MA lvling

Anybody else think it may be a good idea to limit access to mishes based on your lvl? While I LOVE the amount of people MA is pulling in, it's a shame that they're not getting the chance to lvl a little more slowly, and learn what their toons can really do. PL'ing is certainly a choice you can make to lvl, but if you're a noob, (as we all were at one point) I have to think eventually it gets boring. 1 guy I teamed with was a lvl 20 scrapper who had no enhancements slotted on ANY powers, took ww in ss and thought it was cool, and only did AE farming mishes. I can't think that in 6 months he'll still be around...

Will be handled pretty well in I16 already.

I've gone through a few arcs specifically designed for low level characters.

"HappyCorpse" and "One Hell of a Deal" were for levels 1-10 and they were pretty darn interesting.

I don't think MA should be restricted by level, as a level 1 is currently capable of participating, enjoying, and creating content for it.

I second that the changes in I16 will reduce the incidence of PL'ed noobs, as dedicated farmers won't need fillers to get large spawns.

The xp filter on custom critter group composition might reduce exploitative farming maps.

The supersidekick system will should remove bridging.

I think that PL'ed noobs are self-filtering. Either they:

1) figure things out and become competent teammates, with or without help
2) or they get bored/frustrated/blacklisted and leave.

I'd think they're more likely to stay around for a few more months because their new, higher level character is more entertaining to play.

The strategic and tactical decisions you make between level one and ten are negligible. Your choices are essentially limited to 'which attack is available' and pattern recognition - are there enough targets to use an AOE, have the green bars gone down enough to warrant a heal, do all my teammates have my buff, do all my enemies have my debuff.

This game's boring when you've got half a dozen powers. That's fine for your first toon, since you're still learning how to play the game. Try making a toon, then leveling them from 1 to 10 in Mercy Island, doing missions and street sweeping. Then do that 4 more times with different ATs or power combinations. In a row.

What people overlook is that what I just described -is- the new player experience.

For all the stop and smell the roses comments, CoX pre-20 is a tedious grindfest with the same enemy groups in the same buildings and a smattering of story. The game doesn't become fun in the sense usually applied to games until you pick up a travel power, and doesn't present interesting strategic or tactical decisions until the mid to late 20s depending on AT.

Now, once it gets there it presents more detailed and specific customization options than anything else in the genre, which is largely why people love it. It's easy to put on the rose colored glasses and reminisce about the time you spent leveling up and all the memories you have, but I suspect that what's really got veterans up in arms is the sense that these new whipper snappers didn't 'earn' their 50s with a hundred hours of tedium.

People have been powerleveled by friends since werewolves in dumpsters was the thing to do, and the game's still going strong. If anything, we got a generation of gamers over the boredom of the early levels and gave them a better way to enjoy the game and understand why we enjoy it.

On Enhancements:

The level 20 with no enhancements... did he know they exist, and was saving his cash for level 22 SOs/IOs or level 30 or 35 IOs?

Or was he challenging himself?

I had a friend who decided to slot nothing at all, not even drops, so he could build a cash reserve to splurge on IOs at some high level.


On Power Choices:

I've often taken powers that I KNEW were not popular or of questionable tactical or DPS value (Call of the Wolf) because I thought they were cool. I don't play for maximum efficiency. I play for maximum fun!

This guy may be more impressed with the "neato!" factor of Whirlwind than any DPS/DPE ratios.

When you meet folks like this, you have the chance to share a bit of your knowledge and experience, but, while do so, don't smack their sense of wonder and excitement.


On Levels 1-20

I realize some people do not enjoy 1-20 through regular content, but I do.

I did xp farms for a villain for his 5-20.

Although my levels per hour were probably the highest I've done, my fun per hour was below average. So, not my thing.

1-20 is an enjoyable experience for me.

Unfortunately, if they restricted AE access to a certain level or above they would be guilty of false advertising. The AE Edition box currently on shelves clearly states "Level from 1-50 in Architect Entertainment"

If they wanted to restrict access they would first have to recall several hundred thousand retail boxes. So, even if they wanted to, they really can't.

I've seen some very fun and interesting content in MA. To be honest, I just wish they could take good content and put it into the 'real game' and throw everything else out. That's harder to do then say, but that's what I want.

Well, that's the general idea of the Dev's Choice missions, which you can choose to play as a 'normal' arc that drops salvage, recipes (including purples) and enhancements instead of tickets.

I don't see what the big deal is . I like the idea of either waiting around to join a team in AE or joining someone on a mish in the normal game . It's been mentioned already , but there is very little change in the storyline to keep people interested in doing it all over again . And if u want to use a def or controller , it will be very hard going during the normal game anyways . No need to make drastic changes , leave it the way it is .