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There are indeed some great stories in the AE. But there are a few things which make it harder for me to play them.|
Originally Posted by Zaphir
Threads like this make me a sad panda... not just because of what's being said, but what is behind it.
I'm going to echo Bubbawheat. Why is 'AE == farm' accepted as fact for some/most people and the actual stories ignored entirely? There are hundreds of awesome story arcs out there (putting most 'official' story arcs to shame, IMO), and most of them never get the chance to be played. Some authors might pour hundreds of hours of their time and creativity into creating a great arc that will get ~5 plays in a year, if that. Ask people in the AE building if they want to run a story arc and you'll get some blank stares, if that. But create a farm and watch the numbers soar! See this thread (stickied, even!) for over 140 high-quality arcs. Nominate and vote in http://www.tinyurl.com/2010PlayersChoice for this year's Player's Choice awards. There's a huge wealth of great content out there in AE, even if most players don't care about it. The Mission Architect is one of the most unique and awesome tools on the MMO scene currently. It needs to be improved and expanded, not scrapped. somewhat dismayed, -- Z. |
1) Finding them. There's a lot of mediocre stuff in there, even some of the Dev Choices are poop. The filtering and locating of arcs is a PITA.
2) Bizarre XP mechanics. If you play an arc it's hard to know what sort of XP you're going to get or if some older mission is going to end up penalising you because it fell foul of some subsequently introduced anti-farming measure.
3) Finding a team to play them : This is a big one for me. Simply the fact that the damn things act like TFs removes a lot of the casual aspect from them, you can't do what you can do with Story arcs, where a team is constantly adding and losing players and changing. There is also the stigma of AE in general. Most people will either 1) Realise that you aren't doing a Farm Team and quit or 2) Refuse to join an AE team because they assume its either a Farm Team or some crappy mission the leader put together (which is often WORSE than a farm). Of the AE missions I've played via PuGs over the last few months it's been of this type *shudder*
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Personally, I enjoy playing unrated mission. Just skip the ones whose descriptions look like they were written by a 12 year old on crack.
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Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
1) Finding them. There's a lot of mediocre stuff in there, even some of the Dev Choices are poop. The filtering and locating of arcs is a PITA.
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I don't think AE should be removed. But it does need a bit of work. To say remove it because it's a farming tool would be to ignore what's been happening in the game for years before AE ever came about. Example, folks have been farming the battle maiden map for a very very long time, pretty much long as I've been in the game. Ban Battle Maiden? Won't happen either. I think people who only farm are missing out on a great game. Just hit my 57 month badge a month ago, and have been pretty much everywhere and don't everything in the game and still enjoy exploring the game. But AE does add a nice option for us 'old dogs'. It's nice to be able to create your dream epic mish arcs that you always wanted to try with your heroes and villians. As for farming, I've noticed the folks that start as farm babbies and stay farm babbies, don't really stay with the game very long anyways. They tend to get bored and just leave. So let 'them' be the passing thing and AE be a permanent and refreshing addition to the game.
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GG, I have really come to enjoy reading your posts.
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Originally Posted by Golden Girl
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I would not mind it being removed one bit.
I dunno... since AE came out I have not been pestered by people wanting me to PL them, Bridge for them, pad their team, etc., etc. I consider this a big plus.
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Yeah you can. I've added people to my AE teams while the arc is still running. They say TF but they don't restrict the team.|
Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
3) Finding a team to play them : This is a big one for me. Simply the fact that the damn things act like TFs removes a lot of the casual aspect from them, you can't do what you can do with Story arcs, where a team is constantly adding and losing players and changing. There is also the stigma of AE in general. Most people will either 1) Realise that you aren't doing a Farm Team and quit or 2) Refuse to join an AE team because they assume its either a Farm Team or some crappy mission the leader put together (which is often WORSE than a farm). Of the AE missions I've played via PuGs over the last few months it's been of this type *shudder*
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I personally use AE for both - farming tickets for IOs (mostly that I use on my own huge stable of alts, but also to sell the excess) and to play through and write stories.
The biggest problem is the difficulty, imo. It's almost impossible to judge what kind of difficulty you're going to be up against, and most of the mobs are way tougher than equivalent mobs of the same level found in the outside world. Sometimes that's fun, but sometimes I just want to play through the story and can't because someone made mobs that are just too hard for the particular character I'm playing.
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Given the changes to SuperSide kicking and the way you can tweak Diff settings solo Padding and Bridging are obsolete anyway regardless of the AE.|
Originally Posted by RoleplayerX
I dunno... since AE came out I have not been pestered by people wanting me to PL them, Bridge for them, pad their team, etc., etc. I consider this a big plus.
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| Yeah you can. I've added people to my AE teams while the arc is still running. They say TF but they don't restrict the team. |
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Bridging and padding are, respectively, not possible and unnecessary thanks to things introduced since.|
Originally Posted by RoleplayerX
I dunno... since AE came out I have not been pestered by people wanting me to PL them, Bridge for them, pad their team, etc., etc. I consider this a big plus.
