Empowerment buffs to last 8 hours

[Laucianna]

Not sure how many are aware of actively use the empowerment buffs you can get from your SG base by using Salvage to craft it, but recently I've noticed some really good ones on there that would be super useful, if they lasted more then a single hour. You have things like double XP and the defence Amplifier from START that you can "buy" multiple of to a maximum of 8 hours which is great to grab as you run past one.



It would be nice if you can stack the empowerment buffs up to 8 hours too if you have the salvage, to me it would make nice use out of SG bases and a imo forgotten feature whilst not being game breaking ❤️
 

[Greycat]

I think part of the reason it's like this now is to have an excuse to burn salvage, really. But stacking would also accomplish that, so... sure.  Doesn't really matter if you burn the salvage *now* or over the next 8 hours, other than saving multiple base visits.

[Hedgefund]

Regardless of what any description says they last for 90 minutes.  I do like your idea, OP, and I'd be in favor or lowering the duration of one buff from 90 to 60 minutes if we could stack these buff durations.

 

I personally am an empowerment buff addict and craft whatever I can in downtime with whatever salvage I have on hand, plus a few things I store in SG so I can make the ones I really value regardless of what's in my character's inventory.

[SeraphimKensai]

Honestly this seems like a QoL change to me, it just reduces the frequency that I need to renew the buffs at my base, and still burns the same amount of salvage.

 

Stamped for expedited review and approval.

[lemming]

I think some stacking would be nice.  Heck, I'd be fine if it got reduced to an hour, then stack up to 8.  That would make some TFs a little less rushed so that you can have the buffs for the last fight.

[Captain Fabulous]

+1

[Rudra]

I find myself in agreement with @Clave Dark 5. Empowerment station buffs already last 90 minutes. And you can dismiss the buff any time you want before then, so if you have been using 1 (or more) for a while and are worried it is going to wear off soon? Pop in your base, dismiss them, and craft new ones.

[Greycat]

33 minutes ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Really, isn't this game easy enough by now?  Heck, I have this gizmo in my base and hardly ever remember to use it and things go just fine for me.  Seems to me if you really want an extra inch of thick icing on top of the three inches already on your cake, then that should be on you to go get it.

 

It's already costing salvage, and still time limited. This just saves a little travel time, if anything. Not making it cheaper or more powerful.

[lemming]

43 minutes ago, Greycat said:

It's already costing salvage, and still time limited. This just saves a little travel time, if anything. Not making it cheaper or more powerful.

Yep. It's just saving travel time and other people's time while you top off your buffs in base.

[Andreah]

Let them stack up to eight hours, like most of the START buffs do.

[Greycat]

9 minutes ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Time saving is also a way of making the game easier though.  And the price of said salvage is laughably negligible.

 

There's a limit to where "that makes the game too easy" really works as an argument. Everyone having judgement, team or league wide buffs, etc? Yes, that certainly does and has become OP, sure. Not having to run back to base in the middle of a TF to recharge a tiny buff, at the cost of salvage? Not so much.

 

These buffs already exist in game. The proposal isn't to make them more powerful or be able to stack potency, just to save a little time for what's essentially the same duration.

[Rudra]

24 minutes ago, Greycat said:

 

There's a limit to where "that makes the game too easy" really works as an argument. Everyone having judgement, team or league wide buffs, etc? Yes, that certainly does and has become OP, sure. Not having to run back to base in the middle of a TF to recharge a tiny buff, at the cost of salvage? Not so much.

 

These buffs already exist in game. The proposal isn't to make them more powerful or be able to stack potency, just to save a little time for what's essentially the same duration.

What TFs take longer than an hour or 90 minutes any more? Even Quaterfields aren't that long any more.

 

Edited April 9 by Rudra
Edited to correct "Khans" to "Quaterfields".

[Haijinx]

This happened with composite buffs in Anarchy Online

 

The past doesn't repeat but it rhymes..

[lemming]

43 minutes ago, Rudra said:

What TFs take longer than an hour or 90 minutes any more? Even Quaterfields aren't that long any more.

If all you're wanting to do is promote speed runs. I suppose so.

[Lunar Ronin]

52 minutes ago, Rudra said:

What TFs take longer than an hour or 90 minutes any more? Even Quaterfields aren't that long any more.

 

 

Synapse TF, Dr. Aeon SF (regular), and non-speed run advanced modes mostly.

[Rudra]

16 minutes ago, lemming said:

If all you're wanting to do is promote speed runs. I suppose so.

It's not even a speed run thing. It's been a while since I did most of the TFs, but even solo I can clear all the TFs I do at around an hour. And that is fighting through everything. (Edit: And no, I don't turn down the difficulty to expedite them. My MM typically runs them at +2/x3 or +0/x8.)

