Going from Level 9 to Level 16 Within 1 AE Mission
By
AncientSpirit_NA,
Posted on: 2009-07-06 07:58 in Mission Architect
Incredibly true AF, incredibly true. We vote with our wallets. What does get me down though is that most people will simply say "I pay for this game, so I get to do what I want" without acknowledging they're being at least as selfish as those people who are upset over the farming and power leveling being so rampant. We are all affected, we are all affecting, and we're all selfish.
While this is just a game for some, for others (i.e. Devs) it's a source of livelihood, so essentially the ones who stand to lose the most out of these flame-wars, are the Devs... gamers can simply move on to another game, and the amount of time a gamer invests in learning a new game is nothing compared to a Dev that has to find or learn a new job. 
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
9-16, lol. I went from 18-34 yesterday morning in about 2.5 hours.
what does it matter? As a business model, as a money making venture...(which what the game is) outside of the eula - what does it matter?
With level pacting one person can never log in and get a 50..boom. It might take a while but still, you can have one person who never did ANY content have a 50 - ae farm or not.
It's not in the PTB's best interest to remove people from the game. People will always power level. So what. Let them. It does not really affect you if you don't want to do it.
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Incredibly true AF, incredibly true. We vote with our wallets. What does get me down though is that most people will simply say "I pay for this game, so I get to do what I want" without acknowledging they're being at least as selfish as those people who are upset over the farming and power leveling being so rampant. We are all affected, we are all affecting, and we're all selfish.
While this is just a game for some, for others (i.e. Devs) it's a source of livelihood, so essentially the ones who stand to lose the most out of these flame-wars, are the Devs... gamers can simply move on to another game, and the amount of time a gamer invests in learning a new game is nothing compared to a Dev that has to find or learn a new job.
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I think you fail to understand what drives most pling. PVP. People want to pvp at SC, WB and RV levels. They may have 4-5 50's but say with dom changes not have a dom that is great in duels or zone or arena. From a perspective of job security having people WANT new toons for PVP is a good thing. It keeps them paying their 14.99 a month. Lets be honest. There is not a lot of high level content in COH. You talk to WOW people and they will say the game begins at 70. I mean sure there are RSF or LGTF but those are few and far between once you have done them.
For a lot of us - PVP is the end game rewards. High level team arena, mid to high level zone fights, 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 dueling tournaments. There are not a lot of us who want to roam the sewers...again..or get the fortune teller, again...or do the preatorian arc, again...so we can compete and enjoy the high level pvp that attracts us.
It affects those who stay and play. There have been several posts around the forums about people who got several Lv50 characters out of AE and simply quit the game right after. I mean seriously... each side (Heroes/Villains) has about 7 classes, with a matrix of several primary and secondary power-sets with some overlap and some uniqueness, however, the "content" itself is almost always going to be the same no matter what character you create.
Eventually the gameplay mechanics, the scenery, and the scenarios we run our characters through, even considering the virtually limitless variation AE missions provide... eventually, people get burnt and either take a break, or quit altogether.
It is the Devs' goal to keep that day when someone figures they should take a break or quit as far into the future as humanly possible. Power leveling is more often than not, causing that day to come sooner than the Devs plan for.
I think that are more people who are taking breaks or quitting than there are people who get extra accounts for their own personal use.
In essence, the Devs seem to figure that the state of the game is affected by power-leveling and farming, otherwise I doubt they'd spend so much time and effort on stopping exploits... so yes, things do matter... maybe not in the short run, maybe not individually right now... but eventually, it all matters.
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
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Incredibly true AF, incredibly true. We vote with our wallets. What does get me down though is that most people will simply say "I pay for this game, so I get to do what I want" without acknowledging they're being at least as selfish as those people who are upset over the farming and power leveling being so rampant. We are all affected, we are all affecting, and we're all selfish.
While this is just a game for some, for others (i.e. Devs) it's a source of livelihood, so essentially the ones who stand to lose the most out of these flame-wars, are the Devs... gamers can simply move on to another game, and the amount of time a gamer invests in learning a new game is nothing compared to a Dev that has to find or learn a new job.
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I think you fail to understand what drives most pling. PVP. People want to pvp at SC, WB and RV levels. They may have 4-5 50's but say with dom changes not have a dom that is great in duels or zone or arena. From a perspective of job security having people WANT new toons for PVP is a good thing. It keeps them paying their 14.99 a month. Lets be honest. There is not a lot of high level content in COH. You talk to WOW people and they will say the game begins at 70. I mean sure there are RSF or LGTF but those are few and far between once you have done them.
