Possible Alternative to Incentivize Increasing MR

[Wyldbill]

NOTE: I originally posted this on Reddit.

TLDR at the bottom.

Back in Devstream 43, DE had briefly discussed bringing back the adjustable difficulty setting but decided against it as the numerous nodes and planets effectively functioned in a similar way. Their argument against adding the system back in was it would simply serve to split players apart even further as there simply isn't enough of a playerbase to keep every node populated, especially if there was three+ variants.

My argument would simply be this, DE introduces a matchmaker that allows players to randomly join missions on a certain level scale. Using the matchmaker rewards the player with bonus loot (Think the Defense bonuses in void maps, but already active at the start of a mission). Increasing your MR allows you to search for higher level missions and simultaneously reward a larger amount of loot/experience.

Players could tighten the search at the cost of bonuses, for example if someone wanted to farm Polymer bundles, they could lock the search to Mercury, Venus, or Uranus (Preferably this would be a filter that allows for multiple selections) or rely on luck and go with the broader search of simply "Grineer Only" for more bonuses with a chance that the map may not contain the resource.

Advantages for New Players

Any node that a player starts can now be joined by someone who has opted into the matchmaker with the appropriate settings, thereby livening up many dead nodes.

Increases the potential for new players to find fellow Tenno to play the game with without utilizing the LFG chat.

Advantages for Veterans

Players that opt into joining random missions receive an increase in drops, the wider the search the larger the bonuses.

Provides a diversion for players who don't have anything in mind but wouldn't mind having an excuse to run missions.

Technical Explanations

The matchmaker would probably be locked until MR 5, at which the player would be allowed to automatically be assigned to missions involving enemies up to level 10, every MR after that increases the amount to (Ideally) reach a max defined by the current meta.

Considering the idea is to populate lesser played nodes that are actually seeing players, tightening your search results in a smaller bonus, yes I mean if someone searches for a 30-40 mission and another searches for a 1-40 mission the latter should receive a higher bonus even if they end up in a level 15 mission.

As levels are locked behind mastery, the bonus is incapable of being too OP for new players, ideally if you are someone who can be prepared for literally any mission with a single loadout, you should be rewarded for your dedication.

It would be possible for a player searching for a 1-40 level match to end up in the same match as a player searching for a level 30-40 match. However the one with the wider search will receive more of a bonus at the end of the mission comparatively assuming the rest of the filters were the same.

Bonuses would be kept separate from each player. Someone who seeds a node would receive the typical rewards while someone who uses the matchmaker would receive bonuses.

After the mission, players using the matchmaker will be given the option to immediately jump into another mission with the same settings Possibly add a chain reward?

Preferably the players will be able to designate whether to avoid Nightmare, Void, or Syndicate missions. Conceivably they should be able to define whether to allow all syndicate missions or only ones you are currently wearing a sigil for.

The ideal filters would include the following:

• Level
• Faction
• Planet
• Objective
• Resources
• Special (Nightmare, Void, Syndicate)
• Privacy (Anything aside from public would come at the cost of bonuses)
• In Progress (Host a new matchmade game, Join a game in progress, Join a random matchmade party.

Preferably all of these would be checkboxes, allowing for multiple selections.

Unfortunately I can see the possibility of this being abused with players going completely unprepared into a public match, possibly add a checkbox somewhere on the galaxy map to allow matchmaker joins.

Overall with tweaking this should provide a nice balance of loot to reward veterans and help make the world seem livelier for newer players running random missions in between Apollodorus and Cerberus.

TLDR: Implement a matchmaker that allows veteran players to score additional loot while populating the lesser played nodes usually hosted by newer players. As a side bonus, hopefully alleviate some of the load on popular farming nodes without nerfing the reward from them.

Edited May 17, 2017 by Wyldbill
EDIT 1: Added advantages.

[(PSN)Joshhwwaaaaaa]

You want the nodes that don't see a lot of action to get more action? I think they do this enough already with alerts, invasions, nightmare modes, kuva missions, etc. Lower ranking players can either use google or ask for help in region or recruit. I don't think this change is necessary personally. I'm glad that you want to see all the nodes get utilized though.

[Chipputer]

23 minutes ago, (PS4)Joshhwwaaaaaa said:

I think they do this enough already with alerts, invasions, nightmare modes, kuva missions

All of which are a completely different mission that happens to be on that node. That's not even close to what OP is suggesting.

[Wyldbill]

Another issue with Alerts and the like is that they don't help populate nodes consistently.  At this point I pretty much only run the Nitain alerts and a specific few invasions.  Both of these also have the issue of being relatively short lived, i.e a player happens to run the mission once and have no reason to return.

Ideally the matchmaker just fills the gap with players that are currently playing many of the dead nodes that 95% of the time don't see action as nightmares and alerts aren't a guaranteed thing.  The original intent was to provide another incentive for players to increase their MR as doing so would allow for larger resource bonuses.  Honestly it's just a plus that you could conceivably work this into livening up all the nodes in general.

While the recruiting channel is nice for specific runs and can occasionally grab players to help fresh blood, it's an extra step that we could potentially avoid entirely. Also, recruiting channel in general implies a coordinated run on a specific mission, I can see players in general avoiding this as they may feel it is entirely overkill to enlist players to help with things as mundane as world completion.  This is without saying the chance of someone readily joining you for a world clearing run isn't exactly high.

Edited May 17, 2017 by Wyldbill
Grammar

[NeithanDiniem]

Different matchmaker = splitting the community. Thats the main reason why DE wont do this sort of thing. If it isnt pulling from the existing pool then it is splitting it.

