So did the AE farm nerfs work?
By
Agonus,
Posted on: 2009-09-21 05:08 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Dunno about Atlas but my Brutes had teams all weekend. Including the level 15 one in Cap Au yesterday morning which never saw the inside of the AE building at all (actually that's a lie. I ducked in there to load up on Purple Insps for a hard as nails Arachnos mission we were being slaughtered in repeatedly). That was on Union
Depends on how you define "AE Farming". but I ran the same mission twice with my new tank, got 4 levels, and had a blast the other night.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the fixes were not to kill farming. They were to stop exploiting. Farming still existent, always has, and always will.
It's early to cme to any conclusions, but my subjective feeling is, so far, so good. Plenty of teams and team requests whenever I was on this weekend, at a variety of levels; mostly regular missions but sometimes in AE. The AE ones were real missions, not farms, and AE wasn't especially crowded. No invites to bridge or fill yet. Still getting spam from inf sellers on the characters I haven't set e-mail preferences on; I take that as a good thing, since it implies the6y might keep at it because relatively few people use the feature to turn it off -- and perhaps they'll stick to that and leave us alone in other ways.
My PUG teams still broke up after a few missions, including the usual excuses. And people avoided the star like the plague. 
So everything's normal there.
If we are to die, let us die like men. -- Patrick Cleburne
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The rule is that they must be loved. --Jayne Fynes-Clinton, Death of an Abandoned Dog
Good to hear.
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Yeah, I was maybe unclear. I don't have a problem with farming, I should have said exploiting. I was kinda nervous that when the boss farms were plugged, some new exploit would be unearthed the next day that would make the fix moot, just like what happeened with comm officers/customs with no ranged attack/mitos...
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Originally Posted by Calash
Depends on how you define "AE Farming". but I ran the same mission twice with my new tank, got 4 levels, and had a blast the other night.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the fixes were not to kill farming. They were to stop exploiting. Farming still existent, always has, and always will. |
"The Hamidon is a what what of what?" - Brian the mission guy.
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Ah thats why people like me being on their teams, I don't avoid the star, sob all these years I thought they liked me sob |
Originally Posted by Sailboat
people avoided the star like the plague.
So everything's normal there. |
Open exploit farming seems to be way down.
I just wish they would give us some way to filter our mission searches so we don't see all the old boss farms that are just clogging things up.
I can tell you this, at least: The AESpam in Atlas has cleared up a LOT. For whatever reason, there just isn't nearly as much of "lvl 42 scraper lf ae lol" anymore. I don't know whether the newb farms are still running or not, but if they are they're a lot quieter about it.
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MA Arc ID 8121: Rapp'Mas'Ta's War. The Rikti are trying to incorporate sonic effects into their weapons? THAT can't be good. Maybe we should ask them to stop.
On Virtue yesterday, I was running through Atlas to a mish and I saw in broadcast..
"Sewer team forming- 4 spots"
It made me smile since it'd been forever since I'd seen a sewer team form. Guess people are starting to trickle back to the real game.
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The devs don't either - PI is still a zone for level 1s, they've opened up the RWZ to level 1s for co-op farming, and they added the ability to solo maps set for a full team of 8 - the only real problem they had was with farming in the AE, as it was messing up the whole AE system.
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Originally Posted by Leese
I don't have a problem with farming.
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@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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I may be the odd person out here, but I don't really consider sewer teams to be a noticeable improvement over AE farms. I don't consider either to be a valuable location to spend your early levels on.|
Originally Posted by Tayla Ewa
On Virtue yesterday, I was running through Atlas to a mish and I saw in broadcast..
"Sewer team forming- 4 spots" It made me smile since it'd been forever since I'd seen a sewer team form. Guess people are starting to trickle back to the real game. |
But then, my view has been for a while that the low-level game is in dire need of improvements (both where game mechanics and content are concerned).
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You're not the only one. I did a double take when I read that line too.
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Originally Posted by Sorciere
I may be the odd person out here, but I don't really consider sewer teams to be a noticeable improvement over AE farms.
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My Characters
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I've always considered them a sort of right of passage. I actually did try this weekend to start a toon and level without the sewers.. and my scrapper was sent running across Steel Canyon at level 7 to talk to a contact who sent her back across Steel to the other side of the map to try to get through a door with a level 15 mob in front of it.. this is valuable experience?|
Originally Posted by Sorciere
I may be the odd person out here, but I don't really consider sewer teams to be a noticeable improvement over AE farms. I don't consider either to be a valuable location to spend your early levels on.
But then, my view has been for a while that the low-level game is in dire need of improvements (both where game mechanics and content are concerned). |
Before the farming nerfs, finding people forming sewer teams, radio mishes, etc was few and far between unless you had an already established circle of friends who were willing to do it.
