issue 26 Patch Notes for May 30th, 2019

[Redmasque]

JSYK, the new homecoming.exe was flagged by my AV (AVG) as suspicious, but already passed inspection (in case others post of app closure issues)

 

Mine was flagged by Norton and it has halted the launch.

[Kala]

Assuming that you continue to get the exact same amount of exp at each level (I'm not super experienced with the game, but I don't think that's true, and getting more exp as you gain levels would just make the change less notable), the DFB change means:

 

• Getting to level 12 will take ~1% longer than before. This is negligible.
  
• Getting to level 15 will take ~7% longer than before. Not completely negligible, but won't make any practical difference.
  
• Getting to level 18 will take ~20% longer than before. Will make a practical difference, but not a significant one.
  
• Getting to level 20 will take ~42% longer than before.
  
• Getting to level 22 will take ~61% longer than before.
  

 

DFB hasn't been removed from the game, and people using DFB to level to level 15-18 shouldn't really notice a huge difference. That's around the point where you may want to start looking for other ways to quickly level, of which there are plenty. You can also just keep running DFB if you want, it still gives exp (and if you already have a group that wants to run it more, you still save the time it takes to form a group for something else).

 

For anyone not so great with numbers, here are inverted percentages as an indicator of "how big the nerf is overall" relative to the initial graph which goes level by level.

 

• Level 12: 1.5% nerf
  
• Level 15: 6.5% nerf
  
• Level 18: 17% nerf
  
• Level 20: 30% nerf
  
• Level 22: 38% nerf
  

[OtterSeaborne]

 

Immobilize Powers in Controller and Dominator primary power sets should no longer make their targets immune to KnockUp. KnockBack will be converted to KnockDown. This helps sets like Ice and Earth, as their AOE Immobilize power will no longer make their AOE Knockback power useless.[/

 

/storm controllers (or fire tollers that took bonfire) are probably the only controllers not happy with the change.

 

Still, it will fix so much of the frustration with AOE immob, especially in the hands of new controllers.

 

As someone who’s still learning the basics on my private server, I’m amazed at all of these updates.

Why would Stormies hate this change? Hurricane will still Repel, even if they won't go flying as much, which should be more precise than before, and it's a huge buff to Tornado's CC effects if they get knocked down in place rather than either scatter or stand unaffected. And Fire Control never had -KB in the first place, so Bonfire is unaffected.

[silurian]

GENERAL

• Added power cooldown indicators as a WIP option, accessible through Options > Window > Beta Settings.
  

 

Would be great if this used the familiar terminology of the game, and was labeled as recharge indicators.

[Zerethon]

I’m happy about DFB. God I hate running as a level 5 for 5-6 runs to get to 22 with every character with every other option just being inefficient in comparison...

 

The DFB nerf is foolish at best and highly counterproductive at worst.

*snip't*

 

It also sets a Dangerous precendent for other, long-running massively efficient XP/Inf farm TF's & trials like ITF. Especially since as far as i can find, this was a full-on stealth nerf to the Trial SPECIFICALLY to stop the "DFB to 20, -REDACTED- to 35. ITF 35-50" Loop a lot of us have been doing to power up alts.

 

of note, is that instead of changing merit drop rates, they tripled the amount needed for a conversion, this sets up the potential to stealth-nerf the droprates over time.

 

And now this with DFB. DFB was great because you could get to 22 (Low-level TF's SUCK and are absolutely horrible slogfests, and random radios are equally slow if you're just trying to level up) and it kept people from begging for PL's and crap from level 1.

 

P. soon you're gonna see all the good 25-45 content get nerfed to crap too, it's got nothing to do with "Player choice" or "time/effort to reward ratio" either, that whole line is BS.

 

1-20 List it with me: DFB, Posi 1&2(Long as fel, useless) Synapse, DIB, Yin....Or random radio/paper/whatever missions

 

AND OH YEAH, lets NOT FORGET VILLAINSIDE. which has EVEN WORSE OPTIONS IN THE 1-22 RANGE

 

Make the drop-off point for DFB 20 instead of 10 (Because skipping the 10-20 content as well is less BS, especially redside) and just stop trying to nerf speedlevelling. This is City of heroes, you'll break the freaking game completely long before you beat powerlevelling.

