Old content and commendations

[Soul_of_Flames]

I know I'm beating a dead horse bringing up this discussion again. However, I think that the way the commendations were handled recently was in very poor judgement. So I wanted to make a thread to talk about ways they could have done the same thing but to a better effect.

 

First, yes I'm talking about the removal of ultimate comms from older content. And if you're going to be an ignorant ***** and assume I'm talking about how that was a bad idea, I encourage you to not read this sentence and automatically make a post so the rest of us can laugh at you.

 

Secondly, I do believe they were right to adjust the commendation drops to prevent the unintended pace of gearing progress. However, the way they did it was wrong. Here's why:

 

-Old content suddenly has no incentive to be done other than a couple boring decorations and achievements.

-The ratio of new content compared to old content is completely insignificant. It's very easy to burn yourself out on it.

-The difficulty bar is higher this time around than it has been. This equates to less percentages of people completing content, and therefore lowering the drive for people to want to do new content. (This relates specifically to Story mode. Hard and Nightmare modes are perfectly fine the way they are)

 

All this adds up to one thing: lack of viable content for the majority of players. This means players are getting bored because there is nothing to do and are being turned off from playing the game. Just as a point of reference, my guild has been around (and active) since launch, but as of recently, we've been absolutely dead. When people come on, they say there's nothing to do and complain about being bored.

 

 

Obviously there is a problem. And the removal of comms from old content is one of the major forces behind this issue. So, how could this have been avoided?

 

- The removal of Ultimate comms SPECIFICALLY didn't actually work the way the devs intended. The reason why the comm drops were nerfed was because players were gearing at an unintentionally quick pace. Basically, players were rushing to the end of the gearing chain at a pace the developers couldn't keep up with. However, the way they nerfed them did not alleviate the problem. That's because they were nerfed in an unbalanced fashion.

 

"Unbalanced" in that they only nerfed the progression to 198 gear, but 192 gear is still (now, more than ever) way to easy to reach. This didn't fix the problem. In fact, I believe it made it worse. It's worse because now players can rush to get 192 gear, but then be stuck in limbo over getting 198 gear. (Note I'm talking about your average player here. Role players and raiders are not my intended example for this point). (Note2: I also want to point out that I'm fully aware that commendation gear is utter garbage, which is more of a reason for why people shouldn't care if other players farm it.)

 

- They could have fixed the issue simply be rounding out the comm drops evenly, as opposed to the way they did it.

 

For example:

1. All old content would have to drop at least 60% less Elite commendations than they currently do. (To slow the pace of 192 gearing)

2. All old content would have to drop at least 80% less Ultimate commendations than they did prior to the nerf. (For example, maybe only the last boss dropped them)

3. All new content would need to drop 50% less Elite commendations.

4. All new content Weekly and Daily missions would give better rewards to offset the commendation drop rate nerf.(possibly 4-8 more Elite comms or 2-5 more ultimate comms each)

5. Endgame Basic commendation venders need items that people really want and are willing to earn and spend there comms on them again and again. (For example, a Matter Transubstantiator for 600 Basic commendations)

 

These adjustments would allow players to have incentive to do old content because the pace at which they gain elite comms would be lowered. Meaning they would still profit out of doing old content, at least until they filled out in 192 gear. At which point, they could still run old stuff just for the small 2-4 ultimate comms that drop at the end of them.

 

This leaves players an outlet to go when they get burned out of running the new content over and over again. In addition, even the new content would have slower comm drop rates, thus making the grind take that much longer but simultaneously prolonging the incentive to run content.

 

Finally, by increasing the demand for basic comms, old content, including dailies, is suddenly a much more viable option.

 

 

So really, if I'm trying to say anything at all with this post, it's that any future comm nerfs should be given a second thought. Because the flubbup of the last nerf is having repercussions on the current entertainment value of the game's content.

[XORDYH]

You might be interested in these changes then: https://imgur.com/gallery/QzkmP

[mbfhl]

BORING decorations and achievements? Since when did you get to decide what I find enjoyable or not?

[nobadee]

BORING decorations and achievements? Since when did you get to decide what I find enjoyable or not?

 

He is stating his opinion; stop being a narcissist and derailing the topic.

[LukeTheGeek]

-Old content suddenly has no incentive to be done other than a couple boring decorations and achievements.

-The ratio of new content compared to old content is completely insignificant. It's very easy to burn yourself out on it.

-The difficulty bar is higher this time around than it has been. This equates to less percentages of people completing content, and therefore lowering the drive for people to want to do new content. (This relates specifically to Story mode. Hard and Nightmare modes are perfectly fine the way they are).

 

6 HM FP's, same as 2.0

2 new ops on release, same as 2.0

1 new daily mission area, same as 2.0

Plus I remember many a pug group failing on Council SM for the first couple of months of release, sure I agree that a certain third boss was made a lot harder than intended but is doable. As for the hard mode FP's, let's just remember it is HARD MODE.