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I don't know why people want to pretend like the population is remotely good simply because we don't have hard numbers one way or another.
I don't think anybody in this thread said or implied that the population is remotely good. I've personally said that the population is very dead, being high enough only to fill boats and sustain a workable economy. What I did imply, however, is that the population is no more or less dead than it was pre-Rise. Note that "pre-Rise" doesn't mean "the highest pre-Rise peaks" - it simply means pre-Rise, lulls and all.
Comparing activity now to activity at the launch of S3 is pretty skewed as that was a major content launch which brought back a lot of players. You'd probably need to wait for S4 or at the very least a few proper, full episodes before drawing that kind of comparison.
@Enigmataro
I read your suggestion but it's quite silly to even comment it... Why I should go naked or with crap gear in a raid that was OK till some time ago just to last longer as a "desperate solution" when it could be simple split into several difficulties like it was before or hp party scaled and give them decent drops to make it useful and enjoyable?
Because beginners refuse to do easy mode back then (for pride probably), and no veterans would lend their hands to assist these people in normal/hard mode prerise. These people would've quit w/o even able to finish s1.
You might say, why not use mega? How would these players have gold or nx for mega when they start anew?
That was the first issue devcat had to resolve, so they had to make the standard normal mode we have now, and having different modes on the table right off the bat simply confuses these players.
Nobody does hero s1 back in the days anyway, when the difficulties doesn't reward anything substantial. That's probably why they butcher the difficulties.
Again - they didn't nerf most of the content. They streamlined progression into the current content cycle. There's a difference here that I feel people aren't grasping. The game isn't healthy enough (and there isn't enough time in the day for the average player) to sustain both S2 and S3 as a means of relevant endgame progression.
@notred I have to disagree with you here. They definitely nerf the content. In addition to making most of the "raid" bosses killable with one or two combos ( a fact that didn't exist before RISE) they also change the mechanics of the bosses. I'll name a few examples. In Lionotus, Verafim no longer shoots the black spheres or heals. This at least required you to have a little skill to either get out of the way and time your hits or to break him. Original Glas no longer can grab you. With no fear of being grabbed He might as well be a soggy marshmallow. Titan can no longer stun you and they should at least give him an unblockable move like he originally was meant to have. Thor use to have a 1HitKO with one of his lightening strikes. that was removed. Juggernaut no longer has a 1HitKO ceiling swipe... etc. All these bosses now lack consequences, which makes them boring. That's what I mean when I said they were nerf. No need to learn a boss's patterns. You just walk in, swing away and he'll be dead sooner rather than later.
@notred I have to disagree with you here. They definitely nerf the content. In addition to making most of the "raid" bosses killable with one or two combos ( a fact that didn't exist before RISE) they also change the mechanics of the bosses. I'll name a few examples...
You misunderstood me, so I'll rephrase.
They nerfed content which was irrelevant to the current content cycle and shifted the available means of progression, which IMO was an appropriate move in terms of content sustainability considering the game's population. I guess the point here is that there's a difference between nerfing content and obsoleting content - it really isn't much different of a concept from power creep naturally making older content obsolete.
That said, again, I do think that classic S1/S2 difficulty should return as an option for those boats, for fun.
Comments
I don't think anybody in this thread said or implied that the population is remotely good. I've personally said that the population is very dead, being high enough only to fill boats and sustain a workable economy. What I did imply, however, is that the population is no more or less dead than it was pre-Rise. Note that "pre-Rise" doesn't mean "the highest pre-Rise peaks" - it simply means pre-Rise, lulls and all.
Comparing activity now to activity at the launch of S3 is pretty skewed as that was a major content launch which brought back a lot of players. You'd probably need to wait for S4 or at the very least a few proper, full episodes before drawing that kind of comparison.
Because beginners refuse to do easy mode back then (for pride probably), and no veterans would lend their hands to assist these people in normal/hard mode prerise. These people would've quit w/o even able to finish s1.
You might say, why not use mega? How would these players have gold or nx for mega when they start anew?
That was the first issue devcat had to resolve, so they had to make the standard normal mode we have now, and having different modes on the table right off the bat simply confuses these players.
Nobody does hero s1 back in the days anyway, when the difficulties doesn't reward anything substantial. That's probably why they butcher the difficulties.
I was simply leaving reply to the OP, not your wall of texts.
@notred I have to disagree with you here. They definitely nerf the content. In addition to making most of the "raid" bosses killable with one or two combos ( a fact that didn't exist before RISE) they also change the mechanics of the bosses. I'll name a few examples. In Lionotus, Verafim no longer shoots the black spheres or heals. This at least required you to have a little skill to either get out of the way and time your hits or to break him. Original Glas no longer can grab you. With no fear of being grabbed He might as well be a soggy marshmallow. Titan can no longer stun you and they should at least give him an unblockable move like he originally was meant to have. Thor use to have a 1HitKO with one of his lightening strikes. that was removed. Juggernaut no longer has a 1HitKO ceiling swipe... etc. All these bosses now lack consequences, which makes them boring. That's what I mean when I said they were nerf. No need to learn a boss's patterns. You just walk in, swing away and he'll be dead sooner rather than later.
You misunderstood me, so I'll rephrase.
They nerfed content which was irrelevant to the current content cycle and shifted the available means of progression, which IMO was an appropriate move in terms of content sustainability considering the game's population. I guess the point here is that there's a difference between nerfing content and obsoleting content - it really isn't much different of a concept from power creep naturally making older content obsolete.
That said, again, I do think that classic S1/S2 difficulty should return as an option for those boats, for fun.