Aura_Familia

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As for the name-calling, just wanted to get that out preemptively, Aett_Thorn, you are not at all on that list. Discourse with you is a pleasure.

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This.

The moving the AE to KR restriction is the only one I can seriously get behind.

Xp caps, can't use it till 10 or 50 or any other nonsense, NO.

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QR,

I also think there needs to be some sort of post-tutorial pop-up or mission that tells folks about the various zones, their ranges, and transportation models (the tram/ cov ferries.). The tutorial doesn't provide explanations of this.

This way newbs know what the appropriate zones are for content, before they go all sewer team/bank job team.

Just an aside.

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Yes. Expand the current tutorial to include some of the new features and make it mandatory for new players to go thru ONCE per account. Once they have gone thru it their account is flagged and they can unlock the ability to skip it when they make more characters.

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I would see no issue with grandfathering these into the tutorial.

As a new player I would never have dreamed of skipping the tutorial anyway.

The game was pretty overwhelming back then.

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Fixed PvP rewards to function once again. Now, influence, inspirations, and other normal rewards occur on every PvP kill, while PvP IO recipes can only be rewarded on rep-valid kills.

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This means no recipes in the arena right?

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Not true.

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Fixed rep-validation to function in arenas, even though it doesn't give you any reputation in arenas.

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They made the rep-validation work in arenas, so players could get PvP IOs in the arena. However, you WON'T get any REP in Arena.

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I'd say it's technically going to be possible to get PVP IO drops in arena, but it'll virtually never happen. If A kills B he gets a 1 in 100 chance at a PVP recipe drop. Then for the next 5 minutes he not gets no chances. Further, if what people have been saying about the timer resetting is true, he will basically likely get no further chances assuming he can kill B at least once every 5 minutes. Further, since for some bizarre reason B's timer gets set for A when the kill happens, B essentially has no chances at a drop during the entire match.

This is why people are complaining that low-pop server players are screwed. If there are only 4 people in a zone and they're engaging relatively often, they'll quickly get into a mode where none of them can earn PVP IO drops unless they sit out for 5 minutes.

They need to remove the timer reset and change it so only defeating a player sets a timer, not being defeated by a player.

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Even if they do implement your suggestion I still see PvP IO's being ridiculously overpriced. When they were dropping and getting farmed the supply was pretty thin and still high priced on the sought after sets. I'm guessing they stayed in the somewhat reasonable price range because both pvers and pvpers could farm them. With this new patch they for the most part cut the pvers out of the picture. Now it will be up to the zone pvpers to supply the market.

Now how many people in this game actually pvp on a regular basis? I'd guess around 5% and that's being generous. Now take into consideration that even when PVP IO's didnt have restrictions on the drops I got maybe 5 of them since they came out, and I PvP regularly. I expect these things to be damn near unattainable for most people when this patch hits live.

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IF that ends up being the case to me (me at least, don't know about anyone else) there will be even less point to these. Since you need at least two or three of each to get any relevant set bonuses (forget trying to use them to go for the 6th bonuses that are pretty good), if these things dry up of the market, they may not even be there to try to get 2 or 3 together, no matter how much inf you have. You could end up being one of the market guru billionaires and STILL never see enough of one set to make a 6 or even 5 slot set in a power EVER.

I hope this isn't the case. Some of these things are already currently more rare and expensive than PURPLES. I thought the point of these was to get more folks to pvp?

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DKs are primarily unbalanced in PvP, which in Warcraft history has always had an overpowered flavor of the month. Rogues, Warlocks, and Paladins all had their time in the PvP sun.

Many players never PvP, and it's less clear as to how DKs perform in other aspects of the game. They are quite probably easier to solo than other classes. They don't seem to have a reputation as "must-have" DPS or tanks that I'm aware of.

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This is all true, but has nothing to do with being a free form class that the op was alluding to.

QR,

I also think there needs to be some sort of post-tutorial pop-up or mission that tells folks about the various zones, their ranges, and transportation models (the tram/ cov ferries.). The tutorial doesn't provide explanations of this.

