Too Many Nerfs

I hate to say it, but the Developers have been making AE more and more unusable.

They've nerfed so many groups (and maps???) that it's ruined nearly all of my arcs...actually, now that I think about it...none of my arcs are functional.

The thing I liked best about AE was the ability to create massive, deeply thought-thru 5 mission task forces. I'm a comic book geek, and have even been published in the field. I was looking forward to the opportunity to create original, comic book-style epic arcs.

And that ability was there at first....sort of.

The space limitation prevented the use of entirely custom-created enemy groups. The fact that some members of certain groups needed their own individual groups consumed additional space, and soon, you were halfway through mission three and suddenly needed to find standard groups to replace key characters.

But this isn't even about that.

This is about the nerfing of content.

Now, I can understand the desire to nerf certain things (Hami's for example), but lets see...what about the Battle Maiden enemy group?! I had a fully thought out 5 mission arc exploring BM and placing her and her group in a detailed story, and because people had created FARMS using that group (which is readily available in PI), suddenly my story is totally worthless, just as I was about to finish it after months of working on it.

Another example...what happened to the burning warehouse (or office building; I forget which) map?!

I had developed another arc that had 5 missions...sure enough, I get to the 5th mission after working hard on the rest, and the mission called for that map, which had been there before, and now it's gone.

The whole premise of that story was an enemy that had actually been testing the player, and in the final mission, the player had the option of saving the enemy or not...which would...well, I guess it doesn't matter now, does it? Can't save the enemy from a burning building without a burning villain, can he?

The point is, because the devs do not want a farming situation, we have all suffered.

Really.

And is farming so wrong? Who knows? Who really cares?

The theory just a few months ago was that if you remove the farming, things would return to normal and we would be able to find teams again. Since the nerfs, guess what?

Freedom server is no longer as busy as it was. The place is a graveyard most of the time now. Virtue? The same way.

Champion? Totally dead. The only people left on hte lesser populated servers are those that don't wish to lose their SGs or that can't aford transfers.

Doing away with farming in AE? Killed this game.

And I don't even make farm missions in AE! I just want to develop quality arcs for my friends and I to play...however, most of those friends have now moved on to either CO or Aeon (or however it's spelled).

I run one of hte top 20 SGs on Freedom. We use to be completely filled, with only a few spots opening per week. Since the nerfs, I have almost no one left. I've lost 3 of my 7 leaders to other games.

And the AE Farming? Sure it's no longer an issue...but there's another factor that contributed to the ae farming...summer break.

The devs left that stuff in there throughout summer break for most kids. They were the AE Babies. The players that PLed because they knew they would only have the accounts for a couple months.

Now they are gone, but so are an awful lot of long-term players. Why? Because they feel stabbed in the back.

The devs may as well NEVER RELEASE GOING ROGUE because they've now aliennated so many people that hardly anyone wishes to play this game anymore.

Sure, there's us homers...the players that have been here since day 1 and keep coming back, but even amongst us, the numbers have dwindled.

I was a beta tester for Champions Online. I hated that game.

I know people mostly don't care for it in it's current state. Yet thousands have left this game to play it. Why? Because they feel the devs have stabbed them in the backs in one way or another.

As for myself? I don't quite feel that way. I believe the devs are trying to make things better. But the plain and simple fact is this...you can't let the cat out of the bag, and expect him to climb right back in.

They created a system that allowed people to farm. I really don't care. I see nothing wrong with farming. I even have a farming toon, but I've always prefered PI over AE for it.

Oops...shouldn't have said that...now the devs will nerf the PI map...from pi!

FARMING IS GOOD FOR THIS GAME
Think of it as a gateway drug, for example. People come to the game, and yeah, they farm. So what? Eventually they either move on or decide they want to explore the game in more detail.

And that leads to commited players.

WITHOUT IT?
Look at the results. Graveyards. Whereas nearly every day hit a peak, now we're LUCKY if a weekend does!


I know the "elite" and "homers" will shoot this post down. I don't really care. You can all expect to see additional services being charged for soon...or maybe content updates will start coming for a price.

They may as well merge some servers, because that's the only thing that will make things active again.


Anyone that doesn't think things have gotten worse is lying to us and themselves.

That's right. You just go stand in Atlas for 6 hours. In fact, just like the old days, create an SG and see if you can recruit there. All that's left are the people who use broadcast to chat. AE is almost never used anymore.

