First off, I wanted to preface this with acknowledging that Early End Game Elites are in a very nice place right now overall. With the recent-ish patch to the pick-up system and clamp in general, as well the addition of Trinket Pets and Cosmetics with their respective feats attached, the devs are doing a pretty great job at encouraging players to return to elite EEGs. I’d like to extend this encouragement by reintroducing another element to some EEG elite raids that could use some more love/rewards- Elite furniture drops. Some of the BEST, most impressive, furniture in the game come from drops that can only be obtain while beating bosses in Elite raids and since EEG content has been getting a lot of love since the arrival of the Omnibus, I’d love for them to get more. For an example of these additions, I structured a loot pool around a run of Olympus Elite (a raid that has yet to have any newer items/feats tied to it), by taking several already existing (or partially existing) models found within the raid that’d be awesome to see as new base items: Olympian Gateway: At the beginning of Olympus we’re transported to the top of the Mount, above the clouds, and if we turn back from the initial teleporter, there’s an ethereal, freestanding, cloud gateway/portal. This would be the Olympian Gateway. Olympian Ballista: Replicas of the Ballistae found within the first boss fight with Athena Lunar Oculus: A replica of the ceiling within Hecate’s Temple of the Moon in the second boss fight. Lunar Gyroscope: A replica of the Gyroscope found within the second boss fight with Hecate. Golden Apple Trees: Replicas of the gorgeous, winding trees found within the last boss fight with Zeus. Ascent to Olympus: This would be an item that’d need to be designed from partially created models; think of a Treeline from Tide of War seasonal only instead of trees framing a gateway, it’s be an Olympian Archway-Wide and inside its arch would be a window of the awesome, scenic shot of the towering staircase to the mountain top Pantheon behind Zeus in the last boss battle. If a freestanding option isn't viable, a window for the wall of the scene would also be fantastic. Since League Hall redesign/tweaking is off the table for the foreseeable future, the introduction to some larger, hall-friendly pieces would also be really great. AF3's DLC had a great selection of architectural pieces that really helped in designing and dissecting space, and I think larger versions in the way of Elite-centric drops would help in creating more architecturally interesting League Halls while also help to cutback on the allotted spatial issues a lot of league hall decorators run into with the current system. Here’s a brief list of a few that would be awesome to see: Large Olympian Archway Large Olympian Archway-Wide Large Freestanding Olympian Walls Large Olympian Door- Narrow Large Olympian Door- Wide Their size doesn’t have to be enormous, but just matching that of the Tall Stately/Ivy Wrapped Columns from Wonderverse would be fantastic. For any non-decorators out there, I also propose a 2 star/25 point feat attached to these items. And since elite furniture drops are much more common in general than big ticket Pet/Cosmetics, it’d be tied to collecting 5-10 of these base items rather than just 1. That’s pretty much it. I have thoughts for other rewardless EEG elite raids and corresponding furniture, but I’ll save that depending on the reception here. TL;DR: I propose reintroducing elite furniture drops alongside other EEG rewards to continue to encourage queueing/LFGing elite runs for the community in raids that have yet to be given a newer reward/attached feat. Any thoughts, comments, critiques, or additions are welcome. Thanks for reading!
I was a bit sceptical about the titel. I thought I could bring popcorn and watch the thread burn. I like the idea. I think feats are not needed for that, but I would be neat. +1000 for this (And I want these items)
Every single one of these is a great idea, and every single WV release I play. I would suggest for the ascent to Olympus, however, that it is a three-dimensional item that they basically just recreate out of the throne of skulls. All of the elements would just be Greek. I postulated the tree line with an Egyptian theme this spring, but that didn't really go anywhere. if you can get it in treeline form, however, like with maybe olive trees or something, I would absolutely be 100% for that! I'm more windows, more large walls, more large ceiling items, with animations!
