Badges, what they have become, and what they could become.

[Wavicle]

First off let me say I LOVE what HC has done with Exploration badges. They are now a key secondary gameplay loop that helps new players get starting money AND level up faster, while also teaching the lore of the game. Love it.

I wonder if there are any thoughts about making OTHER Badges more rewarding as well? Not like more power through Accolades or anything like that, but Merits and Patrol XP for other kinds of badges would also work well, I think. Maybe Aether Particles for some kinds of things. I suppose there are some other possibilities? What do folks think of this direction?

[Glacier Peak]

I think badges themselves are reward enough. I don't mind the extra stuff added on top, but I'm not beholden to it for dopamine.

Edited March 3 by Glacier Peak
Double word

[kelika2]

busywork to keep you subscribed

[Rudra]

I agree with @Glacier Peak. Badges are their own reward. (Also, how does patrol xp from explores help new players get more money? If anything, it speeds them along faster in leveling, but doesn't aid in gathering inf'.)

[Frozen Burn]

As I've posted elsewhere, depending on how you play, the new change to explore badges is horrible and useless for some, while others get the benefit, instead of everyone getting the same thing across the board no matter what.  And the patrol XP doesn't give more inf... just faster leveling, which we do too fast as it is, imo. 

 

All the other badges are rewarding enough and there doesn't need to be any other incentive to get them.  

[lemming]

For something fairly low key, I'd like a tune up on history plaques that told said which ones we have done.   And if we did a reward, for them, maybe some brainstorm salvage, but no rewards are necessary.

[Pleonast]

Is there an in-game way to get a list of the badges a character has and the current progress on the others? I feel like the whole badge mechanic is too opaque and dependent on careful reading of the wiki. 

[arcane]

On 3/2/2024 at 7:59 PM, Frozen Burn said:

As I've posted elsewhere, depending on how you play, the new change to explore badges is horrible and useless for some, while others get the benefit, instead of everyone getting the same thing across the board no matter what.  And the patrol XP doesn't give more inf... just faster leveling, which we do too fast as it is, imo. 

 

All the other badges are rewarding enough and there doesn't need to be any other incentive to get them.  

Eh, based on the benefit of one versus the other and how often you’d have to be full on patrol xp just to break even with the old system, I think we pretty much have proven that you’d have to have a very niche playstyle to be hurt by this change. 

[Frozen Burn]

4 minutes ago, arcane said:

Eh, based on the benefit of one versus the other and how often you’d have to be full on patrol xp just to break even with the old system, I think we pretty much have proven that you’d have to have a very niche playstyle to be hurt by this change. 

 

Not really.  Others have agreed with my sentiment also.  I have a ton of alts and limited game time like so many of us.  I rotate through my alts, whether low or high level.  At the beginning of my play session, I'm full of patrol xp - so finding explores while I wait for friends / SG-mates to log on does me now good.  Doing it at the end of game play is pointless, because the next time i log on the toon, they'll be full of patrol XP anyway.  So, the only option for some of us to take advantage of the new reward, is to stop in the middle of teaming to go badge hunt - no one wants to do that.  

 

Again, some will benefit and some of us will not whereas before, it was even across the board for all.  I'm glad you like it and works for your playstyle, but it doesn't change that fact that it is now biased towards some and against others.  And changes like that - whether it's against "niche" players or not, is not right, especially when the "system" was equal to all before and it wasn't broke and didn't need "fixing."

[arcane]

18 minutes ago, Frozen Burn said:

 

Not really.  Others have agreed with my sentiment also.  I have a ton of alts and limited game time like so many of us.  I rotate through my alts, whether low or high level.  At the beginning of my play session, I'm full of patrol xp - so finding explores while I wait for friends / SG-mates to log on does me now good.  Doing it at the end of game play is pointless, because the next time i log on the toon, they'll be full of patrol XP anyway.  So, the only option for some of us to take advantage of the new reward, is to stop in the middle of teaming to go badge hunt - no one wants to do that.  

 

Again, some will benefit and some of us will not whereas before, it was even across the board for all.  I'm glad you like it and works for your playstyle, but it doesn't change that fact that it is now biased towards some and against others.  And changes like that - whether it's against "niche" players or not, is not right, especially when the "system" was equal to all before and it wasn't broke and didn't need "fixing."

I don’t think you’re understanding the point. The point is that the new reward is so much larger than the old reward that even people like you who often log in with full patrol xp will derive a net benefit as long as you claim the reward once in a blue moon.

[Rudra]

1 hour ago, arcane said:

I don’t think you’re understanding the point. The point is that the new reward is so much larger than the old reward that even people like you who often log in with full patrol xp will derive a net benefit as long as you claim the reward once in a blue moon.

And you're missing the point too. The XP award from explore badges could have been boosted to give the same reward as the patrol xp the explores now give and not have compromised anyone's playing be rewarding those that play their characters more consistently while penalizing those that don't.

