Prismatic Aether and locked costume items

[Zhym]

Apologies if this was in the beta feedback thread and I missed it, but have the devs said why they introduced another "currency" into the game?  We already had inf, merit rewards, empyrian merits, astral merits, vanguard merits, and probably others I'm forgetting at the moment.  What was missing that prismatic aether solves?  Is it mostly that we need a different reward for hard mode?

 

Page 4 also seems to represent the first time that Homecoming has had costume options that have to be unlocked.  I really appreciated the fact that unlike live, which had various costume options you had to unlock in one way or another, in Homecoming you could build whatever costume you want at character creation.  The new costume options changed that.  I'm not talking about the NPC costumes, which are basically like having Halloween costumes year round—having those be lockable is fine.  But at some point soon there's going to be a "mini" costume mode.  That would be perfect for one of my characters, who is already as small as the slider will allow, but should really be much smaller.  But I won't be able to use it unless I collect a bunch of aether first (just how much is still TBD).   

 

So, from my own perspective anyway, it's kind of disappointing to see Homecoming embrace costume options that have to be purchased.

[tidge]

FWIW, prior to this patch it was possible to purchase (temporary) costume powers via Halloween salvage drops. Don't let me get in the way of a good rant, of course.

[Zhym]

Just now, tidge said:

FWIW, prior to this patch it was possible to purchase (temporary) costume powers via Halloween salvage drops. Don't let me get in the way of a good rant, of course.

It's kind of buried in my "rant" (sorry it seems like one; I really didn't intend it that way), but I have no problem with permanent purchasable Halloween costumes.  What bothers me is that there's something that looks a lot more like a regular costume feature—i.e., being able to make your character model smaller—that is now locked behind a new hard-to-get currency.

[Frostbiter]

They're all full NPC costumes. No real interest in them from me.

[Glacier Peak]

Context is key - there is no forcing players to do anything here. If players want these optional NPC costumes they can earn them. Either through playing the content that generates the Aether drops or through buying the Aethers from the market.

 

Before this, all the costumes offered (except for the rare brand new ones) were only obtained as prizes from HC Team ran events. Now they can be freely earned by anyone. If your character wants to be a Corlax or a Carnival of Shadow member, they can do so accurately. 

 

Edit: Apologies to the OP, they asked a specific question about the devs intentions with this content. I don't speak for the devs, so my response is my opinion. I do remember them giving their reasoning, but I'd have to dig through the beta feedback thread to find it.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Glacier Peak

[Zhym]

To clarify, I'm talking about this:

Quote

Tier 3 - Deluxe Costumes: 

• Deluxe Costume Powers are very unusual or exotic appearances and will be made available/have their price set a few weeks after Page 4 launches.
• The costumes in this tier are listed as Very Rare on the BenevoLabs vendors and are intended to serve as long-term prestige goals for extremely dedicated players who regularly complete Advanced Difficulty content on the highest levels and purchase the salvage from other players, while also serving as a market sink for the new currency.
• There are only mode costumes currently offered at this tier at the release of Page 4.

CLICK FOR PREVIEW OF DELUXE TIER COSTUME OFFERINGS:

  Hide contents

These are certainly "unique" looks...

(Previews in order of list below)

 

• The offering of Deluxe Costume Powers will be available immediately to purchase:
  •  Mode Costume: Blobby - This costume will change to always match your current body type when used.
  •  Mode Costume: Mini - Cannot be used in PvP. This mode resizes your normal look to be small; Does not change your collision/hitboxes.

 

The "Blobby" and "Mini" costumes aren't NPC costumes.  They're more like costume parts or auras. 

 

I have a toon for which the "Mini" costume would be great; ideally, he should be about a foot tall, but the smallest you can make a character is 4'.  I get why really small character models would create issues with the game geometry and PvP.  I'm really excited that there's going to be a way to make him look more like his "true" size.  I'm less excited that the option is locked behind a "very rare" costume set intended "to serve as long-term prestige goals for extremely dedicated players."  That part seems like a change in philosophy of what costume options should be available at character creation, IMO.

[Neiska]

Personally I have mixed feelings about the deluxe costumes. To me it feels like a carrot on a stick or bribe to try and entice people who don't usually run that content into running it. But as long as its special or unique costumes I don't really have any objection. If it was special costume parts, like special weapons, helmets, gloves, boots and the like that you can mix with other costume parts then I would have issue.