For a lot of us - PVP is the end game rewards. High level team arena, mid to high level zone fights, 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 dueling tournaments. There are not a lot of us who want to roam the sewers...again..or get the fortune teller, again...or do the preatorian arc, again...so we can compete and enjoy the high level pvp that attracts us.
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^^^^^
Interesting to me as all I hear (in game and on these boards) from the remaining CoH PVP community is that I13 totally screwed up PVP, and those that remain do so because their subscription hasn't run out yet; but they do not plan to re-subscribe.
So, either the PVP community reaction to I13 is overstated, or their is a new PVP community that can live and play under the I13 changes; or the PLers are trying to find something to justify the behavior to the Devs.
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I guess I should have made it clear that while I did direct my post at you specifically... I was speaking rather more generally. Lots of people have the same attitude that you do: that PLing their own characters doesn't impact anything. None of us have numbers on that. However, I think we can all agree that is the case. Likewise, there are a whole lot of people using the AE to PL. I think it is clear that all of them put together ARE impacting the numbers the Devs use to make adjustments to the game.
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Impacting the numbers perhaps but once again, the issue at hand is whether the developers actually use those numbers to substantiate their changes to this game. Developers are very idealistic as we know (cough Positron, cough Castle) and frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if they made their decisions based on their ideals instead of what the data suggest. Let's also not forget that the only *number* that NCSoft or any other for profit corporation cares about is their profit margin. It's a safe assumption that any in-game numbers that is contravening to those profit numbers will pretty much be tossed aside with little regard.
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If one takes that narrow of a focus on the discussion of PLing, then yes, my argument would lack substance. But, I think that you and I both know that there are a large number of folks out there PLing frequently.
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It isn't so much about narrowing the focus as it is about presuming we know the developer's motivations. This game from its inception has been about less grind and faster leveling when compared to other MMOs. Many features in this game are designed to make leveling easier, not harder. In actuality, as the game got older, leveling has consistantly gotten easier. The introduction of AE and persistant double exp weekends only serves to reinforce that point. Those are the only real identifying feature of CoX that we can go by, not conjectures and presumptions of developer motive. Now, if PL'ers are indeed skewing the data as you claim, why would the developers make it even easier to level? Shouldn't they be taking the opposite steps to try to slow down the progression speed? It would seem that what the developers are doing is the direct opposite of what you're suggesting they should do.
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9-16 in one run? He must have been doin it wrong.
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This.
You can get PLed in almost the same amount of time it took to do one Run in AE in a regular PI mission.
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I think you fail to understand what drives most pling. PVP. People want to pvp at SC, WB and RV levels. They may have 4-5 50's but say with dom changes not have a dom that is great in duels or zone or arena. From a perspective of job security having people WANT new toons for PVP is a good thing. It keeps them paying their 14.99 a month. Lets be honest. There is not a lot of high level content in COH. You talk to WOW people and they will say the game begins at 70. I mean sure there are RSF or LGTF but those are few and far between once you have done them.
For a lot of us - PVP is the end game rewards. High level team arena, mid to high level zone fights, 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 dueling tournaments. There are not a lot of us who want to roam the sewers...again..or get the fortune teller, again...or do the preatorian arc, again...so we can compete and enjoy the high level pvp that attracts us.
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I don't think PvP is the reason behind the majority of PLing across the general population (among my circle of friends, however, it's pretty much the only reason). Most people don't PvP in this game. However, you bring up an interesting point - I PvP at level 50 almost exclusively. Very rarely will I wander into SC or WB; almost all my PvP is in RV and the arena. The first 49 levels are merely an obstacle for me to overcome in order to enjoy playing the part of the game I play. We've asked for a dedicated PvP server for quite a while now - let us pay, say, a one-time fee for access to a server where we can transfer characters from the live servers, or create new level 50s that are granted the enhancements and accolades we want. I know a feature like that would keep me interested in the game, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
@macskull, @Not Mac | XBL: macskull | Steam: macskull | Skype: macskull
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."
"One day we all may see each other elsewhere. In Tyria, in Azeroth. We may pass each other and never know it. And that's sad. But if nothing else, we'll still have Rhode Island."
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I think you fail to understand what drives most pling. PVP. People want to pvp at SC, WB and RV levels.
