Kill XP in MA - How About It?

I'm actually serious. After the Ally Nerf, why not do this? If the devs are concerned about exploits for PLing, why not just cut out all the time and effort they are doing in order to plug holes in the system?

Kill XP in the Mission Architect.

It was a nice try, we appreciated the idea of being able to go from 1 to 50 in AE - but maybe it is more trouble than it is worth.

I'm not saying that we necessarily have to kill rewards in the AE system. Tickets have become a very important part of the marketplace and economy, and inf/prestiege rewards still make the system somewhat attractive for those who want rewards for their efforts.

But fixing the XP exploits is pulling manpower away from other features and patches which could sorely use some love. Exploiters love to talk about how the devs will "never stop us!!!1!!11", maybe it's time for the devs to put that boast to the test.

Just a thought.

NB: I am not complaining about "farmers", folks who feel like they want to repetitively experience content in order to force rewards. I recognize that farming, for good or ill, is something that the in-game economy and marketplace is essentially reliant upon. I am talking about exploits, which goes beyond farming, IMO.

Might as well. No one that wants to legitimately level at a reasonable pace uses the MA anyhow. It's either people that really don't care how fast or even if they level or people trying to use the latest exploit to level faster.

Amen to that! Just kill rewards from MA so the manpower and resources that constantly are used to 'fix' MA can be put back in actually giving us REAL content in a semi-timely fashion!

I got an even better idea. Ban the exploiters with hatred and fire! Who's with me?

This is exactly why after 3 months of MA coming out I stopped using it and have stayed away ever since... It just causes to many hurt feelings.

I just this past week got an offer from a bud to farm my lowb, I was bored and no TFs were starting, so I said hell why not? I was very shocked at how elaborate the farm was just to get the xp, but it was very good xp and I can see why these nerfs come.

But I'm with you, kill xp, but maybe let recipes drop or something. Cuz this is causing more trouble than the dad gum AE system is worth IMO.

It was great in the beginning but the ability to game it has ruined it.

I'd be with ya Eva with banhammering the exploit-builders, but if I can make a spurious assumption, I'd expect that whomever was in charge of banning would end up nailing way too many non-guilty parties. That's not including the potential for griefers to fraudulently report a "farm builder" and get people banned inappropriately.

I think there were some decent changes to the MA, the critter XP nerf was annoying but it was controllable and capable of being moderated. The Ally Nerf feels way too scattershot for me.

So, I'm done with XP in MA. I'm not changing my arcs, if people don't like how I build them, F-- 'em. I'm not writing them to PL anyone.

**** it.

At this point why not?

The devs fix AE xp gains more than anything else in the game. I'm getting sick of it. If that's all they're concerned about, just get rid of the XP.

/signed.

People seem to fall into two categories - "I hate the AE for reason X" and "I like the AE for reason Y". The first pretty much stay away from it and the second seem to be perfectly happy playing the AE as it is.

Seems to me like this is a perfectly acceptable way for things to go, why kill the XP?

If I’m going to do legitimate AE missions, I’d like to be able to get legit AE rewards…including xp. My idea for making the AE exploits a little less viable and to have the AE be a little more part of the game world is as follows:

1. Cannonball the bulk of the AE buildings, especially where they completely inconsistent with the other buildings or architecture. You only need like maybe 3 per side. If you have to have one in the Rikti War Zone for co-ops, at least bomb it out and make that one special in its appearance and staff interactions. I’m thinking that the staff are ducking behind consoles and sandbags, talking about getting better jobs, and mostly thinking you’re crazy for wanting to jump into a holodeck when the building could go at any minute. Make it fun.

2. Shut down the AE Medi-Ports. This will make sense in a minute.

3. Lose the AE Building contact hologram. Instead, every zone has a designated spot where the AE contacts spawn. List it on the maps.

4. Once you form your AE TF, you and your crew click the little column of light and get transported to a level appropriate zone on the appropriate side. At that point, you’re in the simulation and all the spawns, contacts, and other heroes you see in the game world are just part of the AE’s incredible simulation experience. You seek out the AE contact and get your mission which directs you to an instanced door either in the same zone or another zone. A given arc might send you running all over Paragon City or the Rogue Isles, unless you’re in the RWZ. If there is an AE there, you’d have to be limited to that zone.

