Well last night I logged on and called one of my contacts. He had 2-3 sentences to describe the mission and all he told me was get over to so and so and save those crey scientists from the new 5ht column villans (sorry I forgot their name as I just got back to the game). So I get into the mission and the heading as I enter the building says find 4 hostages find the data, stop the leader and his men.
Ok the description I was given from the contact said nothing about retreving data (finding glowies) or a boss.
I have noticed that the descriptions you have while in a mission instance usually tell you exactly what needs to be done.
Free hostages - Defeat the villans that are threatening each hostage.
Find X - Locate a glowie
Defeat Boss - Defeate a boss
Defeat the boss and his men - Defeat the boss and every villan in his indoor piece on the map
Defeat all villans (yes this includes invisible ones and ones outside the walls you can't actually reach)
Anyhow this is USUALLY how these read. Sometimes you get a few that are obscure that will say stop a raid and I still have yet to know what that means as sometimes I get it after clearing a mission jugsaw pice and other times I don't get it till I clear the whole map.
Either way the statement that was given saying that the mission text given to you by your contact tells you everything about the mission is completely false. Outside of impotant missions most others what the contact says can be completely invalidated by the actual mission goals.
I actually don't really mind this, only time I get frustrated was during all my L28-30 Devoured Earth missions wher ethe contact would say one thing, the mission goals said something else but in reality every mission was a defeat all villans mission.
However I do like that it seems my ability to solo has not changed much and that the feared inv changes really just made tanking more involved than: turn on powers aquire target hit autopunch watch tv and jsut change targets as needed. I actually have to pace myself and be sure to take out the range attackers 1st. Now weither or not the new fear of all villans have range attacks post 40 will affect me, I have no idea.
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Soloists cannot touch that slider.
[/ QUOTE ] Can we please stop with the "Soloists can't do this" and "Soloists can't do that?"
It's "Soloists that are not willing to make a character that can solo can't do this" and "Soloists that are not willing to make a character that can solo can't do that."
And before you say anything.
<----- Soloist. One that feels you guys are giving us a bad name. 
NCIS: Best gorram show in the 'verse.
-------------------------
It isn't just the appearance of bosses in missions that isn't mentioned all the time. It's timed missions too. It's simultaneous-disarming-of-bombs missions.
Seems like a LOT of bugs, if these are indeed bugs, as claimed by many.
Either a contact tells you EXACTLY what to expect, or they should tell you something like "I am not sure about this one, you'd better bring some friends".
As is stands now, this does not happen. Unless this has been changed with I3. But so far, I have not been able to find anything concerning incorrect mission descriptions in the notes.
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So, where in this text does it mention there will be multiple bosses on this solo mission?
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I vaugely remember that mission. Do you have to fight those Bosses?
NCIS: Best gorram show in the 'verse.
-------------------------
This is really unfortunate. To have to be forced to group. I like to team, but there are many times when I play for 30 min to 1 hr. I want to finish a mission and then log out. This really puts a crimp in the ability of the casual gamer to play.
The original draw of CoH was that you did not have to team (save for TFs, trials, the AV missions). Now it is becoming like every other MMORPG. Forced Grouping.
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Either a contact tells you EXACTLY what to expect, or they should tell you something like "I am not sure about this one, you'd better bring some friends".
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A lot of missions have this vague "you'd better bring some friends," or "hurry - there's not much time!" or some other text which does not reflect the actual mission goals or difficulty. I've had the "better bring friends" text on missions that had NO bosses (as well as on missions that had MULTIPLE bosses), & I've had the "hurry!" text on both TIMED & NON-TIMED missions.
Eight months in, the inconsistency in contact text has led me to ignore the "fluff" text entirely.
I think Scorus meant that sliding your mission-difficulty up means suicide for soloists, and I tend to agree.
The day before yesterday (I3 had just gone live) I helped out on a mission with a couple of SG-mates. The one the mission belonged to was a lvl 31 blaster, I was lvl 30 (scrapper), and there was another scrapper (lvl 29). The 31 blaster had just set his slider to Invincible (I seem to recall) and we hadn't really understood he did. We went in. Freakshow mission. First room, everything conned purple to me, minions included. We exited and made him change his slider-level. He turned it down a notch.
We all died. Quickly. TWO 33 Freak Tanks made sure we did. I was the last one standing, and got ONE of the Tanks to about half his HP before he smashed my head in. Ugly. VERY ugly.
