Synapse

I just wanted to let you know you can probably stop recording data, a fix for this should be making its way to the training room fairly soon. Your drop analysis there, when this patch hits the training room, would be very useful. Thanks for everyone's diligence, and believe it or not the bug had nothing to do with team size, what map you were on, whether you were in taskforce mode or not or anything else mentioned in this thread.

Regards,
Synapse

Posts like this make my day. Thank you Sapphire7.

Synapse

Don't thank me. Thank our awesome customer service team. I believe the current work around is to fill out a service ticket.

Synapse

Thought I would chime in here and let you know what we've done to test this. The data has been checked, the code has been checked. There has been no change to either. That said, none of us would be satisfied until we tested this for ourselves. I knew this issue would haunt my dreams until I dedicated some time to testing. So, I went and did some pretty comprehensive testing today. Both internally and on the training room.

The results are pretty consistent and drop rates appear to be correct. The way I tested this is load up the first mission given out by Abyss (as a number of players mentioned this in their tests). I then set my difficulty to 8x and +0. I then went through this mission 5 times internally and 10 times on the training room and the results were very consistent:

-14 to 19 recipes per mission
-5 to 8 enhancements per mission
-30 to 51 salvage per mission

So, for the time being I am calling this a perception issue, that said I will keep an eye on this. If there is in fact a bug at work here then there will be reproducible steps one could take to get this bug to happen to anyone. If anyone does in fact nail down possible repro steps for this bug, please PM me or post them in the forums.

I know this isn't the answer many of you were hoping to hear, but I will keep an eye on the issue. Again, please contact me via PM if you have any possible reproducible steps. Lastly, I want to clear up any rumors of a "stealth nerf" or drops being different per map. Drop rates are on a per class basis. All minions, lieutenants and bosses have the same drop rates as all other minions, lieutenants and bosses regardless of what map they're on. The only difference is what items they drop (magic salvage vs. tech salvage, different origin enhancements and such)

Regards,
Synapse

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to give you all a heads up. This bug will be fixed in an upcoming incremental build soon. I apologize for the inconvenience, I know this badge is very difficult to obtain.

Synapse

Greetings everyone,

I wanted to fill you all in on our plans for the Mission Architect badges and also our plans for future badges as well. We really didn’t want the Mission Architect to be an environment that encourages farming for XP, Rewards or Badges, and we thought long and hard about the current Architect badge situation. Ultimately we’d like it to be a place where you go to play great player created content.

So, going forward—beginning with the Mission Architect badges—we’ve decided to move away from “count” badges that might encourage farming and/or aberrant game play. Instead, we’d like to encourage players to try all of our content by offering badges for completing 1 time accomplishments and achievements. What this means for the Mission Architect badges is that many of them are going to be removed in Issue 15. This is because they encouraged farming, because they encouraged aberrant behavior by doing one thing over and over again, they were unobtainable by a large portion of our players, or earning them was completely out of a player’s hands and in the hands of other players.

I’d like to outline the Architect badge changes to show you precisely what will be happening in Issue 15. Below is a list of badges that are being removed:

<ul type="square">Adventurer
Plugged In
Escapist
Hardcore Gamer
Ticket Hound
Ticket Fiend
Ticket Master
Golden Ticket
Creator
Story Teller
Writer
Bard
Acclaimed
Illustrious
Renowned
Living Legend
The Chosen One
Discerning
Aficionado
Maven
Connoisseur
Button Masher
Impulsive
Unpredictable
Pressed the Red Button
Virtual Victor
Virtual Destroyer
Virtual Warrior
Virtual Soldier
Virtual Slayer
Virtual Button Masher
Virtually Curious
Virtually Erratic
Evaluator
Reviewer
Judge
Two Thumbs Up
Windfall
Bounty
Premium
Bonanza
Jackpot
Virtual Ticket Taker
Virtual Ticket Hound
Virtual Ticket Fiend
Virtual Ticket Master
Virtual Golden Ticket
Activated
Encouraged
Motivated
Galvanized
Hall of Famer
Builder
Constructor
Engineer
Designer
Master Builder
Resolute
Undaunted
Virtuous
Champion of Justice
Evildoer
Malefactor
Nefarious
Diabolical
Show Off
Hotshot
Went the Extra Mile
Overachiever
Do Gooder
Safekeeper
Savior
To The Rescue
Virtual Do Gooder
Virtual Guardian
Virtual Savior
Virtual Rescuer
Decimator
Obliterator
Marauder
Cataclysmic
Virtual Decimation
Virtual Obliteration
Virtual Marauder
Virtual Cataclysm
Eliminator
Liquidator
Executioner
Terminator[/list]
Below is a list of Architect badges that will remain:

<ul type="square">Thrill Seeker
Gamer
Ticket Taker
Author
Recognized
Mission Engineer
Early Bird
Admiring
Poor Impulse Control
Virtually Impulsive
Critic
Customizer
Bug Fixer
Energized
Among Friends
Heroic
Villainous
Workaholic
Virtual Victim
Payoff
Extractor
Virtual Extractor
Destructive
Assassin[/list]
Now, as a player myself after reading this I would have a ton of questions: What does this mean for pre-I14 badges? What about future badges? Why did the Dev Choice and Hall of Famer badges go away?

