Focused Feedback: Aether Wave 3 Rewards

[Cobalt Arachne]

Aether Rewards - Wave 3
Tier 3 Reward Additions

• New cosmetic effects added to the Tier 3 Aether reward vendor offerings:
  • Effect: Flames
  • Effect: Chill
  • Effect: Earthen
  • Effect: Shocking
  • Effect: Psionic
  • Effect: Photosynthesis
• The Tier 3 cosmetic effects category as a whole can no longer be used in PvP.

Tier 4 Reward Expansion

• Undefined Mode and Undefined Mini Mode now have two additional customization options available:
  • Undefined Silver
  • Undefined Evil

 

Aether Reward Fixes

• Fixed missing halo aura on Legacy Ruin Mage costume.
• Fixed a few broken pointers in the meta costume accolade menu.

[Bionic_Flea]

I continue to believe that Aethers should be awarded to any character that runs the weekly, not just level 50 characters.

[fiend]

This is a really clever way of offering the look of armor sets without explicitly requiring their use, definitely opens up some cool possibilities! 'Shocking' has so many options too!

 

It'd be cool to see the "Crystal Armor" power's effect bundled into Earthen, though that could easily be its own effect at some point in the future since it's pretty different.

 

[Dispari]

Of the current options I think Photosynthesis is the best candidate to be placed alongside Mycelium as a basic aura selection that any player could use, since it's an incredibly unique character customization option that can't be obtained in any other way, and is even in the same theme as the mushrooms. I personally know at least 5 plant characters on my server who would love to be able to use it.

I was thinking it might not be doable since it uses two colors unlike other auras, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for Mycelium.

 

Other than that I don't have any feedback that hasn't already been said.

[Seldom]

Cosmetic effect feedback: These are all a great start. I know so many characters I have made that wanted more than one special effect, and have to either choose a specific aura/path, primary/secondary/epic options look to get things working, this will give (in theory) way more flexibility! That said, the fact that these currently only come in default colors will vastly limit my use of them.

I know it sounds extra, but almost all my characters feature complete color customizations, so very few will fit with these. That said, these use the exact effects of a lot of armors, any chance these will get customization the way inherent/accolade/incarnates/temp powers do? Something that cost an arc, a Pay 2 Win visit, an Accolade getting customization, but not these seems odd.

 

On the specifics:

• Effect: Flames- ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

Looks good. Of the two 'flame armor' looks, I would've used the newer ones, these look more gaseous/glowy more than like flames. That said, if this will eventually be recolorable, this will work as a pro if it can work beyond a 'fire' look. Still for places where folks use auras for heads/eyes/haloes/etc. but still want to be fiery, I can thinks of many places this will be welcome.

• Effect: Chill- ⭐⭐

Very blocky. Without recolorablity to make these more transparent, these will hide most costumes. 

• Effect: Earthen-⭐⭐⭐

Good for those that want an earthen/golem kinda look, but don't have stone armor. great for earth blast/control/etc. types. If this could have crystal looks, this will be even better than chill for ice characters. as is, niche, but has some good sets to match with.

• Effect: Shocking- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

Subtle sparks. This is AWESOME. it matches with all sorts of costumes, it's subtle, but good for mech suits/tech folks/zappy powersets/robutts/etc. This one has SO many good uses, as it's subtle, simple, and a nice accent.

• Effect: Psionic- ⭐ 

Purple-pink energy hula-hoops spinning all over your body. I don't have any characters that would even consider using this, even if it were free. I'm sure someone will. The effects are a bit gaudy, the colors uber-specific, and the look matches with almost no other powers in the game.

• Effect: Photosynthesis- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

Pretty! Simple, this is great for fairy folk, an accent on a formal look, on nature folk, or just those that like flowers. I can think of SO many characters and other players who I know who would LOVE this. Until they see it's 250 Prismatic aethers, in which case the folks I play with will either (A) forget it even exists, or (B) have everybody pool their Prismatic 8-balls and eventually get one or two of use ONE of these. Which leads me to pricing.

 

 

Pricing: I know there was a lot of back and forth with this early on, but I wanted to give things the benefit of the doubt, and give things a 'wait and see' approach.

