A way to bring people out of AE

I had originally intended this to be a response to Citizen Razor's thread shown here. But it got long, and I wanted to flesh the idea out, and didn't want to derail his thread. So I decided to start my own.

In real life, it's common for people to learn things practicing in simulations. Pilots learn on flight simulators, soldiers train under simulated combat conditions, and sports teams practice for the big game. But practice and simulation are not the same thing as actually going out and doing things. And playing hero in a virtual reality world isn't quite the same as playing hero in the real world.

So what if the architect gave normal XP, but that XP was banked, and not rewarded until it was matched up with an equal amount of XP from outside AE missions. So essentially every level you got in the AE would mean 1 level where you'd get double xp outside of AE. There would be no limit on how much xp you could bank in AE missions, and the extra xp from them would stack with 2xp weekend xp and patrol xp.

So for example, a level 1 character starts in atlas park, and immediately gets invited to an AE farm. He stays on the farm until he levels up 9 times. Currently, that would place him at level 10. Under my suggestion, he would still be level 1, but would have banked 12,392 experience. After he gets done with the AE stuff, he gets invited to a sewer team. He spends a half hour or so running the sewers, and earns 5,000 xp. Normally, this would put him at level 7. But since he had that xp banked, he's also getting that rewarded as well, so he really ends up with 10,000 xp, putting him at 9th level, instead of 7th, and he still has 7,392 xp banked.

Now if it were a 2xp weekend, he would have earned 10,000 xp on his sewer run (I know, he would have outleveled it, but let's just pretend). He would have also been rewarded with the same amount of his banked xp, putting his xp total at 20,000, and him at 11th, almost 12th level, with 2,392 xp still banked.

I realize that under situations where you had a lot of xp banked, you could level remarkably quickly outside of AE missions, and even more so during a 2xp weekend. But since AE missions don't let you use patrol xp (and I'm assuming they won't give double xp during 2xp weekend), then you're only getting that extra xp reward once. And you aren't getting anything that you haven't already earned by playing the character.

I would also suggest that dev's choice arcs allow you to cash in your banked xp, since they give normal rewards in terms of drops instead of tickets.

I'm sure there are other details that would need to be worked out, but I think it's a pretty cool idea. What do you think?

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I really like this idea. I think it needs to be ironed out a bit, but it most definitely has potential.

The major flaw I'm seeing with this is that things may become too complex. How exactly will "AEXP" work alongside Patrol XP? Which is consumed first? Does AEXP replace PXP as it's earned?

Allowing Dev Choice missions to reward real XP is a good idea as well, and would further promote good arcs.

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The off-beat space pirate...Capt. Stormrider (50+3 Elec/Storm Science Corruptor)
The mysterious Djinn...Emerald Dervish (50+1 DB/DA Magic Stalker)
The psychotic inventor...Dollmaster (50 Bot/FF Tech Mastermind)

Virtue Forever.

Whoa! A "stop the AE madness" idea that I actually really like. It should be doable since patrol exp is bankable and usable only outside the AE.

Thumbs up on this one.

Although I still think the simplest solution is to remove AE from all starting zones.

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Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!

I like it, except that one of the explicit design goals for AE was that you can level from 1 to 50 in AE.

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I like it, except that one of the explicit design goals for AE was that you can level from 1 to 50 in AE.

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Well, I suppose if you made the double xp applicable in Dev's Choice missions then you still could.

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Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!

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one of the explicit design goals for AE was that you can level from 1 to 50 in AE.

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this is the part people seem to be forgetting. they also seem to be forgetting that most people doing the AE are vet's who got tired of doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over... as soon as i16 comes out the next thing will be 3 months of "i'm sick of all these pink shields that people keep putting on me".

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one of the explicit design goals for AE was that you can level from 1 to 50 in AE.

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this is the part people seem to be forgetting. they also seem to be forgetting that most people doing the AE are vet's who got tired of doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over... as soon as i16 comes out the next thing will be 3 months of "i'm sick of all these pink shields that people keep putting on me".

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Sounds right to me, thanks to AE I had the drive to go from 1-50 again on the vill side. This is being done by splashing in random AE arcs to play. I think ti was and still a great addition to the game it just needs some wrinkles to smooth out.

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I like it, except that one of the explicit design goals for AE was that you can level from 1 to 50 in AE.

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Yeah, I realized this would be an issue after talking the idea over with my wife. It could be fixed pretty easily though, Just make it so that you get half the xp immediately and half gets banked. Then you can still level in the AE, but slowly enough that people might farm less, but you won't be losing out on any actual xp. Once you leave the AE, you catch back up by running normal missions.

Akii, my idea was that this would not override patrol xp. It would stack with it. So if patrol xp was boosting your xp gain outside of AE missions, you would still be using up your AEXP on a 1 to 1 basis.

So for example:

I have 10,000 AEXP. I kill a minion outside AE and get 500 xp, and gain 500 of my AEXP, giving me a total of 1000 xp gained for killing the minion and 9,500 banked AEXP left.

If I had patrol xp and I killed the same minion, I'd get 750 xp, and use up 750 of my banked AEXP, giving me a total of 1500 for killing the minion, and 9,250 left banked.

You're still only getting the patrol xp reward once, since you didn't originally get it when you were playing AE missions.

If that was deemed too complicated, or to overpowered though, I would imagine it would be best to just have AEXP override patrol xp, since AEXP is essentially double xp, and 2xp weekend overrides patrol xp in the same way.

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they will not split the xp that way. and you still haven't gotten past the point that AE is an alternate means to lv from 1-50.

edit: this would also create problems in the regular missions as now if you do take that new player who has all this xp banked, when he out lv's the people on his team by 5 lv's they wont wan't him on the team anymore because they are no longer getting xp.