That mission made me vow I would NEVER touch the slider.
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So, where in this text does it mention there will be multiple bosses on this solo mission?
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I vaugely remember that mission. Do you have to fight those Bosses?
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The question of whether or not you have to FIGHT the bosses is irrelevant in light of Statesman's assertion - which is that the mission text will tell you if a boss APPEARS in the mission.
Appears. As in, "to be visible or present." You see, the (non-goal) boss may spawn on top of the actual mission goals. Avoiding said boss is not always possible.
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So, where in this text does it mention there will be multiple bosses on this solo mission?
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I vaugely remember that mission. Do you have to fight those Bosses?
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SPOILERS
Here's a recent mission description:
Tina Macintyre: Guess what, Citrakya! Anti-Matter and Neuron come from the same world! It seems like they knew each other, so I had the technicians take another look at the data from Neuron's dimension. Despite Neuron's dimensional scrambler, we were able to match several distinguishing features with the data from Anti-Matter's dimension. Both villains are from Upsilon-Beta 9-6! Call me crazy, but I think Paragon City got caught in the middle of a power struggle between supervillains.
We're sending you to a remote corner of Upsilon Beta 9-6 to plant a network of dimensional scanner. That way we'll know if anyone on that world opens a portal to this one, even if Anti-Matter gets his stealth portal technology working.
The short mission description (the one that appears in your nav window) says "Defeat all enemies in area."
There's an AV on this map. I've defeated everyone but him. The missions doesn't end. Where in either of these descriptions does it warn me that I'll need to bring a team along to defeat the AV?
Speaking as a Defender, what I'd like to see is the damage rolled back if not to what it used to be then toned down a bit.
Today I was with 2 scrappers in Peregrine, 40 Claws/SR and a 28 DM/DA who was sk'd to my 44 Defender.
When we met up, a Fake Nemesis suddenly spawned behind us. The Claws was visible, I hadn't yet invis'd him, when the Fake Nem hit. Hard. It took me down to half a bar, the claws to 3/4, and the sk to half. The fight was hell. I popped off Regen Aura, Recovery Aura, but couldn't lay down Fort or Clear Mind, or the usual other buffings...I found myself suddenly spam healing...something I'd not done in...a very long time.
I'm usually fast with the Heal Other, but not enough this time. If I hadn't spam healed, they'd have been dead. As it was, even though I was higher level than the Fake, I had no time to lay down Tenebrous Tentacles on it or hit it with Night Fall to debuff its acc. I spent the entire time of that fight spam healing, setting off RA, and Adrenalin Boost.
After that we did a bit more street hunting, again taking on a boss. This time, after laying down the two auras and applying the usual boosts, I led off with the tentacles with a Night Fall follow up, and nearly was taken down. It was as if I had never placed them at all. They jumped in and took the aggro, and again I found myself spam healing because they took damage too fast for Heal Other.
The levels were 43-45 bosses. Usually, with my Def being higher, we could take them on and I could help whittle down their hp. Not anymore. We began to drop down to 41s because of the damage dealt. The problem was they were taking damage too hard and too fast and there were several deaths. They gained more debt than xp.
To add my own tale to the others on the solo end of things...
I have a Blaster alt, Energy/Electric. I liked the damage output and was surprised at what the Charged Brawl and Havoc Punch could do. Never meaning to, I wound up making a Blaster who could melee. Those two punches were great one and two shot hits. Add SS and Stealth, Combat Jumping, I could move in, take down two whites with one shots due to Build up and be on the third white with a blast before taking too much damage. Sure, half a bar, a quarter, but I could solo. With bosses, sneak in, lead off with Havoc, Charged, a few good blasts to bounce it around, and though I'd take damage, the boss was still soloable. I could do my own missions.
The day before I3, I had the Unity Plague arc nearly finished. Had an oj boss, but after a luck and clear mind and the usual attacks, and despite hitting yellow bar, it was taken down. The day after...4 bosses in a mish that I had never had that many bosses in before. These weren't Lessers but straight Devoured. Yellow to me.
The first time I attempted this last mission of the Unity Plague arc, the yellow boss nearly killed me, and would have if I wasn't fast on the respites. As it was, I had none left, ate 5 lucks, 2 clear minds, and still had a hellish time taking it down. A yellow...something that I'd never had this much trouble with before. It wasn't the higher hp, that can be dealt with, it was the amount of DAMAGE it did.
