STOP at the AUGMENT/ARTIFACT fortification break!!

I'm just going to reiterate that the bottleneck for Artifact breakthroughs has always been the Nth Metal, not the Catalysts. It takes forever to farm up the Nth Metal. Farming Source Marks to buy Catalysts is very fast. Catalysts are tradable, so it can be farmed even with alts, and at the level where your Artifacts really start mattering, you lose the use for Source Marks because you require Episode Specific currency. It is nothing at all for my main character to have over 3K Source Marks without even trying, just because I barely have any reason to use them (occasional Mainframe renewals), but that Nth Metal is always going to be slow.

So here's what you do.

Step 1: Build your Artifacts 1 breakthrough at a time. Do not level them up all equally. That is foolish. The significant benefits of Artifacts all take place at the breakthroughs. You don't need 3 Artifacts all at 130; you would be better benefited by having 2 at 120 and 1 at 140. Focus a single Artifact until it gets to the breakthrough, then move on to the next one. You want your Artifacts to reach breakthroughs at staggered times, instead of getting all 3 ready at once. When all 3 are on pause, you can't use your Nth Metal. When just one is ready, you can work the 2nd, and there is a good chance the first can break through before the point you finish clear through the 3rd, so that the rotation continues.

Step 2: Always save enough Source Marks that you could buy enough Catalysts to make an attempt if you had to. That is the minimum threshold you need in the bank. When you exceed that amount, then you may buy additional Catalysts with your Source Marks to go ahead and try. Select your lowest level Artifact that is ready for breakthrough. Make the attempt without a Seal. If it fails... so what. You didn't need those Source Marks anyways. If it succeeds, awesome. Good on you.

Step 3: Periodically, they will run an event called "Bonus Catalyst" event. As a part of that event, they will award every player one free Unstable Seal of Completion. It works exactly like a Seal of Completion, except it only lasts for 7 days. When this gets awarded, if you don't have an artifact ready for breakthrough, then you're stuck buying Nth Metal to get to the point you can use it, or you're using it for something on an alt where it wasn't really useful. You need to have one of those Artifacts ready to go. If you don't have enough Source Marks to buy the Catalysts, then you either have to buy the Catalysts from the marketplace or the broker, so save at least 1 attempt worth of Source Marks/Catalysts. Then use this Unstable Seal on whatever the Highest Level artifact is that is ready for breakthrough. Use this one to breakthrough that 160/180/200 tier, while you've been making blind attempts on a different Artifact for their 120/140ish ones.

Step 4: Flavor of the Month Costs Money. I cannot stress this enough. I've got Artifacts at 200, 200, and 160, and I've got more than enough Source Marks that I could make dozens of attempts at the 180 mark before I would exhaust my stockpile. But the only way to get this far without spending money is to not intentionally choose to restart all over again, every four months, just to follow the flavor of the month. If you want to max your Artifacts, they actually give you the resources you need to do it for free over time. Getting 1-2 Artifacts clear to 200 per year is a reasonable goal. But if you turn around and feed those Artifacts to whatever the new hotness is, you will perpetually always be stuck at that 120/140 mark, because you waste those higher level breakthroughs and have to try it again. Remember, if you have no intentions of paying money to level your Artifact, then you are not comparing a 200 Artifact against another 200 Artifact, you are comparing your existing 180 Artifact against the new Artifact, probably at it's 120ish level.

You can do them free or your can do them fast, but you can't do them free AND fast.

Complicated...no. More costly...yeah.

even if monstorously impossible, there should be a way to do it in game. Like stablizer farming. takes 3 days for one lousy capsule, not practical but its there. Star TreK online had a similar system with dilitium before the game broke. Everything worth anything in the game didnt cost credits, but dilithium, which you could earn a few hundred a day on dailys, while getting new gear oriented around the the episode. You never felt robbed opening a lockbox. They use a very similar system here but they are too far over the line. EVERYTHING costs money, lost of it.,

This system still has a knack for disgusting us from the game, even when you've had the urge to play again.

Buying the elements from the broker to finally win a failed attempt is really a big scam, thank you for reviewing this system as soon as possible, this system motivates a lot of people to give up the game!

No money, no video game. Like everything else in life, no money no play. 2 + 2 = 4. The basics of life. Learn it.

A base ok, but already the game wouldn't be as pay to win, even pay to play, there would already be less players who would let go of the game and therefore more subscribers, there, we're more in a phase of "extortion" game than anything else!

I play in France and you can't even imagine the image that players and owners have of this game (well I guess it's not only in France where people think that) and in all leagues or other I hear the same refrain.

I can believe that you have to make money, but after a while you have to stop pushing the cork because apart from disgusting the people in the game in the long run that's all it produces and it's very clear when before we had a lot of former players and now they don't even come back to the game because DCUO is a game that tries to get as much money as possible out of the community by all possible means, that's the image of DCUO today.

As with many games, the model here is "pay to advance more quickly".

You can play content for rewards on the free resets, or you can pay to reset them sooner.

You earn a decent amount of nth metal as you play, and holding out for double XP weekends to use it is very helpful. Those weekends are usually right before a new episode launches.

You can look through the thread in my signature for average number of attempts for each breakthrough. Some breakthroughs it is very advantageous to use a seal of completion. I want to say my strategy for seal usage is only $27 per artifact, but I don't change artifact much. And you don't have to change artifacts every episode. New artifacts just open up new possibilities for game play. Some combinations do end up better than others, but even if you like the new artifact, no one is forcing you to go max it on day one.

