Bionic_Flea

It might go something like this:

Devs hate Ukase more than they hate redside . . . .

I agree with this. Even if it is hard to enforce, merely stating it as a rule will have an effect. Some people stay far away from any possible violations, others like to dance right at the line, and a third group doesn't care what the rules are. Simply instituting and declaring the rule will get the folks in the first two groups to comply. That should also make it easier to find the ones who don't care what the rules are.

We can't talk about stuff if I can't prove it in a court of law? Come on. How can I supply evidence I don't have? Or are you just tired of reading what I type and want me to be quiet and go away?

I assume they have all kinds of datamining. I'd like to see it posted here. But that's up to them what to share.

My understanding is, yes the best AE fire farms are multiple times better than any of the old school farms. But you don't have to take my word for it; go run a test - make note of how much XP/Inf you have and run each and compare. It matters to the devs that AE fire farms are so much better than anything else, that players are increasingly only running AE fire farms. Well, "only" is hyperbole. An overwhelming majority of game hours is spent in AE farms. Some of that is AFK, some of that is active. How do you feel about AFK farming? Especially AFK-bot farming where they can use multiple accounts running 24-7 without even having to reset. I don't really care if people farm, although I can't say I support long term AFK farming, as opposed to going AFK a few minutes because I had to take a call or other personal thing. I'm just being a gadfly . . . gadflea . . . gad-something to get people thinking.

I did read it. Every word. And I appreciate that you took the time to answer directly. I'm not sure if all that stuff before this quote was directed at me. I think the market is just fine and that supply and demand works surprisingly well with the dev set upper limits by seeding salvage and giving other stuff a merit price. That sets a ceiling on everything so that we don't have 2 billion dollar Panaceas that then get sold for more off market for both sides to save the market's cut. The ceiling prices, converters, and bundling salvage by tier and bundling all levels of IOs together makes for a fairly stable, reasonably priced market. As Ukase said, I don't think there is a big scarcity of mid level stuff and even if there is, that's an opportunity for someone to supply those items. I certainly supply some low end stuff and have read many others doing a variety of things to do so as well. I am OK with farming having a better return per minute than anything else, but I don't want it to be multiple times better than the next best thing. That's why one of my many questions above was "how fast should it take to get to 50?" If the answer is: "two hours in a farm" I don't want it to be two months doing anything else.

Trying to get a handle on all of this. So if I maximize PAP rewards and run all the i-trials and 4-star Aeon and ITF every day, I'd get 60 PAPs per day. I might get some random drops from missions and I could buy some, but running all the trials and both hard modes is probably longer than most people could play daily. So at 60 per day it would take me 25 days to earn enough to buy the Chibi costume, and nothing else. But realistically, I don't run that content daily now so it would be unlikely that I will do that in the future. They also have a small chance to fall from any mission completion starting at level 1 and from the first run of the weekly. I think it's more likely that I will earn 5-10 per day on average playing the way I am today. I'll get a few from missions/WSF, a few from advanced difficulty on some days and a few from trials on some days. That makes it 150-300 days to earn a mini-chibi. And that seems too long to me. Let alone getting them all on my main. Yes, I understand that I don't have to. I also don't have to get all the badges or all the souvenirs or run all the content. But I feel that at least my main does it because I'm a bit of a completionist. That's at least 8,310 PAPS. I'm sure I undercounted because I didn't break out the mode costumes other than the existing Very Rares. At a max of 60/day (8310/60=139 days); at 10 per day it's 831 days (or 2.3 years) and double that at 5 per day. That seems too long to me. And that's all for a single character. Everyone that I know plays multiple characters. Now it's true that I could also afford to buy some in the market, but the price is currently unknown and bound to be pretty high, at least for a few months. But it's also true that the team intends to add additional ones as time goes on. I think the PAP costs need to be brought down a bit or the rewards brought up a bit, or both. I don't think it's reasonable to assume that players will get 60/day at the current rates and with the time-gates. Even 5-10 per day may be a lot. I think the sweet spot should be at most 12 months to get all of them. Let's say 365 days; at 5 per day that gives a total of 1,825 to get them all. Or looking at it the other way 8310/365 is about 23. The rewards, especially for the non-advanced difficulty should be increased such that a player can reasonably obtain and sustain an average of 23 PAPs a day through a variety of play, or the costs reduced by a factor of 4-5, or some combination of both.

