A sample nerd ambush:
50s: Inv/SS PB Emp/Dark Grav/FF DM/Regen TA/A Sonic/Elec MA/Regen Fire/Kin Sonic/Rad Ice/Kin Crab Fire/Cold NW Merc/Dark Emp/Sonic Rad/Psy Emp/Ice WP/DB FA/SM
Overlord of Dream Team and Nightmare Squad
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After reading this thread, I'm really tempted to make a character called the Ambush Nerd. But it's probably already taken everywhere by now, and would probably get taken for a reference to Ambush Bug and genericked anyway. :P
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
To address the original question: The ambush nerd is clearly whichever mission designer came up with the second mission in Who Will Die? Episode 1. I mean, what the hell.
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Which as someone else pointed out *wasn't there* before. |
Originally Posted by Dispari
It wasn't a stealth nerf. It was in the patch notes.
http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/p..._2011_live.php "Characters will now be cleansed of buffs from inspiration and non self-cast buffs and debuffs when entering an Mission Architect map." |
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| And it should have no impact on legitimate players. You should have no need to use a bunch of inspirations before you zone into a mission, and then get more. All your inspiration use should be inside the mission. |
Bite me. If it had "No impact on legitimate players," *I wouldn't be complaining.* And if it's also affecting - by the notes above - external buffs, it's even worse. Some of those are on fairly long timers, so a fast mission means getting them stripped and not being able to get them replaced. Hope nobody used any small maps in their stories.
Frankly, at this point I'm with those that say they should just nuke AE from orbit and write it off as a mistake. Much like the rest of this horribly bug-ridden half-issue (with the UI bug, the knockback bug, bases attacking their owners, villain bases being destructable and everything ELSE.) They seriously screwed up with this release.
Wanted: Origin centric story arcs.
If you've only played an AT once (one set combo) and "hate" it - don't give up. Roll a different combo. It may just be those sets not clicking for you.
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Two things:|
Originally Posted by HexDuke
The insp stripping is there to stop farming, it will do good at it to.
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One, if you think this will stop farming when *everything else done in the last seven years* hasn't, you're deluding yourself.
Two, Positron: "We are not targeting anyone's playstyle." (Talking about MARTy and being accused of it being targeted towards farmers.) You DO remember MARTy, right? If rewards became excessive, it was supposed to trigger - among other things, to unambiguously tell the player it *was* excessive? And yet we hear from the people testing it with the CEBR thing "It didn't trigger."
So, if this is "there to stop farming," not only are you calling Posi and crew a liar, but liars who haven't paid attention to the rest of the time their game has been in existence. The farmers move on - and likely HAVE moved 2-3 more farms down the road.
Wanted: Origin centric story arcs.
If you've only played an AT once (one set combo) and "hate" it - don't give up. Roll a different combo. It may just be those sets not clicking for you.
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I was thinking the same exact thing...great minds I suppose.|
Originally Posted by Robotech_Master
After reading this thread, I'm really tempted to make a character called the Ambush Nerd. But it's probably already taken everywhere by now, and would probably get taken for a reference to Ambush Bug and genericked anyway. :P
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Best thread title evar.
"Forum PvP doesn't give drops. Just so all of you who participated in this thread are aware." -Mod08-
"when a stalker goes blue side, assassination strike should be renamed "bunny hugs", and a rainbow should fly out" -Harbinger-
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<--- squirts milk through nose lol
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Originally Posted by Bionic_Flea
A sample nerd ambush:
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"Forum PvP doesn't give drops. Just so all of you who participated in this thread are aware." -Mod08-
"when a stalker goes blue side, assassination strike should be renamed "bunny hugs", and a rainbow should fly out" -Harbinger-
What this does is reduce the effectiveness of low level brute farms. Other ATs, with lower damage caps, will still be able to cap damage and defense, but brutes will be severely limited. Higher level brutes can use more reds because they will have more effective defenses. I personally have used a barely IOed spines/fire scrapper in AE farms (yeah, I'm evil), and I've never used inspirations before I zoned, because I gained no benefit. Higher level farmers will be able to switch to demon farms or whatever, so they shouldn't be horribly impacted (and they will probably do better with a chance to get purples).
I guess the devs are trying to stop the low-level abuses because everyone has the capability of using them. I disagree with their decision, but understand why they made it.
