Cavatina

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
They got suck in the AE loop and found the game boring, and redundant.

[/ QUOTE ] Right.......and the non-AE portions of the game aren't "boring and redundant." I guess repeating ITFs *or insert any other TF basically* over and over again doesn't constitute redundancy. [ QUOTE ]
I personally would like to get rid of or limit PLing all together.[/quote

] PLing serves a very useful purpose to people who choose to. Trying to restrict another paying customer's ability to enjoy the game is not a good idea. [ QUOTE ]
Also, it'd be great to have servers specifically for people who want to gut the game, read the back stories, do all or any story arc, and basically play the game for what it was intended for.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess we have different views on "what it was intended for." IMO, I would think it is to provide enjoyment to the customers, since well...they're paying. The game elements that produce enjoyment in players changes over time. It's not static, but rather fluid. *IF* the majority of players feel that "read the back stories" no longer provides enjoyment, then that particular game element ceases to be what the game is intended for.

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]


According to the way you're putting it, poopy, if we control PLing, it will be “forcing” players to do what I want them to do. However, if we don’t do anything about PLing, people like myself, will be forced to play how you want to play. So in the end, its an exchange of one evil for another. PLing has limited my game play a hell of a lot and I'm a paying customer too. Do I or people with my point of view not apply?

Of course I've stayed on for hours and created my own 8 man team, but its turning more into a chore than a fun challenge. To me, having an authentic group of 8 people is true power leveling I like to call grinding. However, there is a big difference between grinding and power leveling. Grinding is both productive in the story as well as gaining massive exp and influence. It is a hell of a lot funner than 6 people sitting at the zone line while some controller (who doesn’t even have a cape) goes out and kills everything. No matter what you say, that is not playing a game. If normal CoH content is boring for people, then CoH is NOT the game for them.

IMO MA is one of the coolest ideas ever and I have so many missions I want to make. So I'd like it to stick around. The problem is that no one has played any of my MAs nor any of my close friends who have created detailed MAs. Technically MA is real content and there’s nothing wrong with busting through them without playing a trial or task force. Playing a one mission MA with all bosses and all the players at the zone is what I have a problem with. I simply want the act of PLing to change that can benefit us all.

[/ QUOTE ]

How are you forced to powerlevel? Find some friends. Get an SG. socialize for chrissakes. I never have probl;ems finding regular groups because i have FRIENDS to play this game with.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How would XP removal strip ratings griefing?
*
OTHER than by turning the MA into a ghost town?

[/ QUOTE ]
To be blunt and to the point, if a story-arc is rated, even in part, for it's rewards rather than story-telling and design, then the system missed its mark, at least as far as I'm concerned. So yes, I'd rather see a ghost-town with a few honest story-telling efforts at first, and perhaps have the Devs restore rewards to MA story-arcs once the Devs have figured out how to balance the nightmare.

Even though that's my opinion, I know for sure that this won't happen. No Rewards for AE content is how things SHOULD have started, not how they should end.

[/ QUOTE ]

I dont rate arcs based on their xp. I rate them based on whether they were fun and the storyline was engaging.

oddly enough, finding an arc with BOTH of those factors is rare. People usually let their "amazing" story be so important that they lose sight of the funfactor. And Frankly, if an arc is fun but the story sucks, I dont see that as quite as bad. Story is great, but we're playing a game, not a shakespearean novel. If people are so wrapped up in making the AE into a pristine land of happy storytelling where fun isnt the point, then count me out. I'll just siphon tickets from my insanely high rated taskforce thats now near the very top of the arc list, and go run the Kahn TF instead.

at least there I get a decently fun romp through mobs for exp and rewards while also getting a storyline.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Just playing to fifty does not guarantee you enough inf to IO your toon with sets, Frankenslot? Perhaps, I've not done the math on that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Joining the chorus here. It's not supposed to.

This is going to sound more negative than I mean it: IOs are meant to be a time sink. They are intended to keep people playing and provide alternate means of "progress" beyond getting to level 50. If you were guaranteed access to set IOs as you got to 50, there wouldn't really be anything "alternate" about it.

