up an additional 10 minutes traveling door to door and investigating their tips for a total of 40 minutes for 30 Merits. That's 0.75 Merits/Minute casually playing... in theory. Speed Play Example: Vigilante speeds 10 tips at 1 minute apiece per door for a total of 10 minutes. They still burn up an additional 10 minutes traveling door to door and investigating their tips for a total of 20 minutes for 10 Merits. That's 0.5 Merits/Minute speed playing... in theory. 2-E) ***** Bank Missions ***** Safeguard & Mayhem Bank Completion = 1 Reward Merit Safeguards - 1 Merit Objectives Prevent Jailbreak / Prevent Break-In / Prevent Arms Deal Safeguards - 2 Merit Objectives Prevent Bombing / Prevent Arson Mayhems - 1 Merit Objectives Break-Out / Raid / Smash & Grab: Vault Mayhems - 2 Merit Objectives Kidnapping / Arson I ran a few level 50 Bank Missions on standard settings and timed myself with my phone's stopwatch. I'd venture to say even the best builds would be super hard-pressed to do Bank + 5 Side Missions in under 8 minutes. Fastest I got was 8:10 in multiple runs with my Incarnate Stalker fully IO'd. Keep in mind - you can't speed up the Glowie timer and you can't Kidnap faster than the NPC can run. Note: I am aware of the Contacts that give repeatable Bank Missions using the same door once Badge is acquired - so the argument could be made that travel time between missions doing this over and over seems very exploitable, right? Well, there's a little Arc in Ouroboros called "The 5th Column Overthrow" (Level 39) I can already easily do the same thing with where the "Mission Door" is the same one 4x in a row. 16-17 minutes for 17 Merits as it stands right now... so not really all that different. But it gets old doing that after a while IMO. 2-F) ***** Why not allow Repeatable Missions? ***** Peregrine Island level 54 radio teams is the short and simple answer. Dark Astoria and the Cimerora are others. The ability to never have to change zones and plow through simple small map missions with no complex mechanics over and over have their purpose -> XP with minimal downtime. Part of the goal of this Suggestion is to reward casual players for playing through the regular progression of the game, not give more incentive to ignore them. I originally debated leaving Tip Missions out of this and keeping it confined to Story Arcs, but figured they already have Reward Merits tied to them plus you have to wait for a Tip to drop. Not only that but a handful of them have advanced mechanics which cannot easily be sped through and they're not all guaranteed to be in the same zone you investigate them in. So, I left them in the suggestion. And I personally love Safeguards & Mayhems and wish people ran them on LFG... like... EVER. There's simply no incentive to once you get the badges and that makes me Supa sad. *frowny face with fake tears* The time someone put into creating those only to be reduced to oblivion. *sniff* They were all the rage once upon a time. Part 3: Consider Allowing Reward Merits to Purchase Unique Temporary Powers at ATM (aka Merit Sinks) If Parts 1 & 2 of this Suggestion ever come into fruition, it's in my strong belief that we need something desirable and repeatable to spend them on. Heck, we probably need that right now regardless. The Perceived Current Problem As someone with a stable of 50+3s I enjoy playing over and over with no desire to earn more INF through purchasing items and placing them on Auction House or building yet another 50 that I'll rarely play - there's little to nothing the ATM offers me that I desire in exchange for the multitude of Merits I've accumulated over the 5 years. 