Dev Discussion Episode 40: Rewards

In the testing feedback I said, "So we're not gifted any Speed Force cells, correct (that's fine, just wondered since we've been gifted two with every previous Episode since Judas Contract). And if I'm seeing correctly there will be no 'refurbished' - type of AA's. Which is excellent. No more getting worthless AA's if you're anything below the relevancy window is a good change."

But damn it you did make a refurbished type of AA (in this case Substandard Speed Force Cells). So if a toon is CR 321 & opens this reward they're going to get a worthless substandard that they'll just have to feed into a good AA at half XP. There should only be one kind of AA per Episode. When you open it the base stats auto-level based on your CR. I know, AA's don't cost that much. Still there is no need for this 2 types of AA per Episode.

Can you make it so that if an adaptive augment is applied to any armory, it's auto marked as an important item so that it cannot be fed into another adaptive augment? Thanks.

Can we have generator mods box as a reward (cap at 99, and v1-2-3)? Right now they take so many places in the inventory, i don't understand.....

There are a few problems with the translation in the Spanish version of the game. Both artifacts have the same text (Pied Piper's Flute description on Circe Mask). Adaptative Augments have their descriptions in English. Most feats lack descriptions, some other lack also name, some other have the name in English but no description, and only a handful of them are correctly translated.

Hello Red Five,

Just informing you at the moment that the flash to the future raid is rewarding an unintended monthly reward tier two box that was normally from the old tier two raid "Brainiac Sub-Construct". It rewards it and locks that loot for the actual content.

Not a big deal for an extra reward though it is outdated and irrelevant. I am sure it is also unintended unless this is a way for a chance on some older loot for those who may need it though that raid currently has a walk in portal. So I'm more inclined to believe that this was just an oversight in the reward system. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely: Brav

Keep it haha, was a funny little surprise

Maybe I’ve been utterly spoiled by the recent run fantastic back-up/henchmen, but the Psi-Ops Henchmen are a little bit disappointing. They all have the same weapon, use the generic lightning bolt for their alpha strike and use the “default” spawning and despawning animation where they just sort of swoop in and out.

They feel like a big step back after the various lantern corps, the anniversary offerings, and the freeze goons. Not a big problem in the grand scheme of things but it’d be a shame to see standards slip after the aforementioned winning streak.

Just wondering,
Why are we still receiving green gear in Elite content? It feels like blue and purple are the only rewards for the amount of effort and difficulty we go through in Elite content. Leave green gear for regular and event content?

This is something I have often wondered why as well. I understand that you use the extra (not needed) gear to increase your augments, but it can be very disheartening to struggle through content for only green gear.

I don't know why they chose to have set stats in all gear, and not random ones just in case. Like some gear has more Precision or Might and less Health... or at the very least, release more styles to unlock, especially for styles in earlier content. I don't know. But it does seem silly.

Okay, I love this DLC except for this one thing. This one absolutely ridiculous thing. Crafting the generator mods.

WHY FOR THE LOVE OF ALL GOOD, did you bring back crafting this way?

The idea could work IF you didn't make it A) so complicated and B) so counter intuitive.

What do I mean by this? Let me explain.

First, all mods, except the final ones (40.4), drop, with 40.3 I assume being ultra rare. (Haven't seen it yet.) This would be good if the way you have to craft them to the one you want is to buy plans to convert them. Wouldn't it been better to make them boxes, Offensive, Support, and Health and Power? That way we can focus on the plans we want to work from. Instead, we have to buy ALL the plans to convert to the box that allows use to do it. This is ridiculous.

Secondly, why did you make the diminishing returns on them so extreme? You have to not only use the correct level and type of mod, but you must use catalysts to do so, which costs 1 source mark for 10.

Lastly, the sheer fact we have to buy all the different plans, just makes this system want to be ignored. I know this was to replace the fact we no longer have open world bounties, but this system that you brought back just taxes our inventory and is a massive mark sink that wasn't so bad when open world bounties gave free replay to grind for it. You also adding on way more space to your inventory. You have 7 different potential types for each level of mod. You guys freed up space by allowing stacking for Exobytes, but then take it away with a new crafting system that is by far the worst 2 steps back I've seen in a while.

I feel cheated by buying these plans and I absolutely hate the idea of them all together now.

Please, for the love of all, don't do it this way in the next DLC. I really liked this one, but this system left a bad taste in my mouth that makes me upset.

We don't have to buy all the plans. Doing so is a huge mistake and a complete waste of 300-340 marks.

Basically, players can either farm 40.3s (which drop like candy in Critical) and just get a single 40.3->40.4 recipe per category... Or they can buy the various 40.0->40.1 recipes but only a single other recipe per category, then funnel the more common mods into whatever one ingredient they need for their next respective recipe in the chain. If they want they could also get all the 40.1->40.2, since they're still relatively cheap, but it's not necessary and will only net a handful of additional 40.2s over not having them.

Since we have to grind FV a bunch and FF isn't an efficient OP farm instance, min:max economy of effort is achieved via the latter method and a player finishes their full 40.4 set in about as much time as it takes to manually farm their OP/Elite (assuming they were efficient about it) and complete the various checklist feats.

As for inventory: Convert the mods to mod boxes as you get them and don't open the mod boxes until supply is sufficient to make a higher tier mod box. Once done 40.4s, we can sell the excess to the vendor.

It only looks complicated at a glance. Once actually participating in the system relative to the sheer volume of mods we get, it's pretty straightforward and it's balanced on par with the rest of the episode's grinds. It also encourages players to actually run content for OP progression instead of just buying OP from broker for once, since we need to farm mods over time anyways so it makes doing that less efficient than just playing the game.

The categories on the vendor don't match what is shown, on the crafting page it shows the elite gear and in the omnipotence page it shows the crafting stuff, it's like the tag shows the previous category.

I think you guys nailed the drop rates and places for OP item and DLC specific agument catalyts/exobyte/food items. I say DONT TRY TO change a single thing for future episodes. The system we have is just good. Improvements okay but dont ever go back. Also catalysts are collectable with episode marks, thats good.

(Still not liking restriction on origin exobytes tho)

Is new generator mod crafting system getting any type of overhaul anytime soon? Its already saw a big backlash from player base duo to how unnecessarily "complicated" it was. Not even mentioning inventory space the mods takes... I wanna know it before I invest a load of marks to it.

You guys should at least put Gen v40.4 MODS for 120 episode currency as well since it takes that amount of marks to create a v40.4 mod from scratch. That will save big chunk of people from misery.

Any chance we can get the blue beams that make the pools in the Gorilla Grodd fight as orbitals? There are literally NO blue colored orbitals in this entire game and that beam has a pretty cool effect.

Freeze Beam orbital from last SM is icy blue...
But yeah it would be nice to have more blue-colored orbitals.
The new one from upcoming Summer seasonal is watery blue, but I would love to have a blue version of Power of the Starheart orbital or something similar.

For me this new crafting system is a fail. Takes a massive amount of mods to go from v.0 to v.4, plus way too much episode currency (plus Source Marks for Catalysts). I don't agree with 120 currency for each v.4 mod (if that's what you were saying). 25 each would be the right number (300 for 12), then do away with the whole plans system.