 

Also:

 

It just won't be the absolute, 100% most efficient method of gaining XP any more.

 

It never was. AE PL's are still faster, PIPL's are still faster, but it was the combination of XP and TF Mechanics that made it great for leveling toons AND catching up friends or bringing friends into the game who've seen your upper-level gameplay and want to join in without being useless

 

Having them stand at the door in AE/PI Farms doesn't teach them anything, rolling a new toon and doing DFB with them a few times on even footing not only gave them the same super fast levels, but also taught them significantly more about actually PLAYING THE FREAKING GAME.

 

Lessening the rewards also hurts a solo player, i have a very specific loop i do on my alts, because i can literally hit 50 in a day without being farmed by anyone, all the DFB Nerf does is slow me down a bit. I'm trying to get numerous alts to 50 so i can help my friends that i keep running into by filling any role they need at the time

 

With the old merit rate, the comical influence and XP that some TF's give, and my loop, it took no time to get a decent L50 build going. Still doesn't, it's just 66% more obnoxious and slow.

[KillaFin]

Personally i think beam rifle in general could use some love. Not suggesting a buff. Thinking more around the line of reworking the disintegrate mechanic so that it works more as intended.

 

 

[Blastit]

P. soon you're gonna see all the good 25-45 content get nerfed to crap too, it's got nothing to do with "Player choice" or "time/effort to reward ratio" either, that whole line is BS.

 

So what is the real reason?

[Burnt Toast]

So you're mad they took the "I win" aspect out of the game. You're upset because they made it still WAY more rewarding than Live ever was. You don't like playing with people who have strategies for playing together and want to do what you want to do when you want to do it regardless of how it affects others... got it. Well have fun on your private server. I have no desire to play in your sandbox seems like it's just an "I win" server which would get old real fast.

 

Thank you for all the hard work on the costumes, powers, etc.

 

On cutting the rewards down for both DFB and RWZ/MSR raid....all I can say is I'm very disappointed.  Less than a month after re-releasing this game that I've missed for many years, you've now given me reason to stop playing it as much.  I've been trying very hard to get my original characters rebuilt in the game.  I managed to get two of them back to the builds they had before Live shut down.  But now that you are removing the fast-pass rebuild features these two tracks represented, I've little reason to invest all the time I have been on trying to get back to parity.

 

I've no desire to play with others who wish to enforce their play style on me.  "Don't fire until I herd the room."  "Wait for the Blaster to drop his nuke."  "Don't use your X power, its messing up with my preference to do Y."  Which, really, makes up the bulk of the membership of these boards and in the game.

 

I'm thankful I have my own personal server to enjoy my old archived characters and those I've restored with my friends.  I will no longer need to try and do that here.

 

I enjoyed all my fellow DFB/DiB'r teammates I've met, along with the multiple MSR raiders as well.  Some have now come over to my private server.  Which is cool.  But we enjoyed playing in your sandbox while you allowed us to do so unmolested.  I guess we can consider you a marketing channel to find others who wish a more open sandbox style of play.

[XoDeMoNoX]

Awesome job guys! Not only did you bring our game back for us but you're going beyond that improving the game every step of the way. Much appreciated keep up the great work!

[Rose]

 

 

**: This wouldn't be a big deal if we had powerset-choice-respecs. If I could turn a dark/inv scrapper into a rad/bio scrapper just by running a (reasonable) difficulty trial (preferably spaced like the terra volta ones are -- I'm not talking "grid to 50 and...") that would be a vast improvement to the game.

 

 

^^^ this

[Burnt Toast]

The people raging over DFB make me LOL. Running it 15 times doesn't teach you anything more than running it 2-3 times. People will not "learn their powers" because they can only use so many of those powers LOL. The "reasons" behind not nerfing it are just silly and remind me of a kid throwing a temper tantrum. The amount of xp and rewards on Homecoming are FAR above what Live ever was - especially with the FREE boosts available. I also get a kick out of the people threatening to leave and/or run their own servers hahahaha.