Before, I'd be hit for 247 or there abouts...this time it was 447. One shot. On 819 hp on a L35 Blaster.
As I progressed, the whites, yellow Lts. and even the blues in the mission were all hitting much harder than before. I had to quit. Yes, even with adjusting to distance shots only with my blasts, when they closed on me they'd get in one shot as I sped away or jumped over them, and that was enough to take me down to nearly half bar.
Tonight after entering the mission again, I scouted around. Same set up with four yellow bosses, many Lts. and whites. From within the mission, I asked a 44 Eng/Eng Blaster friend to help, and exemp'd him down. While he barraged with shots, I snuck in and smacked around with my punches and blasts. It was difficult and both of us were reduced to orange bar, but we managed to kill one of the bosses. The same happened with the yellow Lt and the 2 white evens. Orange bar. Even with moving around we were still being hit once by usually two of the three mobs. We finished the mission, going slowly with much distance and running around. A mission that before I could solo.
So, why the upset? Why the anger? Because I LIKE soloing. After playing a Defender for 44 levels, it's nice and a refreshing change to actually deal the damage for once. To be able to take on mobs and have a hope of winning.
I'll say it again: it's not the amount of hp the bosses have, it's the amount of DAMAGE that they do I have a problem with.
As a Defender, this makes it harder for me to be the only Def in a group of 3-4. I dislike pick up groups from too many bad experiences and play only with my SG and those on my Friends list. Sometimes not all are available to play. As a Blaster, this makes it harder for me to be able to solo.
Bottom line...this new change has taken the fun away. I would like to see the fun return...please?
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There's an AV on this map. I've defeated everyone but him. The missions doesn't end. Where in either of these descriptions does it warn me that I'll need to bring a team along to defeat the AV?
[/ QUOTE ]
Same here with the Clockwork King.. hey, Portal Corp don't even know *what's* going on down there!
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It's "Soloists that are not willing to make a character that can solo can't do this" and "Soloists that are not willing to make a character that can solo can't do that."
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Would a concept character count as one of those?
<- RPer who places character concept over effective builds.
Also, I can solo some bosses easier than before, while other bosses that shouldn't have posed a problem one-shot me. As a Regen Scrapper.
No, I don't know what's going on either.
Current main:
Schrodinger's Gun, Dual Pistols/Mental Blaster, Virtue
Avatar: Becky Miyamoto from Pani Poni Dash. Roulette roulette~
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As a Defender, this makes it harder for me to be the only Def in a group of 3-4.
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Not good to hear - one of my mains is a scrapper (who lives on Test, so I was living with Issue 3 for a while); the other is a dark/dark defender, who's permanently teamed with two (sometimes three) blasters. It's not an optimal team, but we're all playing what we want, & being successful at our own missions. Definitely not good to hear from a defender that this may be a problem now.
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So, where in this text does it mention there will be multiple bosses on this solo mission?
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I vaugely remember that mission. Do you have to fight those Bosses?
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At least some of them, yes. They are guarding some of the hostages.
A good note for controllers not concerned about xp is that if you manage to Deceive/Confuse a boss, he'll kill 7 or 8 minions in flurry of 1-shot deaths.
Of course, then you have to deal with the boss and get one shotted yourself. 
I have a blaster friend who died to bosses twice (to a Freak Tank) on the first day of issue 3, and 3 more times in the following day. That's... sucky.
The Freak TV respec will be hell... putting them down the first time (with their Dull Pain) is bad enough. Then they get up again...
The Boss change seemed completely unnecessary. The strength of Bosses always felt right, challenging, but not overwhelming -- they felt like you were taking on another powered being, but you had a good chance of winning if you knew what you were doing. With the invention of the Elite Bosses, garden-variety bosses should have stayed the same (not to mention Archvillains). People who wanted a challenge could play with the difficulty slider, or roll up a Kheldian ( 
). I can't imagine taking on the Terra Volta Trial with these changes (rez'ing Freak Show Tanks anyone? or armies of Chief Soldiers??).
It's sad, because I really love this game, but I see changes like this driving away my friends. I used to play with a pretty tight-nit group of 8 players (that I know in RL), now 5 of them have decided to leave after becoming disenfranchised with the direction the game is headed... with another ready to go after soon. I may be convinced to go along with them soon, when a few weeks ago I was saying I'd never leave CoH.
