Why Merit decay is wrong

[specialsymbol]

Ok, let's first see how merit decay works:
unlike often assumed only merits you earned are carried over to the next weeks. So whatever words they use (e.g. total merits) - forget about that. Total merits is good for the current week only.

So.

Let's assume I earn some merits.
Next week they count as half, as they have already been rewarded. But why? Is my effort now worth less? Even more so, is my effort two weeks back worth even more less?

That's the logic of merit decay. It says: you backed us last week, but we don't care. Even more so, you're a long term supporter and we hate you even more. All we value is the work you do now.
Which is fine, but it's <peanut> logic and I wouldn't want to spend time working for <peanut>s.

It should be the other way round - value that someone stays with your power for more than one week. Take into account the total merits, not the new earned merits - in this case you're rewarded for staying with your power.
Because that is what a sane power would want, right? Gain followers and keep them.


With the current mechanics you'd be best off never to start working for a power. If you did: get the hell out before the third week, because another hefty fee is coming up then (another 6 million loss).


The other thing is fasttracking.

Right now, fasttracking is a tremendous loss. To get to rank 5 via fasttracking you lose at least 50 Million creds (minus some chump change).
So you come there, invest your money for your power, additionally invest your time to help the cause and do some heavy click grinding - and you're rewarded with losing 50 million.

Who ever thought this is logical?
Who ever assumed anyone who knows how the merit decay system really works would do this?

The only way to earn merits without losing anything again is undermining (except for some time, but at least you have the questionable fun of blowing up helpless traders).

 

[Guidebot]

Having now had time to get used to the merit system, I agree that I just don't like it. Merits are a lot of boring work to obtain, and then they don't really last very long at all. I just can't bring myself to care about them, really.

 

[specialsymbol]

Having now had time to get used to the merit system, I agree that I just don't like it. Merits are a lot of boring work to obtain, and then they don't really last very long at all. I just can't bring myself to care about them, really.

The sad thing is, that could have been a system to keep followers loyal to a power, but somehow FD managed to make it exactly the opposite.

You know, like identifying with at least something in this otherwise faceless game.

It's truly baffling.

 

[Brujah]

The sad thing is, they could have been a system to keep followers loyal to a power, but somehow FD managed to make it exactly the opposite.

You know, like identifying with at least something in this otherwise faceless game.

It's truly baffling.

I'm not convinced it's the opposite, but it certainly doesn't promote loyalty, no.

Your idea has potential, though it would need to be carefully fine-tuned.

 

[{SAS}Stalker]

The only way FDevs will realise its one of the stupidest mechanics put in a game in the history of stupid mechanics is when you all stop pledging. Until that time you are basically saying "this is good!"

 

[specialsymbol]

LOL..

Ok, the game is still in development.
I see that and I can live with it.

I just wonder why they don't have anyone who thinks about what they're going to achieve with their mechanics.
They get someone to program it who, despite being a programmer, has an obvious aversion to mathematics.
Then they simply throw it out to the users (serving would be too polite) and see what happens (and occasionally hope for them to sort out the mess).

I can live with mistakes and even the occasional misconception.

But this lack of diligence is just insulting.

 

[AveMe]

Powerplay? What powerplay? It's no life play...
I want to go skiing. it will take 2 weeks, without my main PC. I will lose my reputation and merits. Just for having life.
So, i will be punished for having life, playing other games and even for exploring...

 

[Jorrek]

Dont think in logical ^^ hole PP is not logic

a example in today ^^ in nower days we have 2 super powers USA and Russian. now an US Senator pulls up an army and say HEY this city in Russian is nice i want to own that and send his army to this city and wins it ... now it is an Russian city under US control but the Russians regimen this city ... putin see it and gos to obama OH well nice work of your senator this is nice but there one of my senator have now los angeles nananananana and obama says ... oh i dont care

i hope you see the unlogical ^^

an empire senator conquer an system from the federation but it dont go to imperial it is still federal and the empire control it an the federation say ... who cares ^^

50 % of the alliance controlled systems are federal and 25 % are independent

in the real word no country would let that happent they see only an army and think THIS IS SPARTA ^^ and than is war

but you are right the work you pull in pp is worthless you do and work hard kill so many of them but they dont interest ohh mr bond you killed last week 1000 of terrorists but this week .. well the wedding of your sister and the child you got ... well you dont do well i dont like you this week maybe next week.

i stop with pp and just make my own thing best way to make money and best way to show ... i dont care anymore of pp

 

[Crimson Kaim]

Keep all merits, no decay, lower the credit rewards. Take away atleast 50% of the merits if you defect to another faction.

 

[andyraptor]

The other thing is fasttracking.

Right now, fasttracking is a tremendous loss. To get to rank 5 via fasttracking you lose at least 50 Million creds (minus some chump change).
So you come there, invest your money for your power, additionally invest your time to help the cause and do some heavy click grinding - and you're rewarded with losing 50 million.

Who ever thought this is logical?
Who ever assumed anyone who knows how the merit decay system really works would do this?

The only way to earn merits without losing anything again is undermining (except for some time, but at least you have the questionable fun of blowing up helpless traders).

This is a player decision

Embarking on fast tracking is a dumb thing... I suspect the whole merit decay was put in for this reason and this alone. No matter which game you play ... you will always get those that try to circumvent.

