10 Suggestions to Help This Game from a Veteran Player

[crasher]

I genuinely WANT to WANT to play this game again. It has such potential. It is a niche thoroughly underexploited on consoles.

With all the talk of this game and that game being released - I have to say I've played them but they still do not occupy the niche that this game does.

The devs just need to give me, and my fellow veteran players, a reason to play again; the above suggestions are things that would get folks back into the game.

To be honest: I think the veteran players have already bought all the boosts/vehicles/inv slots and outfits they're probably going to spend money on, and now we're just taking up server space and bandwidth.

The newbs haven't run into the issues while it's all still new and they're spending money on the stuff mentioned above. When they've spent all the money they're going to spend reaching vet status they'll be left wondering why they log on anymore, too.

Notice how much progress has been made, and discussion going on about how they were going to give us vets something to make it worthwhile since they gave all the newbs all 80 perk slots by E-1000?

Once I hit E-4500, (no PVP for me, just some time trials and hotshots left), or once the good players hit E-5000, whats the point of logging in and playing anymore?

There's NO progression. By the time we reach E-3000 we're starting to get annoyed by the bugs that dont get fixed. By the time we reach E-4000, we're really annoyed by the bugs that dont get fixed and the new bugs that get introduced not fixing the old bugs, and we wish our weapons worked as well as they did when we started playing.

And all our friends and clanmates who got tired of it sooner are gone.

NONE of the XP I make counts for anything. It just spills on the ground like so much rainwater.

Lockboxes give PowPoop as any lottery does. It costs me more scrip to buy a lockbox with keys than I make back from selling that crap back to the vendor.

And there are no more places for us to go or things to do.

They want us gone quietly so the load on the servers is all newbs.

[3rdpig]

They want us gone quietly so the load on the servers is all newbs.

They've just about achieved it with me.

[Shadow Andreas]

They want us gone quietly so the load on the servers is all newbs.

crasher, do you truly believe that Trion WANTS to lose any players? I mean seriously......no business EVER wants to lose customers.

[crasher]

crasher, do you truly believe that Trion WANTS to lose any players? I mean seriously......no business EVER wants to lose customers.

We stopped being customers when we bought the last XP boost, Loot boost, Scrip boost etc.
Clan boosts dont exist anymore, but since many clans are empty, so what?
Friends and I used to buy group boosts on a rotating basis. No need for that in a PUG, (most of my regular friends have moved on), and I have no need to buy them for myself, I'm maxed. I have enough scrip that I give newbs who look honest/sincere and like 'good people' 10K to 20K to start them off a little more comfortably

General Steve is proof why the Vets wont need outfits, the newbs don't know know General Steve yet, or that he ALWAYS wears the Uniform Of The Day.

The vets already have a truck if they were going to buy one.

The vets already have enough inv slots to have realized that filling them up with more marshmallow shooters isn't going to solve anything. And buying inv slots to store more mods that all look generic when I disassemble a weapon? I have to store generic stuff that USED to be syn specific because the bug makes them useless to me? What happens when I put a generic mod onto a weapon and then 2 weeks/4 months from now Trion makes a mistake and fixes the bug, and I find that all my weapons have a hodgepodge mix of syn mods? I cant rearrange them to the config I WOULD HAVE BUILT THEM.

They dont need the vets here, we use band width, and we return nothing anymore. We're not customers, we're 'Overhead'.

With all due respect: Prove me wrong.

[Shadow Andreas]

We stopped being customers when we bought the last XP boost, Loot boost, Scrip boost etc.
Clan boosts dont exist anymore, but since many clans are empty, so what?
Friends and I used to buy group boosts on a rotating basis. No need for that in a PUG, (most of my regular friends have moved on), and I have no need to buy them for myself, I'm maxed. I have enough scrip that I give newbs who look honest/sincere and like 'good people' 10K to 20K to start them off a little more comfortably

General Steve is proof why the Vets wont need outfits, the newbs don't know know General Steve yet, or that he ALWAYS wears the Uniform Of The Day.

The vets already have a truck if they were going to buy one.

The vets already have enough inv slots to have realized that filling them up with more marshmallow shooters isn't going to solve anything. And buying inv slots to store more mods that all look generic when I disassemble a weapon? I have to store generic stuff that USED to be syn specific because the bug makes them useless to me? What happens when I put a generic mod onto a weapon and then 2 weeks/4 months from now Trion makes a mistake and fixes the bug, and I find that all my weapons have a hodgepodge mix of syn mods? I cant rearrange them to the config I WOULD HAVE BUILT THEM.

