Smiling_Joe

.....and? Not sure where we're disagreeing here. I too choose the content. I'd just like to see more of it that actually takes place outside MA at the mid to lower levels.

EDIT - and that's not to say I don't expect that we'll indeed be seeing new content added once GR is released. Nothing wrong with identifying a desirable level range up front, is there?

Well, I wasn't trying to by quite so hyperbolic as that! All I'm saying is that (a) there is very little difference in playing the same mission repeatedly for rewards (farming) and playing the same repeated series of missions with plug and play enemies repeatedly for rewards (Police Band) and (b) that Police Band missions certainly don't discourage the player mindset that eventually justifies powerlevelling. While I'll admit to a large degree of unintentional hyperbole when I said it was one of the factors that leads to powerlevelling and exploitive farms, I do feel there certainly should be some incentive to do something besides that after a few characters having gone through those levels.

I'm not saying there's any need for players to play any differently, or that they even will. Eventually, though, even the most efficiency-minded players get bored with the level grind, and start insisting on more content. Wouldn't it be nice if that new content didn't just provide faster ways of grinding?

And some people can. I, however, find the MA immersion-breaking. I don't care to play a game about superheroes who play games about being superheroes. I don't find the notion particularly offensive, but at some point I had hoped I would get some user-created content that, while not canon, at least let me feel as though my hero were experiencing something that was actually heroic. That, and I actually do like flying through the zones and seeing the sights. It's part of my enjoyment, and I find that the MA takes away from that enjoyment.

You're quite right - I did ignore MA in my previous post, but that's mainly because the fact that my character is standing in the same place mission after mission offsets the story for me. I get bored always seeing the same thing. But again - that's just me. Many people do like the story content MA offers, and I've been known to do an MA arc or two. It doesn't stop me from wanting to get out into Paragon City once in a while to do something heroic.

It's petty. It's only a little bit shy of ridiculous, but I'll freely admit that I'd be all about MA content if players could assign the real standard contacts and have the mission start in a random door in the same zone (using the same code Police Band uses to assign doors) and be "real" to the world my character inhabits.

::shrugs::

Unreasonable? Maybe. But I am what I am.

See what I said above about the authenticity of MA content. Believe it or not, there are those of us who dislike the MA's implementation of an entertainment medium within an entertainment medium.

But to consider any in-game tedium voluntary because you can speed past it is just putting a bandaid over an unsightly scar.

I'm not worried. I'd just like to see some of the future content aimed at something besides the end levels. The end levels have enough, IMHO.

Well, yeah. But when the speed of the lower levels is increased so that you level even faster than before, then the perception is created that the upper levels go slower than before. Now you could respond by saying "no it isn't. I don't feel that way." and I'd have to say that I do. It's all anecdotal and subjective when dealing with perceptions, but just as I can't guarantee that people will feel a certain way, you can't guarantee that they won't.

Hey now - don't go disaparaging the OP because you disagree with me. If anyone's full of crap here it's me. Beside's I'm totally not accusing you of that.


But neither I nor the OP are saying to fix a bunch of old stuff. Two of the three suggestions deal with adding new lower level content specifically, and by lower-level, he appears to mean pre-40 content, since the post-40 content is what he identifies as being heavy. Some good stuff has come down the pike for level 35 and above - and the supersidekicking combined with losing the level requirements for hazard zones is HUGE for my lower and mid-level characters - bigger than the MA for me.

But the thread is about new content at lower levels, not fixing a bunch of old stuff. If they do fix a thing or two about old story arcs then great, but new options for new characters would be most welcome.

And yes, I am looking forward to GR for that reason, too.

Who said anything about stamping out farmers? I'm in support of the OP's ideas for purely selfish reasons.

And yeah, I did ignore MA previously, but I covered that above.

Point taken. It is new content - I don't particularly care for it for purely arbitrary reasons, but that's not an excuse for me to exclude it. But then, I'm not complaining about what the developers have done, it's more the case that I'm voicing a desire to see something done in a different direction in the future.

