How To Make Old Content Relevant Again!

I'm having a blast being back, but I have to be completely honest. DCUO isn't new player friendly. Why? SP! While events give new players accessibility, enjoy the content, and capability to raise their CR level, many older zones are desolate of activity. Some would argue that it's due to population, or older players have already completed the said content and feats, which I'm not denying, but in actuality the older content lacks any incentives for older players to do anymore. This makes acquiring feats in older content rougher for newer players who are desperate to acquire those feats.

We all know that the three latest episodes offer two different forms of currency, but with each new episode a convergence of the former currency is transferred to Source marks. Now this is great, but here in lays the problem. The weekly zone quest for the last three episodes offers 8 source marks, and 8 of the special currency per quest. That's 16 marks per quest, verses only 8 for any older content. While this may not seem like a big deal, it actually is. Regardless of feat achievements, source marks are the life blood of the game. If the devs were to offer older zones the equivalent amount I believe players would play older content to acquire those marks, and that in turn would allow newer players the opportunity to acquire those feats.

not that the older stuff was booming with people but open worlds got much worse after clamp, open worlds have both clamp and a loot lock so that could be a contributing factor cuz no one wants to be clamped and get locked. your currency thing is a tad skewed in the fact that old or new content you only get 8 SM for a weekly yes in new stuff you get the doodoo dollars but the intent there is so that ppl can buy the gear for the episode (and whatever feat stuff needed) not hoard and collect more source marks 3 dlc later.

Source marks are used for everything! Want to buy catalyst, it cost source marks. Want that ally from cyborg, it'll cost you source marks. Want to get some quarks to collect styles you missed from a time capsule, it'll cost you source marks! Pretending clamping is the issue verses the incentive is a far stretch. I double down, I think if the payout was equivalent...players would play it!

Everything else slows down to a grind when there's a new dlc. For the past month all I've been doing is running old content and working on lower tiered alts. In about a month or so when my top characters have the op back and a few pieces of elite gear I'll go down my list of characters and start working on the weaker ones again.

reread what i said, i said clamp was a CONTRIBUTING FACTOR, not the whole cause but a factor. yes SM is used for everything that wasnt ever a debate... and for me its hardly a huge deal as ive got almost 3k in SM and have catalysts in the 100s so for me theres little to buy except for some old episode feats that i just dont really care about.

I'm sorry, I did misread that. I understand someone like you may have more than you need, but that still doesn't diminish my point. Players need some sort of incentive to do something. For newer players it's a little overwhelming when you need to acquire feats, but no one is there to assist. I think my recommendation is sound.

hey its all good were all human and have DOH moments lol. yes im an insane bastich who hoards lol but that doesnt mean that increasing SM in the old open worlds is the first step in getting butts out there, not opposed to increasing the sm rewards but thats not the first route id take.

While I like the idea, the issue would be that it would make everyone not run omnibus. Most of us “old timers” run one Omni per week per toon for the bonus marks and rewards box. Others spam fos3 and then some others just partake in Omni raids a lot. If I had the ability to go to each zone and get 16 for 3min fight, I’m never running Omni again. I’d just go thru the map list and do a few bounties in much less time. Well, I personally wouldn’t but I’m sitting on probably 10k source between all my toons and capped on every old dlc that hasn’t converted yet. But it’s the usual “actions have consequences” thing. The devs know that’s what would happen which is probably why there’s still loot locks. It’s already the best way to farm marks if you build a good group and travel around together. Fos3 is good too obviously but open worlds have counters so it’s easy to make a group for them too.

Actually, I disagree with you! Why? Because you just made the point. Weeklies Omni gives boxes, and weekly turn in plus doing random raid is 25 marks. You're already getting 16 marks in the latest episode per quest, so doing weeklies in other zones won't stop you from doing those Omni weeklies either. Interesting...isn't it?

Edit: Nevermind. I thought by older content the OP meant Instanced content, not open world areas.

They aren't going to incentivize Older Open world with more marks for the simple fact that it will pull players away from Omnibus, which was a big part of the focus of their changes.

You're missing the point. If I were to stack the latest currency with the source marks I get from the latest episodes, then convert that special currency into source marks, I'm getting double the currency verses any other zone! So why bother doing any other zones if I'm not being rewarded as much as the last three? You can disagree, but the payout is relevant.

Millenials.

I can't think of a single thing that would incentivize me to run any of that stuff I ran into the ground when it was new. I'll occasionally hop into something like that if a leaguemate is working on it just to hang...but I paid my dues. You'd need a lot more than some piddling source marks to get me there again, LOL.

Here's an idea. Let's say you're in an instance and somebody gets a feat that you already had. Since you have it... you get source marks instead. How many is fair is hard to judge, but it would motivate people to help others out at least.

That's your propagative, however...there are players who would jump at getting some extra source marks just to do some weeklies in older zones, and that is the point.

People can do that now by just running FoS3 on loop.

wow, you just have terrible excuses lol. FOS3 takes what, 5 mins for 12 marks? Each zone has at least two weeklies that would payout 16! Do the math!

Given that people that I've seen in those open world areas tend to jump on EVERY spawn in the zone (apparently without any regard for the detail that doing so can despawn mission objectives for those actually running those missions), I can live without the extra folks running around.

And the math works out better for FoS3 runs because it's quicker. Those 12 Marks per 5 minutes will add up a LOT quicker than hitting every open world zone for 16.

I mean, you SAY that...I'm not entirely sure there's a whole group of people raring to go for that. Some, maybe. Enough to implement those changes? Eh. Not convinced. Maybe.

Obviously, you didn't have a high math score