Reward Structures of Latest Content - My concern

[Krr]

Here are the latest major activities added in the patch and their rewards.

Syrcus Tower - Pick one, 1/week:
-i100 left-side gear (not slathered in crappy speed stats) and associated glamour skins
-i100 weapon *upgradable, with conditions*
-i110 accessory
-Extremely time-inefficient Myth and Soldiery
-Random Minion drop (Off the weekly limit)

Ramuh EX - Unlimited:
-i100 accessories
-i100 weapons (30% drop rate?) and associated glamour skins
-Time-inefficient Myth and Soldiery
-Random Unicorn mount!

Frontlines:
-PVP gearsets (Primarily cosmetic?)
-Time-inefficient(?) Myth and Soldiery

Hunting:
-i110 Accessories, and Left-side Armor
-i110 Weapon upgrade materials (requires the UAT from SCOB or ST)
-Cheap i90 gear (identical to Myth)
-Minions
-Cosmetic gear skins
-Time-efficient Myth and Soldiery if in a dedicated group and lucky

New Expert Dungeons:
-i80 Left-side Armor and their associated new skins
-Time-efficient Myth and Soldiery (1/day without a speedrun group)
-Random minion drops(?)
-Those goddamn CRAFTING MATS EVERYONE IS SICK OF SQUARE PLZ

It's easy to see from this which pieces of content are getting the most attention and which are going to be largely abandoned except by the hardcore fashion-farm crowd after players get their first clears. This is worrisome; even done efficiently, none of the new instances give anywhere near the same reward as The Hunt, driving those players out of those instances and into the open world. And it's already well-established that one of the major design problems of the Hunt is that it's too *freaking crowded* on large servers, like Excalibur.

To top this all off, Hunting and Syrcus Tower are the only pieces of content that will offer item level upgrades if you were already in full soldiery gear.

While I believe that many players do all sorts of content for fun, it's of no question that psychological incentives are an important part of game design and how players are motivated to see things. So - will there be any parity given between the Hunt and any content?

If not, I think we can expect The Horde to remain for a long, long time. At least until another cap bump.

[SendohJin]

agree but if you're going to put Minions in Hunting, isn't there a Minion in ST and the Expert dungeons too? also Hunting alone doesn't produce a weapon.

but yes, the new 2.3 reward structure is hugely tilted towards people who hunt optimally in a way that the game has never had before while all the others are stuck in their old ways.

i100 rings in Ramuh is pretty disappointing. going to be hard to motivate people to farm those.

[Codek]

Sooooo....you want Brayflux farming back?

[Krr]

agree but if you're going to put Minions in Hunting, isn't there a Minion in ST and the Expert dungeons too? also Hunting alone doesn't produce a weapon.

but yes, the new 2.3 reward structure is hugely tilted towards people who hunt optimally in a way that the game has never had before while all the others are stuck in their old ways.

i100 rings in Ramuh is pretty disappointing. going to be hard to motivate people to farm those.

Good points. I'll amend it. Now that I think about it, does Ramuh EX drop a pretty unicorn in traditional Primal format?

[SendohJin]

does Ramuh EX drop a pretty unicorn in traditional Primal format?

yes, it does.

[Krr]

Fixed it!

Sooooo....you want Brayflux farming back?

how on earth did you extrapolate that from "not enough people are doing the other 2.3 content and too many people are doing hunts because there is no parity between them"

[Nekodar]

Plenty of people are outright ignoring the hunt because of all the drama associated with it. It may be the most efficient IF you're in the clique that does everything they can to get every mark and prevent others from getting enough credit.
Just like Brayflox hard speedruns were most efficient IF you had one of the jobs that were desired for those speedruns and IF you thought that speedrunning the same thing over and over was fun.

Most people are going to do whichever content they find most suitable to their own playstyle.