I’d like to answer those questions now:

Q: What about non-Mission Architect badges?

A: We have no current plans to revisit old badges at this time, and I don’t foresee us doing this really. All badges unrelated to the Mission Architect will remain unaffected by the changes outlined above.

Q: If I’ve already earned the Architect badges, will I get to keep them?

A: No. Only the badges listed above in the “badges that will remain” section will be kept.

Q: What can you tell me about future badges?

A: As I quickly mentioned above, our plans for future badges excludes many types of “count” badges. This means we will try to avoid badges that require repetitious tasks, aberrant play styles and give the illusion of “grindiness.” There may be “count” badges in the future, but they won’t be based on something you can grind at to achieve. An example would be a count badge for the number of badges you collect. That’s all I can really say right now as I don’t want to spoil any of the exciting badges that will go into future issues at this time.

Q: Why did the Dev Choice and Hall of Famer badges get removed?

A: We realize that a lot of players worked really hard for these badges and to create content worthy of these prestigious awards. However, we want badges to be something that everyone can obtain. We also want badges to be completely within a player’s grasp, so no outside influence should affect earning these badges. The Hall of Famer badge and the Builder line of badges are a perfect example of why these badges are being removed. We saw a lot of griefing done by certain players against players who had highly rated missions that would prevent them from ever getting into Hall of Fame and earning this badge. We wanted having missions flagged Dev Choice or Hall of Fame to be coveted by authors, not by badgers. Thus these badges are also being removed.

Q: What can you tell me about the badges that remain?

A: These badges have all been modified so that they are granted for a first time accomplishment. For example: The first time you rescue a kidnapped NPC you’ll earn the Extractor badge. The same goes for the other badges that will remain in Issue 15. They’re much easier to earn, but they require a player to try every aspect of Mission Architect to earn them all.

Q: What about the Mission Engineer Accolade badge?

A: This badge had its required badges changed to the following:

<ul type="square">Thrill Seeker
Gamer
Ticket Taker
Author
Recognized
Early Bird
Customizer
Bug Fixer[/list]
This means that this accolade will be significantly easier to get now, which means that a lot of players—that published and played Architect missions--will find themselves earning this accolade and find themselves with the really cool ability to edit and publish architect content from anywhere, including your Supergroup base by simply clicking a power icon.

Q: If I have some or all of the badges listed as badges that will remain, will I get to keep them?

A: Absolutely. You should not have to earn the remaining badges again.

I’d like to close by saying that to some of you this might appear be an extreme decision, but we want you to know that this was done to make the Mission Architect fulfill its designed purpose: to be a place where content creators could write to their hearts’ content or for players who want to explore the endless content created by other players. We feel that these changes are a step closer to this goal. Also, don’t be surprised if you see Architect badges in future issues as well as we make this feature even more robust than was available at launch.

Thanks for reading,
Synapse

Hello everyone. I'd like to direct you all to this this thread I've started.

I've included the old and the new merit values for each task in the game and also preemptively answered some questions.

Regards,
Synapse

Hello everyone. I'd like to direct you all to this this thread I've started.

I've included the old and the new merit values for each task in the game and also preemptively answered some questions.

Regards,
Synapse

I'm amazed at the amount of data you all have gathered! Sorry for the delay on getting this information to you. As Castle mentioned there were two hurdles:

#1: Getting approval from above to give this information out.

#2: Having code get me the Story Arc names that you all would recognize. Otherwise you'd end up with arc names like CROATOA_BOWER_ARC.storyarc. While you could probably figure out for yourselves that this is the story arc given out by Gordon Bower, it'd be sloppy.

Anyhow, those hurdles have been leapt over and below you'll find a list of all the named story arcs with their New Total, Old Total and their Difference. Anyhow, those hurdles have been leapt over and below you'll find a list of all the named story arcs with their New Total, Old Total and their Difference. One thing to keep in mind when you're looking at these numbers is that any decimal points round off to the nearest whole number in the display, but retained in the calculations. So that's why you'll see something like:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Task Name New Total Old Total Difference

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Katie Hannon Taskforce 9 7 3</pre><hr />

So, keep in mind that those numbers in the display round down, but any decimals are retained in the calculations. I realize that a large number of you all got together to pieced together this information, but I hope this helps out. In the future we'll try to post a similar list when we do merit reward changes. I remember the colossal effort that was put into compiling the merit reward list in Issue 13 beta and beyond. Anyways, here's the list:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>
Merit Reward Totals



