PvP, Badges, or Mission Architect? Which do you use more?
By
Ad Astra,
Posted on: 2010-04-23 18:27 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
MA because I suck at PVP.
to 
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I actually don't use any three of them very much. I used to PvP from time to time, but only as a 'there's nothing else to do, let's hit the zone and see what's going on' kind of deal. I collected badges all of once: on my first toon. I tried writing an MA arc, once, but I didn't really have the patience to sit down and finish it when there were things to go beat up and levels to gain; and I tend to prefer the built-in story-arcs to the MA content anywho. I was never much of a Roleplayer, either. I have a specific medium I use for that; CoH's interface just never lent itself comfortably to it (Read: Text limit is far too short) for me.
So, instead, I build characters. If I'm not in a mission, I'm either in the tailor or in the creation screen looking for new and unusual combinations of powersets to try. Costume creation is one of my favorite things to do - followed by seeing an odd build work better than I'd hoped it would.
PvP > Badges > MA
PvP kept this game entertaining for me when the content had run dry. Without it, I'd likely have quit some time ago. Badges I don't really care for unless they give particular benefits (HP accolades and such). Even then, it's only a passing interest. MA could disappear and I wouldn't care one way or the other. It's a neat idea on paper, but just doesn't pan out when you realize the chances of stumbling onto something well made vs utter crap is one in a million.
"the reason there are so many sarcastic pvpers is we already had a better version of pvp taken away from us to appease bad players. Back then we chuckled at how bad players came here and whined. If we knew that was the actual voice devs would listen to instead of informed, educated players we probably would have been bigger dicks back then." -ConFlict
Quote:
Yep. |
Originally Posted by Kitsune9tails
The Devs know who PvPs and how often. Ditto Mission Architect (and which missions they play). Badging is a little more sketchy, but the basica numbers are there to analyze.
I don't think the problem is that the Devs are under or overestimating the percentage of the populace that PvPs. I think that after I13, they are rightfully taking their time to consider options, possible solutions and consequences before braving the minefield that is PvP changes again. |
I wasn't saying the devs were the ones under or overestimating the pvp pop. I was talking about the OP.
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In general, I do what I'm bribed to do. That means PvE in general, then MA (when I can spare the effort to find an enjoyable arc), then badges (at least the ones that give me stuff), then exploiting PvE rewards in PvP zones. Actually PvPing is a waste of my time, since I have a poor chance of winning and don't get anything for losing.
I expect I am not terribly unusual in this evaluation.
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PvP never had a community? Lol
|
Originally Posted by je_saist
PvP has never even had enough players to qualify as a community, much less a sub-community.
I think there is a perception problem though if players in the game separate what they do on the basis of what the event is, and I really think there's a problem with the opening point of view that there are sub-communities centralized around aspects of the game. Badges are a result of playing the game. Mission Architect is another way to play the game that gives badges. PvP is another way to play the game that gives badges. Some players like to run task forces. Some players like to hunt. Some players like to run story missions. Some players like to hang out. Some players like to run repeatable missions. Some players like to farm. Some players like to do radio missions or newspapers with the safe guard / mayhem. From a pure player traffic standpoint, the majority of the game plays the game, which is running missions and task forces. From what we know of the traffic numbers from a couple years ago, a very small minority of the game enters the PvP zones. If I recall correctly, the example that was used to paint PvP traffic stated that the Old Hollows, the pre-revamp Hollows, averaged more player traffic each day than all of the PvP zones combined on each server. Now, as far as I'm aware, there's no official or unofficial number given for the player traffic that utilizes the AE system. Rather, the developers seem reluctant to discuss in any sort of detail just what the player traffic numbers signify. We can extrapolate from the player subscriptions as reported by NCSoft's financial department that the changes made to both the AE systems and the PvP systems had a negligible to non-existant impact on continued subscriber numbers. There was no sharp and continued drop off signaling a mass exodus of players. This tells us that the visible players raising the points of AE and PvP in the forums, here, are a drastically small minority of the game, and so far have no visible impact on the financial basis of the game. We also have empirical evidence, as documented by several players, that on the larger servers when a new AE exploit is found, Peregine Island has less instances, and when the AE exploits are closed, Peregine Island gains instances. This indicates that the abusing population of the game is flexible in what they do. Ergo, it's difficult to determine exactly what the traffic numbers are for AE. We do know that the developers only anticipated maybe 10% to 15% of the player base sustaining AE involvement, which was one of the reasons why the sheer number of AE arcs in the first week of the release blew everybody's mind away. We can probably presume the developers numbers were accurate, and based on the number of new missions and missions being rated today, it's likely a higher number of players works with the AE system than projected. That of course does mean a 10x to 15x lead over the single digit percentages reported to be involved with PvP play. |
"PvP Messiah"
MA > Badges = PVP (= 0)
pvp > ma > badges badges = 0 (unless accolades involved).
i enjoy different type of content in ma, pvp has the potential to be the most fun as long as it isn't 10 v 2 or million stalkers not wanting to team to get drops. badges are those things i get when im running to point a to point b and stumble on top of an exploration....or i randomly get a defeat badge for killing x so and so omw to getting task force commander accolade. having 500 badges is as much an attribute to skill as fighting x8 lvl 54 mobs...none. easily predictable, boring, ive made defenders spamming sands of mu/flurry and gotten by. pvp is what keeps me playing.
im a huge badge person, i do badges before i do anything else usually
i do like playing with stuff in the MA but im a horrible storywriter and i cant get purple drops from 99.9% of the AE content (no i am NOT running dev choice stuff just to get purples because i dislike 2/3 of the dev choice stuff).
pvp i generally avoid because there are no incentives to doing it other than a win-the-lottery PVP IO, if im in the zone ill fight back but 80% of the time i lose because of how gimped pvp is now (pre i13 pvp i have to admit was more fun, and im NOT a pvper so what does that say about current pvp?)
mainly i just badge now .
if issue 13 didn't exist ,i would be in the zones.
