Search for the tag SFMA, "story focused MA".
It's also really helpful to look for advertised missions here on the forums as most of us are at least semi-verbal types. Why, I bet if you check any sig's you find on posts here you'll see one or more mentioned (hint hint, please looks down).
yep, there are pages of SFMA content in the architect now
I'll give that a try. And this tag is not yet being widely used to hide farming missions?
I'm also thinking maybe I should start shopping SGs for an SFMA focused SG.
I personally am an on-again-off-again player, so I've never been able to stick very well in an SG in CoX due to the 75 and now 150 limit - I get dropped for more active people.
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I'll give that a try. And this tag is not yet being widely used to hide farming missions?
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If I clicked on one with that tag and got a farm, I'd be SO quick to flag it for being a farm, moreso out of cussedness at getting tricked than anything else. I doubt that'll ever happen much. I could be wrong.
Yeah, that would be counterproductive for the farm builders. They'd be attracting exactly the wrong sort of people...kinda like inviting the police to tour your meth lab.
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Yeah, that would be counterproductive for the farm builders. They'd be attracting exactly the wrong sort of people...kinda like inviting the police to tour your meth lab.
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heh. 
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If I clicked on one with that tag and got a farm, I'd be SO quick to flag it for being a farm, moreso out of cussedness at getting tricked than anything else. I doubt that'll ever happen much. I could be wrong.
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Well so far everytime I've joined a group claiming it was running story arcs only, I've been taken into farms. So I'm working from a jaded perspective here.
Maybe its just the PUG mates trying to get numbers higher for greater farming rewards.
Several farms I got pulled into also contained minor 'story trappings' - a clickie goal, an unkillable escort but no place to take them to, a neutral mob in every pack of farmees labeled 'save me.' or something equally thin. All as if the farm-author was trying to conceal their farm mission from detection. 
Might just be my bad luck. I have -not- yet tried scanning for that code. So I will on next login and see if that can finally get me to the content I'm looking for.
the game is a farm. nuff said. every mish could be looked at as farming, you enter kill baddies, get glowies, do whatever other objectives and do another one that is very close to the last mish. so for all farmer griefers remember one thing, the only difference is that farmers like to rince,wash and repeat and non-farmers complain about it.
bottom line is everyone farms in one way or another, if you admit to it thats a different story. if you can honestly tell me you never went to the sewers when you started out for faster levels then you can talk, everyone does sewers when you start a new toon. sewers=low level farming.
@Canadian Canuck @Canadian Canuck2
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the game is a farm. nuff said. every mish could be looked at as farming, you enter kill baddies, get glowies, do whatever other objectives and do another one that is very close to the last mish. so for all farmer griefers remember one thing, the only difference is that farmers like to rince,wash and repeat and non-farmers complain about it.
bottom line is everyone farms in one way or another, if you admit to it thats a different story. if you can honestly tell me you never went to the sewers when you started out for faster levels then you can talk, everyone does sewers when you start a new toon. sewers=low level farming.
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the only time I ever went to the sewers was for a mid 40's arc I think where I had to hunt some hydra or rikti in the abandoned sewers.
I never go to the sewers on any of my new characters, ever.
I don't think you can catagorize the entire game as farming. Farming is more of running the exact same map or arc over and over and over again to get the rewards. Typically the arc or mission being farmed is one with higher than average rewards tied to it. Running an arc or mission once isn't farming, its playing.
I tend not to farm, I find it really boring, but I don't begrudge anyone who does farm. I just think that trying to label everyone as a farmer and the game as a whole as a farm is not accurate to say the least.
try this option. it is by no means perfect but do not enter an arc that has only unique maps in the description. all the outdoor maps are labeled as unique in the mission description pages.(afaik)
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the game is a farm. nuff said. every mish could be looked at as farming, you enter kill baddies, get glowies, do whatever other objectives and do another one that is very close to the last mish. so for all farmer griefers remember one thing, the only difference is that farmers like to rince,wash and repeat and non-farmers complain about it.
bottom line is everyone farms in one way or another, if you admit to it thats a different story. if you can honestly tell me you never went to the sewers when you started out for faster levels then you can talk, everyone does sewers when you start a new toon. sewers=low level farming.