This way newbs know what the appropriate zones are for content, before they go all sewer team/bank job team.

Just an aside.

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I wouldn't recommend sending a lvl 1 noob (especially from what I've been hearing about these new players we are getting) to a lvl 5 zone. For some this game is their first mmo. I can see the frustration from that scenario already.

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That's actually kind of the point. Sending a new player on their first character straight into the AE building is what we've been advocating changes for. Once they get sent to Kings Row (I like Steel and Skyway for this better, but *shrug*)
they will find the AE building and see that you can use it at level 1.

End result: They have at least played 5 levels of the normal content and have (hopefully) learned something about the basics of the game, like how to use the trains.

If they want to create a new character and go straight to the zones AE is in, there is nothing preventing them from doing so, but at least this way they know that AE is optional content, not the only content.

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Again, a lvl 1 should not be sent to a higher level zone in which there is a chance to frustration of dieng repeatedly. I just don't like the sound of that. Especially with this being the first mmo for many players. I can tell you I would have gotten frustrated back in the day with something like that.

If we're going this route, then you should only get the AE contact popup at lvl 5, AFTER you have done the necessary stuff (wther by sewer team or by missions) to get to level 5. Still forces you to ask "where is kings row?" in b-cast when you get to lvl 5. And still forces you to take the train to go there. But reduces the possibility of unnecessary frustration.

EDIT: The COH tutorial does not ask if you want to go to Kings Row when you complete it. It gives you the options of the level appropriate zones of Atlas and Galaxy for a reason.

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Yes, of course. The contact should NOT pop up at level 1 when you first log in. The system can be there, ready for access at level 1, but the pop-up shouldn't be there until a higher level. that has been said hand-in-hand with moving the AE out of AP.

And nobody would be forcing new players to go to KR for the AE in order to level up. If a player WANTED to, they could go there, and yes, there would be risks (gasp! you might have to learn to avoid detection by enemies!) but they would not be that severe, especially since you don't get debt at level 1.

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Debt is irrelevant. It has been for a while. The issue would be the frustration.

But it's a moot argument now. If there is a AE contact popup that ONLY comes at lvl 5, I have no issue with it then. If it was said earlier I might have missed where it was said.

It's a better suggestion than hard capping ability to use AE at lvl 10 or heaven forbid 50, and would cause less of an uproar in relation to the retail box. And would probably be easier then allowing authors to have spawn points in the actual game world.

EDIT: Would also have the added bonus of putting Atlas b-cast spam back to being mostly costume contests and sewer teams. Folks could just sewer team to 5 and head over to kings when they get the AE contact popup.

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Not a good idea. For lower levels to go team with higher levels they would have to go to a more dangerous zone. NOT a good idea at all.

At that point you might as well just get rid of the auto sk. Also, it's a restriction that doesn't exist anywhere else in game.

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Ummm...yes it does. To SK to a friend with a higher level mission, you usually need to leave the starting zones. Sure, maybe they get a random mission in Atlas Park or something, but usually it's in Talos or Steel Canyon or some other zone that is of higher level.

That was exactly the case the way it was before the AE was put in. The AE created that freedom.


Newer players probably don't have these friends in the game that are higher level. If they do, the friend can usually help them get to where they need to be anyways.


I don't get this as a problem. New players would only have to risk level 5-10 enemies, not level 50 enemies, if it was moved to KR.

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new level 1 players you mean?

If it's moved to KR I have no issue. Just make sure the AE contact says you need to 5 to go there, which is the level appropriate range.

But his suggestion was that if a higher level wants to team in AE with their friends the lowbies would ALWAYS have to go to the higher zone, since the higher levels can't go to KR. That's NOT how the current AE works.

If I want my friends (several of whom are in the 30s) to see a new arc I created I can go to zones in their range instead of asking them to trudge up to PI. His suggestion would kill that.

So it's not just the lower level toons I'm worried about here. It's changing one of the good aspects of AE teaming (when used appropriately!!!!).

