There used to be loads of farming. Things have grown more quiet nowadays farmwise. If only because the Dev's made it clear that they will not tolerate farming.
There are loads of good arcs out there, including some very good low level ones.
I haven't seen farming quiet down on Union. Maybe slightly, but it's still going strong, I know quite a few people who still do it regularly.
If you're a villain I suggest you try "Mercytown: The One with all the Fish".
P.S. No, that isn't mine. Mine's in my sig 
It's also low-level 
And Heroic, if you're a hero.
Bad Voodoo by @Beyond Reach. Arc ID #373659. Level 20-24. Mr. Bocor has fallen victim to a group of hooded vigilantes who have been plaguing Port Oakes, interfering with illegal operations and pacifying villain's powers. He demands that revenge is taken on these miscreants and his powers are returned! You look like just the villain for the job. Challenging.
Check out www.cityofguides.com for good mission arcs. not seen any farm ones on there.
No, I have seen farming quiet down a bit but it's still out there, you can tell from the exodus from the other AE buildings to the Atlas one.
And yes Mercytown is good, if you want some high level arcs I'd suggest The Space Lizards vs Amazon Saga (Neutral) or The Super Scavenger Hunt (Villainous). Another good one is Back Alley KAT Blues or Back Alley Kats, can't remember which. And no they're not mine.
Yes I am familiar with cityofguides.com (look at my signature, which I forgot to add in first post hehehe) and the existence of great non-farm arcs. Well Atlas Park is maybe the worst place to be then. Is there some AE building, hero side, for non farmers? I would like somehow to be able to easily form group with people for doing non farm architect missions.
In any case, I think they should fix the ally bubble exploit? To encourage people to play more than a couple of (farm) arcs, I was thinking about a cumulative 10% xp/ticket penalty for every time you play the mission again (each time you quit group or finish mission counts as one)?
Actually it seams only the french have found that little niche exploit. I have never encountered it on any english servers (i guess thats down to it being a french mission) only when i started playing on vig and without being able to speak good french did i stumble upon the gem that is maxed def/res on any char and a boss farm
Hopefully after the MA additions in issue 15 are in, we'll start seeing more and more teams doing MA missions.
At the moment its just too hard to find a random good arc for your level range on a PUG.
@Damz Find me on the global channel Union Chat. One of the best "chat channels" ingame!
Whats gettin added in i15?
Consciousness: that annoying time between naps.
Selectable powers, keyword search, level range specification are some of the ones that stick in my head ^^
But the mission the OP speaks about is genious. It allows for the entire team to farm without any toggles (max res+def bubbles) therefore focus on dmg and attacks ^^ the perfect farm 
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Actually it seams only the french have found that little niche exploit. I have never encountered it on any english servers
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I have encountered English farm mission with bubble allies before, I thought they had removed that exploit though.
[url="http://adingworld.wordpress.com/mission-architect-story-arcs/"][b]My Story arcs[/b][/url]: [i]The Siren Supremes[/i] ([b]1143[/b]), [i]The Missing Geneticist[/i] ([b]2542[/b]), [i]Elemental Jones[/i] ([b]263512[/b]), [i]The Soul Hunter[/i] ([b]294431[/b]), [i]Heart of Steel[/i] ([b]407104[/b]), [i]Project Serpens[/i] ([b]434082[/b])
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There used to be loads of farming. Things have grown more quiet nowadays farmwise. If only because the Dev's made it clear that they will not tolerate farming.
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More quiet yes, but I am not so sure it has decreased that much. I get invites for AE mission teams pretty much every time I log in (sometimes even if the toon has "no farming" in the search text) and in the majority of the cases it is for farming missions.
If people want to do that fine with me, but there is obviously a difference in taste and I find farm missions incredibly boring.
At least some people have the courtesy to explicitly mention either "farm" or "story" when they ask.
