A way nerf AE farms and other farms
By
Atheism,
Posted on: 2009-07-16 06:35 in Suggestions and Ideas
Won't dent farming in the least, and will only aggravate legitimate players.
AE terminals for bases, however, are an excellent idea for completely unrelated reasons.
I think it would hurt badly and make most ppl play the content of game until at least 38. The low lvl content is great.
Freedom
Hermee lvl 50 claws / sr scrapper
Renevega lvl 50 fire / kin controller
Aveneger lvl 50 ele / ice blaster
Pretty Healer lvl 50 emp / rad defender
Blazin' Man lvl 50 fire / fire tank
Peace n' War lvl 50 warshade
Spectral Fusion. lvl 50 ill / kin
Hermee Jr. lvl 50 dual blades / WP
If you limit AE to 38+ NCSoft would get sued by some enterprising lawyer for false advertising and/or bait and switch tactics.
The brand spanking new box on store shelves says right on it that AE offers an alternate leveling path from 1-50. If the developers deviate from that they will be guilty of false advertising, which IS an actionable offense. And, believe me, someone WILL sue them over it.
In a country where a woman gets a 1.2 million dollar settlement from a moterhome company after she set her cruise control and got up to make a sandwich, (causing the vehicle to crash because there was no one steering it) I guarantee someone will sue because a game box lied to them. And they will probably win, costing NCSoft a LOT of money one way or another. Either they will have to pay a settlement out, or they will have to recall and reprint every single box, or both. That will be an expensive thing to have happen, and would slow or stop development of the game for a while.
Do you want that to happen?
I don't.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
Have you tried
1) Joining global channels on your server that are specifically for teaming?
2) Asking SG mates to team with you?
3) Form you own teams?
The instant I got out of the tutorial the other week on a character I got invited to a small team running the 1-5 Kalinda missions who then went on to do Mongooses missions.
Later that night, I found people running normal missions which got me to level 12.
Teams are out there, yes they're not as obvious as those spamming LF AE farm but you can find them.
Me I choose to farm past level 15 (up until then the levels pass fairly quickly on any character) because I've seen all the content both villain and heroside and now I just want to know how a character plays once they hit their stride at 32 and not have to wait weeks for that to happen only to delete them and go 'eh...that combination wasn't quite what I hoped for' (I normally levelled quite slowly pre-AE, taking me 4 months to hit 50 as I tended to hang around and chat in globals or fiddle with costumes rather than play the game).
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I think it would hurt [farming] badly
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How? Under your system, any lowbie who wanted to level through AE farms could just do so through their SG. If they don't already have one they'll just speed to level 10 via sewer runs or something and start one.
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and make most ppl play the content of game until at least 38.
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"The content of game" does in fact include AE missions. An explicit goal of AE's design is to give players an alternate source of missions all the way from 1-50. You have not presented any reason why this goal should change.
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The low lvl content is great.
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It's nice that you enjoy the "regular" low-level content, but that doesn't create an obligation on anyone else's part to play it. Much of the low level AE content is as good or better. I'm enjoying the fact that I can level each of my alts with a completely different set of missions now.
One possible solution to the abusive farming (as opposed to farming in general) would be to (re) introduce the Chevauchée.
This was a mediaeval war tactic of leading a column into enemy territory and, while avoiding the enemy army that could fight back, sacking and plundering his towns, farms, and lands. Putting his peasants to the sword, slaughtering livestock, burning huts, trampling growing grain, cutting down orchards, contaminating water supplies, setting fire to everything.
It was unspeakably cruel and wasteful, and did little or nothing to win wars.
But the idea (which seldom worked) was to persuade the enemy population that their noble class was unable to protect them from your wrath, and suggest that they come over to your side (national loyalty was still an evolving and loosely-held concept before the 15th century or so) or turn on their own nobles in revolt.
Although the Chevauchée seldom produced military or political results, at least one side had the satisfaction of venting its hatred on the foe, and knowing they'd inflicted real material harm.
In usage against COH farm-exploit-abuse , the modernized Chevauchée would work something like this:
NCSoft employees (GMs most likely) would enter AE buildings under the guise of normal players. They would listen to the chatter, get recruited onto "mito farm teams," or whatever the next craze is, and join up. While on the team they could directly observe how abusive the situation actually is.
If it's bad, they could then summarily ban the offending accounts, preferably with a very public line of GM-colored text in broadcast. If the text were carefully tailored to be clear that it was for abuse of farming (high value enemies that don't fight back) hopefully the bans would become specifically associated in the public's mind with abuse rather than the AE system itself or COH as a whole.
After slaughtering a suitable number of these unable-to-fight-back peasants, they'd generate fear and uncertainty, wailing and gnashing of teeth, and maybe there would be an order of magnitude decrease in abusive farming.
If not, at least some of the offenders would be gone. We could get some grim satisfaction from that.
Okay, it's an awful idea -- positively mediaeval! -- but at least it involves grim satisfaction and the suffering of the theoretically guilty! There's that!