[Burnt Toast]

The hyperbole is strong with this one.

 

I’m happy about DFB. God I hate running as a level 5 for 5-6 runs to get to 22 with every character with every other option just being inefficient in comparison...

 

The DFB nerf is foolish at best and highly counterproductive at worst.

*snip't*

 

It also sets a Dangerous precendent for other, long-running massively efficient XP/Inf farm TF's & trials like ITF. Especially since as far as i can find, this was a full-on stealth nerf to the Trial SPECIFICALLY to stop the "DFB to 20, -REDACTED- to 35. ITF 35-50" Loop a lot of us have been doing to power up alts.

 

of note, is that instead of changing merit drop rates, they tripled the amount needed for a conversion, this sets up the potential to stealth-nerf the droprates over time.

 

And now this with DFB. DFB was great because you could get to 22 (Low-level TF's SUCK and are absolutely horrible slogfests, and random radios are equally slow if you're just trying to level up) and it kept people from begging for PL's and crap from level 1.

 

P. soon you're gonna see all the good 25-45 content get nerfed to crap too, it's got nothing to do with "Player choice" or "time/effort to reward ratio" either, that whole line is BS.

 

1-20 List it with me: DFB, Posi 1&2(Long as fel, useless) Synapse, DIB, Yin....Or random radio/paper/whatever missions

 

AND OH YEAH, lets NOT FORGET VILLAINSIDE. which has EVEN WORSE OPTIONS IN THE 1-22 RANGE

 

Make the drop-off point for DFB 20 instead of 10 (Because skipping the 10-20 content as well is less BS, especially redside) and just stop trying to nerf speedlevelling. This is City of heroes, you'll break the freaking game completely long before you beat powerlevelling.

 

Also:

 

It just won't be the absolute, 100% most efficient method of gaining XP any more.

 

It never was. AE PL's are still faster, PIPL's are still faster, but it was the combination of XP and TF Mechanics that made it great for leveling toons AND catching up friends or bringing friends into the game who've seen your upper-level gameplay and want to join in without being useless

 

Having them stand at the door in AE/PI Farms doesn't teach them anything, rolling a new toon and doing DFB with them a few times on even footing not only gave them the same super fast levels, but also taught them significantly more about actually PLAYING THE FREAKING GAME.

 

Lessening the rewards also hurts a solo player, i have a very specific loop i do on my alts, because i can literally hit 50 in a day without being farmed by anyone, all the DFB Nerf does is slow me down a bit. I'm trying to get numerous alts to 50 so i can help my friends that i keep running into by filling any role they need at the time

 

With the old merit rate, the comical influence and XP that some TF's give, and my loop, it took no time to get a decent L50 build going. Still doesn't, it's just 66% more obnoxious and slow.

[tatmia]

 

Immobilize Powers in Controller and Dominator primary power sets should no longer make their targets immune to KnockUp. KnockBack will be converted to KnockDown. This helps sets like Ice and Earth, as their AOE Immobilize power will no longer make their AOE Knockback power useless.[/

 

/storm controllers (or fire tollers that took bonfire) are probably the only controllers not happy with the change.

 

Still, it will fix so much of the frustration with AOE immob, especially in the hands of new controllers.

 

As someone who’s still learning the basics on my private server, I’m amazed at all of these updates.

Why would Stormies hate this change? Hurricane will still Repel, even if they won't go flying as much, which should be more precise than before, and it's a huge buff to Tornado's CC effects if they get knocked down in place rather than either scatter or stand unaffected. And Fire Control never had -KB in the first place, so Bonfire is unaffected.

 

<sigh> serves me right for reading too quickly.  I missed the second sentence and now all of my characters are happy.  Although, I did check and fire cages do -knockup.  Was fairly certain my fire/storm would spam cages whenever tornado was out  Need to try her out tonight to be reminded how I used bonfire.