[/ QUOTE ]
Exactly. I have a lvl 49 Ill/sonic troller and 50 fire/pain corr. both are pretty much done with levelling. Both I enjoy playing, roleplaying as, and generally using as my "mains" But if theres nothing for me to shoot for gamewise, I'd very quickly get bored. Thats where TFs, and merits, and the market pvp, and IOing them out comes into play.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

There is absolutely no reason to start your lowbie in Atlas unless you're a Peacebringer, it boggles my mind that everyone does it and then complains.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sorry. I thought the fact that it was a low level zone - one of two that you have the option of picking on the hero side - wasn't a reason to pick it.
As I recall, it is the first option.

At any rate, how would a new player know not to go to Atlas?

Yes, players spend more time from level 40-50 (some people only play their level 50's). I just think that they should be running missions in any of the low level zones - especially in the MA.

It is clear that you don't care about the other players.
I do.

[/ QUOTE ]

ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah aha

[ QUOTE ]
I agree xp gain should be removed from AE. The main side effect of PL through AE is new players rushing to level 50 for that coveted end-game content, only to find there isn't much there.

Like most people on the forums say "This game is about the journey, not the destination."

That could pose problems for new players who are PL to 50 in a day or two. They may never gain an appreciation for the "journey" over "destination" because they were PL.

I wouldn't have a problem with leveling in the manner it was done pre-i14. If AE became a tool for original stories accompanied by means to slot your character with all the non-purple goodies, that would be ok with me.

[/ QUOTE ]

and honestly, you people act like people wont rush to 50 anyhow.

I mean, its not like radio mission pugs were anything more than a poor man's farm.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How about a happy medium? Cut XP by 1/2 in the AE. Also, Make it so that one needs to be of a Zone's level or lower to use a given AE. That way 50s would go to PI and still be able to PL people, and lvl 1s could use the AE in Atlas to play actual content.

[/ QUOTE ]

That is horribly restrictive. The main question is...*why* should people have to play "actual content" if they don't find it enjoyable.

This smacks of trying to force other players to play the way you want them to. Rather than trying to change everyone else's playstyle, why don't you you bite the bullet and change your playstyle to fit others. If you're not willing to change, how do you expect others to. Just because you don't like something doesn't make it wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]

In my experience, the vast majority of the people who hate Farmers, mrketeers, the AE, TF runs, and anything else other than slowly and deliberately running story arcs, have absolutely no problem with the idea of forcing you to play games they way they consider fun and have no comprehension whatsoever of the fact other people might not share their opinion.

[ QUOTE ]
To be honest I'm on the fence about the removal of AE badges as it sets a bad precedent for the future of badges (and possibly the game).

On the other hand, many of the AE badges were a tad excessive. Badges for completing x-amount of test missions? Virtual Ticket Badges? and perhaps the worst of the bunch: 50,000 kills in test mode.

Yes many of the badge titles were cool, no doubt. But the criteria for many of them wasn't all that great.

Now if say they have some of the badges return in the form of AE Ticket purchases that may not be bad, except its going to encourage ticket farming, etc.

Here's hoping that some of the cooler badge titles return in some form, some day

[/ QUOTE ]

by the same token. getting two badges for a single person running your arc is ridiculous

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Wonder if they'll ban a bunch of "exploiters" for farming the arena.

Since, ya know, we should have JUST KNOWN it was wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]

Was your moral compass spinning?

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess we just need to take turns being killed and rezzed in the PvP zones instead. That would be so much harder. They really need to hire that 5 year old kid before implementing changes to stop abuse.

[/ QUOTE ] Not really. Just go right to the edge of the map where you turn hostile in warburg with a buddy.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I consume more than I produce, so it still hits me in the wallet.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm curious how that's possible.

Are you sure you don't consume more than you bother to sell? Because responsibility for that would fall squarely on your shoulders.

