Focused Feedback: Costume & Pet Reward Updates

[Glacier Peak]

3 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:

 

Let's see:  At 3 stars you get 13 Aether, so you'd need to complete 115 three star tasks to get 1,500. 

 

At 2 stars you  get 7 Aether, so you'd have to complete 214 two star tasks to get 1,500. 

 

At 1 star you get 2 Aether so you'd have to complete a nice, round 750 one star tasks to get to 1,500.

 

Of course, you would probably accumulate several from random mission completions and WSFs.  But I assume that many if not most players would also want to spend 150 to get the associated badges.

 

Sorry, but . . .

 

I'm inclined to believe that if players were supportive of the added Aethers dropping from the new Halloween EB mob badges, that the Homecoming team might look favorably on adding them to upcoming Winter Lord drops or even in those presents that spawn around 🤔

[Bionic_Flea]

I'm a big fan of other ways to get Aether.  Adding them to new Halloween badges was very smart as you get lot's of temporary Halloween costumes while running around Trick or Treating and having 10 Aethers after getting the badges lets players buy one of their favorites to make permanent and dip their toes into the system.

 

I also think that players of all levels should get them from running the WSFs and not just level 50s.  I assume that would let most characters have enough for at least one costume without running any hardmode on or before getting to 50.

 

I'm glad that the Devs reduced the prices from the even higher levels that they had initially proposed.  I think that 10/100/250 is appropriate for the first three tiers but that 1500 is too high.

[Faultline]

18 minutes ago, Bionic_Flea said:

I'm glad that the Devs reduced the prices from the even higher levels that they had initially proposed.  I think that 10/100/250 is appropriate for the first three tiers but that 1500 is too high.

 

Flea... that's the point. It is meant to be unreasonably high and only as a currency sink.

[Troo]

 

Putting less desirable or less impactful but still rare items in the top tier for epeening is common.

[Player2]

6 minutes ago, Troo said:

 

Putting less desirable or less impactful but still rare items in the top tier for epeening is common.

"Less desirable" is definitely a purely subjective measure.

And, technically, ALL of the rewards for the Aether particles are non-impactful cosmetic choices.

[Bionic_Flea]

14 minutes ago, Faultline said:

 

Flea... that's the point. It is meant to be unreasonably high and only as a currency sink.

I understand your point and position, I just disagree that 1500 is the right price. *shrug*

 

PS.  You just admitted the price is unreasonable. 😎

Edited October 13, 2022 by Bionic_Flea

[Troo]

10 minutes ago, Player2 said:

"Less desirable" is definitely a purely subjective measure.

And, technically, ALL of the rewards for the Aether particles are non-impactful cosmetic choices.

 

yep yep.

I am saying for this type of sink often the most desirable are in the middle with something okay at the top that would still standout as being rare.

Putting the most wanted items in a top tier creates a haves / have nots which isn't the goal.

It's so super subjective.

 

The devs have done a pretty darn good job on it.

They've communicated well, and stated their goals while indicating that they can make adjustments as appropriate.

 

Edited October 13, 2022 by Troo

[Sovera]

Having different ways to obtain what is needed is still a good approach. One day someone feels like playing a two star ITF and they get some prismatics. The next day they just do regular TFs but the merits and raw info go into buying prismatic. Heck, that +2 HM will also have rewarded merits and raw info that will earn more prismatics. The day after they don't feel like much but choose to run an arc, level an alt, or even farm for ten minutes, and can all go towards prismatics.

 

We are a -little- bit spoiled in that we can go from level 1 with no IO or inf transfers and two weeks later without having set foot in the AE or marketing we can be T4 incarnate (perhaps not all slots though) and purpled out so saying it takes a month to earn a top cost outfit feels like a lot.

 

Just because are on a private server not run by a company who profits by gatekeeping and keeping players online while making us pay for a sub should not mean we have everything handed for free. My opinion.

 

Running HM themselves (not really 4 stars I suppose) only gets easier as well as people gain experience. Gone are the days of three hours and a hundred deaths for a four star.

 

 

With all said if the token was a physical item (as physical as an IO is) that goes into an enhance/salvage bin and the character that earned it can transfer it to another alt would certainly help the worry of putting so many days/weeks earning something that now needs to be earned all over again if they decide to change mains.

[lemming]

2 hours ago, Cobalt Arachne said:

---

It's also a bit strange seeing the various posts who's stance could be boiled down to:

"It's unfair that players who play more and at a higher level have an advantage over those who play less and more casually."

...Huh?

If somebody spends an enormous amount of time playing City of Heroes, they're naturally going to have more currency, resources, and 50's than somebody who plays less or very casually? Was there going to be any other result to playing more? Is that inherently unfair?

Isn't it more unfair that somebody who puts in that larger effort isn't allowed to have anything (even just something entirely cosmetic) to show for it?
99% of the Aether costumes are extremely reasonable to obtain.

I play casually, but a heck of a lot for the last three years.  I just don't seem to run the right content.  Targetted effort rather than larger effort.   I mean right now I'm just churning thru all my alts to collect the 10 PA from halloween since that's a faster route than running a god awful number of Dr A. And I'm just doing it to fund mini-mes on a couple chars.   Though creating a char, running it via ToT until level 25 is probably a fast method other people have done.

 

1500 is just way too high.  500-750 is still too high, but feels attainable without having to get obsessive with one character.

 

And yes, give the sub-50 WST people PAs.

[Faultline]

5 minutes ago, lemming said:

1500 is just way too high.

 

It is meant to be. Honestly a lot of players seem to point to the one item that is 1500 to an obsessive degree while ignoring everything else that is available.

 

There are 145 choices for 10 prismatics. There are 17 choices for 100 prismastics. There are three choices for 250 prismatics. There is one thing for 1500 prismatics.

 

As long a the price complaints are all focused on the one item that is 1500 prismatics, honestly, it's working as intended.

[golstat2003]

18 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

I'll pay whatever price is set for a Giant Monster sized Granite armor or better yet, Rularuu the Ravager or any of its aspects...

 

      

ANY PRICE!!!!!

GIVE ME SOMETHING TO WORK TOWARDS!

Edit: I missed Jurrasik's image for some reason

 

Same. I mentioned this in discord also lol. This is one of the greatest models in the game. I'd pay for this (And would have paid real money if the game were still live through the Paragon store lol)

 

EDIT: And would be the ONLY thing I'd spend Aether Particles on. Nothing else interests me lol.

Edited October 13, 2022 by golstat2003

[Sanguinesun]

19 minutes ago, Faultline said:

 

It is meant to be. Honestly a lot of players seem to point to the one item that is 1500 to an obsessive degree while ignoring everything else that is available.

 

There are 145 choices for 10 prismatics. There are 17 choices for 100 prismastics. There are three choices for 250 prismatics. There is one thing for 1500 prismatics.

 

As long a the price complaints are all focused on the one item that is 1500 prismatics, honestly, it's working as intended.

 

 

So 5400 aethers for everything (to this point...).    I mean sure, if someone was running one 4star ITF a day for the next 270 days consecutively, they could get everything in under a year. Or 540 toons during this month's  halloween event or if there were enough on the market(which there only around 1600 aether currently on excelsior's AH), one could spend a tad over 24 billion instantly for the current market rate for a full amount of them.

 

But of course, let's not dip into absurdities.  

 

So yes we recognize its working as intended per your intentions...

[lemming]

53 minutes ago, Faultline said:

As long a the price complaints are all focused on the one item that is 1500 prismatics, honestly, it's working as intended.

Because the price is beyond the pale is why it's being pointed out.   (I think the tier2-3 are a little high, but dealable)

[lemming]

Ok, Focused feedback on other bits:

 

Hero 1 pet at 10,000 Vanguard Merits.   I thought 9,999 merits was the max number?   That seems to be the case for Prismatic & Reward merits.  (and iirc, AE tickets)

 

Though, the current cap on Prismatic are 2,000 (according to patch notes from August).   On Brainstorm, it seems to be 9999

[Faultline]

17 minutes ago, Sanguinesun said:

So 5400 aethers for everything (to this point...).    I mean sure, if someone was running one 4star ITF a day for the next 270 days consecutively, they could get everything in under a year.

 

If your goal is to "get everything" regardless of what it is, then yes, and you only have yourself to blame for the grind. This post also highlights that it doesn't matter if the 1500 prismatic was something that nobody could possibly find appealing, because the complaint is that you can't get everything -- regardless of what it is.

 

The vast majority of items are priced at 10 prismatics, and the intention is that players can organically get the ones they want the most out of those on a reasonable amount of time without any grind. The reasons for higher tiers have already been explained, and nothing that's been posted does in any way invalidate the reasons given; you're just disagreeing with them, which is fine, but won't cause them to change.

[Faultline]

3 minutes ago, lemming said:

Hero 1 pet at 10,000 Vanguard Merits.   I thought 9,999 merits was the max number?   That seems to be the case for Prismatic & Reward merits.  (and iirc, AE tickets)

 

Though, the current cap on Prismatic are 2,000 (according to patch notes from August).   On Brainstorm, it seems to be 9999

 

The cap on both Prismatics and Vanguard Merits is 10,000; it has been the case since P4 launch at least, the other numbers are incorrect.

[-Kobi-]

I tested some effect and there's a small scaling problem for this one 🙂 Ghost effect scal perfectly with granite !

[Sovera]

I do feel that there is a bit of bad faith in the argument(s).

 

I've posted a couple of times in this thread and it's been pretty much on both sides of it so it's not like I'm defending or argumenting that the current system is perfect, but...

 

First of all, not white knighting (intentionally at least) or brown nosing, but this is a system that did not exist and now does so instead of growling at the devs it should be a matter of thanking them for having something that did not exist now being available.

 

Second, using pseudo-OCD excuses like 'I gotta have them ALL' is not a valid argument and the whole system should not revolve around it. Like in most things there will be favorites either because of theme or because pretty and people will aim for them. Afterwards there will be less interesting ones but still up for grabs for the lolz. People who will want them all are like badgers who want them all and are prepared for the (very) long haul.

 

 

The ultra high cost for that one outfit is not that high. It just looks high. Someone said something like close to five billion if I recall correctly. When we have marketeers doing casual challenges 'can I earn a billion in 24h with a new character and no injection of inf?' (spoiler, they did), and then post a step by step explaining what they did and how to duplicate it. Now don't growl at me for saying things as they are. Of course not all have the patience to market and of course not all have the understanding of the nuances, but the 'ebil' marketeers will trip over themselves wanting to teach the secrets of the trade to anyone who wants to make money, their section of the forum is all about tips and things they found and are sharing. It puts things in perspective.

 

And the perspective is that everything done helps in getting prismatics. Today do half an hour of marketing because it's dull, tomorrow do a WST, day after that do 10 minutes of farming (because it's even more dull than marketing), level a new alt, sell merits or use them in the marketing.

 

Traditionally simply doing one repeated Hami a day and one Tinpex grants 320 merits, and these are not high skill ultra spec elite territory like 4 star HMs. Simply turning them into converters and selling would make about 65 million. Two days ought to be enough for a basic outfit. Do a two star HM as well if having the time and/or energy and one costume a day can be done.

[Ardzog]

I'm all for keeping prices high.

 

Ok, it's a long time to get, even if you're doing 4* content.

But, the goal is to keep these costumes rare. If everyone can get them too easily, they lose a lot of their flavor.

 

It also gives a real interest to look for the difficulty, which is for me essential to keep the game interesting.

 

Then, it's purely cosmetic, like a nice badge, but that's not a badge (precisely so that it can't totally deprive some players)

Personally, I'm mostly interested in the mini costumes (not the 1500 one) so as it is, I can buy more than I wanted !

 

Finally, there are still some very nice and unusual costumes for only 10 aether.

[lemming]

37 minutes ago, Faultline said:

 

The cap on both Prismatics and Vanguard Merits is 10,000; it has been the case since P4 launch at least, the other numbers are incorrect.

Yep, I was wrong on the 9999, it's 10,000

 

The Page 4 release patch notes says 2000, maybe that needs to be mentioned as changed
 

Quote

 

Prismatic Aether Particle Salvage Rewards

• Completion of content on Advanced Difficulty settings now rewards an exclusive salvage currency called Prismatic Aether Particles that are used to purchase the permanent costume powers covered in the next section.
• They are capped at 2000 on how many can be carried at once by a single character

 

 

 

 

Edited October 13, 2022 by lemming
formatting

[Ardzog]

T4 remove the rabbit ears and some special heads

[Mezmera]

Honestly I thought the prices were going to be higher than they are for a lot of these.  I don't find any of these costume overlays appealing especially in a game with so much character creation already afforded you and I can see how the baby mode will cause the dev team grief since it is a very immersion breaking look.  I'm fine with how everything is tiered though.  

 

Since the page 4 update I've been hosting teams through Relentless Aeons which these prisms have created quite an interest to run this new creative content.  I'm glad they are keeping the reward trade ins to just purely cosmetic because if there were to be some type of power enhancing trade in as well that would have the potential to create a power dichotomy.  The players very capable of running these HM tfs I'm sure would be much more inclined to have a power reward instead of flair and most are reasonable enough to see that it should just remain flair. 

 

But for all of the complaining part of me wishes they'd just release a bunch of these costumes at lower rewards for those whining about how long it could take to get all of these things they couldn't get before and then offer a power enhancer for the 1500 PAPs for the players that would rather just have more powa to enhance what they are already capable of doing. 

 

Even though there's nothing in these trade ins that I want I still think this is a good idea, this new PAP currency, to generate interest in playing.  The table is set and hopefully there will eventually be something released later on that I do find appealing enough to spend my PAPs on like costume pieces or maybe even Rularuu the Ravager.  It's not like we didn't have a hell of a lot harsher grind on live just for that Ascension costume attained solely through incarnate content.  

 

If the devs are going to be spending their time creating such quality content and as an aside we'll have various costume rewards to generate interest in said content I'm all for it.  I'm by no means a homer for the devs, I just find it amazing that we are getting such great stuff added on to a game that was supposed to be long gone.  They should do what they feel is in good health for the game with whatever balance they feel reasonable.  

[twozerofoxtrot]

Dr. Kane' Abomination for 666 PAPs, sie vous plait.

[Jawbreaker]

I don't know if this was brought up elsewhere but the mini costume option would be a dream come true without the bobblehead. As it is I'll not be using it. I have character concepts for teeny characters, but not Funko versions 

[ExeErdna]

Personally the prices are too high, simply cutting everything by half wouldn't hurt anything. Those that want to be Malta agents, Hellions, or even DE's can have fun running around. Those that want to work towards something can do that. Yet there needs to be more options and or simply just more Prismatics given out across all levels which can also "help" some poor/newer players that can sell off a few for some pocket money. WST only giving out 2 and then hard mode and trials content giving low numbers. As of now the numbers are honestly "perfect" for just tier 1's. Everything else is a bit too much grind for my taste.