3-A) ***** Possible Temporary Power Ideas ***** Charges of (Echo) versions of Bank Mission Completion Temporary Powers. Maybe 60 Merits for 60 minutes of Game Time each for example. I really hate the inability to re-acquire these in some way, shape or form. Charges of Experienced. 100 Merits for 5 Charges. ( Hey, I voted to allow Patrol XP to be disabled in the poll but damnit I love Patrol XP ) See Fact List below and I'd willingly pay 20 Merits (@4,000,000 AH value) for 1 charge of Experienced - which I've found to be the average of 2.5 per 10 packs of Super Packs on AH after purchasing about 500 packs. I broke even on INF after sales, so not really an INF sink as much as it is a time sink. New Fast Travel Power - Direct Contact - Teleports you directly to the zone location of the NPC on your active mission list - 5 Merits for 10 charges (max 50 charges?) New Fast Travel Power - Mission Portal - Any Teammate can use - Click and get Transit pop-up with only the Active Mission on the list. Customizable Magic or Tech theme - 100 Merits for 10 Charges (max 50 charges?) Yea, I'll give AH value of 2,000,000 for 1 charge for instances on TF/SF runs where no one has TT recharged. Time is valuable... for me AND the team! You can click Back on browser to get rid of me. These people are stuck with me for the duration of the Task Force! Have mercy on them! Won't someone please think of the Teammates?! Summon Random Paragon Hero (Overdrive, Flamebeaux, etc) for Heroes/Vigilantes or Random Rogue Isle Villains (Double Tap, Shock Treatment, etc) for Villains/Rogues - Ally Boss for 5 minutes (or so). 40 Merits for 10 Charges (max 50 charges) - Not something I'm crazy about, but hey - it's an option between Back-Up Radio and Signature Summon, right? And it's something for the pet-less Support characters to use their buffs and heals on. Balanced Ideas I have yet to think of that offer nothing game-breaking. Part 4: Arguing with Replies on Why This Is A Horrible Idea Come on... it's inevitable. The Perceived Current Problem I think my ideas are good and you don't. Try and understand... in my mind... I'm right... this time... I think... maybe... I'm not sure... wait... yea I am... right? Fact List 1,000,000 INF converts to 1 Reward Merit at ATM Current Auction House Value of Reward Merit = 200,000 - 220,000 INF ( based on Boosters, Unslotters and Winter Event IOs ) I can do a YouTube search for A/E farms for multiple videos proving players can earn 1,000,000 INF a minute on Homecoming. Those YouTubers can go to Fact 1 of this list and get 1 Reward Merit for 1 Minute of their gameplay at reduced risk and travel time. Possible Argument List This Suggestion would break the economy. See #3 on Fact List. Break what again? Everything is fine the way it is with Merits. Says you. If I agreed, I wouldn't be posting this. This Suggestion won't keep newcomers from leaving. Talking with players who have come and gone, I'll plead the FAFO amendment. Your Suggestions hurt my brain. Yea... brains, like feelings, are injured easily these days. Possible Agreement List I like Part 1, Praetoria could really use the love as far as Merits go. Indeed. They're quite a few sandwiches short of a Merit picnic. I like Part 2, more incentives for PUGs would be great. Yea, I'd actually do non-TF teams more if they rewarded other than INF to do so. I thought you were going to suggest something plumbing related with Merit Sinks, but I actually like Part 3. Well, it is technically Drain-O... but for Merits, so you weren't totally wrong. You had me at Hello. Uhhh, I never said Hello... oh crap, now I have.

