A couple of changes that could make AE better
By
Aliana Blue,
Posted on: 2009-06-16 12:34 in Mission Architect
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Step 3: More slots for veterans/money!
At this point, I desperately want to make more missions, and I'm willing to do almost anything short of buying a second account!!
The Hall of Fame and Dev's Choice are excellent ideas (if for no other reason than monitoring popular arcs is a good way to weed out farmers) but it shouldn't be too difficult to add one extra slot for every 6 months you've been subscribed to the game, or $9.95 for 3 additional slots with an upper limit of 15.
After all, most farmers aren't going to care about additional slots, and they definitely won't want to pay for them. What's the difference between playing 3 arcs that are exactly the same or 15 arcs that are exactly the same?
More slots for people who want to be creative = more creative content in the game = the ratio of good arcs over stupid farming missions goes up!
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I'll pay up to $30 for just one extra slot. More publishing slots is now my single 'most wanted' in CoH.
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)
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
[The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."
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I'll pay exactly $0 for extra slots to publish missions. The creative process that I enjoy when coming up with new stories isn't bound to a publishing slot, a collection of bytes or markup text, or even any real or virtually tangible media. Thus, I see little difference between having the story in my head or in a 100 Kb text file.
Having seen the MA creator, I have a fair idea of what I can or cannot do with it (note I said "I"). Getting the stories in my head put into a digital format has two possible outcomes: it playing as I envisioned (given the tools at my disposal), or playing worse and having to change it. I don't see any of the changes being accidentally for the best. It's way more likely for those changes to be for the "meh".
And the other point of view, which may be "popularity", is moot, since I don't see any other arc I could make performing significantly better than the arcs I have already published, given that they come from the same source (my head).
Thus, I'd be happy to use extra slots being had for free. I'm extremely unlikely to fork over real cash to get extra slots.
YMMV 
Players' Choice Awards: Best Dual-Origin Level Range Arc!
It's a new era, the era of the Mission Architect. Can you save the Universe from...
The Invasion of the Bikini-clad Samurai Vampiresses from Outer Space? - Arc ID 61013
still trying to figure out how farmers ruined it for you....
But lack of logical thought hasnt really stopped you from posting has it?
Since you ask... my main worries are these
1) Cluttering - With many farms it's hard to find story missions without a better built in tagging/filtering system. Farmers usually aren't bothered with this (they just need to find one farm and stick with it) but story-runners need to find new missions all the time. Cluttering is keeping people looking for stories away (and thus costing costumers for story writers)
2) Dev MA Nerfs - If Devs nerf what can be used in MA to hurt farms, it will likely hurt us too
3) Dev XP Nerfs - Our main competition is NC Soft made story content. If XP for MA is nerfed badly so farmers have to find officiel content to farm instead, then also storyrunners might go the same way away from MA.
People can farm all they like for all I care (as long as no exploit is involved anyway), personally the story-crowd just do not understand you (in CoH being 50 isn't everything, more like end of the line).
Also... we have no illusion that a Farm nerf will ever make you our costumers. But people hating 'fanfic' also cannot assume that just because they would never run the stuff that noone else would either given that the clutter issue is solved and no Dev-anti-farm-reaction drives MA into the ground.
I hope this reply is measured enough not to turn this thread into another flamefest. There is too much of that with some of the misguided trolling going on here anyway.
//AtCbM// www.crystalblue.dk
Victory - Mare,Dagger of Pain,Keep,Hogun and Bloodpetal
The Keep-Arcs: 164260, 188373, 192610, 196090 and funny side-chapter 218575.
Mender-Arc: 266163
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Since you ask... my main worries are these
1) Cluttering - With many farms it's hard to find story missions without a better built in tagging/filtering system. Farmers usually aren't bothered with this (they just need to find one farm and stick with it) but story-runners need to find new missions all the time. Cluttering is keeping people looking for stories away (and thus costing costumers for story writers)
2) Dev MA Nerfs - If Devs nerf what can be used in MA to hurt farms, it will likely hurt us too
3) Dev XP Nerfs - Our main competition is NC Soft made story content. If XP for MA is nerfed badly so farmers have to find officiel content to farm instead, then also storyrunners might go the same way away from MA.
People can farm all they like for all I care (as long as no exploit is involved anyway), personally the story-crowd just do not understand you (in CoH being 50 isn't everything, more like end of the line).
