Just a few things to get off my chest regarding Stat Clamp and The state of the game for new players

It was a major culture shift, one that should have been done years ago. Most MMO's that launch now, have the clamp at launch, avoiding this drama because it just is what it is. I remember talk of it, way back when Gates came out, and being disappointed in the decision not do it.

IIRC they tried to "kinda" fix it by changing everything to MoT marks etc - but that didn't really address much

That's right, I remember that. When tier 4 dropped, that was when you started seeing people being able to solo raids, I remember getting into FOS 1, halfway, as a 'Troll and still getting the top of the scoreboard. The older raids simply became boring.

I think the only "point" people try to bring up about the clamp that even slightly frustrating is the "I earned my gear so I should be able to one-shot stuff now". Theres several problems with it:

1) You still can. There are 2 huge cities in the game that have no clamp at all, hundreds of respawning adds, and tens of Bosses. As long as Gotham and Metropolis aren't removed, which they never will be, there's not one but 2 locations bigger than any DLC space for you to go wild.

2) It makes no sense to be able to oneshoot a boss in one Episode and struggle against them in another. I can't think of ant reason why that would need to be explained further. If you're oneshotting Zod in FoS3 and then having a 5-10 min battle with him in Kandor, THATS a problem. THATS inconsistency at its very best.

3) The Devs have already over-accomodated for the clamp. I thought the +10CR difference if you were over levelled was fairly balanced already. Now, from what I recall, it's a +15CR difference because folks kept moaning about it. This is not a case where everyone gets dropped to minimum CR, so nobody gets to act like it is. That was the original Stat Clamp, then from what I remember it went from +8 to +10 then to +15. Right now I'm not even going into Godseye Pyramid Elite +. I'm waiting till I gear up either in the next Episode or possibly the one after that as I don't enjoy hitting normal adds with the same attacks 20 times and bosses 3000 times. I'm patiently waiting till I'm "overlevelled" for it so I can feat hunt and have fun. Same difference. I'm after a few Monitor Energy's the last few days and have been replaying the duo. I don't feel weak at all in it. And to be clear, I have zero characters who abuse the Superspeed power exploit so this is coming from someone doing normal damage.

4) Even when the change came in, there always has been and always will be 3 Episodes worth of content that goes unclamped. Another that needs no further explanation.


The hardest part with all this is, I genuinely don't feel it's right to try to say "hey, you need to think this way". Nobody has the right to do that really. But the reason the clamp is staying is not out of malice, its because of sense.

In that case, why make an MMORPG if in the end they can't do anything with it? Sad to see that only the players want to see the game evolve...

I'm not necessarily asking for a new power designed from scratch, even if I'm waiting like many players for a heal lantern, but at least bring new abilities to powers that have existed for X years now, so that we can create new builds and not turn on the same things for x years and no, I'm not asking for new "iconic" powers there are already too many of them that are imposed in the builds at the moment killing a little too much creativity for my taste!

An MMORPG is supposed to be evolutionary.

exactly

I think the theory was we'd all run EVERYTHING to get MoT etc but they were def not as enticing or valuable as Source are now.. plus, like you said, it was boring and those that did do it just ruined it for new people by "ROFLstomping" everything

It wasn't just boring for me, it was boring for the appropriate CR players, they would come in expecting a glorious Boss fight, and it's over in 4 seconds.

Nah apparently those sorts of complaints are rare occurrences I was told, I was told explicitly that almost all new players actually want that, lol, I know right, lol

You can still ignore the threads now. And you certainly don’t have to reply in them.

I’m willing to bet that you(like myself) didn’t get every skill point you have during relevancy. I’m also willing to bet that the bulk of sp that most people(including myself) had before the clamp were earned by going back into older out of relevancy content and smashing through everything like a God.



I agree with pretty much everything in your post other than the sp thing. I don’t think the clamp needs to be removed at all, but it definitely has needed more tweaking than they have given it since its release.

I logged in today after a 2 years of not playing and I feel like nothing is worth doing I definitely agree everything is the same. It's almost like copy paste formula just to keep profiting. No real innovations or additions to endgame like the other mmo's. I would love to see different paths for endgame Like Crafting, World Boss Chains, PvP, Minigames.

Another big reason I don't care to play the game anymore is the lack of a ongoing storyline. In other mmo's not only there is an ongoing storyline but multiple ones giving players something to look forward to / speculate hooking them into the content. DCUO not doing this is creating a huge problem because it will make all the new episodes seem recycled regardless. How are they not seeing this even more disappointing as a DC Comics based game.

And I must state the obvious from what I have seen today most of the endgame players have speed hackers in their pockets its pathetic. You really have to be blind to keep playing.

