MA farming: The way to kill an MMO
By
Arctic_Princess,
Posted on: 2009-05-01 12:12 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
I can't even fathom that but then I don't really farm/pl and haven't been doing much MA as my to do list is still gettin on with i2.
He will honor his words; he will definitely carry out his actions. What he promises he will fulfill. He does not care about his bodily self, putting his life and death aside to come forward for another's troubled besiegement. He does not boast about his ability, or shamelessly extol his own virtues. - Sima Qian.
One of the teams I was in today had a long discussion about this and the fast rate at which one can hit 50 is astounding.
Many of the newer members of the team even admitted not being anywhere after Cap Au Diable and they were in there 40's!! One even said he only found out about the Black Market 5 mins before the mission started!
My first 50 took 8ish months to get due to my altitus.
I always wanted an AR/traps as my main but it was always too painful to level up. I had heard about MA farms and decided to investigate (I even Ran a few MA Farms myself)
I managed to hit 50 today and I onlys started 4 days ago. Which for me is ludicrously fast. However I know some people that have done around 6 missions and hit 50.
It's mostly the newer players I'm worried about as they can start and have a 50 in days and yet know nothing about the game dynamics or everything else that COX has to offer.
For more experienced players and people with Altitus like me MA farms are handy to get through the painful stages of levelling and try out new AT's/powersets when rolled. In the end the hardcore farmers can always go back to the Television farms etc. But the newer people they have already been tainted by the MA System
47 Month Vet
Main: Sullster: Level 51 STJ/SR Speedster
Heh *took part in that discussion*
I feel incredibly sad when i think of how much new people are missing out. It really needs attended pronto. A quick fix that nerfs the entire thing then slowly is brought up to acceptable levels would be suffice imo. Because at the minute its getting out of hand. I'd like to see the numbers on new level 50's since MA release...
MA is a game breaker alright.
I don't know what the hell the devs were thinking to release it, in it's current form.
I don't know what they'll do with it, but the AE building needs to get removed from Atlas - and fast.
After that, I would imagine the only logical thing to do would be to remove XP and Inf from MA missions, or at the very least reduce the reward rate to no higher than 10-20% of normal.
Proud member of FOXBASE ALPHA and coalition associates.
Hero 50's - 25
Villain 50's - 1
It's the death of MMO:s as we knows them! Or... of the MA maybe. 
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After that, I would imagine the only logical thing to do would be to remove XP and Inf from MA missions, or at the very least reduce the reward rate to no higher than 10-20% of normal.
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There's so many, less drastic ways of stopping it. It would keep the MA usable (because let's face it, if MA missions didn't have xp loads wouldn't use it.) but still solve the xp/sec problem we have now.
I really hope they don't do their usual approach and nerf it into oblivion......
CoH PvP SG = SuperUnion - Co-Leader - Union/Freedom
CoV PvP VG = Disruption - Co-Leader - Union/Freedom
Global = @Rent & @Rent.
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I do.
It was a crazy decision to make it available to the players in the first place. It was even crazier to give it to us in it's current form.
Proud member of FOXBASE ALPHA and coalition associates.
Hero 50's - 25
Villain 50's - 1
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I really hope they don't do their usual approach and nerf it into oblivion......
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As Posi said in Pocket D the other day...
"If you feel a nerf is coming, one probably is"
Nerfing into oblivion is pretty much the only way the devs know how to deal with things. They ignore the careful approach and just go in with a chainsaw.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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I really hope they don't do their usual approach and nerf it into oblivion......
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As Posi said in Pocket D the other day...
"If you feel a nerf is coming, one probably is"
Nerfing into oblivion is pretty much the only way the devs know how to deal with things. They ignore the careful approach and just go in with a chainsaw.
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From experience they'll go in with a chainsaw, then a flamethrower, then Agent Orange and finally nuke it from orbit.
They tend not to limit themselves to one nerf if several successive ones (each sufficient in itself, and with significant nasty side effects, will do).
c.f. Tanker mega-herding, solved by GDN, ED and the taunt cap.
Nerf it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
In terms of "game balance", kids, MA really is a Monty Haul job - I like the idea of the Skeeball tickets and having a Danger Room, but the XP and cash that can be achieved is a little overmuch. I took a broke 50 Ranger Emily into a farm team and achieved 25 million inf in one hour's play. And people wonder why common salvage is going through the roof?
Still, if you wanna do that and miss out on the rest of the game, your lookout: though I wonder if the MA buildings could be "soundproofed" to prevent broadcast chatter going outside? That way, everybody gets to do what they want to do without bothering each other too much.
Is it time for the dance of joy yet?
Yeah its killing the rewards system.
I am throwing my two cents.
I guess if they remove inf from MA missions that will put a serious obstacle on Power Leveling. As you know you can't get all enhancemets with MA tickets (End Modification ones for example) and removing enhancemets from rewards will hurt seriously PL system, at least for new players. Yeah you can still get recipes and salvage from MA but you will need inf to craft those recipes.
Also nerfing ticket rewards works. This also requires lowering costs of unlockable contents seriously.