I play this game and I get 10s of millions of in worth of goods every couple of days of play, outside the AE and not especially farming. I do bother to craft what I get if it looks like that sells better (and it usually does).

[/ QUOTE ]

I never delete anything other than if I happen to fill up mid mission, and only vendor stuff where I'd get more than WWing it. I craft and sell most uncommon/rare IOs.

Bear in mind I spend most of my time playing heroside in the 30s and most of the uncommon IOs I drop are worth 3-500K crafted having cost maybe 100K to craft and often take a week to sell. There's only so many auction slots for those.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, no offense..but if thats the case the only possible way you could be losing money would be if you have downright exorbitant spending habits.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
No, I don't have to pay 3M now and I don't, but I do have to pay 250K instead of the 20K I used to have to pay to beat the flipper's price.

[/ QUOTE ]

Again, you ignore the fact that higher prices allow your sales to sell for higher prices, which, in turn, allows you to pay the higher prices without a net effect on your wallet.

[/ QUOTE ]

I consume more than I produce, so it still hits me in the wallet.



[/ QUOTE ]

well..its not really OUR fault that you're bad with money.

Silly ironblade, if he cant have purples nao he's underpowered and thats unfair. *sarcasm*

[ QUOTE ]
You're right in that I was looking for PUG's - but thats because I stayed on the game longer than my friends because they have all quit the game over this same issue.

You are also correct in that its just a game - but now its a seriously broken game. I won't be paying to play a broken game system. There are other superhero MMO's on the horizon to explore...

[/ QUOTE ]

Make new friends?

Join an SG.

I mean, no offense, but even without AE, I rarely if ever bother with pugs anymore. theyre just not worth the risk of idiot players (who existed way before AE did)

Though from the rest of this topic, looks like you're one of those braindead buffoons who thinks he can force other people to play his way rather than the way they enjoy by whining enough.

[ QUOTE ]
You would have to be crazy not to want every mother-loving buff out there on your toon. Unfortunately, some crazy people do play this game.

So, let me get this straight, you *don't* want to be an invincible tank mage? Really? Do you use inspirations? Do you slot and enhance your powers? *sigh*

I don't buy the GFX card excuses either. What exactly do they do when they fight a villain type that is heavy in particles, like rad blasting foes, or fire? If your box can't play the game (and this game is like, what, 5 years old now?) you need to upgrade, NOT become more or less dead weight on the team.

And tankers in caves who don't want SB.. L2P. There. I said it!

[/ QUOTE ]

You'd need one hell of a bad card, too.

I mean. before I got my GEForce 8500 GX, I was running an onboard radeon that could barely run CoH.

I had no issues with buffs. why? I had everything set to bare minimum so none of the nasty particle effects that make [censored] like Thermal Armors so graphically demanding even showed up.

[ QUOTE ]
In regards to lottery tickets, the thought process could be something like this: "I know I've got less of a chance of winning the lottery than I do of being struck by lightning - but hey, someone's gotta win it, right?"

[/ QUOTE ]

the problem is that then they win, have no idea how ti invest or manage money because of that mindset rather than earning their fortune, and they quickly end up in debt.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Buying one lottery ticket has an entertainment benefit, it's true. I'm not sure that $20 a month (for instance) has less utility than the 20/1,000,000 chance at $500K or whatever the numbers are. I tend to think it has MORE utility.

[/ QUOTE ]
I tend to share your outlook here. There are a definite group of people who play because it's fun and they don't expect to win. Admittedly, many of them play out of desperation or addiction, but there are just as many (IMO) that just play to play. After all, one lottery ticket per day is a lot cheaper than a cup of Starbucks per day, it's a lot less fatty, and there's always the chance of winning you $1 back!

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not saying all gamblers are addicted morons. Just that there is a certain crowd who for which, gambli9ng, whether the lotto, slots, etc, is nothing more than a great exercise in classical psychological conditioning and addiction.

[ QUOTE ]
The real problem with Cold is the graphical effects, same with Cold Armour. I can't even begin to imagine the pain of spending my entire exsistance with 7 snowmen.

