There are still a lot of anti-clamp people out here. We just don't have much of a voice in the forums. My entire league of 30+ players stopped playing DC over the last few weeks because they despise the clamping, the save the universe boredom, and the ridiculousness of the omnibus trash. It is a slap in the face to all of us old-timers, I agree. I log in nightly but to nothing. I run the flashpoint open world but for no real reason other than to be a super-hero for a few minutes, but it doesn't really feel like it anymore. Where are all these new players? I see only a handful of people now and still sit in queue for 20-30 minutes for raids that I just give up on. Nothing has changed for the game from my POV other than it just got unnecessarily harder and all of my YEARS of work were thrown out. Then they slap us again with a free 290 CR boost? Why? It does nothing. It's just insulting. I just tried to go get the Abracadabra and Zoom bounties in CC a few minutes ago and lo and behold, nobody was in the instance. I did get them, sure, but that was a waste of 15-20 minutes or so when it could have been 1-2 minutes a few months ago. They could at least de-clamp the open world content. A +15CR boost helps, sure, but I still won't be able to take down large open-world bosses myself or with a small team or duo like I used to and that's just not worth my time or interest anymore. I did that time years ago, I do not want to do it again, especially with the knowledge that it will never improve from that point. And that's the real problem - harder, I can work with, harder with NO IMPROVEMENT is just pointless. I know all of you pro-clamp people argue for SP, artifacts and what not, but I just don't really see a difference. For reference, my main is CR341 with 3x 160 artifacts and 280SP. I'm told, laughably, that that's underpowered. Really? If so, again, it's a time problem. Some of us have jobs and play other games, or maybe, have lives outside of DCUO. I just do not see how clamping is functional for long-term play on DC. The dev/corp interest is clearly entirely in new player money in short bursts. But I don't see how any new player would stay long enough to get their artifacts or SP up high enough to really enjoy re-playing clamped levels hundreds of times. Normally, when I get a little bored with DC, I jump to a lower-level alt and play that for a while. I can't even do that anymore. As another thread discussed, "alts are dead". Why give us all the bonus alts then when it's clearly a one-character game now? Could the devs do something about benefits for ALL characters? But regardless, I think I'm just cancelling my account anyway, which sucks, because the new LoD stuff looks cool. I just have to get there. And I don't see that happening. DOWN WITH THE CLAMP 2021!
The only way the anti clamp crowd has no voice is if they stay silent. Everyone who has had a negative experience because of the clamp should share what exactly that experience was. Because all experiences are valuable. Throughout the years, my group had updates/changes that severely impacted our engagement numbers. Thankfully this update is not one of those updates. We've actually seen an uptake in how often and how long members log in. For the groups that are losing members, that truly sucks. It's never fun when an update ruins your experience. I'm by no means pro clamp, at best I'll tolerate it until the eventual option to run unclamped is added. And I do fully believe that we'll see that option, not anytime soon. But I do believe we will see it once the game winds down to a more maintenance mode style of development. In the time being, EEG regular content is more than approachable enough. EEG Elite content is looking like it'll see another (much needed) balance pass with the ability to have more endgame stat bleed through. And there's more than enough to do on a daily basis. Alts are.... a very interesting subject. Optional in the devs eyes. And at times content development seems to support that view. Other times, the only way to avoid replaying to finish progression during the "new" period of a content release is to use alts. But alts are not mains. There's little reason to chase everything, go everywhere, do everything on alts. Use them to enjoy various powers, roles, or just have fun. But don't chase "max this", or "max that" on an alt. At least not until your main is squared away. Nothing in this update has really changed how alts play. Unless you try to treat an alt like a main. That is a personal choice, and the most optional of optional directions for an alt. And if that's how you choose to play, the stresses that come with that style of play are on you. With that style of multi main play, the only thing that changed was allies. Just do what you did with artifacts. Level as you go or pay to level fast. I'm doing CJ first, all dropped XP goes to him. I have two alts I'll likely buy some XP for so I can level a Flash/Zoom passive combo. For the first year or two, alts will stick with the budget friendly Epic Allies. That's more than enough for regular play. And after a few years, once CJ has Legendary Allies for both tank and dps purposes, I'll slowly branch out on alts. Just like I did with artifacts where I'm just now considering upgrading from 160 to 200 for my primary alt. CR341 with 280SP and 160 arts... is perfectly fine for anything regular. Not sure I'd call that underpowered though. If anything, that's likely a very good "average player" type power level. Which means that your experience could very well be what many are experiencing. In EEG content, you'll likely need a much closer to balanced group and need more people for open world bounties. The power loss from the clamp in those scenarios are huge to someone with your level of progress. The closer you get to max SP, 200 artifacts and such, the less that power loss is felt. But it is still very much felt. The one good thing with Episode 41 is you can cancel your sub and keep playing casually. There's very little lost by doing so. That's especially true in your situation. You can go through the motions, keeping a basic level of progress on your main by playing the free DLCs that are now available to everyone. If/when things change to a better direction in your eyes, you can resub and get back at it full force. Or you could walk away. Doing so now is probably a bit premature. The Clamp is by no means in a final state. Even once the just announced changes get launched, I doubt that's the last change we'll see. Episode 41 brought us a massive foundational change to the game, it's going to take some serious long term tweaking to get everything polished.