Must you insist on pointing out ALL of my hyperbole? Heh. Yeah upon rereading that it was really reaching. Well, that's what I get for posting in a hurry. The real point I was trying to get to was below that, but I did a good job diverting attention from it with this. Yeah. Not previewing my post ftl.

Seduced to their doom? When did I equate farming with doom? Who's guilty of hyperbole now?

My point, though is that the police band grinding in the lower levels is one of the factors that leads to the kind of player mentality that justifies the use of exploits as a means to an end. One of the developer mantras leading up to the release of the MA was "we want the MA to hilight story-driven content, not farming."

The fact that farming was the result can in all likelihood be traced directly back to the mentality encouraged by police band experience farming (calling it what it is), and one wonders why they let the drudgery of the low-level experience undermine the MA's story-telling potential by neglecting to improve it.

Well, by interesting levels I did indeed mean the character's levels, where more powers are available, so on that I totally agree.

BUT the early levels are the prime time to get players hooked on story-driven content, and by and large it's being squandered. Only have five or six powers? Playing through an engaging storyline that challenges me to learn to use those six powers in creative ways are what makes the later levels so much more fun for me - even moreso than pl'ing in that I don't just play to get to the good stuff and then remove the "lesser" powers from my tray. I get a break from reality, a feel for my character and a fuller knowledge of what the powers can do. I can get all of that to a lesser extent from just grinding away experience, but the enjoyment and skill I get from story-arc leveled characters is exponential to those with which I've slogged through police band and PuGs.

My point, though, is that in a well-rounded game no levels should be a chore to play. Don't get me wrong, I'm not disparaging the fun-factor of CoX in general - it's loads of fun to play as it is, else I wouldn't play it as often as I do. However, the OP expressed the opinion that the lower levels of play could stand vast improvement, and if the response in this thread is any indication, vast improvement =/= faster passage. Otherwise let me start my character at level 24 and be done with it.

But for how long? How long until players have used all their new powers the exact same way to do the exact same thing ad nauseum, and need a further fix from yet more powers? Sure, it lasts a little longer than the early levels, but just load into Atlas Park AE and count the number of lv 40+ characters begging for teams because they're dying to get to 50.

Will we see as a result a future QoL improvement that speeds up the later levels so we can get to all those shiny epic pool powers? That's like saying a road in poor condition is improved by a faster car.

I won't deny that. I don't even have a problem with AE farming - it doesn't really affect me one way or the other, so long as I don't have to do it.

But players are also entitled to make requests for improvement regarding whatever way they like to play (so long as it isn't against the EULA), and telling them that a solution that works for others should be good enough for them isn't really addressing their concern.

Speeding up the early levels don't make them less tedious, it makes the tedium easier to bypass. Bypassing the tedium is one of the motivations for a great majority of the controversy in this game, and I fail to see the logic in capitulating to that "REWARD NAO" mentality, but then I'm the enjoy-the-ride type of player that prefers that the entire gaming experience be enjoyable.

And while I don't expect the developers to cater to the playstyle of every player, I see nothing wrong with the OP pointing out areas that could use some improvement, and really that's all this is.

And that's my point. The story arc content was such that you ran to police band to level past it. You could just as well have gone to AE and farmed your way past in a few hours, and without all the tedium of repeating the same set of missions with mix/matched enemy groups for fifteen levels.

Either way, you were farming experience, and the lack of attention to story arc content encouraged you to do so. You might have a tipping point where you stop powerlevelling, but other players clearly don't, and their experience with content has led so many of them to farm that AE in Atlas Park is frequently so jammed that it lags.

And more power to them, if that's what they enjoy. Me? I'll hold out for improved content.

With you 1000 percent there, but I wonder if Story Arc content isn't obsolete in the current gaming environment? The developers have already demonstrated through rcent changes that task forces are the preferred core content, so why not abandon the story arc mechanic altogether? Story arcs already award merits, so why not give them the task force architecture, but with a minimum requirement of only one player? Then everyone could share in the rewards, the rewards wouldn't have to change, and teams would be more inclined to run them.

