We all know about the poor player retention rate, and that the arduous grind plays a part in it. In an effort to increase new player retention, I was thinking it would be helpful to expand the clan benefits to include swapping badges for standard (non-fused) modules, weapons, et. al. between clan members. This would be a boon for the newer players; advanced players could more easily craft and give stuff to the newer ones to speed up their progression, and the newer players could pay for it using badges.
I’d like to think this would encourage players to:
want to be in clan,
be more active in their clan,
make the game feel more “alive”,
encourage them to play more badge-oriented weekly challenges, such as raids, brawls, etc.,
help them advance a little quicker by giving them a second route to better equipment.
There would be benefits for intermediate players as well. Maybe they want to fuse some module; if they needed an extra Hot Red (for instance) to complete a fusing project, they could swap badges for it with someone who maybe has some duplicates in storage. Senior players could also have something else to occupy themselves by crafting stuff the newer/poorer players need.
I’d envision a “Clan Swap Board” advertising which equipment you’re looking to acquire, or what stuff you have to offer to anyone who needs it. Of course, there would need to be set rates that all players would have to abide by; for instance “A KA-2 Reloader can be swapped for minimum of XXX badges”; otherwise someone might agree to swap a reloader to a friend for 1 badge (which would inevitably lead to people “clan jumping” to find the more generous clans).
I think this system would ease the grind by giving people an alternate way to get what they need instead of relying solely on the nickel-and-diming marketplace experience. As long as the devs don’t make the badges taxable in some form or other, at least when you spend 100 badges, you get 100 badges worth of something without the detestable 10% loss. I’ve spoken with a few people about this, and all thought it would be a great idea.
For me the biggest problem with clans is that it’s just more extra busywork I don’t care about. The game is nothing but grinding already, now add on top of that being in a clan with something like “Pls pls have X amount of activity per week or else you no longer in clan : )” and then you have to grind the not fun to play sweaty gamemodes that are even more cheesed out than regular pvp.
And my already big dislike towards clan stuff is only boosted by how much the game tries to force clan activity onto players, with locking badges etc behind the clan wall, uranium behind the clan wars wall and so on. Just slapping more and more stuff into JOINING A CLAN MANDATORY. Not to mention what do clans have to show for themselves? Mostly just running 4-man cheese squads in classic pvp and autowinning matches while the game pampers the groups so much that you never see a group go against another group, only random players. I half don’t want to be in a clan because this is how I se all clan players in a nutshell.
I get invited to a clan every now and then, I join in, look at the description, “PLease be X amounts of active per week or we kick out” and then I just leave right away to speed up the process because I play casually and for fun, I am not looking to make shitass-out my day job, let alone get a second job in crossout while already working crossout, because of what the grind is. I’d be out by the end of the week anyway and I’ve been playing 8 years now without really caring about clans. clans and clan related gameplay can rot for all I care.
The more they try to force clans as mandatory the less I feel like playing them or getting involved with them
