City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Discussion for MA Farm Workarounds

Bright_Spirit

By Bright_Spirit,
Posted on: 2009-05-11 13:22 in Mission Architect

 

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Hos do Frams not have stories? or how is your story better. Mission giver sez a bunch of crap and thats the story. Every thing else is just killing everything that moves.

[/ QUOTE ]No one is saying my stories are better, I made it perfectly clear that this thread is not about me whining about my own stories. It's about everyone's stories which are rung out, and go unnoticed because of the heavy interest in the farms.

 

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Hos do Frams not have stories? or how is your story better. Mission giver sez a bunch of crap and thats the story. Every thing else is just killing everything that moves.

[/ QUOTE ]No one is saying my stories are better, I made it perfectly clear that this thread is not about me whining about my own stories. It's about everyone's stories which are rung out, and go unnoticed because of the heavy interest in the farms.

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So players must be forced to like something else. If the farms are popular then thats what they must want so everything is working fine.

The issue is really having 90K people all posting their crappy missions. Thats why things are getting buried.

 

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The issue is really having 90K people all posting their crappy missions. Thats why things are getting buried.

[/ QUOTE ]Why don't you compile a list of missions that you think are crappy and are not farms, and post them here? It's more constructive for you anyways. I'm sure it would better help you weed out the so-called "junk" in MA anyways.

 

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I recommend continuing this discussion in the "Official Farming Discussion Thread" Located in the City Life OR in one of the Posi Letter threads located in the Developer's Corner section of the board as Mod8 is soon to come along soon and lock this one.

 

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I recommend continuing this discussion in the "Official Farming Discussion Thread" Located in the City Life OR in one of the Posi Letter threads located in the Developer's Corner section of the board as Mod8 is soon to come along soon and lock this one.

[/ QUOTE ]Ah, but this is a discussion/questions thread.

Taking this to the farming thread would no doubt start a flame war, and I can put money on that.

 

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Well, I agree, it would be very nice to be able to sift thru all the missions that are currently there. Perhaps segregating the farmers would help (certainly, getting them out of AP would help the tremendous lag issues!), but I believe there would still be mountains of missions. You are right, MP, when you theorize that removing xp would drive many farmers out, but others are correct when they note that this doesn't mean that the farms would die, they'd simply shift product farmed.

I like your idea in theory, that is, the theory that there are enough people that appreciate story-focused player generated content that the game would be able to have a venue where we really only focus on the stories and not the rewards. Trouble is, the more I think about it, the more I realize, it just won't work. People play for a variety of reasons, and it is hard to separate out the complex factors that go into the enjoyment of the game. And, if you do separate factors that are critical to the majority, you risk alienating your playerbase.

In other words, people like rewards. For you, the reward would be, people see and enjoy what you've created. That's a reward, as valid as the tickets or levels others crave. I hope that the devs recognize this, because you aren't alone in your complaint that you feel your arc is buried and your fear that it may never get noticed. I am not sure the game is able to support strict story-focused MA arcs, with limited or reduced rewards, because most players are playing for tangible rewards. Currently there is no system to get players that do want to focus on the story, together. The players exist, but I am very sure they are not the majority, and so I think that if the stories were available with reduced rewards, I think MA would become a minor footnote in the game, much like the arena is now. It would be an interesting experiment, but based on the playerbase as I have experienced it, both on the forums and ingame, I don't think it's practical, and you'd still be a frustrated author whose mission arc isn't being played!

I think that there has been some good feedback here, in that the MA is still being balanced. (Oh, if only they'd done more thinking and maybe some usability testing!! We'd have avoided all of this...) I share your frustration with the farms clogging the airwaves, server space, and MA listings, but I actually think that the thing to do is to learn to get along with the farmers. I don't think that the devs will ever do that! but I personally don't think the farmers will ever go; it's their personal playing style of choice (professionals excluded from this assessment). I would favor something that would shift the farms to a less populated zone, like Galaxy City, and sanction them (with limits), so that we don't have to sift thru all the missions that aren't trying to be anything other than a farm. I fail to see the harm in this, and seems like it'd keep people happy, both the farmers and the people who get annoyed with farms. I am happy to let the farmers farm if that is how they want to play; they are paying their monthly fee and helping the game stay afloat, so I can go play for the reasons I like to play. They're not likely to be interested in missions I write, and I'm not going to be interested in theirs, so segregating them would be cool. But it isn't likely to happen.

I'd also love a better navigational interface/system. I truly hope THAT is happening, because there are too many problems in the system we currently have, but I believe that is being addressed. *Insert another plea to devs to consider usability testing.*

 

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As for revenge voting, nothing is stopping that currently, either. The outlook is nigh currently if you're hoping to stop people from vote griefing.

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Very sad but true. There needs to be a way to correct griefing voting, say, something like what slashdot uses, where people get a reliability rating and their vote is weighted accordingly. Or take away the power the votes currently have, and make them only for honest opinion, not something you need for badges.

 

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Or take away the power the votes currently have, and make them only for honest opinion, not something you need for badges.

[/ QUOTE ]Yeah, that would fix it, and I'm sure very few people would complain with that sort of fix.

 

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My proposal is that you, the devs, remove experience gain from all missions EXCEPT Hall of Fame missions, and Dev's Choice. This will no doubt alleviate all the farming down with one foul swoop. I'm sure sifting through Hall of Fame missions for farms is a heck of a lot easier than sifting through ALL missions, anyways.

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Quite a few people have proposed removing XP from Mission Architect missions. I say once again: Don't nerf my MA XP!

The Mission Architect was meant to provide alternatives to the standard missions. It can't fulfill that role if it doesn't give any XP. It's not just about telling stories. It's new mission content. If you take away the XP, my only use for the MA would be to explore some of the missions maps, and that wouldn't keep my interest for very long.

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...And let's face it, for all of you out there that feel the same way as I do about these farms. Doesn't it suck to have all your mission arcs you worked hard on buried under all those farm missions?

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No. I don't farm, but the existence of the farming missions doesn't bother me. In fact, I don't currently have any arc slots occupied. I create personalized arcs for my characters, and publish and unpublish them as desired.

 

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No. I don't farm, but the existence of the farming missions doesn't bother me. In fact, I don't currently have any arc slots occupied. I create personalized arcs for my characters, and publish and unpublish them as desired.

[/ QUOTE ]What about those who do not create personalized arcs for thier own characters, but rather, create arcs that are personalized by utilizing what the creator puts into them? I'm sure lots of people put hard work into thier story arcs, one of my arcs took a full month to get down before I chose to publish it. There are similar cases with other people, too.

 

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There's no greater feeling in this game, than legitimately earning level 50 via soloing your entire career. I could have joined a team for that, but I soloed my main to 50.

This MA farming thing is ridiculous, as I am sure a majority of you know. Atlas hasn't been the same ever since(joke)

My proposal is that you, the devs, remove experience gain from all missions EXCEPT Hall of Fame missions, and Dev's Choice. This will no doubt alleviate all the farming down with one foul swoop. I'm sure sifting through Hall of Fame missions for farms is a heck of a lot easier than sifting through ALL missions, anyways.

I want to be clear, this proposal of mine does NOT include infamy/influence, and prestige. In other words, all published missions would still be able to reward influence/infamy, and prestige if you're in SG mode. Just not experience points.

...And let's face it, for all of you out there that feel the same way as I do about these farms. Doesn't it suck to have all your mission arcs you worked hard on buried under all those farm missions?

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Fine by me. I have always believed in leaving loaded guns around children as an intelligence test.

 

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The more I think about it, and speak with other people about it, the more I think... "The only reason these MA farms are more popular than standard PI farms, is the fact that you don't need mentors."

Other people have said the MA recieved a cutback in XP gain, and the xp is no longer as decent as regular gameplay or PI farms.

 

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You seem to be laboring under the assumption that any use of the architect is more valid than any other, something I firmly disagree with.

As for voting....Voting, as has been said many times, is nothing but a beauty contest. You will very rarely have a mission that satisfies enough of a majority of the population to surpass those who don't like it...hence why you see so many 3 and 4 star arcs. You CAN get 1 starred just because people didn't like it.

As far as separating out mission types, they are bettering the search tool with i15. There is also the many markings listed in this very forum to aid in your searches until you do. There are also numerous ways to increase your exposure for your own arcs including forum signature, several threads, private channels, self made posters. I'm sure the city scoop has a section too, or will soon. If you don't put forth the effort, your arc is destined to remain lost in the land of obscurity.