I cringe now when I hear the term "...brings it more in line with our Vision." I wonder now, were many of the features and play factors purely unintentional? Happy accidents? And why not adjust the Vision(tm) if the game is loved by thousands in it's current state? Why not improve upon parts of the game that are actually broken... oh wait, I guess I just answered my question. In the "Visioned" eyes, the game *is* broken.
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I've got one more thing to add:
In game design, it's all very well and good to say, "Here is the ideal that I have in my vision." The problem is that when vision meets real people in the form of players, the measure of success is whether or not those players are having fun, not whether you have achieved whatever theoretical design goal you set out to achieve. "Fun" is a particularly crucial factor in a paid MMORPG, because fun equates to subscriptions which equate to revenue.
People have fun in different ways. Some people like to solo, some people like to group, some like to do both. Some people like their games to be as challenging as possible. Other people like their games to be pretty brainless and easy. Some people like having a lot of luck in the equation. Other people like planning to significantly reduce the role that luck plays.
City of Heroes can potentially accomodate all of these desires, via the use of the mission difficulty slider. The relative advancement rates of people with different levels of "fun" can be equalized out by changing the XP values awarded -- or making the maps bigger or smaller. (So, for instance, if you want blue cons rather than white cons, the map expands so in the end you have to wipe more of them to finish.)
When a lot of people are posting on the forums that something is not fun, this is a warning, because plenty of people will simply stop playing rather than deciding to gripe on the forums. Moreover, the activities that players are engaging in are clear indications of where the fun is and isn't, or of what goals people are trying to achieve (I suspect, for instance, that the farming/herding/PLing behaviors are effectively a statement of "leveling up the usual way is sufficiently time-consuming and boring that I am willing to engage in periods of incredible tedium in order to avoid a longer period of mediocrely interesting play").
Yes, people will tolerate some changes that decrease fun, if other things are added which increase fun. Ultimately, though, what is going to determine longevity of subscriptions is fun, not how long it takes to get to level X. Plenty of people will abandon existing achievements in order to go do something more fun -- hours invested just makes it harder to leave.
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You are 100% right . Thats exactly what i think too . And lets not hide the truth anymore , above level 40 , powerleveling ( kora missions and werewolves herding ) IS the norm nowadays . Clever devs should ask themselve why it has come that MOST players rely on that stuff to level up . And i suspect that there are ways like these around the game to powerlevel people from level 1 to 50 . Cant blame them thought , the game has either become boring , either too hard , either too slow , either too frustrating , either too time consuming , either too solo unfriendly , either whatever ... Also , what doesnt much help is that many players ( my friends for certain ) feel like they are "rushed" to get to level 50 so they can try these new ATs ( and they dont want to play for months to get to try them ) . Same thing for "epic" new powers ... Its exactly the same as it was when the capes came out at Issue2 , everyone under level 20 were trying by all means to get there as quick as they could .
All CoH is SET toward "progression" . Actually there is nothing else to do than leveling up and thats just what people are tryin to do . There is no roleplay , minigames or any stuff in the game that people can enjoy besides collecting badges ( which is cool imho ) . As soon as you create a toon and get out of the tutorial , you can feel the "need" for level progression . NO ONE ever told me " Hey , level 9 is cool , i think ill take a break at that level and try not to level up because its fun" 
Anyway , im going off my point ... which is in the end that very single question :
Is leveling up in CoH becoming too boring and time consuming ?
If yes is what most people think , then , WHY devs are trying to make it even harder ( slower ) for most of the people ?
Which brings another question to me : Could it be possible for players to play the game at their very own personal pace so they can get the fun they want ?
To the devs : Maybe if you make leveling a bit easyer you will end someday with a bunch of bored level 50 players . However , i suspect that you will get way before that a huge bunch of bored and frustrated players hanging around all levels in the game .
Im not certain what the solution is but what we have now with these new "improved" bosses is no good .
I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire
Not that my perceptions and expections really amount to much in the greater scheme of things but I'm compelled to point this out anyway.
Bosses, to me, are glorified leutenants. They aren't unique; we've all encountered countless bosses in Paragon City.
Think of is this way; if villain groups were a corporation, the minions would be lowly employees; leutenants are team leaders, but still your basic employees, and bosses are department leaders. They have limited authority, but in the greater hierarchy they don't have much pull.