Task Name New Total Old Total Difference

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Piercing the Veil 10 8 2

Crossing Over 8 6 2

Katie Hannon Taskforce 9 7 3

Hatred's Hungry Heart 5 4 1

The Origin of Power 3 2 1

War of the Fir Bolg 7 5 2

Eden Trial 6 2 4

Flux the Outcast 7 6 1

Julius the Kind Hearted Troll 4 3 1

Cavern of Transcendence Trial 7 6 1

The Heart of the Hollows 11 9 2

Officer Wincott vs. the Trolls 2 2 1

War and Peacebringers 8 6 2

Warshades and Peace 7 2 4

The Clockwork Captive 9 7 2

The Peace Slayers 9 7 3

The Council Cargo 4 2 1

Bonefire 9 7 2

Positron Taskforce 64 55 9

The Vahzilok Pollutant Plot 13 7 7

An Absence of Shadows 4 6 -2

The Mind of a King 10 5 5

Shadow Science 8 6 1

Synapse Taskforce 57 45 13

Tsoo Shenanigans 12 5 6

The Vahzilok Plague 8 4 5

The Wheel of Destruction 9 4 5

Hand of Iron 8 4 4

Winslowe and the Cosmotron 7 6 1

The Sky Raider Secret 6 5 1

Sister Psyche Taskforce 40(50 - I14) 40 0(9 - I14)