 

As far as the currency itself, I think we have too many currencies as it is, but I do understand they needed "some" way of reward/barter. And as long as they can't be turned into merits or something, there shouldn't be any massive issues aside from people selling them on the AH. The prices are bloated now, but I expect them to come down in time once the "new shiny" effect takes over, but that also depends on how much supply is listed as well.

 

If it was up to me, I wouldn't have gone the costume route though for rewarding hard modes. I would have suggested a temporary power or perhaps a new accolade to earn. Or perhaps something new entirely. The hard modes are hard after all, and the costumes feel more for fun/rp/holiday to me than epic level play reward. I mean cosmetics are always nice, but in my experience they have always served elitist ego more than any other use or context. Although they are tradeable and sellable now, so I suppose that will be less of an issue here.

[roleki]

It's possible (likely) that costume unlocks are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, and there will be more stuff that people DO care about tied to doing specific stuff over and over. 

 

Which is fine by me, I'm not the kind of person that starts pounding my shoe on the table when someone else gets something I don't as a reward for their doing something that I don't do.  I just hope that whatever else may come out of that pipe doesn't force people into running THAT content just to avoid being left behind.

[arcane]

Of the maybe ~130 aethers I’ve used so far, the vast majority were purchased on the market. Definitely no one is being forced into playing any particular content. 

[Neiska]

16 minutes ago, roleki said:

It's possible (likely) that costume unlocks are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, and there will be more stuff that people DO care about tied to doing specific stuff over and over. 

 

Which is fine by me, I'm not the kind of person that starts pounding my shoe on the table when someone else gets something I don't as a reward for their doing something that I don't do.  I just hope that whatever else may come out of that pipe doesn't force people into running THAT content just to avoid being left behind.

 

Oh for sure. I just thought maybe people who put all the effort and time into combat might appreciate a combat reward? Even if its something like a 3% damage accolade or something like that. I guess what I am saying the kind of reward doesn't really match the effort? Costume stuff was liked to badges or holiday events on live. I do want to add that something is better than nothing, and I am glad the volunteer staff added a bonus reward at all, or something new to get excited about. I just, duno, feels a bit off? Still a nice gesture though. But I am curious how much of a moneymaker those hardmode ITFs are when you take drops, merits, and aethers all converted into INF into account

[The_Warpact]

Sell 'em for phat loot!

[laudwic]

The nice thing with a costume award is there is no need to balance the game for it.  These rewards encourage grouping, are available if you solo (with a drop rate of about 1 per 50 missions run), and form a new kind of reward.  Appreciate the Devs for adding something new into the game that allows you to help realize a concept, all be it one that you have to do a little work for, rather than just suggest everything in a category should always be freely given.  Sometimes its nice when there is something rare that can be earned.

 

I'm still a little shocked that we get development in this game, and I appreciate all they do even if it isn't to my priority or disagree with it.  (Still disagree about the blanket Confuse nerf in ITF higher levels of difficulties.  I think they could have done it a better way.)   

[arcane]

I actually really love that we have a whole new thing to work on. Last night was the first time since the patch went live that I even got around to logging in to any alts besides my main, farmer, and symphony dom. Because I have dozens of alts that need NPC costumes, there is a renewed sense of having lots to do in the game. 
 

This is the kind of change that makes you stop asking why you’re still playing this game, because the amount of new stuff to achieve is so massive.

Edited September 1, 2022 by arcane

[ivanhedgehog]

58 minutes ago, roleki said:

It's possible (likely) that costume unlocks are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, and there will be more stuff that people DO care about tied to doing specific stuff over and over. 

 

Which is fine by me, I'm not the kind of person that starts pounding my shoe on the table when someone else gets something I don't as a reward for their doing something that I don't do.  I just hope that whatever else may come out of that pipe doesn't force people into running THAT content just to avoid being left behind.

The concern I have is the appearance of driving the game to be like wow. all good rewards for HM activities only. Being able to buy them helps with this some.

