Suggestion to solve the problem of the AE noobs
By
Adult_Swim,
Posted on: 2009-07-12 14:53 in Mission Architect
Regardless of my opinions of AE, NC-Soft just released a box version highlighting architect. How do you think someone new to the game will feel if they find out they have to unlock a 50 to get it?
The same way a person feels when they have to get to lvl 50 to unlock the epic ATs?
"I just bought this game and everyone is doing the thing that was advertised on the front of the (Architect Edition) box but I can't! False Advertising!11! I was lied to!"
The box does tout the AE system pretty heavily.
I think that a different solution is the key, but unfortunately, I'm not exactly sure what that is. 
Regarding the "what to do about the AE noobs", how about teaming with them through one short AE arc and midway saying "After this, how about going to <other zone> and doing <other activity>?". It could pique the interest of the new players who hadn't experienced anything other than the same farms over and over, and broaden thier play experience.
There is only one solution to the "problem" of level 50 noobs: Don't team with them. There. That was easy. Now they're not your problem.
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You can:
-Get rid of the auto-sk feature
-Remove MA buildings from the lower level zones (AP, GC, KR, SC and Mercy/PO/Cap) and/or keep them in high lvl zones only (Bricks/FF/PI and Grandville/St. Martial/Nerva)
-Place a level restriction on AE use like oro or a hazard zone has. Level 20 or 25+ seems very fair imo. That way people get to lvl 20 w/o all the "where's the tailor", "how to I get a paper mish", etc.
Those are the only ones I have w/o getting into a discussion about farms.
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I think the best solution to your "problem" would be for the mods to ban everyone who talks about these sorts of "problems" for a week or so. The forums would be fricking dead, but the few of us left would have so many interesting things to talk about.
New players are good things. Bad players are a constant.
Honestly, the odds are I'd probably go nuts on a team with all these "uber" players who think all these new folks are terrible at the game. They probably are too, but think that since they got that Peacebringer with no attacks and the Medicine Pool to 50, they're fantastic at this game.
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There is only one solution to the "problem" of level 50 noobs: Don't team with them. There. That was easy. Now they're not your problem.
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The only good purpose that the Architect Channel and Cap au Diable broadcast serve now is to spot these idiots and 1-star them long before having to ever deal with one getting on your team.
-locking the AE to certain levels would create false advertising issues since the AE is advertised and intended to be an alternate levelling method from 1 to 50.
-auto-sk removal wouldn't be terrible but it won't stop farms completely. PLing existed long before the AE and will survive it no matter what happens.
-moving the buildings to only high level zones would be counter to the first point. However, I do support removal of the ones in Atlas, Galaxy and Mercy. Removing them from the starter zones would make a lot of players try the normal content before diving into AE and avoid the issue where some newer players see it as the entire game. And if they're determined to farm, they'd find a buddy to bring them to the higher zone buildings anyways.
Also from what I've seen this seems to mostly be a problem on Freedom and Virtue. Protector's Cap AE is pretty quiet yet a see a lot of players running dev content. The odd farm team does broadcast in Cap but it's nowhere near like on the busy servers.
Victory, on the other hand, does have a lot more activity in Atlas, but it also seems to be a mix of AE and sewer teams.
Lots of people are running dev content. They're just not flooding the broadcast channels about it.
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-moving the buildings to only high level zones would be counter to the first point. However, I do support removal of the ones in Atlas, Galaxy and Mercy. Removing them from the starter zones would make a lot of players try the normal content before diving into AE and avoid the issue where some newer players see it as the entire game. And if they're determined to farm, they'd find a buddy to bring them to the higher zone buildings anyways.
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Someone else also suggested delaying the introduction to the AE Tutorial Contact until a later level so that new players spend more time getting used to the regular game before being introduced. Kinda of like how inventions don't really get an introduction until, what, level 15?
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I think the best solution to your "problem" would be for the mods to ban everyone who talks about these sorts of "problems" for a week or so. The forums would be fricking dead, but the few of us left would have so many interesting things to talk about.
New players are good things. Bad players are a constant.
Honestly, the odds are I'd probably go nuts on a team with all these "uber" players who think all these new folks are terrible at the game. They probably are too, but think that since they got that Peacebringer with no attacks and the Medicine Pool to 50, they're fantastic at this game.
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I think you misunderstand the widespread dismay over all these new people farm/pling their way to 50. It's not 'oh screw all these new people, they're ruining the game,' nor is it 'well I had to get to lvl 50 the hard way, so should they.' It's the fact that new players come into the game, get a lvl 50 in a couple days, then get bored with the game after a week or two and leave. It's the fact that it tarnishes CoH as a reputable MMO because there is a way (though not intentionally created) to accelerate through the levels unlike the other big MMOs. And before you start saying 'well why don't you just go play WoW or something,' try to see my point here. I like playing CoH, I've played on an off since it's release, I've tried a few other MMOs and time and time again I've stuck with this one, and I've done so because the game as a whole is fun to me, and I remember when I was new to the game, it was easy to get pulled into one direction, especially if it made things easy, so it's not about thinking CoH is worse or whatever vs other MMOs, it's that there's a general standard in any video that the creators make it a challenge, and these AE farms have diminished the challenge to newer more impressionable players vs other MMOs.