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
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First of all, I don't mind farming but now most ppl farming it is getting really bad to get a good team going. On hero side limit the AE to PI and limit PI to lvl 38+'s. On villian side limit it to Grandville and limit Grandville to 38+'s. And make AE terminals to SG to put in thier base for lowbies to play.
[/ QUOTE ]The Devs haven't said or done anything to indicate they're trying to reduce farming outside of AE.
Others have already covered the other flaws.
IBTD
+1
Positron's i13 letter: We are trying to make PvP more accessible to new players, while giving experienced PvP'ers the advantage that comes with formulating tactics around the new systems we're putting in place. PvP from now on will be on our priority list. If something isn't working out, we'll be in there tweaking it and making it work, for the entire future of the product, not just Issue 13.
/unsigned.
The intention behind the mission architect is for any character to use it as an alternate leveling path from 1-50. Anything that restricts the ability to do so is a bad idea. Stopping farming is not an excuse to do it anyway, especially since it won't work.
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The brand spanking new box on store shelves says right on it that AE offers an alternate leveling path from 1-50. If the developers deviate from that they will be guilty of false advertising, which IS an actionable offense. And, believe me, someone WILL sue them over it.
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They didn't say that all levels could team with each other in the AE or that all levels could use the AE in every zone where there was an AE building.
And as the OP listed things, everyone with access to a supergroup base with an AE terminal could use it, so it is still open to use from level 1-50 with their plan.
If someone decides not to join a sg or the sg doesn't have enough prestige to install a terminal does not negate that a level 1 could use the system - it simply means that they op'd out.
My call is this ::
https://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthre...SID=&fpart=
It pushes level 50's that want to use the AE to Granville and Peregrine Island like the OP suggested.
Leaves AE's in all the zones that they are presently in.
Stops AE power-leveling of level 1-18 characters by level 50's.
Still allows AE access to level 1-50.
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NCSoft employees (GMs most likely) would enter AE buildings under the guise of normal players. They would listen to the chatter, get recruited onto "mito farm teams," or whatever the next craze is, and join up. While on the team they could directly observe how abusive the situation actually is.
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How do you know that they aren't already doing this?
And then waiting for the right time to drop the 10-ton hammer?
I would certainly hope that some of this is going on.
If it was, I certainly don't want to know that it is going on.
Surprise!
Oh, oh! There go your purple IO's and your level 1 and broke!
Good times!
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First of all, I don't mind farming but now most ppl farming it is getting really bad to get a good team going. On hero side limit the AE to PI and limit PI to lvl 38+'s. On villian side limit it to Grandville and limit Grandville to 38+'s. And make AE terminals to SG to put in thier base for lowbies to play.
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Crappy idea. The first step to reducing the number of AE farm teams is to remove the auto SK feature.
I'm going to break this down into segments which I call "Heard",and "Hear This"
Heard:"AE deprives the players of knowledge they should know about the game"
Hear This:What,are your fingers broken?Teach them on the AE mission.You would be teaching a new player stuff anyway,AE or no AE.Remember that.
Heard:"AE Farming dosent need to happen"
Hear This:I play on Virtue,so teams,especially on Villain side are extremely hard to find,even if you try,so how are players going to level is players are at Pocket D with their ineffective roleplay,or whatever else?AE is their only option to find teams,play the game,level up,and make friends.So AE isnt really killing the game is it?
Heard:"AE has ruined the game"
Hear This:Let me tells you what ruins the game.Are you listening?
1)People who ignore you when you send sighted invites to them,as their request
2)People who quit team with made up excuses when things get too hard and difficult.
3)People who sit at Pocket D,and just roleplay and just say no to teams forever.Those people arent playing the game.What are they attacking,and gaining,and learning at Pocket D?Maybe Pocket D should be done away with?
4)Players who ruin it for everyone else,like trying to do away with AE Farming,or anything else that other players like.They are all idiot,loser hypocrites,and it will just be a matter of time before they try to use the AE system for their own benefit anyway.
So,in short,if you really want to fix the game,dont get on the rejuvenating AE system...get on each other's backs.
If there was only a way to keep players on a team,like connecting that to a major accolade,like vehicles,or more game time,influence/infamy,base prestige,new costume pieces,or whatever.
Just something to think about.
The end : )
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In a country where a woman gets a 1.2 million dollar settlement from a moterhome company after she set her cruise control and got up to make a sandwich, (causing the vehicle to crash because there was no one steering it)...
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Which did not happen...
First of all, I don't mind farming but now most ppl farming it is getting really bad to get a good team going. On hero side limit the AE to PI and limit PI to lvl 38+'s. On villian side limit it to Grandville and limit Grandville to 38+'s. And make AE terminals to SG to put in thier base for lowbies to play.
Freedom
Hermee lvl 50 claws / sr scrapper
Renevega lvl 50 fire / kin controller
Aveneger lvl 50 ele / ice blaster
Pretty Healer lvl 50 emp / rad defender
Blazin' Man lvl 50 fire / fire tank
Peace n' War lvl 50 warshade
Spectral Fusion. lvl 50 ill / kin
Hermee Jr. lvl 50 dual blades / WP