Re: Multiplayer: Weapon Pool Inflated by 300%

Sure lets have another 500 reskin cards 2 months from now with different colours and call it "new content".

That's not the point.

The point is that you are statistically *ed to get actual new content (e.g. Batarian) if you have the gold rank X versions of other characters.

Wanted to have sidewinder and vanquisher on X? Nope you can now enjoy 30 cards of <instert rank X gold weapon that you have> Bulwark/Siphon/concussion

Wanted to finish maxing out Ruzad? Nope, here's a Zalkin Bulwark XVI

What use is an Asari huntress rank XVIII if you were really looking forward to have all skill points on the Angaran Insurgent?

These are just examples.

There is no system that locks the reskinned stuff and rank XI -XX characters until you have maxed out the base items/characters. Or if there is one..it isn't working.

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"You can still play gold (or bronze, silver) without any of the content (weapons, character tiers, mods) provided in 1.09."

Yes you can. How is that relevant to the topic?

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"

 While it is higly recommended for playing Platin to have at least the character tier between XV and XX to benefit from the veteran bonus on powers and combos,
you only need  a level 1 weapon with Syphon as a sidearm to replenish your health.

"

Again, that's not what's being discussed.

Phoenixflieger wrote:

I understand that the content of the patch 1.09 might be overwhelming for some.

Now are we really blaming Bioware for releasing too much content?!
(who predicted that we say this about an Andromeda patch ...).

We're not getting pissed at them for releasing too much content, just bad content. And too much of that. When they added the modified versions of guns, I didn't think it would be a whole new gun. You should've seen the look on my face when I got Carnifex Bulwark 1. My reaction was, "F*cking really? Another useless rare? Thanks!" What they should've done was add them as three new uncommon mods, and make them usable to all weapons. I don't care if you have to grind those up to level 10. But I see why they did what they did. Nothing more irritating than logging on and seeing that someone dropped cash to get the Batarian Scrapper XX. People like those are cancer. They are the reason why EA is diluting the pool. There's too many of them that will just pay to play/win. This is not making it fun for the people who already payed for a complete (broken) game and just want to enjoy themselves. EA can go f*ck themselves with these ideas.

Noone needs to pay money for a Batarian XX. There are these reserve packs ... maybe buy all bronze packs first.

Several players in my group have spent 12millions credits after 1.09 release (took them over an hour btw). 

Seeing the ambivalent opinion towards Andromeda & BioWare & esp. EA you really think many people are spending 150$/€ just to get a simple Batarian?

What I hear is "I wanted especially toy XYZ and now the increased content makes it less predictable/likely",
while knowing the aquisition system was (ME3), is and will be randomised packs (like a collectible card game).
Completing now the N7 UR weapons/characters at least makes sense again, since one gets also new gold stuff (instead of consumables).

What I would agree on is, that paying 960 mission funds for a random UR character (or weapon) is quite disappointing.
That could have been a pick-a-character card-you-want (or weapon). It takes you ... what?  ... about a week of constant activity to earn that many mission funds?
And maybe less MF for Gold weapons / characters ...

Some quotes I picked up:

repainted/cosmetic weapons (no they are all better than standard version)

pay to win (Really?! in a PvE coop game?!)

people being cancer ...

useless weapons/characters (usefull for all difficulties, not only Platin)

Again completely off topic.

Cherry picking sentences and disputing stuff that is irrelevant.

Let me try to clarify this, again, for you:

They just added ~2000 cards into the drop pool across the board.~500 of which are ultra rare.

As soon as something that you have reaches rank X, the chances to get something that you haven't unlocked diminish by 10 (character), 20 (some weps) or 30 (other weps) cards in the same rarity category

The complaint is not as much about the new stuff as the way it was implemented.

Veteran levels could have been handled through character resets at LVL 20. Especially convenient because they have XP packs in store for MF.