All MA has done is make farmers and power levelers work a bit easier ..and its the mainly same bunch of people ..
with MA you no longer see the Wall framers wiping out the cimerora mobs by the bucket load ...they just moved .
and i know a number of 4 days to 50 toons that are way pre MA
I have played a large number of MMO ..and in all of them there are the farmers and the 50 by noon brigade ..its a fact of life you just have to learn to ignore them
The only real issue to the life of the game in how they effect the internal market , so all the Devs need to do is make all MA reward no drop /transfers , other games have done this and it works
Yes you will still get farmers yes you will still get power levellers , but thats just them having fun playing their version of the game
let them , and get on with enjoying your way of playing the game .
Perception is a wonderful thing. I haven't gotten my knickers in a twist about farming and thus haven't noticed any change in player behaviour at all. I'm told it's definitely completely destroying the game though.
Chairman of the Charity of Pain; accepting donations of blood and guts.
Prophet of the Creamy Truth; "If it's empty, fill it with cream."
wow who said you had to play the MA? i find it funny that your all saying MA killing the game but if you really look at your answers to slove it your kind of asking to kill the game yourself as your stop people play the way they want to play
It is making it harder to find low level teams though, well atleast it certainly feels that way.
But then what kind of fool would want to team with a low level brute with 'power pools only challenge' as their search message >.>
You'd be surprised to be honest...
Badge Earned: Wing Clipper
A real showstopper!
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kill the game yourself as your stop people play the way they want to play
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I'm a huge fan of the MA, best feature to enter CoX after release by far. However I do agree that the current situation is tragic, I tried some of the smarter farming missions and leveled like crazy. I am not sure about killing the game but I do think it's harming it,
What I do find ludicrous is that people are talking about how the Devs will come in with the chainsaw and most of the solutions I am seeing suggested here have a very clear chainsaw component. All they need to do to fix the current problem is sort out the XP certain mobs give, make it the same as other mobs -and- put a more reasonable limit to how many hostages one mission can have. If another problem arises sort that out as it comes.
Shadowplay - Scrapper DM/DA SL 50
Doctor Storm- Brute SS/Elec SL 50
"speed boosts someone in the face" - Cognito
The main thing wich annoys me its that the good stories on MA are buried under a ton of farm arcs. I just want to have it easier for players like me to find and play those good stories. Farmers can do whatever they want but the lot of farm arcs on MA feel like annoying spam to me...
Proud member of Blaze of the Immortals (Heroes) and leader of F.O.E (villains)
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The worst thing is that new players get sucked into this and thus missing out on the real content. Thinking what, no endgame? And leave.
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All they need to do to fix the current problem is sort out the XP certain mobs give, make it the same as other mobs -and- put a more reasonable limit to how many hostages one mission can have. If another problem arises sort that out as it comes.
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That's all they NEED to do, yes. But past experience with other exploits shows us that the actual way they deal with it WILL be the chainsaw and nuke from orbit method. It's how they've ALWAYS dealt with game exploits.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Hmm is there any way certain mobs can have lowered XP in MA form without reducing their XP outside of the MA.
Don't get me wrong, I loved speed levelling my Dark/Dark corruptor (and trust me when those farms go wrong, you certainly do learn how to play your character, especially when you're effectively shutting down three different eight man mobs from doing damage) to level 40, it made a refreshing break to the slow placed levelling I normally do (takes me god knows how long to hit 50 with each character, usually 6 months or more).
But perhaps reducing the XP earnt of Rikti Comm Officers back down to minion level in the MA instead of LT level XP gains but with minion health.
Badge Earned: Wing Clipper
A real showstopper!
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The worst thing is that new players get sucked into this and thus missing out on the real content. Thinking what, no endgame? And leave.
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The only invites i get at Atlas for my lowbies LFT broadcasts are from farm teams... So i guess broadcasting in Atlas means you are looking for a farm team automaticly... and that was in Defiant. I left Union for too much farmers/PLs in that server. 
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I am throwing my two cents.
I guess if they remove inf from MA missions that will put a serious obstacle on Power Leveling. As you know you can't get all enhancemets with MA tickets (End Modification ones for example)
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You can get End Mods from the MA, they're just not listed in the collapsable tree on the left. But if you just click on Magical or whatever and scroll down they are there.
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But perhaps reducing the XP earnt of Rikti Comm Officers back down to minion level in the MA instead of LT level XP gains but with minion health.
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From the thread Release Notes for 18.20090422.0 4/27/09 on the US test server boards:
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An unmentioned change (not surprised at that, as other similar changes have been unmentioned in the past) is that the Communications Officers in the MA have become "true" minions. The current live ones, as with those outside the MA, are treated as LTs with the combat stats of minions and who give LT rewards. The ones now on test are minions in rank, stat and reward. I did not test this thoroughly, but I take this to mean that they can now appear in minion positions in a standard spawn, as opposed to the current live ones, which take a LT's position in a spawn.
This change invalidates arcs with the LT version of the critter in a custom group. (It invalidates the group, which the mission complains about.)
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No mention of whether the nerf is MA only or if it affects mobs in regular missions...
Edited by Avatea.
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Another stupidly fast level 50 which any new player could easily achieve in one session.
That wasn't even an attempt to go fast.... Just "normal" farming with 4 in a team..... Imagine 8 man spawns
CoH PvP SG = SuperUnion - Co-Leader - Union/Freedom
CoV PvP VG = Disruption - Co-Leader - Union/Freedom
Global = @Rent & @Rent.
Playgroup are all **** - Global Handle