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It seems to me that PvP has never been the focus of the CoX experience. The problem with people PL'ing for the sake of growing a character to Lv50 and decking it out with special PvP-IO sets is that others are copying them for the sake of PL'ing but not for PvP'ing, and with the recent changes to PvP and seeing how a large part of the PvP community has become quite upset over PvP... I think the number of people PL'ing their characters for the sake of PvP has dropped substantially. I may be wrong of course, but that's the picture that I draw based on what I gather from the forums.
Then... there's the other side of the equation, which to me means... if PvP was built into this game as an integral part of it so that one could use any of their characters and PvP with it at any level, I'd gladly accept your reasoning because that would actually increase the number of PvP'ers in the game, as well as probably make PvP appeal to avid PvE'ers.
I've longed for PvP to become meaningful in the context of the game, and not just as a mock system to enable people to beat one-another across the head with a Nemesis staff, and until such time, I still cannot agree that PvP'ers are driving the PL efforts in such a way that does not affect the community.
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
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9-16, lol. I went from 18-34 yesterday morning in about 2.5 hours.
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I got from 40-50 in 3 hours of MA yesterday, Solo.
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If every MMO were working on your principle, there would probably not have any left going on the market. You know that?
Devs certainly did not create 50 leveling steps to see them bypassed in less than a week, a day or even a hour.
This is non-sense.
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Are you a complete newbie to the MMO genre? If you're not then you're doing a bang up job in sounding like one. Do you actually believe that the PL issue is exclusive to CoX alone? News flash, PL has been around since a decade ago when MMOs were first introduced. Some may even argue that they've been around even longer, since the days of MUDDing. Through all this time, people like you have been predicting the doom of MMOs due to PLing or farming. Yet games where PLing is rampent such as Everquest 1+2, FFXI, WoW, are still all around. In fact, coming back to CoX, PLing in every shape or form has been around and 4+ years later, the game is still alive and kicking.
Your act is nothing new nor is your candidness refreshing. The only non-sense here is your penchant for making melo-dramatic, far-fetched exaggerations regarding issues that has time and again been proven to be less of a concern than some drama queens made it out to be. Way to beat on a dead horse of an issue. Color me unimpressed.
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Incredibly true AF, incredibly true. We vote with our wallets. What does get me down though is that most people will simply say "I pay for this game, so I get to do what I want" without acknowledging they're being at least as selfish as those people who are upset over the farming and power leveling being so rampant. We are all affected, we are all affecting, and we're all selfish.
While this is just a game for some, for others (i.e. Devs) it's a source of livelihood, so essentially the ones who stand to lose the most out of these flame-wars, are the Devs... gamers can simply move on to another game, and the amount of time a gamer invests in learning a new game is nothing compared to a Dev that has to find or learn a new job.
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True. But then it's up to the devs (dev teams in general, not just this one) to make sure their mmos are constantly updated with engaging content that ALSO makes it easy to level.
One of the BIG problems is content is consumed by players waaaay faster than dev teams can make them.
Unfortunately for some in this GAME the last couple of issues haven't been content.
Take for example someone who doesn't have time to do tfs, issue 15 wasn't much for them. Or for someone who is only here for the lore and continuing the official COH/COV storyline issue 14 wasn't much for them. And for those who couldn't give a rats behind about pvp issue 13 probably wasn't much for them.
The last great "content" issue can arguably be called issue 12.
The tf/sf of issue 15 are interesting, but for some 15 is hardly worthy of being called an issue.
You have to look at the root causes of WHY folks pl and/or farm.
ALOT of the decisions the devs have made over the years, while great for the long term future of the game can arguably had contributed to an INCREASE in farming. The shift to IOs that improve what a character can and can't do, in issue 9 is just one of many examples. Yes, IOs made it easier to get inf and also got rid of the silly "replace this or that every few levels" (it was/is similar to WoW's gear degrades over time unless you pay to "repair" it), but it also made it so that inf actually had value, and shifted the game more towards a reward focus.
Don't get me wrong, IOs gave this game something it needed, however leveling suddenly became also about how much inf can I get this fast. An aside, but an interesting one.
Back on topic, again you have to look at the root causes of WHY folks pl and/or farm. Let me put it this way: After having done all the PI and Grandville and RWZ stuff repeatedly on your first 3 regularly leveled 50s, why would anyone want to do it again, if they can basically recite all the arcs over and over. Sure some of them are VERY compelling (Viridian) and I do do them anytime I get in level range, but I'd say for 75% of the content it's NOT compelling enough to be repeated.
