Idea A: Savior’s Merit should grant the player 55 Devotion points and unlock all factions to begin gaining rep. Factions via choices could be chosen on application of Merit and changed via quest-line as normal.
Idea B: Warrants and Mandates should be global.
Idea C: Shift Click to buy 10 Augments or Tinctures.
Idea D: Merits should be free from Devils Crossing (Hardcore only).
We had to cheat in a merit to start hardcore from scratch. Not everyone knows how to do that little quality of life hack. Some should not know, because temptation will ruin their game.
Idea E: recipes in hardcore should not be global.
We had to cheat in a merit to start hardcore from scratch and delete formulas.gsh. Not everyone knows how to do that and some should not know. Temptation would ruin their game.
Things like Lokarr’s set, Leovinus’ rings, Potion of Clarity, etc can be easily handed down, but it can take many hours just to prep a new character to start on Ultimate by running shrines and unlocking factions on lower difficulties. You end up starting Ultimate around level 50.
IMO Starting Ultimate at level 0 with all devotions, Warrants, Mandates, and most factions at 0 but unlocked would be a blast.
Suggestions only for normal game.
Use with editors is a separate topic.
even for legit player, there is no need to get 55 devo point at lvl 1. Besides, raising all faction to revered and nemesis ain’t that hard. Something like 100k kill is enough to reach all that
Honestly? They should just be baked in (mostly) by default.
They’re sort of an admission of guilt that the system is longer than it should be. Once you get access to them once, they’re used ubiquitously henceforth. There’s no reason for them not to be.
There’s an argument that “Oh, but your first journey should -” but why should you first journey be more repetitive than any other?
There’s probably situations where Nemeses spawn too quickly on a first run if Warrants are enabled by default. Which, maybe since Warrants are a random drop and not a purchaseable item, maybe they can be excluded from default-ism. (Plus we’d lose the wonderful flavor text of the Beast Warrant.) But Writs and Mandates really have no excuse to exist nowadays.
/rant
55 Devotion points from a Merit is asinine though.
How the game works is you can not gain rep until the faction is unlocked. IE: You will gain no rep for Barrowholm until you arrive there the first time.
You would still start at 0 rep.
Added “to begin” to op:
Maybe it’s just me, but starting level 0 on Ultimate is hard. I suspect he was trolling having never tried it.
Ahh I forgot about the new system. Still, by the time reach nemesis status you should be strong enough.
I know that, and as I say, even for the aetherial vanguard for example which is the last enemy faction to unlock on normal, raising them to nemesis state is not that hard, even by “legit” ways
I disagree, it is perfect as it is. You can use any 3th party tool to skip if you really want it. From ‘create character’, buying all merits etc on other chars and preparing your stash, to lv 33, takes like 1h?
Thumb down from me. I use merits, but I like unlocking devotion points, and seeing how my build progress, even if it’s in a fast-paced way thanks to exp pots. What you suggest is in the limit of “just use a character editor to unlock everything”.
I’ve been playing new characters in HC Ultimate recently. I disagree with the OPs suggestions. 55 Devotion points would completely destroy any early game progression.
Regarding factions, I think the first mandate should give +200%xp, and the second one doesn’t need to exist. Devils Crossing should also get rep from Aetherials. Black Legion should get rep from Aetherials and Cthonics. Just lore wise, those are the enemies they are fighting.
Devotion points are very scarce when you start in Ultimate. The early game should have a few extra shrines. Put one in every nasty side area. Naren Kur should have one. The arkovian colloseum should have one. Maybe the hidden path areas. Grundleplith and Pusquill could do with some shrines. Those are areas I skip early on. Put some temptation in there.
Level a character to 94 by leaching off a sr75 or sr90 after asking permission. You should have all bonus to XP gear equipped and the XP potion. Stay at the SR start or lose time on your inevitable death. You will need to farm XP gear with another character. I reuse the same XP gear gathered by my very first for every new character.
At lvl 94 equip build gear and play campaign on ultimate like a god.
Maybe, that’s why you never had a Gollus ring after 5,491 hours. You’d add this to OP.
On Veteran mode…