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Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
There are indeed some great stories in the AE. But there are a few things which make it harder for me to play them.
1) Finding them. There's a lot of mediocre stuff in there, even some of the Dev Choices are poop. The filtering and locating of arcs is a PITA. 2) Bizarre XP mechanics. If you play an arc it's hard to know what sort of XP you're going to get or if some older mission is going to end up penalising you because it fell foul of some subsequently introduced anti-farming measure. 3) Finding a team to play them : This is a big one for me. Simply the fact that the damn things act like TFs removes a lot of the casual aspect from them, you can't do what you can do with Story arcs, where a team is constantly adding and losing players and changing. There is also the stigma of AE in general. Most people will either 1) Realise that you aren't doing a Farm Team and quit or 2) Refuse to join an AE team because they assume its either a Farm Team or some crappy mission the leader put together (which is often WORSE than a farm). Of the AE missions I've played via PuGs over the last few months it's been of this type *shudder* |
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Originally Posted by Feycat
The biggest problem is the difficulty, imo. It's almost impossible to judge what kind of difficulty you're going to be up against, and most of the mobs are way tougher than equivalent mobs of the same level found in the outside world. Sometimes that's fun, but sometimes I just want to play through the story and can't because someone made mobs that are just too hard for the particular character I'm playing.
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Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
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Incarnate content. |
Originally Posted by Amazing_Guy
I think it would be interesting if City of heroes after the next Update tried to make a reason for hitting 50
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You absolutely HAVE to be level 50 to take part in it. If that's not a reason to hit 50 I don't know what is.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
I'll throw my hat in here and say I wouldn't want it removed. I have two arcs I'm damn proud of on there, and one of them is still a WIP. I love using my tickets to get random recipes that really make a difference on my characters and I like showing off my work.
Now I'll also admit to PLing at one point in my CoX career.
But, in my defense, have you ever tried getting a Warshade through the low levels? Ugh!
My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
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Yeah, I'm kinda of sad about that. Up until now, City really hasn't had or needed the "game begins at 50!" mentality, and so PLing is really just either lazy noobs who don't realize the game doesn't actually begin at 50 like the other MMOs out there where they only back-end add content and invalidate everything they added before, or people who've got 1000 alts and want to get past a certain set of levels (I'd love to just start at 22, to me the game begins there and everything before that is just leveling to get there).|
Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
Incarnate content.
You absolutely HAVE to be level 50 to take part in it. If that's not a reason to hit 50 I don't know what is. |
Now there's an actual, tangible rewarding reason to get to 50 as fast as you can, a system you can't participate in until 50, and that's where they're going to be adding new content for a while. We're going to see a LOT more exploits and PLing for a while I think.
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Don't forget you have to purchase GR to use the Incarnate System.
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Originally Posted by Feycat
Yeah, I'm kinda of sad about that. Up until now, City really hasn't had or needed the "game begins at 50!" mentality, and so PLing is really just either lazy noobs who don't realize the game doesn't actually begin at 50 like the other MMOs out there where they only back-end add content and invalidate everything they added before, or people who've got 1000 alts and want to get past a certain set of levels (I'd love to just start at 22, to me the game begins there and everything before that is just leveling to get there).
Now there's an actual, tangible rewarding reason to get to 50 as fast as you can, a system you can't participate in until 50, and that's where they're going to be adding new content for a while. We're going to see a LOT more exploits and PLing for a while I think. |
My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
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I've got no reason not to have purchased GR. That really doesn't figure in to what I was saying though. GR was low/mid-end additive content, not high-end exclusionary content like the Incarnate stuff.
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Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
Don't forget you have to purchase GR to use the Incarnate System.
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The game really doesn't begin at 50 though even with the new incarnate content. Some people will see it that way but really the only benefit to playing the game with a 50 compared to a 25 or 10 at their level is you will have more enhancement slots. In fact that power advantage is why I prefer playing my 50s and leveling my alts up as fast as possible. There are few things (none that I can think of) that you can't go back and do as a 50. I prefer exemping down to play the content. |
Originally Posted by Feycat
Yeah, I'm kinda of sad about that. Up until now, City really hasn't had or needed the "game begins at 50!" mentality, and so PLing is really just either lazy noobs who don't realize the game doesn't actually begin at 50 like the other MMOs out there where they only back-end add content and invalidate everything they added before, or people who've got 1000 alts and want to get past a certain set of levels (I'd love to just start at 22, to me the game begins there and everything before that is just leveling to get there).
Now there's an actual, tangible rewarding reason to get to 50 as fast as you can, a system you can't participate in until 50, and that's where they're going to be adding new content for a while. We're going to see a LOT more exploits and PLing for a while I think. |
This goes to the people who say its about the journey not the destination. 50 isn't the destination for those like me. The destination is being able to go back and journey at my prefered level of power.