I've heard the devs say in various ways they like doing new things instead of going back and revamping old content. They said when discussing whether they would update the older tfs, said something similar when discussing whether the Shadow Shard would be revised, and they recently said it when they said now that MA is out they'd rather focus on creating TFs (this one stands out the most becuase I recall Angry Citizen's funny one line reaction on the forums 
)
New content is great, but at some point you need to go back and revised, add to or revamp the old stuff.
People farm or pl for various reasons, but one of those that is key is not wanting to do with the same content from lvls 40-50 (or other lower ranges) that they have done for 123213434 times. Hopefully issues 16, GR, 17, and 18 will be more story focused.
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
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Incredibly true AF, incredibly true. We vote with our wallets. What does get me down though is that most people will simply say "I pay for this game, so I get to do what I want" without acknowledging they're being at least as selfish as those people who are upset over the farming and power leveling being so rampant. We are all affected, we are all affecting, and we're all selfish.
While this is just a game for some, for others (i.e. Devs) it's a source of livelihood, so essentially the ones who stand to lose the most out of these flame-wars, are the Devs... gamers can simply move on to another game, and the amount of time a gamer invests in learning a new game is nothing compared to a Dev that has to find or learn a new job.
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I think you fail to understand what drives most pling. PVP. People want to pvp at SC, WB and RV levels. They may have 4-5 50's but say with dom changes not have a dom that is great in duels or zone or arena. From a perspective of job security having people WANT new toons for PVP is a good thing. It keeps them paying their 14.99 a month. Lets be honest. There is not a lot of high level content in COH. You talk to WOW people and they will say the game begins at 70. I mean sure there are RSF or LGTF but those are few and far between once you have done them.
For a lot of us - PVP is the end game rewards. High level team arena, mid to high level zone fights, 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 dueling tournaments. There are not a lot of us who want to roam the sewers...again..or get the fortune teller, again...or do the preatorian arc, again...so we can compete and enjoy the high level pvp that attracts us.
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I think it would be a good idea (I mean this is a 5 year game, what could it hurt at this point?) if there was something in this game that WoW did a year (or two?) ago: allowing folks to purchase arena pvp toons.
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
There's a problem making an MMO focus on story-content and the inherent problem is that every character deserves to be the Hero. People power-level because they're bored with the repetitious content they have to go through... that's not difficult to figure out, but the Devs still get to dictate how effective people get to be in power-leveling, and I think the real problem is that some people haven't figured out yet that the Devs alone get to decide.
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
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There's a problem making an MMO focus on story-content and the inherent problem is that every character deserves to be the Hero. People power-level because they're bored with the repetitious content they have to go through... that's not difficult to figure out, but the Devs still get to dictate how effective people get to be in power-leveling, and I think the real problem is that some people haven't figured out yet that the Devs alone get to decide.
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True. Once folks figure it out all the pling arguments and threads would stop dead. Ofcourse at the same time, you and I would be waving to those pink slop eating creatures flying past our windows.
I partially disagree with making an mmo more story-focused and not being able to make every character the hero. A few years ago I would say you are 100% right. However, now not so much.
There IS technology out there that allows an mmo to be more story focused and at the same time give the greater illusion (I do agree it can only be an illusion at best) that they change the world.
There was an mmo (I think it was called Overloard--don't know if it's still around of if that was it's exact name) where one player eventually got to become god and dictate some things within the game world.
There is also the Public Quest system. I can see that tech from WAR being easily converted into being more individually specific.
And finally (and most compellingly) is WoW's (not sure if they created it, but they sure have shown how well it can be sued) Phasing Technology. The epic class in WoW, the Death Knight starts out in their own mini zone which changes as they do their story lines and level. So different epic class players see the zone at different stages. So they get the illusion of changing the zone as they move forward in their personalized story. No ofcourse this works primarily because the Death Knight Class is a member of the Scourge, and being a grunt in the army that has a human town nearby under seige works perfectly for this. However WoW/Blizzard's DK Class setup shows what is possible in terms of story telling in an mmo.
Would not be surprised if more and more mmos use this and the other things I outlined above. hell wouldn't be surprised (or disappointed) if GR used some of this.
