Focused Feedback: Team Badges

[Jacke]

9 hours ago, Troo said:

The ATs with Defense primary, as well as those with AoE Taunt and punchvoke, are Tanks.

 

I know the internal powerset names include "Defense", but I would like to avoid overloading that term any more than it is now.

 

I always refer to the Primary powerset of Tankers and the Secondary of Scrappers, Brutes, Stalkers, and Sentinels as Protection.

[Reiska]

11 hours ago, Clam Leader said:

Anyone that thought people were going to speedrun ... what? Tin Mage? For 1 aether per alt. Do you really think 40 merits arent already enough pf a reason to do that? Which are worth far far more than 1 aether.

 

Penny Yin more likely I'd bet, and in sheer cash value, 1 aether is currently worth somewhere in the ballpark of 11-12 merits.

 

Anyway I would have preferred a solution that retained the aether reward while removing the incentive for dark patterns in team formation, to be clear.  But at least you removed the incentive for dark patterns in team formation.

[Paradox Fate]

I like it. And would love to see the badge idea being expanded on with accolades, which you receive when you run each red/blue/co-op Task/Strike-Force with certain setups.

Edited February 7 by Paradox Fate

[Cyclone Jack]

1 hour ago, Jimmy said:

 

We actually discussed quite a few options internally, including stuff like this. Something to keep in mind is that we need to ensure every badge can be earned on every character, so "Team of 5 with only original ATs" wouldn't work (but there are similar options that could work). We're definitely open to more badges like this in the future (hence, this feedback thread).

How about having a variety of these weird "group composition challenges" and a character needs to complete, say, 5 of them for the Badge.  That way, you could have a bunch that are limited to specific ATs, but each of them counts towards the completion of the overall Badge.  So, All Hero and All Villain would both count towards the same Badge.  You could end up having bunch of these, and so long as 5 of them are completable by each AT, then that would cover everyone.

 

Also, since we're talking about Badges and this just popped into my head...  I'm not sure if characters are flagged as Praetorian, especially after they leave Praetoria, but if so, I think it would be pretty neat if they got a different name for the Dimensional Warder Badge, similar to how Grass is Greener/Meaner works?  I figure Praetorians beating up their Praetors would be kind of special to them. 😉

[SaxyGuitar]

21 hours ago, The Curator said:

Archetype Duplication - Complete the content with a team of 4 or more using only the same Archetype

 

Question on this wording. Does this mean you can't have anyone be a different Archetype, correct? So you can't go 7 Defenders and 1 tanker, and get the badge?

 

Edited February 7 by SaxyGuitar

[Cobalt Arachne]

30 minutes ago, SaxyGuitar said:

 

Question on this wording. Does this mean you can't have anyone be a different Archetype, correct? So you can't go 7 Defenders and 1 tanker, and get the badge?

 

This is correct. The badge is for the entire team all being the same AT and having at least 4+ members on it.

7 Defenders and 1 Tanker on a team = does not qualify
7 Defenders on a team = qualifies
 

3 Defenders on a team = does not qualify

4 Defenders on a team = qualifies

[LastHumanSoldier]

These badges should not allow ANY temp powers in the attempt.
That will really ensure that the badges mean something.
4-8 blaster Master of X badge will be something to brag about.

 

[arcane]

14 minutes ago, LastHumanSoldier said:

These badges should not allow ANY temp powers in the attempt.
That will really ensure that the badges mean something.
4-8 blaster Master of X badge will be something to brag about.

 

I don’t think Master runs have anything to do with this

[SaxyGuitar]

1 hour ago, Cobalt Arachne said:

The badge is for the entire team all being the same AT and having at least 4+ members on it.

 

Thank you! This is how it reads in my head but I wanted to be sure.

[Starhammer]

So it seems really odd to me that some of the ATs don't qualify for some of the roles, like Corrupter not being in Support or Brute not being Melee Damage. I know they may not be FOTM level best at these things, but they are roles they fill in practice. When you get a Speed Boost, you don't care if it came from a Defender, Corrupter, or Mastermind.

