Can I cry now?

The optimal solution would be to eliminate custom power selections.
Give the arc creater a selection of "power sets" that are taken from standard mobs. I'd also require that all custom mobs have their power sets be taken from the same villain group ( i.e. all of them have to be taken from Nemesis, for example ).

While the PLers will still find the optimal combination of powersets to utilize, it wouldnt be anywhere near what you see in AE farms atm.

If the devs truly want to stop PLing and farming in the AE they do not have to change anything. They just have to implement a little brother to MARTy with a stricter throttling threshold than what they use in the normal game.

It's pretty clear that someone who has more authority than Posi is perfectly happy with the use AE is being put to. The only real question is are they going to make even a simple change to make it possible to play story arcs as well while they still have a couple of authors left?

Really the best way for them to change the system is to make every player's rate equal in a lower quantity situation. Some may think this is the case using an average, but it actually isn't when dealing with small numbers. The best way which I've said before and will say again is to use a like/dislike system, or even just a "like" system.

I'm against ruthless farmers because they AREN'T keeping to themselves. If I never saw them and never even knew they existed I'd not even care, but there have been at least eight different ways in which farming have caused problems for conventional players. Architect is one of the more visible examples, because farmers are actively and visibly making it harder for the system to be used as intended.

Farmers are making it more difficult for AE users intending to play stories to find stories. This is an incontestable fact.

Farmers are causing the implementation of caps, changes, and 'fixes' that take away options from arc crafters intending to use the system as intended. This is an incontestable fact.

Some especially idiotic farmers are downrating good arcs because they are personally too stupid to identify LONG - STORY HEAVY - ACTUALLY HAS DIALOGUE IN THE INTRO as NOT A FARM and for some reason I don't understand aren't happy to play the existing farms. This is very likely true.

The fact that SOME arcs are getting Hall of Fame means that the developers think the system is working, when it demonstrably isn't. These are farm arcs uprated by farmers beyond what they deserve according to the intended use of the system. This is arguable.

The sheer overuse of the system by farmers has created the impression amongst the bets part of the playerbase that it is only for farming. This is not only ensuring that the intended use of the system is slowly choked off for lack of new players, but also ensuring that the developers aren't pressured to fix the manifold serious problems in AE. This can't be actively proven but it's entirely reasonable to assume.

Do you see that there are real and significant problems in AE that are caused by, attributable to, exacerbated by, or overshadowed by the notorious use of the system for farmers? You can't ignore these issues away. Farmers are using the system in a way outside its explicitly-stated intended use to the cost of the effectiveness of the system and the cost of those attempting to use it as intended. You have no moral position or self-righteousness to claim here. The farmers are in the wrong, and the only variable is how wrong. Any attempt to blame someone else requires to you off your own personal decisions to farm as somehow someone else's fault. That the developers do not stop you makes you behaviour accepted, not acceptable. It certainly doesn't validate the self-righteousness you have in coming onto the board and blaming the few legitimate authors left for being ruthlessly griefed.

To make it clear: I have nothing inherent against farming. It's a playstyle decision. Not one I understand, but that's immaterial. As far as I'm concerned they can farm all day and night and I won't care AS LONG AS IT DOESN'T AFFECT ME. And right now, it IS. It is SERIOUSLY affecting a part of the game that I have a personal investment in. So I'm going to continue to stand against farming in AE until it stops affecting me.

My best guess as to what strategy for AE emerges next:

AE missions will behave like Tip missions. You can run 5 per day and get full XP/ticket benefits. You can run as many as you like afterwards but will achieve zero benefit after the initial 5 until 20+ hours have elapsed.

This will curb farm use of AE to just those farmers who are doing it casually. It still actively encourages alt-itis (as I advocate all farming does) which is great business for the company. You want to PL, you can....just 5 missions per day per PL candidate. The farmer quits earning anything after the first five runs, although they may go totally ebil and turn off any rewards for participants on a team where the leader has maxed out their 5 "AE Tips" missions. But I think that would not be in keeping with the spirit of teaming (punishing other players for the activities of just one seems unreasonable).

