hedgehog_NA

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

snippage

No. When I want a team, I can usually find one. When I don't want a team, I don't need one. Some of us don't like teaming or feel it is the only way to play. Deal with it or go to hell.
I do enjoy the opportunity to use this word: balderdash. Hasn't happened, will not happen. Most of the things that require a team I don't care about, and the things that do require a team I can get one for on relatively short order, and that's entirely through strangers. On top of that, I have friends who play the game, and I can always ask them for help. There hasn't been a time in the past several years where I've found myself needing a team, but unable to find one, and this has certainly never been because the people I asked re

Originally Posted by Hydrophidian

In Influence, depending on drops.

Which, I imagine, is likely why there's still some farming going on in PI.

Otherwise, sure, AE is the preferred option.

Though, I think there is a big reason for this, which didn't make it onto your list: Convenience.

In that regard, I16 is going to change the dynamic considerably.

I look at farming and PLing as two different behaviors. As it stands, someone looking for the latter can benefit from the former, and someone pursuing the former has incentive to include someone wanting the latter.

That changes in I16, though. Farmers will no longer need padders.

I think that's going to result in a lot of "AE Babies" standing around looking for something to do, and a lot of crying on /broadcast.

But we'll see.

Originally Posted by magnus1

ding,ding,ding we have the right answer here!!!anything to bring people out of that dark theater(sees the little old man going back to rewind the same film playing back to back to back etc,etc,etc...)this will help this game to be what it truly is...

Originally Posted by Jibikao

I thought Gone Rouge just allows you to switch side but not switch Powersets? You can have /Poison MM in CoH but not a Poison/ Defender?

I don't think you can switch "powersets". That is just not going to happen. You can always re-make the toon though.

Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight

Didn't Marvel already sue them?

Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight

That's a bad example, because that's not a comic book character. Trademarks are market specific. Also, 'Wolverine' destroys your claim that it can't be something generic... since I guarantee you that if a small publisher came out with a comic featuring a character named 'Wolverine'... even if it was NOTHING like Marvel's character... they'd get sued, and they'd lose.

Trademark law, also, is something that the owner is REQUIRED to be proactive about... if you trademark something, and others start using that trademark (in the same market, mind you!) without your permission, and you do nothing about it for long enough... you'll lose your trademark! The standard 'solution' to this problem is to sue the hell out of anyone that goes near your name (what DC and Marvel do, and did to NC), I've seen about 1 company that did the reverse and grant them a very limited license to use their name (it was a parody website making fun of them/their product), which was an excellent move from a PR point of view, as it made them look good, instead of like a bunch of heartless [censored]s.

And then, there's also copyright law. That's a whole 'nother mess altogether (oh, and then there's trade dress, which has to do with trademark).

Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight

Yeah, too similar to Archangel. Marvel already sued NCSoft once due to the fear of players using their characters in game. NCSoft is serious about it.


No, he won't be getting the name back. He should have gotten an email about changing it... and now he can come up with a name that doesn't use inappropriate periods or apostrophes!

Originally Posted by Nethergoat

Unless you're glitching a map or using actual external hacks, there's no such thing as an "obvious" exploit. The devs get to make up their own definitions, yes, but as they refuse to share them with anyone that isn't helpful. Banning and deleting based on Star Chamber secret rules is garbage, and hopefully the community blowback on the issue inspires them to greater caution in the future.

They are very interested in levelling speed. Things that increase that speed beyond what they're comfortable with get nerfed.

Originally Posted by Sardan

Two words:

Broccoli beef

...... Okay, so those particular two words have nothing to do with this game, but damn I love broccoli beef!

Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill

snip
Defenders? Again, lower damage, true - but when my brand-new Rad controller can stand in the middle of a group of +level enemies and "dance" as they dodge the incoming hits - again, what risk? I'm soloing slower, but far safer.

snip

Originally Posted by PennyPA

^this^ X1000

I have been reading other threads on so called balanced, and the general message is "we need more HP", "we need more damage", "we need more END", "we need status protection", etc.

It seems that other players in the other threads are asking for a lot but also want nothing to balance that buff. From my experience in the game and reading the devs' responses to changes, they either have: 1) made the buffs to fit their vision of an AT; or 2) made compensatory changes (aka increase damage but increase animation/end/rech/etc.). In other words, I haven't seen buffs to powers/ATs "just because".

