Almost had me back Mepps and devs. Still could……

Man, if I come back my wife will follow, we were alt-a-holics. 2 accounts, plus all the rpb it takes for 400+ sp. yikes. I guess that is a solid no for a token or member perk. Ok, I’ll dip my head back in a few months to see if anything changes. See you guys around the forum.

I can see it working as intended for the first little while. But i think most people are just going to revert back to their regular groups to only farm 1 or 2 certain instances, and barely use these these features. Que times for most instances will be back to the way they are now

I kinda feel like the game did move into alt unfriendly territory with WV and LLL but has become very alt friendly since flashpoint. I'm now working on a new 4th toon that was only used for farming and seasonals before this week. Thanks to the long amount of time that LLL was current and lack of new artifacts for almost a year now (maybe?) I have 3 dual role toons that 1 is truly maxed with 10x 200 ranked artis, 1 is 6x160s and full vendor gear both roles, 3rd is 3x160s and just started doing healer ones that 2 are at 120 and sharing the trans, and now this new one has an absolute truckload of nth stashed between 4 toons. Enough that he'll have 3 160 artis on next double. Each toon has at least 2k source and last 3 episodes capped at 999. And I really only log in to grab free coins and maybe run the duo aside from weeklys or during double/ triple weeks on most of those toons.

So yeah, I sorta agree that the game was very alt unfriendly during bounty spamming but this dlc really turned that around. Which of course brought out different complaints. And while $60 for rp for 3-400 sp isn't great, it is still cheaper than a new game at least?

Queue the 'Devils Advocate'.....
NOW: You need that feat...and it's 'slow burn' feat or some other 'skill' feat (i.e. Ep 11's 'Wait for it' or 'Pick one!' feats). You LFG for a while (could be a long while) and finally get a few other bodies just to queue you in. You get the feat because you can 'slow burn' on your own or with like minded people who stay and perform the needed 'skill' or mechanic (like only locking 1 boss). Happy face.
IF there were AQS allowing you to queue solo or with a single (or few) like minded buddies...happier face!

41: You still need the feat after the clamp. You queue your run and YES....in 4 or 5 min you get in with randoms looking for quick source. They will probably not be inclined to slow down the burn or apply 'skill' based mechanics. Sad face.
So you take your business to LFG and form a group...that's still an option. You can't get 7 other people who want to run the feat and 'just queue me in' is no longer an option as you NEED 6 or 7 other people to do the run. Sadder face.

Not saying that clamping will be the death of getting older 'skill' or 'slow' based feats, but it will remove the 'just help queue me in' option from LFG...which is there today. The biggest feat beneficiary will still probably be speed feats and 'count' or 'list' based feats where no skill or co-ordination is needed (like 'Artifact Finder' in Nexus or 'Drop the weapon!' in Artifacts). Repetition will be easier for sure with queues popping faster. I guess it all depends on what the feats are people need.

I'd totally agree with the fact that many feats would be more accessible, even with the clamp, if you had the ability to limit the size of your group to ONLY people wanting to work on the feat. Unfortunately there are many...many feats in this game where 1 disagreeable person can mess up for the whole group. To me, having one of those happen is more frustrating than having to build LFG groups today. Even in current content (like with the new FV raid 'in the shadow' feat) some people can't be bothered to drop out of their rotations or routines to facilitate a feat they already have. If you guys don't know this, you need to jump in game more often and meet the player base in the wild vs here.

Still hoping for the best. Actually looking forward to 'tough' Gates and Paradox runs, but I got all the feats there, I'll be in to get paid like everyone else. If it goes bad, there's always FOS3 and OW bounties to get paid.

Just a tip...if you are going to go for those 400+ SP, and are on PS4, look for the $99 15k MPC pack...if it's still there. And RPB are one of the things that seem to go on sale a lot...save for the sale.

if you need a feat and you queue alone, you'll probably fail anyways... not the best example...

How is stat clamping supposed to help get more people queuing up in old content?
if I have to repeat an old instance for a feat or a rare drop I always hope that it lasts as short as possible .. not that it is more difficult and long ... for the demanding challenges there are the new contents (hopefully)

How many players really wants to go in a stat clamped old contents for anything new as reward?
How many times do you expect people to repeat an old istance that they don't need?

So THAT is what Quick Play is...An instance that is most ready or just waiting for a last player to queue, but are these separated by instance groups? Otherwise, duos or alerts will constantly pop-up.

And feat unlocking is inexpensive until you get to the point that you want to unlock hundreds of feats, then it kinda is not inexpensive.

