Thoughts on Clamp and other random things.

No it did not. The open worlds were empty long before the clamp happened. I made a thread years ago under my Kal~el login talking about how empty open worlds were and they needed to find a way to get people to go there.

Quite a few of the suggestion I made are now in game in some form.

Because they are lying, and want the clamp gone, so they're looking for any red herring to discredit the clamp as a reason to get rid of it.

They dont even care for bounties/open world themselves, but hey if Yass can associate worlds not being filled to a failure of the stat clamp, theyll say ANYTHING to make that point, even if it isnt true.

When the clamp was introduced, there was a discussion to be had. I participated in many of those threads. There have been a fair number of tweaks, and now, 6 months or so on, the devs have repeatedly made it clear that it's staying, there's been no wavering that I've seen. My experience has been positive, and to most (not all) of the people I've talked to, their experience has been positive. At a certain point, it's time to move on.

You are quoting yourself to prove a point you are trying to make....to yourself?

I know 'solo' is in your name....but really, that's a lot of 'solo' discussion.

As I recall....SOME people complained pre clamp the biggest problem was THEY couldn't make a group to get into the old content...especially those who didn't want to random in with some goon who'd blow everything up. I fail to see how the situation we have is any different now except that IF you could get someone to 'queue me in...then leave' or had a method for getting in like walkin or whatever...you now cannot use that option...at least not to the extent you could before.

Not bashing on the clamp itself, but if you are comparing the 2 'I can't make a group' variants (pre and post clamp), the pre clamp version had at least 1 more solution available to resolve it. That option...soloing it after someone queue'd you in....is gone for most players.

Getting a group together to do anything specific in this game(a particular feat...a particular single run), save 'spamming' things (marks/pets/shineys), is sometimes the most difficult task....pre or post clamp...EEG or endgame. That's why AQS was a superior solution they decided against using. Remove the 'full' group restriction (2, 4 or 8) and remove a lot of the difficulty in getting specific things done...again, pre OR post clamp....makes no difference. THAT problem has always been the same one.

Also the same regulars barking in the other direction to be fair. If you are sick of a certain subject, y’all don’t need to post in the thread right?

I can only speak for myself, but I get a lot more “player has declined instance” than I do actually getting into anything. I always eventually get something, but it is usually a pain to go through with players that aren’t built properly for the content being speed ran through CR levels. The upscaling of lower levels has always been my biggest issue with this thing. With a pre built group though, the clamp is still pretty dang trivial and content is still a breeze. I wouldn’t be against open worlds being unclamped though

Because oh so many people were telling others "jUsT mAkE A gRoUp" when the new players wanted to have a run where they got to do something in. Now, when its on us all to get specific things done we need to build our own group, NOW its a problem? Suddenly the advice we were told is no longer valid since it applies to everyone who wants something specific done?

AQS could work, but with a community like this? I don't think so, queue times would increase once again. Reintroducing a problem they just managed to solve. This community is abit on the selfish end, giving them the tools to be able to do things with fewer people is insuring they will try to do it with as few people as possible.

So if marks/styles/feats/trinkets arnt enough to get people in certain content, nothing is going to get them in there.

To be honest i cant really speak on your experience, but mines would be the opposite, rarely i ever get declined raids, everything tends to pop for me. Some raids can be a breeze, some can take a few tries and some can just be a lost cause. But i get a variety of raids. I dont experience the "people only run spammy content". When i hear claims of it, i login queue up and share my queue/ queue time and what comes up. And when it doesn't affirm what they are saying, why is it ignored? Because it doesn't push a narrative?

If players dont want to queue for specific pieces of content, even with the incentives added to it, thats not a DI issue, thats just players not wanting to do the content under their own volition.

Heres my experience running through Omnibus as a response to your post, just to show you what i see. (Under 1 minute queue time!)

A in-progress run, that wasn't going so well..

Had some fresh faces in there c:

And we struggled some, we stumbled, some left, some stayed. But we got it done in the end. And they didnt need a detailed explanation, just some self adjusting.

I was agreeing that it always was a problem...what is the debate? And 90% of the time the issue is not finding 2 or 3 people...it's finding 8. And if you aren't getting some runs via omni (and let's face it SOME runs popping in omni are rare), or you needed a feat, it's that 8th person that is the real problem....not 2-7. Again...that's always been the problem.

If 81 min in what should be a 10-15 min run (that's what it took at launch...I was there) and a scorecard that looks like a small league roster is your definition of 'success'...yeah, Omni is 100% a success.

Still won't help you get that 'pick one' feat or 'wait for it' in there. For those...you still need that 8th person to join your group (a minimum of 6 times to boot)....which is as hard today as it ever was....harder really as you probably need 4 or 5 of those 8 to stay now vs before when they could all leave.

Oh my god....I'm getting sucked in again. I must stop this...

Where you're going wrong Rein is having an expectation of every run going smoothly within a specific time frame. Random is random. And yes the run was successful in the end, and thats all that matters, because i certainly don't miss the 1-2 wipe party disbands. Do you? Some of these people are willing to put in the time to learn or clear and that is something i commend the players who stuck around for, it's not something to be looked down on and sneered at. Those are the players i want in my runs.

And yes, Omnibus is successful, as it did what it set out to do, queues decreased. Content became engaging, and gave us incentive to run all content. What did you expect Omnibus to do in your opinion?

I expected it to be a 80 min shoot show in random runs I need nothing from. TA-DA! Great success.

We are not arguing that those runs exist are we? Seems like you agree as you posted one. And no...I don't have an issue with people wanting to learn. I hope they gain much knowledge from you. Have at it. Maybe I'll run into those same players later when they've learned from you. The community thanks you...I thank you for your service.