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Which contact would that be? All the 5-10 origin contacts are located in Atlas Park, Galaxy City, or Kings Row, and Montague Castanella shouldn't open up until level 10 (and even if you talk to him earlier, he won't give you missions until level 10).|
Originally Posted by Tayla Ewa
I actually did try this weekend to start a toon and level without the sewers.. and my scrapper was sent running across Steel Canyon at level 7 to talk to a contact who sent her back across Steel to the other side of the map to try to get through a door with a level 15 mob in front of it..
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| this is valuable experience? |
But sewer teams are not a solution. They are a stopgap fix.
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I thought this was fixed with the I16 exp boost.
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Originally Posted by Sorciere
Which contact would that be? All the 5-10 origin contacts are located in Atlas Park, Galaxy City, or Kings Row, and Montague Castanella shouldn't open up until level 10 (and even if you talk to him earlier, he won't give you missions until level 10).
I didn't say that. In fact, I thought I was pretty clear: I think the current low level game is a mess that needs to be fixed. Consider, for example, that going through the hero-side tutorial and then following your normal origin contacts arcs from level 1, you will for most origins not gain enough XP to get to level 5 without street sweeping. This is a pretty elementary oversight, has been in the game for years, and still hasn't been fixed. Even now, in I16, for some reason they adjusted XP gains for level 5-24 and left out levels 1-4, where they could have fixed that. But sewer teams are not a solution. They are a stopgap fix. |
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The I16 experience boost, as far as I know, only raised experience from level 5-24. (That is what the official patchnotes say -- I haven't tested it yet myself.)
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Originally Posted by Mr. NoPants
I thought this was fixed with the I16 exp boost.
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There's also the Hollows. Though well, even after the improvements it's still The Hollows.
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I joined a 6 player sewer team over the weekend and it took me less than one hour to hit level 5 once I hit atlas park after making my character and I didn't even do the tutorial. |
Originally Posted by Sorciere
I may be the odd person out here, but I don't really consider sewer teams to be a noticeable improvement over AE farms. I don't consider either to be a valuable location to spend your early levels on.
But then, my view has been for a while that the low-level game is in dire need of improvements (both where game mechanics and content are concerned). |
I find the sewers to be perfect for getting to level 5 and then hitting KR for radio missions and temp travel powers.
By level 8, I have my raptor pack and it's only been maybe 2, 2.5 hours tops (teaming). I'm happy with that pace.
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So, uh, how is farming the sewer for fast levels is 'better' than farming MA for fast levels?|
Originally Posted by Tayla Ewa
On Virtue yesterday, I was running through Atlas to a mish and I saw in broadcast..
"Sewer team forming- 4 spots" It made me smile since it'd been forever since I'd seen a sewer team form. Guess people are starting to trickle back to the real game. |
Because it's in a sewer, not an office building?
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Exactly my point. If this were interesting content, you'd not be raving about how fast you got PAST it, but what you experienced doing it.
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Originally Posted by Clouded
I joined a 6 player sewer team over the weekend and it took me less than one hour to hit level 5 once I hit atlas park after making my character and I didn't even do the tutorial.
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
So, uh, how is farming the sewer for fast levels is 'better' than farming MA for fast levels?
Because it's in a sewer, not an office building? |
because it's designed for that purpose. farming in MA was not intended, please stop being intentionally obtuse.
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If I want "interesting content" I'd run the story arcs, not a sewer team/radio missions. I don't think you can have it both ways in the low levels...the pace of leveling up is just too quick.|
Originally Posted by Sorciere
Exactly my point. If this were interesting content, you'd not be raving about how fast you got PAST it, but what you experienced doing it.
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EDIT: Sorry for the double post.
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First, AE farms never happened on office maps and you know it.|
Originally Posted by Nethergoat
So, uh, how is farming the sewer for fast levels is 'better' than farming MA for fast levels?
Because it's in a sewer, not an office building? |
The sewers have absolutely none of the safety and ease that AE farms did. Lowbies are on their own without SKing, dying means a long trip back from the hospital, and teams have to learn to work together to survive. They're a proving ground where players learn the hard way, and surprisingly often have a lot of fun doing so.
Yeah it's not the best situation, but its popularity isn't unfounded.
If you like Sewer Teams, Then Perez Park, Boomtown, Dark Astoria, Crey Folley and Eden should be good fun as well. All hazard zones designed for teams to 'farm'.
I think Golden Girl is right here. They do not dislike farmers but not with the AE and not with bombarding newbies with spam.
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Because any negative mention of AE must be spiked into the sand without remorse.|
Originally Posted by Nethergoat
So, uh, how is farming the sewer for fast levels is 'better' than farming MA for fast levels?
Because it's in a sewer, not an office building? Quote:
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--NT
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But I showed them, and nobody's laughing at me now!
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I never really paid attention to AE farms, mostly just avoided Atlas, and never really had trouble finding teams when I wanted one, so I'll ask people who might know...
Have the changes in I16 had the desired effect, (from the devs point of view) of removing AE PL teams, and have you noticed more players leaving Atlas to see the rest of the game?
"The Hamidon is a what what of what?" - Brian the mission guy.