[/ QUOTE ]

Its awesome. Its like having your own frosty the ice golem army.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Well, after about 35 hours i got my purple horse. It came in the form of an Apocolypse: Dam/Rech. Nice one. 35 bidding and 0 for sale atm. Last 5 are between 140-155mill crafted. Options as followsl;

A) Craft and sell.
B) Hold CC for it.
C) Sell to vendor.
D) Sell for 5 million to set a trend. (though unlikely) It'd more than likely just be flipped.

Decisions, decisions....

[/ QUOTE ]

Any option other than C will result in a huge net gain in money for a marketeer.

[/ QUOTE ]
Ah, but option C will also make sure that *nobody* else is able to make use of it and thus wastes a perfectly good drop. Thus the poor soul who really wants it and has slightly outbid the marketeer will have to continue to wait for somebody else who isn't taking recipes to the vendors just to spite the marketeers.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm aware of that. I'm just pointing out that if eryq is so deadset on hurting us "ebil" marketeers. he cannot pick any solution he actually profits from

[ QUOTE ]
Well, after about 35 hours i got my purple horse. It came in the form of an Apocolypse: Dam/Rech. Nice one. 35 bidding and 0 for sale atm. Last 5 are between 140-155mill crafted. Options as followsl;

A) Craft and sell.
B) Hold CC for it.
C) Sell to vendor.
D) Sell for 5 million to set a trend. (though unlikely) It'd more than likely just be flipped.

Decisions, decisions....

[/ QUOTE ]

Any option other than C will result in a huge net gain in money for a marketeer.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So, you're saying i'm illogical because i'd rather be able to get drops than to buy them in WW?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, yeah. You have essentially built a financial plan contingent on winning the lottery, except that Posi gives better odds.

If your goal truly is to just log in and kill stuff, you should be using generic IOs, and you should have had them back at level 32 for the most part. Regular posters here know the Goat has advocated getting your cheap bids up for these things and walking away. Within a few logins you'll have what you need (I tend to just place cheap bids on the recipes and salvage, but it's the same principle; and especially villainside I'll lay in a pittance on a generic I'll need soon--I have yet to be disappointed).

You boasted a little while ago that you do okay in both PvE and PvP, so why the purples? It's your $15, you can continue to attempt to win the lottery, but after 2 years (IOs and the market have only been around 2 years and change) I'd think you'd have looked at your personal data and realized it's not going to happen.

Now if you're the type of person that thinks after 2 years of failure, you're "due," for goodness' sake stay away from slot machines. That's what got eryq1.

[/ QUOTE ]

Quoted for truth. I worked once in a convenience store.

Daily, i would see the SAME ladies and men walk in and buy a hundred dollars worth of lottery tickets, and rarely win anything back. And when they did, they immediately bought more tickets with it. At first this puzzled me. Why on earth would you waste hundreds of dollars on a very unlikely chance of ever regaining any of that cash?

After a while, I realized, that some people simply have no concept of how probability works. This is also why people who get 2 7s on a slot machine and the third in the wrong row think "aha, I'm almost there!"

Its because they dont understand that chance is just that, chance. it owes you nothing, and expecting a payout from it is illogical and insane.. Anyone who's farmed items on a more traditional mmo like wow can tell you that. Just because an item has a 3% drop chance doesnt mean I'll get 3 for every hundred mobs I kill

I always assumed it was Vanessa devouring her defeated charges souls for the power boost since theyre about to be useless/dead anyhow. At least thats what she did to the first carnie who ever died in lore, as I recall.