Work in progress no more. I have decided that I'm going to put my worst spelling errors here. Triage Bacon, Had this baster idea, TL
R"I'm going to beat the Jesus out of Satan!" My Wife while playing Dante's Inferno
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DEFINITELY helpful, in a working group on protector now, off of freedumb, other than the fact all my good toons but my kat/regen are there |
Originally Posted by MunkiLord
No promises this is what you're looking for(could be out of date), but try this.
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Originally Posted by Amazing_Guy
and ill quote you again, i logged on my 27 spider right now and there only 15-20 people on villain side from level 15-30
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Originally Posted by Schismatrix
Oh, redside. Yeah, redside seems to have a small fraction of the population of blueside on most servers. Add to that that i know many people who are more likely to use /hide when playing villains. Personally i never hide and welcome PuGs on either side, but i know quite a few who don't feel the way i do.
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Originally Posted by Amazing_Guy
I haven't, not sure how, Protector is just a graveyard, one of the two servers at the moment with only green status not 2 dot status.
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Sorry for the miscommunication, I tend to ignore redside as I don't play there myself that often, for that reason exactly.
If you were serious about looking for a team, sure, you can look me up. But if you keep the badge/tf channels open and play on blueside, you really shouldn't have a problem. I had logged in the other evening just to verify something and immediately got hit with a tell asking me to join.
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Check out the global channels on Freedom too. When I'm looking to team(not often), that is what I do.
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Originally Posted by Amazing_Guy
DEFINITELY helpful, in a working group on protector now, off of freedumb, other than the fact all my good toons but my kat/regen are there
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One more mention, then whats your global name?
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Originally Posted by Stone Daemon
Part of the problem is you logged in pretty late at night. Protector closes it's doors (so to speak) rather early. But that's only a vanishingly small part of your problem. Redside is most definitely a ghost town in Protector since GR hit--most of the villains migrated to blueside (which has always been the more populated side of protector). And then, yes, there is the /hide issue.
Sorry for the miscommunication, I tend to ignore redside as I don't play there myself that often, for that reason exactly. If you were serious about looking for a team, sure, you can look me up. But if you keep the badge/tf channels open and play on blueside, you really shouldn't have a problem. I had logged in the other evening just to verify something and immediately got hit with a tell asking me to join. |
The missions people created should have had upkeep. Then the people not really trying would have dropped out of making missions. I think people who wanted to write stories would have played a lot more to keep their good arcs available. Then you could easily sort through the people manipulating the system for badges, the farmers, and the story tellers.
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Seriously?
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Originally Posted by DumpleBerry
Ouch. His loss.
Biiiiig loss. |
A game is not supposed to be some kind of... place where people enjoy themselves!
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*points to forum name* Actually, I saw you on this weekend. You were on the respec trial, no? I was running TF's with Layla. I believe we chatted a little, though you didn't seem to recognize me. |
Originally Posted by Amazing_Guy
One more mention, then whats your global name?
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Holy Necro Thread, Batman!
Tyger (50), Mutation-Controller Mind/FF - oldest Mind/FF on Union
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Originally Posted by Dispari
I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.
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That had me laughing so true,the art work is outstanding too|
Originally Posted by Golden Girl
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Prof Radburn controller,Celtic Ice Maiden,blaster,Miss Knockout scrapper,Mistress Davina controller,Stone Hart,tank Split Personality PB.Queen Lostris controller,Fridgid Mary blaster,Shocking Fire blaster Future Elfling defender, Little Weed controller,Capo Angelo MM, Commander Buzzsaw MM, Justice Tank tank all 50,s
<QR>
Largely indifferent at this point. I was extremely enthusiastic about the system. It was a nice step away from some of the tired content out there and allowed me to express my own creativity and interests.
And then badge collectors "of meretritious intent and method" (Hi Beefcake, yeah, I totally believe you played my challenge map, I believe it so much I re-posted it to remove your pestilent touch just out of principle), farming whiners (both sides), "challenge" whiners (oh, Venture, how I miss your reviews making everyone bandwagon hate anything that remotely made a point of trying to best the player), maps that get pulled...then never return because of [insert alleged problem here], and then just the relative lack of development interest shown the system ever since Positron made his PR screw-up finger wagging, all of which added up to make me absurdly uninterested in something that had originally held such enthusiasm from myself.
Sadly, I just don't see myself getting interested in it again for more than a chance meeting (e.g., global friend forcing me into running Footsteps, again...god that's boring and juvenile) without the system's capabilities getting a major upgrade to improve the conveyance of my and others' stories. I'm not Stephen King (and based on what I've seen of AE, most people don't seem to be 8th grade English graduates) nor do I expect others to be but the wasted potential in the system just leaves me feeling distraught. There's just so much trash and so little gold that I just don't have the energy to seek.
[/rambling incoherent message]
Blue: ~Knockback Squad on Guardian~
Red: ~Undoing of Virtue on [3 guesses]~