127171-the-future-success-of-wildstar

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Dearest Carbine, I've taken the liberty to write out a simple guide to help lead you on the path to success with the upcoming transition to F2P. I have maintained a sub since launch day and have experienced all levels of content, from spamming Malgrave Trail for the healing psyblade(good one btw) all the way to Avatus. Although I'm sure a few will disagree with some of the points I make, I will try to present a convincing argument and reasons why certain things are on this list and that their implementation is vital to the success of Wildstar. Let's get started.
 
*Not listed in any particular order of importance*
 
 1. World bosses need to be relevant content. At this point, nobody wants or needs to do world bosses. Why is this? Well, they're boring, buggy(buzz buzz), and offer no rewards. This hurts people trying to attune and prepare for raids. With a large influx of players trying out this game, it's important to make sure they have an enjoyable experience. This won't be the case when people are stuck searching for people in their guilds to help them and only getting one or two people to respond, if that. On top of that, they'll need to choose which non-bugged boss they want to face. This whole issue can be solved with a few easy steps. First, FIX THE BUGGED BOSSES. There is NO excuse for bugged world bosses after a year of release. Then, lower the respawn rate on world bosses and add a world boss kill to the contract board. Lastly, add a direct reward to the world boss kill, aside from just a contract. Maybe make them drop a runic flux and/or some Eldan signs. It doesn't take much and it will get people to WANT to do the content that you've created instead of making it feel like a chore.
 
 2. Spice up current boring content. Aside from the world bosses, there is plenty of content that people absolutely dread. Malgrave Trail and SSM are the two big ones that come to mind. There are a few others which are a little less painful, such as Crimelords of Whitevale and the entire Whitevale questing zone, for that matter. For Malgrave, the caravan is just too slow and there's no real challenge to the adventure. On top of that, you spend 80% of the adventure just wandering around the giant map picking things up. Have the caravan move a bit faster and add some random speed boosts around the map to make traversing the desert at least a BIT more entertaining. Crimelords is a little too long. SSM is in a pretty good spot now after the rewards were buffed, but I feel there's still a little too much trash and that alone turns away a lot of people from it. Whitevale needs something. I really have no idea what, but a lot of people I've talked to, including myself, find the questing in that zone to be absolutely dull. New people that will be playing the game for the first time will most likely think the same thing. This is obviously not a good thing to have one of the earlier leveling zones to be so tedious and boring. Add some more things that let you get around faster. Maybe some fun new quests that are purely there for entertainment factor.
 
 3. Low level dungeons are leaving people with a bad impression and many are skipping them entirely. This one is a bit tricky. As it is right now, it's hard to find enough low-level players to run Normal STL or KV. It's even harder to find a high-level player to do it with you. I'm going to throw out a few ideas here. Since I may get a lot of flak for saying some of these things and the solutions I have aren't perfect, I'll leave you to pick and choose which options/combinations you like. 
   -  Slightly nerf STL and KV. All it needs is a tweak to how much IA mobs have. Make it no more than 2 per mob. With 2, a single person can learn to interrupt without having to say "Well, it had 3 and I threw 2 and nobody else went so what's the point of even using it.." Also, make cast times slightly longer to let people learn to react to things. And don't get me wrong, I'm not for nerfing content, but at this point, who cares? It's a level 20 dungeon designed to be fun for new players. While it may be pretty fun for the first 30 minutes of wiping due to unexpected difficulty the first time you go in there, the novely quickly wears off after you hit the 3 hour mark and still haven't killed Stormtalon.
   -  Add a "mentor dungeon" system. This will be a separate option when you choose the dungeon to CHOOSE if you are okay with the nerfed dungeon listed above as well as inviting a level 50 who queued for the dungeon to guide the new players. But why would a level 50 queue for low level dungeons in the first place!?
   -  Make it a contract.
   -  Give rewards for the level 50 character that guided the group. (Flux and some Eldan signs)
 
 4. Fix zone lag from too many people doing events and such (Scorchwing). Pretty self-explanatory.
 
 5. WARPLOTS!.....need an overhaul. Make them more accessible like a BG so people can just hop in, set up a bit and go at it. Give the option to select pre-made bases and such so players don't need to spend a fortune on a PvP match. Also make sure the rewards are worth the effort.
 