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the only time I ever went to the sewers was for a mid 40's arc I think where I had to hunt some hydra or rikti in the abandoned sewers.
I never go to the sewers on any of my new characters, ever.
I don't think you can catagorize the entire game as farming. Farming is more of running the exact same map or arc over and over and over again to get the rewards. Typically the arc or mission being farmed is one with higher than average rewards tied to it. Running an arc or mission once isn't farming, its playing.
I tend not to farm, I find it really boring, but I don't begrudge anyone who does farm. I just think that trying to label everyone as a farmer and the game as a whole as a farm is not accurate to say the least.
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By the same token, trying to villainize farmers as some evil cartel of fuin ruining bastards is just as unfair.
Anyhow. theres one simple way to avoid farms. never zone into a one mission arc not written by someone you know. and form your own teams.
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I use a lot of unique maps. Most of the maps with "character" are unique maps - Infernal's lair, the Hellion abandoned office, all the Croatoa maps. Non-unique maps are caves, warehouses, and offices.
I also use a lot of outdoor maps. They typically suit my style well, which involves using lots of patrols for color text, using multiple misleading items, and hiding things in plain sight. Outdoor maps suit different play styles well; you can steamroll the mobs, or you can pick off the significant details and be done with it.
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"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison
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try this option. it is by no means perfect but do not enter an arc that has only unique maps in the description. all the outdoor maps are labeled as unique in the mission description pages.(afaik)
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This doesn't work at all. Many interesting missions try to give you something different. Unique maps are different. Ergo, many interesting missions will give you unique maps.
The real problem is trying to do story-based arcs on teams, especially PUGs. If you're really interested in the story, you're going to have to take time to read things. This isn't going to happen unless you're on a team that's really focused on the story.
If you really want to do story-based arcs your best bet is to put "SFMA solo" in the search parameters so you can find soloable arcs. Then run with a tank, a scrapper or a high-level character that can solo easily.
As for the red herring about us all being farmers: it's patently false. While it's true that we all like getting experience and loot, that's where the similarity ends.
A farmer is perfectly happy running the same map over and over for all 50 levels. In fact, a farmer prefers this, as it provides no surprises and no variability, which could slow down loot collection or level advancement. This is why MA is so perfect: you can level from 1 to 50 without ever leaving the building.
Occasionally non-farmers will push hard to reach a particular level in anticipation of a coveted power. Everyone "farms" in this sense for experience, or goes and knocks off a bunch of Red Caps in the hopes of finding a needed piece of arcane salvage.
But non-farmers tire of this quickly. They run different missions, switch characters, work on the base, chat with friends, seek and destroy some GMs, collect a few badges, write an MA arc, craft some IOs, play on the market, etc. It's not all about the grind to level 50 or amassing 10,000 tickets in 10 minutes.
The problem with the farming style of play is that it leads to burnout and dropped subscriptions. The devs know this, and don't want it to become the standard mode of play for the CoX community, because it means the death of the game. And that's bad for the farmers too, because they won't have anyone to hawk their wares to if all the regular players go away.
Do we really need to go into a discussion/argument YET AGAIN about "whats wrong with farming" and "all farmers arent evil, only the corn they grow is" blah blah blah...move on already.
To the OP, I've been having the same problem and I cant seem to find a "trick" I guess, but I like to find the more creative missions. Preferrably the hilarious ones, like my boy Hellbobs McArchvillain mission, which they took down I think?
And some of yall think you are SOOOO funny. I picked an AE mission to solo last night and out of pure curiosity saw a mission that BLATANTLY read Rescue Rikti Communication Officer or something like that. I was like, "no way, they must WANT to get banned". So, out of curiosity, and thinkin the creator must have been living under a rock the last 2 weeks, I decided to check it out to see if it was a boring farm. If it was a farm I'd simply quit and go back to my AE fun mission hunting lol.
Well I zone in, and it's a farm...I mean actually on a FARM complete with barns, but heres the thing. No hordes of Rikti, which I was relieved. But the goal was to rescue the RIKTI from the farmhands and scarecrows and other "barnyard referencing" villains. I thought it was pretty funny, in a sarcastic sense. Like the creator was sayin "haha devs, you say I cant make farms with Rikti Comm. Officers but I found a way around your rules haha". Well I got halfway through and exited, but I left kinda confused as to the creator's intent. lol But it was a cool little mission though.
