Two AE Suggestions: Mission Randomization, Recommendation Engine

1. Mission Randomization

Premise:
- AE farm missions have a risk/reward ratio problematically inconsistent with the remainder of the game.
- The principal source of this difference is the ability to tailor the enemies fought, available only in AE.
- It should be possible to level from 1 to 50 in the AE at a risk/reward ratio consistent with the remainder of the game.

Suggestion:
When using AE, present two options for mission selection:
Custom: Select any arc to play for reduced rewards.
Certified: Choose a vetted non-farm arc to play for full rewards.
Random: Choose one from three random arcs to play within certain parameters for full rewards.
Parameters would include length, level range, tags, and presence/absence of custom enemies. Parameters would not include specific enemy types.
Arc menu is fixed until zone or one of the three arcs is run (like radio/newspaper missions).

Benefits:
- Farming missions selected by hand grant reduced rewards compensating for the improved risk/reward ratio
- Random missions fighting a range of enemies leads to an average risk/reward ratio more closely resembling the rest of the game
- A growing pool of vetted non-farm arcs still allows a choice in missions

Issues:
- Newly published arcs created for specific audiences are penalized automatically
- Random missions may be bad - rating system may influence selection?

2. Recommendation Engine

Premise:
- AE rating system does not serve players
- Popularity contest
- Tied to reward system, highly gameable
- Highly rated arcs are overplayed; new arcs remain unplayed
- People are different and have different tastes; AE rating only reflects majority opinion

Suggestion:
- Scrap average rating
- Build recommendation table: N by N correspondence matrix between all AE missions
- Track ratings per player: when player 1 rates arc A and arc B highly, average into correspondence weight between A and B
- Offer recommendations based on table: if arcs A and B have high correspondence, when player 2 rates A highly, recommend B

Benefits:
- Removes popularity contest, quid-pro-quo
- Ratings customized to player preference

Issues:
- May have difficulty reconciling with ticket reward system for AE authorship; then again, most AE authors do not seem to be in it for the tickets
- Difficult to implement

I wonder if this thread wouldn't have been better titled: Kill AE Farming Forever And Get Rid of Stupid Rating System.

I just don't have the knack for controversy, it seems.

I like these ideas, especially the recommendation system. Though already popular arcs like Dev's Choice and Hall of Fame should probably be put on separate tabs from the recommendations just still keep it fair for those who already went through all that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.