TW/Elec Optimization
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Let me rephrase, it cetainly wont stop all farms, it wont even stop all AE farms. But it will stop one type of farm that was doable with 0 player investment, and really relied on stocking up with unrealistic buffs by way of inspirations.|
Originally Posted by Stormbird
Two things:
One, if you think this will stop farming when *everything else done in the last seven years* hasn't, you're deluding yourself. Two, Positron: "We are not targeting anyone's playstyle." (Talking about MARTy and being accused of it being targeted towards farmers.) You DO remember MARTy, right? If rewards became excessive, it was supposed to trigger - among other things, to unambiguously tell the player it *was* excessive? And yet we hear from the people testing it with the CEBR thing "It didn't trigger." So, if this is "there to stop farming," not only are you calling Posi and crew a liar, but liars who haven't paid attention to the rest of the time their game has been in existence. The farmers move on - and likely HAVE moved 2-3 more farms down the road. |
I rather doubt MARTY exists solely to stop gamebreaking exploits.
I wouldnt say that 'if marty doesnt flag it, the devs are ok with it.
It likely includes a lot of tracking to see what sort of thing has a 'better than expected, but not exploited' level of xp gain, and they use that sort of inormation to nerf the more abusive levels of farming. The thread claims you can level to 50 right out of character creation and with 0 investment and actually making a reasonable amount of money in the time. I dont know if I could have pulled it off in 8, but I'm confident I could have done it in 12. Thats a whole lot faster than most aspects of the game, especially when you consider it is a solo activity with 0 investment.
And while this 'targets a playstyle' I dont think the devs consider it a legitimate one, since its basically opposite of every other aspect of the game. Single player, no story or plot, no benefit / need to improve / optimize your character.
Higher level IOed out players will still be able to farm tickets. New players will still be able to get 20 in a couple hours running DFB. The negative impact really doesnt hit people that play the game within even a fairly broad definition of the term 'normally'. On the other hand, I'm going to have to learn how to actually play my CEBR Brute
Edit: note I am talking about the inspiration thing, the long term buffs in shorter dungeons being cancelled I am not sure is happening, but could be mildly problematic, tho if the dungeon is going to last 1 minute, maybe dont use the 15 minute cooldown power?
You know, I did a cebr without ever taking insps before entering. I didn't even know you could buy them there and restock - I was running to the hospital in Atlas to restock.
It still only takes about 10 minutes to hit your 20s, so I doubt how effective this will be. Candy falls like rain in farm missions and the insps from leveling last from one level to the next, so all this pre-loading does is raise initial acceleration a bit, but it's not going to do much to curb top speed.
In the name of science, I have gone and tested. My very first test produced results. Rage, Hasten, and the Barrier buff were all wiped from my character after I zoned out of an AE map, shortly after activating the powers. Perhaps I'm just unlucky like that.
Unfortunately, xfire is having some sort of errors in uploading to it's website right now, so I will have to wait until I can post a video as evidence.
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Fortunately, we can remain civil while not resorting to Godwin at first opportunity.
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Originally Posted by Stormbird
Sieg Heil! Ja, Mein Fuhrer, I Vas So Rong to be Playing Ze Vay I Vant! I Shall CHeck Vit Yoo First Before Clicking Any Buttons To Make Sure Ey Am Doink Et Korrektly!
Bite me. |
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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
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Wait, wait, wait. Someone wasn't checking with me before they played the game? Ninja Death Squad Go!
Ran a Claws/Elec fresh out of the tutorial in my level 1 map, now modified for two ambushes.
Took Lightning Field at level 2
Sold my big green on the market for 150,000
Set diff to 0/8 Bosses on
Bought 4 purples to enter with
Entered map
Used 4 purples and triggered ambushes
Cleared map at level 5. Gained about 560 tickets
I did mission two which put me at level 7. After that I trained up and took Spin and gained 4 new inspiration slots.
Bought 4 purples and 4 reds for the next mission
With Spin and the extra damage from the reds I was able to kill much faster and much easier, but only gained 2 levels since I can only reasonably have 2 ambushes.
If their goal was to drastically slow down this type of farm, they succeeded. It takes longer to get rolling since you have to work your way up to having more inspirations slots since you can't load up before you enter anymore. Once you get your 8 slots though, things go faster.
