Short answer: no it hasn't.
Longer answer: People that used to farm missions for power levelling or badges or whatever are now doing it through custom AE missions. Paragon is working on getting rid of that. You will still find plenty of people doing regular missions though, just not as many as you used to find. And there are good AE story missions in there, but you won't find them by teaming up with farmers.
SG Mate: Cien, what the hell is this Rookery thing?
RadDidIt: (interjecting) Dude. It's the Rookery.
SG Mate: Yeah, but what IS it?
RadDidIt: Silliness Incarnate.
There are still teams out there. AE is the new shiney and is great for farming so a lot of people use it for that.
There are some good story arcs in the AE if you look for them.
My best suggestion is to actually try to start a team on your own initially.
Defcon 0 - (D4 lvl 50),DJ Shecky Cape Radio
@Shecky
Twitter: @DJ_Shecky, @siliconshecky, @thecaperadio
When you air your dirty laundry out on a clothesline above the street, everyone is allowed to snicker at the skid marks in your underoos. - Lemur_Lad
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PS This has been the nicest way I can think of to say this. Teams are easy to find or start yourself. A little effort pays off in this respect.
mmm, no I think I was pretty clear that teams are NOT easy to find now.
I went away before the AE craze hit.
Came back after AE started.
The difference is like night and day...finding team wise. Maybe you guys have been here all along so you can't see the contrast like I can.
Maybe your answer is true AND it proved my point.
You say a little effort goes a long way.
It did not take effort to find a team before, that's what sold CoX for me. Heck you couldn't run across the zone without having to turn down blind invites.....although truth be told I didn't get in near as bad a twist over blind invites as other people I know...but that is another flame war.
I guess maybe it did kill it...but just for me.
However it is true that it is still new and shiny so that is where folks are going to be.
Maybe after everybody gets that 50 and has not seen any content there will be more content driven AE missions.
I am sure they are there but nobody advertises that in broadcast. It's all bout the Boss farm teams.
I guess I could sift through the missions, find some that have a story line, check them out solo a bit to see what they are like and then go out and build a team.
Yeah, that is not a "little effort"
[ QUOTE ]
Teams are easy to find or start yourself. A little effort pays off in this respect.
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm inclined to both agree here, to a certain extent. Teams ARE easy to find, yes, but you have to put in a little bit more than "a little" effort to find them. Of course, it's easier when you're in a supergroup, but still.
But hey. What do I know? I've only been back myself for about a month.
For me I see lots of new blood coming in since AE, and yes the option for farmers is now at a all time high...
However, I feel AE is good. Moreover, even a little heavy boss missions are ok. The reasons are simple, stalled characters and getting to inside the minds of your friends.
1. Stalled characters we all have them awesome character Ideas that dont work unless they are over a certain level. Example: I had a concept for a character 4 years ago Malkavian Who an androgynous Vampire who was neither male nor female. I couldnt pull it off because I needed two characters created in the same outfit as both male and female, now with the new booster and getting quickly to level 20 I can play it.
2. Looking inside the strange and awkward ideas that your fellow players have, come on nothing better than Lizards Vs Catgirls, or even my B-Movie tributes with Ed Wood as a quest giver.
I should also point out that for the longest time I have wanted to do the sewer trial and last week was the 1st time I got a team, granted we failed but it was my 1st attempt in 5 years. Speaking of which this weekend I need to try again, also I have a list of trail I need to do
;-)
Looking for other to teams with? You could always start your own mission team or join an active SG. But...
[ QUOTE ]
mmm, no I think I was pretty clear that teams are NOT easy to find now.
I went away before the AE craze hit.
Came back after AE started.
The difference is like night and day...finding team wise. Maybe you guys have been here all along so you can't see the contrast like I can.
Maybe your answer is true AND it proved my point.
You say a little effort goes a long way.
It did not take effort to find a team before, that's what sold CoX for me. ...
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm a little confused. You say soloing is boring but you don't mind "parking" somewhere and waiting for an invite to come to you?
Really, you'd be surprised what you can get out of this game if you put a "little effort" into it.
Tales of Judgment. Also here, instead of that other place.
good luck D.B.B.
[ QUOTE ]
1. Stalled characters we all have them awesome character Ideas that dont work unless they are over a certain level. Example: I had a concept for a character 4 years ago Malkavian Who an androgynous Vampire who was neither male nor female. I couldnt pull it off because I needed two characters created in the same outfit as both male and female, now with the new booster and getting quickly to level 20 I can play it.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ah, yeah. Good point. I am eager to try out my new science pack and I don't have any science based characters that ingesting a formula would make me change constumes. So I could get to 20 quick with the help of farm missions. Hmm, good point.
[ QUOTE ]
2. Looking inside the strange and awkward ideas that your fellow players have, come on nothing better than Lizards Vs Catgirls, or even my B-Movie tributes with Ed Wood as a quest giver.
[/ QUOTE ]
Well if more of this went on I wouldn't be whining about it to begin with. I am all for this I just have not seen it yet. I will be looking more closely.