 6. New raids. Initialization Core Y-83 is about as fun as drop 2. I really don't want to go too much into this because the whole thing is just a mess. BUT! You're due for a new raid very soon. A real raid. Drop 6 can live without one, but if there's no new carrots for people to chase by drop 7, I can guarantee that the top end guilds right now will be completely burnt out after waiting half a year without any new challenging content. Sure, it's just a small number of people. Just the 1%, right? No big deal. Well, it kinda is.. If we can assume that drop 6 will be host to the F2P crowd. Imagine what they'll think when the next big drop has a BRAND NEW RAID in it. They'll say "Golly wiz! This game sure is swell! Look at all this neat stuff Carbino is doing!" And that right there is how you get/keep people hooked.
 
 7. Okay, maybe you already guessed this was going to show up. P2W. You just can't do it. I know you said you won't, but we both know you'd just be shooting yourself in the foot if you decide to. This is just here to remind you.
 
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That's it for the "big" things. Just a few small things that might make people happy and could easily benefit the game.
 
1. A section of the forum exclusive to people who are subbed to the game. Maybe add a little icon or something next to their name so you know they sub.
 
2. Increased EXP for leveling in a group. Yeah, why not? It encourages group play. Good stuff.
 
3. PvP server revival? Or just a note or some kind of notification letting people know of the population of the servers. I wonder how many people logged in, made their first character on a PvP server, cried "DED GAEM" and quit after 10 minutes. I'm sure you guys have a plan for servers for F2P launch, so I guess this is just a reminder saying that you shouldn't neglect the people who DO want to roll on PvP servers (For whatever reason.. :rolleyes:).
 
 
I will continue to add to this list as I think of things. Feel free to comment on your thoughts and your own ideas.	
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i like most of the points you raised (not certain about all the solutions though)
 
i'd add rallying/downleveling to a certain extent when going to lower level zones and instances.
this would help keep all content more relevant.	
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I loathe forced down-leveling. LOATHE IT.
 
If I need to go back to Algoroc to farm Iron for my dailies, the absolute LAST THING I want is to have to fight for my life, like some level 8 newbcake. No, no, no. Just no.
 
I made it through that zone already. I moved on. When I come back, I do NOT want to be level 10 again. That crap is the one reason I walked away from Guild Wars 2 and never, ever looked back. That was pure crap, on every level.
 
Just no.	
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i like most of the points you raised (not certain about all the solutions though)
 
i'd add rallying/downleveling to a certain extent when going to lower level zones and instances.
this would help keep all content more relevant.
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With the malgrave thing, what would be nice is being allowed to use your mount. I would love that when i go searching for bug bombs or food crates. I think the caravan speed is good enough since the last boost. I don't want it going to fast while I'm out searching for supplies. 
 
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That's it for the "big" things. Just a few small things that might make people happy and could easily benefit the game.
 
1. A section of the forum exclusive to people who are subbed to the game. Maybe add a little icon or something next to their name so you know they sub.
 
 
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			I don't fundamentally disagree with anything you posted here except for any place you used the word nerf :ph34r:	
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I loathe forced down-leveling. LOATHE IT.
 
If I need to go back to Algoroc to farm Iron for my dailies, the absolute LAST THING I want is to have to fight for my life, like some level 8 newbcake. No, no, no. Just no.
 
I made it through that zone already. I moved on. When I come back, I do NOT want to be level 10 again. That crap is the one reason I walked away from Guild Wars 2 and never, ever looked back. That was pure crap, on every level.
 
Just no.
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			I think your idea of "ruining" and mine are probably not the same thing. ;)	
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I think your idea of "ruining" and mine are probably not the same thing. ;)
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if i'm a lowbie and see this big world boss and then twenty high level DS geared people come in and faceroll it while i watch on the side...
just bad.
imo, of course ;)
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And see, if that were ME ... I'd run up and try and get my swing on to be sure I got credit for having all those badasses taking down a boss for me!
 
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			The downscaling of world bosses is fine as it is. Other tweaks are what's necessary.	
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The downscaling of world bosses is fine as it is. Other tweaks are what's necessary.
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 1. World bosses need to be relevant content. At this point, nobody wants or needs to do world bosses. Why is this? Well, they're boring, buggy(buzz buzz), and offer no rewards. This hurts people trying to attune and prepare for raids. With a large influx of players trying out this game, it's important to make sure they have an enjoyable experience. This won't be the case when people are stuck searching for people in their guilds to help them and only getting one or two people to respond, if that. On top of that, they'll need to choose which non-bugged boss they want to face. This whole issue can be solved with a few easy steps. First, FIX THE BUGGED BOSSES. There is NO excuse for bugged world bosses after a year of release. Then, lower the respawn rate on world bosses and add a world boss kill to the contract board. Lastly, add a direct reward to the world boss kill, aside from just a contract. Maybe make them drop a runic flux and/or some Eldan signs. It doesn't take much and it will get people to WANT to do the content that you've created instead of making it feel like a chore.
 
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I don't think any of those tweaks are necessary, they're just what you personally would like to see. For example on dungeons, we worked hard in beta to balance those early dungeons. We didn't have any higher level gear to use (because it didn't exist and we were level capped) and could complete the dungeons fine. The point of the IA is to specifically teach groups how to work together stacking interrupts. It's the natural progression at that point. If you don't want to rely on other people that much, then that's what they made Shiphands and Adventures for. When the 'problem' you're trying to solve can be handled by a 30 second conversation with the rest of the team, there's no call to nerf the content.
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Quick hit idea for keeping world bosses relevant.
 
Make world bosses / events the most efficient way to farm
Omnibits. Once a week (once per reset) per boss you can loot a bag O' bits from each world boss/event. Make it so that this is the most efficient way to farm currency for the cash shop.
 
In my super ideal world all players could farm bits but only signature players could spend them but... That's another thread altogether.
 
I feel like something like that could help keep them relevant for many drops to come.	
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			Just say NO to forced downlevelling.	
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I agree that reducing IA sounds bad and that people shouldn't be given a "free pass" However, having the same amount of IA as vet dungeons is completely absurd simply due to the fact that people do not have access to all of their interrupts at level 20. Engineers, for example, unlock their second interrupt at 31, or they can choose to bring their Zap to tier 4 at level 25. And if a tweak is something that people want to see, why not give it to them? The game is supposed to be fun, right?
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TEAMWORK
 
3 IA isn't unreasonable if you expect everyone in a group of 5 to have 1 interrupt. Your tweak is something only some people want to see. The people who make the game and who tested it are pretty comfortable with it. When juggling two roughly equal sized groups, the decision between changing and staying the same is easy, don't change.
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Hey OP, just as an FYI, TT has confirmed nerfs to leveling dungons are coming: they are removing IA from some trash mobs and reducing some white damage. Also, they are adding some QoL stuff like more graveyards and speed buffs in SSM.
 
Finally, they are changing KV to a level 25 dungeon, so it would seem to me people can just bypass Whitevale altogether. It seems you and Carbine are on the same wavelength. :)
 
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TEAMWORK
 
3 IA isn't unreasonable if you expect everyone in a group of 5 to have 1 interrupt. Your tweak is something only some people want to see. The people who make the game and who tested it are pretty comfortable with it. When juggling two roughly equal sized groups, the decision between changing and staying the same is easy, don't change.
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Hey OP, just as an FYI, TT has confirmed nerfs to leveling dungons are coming: they are removing IA from some trash mobs and reducing some white damage. Also, they are adding some QoL stuff like more graveyards and speed buffs in SSM.
 
Finally, they are changing KV to a level 25 dungeon, so it would seem to me people can just bypass Whitevale altogether. It seems you and Carbine are on the same wavelength. :)
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			Most of the people I talked to really enjoyed Augmentors 20, including me.	
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Most of the people I talked to really enjoyed Augmentors 20, including me.
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I recently completed the level 20 dungeons with pugs, none of us having completed them before. In my opinion they are perfect in terms of difficulty. Yes it was hard, and yes we wiped a few times, but each time we knew what we did wrong and progressed at the next attempt. 
 
I found the whole experience amazing I had so much fun. They really didn't feel too punishing at all, when I run dungeon content I expect a challenge. If they do nerf them, I hope they just make an easier mode to accommodate those that want it.	
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1. This will probably (and MUST) be fixed with the F2P Mega-Patch. The bugginess World Bosses and their outright irrelevancy post-Attunment are long overdue for fixing.
 
2. SSM should probably get the(dammit I can't remember the name of this WoW instance) Treatment. SSM Eas/West whatever. It's a long run even if you've gotten gold. This should have been fixed. So many people were sitting at 3/4 because of this place. It's tough for new people and too long for a Pug grouping system(LFD).
 
3. I only agree with the IA nerf. That should be more than enough.
 
4. The Defile...nuff said..
 
5. PVP is silly! I hope they remove it! LOL jk but it's PVP. I don't engage so I have no thoughts beyond getting it to 20-25. 30 is still too high. The average Guild who raids will have around 25 Capped players because of the 20 bodies requirement. One more size drop should open the WarPlots floodgate.
 
6. Everything you list here is likely to be addrtessed in the F2P Mega-Patch.
 
7. I agree and with so many cosmetic systems in place(Housing, Mounts, Costumes) it shouldn't even be neccessary. A lot of Raiders will probably remain subbed as well(Not that they have to but it's beneficial if they do).	
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			These are all pretty good suggestions!	
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I agree that reducing IA sounds bad and that people shouldn't be given a "free pass" However, having the same amount of IA as vet dungeons is completely absurd simply due to the fact that people do not have access to all of their interrupts at level 20. Engineers, for example, unlock their second interrupt at 31, or they can choose to bring their Zap to tier 4 at level 25. And if a tweak is something that people want to see, why not give it to them? The game is supposed to be fun, right?
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But when you're in a 5 man group, you have at least 5 potential interrupts - even at level 20. 3 IA is not a huge hurdle.
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I'll give you 2 reasons why it should be nerfed. Since I refuse to accept "It's really not that hard" as an argument.
 
1. Not only do both veteran dungeons and normal dungeons have the same amount of IA on mobs, but you have less access to interrupts, fewer LAS slots, and possibly not even using CDR amps.
 
2. While it's certainly possible in STL to interrupt a Rejuvenate, for example, it's extremely difficult to get the almost certain next cast of it due to low group dps. At that point, when it's not even possible to interrupt a trash mob, it gets frustrating for everyone.
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You can already do this, it's just not forced on you automatically.
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I don't fundamentally disagree with anything you posted here except for any place you used the word nerf :ph34r:
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1. This will probably (and MUST) be fixed with the F2P Mega-Patch. The bugginess World Bosses and their outright irrelevancy post-Attunment are long overdue for fixing.
 
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			The game's future is hindered on whether or not Mechari are allowed to wear shoes.	
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The game's future is hindered on whether or not Mechari are allowed to wear shoes.
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 3. Low level dungeons are leaving people with a bad impression and many are skipping them entirely. This one is a bit tricky. As it is right now, it's hard to find enough low-level players to run Normal STL or KV. It's even harder to find a high-level player to do it with you. I'm going to throw out a few ideas here. Since I may get a lot of flak for saying some of these things and the solutions I have aren't perfect, I'll leave you to pick and choose which options/combinations you like. 
   -  Slightly nerf STL and KV. All it needs is a tweak to how much IA mobs have. Make it no more than 2 per mob. With 2, a single person can learn to interrupt without having to say "Well, it had 3 and I threw 2 and nobody else went so what's the point of even using it.." Also, make cast times slightly longer to let people learn to react to things. And don't get me wrong, I'm not for nerfing content, but at this point, who cares? It's a level 20 dungeon designed to be fun for new players. While it may be pretty fun for the first 30 minutes of wiping due to unexpected difficulty the first time you go in there, the novely quickly wears off after you hit the 3 hour mark and still haven't killed Stormtalon.
   -  Add a "mentor dungeon" system. This will be a separate option when you choose the dungeon to CHOOSE if you are okay with the nerfed dungeon listed above as well as inviting a level 50 who queued for the dungeon to guide the new players. But why would a level 50 queue for low level dungeons in the first place!?
   -  Make it a contract.
   -  Give rewards for the level 50 character that guided the group. (Flux and some Eldan signs)
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Just want to add: They should put it on Steam the day its available as F2P. I think it will rise to the top 5 list within a month and possibly #1 in the MMORPG category there. Not necessarily require that people go through Steam to download the game - continue to offer the launcher/patcher through the website, but simply make Steam an additional channel of availability. 
 
Hopefully the SteamDB entry is an indicator of this happening. 
 
Coupling what they're doing already with adding it to Steam will, IMO, ensure many years of fruitful operation. 
 
I also vote 'No' for the forced down-levelling idea. 	
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Hell no to forced down-leveling. Awful awful system. Tex pretty much laid it out; feeling powerful after you've put the effort into strengthening your character is a huge part of ANY game, MMO or otherwise. If you want to mentor a low-level player for the fun of it, it's in your power to do so already.
 
World bosses can be made more relevant through loot drops or contracts. As some have stated, make them drop a mini-pet version of themselves (like Honeygrave and Scorchwing do; I've seen more groups for Honeygrave since Drop 5 than I've seen in the last few months combined), make them drop loot that is relevant to level 50 players (on par with adventure blues/purples), add a T3 contract to kill 2-3 world bosses.	
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			I'm not sure where anyone came up with the topic of forced down-leveling...	
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Just want to add: They should put it on Steam the day its available as F2P. I think it will rise to the top 5 list within a month and possibly #1 in the MMORPG category there. Not necessarily require that people go through Steam to download the game - continue to offer the launcher/patcher through the website, but simply make Steam an additional channel of availability. 
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