Aside from that, this feels like something it would be neat to see a couple accolade powers associated with. For instance, sure, the first time you succeed you get the badge, but have the game keep count behind the scenes, and once you've qualified 10 times, or a hundred, or whatever, you get an accolade associated with it, and if you have the accolade, and you join a TF that would qualify for the associated badge, you have an auto team buff appropriate to the badge during any qualifying mission for the duration of the TF. Nothing that would dramatically shift team power for any one character having it, but maybe something that would be significant if most/all had it. Sure, I get it, having some quantitative benefit might potentially encourage the elitist behavior some are concerned about, but from the other end of the spectrum, such behavior is a good indicator of who isn't worth playing with... at least for me.

[Psi-bolt]

Excellent change.  Meets the requirements that Cobalt Arachne announced without any of the long term deleterious effects.  

 

EDIT:  I would agree though that encouraging new players in the idea that you NEED five different roles on the team is a bad idea, but I think the AT duplication badge immediately lessens the impact of that bad information.   IMO, this provides new players a means to see for themselves that:

 

1. Any team, even a team of all the same AT can work;
2. There can be advantages to having diverse roles on the team.

 

I don't think the Aether reward was necessary or desirable for this particular task.  If there's a desire to provide additional rewards to players, then a simple, daily TF bonus for the first TF done by a character in a day would meet that just as well.  It would push new players towards the content while not reinforcing the idea that there's a benefit to bringing 5 separate roles on a team.

Edited February 7 by Psi-bolt

[Excraft]

17 hours ago, Indystruck said:

Yeah okay badges sure neat I guess. I'll get them once and then totally forget about them?

 

Same.  I don't see a need for this to be honest.  Players are already building diverse teams to run content.  Isn't that rewarding enough for them?

[PeregrineFalcon]

39 minutes ago, Excraft said:

Same.  I don't see a need for this to be honest.  Players are already building diverse teams to run content.  Isn't that rewarding enough for them?

You already know why. Blackbird was right.

[Starforge]

13 hours ago, Indystruck said:

This is going to encourage bad behavior. I don't have any proof of this, but it's a hunch and I think we should act on it supremely, decisively, and immediately, by reinstating the aether bonus concept, thank you.

 

Your thumbs down mean nothing, I've seen what you approve of.

Frankly, thumbs down from the usual suspects are a badge of honor. They give me strength to go on and read through these feedback threads each and every update lol.

[Starforge]

11 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

You already know why. Blackbird was right.

They are never right and exist to crap on each and every update HC makes. Anyway, back on topic, attach an Aether reward to each badge and I’m good with this change.

[Blackbird71]

1 hour ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

You already know why. Blackbird was right.

 

I'm going to get that put on a billboard in Atlas.  😉

[Thraxen]

I like it. My random all scrapper or all beam rifle type ITFs will get a badge more than likely. 

I’m also looking forward to “all assault rifle” ITFs being a bit more diverse once everyone gets new set to 50. 
 

I know this isn’t about the aether being removed but I’m glad it was. 

[Wispur]

All Peacebringer teams are gonna be fun!

[Thraxen]

6 minutes ago, Wispur said:

All Peacebringer teams are gonna be fun!

 I’ve done an all heat and then an all veat too. Don’t specify pb so some ws too. Heat was fun but nothing special. All veat was killer. Soooooo many buffs. 

Edited February 8 by Thraxen

[PoptartsNinja]

I like the badges, more badges is always fun.