In short, the AE missions become more like regular missions with travel time, hospital runs, hot doors, etc. RPers will be happy with the more immersive environment. Storytellers will be happy because you’ll lose some of the ‘just a simulation’ feel you have living in the AE building. People who don’t exploit the AE might grumble about the change back to the standard but I don’t think many of them would outright hate it. The people who would really hate it would be the folks who want to farm and milk xp and while this doesn’t necessarily address that directly, it makes it all a little less convenient. I’m all for making things less convenient.

I was thrilled about the AE inclusion but I do think the overall effect on the game has been detrimental. And I’m not suggesting this just as a way of sticking it to people who would exploit. I’ve been on AE farms too…of course, it deserves mentioning that I joined most of those after many, many minutes looking fruitlessly for a regular team. For a long while, it was all you could get and I do think there are players - otherwise decent players that we all knew and liked for years - who got used to the easy xp and went on a break once it was over.

I know people love to perpetuate the most extreme examples of the AE Reign on the game - the things like the Level 50 who didn't know what enhancements were or didn't know there were other zones besides Atlas - but most of the people I saw on those teams were folks with a few anniversary badges under their belts. A lot of those people felt that they'd seen the content and figured that might as well level as quickly as possible.

I'm not sure there is any going back on that in a game coming up on the 6th year but I'd like them to try. GR and I19 sound like some solid steps...but I'd like to someday see the AE working as intended. Someday.

Here's a thought - besides Hall of Fame and Dev's Choice, have a third special title, kind of like a mini-dev's choice - granted to story arcs that are halfway decent and non-exploitative. Requirements would be similar to Dev's Choice: marked as "Final", nominated by someone else in the Dev's Choice thread (so as not to inundate them, though it probably would greatly increase nominations) or found through one of their contests. These arcs would grant normal XP for things like minion-only groups, be allowed to have flavor allies, etc, and grant this mini-dev choice much more frequently - like 5 a week.

I think it would be good to kill exp in AE in all honesty.

If they did that though I would like to see changes brought in to buff AE so it doesnt become obsolete, such as raising the amount of influence/infamy you earn there, particularly upon mission complete, and keep the tickets as they are.

This way players at 50 would still play it as a source of income, yes you are going to get farmers still, but if its only level 50s getting cash, the problem of AE exploit noobs is pretty much solved.

No rewards in the mission architect. It's the only way to be sure.

Remove Inf from the MA anyway, that really doesn't make any sense to me at all either mechanically or in terms of what Inf is supposed to represent. Throttle Ticket Drops a bit as well.


Not sure on XP to be honest. No XP would kill it altogether, a slow sliding diminishing returns might work better than a hard cap (but would probably still be Gamed).

Killing the XP in MA, will have the same effect the "improvement's" to PvP had a while back - ghost town - the history of MA bears this out - if they remove XP from MA they better damn well have another significant reason to play the MA system or they might as well tear the buildings down.

Personally I tend to be one of those who say "let 'em play how they want to play", but from the sentiment in this thread it appears I'm in the minority (as usual). And while the Devs seem to be VERY good at listening to player sentiment, they're not so good at saying "ooops!, that didn't work".

Be careful what you ask for.

I always thought that MA should not have any exp(or Inf) since it is a holographic program. I also think that tickets should be increased as a offsetting point to the no exp(or Inf).
I have even thought of the break down of tickets given foor each as they are defeated:
2 tickets for minions
4 tickets for Lts.
6 tickets for Bosses
8 tickets for Elite Bosses
10 tickets for AVs/Heroes
Pets, Henchmen as in regular missions get you nothing.

You get the tickets upto the map limit of 1500, which I think is a fair amount.

I had assumed AE would not provide the traditional rewards when I first read about it. I was quite frankly shocked when I found out it would. My own "spider sense" went off right away that this would be trouble.

By no means is this a post to say "toldja so". Rather it's just to /sign this. If AE's only reward were tickets, with no change to what tickets could be exchanged for, I'd still find it worthwhile, just from a rewards perspective.