Fragments Suck!

[Bobtheskull]

Attempt at constructive criticism:

Fragments feel overly complex and cumbersome to use. They do not provide enjoyment in the game due to their complexity. To exacerbate this, the Rift team has not explained the entire system beyond the basic remedial quest at the start of Alittu. The way certain stats on fragments will only be set a certain tier levels and only for certain elements makes them feel counterintuitive. The method by which fragments will or will not critically infuse is illusive. The complexity by which rarity effects secondary stats on fragments at tiers 3, 6, 9 and 12 is not well understood.

Please simplify and explain the system so they're less stressful to deal with.

Thank you.

pretty much this^

its basically an extra set of essences with a far more vastly and needlessly complicated set of rules that are never really explained in-game, there are enough barriers separating casual players from the min-maxers do we really need to add more (seemingly on purpose)?

[SFBETA]

Just opened 200 dps oriented relic fragments on PTS 2 of them were upgrade worthy(not 1 ofc had 5 dps stats).

Asia mmo endgame gear progressions are looking a lot more attractive than the Planar Fragment system in it`s current form.

[Elayara]

its basically an extra set of essences with a far more vastly and needlessly complicated set of rules that are never really explained in-game, there are enough barriers separating casual players from the min-maxers do we really need to add more (seemingly on purpose)?

This is what I can't wrap my head around.

On one side they make the game easier than ever before, with the current raid being easily cleared by groups that are far away from using their classes full potential. On the other side they add a complex system that "has a decision tree deeper than any single item has ever had in RIFT and for that matter probably any MMO" (source).

Though their team seems to be rather small, it looks like they're not talking to each other, with one group of devs making the only raid easier than ever, and the other group making gearing more complex and tiresome than ever. It just does not make any sense to me.

For the record, planar fragments are one of the reasons why I'm not planning to return - the thought of digging through dozens or hundreds of cr*ppy fragments each day is just appalling to me.

[Shinkirou]

Since this is just a complaint thread I'll keep it simple.

You should only be spending plat on upgrading epics. You'll see all the stats so none of your plat is wasted.

You should also only be upgrading them to lvl 6 (any higher is purely on the player for complaining if they are running out of plat).

There are alot of other things about fragments like bonus rolls to stats when upgrading higher rarity ones and reasons not to upgrade whites/greens/blues.

These are the basics that most people fail. Stop upgrading whites/greens/blues and then complain about wasted plat when you are RNG guessing for 3+ good stats.

I have yet to get an Epic Frag with anything but terrible stats.

Teach me your ways.

[Gilgad]

The amount of people who have no idea how fragments work is astonishing.

[Bishoujo]

The amount of people who have no idea how fragments work is astonishing.

maybe cause they are explained too bad ingame?

know someone who bought 3 frag slots and threw frags in them because they thought the power adds up

[Lokken`]

I`ve just opened 60 pvp chests. I haven't got a single war fragment that was worth upgrading.

For me planar fragment system is the worst thing ever implemented in Rift.

[Redawn]

There needs to be a change with planar fragments due to the fact that almost nobody can reach the crit power cap and this actually hinders certain souls. I would suggest allowing a fragments with more crit power on them or a new item slot with crit power on it. The reasoning behind this is that many of our stats will go up with new gear and upgrading our eternal weapon but crit power is one thing we don't gain from new and better gear.

[Leocadia]

So far I've gotten a total of 3 epic fragments. Two had mixed DPS / tank stats and only one had pure DPS stats (not ideal stats), which is the one I upgraded. At this rate, I expect to have decent gear in 2 years. I've upgraded a few blue fragments and even a couple of green ones (only to level 5) out of desperation, but I'm aware that I will have to spend money on the slot again should I ever get a decent fragment out of this game. So I second the OP's sentiment: this fragment system sucks.

[Elayara]

I understood that a while ago (which is the main reason I left before SFP hit). But I still cannot understand how super-easy raids and super-complex gearing will bring them any closer to that goal. Making raids super-easy might attract casuals, but turns min/maxers away. Making gear progression super complex will be misunderstood (or simply ignored) by casuals, while it also turns min/maxers away.