Also, I hope you will continue to consider account progression or unlocking skill points throughout alts. If you can figure out how to make it so that a member can temporarily get those feats activated WHILE subscribed; i feel that will be the tipping point to getting people subscribed.

Not to diminish what is currently in the works for subscriber perks, since we still don't know what it is completely yet. However, from the past replies it seems being a subscriber, aside from past perks, will get "extra" stuff whose dollar value far exceeds the loss of a $10 dlc value. We all know "dollar value" will be taken for granted and probably ignored. In the long run, I just don't think it will keep players subscribed or make them want to subscribed.

But giving account bound skill points on alts as a subscriber? THAT is immediately visible. Very much like if I were to go to Premium, I would lose 12 alts that I have worked hard for these years.

I have said before, these changes are massive AND revolutionary in the game. This is a once in a lifetime change that will attract older players, aside from a PVP upgrade, and it is a very small window of opportunity for the DEVS to RETAIN these returning players.

The question is not whether players will return to the game, but what you need to do to retain them.

My last message about this to the DEVS is: You guys are going big, go BIGGER.

Stat clamping will naturally make blind queues more successful but it definitely won't improve the quality of players that tend to blind queue instances. Some feats and old instances will be harder under a clamp scenario.
If randoms dont have enough sentience to know what they are doing and follow directions, then the goal of stat clamping will fail.

Its so exciting to think of all the old feats I'm going to get to make my toon stronger just so I can have my toon weakened for the next old feat I try for.

Eh never mind ignore this

STO has a "queue random" option which is like Quick Play. The bonus dilithium and marks seem to make it a viable option. I only queue for specific operations because I need to fulfill some task for an operation, like blow up X number of Tholian ship. I think that the bonus rewards for choosing quick play (if any) could make it really viable.

Reinheld 2 months into the stat clamp realizing it isn't so bad lol

You may not be wrong, but if so I'll come in here and state it....if the opposite is true, will you or will you keep defending the clamp if it's a fail? Besides, I won't probably experience it much in the first 2 months...I'm stocked up on source and already have a crew put together to farm the 300+ source you can get each week with just the OW stuff. I'll be sitting back and seeing what the skuttlebutt is though. Will be an interesting read in LFG for sure.

BTW...that's a great 'realization' gif...good choice...I'm going to use that one later for sure.

Some good points in here but also remember that without clamping slow burn feats in old enough content can be (and ARE) easily ruined by just a couple of void gazers or robot sidekicks. Obviously those are problems with solutions existing independent of stat clapping but those solutions rely on relative intelligence being applied and...well...there's the rub.

And again...AQS would have fixed that problem better than a clamp. Just saying. I can get any slow burn feat in the older 1/2 or 3/4 of the game right now...100%, no chance of someone messing it up, because I'll go in by myself or with a buddy and some fillers. For these types of feats clamping will not solve anything and 'quick play' even less. You'll still have the ability to burn the wrong thing at the wrong time, just not as fast...and with a bunch of people mainly wanting source and hitting quick play...landing in your feat run randomly, are very unlikely to want to dig in for a slow burn feat. Helped a group out with the LnW feats today, got them all...and that is a raid where EVERY feat is able to be messed up by 1 person. Should be fun getting those rando.

Even now, if I help someone queue in and am leaving immediately after I always say the same thing as I walk out. "Don't re-open...randoms kill feats". I actually had someone send me a tell 10 min after leaving them in 'coast city' asking if I could help requeue them in. I asked what happened and he said "we opened it....you were right...the guy spiked the LB feat".

Well it's going to be rando city in a month or so.....good luck to all the feat hunters.

Well yeah, randoms and feats are like oil and water. Who is out there attempting feats with randoms????

Right now, probably not that many, as many feat runs begin in LFG as 'need 5 to queue in...' kind of runs. You get a few bodies to get in the door, they leave, the few that stay can work in peace. That may not be possible after 6, 7 or 8 people are required to complete something, a random might be the only option.

Ima abit late on the reply, but yea, ill stand by it. Been believing in this since 2014! Told some friends about the clamp to try to get their interest piqued to get them to try to get back into DCUO.

Till the update is ready, ill be here watching in my digital home lol

So even if it's a huge fail, you'll still defend it? Or lobby for doing it a 3rd time? Or am I mis-reading your response?

I will defend Daybreak for trying to fix a core problem this game has suffered from for years. And i will give them credit for trying to tackle a fundamental problem at the root. Im sure some will quit over it, but im excited to see who comes to try out DCUO with this change. And i will be there in the random queues trying it out when it launches, and i hope i will see you in a instance.