I actually was pretty luke-warm on the XP smoothing. I didn't mind getting levels faster, but it also meant that I outlevelled content that much faster. Oroborous was a much better improvement for me, and the upcoming changes in exemplaring will sweeten that deal even more.

I too am happy with the job they've done, and none of what I've said was meant to disparage their accomplishments (and I hope it didn't come across that way). That being said, I'm still with the OP - holding out for actual content improvements that make me want to play the lower levels, and not just zip by them.

So if that's the case then what's the difference between zipping past the potholes and xp farming? Why get lathered up into a fury and threaten to lock powerlevelled characters if you're just going to encourage farming of a different sort?

From the sewers to King's Row - and beyond - police band, this game has a long history of teaching players what it is to drudge through the same mission (or mission type,) over and over. Small wonder, then, that many players choose to drudge through one mission at an accelerated rate of xp gain for their next characters to get to the "interesting" levels.

And what about the xp smoothing and upcoming pre-24 xp increase? Isn't that just putting off the problem? What happens when someone gets to the post-lv24 world and then has to start a slower rate of xp earning? They do what got them to level 24 so quickly in the first place - they grind xp in police band after police band (teamed and/or solo).

Dare I say it? They farm experience with the police band/newspaper missions. After all, what's the difference? A different door location and a randomized enemy? Where's the story content in that?

And what if they do pick up a story arc? They ought to change the name to "solo arc," because it's rare that a pre-45 team even wants to do them, given that the rewards/clues/souvenirs/merits only go to the arc holder. Especially so if the arc takes the team to multiple zones.

Now if story arcs gave clues and rewards to an entire team, that would be another story (and another suggestion). As it is, though, the overpass philosophy (nice analogy, btw) only leads to more overpasses being requested in the later levels.

How long until the levelling experience starts to feel like getting around Skyway City with superspeed?

EDIT - Nether, maybe I should have posted this in your thread. Currently reading through it now. Good thread, and mucho needed.

/em scorpion "C'MERE!"

I'd giggle a little every time my fire blaster did that followed by breath of fire.

I might even bind it to a costume switch with a skull mask.

Muhaha.

...or Architect Entertainment.

/signed for this suggestion.

Ah dangit. That means I have to rework my warshade's human-form build again to fit OD back in.

I guess that's a good problem to have.

::takes the chains away::

WELCOME HOME!!!

Okay you all pwn the corruptors - shouldn't take long. Meantime, Bill and I got yer backs and will keep the tanker and defender spawns at bay.

::Chains Chaos Creator to the Scrapper Forums::

And now there's only one of you. Heh.

Bill's right. We can't afford to spread our offense. Hit the tanks while the defenders and corruptors are going at it.

Actually, all that's needed is "+" to designate a toggle key. So instead of

/bind [key] "+down$$powexec_toggleon orbiting death$$powexec_toggleon inky aspect"

It would be:

/bind [key] "+$$powexec_toggleon orbiting death$$powexec_toggleon inky aspect"

HOWEVER, even though that works it generates an error message in your chat window, so down is generally used. Other commands that do nothing can be substituted. Last list I saw was:

target_custom_near
target_custom_far
target_custom_next
target_custom_prev
powexec_name
powexec_toggleon
powexec_toggleoff
powexec_auto

Now what you do is something like this:

/bind [key] "+powexec_auto$$powexec_toggleon orbiting death$$powexec_toggleon inky aspect"

and even though powexec_auto doesn't name a power there, the + in front of it makes it alright, and the command effectively does nothing but toggle a key.

Quote:

Considering that a PB-equivalent macro/bind could, using both White Dwarf and Human-form heals, bring a PB from near-0 HP to a full health-bar, I wouldn't call a WS double-drain an exploit.

Totally works! I tested

/bind [key] "powexec_auto essence boost$$powexec_name white dwarf sublimation$$powexec_toggleoff white dwarf$$goto_tray 1"

Very handy when lag and server ticks are conspiring against you.