Cyclone/bulwark/concusion could have been added as an additional ultra rare weapon mod (3rd slot), and you could not put anything in it except for an ultra rare mod

Or the stuff for plat could have had separate packs for 100k, so you would know that you can only get rank XI-XX characters or cyclone/bulwark/siphon from them

Just for me to understand why you are arguing: You are completely fine with 2000 cards in the drop pool and would thank them if they added another 2000 in 3 months?

P.s. I spent 1 mil + on reserve packs and still don't have the new character. Your suggestion to me is to grind 8 mil creds and unlock all bronze/silver cards for a better chance to get it?

My complaint isn't about new content.  Adding Platinum, the new class and new gun are all welcome additions to the game.  However, duplicating every weapon in the game so there are 4 versions of each, all that level up independently, is an incredibly cheap way of expanding the drop pool.

I've spent a bunch of free time grinding away, and even though I haven't been lucky with the RNG in getting guns that I'd like, at least I have been narrowing my drop pool and increasing my chances of getting said items.  Now my chances are worse than ever.

As for your comments about still being able to play gold without needing the new stuff,  I was able to jump into and successfully beat every platinum mission I've attempted with the gear I've already got.  The issue isn't feeling as though I need this new stuff to be successful,  the issue is feeling as though I don't need any of the new stuff, and all it is doing is worsening my attempts at gaining gear I do want.

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@Phoenixflieger wrote:

Noone needs to pay money for a Batarian XX. There are these reserve packs ... maybe buy all bronze packs first.

Several players in my group have spent 12millions credits after 1.09 release (took them over an hour btw). 

Seeing the ambivalent opinion towards Andromeda & BioWare & esp. EA you really think many people are spending 150$/€ just to get a simple Batarian?

What I hear is "I wanted especially toy XYZ and now the increased content makes it less predictable/likely",
while knowing the aquisition system was (ME3), is and will be randomised packs (like a collectible card game).
Completing now the N7 UR weapons/characters at least makes sense again, since one gets also new gold stuff (instead of consumables).

What I would agree on is, that paying 960 mission funds for a random UR character (or weapon) is quite disappointing.
That could have been a pick-a-character card-you-want (or weapon). It takes you ... what?  ... about a week of constant activity to earn that many mission funds?
And maybe less MF for Gold weapons / characters ...

Some quotes I picked up:

repainted/cosmetic weapons (no they are all better than standard version)

pay to win (Really?! in a PvE coop game?!)

people being cancer ...

useless weapons/characters (usefull for all difficulties, not only Platin)

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Trust me, there's people who will drop that kind of money when that option is out there. That's what EA is banking on (get it)? There's no way anyone got a Batarian XX the same day the patch came out unless they dropped cash, or they play this game nonstop (props to those people I guess). Even if they have their manifest completely maxed out, I don't even want to think how much time they had to spend that day completing missions and opening packs. Don't get me wrong though, it is amusing to watch a level 20 Batarian XX get outplayed by someone with a Level 6 Human sentinel XI.

Maybe I'll put this in a way you can understand, since you wanted to mention collectible card game. I play MTG. They're constantly increasing the card pool, but they're not releasing a set of cards and then all of the sudden add new cards to the same set. It's apples and oranges here.

There's no reason the three new weapon versions had to be of separate guns. Instead of making "Bulwark Gun", "Siphon Gun", and "Concussive Gun", make those new weapon mods, and now give the weapons 3 mod slots. Boom, fixed. I like the ideas they're presenting, just not the way it's all implemented. I get adding in BRAND NEW weapons and characters. I was about as equally upset when they added the S versions of all the common weapons and made those rare. The vanilla rare guns still outstrip them. This is just disguising a grind as replayability.

@cptduckjr1988I completely agree with what you're saying. None of this is really brand new content. No one I've seen uses a Zalkin (much less use it well). The last thing I want to see in my loadout is Katana XX, Katana Bulwark XX, Katana Siphon XX, Katana Concussive XX, the S version of all four of those, and Piranha I. It's like, "What feces pile am I going to throw this morning? The * one, or the gold one?"

