And I use them since it's easy for me to remember characters I played. There are countless others that were similarly situated, basically any chars going religious, pk focused or farming the system are getting into double digit number of edges with ease by say 150 hours (assuming they hero in that time).

Allysia had 25 edges, not counting smite Imbalance which was Imm given for longevity.

I mean, even I think that's excessive, even on a char at 925 hours.
30K explore
52K obs
15K Commerce
208 Pks
6750 Imm xp

Salyeris 28 edges over 990 hours. All from points.
25K explore (damn villager makes it a little tougher)
39k obs
4K commerce
252 Pks
7850 Imm



And I can honestly say probably 10-15 of the edges on each of those characters I took just to take because I had excess points, not because I felt they actually buffed my char or were essential to them. They were helpful little perks that honestly, I barely noticed I had and probably influenced my playstyle/overall strength to a marginal degree at best.

I like edges and for people to be able to acquire them through varying means, but that route was too easy to farm for anyone that really cared to.

The focus should not be on total edges. It should be on value of total edges. Capping edges at say 5, well then I only take the top five edges in value.

If I take ten ten point edges or 2 fifty point edges, the cost is the same, but the outward appearance changes unless people are familiar with the costs of every edge.

Capping Points would be a better system, and then letting people earn them through whatever methods they favored most, but not making it so you can reach the cap solely by engaging in only limited aspects of CF.

So lets say you can earn 1000 Edge points total, but you also have an age based cap, but because of aging items, i.e. an arial wear a +9 years piece of gear to force himself into middle aged, then removes it so as to raise his cap, you do it based on hours
Young 0-50 points. (0-25 hours)
Mature Cap extends to 250 Points (26-100 hours)
Middle Aged Cap extends to 500 Points (101-300 hours)
Old Cap extends to 1000 Points. (301+ hours)
Any Points you earn beyond the cap are shelved and become available upon hitting the next tier.

Now you cap available points from sources
Explore 0-75
Obs 0-75
Commerce 0-75
Role 0-25, since there's a cap of 1500 role xp that gives edges points, this should be easy to max and encourage people to do it early. But if you forego a role, well, not a big loss. Though I think everyone should always have a summary basic role, so maybe make all edges dependent on having a role, even a bare bones one.
Cabal stuff 0-150
Imm Xp 0-150
PKs - Unlimited, but based on the progressive scaling of diminishing returns per PK like sort of exists now.
Hitting Hero - 50 Points
Hitting Old Age - 100 Points

Now you have a lot of ways to get to your hours based cap, and you can choose to ignore some of the ways if you don't like them, but you can't ignore them all. And if one phase is not to your taste, you can pursue others. I.e. you could maximize points with few PKs on this system, or with only PK (albeit that number would probably be beyond reach.)

And while people could farm for points, because they have an inevitable wait before they can use them, it's maybe not as much of a focus to farm for points early, because you know people similarly situated face the same cap, so they don't have the competitive advantage.

And yes, I firmly believe a 300 hour char at 51 should have noticeable advantages in terms of edges over a 50 hour level 51, as I've always viewed edges as what differentiates a grizzled veteran hero from a guy that is a hero, but hasn't been doing the craft for ages and learned those little nuances that make a the guy a true master.

I am sure lots of people have ideas for systems as well, and really, I think letting the Imms tweak things without mass outcry is not a bad thing, until you see how the new system works for a little while.