Also... we have no illusion that a Farm nerf will ever make you our costumers. But people hating 'fanfic' also cannot assume that just because they would never run the stuff that noone else would either given that the clutter issue is solved and no Dev-anti-farm-reaction drives MA into the ground.
I hope this reply is measured enough not to turn this thread into another flamefest. There is too much of that with some of the misguided trolling going on here anyway.
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Fair enough. No flames.
I offer therapy: Take a break from the game.
You are personalizing the game. When you put a group of office-workers at a game company in charge of your happiness, you are doomed to be unhappy. Be in charge of your own happiness and enjoy the game for what it is and do not lament what it is not.
City of Heroes is an awesome game. However, it is not EVERYONE'S game. Once you have offered your constructive criticism as to how you think the game could be improved, you are done. Let go of it.
On Guardian!
Mike Halo
& a few dozen others.
Our SG: Stars of Paragon
Fiction: Training Day
Note.. I haven't made any suggestions yet (it's bad karma to suggest nerfs for anyone, I'll wait till after they hit and suggest ways of loosening them instead for my purposes, and I'm sure people focused more on the powerleveling challenge will too) and you start by offering me therapy, that's a somewhat strange move.
You say it's not everyones game - I hope it can be the game of both the story crowd and the power-challenge crowd, since more customers = more money and more money = more content for everybody.
Personally me (and my money) are just back for the expanded story running options in I15 (and to a lesser extent the story making, but once you made 3 - more often than not just for the benefit of a small couple of friends - you are pretty much done with that anyway, so if one is only looking for that, or for any fame that might come from making missions, disappointment will probably come and one won't last long)
Currently the story-finding options just aren't really very good.
-- Made a much needed tl;dr edit.
//AtCbM// www.crystalblue.dk
Victory - Mare,Dagger of Pain,Keep,Hogun and Bloodpetal
The Keep-Arcs: 164260, 188373, 192610, 196090 and funny side-chapter 218575.
Mender-Arc: 266163
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I'm sick to death of farmers ruining everyone's fun, but I think a couple of simple changes could solve the problem for everyone.
Step 1: Set a maximum XP/Influence cap per mission
I know, it sucks for those of us who play by the rules, but there's bound to be some way to figure out what the average XP is for a standard dev-created mission, and then set the bar at maybe 10% above that. People may still farm because the "prey" is easier in AE, but it could sour the milk enough to get people back out into the sewers and Perez Park if all they want is massive mobs of enemies and XP/Inf.
If players still feel gypped by the lowered XP/Inf, perhaps the excess can be converted towards tickets instead.
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Please, no. No more anti-farming measures that punish people who use this tool the way it was intended. As much as I enjoy creating missions, and running some of the best-written ones, if the rewards in MA continue to be reduced, I will be done with it.
I play this game to advance my characters. If I want to experience an interesting story without gaining any significant, game-related rewards from it, I will read a book or watch TV.
(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon
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I'm sick to death of farmers ruining everyone's fun, but I think a couple of simple changes could solve the problem for everyone.
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You are welcome to that opinion but you need to consider this
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Due to the many threads on farming, and the communication inefficiency that resulted from the diffuse nature of the discussion, we have decided to consolidate all discussion on farming into one thread. If you wish to discuss farming or any subject pertaining to farming, please discuss it here.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...amp;fpart=1<br />
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I find it a bit ironic that anti-farmers refuse to follow the rules on posting yet site rules when railing about farmers. Pot meet Mr. Kettle.
The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.
Could someone please tell me when "farming" became synonymous with "power-leveling"?
As I understand it, "farming" is not an issue. "Farming" has traditionally been a part of MMO design (read: time sink) since the beginning. Players "farm" all sort of things. There are some things you can't even reasonably get in this game without "farming" for them.
Can farming be tedious? Yah. Has there been a general move away from tedium as a time sink in MMO design? Yah, seems so. And that's good. But that doesn't make "farming" wrong or bad or evil. If people want to do it, let them. What's the problem?
Too many "farm" arcs in MA? Improve the search functionality. Problem solved.
People getting to 50 so fast they don't know what they're doing? Well, I hate to break it to ya, but power-leveling didn't just show up with MA. It's been around for as long as the game has. So, "changing" MA to make it "better" isn't going to eliminate that.
