Instant Max Level Token

[chi1701]

3 minutes ago, Cirque said:

Hard pass. As mentioned above, this is what Brainstorm is for.

 

You might think this wouldn't affect other players, but it would. A lot of the players that I regularly play with usually run DFB/Radios/AE until lvl 22-27, slot SO's or attuned IO's, and then get to 50 via TFC > Maria Jenkins > ITF. I find this is more enjoyable when most of the team is under 50. I'd say this usually takes 6-7 hours of playing. It might only take 2 hours of AE to get to 50, but the tradeoff is that you won't be making progress toward accolades during that time. I've noticed this gives incentive for people to run content before being lvl 50 and allows for a pretty good balance between fully-built characters and those under 50.

 

There is a HUGE difference between being lvl 50 and say, 49. Being level shifted and able to slot VR/50+5 IO's is a major bump in performance.

 

IMO, it's going to be a boring game if EVERY team I'm on that's running low-level content is full of 100% built teammates. There's already been a ton of threads started on this forum asking for ways to curb the steamrolling... this would just make the state of the game worse than it already is. 

 

Don't get me wrong, I love playing on HC.. but this suggestion is clearly something that would divide the community. 

 

Im also against the idea of getting to instant 50 but for reason that for me, leveling the class enables me to understand their mechanics, their strengths and weaknesis. 

 

My issue comes with performance of the class with and without set bonuses and incarnates. Without the set bonuses and sometimes incarnates, I feel that not only am I fighting the mobs but also the class it self, either constaly judggling with limited endurance, recharge, survivability, damage, accuracy and control etc. 

 

There also comes the issue for me are powers that once you have, massively change what you can accomplish, such as pets for controlers, buffs for support classes such as fulcrum shift. Getting to those levels to unlock them can make leveling go from chore and slow to being much more fun and rewarding, either for your self or your team.

 

World of Warcraft had this issue, where class defining abilities where level locked. This was changed so players didnt feel the need to level up quickly just to gain an ability to make their leveling or playing experience easier and enabled them to concentrate on simply playing the game. Also, their gear system feels more fluid, you build up your gear as you play, in this game, there is no gearing up as such and with limited resources makes it that much harder and gap between non set character and fully set character that much bigger.

 

Atm, the only class I prefer to play, especially when exemplered is the keldian class, since this class and my build, has its main 2 abilities granted at lower levels, nova at 6 and dwarf at 20. Thays my rant anyway.

[Hedgefund]

I'm going to buck the trend and give a thumbs up to the OP, but with 1 significant modification, make the token cost 1B inf.  

 

Speaking from my own POV, I do grind from1-50 almost exclusively, but sometimes I get a wild hair for something that I think would only work at 50 and I dread the concept of 2+ hours of active PLing.  I suppose I could afk PL but even that's not as hands-off as I'd like. 

 

I would pay 1B though for an insta 50.

[chi1701]

2 minutes ago, Hedgefund said:

I'm going to buck the trend and give a thumbs up to the OP, but with 1 significant modification, make the token cost 1B inf.  

 

Speaking from my own POV, I do grind from1-50 almost exclusively, but sometimes I get a wild hair for something that I think would only work at 50 and I dread the concept of 2+ hours of active PLing.  I suppose I could afk PL but even that's not as hands-off as I'd like. 

 

I would pay 1B though for an insta 50.

 

Rather it not cost influence since this could negatively effect market place, but also, only benefit players to which have farming accounts, as in you have main account 1 tank/brute and mulitple secondary accounts just sitting at entrance with whole purpose of gathering influence to then post to main account.

 

If we can understand the importance of getting to 50, then we can look at coming up with solutions. If the reason is enhancement sets, simply solution would be, for me, remove level requirements and treat them in the same way as the archytype sets. 

[arcane]

18 minutes ago, Hedgefund said:

I'm going to buck the trend and give a thumbs up to the OP, but with 1 significant modification, make the token cost 1B inf.  

 

Speaking from my own POV, I do grind from1-50 almost exclusively, but sometimes I get a wild hair for something that I think would only work at 50 and I dread the concept of 2+ hours of active PLing.  I suppose I could afk PL but even that's not as hands-off as I'd like. 