It's also crazy people are still discussing stat clamp till now and its not even the major issue with this game. My guess is it's a problem because variety is lacking as everyone was steam rolling along they did not notice how the endgame is structured and how absolutely boring it is. Stat clamp can be work and be beneficial for DCUO's small population but you really gotta have reasons to play and have fun and I don't see any sadly.

Idk man pretty soul less game right now. I wish the game was more social in general to allow player created content like RP. For example there should be an option to publicly visit league halls in a menu. I see that their is plans to add more emotes that's good but it really needs other systems to create social situations to use those emotes. Another thing the game needs is a party finder menu instead of spaming LFG chat this alone will open up so many situations to do content take your pick or start something new etc, The game really needs this. Speaking of player created stuff we had that kind of thing back in the day in the form of PvP with meetups and such but once again DCUO is choosing to ignore this part of the game at this point that would keep players on their game.

I already don't even care for the next episode that was announced nothing new to me, of course I do want to see some excitement from this game again one can hope if anything can be done about it.

I did read your whole reply but clipped for reply, the fact that you haven't played in a while and have that take on it is very interesting.. and sad.. people coming back you should feel like its almost a new game, not be bored so quickly.

What you wrote about the clamp is very true, in my opinion. Some are bored with the game, some are frustrated at certain parts of it but misdirect/misintrepret it or do not really analyse WHY they are annoyed and just blame the latest big change or the thing that was the latest thing that upset them, instead of looking at *everything*

It's not that they can't do anything with it. It's more the fact that they can't do everything they might want to because of the licensing deal with DC. Had they used an original IP, they could have done whatever they wanted to with the game without having to worry about what another company said they should do. But then the question would be, "Would we still be here 12 years later if they hadn't used the DC IP?"

Your last question is interesting.. I only started DCUO *because* I was told "oh you are DC comics fan.. have you heard of.." back in 2012. I think it was a draw card, for me anyway.. Personally, I had google what MMORPG meant - I was clueless about games lol

Noone said "oh you like Superheroes, here is this superhero game.."

Then I read posts where ppl do not get who Circe is.. or other "lore" things ppl do not get and it made me realise that something else drew them in..

Been saying the entire progression model has needed a rework and refresh for a while, it's totally stale.

I’d bet the opposite. Have you seen how players behave when new content drops? Most players try to get feats when a dlc comes out. In fact, it’s part of the very argument anti clampers use. No one is ever running older content.. That’s because everyone runs everything as soon as it drops.

New dlc comes out > Most spam the over time feats within the first week

How can anti clamps say most players used to wait to get feats during relevancy while also saying there never anyone doing any of those feats. Even with preclamp EEG. Anti clampers did these areas were dead but they could at least solo EEG bosses.

As for the tweaking for the clamp. Why is this needed? They have already loosened the clamp A LOT since it’s release. Why are targeted adjustments not an option according to some anti clampers? It’s either “I want an option to race roll feats easily” or “it needs to be removed because (enter random excuse here)”

Eh, the majority was obtained during relevancy, took a break right before Granny Goodness and upon return, had a few DLC's to catch up on. Tweaks here and there, sure, that's needed though.

And this is an anti-anti-clamp argument how?

If everybody tries to get feats when a dlc first comes out.... THEN: It's not just about "getting easy feats" as we're constantly being told it is..
(This is you moving that goal post that you say that others are always doing)
- YOU JUST WANT EASY FEATS IN OLD CONTENT
- You mean like how everyone, including you, used to do it.
- NU-HUH!! MOST PLAYERS TRY TO GET FEATS WHEN THE DLC FIRST COMES OUT.



And: Yes....There was a balance between occupancy and character strength that made the game more enjoyable/playable.

Less people played older content as we got stronger and not as many people were needed to run old content. It was balanced.

Now.. We still have less people running old content... but, thanks to the clamp those other people are now still needed... but they're not really there... and the fill-ins that we find aren't quite up for the job, yet...

So we might get the same result... but, it takes more time to do it. Which probably leads to even less people running old content.

But would you ignore it? Really?

In every one of these threads, it's almost always someone pro-clamp (or at least anti-ANTI-clampers), who is first or 2nd to reply. I think I said it a long time ago in THE clamp thread, "the next anti-clamp thread that comes out....see how fast it dies if the pro-clamp don't reply"(paraphrased). Not one of that camp had risen to the challenge of NOT replying. So would you people ignore it? Doubtful.

I'm curious do you believe the devs are or have left the game or been laid off because of the stat clamp?

I cant speak for others but when I see blatantly wrong statements. my fingers move on their own to rebuttal. its a personal problem I know but its super hard one to break