The Incarnate system is needlessly complex and fussy

[Arc-Mage]

1 hour ago, Wavicle said:

Just to be extra clear, I never once in this thread or anywhere else said anything about not getting drops I wanted. I have no clue where you got that idea.

Yes, I read that in your previous post. My understanding is that the incarnate salvage drop rate for t3 level and above is felt to be lower than you would like. 

[Wavicle]

Just now, Arc-Mage said:

Yes, I read that in your previous post. My understanding is that the incarnate salvage drop rate for t3 level and above is felt to be lower than you would like. 

No. Where are you getting this??

 

i have not once ever complained about Incarnate drop rates. Are you confusing me with another poster?

[Rudra]

5 hours ago, Arc-Mage said:

What part of, “if” don’t you understand?

The part that has anything at all to do with the comment you quoted and responded to.

 

5 hours ago, Arc-Mage said:

I am explaining why you and by "you," I mean anyone with this play style, don't get the incarnate drops you desire. 

 

The incarnate system was not designed so just anyone can become incarnate. Besides originally being behind a paywall you had to complete specific tasks or trials. You obviously are not doing so. This is what I was attempting to point out to. Not just anyone can become incarnate. Nor should they be able to.

Fun fact. Anyone can become an incarnate. Just playing the game, not doing iTrials or WSTs, you still get enough threads and merits to fully T4 any character you play just by virtue of playing. You get incarnate xp to unlock your abilities regardless of what at level foes you fight once you get to 50, even if you exemplar down to do Flashback missions. You get threads from defeated enemies once you get to 50. You get merits from doing varying tasks. You get threads and merits from the vet level system. So even a character that a player runs with no effort to becoming an incarnate will have all the resources they need to be a fully T4'ed incarnate. So how is the incarnate system not designed so just anyone can become an incarnate?

[Rigged]

I have no comment on the threads/shards issue, but I am wondering:

 

How feasible would it be to unify all the thread-based (itrials and DA arc) incarnate salvage in each rarity tier?

 

By this I mean, why not make ONE generic common salvage, ONE generic uncommon salvage, ONE generic rare salvage and ONE generic VR salvage, change all the old recipes to use those instead of the specific salvage items (with respective rarity) and make itrials/DA arcs drop ONLY the generic salvage from now on (EDIT: For clarification, no change to the drop rates by rarity, so you will still get the same number of Uncommon, Rare, and VR salvage). Then create an NPC (or just use Luna) or add options to the incarnate window to convert all existing salvage to the generic versions.

 

If you want to make it even easier you can just use an existing salvage in each tier as the generic: let's say, Meditation Techniques, Dimensional Pocket, Semi-Conscious Energy, Living Relic. Then apply all the generic stuff mentioned above to them (make all the recipes use those instead, drop only those in itrials/DA arcs, and allow direct conversion of the other salvage by tier to them).

 

The point of this is to streamline the system, make the system easier to understand for newbies and also to remove a whole bunch of unnecessary conversion recipes from one specific salvage to another (and if you put the legacy conversions on an NPC you also declutter the incarnate window; this is feasible since you will only have to convert legacy salvage once).

 

Now, I want to point out that this is not for my own benefit. I am doing incarnates just fine right now with the current system. But OP does have a point that the system is needlessly complex and I have had to explain to more than one newbie ingame how the incarnate crafting works and during the course of that explanation it really highlighted how pointless the varied incarnate salvage is for each tier. The complexity also makes the system intimidating for newbies.

 

I want to head off the usual naysayers who are going to complain about making things easier - this is not any kind of EZmode nor will it be significantly easier to get your incarnates over the current system - it just makes the system easier to understand. For most people, the process of collecting incarnate salvage is going to be from the menus in trials or by converting threads - so you already get to pick the specific salvage item. The only time you get random nonspecific salvage is from, I believe, badge rewards in the itrials and a random common at the end of a DA arc. This is minor enough that streamlining all the salvage will not particularly change the rate of acquisition of incarnate powers except for the fringe unlucky person who rolls like 20 Biomorphic Goo in a row. And if you are the kind of elitist who thinks people who don't understand the system should not deserve to play with incarnate powers, consider this me pre-emptively flipping you off.

 

If you are so inclined you can also remove the shard system recipes and instead allow players to trade shards and shard salvage (Ancient Nictus Fragment, etc) for the generics, above, then replace the old shard salvage rewards in TFs with the new generic salvage. Make the weekly strike target give out a Generic Rare Salvage instead of the Notice of the Well. This however will make it much easier to grind the incarnates using TFs (shard salvage is currently only for the Alpha slot) so I can understand not including this part of my suggestion - but it WOULD allow us to remove the shard system recipes from the alpha crafting window and make it that much less confusing for newbies.

Edited May 25, 2023 by Rigged

[Rudra]

No. Just no. Just like I am opposed to combining all invention salvage into just Common, Uncommon, and Rare, I am opposed to generic-ifying incarnate salvage. Generic crafting is boring.