A player who has never left atlas park

I guess it is not that uncommon anymore with AE but I have a new SG mate that still has yet to leave Atlas park and is about to ding his 2nd level 50. This may be the worst example ever of the AE hurting the game, I did finally get him to run around the city some and we ran a few missions, but he went right back to AE, oh well I may be wrong for allowing him in my SG but he is a friend and he does bring in good SG prestige,

Well not really a question, but since everyone else keeps posting their AE is hurting the game posts I wanted to jump in with my quick thought, although I will say I personally love AE for what it could/should be and I have spent alot of time there the last couple weeks tweaking some of my own poor attempt at making good story lines..

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Triceth LVL 50 Ice/Storm Controller
Ghost Scrapper LVL 50 MA/reflexes Scrapper
Gespin LVL 44 Spine/Regen Scrapper
Treal LVL 41 Emp Defender
Radill LVL 41 Ill/Rad Troller

Yikes... that is actually kind of scary.

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Maybe they'll use their level 50 to bankroll a new toon that plays through the game the traditional way.

Or maybe they'll use their level 50 to make level 50 TFs a living hell: "Thanks for the ITF invite... how do I get there?"

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Speeding Through New DA Repeatables || Spreadsheet o' Enhancements || Zombie Skins: better skins for these forums || Guide to Guides

If he's having fun, what's the problem? Before AE, the only difference would have been that he would have had to walk to PI, then sit around. Twice. With AE, at least he actually has to fight and contribute.

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I'm sure he's having fun - but I personally would NEVER have someone like that on my supergroup roster. That's really scary. Do they even realize that there are like... 30 odd zones hero and villain side left to explore?

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Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
Repurposed

That's getting common, I had someone asking me if they could explore further like "Which expansion comes with the hazard zones?" Apparently they think AE is 90% of the game where the other 10% is the Character Creation.

Then all kind of questions were made like how to get a cape or what is a TF.

She was a level 50 Fire/Psi blaster who also mentioned at least two more 50s.

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50 Ice/Ice/Force Blaster *
50 Ice/Fire/Fire Tanker
50 Kin/Sonic/Power Defender
50 Ice/Storm/Psi Controller
50 Stone/WP/Soul Brute
50 Spines/SR Stalker

Pinnacle | Virtue

@Black Heart

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That's getting common, I had someone asking me if they could explore further like "Which expansion comes with the hazard zones?" Apparently they think AE is 90% of the game where the other 10% is the Character Creation.


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Well when the box you buy say "Architect Edition" you may think you are getting a single expansion.

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That's getting common, I had someone asking me if they could explore further like "Which expansion comes with the hazard zones?" Apparently they think AE is 90% of the game where the other 10% is the Character Creation.

Then all kind of questions were made like how to get a cape or what is a TF.

She was a level 50 Fire/Psi blaster who also mentioned at least two more 50s.

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*FACEPALM*

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I love the AE. I love what we can do with it. However, I have always said that new players to this game should have to experience the game before locking themselves away in the APAE.

I know that after the VEATS, the Devs said they wouldn't use "Get to 50 first" as a method to unlock future contact but...

Maybe the AE should be boarded up and locked with the following key to unlock it.

Use the Kill X badges. Make a collection combination that unlocks AE.
-or-
Require the new player to complete atleast 1 contact's story arc for each level bracket on their way to that first 50.

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That's getting common, I had someone asking me if they could explore further like "Which expansion comes with the hazard zones?" Apparently they think AE is 90% of the game where the other 10% is the Character Creation.

Then all kind of questions were made like how to get a cape or what is a TF.

She was a level 50 Fire/Psi blaster who also mentioned at least two more 50s.

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How long are these types of players going hang around?

What are they going to tell their friends about their experience with CoH?

Well you go to this city called Atlas Park where all the bad guys are low level, then you have to go to this building called the AE and there you can fight custom bad guys all the way up to level 50. . . They have a villains side called Mercy Island with the same set up. . . No, that's it. The players say the games been around for 5 years but I don't see how.

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I suggested that access should be allowed after 3 months of playtime so new players would learn the standard reward mechanisms and game play before they are allowed into the Holodeck.

Unfortunately how would it look to a new player to by the "Mission Architect" issue but not be allowed to play there for 3 months. The words "class action" come to mind.

