Great work, MM!
I was really laughing a lot!
This all brings me back to an earlier thought I had posted in the Suggestions area, when AE had just come out and AE Babies had not yet made an appearance on the scene, that I thought to share with everyone here, with the intent of hopefully spurring constructive debate.
Basically, at the time I was thinking of ways to stop the immensely heightened level of farming that was taking place, as well as pointing out some things about the AE system that just didn't make any sense. Correcting the latter would also fix the former -- killing two birds with one stone. Little did I know that it would have killed
three birds -- had it been implemented, AE Babies would never have come into existence.
In-game, and in-character, the AE Complex is offering its customers a virtual experience. In other words, players are being virtualized (a la TRON) and are experiencing adventures within the AE computer system. Since this is the case, why would their actions in the
virtual game world of the AE computer earn them Influence in the "
real" world of Paragon City? Why would it earn their Super Group Prestige? And why on earth would they get Recipes and Salvage? (from Dev Choice missions)
Any XP users of AE get should be a fraction of normal XP, since it's a
virtual world -- basically, a training experience, a la the "Danger Room". There is something indefinable that is lost... perhaps the element of actual danger? And certainly -- since heroes who are defeated in combat are not using the Medical Transporter System, but rather are just being dumped out of the AE System and re-materialized as hale as they were when they went in, why would they suffer "debt"?
I proposed that users should only receive
1/4 the normal amount of Experience one would gain in an
actual (i.e., non-MA) mission, and
no debt for being defeated. It made no sense that playing MA missions awards
Prestige or
Influence, and
certainly not
drops, either from an in-game or an out-of-game perspective. I felt, and proposed, that these rewards be removed entirely from AE.
Out-of-Game, by removing Influence and Prestige and Drops ENTIRELY from the AE System, the Devs would also completely remove the Farmers and Grinders from the system. Farmers will go only to the places where they can farm for the influence that they sell through their pay sites. If AE didn't offer it, then they'd go back to RV, or somewhere else. Similarly, if the amount of experience earned through AE missions was significantly less than that of normal game content, the Grinders and Power-Levellers would go back to using their demon farms and XP-turned-off Level 46 bridges or what-have-you -- but at least they would not be clogging up the AE building trying to power-level one another.
My thought was that if these changes were implemented, it would leave the AE System
exactly what it was meant to be -- a venue where players can create, share and experience user-generated content in a safe, "virtual" venue that does not at all impact the "outer" world of CoX. Where there is no grinding, no griefing, and no farming. Just pure storytelling, and the enjoyment that comes from experiencing it.
What think you all?
-- Vivian
Great work, MM!