 

I would pay 1B though for an insta 50.

Yeah, one problem with 100m is you can make that even quicker than you can powerlevel a character to 50. Though you’d be set back a smidge on IO money.

 

I’d be more ok with 1 billion because only the ultra rich would waste their money so inefficiently, leaving this little chance to disrupt our game’s largely farmer driven economy. Outside the massive inf sink outside of the market that is.

[ZacKing]

On 8/2/2021 at 2:06 AM, Ghost said:

Why the need to get to 50 so fast? Take the time to smell the roses.  You might find that they smell good.

 

 

There's tons of players on here who played the game for years while it was live who all had multiple level 50s across the different servers.  How many times do they need to "smell the roses" before they know what they smell like?  You can run all the content in the game with your level 50 too.

[Greycat]

The only place I'd be fine with this is PVP. If you could flag a PVP-only character, bump them to 50 and they're limited to PVP-active areas? Fine with me. Granted, there'd still be farming and the like to kit them out, but... *shrug*

[skoryy]

Just as a thought: X mil in inf plus X merits or empyrans.  

[srmalloy]

5 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

If people really wanted to curb the AE, all they would need to do is make the double xp/patrol xp not work in the AE, and maybe even have an xp penalty to repeated missions.

Or make influence/infamy/information work as described -- a measure of your reputation that represents how readily you can get others to supply you with stuff. Crawling into your electronic navel and destroying thousands of virtual opponents may teach you how to use your powers, but it gives you absolutely no reputation in the 'real world', so AE missions shouldn't award inf -- all you get are XP and tickets.

[arcane]

5 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

Or make influence/infamy/information work as described -- a measure of your reputation that represents how readily you can get others to supply you with stuff. Crawling into your electronic navel and destroying thousands of virtual opponents may teach you how to use your powers, but it gives you absolutely no reputation in the 'real world', so AE missions shouldn't award inf -- all you get are XP and tickets.

Solution in search of a problem. What other playstyles could we arbitrarily nuke from orbit, since some of you guys are into that?

 

Nerf farming and I’d just go back to finding that one Harvey Maylor mission anyway, so whatever.

Edited August 3, 2021 by arcane

[TheZag]

While im still against an insta 50,  i could maybe tolerate the idea if it were purchasable with a non tradeable currency such as reward merits or emp merits and was expensive enough to not be used very often like 5k reward merits.  The player would have to make a choice how to spend their currency instead of just farm a few billion inf.  But even with all that,  im still against an insta 50.

[Aurora_Girl]

On 8/2/2021 at 12:22 PM, Luminara said:

 

So... adding a P2W item which creates instant level 50 characters with zero enhancements, and costs an arm and a leg to buy in the first place, will... reduce farming?

 

 

As usual, my bud Lumi has scienced out the facts. *clap clap clap*

[Coyotedancer]

2 hours ago, srmalloy said:

Or make influence/infamy/information work as described -- a measure of your reputation that represents how readily you can get others to supply you with stuff. Crawling into your electronic navel and destroying thousands of virtual opponents may teach you how to use your powers, but it gives you absolutely no reputation in the 'real world', so AE missions shouldn't award inf -- all you get are XP and tickets.

 

Just going to point out a few things here that people seem to have overlooked... or never knew in the first place.

 

1) XP rates in AE have *already* been nerfed. They were halved very early on. You have to use a 2XP buff to get the same rewards we originally had for AE mobs.

 

2) Using a 2XP buff in AE, just like using one anywhere else in the game, means you get NO INF REWARDS AT ALL. Zero Influence, Infamy or Information. Zip, zilch, nada. No matter how much time you're in there, if that booster is running you won't get even one INF.

 

3) Fortunes aren't made farming. INF generation has also been nerfed to the point that only constantly-running AFK farmers really make much in the way of serious bank. Fortunes are usually made in the auction house these days.

 

[Shenanigunner]

On 8/2/2021 at 1:51 PM, Coyotedancer said:

Eh. Not all of us who farm do it strictly for the OMGLOOTZ. Some of us really do farm for fun... And so you're not likely to get rid of us just by making an Insta-50 token or a "high-levels only" kind of server. 

