Returning players aren't welcome back at all

Question: Do newer players artifact stats get clamped up in omnibus (along with their other stats/cr), just like it does in current episode Open World?

No. You use an 79 Artifact anywhere and it's still 0. You use a 199 Artifact anywhere, and it's still 160.

You're talking about the milestones for the effects. The stats still increase with each rank.

So, perhaps incorporating some sort of handicap to that as well might help the "damage variance" issues recently mentioned. No?

And I'm not saying make it so you wouldn't have to level them (obviously), but just so the player has some of the stats to hold more weight.

Good question! Some of my thoughts may echo others, but here is what has worked based on my experiences:

1) A Welcome Back package: When players have been away for a certain amount of time (usually 4 months or more), some games give out a "Welcome Back" package that contains about 10 dollars worth of items at the least to help the player get back into the game. Some games ensure that no one misses out on a respec token (for example) when given out by sending it to the player's grant/gift box that never expires. So, if there were major changes during a player's extended absence, then that player will not be left out of the benefits from those changes.

2) A Welcome Back messaged pinned in the forums: This message is nice to see and can be helpful in pointing the returning player in the right direction. Usually this message is updated for "major" changes to the game, such as the membership level changes, revamps/reworks, name reclaims, and contains links to various parts of the forums (patch notes, guides, league/guild recruitment).

3) A New/Returning Player forum thread: A place where new/returning players can post what they need help with. Players who dont mind helping others can check this thread and give advice and the devs can monitor this thread to see where the issues/struggles are with new/returning players. You'd be surprised at how many new/returning players ask similar questions. Usually the penalties for trolling/harassing anyone in this type of forum carries heavy penalties, such as a 3 month game and forum ban.

4)Mentoring: This has been suggested before; however, it works very well with new/returning players. Some games have mentoring/leadership feats and badges systems within their games. These systems track a veteran player's progress (early end game level and up) for teaming up with a lower level player. When the highest rank is reached, a title and unique cosmetic(s) are rewarded to the player. I have seen leaders use this system for their guilds/leagues to get their members to help other members and offer a way to "rank up" within their group.

while this wouldnt help OP, since OP wants to run elite after coming back, i have said this all along, that Event mode should retire and Normal mode should be Event.

some of us just want to enjoy the game, brain free. enjoy the story, the dialogues more than the mechanics. some of us just want to beat up bad guys on our off time from work and REAL thinking, we dont want to come in here and have to deal with insane mechanics for a "normal" mode, when you can save all that hard stuff for ELITE.

Sell old feats, a player can pay to build allies, pay to build artifacts, pay to build augments, the only part they can't pay to catch up on are the feats.

I would encourage you to start selling them after a certain point.

My suggestion, sell the feats in episode bundles and individually when they enter EEG

They just have to be priced right so as to encourage play still, while providing an option. You could even utilize the existing replay badge system and allow a player to unlock a feat they don't have at all for 10, 30, 50 replays depending on what it is.

By incentivizing end game players to run older content.. Save the UNIVERSE is a great example.. But its not around often... There needs to be MORE incentives to run older content.. Double source marks or source marks bonuses arent even worth the time..

Suggestions:

• Maybe better drops for older content Endgame players..
• Maybe by making older content attached to missions that have exclusive(craftable maybe?) rewards that will help add to the progress of the toon.
• Maybe located in the Hall of Legends(weekly mission)..Weekly Reward Loot box caches that gives you option choices of NTH metal(Purple), Ally XP, Legendary Alliances, Stabilizers, End Game currency.. Please dont make this mission too grind.. nothing more than 5 runs please.. You can have these special missions set up for each tier.
• Save The universe Rotates content every other 3 months. More raids available for us to run for character progression the better. Raids are literally the best part of this game.. Wish we had more raids available to run tied to progression, outside of replays and Out of relevancy window.
• You can also increase the window of Out of relevancy content. Example: Early tier 6 content should no longer be stat clamped.
• Tons of 8 player operation/dungeons weekly missions incorporating older content. GREAT REWARDS PLEASE

just to name a few ideas that would help encourage the QOL for older content

Either automatically grant or greatly lower the requirements for Episode feats from older tiers would go a long way. Especially since feats aren't just meaningless bragging rights in this game, but are required to keep up in power with other players.