The point is I (and I think we all) WANT new players, we want more people. Part of the fun is running TFs or missions or whatever WITH other people. It's no one's fault that AE has turned out this way (not the dev's nor the players creating the farm missions), there are always people in any MMO that find the most efficient ways to get to the level cap, the problem is that games normally counteract it by making it impossible to get there in a few hours/days/weeks for the average person. Whether it was considered by the devs or not before AE's release or whether people take advantage of it like a bug in the system is not the point, the point is how to normalize things again so people can 'earn' their lvl 50 character and enjoy getting there, and enjoy playing the lvl 50 content or another character, because no matter what your playstyle, a character earned is a lot more fun than one 'given' to you.
And I'm not complaining about the fact that there are so many 50's who've never even been outside of Atlas and don't know how to play their characters, I'm complaining that because of that, we are/will be losing these potential long time players who could be learning how to play the game and such. I'm not saying people have to play the game a certain way, I'm saying we all pay 15 bucks a month to actually PLAY CoH, and because of the naivety of these new players, they're experience of CoH is diminished to 30 or 40 farm missions vs the whole city of Paragon (and then some).
And anyway, my suggestion was just that - a suggestion, I'm sure it's been discussed a million times, I had just thought of this and thought it would make sense. So if you don't like reading about it, don't :-).
Yes, I strongly agree with that one as well.
Put him at level 15 or 20.
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I have a quick suggestion to solve the problem of brand new people getting characters to lvl 50 and not knowing how to play the game - make MA only available to people who already have a level 50 character (like the epic ATs). That way new people coming to the game have to play the game before farming their way to lvl 50.
What do you all think?
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I think if they want 50 that fast they'd just farm peregrine island.
Almost any MMO you can rush to cap if you're willing to use the right sort of means to do it.
Besides. do you HONESTLY think all the idiots out there are totally new to the game? Or that vet badges are an automatic sign you arent a waste of a team slot?
Want comedy and lighthearted action? Between levels 1-14? Try Nuclear in 90 - The Fusionette Task Force!
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I have a quick suggestion to solve the problem of brand new people getting characters to lvl 50 and not knowing how to play the game - make MA only available to people who already have a level 50 character (like the epic ATs). That way new people coming to the game have to play the game before farming their way to lvl 50.
What do you all think?
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Congratulations, this is a completely unique idea that I haven't heard a thousand times in the unnemrable threads about the very same topic.[/sarcasm]
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I think you misunderstand the widespread dismay over all these new people farm/pling their way to 50.
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No, I get it. I'm just calling BS on you.
And if their obsession is hitting 50 and quitting, then that's what they would have done anyway. I've seen it over and over again since I started playing in 2004. There are some people that are only about getting to the level cap no matter how many times you tell them that it isn't the way this game works.
So I suppose those people I've seen doing it in Issue 2 were the AE's fault, too?
These aren't people that were going to stick around anyway and there aren't as many of them as you like to pretend there are.
Two steps to actually solve this "problem:"
1) Turn off Broadcast or put it in a tab with your reward logs where it gets buried as soon as you kill a mob. VOILA! Problem solved for you.
2) Get off your high horse. Some people enjoy playing differently than you do. Stop being butt hurt about it and move on.
Having AE unlock at 50 is much too extreme. I could see it becoming a contact after level 15 or so, as was suggested. At least it gives some new players the concept that there is more to the game than the AE building.
Not everyone "farming" in AE is a new player either, but players who bought the Architect Edition in stores and believe that AE is the entire game are the ones who would benefit the most from putting off AE until level 15. You'd be surprised how many new players there are that think that the AE building in Atlas is the extent of the game.
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Poor idea! The game is made for anyone to play regardless of what lvl they are. It's surely not your decision if someone should play AE or not or how fast they reach level 50! When someone subscribes to the game they have the freedom to play anything they wish & like I mentioned before it IS NOT YOUR decision what, when & where they should play & at what level.
How about worrying about what you do! instead of worrying about whatever everyone else does!
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Seriously it I call BS to that argument too. You want new players but you want them to be the way YOU are. How is it ruining the game is NC can take 14.99 from a few thousand people who then leave a month later. Who cares, do you really think they would stick around anyways? People interested in the content will look for the content. People who want a 50 an then never leave atlas or mercy...meh who cares. The other poster is right - people will always find ways to level in mmos.
Let me ask you this - if the 5 missions of TF Commander got you from 1-50 and and someone never played any other content..would you want tf commander banned too?
I was playing on a trial account and that's how I found out about AE.
After failing to make my own mission, I bought an account to do so.
If they then said I had to level to 50 before getting to play around with it I would have been ticked. Especially since I currently have more fun playing 10 alts mostly under level 20.