Also being more story focused DOES NOT mean it has to be individual. Arguably both RWZ and Cimeroa and to a point Faultline ALL moved the story forward. Arguably if boomtown had been revamped like fault line at the same time as the new issue 15 sfs/tfs issue 15 might have been seen more favorably.
Ofcourse we need to keep in mind we have no idea what issue 16, GR, 17, and 18 have instore in terms of story. For all we know the boomtown revamp may be in 16. 
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
The closest I've come to an MMO that gave me the illusion that a) it was an MMO; b) my character was a Hero in a persistent story, was Guild Wars because of your character advancing through these special Chapters. Some people claim GW wasn't even an MMO, but I believe that to be totally besides the point of GW being able to deliver a story-content focused experience.
Two other games that come to mind that focus at least in part on story, are Conan and LoTRO. Both of them use a system of chained quests that somehow focuses on your character being important to a degree, Conan doing a bit of a better job of it, if I remember correctly.
The thing is, to me, the Superhero concept holds so much potential to focus both on Hero-centric content and PvP at the same time, but it seems like no one sees it for what it is. The whole concept of Origins could've been used to deliver an experience that would ensure ones' character was more than just a vessel to get them to the PvP-zones... and then there's the concept of PvP-missions that allow a group of Villains to plan a Doomsday Weapon and a group of Heroes attempting to foil their efforts... such wonderful opportunities, but instead... meh.
I mean, think about it, we're getting Going Rogue, when a PvP-enabled AE system where one could design a story-arc for two opposing teams would've kept so many more people focused on engaging and entertaining PvPvE gameplay instead of simply PL'ing through all LT/Boss farms... at least that's what I'd do... 
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
The notion that people are pling 7 or 9 archtypes and then quitting the game is silly. If that is infact the case, then it's not really money they would have counted on to begin with. There has to be a goal. Getting to 50 for the sake of saying I have a 50 XXX is silly.
To the notion that I13 ruined PVP. Well, yes to a lot of us it did and a lot did leave. A lot did stay too. Some adpapted and contiune on. The zones on some servers are still very healthy (try going in to RV on freedom) - Duels still happen in arean. Saying "from what I hear pvp was ruined an you all left" is not a valid argument. That aside PLing is really REALLY not affecting anyone. It does not change the game for you, or anyone who does not like it. Your missions are still the same, your new content is there to play. With Ae people can create all sorts fo Arcs for Pve happiness.
I don't mean to break it down to us versus them but in the grand scheme of things what does it hurt? You say people burn out on the game faster, so beit, do you think they would stay around an extra year to find out it's all a nemisis plot? Probably not - they would call lame and leave for another game they can rack up pl's on. Having a ridgid view of how everyone else should behave and how gameplay should be goverened only allows people who think the same in. What keeps me interested is new characters, pvp builds, building for recharge or dmg or max HP. What are the best combinatnions for teams, coming up with strategies...things other people could care less about. But that is what keeps me paying 14.99 - for a longer time than I care to admit.
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The closest I've come to an MMO that gave me the illusion that a) it was an MMO; b) my character was a Hero in a persistent story, was Guild Wars because of your character advancing through these special Chapters. Some people claim GW wasn't even an MMO, but I believe that to be totally besides the point of GW being able to deliver a story-content focused experience.
Two other games that come to mind that focus at least in part on story, are Conan and LoTRO. Both of them use a system of chained quests that somehow focuses on your character being important to a degree, Conan doing a bit of a better job of it, if I remember correctly.
The thing is, to me, the Superhero concept holds so much potential to focus both on Hero-centric content and PvP at the same time, but it seems like no one sees it for what it is. The whole concept of Origins could've been used to deliver an experience that would ensure ones' character was more than just a vessel to get them to the PvP-zones... and then there's the concept of PvP-missions that allow a group of Villains to plan a Doomsday Weapon and a group of Heroes attempting to foil their efforts... such wonderful opportunities, but instead... meh.
I mean, think about it, we're getting Going Rogue, when a PvP-enabled AE system where one could design a story-arc for two opposing teams would've kept so many more people focused on engaging and entertaining PvPvE gameplay instead of simply PL'ing through all LT/Boss farms... at least that's what I'd do...
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The number of suggestions that you posted in the above post, that have been posted in the suggestions forum that many people /signed in those threads is staggering. Some of your exact ideas have been requested over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over. . . you get the idea.
Sigh. . .