 

It's not at all in any way about "getting rid of" anyone. But the maxed-out players are a different crowd from the... more casual? just play? leveling is fun? crowd and politely giving them a place to go full max without hassle and without colliding with the rest of the player base has always seemed like a good idea.

 

But not to the point of breaking all the shards by allowing it without limit.

 

[Naruchico]

Really appreciating all the feedback, and good to see conversation about the idea happening just a few thoughts on where I am at now with all this feedback

• The influence/infamy amount was just throwing a random number but I do like and prefer the idea of using some in-game token like reward merits, so you have to earn it.
• *SNARKY COMMENT INCOMING* You keep saying they will learn their class by playing the game....you mean they learn how to play by sitting in AE begging for PL groups?
• I guess when I said reduce farming, I really meant to say reduce the necessity for AE power leveling groups, farming is inevitable
• I seen a few things that sound like a common thing I have been told to do by friends "Make an alt account so you can power leveling yourself" which is so weird to me to hear that its such a common practice to mutli-box/account.
• This is just my thought but I could bet money when CoH went F2P they were thinking about selling max level boosts
• it's not uncommon in MMO's at all, WoW has character boosts that can be purchased, Guild Wars 2, Tera, Final Fantasy 14, and more that I probably don't know.
  ( I do understand just because someone else does it doesn't justify it)
• A key point is I just want the option, I don't want to take away from anyone else's experience, if you want to do all the missions and take it slow more power too you, if you want to power level in AE with friends have it, I just want get right to where I enjoy, doing endgame content with friends with a variety of wacky builds.
• I know I could do all this on brainstorm server, but convincing my super group and friends to come play with me on what everyone considers the "Test" server is a bit tough

 

Keep the feedback and ideas coming, I appreciate all of you giving your thoughts and opinions!

[Aurora_Girl]

39 minutes ago, Naruchico said:

 

• I know I could do all this on brainstorm server, but convincing my super group and friends to come play with me on what everyone considers the "Test" server is a bit tough

 

 

 

It *is* the test server (from what I understand, but I haven't used it and I could be WILDLY wrong), in that new or soon-to-maybe-be-released stuff is allowed to be added and tested by players at every stage of gameplay. Hence the auto-50s there, it's for a purpose helping with game development.

 

Essentially this is the same old discussion of "it's the journey" vs. "impatient uber-gamer", which is existential and deeply ingrained in all of us. Do I miss the old days of taking weeks or months to hit 50? A little, to be honest. I had connections to those toons that only really come with time spent.

 

Do I enjoy DXP pretty much permanently now, because we've all learned that all of this could go SCREW YOUR MEMORIES POOF tomorrow? You bet your sweet petunia I do.

 

Do I mind folks using AE for literally anything they want/can do? Nope, fun is 245% subjective. You do you. 

 

When I first started this game, I logged AG in for the first time during a Winter Lord invasion of Atlas Park. Within 15 minutes I was level 20 and had SO MANY COOL-SOUNDING (from the descriptions only, mind you) powers to take.
 

/morganfreeman

I spent the next twenty levels debt-capped.

/morganfreeman

 

So, no. I don't think insta-50s should or would ever be implemented. We don't operate on the "standard" wavelength, which is why Homecoming even exists. If our current dozen ways of speeding up character progression don't suit you, either come up with an implementable one or try to meet us old timers in the middle somewhere.

[skoryy]

9 hours ago, Aurora_Girl said:

 

/morganfreeman

I spent the next twenty levels debt-capped.

/morganfreeman

 

"Andy learned that day not to take all the toggles."

[golstat2003]

On 8/3/2021 at 8:23 AM, UltraAlt said:

 

I say give it to people for free at the P2W vender.

 

Cut the farm out of it and let them play like they want to play.

People are constantly looking for AE farms to get power-leveled. 

 

If all they are going to do is sit in the AE until they are power-leveled to 50, what difference does it make?

 

The people that want to play the lower levels can play the lower levels (the game) can still play the game, and whoever wants to start playing at 50/the End-game can start playing at the end of the game/level 50.