That's why I'm so baffled by planar fragments. As a system they are horribly designed with RNG³, and they do not fit at all into what seems to be the greater scheme now.

[Gilgad]

I understood that a while ago (which is the main reason I left before SFP hit). But I still cannot understand how super-easy raids and super-complex gearing will bring them any closer to that goal. Making raids super-easy might attract casuals, but turns min/maxers away. Making gear progression super complex will be misunderstood (or simply ignored) by casuals, while it also turns min/maxers away.

That's why I'm so baffled by planar fragments. As a system they are horribly designed with RNG³, and they do not fit at all into what seems to be the greater scheme now.

Not really, whales just swipe the credit card in a pathetic attempt to keep up with min maxers, then realise they cant with a 15 set anyway because fragments arent a 50% DPS boost, and theyre just bad at the game that theyre so far behind.

[ChamberDown]

I have some comments on this as well, as I've recently returned to give Rift another go.

The original intent for the system was to reduce the requirement of having to carry two sets of gear all the time. What actually happened is you added a 200 slot "gear bag", and another gear window to hold 5 sets. So now we have regular gear, tank fragments, dps fragments, and other sets for hybrids we'll assume. Then.. its RNG as to "when" you can fill those fragment slots, because you have to get lucky and get the good fragments. (you DID reduce the rune/dream orb requirement, but I think that was a better system personally). We also still have to carry around extra equipment items such as seals, focus, etc for tank sets, so there is still gear in the bags.

Suggestion 1.) remove the RNG. Theres enough already. Make the fragments expensive to upgrade, but show the upgrade path. Maybe have a rare/credits only upgrade component that still helps you guys maintain a revenue stream. This will also allow us to use our live fragment sets on PTS again, so we can more accurately compare changes to our characters and give viable feedback

With all due respect, you guys don't have much information on this system. As a player that I feel is fairly well versed in the game, I had no idea how the system works and it feels extremely overly complicated. The only reason I have a clue, is because some of the fine players of the game, worked out a lot of the math involved and put up many write-ups, additionally one of my guildies wrote an add-on for helping more easily discern weights on fragments. With that, I'm STILL finding myself confused about priorities and how far to upgrade a fragment without these tools.

When I'm doing fragment stuff, I find i'm spending more time referencing a spreadsheet or perusing guides on how to use the system than playing the game. That's not a well thought out design in my opinion. You shouldn't rely on third party resources to teach people about your game.

Suggestion 2.) Add many more quests or information NPC's to explain the system and offer tips and tricks. Add a system that aids the player and shows them some kind of advanced "value" attribute past the tier and rarity ratings to help make decisions without using complex spreadsheets or addons. This one I feel like is important. I don't have the data, but I'd bet there are many players struggling with this one. I can't imagine you've had much positive feedback on the system as it is currently, but maybe I'm wrong and way off base here.

[Isp]

I can't imagine you've had much positive feedback on the system as it is currently, but maybe I'm wrong and way off base here.

Feedback was all negative (and it was a lot of it), but the only thing they changed after feedback is separation for Martial and Mystical fragments - which reduced rng (it's hard to imagine, but initially rng was even worse than now). But this change has not changes approach - fragments are the worst part of the expansion imho.

P.S. welcome back

[SFBETA]

The good part comes soon with relic fragments: A relic fragment with the same number of dps stats as an epic one is staticical in 70% of the cases even or worse as the epic one.
Not counting the rng of stat boosts on stat weight heavy stats and only looking at the boosts in dps stats instead of "tank" stats.
Unless you win the 5 dps stat relic fragment in the lottery 4 dps stat epic ones are your friends or you just gamble

[Linolea]

I will toss this into the mix once again FWIW. Up the cost of the fragment chests but allow players to chose chests for their class and role. That way they know they will get a fragment where the primary stat (at least) is something they want. Currently the top chests are 1k tokens. Make the selectable ones 5-10x that cost (for the sake of argument). It would make the fragments feel worthwhile as opposed to the most depressing RNG I have ever seen implemented in an MMORPG.

How does this idea not make sense?