After mulling through the 55 pages of the thread now, I feel comfortable enough in the topic to make a comment.
It is a long post but it addresses the XP change as a cumulative effect with other things. After having read 55 pages, I feel I deserve to say a large piece.
Please note I am not trying to get any ATS nerfed. The points I make are not to get Tankers and Scrappers penalized but to actually to keep the Support ATS from getting more time in the Penalty Box themselves.
The biggest problems I see with the proposed modifications are:
1. The changes would have little to no impact on Power Leveling.
2. The changes would stifle creativity.
3. The changes would negatively impact the Super Hero genre the game is attempting to be.
4. The changes favor the ATS that are rife with advantages while penalizing others.
1...The changes would have little to no impact on Power Leveling:
Having to grind my controller to level 34, I have been on both sides of the power leveling coin.
I have assisted lower level characters by allowing them along on my instance-based missions (where they follow at a safe distance), collecting the increased experience as well as enhancements, inspirations and influence.
I have also benefited from two Runs with the Wolves, one timed and one not. In the timed mission I did get rendered unconscious 4 times as I was responsible for keeping the tanker up via Fortitude and Clear Mind (with the occasional heal and Recovery Aura thrown in). I flew above him but occasionally took a hit when coming into range to heal (the joy of healing drawing aggro). Even with 4 KOs and the mission being timed, I still gained a level (from level 31 to 32). We hit the mission seven times, using up about 50 minutes of the timer and then split up to get all the clickies the next time through. Enjoying one last round of arrests of the wolves following the Mission Complete. After that we went to another mission where you could herd the baddies and arrest them without a timer and with no wolves in sight and got more experience because they were tougher than the wolves.
On second instance of Running with the Wolves I got to sit back, buffing the twin tankers at the beginning. I did nothing and still gained one level (level 33 to 34 yes, I ground from 32 to 33).
I now assist people on my Friends list by grinding through Brickstown (soon Ill move to another portion of the city). I simply TP them to my location a good 50 to 100 feet from the fight, and commence beating on baddies that are Green through Orange for me and allow them to gather the experience from my efforts. The changes will not affect this one bit (whether I am in a mission or simply using Teleport Ally to get people nearby). Distance wont matter to the dedicated only to the innocent. As a person assisting someone to level faster, I am going to be conscious of the distance to the other players the casual player, focused on the content - is not.
2...The changes would stifle creativity:
As a controller, I have a hard enough time proving my merit to groups. Though very effective on Task Forces, my mission merit is seriously lacking. I dont have any AoE damage effects, I do extremely poor damage, I die easily when hit (one to two hit kills with things my level). Most tankers and scrappers dont need healers along much anymore not since they got moved to the Med/High, High/Med level. My Defender has it worse (at least Controllers have pets) and my Blaster is the WORST. When a limitation is imposed on how groups can work with one another, it stifles creativity and tactics.
Part of the enjoyment of grouping (and really one of the best reasons) is being given a goal and seeing how each group approaches it. Groups rebound ideas off each other and influence the thoughts of others opening new avenues of thought. Having a group tactically separate to cover a zone more efficiently is an Experience building exercise.
The asinine concept of experience only coming from beating someone into unconsciousness (or simply standing near someone who does) is ridiculous. Sure, there are the occasional missions of patrol this, or click this but they seem to be thrown in as an afterthought to give the impression the game isnt dedicated to the scrappers/tankers.
As it stands, to be a better support AT (a term I very much disagree with), you must stand near the fighters as watching them beat someone down teaches you all about putting people to sleep with your mind, or harnessing the power of gravity, summoning storms or manipulating radiation fields.
3...The changes would negatively impact the Super Hero genre the game is attempting to be:
The proposed concept of this game is to be a superhero. Now, everything I ever read about superheroes (and watched in cartoons, television shows and movies) made them out to be Noble (this is going off the notion of Super Heroes, not simply ultra-powerful mutations or magicians that happen to have their own comic book line) - Superman (well the entire Justice League), Batman (not the Dark Knight) & Robin, the Fantastic Four
Throughout comics (and other mediums) it was not uncommon for groups to separate to accomplish a task quicker keeping in mind that innocent civilians will be suffer for your delay. If a group wants to maintain the Super Hero feel and immediately whoop up on 30 Freakshow by splitting up and taking as many down as quickly as possible why penalize them for it? Why discourage Role-Playing in an MMORolePlayingG? The proposed change simply turns heroism into a matter of proximity not a matter of action.