The only question that's relevant is: does MA make power-leveling so common a practice that it's skewering the game as it was designed and intended to be played by the devs?
Only the developers can answer that. And if the answer's yes, they'll do something about it. Just as they've done in the past. They kinda have to. Doesn't matter what anyone on these boards says about it, pro or con.
So, please. Can we lay off with the "farming" rants? I use MA, I love MA, I'm interested in what's going on with MA, I want to know what people are doing with MA. But I keep coming to this board and finding little more than commentary about "farming" and "suggestions" on how to "fix" it.
All power-levelers may be farmers, but not all farmers are power-levelers. Power-gamers are also not power-levelers (even though they may get to 50 almost as fast). If they want challenge arcs, as far as I'm concerned, that's a valid use of MA. If a "fix" doesn't distinguish between these groups, it's not a "fix" at all.
The Cape Radio: You're not super until you put on the Cape!
DJ Enigma's Puzzle Factory: Co* Parody Commercials
Ok, lets start over:
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1) Cluttering - With many farms it's hard to find story missions without a better built in tagging/filtering system. Farmers usually aren't bothered with this (they just need to find one farm and stick with it) but story-runners need to find new missions all the time. Cluttering is keeping people looking for stories away (and thus costing costumers for story writers)
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There is no shortage of customers for storywriters. The clutter here is pure perception. I check the MA advertisings on Guardian forum when I want to try something unique from a trusted source. Just as in real life, you sometimes have to pick through some weeds to find the carrots.
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2) Dev MA Nerfs - If Devs nerf what can be used in MA to hurt farms, it will likely hurt us too.
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Anything that hurts a farm should have no impact on you if you are focused on the story. If you want to earn rewards (most people do) then the constant, strident howling and whining about farming (not accusing you of this) hurts everyone. The "farming problem" has attained near mythic proportions fuelled by envy and intolerance. The Whining problem IS real and it is beyond idiotic. It is embarrassingly shameful the ridiculous things people are posting about a non-issue. Thus prompting my current campaign.
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3) Dev XP Nerfs - Our main competition is NC Soft made story content. If XP for MA is nerfed badly so farmers have to find officiel content to farm instead, then also storyrunners might go the same way away from MA.
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That statement makes no sense at all to me. There is no competition. If you are referring the Developers Choice awards, then that, to me, is a different subject. I, for one, still get a vastly huge XP reward (when I don't turn XP off) any time I want, whether in AE or not. As you have correctly stated, i do not know you and i cannot suggest how you are thinking, but I am thinking you need to team with some more experienced players. I offer my services on Guardian.
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People can farm all they like for all I care (as long as no exploit is involved anyway),
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Apparently you do care, at least some, or we would not be here. Why should an "exploit" bother you? Are you an unpaid enforcer?
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personally the story-crowd just do not understand you (in CoH being 50 isn't everything, more like end of the line).
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Though I agree 100%, it is irrelevant. Just like your perception of the rightness or wrongness of other players behavior is irrelevant so long as it does not affect you or your family directly. I do not presume to judge how people should play. Their money, their time, their problem. I do not meddle.
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Also... we have no illusion that a Farm nerf will ever make you our costumers. But people hating 'fanfic' also cannot assume that just because they would never run the stuff that noone else would either given that the clutter issue is solved and no Dev-anti-farm-reaction drives MA into the ground.
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Just as I should make no assumptions about you, you should make none about me. I am constantly on the lookout for interesting content. Post your arcs! Clear the clutter! The Dev anti farm reaction
. What? MA is fine and fun. What arcs are you playing that are being driven into the ground? That is a complete misperception.
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I hope this reply is measured enough not to turn this thread into another flamefest. There is too much of that with some of the misguided trolling going on here anyway.
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We can disagree without being disagreeable. I have a very difficult time with all of the negativity on the forums. When you buy a new car, you never go back to the dealer unless something is wrong with it. The happy people just drive and are happy. There are too many unhappy people having their unhappy voices heard over the happy people who are just quietly enjoying the game. Except me. I am happy and I am in a boring seminar so I share my happiness here.
Think of three nice things to say about AE and post it.
On Guardian!
Mike Halo
& a few dozen others.
Our SG: Stars of Paragon
Fiction: Training Day
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You say it's not everyones game - I hope it can be the game of both the story crowd and the power-challenge crowd
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That will never happen.
