battlewraith

Most of the opinions expressed on these forums are based on subjective experience. Personally I think there's a substantial amount of anti-farming sentiment of the forums, I can't say I've run into much ingame aside from the occasional person in lfg ranting about pl begging. So where is this faction of anti-farmers? You've run into 2 xenophobically anti-farmers and Deputy Luminara has done her forum sleuthing and found nothing. Well the answer is that this is a rhetorical distortion, a kind of strawman. It's similar to when someone asks if there is fascism in a country and then goes out and can't find literal goosestepping nazis with swastikas tattooed on their foreheads. And then concludes that there is no fascism. The current state of the game is that a large percentage of players, if not a numerical majority, engage in farming to some degree. And importantly the devs, despite issuing some unpopular changes, openly tolerate farming. Under these circumstance, anyone openly arguing for a farming nerf will get flamed as a radical. If the devs changed their stance, I have no doubt that would change immediately. Anti-farm bias currently manifests as a kind of schadenfreude. People antagonistic to farming don't start threads. They weigh in on discussions started by people complaining. They will state at length that they don't care how you play, but in the course of debating something they claim to not care about the mask will start to droop and they will let their real feelings appear. People aren't earning stuff, they want easy mode, they're distorting gameplay, INFLATION, etc. In comparison, there are a lot of things in this game to which I am truly indifferent (badges, tfs) so I don't go into discussions to argue with people whether they have valid concerns or they're just ranting. Of course, there is a confounding factor in this: People who aren't actually invested either way but use a "free market of ideas" ethos as justification to be pedantic about anything because they are bored. Get your complaining off their lawn...which isn't actually their lawn.

People keep bringing this up as a defense of the market. The whole problem actually is the market. The absolute easiest way to deal with inflation is to just get rid of it all together. Assign all of the recipes, enhancements, salvage etc. to vendors that sell these things at an affordable rate. During the recent round of...umm...farming tweaks....some of the devs asked the question "how good should farming be?" Well let's ask the question "how cheap should goods be?" Find a reasonable answer and just lock those rates in. Easy Peasy no more worry about inflation. Why not? Well, because the market is a time sink for a lot of players. It's a minigame that a lot of people enjoy and in which they routinely participate. I have no problem with that. What I do take issue with is the implicit hypocrisy of people pointing their finger at farming and saying it's bad for the game because of the specter of inflation. This isn't COH: the market simulator, any more than City of PVP or City of Farming or anything else. Get over it. The AH doesn't generate wealth, and destroys a certain amount through fees. But it also redistributes the wealth that is actually in play. So it greatly increases the buying power of a subset of the population which factors into...inflation. Farmers, marketeers. Pot. Kettle.

Yeah it's absolutely fucking hilarious to read some of these recent comments and then go look at what the guy actually wrote. If he was trolling--chef's kiss. Masterful. Maximum outpouring of self-righteous mockery for the minimum input. Instant tinfoil hat memes. And then 15 pages later, some of the same individuals still seething about the apparent flood of verbal abuse they have to contend with, lol.

I've often wondered about this game community, and the active forum community in particular, if there's a high representation of people in technical fields and/or engineering pursuits where rulesets and application of established principles are very significant. Maybe moreso than other MMOs.

Yeah this pretty much hits the nail on the head. Particularly when looking at a statement like this: This is hilarious to me because there is literally no trophy in this game that has any significance to me as a player. I don't care about other people's badges, how many 50s they have, how many merits they've accumulated, etc. Resources to me are essentially the cost of doing business. I'm pursuing some interest or creative endeavor and due to the game mechanics, there is a certain amount of grind thrown my way as a tax to pursue that interest. It's in my interest to minimize that tax so that I spend as much time in the game doing the things I actually enjoy doing. Unfortunately, there is a large contingent of the community that view their achievements relative to what other people are doing. They feel it is in their interest to keep this tax higher to protect the subjective value of their "earnings." I guess I can understand this mentality intellectually but can't relate to it at all. If an activity is fun--that should be the reward. If other people have the option to skip tedious content or get phat loot--and this destroys your fun--then the activity in question must not be all that.