 

 

Thank you for correcting my statement

[Dr. Gemini]

So you're mad they took the "I win" aspect out of the game. You're upset because they made it still WAY more rewarding than Live ever was. You don't like playing with people who have strategies for playing together and want to do what you want to do when you want to do it regardless of how it affects others... got it. Well have fun on your private server. I have no desire to play in your sandbox seems like it's just an "I win" server which would get old real fast.

 

Your the Man!!...errr...I mean the Bread!

 

 

[Sidious]

 

 

**: This wouldn't be a big deal if we had powerset-choice-respecs. If I could turn a dark/inv scrapper into a rad/bio scrapper just by running a (reasonable) difficulty trial (preferably spaced like the terra volta ones are -- I'm not talking "grid to 50 and...") that would be a vast improvement to the game.

 

 

^^^ this

 

Since Respecs are handed out rather freely now, maybe they could do something like this for the Terra Volta trial to bring back the value of actually doing the mission again.

Just a suggestion.

[Soulstinger]

Many thanks for content and balance fixes as a Volunteer dev team!

[Riverdusk]

Amazing patch, thank you!  ;D

[Frakk]

Thank you for all the hard work on the costumes, powers, etc.

 

On cutting the rewards down for both DFB and RWZ/MSR raid....all I can say is I'm very disappointed.  Less than a month after re-releasing this game that I've missed for many years, you've now given me reason to stop playing it as much.  I've been trying very hard to get my original characters rebuilt in the game.  I managed to get two of them back to the builds they had before Live shut down.  But now that you are removing the fast-pass rebuild features these two tracks represented, I've little reason to invest all the time I have been on trying to get back to parity.

 

I've no desire to play with others who wish to enforce their play style on me.  "Don't fire until I herd the room."  "Wait for the Blaster to drop his nuke."  "Don't use your X power, its messing up with my preference to do Y."  Which, really, makes up the bulk of the membership of these boards and in the game.

 

I'm thankful I have my own personal server to enjoy my old archived characters and those I've restored with my friends.  I will no longer need to try and do that here.

 

I enjoyed all my fellow DFB/DiB'r teammates I've met, along with the multiple MSR raiders as well.  Some have now come over to my private server.  Which is cool.  But we enjoyed playing in your sandbox while you allowed us to do so unmolested.  I guess we can consider you a marketing channel to find others who wish a more open sandbox style of play.

 

Bye

[Abraxus]

Thank you for all the hard work on the costumes, powers, etc.

 

On cutting the rewards down for both DFB and RWZ/MSR raid....all I can say is I'm very disappointed.  Less than a month after re-releasing this game that I've missed for many years, you've now given me reason to stop playing it as much.  I've been trying very hard to get my original characters rebuilt in the game.  I managed to get two of them back to the builds they had before Live shut down.  But now that you are removing the fast-pass rebuild features these two tracks represented, I've little reason to invest all the time I have been on trying to get back to parity.

 

I've no desire to play with others who wish to enforce their play style on me.  "Don't fire until I herd the room."  "Wait for the Blaster to drop his nuke."  "Don't use your X power, its messing up with my preference to do Y."  Which, really, makes up the bulk of the membership of these boards and in the game.

 

I'm thankful I have my own personal server to enjoy my old archived characters and those I've restored with my friends.  I will no longer need to try and do that here.

 

I enjoyed all my fellow DFB/DiB'r teammates I've met, along with the multiple MSR raiders as well.  Some have now come over to my private server.  Which is cool.  But we enjoyed playing in your sandbox while you allowed us to do so unmolested.  I guess we can consider you a marketing channel to find others who wish a more open sandbox style of play.

 

Bye

 

I have to wonder why Crysis, or anyone he has recruited to his private server even worry about regular game play.  There, they have the ability to boost themselves right to L50, give themselves every accolade in the game, and all Incarnate powers.  Game over.  ;)

[Saikochoro]

The people raging over DFB make me LOL. Running it 15 times doesn't teach you anything more than running it 2-3 times. People will not "learn their powers" because they can only use so many of those powers LOL. The "reasons" behind not nerfing it are just silly and remind me of a kid throwing a temper tantrum. The amount of xp and rewards on Homecoming are FAR above what Live ever was - especially with the FREE boosts available. I also get a kick out of the people threatening to leave and/or run their own servers hahahaha.

