106911-ability-tier-point-unlock-power-amp-upgrade-state-of-game-and-possible-solutions

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Hey
I've been playing WS rather extensively from day 1. Even though I do dailies in CB and NW every day, completed multiple dungeons/adventures and even ventured into GA - not even once I've seen any of those drop.
 
Carbine said extremely low drop rate was a mistake, that they will make it right.  They said EP should be last resort for obtaining those...
Well, lemme tell you how it works. Even though I'd love to get some EP gear, I've spend all my EP on 2 Ability Tier Points. Preparing to buy 3rd next week. EP vendor isn't the last resort - it's the ONLY RESORT for buying those.
 
Carbine said they *fixed* drop rate... Lemme enlighten you dear devs, on Ascendancy EU, prices had skyrocket last two weeks. From 25p (AMP) to over 40p. Truth be told, it can go even higher. It can go as high as one wants them to be. Why? Cause noone is selling and more and more people would like to buy. I alone have around 45p-50p and I would be willing to spend them that way, but as I said - NOBODY'S SELLING.
 
Now when I'm done with my mini rant, I'd give you some ideas for solving this problem. That's what I'd like would be this thread main focus.
 
Instead of *fixing* drop rate (we all know how it ended last time), why won't you IMPLEMENT VENDOR. This vendor would sell Amps and Skill Unlocks for a fixed prices (lets say25p/30p). If you're worried about power creep, you could make him sell only 1 of those every week (though high price would stop most players from getting multiple upgrades per week anyway).
 
Now this would be good solution for few reasons. First, prices of world drops would stabilize on some reasonable level. Number two - we would finally have some incentive to earn MONEY. Face it, that final riding skill just aint sexy... Definitely not worth dropping 80p into it.
 
Other solution would be to make fixed drop rate out of every dungeon boss, but those can be easily exploited (SC first boss anyone?).  
 
Place your ideas and solutions here guys, maybe something good will come out of it.
 
Hope devs are aware of this problem. However they'll decide to tackle it  - can't get much worse than it is now.
 
Nhem	
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Add them as a rare drop(0.1% chance each) to the level 50 Index of interesting items.  You can get about 10 of those when you do dailies, but you can get them from all sorts of other level 50 challenges.
 
Getting 10 of those a day would give you about a 2% chance to get an AMP point or a Tier point.  That means you would average one point every 50 days.	
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1. Add one time buy onto the daily REP vendors (Gives a reason to max rep)
2. Add Elder Gems to the Blue loot table of dungeons added GEM after cap.
3. Add AMP/Ability to the Purple Drop table in dungeons.
4. Add Weekly / Daily Dungeon Quests that reward elder gems after cap.
 
Give us a reason to run Dungeons after we have geared out.	
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Ideally like any good loot, it should come from completing content. Perhaps one from each step of attunement?
 
Weekly/Daily dungeon completion for ADDITIONAL gems is very over-due too.	
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Add them as a rare drop(0.1% chance each) to the level 50 Index of interesting items.  You can get about 10 of those when you do dailies, but you can get them from all sorts of other level 50 challenges.
 
Getting 10 of those a day would give you about a 2% chance to get an AMP point or a Tier point.  That means you would average one point every 50 days.
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			Glad I PvP to get mine, gotten about 5 so far in the last two weeks. That's more luck than anything though, they're definitely pretty rare no matter how you look at it.	
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4. Add Weekly / Daily Dungeon Quests that reward elder gems after cap.
 
Give us a reason to run Dungeons after we have geared out.
 
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			I'll honestly never understand why people want to be spoonfed everything in the game. If it's not easily attainable, people flip a brick. Can't SOME items in the game feel special/rare?It helps prolong the life of the game by actually giving you something to do / hunt for. It's no fun when you hit cap, get decked out in 1 hour, get everything you possibly need in 2 hours, then what? You quit anyways because there is nothing to do.	
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I'll honestly never understand why people want to be spoonfed everything in the game. If it's not easily attainable, people flip a brick. Can't SOME items in the game feel special/rare?
 
It helps prolong the life of the game by actually giving you something to do / hunt for. It's no fun when you hit cap, get decked out in 1 hour, get everything you possibly need in 2 hours, then what? You quit anyways because there is nothing to do.
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I'll honestly never understand why people want to be spoonfed everything in the game. If it's not easily attainable, people flip a brick. Can't SOME items in the game feel special/rare?
 
It helps prolong the life of the game by actually giving you something to do / hunt for. It's no fun when you hit cap, get decked out in 1 hour, get everything you possibly need in 2 hours, then what? You quit anyways because there is nothing to do.
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I'll honestly never understand why people want to be spoonfed everything in the game. If it's not easily attainable, people flip a brick. Can't SOME items in the game feel special/rare?
 