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I wouldn't recommend sending a lvl 1 noob (especially from what I've been hearing about these new players we are getting) to a lvl 5 zone. For some this game is their first mmo. I can see the frustration from that scenario already.

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That's actually kind of the point. Sending a new player on their first character straight into the AE building is what we've been advocating changes for. Once they get sent to Kings Row (I like Steel and Skyway for this better, but *shrug*)
they will find the AE building and see that you can use it at level 1.

End result: They have at least played 5 levels of the normal content and have (hopefully) learned something about the basics of the game, like how to use the trains.

If they want to create a new character and go straight to the zones AE is in, there is nothing preventing them from doing so, but at least this way they know that AE is optional content, not the only content.

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Again, a lvl 1 should not be sent to a higher level zone in which there is a chance to frustration of dieng repeatedly. I just don't like the sound of that. Especially with this being the first mmo for many players. I can tell you I would have gotten frustrated back in the day with something like that.

If we're going this route, then you should only get the AE contact popup at lvl 5, AFTER you have done the necessary stuff (wther by sewer team or by missions) to get to level 5. Still forces you to ask "where is kings row?" in b-cast when you get to lvl 5. And still forces you to take the train to go there. But reduces the possibility of unnecessary frustration.

EDIT: The COH tutorial does not ask if you want to go to Kings Row when you complete it. It gives you the options of the level appropriate zones of Atlas and Galaxy for a reason.

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So how about this?

If you are higher than the zone level range, you cannot enter the data stream. You get a message saying you are too high in level to use this data stream, and you should go to the AE building in [zone(s) appropriate for your level].

If you are within OR BELOW the range, no problem. I repeat, within OR BELOW the zone range. (People seem to miss that part of this suggestion. )

No restriction on new characters using AE in the starting zone. No restriction on leveling all the way to 50 in MArch, except they have to change zones periodically (just like with regular content). Doesn't even prevent a level 1 from teaming with a level 50, they just have to both be in a zone appropriate for the level 50.

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Not a good idea. For lower levels to go team with higher levels they would have to go to a more dangerous zone. NOT a good idea at all.

At that point you might as well just get rid of the auto sk. Also, it's a restriction that doesn't exist anywhere else in game.

EDIT: For vets this is no issue, as I can easily manuvear my level one toons from zone to zone to get to PI easily. Folks making these suggestions need to keep in mind we are talking about lower level toons here who may not be vets.

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Moving the AE building out of Atlas Park and Galaxy City wouldn't change the requirement from doing the AE at level 1 to level 5. You could still go there at level 1 and work at it.

It would just mean that it's not right in the face of new players.

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I wouldn't recommend sending a lvl 1 noob (especially from what I've been hearing about these new players we are getting) to a lvl 5 zone. For some this game is their first mmo. I can see the frustration from that scenario already.

Personally, I would make it abundantly clear that you need to level to 5 before going there. But /shrug, wouldn't be my decision to make.

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Yes I think I understand the basic desire you have to be able to play a game that would let you choose any power you want so that you can develop any concept imaginable. That's an obvious "Holy Grail" for any player of a game like this. But I think we have far too much evidence to support the conclusion that a free-form games don't really work in the "real world" and possibly never will:

A) To begin with your WoW Death Knight example seems to be far from perfect. At the very least it appears to be very debatable whether the concept behind that class actually "works" as well as you are claiming it does. The DK is probably only tolerated in WoW because it's a single broken class among others that are better balanced. I suspect if all the classes in WoW worked like the DK does then you'd have the chaos you were questioning. As IanTheM1 implied the fact that the DK hasn't destroyed WoW yet doesn't mean it's a -good- thing for that game.

B) Then there's the point that the Devs of Champions Online are already imposing certain amounts of control on their system to provide game balance. My guess is that they would not be putting those controls in place if they weren't required.

C) Ironically Cryptic (the folks working on CO now) originally tried to make CoH be a free-form game during its Alpha stages and the outcome of that was so disastrous from a game balance perspective they had to impose ATs and powersets on this game as damage control to finally make it work.

