#Bring Back SM - Just another SM thread

It only has to be technically harder than normal to be termed elite and that's what they're doing.

What people aren't realising though is that it isn't about presenting a challenge to 'all players' especially not the top end.

It's about creating another layer of revenue, this is all about money and always will be, because Daybreak is a business.

You're exactly right it does create a void for the top players who don't get the challenge they crave.

The only way they'll get that challenge though is if you can find a way for the developers to monetize you and the content.

I don't say that to disrespect you by the way, it's just the reality.

If you're going to make this pinnacle of the game and provide that challenge that's missing the question is going to be whose going to pay for it?

This is why elite content is the way it is, it isn't made "easy" in an effort to disrespect the best players in this game its made the difficulty it is to make the most amount of money possible from the most amount of players possible.

The developers obviously are saying if it's made for just the top 100 players in this game it isn't going to be sustainable because those 100 players simply aren't enough money, despite the fact im sure they'd like to think so.

With that in mind what do you think would make SM money

It's own currency? It's own vendor perhaps? What's your target audience? How many people do you anticipate are in your target audience? How much money would you anticipate it make?

Im just asking genuine questions.

lol

If the devs wanted to do an experiment, I would suggest creating a new type of replay badge that’s only good for replaying “mythic” content. Let’s see those wanting it truly put their money where their mouth is.

The elephant in the room that no one is supposed to talk about - I really don’t think the general population fathoms even now just how many replay badges were glitched and stolen over a long period of time; and these badges are still in circulation even now because many were never caught and certainly never dealt with. Tracking the timing, I believe this is part of what killed SM. Many of the people who played SM are the same people involved in the replay badge glitch - they weren’t paying any longer. Profits were cut. In reality, the players killed their own content. This also affected Elite. The profits dwindled due to the replay theft, so it had to be opened up to more players to find the profit.

She lets do “mythic” for each episode. Only accessible once you have full elite gear to keep population play activity comparable to what it is now. Special “mythic” gear that’s disabled in any other type of content (you only need it for “mythic”, right?). Special “mythic” replay badges forcing the purchase. And like the SM the players love so much, no progression feats. I could live with that. Let the pros measure each other to their heart’s content - it won’t affect anyone else to a significant degree.

I agree i wouldn't be opposed to doing a quick trial to see if the players would put their money where their mouths are.

Would put the issue to bed once and for all.

During SM...

Players with all artifacts at 160, every OP item known to man, special powersets, etc.: "Devs, honestly, if you're going to make SM that more than 10 players can beat, don't even waste your time. This was a joke, we got to round 15 in only 3 hours. We want it to take 9 hours like the good old days, and we want you to strip the titles from all players until you buff it. Such a waste of resources, no way I'm replaying until you make the content exactly like what I envision in my head before going to bed every night..."

Haha yea i expect a bit of that.

I thought Death of Superman was fine for that quasi-event thing the devs were trying to create. And while it may not have been a challenge for elite players, it wasn't aimed at them. There was a reason it's accessible by everyone, and a reason why you get Marks of Victory from CR10 - 262 (which does indeed impact progression, by the way.). It was aimed at the most casual part of our playerbase and I'd love to know if the devs consider it a success. (I suppose we'll know if we get a Batman 80th this year.)

Anyway, Survival Mode never did much for me, but I certainly don't begrudge anyone for wanting it back. You just have to figure out how to subsidize it. How about Survival Mode tickets - you spend one to enter SM, and you're awarded one per Survival Mode Time Capsule?

It's a bit more than just an elite alert. It's more like a timed alert and if you beat the time, you get a key for a random alert that's basically at a higher level. You keep running the alerts with keys to increase the level of the key. So as long as you keep completing the alert in said amount of time (you have 3 times you can beat), your key will continue to get higher and higher depending on how fast you completed the dungeon. So if you beat it within the fastest time, your key would rank up +3 each time. There are also modifiers each week which substantially change how the dungeons are played. Those change weekly. Keys are tied to dungeons. It's random what dungeon you'd get with your key.

Imagine Oolong Island at an SM level of 15+. That would be pretty crazy and really fun. Plus, add in modifiers to it, for example, adds explode when you kill them. You couldn't just chain pull everything in there. Or if an aoe spawned randomly under players throughout the alert, you'd have to be aware of where you stand. Things like that drastically change how you'd run the alert.

That would be something I'd be okay with them taking time away from other projects to work on. Because that would be something I would gear up just to run to see how high of a key my group could clear. I know I'd spend a lot more time playing the game than I do now.

I know rewards would be a huge thing, but honestly, I really wish we could get Nth Metal as a reward instead of marks. Then a new currency wouldn't need to be made. None of this would be tied to progression.

It sounds easy in my head, but I know it'd be a lot of work. I really believe that this would be something a majority of the community would really enjoy, not just hardcore players, but all types of players.

I like the idea, but just wanted to say nth metal is tied to progression because artifacts are progression if we're honest, especially when it comes too more difficult content.

I forgot to add, you're also penalized for dying. 5 seconds is added to your time for each death. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it sure adds up when your group is wiping multiple times in a dungeon.

It's not progression if all of your Artifacts are at 160.

(... which is where mine would have to be were I to attempt such a task. )

LOL I see what you did there

Then the devs needs to do one hell of a quality job and every added game mechanics needs to be put into consideration IF SM was to be a returning thing.

Sounds like more of the devs problem than it being the community fault.

Source?

I would also like to know who are these elite players saying this or what threads you got this from? That doesn't sound like the right group.

Me. I go by what I’ve been told from people who would know, but moreso from the names that temporarily disappeared during the short lived ban.

The devs know who they banned and who they allowed to come back because of their prominence - and that was the tip of an iceberg considering what badges had been laundered through alt accounts to protect the smarter thieves. I don’t have to tell the devs where to look; they already know.

So here we are - the badges are still in play; the players are still active; and the price of that forgiveness is that there doesn’t seem to be as much attention paid to the dry well of the elites. SM dead. Elite not like it’s wanted to be. Other ideas ignored.

So much “cheese” in this game SM would be a joke lol. Just like elite raids.

I would tend to disagree somewhat, I merely said they should do a trial or test to appease these people that have this nostalgic view that SM was something awesome and needs to return.

The reality is, I don't think its a dev problem at all, I think it's entirely community spoken already.

The devs already had the data and told us that SM had very little interest in terms of the overall population in the first place, it was removed last time simply because the population at large wasn't really that interested.

it really leaves two options.

- find something that makes a massive amount of money from the top end 'elite players' to justify the resources, expense or development.

- find something that enlarges the target audience doesn't isolate or exclude the masses, thus allowing the developers to heavily monetize it; but then again this is pretty much already what elite is.

If you think they're going to spend tonnes of resources creating a new game mode for a very small audience of people then you're probably deluding yourselves.