I changed my mind on AE farming...

[jubakumbi]

6 minutes ago, Abraxus said:

True.  Straight Farming missions were a minority of the player written missions.  Many of them were very creative missions, and arcs, some of which deserved to be included in regular game content.  The fact that the most widely known aspect of AE became the dedicated farming missions is regrettable, as it was not always the majority of what it was used for, especially back in the days of live.  Some really talented folks left their contributions there for others to play, and leave feedback. 

Loud in AP Global/LFT Chat, for AE Farms or DFB, has always been the thing attacked.

In some peoples eyes, the very nature of the game is based uopn the most 'global' chatroom.

 

*shrug*

 

The first thing I do in all MMOs is shutdown most all chat channels.

I stay out of AP as a soon as I can.

 

The moment the DFB became less popular in LFT on HC from my PoV, all calls for nerfing/removing/changing it ceased...

 

For years, whatever chat that is seen as 'spamming' the 'global channels' got attacked - "if those kids over there are having more fun than me, it must be wrong!"

When I saw it happen on HC I laughed and laughed, so predictable is this MMO player group.

 

The AE is now a unicorn as well...STO and Neverwinter lost thiers...

[jubakumbi]

55 minutes ago, tafilr said:

Just my perspective but there seems to be 4 different kinds of players in CoH, generally speaking.

 

1. PL'ers that do it for gear/INF to PVP. 

2. PL'ers that do it for the best gear/INF and do the end game content.

3. Players that can't get over alt-itus, they have 40 toons.

4. Content-delving players - can't miss a thing on each character: TFs, Trials, Badges, etc.

 

I would be in the number 3 category.  But I'm having fun and that's what all this is about, right?  To each their own.

5. Players that just like to fool around when they have the time who have been one or more of the above at some point over the years.

 

The player quilt, especially for this game, is seemingly endless from my PoV.

 

In the current state, expecially by using the AE if that is your thing, there are not many comic-based stories one cannot create/play/enjoy, IMO.

 

I have/have had friends that played CoH:

. just for the Market - still had multiple tricked out 50s

. just to hang out and talk on VoIP - had multiple 50s, no idea how to really play any of them

. just to try and one-up and control everyone else - tried to tell us all to wait for Aim and BU before opening combat with every single spawn, issue 1.

. just because it was about comics 

. just becuase it was about supers

 

I love this game and IMO, the AE concpet of player-created content that those players and other can enjoy is friggin' awesome.

 

I could not care less if it's a fast way to get 50s, just like the Demons Farms of old (still use I hear).

 

The point of the game is to have fun and gain joy from playing, IMO, the AE adds joy.

[DR_Mechano]

I am one of those people that thought that the AE was a rather large waste of resources. The problem was the Devs couldn't decide on whether they wanted it to be just story focused driven, in which case it would solve the farming issue since the arcs would give no rewards but then not a lot of people would use the AE because the missions gave no reward. They could have accepted that giving standard rewards and that people would farm.

 

Unfortunately they tried to have their cake and eat it. They kept nerfing the XP down and down but the farmer mission makers always found ways around this and this led to more and more people not doing the actually good story arcs (those that kept updated as every nerf/update would break an arc, requiring you to go back and fix it, which, after the fervor of it died down, many did not). It took them almost a year of constantly chasing their tail until they eventually just gave up on the whole thing. The Devs choice awards stopped, the bug fixes and balancing stopped, the AE was just left to stand as monument to folly and as a focus for farming.

 

Now I am a great big hypocrite in this regard, why? Because I do use the AE for farming, I mean nowadays I make most of my money playing the market bu for a long time all my inf was farmed with only the occasionally recipe being sold on the AH. I mean if it is there, I might as well use it.

 

I can also say I don't see the AE/PI farming hate on the global channels either...this may be because I'm playing on Everlasting but I've never seen someone berated for offering/asking if there are farms going. It is mostly people just left

[jubakumbi]

8 minutes ago, DR_Mechano said:

The problem was the Devs couldn't decide on whether they wanted it to be just story focused driven, in which case it would solve the farming issue since the arcs would give no rewards but then not a lot of people would use the AE because the missions gave no reward.

...

Unfortunately they tried to have their cake and eat it.

...

I can also say I don't see the AE/PI farming hate on the global channels either...this may be because I'm playing on Everlasting but I've never seen someone berated for offering/asking if there are farms going. It is mostly people just left

Somehow, the development house behind the game at that time IMO was actually rose-colored-glasses enough to think anyone that uased the AE they built would do so with only the most of Heroic reasons...

 

It became a morals war both in and out of the game that obviously still rages on now...it has been incredible to watch it rage on and on...

 

There are some people that literally think the AE is 'cheating'...in a power-fantasy MMO with little to no PvP most of them would never touch anyway...

 

I totally agree that in game here on HC, I have seen no hate for AE/Power Leveling/Farming, only (a few) posters here on the forums.

 

I do wish the moral war would come to a conclusion though....a man can dream...