Merits are the only reason I personally do Flashbacks. I'm sure I'm not alone in this. The wife was suggesting adding to Wiki once complete. Honestly, I wouldn't even know how to go about that. I'm pretty familiar with Map sizes on Architect Entertainment but can't say with 100% certainty that what I call "Large Map" aligns with the category in the A/E Editor. I just hope I'm close to 90% of that part of the data because I really don't want to redo any arcs to see if they are 100% accurate.

Milestone 4 - Only Level 50 Arcs Remain Moved: old Hero Arcs that are no longer active in the game to an Archive category. Moved: both Hero & Villain versions of Who Will Die into Special Arcs category. Reasoning: I don't think it's fair to factor their numbers into the Merit distribution charts below. Note: Numbers in parentheses are one-time (bonus merits) awarded for either completing mission first time or series of arcs and are not factored into the averages. LEVELS 1-9 Hero Villain Total Arcs 6 13 Total Merits 12 (+20) 81 Avg. Merits per Arc 2 6 Approximate Minutes 60 184 Avg. Minutes per Arc 10 14 Avg. Merits per Minute & Hour 0.2 / 12 0.43 / 26 Total Door Missions 10 31 Avg. Doors per Arc 1.7 2.4 Avg. Merits per Door 1.2 2.6 LEVELS 10-14 Hero Villain Praetorian Total Arcs 6 13 16 Total Merits 71 (+20) 116 64 Avg. Merits per Arc 12 9 4 Approximate Minutes 92 184 154 Avg. Minutes per Arc 15 14 10 Avg. Merits per Minute & Hour 0.8 / 48 0.6 / 36 0.4 / 24 Total Door Missions 16 38 47 Avg. Doors per Arc 2.6 2.9 2.9 Avg. Merits per Door 4.4 3.1 1.4 LEVELS 15-19 Hero Villain Praetorian Total Arcs 10 8 20 Total Merits 168 (+20) 124 (+20) 148 Avg. Merits per Arc 17 16 7 Approximate Minutes 183 156 226 Avg. Minutes per Arc 18 20 11 Avg. Merits per Minute & Hour 0.9 / 54 0.8 / 48 0.7 / 42 Total Door Missions 36 34 70 Avg. Doors per Arc 3.6 4.3 3.5 Avg. Merits per Door 4.7 3.6 2.1 LEVELS 20-24 Hero Villain Praetorian Total Arcs 13 16 16 Total Merits 176 (+20) 154 112 Avg. Merits per Arc 14 10 7 Approximate Minutes 164 157 202 Avg. Minutes per Arc 13 10 13 Avg. Merits per Minute & Hour 0.9 / 54 1.0 / 60 0.6 / 36 Total Door Missions 48 55 67 Avg. Doors per Arc 3.7 3.4 4.2 Avg. Merits per Door 3.7 2.8 1.7 LEVELS 25-29 Hero Villain Praetorian Total Arcs 20 17 8 Total Merits 345 (+40) 184 (+20) 72 Avg. Merits per Arc 17 11 9 Approximate Minutes 401 238 150 Avg. Minutes per Arc 20 14 19 Avg. Merits per Minute & Hour 0.9 / 54 0.8 / 48 0.5 / 30 Total Door Missions 95 72 30 Avg. Doors per Arc 4.8 4.2 3.8 Avg. Merits per Door 3.6 2.6 2.4 LEVELS 30-34 Hero Villain Total Arcs 12 14 Total Merits 306 (+20) 156 Avg. Merits per Arc 26 11 Approximate Minutes 281 190 Avg. Minutes per Arc 23 14 Avg. Merits per Minute & Hour 1.1 / 66 0.8 / 48 Total Door Missions 58 48 Avg. Doors per Arc 4.8 3.4 Avg. Merits per Door 5.3 3.3 LEVELS 35-39 Hero Villain Either Praetorian Total Arcs 10 16 1 5 Total Merits 233 168 17 45 Avg. Merits per Arc 23 11 17 9 Approximate Minutes 252 193 16 99 Avg. Minutes per Arc 25 12 16 20 Avg. Merits per Minute & Hour 0.9 / 54 0.9 / 54 1.0 / 60 0.5 /30 Total Door Missions 50 55 4 26 Avg. Doors per Arc 5 3.4 4 5.2 Avg. Merits per Door 4.7 3.1 4.3 1.7 LEVELS 40-49 Hero Villain Total Arcs 8 17 Total Merits 333 151 Avg. Merits per Arc 42 9 Approximate Minutes 301 177 Avg. Minutes per Arc 38 11 Avg. Merits per Minute & Hour 1.1 / 55 0.9 / 54 Total Door Missions 77 52 Avg. Doors per Arc 9.6 3.1 Avg. Merits per Door 4.3 2.9 PRE-LEVEL 50 TOTALS Hero Villain Praetorian Total Arcs 85 114 65 Total Merits 1644 (+140) 1279 (+40) 441 Avg. Merits per Arc 19 11 7 Approximate Minutes 1734 1479 831 Avg. Minutes per Arc 20 13 13 Avg. Merits per Minute & Hour 0.9 / 54 0.9 / 54 0.5 / 30 Total Door Missions 390 385 240 Avg. Doors per Arc 4.6 3.3 3.7 Avg. Merits per Door 4.2 3.3 1.8 Factoring in the Special & Archived Arcs - that is a total of 278 Story Arcs & 4,365 minutes (72.75 hours) of playing said Arcs since February 1st when I started this endeavor. That being said, I'm going to be taking a small break before casually continuing on with the massive list of level 50 Arcs to track. PEACE!

