All Worlds Maintenance (Jan. 28)

[Julian]

Yoichi and Anni arguably. Also Mandau maybe (at 99)

Depends fully on situation, but last stand is a great higher damage ws compared to coronach, when hate is not an issue. Yoichi doesn't really get that benefit, which is one of the reasons why anni is considered a better weapon.

[Byrthnoth]

I don't technically need Exenterator anymore on DNC with Terpsichore, but -20 Acc is pretty awesome for evasion tanking.

[noodles355]

Depends fully on situation, but last stand is a great higher damage ws compared to coronach, when hate is not an issue. Yoichi doesn't really get that benefit, which is one of the reasons why anni is considered a better weapon.

Yeah but the reason you make an Annihilator is for Coronach. When was the last time you took a RNG to something purely for damage (excluding vw procs n shit)? You don't take Rng for damage, you take it for hate-free WS outside of AoE range on mobs you can't just zerg. Sure, last stand is great when moments arise in those fights where you don't need to worry about hate, but Coronach is still the reason you're there, and you can perform your job without Last Stand.

So I'd lump anni with the "Doesn't *need* the merit WS to be good, it's just a benefit" group, along with Mandau and Apoc.

[Hashmalum]

you are deluded.
if the broad principle of scarcity naturally applies to the real world, what makes you think a virtual world can function without it? it just will not work.
Put it another way - yes. Scarcity in the game is artificial, but imagine if it weren't. The antithesis of scarcity in such a situation is where everyone has everything on every metric (levels, gil, mission progress, items) in-game and doesn't desire to have anything else. Practically speaking, its homogeneity.. but what fun would that be to play? There would be NOTHING to achieve. If there is nothing to desire or want within a game, there is no reason to play it.

Look to MMOs which have private servers where players can hack and have everything they want. See how well those work out? Or you can just look to the test server. People go in there for cheap thrills, free legendary gear like mythics and can easily max out pretty much everything. But the value of anything there is non-existent.

But you can uncap merit points without giving away everything in the game for free, so your point is irrelevant. Making people work for their stuff is "limiting reward to effort". Merit caps are "limiting total rewards". There's a difference between the two--in fact, they are directly opposed to each other once you hit the cap. As it stands now, no matter how hard I work I will never, ever have 4 or more fully merited WS. You are conflating two vastly different things under the common rubric of "scarcity". In my original post, I was merely arguing that we do not need to slavishly follow the real world in everything, not that we shouldn't follow it in anything.

To get to Byrth's question, scarcity functions not to enhance the players experience of the game but to give the game a purpose by giving people a reason to play. It is the reason why time-sinks like event timers exist. It is the fundamental principle that make MMORPGs work.

The moment you take scarcity out of the equation - you lose the interest of the player. The moment players can have everything, they would lose interest. But this isn't some universal scale that everyone follows - it works differently for everyone.
Look to how people quit because there's no content left for them to do. Look to how people used to quit after investing all their time to fund a relic weapon. Look to how some people only play when a new patch arrives to experience the new content and then stop once that's done.

So if they had more "scarcity" they would keep going, then, right? But again, caps on total rewards like the merit point are a different type of scarcity with different incentives. In fact, if anything the merit caps are keeping them from playing, since there is no point to accumulating stuff for a job you'll never get asked to play since you will be gimp without your merit WS.

The merit system functions as one aspect of creating scarcity by forcing people to pick a limited number out of a bunch of choices. It may not by itself be the metric that promotes desire to play the game but is one of the many that exist. I honestly don't know anyone who was genuinely happy about having to grind merits to unlock their weapon skills - but everyone seems to do it.

Again, you just casually conflated two completely different things with different mechanics and different incentives, calling them both "scarcity" and asserting that they are both essential. No one here has asked for merit points to be given out free of effort.

You don't need to feel that your play experience is enhanced because you have Requiescat and someone else doesn't.

In other words, you just admitted that your "limits on total rewards" type of scarcity has nothing whatsoever to do with my value of my play experience. Thanks.

It is enhanced because you have it and you didn't have it before.

And here, you are saying that "reward limited by effort" enhances my play experience. And I completely agree on that, and have all along.

[Chamaan]

Update in a little bit. Who else is betting it's exactly Meebles expansion+Valentine's stuff and not one binary unit more?

[Slycer]

Update in a little bit. Who else is betting it's exactly Meebles expansion+Valentine's stuff and not one binary unit more?

/

The Valentine's stuff was probably already in the game (Tender Bouquet was added in December), so really just Meeble Burrows expeditions. I'm hoping for more, but not expecting it, as this is really just the completion of the December update and I doubt they intended it to really be a full-fledged standalone update.

[Cairthenn]

Oh, don't be silly!

The valentine's stuff was already added:

http://cdn.bluegartr.com/wiki/thumb/...escription.png

[Chamaan]

This game needs fuzzy pink sexcuffs. Could do them as a reskin of the Gigas bracelets. Just fuzzy. And pink.

EDIT: Funny story. One time I was helping my best friend move and we got to the bedroom. Lifted up his bed and I found a pair of fuzzy, tiger striped sex cuffs, a pink sex swing, and a ball gag.

Him: "Oh I forgot we had these."
Me: *palming face* "Good thing your dad bailed on helping today. That would've been a fun talk."

And it would've been. His dad is merciless and hilarious.