Suggestions for The Merchant's Tale Rewards and V&C Going Forward

[Sei6ix]

1. Mount reward for completing all paths.
Some generic sleep mask being the reward for completing all the paths is disappointing. There isn't a strong enough incentive to complete all paths except this, a title, and some sandwiches. The Royal Magicked Carpet from farming Corvosi Brass from Advanced should be the reward for completing all paths, since it's both thematic to the actual content and makes grinding out all the paths worth your time. The developers should just add a third, new mount for Advanced, either based on one of the non-genie bosses or that punutiy you encounter on one of the paths.

In future iterations of the content, I'd like to see three mounts, each obtainable through the following methods:

1. Completing all paths on Variant.
2. Variant (Advanced) Tokens/Exclusive Mount Currency
3. Criterion Tokens/Exclusive Mount Currency

2. Weekly Tomestone Gear Upgrade Items from Criterion.
Apart from the Genie Lamp mount, Another Merchant's Tale does not offer much replay value for high-end raiders. The developers should add a personal weekly drop token that can be exchanged for a solvent/twine/glaze of your choice. It doesn't entirely replace savage loot, but offers help to those who have been unlucky on their rolls. In addition, it's beneficial for raiders looking to gear up their main/alt jobs for the upcoming ultimate.

I also suggest that variant and criterion dungeons be made a regular part of the patch schedule, specifically in X.05, X.25, and X.45. This gives savage raiders an alternative way of augmenting tomestone gear for BiS a few months after the release of every raid tier.

3. Weekly Challenge Log rewards for Variant.
Variant dungeons tend to die out pretty fast due to lack of replay value. However, as evidenced by Pilgrim's Traverse, adding weekly rewards for completing content can aid its longevity. Potential ideas:

• x3 Potsherds for completing a specific variant dungeon on any path.
• A small amount of mount currency for completing a specific variant dungeon 3 times. This currency can be used to directly/indirectly exchange for the variant and criterion mounts. (I haven't fully ironed out the details here, but the idea is give players who don't want to do advanced/criterion a way to grind out the mounts over a longer period of time. It's meant to be similar to Sacks of First Light/First Light Relics from Pilgrim's Traverse. This may require a rework of the currency system for mounts.)

Other suggestions:

• Give the accessories obtainable from Advanced stats that are iLvl equivalent to current non-augmented tomestone gear. In addition, Criterion can drop weekly capped upgrade items for these accessories for alternative BiS.
• Add variant dungeons to daily roulette.

Would like to hear people's thoughts!

[MiaBlaze-Cari]

The mount idea especially for criterion would need some good balancing so that the criterion still is the preferred and faster way to obtain the mount, same goes for advanced ofc. But overall the idea is nice since it gives everyone the option to obtain it while the easier approach is linked to a longer wait time to obtain it.
As for the gear upgrades I think it wouldn't hurt to make this a thing via a currency (like alliance raid coins) where criterion is a guaranteed weekly upgrade, advanced guaranteed every 2 weeks and variant every 3 weeks or something like that. That way upgrades could be obtained on each difficulty and gives the incentive to clear all of them weekly to further speed-up augmenting for alt jobs. Imo makes it accessible for all players while higher difficulties still provide a better and less time-gated way.
Just my random thoughts on that.

[Connor]

The mount idea especially for criterion would need some good balancing so that the criterion still is the preferred and faster way to obtain the mount, same goes for advanced ofc. But overall the idea is nice since it gives everyone the option to obtain it while the easier approach is linked to a longer wait time to obtain it

Couldn’t they do the classic ‘same mount but only criterion etc gets a reasonable amount of currency towards it?’. So like, playing the higher difficulties makes it purchasable significantly faster than just doing normals, which are a much more significant grind to get the mount? Though I suppose that means less replayability for the higher difficulties compared to normal which could be an issue maybe

[MiaBlaze-Cari]

Couldn’t they do the classic ‘same mount but only criterion etc gets a reasonable amount of currency towards it?’. So like, playing the higher difficulties makes it purchasable significantly faster than just doing normals, which are a much more significant grind to get the mount? Though I suppose that means less replayability for the higher difficulties compared to normal which could be an issue maybe

Yea basically like this, however higher difficulty should still remain the superior choice due to obtaining it faster while also providing actual benefit to gear improvement for alt jobs etc due to the tier still being relevant, while the easier approach should "only" be treated as a glamour choice for those who want the looks but don't care for the gear improvement. I think this should benefit both sides while still keeping the content alive. Even after the tier of the gear is no longer relevant criterion would still be the faster way while the easier variant would remain timegated to keep criterion as the better and faster choice because why wait when you can clear criterion and get it directly.

[Raim]

Agree on all suggestions here. They need to add a variant roulette as well. On top of weekly challenge logs that would get people running them daily. And ideally the upgrade material is in Advanced and not just Criterion. The dev team seems afraid to let people get raid equivalent gear in non raid content.

[Kaurhz]

1. I don't think it needs to be a mount -- But my principle with achievements is that... If were is a reward to be had then that reward should be unique, and should not be a re-skin... Given it's a re-skin of Pajama glamour, it is a big slap in the face. I think even something as simple as a Framer Kit would suffice.

2. There should definitely be stronger replay value.

3. Definitely a challenge log or a weekly repeatable quest.

[CCheshire]

I support adding a Variant Challenge log too. Also, I'll never let go of them removing the casual mount away from me, which was there for 3 of the old V&C rewards.

[Asanna]

[B][SIZE="3"]The Royal Magicked Carpet from farming Corvosi Brass from Advanced should be the reward for completing all paths, since it's both thematic to the actual content and makes grinding out all the paths worth your time. The developers should just add a third, new mount for Advanced, either based on one of the non-genie bosses or that punutiy you encounter on one of the paths.

This I hard agree with, on two points at the very least.
1. The mount is kind of just a reskin of a store mount, this being a basic version gives players the chance to get something similar without spending $$$ if they don't have the funds.
2. I don't personally know anyone who likes and uses facewear as a fashion accessory. That's not to say those players don't exist, I'm sure many people do! I scratched my head at it being added when it was, but accepted it just might not be something I'd use. But in my mind, they gave a reskin of an item no one wanted. Again, not saying that's factual, it's just how I see it. The item it mimicks is super cheap on my server with very little purchase weight. So I feel like if people wanted it, it'd be purchased more often.

Heck, because we already have a punutiy type mount (Tribe reward), I wouldn't even mind if that giant clam we see on the right path was fit into the game, just something to mark each route for each reward variant.

[TaleraRistain]

Those are all great suggestions. I might edit the upgrade item part a little bit so it's getting currency each week and not a direct one-to-one swap because it's already been tough to fill Savage PFs this tier and making the upgrade items too ready available could cause things to get worse there. Plenty of people are still progging. It's only, what, week 9?

A guaranteed weekly currency so you could get the item after the amount of weeks equal to the number of books you'd need to pity the item would be a good compromise. Then you could have both book and currency options and get two upgrades in a given week if someone's unlucky with rolls in PF, but also still make the PF option attractive since you can get the item directly in coffers.

[Zaytex]

why bother giving feedback

they had 3 criterion dungeons, statistics, and feedback with 2 years of development time and they quite literally did nothing.

Actually they did less than nothing, they gave LESS rewards and then UNDERMINED previous ones from another criterion.

It's so fucking apparent these devs just do not care anymore, or SE is holding the purse strings so tightly that they cannot afford to put a nice unique glow on the recent tome weapons and make those rewards.