On skill points, you only need 343 to max out your DPS stat, crits, one full set of weapon combos, and the movement power regeneration. There are currently about 543 sp available in game. So there are 200 that you don't need and could easily ignore all TC feats and not have trouble keeping up. Support roles do require more sp, so you could just get the non collection feats from TCs (unless you really want a style from the collections). The emblems and gear pieces are usually relatively inexpensive on the broker.

The game only costs a lot of you have poor impulse control and/or are in the "gotta have everything the second it goes live" crowd.

Also, my league keeps adding people that are coming back to the game, are excited by what they see, and are sticking around.

u realize they probably make a fortune off the time capsuals right? metaphor btw, theres also subs and a marketplace filled with a ton of stuff, dont act like they dont make alot bc they do

an they use to drop in game from wat i have heard, or it was preservation, either way why was it removed? yes you can level up these things without paying but they made artifical time sinks. they were removed to make money, "poor impulse" wouldnt matter if it was actually doable in game, which be honest 2% breakthrough chances is not really doable for most people.

They didn't drop. They were tradable. And like with everything that is great to have, some sh * theads tried to exploit the heck out of it and now they aren't tradable anymore. At least that was the devs statement regearding the issue.

In this game, it is saver to assume that some a rse hats exploited something and now we don't have it anymore rather than claiming it was a money making scheme lol.

They do have a chance to drop from the Kryptonian Time Capsules. I got one SoC with the recent resurgeance.

they shud giv us like 1 per month with sub just like loyalty and replays imo

You just wrote, what I was about to respond to you: You get 500 LP/DBC - that's basically a SoC or multiple SoP

I agree that it would be swell. Who wouldn't want to get something nice for free every month on top of what they already have. In the grand scheme of things however, giving us more stuff for free that is widely accepted as being somewhat mandatory, things would get more expensive in the process.

it wouldnt be free, it still 15 bucks a month an it just lines up with the other perks, 5 dollars worth of loyalty, 5 dollars worth of replays, an 5 dollars for 1 seal

Preservation has been requested as a drop (with a rarity like the old exceptional recovery kits) but no seals have never dropped past the free one in the initial artifact mission or some random ones in certain TCs. So they weren't "removed" to make money. You used to be able to sell them on the broker, but the ones on the broker were purchased from the marketplace or came from a TC.

Buying Nth metal is what I mean by poor impulse control, along with using replay badges to spam instances day one to get everything, or spending hundreds of dollars on stabilizers each time capsule. Some of those may be necessary if you are trying for world/server firsts (so I wouldn't say people trying for those necessarily have poor impulse control), but those aren't typically public past Survival Mode Seal purchases are a given for the later breakthroughs unless you are running enough alts to get thousands of catalysts in a short amount of time. And seals don't cost that much, especially in comparison to what the gotta have everything day one crowd spends (then complains about "how the game is milking" them).

Also, you don't need the later breakthroughs on artifacts to play the game effectively. You don't even need maxed out artifacts to finish elite content. Sure, they help out, but they aren't needed for anything. Those bonuses are a chase item, and something to continuously build towards. Losing progress on artifacts to switch to the new thing (that at best is only marginally better, at worst just provides a different play style), can also be a form of poor impulse control especially if you repeatedly do it almost every time new artifacts come out. As I've said, you can still be good at your role with older artifacts. The next time a new batch of artifacts come out, take a good look at them (maybe even go on test before they go live to play around with them) and make an informed decision on how you want to play and weigh any potential benefits against the cost of starting over again (if you hold onto the old artifact) or just having to redo several breakthroughs (if you feed your old artifact to the new one). You don't have to conform to what someone else says is "ultra beast mode".

It would be free since what you get for your sub is also established. It would be an additional bonus worth five bucks. I need four SoC for 1 Rank 200 (140/160/180/200), if it was monthly, i would get 12 per year. Maybe you have two double-xp events a year, depending on when you start collecting and how much Nth Metal you can farm (with broker Detectors e.g.) you can get three new artifacts up to rank 200.
I usually spend some bucks on SoC sales or when I just need one or two more to finish my artifact. With your suggested change, I would spend zilch on stuff like that. And believe me, I wouldn't be alone. Sales drop, bad idea, bad marketing, changes required, changes would come, you'd get unhappy about the changes.

Just lining up doesn't make sense. Otherwise it would also make sense to get 5 free current-episode-marks, 5 source marks, 5 Nth Detectors, 8 seals of preservation (basically 480DBC, almost 5 dollars), I think you get where I am going.

I understand the sentiment that it would be nice to get moar stuff for free. What I don't get is that wider effects beyond "I get free stuff that makes sense to me" isn't considered. I don't expect everyone to thoroughly grasp marketing strategies and how changes affect already existing machinations but at least try ^^

This game is run by a company and not by a pal. They stated numerous times that they believe that what you get for your buck is worth it (and I agree) and they will stick to it. Chaning the current system requires balance. And balance would happen 100% and not to the liking of those who just want something extra on top.

If you wanna be the best around, you must grind and/or buy. I do not personally exercise this on all toons, especially dedicated tank toons. I found out I can earth/rage/atomic tank all regular raids with 100 sp and near minimum CR for the content.

There are options to play. If you don't wanna grind and/or buy, you will not be the best around. No need to ask for a quality of life request.