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3) Dev XP Nerfs - Our main competition is NC Soft made story content. If XP for MA is nerfed badly so farmers have to find officiel content to farm instead, then also storyrunners might go the same way away from MA.
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That statement makes no sense at all to me. There is no competition. If you are referring the Developers Choice awards, then that, to me, is a different subject. I, for one, still get a vastly huge XP reward (when I don't turn XP off) any time I want, whether in AE or not. As you have correctly stated, i do not know you and i cannot suggest how you are thinking, but I am thinking you need to team with some more experienced players. I offer my services on Guardian.
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I think what the person you are quoting is saying, is the same thing I said in my post - the stories in MA are nice, but without XP and other rewards comperable to dev-created content (i.e. if MA XP is reduced to discourage MA power-leveling) then the pool of players running MA missions for new content will dry up too.
(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon
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You say it's not everyones game - I hope it can be the game of both the story crowd and the power-challenge crowd
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That will never happen.
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No reason why it can't. They're not mutually exclusive wants.
The Cape Radio: You're not super until you put on the Cape!
DJ Enigma's Puzzle Factory: Co* Parody Commercials
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You say it's not everyones game - I hope it can be the game of both the story crowd and the power-challenge crowd
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That will never happen.
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Thats the goal of MA, or so im led to believe...
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Anything that hurts a farm should have no impact on you
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This was aimed at the possible removal of maps and such
Someone already explained the XP thing but yes.. nerfed AE rewards will hurt storymakers too since storyhunting audience could go for paper/contact missions instead.
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Apparently you do care, at least some, or we would not be here. Why should an "exploit" bother you? Are you an unpaid enforcer?
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I'm just like that I'm afraid - Yes I report Exploits! Nothing Personal. This is not limited to this game, or to AE, or to gaming in general. Turning a blind eye to exploits means forfeiting ones right to complain when an exploit comes along that really does hurt *you*. It's probably not a popular stance but no point in lying about it. Not that I come across many of them since I don't give anything but storymissions a second look.
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Just as I should make no assumptions about you, you should make none about me. I am constantly on the lookout for interesting content.
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Not aimed at you, sorry if it looked like that, was not the intention - but we have had some "All stories suck and noone will play them anyway so get lost all of you story-noobs" trolls around here trying to speak for other people. Was trying to refute that behaviour. They should learn to say *I*.
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I have a very difficult time with all of the negativity on the forums.
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You and me both..
Three good things...??
- I got get beaten up by myself, only in AE
- I helped Lord Recluse after a drunken Binge, only in AE
- I prevented all soft-ice from tasting of Liver, only in AE
I know forums are a good place to find good arcs, but I like to find some (like the Recluse one) that I haven't seen pitched.
Threads have a tendency to turn into circular promotion only.
I spent 5 minutes sifting through the rubble today - was long and annoying, but finding something 192771 made it worth it, but I could still do with less clutter for sure.
//AtCbM// www.crystalblue.dk
Victory - Mare,Dagger of Pain,Keep,Hogun and Bloodpetal
The Keep-Arcs: 164260, 188373, 192610, 196090 and funny side-chapter 218575.
Mender-Arc: 266163
It seems to me that the term "Farming" is the same as a Rorschach test. People will see it thier way no matter what others think. Some might see farming as the devil while others see a way of obtaining thier goals. Either way it will exist. That said, farmers are not the problem, its the ppl that keep complaing about the issue who are
Well... I'd blame Positron then 
He started this ....
//AtCbM// www.crystalblue.dk
Victory - Mare,Dagger of Pain,Keep,Hogun and Bloodpetal
The Keep-Arcs: 164260, 188373, 192610, 196090 and funny side-chapter 218575.
Mender-Arc: 266163
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I'm sick to death of farmers ruining everyone's fun, but I think a couple of simple changes could solve the problem for everyone.
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Riiiight .... How exactly do farmers ruin your fun? By existing? To bad, so sad ... get over it.
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I know, it sucks for those of us who play by the rules, but there's bound to be some way to figure out what the average XP is for a standard dev-created mission, and then set the bar at maybe 10% above that.
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Right, because the only thing farmers farm is XP right? How about taking all rewards out of MA? The only way to remove farmers from MA is to drop the reward rate so insanely low, that nobody would want to play it.