D) Then you have the fact that even pen-n-paper RPGs that are widely known for having free-form systems really only work because you have human GMs there to impose the flexible arbitration required to make those systems work. Until we have MMOs run by HAL 9000 type computers they won't have the AI horsepower necessary to control things as well as a human could.

Bottomline while it's probably safe to say players will ALWAYS want to have free-form games it's probably also safe to say games will ALWAYS have to have safeguards in place to make sure players don't run amuck with that desire.

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This. Not to mention using WoW AT ALL for any idea of balance is silly, since EVERY (and I meant that literally) patch in WoW since it's launch has come with rebalances, tweaks, and nerfs. To ALL classes, included their vaunted DK Class (which they have just started outright nerfing and rebalancing with the last patch and upcoming patches, cause yes, the class is BROKEN in some areas.), they constantly refund each players points--basically a freespec necessitated every patch.

And the DK btw is NOT really a freeform class despite what the OP says. I've played it, it's nothing different that the other classes. DKs DO NOT get to choose any power they want in the game, ala Champions Online (which as others have stated is not really freeform either is it now? ). DKs can ONLY choose those abilities in their tree. Just like every other class in WoW they get 3 trees and CANNOT mix and max abilities from the trees. So I have no idea why the DK class is talked about in the same sentence as Champions Online. Just saying.

TL;DR: Blizzard doesn't know the meaning of balance since they constantly having to do mini EDs each patch. And the DK class isn't a free form class AT ALL.

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There are those who are arguing to give the players more and better information.

Nothing wrong with that. I agree and said so.

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Fair enough.

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What I will continue to fight is restricting ANYTHING including the moving of the AE buildings.

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Question for you: why?

If the AE buildings were moved out of the starting zones, and the first ones that you would come across in-game were in Port Oakes and King's Row, why would that be a bad thing? Would it hinder your ability to PL your characters if you so choose at all once you ran there? Would it hinder anybody that had made the choice to use the AE only?

The Devs have also said publicly, several times now, that the AE system is not to be used for farming or PLing. If they took drastic steps to curb farming in the AE, what would you say about that?

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The only rose-colored glasses I am wearing, per the references to seeing what I want to see, is that humans have logical, rational thoughts and the capability to figure things out for themselves.

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I agree with this. However, I think that, the way the system is presented now, the logical thing to do is to use the AE right from character creation. That is not was should be happening. The AE should be a choice, to be sure, but the logical format of how players are introduced to the game should steer them towards the actual game content, don't you think?

My problem with the AE system now in regards to choice is like the case of the Model T. You could get it in any color you wanted, as long as it was black. Newer players to the game are immediately shown a black car, and there's no information out there right at the start that you can get a car in another color. Even if they wanted a red car, they're not shown how to do that. They are not forced to get a black car, they're just not told that you can get one in another color.

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I see the whole picture. I understand the fears of those players that like the game have about wanting it to prosper, I want the game to prosper.

I do not agree that the people that would normally become long term players will not do so because of the AE, even in it's current configuration, nor do I think drastic measures need to be taken. Those people will discover 'the rest' of the game regardless.

And even if a person does not ever see anything other than the inside of the AE building and Miss Lberty, even if a player plays for a shorter time than others, high turn over or not, there is nothing wrong with that. Other games do quite well with high turn over.

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Yes, other games do do quite well with high turn over. Maybe this one could as well. However, nothing frustrates older players more than needing to constantly teach newer players everything about the game that they should have learned while playing.

Not knowing about the Shadow Shard, because nothing in the game teaches you that it's even there? Sure, I can buy that a level 50 wouldn't know about it. Not knowing how to get out of Atlas Park at level 50? That's annoying. There's no reason that a level 50 character shouldn't know how to do that. Except, now there is a reason: the AE system.


So yes, a game can do okay with high turnover. But this game has done well because of a lot of veteran players who have stayed with the game for a long time. Alienating them in order to get high turnover numbers may not be the best thing in the world to do.

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Call me whatever names you like. Do your best to belittle me. You will not get me to stop pointing out the fact that different does not equal wrong.