Now if you wanted to go from 1-50, it will likely take several days of running AE farms to do this. By then, I think people will have turned to 'normal' content to achieve their speed-PL strategies. But that assumes that the Devs don't put such a counter on ALL mission content. My bet, however, is that they field trial it on AE first as that's a pretty self-contained target and likely easier coding than to apply it to all mission behavior everywhere.

Oh and....

Quote:

Originally Posted by King_Moloch I disbelieve it. I've seen your maths, you can do anything. You are lie.

Arcanaville + The Cake = Two Lies don't make a Truth

Oooh, oldschool storyarc discussion. Rant time!

Yesterday (actually 2 days ago) I had the in-retrospect-insane idea to try out a random 'classic' story arc through Ouro that I haven't played yet.

I chose the first one that came up, which was Harvey Maylor's Carnie arc. Started off with a few standard missions (though with a lot of zone hopping; almost no two subsequent missions were in the same area - this was actually a pattern for the entire arc). Not much in the way of clues or anything, just a kill-all and a rescue.

Then suddenly - bam, 'defeat 65 carnies'. Now, carnies spawn in only one zone heroside (Peregrine Island), only in some relatively small sub-zones, and they almost always spawn in small groups (~1-3). I was playing through Ouro, so I couldn't take a random mission to kill some carnies. Okay, I did this in two installments (had to clear out a lot of other enemies from the possible carnie spawn points as well), but at this point most of the time I had spent on the arc was just downtime and annoying street sweeping.

Malta mission, blah blah, no biggie, then two kill-all missions (one of them on a large outdoor map) and some back-and-forth with Sister Psyche. Finally we're getting to the "meat" of the arc, missions on the psychic plane. I expected this to at least take part in one zone, but apparently the doors to the psychic plane in Vanessa's head were all scattered inexplicably across the city, as almost all missions had entry points in different zones, including hazard zones like boomtown. I also had to do some occasional backtracking to Sister Psyche in IP. Some of these 6 missions were glowie/captive hunts, but two of them were kill-alls. Kill-alls on huge outdoor maps! Sad face. Oh yeah, one of them had an AV too (so you were supposed to do this with a group... I soloed it because rad/sonic defenders are overpowered etc; also, it was downgraded to an EB because I can't be bothered playing anything above 0x1 on a defender).

Standard kill-all mission in warehouse coming up, then it's time to do street sweeping again -- 50 carnies! See above, though this time I got lucky and did this in under an hour. After that, it's time for the final showdown: another standard warehouse mission with an AV in the end. Woo, 49 merits for ~4-5 hours of half-play half-work!

...

So yeah. I'm fairly sure all of the MA mission arcs I played so far (even the mediocre ones) are better than this, even just purely on the basis of 'levelling effectiveness' and 'lack of arc-induced frustration'... as long as they don't have badly-designed custom groups that give zero xp/inf.


-- Z.

This is so sad.

The ratings system. I really don't get why it's still there. The thing's clearly broken. Even in beta, it was obvious that it was broken. It's been broken for almost 3 years now.

At this point, I don't think anything's going to be done about it. Tossing the ratings system is one straight-forward and obvious thing they could do to improve the situation, and they haven't bothered for almost three years.

I mean, c'mon. Face it. It's dead, Jim.

I've written MA off completely. I would recommend that the diehards posting in this thread do the same. Save yourself some aggravation.

For what it's worth, my own arc was recently down-starred from 5 to 4. Might've been in the same griefing spat mentioned, I dunno. Honestly, I don't really care. It's stupid that an arc at 4 stars with 177 plays (mine) is put further down the list than an arc with 5 stars at 1 play. It's always been stupid, griefing or no. Griefers aren't the problem. The system is the problem.

- Drop the ratings system. Make it a thumbs up option or nothing at all.

- Add some sort of check-in. Arcs have to be updated in X amount of time, or they get dropped from the list.

These two things alone would be tremendous improvements to the system.

But they just won't do it.

If they're going to be this negligent with MA, I don't see why anyone should support it.

I stopped a long time ago. Maybe you should too.