I ran this raid (and others like it) in random groups all the time when the content was current and challenging. Almost never were they 80 min runs...except maybe the first week of launch. Almost never did the scoreboard go off the page.

Honestly, I have no incentive to run any particular run in EEG randomly....Omni added nothing for that. The reward box I get from Steve Trevor it added I collect on several toons a week gets paid to me whether I land in DD or Lockdown or Necro or DWF....the actual content is not the incentive...any more than it was 8-9 months ago. I don't find it any more engaging than it was. It's either slower but still very easy, or it's a nightmare if I'm saddled with the wrong group or it's a revolving door run. Elite runs are a bit more engaging, but no one is queuing those in omni, so it's not really applicable. In fact, some of the content is a deterrent, as witnessed in HH recently or in your 80 min Lockdown run.

My only incentive to run something particular in EEG is to get myself a feat or help someone get a feat. And again....I still need 8 to do that and I'd do it via custom. The Omni/clamp change did nothing to help with that. Worse it probably hurt it because of images like the one you shared above.

The gear is worthless except salvage and the marks are easily attainable elsewhere (I could run Manhiems 30+ times by the time you finished that Lockdown run....I wouldn't but could). Or I could run all 3 of the FP and HOD runs by then. How is running a 'bad' run incentivized, especially in Omni? Cause we can 'spam' it? Ok....if I have 10K+ marks and all the possible drops...what's the incentive then?

And it all still has nothing to do with the OW stuff in question. Which...by the way....I don't have an issue with because I can form a group of 8...or 1...or 5... or whatever is required and proceed on my way.

And again, I wasn't bashing on the clamp. It's here...I have it under control (by avoiding it as much as possible) so I don't want or need it changed OTHER THAN the fact I'd like the ability to queue in with 2-7 missing people and NOT have to Omni or random in some people I don't need. And that really doesn't have to do with either thing...omni or the clamp. They can continue to go on as they do today....no worries. BTW...how does me making a choice to either queue in short via Custom or run nothing take anything away from Omni. If anything allowing people who really just want to 'run something' be the main users of Omni makes it work better. People like you who are up for anything won't have to deal with the pesky people who 'opt out' of a popped queue. Again, how is this anything but....

What your asking for is diametrically opposed to what the Omnibus system is trying to solve. Which is where we butt heads often.

I see why you want it, but in this game's situation. IMO i think keeping the community together is the best way to handle this games issue.

The omnibus solved nothing for some runs....for others it was a boon. If you needed FOS3, DD, Necro, Prime...anything with a 'special' drop like GOM or Throne, or a handful of others (I'd guess COU will be there now), it's great....unless you need a feat that doesn't require just getting through it. For someone like you who enjoys 80 min nonsense runs, it's great....I'm happy for you BTW....that kind of run is what you enjoy, and I'm glad you can enjoy it. I do not as I have other things to do and don't feel like getting an ulcer explaining "HoLd BlOcK oN SkUlL" 100x a run or sitting and waiting as 10-15 people come and go...false start a fight with 1/2 the group out of the room, queue role they cannot do or wait till you are 3/4 of the way through the fight before asking 'can we do XYZ feat'?

For anything else it didn't help at all...it's a hindrance...well the clamp is at least.

And as far as togetherness? Not sure. I've probably ignored more people in runs since Omni started than I ever did before. You a tank who won't tank?....ignore....a dps that sits at spawn?....ignore...repeatedly biff a mechanic that was explained 10x?...ignore. I'll let those people stay together without me and lose no sleep over it.

I've always maintained that we should be able to play the way we each want to. The difference is that my way does not impact you...your way does impact me. THAT is why we butt heads often.

And unfortunately this community isn't responsible enough with that level of control, they will alienate each other, if they can get away with it. Implement AQS and watch the queues for content once again skyrocket, and im sure you'll be happy, despite it having a net negative impact on the overall queue time because you are once again fragmenting the community which the Omnibus system is trying to solve

Are you always trying to pull the worse traits from runs? I knew you were gonna harp on the 80 minute run despite i was only in there for 20 minutes, you ALWAYS harp on those. Do you expect them to disband every time it goes over 15 minutes? What about players who really want to finish the content, and don't want to immediately rage quit out at the first sign of resistance? Your bar of success isn't success but time... If that is the case, you can build a group to have a great degree of control. Or maybe the MMORPG genre isn't your genre if you don't want other people having an impact on your runs.

Basically I have no real problem with the clamps... it actually opens up lower level content and allows my higher CR to run the stuff and get rewards I can use. I may not get anything but Source Marks but the armor that drops is much higher than say CR 34 if I run a tier 1 solo. So I can use it to improve my combat rating or to grab much higher exobytes if I salvage it.

Now I do have one small issue.. I created a new alt recently and got to CR 30 and Tier 1 opened up to me. Now YEARS ago that meant I'd go in with my Cr 33 toon and be facing CR 34 bad guys.. NOW? I go in at CR 60 and am battling CR 73 foes. I didn't have a real huge issue doing that but ummmm seems like the clamping set up is geared toward higher CR... and makes life tougher for NEW PLAYERS just starting out???? Instead of facing foes 1 or 2 CR higher They have to battle ones 13 CR above them?

If you are US PS/PC villain, i can help. if you're hero, THEBATDCAU is also online and im sure he wouldn't mind queuing up with you.

Block them, I did months ago and my forum experience is way more enjoyable.

Yea, thats what you do, block anyone you don't agree with because that'll prove a point, everybody agrees on everything on the forum, when those who don't are blocked.

#CancelRollRyuko