Speaking as someone who hasn't played in about 9-10 years, it's proving practically impossible to do things from old episodes. Even just weekly quests are nigh impossible unless you get really lucky or have a load of really bored league mates that don't mind helping out.

I've always been in the hells no camp when it comes to selling feats, but the way the game has changed over the years, & the clamp, have made me re-evaluate my stance there. there's a whole bunch of feats I am never getting now. they're just not happening. ever. it's cool. I can live with it. but if they were to institute something like this, I would have no issues with it at all. I don't care who's stronger than me or about elite or being top dog, but I would like to green out some of them empty spaces.

Politely, I'm going to say, if you haven't played in 5 years, and you have only been back for 1 week, which are the parameters that the original poster indicated they were experiencing...

You shouldn't be trying to jump straight into the last 3 Episodes worth of Elite content.

Elite Content was designed with unforgiving mechanics. That is not the appropriate place for you to go in order to gear up and re-learn the game. That is a place for you to go AFTER you gear up and re-learn the game, so that you can play at the highest level of challenge.

If the Elite Raids were so easy that players were stepping in after a 5 year hiatus and beating them on day 1, then the game would offer little or no content to actually challenge longterm players.

Which is fine if you want people to only play 1 week out of every 5 years. But for the game to receive the financial support it needs, it has to have something to offer the people who were here for those 5 years while you were gone. Which means that there has to be something that takes an effort bigger than your "Just walk in after a 5 year break and immediately expect to beat everything without challenge."

Revoke the ability to "inspect" other players' gear. They get what they get.

Which is fine, but how could they know he doesn't have the skill if not given the chance?
So many keep advocating for "you just need 160 arts and 350SP", well.... Maybe this player is really good? B)

/shrug.

Skill Points themselves matter little after the soft-cap. The difference in performance of someone with 150 and 350 is fairly insignificant.

Perhaps the biggest reason why people ask for things like that is because of the very reason you mentioned: how do they know skill level? They do not want to waste an hour wiping over and over again, trying to figure out which player is the problem and how to resolve it.

Skill Points reflect completed feats. Even if the feats have nothing to do with skill (like styles), they do reflect longevity gameplay. People with more skill points have played more. And playing more is usually fairly correlated to skill. The more people play, the better they get.

When a player has sub-100 skill points, this is a strong indication that they have no played very much. And brand new players with little experience, those are not the ones you want to bring into endgame Elite content.

Instead of saying "get another 100 skill points", they could say "play regularly for 3 months" and the 100 skill points will just happen on their own. And those 3 months will give you a lot of experience, which is what you actually need way more than the skill points.

There is so many to list, but the number One is always Feats!

Over the years I have lost track of how many times I have run the same feat over and over and over and over and not to say we all just don't get tired of it eventually, or the fact that a friend does decide to come back and eventually leave because there are so many other factors to consider.

Skill Points
Allies
Artifacts
Running Old Content
PVP

I would not have asked or considered but I think we have so many DLC's now that it is time to consider selling Feats/Skill points for old content put them in a box per DLC or however on the marketplace. I have been told over and over people just don't have the time to either do them, with either a New DLC an Event or you do make and group and this has happened many times you have the one player who just loves ruining the feat for everyone. I've recently went into an Omnibus raid where the tank was holding the whole group hostage because he wanted a certain feat and as you can guess people started leaving one by one, but feats are a doubled edge sword no one really running them or wanting to. This issue really needs to be considered.