 

Edit: You can call the situation @Frozen Burn, myself, and others find ourselves in niche cases all you like, but it doesn't change the fact that we are still part of the gaming community in this game and the explores now awarding patrol xp is still a change that penalizes us for not playing our characters more often than every 10 or more days unless we specifically stop a normal game session to go looking for explores, interrupting our teams if on one or our own play sessions, all in the name of rewarding players during a normal game session. Which is what the dev said was the intent on the other thread, for players to get the reward over the course of their normal game session. (Edit again: And please don't insist on comparing the change to how the awards used to be for value when the discussion is about what they could have been bumped up to as regular xp as opposed to patrol xp instead.)

 

Edited March 4 by Rudra
Edited to strike through and add everything in same sentence after strike through.

[arcane]

42 minutes ago, Rudra said:

And you're missing the point too. The XP award from explore badges could have been boosted to give the same reward as the patrol xp the explores now give and not have compromised anyone's playing be rewarding those that play their characters more consistently while penalizing those that don't.

 

Edit: You can call the situation @Frozen Burn, myself, and others find ourselves in niche cases all you like, but it doesn't change the fact that we are still part of the gaming community in this game and the explores now awarding patrol xp is still a change that penalizes us for not playing our characters more often than every 10 or more days unless we specifically stop a normal game session to go looking for explores, interrupting our teams if on one or our own play sessions, all in the name of rewarding players during a normal game session. Which is what the dev said was the intent on the other thread, for players to get the reward over the course of their normal game session. (Edit again: And please don't insist on comparing the change to how the awards used to be for value when the discussion is about what they could have been bumped up to as regular xp as opposed to patrol xp instead.)

 

Admittedly I don’t expect you to have the most measured take on patrol xp after everything you’ve posted about it.

[Rudra]

12 minutes ago, arcane said:

Admittedly I don’t expect you to have the most measured take on patrol xp after everything you’ve posted about it.

My personal bias on patrol xp is exactly that, mine. When it comes to talking about how others are affected by something, I have to take a step back and view it in more neutral terms. Or at least try to. I don't expect anyone to think I'm in favor of patrol xp in any matter, but in this case, we're not talking about patrol xp itself as a game mechanic, we're talking about explore badges awarding patrol xp instead of regular xp like they used to. When they awarded regular xp, it didn't matter how long it had been since any given character was played. Unless they had xp turned off, they got the xp award even if they were maxed out on patrol xp. Now, if they are maxed out on patrol xp, the explore's xp reward simply goes away. Or if they are unable to run off and grab the explore during the course of playing, as will often happen to a player on a team that is not willing to wait on said player to possibly have to race across the zone and back to grab said explore, leaving that player as a non-participant on the mission that depending on the distance to the explore will find the team exiting the mission and going to the next before the explore grabbing player even gets back, then again they don't get the benefit of the patrol xp until it doesn't matter any more. So players with lots of alts that don't play them more frequently than every 10 days and players on fast moving teams will over the course of a normal game session find the patrol xp reward the explores now give does not benefit them. Whereas an increase in regular xp would still benefit them the same way it benefits everyone else.

[Frozen Burn]

2 hours ago, arcane said:

I don’t think you’re understanding the point. The point is that the new reward is so much larger than the old reward that even people like you who often log in with full patrol xp will derive a net benefit as long as you claim the reward once in a blue moon.

 

I completely understand the point and how this works, and how it affects people like me.  Yes, the reward is greater IF you defeat things to use it.  But you clearly aren't understanding our point as @Rudra is trying to help explain.  

 

If it's been a long time since I've logged in a character logs in and are maxed on patrol XP - you can't get more from the explore.  If me an d friends are done for the gaming session, and I want to catch up on explores, yes, I get patrol XP, but it means nothing since I log off for the night and I might not ever see that toon again for days as I rotate through alts depending on what me and my team does.  

 

Yes, there is a brief window where it does reward more when you swing by one on a way to a mission - but it's a one-off and defeats the Devs stated purpose that they want us to "explore the zones" in the middle of our game play.  No one ever will say, "Hey team.  Hold up while I collect a bunch of explore badges to get more patrol XP!"  And no team will wait.  

 

And yes, for those people who play the same character repeatedly day after day and session after session, will see a great benefit from it.  There is no argument there.  But many of us others who rotate through alts - see little to no benefit at all from this change. 

 

...again, MY point is... the new system is biased towards some and not others, when it used to be equal and fair across the board.  It doesn't matter the benefit greater, if not everyone can partake in it equally like previously.  

[Coyotedancer]

I'll never say no to more cool titles, which is really what badges amount to for me these days.

 

I don't chase them for their own sake anymore, but toss out one with a title that I want on some member of the crew? Yeah. I'll jump through pretty much any silly hoops I have to to get the thing. 🤣