Cow-EL, aka Superbull begs to differ.

Absolutely yes, I agree. I leveled both a TA/AR and an AR/TA and dual boxed them as a team because I couldn't decide which one to make . . . so I made both! The corrupter did A LOT more damage. A LOT!

Agree 100%. I solo most of my characters through story arcs and the occasional teamed TF, especially the Task Force Commander ones, although I sometimes solo the TFs too. I frequently end up with 400+ merits from leveling this way.

A) I wasn't talking to you or about you. The quote in there is from Battlewraith. B) I don't think fire farming is evil. Nor did I say that it was. C) I'd love to compare a +4 ITF to a run of the meteor and see how much XP and Inf is earned per minute or per hour. Great idea! You should go do that.

Would you still have fun if the AE rewards were removed? Or halved? Or otherwise reduced? I mean, you could still do exactly the same thing, only for a little less bank. Is the farm fun or is the bank fun?

I believe you. Sometimes I like farming because it's predicable and you can get into a rhythm and it can be relaxing. But I also realize that I'm making bank. Pretending that I'm not making bank or that farms aren't repetitive is not a reality I am familiar with.

*Shrug* And I think it is unwise to change the PvP zone levels.

You keep quoting me and stating that I am saying things that I'm not. I'm just sharing my thought and opinions. I'm no Commissioner of Fun, although I'd make a damn fine one! You're entitled to your own opinions, not matter how wrong they might be. 😜

Oh I get it. Fire farmers are faster leveling than anything else in the game. But your initial response was that "ordinary content isn't appealing" and that "Nerfing AE fire farms doesn't suddenly make the content people are skipping any funner." I interpreted those statements as an implication that the farms were appealing and fun.

I'm sorry. I don't understand that logic. Do you think that free PvP 50s will bring more players? It certainly might, although from reading the COH forums for the last . . . 15 or so years, I don't it will bring many. But if it makes your life easier that's fine by me. I just don't see what raising the zone limits adds, except for greater disparity.

I think Troo brings up a good point. If there is a negligible amount of zone PvPing going on, shouldn't you want to concentrate them into one zone instead of divide them into 3? What makes you think that raising the zone level will bring more players? Temporal Warriors aren't necessarily an answer to that as Temporal Warriors can already go to any of the zones. They just get exemped to the existing levels. What's wrong with that?

This is true. People like what they like and most don't like boring, repetitive content. Except that's exactly what farms are -- boring and repetitive content. People aren't running farms because they're better written then the rest of the game; they're running them because they give great rewards quickly, despite being boring and repetitive. If AE farms only gave tickets, people would go back to farming something else. Does that make the Old Dreck farm funner?

Okay, playing along. Ideally equal. Given the difference between AE and non-AE content is mainly travel, spawn spacing and variety of mission types. AE rewards operate at a reduced amount. With the removal of the custom critter 'bug' and the aggro cap changes, hopefully AE and non-AE rewards can get closer to the same per mob. It might take another revision but that should be the goal. Let play play how they want. More appropriately it would be great to get an official stance/answer from Homecoming to set expectations. I am only one voice. Homecoming might not be for everyone and that's okay. I want everyone here, but I get it. Choices & consequences. Thanks for at least giving an answer Troo. AE has a few advantages: 1) custom made critters 2) custom made maps 3) lack of travel 4) designer's intent When you custom design critters that can barely hurt you on maps that are super dense, even at half the rewards per kill you get elsewhere, you can earn a lot really fast. Believe it or not, I don't have a problem with that. If you want to sit in AE and kill waves of chumps all day long, have at it. But I do think that there should be some reduction in farm rewards and increase in non-farm rewards. I don't know what the numbers are or what they should be. All I know is the AE fire farms are so much better than anything else that it's becoming the default for many players.

Once again, I have not said, am not saying, nor trying to say anything of the sort.

I didn't say anything of the sort. Delusional or disingenuous?

Sorry, but you are either delusional or disingenuous. You refuse to accept the truth that when players can choose their maps and their enemies it's like Lebron playing against elementary school kids. It wouldn't matter if the elementary kids got 2 points per basket and Lebron only got 1.

I did a few days ago and they would not give them to me.