It helps prolong the life of the game by actually giving you something to do / hunt for. It's no fun when you hit cap, get decked out in 1 hour, get everything you possibly need in 2 hours, then what? You quit anyways because there is nothing to do.
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I'll honestly never understand why people want to be spoonfed everything in the game. If it's not easily attainable, people flip a brick. Can't SOME items in the game feel special/rare?
 
It helps prolong the life of the game by actually giving you something to do / hunt for. It's no fun when you hit cap, get decked out in 1 hour, get everything you possibly need in 2 hours, then what? You quit anyways because there is nothing to do.
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You do, of course, realize that EG were supposed to be a secondary way of obtaining AMP/skill points, right? Grinding those for 40 weeks was not intended and wanting an alternative has nothing to do with "being spoonfed everything". As it is now, said alternatives are almost non-existant, even for those willing to pay huge amount of plat.
 
But I'm sure you did know that and had fun posting it as a joke. :rolleyes:
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Excessive RNG is not a healthy method for keeping people playing (and paying) or making up for a lack of endgame content. But it is a method that is used again and again in this game, for just about everything and it wears thin. Yes it might keep some people subscribed in the short term, but over the long term it'll cause frustration and resentment at having ones time wasted because Carbine decided that hardcore = RNG.
 
It's not about wanting to be spoon fed, it's about wanting to work towards something without feeling like you're constantly rolling the RNG with very long odds.
 
Luck is fine for things that don't matter too much and don't have much impact on gameplay. But when you start factoring massive luck into acquiring things which affect class performance (ability points, AMPs etc) then it's just a waste of everyones time and very poor game design.
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			I don't raid, yet, so I'm just asking.  Are amp/ability point unlocks necessary to get past some content?  Is the rate of drop or EP cost game breaking?	
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RNG exists in every game, in some way shape or form. It's a necessary evil, and believe me when I say that RNG is NEVER on my side, in any game I have played in the past 15 years, but I still know it's importance and why it must be there. It does keep people interested, it does give people a reason to farm content and most importantly it's a time sink so you can always be progressing your character and feeling like what you're doing is actually making a difference to your character.
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			Lower price of Ability tier/amps to 140 elder gems.  Make them sellable on the Auction House as a commodity.  gg.  	
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Yes, RNG has a place in MMOs. But in moderation, not as a central pillar of game design. Which is why I used the word "excessive" because when RNG is over-used for core gameplay features it causes problems.
 
We are not talking here about the thrill of getting a rare armour drop, a rare pet, a rare costume piece or some other shiney. Finding those things is fun and indeed a thrill. But here we are talking about core gameplay mechanics. Ability points and AMPs are vital parts of character / class design. These things should NEVER be gated behind RNG. Period. Make players work hard to get them, sure. But make it all about luck? Not when these are things which might prevent you from raiding (progression guilds like to squeeze every last drop) or being competitive with other players in PVE or PvP.
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RNG exists in every game, in some way shape or form. It's a necessary evil, and believe me when I say that RNG is NEVER on my side, in any game I have played in the past 15 years, but I still know it's importance and why it must be there. It does keep people interested, it does give people a reason to farm content and most importantly it's a time sink so you can always be progressing your character and feeling like what you're doing is actually making a difference to your character.
 
GRANTED, they could definitely improve on the system, I'm not saying WS has a perfect RNG system, it's flawed, as is every other rng system, but this game is still a baby. Things will change over time, for better or for worse.
 
in terms of Amp/ability points, I kind of like that only a handful of players will see that kind of power early on. I mean, it's guaranteed one way or another if you're capping EG each week, so that's really a nonpoint. If you were smart and played the role of a business man and made an early fortune, you will have early power. If not, you're going to have to stick it out with other people and just get them with EG.  What else are you going to buy on the EG vendor that you can't obtain in a raid, or via crafting? Sure, there is some nice stuff, but now you gotta make a choice. QQ, right?
 
Lack of End game content? What? Because I am sure you've already cleared every 20 man boss and 40 man boss.
 
 
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So lets back up here..
 
Are you implying that capping your elder gems each week is RNG? I am pretty sure as long as you cap each week you get a set amount -- making it impossible for your Amp/Ability points to be FULLY random.
 
Sure, there is another method to get them which is RNG, but what do you expect? for them to just pop out of every mob? If they take an extensive amount of time to get through Elder Gems, why should it be faster through grinding mobs?
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I dont mind RNG in mmo's it definately gives you something to shoot for.. but static points should never be an RNG thing in my opinion.. They should be rewarded to players that have characters that are well aged in the game. It should be what separates a character thats over a year old vs a fresh toon.. Rewarding players for longetivity is a healthy application.. but should never be so abysmal to discourage new players as well...it should be the icing on a cake.. not a requirement.
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Not to dispute the idea, but these numbers... What the...?
 
E: Ah, you mean both of those combined. Still, one per 50 days of dailies and challenges. That's pretty much worthless.
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