Feedback Regarding the Relic Upgrade Quest

[SublimeIbanez]

It's amazing to see someone use the phrase 'controlled RNG' so brazenly. I honestly was kind of happy to see a grind like this in a modern game, it was nostalgic. Though after reading all these forum posts I have to recant. Apparently what I enjoy is causing way too much pain and heart break. It's like I'm some kind of monster who can only get nourishment from poison and then some kids see me do it, eat the poison, and they die. Except the poison is just normal food and the kids dying are people flailing on an MMO forum.


EDIT: I don't really know what to say to people, I did about 700 FATEs (based on achievement numbers, not quite accurate) and got all 12. I had pretty big dry spells inside that grind. Though listening to people say "there's good RNG like how loot ALWAYS drops in coil" just blows my mind. That RNG can be just as frustrating as Atma, I remember waiting months for my shield in ICC. I just don't understand how you guys are so defeated by the lack of a little progress meter. If someone gave you free lottery tickets that had a 1% chance to win how many would you scratch off? You'd reach some kind of utilitarian curve where you have to evaluate the Jackpot versus your time spent scratching, but if it passes the test for the value of your time, then you'd certainly do it.

I mean you just look at the variety of people 'giving up' you have people calling it after 100 FATEs and others claiming they've been farming 3 weeks (straight through Easter I'm sure) the only issue here is how used players have gotten with taking themselves hostage to avoid adversity or resistance from a game. The only solution is to get the grind nerfed. Also yes it will be a nerf, since a linear grind is usually easier than a linear one. Yeah there will be those outliers who get everything done in 5 hours, but I feel like enough of your complaints are hinged on you being angry over people having an easier time at Atma than you.

Here's the thing. A good grind is just that. A good grind. Something you have to put your nose to the "grind"stone (heh) for and actually dedicate a serious amount of time towards. Usually there's a start and end point with constant progression in between. Something like this just alienates a lot of players that want to find enjoyment in playing this game.

There is good RNG and there is bad RNG. Both the Coil Loot system (though the second half takes a nice approach towards a more manageable system) and the atma farming design are.. well just terrible in the first place. Good RNG is there to make the game interesting. Like, the spawn location of an enemy in a boss fight to keep people on their toes (t7).

Hell, you could actually have this system in this game and make it enjoyable for everybody. Here, think about this for example:

You get the quest to start your relic upgrade beyond zenith. You are first pushed through a series of trials to "raw" out your weapon and make it malleable for future upgrades. you complete them, but to finish the process you must participate in a fate (spawns every 15 minutes). And after this fate you unlock the book portion with everything as it currently is (though, maybe a tad bit lower on the myth necessity.. and maybe w/o the fate requirements in the books themselves). And that would upgrade you to your animus. What about the Atma you ask? Well there's that one required fate that you MUST participate in. And in this fate, an atma can drop during a certain time (in game) of the day in relation to it's zodiac sign. The drop rate of this atma is EXTREMELY small, much smaller than it is now. Nothing was ever mentioned in the patch notes about these pieces. Nobody even knows they exist. The Devs stay absolutely quiet (hehe, they seem to be good at that >.>).. The community starts looking at these few that are popping up. The community starts trying to work out the mystery of these pieces putting bits of information together as it's gathered throughout constant testing (the atma will probably drop at certain times of the day within the zones that they're a part of and maybe even within a couple of fates that seem a bit more designed to fit the idea). Here's the kicker. The atma don't upgrade anything. They're trade-able. They're much more rare than thought possible. What do they do? They unlock content for the COMMUNITY. Maybe a dungeon? Maybe a boss? But once it's unlocked for the world that the atma reside in (not sure how it should work that way, that's for the Lore people to work with) the dungeon will then be accessible for everybody who can meet the level requirements.

I'm extremely tired typing this up, so a lot of things will seem a bit off here and there. But something with mystery surrounding it and something to get the community aroused in the idea would have been a much better path of design rather than forcing mindless content in order to meet a requirement. The difference is:

1. Not required
2. Community driven and involved
3. Luck is not a factor when all pieces can be obtained by multiple people and traded throughout
4. After you start the Animus quest (hidden unlock really), you can obtain the atma with any class at any level. Making it actually worth your time to some degree.
5. Essentially does everything Sqeex was trying to do with the current implementation but with a different outlook from the community as it's not being forced down their throats.

And for the record. 72 hours 12 atma 2056 fates at a .58% drop rate. I spread it out through the first week of the patch and it turned me off of this game. I've currently un-subbed and am just playing until my subscription runs out unless there's a comment from the devs stating that they're going to do something about it. All I want is them to acknowledge, I haven't seen that yet and at almost a month since the patch release it's extremely pitiful that it's taken so long. There's no reason to keep your already dedicated paying customers in the shadows unsatisfied with a product they had such high hopes for. That's like punishment for liking a game, which goes against the concept of a game itself.

[Worm]

There is good RNG and there is bad RNG.

I saw someone else saying this and I just don't agree. There's nothing wrong with a low droprate item, especially when it's very easy to farm. All I see are a bunch of people who beat themselves up on a grind they really didn't have to do. How many times have you quit and resubbed at this point? It just seems like this is a personal philosophy for the lot of you a quiet hyperbolic life as it were.