The Tsoo Coup 9 8 1

Ubelmann the Unknown 11 9 3

The Scroll of Tielekku 9 7 2

An Unnatural Order 10 8 2

The Freaklympics 20 11 9

Fear and Loathing on Striga Isle 11 8 3

The Mysterious General Z 9 7 2

Citadel Taskforce 40 30 9

The Rise Of the Vampyri 17 7 10

The Library of Souls 10 11 -1

Corporate Culture 12 9 2

The Unity Plague 10 12 -2

The Freakshow War 11 10 2

Scary Monsters 7 4 3

Manticore Taskforce 32 25 7

A Path into Darkness 16 7 9

The Envoy of Shadow 9 6 3

Revenant Hero Project 12 8 4

The Terra Conspiracy 11 8 3

The Nictus Alliance 7 15 -7

Mass Duplicity 18 9 10

The Organ Grinders 20 15 4

Numina's Taskforce 36 30 5

To Save a Soul 15 11 4

On the Run 17 13 4

The Nictus Insurrection 4 29 -24

Melvin and the Mysterious Malta Group 19 18 1

The Eternal Nemesis 19 15 4

The Praetorian War 29 22 7

Division: Line 21 18 3

Upon the Psychic Plane 27 19 8

The Final Darkness 6 7 -1

Operation: World Wide Red 17 11 5

To Save a Thousand Worlds 32 16 16

Portal Corp Story Arc 2 4 3 1

A Hero's Hero 24 19 5

Statesman's Taskforce 38 30 8

Sewer Trial 28 25 3

The Origins of the Snakes 4 2 2

Weird Science 4 2 2

Earning Arachnos' Favor 2 1 1

Snake Uprising 2 1 1

The Vahzilok Conference 5 4 1

Spy Hunt 10 5 5

Midnight's Hand 5 2 3

The Origin of Power 3 2 1

Midas Touched 7 3 4

Breaking Bows 2 2 0

Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge 2 2 0

The Hit List 4 2 2

An Arachnos Ghost Story 3 3 1

Power of the Spirit 4 3 1

Lost and Found 4 3 1

Give 'em Hellion! 5 2 3

Family War 7 5 2

The Book and the Burning 1 1 0

Retrieve the Loa Bone 1 1 0

Hurt the Traitorous Vendetti 1 1 0

Beast of the Mountain Strikeforce 12 10 2

Echo Down the Aeons 3 3 0

The Aeon Conspiracy 7 6 1

High-Tech Gold 4 3 1

Breakout at the Zig 8 3 4

Master of Destruction 5 2 3

There's a Sucker Born Every Minute 12 6 6

Rumblings of the Past 4 3 1

I Lost my Daddy! 4 3 1

Choose Your Own Adventure 1 7 -6

"Oh, Wretched Man!" 6 5 2

Storyarc SL3_Vahzilok_Mission1 1 1 0

Ouroboros Initiation 4 2 2

Ouroboros Initiation 3 2 1

A Faultline in the Sands of Time 10 5 5

The Buried Past 3 2 2

If At First You Don't Succeed 1 1 0

Pirates of the Skies Strikeforce 38 35 4

Iron Widow 4 3 1

Kings of the Sky 4 2 2

Operation Skyhook 4 2 2

Coral Bonanza 3 3 1

Breaking the Cage 4 3 1

Any Body Will Do 2 1 1

Disturbing the Dead 3 3 1

Carpe Diem 3 1 2

A Web of Intrigue 9 6 3

Crown of Glory 9 1 8

Dirge of Chaos 7 1 6

The Magic Man 7 1 6

The Miracle River 1 1 0

Aurora Fades 1 1 0

Power Mine 3 2 1

Sabotage! 4 3 1

Trust and Betrayal 5 3 1

Zag Breakout! 3 2 1

First Villain Respec Trial 15 15 0

Forging the Blackwand 8 4 4

Midnight Draws Near 6 5 1

Die by the Freak! 4 3 1

Heavy Metal Doctoring 3 2 1

The Cult of the Shaper 5 4 1

On the Trail of the Leviathan 2 1 0

Temple of the Waters Strikeforce 22 25 -3

Smoke and Mirrors 3 4 -1

The Spider Weaves His Web 4 5 0

The Longbow List 1 1 0

Taming the Tigress 3 2 0

Brawling with the Big Boys 3 2 1

Snuffing the Light 4 3 1

Into Valhalla 7 5 1

Nictus Dissection 2 2 0

Psimon Sez 5 7 -1

Strange Memories 4 3 1

Lost and Found 5 6 -1

Breaking the Streak 3 2 1

Silver-Tongued Devil 3 3 0

Sold for a Song 7 6 1

Miss Fortune's Wheel 2 1 0

High Roller's Last Gamble 4 3 1

Chaos Unbound 5 4 1

The 5th Column Overthrow 6 6 1

The Dead Man's Deck 5 1 4

Second Villain Respec Trial 15 15 0

Crystal of Seraphina Strikeforce 25 25 1

No One Gets It 3 2 1

Crossfire 3 2 0

A Traitorous History 2 2 0

The Secret of the Circle 6 6 0

Bravo for the Shadow Shard 5 2 2

Automatic Villainy 5 4 1

Blurring the Lines 3 2 1

The Strange Case of Benjamin A. Decker 2 2 1

Welcome to the Vanguard 5 3 2

Fat Cat City 4 2 2

Pied Piper 2 2 1

Chaos Affair 5 4 1

The Missing Maidens 3 2 1

Johnny's Squeeze 3 2 1

Devil May Care 10 9 2

Future Threat 7 1 6

Power from the Past 2 1 1

Stolen Power 2 1 1

Breaking Knives 4 9 -5

Absolute Vengeance 2 1 1

The Arachnoid Cure 2 2 1

Arachnoid Appetizers 2 2 0

Building a Better Vermin 5 4 0

Project Fury 2 1 0

Countess Coup 3 2 1

Kuhr'Rekt Diplomacy 3 2 1

Kuhr'Rekt Revenge 3 3 0

Apt Pupil 5 4 1

Miss Francine the Freakshow teacher 3 3 1

The Rebels 2 2 0

The Bane of the Heart 5 5 -1

Shucking Souls 4 3 1

The Hunt 5 4 1

The Circle's Plot 6 4 1

Dreams of Peace and Acts of War 10 5 5

Sara Moore Taskforce 63 50 13

Dr. Quaterfield Taskforce 111 90 21

"Politics, Cimeroran Style" 8 1 7

Trading Places 10 7 2

Trading Places 6 5 1

Third Villain Respec Trial 15 15 0

Time's Arrow 28 25 3

Lord Recluse Strikeforce 25 25 1

Vindication 3 3 1

Light and Darkness 2 2 0

Ancient History 2 1 0

Escaped! 2 1 1

Snake Fest 6 5 1

Alone in the Darque 3 2 2

Indigo Hunt 3 3 0

Crimson Hunt 2 2 0

The Code Merlin 4 2 2

Vigilante Justice 4 3 1

The TV Report 5 4 1

Video Killed the Radio 2 1 0

The TV Invasion 3 2 0

The Conference of Evil 8 7 1

Von Grun's science 3 2 0

The Great Grun Gathering 3 2 1

Von Grun's Lament 2 1 0

Von Grun's Redemption 7 12 -5

The Red and the Black 7 4 2

Lady Grey Taskforce 39 30 9

The Horror of War 8 6 2

Justin Augustine Taskforce 24 35 -11

Faathim the Kind Taskforce 73 55 18

Ernesto Hess Taskforce 19 15 3

Hear and Now 10 5 5

A Madman's Council 5 4 1

Moonfire Taskforce 31 25 6

Ring of Peebles 10 9 2

Return to Vampyr Mountain 9 4 4

Terra Volta Respec Trial 1 27 25 2

Terra Volta Respec Trial 2 20 25 -5

Terra Volta Respec Trial 3 20 25 -5
</pre><hr />

The above is a list of all the named tasks in the game. If you believe some data is missing, let me know and I will adjust this information. So, you probably have a few questions. I'll try to preemptively answer a couple of them:

Q: Why did the merit times change?

A: Well, this answer is actually two fold. First off, the average times for many missions changed dramatically! A lot more people have been running story arcs after merits were introduced. Both in and outside of Ouroboros. So, people have found ways to optimize their merit per hour intake as you'd imagine. This caused a number of tasks to take a steep dive in merits per completion. The numbers were not where we wanted them--in many cases they were lower than we liked--so we changed the formula that determines how merits are earned. Instead of earning 1 merit every 5 minutes on a task force/strike force you now earn 1 every 3 minutes. Keep in mind that these times are based on average completion times. What this boils down to is roughly:

Trials: 24 merits per hour of average completion time.
Taskforces: 20 merits per hour of average completion time.
Story Arcs: 8 merits per hour of average completion time.

This is why many tasks had their merit rewards increase by quite a bit.

Q: Why did story arc X have its merit times reduced?

A: Well, again this isn't a simple answer. The short answer is that more people run them and find faster ways of completing these tasks. This in turn changes the average completion time substantially. However, there were a number of tasks--specifically the Kheldian story arcs--that we didn't have much data on. These tasks were literally run only a handful of times, so data was scarce. People started running these arcs to test the number of merits awarded and people realized that these tasks were giving out way more merits than they should. This caused them to be run A LOT! We then realized that these tasks could be completed much faster than our old data suggested. So, these arcs had their rewards adjusted accordingly.

