Is there a gear imbalance/crunch, similar to the previous credit crunch?
We all need cuffs, guns, carbantis by thousand. Is it too much?
Forum Discussion
Gosh, where to begin...
Ok. The Obvious.
1) The Gear Challenges
Great concept, but doesn't really work to help established players, let me explain from my own experience.
The highest Tier appropriately rewards some of the higher tier pieces of gear, but not all, and certainly not in proportion to the actually most needed gear, IE: Cuffs. Also, when established players are focused on these high end pieces of gear, and rightly so, the low to mid range gear for newer toons, gets completely neglected, by design.
The flaw here imho is in the tiers of rewards, not only do the higher-end tiers need to reward a wider variety of high-end gear, they also need to reward low-end gear from previous challenge tiers.
For example:
T1: Class E.
-All White Gear, Drops Randomly.
T2: Class D & E.
-Primarily Green(D) All Non-Raid gear Drops Randomly, Some White(E) gear.
T3: Class C, D, & E.
-Primarily Blue(C) All Non-Raid gear Drops Randomly, Some Green(D) and White(E) gear.
T4: Class B, C, D, & E.
-Primarily Purple(B), All Non-Raid gear Drops Randomly, Some Blue(C) Green(D) and White(E) gear.
T5: Class A, B, C, D, & E.
-Primarily Gold(A), All Non-Raid Gear Drops Randomly, Some Purple(B) Blue(C) Green(D) and White(E) gear.
This would relieve at least the low end grind, for established players who need to focus on existing high end content while also letting them enjoy newly released characters without dropping everything else they're doing to go back to square one for a new character.
The other obvious, or maybe not so...
2) Surplus of unused gear
-How about a Gear conversion system that takes 2 white MK1s and can make 1 MK2 out them, 2 MK2s and make an MK3, and so on?
3) Painfully Low Drop Rates
Grinding gear from missions is fine, but the higher level stuff takes way too long. I am actually NOT looking forward to the next level / gear cap increase, because it can already take MONTHS to "finish" just a SINGLE character. This seems extremely excessive.
One solution could be to link the Drop rate to Player Level with a small, but not excessive, bonus multiplier to make gear drop more often the higher the player level.
It's a problem for lvl 85 like me who likely has 25+ characters to be worked on simultaneously. Today, got 2 purple salvage I needed per 120 energy.
It wasn't so much a problem when only 5 peices of blue gear + some white and green were needed to complete a peice. . . But that's no longer the case. In a very mild example...
I currently I have 13 characters that need a particular kind of gear. 13 @ 20pieces each, =260 pieces needed at today's drop rate of 2 per refresh.... Doing 2 refresh per day... is 65 days. Over 2 months and that's JUST for one part of 6 gear slots for the 13 characters @ their current gear level. Not the next, or the one after that which requires versions that need 50 each, and/or need it multiple times...
Stun Cuffs are even worse as one of the 50 piece variations that are needed a ton but are just a very discouragingly long grind.
It means literally MONTHS needed to get a character up playing level. That amount of time working on something not bringing any benefits can rob the joy out of the game, and same can be said if the only alternative to months of frustrating/boring grinding is having to spend an uncomfortable amount of money for a tablet game.
My hope, is that we can get a grip on this before your most loyal and established customers/players are driven away for a quicker fix of fun. Your most loyal & max level players should be shown appreciation by giving them some relief on this issue.
Best,
SithLordSnake
Ok. The Obvious.
1) The Gear Challenges
Great concept, but doesn't really work to help established players, let me explain from my own experience.
The highest Tier appropriately rewards some of the higher tier pieces of gear, but not all, and certainly not in proportion to the actually most needed gear, IE: Cuffs. Also, when established players are focused on these high end pieces of gear, and rightly so, the low to mid range gear for newer toons, gets completely neglected, by design.
The flaw here imho is in the tiers of rewards, not only do the higher-end tiers need to reward a wider variety of high-end gear, they also need to reward low-end gear from previous challenge tiers.
For example:
T1: Class E.
-All White Gear, Drops Randomly.
T2: Class D & E.
-Primarily Green(D) All Non-Raid gear Drops Randomly, Some White(E) gear.
T3: Class C, D, & E.
-Primarily Blue(C) All Non-Raid gear Drops Randomly, Some Green(D) and White(E) gear.
T4: Class B, C, D, & E.
-Primarily Purple(B), All Non-Raid gear Drops Randomly, Some Blue(C) Green(D) and White(E) gear.
T5: Class A, B, C, D, & E.
-Primarily Gold(A), All Non-Raid Gear Drops Randomly, Some Purple(B) Blue(C) Green(D) and White(E) gear.
This would relieve at least the low end grind, for established players who need to focus on existing high end content while also letting them enjoy newly released characters without dropping everything else they're doing to go back to square one for a new character.
The other obvious, or maybe not so...
2) Surplus of unused gear
-How about a Gear conversion system that takes 2 white MK1s and can make 1 MK2 out them, 2 MK2s and make an MK3, and so on?
3) Painfully Low Drop Rates
Grinding gear from missions is fine, but the higher level stuff takes way too long. I am actually NOT looking forward to the next level / gear cap increase, because it can already take MONTHS to "finish" just a SINGLE character. This seems extremely excessive.
One solution could be to link the Drop rate to Player Level with a small, but not excessive, bonus multiplier to make gear drop more often the higher the player level.
It's a problem for lvl 85 like me who likely has 25+ characters to be worked on simultaneously. Today, got 2 purple salvage I needed per 120 energy.
It wasn't so much a problem when only 5 peices of blue gear + some white and green were needed to complete a peice. . . But that's no longer the case. In a very mild example...
I currently I have 13 characters that need a particular kind of gear. 13 @ 20pieces each, =260 pieces needed at today's drop rate of 2 per refresh.... Doing 2 refresh per day... is 65 days. Over 2 months and that's JUST for one part of 6 gear slots for the 13 characters @ their current gear level. Not the next, or the one after that which requires versions that need 50 each, and/or need it multiple times...
Stun Cuffs are even worse as one of the 50 piece variations that are needed a ton but are just a very discouragingly long grind.
It means literally MONTHS needed to get a character up playing level. That amount of time working on something not bringing any benefits can rob the joy out of the game, and same can be said if the only alternative to months of frustrating/boring grinding is having to spend an uncomfortable amount of money for a tablet game.
My hope, is that we can get a grip on this before your most loyal and established customers/players are driven away for a quicker fix of fun. Your most loyal & max level players should be shown appreciation by giving them some relief on this issue.
Best,
SithLordSnake
