Prime Gear: We're Not Using The Whole Toolbox...

[Xylia]

So... during the long period of time when U14 was in development, DE put in a lot of work to design, and build, functionality for a Quest system. I remember u14 taking several weeks, maybe a couple months, to be released after it was announced that Quests were going to be a thing.

 

I remember lots and lots of bugfixes to make those quests work (I remember it being quite buggy on release).

 

The point is, we put in a huge amount of work and effort to make Quests a thing, but what do we use them on?

 

1). Kubrow

2). Mirage

3). Newbie Player Experience

 

.........and that's it. Two whole things + the newbie quests, and..... that's all we used all of that work on?

 

We've got a rather large tool in the toolbox and we're not even using it. That's like a carpenter who goes out and buys an expensive awesome multi-tool hammer, brings it home, and sets it on his workbench and then grabs that rusty old 20+ year old clawhammer with the duct-taped handle to do his work.

 

What I'm talking about, is Prime Gear.

 

Prime Gear acquisition is very......... bland and unimaginative. Run missions, get random pieces, throw pieces together, and done. That's... pretty bland. And that is, of course, not to speak of the multitude of RNG issues making the system not fun for a large number of players.

 

So.... we have an old, outdated, boring system that a lot of people don't really like and we have a new awesome tool we spent a long time trying to build, but we hardly ever use.

 

Let's put 2+2 together!

 

Instead of the old boring "grind your eyeballs out and pray what you need drops", let's make Prime Gear acquisition a quest-driven system instead.

 

Perhaps we could do something like you open the Codex, pick the prime item you want, and Lotus taps into her massive databank of information and tells you were you may find remnants of this item within the Void. You get the necessary key, do the mission specified and you get the items she asked for. When you have completed that, she sends you out for more items.

 

For example, you want a Boltor Prime.

 

1). Open the Codex and tell Lotus you want to go out and get yourself a Boltor Prime.

2). She tells you that to manufacture the barrel, you will need 100 Boltor Prime Barrel Fragments, and those may be found in any Void Capture mission (just using an example).

3). You go to Void Capture (any tier) and complete the mission, and you get a number of Boltor Prime Barrel Fragments.

4). Once you finish the Boltor Prime Barrel, she will then tell you that you need 100 Boltor Prime Stock Fragments, and those can be found in any Void Mobile Defense mission.

5). You complete that and she sends you after the next.

 

Now, 100 Fragments sounds a lot, but hear me out here. The fragments would drop something like so:

 

Tier 1, Exterminate/Capture: 2-3 Fragments

Tier 1, Mobile Defense: 5-6 Fragments

Tier 1, Survival/Defense: 2-3 Fragments, +2 Fragments per 5min/5wave for a maximum of 20 in a single mission

Tier 2, Exterminate/Capture: 8-10 Fragments

Tier 2, Mobile Defense: 12-15 Fragments

Tier 2, Survival/Defense: 8-10 Fragments, +4 Fragments per 5min/5wave for a maximum of 40 in a single mission

Tier 3, Exterminate/Capture: 12-15 Fragments

Tier 3, Mobile Defense: 20-25 Fragments

Tier 3, Survival/Defense: 12-15 Fragments, +6 Fragments per 5min/5wave for a maximum of 50 in a single mission

Tier 4, Exterminate/Capture: 15-18 Fragments

Tier 4, Mobile Defense: 22-27 Fragments

Tier 4, Survival/Defense: 15-18 Fragments, +8 Fragments per 5min/5wave for a maximum of 55 in a single mission

 

So.....Tenno aren't forced into higher tiers, but yet there are clearly nice rewards for doing so. You COULD complete a Boltor Prime by doing exclusively Tower 1, but it would take freaking Forever (as it should!).

 

Another upside to this system, is you won't have keys laying around and nothing to use them on (they have low forma drop rate, and they drop nothing you need).

 

And most importantly, it would utilize the quest system......AND lessen the pain of RNG. There's still some RNG with this system, but yet also guaranteed progress towards your goals. Best of both worlds. Obviously the numbers above would need tweaking; I just threw out some examples.

