Artifacts have become a huge part of the game everyone knows that, most people like the artifacts themselves but not the cash grab breakthroughs. Can we just turn these into replay badges, as long as you have reached that level previously, the same way you need to have gotten a style before on another character before you can unlock it on a alt, idk how the pricing would work but say for example, skip it to 80 for 50 replays, skip to 160 for 100 replays, skip to 200 for 150 replays or something like that. The game has just become so non alt friendly that i only want to play 3 characters and thats pushing it bc of artifacts.
I wish they could code it where subscribers have better odds at a breakthrough and/or bonus exp crits.
I get the idea behind what you are saying. However, if replay badges were ever implemented to upgrade artifacts to level 200, you best believe Daybreak will make sure the cost of using replay badges will reflect what they feel it costs to upgrade an artifact to 200. My guess would be a minimum of 800 replay badges.
Similar ideas have been posted in the past, but there are some details that are always overlooked. Without making a new unlock system, we would end up with two options: getting any artifact to a specific rank allows you to get any other artifact to that rank easier, or getting an artifact to a specific rank only allows you to rank up another one of that artifact easily (useful for alts using the same artifact or if you got rid of one and want it back). "Easier" could mean anything from some combination of reduced xp, fewer catalysts, and increased breakthrough chance to an artifact at that level arriving by mail. The first option could work off of existing feats and would only allow a reduction in resources/increased breakthrough chance and would make use of existing feats (with rank 180 and 200 feats added). The second would require feats to be created for every breakthrough rank of every artifact (most likely 0 point feats). With some UI changes, a few more options open up (like the ability to use replay badges on the fortification screen and a hidden database of what ranks you have achieved on certain artifacts). The "arrive by mail" option without changes would be a one time thing, so you would have to be careful not to get rid ofthe artifact, or you would need to build it up again. This meeting would be best if we had a separate artifact inventory like we do for augments. I did some quick math, not including nth metal it would cost about $73 dollars to buy all catalysts needed to reach rank 200 from rank 0, along with 5 seals of completion (for ranks 120 and up) and 8 seals of preservation (for below rank 120). That appears to be about 2,600 replay badges. Buying all xp from rank 0 to 200 looks like it would cost about $270 outside of a bonus week(end). So this unlock option could end up costing $340 to max out an artifact from 0, but would likely cost less (especially if it requires you to have leveled up the specific artifact previously). I would almost say the best you could hope for would be the $73 price tag, unless we go the route of reduced xp/catalyst requirements and/or increased success rates.
It's just swapping one payment method for another. In any event leveling artifacts is meant to be a grind. This IS an MMO after all
swapping an overpriced payment for a lesser price as long as you have reached it before, an a grind yes im fine with a grind, its not the grind that im talking about, its the overpriced way its implemented, if we could actually grind it out an the breakthroughs were gone i wouldnt have made this, but bc you pretty much have to pay money to get these up it should be lesser if you have already done it before, as i stated for alts the game is no longer friendly towards them bc of how the artifacts are implemented, its just too much to spend so that you can actually play the game, if you only play 1 character its completely fine an you wont really care but i have a toon for every power an i enjoy playing them all but now i just cant bc of how much it takes to actually get these things leveled.
I totally get your frustration given how you use your Alts. I treat mine as support for my main and they are generally only about 75-80% as strong as my main. I get their arts into the 120 range and then let it go (though now that my main is at 200 on all three, I am leveling their arts again). As to spending on artifacts, the only things you really need to buy are seals and even they can be purchased with loyalty points.
