ShardWarrior

Well said! Could not agree more.

I cannot help it if you are wrong and are contradicting yourself with your own posts. But whatever, good day to you.

@ForeverLaxx I am not sure why you keep directing this at me or what you are on about, but I would kindly ask that you please do your research for clarity. There have been many posts made on these forums over the years by players who have expressed their opinions about power leveling and AE and have gone so far as to suggest its outright removal. You are even admitting there are a few here in this thread. There is a history there and if you frequent the forums enough, this would be clear. A few have made suggestions about removing the AE building from starting zones and removing XP from everything other that Developers Choice missions, which as you know would be a rather large nerf toward the farming and power leveling community. Again, it is perfectly fine for people to dislike farming, dislike power leveling, dislike AE and feeling that it hurts the game and offering suggestions. Those pointing out that power leveling and farming was around long before AE existed and removing AE from starter zones or even entirely would do nothing to stop those activities are making a legitimate point.

I disagree with this entirely.

Whether it be a trickle or a flood of players, I would still very much like to see this empirical evidence of yours that points to farming and DFB being the main reasons new players are either not trying or trying and then swiftly leaving the game. I am happy to wait for you to post that data here so we can all examine it. What has been posted here ranges from subjective opinions and edge cases to pure speculation and hyperbole.

Again @TheZag no reason to doubt you, however I have to admit I find this part of the story a bit suspicious. I can see someone brand new getting a few bars or even a whole level on farm before they realize what is going on, but 6 levels before it dawned on them? Just being honest here, but that is a bit of a stretch to me, especially since this was supposedly a returning player. No one other than that player accepted that team invite to the farm and they could have asked what a farm was before joining. From my experience, farms are advertised as such in LFG. A person brand new to gaming can ask what a farm is before joining a team. I know I have had people send me tells asking what things like SBB or DiB stood for, which I was happy to explain when asked. While I agree the community here can be a big help in supporting new players, I am not sure we want to start imposing hard rules on what language to use when advertising for farms or specific instructions when running and inviting "new" people to farm teams to make sure they really want to join or not.

@TheZag - not that I doubt your story here but how can you be certain this person actually quit the game? There can be any number of reasons a person has not logged in for a period of time. Also, unless that person told you farming and power leveling is what specifically drove them away, then it is as you admitted, just an assumption. Totally agree there are a lot of people advertising or looking for farms on Excel. It is entirely up to the individual though. No one is forced to join a team they do not want to be on. There are also a great many people advertising non-speed, defeat most runs of various TFs and SFs. As for getting the word out being up to us, I completely agree. There seems to be a lot of people with good ideas on what to do, but do not want to put forth any effort and look to someone else to implement them.

I am not sure this is correct to suggest this is a strawman and that you are confusing separate points in the thread. There are a few people here who are of the opinion farming is the reason the game is in population decline and that AE should get removed completely because it is driving new players away. I believe that is who the counter arguments are directed to.

I have to ask, where are all these masses of new players that were instantly AE farmed to 50, got bored and swiftly quit you are describing here? I would love to see some Reddit posts or something where they discuss their impressions en masse.

The only way to truly fix Regen is to nerf it even more.

I do not necessarily disagree with you. What I am suggesting is the manner in which people are expressing their opinions could use a little empathy. It is one thing to say you do not care for farming. It is entirely another thing to constantly lament about it ruining the game, endlessly calling for it to be nerfed or removed entirely and shunning anyone who might enjoy it as social outcasts who are unworthy to be here. The tone you are using puts off a very toxic vibe that potential new players will pick up on. Preferences are subjective to the individual. Again, just as you left the game because of farming, I personally know a great many people who came back to it because of it. They got tired of that 1 to 50 grind and the ability to skip that to create all new characters to enjoy was a big bonus for them. New players who might want to try PvP in the game who do not enjoy grinding out multiple characters may also value farming. There is nothing wrong with disliking something. Personally, I very much dislike PvP. With that said, I most certainly would never discourage anyone from it nor would I advocate that it be removed or force those who enjoy it into a playstyle they do not care for. Good point. As far as I know, these other servers did not have the streaming restrictions that Homecoming had. They are not attracting legions of new players either.

