We need npcs to fill roles in lower instances.

The state of population is at an all too low. I made a new toon a villain at that and jumped the cr boost. Recent dlc of course is populated but once you go to tier 6 instances such as open world it is laughable to see only 6 maybe even 5 there if I’m lucky. I as a battle tank finds it easier to these things solo and appreciate at least 1 player helping out against Batmage. Though is only the beginning, I can only imagine how much worse it is when trying to do duos, alerts and raids for lower tiers. I propose npcs fill empty spots in alerts and raids. I know this still won’t solve it entirely because there are mechanics that must be followed and npcs can’t do that but it’s a start and I guess exclude those particular instances that need mechanics followed. There’s already a duo (I think it has cyborg in it) that acts as a tank or controller not sure. I honestly been gone for too long so my memory is off.

Pretty sure this idea was brought up in that other thread. If I remember right, you were shooting this idea down back then. I could be wrong, and if so, I'm sorry about that.

We all tried to warn the general community that no one is going to want to play clamped content. Everyone in that thread was adamantly throwing out ideas for old content when this day inevitably came. AQS was brought up by Rein, and a few others wanted to play with bots if they could code it correctly. The other remedy was simply reduce the heavy restriction of clamped content to allow for a more solo-centric playstyle if needed... but we would never need that, right? Right.

The way I see it, the people that wanted this have to deal with it. Enjoy the clamp and all of the people jumping in to play it... we were told countless times that it isn't a ghost town and isn't a problem. That this adjustment would be "healthy" for the game. Yeah... looks pretty healthy, right?

Funny thing is I never mentioned clamped. I only said to have npcs fill in the roles because there’s a duo that does that but the problem is mechanics and no amount of stats clamp removal is going to fix that. Simply exclude instances that require heavy mechanics. Open world instances doesn’t matter much. It’s OPEN for a reason but queuing into an instance is where my stance is at in having npcs fill in roles. Removal of stats clamp has nothing to do with that. Don’t get me started on how defeating a boss too fast causes issues with the instance itself.

Halfway through your first post...

"Though is only the beginning, I can only imagine how much worse it is when trying to do duos, alerts and raids for lower tiers. I propose npcs fill empty spots in alerts and raids."

That's clamped content.

That's the content that virtually no one wants to play.

Don't worry though, it isn't an issue and it's healthy for the game.

Then I misspoke so I’ll correct myself. Duos you don’t need stat clamp to be removed. If no one wants to run lower tier duos or whatever then an npc can fill that spot. In alerts the same thing can be applied except in those that require mechanics this goes for raids to. That’s it. I’m not proposing anything other than just having npcs fill those spots. Don’t some mmos have this feature? In my limited knowledge, ESO has a feature that summons your companion in a dungeon if someone leaves effectively allowing an npc to fill that spot until a real player joins the dungeon. People don’t want to run lower instances because they run it so many times, they don’t feel powerful/robbed of their time being clamped. They are okay to think that but new players don’t know this and there are always others who just like making new toons. I’m just surprised this was never introduced or discussed way earlier before stat clamp originally arrived.

A prefill bots system for lower content would be interesting. The system is there (flaspoint duo), just they would have to work on how to implement it, since I don't think they have tech in place to know what to fill with. There is also a balancing element to it. This all takes resources and I'm not sure if they want to dedicate manpower to it at this time. But it's not a bad idea. And yes, it's been mentioned before.

In final fantasy 14 we have this option to run with npc. At lower level it just random adventure npc and about level 55 you start running with scions of the 7 dawn. This help anyone trying to q and get anything they want to farm farm.

You're completely missing what I'm saying.

All of this has already been said before. They were ALL shot down by people for the clamp. They specifically stated multiple times that NOTHING needed done. This was an improvement, the clamp/Omni, queue times are practically nonexistent and it was the best thing to ever happen to this game. The system is working as intended, and in no way would ever revert back to how bad it was before... The game is healthy. EEG content is perfect as-is.

This "new" idea to you was brought up in there, how do I know? I was the one of few to bring it up, and it got shot down... We've already been through it.

So yet again, deal with it. Deal with EEG and all of the mechanics that require a full 2, 4, or 8 person team. Can't find a team? Deal with it. Can't get the queues to pop? Deal with it.

Yes a prefill bot system for lower instances should be added. That alone would do so much for the game in my opinion. For new content that system would not interfere and only allow real players. I main a tank so as long as I have bodies it’s fine.

