Talimuth

I've been searching the forums for the past 10 mins. to find some advice on a good Spines/Fiery Aura build. I have a guy with those powersets who I just got to lv 23, and so far he's kicking *** but I think he could do better, and I'm interested in seeing what other players work with for this build, or if anyone has a suggestion for what they think is THE build. Thought this might be a good thread to ask on, my searches aren't turning up much.

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The Ae is working as intended? no problems? What a load of crap. A vast majority, almost all of AE usage is for farming. Farming is an exploit. Not working as intended.

If the Devs removed 50% xp from all AE missions that aren't Devs Choice or HoF, it would completely cut out the farming. The only reason to play the AE would be for it's actual purpose...which is to make and play quality story arcs and missions with creative and thought out stories, charcters, and dialogue. If everyone quit playing AE because they could only use it as intended instead of farming the [censored] out of it, then that just makes the AE a complete failure. Not my problem.

If they leave the AE in game as is, IMO they are giving the green light to farmers and PLers. They are basicly saying let this game turn into a cesspool of farmers that will burn out and die, because we don't want our precious AE to be deemed a failure.

Bottom line is this game has changed for the worse since AE. Don't waste your breath telling me otherwise. I've been here for over four years and I know. This game makes be sick right now. If they want games like CO to crush CoX, they are setting up the perfect storm by letting this [censored] happen. Mark my words, stop the excessive farming, especially in Cap and Atlas, or this game will not survive. People that farm all day everyday burn out. They get tired of their repetative existance and they quit, they move on. If this game chases away it's true fan base for a bunch of noob farmers, they might make a killing right now, but will be dead a year from now.

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Well put, J.

I still think it would be great if we could just filter out all the farm stuff. I never said "take it away", I'm just more or less indifferent. Obviously I know that there are people that enjoy the farming / PLing aspect and that's cool. I'm all for everyone enjoying the game in their own way, that's how it should be. But like I said, it sucks sometimes digging through the marvelous amounts of arcs I DON'T want to play (farms), just to find ones that I could enjoy. I have played a few that I thought were just great, honestly. I wouldn't mind being able to find more without having to quit one every couple tries b/c it turns out to actually be a farm.

If farms could be categorized as their own thing, it could serve two purposes:

1) Those looking for a farm can more easilly find one. And a good one, at that, with good ratings, without having to forum search or broadcast for one that people say is good.

2) Those looking specifically for STORY designated content, could more easily find THOSE, in the same convenient way that farmers could find theirs.

It's just an idea. I'm sure we could all think of dozens of other categories/designations for certain "types" of arcs, and I don't see why that couldn't work either. I guess what I"m suggesting overall is just a search engine improvement that allows a player to further filter out what they do and don't want to see.

:shrug:

Hm..yea I didn't know you could rate people, but I knew about adding notes. It'd be cool if other people could see the note, but then of course....everyone would have a ton of notes and I'm sure that would get out of control. But whatever. :P

All that aside, I still think the idea of a more advanced and thorough search tool would be pretty useful. The idea of being able to join a group that has their status marked as "open", so that anyone can join, that's cool. If you don't want others to join, make it a private group. Simple and effective, with good potential.

I think this sounds like a great idea, personally. The idea of a better-filtered search tool, let alone one that lets you be active, and JOIN a fitting rather than just sit and wait for one to find you.

Honestly, I can't see any reason why something like this couldn't be implemented, there's lots of potential for it. I think anyone who's spent any time LFT could agree lol.

You know, I don't care how people want to play the game either, that's their prerogitave.

But here is where my point lies, and I think many will agree.

"You will most likely never talk to these people. You will most likely never even encounter these people outside of a broadcast."

Exactly. So logically, if more and more people act in this fashion, and become players that a non-farming individual most likely wouldn't associate with, then most likely there are less players to team with for those who just want to play and not farm.

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Getting rid of exp in MA is not the answer. I personally would like to get rid of or limit PLing all together. One way is to limit SKs to a 10 lvl difference or lower the % of exp income every 10 level difference.

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. Perhaps on these servers if there is excessive PLing, they can be voted off the server. I would transfer all the character from my server to that one in a heartbeat, but I'd like to only pay a small one time fee rather than $9.99 for every character! I have a lot!

I don't know about you all, but I'm getting sick of hearing lvl 45s saying "How the heck did you get that cape?!".

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Agreed, 5. I can't count on both hands how many times lately I run into players levels 20+, more often higher, who have no idea how to get capes. Or auras, after 30. Some of you may read that and think, "so what?" Obviously, few people know how to get capes and all the extra stuff when they first start. But you learn things like that by interacting with the community, being part of it. Sometimes, that's left out in the farms where no one even really talks. When I see a high level player with only AE badges, no cape or aura (or both), I'm not the least bit surprised anymore. I know some people don't care anyway and that's fine too, not a big deal.