Allies : Have an Ally Booster , we have XP Booster, Renown Booster, Nth Metal Detector but nothing for Allies, this is another issue while some say well if you play, but what if this person has a job, family school ect and has a limited time to play?

Artifacts: This is also deterrent for many when coming back it can be so overwhelming.

Old Content: Unless you have friends or in a league you can sit queued for awhile.

PVP: I have seen this brought up but again like feats no one runs lets say 8v8 at all this is something the devs need to take a look at as well, it has been said asked and still nothing, LPVE is different you can still find people for that.

Possibly let us "rent" SP for a fee. Just like we pay rent on a list of other things in the Mainframe, maybe add the ability to "rent" up to an agreeable number of SP. Setting a maximum at something like 500 SP would keep folks from infringing on the 700+ territory of veteran players. It would be a quick and dirty way to borrow up to 500 SP and at the end of 60/90 days you would revert to your real SP level.
(Unless you continued your SP subscription).

In my opinion ESO is a very good MMORPG that can show what makes a MMORPG user friendly for old and new players.

The CR equivalent in this game is fixed, so people don't feel behind in that respect, I don't know if DCUO will ever be studied in that sense, but it will surely be a very good thing for the game and a relief for everyone.

People are going to cry because they won't have the feeling to increase in power anymore? well for that, there are SPs and augmentations, and mods!

To be seen, this would maybe even make it easier for the developers to develop future balancing and difficulty of instances

and why not, DLC stuff and augmentations could merge, 2 equipment = that from the augmentation bonus, 3 equipment = that, next bonus, augmentation, 4 etc etc.


Linking artifacts and allies to accounts would make the game 1000 times more user friendly.

Who will that help? And how? How will a returning player benefit from spending $1000 on 100SP? The OP doesn't want to spend $10 to switch powerset, let alone few hundred to level artifacts - you think they'd be delighted when told to spend a lot more for almost no benefit at all? Would leagues and Elite+ groups still set the same SP requirements, if all the feats were P2W? Or would they raise them much higher, to minimize the risk of inviting players with deep pockets and no skills/experience? Or perhaps they'd find some other metric by which to discriminate?

No, it wouldn't help new, or returning players. It would mostly benefit existing players, who'd buy the few feats they can't get, for no other reason than bragging rights and a sense of completion. And then those who couldn't afford those prices, or wouldn't want to P2W would have even fewer people to hunt those feats with.

I think that's a terrible idea. Skill Points above certain - fairly achievable - level are largely worthless in and of themselves, especially when compared with artifacts and even allies. It's the time and effort required to earn them that's worth something. The problem is many players don't understand that. They think that having a trophy makes one a good player, rather than the other way 'round.

All players benefit from such a system, new, returning, existing.

I was just throwing a figure out there to indicate the idea. The idea being that people can simply buy their feats without having to do the content, or they can choose to do the content and save the money - their choice.

The same choice already exists in both artifacts, allies and augments, which allows players a quick way to power level this items so that they're immediately caught up, if they so choose, or...

The players can mix play with purchase to speed up the process or simply reject the purchase and grind naturally, spending very little. The point is the choice is left with to player discretion.

The precedent was set when they introduced the sold feats in the CR boost, they just haven't expanded upon it.

I used to think like you do, didn't want PVP feats sold, didn't want any feats sold, I just don't care any more, if people want to spend money to build their characters then so be it, that's their prerogative, which is none of mine or your business.

And respectfully, if skill points were as "worthless" as you profess then you wouldn't be going to the lengths you do to protect and gate keep them, the sword you use to justify your argument cuts both ways.

Proxy... you're kidding. You have almost 800 skill points. You're a traitor to your own kind. Maybe daybreak should sell your character too since they would be selling everything else anyway. I'll take a personal automated movement machine so that I don't have to use my left analog for anything unworthy of my energy. And I'll buy something that turns my voice into text so that I don't need a keyboard to tell people how useless they are with my fingers. 2023, man. We can have it all.