Took me a minute, but I found the original thread.


https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dcuo/index.php?threads/a-i-players.324537/#post-4532183

Well for Duos and most alerts, a simple AQS would resolve the issue. Let us go in with what we have (ideally MORE than 1 for alerts, but most alerts...1 will do). Clamp or no clamp, for duos and alerts it would make things 100% more accessible. For raids, the clamp makes it prohibitive probably for less than 4...maybe 5...except a few select raids which can be done with less people.

That's the only part it really comes into play. Prior to the clamp, getting things done was as easy as getting someone to 'queue in then leave'. It's still a thing many people need every day, but the days of 5, 6 or 7 'bodies' just to queue in are gone.

Maybe not an A I system but an improved henchmen and sidekick upgrades.
It's definitely time the base mods gets an upgrade with another tier.
They do slightly more damage, has more health and stays in battle longer.
Or the least episodes theme based.
Amazonian henchmen are stronger in Amazon content. And so on.
Tech types in tech type content.

True, clamped content is mentioned. Or otherwise meaning the 3 latest episodes?

I said before the stat clamp originally. The one that’s in place right now isn’t the original stat clamp. That link you posted shows it’s from two years and the first and original stat clamp goes farther than two years.

There was other clamped stats before omnibus? I don't remember that. Or you mean the CR Scale?

99% sure they mean clamped/EEG content. They mentioned tier 6 and "lower tiers". End Game typically doesn't have that much of a population problem, although that's probably going to change with the recent update.

But yeah, this was already talked about a few years ago in multiple different threads. I found the one above that was specifically for A.I. teammates, dated all the way back to September of 2022. People brought up AQS in the thread that shall not be named, and that was shot down multiple times in there.

We all knew it would be a problem, but I guess it didn't matter to a few until it directly affected them. What kills me is one person in that thread a few years ago was mocking the idea... "why do people want to turn an MMO into a single player experience?"

Gee, I don't know, maybe because soon you'll have practically no people to play with? Kinda defeats the purpose of an MMO when the first "M" is missing from the equation.

To my knowledge, this was the first "stat clamp" that persisted even when going back through old content at a higher CR (if you had lower CR, you were screwed no matter what your stats were). They did a CR relevancy, but never a full blown clamp like we have today.

Semantics aside, this idea has obviously been brought up way before this... almost like we knew it would be a problem. Strange... right?

While the idea sounds good to some, it will have a negative impact on the overall game health.

People play MMORPG´s for the multiplayer aspect, not to run content alone with bots.

And yes, the playerbase is small...but that depends on how the game is handled. They focused on building the game around "wales" and/or veteran players, who end up doing nothing but complaining about the bad aspects of the game.

This happens in many areas of life, which is understandable. People don´t like to be bored, and new things are always more interesting, no matter how "good" something is. For example, you can watch the movie "The Dark Knight" five times in a row, but eventually you will get bored, even if the movie was extremely good.

This is also a reason why there has been a loss of players in the last few episodes, people want something new and fresh...but it´s an MMORPG and you can´t reinvent the wheel.

Most of the "problems" could be solved by attracting new players (people who haven´t seen the movie, so to speak) and that would be solved by promoting the game again and addressing the wide range of what that players would like to play.

In doing so, they have to lower the price of their product/s and give usuable gifts, which is a common step to attract new customers.

I´m an old player myself, but i don´t deny the truth that we are bad for the game when it comes to business.

I feel like they were heading in this direction…don’t know if they reached a tech limitation or what, but it looked like they were investing development time in trying it out. There was certainly a lot of team shake up after this period so who knows where it ended up.

Thanks for proving my point...

And I strongly disagree. People play games for various reasons. You could have a solo experience, especially in outdated content, and potentially draw in a bigger crowd than you would with enforcing group content. Yes, people play MMO's for the multiplayer aspect, but most of the successful games out there have options. You're funneling people into one, only one, way to play the game and experience everything for literally no reason other than "it's an MMO".

You can't force everyone to play together, knowing full well it's likely never going to happen, and then wonder why you can't generate new players. You're trying to mix water and oil. It's not going to happen.

What should happen is almost an EEG playground. This early content that End Game level players rarely play should be used to teach newer players how to play in a fun and unobstructed way. Players should get the choice on how they want to go about it first and foremost, be it playing with other active players, A.I. teammates, or solo if they want. They should be able to pick various difficulties, and should be able to experience the story in a linear way.

You have Omnibus content so ****'d up at this point that nobody knows what they're even doing. Content is jumping around like crazy story-wise and makes absolutely no sense, players are expected to know weird mechanics, you have all of these nonsensical pay to win items, and we're somehow left wondering why new players don't stick around?

The Clamp is the least of their problems, and all of the promoting in the world couldn't fix the bigger issues at hand. This game is a mess to anyone jumping in at this point.