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
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What keeps me interested is new characters, pvp builds, building for recharge or dmg or max HP. What are the best combinatnions for teams, coming up with strategies...things other people could care less about. But that is what keeps me paying 14.99 - for a longer time than I care to admit.
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That last part minus pvp is now basically the same for me.
Which is why I (and as has been mentioned by many others) are a bit miffed that powerset prolif is on the back burner.
Can't wait for pistols and demon summoning.
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!
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If every MMO were working on your principle, there would probably not have any left going on the market. You know that?
Devs certainly did not create 50 leveling steps to see them bypassed in less than a week, a day or even a hour.
This is non-sense.
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Are you a complete newbie to the MMO genre? If you're not then you're doing a bang up job in sounding like one. Do you actually believe that the PL issue is exclusive to CoX alone? News flash, PL has been around since a decade ago when MMOs were first introduced. Some may even argue that they've been around even longer, since the days of MUDDing. Through all this time, people like you have been predicting the doom of MMOs due to PLing or farming. Yet games where PLing is rampent such as Everquest 1+2, FFXI, WoW, are still all around. In fact, coming back to CoX, PLing in every shape or form has been around and 4+ years later, the game is still alive and kicking.
Your act is nothing new nor is your candidness refreshing. The only non-sense here is your penchant for making melo-dramatic, far-fetched exaggerations regarding issues that has time and again been proven to be less of a concern than some drama queens made it out to be. Way to beat on a dead horse of an issue. Color me unimpressed.
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Yet you FAIL to mention that EQ (at least back in the day when I played it) and WoW (which I played for 2 1/2 years and finally burned out on) BOTH enact HARSH penalties for explotive PLing - and they don't bother to warn you either, you just try to log in to find your accounts been banned and you can no longer access anything.
Yes, PLing does exist and is indeed tolerated, but explotive PLing in quashed by EVERY MMO currently on-line, and some are not as nice or selective about it as the CoX Devs were (again WoW just bans entire accounts, as opposed to just locking or deleting the 'offending' character on the account).
So, while forms are indeed tolerated, it's clear that the Devs of all MMOs would rather the majority of the playerbase play the game as they intended - and DO try to shift the playerbase toward that end.
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...Which is why I (and as has been mentioned by many others) are a bit miffed that powerset prolif is on the back burner.
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QFT, and give me my ElectricityControl/DarkMiasma Controller already!!! 
I believe that a Kheldian Gold Standard should be based on SO's, and for anything above that... there's Platinum!
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
Save Ms. Liberty (#5349) � Augmenting Peacebringers � The Umbra Illuminati
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That aside PLing is really REALLY not affecting anyone.
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I am by no means anti-farm or anti-PL (I have done both at different times), but this argument has always struck me as patently ridiculous. This is an MMO; every action taken by players affects other players. It's like saying that by coming to work, shutting my door, and never talking to anyone I'm not affecting the workplace - I am affecting the workplace simply by introducing a closed door and a silent coworker. The effects are subtle but non-negligible.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
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Yet you FAIL to mention that EQ (at least back in the day when I played it) and WoW (which I played for 2 1/2 years and finally burned out on) BOTH enact HARSH penalties for explotive PLing - and they don't bother to warn you either, you just try to log in to find your accounts been banned and you can no longer access anything.
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Now you've shifted the argument to an entirely different issue. Since when is using multiple accounts that you yourself paid for to PL your own characters considered an exploition? What exactly is your definition of exploitive PLing? Which MMO rules do you know of defines multiple account PLing is an exploitation of game mechanics? Is it exploitive because some people can afford multiple accounts but while can't? As far as I'm concerned, if you can afford multiple accounts and don't partake in exploitation of bugs in the game mechanic, it is perfectly acceptable to use those accounts for your own purposes.
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I will never understand why some people are so obsessed with how fast *other* people are leveling. How fast I PL my alt has nothing to do with anybody else. The world would be a far better place if people would just direct all that misguided energy to more worthy... causes.
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If every MMO were working on your principle, there would probably not have any left going on the market. You know that?
Devs certainly did not create 50 leveling steps to see them bypassed in less than a week, a day or even a hour.
This is non-sense.
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QFT^, although this concept is lost to most people on these boards.
Good for the game?? but what about me!?!? waaaahhhh!!!
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Yes the devs should be concerned with how fast folks level. Afterall they are the only ones who have any control with how fast one should level. As it should be.
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!