Meh... Ok one more response and then I'm done with this thread.
First, it was a suggestion so this BS about 'It's surely not your decision if someone should play AE or not or how fast they reach level 50!' -- so WTF mate?
Second, there's a difference between people all about hitting lvl 50 and quitting, and the majority of the new player base thinking AE is the whole game. I'm not on any high horse, I'm not saying I'm any better or worse, I'm not saying farming is bad, I'm not saying everyone who does farm is a noob, I'm not even saying acccelerating to lvl 50 is bad, I'm saying that it is easier and more commonplace now than ever before in this game or any other big MMO to be a brand new player and ding 50 the first day you log in. And I don't have a problem with seeing all the broadcasts... *sigh* way to completely miss the point geek boy... again...
Third, I'm not defending my original suggestion in the OP (believe it or not). I like some of the other suggestions that you guys presented after the OP better. I just originally thought it would be a good idea because it seems like it would be a good idea to get newer people to see the rest of the city before they decide to hole up in a zone and farm AE missions all day. And no, I'm not saying that that's what every new person wants to do (in fact that's the opposite of what I'm saying), I'm saying if given an appealing alternative to AE, there would be a good number of the new players out about in the city vs thinking AP is the entire Paragon City.
Fourth, I don't want anyone to be the way I am B_witched, nor did I say or allude to that in either of my posts, I was simply making a point that a challenge is more fun that getting something easily, that's basic psychology. And you're right, people interested in the content will look for it, but what if the people don't know about the other content? I personally like BBQ_pork's suggestion of playing a farm with some new people and suggestion they join me somewhere else in the game doing something else and I will be doing that here and there. And the example using TFs is bunk because you have to go to different zones to start the TFs and during the TFs and it would take quite a long time to go from lvl 1 to lvl 50 doing only TFs vs staying in one place and running the same farm over and over. To add to this, I'm not saying it's a bad thing that people can go from 1-50 in AE either.
If you want to try to put me down or make me out to be some snob or whatever, then try to actually read my posts and not assume I'm saying something. I started this thread because I enjoy a good discussion, not arguing.
Look..IF someone thinks City of Heroes is Atlas Park AE pls to 50 and nothing else, asking where the train is, how to fly, where are my powers, what are ios, what is the market for, why does that man have a big globe on his shoulders, what is an sg...
You will never...never turn that person into a regular player who pays 14.99 a month to play the game. Take me for example, I like to pvp. I have done most of the old content and even a LGTF (never again..oy!). But I don't really care about new content and don't care to play it. I do care about pvp changes to at and new at's that may affect pvp team balance. To that end I am forced to pve to get my level 50 to pvp with (like the dom changes and making a mind/fire dom).
Now, there is a system in the game that allows me to do that without having to tv farm, or run paper mishes with a stalker..then awesome. It is keeping me in the game and keeping me paying 14.99 a month and trust me I am not alone in that.
There are benefits to AE as is for current players who do stay in the game for other reasons. We know about the content, we did it. If I have to deal with "how do I fly" so beit.
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I have a quick suggestion to solve the problem of brand new people getting characters to lvl 50 and not knowing how to play the game - make MA only available to people who already have a level 50 character (like the epic ATs). That way new people coming to the game have to play the game before farming their way to lvl 50.
What do you all think?
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What do we do about the people who got to 50 the traditional way and have been playing since beta and suck?
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(Guess I lied, here's another response) I totally agree with you B_Witched - the suggestion I made originally (albeit not the greatest) wouldn't affect players like you at all.
To Grae - that's a small % of the player base, like others have said, you'll never get rid of that, plus, sucking at playing a character is all in the eye of the beholder - you might think a person sucks, another might think he's good, no one is right and both people are right at the same time.
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What do we do about the people who got to 50 the traditional way and have been playing since beta and suck?
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We'll always have those, its not like they have gone away or will go away. I'm worried about all the good/great/amazing players who are getting a poor start in the game and have no clue there is much more to it.
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(Guess I lied, here's another response) I totally agree with you B_Witched - the suggestion I made originally (albeit not the greatest) wouldn't affect players like you at all.
To Grae - that's a small % of the player base, like others have said, you'll never get rid of that, plus, sucking at playing a character is all in the eye of the beholder - you might think a person sucks, another might think he's good, no one is right and both people are right at the same time.
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Uh. trust me.
If an Invuln/SS tanker is level 50. Has the stealth pool, waited till 38 to get his aggro aura, skipped rage entirely, and has 18 months worth of vet badges, i don't care what his friend joebob the pure empath thinks about his playskills, he's still a horrible player.
Want comedy and lighthearted action? Between levels 1-14? Try Nuclear in 90 - The Fusionette Task Force!
Arc ID 58363!
I have a quick suggestion to solve the problem of brand new people getting characters to lvl 50 and not knowing how to play the game - make MA only available to people who already have a level 50 character (like the epic ATs). That way new people coming to the game have to play the game before farming their way to lvl 50.
What do you all think?