Hm….making us stronger in the clamp may get me to play again. They do need to fix on duty, it is terrible and clunky.
I don't see anyone asking for Elite to be easier. They're asking for Elite to be about mechanics and not about spike damage. I'm sorry to break it to you, but if you're defending Elite as it currently is, you're defending a dumbed-down version of what Elite content should be. Also, I'll never understand the view that out-dated content should be just as hard as it originally was. If you want that, what's the point of even having new content if the old content is still just as hard as it was on launch?
It's captioned Washington DC. Canonically the HoJ is in DC not Metro. It's probably an Operation with an open world zone. But that doesn't mean they can't reuse it at a later time for more later. Can I write another if I wrote one already?
Wouldn’t it be great if we can explore just a little section of Washington D.C., maybe even discover the entrance to an underground nightclub Heroes & Villains can both enjoy together.
I think he was referring to the newest elite raids that need to be harder which as you said need a different approach from the devs more mechanics, a diffirent content design overall (see my signature). I have no problem with old elite raids that are couple of years old getting easyier aslong as the newest elite raids are difficult im fine.
I don't see why you wouldn't. The Episode 41 changes have been out longer. Things that might have first appeared "good" or "bad" could now be viewed much differently from that initial impression. Initially, I thought alts are dead. Not really. There's certainly more choice in how to spend your time in game. One character players can now fill a day without using a single replay. Or you can run several characters and play much the same way as before Ep41. I've dropped 3 open world only toons. But if Ep42 truly is a return to the norm, I may casually pick them up again. These are truly the altiest of alts though. No arts, just the free aug boost. The free unranked ally, minimal SP. Never buy vendor gear. Just toons that I trudge along on when I get bored or need to work the system to more easily support CJ. I have been toying with the idea of dropping toon number 4 as a daily play regular. The actual gain I get by doing everything on him is minimal. More than anything he's a time sink that is taking me away from doing instances on CJ that I could benefit more from. But I've played him fairly heavily and want to be sure downgrading his status is something I truly want. This isn't really Ep41's fault though. I could easily keep playing him if that's the option I choose. And that's the biggest alt change Ep41 brought, options. Alts are no longer required to keep playing without loot locks. Initially, loved playing older content post Ep41. Only I actually didn't, and don't. It's still the same old been there done that content. What I really loved was the purposeful chase of the new pet feats. With those feats cleared, I largely avoid all older content. It's simply not worth the hassle of the rare "can't get it done" group or just plain terrible instances. But I wasn't playing any of the content daily anyways. It was rare for me to even touch an old instance pre Ep41. No real loss, no real gain. At least as far as regular content goes. Elite EEG stuff..... not going to bother until they polish it. When content gets harder as it enters The Clamp, not cool. And certainly not worth banging your head against a wall to attempt progress. They are still working on that balance sweet spot though, so I'm hopeful. This was my biggest concern going into Ep41 and still is. Overgearing elite raids was a long term carrot on a stick chase. If that stays gone, that's a huge long term loss in how I build my toons and approach the game in general. A DCUO with just elite isn't that compelling. But I love the group I'm with, so I'm sticking around and having fun. Open world bounties and dailies, initially, didn't think I'd care much about these changes. Planned on min/max farming instances for Source Marks. But those instance farming groups....lol, no. If, and that's a very big if, you find a good one, fantastic. But wowza, so many disorganized groups, all farming an instance that isn't even the best option. Players leaving, new ones joining. Walk in where? What? Huh? No thanks. I've abandoned instance farming, too annoying to deal with. So I turned to the open world. And it's a blast. I can kick back, relax and binge watch stuff while mindlessly pew pewing. Basically Ep41 didn't really change that much about DCUO from a daily play perspective. It certainly opened up options in how you play. It certainly exposed balancing issues. And it's certainly still a game worth playing and fighting for.
I just would like a more fine tooth combed look at gameplay balance. Personally I have no issue with what is happening with CR, but it's noticeable players are struggling even in simple to understand/mechanic lite raids, and I don't think the clamp has not helped or made that content more appealing than prior to Episode 41.
