Reward System
This is my opinion as someone who played the previous game and has played this one enough to farm almost every gear combination I could possibly want. I have every red item available, and high rolled/maxed out oranges where needed. I have a lot of chests and crafting materials in my inventory.
These views are based on the standpoint of playing the normal missions primarily and not just Weaves.
The gear progression in normal mode has pretty much ended for me. This isn’t an “I have nothing to do” thread. It’s my observations on how rewarding the rewards system felt.
The reason I am making this thread is that I feel that once you reach a certain level there’s nothing to aim for and the things you did farm didn’t feel very rewarding or special, with things like mismatching cosmetics ruining a skin, or reds becoming easier to farm.
I’ll start with what does feel good!
Skill/Playstyle/Fun reward:
Obviously, the gameplay of this game is hugely rewarding once you improve, the new changes that came with WoM further made this true, as they made all difficulties more difficult, and put more emphasis on teamplay. I’ve talked in other threads how now Legend and Cata playstyles seem to match rather than Legend being a solofest where you ignore tanks and anything higher suddenly requiring team play.
Role gameplay, such as tanking, also feels more rewarding, as you’re actually able to do your job and help other people do theirs.
This difficulty increase also made Reds harder to get for newer players.
(EDIT) Keep cosmetics:
These also feel good, collecting during gameplay for paintings was a nice way of tying these rewards in to gameplay. The trophies and banners are a great way of showing your achievements.
Itemization
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Maxed stats made necessary, so reds felt needed rather than an achievement (breakpoints)
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Highest quality of rarity becomes baseline (nothing above it available)
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Reds were made easier to get (a little harder now)
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Crafting reds further lessens rarity
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Adding them to Commendation Chests lessens rarity
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Nothing extra can be gained in terms of cosmetics or stats, leaving rarity feeling moot and nothing special after it
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Unlike V1 Traits have one set % of procing
Weaves:
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Athanor crafting system is awesome for weaves, but leaves out rarity*
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Farming Essence from normal missions feels like a nice touch and a way to motivate people to try out Weaves
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The rewarding thing about Weaves definitely feels like completing them, so Portraits and achievements seem like the best reward for these as different stats removes some of the balance
Chests:
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Hundreds not worth opening
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Some Reds I still need, but salvaging on a full inventory would take too long
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Rarity of chests feels somewhat moot with Commendation Chests offering reds too
UI:
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looks and feels great (buttons/animations/sounds), but is tedious (feels spammy)
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opening hundreds of chests becomes irritating as inventory gets full
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Both the Athanor and base game crafting systems look great
Cosmetics:
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The achievement cosmetics didn’t gain any matching hats
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some of the hats from commendation chests are on the wrong careers e.g. Zulunbakiaz Nairikkit is on IB when it should be on RV as shown in advertising
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potential issue if cosmetic rewards are added that cosmetic store items will be better looking, removing the motivation to farm them
Crafting:
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Crafting system becomes irritating more than interesting/fun
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Scraps/Salvage become meaningless
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Only Dusts matter and feel tedious to downgrade constantly
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Rolling is hell!
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Berserker stat still feels useless
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Most traits still lacklustre
Deeds:
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Deeds just added more of the same loot and was only slightly more rewarding despite being harder
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Choosing Mutators seems like a highly sought-after feature
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Having the scroll drops from chests ties in to the issue of full inventory
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From the usual people I play with most of them said they wanted an extension of the Deed system, but that would be another thread
Suggestions:
Suggestions should seek to keep current systems and make them better rather than scrapping them.
Something that people who haven’t thought about this before should bear in mind is that in this type of game there are two possible routes for a long-term reward system, tangible and intangible; meaning that you can either have rewards that effect gameplay or are merely cosmetic.
My own personal preference is to have a very long-term tangible reward that requires lots of time to achieve, while being careful not to make it too overpowered. With lesser and lesser versions of that for people who may not be as dedicated to getting that reward.
e.g. the weapon Shadowmourne in WoW was extremely overpowered, but took a long time to make because of a quest chain, and also had very useful lesser versions of itself along the way. This means that those who didn’t have time to farm SM could still have a cool looking and useful weapon, just a lower tier.
Had the weapon been less overpowered, but still offering a slight advantage while being visually incredible, it would have been the perfect example of a good long-term tangible reward.
This system gives people of all skill levels some chance at a sense of reward without gating it off to the biggest tryhards and nolifers.
A lot of people might just want cosmetics, which I don’t mind. I prefer tangible rewards and the chance at eventual further gameplay changes down the line. I just don’t see them being that special when Lohner’s Emporium is on the way. Maybe weapon skins could make it work.
Either one would be better than what we have now though.
Athanor Crafting system:
I do however think that the Athanor crafting is so much better than the base game crafting system that a version of it should be added instead. (Got a feeling that this is already in the works) I think if a new system is added it should either simply replace the old one or be unlockable, as the in-game challenge/story/link to the Athanor could easily work. I would also recommend integrating the Loadout Manager mod, as you will no longer have 10000 items in your inventory, and so should just be able to save entire builds to your inventory page.
*The Athanor crafting system seems to leave out rarity, so my suggestion here would be to turn the dusts into a farming system similar to Essence, with each dust rarity offering a greater increase in item level. Having level/rarity split, and making rarity go up as weapon challenges are completed could be another way of doing this. E.g. kill 1000 Elites with ‘x’ weapon, etc
Intangible reward suggestions:
I think these go without saying, Portraits, Hats, Skins, Weapon skins. Making sure they can match with each other is important, and again, with long-term rewards, you have to be careful that the in-game store rewards aren’t just vastly superior.
Tangible reward suggestions:
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More Traits
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Nerf traits on lesser rarities e.g. Swiftslaying speed increase is 5%, etc
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People can maintain breakpoints and Power vs X, as stats feel necessary, Traits feel less essential and are much more flexible to be used for a reward
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Why traits? They feel magical and special, so them being slightly out of reach makes a little more sense than locking off stats
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They can be used to make significant blanket balance for all of the weapons and offer more choice for builds
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Should this effect Weaves? Only if it can be done easily, but probably not
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What would the long-term Trait reward look like? An example of a maxed-out Trait could be similar to what we have now, but maybe with an extra effect or extended effect. E.g. Resourceful Combatant on a maxed higher tier item would have a very low chance on hit to offer a minor effect from another trait (Swiftslaying at 5% Attack speed increase, but a very low chance to proc)
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Will work better with the addition of a higher item tier, something that can be farmed via either materials/achievements/questlines similar to the old game. This will solve the problem of Reds being too easy to farm and give people something to aim for
Polls:
Are you happy with the current Reward system?
- Yes
- No
- Undecided/Unsure
0 voters
Which would you prefer?
- Cosmetics
- Gameplay altering rewards
- Other (say in response)
0 voters