I use a Zalkin all the time. Its one of my "go to" weapons. Sustained burst fire that can easily be "walked" at head height with great accuracy. Chuck on an assault rifle amp, grab a Soned for back up and slap it on a sentinal with +28% weapon damage. Its a beast at medium/long range.

I got the Zalkin siphon from the free Apex box, and its been a great tool. The sentinal can spam fire for HP, energy drain for shields, and have triple combos. Its my fav gold kit atm. Cant wait to level up the Zalkin Sph, its going to be great. The purple carnifex is really nice too if you can actually aim, as its a "free" shockwave attack on a weak-point kill. Very handy for Biotics with the expert kit.

As for the other stuffs, I really dont get the beef. I can play gold no problem with silver gear, and most of my UR stuff I dont use because its too heavy at low levels. So you have to play more to get stuffs, is that not the point of MP in the first place? If you think its "grinding" then your in the wrong mindset. Sure I need some guns to make my kits better. But its just gravy, they are already good as is.

Good take on the Zalkin. Thanks for the tips!

I agree 100%. I use silver weapons all the time. That's really what I have now. It wasn't grinding before the patch, and now it's turning more and more into that. I like the feeling of excitement getting a good UR weapon and killing things with it, ie: Valkyrie. It'll just be loads tougher now that we have to sift through 20 levels of everything.

As others have said, it is not "too much content" if it was all new, just adding a modifier to weapons and adding power levels to the characters we already have adds very little content to the game. This is my opinion you may not agree and that is fine, I just want to voice my disagreement with your premise.

So I'm quite new to ME:A (couple of days in) and to ME as a whole infact, all "guides" I read were wrote pretty much on day one of the game and never updated.

They all say buy just Basic Packs to max out all the Common items to them get better drops - does this extra 300% cards now mean trying to max out Common is 4 times as long, or is this just applicable to R and UR drops and other high level items?

I'm just stuck wondering how am I to proceed and progress in the Multiplayer part of this game (so far I've just played a dozen matches with a few different characters and spent skill points....)

Its the same as the guides just takes longer, and its only for weapons of silver rank and above. Don't let the hub-bub discourage you. I'm currently playing gold matches easily with just silver weapons. The gold stuff will come in time.

Thanks @lexandro_Albion it's comforting to hear... although I do of course play for fun, I find progression to be the most rewarding part of the game

For new players, i think the hit feels like LESS anyway with regards the RNG on the loot cards.

If you don't have any characters or weapons to rank X then I believe you won't see the other 3 variants of weapons for those weapons until you rank X them.  only then wil you then see the Bulwark/Concussive and Siphon variants of that same weapon unlock.   So it will seem like a drip feed for the extra variants as you unlock to RANK X for weapons.

Same goes for characters.. you will gain character cards up to rank XX naturally but luckily for characters you will only see the same number of characters being drawn from for RNG to select a card to offer you.  The only thing is that where before it would stop at rank X it is now double.. so you will keep seeing card drops for characters until they rank XX.

Now this is great news for newer players, it was completely overwhelming for the people who had all their common/uncommon/rare cards already maxed, as they saw a massive influx of new variant cards for weapons which pushed them back to only 25% progressed for uncommon(silver), rare (gold) cards.

A bitter pill for the experienced and veteran players, and i can't begin to imagine how many people now feel about it.. i'm kinda mixed reaction after the initial shock.. but i would without a doubt like to see them increase the weapons you get in packs in particular to compensate for the highly inflated pool that RNG now draws from.  I don't care how they do it, so long as they improve it.

Now i know there are some here who think this is all cool and wonderful. and well that is ok for them.. everyone has their own opinion, but my own is not in agreement with that. despite me biting the bullet and just getting on with the grind.. it is still a tremendous amount of work.   If people have been buying their way through this, then well there is an old saying "a fool  and his money are soon parted"