CJ, your reply is the single best response I have ever received in any forum ever. No, seriously. Thank you CJ! To the point, critical, constructive, supportive. All boxes checked. That's my stance as well. I'm tolerating it now, though minimally. Of course, I'm 100% playing solo now so there's really nothing to do other than pick up a few holiday feats and grind out those flashpoint generator mods. Ugh. Otherwise, I'm just on the lookout for when/if things change and if something shakes loose or the next Ep drops, maybe some of my league will return. For a bit. It would be nice to see more of a voice from the silent casual player world but that's also part of the status quo of silent casual play. None of the members of my league or any other casual players I know have ever even gone to these forums. It's unfortunate because, as they say, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease". If you say nothing, nobody knows there's a problem - or even that something is good. Instead, those that speak get heard, and not always for the betterment of everyone else. I hopped on the forums only because the game changed so significantly, I had to see what was going on. I've been playing since year 1 and even used this game as personal therapy for a rather dark episode of my own. A game change this significant to my way of play had to be looked into. Now, I just report back to the silent mini-masses, lol. I tried hopping on some of my alts and even made two new ones brining my alt army to 44+2 mains over 2 accounts. Playing intro content was fine, but it felt clearly strange that my Day 1 new alt could tear up all of the level 5-30 missions like a super-hero but my main was barely staying alive in Central City. I wonder how this will affect new players in the long run. I don't think I would have continued to play if after being so awesome for a few days I was suddenly stuck at barely noticing any improvement other than style accumulation. It takes a while to get those SP, mods, and artifacts for new players. Anyway, I miss the daily source mark and vault XP for my alts and wish that the ally XP was character bound like source marks. Until I max out my main's allies, my alts won't have the benefit - which is probably fine since they are new - but the artifact xp!! Eep. I play an alt now for maybe a half hour every two weeks when before Ep41 I was jumping on and off several alts a day or every few days. While I use alts for personal enjoyment of power and style variation or for helping new players with level-appropriate characters, they just feel a little useless now. But like I said, I still made two new ones anyway. At the moment, I'm sticking with DC, but it may change. I'm holding out for the next episode and hope that the daily content is fun, but I'm not bothering with this Save the Universe mess or Omnibus silliness. I've played it all before... Just personal taste maybe, but I also just don't like the new HoL design. Just feels clunky and most of it seems useless. It's like an inverse of the watchtower where everyone goes to the center now and barely sees the side areas. But at least there are more people there than in my quiet, empty league hall now <cries>. If anyone is ever in the Watchtower anymore, MissRook is still over in the Tech wing every night before reset working that broker, silly-like. Come say hi. Mister Rook is on hiatus until the clamping is fixed or removed.
Please re-drop that Dr.Fate Helmet. Missed September due to a ton of real life obligations but I have been waiting for YEARS for a good Dr.Fate helmet. I actually re-subscribed as soon as I found out the helmet dropped but I see I just missed it. Please give us players who missed it a second chance to pick it up, I re-subscribed exclusively for the helmet and now feel like a bozo.
Then the same people will come and cry here about the raids being too hard and that mechanics are too complicated. Yes alway those same lazy ppl. Oh and yes old content or not you like one shotting stuff, brilliant gameplay lets make everything a cakewalk we all love it. Farming instances with 0 challenge, i'm not surprised this is how DC community is. Raids can be heavily mechanics oriented, but every bosses and adds should hit hard and be punishing with one shots, is that your first video game? Do you understand that healers have to heal, tanks have to survive and play smart, and dpd have to be experienced to do max damage, do you understand MMO games withroles after all? Semms like you don't like those same people always complaining on this forum Let me tell you these crybabies need to stick to normal content if they can't accept that the endgame should be for experienced players. Just stick foe god sake to normal difficulty. I am sick of every dlc and raids being rushed and destroyed 1 hour after their release. Stop with that this is pathetic.
I had this big verbose reply planned (have to stay on brand) but in the end, I just agree. My comment was more sass. I'll make a followup post to my "letter" when I have the energy. I'm spending most of my time working right now and in my spare time I'm playing Genshin Impact (which I highly recommend for Zelda and Avatar fans -- this is the future of f2p and MMO games). I do have high hopes for the Wonder Woman TC. But the Captain Marvel one ended up letting me down so I'm trying to manage my expectations.
Clamping is the most disastrous thing you could ever do. I mean, this game has no identity. They change everything too drastically way too often. Is this a pvp game with pve? Am, or Wm? Monthly content or quarterly? Clamped or not? Do stats matter or don’t they? P2w or not? Too many about faces and 180s, no consistency. Clamping being the worst of all. With the sp system being as bad as it is with grindy feats, and the serious decline in population, why clamp the game and make it harder to group when people were conditioned for a decade to play it the way they were? Absolute nightmare. Game has no identity. Tier 3-4 were the golden ages for me, tier 5 was great too. After that? Straight downhill. The game was fine, until too many people had to tinker and now look what we got.
I don't want to fight the Legion of Doom. I want to help them! Can we get back to being evil. I much would rather dight the Justice League.