Q: Why change merits at all?

A: We want our players to be getting appropriate rewards for the tasks they're doing. This means if we see a task doesn't take as long as we imagined, or is taking far longer than our data suggests, we will adjust accordingly. However, keep in mind that I am frequently data mining what is going on with the market, the merit vendors and merit drops in general. If we feel there is a need for an decrease to costs of items on the merit vendor, or an increase for merit drop rate, we will adjust these items accordingly. However, it's only been a few months since Issue 13 was released, so not enough data has been collected to make any big decisions right now.

I'd like to close by saying that there will be some small changes to the merit reward system (and the reward system in general) in Issue 14, that I am sure will be viewed as positive changes. I'd like to talk you about them once I get the green light to do so. Thank you for reading.

Regards,
Synapse

EDITED: Corrected error with Breaking Knives displaying the incorrect number of merits.

Hey everyone,

Wow, you've compiled quite a list here guys. Very nice, I wanted to let you know that I've been given the thumbs up to share the new merit values with you all, we'll try to get you a list of all the arcs in the game complete with their old and new values and I should have this for you by early next week. This should help fill in any gaps you may have by then. I just thought I would pop in and let you all know that I am working on this.

Regards,
Synapse

This has been a very informative thread and a lot of good points have been raised here. I play City of Heroes too and I see a lot of room for growth and improvement in the Merit system. I wanted to let you all know that we are listening even if we're not always posting. I plan on making some tweaks to the system to make Merits, as a whole, more approachable and enjoyable for everyone, though changes take time. Keep the feedback coming; the more constructive, the better. I'd appreciate feedback using the Objective/Subjective format detailed in Ex Libris' original post. We're listening and will take it into consideration in future updates.

Thanks,
Synapse

Hello again, Synapse here. I wanted to take a moment to answer a few more of your questions. I also wanted to address a few concerns I've heard in this thread repeatedly. I'd like to reiterate the fact that we have no intention of carelessly "nerfing" or "buffing" merit rewards. Making any changes to the number of merits a task gives out will be done with very careful consideration, ample data and after exhausting our other options. Additionally, I've heard a number of players refer to the Merit Reward System as a reduction to rewards. I'd like to remind players that only a handful of tasks in the game had their rewards reduced, however the majority of tasks in the game have had their rewards significantly increased and that now story arcs give players a chance at earning rewards that might otherwise be unattainable. That said, we'll also be looking at ways to further grow and enhance our merit reward system over the life of the game. So, what you'll be seeing in Issue 13 launch is not the final version of this system. Like any system in our game, we will continuously improve upon and enhance these systems in the future.

So, as soon as we have some details for you about what changes will be made we will share them with you. Now, without further ado, some answers to your questions:

Poster: EvilGeko
Q: What about the market? Do you care about the players who enjoy that aspect of the game? Do you have any plans for how to address the supply issues in the market that this system will cause for Pool C and D drops?

A: We feel that players will take that chance on the random roll tables for that chance at the reward they want. There will always be that temptation to roll on the Pool C rewards 12 times instead of buying that one shiny IO. If a player doesn't get what they want, they can post these items on the markets. Also consider that before only players running Task Forces and Strike Forces were contributing Pool C and D items to the market, now even solo/casual players will be able to do so.

Poster: Puppycrusader
Q: I accepted that this placed me at a disadvantage in terms of rewards, as TF/SF/Trials were the sole distributer of many desirable recipes, and relegated myself to having to work hard to gain the neccesary INF to purchase them on market.

Now that this is no longer true, though, and TFs are not the sole venue of distribution, is there a reason for this concept of "diminished rate," when many story arcs, particularly high level ones, are almost indistinguishable from a Task Force, save for the mandatory team size that must be met to begin the latter?

A: Task Forces will always award superior rewards due to their general increased difficulty, preparation time and the fact that all players are locked into TF mode. Story Arcs are way more casual, and are much less structured than Task Forces. Solo players, small groups and large groups can do Story Arcs at their leisure. On a side note, one of the greatest things about Story Arc Merit Rewards is that they have no diminishing returns.

Poster: Zombie_Man
Q: Play test has indicated that the Diminishing Returns of Merit rewards is 50% for attempting the same Trial twice in a row.

Is that right?

Would a third attempt also be at 50% or does the DR get more diminishing? And if yes, what are the stats?

Is the DR rate the same for TFs, Trials, and Arc-Completions?

A: This is probably the most complex part of the Merit Reward system. Different types of tasks have different diminishing rates.

-Story Arcs do not have diminishing returns.
-Task Forces without a second reward option will have their rewards reduced by 50% each time the task is completed within 24 hours. So if a task force gives 50 merits the first time done within 24 hours, then the second time will give 25, the third time will give 12, the fourth time 6. This is reset after 24 hours. Also, I wanted to remind players that the 24 hour diminishing returns set up that we currently have may be subject to change.
-Task Forces and Trials with unique rewards (respecs or unique enhancements) grant full merit rewards for the first completion within 24 hours and 50% merit rewards for each subsequent completion. So if the first run through a task gives 50 merits, each subsequent run through will give 25.