[crafturtoemc]

Sounds stupid, still grinding and it will make it even worse. Sorry, I dislike it. And the market will be dead.

[misoru2012]

Mixing the quest system with a token system... Sounds good. I would only recommend a specific amount of the items per mission; no intervals, so as to completely remove RNG.

[BrotherIcarus]

Well considering we got the quest system 1-2 months ago it is not surprising that we have not gotten any more quests yet. 

 

I am certain DE plans on using the quest system a lot more but it takes time to do these things.

[Xylia]

Sounds stupid, still grinding and it will make it even worse. Sorry, I dislike it. And the market will be dead.

 

Yeah, like, 80+ T3E missions for one Nyx Chassis is any better, right? lol

 

Sounds good. I would only recommend a specific amount of the items per mission; no intervals, so as to completely remove RNG.

 

Some RNG is good.

 

RNG where it is "you either get something or you get nothing" is not good. RNG where you get "some or a lot" is better. You want there to be some anticipation, some excitement when you step up to the extraction capsule as you eye the rewards screen, saying "What'd I get, What'd I get..." as you wait for the thing to display. You want there to be SOME excitement...... but without the huge heavy disappointment when you yet again didn't get what you wanted.

Edited October 5, 2014 by Xylia

[crafturtoemc]

Yeah, like, 80+ T3E missions for one Nyx Chassis is any better, right? lol

 

 

 

 

Some RNG is good.

 

RNG where it is "you either get something or you get nothing" is not good. RNG where you get "some or a lot" is better. You want there to be some anticipation, some excitement when you step up to the extraction capsule as you eye the rewards screen, saying "What'd I get, What'd I get..." as you wait for the thing to display. You want there to be SOME excitement...... but without the huge heavy disappointment when you yet again didn't get what you wanted.

 

Haha.....the economy is mostly driven by trading and what will happen?

And...this kind of game is driven by RNG...the game would be dead

Edited October 5, 2014 by crafturtoemc

[misoru2012]

Sounds stupid, still grinding and it will make it even worse. Sorry, I dislike it. And the market will be dead.

Some degree of grinding will always be present. Get over it. This system lessens it and shows you how much you will actually need to grind, rather than an indefinite amount, as the current system utilizes. And if the market system dies it will only prove that the current system is flawed.

[Xylia]

Haha.....the economy is mostly driven by trading and what will happen?

 

There's still mod trading.

 

And using the trade system as a band-aid to the Void Problems I never liked in the first place. They only did Void Part Trading because it was almost necessary for the game's survival because of how horrible the Void Drop System is today.

[Brahmastra]

Sounds better than just a token system. Dunno how this will turn out with trading though.

 

All in all I don't understand why DE doesn't make more quests. Long or short quests it does not matter. At this point most people are just tired of the same old grinding for gear and DE doesn't know their endgame either.

[misoru2012]

Some RNG is good.

 

RNG where it is "you either get something or you get nothing" is not good. RNG where you get "some or a lot" is better. You want there to be some anticipation, some excitement when you step up to the extraction capsule as you eye the rewards screen, saying "What'd I get, What'd I get..." as you wait for the thing to display. You want there to be SOME excitement...... but without the huge heavy disappointment when you yet again didn't get what you wanted.

That's a flawed and cheap sense of excitement that rewards nothing but luck. Now, if you got a bonus for completing the mission within a time limit or some other constraint, that would be much better. But that wouldn't be utilizing RNG.

[crafturtoemc]

There's still mod trading.

 

And using the trade system as a band-aid to the Void Problems I never liked in the first place. They only did Void Part Trading because it was almost necessary for the game's survival because of how horrible the Void Drop System is today.

 

Alright, goodluck with MOD TRADING. I can say prime parts that is driving the economy in the game... And DE should make alot of rare mod out if they do this. 

 

Not many mod that worth alot dude... not even crimson dervish now.

 

You can go to trading tab..mostly people is doing plats for prime parts or prime parts for plats...mod rarely. Even they do WTS> xxxx mod.. trust me, like none of them is being sold