 

I find the game more fun myself.

I won't be using it, but it will cut down on the people looking for farms in the LFG channel.

 

People would still farm to get inf to make enhancements. So no, it wouldn't cut out farming.

[srmalloy]

20 hours ago, arcane said:

Solution in search of a problem. What other playstyles could we arbitrarily nuke from orbit, since some of you guys are into that?

To be fair, this was my attitude toward AE rewards all the way back to its introduction on Live -- the devs had stated that influence (prior to CoV and, later, Praetoria) was a reflection of your reputation and how readily you could get people to do things for you; I didn't see how your facility in some virtual-reality environment could increase your reputation as a hero/villain, since you weren't out and about doing heroic/dastardly deeds for people to notice. How many times do you encounter some NPC saying "Isn't that [character name]? Weren't they the one who *crushed* AE arc 55368?", after all?

[Triumphant]

I'm for the OP's idea, but everyone seems to think it will be apocalypse if people don't play the game the same way that they do, so I suppose this is a non-starter.  🤷‍♂️

[UltraAlt]

3 hours ago, golstat2003 said:

People would still farm to get inf to make enhancements. So no, it wouldn't cut out farming.

 

I think it would cut-out a lot of the farming tells that door-sitters send because they wouldn't need to door-sit to power-level to 50.

That was my point.

Edited August 4, 2021 by UltraAlt

[Oklahoman]

7 minutes ago, Triumphant said:

I'm for the OP's idea, but everyone seems to think it will be apocalypse if people don't play the game the same way that they do, so I suppose this is a non-starter.  🤷‍♂️

I just think if you are going to play at the highest levels of the game, you should understand how to do some of the most basic things in the game.

 

I did wonder, though, about a token like this being granted for every character you take from 0-50 with no P2W XP boosters and no AE activity. Or, as has been mentioned, maybe a cost in Transcendent's. 

 

I don't know, though, feels like a non-starter.

[arcane]

So far we’ve seen a lot of reasons why this is a bad idea, but I’d be interested in seeing an economic impact analysis from @SwitchFade since this would affect everyone 🙂

 

Massive inf sinks outside the market, reduced demand for inf/recipe-generating farming, etc.

Edited August 4, 2021 by arcane

[UltraAlt]

22 hours ago, Coyotedancer said:

Just going to point out a few things here that people seem to have overlooked...

 

... like this wasn't created to be an anti-farming thread.

 

I am anti-power-leveling and farming, but that isn't the point of this thread, and I try to stay out of the way of farmers (I do think they lead to the shutdown .. they lead me to stop playing a year before the shutdown among other "what I consider to be" bad decisions by the DEVs possibly forced on them by NCSoft) here on Homecoming.

 

Like I indicated in the other posts, I say give the people that want to powerlevel to 50 a token to do so for free. They don't want to play the game; they want to bypass it to play the end-game. I say let them do it without having to sit in a Farm to get there, because that is what they do to get there at this point.

 

I'm not for setting it up like the Beta server where you can level up any 10 levels you want. Just a button that puts you at level 50.

Play the leveling content to get to the end-game or just play the end-game if you want.

 

It will cut down on the farming tells for door sitters. I imagine, any level 50 will be expected to participate in a farm mission or to run their own.

 

All it would do to farming is to cut out the door-sitters (unless players let level 50's sit around doing nothing soaking up xp and what not). Farming will continue to be what it is otherwise.

Edited August 4, 2021 by UltraAlt

[arcane]

Just now, UltraAlt said:

Like I indicated in the other posts, I say give the people that want to powerlevel to 50 a token to do so for free. They don't want to play the game; they want to bypass it to play the end-game. I say let them do it without having to sit in a Farm to get there, because that is what they do to get there at this point.

I don’t want to have to make influence for my IO’s. Can you make that free too pls.

[UltraAlt]

4 minutes ago, arcane said:

So far we’ve seen a lot of reasons why this is a bad idea,

 

Because high-end players don't want to play with noobs, but high-end players are the ones that are already power-leveling noobs in the AE Farms.

 

Makes sense to someone I guess.