[Wyldbill]

EDIT: This isn't a new matchmaker in the sense that players queue for it and everyone does random missions, it takes players who opt into doing missions within certain filters and tries to fill them into currently existing matches that fulfill the criteria.  If nothing matches the criteria it will put the player into a completely new game but that's about the same as a player starting up a node that currently has 0 squads.

Except it pulls from the existing pool of players and distributes them into already populated matches (For the most part, players can opt to simply randomize a mission in a private match but they lose out on the larger bonuses, on that same note these are the same players that already do everything in private matches so we aren't detracting from the existing playerbase).  It rewards players for randomly joining matches by increasing their potential loot drops from the mission, the more diverse your filters are set to the bigger the bonuses.  This isn't a new mode, it's simply a way to attract veterans into playing older content again utilizing some randomization to keep it interesting while also moderately rewarding.

Edited May 17, 2017 by Wyldbill
Grammar and Elaboration

[Urlan]

I am sorry, but while it seems you have put a decent amount of thought into this idea, I don't see a benefit for the player in doing this yet.

[Wyldbill]

By opting to queue for practically every mission, a player can receive a large increase in the amount of resources earned on said mission, albeit at random.  On that same note the search can be refined however at the loss of a large bonus (The more a person opts out of the smaller the overall bonus).

[Dextral]

One problem? 

Why would a max/high MR need resources?

Unless your someone who boosts every weapon and every frame and gained max MR in in like a month your never going to need them.

Literally the only resource i don't have stupid unusable supplies of is nitain and thats only because i don't need it so dont go out of my way for it. 

 

In my opinion:

- MR needs to unlock significantly harder content "end game". What ever that would be designed as i dont know

- problem is Once you collect your stuff, all content is done your playing for playing sake which is fine. But trust me its boring after awhile. I usually dip in and out of this maybe in 6 months periods ie play for a month or so get all the stuff and leave 

- I literally cant think of a MMO i've played which player with maybe 30-50 hours is able to do everything in game equally as well as someone with 2k+ hours
(of course im not factoring in having all the weapons and maxing all mods/warframes, im just around about summerising how easy it is for someone to get "sortie" / "raid" ready, and yes you can be extremely effective with that small time frame - ie max trinity + mods + hek or bolter prime, maybe soma prime"

Edited May 17, 2017 by Dextral

[Wyldbill]

MR 21 here with 1445 hours and you can always use resources if the Hema is any example.  While it would set a bad precedent if they take resource grinds via the system as the standard amount, part of the resource bonuses could potentially affect drop chances for rarer items.  Hell, I'd go as far as to slightly bolster rare mod drop chances, that alone would be enough to draw "Veteran" players into older content even if the increases itself were minor.

I'm one of those insane people who plan to have absolutely every weapon and frame available in their arsenal, and I'm more than half way done with that but am currently experiencing a plastid famine, this system would allow me to both farm for the resource and potentially help players that just so happen to be playing on maps with plastids as a drop.

Realize the resource drop is just an incentive anyways for players to replay old content, the priority of this system would be to act as an excuse to allocate players into underplayed nodes that currently have open squads for some reason.

DE has been looking into new consumables for the players to sink resources into if the Stims are any indication, I could easily see some rather resource heavy BP's becoming a thing if the rare resource blueprints are any indication.  And while it may seem silly to promote resource surplus in players, it's already a thing and at this point the only way to really solve it would involve allowing players to sacrifice a massive quantity for some amazing buff that would completely change the meta.

This isn't an endgame suggestion, and it's not like I haven't tried to suggest such things, however this would help solve dead nodes by grouping more players outside of the current meta farms.  If anything this is a midgame suggestion to help players earn resources for new weapons while simultaneously spreading out the playerbase.

Endgame suggestions will continue to be impossible to implement until DE either determines what level enemies should be or accepts the fact that powercreep is always in play and continues to enable it.  I have suggested an endgame that involves normalizing a lot of the weapons and mods in the game to allow for a controlled environment that can be adjusted to be difficult with relative ease however we always get stuck on the rewards for such a system.  Problem is people don't want to encourage power creep in the standard PvE even though I'm sure that's a major reason why people continue to play (The promise of virtually unlimited power through mods).  If the rewards allowed players to become even stronger outside of the endgame it would be worth the effort.

Let's be honest, Raids and Sorties are not an endgame, they are yet another daily to complete in a game full of such things.  The Sorties require a little thought for high MR's to plan and execute and the hardest part of raids is gathering eight players that won't screw it up.  Increasing NPC level is no way to go about creating an endgame as CC scales infinitely.

Edited May 17, 2017 by Wyldbill

[DSpite]

I don't understand why you would "filter" by Mastery Rank.

A game like The Division could filter by Gear Score, and at least that would guarantee that everyone in the team is equipped well enough for the mission, even if they might turn out to be bad team players, but MR?

Someone with MR 30 could walk into the mission with Rank 0 everything, and not actually be helpful.

What am I saying here is that adding a FILTER option that does no filtering on a meaningful metric is pointless.

MR is not a measure of player ability to play well. I have an account on MR21 and one on MR8 and my skill level is equal on both, yet you are saying that in order to get into missions with "better rewards" I'm supposed to just <make, then rank it to 30 (by sitting in Akkad spamming my Ultimate), then throw them away and make a new one, rinse repeat> a bunch of weapons I never even have to pull out while in mission.

[Snib]

Bad idea. I get that you just want to get more resources, but I can only see negative consequences of this. There is no need to funnel farming veterans into newbie nodes, newbies generally don't have a good experience when a veteran looking for farm efficiency nukes the map before they even see an enemy.

If you need to farm resources as a high MR player just form a squad with the farm boosting frames, grab some boosters and get cracking.