AE Experience Drop

This reminds me of "If a tree falls where no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?"

It seeems to be still hanging around. Dunno how, though, given that after maybe a month after release it was already suffering price cuts on the box (down to half, now, in my area - $20) and being tossed onto the bargain racks at Wal-Mart.

How to find good content in AE:

1) Play Dev's Choice, Guest Author, and Hall of Fame arcs. This will not guarantee a great story everytime--I've played a few in those categories that I personally thought were stinkers. But on average you should run across much better content than you will by picking arcs at random. And it's unlikely any of them will turn out to be farms.

2) Go to the AE forums and read the reviews on arcs. Not only will you get some good recommendations, you should get enough info on individual arcs to judge which ones suit your particular tastes.

3) Make your own. This is player created content after all, and you're a player! Be part of the solution! If everyone dismisses AE as simply a power-leveling tool, then we really won't have any good content anymore.

Interestingly enough, I have a lifetime subscription to Champions Online. :P


And I haven't actually decided whether or not I'm quitting, guys. I said Issue 17 and Going Rogue would be the breaking point. After those both come out, if I still don't find myself with a renewed sense of fun in the game, then I will likely quit for good. I still love the game, it just feels "stale" to me. The fact that I have a growing dislike for the company behind it doesn't help, either.

Then again, I thought the last time I quit was "for good" as well. Old habits die hard, I guess. lol

No, just more of NCSoft closing up blatant exploits. Get over yourself, they were awarding WAY too much xp for the challenge they posed.

But I fail to see the problem anyway. Their house, their rules and all. I'm wondering when it became a problem for the people who make a game to also make the rules for that game...

What I said was more out of my general distaste for NCsoft, not the fixing of the exploit in particular.

Really? And you've got research and figures to back this up? Or are you talking out of your rear ( still )?

The fact that people are finding exploits in the AE system to level quickly, and that many, many people did those missions over and over, serves as proof enough I'd say.

If they didn't like leveling quickly, they wouldn't be doing it, would they?

And what I said still applies. Again, their house, their rules and all. What's wrong with a game's creators making the rules for said game? When did this become a problem?

"Many, many people" =/= "most". Just because the speedballers are the most visible doesn't mean they're the majority.

First off, your board Avatar rocks. Well done.

I personally use the AE to design custom content that appeals to me
(Origin Stories and the like) but I am not the best designer out there.

It is my hope that more people embrace and use this system. The
very fact that you can have some control over how a story or mission
is told is to ME a good thing.

But I may one of only a few that feels that way.

Cheers!

I agree. It's a fantastic RP tool, really. Nice to whip together something for a storyline and run your RP buddies through it.

Well said! Bravo!

It's 106 miles to Grandville, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing faceless helmets

... Hit it ...

Not only that, but there was a new standard box out real quick. No, I'm not confusing the CE with the Standard edition.
The moment other people started to play it
Some people do like the ding fest.

Others are of the "Must Reach Level Cap Now To Start Gameplay" mindset.

Either way, I seriously doubt either (or both) for a majority here.

How on earth did the exploit stop you playing the way you wanted?

The same way exploits screwed over the game for everyone who doesn't want to use them before; near-impossible to form non-farming teams, high-level zones are filled with clueless powerlevelled newbies that have no idea how to use their powers, nobody playing non-50 content, etc.

This is a very real consequence of said exploitative power-leveling, to be sure. It's annoying, unattractive and only serves to incite the ire of seasoned players that actually worked at exploring the game, discovering its contents and leveling through challenges rather than around them.

However, this also demonstrates why social networking is so crucial in this game. As far as I know, and as long as I've been playing, that's an element which has persisted despite some of the setbacks and challenges presented by design changes and/or new feature implementations in City of Heroes.

Just as we're referencing players that choose to use the AE system in such a manner, we can also reference other players that are more concerned with things like friendships, leveling pacts, SG recruitment, etc. I only hope that non-farming groups and players prove to be the majority, consistently, rather than a steady or marked decline that would empower cheapened leveling by players that don't understand form or function amongst the various ATs the game has to offer.

This. Just surprised it took so long to fix the henchmen

Uhh, I don't think you can really compare:

* The storm that was AE at launch where everyone could run giant missions of boss exp enemies that don't fight back for absolutely ludicrous exp and every person in every zone was swarming around the AE to do massively exploitative missioning that allowed you to do 1-50 in an hour, with new players accidentally hitting 50 within a few hours without realizing it, to:

* Slightly exploitative farming that's not really all that fast but is really safe, which is more suited to solo play because you only face one enemy at a time, and almost nobody was doing it and if they were they were doing it by themselves.

Henchman farm absolutely did not overtake the game. It was not ruining lives or destroying teams. It was an exploit and needed to be removed yes, but I don't buy "I couldn't find teams so I HAD to exploit!"

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

Possibly. But the devs set a standard to uphold and it wouldn't make sense for them to turn a blind eye to some farms and nerf others.

Besides, the farms would probably catch on pretty quickly.

I just want to point out that the same people who were using the henchman farm, will probably just move back to their old farms(BM, Demons) until The Next Big Thing™ comes about. So really, what changes? S.F.A. (The Next Big Thing™ is already being exploited I'll warrant.)

I must admit, I dont understand the mentality of "Everyone over there is doing that. I want to team, but I dont want to do that. Devs! Make people team with me!" Christ, it reminds me of my little brothers crying to mom.

Now before anyone says "But its a MMO, why do you play if you dont want to team?" To that I say this is a game that allows me to solo, and other folks to team. I don't whinge and spit the dummy at the devs because people blind invite me to teams...

Anyway, not meant for you specifically, just the general argument that I've seen made on occasion.