Poster: MadScientist
Q: Have you considered simply adding 1 Merit per AV?

A: Yes, Archvillains and Monsters are just too easily farmed. There are missions where they are very easily ghosted to and defeated.

Poster: Umbral
Q: Is there any chance that the Challenge System options be included to allow players to gain more merits by imposing limits on themselves? It's a system with a lot of potential that's only really utilized for ouro mishes and, even then, a majority of the badges can only be attained on specific tasks (Gold Medal on 95% of the story arcs and TFs out there?).

A: This was one of our stretch goals for Issue 13 that we simply didn't have enough time to get it in. We hope to have this in a future update. I agree, there is a lot of potential here.

Poster: TheWeaver
Q: That leads to my primary concern. If it turns out that what players do with their merits is save them so that they can buy exactly what they want, what will happen to the market for Pool C and Pool D recipes? There is no other way to get them, so my intuition says that the market would dry up. The net result being that unless I earn merits I'll no longer be able to obtain the level of reward that I currently do.

Is this intended? Is the feeling that if you don't run TF/SF's that it should not be possible to fully equip a toon with "mid-level" Pool C and Pool D recipes? Here for example is a Mids-data chunk for my lvl 37 Night Widow. Nothing too fancy here and the build cost me around 10-15M to outfit. Should I be able to achieve this type of build using only merits obtained from running Story Arcs?

A: You can earn an infinite number of merits through Ouroboros by running your favorite story arcs over again. I don't suspect you'd be able to purchase all of those IOs by simply running through all the story arcs once. However, you might be able to spend some of those merits on random rolls and simply selling what you don't need on the market.

Poster: Wuigly_Squigly
Q: Would it be better if the reward of merits we're timeX spent on said TF, instead of the current: This tf is long, this tf is medium-long, this tf is short, categorizing? For example, you finish a 20 min katie or w/e and get 5 merits or something, whereas you finish that same katie but take an hour you'd get 15 merits, essentially the longer a tf takes, the more merits you get?

A: Well, this would leave a lot of room for exploitation. Players could complete all but the last objective in 20 minutes. Sit around for an hour and 40 minutes and then finish to get the additional merits for doing nothing. So there has to be other factors other than how much time you've spent doing the TF.

I hope this clears up some of your additional questions and concerns.

Best Regards,
Synapse

EDITED: Due to horrible typo.

Hello everyone,

I'm Phil "Synapse" Zeleski, a Game Designer here at NCsoft Norcal. I understand there are a lot of questions and some misunderstanding regarding the Merit Reward system. I hope to be able to clear up much of the confusion with this post. I've read every post in this thread and responded to as many as I could. I'd like to do some follow up Q&amp;A afterwards for any remaining lingering questions you might have.

Before I answer your questions, I'd like to give you some information about the Merit Reward system. As most of you understand average (median) completion time is the primary metric we chose to use to determine the how many merits a task would grant. In fact, longer tasks give an additional 5% bonus to the number of merits they award for every 100 minutes of average time. Lastly, we use difficulty as a factor to round out numbers. So, some tasks get bonus merits because of their overall challenge. A good example of this is the Lord Recluse Strike Force. It normally would grant 18 merits due to its relatively short average completion time, however because of its difficulty it gets a +7 bonus granting a total of 25 merits!

Taskforces give an average of 1 merit every 5 minutes of average time (12 merits an hour), Trials give an average of 1 merit every 4.5 minutes (13-14 merits an hour), and Story Arcs give an average of 1 merit every 12.5 minutes (4-5 merits an hour). The reason for this major difference is due to the considerable time and effort Task/Strike Forces can take to set up and complete, so naturally these tasks grant a much greater reward.

Now, I'd like to answer some of your questions you asked:

Poster: EarthWyrm
Q: Is it intended that Flashbacks follow the 1 merit/5 minute benchmark for TFs? If not (most do not seem to, based on testing prior to 11/18), what is the benchmark meant to be?

A: Story Arcs run normally or through Ouroboros do not use the same 1 merit/5 minute benchmark. Story Arcs offer substantially less merits per hour than task forces.

Q: Why is the (non-unique) Steadfast Protection: Knockback Protection 125 merits to purchase, when all other non-unique Pool B recipes are 50 merits, including the Karma: Knockback Protection recipe?

A: This will actually be corrected in a future update. They will both sell for 75 merits each.

Poster: KeepDistance
Q: Would you consider removing items from the merit purchase system that already have direct-inf purchase availability through vendors? (Specifically, I mean SOs and common IO recipes.) If not, what do you see as the benefit to offering them through merits?

A: We understand that there are some players who prefer to not use the invention system at all, so we’d like the Merit Reward system to mean something for these players too. Common IO recipes are there for players who don’t like to worry about IO sets.

Poster: Mirai
Q: The merit system had been advertised as a way to purchase a wide variety of items, including certain costume parts and badges. That variety is not there. Are there plans to add these things in shortly, or has that strategy been scrapped?

A: The Merit system has a lot of room for growth and items like costume pieces and badges would be a great addition to this system. We’ll be looking at ways of expanding upon this system in the future.