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<qr>
If this was done like you said and I was earning half-xp no matter how it is done it still is showing half-xp. This means people would not use this as an alternative level path they would just go back to PI and grand and farm there.

Just to add to that:
I would not do it either and I am not an "AE baby" or a farmer.

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Disable auto lk it will kill most farms...ppl don't farm AE only because of it but also because it is easier in most cases than normal farms however all the lowbies don't run content since it is so much easier just to use AE, if you disable auto lk everything will turn back to like BM/nemesis...most people won't be able or willing to pay fees for farms and would run content.

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Well, to explain better where I'm coming from, I'm not against AE farming. I farm in AE quite a bit myself, and I find it to be a great way to get past the (IMO) boring levels before SOs.

What I do find to be a problem though is players with level 50 characters who aren't even aware that there IS anything to do in the game but play AE stuff.

So my suggestion is not so much to stop farming, although it will slow that down some, it's to encourage players to not play ONLY AE content. It doesn't prevent them from doing so (at least not my revised suggestion), but playing AE content only will be less efficient. If you play an even blend of AE and non AE content though, you'll level at the exact same pace you would have if this were not implemented.

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Part of what needs to change is a way to earn Arc merits on teams without needing the entire team to have said Arc. And perhaps boosting the chance to get a Pool C/D from bosses when on a team. Non-AE stuff needs to be made more attractive without nerfing the AE into abandonment.

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Branching Paragon Police Department Epic Archetype, please!

Personally, while I like the idea, I have a general problem with "banked boosted experience," in that people never treat it as a nice benefit or even an aside, but something they HAVE to do or they're wasting their time. I predicted this would happen with Patrol Experience, and while it isn't wide-spread, I have at least one friend who starts getting antsy when he uses up his Patrol Experience and is very likely to switch characters after that.

The problem is that this might drive even MORE people to the Architect. "Oh, hey! A couple of hours of boredom in the Architect can give me double experience for the next 10 levels? Sign me up!" Hell, that could convince ME to go farm in there, and that's saying something. Trust me, that IS saying something.

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Personally, while I like the idea, I have a general problem with "banked boosted experience," in that people never treat it as a nice benefit or even an aside, but something they HAVE to do or they're wasting their time. I predicted this would happen with Patrol Experience, and while it isn't wide-spread, I have at least one friend who starts getting antsy when he uses up his Patrol Experience and is very likely to switch characters after that.

The problem is that this might drive even MORE people to the Architect. "Oh, hey! A couple of hours of boredom in the Architect can give me double experience for the next 10 levels? Sign me up!" Hell, that could convince ME to go farm in there, and that's saying something. Trust me, that IS saying something.

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That's an interesting point. I've never run into anyone like that. I pretty much ignore my patrol XP.

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You are not thinking quite right.
(blanket)

The devs NEVER originally intended to have the AE for lvl 54 BOSS FARMS LFM 30+ NO SIDEKICKS.

They always said from the get go it is NOT FOR FARMING. Since so many people ABUSE this. Then WHY not bank the exp. DO IT.

Welcome to the WHOLE ENTIRE REST OF THE GAME PEOPLE.

Seriously...
"Whats a Creys Folly"
"Whats a Carnival is it a zone"
"How can I get a purple"
"How do you go to Skyway City"
"Whats a tailor"
"Is there a trainer outside of Atlas"
"Whats PI"

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The devs NEVER originally intended to have the AE for lvl 54 BOSS FARMS LFM 30+ NO SIDEKICKS.

They always said from the get go it is NOT FOR FARMING. Since so many people ABUSE this. Then WHY not bank the exp. DO IT.

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The issue that you're ignoring is that the devs always intended for AE to be a completely viable alternate leveling path (not that I agree with this).

The problem with AE doesn't exist nor has it ever existed insofar as it has made fewer players play the rest of the game. The problem with AE is that the experience is so readily available and easy to access that it's significantly easier and faster than the rest of the game.

The intent was to provide an alternate player generated leveling path that would provide players that were tired of running the same story arcs and missions over and over again while simultaneously allowing players the ability to have yet another fancy new toy to play around with. The reason that the intent turned into the problem is because AE was a combination of allowing players to customize enemies (and thusly customize challenges to suit their strengths), play with anyone regardless of level (and thusly avoid the nominal mentoring road bump), have a centralized mission entrance (and thusly avoid travel downtime) and receive the same level of rewards as would be achieved through normal gameplay (and thusly make them level significantly faster).

The solution, as I've always seen it, rather than trying to make AE a second form of patrol xp or level required mechanism, is to simply lower the level of reward that everything in AE awards. Experience should have been granted according to the optimal design (meaning that players minimize all risk and attempt to maximize all rewards through any means available) and then a slight penalty should have been further assigned in order to encourage normal gameplay. The ability to play consistently new missions would be a significant enough draw to alleviate any tendency to avoid it, especially among the non-power gamer/farmer group, while the lower leveling speed associated with AE would keep it from being overrun by farmers that then, thanks to automatic sidekicking, would funnel new players into it as quickly as possible to maximize their own personal rewards.

The fact that AE was designed as an equivalent leveling path is the problem, not to mention that the "balance" that was intended to counteract customized foes (lack of mission completion xp reward) has never been that big of a deal where experience acquisition is concerned. The secondary problems were functionally removing any bar to grouping across exceedingly large level gaps and opening access to all zones, which simply served to exacerbate the fundamental problem of AE simply being a better leveling path thanks to all of the traits that obviously made AE excellent for farming without any real counter to them.

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