Personally, I don't care one way or another if XP were removed from AE completely, at this point. But that's b/c I don't often do them for the sake of XP, if I can't also get a good story. Maybe less people on the server, but...Victory is a ghost town anyway....lol.

I enjoy great stories/bios/characters, and teams who RP a bit even, but these are fewer in number than ever, at least from my experience. And as more crap is heaped upon the ENDLESS pile of AE "missions", I see my own work get pushed more and more out of sight, as well as the work of countless others. People who actually put some thought into a story and want people to experience it.

When you've played long enough and you've done just about all the arcs/TFs/whatever, it's refreshing to think that you could experience new content at the hands of those you team with. The idea is nice, but digging through farm after farm to find a good story where someone put some creativity into it is increasingly difficult, let alone trying to get someone to experience YOUR content. I'm not saying farms have no place, and really, sometimes that's all a 50 has to do, is farm. I understand that. But...there has to be something to better organize the filter/searches maybe, in AE?

So..that's my somewhat non-directional point of view on AE. Cut the XP, halve it, increase it, whatever. I don't see any of that happening anyway. Meanwhile there are pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages (and pages) of things that I'm not intersted in, with the needle-in-a-haystack good story here and there in the mix. Good luck finding one.

Arc Name: The Will of the Core Matron (Chapter 1)
Arc ID: 72779
Faction: Freakshow, Malta, Custom
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Talimuth Ulthrin/Talimuth
Difficulty Level: Moderate (SOME stealth mobs)(No AVs, 1 EB)
Synopsis:He is known only as The Soul of the Machine; a mysterious technological marvel who emerged seemingly from nowhere, taking up arms against the ruthless villains that plague Paragon City. But even Paragon's finest cannot stand alone, and The Soul of the Machine requires your aid.
Estimated Time to Play: 4 missions, approximately 45-60 minutes.
Link to More Details or Feedback:

Feel free to PM or message me in-game with any feedback, suggestions (as long as they are constructive!). Lots of story on this one.

NOTE: The custom mob has ONE type of minion that stealths, which I found to be a fun challenge. But bring some yellows, just in case.

If you'd like me to try your arc in return, lemme know, I always give feedback.

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I have an arc that I really would like some outside opinions on. I have had a bunch of in game friends run it and they all enjoyed it greatly. I have 7 reviews and all were 5 stars. The problem with people rating something that you know, if they thought it was average they may give you 5 stars just to be your bud. The arc in question is a conspiracy type arc, with a variety of bosses and foes in the mission's. It is 4 missions and shouldn't take more than 1 1/2 hours tops. What I am hoping to get critiqued more than anything is the writing and NPC dialogue in the missions. If you think the story adds up etc. I would love to hear from anyone that I can, and any and all criticisms are welcomed.

Arc #25911
So you want to join the Agency?

This arc actually references Warburg(Marshal Blitz and his Rogue Arachnos) as well as some other groups and past Rikti invasions.

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Ok so, I tried this arc. Note, I tried. I was unable to get past the AV, of course, as I was solo. And as would be expected I could find no one to join to help me out so...I had to abandon the arc. :/

I enjoyed playing up till that point, but I didn't rate it b/c I don't want to rate something that I didn't finish.

Suggestions and Feedback:
The story (what I was able to play of it) seems like it has a good deal of potential. That's not to say that it's NOT good at present, it's just that it seems pretty vague. There are a lot of obscurities and some things that could use a bit of explanation or just more background. Example: before the 3rd mission, once you've actually been welcomed into "The Agency", there's still no real description on what it is or what purpose it serves. And I couldn't find the connection between why the first agent was called agent Honda, and the second one (Clipper) was called agent Toyota?

The NPC dialogue is cool, but vague, attributing to the obscurity I mentioned.

Anyway, I hope you found my suggestions constructive. The story seems cool but could just use a bit of elaboration.
I will attempt to complete again if I can find a proper team to join me for the AV fight.


I'd like to invite anyone who is interested to give my arc a try as well.

The Will of the Core Matron (Chapter 1)
ARC ID: 72779
Consists of 4 missions, is soloable (though I recommend lower difficulty if you're a squishy), and is lv 40 minimum.
MORALITY: Heroic
DESCRIPTION: He is known only as The Soul of the Machine; a mysterious technological marvel who emerged seemingly from nowhere, taking up arms against the ruthless villains that plague Paragon City. But even Paragon's finest cannot stand alone, and The Soul of the Machine requires your aid.

Any critiquing / criticism welcome as long as it is constructive. It was not particularly hard when I solo'd it on my 50 scrapper, on Invincible. I was just looking to make it fun really, with an engaging story. I used almost all available text capacity...lol...so please, be sure to take the time to read the clues and such.

I'm freakin psyched--I had no idea I-10 would be hitting so soon!