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Who insulted you or called you names? (okay, except Tyger, but he calls pretty much everyone a name)

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The devs would have to change their stance on being able to use AE as an alternate leveing path from 1-50.

I would have no issue with them moving it to Kings Row, but then it's no longer from 1-50, it's from 5-50. Not a MAJOR change though.

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*Claps* Way to misconstrue what's being said, trollboy. The problem isn't so much people who do nothing but AE. The problem is people who use AE to PL to 50, then try to join teams outside of AE and are completely clueless about how the game works.

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Like understanding that no one forces you to play with someone you don't want to play with? Don't like the players abilities? The quit button is right there.

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Yeah, because all the people who've leveled exclusively through AE and have never experienced anything from the rest of the game have big, flashing signs next to their name saying "AE BABY!!!". How silly of us all to have missed that... ( Nabbing and paraphrasing what someone said earlier )

When I take an hour to gather a TF at level 50 and find halfway into the first mission that half the players don't know jack s*** about the game outside of AE, that is indicative of a real problem.

What people are saying is that new players should be exposed to the rest of the game. Once that happens, they can choose how they want to play. But, yes, they should be forced to learn the basics of the damn game.

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Agreed. But as an aside, i don't think I've ever taken an hour to gather a tf at 50. Ever.

And there are some minor ways of knowing if the person is an AE baby.

For instance if I put out a call for an ITF, and someone asks "what's an ITF?" or what's "the Midnighter's Club" in VU2009 for instance, I sure as HELL am NOT going to invite someone like that on my ITF.

Doesn't take a way from your overall points though.

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This is the same business that wouldn't allow our dev team to put a patch (publishing freeze) to get rid of obvious exploits which they forced them to release issue 14 with live btw, because of some arbitrary anniversary.

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I know this may start an argument I regret, but what the frack are you talking about here?

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disregard. Not necessary for this thread and shouldn't have posted.

My overall point HOWEVER, still stands. Which was that the devs WON'T be allowed to put in restrictions on something that they've been touting could be used from level 1.

Restrictions on it were not put on the retail box that is currently selling in stores.

If the goal is to get folks to experience other parts of the game then incentives to do that should be implemented. In addition AE missions should be allowed to spawn in level appropriate zones.

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QR

It's simple really. These Players are looking for the path of least resistance and AE farming is just that.

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I think that's what a lot of people are doing, to be sure.

However, I'm more worried about the people that take that path because they know of no other path to take.

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Which is what this thread is about. The goal should be focused on getting folks into the other zones, and know about other aspects of the game.

Another suggestion is to up the rewards (no not just xp and inf, there are more rewards that can be created than that) for doing content in other zones. Or add different special rewards to exploration badges.

All about incentives and less about silly caps.

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If people quit because they now have to level up to 10 without AE, then let them leave. It takes 2-3 hours to hit level 10 doing sewers and/or missions. On CoV, I think it's even easier with the bank farm given from Mongoose.

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NCsoft just won't allow that. Not with a retail box out Clouded. Let's face reality here.

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Prehaps you are taking my response to someone else as a suggestion. My comment was in direct response to his "people will quit" theory.

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This is the same business that wouldn't allow our dev team to put a patch (publishing freeze) to get rid of obvious exploits which they forced them to release issue 14 with live btw, because of some arbitrary anniversary.

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I don't care for conspiracys, and this has nothing to do with my post.

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Was taking it as a suggestion. My point is they aren't going to go back and put in something that hurts a box they just put out.

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AE is not the DOOOOM of CoH like I've often heard, but it is a problem. Like this thread has shown, any player that levels to 50 entirely in AP is going to think we have less content than most iPhone games.

My ideas:

-During a pre-planned Invasion event, Rikti, Zombies, or something new, destroy the AE buildings in Atlas Park, Galaxy City, King's Row, and Mercy Isle. I don't think its a good idea to expose a brand new player to all the AE Spam and this would take care of it nicely and with an in-game explanation. It would also be nice to see an invasion actually have a lasting effect.

