If only AH accepted the new fragments 
Is it tradable?
I’m glad to see some development on the game.
And the Challenge Timeline is like; ‘Achievements’, but for Dark Agartha.
And rather than that one-off accomplishment that ceases to be relevant after its first success, it has a reusability every day.
If there isn’t already a thread about these different timelines, perhaps i’ll make one.
Though I’d agree it’s probably not enough, nor the Update 2.3.3 additional increased difficulty tiers and rewards, to warrant exceptional interest from those who have already experienced the game ad nauseam.
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Just to keep up my trend of saying things, 10 glyph + 6 talisman fragments from E12 today. Didn’t try the challenge cause 1 life is not much.
I’ve also noticed problems with my cleanse, I use Asibikaashi’s hoop and several bosses are exceeding the rate it can cleanse (which is 4 effects /20sec). The drone cleanses more times but never automatically, right?
Yup, the purification drone will cleanse 1 per second for 6 seconds, but only on activation. Unless you’re up against a boss with purging, the drone is better really, the hoop’s passive cleansing is just too infrequent in higher elite tiers.
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Yeah the passive only works on bosses that have minimal effects, not the ghoul or anything with the corrupt/expose/debil effect. I think today’s Jinn had that plus 2 types of fire and was regularly getting to 5-6 different effects so I couldn’t cleanse the oldest one which was fire. Significant part of the problem is I get my 2nd hit glyph on waist tali, and it has a non-maxed Time and Space. Bringing 30 down to 12 seconds really does help.
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Sidenote on the drone: It also has healing, which doesn’t seem like much but makes staying alive quite a bit easier in combination with things like cruel delight.
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I’m just ramping up slowly to get used to it, I run hammer/shotgun so half of the Gatekeeper’s attacks are unavoidable damage + I can’t heal after I’m out of them. (disruption/malfunction are both too large to get out of from melee range without a teleport) I still have a huge margin on E12, I was running 20% hp and finished in 8 minutes, so I can definitely do 13, maybe 14.
I’ll just call this the “Might As Well Have Brought Back Augments” update.
SWL is now basically at a point where incessant grind with no new content has surpassed original TSW levels, which means the relaunch looks even more like a “don’t bother joining late” party than TSW did.
How is that a good idea?
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I don’t agree, (shocking, I know). We waited longer for Kaidan in TSW than we’ve been waiting in SWL. The DA items aren’t necessary for any group content, so they don’t really change the impact of starting late vs starting years ago.
This update gives people who had maxed out their gear something to do, and content which is actually balanced to their gear level, so it’s not just a complete faceroll. That sounds like a good idea to me! I’d like to see more stuff, maybe a group version of DA (not replacing dungeons, but it’d be nice to see DA with groups), but this is at least a step in the right direction to me.
It also shows that whilst development isn’t rushing out new SWL stuff, there are still things happening in development.
If you really can’t grasp how “so-called content updates for over a year have been things for overgeared forever fanboys only” won’t exactly look enticing to potential new players, you should probably apply for a job at Funcom. You’d fit right in.
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Content updates are almost always going to be predominantly aimed at existing players, that’s just the way it works in games. New players will have the bulk of the game to progress through already. There’e been stuff for new players too, things like the Rosenbrawl having no level requirements and is a great source of gadgets that new players might otherwise struggle to get.
Keeping existing players going is always going to be an aim of developers. Story missions are great, but they take a lot of development time and will only occupy players for a brief time - just look at how quickly people blitzed through SA.
Providing some form of progression rewarding activity makes sense. DA and the faction missions can be done at any elite level, it’s not just for bored end gamers. For lower elite levels, it’s a handy source of MoF, or helps get the progression started, given that it takes a long time to gather enough fragments to make an imbuer. For people looking for the optimal progression path, it’s not as good as just using AP/SP on capstones and actives, but it does give the individual player more options about what activities they would like to do. That’s a good thing in my book.
The challenge timelines aren’t limited to e10+ players either. Players in lower brackets can also appreciate the challenge, and the reward is good for them too. Once we can sell talisman frags on the AH, there will be a lot of opportunity for people to make some profit out of running it. The fact that it requires you to play to get enough AP/SP to enter each day is a good way to incentivise playing more of the game. That’s true for players of all experience levels.
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Fact: new players who aren’t besties with community management will not even find out about Rosenbrawl, because their odds of getting that random invite is effectively zero.
Alternate fact: that somehow totally helps new players.
Fact: doing the DA “content” gimps leveling for normal players.
Alternate fact: that’s somehow a great option for new players.
Fact: Into Darkness still requires IP 250.
Alternate fact: “the faction missions can be done at any elite level”.
Unlike the alternate facts proponents of most conspiracy theories tout, yours aren’t even funny. Of course, most conspiracy theories are rather less outlandish than “Fucom are totally trying to make SWL look appealing to potential new players and a broader audience with all this super secret and high endgame stuff”.
