Proposal to improve access to the new Tower mission

I’ve been told many times recently, that if we, as players, don’t speak up, we’re not going to see the improvements we want. I’ve been speaking up pretty regularly of late in game regarding my frustration with not being able to access the new mission, but that’s probably not the best way to go about things. Instead of just complaining, I thought I’d suggest a way to improve things. I know there’s a long, haphazard thread already dedicated to feedback and suggestions, but it doesn’t seem like a very efficient means of discussion.

I’m sure a lot of time and effort went into designing and implementing the latest content that finally brought the Tank Commander Blade and Depleted Energy Cell into SWL. Unfortunately, many people have not been able to experience this content. The problem is that there are two barriers preventing access. The first is the RNG-based drop of the peculiar box (something that I’ve had no luck with so far despite opening 1300+ bags), the second being the requirement to finish all missions in the game. The first is the most egregious of the two, since it locks content behind a wall that players can’t really do anything about.

My proposal is to move the peculiar box to Dr. Caligari’s (or any Agartha vendor’s) shop and make it purchasable only after amassing a certain amount of achievement points. Not only would this allow players to more easily participate in the new content, it would provide more meaning to achievement points in general. I feel achievement points is a more acceptable barrier than RNG since it’s under the players’ control and it encourages people to seek out new experiences in order to receive the points.

As for not being able to use the box until all missions are done, it doesn’t bother me personally since I’ve already done every mission, but I’ve heard plenty of complaints from people who are either unable to finish certain missions due to bugs, or just plain don’t want to do them all again after experiencing them already in SWL. Maybe it would be better to just lock activation of the item til after completion of the Tokyo storyline.

I am aware that the museum items are tradeable, but this isn’t about them specifically. I just really want to see the new content. From what I’ve heard the last fight is pretty difficult and requires some ingenuity, and that really appeals to me.

This seems like a reasonable solution, but I could be overlooking some things. What do you all think? Is it doable? Would it improve things? Is a change even necessary?

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Yes you heard me cry out loud in chat … in fact there are a handfull of missions I skipped on purpose in SWL becouse they have been a terrible experience in TSW and now I must do them if I want to ever kill the Tank Commander.
People should not be obliged to do more then once stuff like Hell and Back, where even if you resolve to use a cheap spoiler site, 9 times out of 10 the game insists to punish you by not recognizing the symbols you are lighting up !!!
There is also one mission I admitt I never finished in TSW as I always quit it out of frustration, but I will never say which one out of shame :smiley:

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The zone completion requirement is fine. The missions and landmarks are always there and the champions have a relatively short respawn.

The complete randomness in obtaining the mission, not once, but every single time you wish to run it, is not. April Fools Day is long gone. You’ve had your laugh. Time to give us proper access to this new piece of content. We don’t get a lot of those around here.

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I like this idea, but I’d also limit the sold item to a one time offer. That way, you get to go and see the content, but after that you’ll be back on the RNG wagon, (which is more in keeping with the rest of the museum).

Does the Box item go away if you leave the mission instance without competing the mission?

To be honest I would prefer they just added something where you get one every 150th mission over the current way (even though that’s less frequent) cause at least you could be sure you’ll ever get it… I’ve opened maybe 200-250 bags since the content dropped and I’m still 500 bags away from getting one.

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Yes, once you finish the mission the box goes puff

No, I’m asking about if you don’t finish the mission because you are finding it too difficult… do you have to grind for another chance at even attempting it?

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so just leaving the instance finishes the mission and consumes the box? Or is it one box per kill completion?

Isn’t your plan making it worse for the people that already feel like they don’t wanna bother with the zone achievements. I mean I have the achievements but some don’T care about achievements and would have to do a considerable amount. And on top of that you would downgrade a consistent barrier to a one time one. I could buy as many boxes as I want (assuming they don’T cost TAF) and just instantly crash the market until you get a sword for 10k on the AH…like if you give an easy way to farm it people will farm it until it’s worth nothing.