While I like the idea of new base items I don’t actually think this would have the impact you are hoping for. People would run said elites for the feats and then not run it any more. You’ll then have the few who farm it for the base items in general but those are fewer in numbers. And then you have the people who aren’t that good at the game who will complain about feats/items being out in elite only where they cant beat. This would lead to a “how often to we have to keep adding things to older dlcs get them populated”. Unfortunately the dcuo model structure doesn’t make this easy. Don’t get me wrong. This does work in other games but that’s under different models. As an example. Warframe has less “destinations” but those areas get things put in them often. So players are always going to all these zones. But that’s by design. In dcuo the games designed around the last dlc. There are way to many dlcs for them to go back to each and every one of them to entice players there. I’ll be honest. I don’t know what they can do to effectively enhance these areas. I don’t even think there’s anything they can do because if the sheer amount of dlcs. Again. I actually love the base item idea. Since I like decorating, it would work on me to an extent. But long term, I just don’t see it
Even if the principle is good, the only problem is that housing does not necessarily reach everyone... In order to motivate people to the elite content, you need a more general loot that interests everyone! Finally, the idea of a second currency was perhaps not so bad as that, to see if it would not be necessary to study that by linking it to the "elite" content by associating feats linked to elements like accessories, auras, materials. Only the equipment would be available in source branded currency, so this way more players might be motivated to play in the elite and even if they don't do it right away, they might look for it later, which would allow to always launch old elite content to allow new players to get into it too. Provided that the elite is not as complicated as the DLC 42, because we lose a lot of players to the elite content and especially tanks. I could even take this idea a step further, be 100% in the elite reputation in order to unlock the purchase of materials and other such content.
Thats exactly my opinion aswell. Adding something like a renown limit to items that usually didnt require those feels like a punishment of some sorts to those that stuck around for a while. Thats never a good thing to do in a videogame. Something i thought of was actually rewarding a currency that anyone needs. Adding more currencies is not helping anyone so why not just reward replay badges for completing elite raids. In order to limit the amount of exploitation, they need to be on a weekly loot lock and to not overly impact the revenue, they need to be just enough to motivate players but also so few that its not a major loss in revenue for the company. With the amount of elite raids in the game already, making a reward of 2 replay badges each boss a reasonable reward imo. Thats just enough to motivate players to grind all elite raids weekly (just like they do the bounties for source marks) but also just few enough for some players to simply ignore them and continue running regular Omnibus instances instead. The neat synergy is that this doesnt really affect new players, wich are the main source of revenue (i assume) and that this change would create an experience that rewards long time players. Dcuo will be a game that is free 2 play but pay to skip to then turn back into free to play at some point after enough grind or money spent.
+1 for the ideas on the base items. All sound nice even though I don't really get into the deco. Maybe along with a few base items, maybe a style item (non feat)? -1 for the feats attached though. Forcing people to run and re-run stuff just to get a feat, especially in another random drop....don't we have enough of this already? Maybe even if it were a checklist, but selectable....like you get a box, the box has 1 of 5 items to choose, you need all 5 for the list feat. 5 runs and you are done. Much more palatable than "could be 5 runs....could be 500? Good luck" So new shiny items to drive traffic... good....new bs RNG feats....bad. And like Deity said....how much more crap do we need to shove in old runs to make them attractive? Just saying....
I like the base items but I'm against adding feats. There is already such a small part of the community that run Elite at level and most of us have already completed the feats in the old content. The EEG Elite is already easy enough to run but that has not encourage the majority of players to run it even though they are missing lots of feats from it. This will only drag a small group of players who run Elite normally into more old content.