Still, out of curiosity, how exactly was “moar DA for Xmas” instead of “meaningful Samhain 2019” a good idea in terms of creating/maintaining broader appeal? I really want to hear that alternate fact.
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Funcom doesn’t seem to have any set goal or direction they want to go with SWL. On one hand it’s understandable that a game with tiny playerbase like this isn’t on a priority list. But on the other hand it’s Funcom’s fault that the game is dying. Every update in the past year or so has been aimed towards “content” locked behind premium currency. These are futile attempts to keep the game on life support. These updates are not aimed to bring new players, but to fish for the odd big spenders to get a spike in profits at the end of a quarter.
I refuse to believe that people at Funcom give themselves a pat on the back after the last updates and think “yeah, this is what players want”. And to think there are players that defend this.
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At least augments were interesting 
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I think that the idea that a “meaningful Samhain 2019” would have changed much for SWL is laughable. I think that if they had introduced anything new, or recycled, you’d still be complaining that it wasn’t enough, wasn’t good for existing players or wasn’t good for new players. I don’t believe that it’d be possible for them to release any new content that you wouldn’t complain about.
It would have been nice to see more stuff for Samhain, I agree. Would that have magically made the game more attractive to new players? No. Most new players that I spoke to around Samhain were talking about how there’s loads to do, and were enjoying it. It’s the veteran salt miners that had the biggest problem.
Releasing something new for people who can just faceroll everything else isn’t bad. I’ve known plenty of people hit e10 and leave the game because they’ve completed everything and there’s no challenge left. Not being able to upgrade anything else isn’t great for helping people stay motivated to keep logging in.
It’s a good incentive to get people upgrading their gear to at least 250 for the first faction mission, but DA can be done at any elite level. Some people find it fun, and don’t see it as gimping themselves, because they play the game to have fun, not to rush through everything as quickly as possible. It doesn’t gimp levelling, it just provides choices. Only having one path through the game is dull. Getting to choose the way that you want to progress your own character is preferable to many people.
SWL is short on end game activities to keep people playing. It’d be nice if we had more dungeons and more raids. Adding talisman imbuer fragments, extra difficulty levels and challenges to DA helps increase the value of that content. That makes it more attractive to new players than “You’ve reached level 50? Just run dungeons and scens, there’s not really anything else. But don’t worry, Samhain will have an extra mission!”
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Funcom introduced amazing scaling option for most of the existing content. Players on both ends of item power spectrum can participate and get useful rewards. New content with scaling is what everyone wants and benefits from.
Why on Earth are you putting “challenge” and “upgrading” under the same roof? Not in this game. I know a player who quit after completing NYR e10, because that’s the last challenging content. Grinding your IP is not a challenge, it’s a chore
And new players won’t do it because unlocking passives is a priority. DA costing AP and SP is the worst idea from new player’s perspective.
Same answer as previous argument
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Wait, you seriously want them to introduce scaling for the whole game? That’s a pretty crazy amount of work involved.
Because people like there to be challenges and rewards. There’s little in the game that is a challenge, even NY e10 is pretty straightforward if you’ve been upgrading your gear.
It’s a priority for you. Not everyone shares the same priorities.
I know people are running DA at the expense of levelling their passives and capstones, because they enjoy it. Others still get to unlock new passives and capstones, albeit at a slower rate, but they are having fun in DA. It depends on how much they’re playing. I know at least one person who alternates between buying a capstone and running 2 DAs, because they want to get the capstones levelled, but they really like DA.
The idea that people don’t do something that they enjoy because it’s not the optimal path of progression is BS.
Plenty of people do things that aren’t optimal for progression, like selling DA frags instead of keeping them for their own upgrades. That’s the way they choose to play it, and that’s good. Having to make choices and decide on personal priorities is a good thing, and helps keep people engaged and active in the game.
I would argue that DA costing AP/SP was necessary…or at least some content that lets us drain AP/SP
Would I recommend it to newer players that are unmaxed? No. Do I feel like newer players should even run it? No, I mean there is no content you need 4pip gear for on the way to e10…it’S icing on the top.
That the game doesn’t actively tell you is a mess but there is a lot the game doesn’t outright tell you or people simply forget.
@AWOL, and I don’t believe you give a rat’s furry behind about Funcom ever implementing things that have a legitimate shot at appealing to a broader audience.
Because if you did, you wouldn’t be claiming transparently untrue nonsense like sacrificing AP/SP for some vague potential long-term gain not gimping leveling, falsely pretend only “veteran salt miners” were disappointed Spooky Stories or The Seven Silences weren’t back, or show what small semblance of character it would have taken to simply admit “the faction missions can be done at any elite level” was blatantly untrue instead of turning around and trying to construe that it not being true is really totally actually honestly a good thing.
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