But now we have these guys, who are essentially part of a faceless horde of villains, now comparable and perhaps greater than many superheroes.
Most bosses aren't all that distinguishable from their minion bretheren. The Crey Paragon Protectors are among the first I've seen that stand out somewhat from the rest.
Elite bosses and perhaps some named bosses should be filling the role currently occupied by conventional bosses. And they should visually reflect their status. They should have archvillain-type features to reflect their stature, something that makes us feel like we're fighting someone important, someone for whom we might need help in order to defeat.
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So uh, what AT is the OP again? If you're any of the ATs that weren't designmed specifically for soloing (Defender, Controller, and to some extent, Blaster), then you're meant to have trouble, even find it near-impossible to beat an even boss. Even Tanks and Scrapper should find them a challenge. That's the point of the "Boss" class.
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It is a shame this was not the case (or at least not made clear) when I made my blaster shortly after the game launched. I'm a soloer by nature. Often I can login for 20 mins to an hour, then I will have to go and do something else which obviously does not make me a good group member. Before issue 3 this was not a problem. I am proud of having done every story arc and almost every normal mission available to me so far in the game, much of it solo.
Now at level 33 I find I am virtually excluded from all story arcs and many normal missions when I solo, vastly restricting my available choices on what to do. I was already missing out on all the cool task forces, and trials. I'm not going to spend the months I would need to level a scrapper alt to where I am now and due to real life I am unable to play more or for longer periods.
For me, this is not fun. I'll keep at it for a bit in the hope that an imminent patch will make things better. If it doesn't I will be looking at WoW far more seriously than I have been so far.
If a player wants a challenge then they should slot their powers in a sub-optimal way, or they should avoid taking the fitness power pool, or they should use the difficulty slider to make things harder. No-one should have the challenge forced upon them.
The boss changes in I3 have moved the games default difficulty to 'very hard'. The difficulty slider gives me the possibility to make it 'downright suicidal', but no way to make it easier. Please give me a 'wimp' setting on the difficulty slider to put things back to how they were, and thereby make all the boss missions accessible to me again.
(Edited to remove an erroneous 'not' which completely changed what I was trying to say).
Celestial Fury's post above makes so much sense, I agree 100%.
One of the truly fun aspects of reaching the mid-twenties was that suddenly your hero felt like a "real" hero -- you were out of the training tights, so to speak. Enemies fell swifter before you (though you didn't really level any faster, because of the sloped XP progression). The Boss ramp-up took that away to a certain extent. Now aside from having some new powers and toys, the illusion that you are getting 'more' powerful as you level has been eroded. I hope we never see the "3 minions=you" patch, it would be tragic.
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Except for the fact that Statesman has said that ALL ATs should be able to solo, that's almost a good point.
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That's actually only part of what I've said. Solo players should always have something to do...I've never said that everything is solo-able (some missions are, others aren't), or that every Archetype can solo as effectively as another.
If a player sees a boss of his level, he should probably get help...
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I'm in a pretty bad boat at this point because of these changes. I'm 2 bubbles into lvl38 and all my contacts give me the 'See me at level 39' schtick. There's hardly anyone on Protector anymore so it's pretty difficult to get a group together for the 2nd respec trial or finding a group for the Sewers or Eden trials. And please don't say 'Find another server' because I have too much time invested on that one and unless a character transfer option is available, its a moot point.
What am I left with?
Street hunting. Street hunting were pretty much every group of baddies that are even anywhere near profitable (I mainly look for blues with white to orange bosses) for me are no longer manageable.
Crey Protectors and PP's are essentially off-limits. No way am I going near these guys with this upped garbage. Take on Force-Fielders with about 50% more health and increased damage? Hah. Take on guys that 99% are able to get off Moment of Glory / Unstoppable / Elude with scrapper damages? I've already got my third debt badge thank you very much.
Freaks? Take on a Freak tank that can ressurect himself after the difficulty increase? Essentially fighting two bosses? Nope, not happening.
Devouring Earth? I absolutely refuse to fight these things. I had enough of them through the story arcs and the contacts. Hate them with a passion.
What am I left with? I'm too low for Peregrine Island, no one will group with a level 38 they think wants Power Levels. About the only things left are bossless 5th / Council and Circle of Thorns. Both of which only net me less than 100 exp per and at ~1.25 million exp to get to 39, that'll take a loooonnnnggg time. The Abandoned Sewers are a deathtrap. Tried that place, tried sniping / pulling and ended up getting spit on to death.
I hate to say it, but I'm losing faith in this game as well as not having any fun. Logged in twice today and just couldn't bring myself to do anything. I'm very close to closing my account and moving on to something else. I've been here since August 31 and had a great time. I REALLY do not like the direction this game is taking.
Unless some decisions are reversed (and soon) I have a feeling a lot of the casual gamers, those who haven't already left the building, will be mosing on. Statesman, maybe you should eat some crow and admit that this wasn't a good change or well thought out.
Maybe I should give World of Warcraft a try. If it's good enough to hook Tycho and Gabe, then it oughta be good enough for me...
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Oh man , i sooo hear ya ... To tell the truth , if i hadnt been powerleveled herding krakens in the sewer trial teamed with "optimal builded AT" friends , i would now be exactly where you are and i remember i was so close to just click : Uninstall ...
This situation is completely abnormal . Something is definitely wrong with this game . Devs just dont seem to agree with many players about WHAT fun should be .
I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire
I have been feeling alot of frustration with CoH but I have been sticking with it because I love the game and followed it for years before it came out. I was even one of the lucky 1st rounders of beta people and got to help shape alot of things that were implimented into the game and feel some pride when I see some of my suggestions even today. Today I feel for the 1st time like seriously giving up CoH.
For a while I've been disliking this trend of forced grouping. I don't mind grouping and at times have had alot of fun and made friends doing it. I've also had some very bad experiences that have left me frustrated, annoyed and sometimes in debt because I felt it rude to just up and leave people hanging. I think grouping should be a choice like Statesman said it would be when we talked on the beta boards. Often he said "You will be able to solo but grouping will give you extra bonuses that will encourage people to group." This was what he and the other devs said all through beta. Then we got with issue 2 that yellow minions and red bosses became standard often in missions. This would barely slow down groups but would put the soloer in a tough but winnable situation. Then came the mandatory "you will need x heroes to finish this mission" wich was definately forced grouping. With issue 3 the added a difficulty slider and I thought that they would reset base difficulty for missions to even con and let the players choose up to harder levels, they didn't set it that way. Now we have bosses that are signifigantly tougher and are sometimes red at base difficulty level. making for people who dont tweak their character for max ability have an incredibly difficult if not impossible ability to solo. I had a mission with an alt and had 9 yellow Clocks in 1 small area for a level 13 solo mission. I was told that "That is not a bug it's a feature. You should be getting other heroes to join you when you go on missions." This was from an official guide telling me the now official stance on soloing.
One thing I was proud of was that I went thru every storyline with my early characters and read every plotline as I went thru them. I read every npc told story about missions and read every clue I found as it helped flesh out the story. I had time to read these when I soloed. In groups I find that I don't get the time to read everything because groups want to get things done and get to the next thing. Ive read very little of the task force stories because of this and have done everyone of them past Positron. I know that they put alot of thought into these stories, but now I feel like I shouldn't bother reading them since I have to group to get my missions accomplished and with WoW and EQ2 that the amount of groups has dropped signifigantly and are still in " lets get this done and get to the next mission" mode.
I hope that they will go back to the solo friendly game that they said CoH was supposed to be and that they realize difficulty sliders should go up AND down so those who found it challenging before won't just give up and quit or feel forced to have to group when due to one reason or another they don't want to/can't group.
I'm sticking with the game because, as I've said before many times "City of Heroes is literally a dream game of mine." I am although, at the moment, very disheartened.
Michael Wilson
Prism 1st round Beta.
La Gata Negra, Whisper, Gosamer, Cow Pattie of the Insane Cow Posse post wipes.
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I've got one more thing to add:
In game design, it's all very well and good to say, "Here is the ideal that I have in my vision." The problem is that when vision meets real people in the form of players, the measure of success is whether or not those players are having fun, not whether you have achieved whatever theoretical design goal you set out to achieve. "Fun" is a particularly crucial factor in a paid MMORPG, because fun equates to subscriptions which equate to revenue.
People have fun in different ways. Some people like to solo, some people like to group, some like to do both. Some people like their games to be as challenging as possible. Other people like their games to be pretty brainless and easy. Some people like having a lot of luck in the equation. Other people like planning to significantly reduce the role that luck plays.