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People may still farm because the "prey" is easier in AE, but it could sour the milk enough to get people back out into the sewers and Perez Park if all they want is massive mobs of enemies and XP/Inf.
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Farming for Inf is not the way to get Inf. Farming for drops is the way to get Inf. Reduce the inf drop rate to 0 and I wouldn't even notice. Reduce the XP in MA, and you'll only have level 50's playing MA. As it is, the xp is extremely low already, and I will never play an MA arc that isn't geared around giving XP. Quite frankly, I'm finding that the MA is clogged with garbage missions which don't give enough xp, and I actually posted a complaint the other day on an arc because of it. A 5 floor indoor map, and I gained half a level. I was level 11. Seriously, it was as large as the Frostfire mission and I gained half a level.
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If players still feel gypped by the lowered XP/Inf, perhaps the excess can be converted towards tickets instead.
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That would make me very happy.
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Step 3: More slots for veterans/money!
At this point, I desperately want to make more missions, and I'm willing to do almost anything short of buying a second account!!
The Hall of Fame and Dev's Choice are excellent ideas (if for no other reason than monitoring popular arcs is a good way to weed out farmers) but it shouldn't be too difficult to add one extra slot for every 6 months you've been subscribed to the game, or $9.95 for 3 additional slots with an upper limit of 15.
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So we can have more crappy missions to weed through that don't give any XP? No thanks.
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More slots for people who want to be creative = more creative content in the game = the ratio of arcs that give no XP over farming missions which actually give XP goes up!
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Fix't for what would really happen. And that would be a /no.
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All stories suck and noone will play them anyway so get lost all of you story-noobs...
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^ This 
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You say it's not everyones game - I hope it can be the game of both the story crowd and the power-challenge crowd
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That will never happen.
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No reason why it can't. They're not mutually exclusive wants.
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Tell that to the anti-farmers.
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I'm sick to death of farmers ruining everyone's fun, but I think a couple of simple changes could solve the problem for everyone.
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I have suggestions for two different solutions that would solve these problems in general, as well as have other benefits. They don't have the tremendously bad effects of a mission XP cap. A mission cap doesn't really solve the problem, because the rate per minute is what matters, and farmers don't really care if they have to switch missions a little more frequently.
One of CoH's major problems is that characters who are just sitting inside the door of the mission doing nothing get full rewards. Door-sitters have no risk and should therefore get no reward. Right now 7 auto-SKed-to-46 lowbies can sit there doing nothing while one level 50 character runs through the mission defeating level 52 mobs. The rewards from defeating +6 mobs are quite generous.
Solution 1 is to give no experience to characters that are doing nothing. The reason the devs haven't done this, I assume, is that it's non-trivial to decide whether a character is "doing nothing." There seem to be two heuristics that could pretty much determine this: 1) has the character (or the character's pets) recently used any powers to attack enemies or buff allies, and 2) has the character recently been considered as a potential target for aggro by an enemy. "Recently" could be adjusted as need be, but two-three minutes seems to be a reasonable value. An additional heuristic for preventing characters from following other characters and spamming a healing aura might also be needed.
In open zone defeats there seems to already be some kind of decision being made to avoid giving XP to characters who are distant from the defeated mob. I seem to recall playing around with this a few months ago in PI -- it's something like a 120-140 yards. You still get credit for a defeat, but no XP or influence if you're beyond that radius. Maybe this works inside missions too, but it could be easily gamed by selecting appropriately sized maps for your farms.
This would also kick in for characters whose players go AFK in the middle of the mission.
The second part of the problem is the exorbitant rewards for lower-level characters defeating higher level mobs when it usually isn't warranted (i.e., getting credit for +6 mobs as above).
Solution 2 is to auto-SK all lower level characters to the mission holder. I.e., if the mission holder is level 48, characters lower than level 47 are automatically SKed to 47. This would be good for any number of reasons: it prevents PLing abuse and it also allows you to team with anyone without having to worry about finding appropriate SK/Mentor pairs.
Either one of these solutions would drastically reduce the abuse we see in all PLing scenarios, whether running AE missions or standard fare. Implementing both would pretty much eliminate the incentive for farming exploits. It wouldn't eliminate farming, but it would change the way it works: players would actually have to run some kind of risk, and actually play their characters.
Most typical teams (characters of similar levels with a couple of sidekicks) would notice little difference. People who solo would see absolutely no difference.