[Chalkarts]

1 hour ago, Abraxus said:

True.  Straight Farming missions were a minority of the player written missions.  Many of them were very creative missions, and arcs, some of which deserved to be included in regular game content.  The fact that the most widely known aspect of AE became the dedicated farming missions is regrettable, as it was not always the majority of what it was used for, especially back in the days of live.  Some really talented folks left their contributions there for others to play, and leave feedback. 

All I've seen are faceroll lazy grinds.

Feel free to direct me toward one of these missions with Content.

I'd love to try one.

 

Perhaps AE suffers from a similar problem as YouTube.

There is likely a lot of good content in there.  But unfortunately its buried under and endlessly growing pile of unfiltered garbage.

 

Is there a way to delineate farmrolls from actual missions in the AE search function?

Edited September 16, 2019 by Chalkarts

[Abraxus]

You just have to scroll down the list and look for the ones that don't include "farm" in the title.  Some are silly, but others are darned creative.  I've not played them all, but there was one where all the villains were clowns that was kind of fun.

[Without_Pause]

11 minutes ago, Chalkarts said:

All I've seen are faceroll lazy grinds.

Feel free to direct me toward one of these missions with Content.

I'd love to try one.

There are ones which are Dev choice and hall of fame arcs. It really isn't difficult to find. Saying there are only farms means you have put in zero effort to find anything else.

[Chalkarts]

Just now, Without_Pause said:

There are ones which are Dev choice and hall of fame arcs. It really isn't difficult to find. Saying there are only farms means you have put in zero effort to find anything else.

Sorry, I was busy playing the game.

I'll put more effort into skipping it all in the future.

[Abraxus]

7 minutes ago, Chalkarts said:

Sorry, I was busy playing the game.

I'll put more effort into skipping it all in the future.

Sorry, but it sounded like you were genuinely interested in looking to see if there was anything of substance there, to counterpoint your low opinion of AE in general.  Now, it sounds like that was not the case.  Sounds like we have, unfortunately, arrived at that whole "agree to disagree" part of the conversation.  Moving along....

[quixoteprog]

I thought of it as a kind of "cheat" myself when I first heard of it. And I still SORT of have that feeling. But when I first tried it I found it to be impossible. I died repeatedly, until I read how up on how to get rolling.

 

Once I got past that initial hurdle I found farming pretty entertaining, at least as much so as most of the dev. generated content. Managing inspiration consumption and optimizing inf. per minute can be its own challenge. At least until you reach a certain level where you can no longer up the difficulty and the challenge levels off and drops pretty quick.

 

Doesn't hurt that it produces a lot of surplus inf. to fund alts. But honestly, if it were not fun in and of itself I would not do it even for that.

 

 

[subbacultchas]

33 minutes ago, Chalkarts said:

All I've seen are faceroll lazy grinds.

Feel free to direct me toward one of these missions with Content.

I'd love to try one.

 

Perhaps AE suffers from a similar problem as YouTube.

There is likely a lot of good content in there.  But unfortunately its buried under and endlessly growing pile of unfiltered garbage.

 

Is there a way to delineate farmrolls from actual missions in the AE search function?

Not sure how their searching works, but I would suggest searching and trying things such as -farm or NOT farm. Some search engines will handle it, others will not, and I seriously doubt the AE search function will but you never know.

[jubakumbi]

36 minutes ago, Chalkarts said:

Sorry, I was busy playing the game.

I'll put more effort into skipping it all in the future.

 

26 minutes ago, Abraxus said:

Sorry, but it sounded like you were genuinely interested in looking to see if there was anything of substance there, to counterpoint your low opinion of AE in general.  Now, it sounds like that was not the case.  Sounds like we have, unfortunately, arrived at that whole "agree to disagree" part of the conversation.  Moving along....

 

Yeah, I have to agree here @Abraxus, seems like that was a short lived window of inquiry.

 

All these years, all the different games, media, etc., and yet we still have people convinced not playing paid-for-developer-content-stories is somehow lesser and wrong...to the degree these individuals seem to not be content unless they can trell us we are doing it wrong, even with thier passive agressive language.

 

It is funny to me, especially when the story content for most of the game is of medium quality at best, a few gems exist, but it's not like the CoH story lines are anything oscar winning.

 

This entire idea, that by playing CoH in a different way through the AE is 'skipping the game' is about funnist damn thing I have seen around any game.

AE is a part of the game.

If you are playing in the AE, you by definition, playing the game.

It's like trying to say 'anything on the radio' is better that the local band, just because they got on the air...

Or like saying that any fiction that has been published by a book company is by definition better than anything self published...

Or like having a Fast Pass at an amusement park is 'cheating'...

And that, basically, playing a game and having fun is not playing the game...

 

Frikin' hilarious....the very definition of 'get off my lawn' IMO...

[Bill Z Bubba]

14 minutes ago, jubakumbi said:

Frikin' hilarious....the very definition of 'get off my lawn' IMO...

 

I didn't farm much back in the old days but now I'm 47 years old, full time systems analyst job, got 40 alts, playing characters I never would have bothered with before and I can make about 2mil inf/min in AE not even counting drops sold.

 

The gorram content hasn't changed and after playing for 8 years, I've seen it.

 

To put it another way, perhaps some people should get off OUR lawn.