City of Heroes can potentially accomodate all of these desires, via the use of the mission difficulty slider. The relative advancement rates of people with different levels of "fun" can be equalized out by changing the XP values awarded -- or making the maps bigger or smaller. (So, for instance, if you want blue cons rather than white cons, the map expands so in the end you have to wipe more of them to finish.)
When a lot of people are posting on the forums that something is not fun, this is a warning, because plenty of people will simply stop playing rather than deciding to gripe on the forums. Moreover, the activities that players are engaging in are clear indications of where the fun is and isn't, or of what goals people are trying to achieve (I suspect, for instance, that the farming/herding/PLing behaviors are effectively a statement of "leveling up the usual way is sufficiently time-consuming and boring that I am willing to engage in periods of incredible tedium in order to avoid a longer period of mediocrely interesting play").
Yes, people will tolerate some changes that decrease fun, if other things are added which increase fun. Ultimately, though, what is going to determine longevity of subscriptions is fun, not how long it takes to get to level X. Plenty of people will abandon existing achievements in order to go do something more fun -- hours invested just makes it harder to leave.
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You are 100% right . Thats exactly what i think too . And lets not hide the truth anymore , above level 40 , powerleveling ( kora missions and werewolves herding ) IS the norm nowadays . Clever devs should ask themselve why it has come that MOST players rely on that stuff to level up . And i suspect that there are ways like these around the game to powerlevel people from level 1 to 50 . Cant blame them thought , the game has either become boring , either too hard , either too slow , either too frustrating , either too time consuming , either too solo unfriendly , either whatever ... Also , what doesnt much help is that many players ( my friends for certain ) feel like they are "rushed" to get to level 50 so they can try these new ATs ( and they dont want to play for months to get to try them ) . Same thing for "epic" new powers ... Its exactly the same as it was when the capes came out at Issue2 , everyone under level 20 were trying by all means to get there as quick as they could .
All CoH is SET toward "progression" . Actually there is nothing else to do than leveling up and thats just what people are tryin to do . There is no roleplay , minigames or any stuff in the game that people can enjoy besides collecting badges ( which is cool imho ) . As soon as you create a toon and get out of the tutorial , you can feel the "need" for level progression . NO ONE ever told me " Hey , level 9 is cool , i think ill take a break at that level and try not to level up because its fun" Anyway , im going off my point ... which is in the end that very single question :
Is leveling up in CoH becoming too boring and time consuming ?
If yes is what most people think , then , WHY devs are trying to make it even harder ( slower ) for most of the people ?
Which brings another question to me : Could it be possible for players to play the game at their very own personal pace so they can get the fun they want ?
To the devs : Maybe if you make leveling a bit easyer you will end someday with a bunch of bored level 50 players . However , i suspect that you will get way before that a huge bunch of bored and frustrated players hanging around all levels in the game .
Im not certain what the solution is but what we have now with these new "improved" bosses is no good .
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Speak for yourself.
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Soloists cannot touch that slider.
[/ QUOTE ] Can we please stop with the "Soloists can't do this" and "Soloists can't do that?"
It's "Soloists that are not willing to make a character that can solo can't do this" and "Soloists that are not willing to make a character that can solo can't do that."
And before you say anything.
<----- Soloist. One that feels you guys are giving us a bad name.
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What the [censored] is wrong with you Doc ??!! Must all wannabe "soloist" new or veteran players be forced to make a tank or a scrapper ? And even so , must all these players look into all the forums about infos about how to make an "solo optimized" AT build ????
If thats what you and the DEVs think then i hereby think that this game is turning into [censored] boring crap !
I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire
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Actually, if a boss will appear in a mission, the mission briefing mentions it. Check the text.
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Okay, I am checking the text...
"Stop stage magical sacrifice
Alison King: You know the National Guild of Stage Magicians is holding its annual convention right here in Paragon City? I should have known that would be trouble. I just got a call from the convention chairman; some Circle of Thorn mystics broke in and made off with a handful of attendees. I'm countimg on you to rescue those magicians from the Circle of Thorns, [Character Name]. I don't know what's in store for them, but I don't want to find out.
This wasn't a random attack; according to the chairman the Circle was very selective about their victims. Those people need to be rescued and whatever the Circle was planning for them needs to be stopped. You'll have to stop any bizarre rituals the Circle may be performing on those magicians and rescue any magicians being held hostage."
So, where in this text does it mention there will be multiple bosses on this solo mission?