Well if you're one of those drunken sailors then they're probably a great bunch. If you're not, then they may reasonably come across as assholes, particularly if you have to argue with them and shout over them every time you try to order a drink.

I didn't claim that. I said that by the time I had earned 50k I was in the late teens. The price of SOs at that time was such that I could buy 2. And yeah, being able to 10 rather than 20, of the lvl 5s, is a pretty big difference. Yeah I don't think I would describe using 2x boosters, running 3 dfbs, and then soloing at default settings all the way to lvl 26 as "speed leveling." The whole point is to show that buying SOs early is unnecessary, particularly with the other buffs available. Same deal. If it's easier to survive, then it's easier to grind. And I doubt most players in the early levels are doing anything about their survivability. Being able to kill mobs is more important than having good resists or def at the outset. If you're support and know you will be teaming a lot, then buffs and heals are worth slotting--but if you're teaming a lot, you'll fly through this early content.

Maybe it would be more realistic to work in the opposite direction. The graphics of this game are antiquated. Meanwhile modeling, texturing, sculpting, topology, etc. tools have become incredibly powerful compared to what they were like in the early 2000s. Perhaps the dev team could outsource the production of assets which could be added to the AE system. Not just Egypt---a variety of interesting locales. AE content creators could then incorporate them into new player made content, which would give the playerbase a compelling reason to check out these AE missions. This would also act as an extended beta for the new assets to make sure they work/integrate properly. After a period of time, the devs could look at which assets are particularly popular and then use those as a basis for further updates that included new coding related functionality.

Lol no. The cheapest lvl 5 SOs are around 3k. Some of the more popular ones like dmg are around 6k. Nobody is buying 20 of these things for 50k, even if they could enhance fear in every power or something. I tried a new character as I said. I didn't give it any money. Also, the point of the dfb was to get the buffs, not to speed level. Those buffs lasted me until level 26 without really needing to enhance anything. That was using the 2x xp booster, but you could so the same thing without using a booster. Either way, that's a better option than investing in SOs that are very quickly going to be outleveled. The illogic of this quoted statement is that if SOs and DOs make a significant difference, then you'll level faster and they will therefore expire faster. If you want to level faster, just run some dfbs and/or use a booster to make easier settings worth more. Don't bother wasting the money. If you aren't worried about earning faster, then you don't need the significant difference that those enhancements are going to give you.

I don't think people are critical of this idea because they have some objection to helping new players. It's more that 50k inf is so trivial and it's being aimed at the initial levels when enhancements are needed the least. Since this suggestion was made, I started leveling a new character. I ran DFB three times in order to get the acc, dam, and recovery buffs. I then just started doing normal content and got some additional powers from bank missions and whatnot. When I had earned roughly 50k myself, out of curiosity I went to the vendor and buy SOs. This was late teens and I could afford 2. The buffs from the dfb lasted me until I think lvl 26. I didn't buy enhancements again until lvl 27.

Glad to inspire you dood. Personally, when I picture a badge themed character--at least in my head it looks like Pacman and makes a "waka waka" sound when it moves around.

That's different than my recollection on all counts. Some of the zones were pretty steadily active, if not outright busy, and it doesn't take many lone wolf types or even small groups of pvpers to stop people from getting badges. They also had that outbreak guy spawning in RV so that people could get that badge, which was a major fiasco that got badgers pissed. Trying to promote pvp and organize events I often had to deal with pissed off badgers chiming in.

So that means that pvpers can't have badges related to pvp? I didn't bring this up to relitigate the whole farce. The point was just to show an example of entitlement. The devs at that time made a decision regarding incentives. There was a large subcommunity of players that were outraged by this and kept arguing that they were entitled to these incentives without having to actually earn them through pvp.

There are a bunch of entitled mentalities in this community. Farmers, sure. Hang out in the suggestions forum and watch people freak out over proposals for minor changes that they think will destroy everything . There's also a nostalgic, reactionary bunch that things should be nerfed or rolled back to their preferred era of gaming. Probably the biggest shitfest in the history of the game came when the devs put badges in the pvp zones and badgers did not want to have to pvp to get them. Everyone has an interest that they pursue . Disruptions to that interest can be really aggravating and it gets amplified by the mockery of the forums. The alpha predator of this social dynamic is the disinterested nonplayer. "City of Heroes got shut down again and I can't play anymore!" "Oh, does that mean you'll go outside more and actually get some exercise?"