[url="http://adingworld.wordpress.com/mission-architect-story-arcs/"][b]My Story arcs[/b][/url]: [i]The Siren Supremes[/i] ([b]1143[/b]), [i]The Missing Geneticist[/i] ([b]2542[/b]), [i]Elemental Jones[/i] ([b]263512[/b]), [i]The Soul Hunter[/i] ([b]294431[/b]), [i]Heart of Steel[/i] ([b]407104[/b]), [i]Project Serpens[/i] ([b]434082[/b])
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There used to be loads of farming. Things have grown more quiet nowadays farmwise. If only because the Dev's made it clear that they will not tolerate farming.
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More quiet yes, but I am not so sure it has decreased that much. I get invites for AE mission teams pretty much every time I log in (sometimes even if the toon has "no farming" in the search text) and in the majority of the cases it is for farming missions.
If people want to do that fine with me, but there is obviously a difference in taste and I find farm missions incredibly boring.
At least some people have the courtesy to explicitly mention either "farm" or "story" when they ask.
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It is certainly not as absurb as it was when MA first came out. But MA farming by no means quiet down.
Stepping into Atlas during prime time, you will certainly see non-stop farming requests and invites. Those farm maps with bombs are most popular; and every hour or so, you would hear people organising boss farm.
I have been getting endless amount of blind invites to a MA farm team; both in heroes and in villains. Not hard to spot which is a farm team: why there are disproportional amount of lowbies in the team where there are just not enough mentors or masters to go around.
MA farming is still very much alive and well; and no sign of stopping or even fading either. I have a coalition friend, if I could even call him that (he has been asking of nothing but me to PL him), who PL-ed his first hero scrapper from 1-50 in a matter of days. Not the fastest (shame on him!) but still unconventionally fast. He has been farming everyday in Atlas; knows very little about the game as well (where's the tailor; where's the entrance to RWZ; how to get into Midnight Clubhouse).
I think I am tired of objecting farming and PLing. The reality is: both activities have become a prominent and salient part of CoX. The concept of effort-vs-reward has long lost in some (that means you Positron!).
I had a nice tell the other week on Villains "do u want to team?". I hadn't anything else planned so I joined. "Come to MA in Cap". I did. "Anyone know any good farm missions?". With that I said "Sorry I don't farm" and left. That player has the honour of being my first, in 2 years of playing, on my Global ignore list
I have tidied up the grammar and spelling
Happy to be on Defiant.
Global name @mereman
Member of P.E.R.C. Representing Defiant
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I got a team like that. This lvl 5 was broadcasting for teams so I joined on my lowbie TA/Arch 'fender. We started a mission with two of us involving zombies with dragon wings and when we faceplanted he decided to get more. Then he broadcasted saying we were lvl 1-40 saying it was a farm.
My respones was; "Is this a farm?" "Yes" "Bye." and quit.
Gotta hat it when that happens.
How can you really tell what is a farm or not? I've seen obvious farms but also seen MA's that have loads of enemies but also an objective. Most gain at least one lv if not 6-7 bars of exp.
But I couldn't tell if it was a farm, or just a really hard mish like some normal mishes. Invloving large zones with loads of groups with at least one objective like save someone or destroy something.
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How can you really tell what is a farm or not?
[/ QUOTE ]A lot of it is gut feeling. Farming is a combination of opportunity and intention. Missions that give great rewards for relatively little effort present the opportunity and players bring the intention to exploit that opportunity.
When a mission is badly designed and just geared toward maximum xp for minimum effort it is easy to tell that people do it for no other purpose than to rake in the rewards. It is a bit more difficult with missions that also give good rewards but are actually well written. If you do such a mission once you are safe. Do it a second time to accompany some friends and show them the nice mission you found and you are still safe. But if you find yourself doing that mission over and over again you should really ask yourself if the story is that good or if your motivation is something else entirely.
If it has eyes, you can blind it, if it has blood, you can make it bleed, if it has a mouth, you can make it scream.