Thanks for the feedback everyone, I appreciate it. To start, I want to clarify that I realize there are faults in my title. As I stated, I think EEG elites are actually in a pretty good spot. It's not hard to form groups in LFG for them as it once was, even easier if those raids contain a pet/cosmetic, and that was the idea- just an addition to the system already in place. Since this is my outlook, entitling it as I did probably invoked a larger ire/response than intended. As Deity stated, the way DCUO is set up, it's hard to keep truly steady numbers in older content, and I really don't have an all encompassing solution for that, just another suggestion to keep what's in place now. With that said, I wanted to address a few things mentioned: To the argument base decorating/design in niche... well, ya. The great thing about this game is there's always something to do, and some of those things aren't necessarily running instances at all. There are smaller communities that thrive on just game customizations, like costumes and base design, which both have garnered their own Stickies and serve as some of the most prolific, longest running threads on these forums. To be completely honest, I personally don't think base decore is as niche as most people think. There's quite a large community of base and league hall decorators out there, they just tend to stay out of LFG or the forums and solely decorate. I know I'm not the end all be all or anything special, but I can say with certainty that I have over a hundred unique names on my teleporter for base access, with hundreds of different bases. I know a hundred is a drop in a buck for this community, but I'm only one person who just started being on the forums/youtube less than a year ago. I dunno. I can't say for certain, but I think decorating is way bigger than a lot of people realize. As for the feat, I was tailoring it based on the Trinket Pet and Lightning Bolt cosmetics that have been added recently. They're great on their own, and most who'd want them without the feat attached. I personally don't need a feat; you give me furniture I run stuff. Period. Again, I was just following the model put in place that I think is extremely effective for getting people to run EEG elites currently. Even in this past week, when STU redropped, when x2 Death Metal dropped, AND the last week of a seasonal was afoot, people were still shouting for ThroneE or FGSe pet runs, at reset! Despite how much you loathe the compulsion or feeling to run the EEGs for these things for feat, it... well, it kinda works, and I think that's the point of it. Not acquiring a 2-star feat won't make or break most, especially in a world of Artifacts and Allies, but the fact that it's there will encourage those that wouldn't give EEG elites the time of day to go back in. Ya, it's not a forever solution, but again, I don't think anything is. To the argument of 'well, I got them, now I'm done,' you clearly have never decorated your base. As stated, I do understand decore isn't popular for all people, but for those that do, we are going to want multiple. Where you only need 1 Father Box or Lightning Bolt on a single character, you may need up to 40 of one base item to make your envisioned design work. If you want to add a cosmetic/addition item drop that's going to want to foster reruns of content, outside of a new currency or feat counter, furniture is your best bet in my opinion just off the numbers game. And the crazy thing is, that 40 tally is just in 1 base- most of us decorators have many, many more than that.
and if not, why not a 4 or 5 star feat once the rename is at 100%, wouldn't that be more motivating? rename completed 1 skill point in loot ?
Love the idea! Really my only suggestion would probably be that make the reg sized items in both omni and elite q but only have the larger versions available in the elite queues. Could even tie in feats for both size groups of items and completing them unlocks the items on Cheetah. Get all the small versions unlocks the small versions for SM on cheetah etc...
Instead of adding it to the instance, add it to the Cheetah Vendor. Scrap the new feat aspect, make it contribute to previous base item collection feats. Every time they add a few items from an episode, run the corresponding episode spotlight at the same time. Job done.
Hey, double the furniture is doubly better in my opinion, so long as it's cool with the devs since they'd be doing the work, haha! As for the Cheetah Vendor and unlocking the furniture- oh my god, yes. I've requested a few times for Elite Furniture to be similar to the Pet Trinkets Chang Tzu has to offer- buyable if you've completed the headline for the content. The SM prices could be high too, like several 100 for a piece. I'd even be ok with them being bound to the character you buy them on, or at the very least unsellable. When I requested it before, people said it'd give people less of an incentive to run the content, but honestly, us decorators are gonna go in there regardless. It's just a nice safety net in case we reach more source marks from running the elite raids than RNG-esus blessing us with the pieces we need. Also a very viable idea I wouldn't be opposed to. It'd really make Episode Spotlights even better. Could even be a Save The Universe addition too- corresponding, new furniture from older content in Rip or Cheetah for Grains of Time. Reason I had it tied to EEG and a feat is I figured there'd need to be a reason to add it for a good chunk of the population. I know the devs are probably stretched thin at times so adding new things needs to entice a larger group of people to play, hypothetically. EEGs need experienced players to help guide the newer ones, so give a symbiotic reward. But, again, if they're willing to put in the work and effort for a just vendor drop, I'd be over the damn moon. 60% of the time my source marks go to base item boxes anyway, might as well take a few more. Whatever works to get some of the epic modeled stuff already in a lot of older raids into accessible furniture for builders is what I'm all about. Oooo... Might need to add that to my seasonal mega post in the Furniture Request Thread. Would be a great Anniversary item. Or, I mean, #EliteSubConstructWhen?
Theres a lot of good items in older raids. I have always wanted to see brainiacs final form style added for players.