I'm an Author. Even got the badge to prove it 
This game has PvP? Really?
Loves me some badges. Though I've only got 1 dedicated badger. There are specific ones I search out on alts when it goes with the concept.
I.E. Spyhunter, weatherman. Those types.
I'm a PvE kinda guy myself.
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Wow, of the three choices listed in the title I guess I would say badges.
I would love for it to be MA but in it's current state not so much. Too many MARC's are broken by patches and there is simply too much dreck to sift through. I feel really bad for the good mission authors.
PVP we used to do alot of as an SG event in the arena and some zone play prior to I13 but after that no one wanted anything to do with it. We did it as a casual event. We were certainly not hardcore PVPers and it still killed it for us.
So, yeah, Badges. Just becasue I need them for accolades.
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I see more calls for killing a GM for badge or the like than for a team to PvP or MA in my global channels.
For me, it will be close between badging and MA. Only have a few characters that I make the effort for to get all the allocades & dont chase every badge. Havent even done all the new merit rewarded exploration badges yet and they are just easy time sync.
I used to have a lot of fun playing and designing MA, but too fusrated at the dismal XP now to bother. Dont want farms, but want to be able to level up at least somewhere as close to street sweeping or missions. And tired of having to change my stories around atfter nerfs make them worse than even the pitiful xp normal mobs get in there. /bitter
Barely ever PvP. Had some fun in recluse's victory and infrequently doing shivan runs. But powers didnt do what I expected and there is more entertainment for me in PvE than working out whats what.
I don't suffer from altitis, I enjoy every minute of it.
Thank you Devs & Community people for a great game.
So sad to be ending ):
RP Teaming > Base Editing > MA Playing > Base RP/Standing RP > Badge Hunting > Base RP/Standing RP while Base Editing > MA Arc Creation > Running around lower level zones on higher level characters playing with Knockback powers >Non-RP Mishing > Arena PVP with Friends > Going AFK to take care of my disabled mother's wounds or empty her potty-chair > PvP
That's me, right there! =-3
-Rachel-
Quote:
Wasn't the AE originally designed as a dev content-creation tool that was then expanded into a player tool? I seem to recall that that was the case.|
Originally Posted by Bionic_Flea
I think Xanatos is making a good point though. The devs are dedicating a lot of resources at the AE and are about to double the number of badges. Are those areas that players think should be getting that attention?
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If so is it not possible that it is actually being used to mock-up/develop dev-created missions/arcs/TFs and that some of the additional work being done on the AE is primarily for the devs (with player use being a secondary consideration)?
And doubling or even trebling the number of badges available is probably fairly minor compared to practically any other dev activity...
Heck they could probably run through all the defeat X of mob Y badges and create corresponding badges for defeat 2X of mob Y and defeat 10X of mob Y with little more effort than coming up with new badge titles and maybe needing to keep counters counting...
Which even if it takes days would still be a lot less work than adding a new mission objective type to AE or the smallest of rebalancing tasks for PvP or adding a PvP scenario or creating a new arc or... or... or....
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Tsk, tsk, tsk. You didn't invoke the "Standard Code Rant" disclaimer.
Most of the changes PvPers actually want is to return to already existing code that was in the game prior to I13.
In the alternative, they would like the travel suppression, heal decay, and diminishing returns on buffs to be less severe than currently implemented. A few hours on a spreadsheet could probably accomplish that.
The art for 100 badges would take way longer, if I had to guess.
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Think more would PvP if it was actually supported in this game. Which despite of various red names have said, It's not.
MA all the way. I loves me some MA, even though I'm kinda burnt out on it right now. I played arcs like crazy for the first few months after it came out.
Then badges, although I only have one hero and one villain badger. The badges I have left are the high-count achievements (which I don't want to farm) and the MO ones that I've been too lazy to find a team for.
I've dabbled in PvP, but not since i13. It's not that I didn't like it, it's that I suck at it and I don't like it enough to put in the time and commitment necessary to not suck at it.
The OP's post counts are meaningless. What is there to discuss about badges really? The badgers have a stickied FAQ that pretty much covers most questions, and most badging events are set up in server forums, while one of the PvP forums includes events. The MA forum only has one ongoing event, since a lot of people seem to prefer soloing MA arcs.
Besides which, badges are finite. PvP and MA are essentially infinite content.
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It used to be MA>Badges>PvP for me, but when it became obvious the developers were willing to make damage control measures in the MA at the expense of legit arcs, I've slacked off that until the feature and its usability stabilizes.
As such, it's now Badges>MA>PvP.
I can't get into PvP because the community's approach and the system itself just can't seem to simulate the fun competition I get with real fighting games. (Which I love) In those cases, the fighting games I enjoy most have a balance in such a way that you can have a good long fight, both giving and taking in a back and forth fight that comes down to a knife's edge victory. The people I've met here for PvP are not interested in any extended competition or battle...they want to kill you as fast as possible to avoid any repercussions, and if the battle starts going against them, they run rather than fight it out. The system itself seems to focus only on defeats, so this "Kill them NOW!" attitude is only perpetuated. Besides this, belittling and derisive attitudes along with a general uncivil approach to communication has made my experience with PvP pretty darned unfun.