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Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components

Tempus unum hominem manet

These people who've only ever played AE have had a greater selection of content than us old-schoolers ever had.

Not that its necessarily fantastic quality, or that they make much use of the range available...

I think let them be. Let them know about some of the cool stuff out there and some of the rewards you can pick up, and see if they bite.

I haven't run most of the Task Forces in game, but I don't feel like I'm short of stuff to do. Some people only play Melee classes, or only play certain types of Defenders. Some people never solo. Everyone limits their play experience in some way.

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I am vaguely reminded of a semi-recent attempt by someone to form an ITF team... I really don't know why we kept those people on the team as long as we did. If they say "Where's Cimerora?" there a fairly good chance they haven't done the required arc to get in (extra bonus points for the one who couldn't find the university "you know; the place where you craft inventions..." "what?")

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"My inner mind has become a reality-cracking overgod. He torments me! Help!"

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I am vaguely reminded of a semi-recent attempt by someone to form an ITF team... I really don't know why we kept those people on the team as long as we did. If they say "Where's Cimerora?" there a fairly good chance they haven't done the required arc to get in (extra bonus points for the one who couldn't find the university "you know; the place where you craft inventions..." "what?")

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This reminds me of the kheldian (no vet badges, natch) who was telling me that enhancements weren't really necessary because of auto-sk (?!?!?!?!?). When I started explaining that this wasn't the case, he claimed that he was clearly right, because he had an epic AT and I didn't. Because if you had access to khelds, you'd never play anything else, right?

Seriously though, having multiple 50's without ever leaving atlas strikes me as a big problem. If nothing else it is a monumental failure of game design.

If I'm able to "beat" the game repeatedly, by doing the same mission over and over again no less, in my first month subscribing to the game, how likely am I to pay for a second month? I fear that new players won't stick around because the game looks so thin.

I've never seen an MMO where a brand new player could zone in, join a team, and come out of their first mission at lvl 20. This isn't really analogous to PI, because a new player can easily do this without even trying to. In fact, given the state of Atlas these days, this is probably more likely than any other outcome.

Here's hoping that Going Rogue will introduce several rewards that can't be obtained through AE to try to coax people out.

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And lots of AE kiddies enter Praetoria looking for those rewards, and wonder why they get killed all the time and they keep getting kicked from teams.

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This reminds me of the kheldian (no vet badges, natch) who was telling me that enhancements weren't really necessary because of auto-sk (?!?!?!?!?). When I started explaining that this wasn't the case, he claimed that he was clearly right, because he had an epic AT and I didn't. Because if you had access to khelds, you'd never play anything else, right?

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I invited a player that told me something very similar to run a couple of Crimson's missions with me on Invincible.

After the first mission he said: "I'm gonna 1 star this arc, whoever wrote it made it too hard!"

After I stopped laughing I told him that this was one of the arcs written by the game developers and that they had been playing missions that people deliberately made as easy as possible to level faster.

He actually said: "Wow, I was about to quit because the game was too easy, I might check some of this stuff out."

So, who knows, maybe I set someone on the right path.

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Here's hoping that Going Rogue will introduce several rewards that can't be obtained through AE to try to coax people out.

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They will come to the forums and pronounce doom on the game because of it.

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total kick to the gut

This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.

we had the same problem of an AE player the other day, Our pug team in bricks was going to go after Nos the AV. when he joined, he though it was an AE mission and was waiting in atlas. when we told him it was in brick he didn't know what that was, or where it was. He was lvl 42. we talked him to brick and with the mission up, he still couldn't find it. we had to go to him and lead him to the door, explaining to him about the map and red arrow to find missions. he did ok once in mission till we got to nos and then quit after our first teamwipe (we were running at lvl 5 diff.) we did finally beat the AV. but it makes me feel sad that we have players who don't know any thing out side AE.

I guess the point is maybe the devs should make a 0 level vet reward that can be earned by playing a person's first toon to lvl 10, that way the player get a look at how the rest of the game is played, without have it be a timed thing ( you have to wait x amount of time before you , the player can enter AE.), or having every toon earn a badge to get in.

I don't hate AE, i do play some mission from it. but i hate the ideal that some players end up cheating them self out of the rest of the game because they don't know there is a bigger world out there than atlas.