The only reason any of the zones see action is the events. What happens when THEY ARE GONE?

Nothing.

Just like we've been seeing.

Absolutely nothing.

I could care less about farming, truly. But everyone here has to admit that at least the servers were busy with it there.

And finally, one other thing to consider
AE Votes.
No one can get in the upper rankings any more because not enough people play AE. So the ones at the top are there to stay.

The nerfs have ruined this game. Totally.

AE was the addition that was supposed to save it. But thanks to the nerfs, it's now spiralling away into oblivion.

See now? I knew someone would play the denial game

Newsflash...I was a beta tester on this game and have played since. I know how the game is played, and I've run 2 successful supergroups. I know how to team.

I know what zones are best for what levels.

I have toons maxed out on badges.

The. Players. Simply. Are. Not. There. Anymore.

Riiiiiiiiiight.

If you can form a full team at ANY time to play with people, the game is not dead or dying.

Okay, how about this.... tonight or tomorrow night name a time and a server and meet me ingame. I will form a FULL team for you within 15 minutes. Care to take me up on the challenge?

The BM group still works fine in AE, in fact I'm using some of these mobs for my XP farms sometimes.

As for supposed nerfs driving people out of the game, you've got to realise it's an old game and with new, anticipated releases coming out a bunch of people are likely to try something else. The playerbase is slowly decreasing and there's not much anyone can do about that, in fact were the devs not doing such a great job with recent updates it'd most likely be a much sharper decline.

People don't leave games because they "feel stabbed in the back". People leave games because they eventually tire of playing the same game for years, and feel they aren't getting their money worth on their sub anymore. Admittedly, some of these people will use the "nerfs drove me away" excuse to add a little spice and drama or simply to rationalize their leaving, but boredom is always the #1 cause.

I don't have access to the Euro servers. Nice try. And he's an AMERICAN Angel.

I don't think AE killed the game or be responsible for the lack of people in game. This time of year is always slow and I can name few other reasons why there are not as many people on as before, #1 Other MMO's have been released, which is good for us as the consumer competition makes company's work harder to keep our buisiness. #2 School is in session, a lot of the kids are back in school getting their education and have no time for games, #3 People are probably back to work someway or another and are either to busy to play or have made their play time at a different time than what it was before.

In my opinion farming is just another way for a player to play the game how they want to. I neither condone or promote farming myself but I do always say let people play how they want to play the game. Unless someone pays for my monthly subscription i'm going to play COX the way I want to.

As for teams its not hard to form one, especially now with super SK'ing. I'm a scanners guy myself and at any given time a full team can be easily done.

Wow thats freaking awesome Westley lol!

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This thread really brings out the worst in me.

Sure the OP is a bit of a doom and gloomer but the reactions. I don't want to go into the particulars about some of the posters. Like one above who can form a team anytime, by relentless spamming pre written invites, and not bothering to tell people that they are organizing the team/tf as a PL fest for themselves and their cronies.

Frankly I'm enjoying this "Ghost Town" where I can get teams whenever I want compared to what it was like prior to this supposed nerf when seemingly all anybody wanted to do was farm AE missions, although it was still possible to get teams together for non MA stuff, just took a little more work. If anything the game seems slightly more crowded than it was prior to the release of MA.

Battle maiden warrioirs were nerfed? They give 2000 or so more exp then freaks, boss class im talking about. What did they use to give? if you don't mind my asking cause their excatly what i use for farming AE still. This is a serious question I really don't know

lol this thread delivers.

...

not really.

for everyone that says it was the nerfs or AE that drove people away from this game i would like, no i want you to give proof that that is what happened. and not the well a friend of a friend of a friend bs that most people come up with. i want hard evidence that this is what happened. all of you seem to think that this is the only game out there and that people don't have lives outside of the game. got some news for you, it isn't the only game out there and people do have lives outside of the game. infact this time of year is most affected by school and people working more to afford thanksgiving and christmas and there are more games that come out at this time of year than any other time.

Nothing to add other than to say, Yes I do see fewer people on these days. I'm not sure what the cause is, but it seems as though fewer people are logging in now than this time last year. Heck, I don't even log in as much as I used to.

"Sorry bucko, but CoH and CoV are the same game." -BackAlleyBrawler
"Silly villain, CoX is for Heroes!" -Saicho