Howdy, Stranger!
Aspect Perks
Hi! I'm Bathan Zran! You might remember me from other films such as 'Everything Except Demon's Pass Sucks' and 'Please Target Jorachim, Not Me.' Today I'm coming at you with another hard hitting piece of investigative journalism.
I'd like to start by saying that I think what's in place for Aspect Perks is actually not bad. It's a good start, and all I think it needs is more fleshing out, and some updates to the numbers. To quote Bill Nye, consider the following:
Overall Level: 103 (42.10%) A Divine Aspect of the 3rd Tier
You currently have 158158 XP points.
I know, absurd, right? I should go outside or something. What's more absurd is that while I've grinded up to level 103 and a half, I am still less than halfway towards a set of upgraded harvester's gloves that would let me harvest 50% more herbs. Most of the artifact upgrades are realistically just not worth the price, XP or goldwise. I think gold needs to be looked at considering the recent string of events which put pretty much all of us in the 47% category except Eldreth. 4,000,000 to get 50% more herbs? That's at least 400 credits, probably more right now just for 50% more herbs. That's on top of needing to get to like, 107, 108. I get that these goals were geared towards the super grindy, but I'm guessing that getting this from level 100 and 0 gold would require you to farm DP uninterrupted for months on end, assuming you didn't die and didn't have to share. And I guess an argument could be made that you want us to buy credits and sell them for gold to send your kids to college, but then why put in the 107/108 requirement?
So, sure. Gloves of harvesting, absurd. Here's the whole chart on what you can buy.
Perks XP Points Cost Gold Cost
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Aspect Change 25,000 250,000
Life Monolith 50,000 500,000
Change Monolith 50,000 500,000
Terror Monolith 50,000 500,000
Permanent Aspect Power 100,000 1,000,000
Increased Maximum Reserves 50,000 500,000
Increased Reserve Regeneration 100,000 1,000,000
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Artifact Upgrades XP Points Cost Gold Cost
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Saboteur's Bone Upgrade 200,000 2,000,000
Cloak of Obfuscate Upgrade 100,000 1,000,000
Gem of Transmutation Upgrade 200,000 2,000,000
Gloves of Harvesting Upgrade 400,000 4,000,000
Caravan Crop Level 2 Upgrade 100,000 1,000,000
Caravan Crop Level 3 Upgrade 200,000 2,000,000
Glass Pipet Upgrade 100,000 1,000,000
Some of these things are appealing, but not grind for weeks appealing. Most of the Aspect ones are kind of pointless, aside from the power to change Aspect types. Given the fact that warp is probably going to get nerfed into the ground (and it should) I'm not going to bother buying a permanent monolith or power. The artifact ones are also kind of lackluster. The Saboteur Bone one would've been neat five years ago. At present, it's just not that interesting. The caravan crop one? Maybe if I'm Selthis grinding out achievements. Transmutation is actually incredibly solid, but again, 2,000,000 gold and level 105/106. The cloak one is downright bad.
I'm not saying scrap these ideas. Hold on to them. Someone's going to want them. Maybe tinker with the numbers to make them more palatable.
I do think though there needs to be a lot more options for these PvE types who enjoy Korean grinds to get random non-comm/PvE bonuses. Here's a list of what I've thought up in the past few days:
PvE buffs: 500,000XP (basically an entire XP level)
- 10% damage mitigation/10% damage/10% crit chance against non-loyal NPCs for say, 8 hours of logged in time. This will do nothing for PvP, but for people who are grinding gold for things like cults, houses, credits, et cetera it will make poop socking DP and Gongen Mountains more palatable.
- Slayer Bonus - I'm ripping this off from Lord of the Rings online. For people who are into farming achievements (and those people do exist), 2 hours of logged in time where in kills count for double towards achievements. One orc kill? It's two, now. One Rafe kill? Two. People are into farming achievements. People will buy this. For one whole level of experience? That's not awful.
Cosmetic Items - Ranging from 1,000,000 XP/1,000,000 gold to 2,250,000XP/2,500,000.
- Exclusive IG mounts. They won't track, but they'll each be unique and only obtainable through this PvE grind.
- Familiar Customization Tokens. Put these on the higher end of the bracket. Allow players to customize their familiars. Make them go through a proofing process, but essentially allow them to, through grinding, create a walking, talking RP companion. Again, people will put time into getting this. I know I would. I love to turn my brumal mehteh into a squire, or something.
- Exclusive IG items. I'm less sure on specifics for this one, but I'm sure someone would have ideas. Stuff like hamster in a ball, et cetera.
These are just ideas I've had in the last few days. There are a lot more possibilities I'm sure. If you create neat PvE things for PvE'ers to do, they'll do it, continue playing, continue paying for Iron Elite to get the XP bonus/credits and most of all, will continue being active in your game.
I'd like to start by saying that I think what's in place for Aspect Perks is actually not bad. It's a good start, and all I think it needs is more fleshing out, and some updates to the numbers. To quote Bill Nye, consider the following:
Overall Level: 103 (42.10%) A Divine Aspect of the 3rd Tier
You currently have 158158 XP points.
I know, absurd, right? I should go outside or something. What's more absurd is that while I've grinded up to level 103 and a half, I am still less than halfway towards a set of upgraded harvester's gloves that would let me harvest 50% more herbs. Most of the artifact upgrades are realistically just not worth the price, XP or goldwise. I think gold needs to be looked at considering the recent string of events which put pretty much all of us in the 47% category except Eldreth. 4,000,000 to get 50% more herbs? That's at least 400 credits, probably more right now just for 50% more herbs. That's on top of needing to get to like, 107, 108. I get that these goals were geared towards the super grindy, but I'm guessing that getting this from level 100 and 0 gold would require you to farm DP uninterrupted for months on end, assuming you didn't die and didn't have to share. And I guess an argument could be made that you want us to buy credits and sell them for gold to send your kids to college, but then why put in the 107/108 requirement?