 

Honestly, it wasn’t about learning more. It was a good way to get up to low to mid 30s to test out a new powerset combination. Many, perhaps even most, of us are veterans from live.  The low levels are boring and a lot of people do t want to slog through then just to see if their powerset combination is worth investing more time into. Getting to mid 20s quickly and having a bit more of the build gives a better (though still incomplete) picture.

 

The reasons for nerfing it was silly. People running through DFB to however many levels they wanted wasn’t hurting others. The mass majority of complaints I see from anti DFB posts were:

 

- People should do the content instead just like me. Nothing is stopping people from doing the content if they so wish.

- People doing DFB makes it harder for me to team. Again, no it doesn’t. Never had a problem filling a non-DFB team quickly.

- It’s annoying seeing DFB advertised in LFG. LFG channel is for looking for group. So why shouldn’t people use it to fill a group for DFB. If you don’t want to join just ignore it. I don’t have a problem ingoring the myriad of LFG posts that I don’t feel like participating in at the moment be they for DFB or otherwise.

- People shouldn’t level up so fast. Again, why? Why does this hurt someone who wants to do it slowly? It doesn’t. Nothing prevents people from leveling as slowly or as quickly as they want.

 

None of these reasons are compelling in my opinion. Most of them are about restricting how another player enjoys playing the game, even though it has no bearing on how they themselves are able to play. It does not enhance other content. It just restricts a popular content. I always like more options. Not less. And this does not open up more options. The alternatives were always there. People just chose not to do them.

 

This also will do nothing about getting people to play more story arcs or other similar content in lower levels. The same people who wanted to get passed the low levels quickly will still do DFB or AE, or find a power leveler. The same people who want to do Kings row story arcs will still do those. And they will still complain about people leveling too fast. So I’m the end, I highly doubt it will change any behavior (although the venue may change somewhat).  People will still complain about people playing the game a different way than they want them to. All this does it make DFB less rewarding for people who enjoy leveling up new alts quickly. None of the root behaviors are changed and thus it is a meaningless nerf.

 

Even so, the devs are the boss and I’m playing their game. So I will take it in stride. I have no intentions of leaving and very much appreciate all that they have done.  I’m bound to not like some decisions made, but honestly that doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I still get to play, for which I am very grateful.

[Dr. Gemini]

Since Respecs are handed out rather freely now, maybe they could do something like this for the Terra Volta trial to bring back the value of actually doing the mission again.

Just a suggestion.

 

While they're at it, they should just give you a level 50, and let you pop in any powerset or AT you want. For that matter, just give you all the Incarnate stuff you want, too. Oh, hey...they should send someone over to give you a massage while they're at it, after all, you've no reason to actually play, so they may as well do something for you for logging on.

[Burnt Toast]

Might I suggest Pine Mids... that will tell you all you need to know about how powers will perform.

 

The people raging over DFB make me LOL. Running it 15 times doesn't teach you anything more than running it 2-3 times. People will not "learn their powers" because they can only use so many of those powers LOL. The "reasons" behind not nerfing it are just silly and remind me of a kid throwing a temper tantrum. The amount of xp and rewards on Homecoming are FAR above what Live ever was - especially with the FREE boosts available. I also get a kick out of the people threatening to leave and/or run their own servers hahahaha.

 

Honestly, it wasn’t about learning more. It was a good way to get up to low to mid 30s to test out a new powerset combination. Many, perhaps even most, of us are veterans from live.  The low levels are boring and a lot of people do t want to slog through then just to see if their powerset combination is worth investing more time into. Getting to mid 20s quickly and having a bit more of the build gives a better (though still incomplete) picture.

 

The reasons for nerfing it was silly. People running through DFB to however many levels they wanted wasn’t hurting others. The mass majority of complaints I see from anti DFB posts were:

 

- People should do the content instead just like me. Nothing is stopping people from doing the content if they so wish.