-AE Reward caps per 10 levels. Each level section would have it's own cap for all AE rewards. A simple pop-up would read "You have maximized AE rewards for levels 11-20. You will no longer receive Experience, Influence, Prestige, or Tickets inside AE until you are level 21." The caps don't have to be all that low, just something that would make the player go out into the zones once in a while and explore.

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Again, caps wouldn't really make anyone go into the zone and explore. You just hit PI and farm there and then go back to AE.

If the point is to make folks explore, then make them explore: allow (force?) authors to be able to put AE mission doors/spawn points in zone. It's virtual reality though!!! you say, okay then put mini terminals throughout the zones that teams actually have to go to.

EDIT: for RP points make them reflect the atmosphere of the zones: Dark Astoria's would be like pantheon masks that teleport you to "another reality that needs heroic aid/or villainous destruction", Bricks would be like more advanced police drones that teleport you to a "situation in progress that the ppd needs help with/or that arachnos/malta/vangaurd/longbow, etc etc needs help with". You get the idea.

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And that's why I think that AE should give something like Patrol XP instead of regular XP.

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Bah. Players leaving AE and joining TFs at level 50 with questions like "what are enhancements" and "how do I get to the train" are not a symptom of informed players choosing an alternate style. They are a symptom of uninformed players whose expectations about the rest of the game have been poorly established by their experiences in the AE. Mind you, those players have not done anything wrong. The developers screwed up by presenting a path that left players ignorant of how most of the game's content worked.

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Quoting this idea because it was similar to the one I had a few pages ago. AE XP gets stored, then gets converted to real XP when you play outside of AE. Maybe at a 50/50 clip; earn half XP while in AE, get the other half later.

Pros:
* it encourages players to do things outside of AE (to get the rest of the XP)
* it still gives some XP for AE missions
* you can still level completely in AE - just at half the pace

Cons:
* for vets, it might mean that you have to spend more time out of AE than you might like


Looking at this from a canon standpoint...why would the city award the "Hero of the City" badge to someone who hasn't actually done anything for the city? Explain the half and half XP thing as getting practice in the AE which isn't *quite* like the real thing, but does train you to be more effective when you do fight in the "real" world (the banked AE XP bonus).

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This actually is a pretty good one also. Ofcourse you realize you could just go to PI and do the old 46 sk trick and head right back to AE right?

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If people quit because they now have to level up to 10 without AE, then let them leave. It takes 2-3 hours to hit level 10 doing sewers and/or missions. On CoV, I think it's even easier with the bank farm given from Mongoose.

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NCsoft just won't allow that. Not with a retail box out Clouded. Let's face reality here.

This is the same business that wouldn't allow our dev team to put a patch (publishing freeze) to get rid of obvious exploits which they forced them to release issue 14 with live btw, because of some arbitrary anniversary.

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Alright...this might sound crazy but it could work...potentially.

Make AE require a level 50.
The same way EATs and VEATs are aquired.

After you reach level 50 with a character you can now make missions and you can do AE missions with any level character.

Therefore the only people doing the AE missions are people that have went through the game the original way 1-50.

This makes sense to me because I always thought of AE missions to be missions you do because you have done all the original content over and over.
Also, as a side perc...you can potentially level faster now since you have already leveled a character to 50.

I see no problem with that...I mean you have to level to 35 to get into RWZ.

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I actually agree with the idea that the MA -should- have been limited to people who had level 50s already, despite the general whining and bickering that would have caused.

But I think the idea of forcing that kind of restriction on the thing -now- would be amazingly unlikely.
The backlash at this point would be apocalyptic...

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This. If there were going to do this, they should NOT be selling a BOX at RETAIL called Architect Edition

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Agreed. The cat's out of the bag on this one, and it can't be put back in. There is no way to limit it like that now (unless it's a very low level requirement, like level 10) without a lot of uproar and bad press.

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Even a low level limit would be bad.

Look at all the bad press they got from CoP and Base raids, even though it's a system listed on the retail box of COV though both have NEVER worked right.