Something to consider here that @Neiska mentioned earlier in the thread. Potential new players reading these forums are going to see comments like these. Ascribing a negative connotation to farming and the sheer intolerance to those who might enjoy that as an activity is toxic. It does not help to foster a sense of community. Just my 2 inf.

Hard pass on that. No thank you.

I understood the discussion perfectly fine. I was adding my experience with Alienware products and Dell.

I have two older Alienware laptops. One which I purchased years ago and one which I inherited from a former co-worker. Both are running fine after many years. Never had a problem with either of them. YMMV I guess. With that said, I would agree there are better options out there and Alienware is overpriced. Not really a Dell fan myself. I have had some very bad service issues with them in the past and would not recommend them.

Probably posted this before, but I still love it so sharing again 😁 Flight Man of Steel OST Hans Zimmer

I like this idea! Very interesting.

I do not disagree with you in that removing AE would have varied reactions, however I think it naive to believe overall it would not have a negative impact overall on player population. It certainly would be more a negative change than a positive one in my opinion. AE is not the problem with player numbers. It is the age of the game in a very saturated market and that CoH does not now nor will it ever offer any of the modern bells and whistles newer games do. Those who keep pressing on story content seem to forget CoH does just does not have that wide of a variety of mission types. Your basic missions are defeat all, defeat boss and crew, click glowies, rescue or escort hostage, hunt X villains etc. It gets repetitive very, very quickly regardless of how good the story is. Personally, I do not see streaming being any help here. The streaming restriction here has been lifted for a while now and there is no new influx of players. I would think streamers with any sizable subscriber base are going to stick to reviewing more modern titles where there is a lot more interest to draw in viewers and there is also potential for advertising money or other perks for them. I know of quite a lot of people who stuck with and in many cases came back to the game because they could PL their characters in AE when it was introduced. They had gotten very bored with having to grind out new characters through story content. Everyone has a different experience and different perspective. What you are saying here is not a universal truth for everyone. There is no right or wrong here.

Of course it depends on the individual. Your preferences are true for you, but not universally so. Just as you dislike the fantasy genre and PvP, there are a great many players who absolutely love them. Again, this is an aged game on a very aged engine being run by a volunteer group. It does not offer a lot of mechanics and QoL things players are accustomed to. I cannot speak to the other games you mentioned, but I do play STO regularly. Lootboxes there are very easily ignored. You are not required to open them in order to progress in the game. It is also getting continual development and (for better or for worse) has several Trek programs airing to help draw in new players. With that said, STO is not without its faults, the over saturation of VFX vomit being the biggest problem in my opinion. I wholeheartedly agree the quality of the Trek IP has suffered greatly ever since Bad Reboot took it over in 2009.

If they are not a member with storage access permissions, what can they steal? If they are a member, it is very easy to remedy. Changing the base passcode solves this.

For the folks who continually whine and cry about AE and how it is supposedly ruining the game, please remember that PLing to 50 existed long before there was an AE. Removing the AE buildings from starter zones will do nothing to stop farming. I also wholeheartedly disagree that people cannot be invested in characters that were leveled outside of "normal" story mission content. I have a great many characters that I play regularly that I enjoy very much, all of which were leveled via running TFs, AE content or a combination of the two. Character investment is entirely subjective to the individual and their preferred style of play. It is important to remember this is an aged game that has some nostalgic value and while it can be fun, it simply cannot compete with more modern games offering more robust graphics, more advanced features and better game play mechanics. Do not get me wrong, I enjoy CoH very much, however I see it as very wishful thinking to believe this game will ever draw in and maintain huge crowds of new players.

Thanks. Those are SS/INV though ... was looking for SS/WP. 😁

Kick him in the junk! Serves him right for all his hand clapping mobs off the bridges!

Anyone have a build for a SS/WP Brute they would not mind sharing? I have had a hankering to roll a punchy smashy Hulky-type alt. I have been futzing in Mids to see if I can come up with something that soft caps either typed or melee DEF (or at least comes pretty close) but have not had much luck. A couple of caveats - I am not one who needs to take Hasten so no real need for it and would like to include Hurl which I know a lot of people skip. I want it for concept. Any build suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

First look at Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader! https://ew.com/tv/darth-vader-obi-wan-kenobi-hayden-christensen-exclusive-photo/