Poster: Paradox1
Q: The Story Arc merit system seems to encourage us to solo non-TF missions, as running other people's story arcs earns 0 merits (unless we happen to have the same arc open). Is this really the way you want to encourage us to play the game?

A: While only offering Merits upon story arc completion to the owner of the story arc is consistent with our original reward system (only the mission owner earns the bonus story arc XP and gets to choose the SO enhancement) we understand that there is certainly room for improvement upon this. We will evaluate our options on how we can improve the rewards for party members along for the ride on a story arc.

Poster: IronTiger
Q: Why do pool D random recipes cost more than pool C random? The price for a specific pool D is the same to a Pool C in most cases.

A: The cost of pool D rewards are higher due to the significantly higher likelihood of getting the desired enhancement with a single roll. Taskforce reward tables have substantially more items on them than Trial reward tables.

Poster: macskull
Q: What is the intent and purpose of the merit system? Originally it seemed intended to be an alternate, additional, avenue for those who did not wish to use the market, or for a deterministic way to get a recipe you wanted. Now it seems like it's replacing the current system instead of adding onto it.

A: The basic intent for the Merit Reward system is to more accurately reward players for their time invested doing missions. Ultimately, what it came down to is that not all Task Forces and Strike Forces were created equal. Some take 30 minutes, some can take upwards of 10 hours. The fact that all of these Task Forces had been granting the same reward made us realize we needed to incorporate time into the reward equation. That’s essentially where Merits came in.

Poster: NotPutzing
Q: Have you considered reducing the merit timer slightly from 23 hours or even 20 hours? This would let people do thing at the same thing the next night at the same time. So, if someone wanted to run Friday and Saturday Hami raids at the same time, they wouldn't have to worry about finishing a few minutes earlier than they had the last night.

A: We’re aware of the issue and why this would be important to players. We’ll be looking at this and we’ll try and find a fair solution in the near future. Reducing the timer to 18-20 hours does not sound unreasonable.

Poster: Tempest_56
Q: How much a reduction are we going to see in future changes to merit awards, given that it's been shown that speed-runs of all the rewarding content can be (and will be) run? See: the 25 minute ITF. What failsafes are in place should the rewards for all available content drop to ridiculously low levels, thereby effectively locking out those of us who don't do TF speed runs four-plus times a day?

A: We’re aware that there are Task Forces out there that can be completed far faster than they were intended. There will always be groups of players who will maximize their rewards for the amount of time they invest. Any increases or reductions to merits granted will only be done along with ample data supporting this decision. Let me give an example: Currently we show an average completion time of the Positron’s taskforce of 235 minutes. If we saw this average completion time, not the fastest times mind you, drop to say 120 or 90 minutes, then we’d look into how this is being done. What we could do mission side to fix this, and consider toning down merit rewards if necessary. On the up side, if we see a task that simply isn’t giving enough rewards for the time required, we’ll bump that up.

Poster: Beef_Cake
Q: Do you plan on granting merits to normal missions other than arc completion?

A: It is something we’re looking at, if we decide this is a good way to go we’ll consider different ways of implementing this.

Q: Will you consider letting us increase our Merits awarded by using the Ouroboros Difficulty System?

A: This was a stretch goal for this feature, we hope to have mission difficulty and Ouroboros challenge settings impact the number of rewards players receive for completing these tasks added in future updates.

Q: Wouldn't the casual players running task forces essentially be punished, if and when the data mining shows that the reward should be lowered due to Speed Runners and Farmers?

A: We’re going to have a very good reason for decreasing the rewards for a task. We’ll periodically be doing data mining to check on average completion times. We’ll consider options with making changes to Task Forces before making changes to the merits awarded, and only do so if we see a substantial decrease in average completion time.

Poster: OfficerZap
Q: Are there any major, easy, exploits that would mean awarding merits to all team members upon completion would not be possible? If not, could you please explain the reasoning for the limitation, and also the impact you think this may/may not have on group vs solo play?

A: The reasoning behind not initially having group members, that are not the mission owner, receiving Merit Rewards is that the original reward system didn’t give mission helpers rewards either. However, we understand how some players might perceive this as a penalty for not being the mission owner and we will consider our options on how to best address this issue.

Q: Is it possible to, if not at launch, add purple recipes to the list at a suitable price? If not, could you explain the concept behind excluding these from the list?

A: It’s technically possible, yes. However, purple recipes would be so expensive Merit wise due to the statistical likelihood of one dropping that we decided to omit them from the items on the list at this time. That isn’t to say we won’t ever add them to it in the future.

Poster: Snow_Globe
Q: Would the developers be willing to not only decrease merit drops based on time, but actually increase merit drops? Would there be a commitment to review times on a regular basis?

A: Any decision to increase or decrease merits rewarded for completing tasks will only be done after careful consideration, gathering ample data and reviewing all of our options. It’s our goal to periodically data mine task completion times to make sure tasks aren’t grossly over or under rewarding our players.

Poster: MadScientist
Q: Pool C and D are no longer dropped anywhere in-game. To my knowledge, those will be the only items purchased from stores that never drop in the wild. My question is: What are your goals in making that design move? What do you expect that unique situation to achieve?