You can't put something on a box and not allow the player to use it from lvl 1. You can't call it architect edition and then when they get in game say "oh btw you can't use the main feature listed on the box till 10". The "bait and switch" uproar would be astronomical. Also they would now have to go back and LIST THAT on the NEW boxes they are printing going forward. That just . . . wouldn't smell right in the press.

The best suggestion is to allow authors to put missions in level appropriate zones. I would go so far as to say FORCE authors to put them in level appropriate zones.

perhaps:
low level (1-35) missions have to have their random spawn doors/mission entrances appear in zones from atlas to bricks.
high level (35-50) missions from founders falls to PI.
specifically a lvl 1-10 mission could only spawn in the zones of the exact range. So a lvl 10 mission could not spawn in bricks, but only in the lower level zones.

You could still use the AE exactly as you do now but you would actually have to zone and see what the other zones are.

As a safegaurd: let all AE missions virtual missh doors only allow to be spawned in the safe parts of the zone. (Would be necessary for COV, as most zones are combined regular/hazard zones over on that side).

Now the big issue is, with the devs working on Power Cust, GR, and issues 16, 17, and 18, how much coding time could actually be devoted to allow this?

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Alright...this might sound crazy but it could work...potentially.

Make AE require a level 50.
The same way EATs and VEATs are aquired.

After you reach level 50 with a character you can now make missions and you can do AE missions with any level character.

Therefore the only people doing the AE missions are people that have went through the game the original way 1-50.

This makes sense to me because I always thought of AE missions to be missions you do because you have done all the original content over and over.
Also, as a side perc...you can potentially level faster now since you have already leveled a character to 50.

I see no problem with that...I mean you have to level to 35 to get into RWZ.

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I actually agree with the idea that the MA -should- have been limited to people who had level 50s already, despite the general whining and bickering that would have caused.

But I think the idea of forcing that kind of restriction on the thing -now- would be amazingly unlikely.
The backlash at this point would be apocalyptic...

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This. If there were going to do this, they should NOT be selling a BOX at RETAIL called Architect Edition

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The whole premise was wacked from the beginning...

AE Buildings should never have been about 'Entertainment'. Rather, they should have been seen as some sort of global mission control.

AE Missions should never have been thought of as simulations and that Teleport column should never have existed (except perhaps as a zoning tool, similiar to Ouro). The contacts for AE missions should actually be in zones, and you have to travel to them to start the mission. And you should enter the instances via doors, etc, in zones corresponding to the level of the missions.

This would have resolved *everything* while leaving what's good about MA (the creating of custom missions) intact.

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I agree with this a lot. I think that the main problem isn't that the AE is in Atlas, it's that you can just stay there forever and never have to leave.

When the system was first announced, I thought that it was going to be something where you could make or use contacts out in the world, and people could visit those contacts to get the AE missions. Not just stand in one place and do the same missions over and over again with no need to leave the building.

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Despite how tired I am of seeing thread like this, I have to agree. That is what I originally thought AE was going to be like. I saw this coming when they announced that it would be missions in one building.

Perhaps now that the AE/MA is out and seems to be pretty stable, they can work on allowing writers to place missions in zones? I personally wouldn't care if farmers had to go to a level appropriate zone to get to their farms. I have a suspicion that many farmers wouldn't care either.

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LOL, I can't imagine no one bugged that STF bug.

Methinks BaBs may have been out of the loop on it.

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I think this is out of BAB's field of work

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But THIS, is true.

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LOL, I can't imagine no one bugged that STF bug.

Methinks BaBs may have been out of the loop on it.

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Right. Just like there are certainly plenty of people on Test to look at this new patch and make sure it's all working right.

Except there were a total of two people in Beta Testers when I logged off just now...


Always /bug something when you see it rather than presume someone else has done it. They might know about the STF bug and have it in the queue, or everyone might have left it to someone else.

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Uhh the STF bug is live. I can't see how someone somewhere hadn't /bugged that by now.

LOL, I can't imagine no one bugged that STF bug.

Methinks BaBs may have been out of the loop on it.