Issue 27, Page 7 - Villain Arcs added for 20-24 & 25-29 Note: In-Game Flashback does not include the ( parentheses ) or notify they are part of the whole Striga experience... maybe that'll change.

I'm just recently visiting Redside for the first time since Live and was coming to report 2 instances this happened. Guess it's been a known issue for 3.5+ years now. Don't have these problems Blueside. Problems like this don't help Redside's playability much.

Pulled from Homecoming Wiki ---> Veteran Levels - Unofficial Homecoming Wiki Level Range Merits Granted 3-24 20 27-48 15 51-69 10 72-99 5 Other than that, as stated Heather Townsend's arc is IMO the best way to attain as a Solo Player and build up your Incarnate Abilities

Personal Tracking ===> Total Time (including old TFs) = 2852 minutes / 47.53 hours Levels 25-34 Stats Hero - old Psyche & Scott TFs Villain Praetorian Total Arcs 33 30 8 Total Merits 656 398 72 Total Minutes 667 409 130 Avg Merits per Arc 19.87 13.26 9 Avg Mins per Arc 20.21 13.63 16.25 Avg Merits per Min & Hour 0.98 / 58.8 0.97 / 58.2 0.55 / 33 Levels 1-34 Stats Hero -old TFs Villain Praetorian Total Arcs 69 78 60 Total Merits 1181 868 440 Total Minutes 1112 885 712 Avg Merits per Arc 17.11 11.12 7.33 Avg Mins per Arc 16.11 11.34 11.86 Avg Merits per Min & Hour 1.06 / 63.6 0.98 / 58.8 0.61 / 36.6

Milestone 3 - 200 Story Arcs Completed / Tracked "Lost and Found" marked the 200th Arc I've completed in this task I've taken on, but currently sitting at 204 with hopes of finishing Villain Arcs for 30-34 after work today. Once I do complete the Villain Arcs for that range, I will post another chart for everything up to that point with a chart similar to my previous Milestone update. On the original post at the top is now a chart showcasing the Top 10 Rewarding Arcs up to this point in case anyone is interested in testing my results out against theirs. PEACE!

On the second door mission in which Marauder as a pure Arch-Villain ambushes at the end, I have had 2 instances in which I was not teleported out by Savage Noble. I do not know if this is attributed to having Hide and/or Super Speed active, but I could run around for hours and never have the mission complete itself. Standard Settings +0 / x1 / No Bosses / No AVs I tried after the ambush to turn off both Hide and Super Speed AND Zoning Out / Zoning In to no avail. Had to log out / in and restart mission to get the teleport to take on second attempt. This happened on 2 attempts of the arc. Thanks in advance

I personally like everything but the "Merciful Plea" on this. Always considered Empathy to be a set to NOT affect enemies, instead all about taking care of self and teammates/others. Personally, some sort of equivalent to "Soothing Aura" from Pain Domination but with a pulsing minor Heal + Absorb. Even if the pulse took longer but Heal & Absorb were better. Dunno, just off the top of my head without deep thought into it. But yea, the Revitalizing Aura combining the 2 Auras would be sweet and not out of the concept of Empathy by any means.

Milestone 2 - Level 25 Okay, number crunchers - here's the data for each alignment up to level 25 as performed by Stalker character mentioned in OP Hero (- old Posi TF) Villain Praetorian Total Arcs 36 48 52 Total Merits 525 470 368 Total Minutes 445 476 582 Avg Merits per Arc 14.58 9.79 7.07 Avg Merits per Min & Hour 1.18 / 70.8 0.99 / 58.8 0.63 / 37.8 So, not only do Heroes have a lot more teaming options for TFs, etc but they're already way ahead in Merit acquisition for their time spent doing Story Arcs. 1 Merit buys 2 Enhancement Unslotters which currently sells for @100k each on the AH - therefore each Merit is technically worth @200k AH value According to my math, that would mean Heroes doing exclusively Story Arcs at this point have an average of: 2.4 million INF per hour advantage over Villains 6.6 million INF per hour advantage over Praetorians. Am I doing my math wrong? Is it past time to re-evaluate Merit Distribution to help spread out the player population some? *shrug* I'll keep on pumping the speed Arcs out in the meantime and see how the second half goes. PEACE!