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People can play how they want. What horrifies me is that AE stories are all these people have ever played.

There are some abysmal stories in there. Many of them with 5 star ratings (which I imagine comes from SGs helping their members out). That's mainly why I quit playing AE. I mean, I know the normal content isn't exactly fine literature, but on the whole it's still higher quality.

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Learn modesty, if you desire knowledge. A highland would never be irrigated by river." (Kanz ol-Haghayegh)

I agree with FatherXmas that new players should have AE access curtailed for 3 months.. I know the devs will never do it, but I still think its a good idea.

I think the two best "AE baby" examples I've seen were the following:

1) A lvl 50 brute waits until the 2nd mission of the mid-level villain respec trial to ask, "What's a respec?" He then complains that one vine is doing massive damage to him and that we need to concentrate on killing it... while we're still clearing out the CoT mobs.

2) Being told by an entire team of AE babies what an idiot I was for not taking pets on my level 50 Mind Control/Kinetics controller.

Leader: "Trollers are useless without pets"
Me: "Yeah.. SB and Fulcrum shift are useless.."

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I don't hate AE, i do play some mission from it. but i hate the ideal that some players end up cheating them self out of the rest of the game because they don't know there is a bigger world out there than atlas.

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This is a direct result of placing the AE in Atlas, where 90% of new players enter Paragon City. The AE spam is so relentless that no wonder the new player gets sucked in and he soon believes this is all the game is.

Take the AE out of Atlas and Mercy and the new player will actually have to see SOME content before getting sucked into the AE farms. Even if King's Row became the new AE spam fest zone, it would give new players that small buffer of normality before getting sucked in. Maybe then they'd get it that AE is not the entire game.

Yeah, I know... And maybe pigs will grow wings.

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These people who've only ever played AE have had a greater selection of content than us old-schoolers ever had.

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More disjointed than any content we ever played, and they have no clue about the 'world' in which they're playing.
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I haven't run most of the Task Forces in game, but I don't feel like I'm short of stuff to do. Some people only play Melee classes, or only play certain types of Defenders. Some people never solo. Everyone limits their play experience in some way.


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There's a difference between 'limiting' and 'crippling.'

Personally, I've got to agree with "Set the lower limit at level 10." There's at least a gap there where they'll have to get out of the sewers and learn how to do things like, oh, *find* missions.

Which, IMHO, is also a call for more (official, new/refreshed) lower level content. Who knows, maybe they'll get drawn into some of the *official* story and learn there are actually... I don't know, zones?

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The whole premise was wacked from the beginning...

AE Buildings should never have been about 'Entertainment'. Rather, they should have been seen as some sort of global mission control.

AE Missions should never have been thought of as simulations and that Teleport column should never have existed (except perhaps as a zoning tool, similiar to Ouro). The contacts for AE missions should actually be in zones, and you have to travel to them to start the mission. And you should enter the instances via doors, etc, in zones corresponding to the level of the missions.

This would have resolved *everything* while leaving what's good about MA (the creating of custom missions) intact.

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The whole premise was wacked from the beginning...

AE Buildings should never have been about 'Entertainment'. Rather, they should have been seen as some sort of global mission control.

AE Missions should never have been thought of as simulations and that Teleport column should never have existed (except perhaps as a zoning tool, similiar to Ouro). The contacts for AE missions should actually be in zones, and you have to travel to them to start the mission. And you should enter the instances via doors, etc, in zones corresponding to the level of the missions.

This would have resolved *everything* while leaving what's good about MA (the creating of custom missions) intact.

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I agree with this a lot. I think that the main problem isn't that the AE is in Atlas, it's that you can just stay there forever and never have to leave.

When the system was first announced, I thought that it was going to be something where you could make or use contacts out in the world, and people could visit those contacts to get the AE missions. Not just stand in one place and do the same missions over and over again with no need to leave the building.

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Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I was just the one with the most unsolicited sombrero." - Traegus

Most of these posts are kind of hypocritical.

Your mostly upset that players are now making the game easy on themselves by leveling up quickly in AE.

It's hypocritical because the real reason your upset is because you want to make the game easier by inviting players on your task force team that know what they're doing instead of just teaching someone how to play and informing them.

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