During lunch I also tested:

/bind [key] "powexec_auto gravitic emanation$$powexec_toggleon inky aspect$$powexec_name dark nova detonation$$powexec_toggleoff dark nova$$goto_tray 1"

With limited success. My warshade dropped to human form, shot the detonation attack out of his mouth (and... LOL was that funny) and hit GE. Inky Aspect failed to toggle, however, probably because of the toggleoff of nova.

EDIT - good thing I didn't try dark nova scatter. Since it comes off the nova's tail, I'd hate to think where it originates from on the human model.

Here's the thing: there's no equivalent animation in human form that shoots anything out of a character's mouth, so that sort of blows my little half baked theory about duplicated animations right out of the water.

Realizing this, I went back to the double mire bind:

/bind [key] "powexec_auto sunless mire$$powexec_name black dwarf mire$$powexec_toggleoff black dwarf$$goto_tray 1"

.......IT WORKED!

I have no idea why it didn't work before, but I suspect my erratic typing skills were to blame. Not only did they both fire off (in human form, of course), but they did it simultaneously, or so it seemed. To make sure I put extra copies of both mires in a tray next to each other in a tray and tried again - they both activated at the same time with one animation.

BUT my computer was a bit laggy, so if someone else could confirm for me I would be most grateful.

I can't imagine any single kheld needing all or even half of the binds we talk about here, but if someone can find one interesting thing to try (like you just did), then the thread serves its purpose, and I'm happy!

That's four powers with one keystroke? Hmm... I'll be curious to read your results!

So, what, it might look like this:

/bind [key] "powexec_auto gravitic emanation$$powexec_toggleon inky aspect$$powexec_name dark nova detonation$$powexec_toggleoff dark nova$$goto_tray 1"

with, of course, your camdist/tp bindloadfile commands.

Might try a few combinations of that myself!

I wish. The bind doesn't appear to work for double mires - different animations and all. On the other hand, maybe some further experimentation might yield results, or I got it typed in wrong...

Quote:

I think it'd be fun to try and perform a BDM+Eclipse that way though!

I think their animations are different, aren't they? Dangit why don't I pay more attention when I do that? I seem to recall eclipse involving something more closely resembling the animation for shadow cloak. Bah. I can't remember. BDM has an animation time of .73 and Eclipse shows 1.03, so they're obviously not the same.

I'll be curious what testing bears out.

Now applying that to my dwarf form de-toggle bind, I can do the Safety Dance (Yes, that's a pun on the "Dancing Warshade") and drop form in complete safety (from mez) to activate the necessary power sequence.

/bind [key] "powexec_toggleoff white dwarf$$powexec_toggleoff bright nova$$goto_tray 1$$inspexecname escape$$ inspexecname emerge$$ inspexecname break_free"

Starting with Break Frees, the bind will cycle through all of the inspiration commands until it finds one of the appropriate size, consuming that inspiration and skipping whatever insp command is left to go to the proper tray and drop toggles.

It's a great way to avoid mez when switching between forms or just dropping for a heal/build up/mire/whatever.

EDIT - Heh. I know. I made a pun on the Dancing Warshade guide in the context of talking about a peacebringer bind. Sue me. And while your lawyers are drawing up the paperwork, insert "Black Dwarf" for "White Dwarf" and "Dark Nova" for "Bright Nova" when you read it.

No, both attacks are animating and activating separately. WDF will animate in human form, resulting in the enemies being knocked down and damaged accordingly (but not more than normal) and after that animation completes SD will activate, knocking them back and damaging them accordingly. The only hiccup is that sometimes the glowing pavement cracks animate while the character is returning to stance from the WDF attack (the actual point of attack seems to be the cutoff for activating another attack - I can use the usual bind to drop to form and initiate SF normally as my dwarf is bringing his stompin' foot back to stance.) When that happens, sometimes the character will perform the second footstomp animation after the SF has actually fired its pavement cracks animation.

Doing the dwarf mire combo as I posted above actually yields two identical-looking attacks in human form, one right after the other.