 

 

One thing that might be worth considering in the future, if you really want to track (and reward) which ATs get used and which don't:

 

Give the ATs a primary, secondary, and (maybe) a tertiary role. Then have the roles 'fill in.' So if you have one controller on the team, they fill in as control; but two controllers together also fill in support because two controllers worth of support is probably pretty solid for any team. You could then safely add more categories like pets, split control into hard control (lockdowns) and soft control (knockbacks/slows/taunts/etc). And if need be, the number of ATs necessary to hit the tertiary could be adjusted to make it a bit harder for popular ATs, like three blasters might only count as soft control but 4-5 could hit a hard control requirement.

 

 

Something like:
Tank
Primary: Tank
Secondary: Melee Damage
Tertiary: Soft Control

Brute
Primary: Melee Damage
Secondary: Tank
Tertiary: Soft Control

Blaster
Primary: Ranged Damage
Secondary: Melee Damage
Tertiary: Hard Control (Blasters were originally intended to be the off-mezzer in the EQ1 Tank/Support/Mezzer trinity CoH was built to emulate, their powersets have a surprising amount of control and three blasters can generally keep spawns pretty near helpless)

Defender
Primary: Support
Secondary: Ranged Damage
Tertiary: Soft Control

Corruptor
Primary: Ranged Damage
Secondary: Support
Tertiary: Soft Control

Mastermind
Primary: Pets
Secondary: Support
Tertiary: Ranged Damage

Stalker/Scrapper
Primary: Melee Damage
Secondary: Off Tank (because two stalkers/scrappers worth of melee damage is pretty reasonable for tanking team alphas)
Tertiary: Ranged Damage (if an APP ranged attack is unlocked)
 

Sentinel
Primary: Ranged Damage
Secondary: Support
Tertiary: Off Tank (because three Sentinels in a team should make for a reasonably tanky team, even if they have to trade agro to tank an AV)

Controller
Primary: Hard Control
Secondary: Support
Tertiary: Pets

Dominator
Primary: Hard Control
Secondary: Ranged Damage
Tertiary: Melee Damage

 

 

I know this doesn't really fix the "bring fewer corruptors to Hard Mode TFs" problem, but that's always going to be the nature of hard mode TFs. They're a puzzle, and people (in general) will usually seek the optimal solution to a puzzle. That optimal solution probably isn't going to be a rainbow team.

[SupaFreak]

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.

 

Edited February 8 by SupaFreak
I wasn't satisfied with the order of the paragraphs - it was a long day at work - so go easy on me

[HiddenWings]

43 minutes ago, SupaFreak said:

If the Role Diversity requires 5 - shouldn't Archetype (and Role if considered) Duplication also require 5?  Just food (or snack) for thought.

Because I was discussing this with some friends yesterday: It really only requires 3 if one is an epic archetype, or even 2 if they're specifically a Warshade and Arachnos Soldier.

[Riverdusk]

Liking this change a lot.  Helps alleviate some of my concern with the old system of teaching the lesson that a diverse team was somehow the "ideal", when in this game a non diverse team can often be just as strong or even stronger.  Not to mention the fun of things like all MM teams.

 

Also wouldn't mind at all the idea of a one time aether reward for it.  That part of it was never a big deal for me either way, not like it is hard to earn inf in this game.  More of a help for newer players just starting out.

[Parabola]

18 hours ago, Jimmy said:

Hey folks. Two things.

 

1 - This is a feedback thread for the new badges. Not a feedback thread for the now-removed Aether reward.

 

2 - Let's try to keep it civil. Getting grief over something being removed during beta makes us less likely to want to solicit feedback and try experimental ideas during the Open Beta phase, and more likely to keep updates in Closed Beta longer until all the issues are ironed out. We don't want to do that, because getting opinions from a larger group can be very helpful - but you also need to understand that sometimes features don't work out, and they need to be removed. That's just part of game development.

I've put some thoughts that are relevant to this in the thread below.

 

 

[SupaFreak]

7 hours ago, HiddenWings said:

Because I was discussing this with some friends yesterday: It really only requires 3 if one is an epic archetype, or even 2 if they're specifically a Warshade and Arachnos Soldier.

 

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.