A: In the past, completing a Task Force gave you the option to choose a random IO recipe. This rolled on a reward table. All we’ve done is remove where you roll on the reward table. Instead of it being upon completion of a Task Force, now it’s purchased from a vendor.

One of the benefits of doing it this way actually gives the players the option to choose rewards from a large amount of task force level ranges instead of whatever one the Task Force would normally use. So, you can spend your 20 merits to roll on random roll from a variety of level ranges (10-14, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-45 or 46-50.)

Q: Do you still plan to go back and revise some of the older, less-popular, grindy-er TFs? (such as Positron, Synapse) Or do you now feel that all TFs will stay as they are and use higher Merit rewards to balance content that's longer or more difficult than players normally would go for?

A: One of the factors we’ll be looking at when considering making changes to the number of merits a task gives out is the mission itself. The Merit Reward system is going to be going through on going improvements over time, this might mean revamping missions in the future if we feel that is necessary.

Poster: Kitsune9tails
Q: What is the intended relationship between the Merit system and the markets?

A: The Merit system gives players who don’t like to fiddle with the markets the chance to buy that IO enhancement they’ve always wanted but haven’t been able to afford with influence/infamy. It also gives players a way to have greater control over supply and demand on specific items by allowing players to buy that incredibly overpriced recipe listed on the Auction House, thus decreasing the demand for the item on the auction house.

Poster: EvilGeko
Q: Will you state right here, right now, that you will not further nerf rewards on content that the playerbase learns to do quicker?

A: We can’t do that. However, we can state right here and now that we won’t take such decisions lightly. We’re going to only decrease rewards on a task if we don’t have the option of immediately making adjustments to a Task Force and we find that the majority of players are running the Task Force at a significantly reduced average time than before.

Q: Why not fix Katie and Eden instead of taking away their rewards?

A: We don’t always have time between issues to make changes like this. Keep in mind that this is just the first step for the Merit Reward system and is going to be an on going task to make sure Task Forces are where we want them as far as completion time.

Poster: _Synchotron_
Q: Why are merits untradable/unsellable? All the rewards they're replacing had no such restrictions, why these? If they have to be untradable/unsellable, why aren't they account-based, rather than character-based? If you run more than a couple characters at a time, this will fragment your merit pools and dramatically reduce the value of the merits you earn. If its a reward for time played, why should the particular hero I play matter?

A: Merits were designed to represent an individual character’s accomplishments and time invested doing missions. Thus, untradeable and unsellable.

Poster: Lemur_Lad
Q: Will villains get more villain only options for earning chunks of merits to balance out the larger number of hero trials and TFs?

A: We will be monitoring this. We want to make sure that a villain doing missions from 1 to 50 will be earning roughly the same amount of merits a hero can earn. If we find a serious imbalance between heroes and villains in the number of earnable merits, we’ll look at ways of improving this.

Poster: TheWeaver
Q: What impact are you expecting the merit system to have on those of us who (for one reason or another) tend not to run TF/SF's?

A: The intention of the system was to also give players who don’t tend to run Task Forces and Strike Forces the chance at earning the same high end rewards as players normally running Task Forces, however at a diminished rate. This gives player an opportunity to earn rewards they normally would not have had access to outside of the Black Market/Wentworth’s.

Poster: Healing_Phoenix
Q: Why is it that the Villain side SF payout is way less than Hero side TF payout? I feel that as a villain I'm being punished.

A: On average Villain Strike Forces take significantly less time to complete when compared to Hero Task Forces. Since time is the major factor when determining the number of Merits a task gives upon completion Villains on average receive less Merits per task, but roughly the same Merits per hour.

Poster: Zombie_Man
Q: Why were Merits not put in Pool A or B drops so that the rule of 1 Merit for every 5 minutes could be normalized to actual play rather than racing toward the end of a multi-part task bypassing content?

A: The 1 merit for every 5 minute rule is for Task Forces and Strike Forces, not for Story Arcs. Story Arcs award players with roughly 4-6 merits per hour (of average completion time) instead of the 12 merits per hour (of average completion time) that Task Forces give. We will be evaluating options of putting merits through alternate means for the future.

I'd like to conclude this first Merit Rewards System Q&amp;A by repeating that the existing Merit Reward System is by no means the final version you'll ever see of it. Just like every system we've implemented into City of Heroes, we're always looking at ways of improving them and making them more fun for a larger group of players.

Thanks for reading,
Synapse

Greetings,

I'm Phil Zeleski, a Game Designer here at NCSoft NorCal. I work closely with Floyd "Castle" Grubb designing powers and with Matt "Positron" Miller designing rewards (this includes things like badges, new invention sets and pretty much anything granted from the game and given to the player.)

I am an active player of City of Heroes/Villains and have been so since late beta. I'm an avid MMO gamer, I love the MMO genre and am typically subscribed to 2 or 3 games at a time. I'm originally from the Seattle area and love the outdoors.

I've been looking forward to being able to interact with the forum community for a long time now. My goals while working here with the rest of the crew at NCSoft NorCal is to make City of Heroes/Villains the best MMORPG it can be by implementing new and exciting systems and making improvements upon existing systems that help revitalize the game.

Best Regards,
Synapse