A possible solution to endgame lockouts

[Antanias]

What if there was a system that allowed you to participate in content as much as you wanted with whoever you wanted, but prevented people from obtaining loot and selling runs?

How about infecting players with Allagan Pox?

Allagan Pox / Status effect
A plague that has not been successfully cured and can become contagious when surrounded by crowds of infected.

Okay....so the description would need a lot of work, but what does it do? Having Pox will prevent you from being able to lot on loot within a particular turn and is obtained after leaving the zone (whether you obtain the loot or not).

Pox would also be bestowed upon players should they enter an instance with at least 6 other players who possess it. Why? To prevent parties from "selling" runs for gil. There could also be a message in the confirmation window upon speaking with the npc to verify how many players possess the Pox while not specifying who has it to prevent harassment.

This will give parties a chance to redo the content as they see fir while keeping the income of loot under control by preventing players from monopolizing the instances for gil and loot.

So, what'cha think?

[StateAlchemist]

So in other words if I actually wanted to farm a turn for loot with a static (which I don't but that doesn't matter) I can't because a few people are 'abusing' the system? No.

And no one is 'monopolizing' anything. If you want to beat something, find some people to do it and keep trying til you get it. Endgame is about teamwork. Can't expect to win with a PUG. And if your too lazy to learn and want to buy your win? Go ahead.

The people selling the wins are just taking advantage of the people to lazy to bother try playing the game. Not hurting anyone.

Do I think it's right to sell runs? No. But who cares, honestly.

[WellFooled]

I think this idea is ingenious, using a contagion as a game mechanic like this would have never occurred to me. Granted, I'm on the fence about whether or not selling runs is something that needs to be hindered or not, but if the dev team decided they wanted to discourage it this would be an excellent way to accomplish it.

[Archulak]

So in order to sell just need to have 8 ppl each with a coil ready alt, run once everyone gets a chance at gear, then run again with 1 buyer and 1 non locked alt. Repeat process 7 more times. Now you have just unleashed 9 coil runs worth of gear from a group that should have been able to get 2 sets. This is an absurd increase.

Also if you don't want to talk about it in terms of sells the speed of progression would drastically increase because every time the main group finished a turn they could then take 1 fresh fc member to teach them and 1 alt from the main group, that main group member then takes all the loot and now every week everyone in the main static gets 2 pieces of gear and a chance for gear on the main clear and teaches another whole static how to do it. Basically what took people a month to clear at first eg 6-9 will now take a week or 2.

[whiskeybravo]

Wouldn't this affect regular groups that aren't looking to sell content? I mean really.. I clear t6, don't get any loot, then go back to help the FC, now they can't get loot either? Doesn't make a lot of sense but maybe I'm not understanding what you mean exactly.

Every sell group I've run the loot goes to the buyer. Most people selling the groups don't need the loot anyways.

[abzoluut]

Don't look surprised when a big group of people will have full clears within two weeks. I don't think this is what we want. New content needs that 2 month-ish epic feel. This of course is my opinion and by no means an MMO rule. I do think it's a valid one.

I'd be guilty too. Fortunate to have a static, so why not go for it and then go with an alt, or maybe two alts?

SE needs more raid content and more pug friendly raid content. They do not have to try to invent the wheel. Right now both "casuals" and "hardcores" get punished because the difficulty is somewhere in between: too hard for pugs, too easy for statics.

[whiskeybravo]

I wouldn't say it's easy for statics.. It's easy for people who are adept at reacting to and memorizing the timing for mechanics, I've seen people pug t9 clears, and statics struggle for months on t6.. It's all about the players, not the "statics".

That being said.. The best idea I've heard (I believe it came from WoW, but I've never played it so not sure) is the token system. Just give us a token so we can get the loot we need/want, and lock that out only. We should be able to help our friends and fc mates (or make sales) freely a token system would pretty much eliminate the need for content lock-out.

[saeedaisspecial]

So in other words if I actually wanted to farm a turn for loot with a static (which I don't but that doesn't matter) I can't because a few people are 'abusing' the system? No.

And no one is 'monopolizing' anything. If you want to beat something, find some people to do it and keep trying til you get it. Endgame is about teamwork. Can't expect to win with a PUG. And if your too lazy to learn and want to buy your win? Go ahead.

The people selling the wins are just taking advantage of the people to lazy to bother try playing the game. Not hurting anyone.

Do I think it's right to sell runs? No. But who cares, honestly.

Pretty much this.
It's an idea that pretty much screws over the last 2 people in a group of friends from getting their loot.

People need to stop thinking how to stop minority run sellers and start thinking of ways a loot system that benefits the majority of the community could work.

[Ryios]

They should just have a lockout system from wow and modify it a little bit.
When you raid, upon killing a boss you get tied to that instances ID.

E.g. say you raid and kill turn 1 boss,
Instance ID: 51081234

Your group proceeds to clear turn 1 - 3. leaving 4 and 5 up. That instance ID, being the first one to get tied to that week becomes your primary loot instance.

Now, say that group doesn't run again until saturday but you want to help some friends do 1 and 2 on Thursday, you can.

However, you will be unable to loot on Turns 1 2 and 3 because you already cleared those for the week. However, if you and your friends clear turn 1 2 and 3, you can loot on turn 4 because you haven't done it yet. So let's say you clear Turn 4 with your friends and on Saturday run with your static. Because you have cleared more bosses on the new instance ID than your primary, it becomes your new Primary Loot Instance ID. When you run with your static you will still be able to do turn 4 but won't be able to loot. Then when you get to turn 5 it becomes your primary loot instance again and you can loot on turn 5.

The reason SE doesn't do this is because they don't want you to master all the content in under a month, however, people do this anyway the way it is now. Right now I can subscribe for one month, clear the new content, then unsubscribe for 4 months till more comes out... Which is what they wanted to avoid in the first place, but does nothing.

If SE fixed the lockouts, it would keep people playing more and longer because they would level other classes and run on all their classes for the experience. E.g. I could tank 1 with a static, then run another as a BLM and learn to dps them... etc.

[Shougun]

Social lock is lame, I appreciate at least trying to find ways around it. Not saying anyone here is doing it but I find it funny to see people defend the alt loot funneling method and then get huffy that other players may be given the opportunity to join in near similar mechanics (minus the part of leveling an alt, which is silly since this game was designed with systems that made making one character great). Tokens or other like systems can be good because they allow you to give players fraction of items, could get around any sort of new funneling strategy if unlocking the social part.