What we would lose is the ability to run at more than one level lower than the mission holder. I.e., if the character with the mission is level 40 running on Heroic, you'll get XP for defeating +1s and and +2s, instead of +5s and +6s. But since you're running at level 39, you're gaining additional to hit, damage and hit points. If you want more XP, run at Invincible and you'll get credit for +3s and +4s. The devs might want to readjust the XP rates to account for this change as well.
These solutions are far better than imposing artificial caps on rewards. No question, something is being taken away. But we're getting something in return (the auto-SK to the mission holder).
Very well spelled out and reasonably asserted. The only problem is this is not something that is needed. The current system is WAI, that is WAI for the devs.
If "they" feel something needs to be changed for reasons "they" decide, I am more than sure they don't need any suggestions from the player peanut gallery.
Once again I find it very interesting that individuals refuse to follow Mod08's request related to ALL of these farm related issues whatever they are disguised as.
The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.
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I am more than sure they don't need any suggestions from the player peanut gallery
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You are being a little unfair to the developers here. Unlike many other MMO's they actually enter actively into a dialogue on the forums about new ideas (at least that's how I remember it from a couple of years ago), to the point of coming (digitally) face to face with people on the test-server.
Nerfs they generally don't discuss with people though since input tends to be too biased.
//AtCbM// www.crystalblue.dk
Victory - Mare,Dagger of Pain,Keep,Hogun and Bloodpetal
The Keep-Arcs: 164260, 188373, 192610, 196090 and funny side-chapter 218575.
Mender-Arc: 266163
I'd like to take this opportunity to throw this little tidbit out once again. Whenver I've posted this idea it never gets any notice. I realize I'm extremely biased with regard to this idea because it's mine, but it seems very logical.
It is my opinion that the Devs should change the custom critter creator in a way that a person will only be able to choose custom critter powersets that are currently available to players making an original character.
So when a person picks Dual Blades as the primary, they'll be forced to choose the secondary that current players are limited to when selecting DB as the primary.
They may change the costume creator in a manner that will cycle through the appearances of the minions, lts and bosses BUT the 3 different costumes will be created in conjunction with the powersets you've chosen.
As a result the only way a person will be able to create a single, unique boss is to set that particular critter at the EB or AV level.
As AE sits now it is the perception by some that the majority of AE participants are only interested in Boss-only missions. If the Devs alter AE in the manner I described then all critters, stock and custom, would offer the same gains in xp and inf., give or take.
The basic idea behind my suggestion is to no longer allow players to create custom minions, custom lieutenants or custom bosses.
I suggest only being able to select primary and secondary power sets, designing costumes for minions, lts and bosses....then have the game generate the mobs within the map as the game normally does.
So no more Boss-only missions but instead mobs consisting of the power sets you've selected with the established minion-lt-boss per mob ratios as they normally occur.
I'm sick to death of farmers ruining everyone's fun, but I think a couple of simple changes could solve the problem for everyone.
Step 1: Set a maximum XP/Influence cap per mission
I know, it sucks for those of us who play by the rules, but there's bound to be some way to figure out what the average XP is for a standard dev-created mission, and then set the bar at maybe 10% above that. People may still farm because the "prey" is easier in AE, but it could sour the milk enough to get people back out into the sewers and Perez Park if all they want is massive mobs of enemies and XP/Inf.
If players still feel gypped by the lowered XP/Inf, perhaps the excess can be converted towards tickets instead.
Step 2: Grant Architect players extra debt protection
I can't remember whether this is in place or not. If it is, ignore me, but since all AE missions are simulated, it stands to reason that "dying" in one shouldn't count against you quite as much. This would be a good counterbalance against the XP/Inf penalties above.
Step 3: More slots for veterans/money!
At this point, I desperately want to make more missions, and I'm willing to do almost anything short of buying a second account!!
The Hall of Fame and Dev's Choice are excellent ideas (if for no other reason than monitoring popular arcs is a good way to weed out farmers) but it shouldn't be too difficult to add one extra slot for every 6 months you've been subscribed to the game, or $9.95 for 3 additional slots with an upper limit of 15.
After all, most farmers aren't going to care about additional slots, and they definitely won't want to pay for them. What's the difference between playing 3 arcs that are exactly the same or 15 arcs that are exactly the same?
More slots for people who want to be creative = more creative content in the game = the ratio of good arcs over stupid farming missions goes up!