They dont need the vets here, we use band width, and we return nothing anymore. We're not customers, we're 'Overhead'.

I see what your saying....and I will say that I agree that vets in this situation wouldn't buy anything new....unless something was released that they wanted to buy. That is where Trion would have to release things that vets would buy......if anything. I just feel that they don't want to have people leave....the more empty the world....the less a new player will want to play.

It is a vicious cycle and something the requires a fine balance....you need the old players to keep the new players excited and vice versa. I love finding a new person in Mount Tam to show a few things to and help them out. It doesn't happen often because almost no one talks....but I have come across some new people.

[Mr Reloaded]

I'm really beginning to hate this. I ran to 2 minors this morning and got there most of the way through.......I still managed to get about 20 kills and res'd a player and got only Scrip and XP. It's frustrating that I didn't at least get one key.

I think that if you are there when the ArkFall ends and have killed at least a couple enemies.....you should get at least one key.

The worst part it makes no sense, sometimes there have been just 2 of us the whole duration of a minor and finishing second has resulted in no keys. Really not fair at all.

[TANKballs]

I genuinely WANT to WANT to play this game again. It has such potential. It is a niche thoroughly underexploited on consoles.

With all the talk of this game and that game being released - I have to say I've played them but they still do not occupy the niche that this game does.

The devs just need to give me, and my fellow veteran players, a reason to play again; the above suggestions are things that would get folks back into the game.

If only half of the suggestions from the OP were taken to heart, I would actually play again. It sucks that vet players sunk a bunch of real $ and a ton of real time only to have their hopes dashed by crazy nerfs and game reorganization. If we could go back to pre-DLC1, I'd play again in a minute. Did it suck to pay tons of ark to open mod slots? Yup. Did it suck to have to hunt the forums for mods? Nope, that's how I met great players who helped me and who I could help. Crazy to see how many of these players left.

[Shadow Andreas]

The worst part it makes no sense, sometimes there have been just 2 of us the whole duration of a minor and finishing second has resulted in no keys. Really not fair at all.

Tell me about it!

[crasher]

I see what your saying....and I will say that I agree that vets in this situation wouldn't buy anything new....unless something was released that they wanted to buy. That is where Trion would have to release things that vets would buy......if anything. I just feel that they don't want to have people leave....the more empty the world....the less a new player will want to play.

It is a vicious cycle and something the requires a fine balance....you need the old players to keep the new players excited and vice versa. I love finding a new person in Mount Tam to show a few things to and help them out. It doesn't happen often because almost no one talks....but I have come across some new people.

In reverse order:

Helping newbs can be fun and satisfying.
But there are definite lines that seriously restrict the help in the beginning stages of the game.
* Any help you give has a counterproductive effect. It reduces the the fun they have by exploring and finding things themselves.
* You already shot that guy, on your first time thru. Unless you're standing in the background offering advice to somebody too busy to type or read, you're going to shoot threats and fix situations the newb will never have the chance to do for the first time, again.
* You can breed a sense of dependence in the beginning and when when stuff gets harder the newb is ill equipped to use Trion-Game-Logic to figure out the new stuff. They didn't learn it in the beginning, they dont have it when it gets harder. As such: HOW have you 'Helped'?

* Later on, you're pairing or grouping with more seasoned players, they dont so much need the help of someone who's seen too much, they still need to figure stuff out to make it fun.
-- I remember playing the first few days when were were all new and seeing a Scrapper Progen for the first time. It was a night mission and it was over by Verdant Ridge. None of us had a clue how to efficiently do the mission, we were all trying new things and many for the first time. It went on seemingly forever (as long as it could, of course) and it was some of the most memorable time I've spent in the game.
You can't take that away from the newbs by whipping out your Volge Battle Rifle and mowing stuff down in front of them.

New stuff for vets:
Fine, we're vets, so we're the ones they've been promising stuff to the longest.

I have comment and lists of stuff in other threads that point out the things we've been promised.

We're called 'impatient' and 'pessimistic' by the newbs. Well, in fairness only some of us are called that, most of us have left the game, and most of those wont be back.