Anyhow, there is balance already in place. Aett_Thorn has it right. Like the old emp/blaster duo's. I recall those when leveling my emp def up. She wasn't the fastest, but when she teamed up with a blaster, they tore through mobs. I don't want to see some ATs buffed so they can solo better because IMO those same ATs would be nerfed for what they can bring to teams.

Originally Posted by Lost_Pan

Everthing Airman says above is very true. Yes Ive heard the old song and dance from others about "I just like the max. xp mission in AE, its what I like." Bottom line to comments similiar to that is that it burns the game out. It belittles the achievements of other players with vested time in the game.

Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight

Good news! They are, when fought under the same conditions. It's just that AE includes conditions you won't get outside of AE... you can't compare those special conditions to the non-AE conditions... as there is NO equivalent, comparison attempts would thus be silly.

If you're interested in fastest leveling speed, then XP minute, and not xp per kill, should be your primary concern. XP per kill is only a means to an end.

Okay, lets see if you can follow this for the dozenth time:
1.) Fix outliers (buff missions with too little xp, nerf ones with too much)
2.) Global change to put all the content more in line with what's desired (i.e. XP smoothing, the buff to XP from 1-20, etc).

In other words, the end result is MORE options with better XP.

Like the article even points out, just because it's "popular", doesn't mean it's good for the health of the game, or the long term enjoyment of the players. Otherwise, why not cut to the chase and let everyone start at 50 with free unlimited access to all IOs in the game?

Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight

Hell, they're doing exactly the same thing they've done for years to non-AE content. Some mission gives way "too much" reward? Adjust it so it's in line with the others. Claiming the devs lied to us about what AE is, is rather silly.

Originally Posted by TrueMetal

And the upcoming AE 'nerfs' change nothing about that. They'll actually make that line more true. "with reward parity with outside content" is the key part there. Boss farms obviously don't fall under that.

Originally Posted by Golden Girl

The devs have altered the deal - pray they don't alter it further.

Originally Posted by Neg_rogue

Which is the one of the saddest things I've ever heard, reaching the level cap without ever leaving Atlas Park...my friend's told me there are some actual new players who have done this. People who have actually never stepped foot outside of Atlas Park ever except to maybe get their cape/aura costume pieces.

Excuse me, I'm going to go resub to WoW and try to get to lvl 80 in Durotar while only seeing about 1% of what the game has to offer...or wait, no I'll go play FFXI and reach 75 in Valkurm Dunes, or better yet maybe pop on Everquest 2 and level up only in Antonica.

(If you aren't aware those are all low level zones...actual with the level sync system they have now in FFXI I probably could lvl up all the way in Valkurm Dunes...so sad)

Originally Posted by Neg_rogue

"The intention of AE"? I'm pretty darn sure the original intention of AEs weren't for players to create an army of mindless farm missions that would rocket them through the levels without them even having to leave the starting zone (which as I've said elsewhere is freakin' sickening to me). As was said earlier, the intention of AEs were to allow players to create their own stories.

Originally Posted by SlickRiptide

No, what's arrogant and stupid is making a blanket statement that "I will rate you one-star for X no matter what the actual quality of the mission is like".

Especially since the rule for XP is not "custom critters get less XP", it's "missions that don't provide an even spread of minion/lieutentant/boss get less XP". That has nothing to do with whether it has custom critters in it or not.

Originally Posted by Neg_rogue

I think the issue at hand was the guy created an AE arc and the guy rated it as if it was suppose to be a farm when it was more about the story. That would be like me going to see a horror flick and giving it a bad rating because it didn't make me laugh enough. If I wanted to laugh I probably picked the wrong movie to go see, don't you think? If the guy wanted a top-notch XP farm he probably picked the wrong mission to play and therefore rated it based on the wrong reasons.

Originally Posted by EvilBenFranklin

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you on several points.



People are unlikely to be buying inf on the grey market then converting it to prestige if they're farmers or power-levelers. They're getting it so they can kit out their characters with the fanciest shiny stuff, so they can keep farming to get more shiny stuff, etc, etc, ad nauseum. The sheer ungodly number of in-game spam emails that I have to clear out every time I log in is proof that the grey market influence/infamy business is alive and well, no matter how we and the devs might wish otherwise.



I'm really not sure where you get this attitude from. I've been playing since just after the game opened - a little over five years. It took me until this year to get to 50 with one character, but that is not because I'm "inferior." It's because I've had other things to spend my time on, such as a full-time job, not alienating my wife with massive amounts of computer time, and so on.