Right before her death in a mugging Vanessa ate her soul and then set off some crazy "crimefighting" campaign that led to the modern day carnies being both a pleasure cult and a bunch of deranged warrior cultists

[ QUOTE ]
[qr]
Furries in denial. Or worse, furries who are not in denial.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pft. I roleplay a catgirl in a different venue ( a chat rpg of changeling The Lost) and have little to no interest in the furry fandom. I have a friend that does, though, but I mostly did the character because I wanted to try roleplaying something completely different from my usual obsession with mad science.

whats bad about 4 stars? 4 stars out of 5 is a solid quality rating in the hotel/restauraunt industry last I checked.

besides. this isnt caused by griefers. the law of averages pretty much states that unless you get nothing but 5 star ratings from everyone, maintaining a 5 star rating is next to impossible.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The problem is we don't have enough of a good faith in the writing team to believe they have the ability to conclude a plot at all, let alone conclude one well. It's especially frustrating since they have an amazing tool to do something relatively unprecedented in story-driven MMOs.

[/ QUOTE ]With the recent unclosed story arcs and the new tf/sf in i15, I don't have any faith in any of the writers to even pump out a half-good and finished storyline. I also think the new direction for storyline-driven content is absurd. It's just wall of texts to distract you from the next mission. All the story info I get is from the sight. If they want this to be a story driven game, they need to find a better way to deliver it.

[/ QUOTE ]Well, it's okay to use slabs of text - I'm fine with that, because it means the story is unobtrusive to those people who don't really care. I've seen a lot of people frustrated by cut scenes because they interrupt combat flow. On the other hand, for those of us who do read the text there's this feeling of Why Bother.

[/ QUOTE ]And I agree with you, but there mindset is to deliver story arcs, then us people who just want to play and have fun are being left out a bit. I'll take new zones, powers, costumes, and gameplay mechanics over stories in this game any day.

[/ QUOTE ]That kind of presumes that people who want story progressing dont want to have fun. It is all a balance, and i dont think things have been too bad for the people you have mentioned. yeah zones have been lacking lately, but it appears that going rogue is where that work went(not to mention that we dont exactly have the population for having a huge number of zones and maintaining any real density) . meanwhile the story has pretty much floundered since issue 12, so balance, you got new things to play with, ma day job powers and accolades, the patrol exp, making alting even easier than ever, lets see some story stuff going on.

[/ QUOTE ]

actually. what it supposes is what so many story addicts dont eseem to realize.

Not everyone finds stories fun. Some people love reading the lore or player written stories or roleplaying.. some people love smashing through the hardest mobs they can find or make. some people like to be efficient.

none of them are wrong, no matter what some people may tell you >_>

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This. But people have to blame some "thing", instead of an actual person, in order for their lives' to continue safely and without confrontation.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bullpucky. A bad player can make a bad set much worse. But a good player can't make a bad set much better. All the skill in the world doesn't make up for the dps lost from the time taken to joust into position just to mitigate the secondary effects of your skills and cause them to NOT do what they were designed to do. From an effectiveness perspective, there's no point to taking the set - the mitigation it offers is counterproductive to general gameplay design, and circumventing that mitigation is counterproductive to the archetype design. And just think how much more effective that same good player would be on a good set!

Remove player ability from the equation and the set is still bad. Fun, and pretty, but bad. And I honestly wish people would stop sticking up for red-headed step-child powersets; that's a good way to make sure no one ever bothers to fix them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hardly.

If the set is completely underplayed thats just as likely as not to make the devs ignore it completely. or try to fix it in the same vein as they did PVP

[ QUOTE ]
People that complain about markeeters and pvpers are idiots and do not fall under my definition of being negatively affected. If a person doesn't like something that is caused by a marketeer, then mess up their activities or wait a week or less for the stuff to drop to an acceptable price. PvP is even easier. It is not like a character will get debt in a PvP zone. Just don't bother attacking and the PvPers will be bored. There is no fun in beating a foe that doesn't fight back. Messing up marketeers and pvpers is far more fun than complaining and will likely actually have an effect.

[/ QUOTE ]

No it won't.

Griefing is about the least mature way on earth to deal with something you dislike, and pvpers and marketeers dont deserve it anyhow just because they dont play the game your way.

The only way a marketeer or pvper or even a badger can negatively affect your gameplay is if you venture into their realm and try to compete with no know-how.

Besides I'd love to see you try to "mess with" a marketeer, as saying that proves you have no idea how economics on the market work anyhow.