Ways to encourage end game players to run stat clamped

I decided to make this a new thread so it could be discussed without the other 17 pages of extra stuff going on in that other thread. I wanted it to focus primarily on incentives to get high end players to run stat clamped.

first thing to mention is important.

Any clamping system would be optional, you can remain unclamped via teleporters or whatever means adopted or you could run clamped for possible rewards.

my initial thought was

Marks will never motivate a high cr player to run content stat clamped, neither will exobit clusters and the like and neither would feats and pre-existing styles.

But as an alternative idea

if you run stat clamped content you are awarded a crafting material that is used to craft "elite gear" most relevant to your maximum cr, you then use marks to buy plans but the plans are CR locked, meaning you can only buy plans at a certain level and you can't just skip sets of elite gear.

this then gives a second progression method to elite gear other than running elite content that both benefits the end game player running clamped and the low players getting the experience of running at tier and learning from the higher tier player.

sharing of constructive thoughts, always appreciated

If it is anything like the crafting for gear in T7 then it definitely would NOT be a way to get me to go through the hassle of running content stat clamped.

The only way I would deem it worth the trouble would be if exclusive higher level gear dropped in the older content. Like running Outer as a CR155 but stat clamped to T2 levels would still reward you with gear drops at the T7 level (where in T7 would be based upon your CR).
I don't see any other way someone would run it otherwise. Even that is questionable without marks dropping as well.

Who hacked you? :X

jk <3

Good thread, good suggestion.

In my opinion, what the devs need to do is complete change progression from the ground up. Right now, they depend far too heavily on gear. Gear is our only source of power, yet we only get 1 free run in most instances, per week, to get better gear. It's boring, it doesn't tempt you into playing and those two things alone are enough to make you want to quit.

What I feel they need to do is reintroduce XP based levelling. The reward for having a high level should be on par with getting new gear, so that maxing out both makes you incredibly strong, but only maxing out one or the other means you're limiting your maximum potential.

XP based levelling has it's own advantages because the devs don't have to do anything at all to create content for levelling. Where as gear based levelling, they not only have to produce new instances but new gear, too. The amount of XP needed determines when the player can progress to the next level which means that the devs just have to change a number and boom, we have something to do without the devs needing to develop anything new.

So how this relates to your idea. Well, I feel that if XP levelling was to come back, we should be able to earn XP from pretty much every aspect of the game. Open World PVP kills, PVP Kills, PVE kills (open world and instanced), beating bosses, completing missions, farming bits/collections etc. The list goes on.

In addition to that, the developers could offer XP based rewards for running old content stat clamped. I feel as though running old content should always reward XP, anyway, but in tiny quantities if you aren't running with any clamping. So running stat clamped would grant you full XP privileges for killing bosses. With Levelling being on par with gear, there's a desire to do it, so it's worth running old content stat clamped for XP.

In addition to giving players a secondary, meaningful progression route, they also have the opportunity to create XP booster products in various durations and potencies, creating an ideal product to supplement the game with that isn't essential by any means, but will certainly help you level up quicker if you want to do that. Could also be an additional XP booster perk for members, by default, too.

So yeah, bring back XP Based levelling and let us earn XP from loads of different angles, including more XP by running content stat clamped.

Honestly I couldn't care less about elite gear as it is and considering the type of arduous crafting they'll likely implement, I probably wouldn't bother with it, like the current system.

Exclusive styles, Mp items, old SM styles/base items, are some of the things that might entice me to run clamped, considering the clamping itself isn't overdone.

ill take the extra marks, i want the extra marks to feel like an incentive, that can be used for your next piece of gear or something for your base, for those who want to do it within the "intended" difficulty. It CAN be used for progression but it can be used for other things, to help along. We dont need the best set of gear proxy for us to want challenge and let players have fun, without turning it some elitist scumbag arena for those chasing the "BIS" gear and calling everyone scrubs because they cant 1 shot everything and leave 2 wipes in

You hacked me and posted from my account! how dare you! <3

I like your idea.

Crazy thought: What if CR was earned through XP, and our gear was changed to require X amount of CR before we could wear it? Then we could make gear trade-able... (Stat modifiers would on gear would remain the same.)