Then there's the fact that since there are so few ambushes, and the second wave only provides 75% XP, you have to restart way more often. That'll slow you down a lot from having to reload the map constantly.
The good news is you're still getting >1000 tickets per run and like 1 minute per run once you get rolling not counting load times. Also, after only about 15-20 minutes of leaving character creation I was level 10 and that was with only about 3-5 minutes of actually fighting. And that is really the point of my maps anyway. To blast your Brute past the boring low levels in as short a time as possible. Taking this thing all the way to 50 though would be quite impractical.
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It's not paranoia if they really ARE out to get you.... |
Originally Posted by Wicked_Wendy
The AE farmers are a nervous and paranoid bunch. They tend to imagine that vicious nerfs are hiding around every corner.
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I've been rich, and I've been poor. Rich is definitely better.
Light is faster than sound - that's why some people look smart until they speak.
For every seller who leaves the market dirty stinkin' rich,
there's a buyer who leaves the market dirty stinkin' IOed. - Obitus.
this is what a business model is all about.
The idea is to charge people for the "mad xp's"
Want to blow through levels? Pay for it. It's for sale.
Expect things like ambushes and the likes or anything that gets in the way of charging for faster leveling to go the way of the dinosaur.
As heavy handed as some nerfs have been in the past, this really was a very light slap on the wrist.
now then, time to work on bringing the price of alch silver down again...
Ignoring anyone is a mistake. You might miss something viral to your cause.
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(looks around the Internet)|
Originally Posted by Dispari
Fortunately, we can remain civil while not resorting to Godwin at first opportunity.
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... since when?
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I don't think this means what you seem to think it means.
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Originally Posted by Stormbird
Sieg Heil!
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Impractical as in... 15-20 hours instead of 8? |
Originally Posted by Neogumbercules
The good news is you're still getting >1000 tickets per run and like 1 minute per run once you get rolling not counting load times. Also, after only about 15-20 minutes of leaving character creation I was level 10 and that was with only about 3-5 minutes of actually fighting. And that is really the point of my maps anyway. To blast your Brute past the boring low levels in as short a time as possible. Taking this thing all the way to 50 though would be quite impractical.
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Here we are: long recharge buffs disappear.
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It's funny because it's quite obviously a farm mission.
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Originally Posted by Stone Daemon
Here we are: long recharge buffs disappear.
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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
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It's funny because that has nothing to do with the problem I'm pointing out.
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Originally Posted by Dispari
It's funny because it's quite obviously a farm mission.
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That wasn't the point. You said AE was becoming a waste of time as if it wasn't good for any possible use. |
Originally Posted by Stone Daemon
Well sure. To be fair, though, telling a story is the minority of the demographics that use AE. At least, it seems that way.
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I might also point out that telling stories was what the AE was created for, say "stop telling me how to play the game!" and then point out that farmers and the subsequent nerfs they down on all of our heads* are the responsible parties for having distorted the purpose of AE in most player's minds. Of course,that last one is just over-generalizing, but to a degree it does conform to your idea that it seems no one wants to play AE mish unless it propels to 50 at taboo speeds.
*The one AE mess that can't be laid at their feet is the banned word bug which has broken so many arcs recently. Thanks devs.
Why do people farm for xp? Or for inf or merits or tickets or any other virtual in-game reward you care to imagine? Because some (many?) players are only interested in the "end game", i.e., content meant for pimped out toons at the level cap. If that's what they want, let 'em have it. The devs could save development time and money by not having to play this dumb cat-and-mouse game, and devote those resources to things that matter (like more 50+ content).
I mean, now that revenue does not necessarily come from players paying a monthly fee, what is the point of preventing players from bypassing all the sub-50 content, say right from the character creator screen? If anything, doing so might actually induce quicker conversions from f2p to subscriber as these insta-50s suddenly realize that they just gotta have the Incarnate content and find they have to pay for it.
NOR-RAD - 50 Rad/Rad/Elec Defender - Nikki Stryker - 50 DM/SR/Weap Scrapper - Iron Marauder - 50 Eng/Eng/Pow Blaster
Lion of Might - 50 SS/Inv/Eng Tanker - Darling Nikkee - 50 (+3) StJ/WP/Eng Brute - Ice Giant Kurg - 36 Ice/Storm Controller
On second thought, not going to get into this. :P
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA