First of all I did not post this from the point of view of asking for more items to stack or for suggesting ways to improve decorating the bases. That horse has been beat to death in other threads. I freely admit I am a stacker, but this is to address SG/VG membership issues with recent changes.
I am just curious if it has occurred to anyone else that a lot of the changes since i13 seem geared towards the extinction of Bases and Super groups? It seems to me that the following changes drastically reduced the need/desire for new players to join Super Groups listed here in no particular order:
Pathing - While I love the easier stacking introduced by removing pathing, I do also miss being able to schedule base raids. I noticed a huge drop in SG Membership in all the groups I lead or I am just a member of with that change alone. Along with that I also see much less interaction between coalitions since that change also…
- It seems to me that they should change it so that Secured Bases have pathing enabled so that SG/VGs that want to do base raids can. Then they can return Items of Power.
- They could match the plot sizes in Secret (unsecured) Bases to those of Secured bases so the Base Builders and Stackers among us can have their fun too.
Items of Power – In my opinion this was a step towards increasing SG Memberships. I mean who would not want to be in a SG that buffs all it’s members. But because they could not get the Cathedral of Pain trial working they scrapped that Idea. Well now that the Cathedral of Pain is back why haven’t they tried to bring back IOP’s?
- See the Pathing solutions for the fix to this.
No SG/VG access in Praetoria, Why? To me this seems like an open declaration of the end of SG/VG support by the Dev’s. I say this because many new players start playing just for the new areas. The fact that they cannot join SGs until level 20 when they leave Praetoria gets them use to traveling and finding teams with no SG support. I have had several ask me in tell “Why would I want to join a SG when it will cost me xp without gaining me anything?”
- Why not have four classes of Super Groups; Hero (SG), Villain (VG), Loyalist (LG) and Resistance (RG)
- See Merged Transportation.
Merged Transportation – In my opinion another nail in the coffin for SGs aka “why go to the base when I can get there just as fast by train?”
- Give all four types the ability to get Porters to all the Zones, Blue, Red, Yellow and any other they dream up in the future. This would be a boon to membership, instead of looking for a smugglers sub, going to Pocket D or RWZ only to have to then hop on another form of transportation players could again have “One stop shopping” in their respective bases.
- If the Dev’s argument is that not having all the porters is preventing a Villain or Hero from crossing into enemy territory then simply add the same security feature that already exists on the exit portals in Pocket D and RWZ.
Going Free to Play – While I do agree that going F2P will bring in lots of new players, it says right in the
Side-by-Side Comparison that free accounts cannot join SGs/VGs. So just like was mentioned in the Praetoria section this means a whole other segment of the population that will not experience the benefits of group membership. So when (or IF) they start paying they like the Praetorian contingent will question the value of giving up XP for Prestige sake.
Why not let them join SGs and give them limited access?
- They can use the porters but can not use the salvage and enhancement bins. (thus negating potential theft issues)
- Let them have more freedom on base crafting tables and vault access.
If I had more time I am sure I could find more examples of the recent detriments and ways to fix them…
Feel free to add to the list or correct me where I am wrong, but please keep it constructive.
Maybe you'll see some of them later in the year when I21 drops.