[ QUOTE ]
I'm a little confused. You say soloing is boring but you don't mind "parking" somewhere and waiting for an invite to come to you?
[/ QUOTE ]
I guess I did kinda mis-speak here a bit...I didn't give all the details. I will park and look for a team and broadcast to find members to start one, I have done both with shockingly diminished returns compared to what I have seen before.
So maybe my title was overstated a bit. Maybe a bit of shock value there. It isn't KOing it, just requiring a bit more work to team up, a bit more waiting.
Here's 2 cents from a 'new' (18 month vet) player.
AE is great if you work it right, there are ALOT of farms out there, but as has been already said, if YOU pick the mish and form a team stating 'NON FARM AE team LFM' or somesuch, you can get what you had before...I, myself, LOOK for those posts. I seem to lack the skill for building good teams, thus people who expect me to lead a disappointed, but I have found some AWESOME teams this way.
That said, AE is, how was it put...? Bright and Shiny...yep and most of the playership has gone there, but that tend is FINALLY begining to slow, people are coming back to the arcs and mishes outside AE... I am glad for it because, I too, have had less luck finding teams outside. I am like you, I will exemp down to level 1 to find teamage, and have had to resort to playing...ugh, farms, just to have a team to interact with. But I'm finding more and more NON AE players now that the 'newness' is wearing off.
Lastly, in my short time on the game, and even before AE showed up, I have found that the server makes alot of difference.....some servers just don't seem to have people who want to team. Example...I can find teams red and blue side ANYtime on Virtue, same for Freedom, it's sporadic for Victory, Justice, and Pinnacle. I can almost never find teams on the rest, so I don't play em. Maybe it's just me, but that's what I've seen so far.
For me, like you, teamage is the way to have fun. Once I got my 5th level 50 (NONE of them farmed up), I had generally ran most of teh arcs coming up...so teamage is my best take.
What do the rest of you think of these theories?
First of all, on a purely technical level it's never been easier to find a team. Granted they're mostly very boring boss farms, but still... for those who simply want to kill stuff for an hour, things have improved somewhat.
Second of all... it *is* harder to find non-AE teams, but not impossible. Although I do think the days of just turning on your LTF flag and finding a group that way are mostly gone. I still use the flag, but not many people do.
Third... what channels are you on? I use mostly VU2009 and it's usually pretty busy. There are times when it seems quite, but those often correspond to when hami/ship raids are going on...
(As an aside... I have some characters on Freedumb that I'm trying to get to 50... so I joined, RF2009... figuring that it was probably similar to VU2009 and I could find some non-AE teams that way... I came to the conclusion that it WAS sort of like VU2009, only with 500% more chatter about what was the greatest cartoon/anime series ever. 
)
Last point... well I don't remember what my last point was. I think it's easier to find teams 1-10 and 45-50, and in between it's a bit harder to find non-AE teams than it used to be. You can always build your own team, though, on any server really. I'm not convinced that radio/newspaper teams were all that much more interesting than AE boss farms. I'm not convinced that doom is upon us. I think things will work themselves out eventually.
my lil RWZ Challenge vid
Nope.
They ALL float down here. When you're down here with us, you'll float too!
@Starflier
Farmdumb and Virtue are the two biggest AE Farm servers at the moment.
Regardless of what others say, I find it easier to deal with less pro-farm tells and they are more abundant on Farmdumb and Virtue.
For this reason, I am not playing on either one of them until the situation has been corrected properly. I am not having a hard time finding non-AE teams/non-farming teams on other servers.
If you are having problems getting recruited to a team, the first - and should be obvious - option is to start recruiting for a team yourself.
You can use my macro for police mission teams to make it easier :
/macro SFT "t $target, Hello,hero. I'm gathering together a team to help solve some level $level DIFFICULTY problems that the police are having in ZONE. Would you like to join?"
Change ZONE to the zone that you will be running in.
Change DIFFICULTY to your difficulty setting.
Do these changes while you are creating the macro as the editing feature for macros is still wonky.
Once you have this macro set up, open the search window. Find a player that you would like to invite, make sure that they are blue (not on a team), click on their name in the search window, and click on the macro.
When they sent you a tell that they are interested, send them an invite.
Alternately, if you are running normal missions you could use this version of the macro ::
/macro SFT "t $target, Hello,hero. I'm gathering together a team to run some level $level DIFFICULTY missions. Would you like to join?"
Change DIFFICULTY to your difficulty setting.
Do these changes while you are creating the macro as the editing feature for macros is still wonky.
Easy enough. It takes a lot of the dread of recruiting away.
Of course, you will need to change the Hero part if you are on the Villain side...
To make use of the macro easy for all characters and easy to edit, open Notepad and paste in the macro. Save it. Now you can pull it up whenever you need it for a quick edit and "copy and paste" into the game.
Have fun.
No.
(No, that's not the same as /jranger! I capitalized the N and had a period at the end! So hah!)
Before AE:
Some days I had an easy time finding a good team, some days I had a hard time finding a good team. Often I ended up making my own.
After AE:
Some days I have an easy time finding a good team, some days I have a hard time finding a good team. Often I end up making my own.