Personally, this is a feature that I have long advocated. In my opinion, the proper way for it to work is what you identified as the second option. I do not believe that leveling one Artifact should make ALL artifacts easier. I do, however, believe that Artifacts should be a Replay Badge option which essentially clones the Artifact you've already unlocked. No flexibility. No versatility. Simply the ability to take the exact same Artifact you've already leveled, and then apply it to more than one character. I would even make the Replay Badge unlocked artifact slightly less useful from a mechanical standpoint. Much the way that the stuff from the Qwarks vendor is not tradable, even though the identical items were actually were tradable in their time capsule form. These Replay-Badge unlocked Artifacts would not be able to be leveled further, so if cloned in their 120, 160, or 180 state, that is the best they are ever going to get. Cloning the artifact over to your alts would need to wait until it's entirely finished, prevent further advancement, or be done multiple times so that it can be re-obtained at each new breakthrough level. This would offset much of the thought process that the Development Team would be losing some huge amount of money. Additionally, the Artifacts unlocked through this means having this locked level means they do not have a literal amount of Nth Metal XP contained within them, so they cannot be fed to other Artifacts. They are only useful to be literally the Artifact that they are, for the purpose of being equipped and used. From a financial standpoint, I 100% believe in the concept of microtransactions. And a strong principle behind microtransactions is that they have to be SMALL transactions, so that they can be done as impulse buys. Expensive purchases generally require more thought, planning, and preparation. That's why the store puts sodas and chips at the register for impulse buying, but not flatscreen TVs and laptop computers. People can be tempted to make small purchases as impulse without thinking. That's why things like Replay Badges and Stabilizers can sell like candy, but even with the sales the CR boosts aren't something that seemed to be bought often. When something becomes too expensive, the customers re-think it and it moves in smaller volume. When it comes to digital purchases, they do not require physical creation by the development team. This isn't like buying a Compact Disc where each physical disk has to be made, packaged, and shipped. This is like an iTunes song download, where each additional sale has no cost, so it is 100% profit. The goal of microtransactions is to move these items at a small price and in huge volume. Artifacts are the single largest offender in the game which make the game not Alt-Friendly. Replay Badges allowing style unlocks and feat unlocks was a big step in the right direction, but with Artifacts being so mandatory to the gameplay, and so un-friendly for alt gameplay, the end result has not been that players are spending hundreds of dollars decking out each alt. Instead, the response has been that most players do not seriously pursue alts. This hurts purchases. If a player is never going to get an alt's artifacts up, then why would they do those small micro-purchases to unlock skill points? Missed income. In fact, why would a player ever spend money to buy an extra character slot, knowing that the alt will never be end-game viable? More missed income. Additional character slots are supposed to be one of the larger benefits of the Premium and Legendary plans. And yet, since those alts won't be end-game viable, they can't be made into a significant selling point for the game's already poor subscription plan. Making the game alt-friendly brings significant income into the game. It takes single players and encourages them to spend several times more money in microtransactions, because they can have multiple characters that are viable enough to get the player to care about them. With two, three, or ten characters capable of running endgame Elites, that is that many more characters who you spend money buying styles for, stabilizers, replay badges, etc. And even the Artifact system itself, if you can only clone over the identical artifact, that gives you a strong starting point by probably giving most characters an Eye of Gemini and Scrap of the Soul Cloak, but different powersets and roles are going to want different Artifacts. It will be more common to see players willing to pursue leveling ONE new artifact for a character that already has 2 other good ones. Especially when leveling that artifact provides an additional option for ALL characters on the account. Instead of leveling just 3 artifacts for your account, just to outfit the main, and then neglect the alts, the player will be encouraged to level more than 3 artifacts on the account because each individual artifact will be more useful, being useful across multiple characters. Leveling up 6+ artifacts on your account actually sounds like a good idea, because with them you can outfit ALL your characters. There is a reason to move beyond your main. And leveling 6+ artifacts that are re-usable also reflects twice the artifact purchase investment as what doing the original 3 for your main and then stopping had been. I remain convinced that artifacts will make more money if the system becomes more customer friendly. These days, when a new Episode comes out, I don't even really bother looking at the new Artifacts. Even if it's an upgrade, I'm just not going to mess with it, because I've already got my existing ones leveled so far that I know I'm not going to start over again. That is how many customers feel. "That would be awesome... but it'll either cost a hundred bucks or it'll take over a year, so I'm not going to bother and I'll just stick with what I already have." I think they could run the Account Unlock artifact cloning system, and price it in a way that it brings in far more money than what they make right now. Leveling the original artifacts would still be exactly the same, so it brings the same money. The real competition is, does spending these Replay Badges bring in more money than what people are currently spending on Artifacts for their alts. This is only competing with the Artifacts that are being made for alts. So how many people are dropping hundreds of dollars on artifacts for an alt? In exchange, how many people would pay, let's say, 160 Replay Badges to clone a 160 Artifact to an alt?