- People doing DFB makes it harder for me to team. Again, no it doesn’t. Never had a problem filling a non-DFB team quickly.

- It’s annoying seeing DFB advertised in LFG. LFG channel is for looking for group. So why shouldn’t people use it to fill a group for DFB. If you don’t want to join just ignore it. I don’t have a problem ingoring the myriad of LFG posts that I don’t feel like participating in at the moment be they for DFB or otherwise.

- People shouldn’t level up so fast. Again, why? Why does this hurt someone who wants to do it slowly? It doesn’t. Nothing prevents people from leveling as slowly or as quickly as they want.

 

None of these reasons are compelling in my opinion. Most of them are about restricting how another player enjoys playing the game, even though it has no bearing on how they themselves are able to play. It does not enhance other content. It just restricts a popular content. I always like more options. Not less. And this does not open up more options. The alternatives were always there. People just chose not to do them.

 

This also will do nothing about getting people to play more story arcs or other similar content in lower levels. The same people who wanted to get passed the low levels quickly will still do DFB or AE, or find a power leveler. The same people who want to do Kings row story arcs will still do those. And they will still complain about people leveling too fast. So I’m the end, I highly doubt it will change any behavior (although the venue may change somewhat).  People will still complain about people playing the game a different way than they want them to. All this does it make DFB less rewarding for people who enjoy leveling up new alts quickly. None of the root behaviors are changed and thus it is a meaningless nerf.

 

Even so, the devs are the boss and I’m playing their game. So I will take it in stride. I have no intentions of leaving and very much appreciate all that they have done.  I’m bound to not like some decisions made, but honestly that doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I still get to play, for which I am very grateful.

[Saikochoro]

Might I suggest Pine Mids... that will tell you all you need to know about how powers will perform.

 

The people raging over DFB make me LOL. Running it 15 times doesn't teach you anything more than running it 2-3 times. People will not "learn their powers" because they can only use so many of those powers LOL. The "reasons" behind not nerfing it are just silly and remind me of a kid throwing a temper tantrum. The amount of xp and rewards on Homecoming are FAR above what Live ever was - especially with the FREE boosts available. I also get a kick out of the people threatening to leave and/or run their own servers hahahaha.

 

Honestly, it wasn’t about learning more. It was a good way to get up to low to mid 30s to test out a new powerset combination. Many, perhaps even most, of us are veterans from live.  The low levels are boring and a lot of people do t want to slog through then just to see if their powerset combination is worth investing more time into. Getting to mid 20s quickly and having a bit more of the build gives a better (though still incomplete) picture.

 

The reasons for nerfing it was silly. People running through DFB to however many levels they wanted wasn’t hurting others. The mass majority of complaints I see from anti DFB posts were:

 

- People should do the content instead just like me. Nothing is stopping people from doing the content if they so wish.

- People doing DFB makes it harder for me to team. Again, no it doesn’t. Never had a problem filling a non-DFB team quickly.

- It’s annoying seeing DFB advertised in LFG. LFG channel is for looking for group. So why shouldn’t people use it to fill a group for DFB. If you don’t want to join just ignore it. I don’t have a problem ingoring the myriad of LFG posts that I don’t feel like participating in at the moment be they for DFB or otherwise.

- People shouldn’t level up so fast. Again, why? Why does this hurt someone who wants to do it slowly? It doesn’t. Nothing prevents people from leveling as slowly or as quickly as they want.

 

None of these reasons are compelling in my opinion. Most of them are about restricting how another player enjoys playing the game, even though it has no bearing on how they themselves are able to play. It does not enhance other content. It just restricts a popular content. I always like more options. Not less. And this does not open up more options. The alternatives were always there. People just chose not to do them.

 

This also will do nothing about getting people to play more story arcs or other similar content in lower levels. The same people who wanted to get passed the low levels quickly will still do DFB or AE, or find a power leveler. The same people who want to do Kings row story arcs will still do those. And they will still complain about people leveling too fast. So I’m the end, I highly doubt it will change any behavior (although the venue may change somewhat).  People will still complain about people playing the game a different way than they want them to. All this does it make DFB less rewarding for people who enjoy leveling up new alts quickly. None of the root behaviors are changed and thus it is a meaningless nerf.

