Calling on the regulars of AE

Hey guys,

I'm still relatively new to the game but I have 5 characters now which are all up and over level 20. My highest being 28. I haven't played in AE much but am thinking of getting into it, mainly because of the single origin availability there.

I've read a few things around this forum about AE basically, I'm not going to lie, I do want to get some good missions that will furnish me with both tickets and XP. There are two new characters I want to "fast track" up the levels and another two characters I am playing through Praetoria normally.

So basically, as Im not very familiar with AE I'd love it if you guys can offer me some suggestions for playtime in AE that:

won't get me crushed like an empty can, but will be fun for me and my workmates who play COH to leap into.

Will provide some good XP to help my harder characters level up a bit,

and also gives you good reward of tickets to help me out with my recipes and salvage requirements as well as my SO's.

All suggestions gratefully received. As I'm in work a bit and cant get on the forum much due to restrictions, my email is alienmike@virginmedia.com if you wanted to mail it over.

Welcome to the game and AE.

I couldn't help but notice you said nothing about "good stories" in your OP. AE is not an engine for quick/easy xp. It's a way for players to tell their own stories or add to the existing canon of the game.

If you want to level up quickly, then simply find or form a team and run regular missions from regular contacts. The xp and rewards come fast and easy that way.

Good luck and if you ever want to find some AE missions that are fun because of the story, then please come back. We know TONS.

Might have been arrogant of me, but I just took it for granted that the stories would be good anyway because I expect the vast majority of us are comic and superhero fans, I mean Ive not used AE hardly, I've just heard that AE was a great place to go for upgrading your character and "having a laugh", like the holodeck on star trek one of my mates described it as.

I have 6 characters that are all mid 20's in level, all were done the hard way in game. Im not looking for AE just to level up, I did say in the original post that I wanted to have lots of fun, but I'm also honest enough to say I want to get something out of it too.

If you know any, I'd love to hear.

Rather than get huffy about AE Farming and such things (and those of us on the MA Boards do get huffy about it), let's take a step back and just welcome you to the boards and the AE Community in general.

Here's what I am going to read into your request: You are interested in the MA and want to try out some new storylines. You have some difficult-to-level toons and find that sometimes regular content can be troublesome. You'd like there to be some rewards for your efforts, since I'm sure you've seen or heard about the many XP and ticket nerfs that have happened in the past.

No problem. First off, rather than list off my favorite AE storylines, there are several great threads already posted on the Boards that can pick them out for you!

Arrowrose's Excellent Arcs Thread: Believe it or not, 4 star arcs are often better than 5 star arcs. Arrowrose goes through these and provides a very brief approval of the arc or a comment on how it could be better. Most do get thumbs-up.

Pro Payne's Reviews: "Pro Payne" is a unpowered citizen of Paragon City who uses the MA to become a superhero for recreation and great justice. Provides detailed In-Character reviews of arcs, plenty of which get 4-5 stars.

2010 MA Players Choice Awards: This is a good time to look for great arcs, the MA community itself is giving kudos to the hard working authors who have put together some exceptional arcs. These arcs are player-tested, player approved; so give those a try out as well.

CoHMR Reviews: Glazius provides shortish reviews of arcs provided to him through the independent website cohmissionreview.com - a sort of catalogue of arcs put together by players. It's not a bad "go-to" resource for a quick mission or even something more meaty.

Secondly, rewards: There have been some greatly lamented, overly-exposed nerfs to the MA rewards system - usually in response to exploits discovered by farmers which are slapped down by the Devs. These nerfs and exploit patches are usually widely known by the playerbase, but what we think a lot of people don't know are the subsequent "re-fixes" that have returned significant portions of the reward structure back to AE. Custom critters and groups no longer than XP nerfs as long as they are constructed by the AUTHOR to have 100% xp (rather than the devs hard coding a nerf). Ticket rewards unforunately will never reach the zenith they had way back in i14 (yes, five issues ago now), but that doesn't mean you won't see sufficient ticket rewards if you're playing story arcs consistently.

Lastly, difficulty: Believe it or not, most AE authors are not out to destroy your PC. Most times, unless an arc is specifically mentioned as being a "challenge" mission or has disclaimers mentioning EXTREME AVs or something like that - most of the recommended AE arcs are designed with the soloer in mind. Tough fights usually have an ally, sometimes more, or unusual (and inventive!) mechanics which place the challenge on a relatively even playing field. So, it's not so bad for toons that are somewhat difficult to level in normal content.

Unfortunately for some, the AE system is not intended and most story arcs are not designed to provide "faster" or accelerated levelling compared to normal content - and the MA Community here generally frowns on using it for that purpose. However, more than a handful of us have levelled entirely within the AE system without the use of farms, speed levelling, or other shortcuts. Please also note that if you look around on the boards, there is a MA Static Team which can help you with finding a team to bump up the potential for larger XP rewards while playing through MA Storylines. Check that out too.

Anyway, I hope this is a good start in getting you interested in the regular MA content that many, many authors have worked very hard to provide to you for your enjoyment. Please let us know if you have any other questions, as many of us are willing to answer mechanical questions about how the MA Works and designing your own story arc.

Cheers, wow, what an epic epic and informative post. That's really good.

Basically you're right in your assumption reading into my request I want the fun and the rewards, and I'm fully honest about that. I'm new so if I put my foot in it and offended anybody then for that I am truly sorry. But I just wanted to be honest in what I want out of MA, and I'm glad I asked.

I want to learn the game inside and out, as I enjoy it so much I am many years late to the party but now I'm here I'd happily quit my job to stay home and play!

Mission Architect to me loomed like a thing that was confusing and confusing things make me want to steer clear of them. At least now I understand a little better what is going on with it. But when I learned about how you could be rewarded for your efforts, and I do want the rewards, but I also want to have plenty of fun.

The times I have used MA and I can count on one hand how many times, (literally) I have always took the time to rate, and leave a comment. It was always others though who picked what we did, so my memory is fudgy, but one I do remember that sticks is Ctrl alt reset. That was cool.

I want to use MA to enjoy the game, the playing, and, yes, I admit it, for the rewards so I can make the best quality characters possible.

I am actually a compulsive fan fiction writer, and if I can figure out the Mission creator, then that would be a way to make my fan fic, a reality, but at the moment I just want to enjoy others, and of course, be rewarded

I tried using the editor about half way through writing this post, and I definately need plenty of practice before I'm ready for that.

It maxes at level 20, and the experience reward isn't amazingly mindblowing awesome, but if you're looking to try a fun MA mission and get in the Christmas spirit at the same time, try my "City of Ho Ho Ho, or A Claus in Paragon", arc 18775? It's a quick, easy, 3-mission romp vs. Outcasts and Trolls.

And now back to your regularly scheduled thread!

To add to the threads that twelfth already linked to, you should really check out this thread. It's a list of MA arcs sorted by level and "origin", like the regular arcs are, so it's very well suited to your purposes. PoliceWoman is a very prolific poster around these boards and has a good eye for quality, so even though I haven't played every arc on that list (there are a lot) I can say with confidence that you should find some arcs you really like there.