Before AE:
I respected the Community to do the right thing.
After AE:
Farmers.
@Mazzo Grave
Webmaster Grave, Virtueverse!
Energy/Energy Blaster Guide
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler
you *******!!!!
|
[ QUOTE ]
Before AE:
I respected the Community to do the right thing.
After AE:
Farmers.
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm getting so tired of people who think they can define "the right thing" to do...
Maw! Bring me mah beatin' stick. Damn horse is still daid.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Before AE:
I respected the Community to do the right thing.
After AE:
Farmers.
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm getting so tired of people who think they can define "the right thing" to do...
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm getting so tired of people who think they can question what other people say and do without having any information to back themselves up on what "the right thing to do" really must be.
@Mazzo Grave
Webmaster Grave, Virtueverse!
Energy/Energy Blaster Guide
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler
you *******!!!!
|
[ QUOTE ]
Before AE:
Some days I had an easy time finding a good team, some days I had a hard time finding a good team. Often I ended up making my own.
After AE:
Some days I have an easy time finding a good team, some days I have a hard time finding a good team. Often I end up making my own.
[/ QUOTE ]
This for me too.
Damage Proc Mini-FAQ
Just noticed Damage Proc Mini-FAQ wasn't working with new forums, it's been updated.
AE didn't kill the game. It killed bad teams.
You know the teams that ran through sewers, then just did papers until the 40s and AVs? Yeah, those teams. There are some great AE teams that actually run story arcs, but the majority you see are the AE teams lfm or people looking for those. Where? Cap Au Diable and Atlas Park. Go elsewhere, you'll find teams that are passing on AE.
Well, I16 I bet will breath some new life into the game. People actually maybe wanting to level a little slower.
ATs to 50 - TA/A Def, Nrg/Nrg Blaster, EM/EA Brute, WS,ELM/ELA Stalker
...Can you use ANY more acronyms in a sentence?
-STEELE =)
Allied to all sides so that no matter what, I'll come out on top!
Oh, and Crimson demands you play this arc-> Twisted Knives (MA Arc #397769)
I will not rest until I see an "AE has killed the game" thread in every section of the forum.
Back soon, going to rest.
Although, it does suck to be a lowbie in AP, and trying to get on an AE team. I have a lvl 8 SD/BS scrapper, and with all the "Farm forming, looking for 20+" or higher levels, I'm having trouble getting on any kind of team. I did join a lowbie team today, tried to run a mission, but when the star asked, "What's aggro?" I lit out like my [censored] was on fire. AE babies are driving me nuts.
AE brought me back to the game, actually. I have awesome friends, so I don't really worry about finding pickup teams. I'd recommend doing what I did and making awesome friends. Virtue has it's share of chumps, but it has a ton of great folks playing here. If you aren't meeting people, making friends and getting to know folks you might like to play with in the future, you're really passing on the main strength that Virtue has as a server community.
CoX is a pretty cool game. I mean from EQ1 to Champions Online it's about getting mission/quest and going and killing/gathering. So every game is pretty much the same, it is all about what genre you like to play in.
Howevah....
I keep coming back to CoX because you can ALWAYS get a team. You see I do not like to solo. To me it is boring. Whether I am soloing with my LM on LOTRO or my first female character ever....my night elf hunter on WoW.....I find soloing boring.
So after some months away I come bounding back to CoX, got me some beer chilling in the fridge, got me some snacks ready, the AC turned down and the music turned up.
I am ready to embark on one of those adventures where you get with a team, start doing missions, people come and people go and you watch your name go higher and higher up the list of team members until, two or three levels and several hours later, you have to log off.
So I set my looking for team status, I park myself in the appropriate zone for my level and I poise myself to sift through the blind invites or tells of invites that are about to come my way.
/crickets
Oh, well, maybe it's because I am on my shield scrapper. You can't swing a dead cat gurl without hitting a scrapper.
So no problem, I will log my emp/mental controller, i have fort and all the auras and a beffy heal not to mention good hitting, long lasting mental control. yeah, that will do it, a team is a team after all.
/crickets.
Oh, well let's try the channels, the new looking for team channel. Hmmm, no answer.
Matter of fact there are hardly even any broadcasts about looking for teams or looking for members for teams.
What the heck?
Oh, this new AE thing is going on? Let's go check it out.
Wow, the last time I saw Atlas Park this busy was when....well I have never seen Atlas Park this busy.
So, let's try one of these AE missions, what the heck a team is a team.
I get in to a mission that has clumps of NPCs sitting around, no goal, no content, no rhyme, no reason. One time I was told to just stand by the door. WTF???
I can't seem to find people out in the zones doing missions anymore. The teams that I have been on are doing these AE missions just grinding XP. And almost every time I have been on one of these AE teams we win a couple of battles and then get wiped out.
The content is just gone?
The zone driven mission teams are just gone?
What have you people been doing while I have been gone??
****edited in.
Oh, I forgot to apologize for bringing this up again because this is the kind of topic that may have been hashed and re-hashed several times before.
Humor me.