I guess a farm is when the mission gives loads of xp without being hard. One example being easily killed liutenants, but you can still die, there's a risk so I'm not sure the devs would call it "cheating" or just "boring" - actually it can be quite hillarious with some fire/rad/kin trollers and/or some MMs - as in any mission/arc.
More quiet? Hmm, mostly people stopped using the MA it seems, not many new announcements being done about new arcs and not that many people hanging out at the MA. Also more "fixed teams" regularly metting up, not shouting so much on broadcast about it. Seems like people are just simply more quiet about what they do, not doing that much of PuG farming.
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Actually it seams only the french have found that little niche exploit. I have never encountered it on any english servers (i guess thats down to it being a french mission) only when i started playing on vig and without being able to speak good french did i stumble upon the gem that is maxed def/res on any char and a boss farm
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I've seen a fair few Bubble map call-outs in Atlas and Cap recently. Also a mish featuring lots and lots of captive Rikti Guardians so you get AMed and bubbled every time you rescue one. That's actually quite a fun mission (I ran it solo with my Dark/WP Brute) because they've also managed to create lots of fairly large spawns. It's fun going over the aggro cap easily when soloing and practicing my aggro control, corner herding and lining up Shadow Maul.
Beats running crappy radio missions solo anyway.
Saw the bomb one in the listings but thought it didn't sound like much of a challenge. I want to cluster em and take them out myself, not let some bomb do it for me.
I think its just people are being hush hush about it now. Trying to use private global channels instead of broadcast.
I don't think its reduced my a considerable amount, i think people are try different MA's and not spamming it anymore.
It's now Issue 21 and I am back!
My new Global is @Zyhar
Currently enjoying the Exalted Server!
I dont know why people are still going on about this.
If they clamp down anymore on farming no [censored] will be using it and it will have been a complete waste of time.
Just let people do what they want to do now that the spamming has been reduced to a less intrusive level.
Personally the bubble allies allow for max res + def for the entire team, if that isnt max rewards/no effort i don't know what is. Still i guess i couldnt have my two chars on vigilance if it wasnt for that mish
Also have to attribute the fact that vig and zunk are rather unpopulated and i'm sure any easy way to mission is welcome ^^
As long as people still do SFs etc and don't bother me, I really, REALLY don't give a youknowwhat. Are you? Get a life!
Just on the subject of farming PuGs. I joined an MA group, nothign else to do so , why not. Into the mission we go. All freakshow lieutenants. hundreds of them. I exited and went back to wentworths to work out my enhancements and I get a tell asking why I left. I replied that its a farm mission and I'm not interested in farming.
the response was incredible: "its not a farming team. to be a farming team you ahve to have a certain set of ATs and we dont have that so its not farming"
I'm sorry, but a mission with no text, no story, generic ocntact and a map full of lieutenant freakshow + 50 glowies , zero purpose is, to me at least, a farming mission. and any team that plays that type of mission while being made up of 2 x 35 , 1 x 20, 1x 15, 2 x 8 level characters (and the 35s didnt have a clue how to play hteir alts, two tanks that kept running away with almost zero def/res!) is, in my mind a farming/powerlevelling team.
but the team leader swore blind that it wasnt farming... if I were a new player I'd have been very very confused.
By the way... What's the point with all the glowies?
...don't get it, since the badges been on the "todo:remove" list forever!
After being absent from the game for a few weeks, I decided to get back to playing/making architect missions and build a toon from scratch. My idea was to (almost) only play architect missions with my new character. I wanted to try out a lot of missions but every architect team I encountered is focused almost completely on doing FARM missions. I gathered a team once myself to do my own mission (no farm) but when I asked what mission they wanted to do next, they suggested a farm mission
Those missions always seem to use a bunch of allies with sonic resonance/force field group bubbles. Then they start beating on groups containing only bosses or lieutenants ad infinitum.
I think this ally exploit should somehow be dealt with, right?
EDIT: My experience is from French server, but the 'exploit' could happen anywhere of course, don't know if there's as much architect farming on other servers