Ask any of my teammates in the GA if I'm an inferior player, and you'll get laughed at. Quantity of levels does not equate to quality of play.



You're right, it's not the Olympics. There aren't any required guidelines for evaluating an AE arc. It is purely in the realm of subjective opinion.

That said, rating an arc only 1 star because it's got custom enemies after the devs make changes to bring said custom critters' rewards back in line with the rest of Reality, in my opinion, is rather petty, and indicates your true colors, sir.

Did the devs make some errors when the MA first went live? Yes. However, I applaud them for trying to correct those mistakes without either resorting to slapdown tactics or otherwise crippling the tools to the point where they're useless.

Farmers will farm. This is a fact of life. I've seen it in CoX, I've seen it in WoW, EVE Online, and a couple of other games. However, the purpose of the Mission Architect was not to provide Old MacDonald a convenient place to stand around, annoy other players, waggle his e-peen about, and generally exploit the system.

The MA's purpose, as stated by the devs when it first was announced, was to allow players to tell their own stories. It was meant to expand and enrich the content available to the CoX community which from my lengthy perspective, had gotten somewhat jaded from years of Skulls, Hellions, Crey, Council, and rescuing the thrice-damned Jewel of Hera over and over again.

Will there be arcs that aren't worth more than one or two stars? Yes. Not everyone is of a creative mindset, and sometimes even if you have a good idea, it just doesn't work out the way you expect it to... but marking an arc down purely because one is not getting PHATXPLEWTZLOLZ is just utterly asinine.

That's also an opinion. Do with it what you will.

Originally Posted by Airman_America

In his own way of putting it, he is correct. We have a whole generation of players out there who do not know how powers work and how teammate's powers work. I have personally had people quit AE Teams due to "lack of XP" (meaning it was not a boss XP mission with max XP). I had a person tell me that he was going to give me 3 Stars for a Arc I wrote, all due to "I only give 5 stars when the XP is maximum". I asked what about the story, time spent on custom toons, time spent on their choice of powers... and got a "Screw That".

There are ways to identify exploit missions and I know the Devs have the tools.

First, identify guys who level far too fast - that cheapens 50s and active players. Perhaps a maximum of levels a person can obtain per day - except on double XP weekends.

Second, look for guys who suddenly aquire massive Influence and Infamy. So many buy Infamy and Influence now it ruins prices and exploits SG ratings. Ever notice the sloppy bidding? The excessive prices paid for items? Surely a SG that suddenly goes to the top 10 sets off alarm bells. It is like the guy said who told me the story "I did the math, to do what they are doing would take 100 guys logged in 24 hours a day grinding boss farms". I have direct first hand knowledge of a SG who purchased their way to the top by conversion. I would hate to be the bearer of that credit card bill!!! WoW does it, they look for massive Gold purchases and sudden changes in player money values.

Third, I LOVE AE, I have a chance to make missions, use creative talent, however people like this ruin it for all. Allow AE to everyone. IF a person makes a mission only designed for exploit, give a warning, if they keep it up, remove the power for X period. They have tools to identify such missions and if banned it can be challenged. I know, for some reason my first mission was banned at the start of the new issue. After a month of indignant emails from myself, a supervisor went in and actually played my mission... it prompted a sorry from CoH. So, don't tell me that all boss missions, guys who go 50 in days, cannot be identified.

Even if this gets flamed, the point is, should this type of actions continue? Do we need this kind of player? They are not loyal, they are not interested in the art of the game, they get bored easily and go on anyway. We need to stop the gold farmers, despite the fact that I believe in free enterprise. Before they were just a small pain, today they enable exploiters beyond even what I could have imagined 2 years ago. We need to halt guys who make 50 in less than 24 hours. We need to allow good designers freedom and exploitive designers need a slap on the wrist.

Originally Posted by Quinz

Note to people talking about losing XP in MA: They only lowered/removed XP for higher than boss(Elite Boss/AVs) only missions, and have 25% for one class(Minion, Lieutenant, Boss), 50% for two and full for all three. AKA, MA will still be an alternate leveling, but you won't be able to boss or lieutenant farm for XP, but can do regular content (With all Minion/Lieutenant/Boss) with no penalty.

With love,
Me! <3

Originally Posted by Baalat

random number is random?

Originally Posted by Energy_Aura

This is really uneeded...After all, you already outlevel content so fast from 1-30 that you can barely keep up...As for Super-Sidekicking, the reason you see low numbers of "Bridging" Teams is that with AE, you don't need too.