 

7 minutes ago, Lunar Ronin said:

 

Synapse TF, Dr. Aeon SF (regular), and non-speed run advanced modes mostly.

Okay, you got me on Synapse, he sucks. Dr. Aeon though? Just on a regular mode run? Is not even 90 minutes. Even if you fight your way through the missions. My most online friend and I ran Dr. Aeon at 1-star Hard Mode (and previously at regular difficulty), and with both of us being limited to an hour of play time, it didn't take us an hour to fight our way through the maps.

Edited April 9 by Rudra

[Monos King]

I'm someone who frequently reflects and comments on inclusions that make the game too easy. This? Pretty vanilla, nothing more than creating convenience. Would be more okay with the stacking suggestion, up to 8 hours. I think that's a good trade-off/limiter. I can't see anywhere this suggestion would realistically create power creep.

Edited April 9 by Monos King

[Rudra]

45 minutes ago, Monos King said:

I'm someone who frequently reflects and comments on inclusions that make the game too easy. This? Pretty vanilla, nothing more than creating convenience. Would be more okay with the stacking suggestion, up to 8 hours. I think that's a good trade-off/limiter. I can't see anywhere this suggestion would realistically create power creep.

You're right in that it isn't a question of power creep. You still have to expend the same number of resources to get the time regardless of whether you do so all at once or refresh periodically. And I'm not going to lose any sleep if the devs decide to implement it. I just don't get what the problem is with renewing the buffs between TFs.

 

Edit: Maybe I'm missing the point again, but there have been threads asking to make SG bases more... bear with me, I can't think of the right word, so I'm just going to go with central or noticeable, to the game. Well, we have empowerment stations we can have in our bases. And we can have more than 1 of them. So why not use the time rallying between TFs/SFs to pop into your base, maybe even talk your team into joining you inside, and everyone refreshing your buffs before the next TF/SF?

Edited April 9 by Rudra

[Laucianna]

It's a QoL thing above all others, it's not making the game super easy it's just making something less tedious ❤️

[UltraAlt]

20 hours ago, Laucianna said:

but recently I've noticed some really good ones on there that would be super useful, if they lasted more then a single hour.

 

And that is why they only last for an hour.

They are there for when you are really struggling it something and need a little help to get past the rough parts. They aren't there to be used all the time (aka to be powered up every time a character logs in so that they last for hours of gameplay.)

 

I think it is a balance issue, so I'm against increasing the length of time that empowerments (buffs really) last.

If you need to get them again, just go to your SG base between missions.

[arcane]

I wouldn’t be in favor of this unless the costs were increased to something meaningful.

 

Right now the annoyance of re-upping these buffs is the only thing this mechanic has resembling a cost, so for now it must stay IMO.

Edited April 9 by arcane

[Laucianna]

2 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

 

And that is why they only last for an hour.

They are there for when you are really struggling it something and need a little help to get past the rough parts. They aren't there to be used all the time (aka to be powered up every time a character logs in so that they last for hours of gameplay.)

 

I think it is a balance issue, so I'm against increasing the length of time that empowerments (buffs really) last.

If you need to get them again, just go to your SG base between missions.

But you have the Start vendor selling better buffs for something much simpler to get that lasts up to 8 hours and is in a ton of zones?
The Start buffs are more expensive but majority have influence and not a set list of different salvage needed to craft the empowerment buffs. 

[lemming]

2 hours ago, arcane said:

I wouldn’t be in favor of this unless the costs were increased to something meaningful.

 

Right now the annoyance of re-upping these buffs is the only thing this mechanic has resembling a cost, so for now it must stay IMO.

What we proposed was allowing it to stack up to eight times (so, eight hours) and dropping the base duration from 90 minutes to 60 minutes.  So, the cost would be 150% of current cost.  Possibly used more then.

 

And yes, many TFs can be done in less than 90, but that's the time the TF takes, not putting together a team, etc... and then waiting while people get buffs.  Most people I know don't bother with them because of this.

 

All this suggestion is doing is making it less time intensive and not needing to coordinate as much or waiting for teammates.   Should have zero effect on people who tend to play solo or with a set group of people.   More useful to people who run PUGs IMO.

[arcane]

12 minutes ago, lemming said:

So, the cost would be 150% of current cost. 

And the current cost is almost zero in influence terms so that doesn’t do anything…

[lemming]

11 minutes ago, arcane said:

And the current cost is almost zero in influence terms so that doesn’t do anything…

It costs salvage, which isn't expensive, but you still need it.