Yes, I think in terms of locales this one is a no-brainer. Would fit well with coh lore and offer a lot of creative possibilities. I would also like to some more eldritch/Lovecraftian themed content in the game and this would be a good bridge to that--maybe some of those old ruins in the deep desert aren't human in origin.

This is kind of how I picture the ToT witches when they come out the door and see a bunch of supers.

Somebody was wondering if they were getting bored with the game quicker as the result of getting older. He responded with this: It seems apparent to me that he's identifying himself as part of the group "older players" (whatever that means). And since he's apparently representative of these older players he feels comfortable just waving away somebody else's thoughts about aging and decreased tolerance for grind (which he mischaracterizes as wanting the "easy way"). That's bullshit. Different people have different shifting priorities as they age. It was a weird thing to say. And it's a weird thing for me to have to clarify and bicker about a question that he didn't bother to answer.

Yeah and???

No, not really. First of all you said it was false that a pipeline like that existed, which is incorrect. Secondly, yeah it's less complicated to just go to the vendor--and immediately start wasting that inf on low level content that they will pretty quickly burn through. And then once those SOs are red, wonder why the character isn't performing that well anymore. So how about instead of the 50k, there is a contact you get immediately on entry that leads you though this process. It introduces you to the free p2w movement options, marks the exploration badges on the map (so that you learn the significance of badges and that they may reward you with things like merits), and then guides you through the auction house process. You get more money and learn more about the game then getting a small inf gift to support the easiest and most fleeting levels. Also, if there was a message at the start that said, if you need some startup money ask the friendly community! They would probably get more than 50k lol.

This is from the newcomer's guide in the guide section: If we assume that the new player doesn't know anything, and isn't going to do any research or ask any questions, then I doubt throwing 50k inf at them is going help them much either. They don't know where to buy enhancements, what enhancements to buy, etc. etc.

Ok, so first off nice clickbait. As for the actual suggestion: 1. I thought there was already some scheme in place to get cash for lowbies. You get an exploration badge or something that grants you some merits, then exchange those for converters which you then sell. I thought the return on this was at least 150k. 2. I logged on a character to check. At lvl 2, you can start buying SOs for around 4k a pop. Doing so would strike me as really foolish since you burn through those early levels pretty quickly even if you're not using xp boosters and/or running dfb. Personally, I don't think I bother even slotting any SOs until around lvl 20, at which the price is much higher. I think at least 10k. So that 50k really doesn't do a whole lot. If you used it to slot earlier, then you would level faster--and the SOs would expire more quickly. Ok it's some free money. It will help a little. But it's a weird place on which to focus dev attention. If you don't like this content, you level through it quickly to the point where 50k isn't a big deal. If you do like it--then you go slow and savor it? Why are you in a rush to get enhanced, which would presumably get you through it quicker?

I haven't ignored anybody in the game, so I was unaware of these options. Everything you mentioned should just be part of ignore, especially topics. If somebody can't stand your opinions to the extent that they're going to block them, that person shouldn't be able to chime in on discussions that you started.

Why do the butthurt people that have me ignored feel the need to reference me when they have a meltdown lol?

It was ridiculous 13 years ago. Therefore...they shouldn't be lowered now? Is that the point of this?

Yeah the merit cost of enhancements is ridiculous. Lower the cost of buying them with merits or further increase the rewards you get for running content. Ideally, a player should be able enhance a new character without buying anything from the market. Using the market should not be a mandatory aspect of this game for someone who wants run at what would be considered a typical level of achievement (ie, having enough to alt, have decent builds, etc.). Then we can maybe dispense with the endless horror stories of inflation on live and the use of the market as the game's schizophrenic moral compass: Farming is bad because it leads to inflation. Can't skip the farming because it leads to inflation. Yada yada.