Until the Halloween event, I had no expectation of EVER getting the 'tiny' transformation, which I would love on several characters. I play multiple evenings a night, often with large groups, often doing WST content, and itrails. I am not a grinder, but do have 12 pages of characters, 39 fully 'finished' 50's, all of whom played through groups/TF's/etc and weeks of play. These characters would love to have extra auras, and can all be used via aforementioned WST/iTrials to earn Aethers.

• I have since then bought ONE 'mini' transformation, and could only get that through an absolute Halloween grinding the entire event when prismatic aethers were given in a way that could actually match the current prices.
• On my badge character I bought enough for all the matrix/costume badges.
• On one character I bought 4 cop uniforms (cop character)
• On one characters I bought 2 CoT costumes.

I still would like the 'Deluxe' for one character. I have since Halloween gathered ~200 Prismatic Aethers. (This playing multiple nights a week, and often a couple times over weekends)

To purchase anything for 1500 Prismatic Aethers via the standard earning way, it will take me years. Can I buy more off the markets? Sure, but for pages of characters, I can either finish builds for multiple characters, or get one character a particular aura, and since I don't farm much, (if ever), the inf for doing this is just out of reach,

 

Given the current pricing, please either reduce the prices for vintage/premium/deluxe costumes to be feasible for multiple character unlocks (Much less multiple unlocks for a character) or make the unlocks global, given the current pricing.

Pricing Feedback:

• Standard: good as-is. I can pick up multiple looks for characters that it would be cool to have a 'disguise' or alternate look on.
• Vintage: these are not 10x times better than standard. Please consider moving these to being 50-75 a pop.
• Special effects: if you want these to be a common inf drain or a long-term goal, make them more commonly reachable. Making them TOO long-term makes people not want to grind for them, but disregard them. This is my opinion, but was echoed by all the folks I play with as well. I and the group I play with love making characters with stories and specific looks, but since seeing the prices, we just ignore this system for the most part. I would suggest 100-150 for these.
• Deluxe: Was this built just for those who grind nightly on farms on a main character? For a player with many characters leveled through nightly 'standard' story/TF/SF content, 1500 isn't going to happen. If you would like more people to even consider this, especially for more than one character (Which will ultimately have a far broader effect) at least bring it below 500 prismatic Aethers.

Side suggestion:

 

Please add 'Civilian' NPC costumes. This would be great for 'secret identity'/undercover looks. And please, not 'random fem/male, but specific civilian looks.

Edited April 20, 2023 by Barneysaurus

[Vanden]

3 hours ago, Barneysaurus said:

That said, these use the exact effects of a lot of armors, any chance these will get customization the way inherent/accolade/incarnates/temp powers do? Something that cost an arc, a Pay 2 Win visit, an Accolade getting customization, but not these seems odd.

 

Ooh, someone didn't look closely in the tailor 😇

[Marshal_General]

I have basically given up on the aether system. I hate farming and I would have to do a stupid amount of farming just to get something for one character.

[Dispari]

I don't think they will ever reduce the prices or add more reasonable sources of obtaining prismatics. Even when the system was announced they were very firm on that. Their stated design goal for the system is to make sure it's inaccessible by as many people as possible since the special auras are a tax on server resources.

I will say making them account-wide would make it slightly more tolerable. You'd still have to buy them but it's not like you can log in the same account more than once and tax the servers any more than you already could. Some of us have several dozen characters, and alts of the same character, that make the system completely unapproachable (well, more than it already is by its nature).

[Bionic_Flea]

Maybe they have other things like the Halloween event that can be a source of Aethers.  If nothing else, at least there will be an annual event where folks can pump up their Aether stash.  But I would hope for more.

 

OH!  Could we add a chance for Aethers to drop in Super Packs?  That would add another source of Aethers and another Inf sink.  Some would use them, some store them, and others would sell.

[Cobalt Arachne]

2 hours ago, Dispari said:

Their stated design goal for the system is to make sure it's inaccessible by as many people as possible since the special auras are a tax on server resources.

You're misquoting us a bit here.... That was never a design goal for the Aether system; Rather particle limitations as a whole are something we have to keep in mind constantly with every single new thing we add to this game because particles are a hard-coded engine limit that will very easily cause problems for us if we are careless.

I've mentioned multiple times that the Aether system serves a very specific purpose, and that purpose is not to just give players new customization options, since if that were the goal we would've just placed them in the costume editor like we did with the mushroom aura.

 

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The design goal of the Aether currency is to serve as an economic balancing tool by allowing new players who don't have vast reserves of wealth to have a way to coax veteran players into parting with their dragon's horde of wealth they've accrued over the years, which creates a healthier and more accessible game overall.

The main strength of the currency is giving newer players something they can sell to the veteran players on the Auction House. Last I looked it was sitting at 4,000,000 each and for a player who's currently leveling up, that much influence is a godsend and will cover almost all their enhancement needs up until they start investing in Invention Origin Enhancements. It's very likely a leveling player who's doing missions will end up earning at least one Prismatic Aether Particle and it will majorly benefit their leveling experience.

Otherwise, the *trillions* of influence some veterans are sitting on does nothing to help new players, the game, nor the economy.

A major part of this was design was that Aether does not drop from any Architect Entertainment farming activities and is not infinitely seeded on the Auction House, which means the price and value is controlled ONLY by players themselves per supply and demand, and is given resilience from being completely devalued primarily by ensuring the Tier 1 rewards were trivial to get and the higher tier rewards were major investments (anything less and veteran players would buy them all out immediately and then the currency's design goal would cease to function completely).

 

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It's not an option unfortunately for us to do account-bound rewards in this game due to the way the account system works.

Before it gets mentioned, while there are account-wide AE badges that exist, but those were done in an awful, horrific way by having every single map instance server check every single player every single time they zone and reward the badges.
If we added anything else to that method of account-bound it would significantly hurt the server's performance, so thus is not a viable option.

Which means account-bound stuff cannot be done currently.

 

That being said I am considering making the Weekly Strike Target reward 1 Aether to all non-50's and 2 Aether to 50's for all WSTs which should help.
 

[BronzeKnight]

57 minutes ago, Cobalt Arachne said:

That being said I am considering making the Weekly Strike Target reward 1 Aether to all non-50's and 2 Aether to 50's for all WSTs which should help.

 

Why not the other way around? Sounds silly but give 2 Aether to non 50's so they can sell it and 1 to 50's if they really want it. This gets more low lvl characters in the WSF and playing the game rather than the hoard of op L50s. You can always mail them to yourself anyhow if you need them on a particular character. 

[Cobalt Arachne]

Just now, BronzeKnight said:

 

Why not the other way around? Sounds silly but give 2 Aether to non 50's so they can sell it and 1 to 50's if they really want it. This gets more low lvl characters in the WSF and playing the game rather than the hoard of op L50s. You can always mail them to yourself anyhow if you need them on a particular character. 

Because the Alpha slot salvage is no longer exclusively the way to craft Alpha slots there is no longer any worthwhile incentive for 50's to join and participate in Weekly Strike Targets now, which hurts its role in the game at max level. The Aether addition was aimed at giving 50's reason to join WSTs again.

[BronzeKnight]

43 minutes ago, Cobalt Arachne said:

Because the Alpha slot salvage is no longer exclusively the way to craft Alpha slots there is no longer any worthwhile incentive for 50's to join and participate in Weekly Strike Targets now, which hurts its role in the game at max level. The Aether addition was aimed at giving 50's reason to join WSTs again.

Ah fair enough. My personal observation has been that there are plenty of L50s doing the WST but all good either way. Thankyou for the response! 

[Seldom]

10 hours ago, Cobalt Arachne said:

The design goal of the Aether currency is to serve as an economic balancing tool by allowing new players who don't have vast reserves of wealth to have a way to coax veteran players into parting with their dragon's horde of wealth they've accrued over the years, which creates a healthier and more accessible game overall.

 

Strangely enough, the 'fastest' way to get high numbers of Prismatic Aethers are fully-kitted out specific builds called out for on high star-count ITF/Aeon runs. ( Good luck on qualifying for those on a non-particular build, much less as a new player.) Speed-running multiple 50's on a particularly easy WST, can also generate these quick, knowledge of how to do so and having multiple 50's to do so, again favor veterans. I appreciate the explanation, but the current means of generating Prismatic Aethers is *highly* tilted in favor of veterans, power builds, and a large stable of 50's.

Many players I have encountered who spend time on farming use out-of the box costumes, and jokey names/characters. The current auction house rate is 3 million plus per aether, making the deluxe cost starting at 4,500,000,000+ inf. That's the inf that farmers and marketeers deal with, best of luck aside from that.