 

Even so, the devs are the boss and I’m playing their game. So I will take it in stride. I have no intentions of leaving and very much appreciate all that they have done.  I’m bound to not like some decisions made, but honestly that doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I still get to play, for which I am very grateful.

 

Performance numbers only show it on paper. And a lot of what I, and I suspect many others, care about is more the feel and flow of the combo. Sometimes you can really enjoy a combo that most would consider very subpar. But that doesn’t matter because you found a gem that works for you. I hate slogging through to mid 20s to low 30s to get a decent feel of the powers.

 

But I completely accept that I may be in the minority. Even if the majority agree with me, I accept that the devs are going to do what they are going to do. Either way I still get to play.

[Abraxus]

The people raging over DFB make me LOL. Running it 15 times doesn't teach you anything more than running it 2-3 times. People will not "learn their powers" because they can only use so many of those powers LOL. The "reasons" behind not nerfing it are just silly and remind me of a kid throwing a temper tantrum. The amount of xp and rewards on Homecoming are FAR above what Live ever was - especially with the FREE boosts available. I also get a kick out of the people threatening to leave and/or run their own servers hahahaha.

 

Honestly, it wasn’t about learning more. It was a good way to get up to low to mid 30s to test out a new powerset combination. Many, perhaps even most, of us are veterans from live.  The low levels are boring and a lot of people do t want to slog through then just to see if their powerset combination is worth investing more time into. Getting to mid 20s quickly and having a bit more of the build gives a better (though still incomplete) picture.

 

The reasons for nerfing it was silly. People running through DFB to however many levels they wanted wasn’t hurting others. The mass majority of complaints I see from anti DFB posts were:

 

- People should do the content instead just like me. Nothing is stopping people from doing the content if they so wish.

- People doing DFB makes it harder for me to team. Again, no it doesn’t. Never had a problem filling a non-DFB team quickly.

- It’s annoying seeing DFB advertised in LFG. LFG channel is for looking for group. So why shouldn’t people use it to fill a group for DFB. If you don’t want to join just ignore it. I don’t have a problem ingoring the myriad of LFG posts that I don’t feel like participating in at the moment be they for DFB or otherwise.

- People shouldn’t level up so fast. Again, why? Why does this hurt someone who wants to do it slowly? It doesn’t. Nothing prevents people from leveling as slowly or as quickly as they want.

 

None of these reasons are compelling in my opinion. Most of them are about restricting how another player enjoys playing the game, even though it has no bearing on how they themselves are able to play. It does not enhance other content. It just restricts a popular content. I always like more options. Not less. And this does not open up more options. The alternatives were always there. People just chose not to do them.

 

This also will do nothing about getting people to play more story arcs or other similar content in lower levels. The same people who wanted to get passed the low levels quickly will still do DFB or AE, or find a power leveler. The same people who want to do Kings row story arcs will still do those. And they will still complain about people leveling too fast. So I’m the end, I highly doubt it will change any behavior (although the venue may change somewhat).  People will still complain about people playing the game a different way than they want them to. All this does it make DFB less rewarding for people who enjoy leveling up new alts quickly. None of the root behaviors are changed and thus it is a meaningless nerf.

 

Even so, the devs are the boss and I’m playing their game. So I will take it in stride. I have no intentions of leaving and very much appreciate all that they have done.  I’m bound to not like some decisions made, but honestly that doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I still get to play, for which I am very grateful.

 

This is a situation where knowing someone with a private server can be of great benefit.  As I stated before, on a private server you have GM level access to everything.  So, characters can be boosted to whatever level, missions can be run, and knowledge may be gained to see if this is something they might want to pursue on the "Live" server.  Hopefully, there are enough folks doing private servers that this is an option for anyone using DFB to do research on powerset viability, and unhappy with the reduction in the XP curve. 

[Frakk]

so now it takes 2 hours to get to 22 rather than 1.5 hours...

 

 

THE SKY IS FALLING!!!