This whole project is just me trying to showcase the imbalance of Merit distribution in today's City of Heroes using 1 Stalker character doing them all solo on minimum settings. Went with minimum settings since Merit rewards don't change due to difficulty settings. Ultimately, I would like to see the Story Arcs balanced better using some sort of guideline - be it in-game method or raw focused feedback method such as this. There are soooo many factors to determine the time put into playing through any given arc. Time it takes to travel to mission or "fed ex / talk to", the size of the map, the types and amount of objectives required, cut-scenes, etc. Can't really go off enemy difficulty too much because some builds are going to have no trouble surviving their damage while others are. As of right now, no encounter in a mission I've done has been able to drop me below 50% health - so none of the AVs I'm fighting as EBs are all that challenging to warrant being a factor in Reward Merits... YET. And to be honest, at minimum settings... I doubt any will be.

Milestone 1 - 100 Story Arcs Completed TOPIC: When did Paragon Studios stop balancing Merits properly back on Live? OBSERVATION: Issue 13 (Power and Responsibility) is when Reward Merits were introduced. I'm about 1/3 through 20-24 and it still appears the target was 60 M/H with modern day "teleporter" abilities. At least for Heroes. For Villains it appears to be down to @35 or so and for Praetorians it's even worse. I have yet to do numbers tracking for Villains or Praetorians 20-24, but hopefully will have those done over the weekend. After Issue 13, it seems that any research into how fast a Story Arc could be done went out the window and a flat "6 for all arcs" - "9 for all arcs" - "3 for all arcs" approach was taken. Got to thinking after posting this reply.... the Villain numbers on Reward Merits pre-Going Rogue are likely skewed due to the fact Stalkers weren't present on Hero-side at the time and the Hero arcs were actually closer to Villain numbers before then. Most likely Scrapper / Blaster capabilities to speed Stealth/Kill Arcs aren't on par with Stalkers and their numbers were comparable. Of course, there's been the introduction of LRT and TT since Live to help speed up the legacy Hero arcs as well. CONCERN: As a player of almost exclusively Hero characters, I can't help but wonder if Villain & Praetorian players know subconsciously that something is off on their ability to "fund their builds" there by doing Story Arcs or not. The numbers aren't lying and both are disadvantaged in the Story Arc category compared to Heroes. I gladly welcome any player to see if the ratio of Merits/Hour when comparing the Moralities that I've posted are off or are pretty close to accurate. FEEDBACK: It seems a partial guideline for Merit distribution was done back in Issue 13 and quickly abandoned. The blanket "X merits for all arcs this Issue" is a flawed approach. Taking the "average time players do this arc in" IMO would also be flawed. An arc's numbers could be greatly skewed by players taking the time to read the story details or AFK making pineapple pizza while playing, etc, Then you set the Merits too high and along come the speedsters raking in the Merits. If an in-game system can't be created easily or just isn't possible - you may have to fall back on a consistent AT built for speed/stealth/DPS such as I'm doing to set the standard per arc. That way when I log on my pokey Controller who can only earn 40/hr vs Stalker's 60/hr - at least my Controller's 40/hr should stay reliable. It's not that different than what the A/E Fire Def/Res builds do and the advantage those characters have over other builds in "fire farms".

It's just a suggestion for 4 to be the baseline. I mean... why bother showering every day when you're just gonna get dirty again? So many puzzling questions. If Role Diversity can be fulfilled with 2, then why not make Archetype Duplication only require 2? Just asking. Maybe it's a dumb question but mama always said questions are like a box of chocolates. You never know what answer you're gonna get.

Right on. Well there's always the option to make a team of 4 a requirement: Role Diversity: Complete the content on a team of 4 or more with Archetypes that fulfill all five roles listed below: I mean, I'm fine with people being able to get away with only 2 person teams but I'd also be cool with it if a team of 4 was the minimum.