Once you FINISH the mission the box gets used up…if you leave before that you keep the box

Box does NOT disappear. You can try as much as you want but instance resets every time you leave.

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The way this mission was implemented (and the joke in the patch notes about not testing it) implied to me that it was deliberately designed to troll people, so even though I’ve not seen a box yet I’m pretty confident it’ll get changed at some point.

Obviously once it does get changed we’ll have an entirely new set of complaint threads about removing challenge from the game and why should every player expect to get an “I win” button just handed to them at character creation and et cetera but we can have fun crossing that bridge when it comes to us. :v:

I think we had simular discussion on old forum years ago about rng vs definite drop. And at that time somebody said that in gamedev there are 2 big types of design: rng and ehh… steady progress. Players are divided evenly between these types and all games try cover both.

Right, so when they add new stuff that’s rng-only it annoys half the players

I have to agree with Nytha here. I don’t care anymore of the blade or cell, I care the fact we are given new content and not having chance to see even after opening very close to the amount of bags Nytha has. All this while others are telling “oh it dropped from my 3rd bag” and “just run more missions”. How many missions if over 1000 bags is not enough? I like to see some new challenge but so far my challenge is soon to find new cabal as the few left in mine are stopping playing for this joke.

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The thing about achievement points is that you can get them in all manner of ways. Players should be able to choose how they want to play the game. If the achievement point amount isn’t set too high, then there’s no reason people would have to do the types of achievements they don’t want.

And who cares about crashing the market for museum items? Basically every other museum item in the game costs less than 10k on the AH already. Why should the two new ones be any different? Do people complain that there’s an easy way to farm magus amulets or hate-infused feathers? If the devs want to add in an RNG component, there should be one on the back end, like in the dungeon drops. But again, my main concern here isn’t the museum items, it’s the fact that new content is locked behind a wall that relies on random chance.

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I disagree. I think the item should only be necessary to try the mission the first time. After that it should be obtainable from some point (I don’t even know where it starts), like every other mission in the game and be subject to the same cooldown rules. RNG is indeed part of the museum items (except the Sigil Ring), but it shouldn’t be part of whether or not you can access a piece of content. If the museum items no longer dropped every time, then that would be more in line with the rest of the museum. I’d happily trade the low RNG to participate in the content for RNG to get the museum items*.

This way those who just want to see the new content can, and those who want the museum items (either for the museum itself or to sell) can still grind away at it.

*Edit: As long as the drop rates for the museum items aren’t too low. I think 1 in 10 would be a good trade-off.

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With current hardness of mission I prefer definite drop of museum items. If you kill commander then at least you get blade and don’t need ever again to run it (except for cell of course).

Ok, I can see that as the main reason against it. Some people would prefer an automatic drop. And, frankly, I would, too. There’s nothing that says it has to be locked behind RNG. If it’s already locked behind achievement points, finishing the story, and also the difficulty of the fight, I see no reason it absolutely has to require RNG as well. My point is that if the devs decide RNG must be involved it should be put on the museum item side of things where it belongs.

If the drop rate of the museum items does change to an RNG system, many people would be upset and not want to run the mission any more. But that balances against people who are currently upset that they can’t run the mission now. Since I haven’t run it yet, I don’t know if it drops other loot as well, like the faction missions, but if it does, that would be incentive enough for some people to repeat it. And others would farm it for the museum items as long as there’s a profit to be made. Eventually, those who don’t want to repeat the mission could buy the museum items for a reasonable price to finish their museums. Think of it like the museum items that drop in dungeons. Most people don’t run dungeons just to look for those items, but enough people still run dungeons that the items are available to other people.

Think about this too, this could be a test to see if implementing rng-locked content is a viable option moving forward. Imagine if they finally do get around to releasing Congo, and in order to take advantage of the hype and increase play-time, they make it so you can’t get to the new zone unless you grind other missions and get a random drop. Now, that’s a pretty dire prediction, and one I don’t even think Funcom capable of, but it still remains a possibility if we don’t push back.