As for stat clamping: Another crazy thought... What if when making it optional we left it up to the group leader whether or not they ran the instance clamped. (That way if you want to run clamped, you only need to find another person to form a group with, toggle the clamp switch to the on position, and queue or walk in as desired... That way even if the people that want to run clamped can't find a full group through LFG they can still run clamped and let the random queue fill in the rest of the group... )

marks are not an incentive, they're too easy to get as it is.

People won't run content for marks.

apart from departing from gear entirely from leveling or being the sole mechanic of leveling, "gear is the only carrot" that will entice a player.

Your "people just want a challenge and don't need reward" is just pure idealism.

The majority of people want a reward.

Only crazy people do crap like solo hunting Mist Villains last year pre-47 when they could still kill me as a solo player in about 3 seconds if I screwed up.

And I still got a feat for that too, so I can't even say it was 'zero incentive' hunting. There aren't a lot of 'big game hunter' mentality players though, no. That aside...

yea my idea is to craft actual gear, but by doing so you're also crafting the style, which can be elusive when running elite content.

Having a second means of progression means they could actually decrease the drop rate in content as well, making the drop more truly rare.

People would then be more encouraged to run all content, rather than just spamming the most recent instance with replays.

In terms of styles themselves or just styles, the rare style vendor should remain in place for that.

Yeah but then you're still at the mercy of the population rather than overcoming it through incentive.

The idea is genuine but I just don't think the population would allow it, because you'll still struggle to find "like minded" individuals that want to run clamped.

What we need to do is try and make people "want to run clamped" then they'll come.

Hrmmm...

'Play early content, if you volunteer for stat clamping it rewards you with X amount of 'scrap drops' towards max content gear'.

For amusement's sake, my addition to the suggestion is going to be the Reward Item 'Scrap Kit', which is a form of Alternative Reward Box that RNGs between 5-10 pieces of scrap : maybe even add a selector to the box in question so that you can run for scraps below your current CR relevancy. Say you're Episode 18 range; you could collect Metalloid or Lochelite scraps from that box.

Drop in place of Marks in content, 1 per Mark Occurrence (instead of 1 per Mark, that could get messy) - so a solo or a duo is going to have between 1-2 boxes, an alert will have 3-4, a raid will have a similar amount with variations.

This actually solves three problems in one shot - High CR in Low CR Instances, the 'Why isn't anyone queueing?!' issue, and of course the endless 'only need to do the new raid 450 more times to get my rings guys!' thing.

Sold?

So to flesh out the idea a bit,

both elements could effectively contribute towards a total combat rating? xp level and gear item level?

Don't really mind how the game is based, to be honest. If level was the deciding factor on what gear you wore or what, not really an issue for me.

I'm also a supporter of being able to choose whether you want to run the content stat clamped or not via the on duty menu. It'd be extremely convenient.

What I am militantly opposed against, though, is running content WITHOUT stat clamping in groups formed via the matchmaking system. It isn't fair to subject a stranger to high CR play and it could be potentially damaging in that it discourages them from playing (as we saw in TheLazyPeon's unbiased review).

Note : I would be willing to run this for basic R&D gear, running it for Elite Gear is just icing on the cake.

Although you might get some people, crafting the existing "craftable gear" is probably not hard to do running enough content withing your relevancy window.

That's why I felt putting something in that isn't such as elite gear, if the only means of obtaining elite gear is through getting lucky in elite gear or running an inordinate amount of clamped content would be enough of a carrot.

You could potentially just add elite plans to the existing scrap tiers and have both, but I think that might disincentive.

The other option is have the possibility of a "elite gear craft plan" drop from stat clamped content along with general materials?

The final boss box in each level has a selectable RNG plan option.

Ever since single-mark-system marks arent that obsolete for anyone who didnt complete all of the vendor styles.... Getting these became considerably harder.

The trouble of course may be the ever increasing loot table as more elite gear was introduced and more plans dropped down to stat clamped content.

Great idea I was one of the few who supported stat flattening in its true form. I died a little inside when a new alt got all the dox feats in a run that lasted 1min 22secs