How about the possibly a Role Duplication in addition to the other 2? Like 4x from Tank Role, 4x from Support Role, etc? <--- team would have to consist of at least 2, possibly 3 different ATs in that scenario though ---and / or--- Archetype Diversity - meaning 5 ( preferably 8 ) different Archetypes ( yea, very commonplace - but IMO so is 5 different roles from my experience ) That would bring Team Badges up to 8 - giving more options and sending a message to newcomers to "Play What You Enjoy!" ALSO: If the Role Diversity requires 5 - shouldn't Archetype (and Role if considered) Duplication also require 5? Just food (or snack) for thought. I ALSO SECOND THE MOTION Of awarding 1 (or 2) Prismatic Aether being tied to acquiring a Team Badge.

TOPIC: Hero Arcs 21.09 thru 21.12 & Villain Arcs 21.12 thru 21.14 OBSERVATION: Both "The Shining Stars" & "The Hearts of Darkness" arcs are both severely imbalanced in regard to the time required to playthrough vs. Reward Merits compared to a vast majority of other arcs. The argument can be made you get 20 Bonus Merits for completing all 3, but I counter-argue that with a comparison to The Hollows which also awards 20 for completing all 4 of its arcs in approximately the same 60-70 minute time-frame if they are sped through. The Hollows (@65 mins) The Shining Stars (@63 mins) The Hearts of Darkness (@67 mins) 7 3 3 18 3 3 10 3 3 30 Total = 65 Total = 9 Total = 9 Then, I came across this over the weekend of a player returning to the game and casually playing through some of the arcs/missions mentioned up to this point... Observed at the following Timestamps of the video: Timestamp Merits 43 mins - enters game 1 hr 14 min - finishes "What Was Lost" 3 1 hr 47 min - finishes "No More Fears" 0 1 hr 49 min - introduced to Twinshot 1 hr 56 min - finishes first mission of "A New Day Dawning" So after 1 hour and 13 minutes of casually playing, he has a total of 3 Reward Merits. Will he return back to finish the trilogy to get those Bonus Merits from first arc that awarded 0 Merits? He'll likely reach level 9 before receiving the 3 Merits from "A New Day Dawning" if he finishes that. At that point, he's eligible for Positron Task Force with 6 Reward Merits (my guess). CONCERN: As stated in my original posting of main list - the argument be HC Devs for "Role Diversity Challenge" and the Prismatic Aether in Issue 27, Page 7 was hopefully to help new & returning players in funding their builds. I would think if Reward Merits were more balanced across all levels, that challenge wouldn't be necessary. FEEDBACK: A loose example of what a balanced Merit Reward system IF Story Arcs based on a 60/hr (on speed runs) would look like in the above scenario: Timestamp Merits 43 mins - enters game 1 hr 14 min - finishes "What Was Lost" 7 1 hr 47 min - finishes "No More Fears" 6 1 hr 49 min - introduced to Twinshot 1 hr 56 min - finishes first mission of "A New Day Dawning" So after 1 hour and 13 minutes of casually playing, he would have a total of 13 Reward Merits. It would not matter as much if he did not return to get the Bonus Merits from the first arc over three contacts. If he were to receive @22 Merits for "A New Day Dawning", he would then be at 39 Merits and well on his way to funding his build with the ability to purchase 1 (nearly 2) of the 20 Reward Merit Recipes. And if Reward Merits are ever rebalanced in this manner, I would think the cost for Recipes, etc would need to increase to offset the new influx with the first Recipe tier costing @30-40 instead. Anyways, there's no real suggestion from me with this Topic - mainly showcasing the disparity in Reward Merits for story arcs. I don't blame the disparity on HC & what (if anything) is ever done about this huge endeavor is not in my hands. I'll continue updating the main post as time allows. PEACE!

Then you buy the one you want first (after careful bidding) and list yours for about same price... right? May be out that money for a while but should come close to nearly evening out.

Yea, was fighting against Legacy Chain this evening and was thinking - jeez, that sure is a lot like Energy attacks just recolored differently. I guess if ever there were to be a set the only real difference would be in mechanics of the Status Effect. Meaning instead of KB on Energy Blast it may be -Perception or -ToHit Debuff. Still Energy/Smashing damage for the most part. Unless there's some creative way to differentiate it besides just hueing existing sets and adding a different sound effect, guess not really worth it.