We are left with a system that favors the wrong crowd for generation (Vets/farmers) and dangles a carrot for a particular crowd (Farmers) that is  something most farmers I've encountered seemed ambivalent to.

Edited April 20, 2023 by Barneysaurus

[Cobalt Arachne]

19 minutes ago, Barneysaurus said:

Strangely enough, the 'fastest' way to get high numbers of Prismatic Aethers are fully-kitted out specific builds called out for on high star-count ITF/Aeon runs. ( Good luck on qualifying for those on a non-particular build, much less as a new player.) Speed-running multiple 50's on a particularly easy WST, can also generate these quick, knowledge of how to do so and having multiple 50's to do so, again favor veterans. I appreciate the explanation, but the current means of generating Prismatic Aethers is *highly* tilted in favor of veterans, power builds, and a large stable of 50's.

The other design purpose of the Aethers was, of course, to provide worthy incentives for people to play the new challenging content.
It's the hardest content in the game currently, so it stands to reason those who conquer it should be handsomely rewarded for their struggles, but almost nothing rewarded there is exclusive to the advanced difficulty modes.

People with access to more characters, resources, and knowledge are going to have an advantage in earning anything we add compared to new players, regardless of the context, so I'm unsure how that matters regarding the first design goal, which is still accomplished (Aether is consumed by its use and there is no cap on how much it can be consumed, which helps it retain value) while also ensuring the hardest content in the game is lucrative enough to those who are willing to commit to running it.

Farming the influence to buy the Aether is of course, the easiest, low-input way to accumulate the currency, that's by design since it is where the influence comes from that trickles down to the new players selling it.

It's a balance made using effort vs. time as the factors that drive players to acquire it. You can either play the harder content to get Aether more quickly, slower by playing the easily accessible content like the Weekly Strike Target or Incarnate Trials, or you can buy it from the herd income that sells it on the Auction House.

We'll also be adding new gamemodes and content that will reward it and continue to make Aether more available; There's a lot of ambitious things planned in the future, stay tuned!

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[Bionic_Flea]

16 hours ago, Cobalt Arachne said:

We'll also be adding new gamemodes and content that will reward it and continue to make Aether more available; There's a lot of ambitious things planned in the future, stay tuned!

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Clockwork King and Frostfire together again for the first time?  Or do they merge into ClockFrost FireKing?

[warlyx]

On 4/20/2023 at 3:19 PM, Cobalt Arachne said:

The main strength of the currency is giving newer players something they can sell to the veteran players on the Auction House. Last I looked it was sitting at 4,000,000 each and for a player who's currently leveling up, that much influence is a godsend and will cover almost all their enhancement needs up until they start investing in Invention Origin Enhancements. It's very likely a leveling player who's doing missions will end up earning at least one Prismatic Aether Particle and it will majorly benefit their leveling experience.

Otherwise, the *trillions* of influence some veterans are sitting on does nothing to help new players, the game, nor the economy.

 

 

I got one on an alt the other day (i have been leveling some alts ) and yeah that item sold and with the inf i bought some KB > KD for my PB , the poor PB wasnt going to team until i got some KB> KD so was happy to get some inf and able to team for TF's 😄

 

Quote

That being said I am considering making the Weekly Strike Target reward 1 Aether to all non-50's and 2 Aether to 50's for all WSTs which should help.

 

that would be nice 😄

Edited April 21, 2023 by warlyx

[Marshal_General]

2 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:

 

Clockwork King and Frostfire together again for the first time?  Or do they merge into ClockFrost FireKing?

I think I prefer Frostwork, King of Clockfire.

[Luminara]

20 hours ago, Cobalt Arachne said:

 

I haven't seen that much cocaine since Scarface.

Edited April 21, 2023 by Luminara

[Marshal_General]

3 hours ago, Luminara said:

 

I haven't seen that much cocaine since Scarface.

 

[Hartanna]

A bug, but it's fun and also resets on zone travel:

 

Toggle on Earthen Special Effect: Minimal as female.

Go into tailor surgeon screen, select Huge body and then back out of tailor screen.

Huge effects are still on female body.

 

Edit: This is client-side. Other players on test server can't see the effect.

Edited April 24, 2023 by Hartanna