So, sure. Gloves of harvesting, absurd. Here's the whole chart on what you can buy.
Perks XP Points Cost Gold Cost
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Aspect Change 25,000 250,000
Life Monolith 50,000 500,000
Change Monolith 50,000 500,000
Terror Monolith 50,000 500,000
Permanent Aspect Power 100,000 1,000,000
Increased Maximum Reserves 50,000 500,000
Increased Reserve Regeneration 100,000 1,000,000
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Artifact Upgrades XP Points Cost Gold Cost
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Saboteur's Bone Upgrade 200,000 2,000,000
Cloak of Obfuscate Upgrade 100,000 1,000,000
Gem of Transmutation Upgrade 200,000 2,000,000
Gloves of Harvesting Upgrade 400,000 4,000,000
Caravan Crop Level 2 Upgrade 100,000 1,000,000
Caravan Crop Level 3 Upgrade 200,000 2,000,000
Glass Pipet Upgrade 100,000 1,000,000
Some of these things are appealing, but not grind for weeks appealing. Most of the Aspect ones are kind of pointless, aside from the power to change Aspect types. Given the fact that warp is probably going to get nerfed into the ground (and it should) I'm not going to bother buying a permanent monolith or power. The artifact ones are also kind of lackluster. The Saboteur Bone one would've been neat five years ago. At present, it's just not that interesting. The caravan crop one? Maybe if I'm Selthis grinding out achievements. Transmutation is actually incredibly solid, but again, 2,000,000 gold and level 105/106. The cloak one is downright bad.
I'm not saying scrap these ideas. Hold on to them. Someone's going to want them. Maybe tinker with the numbers to make them more palatable.
I do think though there needs to be a lot more options for these PvE types who enjoy Korean grinds to get random non-comm/PvE bonuses. Here's a list of what I've thought up in the past few days:
PvE buffs: 500,000XP (basically an entire XP level)
- 10% damage mitigation/10% damage/10% crit chance against non-loyal NPCs for say, 8 hours of logged in time. This will do nothing for PvP, but for people who are grinding gold for things like cults, houses, credits, et cetera it will make poop socking DP and Gongen Mountains more palatable.
- Slayer Bonus - I'm ripping this off from Lord of the Rings online. For people who are into farming achievements (and those people do exist), 2 hours of logged in time where in kills count for double towards achievements. One orc kill? It's two, now. One Rafe kill? Two. People are into farming achievements. People will buy this. For one whole level of experience? That's not awful.
Cosmetic Items - Ranging from 1,000,000 XP/1,000,000 gold to 2,250,000XP/2,500,000.
- Exclusive IG mounts. They won't track, but they'll each be unique and only obtainable through this PvE grind.
- Familiar Customization Tokens. Put these on the higher end of the bracket. Allow players to customize their familiars. Make them go through a proofing process, but essentially allow them to, through grinding, create a walking, talking RP companion. Again, people will put time into getting this. I know I would. I love to turn my brumal mehteh into a squire, or something.
- Exclusive IG items. I'm less sure on specifics for this one, but I'm sure someone would have ideas. Stuff like hamster in a ball, et cetera.
These are just ideas I've had in the last few days. There are a lot more possibilities I'm sure. If you create neat PvE things for PvE'ers to do, they'll do it, continue playing, continue paying for Iron Elite to get the XP bonus/credits and most of all, will continue being active in your game.
‘Least I won’t have to carry it no more. You see how bloody heavy it is?’
‘Every sword’s a weight to carry. Men don’t see that when they pick ’em up. But they get heavier with time.”
‘Every sword’s a weight to carry. Men don’t see that when they pick ’em up. But they get heavier with time.”
Tagged:
8
Comments
A Grimoire of Knowledge
The Grimoire of Knowledge will keep a record of all quests you complete, including the name of the NPCs, the locations and the rewards.
‘Every sword’s a weight to carry. Men don’t see that when they pick ’em up. But they get heavier with time.”
That sounds like QUESTS and QUESTS COMPLETED, and already does that except for what reward they give for completing a quest.
‘Every sword’s a weight to carry. Men don’t see that when they pick ’em up. But they get heavier with time.”
It's just that it's about -all- that it has going for it, at the same time. The only thing I've bought is the ability to have conservation alongside modulation. Everything else, in the entire Aspect system be it perk or status itself, is just really not interesting or worthwhile.
We have to find the line between worthwhile and overpowering, which I think we're close to already. A little more refinement and we should hopefully be set.
Don't know if this will break the game in anyway but could Aspects spend XP points to hire weapon/ defense artifacts (say for 1 IG year) only one at a time perhaps.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Aspect Change 25,000 250,000
Life Monolith 50,000 500,000
Change Monolith 50,000 500,000
Terror Monolith 50,000 500,000
Permanent Aspect Power 100,000 1,000,000
Increased Maximum Reserves 50,000 500,000
Increased Reserve Regeneration 100,000 1,000,000
-----------------------------------------------------------------
You currently have 1177878 XP points.
Only thing I can see being useful at this point would be conservation (Like Juran bought) and like he said, the life gaze room. Change gaze room is too unreliable, especially for large scale events like finding the corpus, scavenger items, and all that. I can't bring myself to buy any of them as of yet, but terror has nothing worth it, and change generally controls 5 monoliths.
Conservation seems to be the only one useful. I unfortunately agree with Bathan and Ahkan that the system should be overhauled a bit and made more player friendly instead of "Lets try and get rid of as much gold as we can"