[roleki]

33 minutes ago, Neiska said:

 

Oh for sure. I just thought maybe people who put all the effort and time into combat might appreciate a combat reward? Even if its something like a 3% damage accolade or something like that. I guess what I am saying the kind of reward doesn't really match the effort? Costume stuff was liked to badges or holiday events on live. I do want to add that something is better than nothing, and I am glad the volunteer staff added a bonus reward at all, or something new to get excited about. I just, duno, feels a bit off? Still a nice gesture though. But I am curious how much of a moneymaker those hardmode ITFs are when you take drops, merits, and aethers all converted into INF into account

I would be fine with a better class of rewards, but they could have used whatever rickety machinery is behind accolades to achieve that.  A little bit of a tangent, but I think the game needs more accolades that you can only get by doing content, maybe even specific to ATs or some crap.  It's kind of poop that if you do EVERYTHING, you get a ray gun and a couple of click powers that have 25m recharge, and a little bump to health/endurance.  "Real world" experience should shit out markedly better characters than the AE, and I say that as someone who goes to great lengths to avoid doing content.

 

But anyway, I suspect that the underpinnings of the accolade system are either bonkers and/or there's no way to 'grandfather' characters who've already done tasks X, Y, and Z so assigning new accolades would cause consternation and much gnashing of teeth.  But a new currency tied to new content... now you have something people can sink their time into, and a much cleaner way to distribute whatever rewards  the devs dream up.  And if that is the direction they are going, I hope the rewards are more enticing than some costumes!

[Ceejer]

I welcome the new currency.

 

I like to weave my toons into the fabric of the Homecoming story. Before page 4, I was gathering Halloween salvage to buy those 2 week temporary costumes for pages of characters. I'd make costumes as close to enemy factions as I could and would get comments from teammates that they kept trying to target me.

 

 

This will impact the Halloween salvage market as folks won't need to buy as much anymore but I don't think folks were buy up lots of it anyway, except for the extra costume slot.

 

Come to think of it, the Devs shifted that demand for enemy costumes from Halloween salvage to Prismatic Aether, gave it a permanent tag and offer it all year long, to take inf out of the market while offering new kinds of Clothes Horse goals.

 

[Mezmera]

I'm all for their currency thing.  If this means the devs will spend their valuable time breaking apart highly requested costume pieces we can use to decorate our characters and want to have it as a reward for playing the games content I'm all for it.  Just so long as the redeemables aren't ever performance enhancing, although I wouldn't mind being rewarded for accomplishing these harder task, I see how a permanent character buff can lead to some envy so lets just leave it as flair.

 

We can call it carrot on a stick or what have you but if it means they'll get costumes like the Seer robes released in this manner while giving us quality new content to play while trying to earn this currency then what's there to gripe about?  Its a good idea to have a consolidated currency for all kinds of various redeemables, the people running around with the Cimerroan armor piqued peoples interest in running ITF since that's how you got it.  

 

If this is perceived as some grand plan to tank Halloween salvage prices get real.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Mezmera

[High_Beam]

I got a rock.

[Aracknight]

I've gotten two prismatic aether (total, one at a time for two different arcs) as rewards working through redside orobouros mission arcs.  I don't know if it's a feature or a bug, but if it's a feature you aren't forced into hard mode content.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Aracknight

[Frostbiter]

3 minutes ago, Aracknight said:

I've gotten two prismatic aether (total, one at a time for two different arcs) as rewards working through redside orobouros mission arcs.  I don't know if it's a feature or a bug, but if it's a feature you aren't forced into hard mode content.

 

A feature. 2% chance to award 1 Prismatic Aether upon ANY mission completion.

[Frostbiter]

8 minutes ago, High_Beam said:

I got a rock.

 

 I got a stick. Hey I just got an idea for a great game! You throw your rock and I'll try to hit it with my stick!

[Ceejer]

35 minutes ago, Frostbiter said:

 

 I got a stick. Hey I just got an idea for a great game! You throw your rock and I'll try to hit it with my stick!

Winner gets this carrot I found.

[srmalloy]

58 minutes ago, High_Beam said:

I got a rock.

This had me laughing, remembering that I'd looked at the Titan Icon character save file for one of my characters that I'd exported from Live before the shutdown, and I'd noticed that they still had a rock in their inventory from the very first Halloween event...

[High_Beam]

Worse yet, I have a Heavy Rock from a Mayhem Mission.

[BurtHutt]

4 hours ago, Frostbiter said:

They're all full NPC costumes. No real interest in them from me.

This. I never liked the costume 'toggle' pieces we'd get for Halloween. I have no desire to use them. Ever. I could not be less interested in this stuff. 

 

I do like making costumes and that is awesome but not these toggle/complete costume transformations. Pass.