PP is about much more than merit and Credit gain... if you can't see that... perhaps you should either

a) defect and go and play without PP

b) sustain a rating without the need to splash your own credits or fits to your time constraints

If you read the forums carefully you will note that the whining is coming from the same small group of players ... that always whine ... and organised groups that tried to control by splashing large... no huge amounts of credits from the off.

When you read some Reddit posters that brag "Rank 5 from day 1" you know exactly what is going on... just chill and play your own game

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Keep all merits, no decay, lower the credit rewards. Take away atleast 50% of the merits if you defect to another faction.

And boom, within a few weeks, every player involved in powerplay is permanently rank 5.

I can see the point of decay, it should just be slower i think, and, to help those who need to take an extended break (for holidays or whatever) the timer should be linked to play time, not real time.

 

[specialsymbol]

And boom, within a few weeks, every player involved in powerplay is permanently rank 5.

I can see the point of decay, it should just be slower i think, and, to help those who need to take an extended break (for holidays or whatever) the timer should be linked to play time, not real time.

It should just be total merit instead of new earned merit.

All problems solved.

Still you'd drop out of rank 5 pretty soon if you don't contribute.

Yet you'd be rewarded for investing funds or money.

 

[Jorrek]

or ... no merits ... instead of merits they give money 15000 per kill you ranked up get at rank 5 10000 cr. and you stay at these lvl

 

[Bokugo]

Or just make them a currency. Higher ranks unlock better stuff to buy with the merits. Ya know, like how every other mmo does it, because it works.

 

[Ryan256]

And boom, within a few weeks, every player involved in powerplay is permanently rank 5.

I understand the reason for merit decay and even support it for the reason listed above. But I also agree that the rate needs to be much much slower. I have not gotten involved in PowerPlay even though I would like to due to this reason. Earning credits takes so long and they decay so quickly that there is no benefit in it for me. I am not able to play 4+ hours a day like some people. I have a job, a family, and many responsibilities. My available playtime is closer to 1 hour a day. If at all.
When I was playing WoW they had a fairly good way to try and balance out the game for Casual and Hardcore players. Reduce the rate of decay significantly, but also impose a limit on the number of merits a player can earn in a month. So that the hardcore players could get to level 5 in only 2 months if they so chose.

 

[Mohrgan]

Each week you get a reward for your efforts. Each week you have to contribute. If the ranks were adjusted to a one time payout, as in having reached that tier, you get the bonus, I could get behind no decay. I think it's perfectly fair that a rolling reward requires regular activity.

So what will it be? A Tiered system with a one time payout per level or, a periodic payout requiring steady participation?

 

[Phil^]

Another aspect of it which is a bit silly is that decay appears to happen before the rank progression / awards are processed.
For example - this week I had enough free time for once to actually get myself just over the threshold for rank 4 (from ~75 merits to ~1500), so when this week ticked along it was quite an unpleasant surprise to find myself still rank 2 and just beneath the threshold for rank 3.

Having arbitrary ranks for the credit income is also a bit of a weird choice given the rather significant differences between each step - Would it not be more sensible to be a linear scale applied with no banding for the salary part and have the other tangible benefits unlocked by rank only?

 

[Torrix]

Powerplay? What powerplay? It's no life play...
I want to go skiing. it will take 2 weeks, without my main PC. I will lose my reputation and merits. Just for having life.
So, i will be punished for having life, playing other games and even for exploring...

This ^^^^^

There are people who say rank 4 is easy, but I'm guessing they already have a ton of money to throw at the effort, same but more so with rank 5, but add in the absolutely tremendous time-sink to get to rank 5, that definitely means you have no life at all other than grinding merits. My job and my wife won't be letting that happen any time soon. Couple that with the poorly performing yet hideously overpriced PP weapon/equipment rewards...I'm getting really sick of this, real fast. Yep, I'm new, less than 2 months in, and my enthusiasm for the game is diminishing rather rapidly. It took western MMO devs nearly a decade to realize people freaking HATE grinding, but Frontier evidently didn't get that memo.

Don't get me wrong, the core of the game is awesome, but PP stinks. What absolute crap is it to get 200-400 credits for killing an enemy of your faction in your own system when you can get 20k for some harmless dude in an Adder? We should be getting 25k bounties on every enemy of our faction, minimum...but Frontier thinks we should be punished for playing rather than rewarded. PP only works for the people who already made a ton of money in the game before PP went live.

 

[Mohrgan]

This ^^^^^

There are people who say rank 4 is easy, but I'm guessing they already have a ton of money to throw at the effort, same but more so with rank 5, but add in the absolutely tremendous time-sink to get to rank 5, that definitely means you have no life at all other than grinding merits. My job and my wife won't be letting that happen any time soon. Couple that with the poorly performing yet hideously overpriced PP weapon/equipment rewards...I'm getting really sick of this, real fast. Yep, I'm new, less than 2 months in, and my enthusiasm for the game is diminishing rather rapidly. It took western MMO devs nearly a decade to realize people freaking HATE grinding, but Frontier evidently didn't get that memo.

Not everyone hates grinding. The easiest levels, read lvl 2, have all the useful perks. I would like to say that I appreciate the way you were able to weave in as many stereotypes as you were. Grats.

 

[Soliluna]

Not everyone hates grinding. The easiest levels, read lvl 2, have all the useful perks. I would like to say that I appreciate the way you were able to weave in as many stereotypes as you were. Grats.

Most people don't mind grinding when there is an end in sight*. Grinding endlessly, why would anyone enjoy that? Sounds like the fourth circle of hell.