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Farming is more of running the exact same map..
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How many office/warehouse/sewer/cave maps have you memorized? To the point where you know where the spawns are EXACTLY?
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You forgot about radio\paper mishs also, a randomized way of farming. Oh wait, can't call thoes farms bc non farmers play them, sry.
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everyone does sewers when you start a new toon.
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No... no they don't. It's a pretty common practice these days, sure, but by no means is it something everyone does.
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Qr. Join the MA Arc Finder channel. Lots of story-focused MAurthors on there.
Eco
MArcs:
The Echo, Arc ID 1688 (5mish, easy, drama)
The Audition, Arc ID 221240 (6 mish, complex mech, comedy)
Storming Citadel, Arc ID 379488 (lowbie, 1mish, 10-min timed)
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
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Do we really need to go into a discussion/argument YET AGAIN about "whats wrong with farming" and "all farmers arent evil, only the corn they grow is" blah blah blah...move on already
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Agreed. Can the Devs just extract all of the for/against posts from this thread without locking it?
This thread is more about how to find one kind of content and avoid another. About what will work in scanning missions.
I am starting to think I will have to be the one with star from here on out, to avoid getting tricked by people just using me to get larger pulls - but of course if I start believing I can't trust anyone else, why should anyone else believe they cannot trust me?
On the forums for two servers I have a good number of characters on I've put up threads looking for an SG or VG that is SFMA focused. Got one offer, so I may give them a try - and if I have to, may jump server all-together.
(I'd start my own VG, but lack the time for it).
I want to play Missions that are:
- Stories, like some of the best of the story arcs or TFs in the game.
- New or unknown. I want the thrill of discovering a new story author and spreading the word about them. Otherwise, I'd just run Dev choices.
- Play a few characters solely through exploring the stories other players of this game can come up with.
- Take my time leveling.
- Not be tricked by deceptive missions or deceptive PUGs that put me in content different from what they claim to be.
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Qr. Join the MA Arc Finder channel. Lots of story-focused MAurthors on there.
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That channel is just named "MA Arc Finder" ? 
I've taken to avoiding anything that is (Unique Map)+(Custom Critters, especially within a tight level range)+(only one mission in the arc).
100% definative of "Farm"? No, but it's just something I've been avoiding.
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Qr. Join the MA Arc Finder channel. Lots of story-focused MAurthors on there.
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That channel is just named "MA Arc Finder" ?
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Why, yes. Yes, it is.
Up with the overworld! Up with exploration! | Want a review of your arc?
My arcs: Dream Paper (ID: 1874) | Bricked Electronics (ID: 2180) | The Bravuran Jobs (ID: 5073) | Backwards Day (ID: 329000) | Operation Fair Trade (ID: 391172)
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Agreed. Can the Devs just extract all of the for/against posts from this thread without locking it?
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Thats rich when the title of the thread makes on wonder if this entire thread was a troll thread.
MA Arc Finder is the channel in game. Here on the board in the stories and lore section are listings of more story based arcs than you will be able to run in a year.
If you are talking about getting "teams" to run "story" arcs in AE you are probably better off making your own story arc teams. Most of the teams in AE LFM are farms and that won't be changing anytime soon.
The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.
Everytime I've tried using the MA, I've found myself in farm missions.
Even when I go for missions that advertise a goal, and I zone in and there is a goal (click X # of Ys) - its still just arranged as one massive farm with the Ys out of the way so you can just get them once you get bored.
PUGs I join that claim to be trying to avoid farms end up the same way - we zone in and once again, its a farm.
So...
Any tips for what to look for in the selection screens to find actual arcs? I'd like to be able to run things that aren't just Dev choices - those may be great, but I'd also like to have a hand in finding the next up and coming great picks - which means I need to know how to delve into the unknown masses, and yet still come up with gems, or at least missions with actual stories.
For those of you who have figured out how to find actual stories in between the farms and farms disguised as stories, any tips?