Tier rewards - I think I’m done. | Forums

[Bone_Frog]

Tier One? That's that thing where you just spam the same dozen high XP missions over and over for a few hours to get all the rewards, then turn it off forever and go back to just playing extreme HUDless Ghost Mode, right?

Right??

I don't know that I will Turn Tier Mode off. I enjoy the challenge and the difficulty. I will probably leave it on and do the weekly challenges with it. Though yeah, most of my time will be in Ghost Mode even that has some significant drawbacks as well.

[Ghost-Ami]

I don't know that I will Turn Tier Mode off. I enjoy the challenge and the difficulty. I will probably leave it on and do the weekly challenges with it. Though yeah, most of my time will be in Ghost Mode even that has some significant drawbacks as well.

I went all the way to tier 1 once each in Ghost Mode and the vanilla campaign to milk all the prestige credits, but I don't tier otherwise, I just don't find it very immersive.

Extreme without HUD hits the sweet spot for me, a good balance of immersion and challenge.

[DoomsDayFisher]

I didn't get to Tier 1 on Ghost Mode for any "rewards." Tier 1 on Ghost Mode WAS the reward. I competed the game on the most ridiculous difficulty, that is the reward.

[Virtual-Chris]

I really don't think this is the case. For people who just want to reach Tier 1 perhaps. For others though, not necessarily. Darkdally(you can find his videos on YouTube) managed to get Tier 1 by playing loud, alerting enemies and having limited fire fights. He doesn't even use suppressors. While some grinders put up videos and how to guides on how to get to Tier 1 "quickly" It doesn't mean that they are correct.

Sure there are high XP missions, but then enemy kills can often account for more XP than the mission. Train Cemetery and The Undertakers in Koani are both missions that I typically get over 10k XP for doing while the missions only reward 3600. I go complete CQC in both those missions and the XP really stacks up. Another I throw in the mix is El Polito's Sports car. I can CQC everyone in that area, and then make off with the car for the cherry on top. There are 30 enemies spread out around El Politos Car. Each one gives 284 xp for a stealth CQC kill. That is 8520xp. Sure it is a slower way to get to Tier 1, which is why I'm not there yet, but I'm not on a hamster wheel playing high xp missions in arcade mode and only switching to Tier 1 for mission completions as I saw one guide suggest.

Based on everything I’ve come across on Tier Mode, I think you’re in the minority, if not unique. I’ll just point out that to get from Tier 20 to Tier 1 costs about 1.5 Million Tier Points. Even at 10,000 points per mission (which is very likely due mostly to your high bonus), you’re looking at 150 such missions to get there... It’s a grind by any definition of the word.

[Bone_Frog]

Based on everything I’ve come across on Tier Mode, I think you’re in the minority, if not unique. I’ll just point out that to get from Tier 20 to Tier 1 costs about 1.5 Million Tier Points. Even at 10,000 points per mission (which is very likely due mostly to your high bonus), you’re looking at 150 such missions to get there... It’s a grind by any definition of the word.

Not unique, as Darkdally does it too. I like playing the game, and find clearing bases and completing missions fun. I just do whatever I feel like on any given day, not just whatever is going to get me the most points. So I'm having fun, which in my mind is kinda the point of a game, and progressing in tiers. Not much to complain about there.

[poku123]

I think Tier 1 was a missed opportunity the way it was implemented. I think the original intent was to offer advanced players, an extra level of difficulty and additional advancement beyond the original 30 levels. What it ended up doing, was not being difficult at all really, but forcing play that actually sours the games experience (explosive drones, helicopter gunships, and drone sync shots). In effect, you can reach Tier 1 without ever firing a shot yourself, and that's how most people do it.

There's three problems I have with Tier Mode:
1. The enemies become super human. We all want a challenge, but getting sniped by an uzi-wielding thug from a moving vehicle is just too much.
2. The number of tier points required is the equivalent of playing through the campaign about 7 times - that's too much.
3. The rewards are meh. Anything from Prestige crates offer similar appeal.

The first two force a play style that I believe is to the detriment of the game and it's lasting impression on your hard core gamers. What happens is you have smart gamers who realize if they play the high point missions that are fast, and figure out a way to do them quickly, they can reduce the grind. They just do these missions hundreds of times. It becomes about the goal, and not the journey. You have everyone using an explosive drone wherever possible to complete a mission. That's a total failure of the objective of this mode. Players are not putting themselves into harms way at all, so don't enjoy the added difficulty.

So what would I change? (Not now, but for a future game mode like this)

1. I think increasing enemy awareness and aim is good, but not to god-like levels. Most people agree that after Tier 25 it's just ridiculous. Other ways to increase difficulty would be to increase the range at which they detect you (during the day) and have them recognize where a dead body is (even if the game engine removes it) or add more bad guys. Fallen Ghosts is a great example of how to make it more difficult without aim-bots.
2. Make it so that you can complete the goal after one more play through of the game. Any more than that is going to inspire ways to cheat and spoil the whole thing.

As for the rewards... I think this was a huge missed opportunity. With a little bit of thought, a set of rewards that had a theme based on real-world Tier 1 operators would have been more appreciated. I would have picked something for Tier 1 like a custom Blackhawk with low noise profile, and for lower tiers maybe a custom motorbike or other vehicle, and then a special plate carrier and helmet with NVG, and a new weapon, but one that can be customized - another 7.62 AR like the HK417 would have been an awesome choice.

Consider Ghost Mode in comparison to Tier Mode: I believe the objectives were similar - offer advanced players a real challenge - but Ghost Mode achieves it's goal while Tier Mode does not. How does it do this?
1. It adds constraints that make it more difficult rather than turning enemies into aim bots and lets players choose the difficulty
2. It only takes one play through of the campaign to achieve
3. The rewards have a theme, are unique, and don't look like random items out of loot crates (although I wasn't a fan of that suit, I could appreciate the effort that was invested, and the thinking behind it).
4. Progression was tied to the story, and not just collecting points.

End of the day it is a choice to go for tier 1, makes complete sense for players to grind for it hours and hours. That's what it takes to reach the top here. Changing it now would be so unfair towards players who already have it.

[MikeWeeks]

End of the day it is a choice to go for tier 1, makes complete sense for players to grind for it hours and hours. That's what it takes to reach the top here. Changing it now would be so unfair towards players who already have it.

I know that's not what is being suggested in that post.

[poku123]

I know that's not what is being suggested in that post.

It is suggested that it takes too much time/too many points, which is a really poor argument since like i said it is just a choice for those who can endure the grind and master the game - Tier 1. Could it have more ways to do it? Sure.
Should it be any easier? Absolutely not.

[MikeWeeks]

And it could be done differently next time around (which is what I took from the detailed post).

Agreed, it shouldn't be changed currently (and it won't be). What you put into the Tier system, and how you do it, is going to be how one perceives it.

[Ghost-Ami]

I didn't get to Tier 1 on Ghost Mode for any "rewards." Tier 1 on Ghost Mode WAS the reward. I competed the game on the most ridiculous difficulty, that is the reward.

I guess for me the temptation to cheese it and get it over with quickly was just too strong, and because of how easy it was to cheese it it didn't feel like much of an accomplishment to me. And it just wasn't as immersive and enjoyable for me as plain old regular extreme.

More power to anyone who finds it stimulating of course! ))))