Shutting off Patrol XP

I don't want my character to level up faster than normal due to Patrol XP. Is there an option to shut it off? I see the "Disable Earning XP" option, but that's not what I want -- I want to earn XP at the normal rate, not stop earning it altogether.

Patrol XP is the norm now. You can minimize it by playing the character every day, which will limit how many bars of patrol xp you start with, or giving yourself some debt by dying, which will subtract from your Patrol XP amount instead, or you can play while exempted, which will slow you down some too.

The way the game is set up, it's either all or none.

I don't think there's anyway to turn it off. You could always go to a higher level zone and get yourself killed a few times to clear it out.

No, there isn't, short of never logging off. You could, alternately, just keep getting killed until it's gone, as debt subtracts from Patrol XP first.

See my Guides and Tutorials

You can also play exclusively in the AE since Patrol XP doesn't work there (except for canceling debt). That has it's own downsides though.

It's just weird that when PvP, Inventions, Mission Architect, and other big changes hit the scene, CoH was all like, "It's optional! It's optional! You don't have to do this if you don't want to!" but in this one instance they're like, "Please...who's NOT going to want this?"

Here's a suggestion: If the devs can't provide an option for us to shut off Patrol XP when we're offline, they should give us the ability, once we've logged back in, to clear any Patrol XP we've earned during our downtime.

you can always shut off xp for a bit so you don't out level.

Okay, okay, I get that there are workarounds. I knew that before I posted. What I'm saying is that Patrol XP should have been made optional in the first place so that we wouldn't have to use workarounds. The devs have been really good in the past about making new features optional when there is the potential for those new features to get on players' nerves. This is an instance where that same foresight was obviously not applied -- obviously, I say, because if the devs were foresighted enough to say, "Let's put in an option to disable all XP," then there must have been some sort of selective blindness at work that caused them to not apply that exact same foresight to Patrol XP. So, I've made "New option: Shut Off (or Clear) Patrol XP" part of my Sig, and there you go. Ignore at your leisure.

I love this discussion. Allow me to rephrase Patrol XP in a way that might make it seem a little more pallatable:

"We're introducing an increase to the amount of XP that every mob gives out on defeat. After a character has earned a certain amount of XP at that rate, though, their XP gets nerfed to 66% of the new normal value. The normal rate of XP lasts for a number of XP-bars on the game's UI equal to 1-bar per real day that the character is not logged into the game. Previously accrued full-XP credit will remain if it is not used up, and any character may not have more than 1 level's worth of accrued full-XP credit."

In other words: Patrol XP is not a bonus. NOT having Patrol XP is a nerf to your XP rate.

I'm pretty sure we were given the ability to turn off XP so we had the choice of not out leveling content before they added Patrol XP.

Good freakin' heavens, you people are obtuse. The reason I want a "shut off Patrol XP" switch is because, yes, I do want to level at a "normal" rate instead of being "rewarded" for not playing the game by leveling up so fast I bypass content. Which is not at all the same as saying, "I want to level up not at all" (i.e., "no XP" option).

It utterly amazes me how people will rain all over a request for an OPTION. As in, "Here's something that you don't have to use and won't get in your way at all, but it will make some other people happy." As if whatever doesn't benefit you personally somehow weakens the game.

Prior to Issue 11, I never cared one bit about being able to go back and do earlier content that I'd leveled past, and I always thought that people who asked for the ability to do such a thing were whining about nothing. But I never said anything about it on the forum because, hey, who am I to say this ability shouldn't exist? And then the devs created Issue 11 and Flashback, and I thought, "Isn't that fantastic? The devs were actually listening to all the people out there, and they created this whole new system to satisfy them! That's amazing! You go, devs! I'll probably never use the system myself (and I haven't, to this day), but I just love the fact that you've made people happy with this new thing that I myself could have cared less about!"

Same thing for weapon customization.*

Same thing for color customization.

Same thing for switching moralities.

Every single time, I said, "How nice that the devs were really listening to people's wants and needs out there! Even though this doesn't benefit me in the slightest, I'm so glad the devs were listening and responded!"

And now all I'm asking for is a freakin' "shut off or clear out something that was forced on me" option, and I get reamed by a bunch of trolls who are probably scared that the devs will pull time away from the next $10 "party emote pack" to actually help me out. Nice, people. Real nice.

Here's my point. Let's say that in Issue 20, the devs add the option to shut off or clear Patrol XP. HOW DOES THAT HURT YOU? You might never use it, the same way I haven't ever used flashback or color customization, but it would be there for anyone who did want to use it, and it would make at least some people happy.

* - Actually, I have used and enjoyed weapon customization, but I never clamored for it.