Trion wants to show the vets something? They best not wait til all the vets have left, or it's wasted effort.
Trion wants to sell me something at this point? What do I need that wont be 'Pay to Win'? I dont want unfair advantages, I want my efforts at gathering the best weapons I can find and modding them the best way I can to be possible. Any mods I use now cant be used again if I find a better weapon. What are they going to do? SELL me a fix to a problem caused by the bug? Or SELL me weapons to replace the weapons that I invested ALL THOSE hours in?

I could chalk it up to bad luck, salvage everything and start over again, as an unarmed newb with vast XP who cant do the things I used to be able to because I have to go out and earn all those weapons that have been nerfed, and drop at a lower rate than they used to?

It's not a vicious cycle. We're being escorted to witness The Great Egress, "Step this way, Folks! You don't want to miss it!".

Show me the improvements and new stuff that wont break the game, or admit you can't.
I don't need this game becoming Rift because Rift devs are now writing it.
I dont need things that are going to cause more lag because lag is breaking the game for many people.

Show me you can fix what you broke before you try to dazzle me with new shiney stuff, and THEN show me you have a plan.
So far you've done little of either and 'Soon' is wearing thin.

[Shadow Andreas]

In reverse order:

Helping newbs can be fun and satisfying.
But there are definite lines that seriously restrict the help in the beginning stages of the game.
* Any help you give has a counterproductive effect. It reduces the the fun they have by exploring and finding things themselves.
* You already shot that guy, on your first time thru. Unless you're standing in the background offering advice to somebody too busy to type or read, you're going to shoot threats and fix situations the newb will never have the chance to do for the first time, again.
* You can breed a sense of dependence in the beginning and when when stuff gets harder the newb is ill equipped to use Trion-Game-Logic to figure out the new stuff. They didn't learn it in the beginning, they dont have it when it gets harder. As such: HOW have you 'Helped'?

* Later on, you're pairing or grouping with more seasoned players, they dont so much need the help of someone who's seen too much, they still need to figure stuff out to make it fun.
-- I remember playing the first few days when were were all new and seeing a Scrapper Progen for the first time. It was a night mission and it was over by Verdant Ridge. None of us had a clue how to efficiently do the mission, we were all trying new things and many for the first time. It went on seemingly forever (as long as it could, of course) and it was some of the most memorable time I've spent in the game.
You can't take that away from the newbs by whipping out your Volge Battle Rifle and mowing stuff down in front of them.

New stuff for vets:
Fine, we're vets, so we're the ones they've been promising stuff to the longest.

I have comment and lists of stuff in other threads that point out the things we've been promised.

We're called 'impatient' and 'pessimistic' by the newbs. Well, in fairness only some of us are called that, most of us have left the game, and most of those wont be back.

Trion wants to show the vets something? They best not wait til all the vets have left, or it's wasted effort.
Trion wants to sell me something at this point? What do I need that wont be 'Pay to Win'? I dont want unfair advantages, I want my efforts at gathering the best weapons I can find and modding them the best way I can to be possible. Any mods I use now cant be used again if I find a better weapon. What are they going to do? SELL me a fix to a problem caused by the bug? Or SELL me weapons to replace the weapons that I invested ALL THOSE hours in?

I could chalk it up to bad luck, salvage everything and start over again, as an unarmed newb with vast XP who cant do the things I used to be able to because I have to go out and earn all those weapons that have been nerfed, and drop at a lower rate than they used to?

It's not a vicious cycle. We're being escorted to witness The Great Egress, "Step this way, Folks! You don't want to miss it!".

Show me the improvements and new stuff that wont break the game, or admit you can't.
I don't need this game becoming Rift because Rift devs are now writing it.
I dont need things that are going to cause more lag because lag is breaking the game for many people.

Show me you can fix what you broke before you try to dazzle me with new shiney stuff, and THEN show me you have a plan.
So far you've done little of either and 'Soon' is wearing thin.

I do see what you mean....and agree with most of it. I do want the game fixed more than anything and I do want things for the vets to keep them engaged. I hope that they get these things worked out before DLC 2. I don't have any insight or special connection to Trion....but in my opinion they don't want any players to leave......that is all I was trying to say.

As for helping a new player....I meant more of how the UI works and to change or reset your weapons once they are mastered....stuff like that. I don't see any harm in that....in fact I wish I had known to change weapons in the beginning. I will give advise on how to fight enemies and will even tag along now and then....but I'm not charging at the front killing everything for them....it's their game to enjoy for as long as they do.