4...The changes already favor ATS that are rife with advantages, while penalizing others:
As the game stands, it is becoming less and less City of Heroes and more and more City of Thugs. The Tanker and Scrapper ATS by far have the game engineered to promote their game play above the other ATS. Sad fact but true. This is seen in the XP system as is. Most missions are capture/arrest so and so and his allies. Unfortunately, Arrest can only be accomplished through damage. Damage is the province of the Scrappers and Tankers. Too few missions are Arrest only this guy or Find this evidence. Hell, none of the missions in any way entail the Hero getting in and out unseen to prevent the bad guys from knowing there on to them (my bad, there was that one with the freakshow and the cool egg costume). No Failed missions for bad guys sounding an Alarm. Hell a sounded alarm is an advantage for these guys, puts all the baddies in one place.
Tankers and Scrappers can get the majority of their Dual and Single Origin enhancements before the Controllers and Defenders (and to a lesser degree, the blasters). The ability to do more damage, be more accurate, resist more damage and heal more damage (oh look, something for the healer set of defender/controller only) are all purchasable at level 12. However, to hold longer, slow longer, drain more endurance (electric boogey-woogey), recover more endurance, make your teammates more accurate or baddies less accurate (or easier to hit), you need to be level 22 to purchase (As the purchasable ones are level 25).
Tankers and Scrappers have by far the highest XP per hour in the game as is. Meaning, they advance much faster. With Resistances, higher hit points and more damage dealing, they are far more effective in a HACK-AND-SLASH game, which unfortunately is what City of Thugs is all about. Blasters are too squishy to be effective for this, even though they have high damage, they have low hit points meaning they cant afford to miss.
How do you defeat any of the Bosses (Elite Bosses and Arch Villains)? You beat them to a bloody pulp, thats how. You cant Hold, Incapacitate or Sleep a villain into custody you can only beat them.
With this as the backdrop, the Scrappers and Tankers again will see the benefits. They arent being penalized in any way by this proposal. Sure many say that the Support ATS should stay nearby but what classifies the Support ATS? Seems to me like Xavier wasnt a Support character that support characters were all the X-Men.
Take a step back and compare this to other things in the real world, where you are offer up money for something but never really own it
When you borrow a book from the library they dont tell you cant go to the end of it. When you rent a movie, you arent told you cant fast forward it. When you lease a car, they dont tell you how you can drive it. Im paying my rental fee each month for access to the servers, game updates and additional content.
You might not like how I read the book (perhaps Im a speed-reader); how I watch the movie, perhaps the dialogue between the two main characters is boring (and I fast forward through it); how I drive my car (taking the interstate instead of secondaries) as long as Im not actually hurting anyone or the property in question, it shouldnt make a difference.
For these reasons and many more, I assist Heroes to become a more productive Guardians of Paragon City whenever I can. Why shouldnt I? Everyone, no matter how many hours they play, must pay the same base rate of $15.00 a month to play the game. That means, whether they play the 60+ hours a week or 15 hours a month, they must dispense with $15.00. Why should they be penalized in game content for real world money? Yes we introduced this really cool content that you can't play with because you haven't dedicated 300 hours at 15 per month = $300.00 that was given to the person that has only paid $60.00 because they have more spare time. Perhaps they have children, a spouse, family, a job, school, etc
that demands they spend more time in real life and cant get on as often. Does that mean they deserve less content and fun for their money? I have Cable TV, and they don't tell me I can't watch a specific program on a channel because I don't watch that channel enough times a month. NO, absolutely NOT!
Mind you, the rate at which I assist is rather slow but the proposed changes dont affect the quick leveling only the slow. People that get leveled with me see the content, read my clues, fight the baddies and watch the stories.
Much like less-experienced heroes, they dont understand everything that is going on as they cant see the big picture the Higher level Hero has. The desire to see the big picture the captivating content, the progressive stories and ever-changing Villains that is what is going to hold people to City of Heroes, a restricted grind through levels isn't. Hell, limited exposure to the Malta and Artemis has intrigued me and I can't wait to encounter them - but the same is true for the Clockwork King (who I never saw).
I myself am trying to get through the game as quickly as possible, currently ignoring much content (but wanting to further explore it) to get to level 50 as quickly as possible so I can play a Kheldian. Then, as a Kheldian or one of the other ATS due to come out, I can saturate myself with the story unconcerned with the parts of the game I cant play because I have real world responsibilities/interferences that prevent me from playing 50+ hours a week.
But let it be clear Developers Im trying to get there because I am interested in the additional content but want to have access to it when I want it. At $15.00 a month like everyone else, I deserve at least that.
You want to get rid of power-leveling, get rid of level-accessed content - as one directly leads to the other.
Thats my $15.00 worth ($110.00 actually)
By the way, if you are on the Victory Server and need assistance leveling, just send a message over to Pyramids Mind if you see him on Ill be happy to assist my fellow Heroes of Paragon City (assuming Im not assisting others at the time). And if you wouldnt mind assisting me towards my Kheldian or making Pyramids Mind a more productive member of Paragon Citys Super Heroes, send me a tell as well.