[subbacultchas]

34 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

I didn't farm much back in the old days but now I'm 47 years old, full time systems analyst job, got 40 alts, playing characters I never would have bothered with before and I can make about 2mil inf/min in AE not even counting drops sold.

 

The gorram content hasn't changed and after playing for 8 years, I've seen it.

 

To put it another way, perhaps some people should get off OUR lawn.

Well, there's another forum name I haven't seen in years. Glad you are still alive and kicking man.

[Replacement]

I still struggle to see the point of using AE for powerleveling characters to 50 when alting is the endgame, and we have a beta server right over there I frequently use to try out power combos I'm curious about.

 

But then, I have zero level 50s on the HC live servers, and I've taken to running 2x tunnel witches on most new characters.  I'm sure people with more play time than me are just as tired of founder's falls radio missions as I am of steel canyon radio missions.

[Bastille Boy]

I disliked AE farming until I started designing my own farms. Creating costumes is the best part of the game. The grind of farming is less of a grind when your opponents look interesting. Those poor devils...if I keep this up, I will kill Kenny more times than South Park has.

 

AE can also be good for testing builds and powersets and for answering absurd questions like, "If the police had to put Bastille Boy (my main) back in jail...not that he'd give them a reason to...should they bring guns or 'less lethal' weapons?" Answer: They should leave their pistols and their assault rifles at the station. A few advanced stun guns, with conductive aura enabled, will have him on his knees, fast. Regular guns + lots of smoke bombs = stalemate (they can't hurt my toon, but he can't hit back once he runs out of yellows).

 

I've seen some great story arcs in AE. I'd like to see more. The most interesting ones play with game mechanics to tell the story. There's one arc (can't remember the name or number) in which a ghost named "Regret" follows you around. It doesn't attack, it's just...there.

 

[Clave Dark 5]

9 hours ago, Chalkarts said:

What I'm saying is I remember finding parties to play through the content with, until AE showed up and most players stopped playing the actual game and running the loot treadmill.

That's my take on what the Incarnate system did to the game, especially the closer it got to shut down.  There are lots of takes out there.

[Neogumbercules]

AE farming is fine and it's especially fine for people who have been playing this game since 04 and have experienced every single iota of content it has to offer, and they just want to blow through the crap levels and get to SOs ASAP. 

 

IMO they should remove the AE XP nerf.

[Troo]

On 9/16/2019 at 10:08 AM, tafilr said:

Just my perspective but there seems to be 4 different kinds of players in CoH, generally speaking.

 

1. PL'ers that do it for gear/INF to PVP. 

2. PL'ers that do it for the best gear/INF and do the end game content.

3. Players that can't get over alt-itus, they have 40 toons.

4. Content-delving players - can't miss a thing on each character: TFs, Trials, Badges, etc.

 

I would be in the number 3 category.  But I'm having fun and that's what all this is about, right?  To each their own.

#3 wanna be #4.

 

Many folks miss out on a lot of the game. My favorite toon on live never went past level 32 and just lived in Siren's Call.

[Troo]

10 minutes ago, Neogumbercules said:

AE farming is fine and it's especially fine for people who have been playing this game since 04 and have experienced every single iota of content it has to offer, and they just want to blow through the crap levels and get to SOs ASAP. 

 

IMO they should remove the AE XP nerf.

That's what test server is for, isn't it? Roll your 50 and then roll another. Avoid all that pesky content.

[Without_Pause]

10 hours ago, Neogumbercules said:

AE farming is fine and it's especially fine for people who have been playing this game since 04 and have experienced every single iota of content it has to offer, and they just want to blow through the crap levels and get to SOs ASAP. 

 

IMO they should remove the AE XP nerf.

Vets of the game aren't wasting time on SOs, or at least they shouldn't be.

[Frostbiter]

11 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

Vets of the game aren't wasting time on SOs, or at least they shouldn't be.

To elaborate a little; at 25 regular IOs are better than level 25 SOs and don't lose effectiveness so they are a much better choice if you have 2-3 million influence. Which isn't very hard to make anymore.

[MunkiLord]

17 hours ago, Troo said:

That's what test server is for, isn't it? Roll your 50 and then roll another. Avoid all that pesky content.

No because it's constantly changing to test things out or can be wiped at any time. 

[jshmoe1236123]

33 minutes ago, MunkiLord said:

No because it's constantly changing to test things out or can be wiped at any time. 

This.  One could use the test server to test out a build to see if it's viable for what they want to do, but any long term playing on the test server would be frustrating with the information being wiped.

[jubakumbi]

45 minutes ago, jshmoe1236123 said:

This.  One could use the test server to test out a build to see if it's viable for what they want to do, but any long term playing on the test server would be frustrating with the information being wiped.

Not to mention the entire premise behind being told to use the test server is an accusation of 'avoiding content', just another passive-aggresive jibe, IMO, from people that simply prefer to kill pixels in a different way, but think they have to demean the other ways people play...

 

Next we will be told that anyting that allows a level 50 in less that 300 hours of playtime is cheating?

Where will this 'play the game this way or you are doing it wrong' end?