issue 27 Focused Feedback: Architect Entertainment

[Saikochoro]

49 minutes ago, ShardWarrior said:

 

To be fair, this is not the "play how you want to play" style as you were suggesting. 

 

I am just being honest here, I really see no difference in farming PI portal maps or radio missions as any different than farming in AE.  They are both the same activity, just done in a different venue.  It seems quite ridiculous to me to have wasted the time on removing Vet Levels and EMP merits from AE farming only to encourage farming outside of AE.  I have yet to see anyone provide an acceptable answer as to what the real difference is.  New players can just as easily hop on a PI portal farm and level to 50 as they could going to AE in Atlas Park.  The end result is still the same, so in that regard, this change is a complete and utter waste of time in my opinion.

 

If they want to stop farming, then have the courage, bite the bullet and just get rid of XP and inf from non-Dev Choice arcs in AE and be done with it.  In doing so, accept the consequences of that action and accept it will drive a not insignificant amount of players away from the game.  Those left can wonder where all those players went while trying to find seven other people to team with for content.

You are right. There is no real behavioral difference. The only difference is farming task forces/trial/radios is acceptable to others while farming AE is not. 
 

The fact that there is difference in reward/minute is a smoke screen. The same is true with task forces/story missions/and radios. Some task forces are vastly superior in reward per minute and travel time and ease to others. Some enemy groups in radios are vastly easier. It’s easy enough to get the same group every time. Same with travel time. There are always these differences regardless of the farming activity. However, the core of the argument is that some people have an idea of the right way to play the game. 
 

Farming is farming is farming. Doesn’t matter if it’s in AE or not. It is still the same behavior. Someone can solo the heather townsend arc forever to get all their incarnates unlocked/slotted and make a ton of influence. Someone else can kill a bunch of mobs in an AE fire farm. It is exactly the same behavior. Just a different venue as you described. You can invite or not invite in either mode as you want. People who prefer to solo farm aren’t suddenly going to open up team invites in other venues. They will just solo a different location. 

 

The only potential caveat being afk farming. However, there are other ways to combat this that doesn’t hurt other farming. And honestly, other than my own opinion that afk farming is bad, it really isn’t hurting anything. Yeah, people get levels, incarnates, and influence for just sitting there. I don’t like it. But in all honesty, how does someone else doing that hurt me? It doesn’t. Other than me thinking they are playing wrong.
 

Again, this change will barely affect me. Once I get to 50 I go straight to ITFs and other group content anyway. However, I am very against removing options and trying to enforce a “correct” way of playing the game. That only serves to alienate players. 
 

But the devs are free to do as they wish for whatever reason they want. 

[GlacialGadgeteer]

DISCLAIMER: I know this is a focused feedback thread. This post is a general defense of leaving AE farming alone in the future.

 

I've read through this thread over multiple days, and I don't see a lot of screaming about the sky falling. I see a lot of folks who have a preferred way to play, and if that doesn't jive with another player's preferred way to play, they're at least articulating it as personal preference and admitting it would drive them away from the game instead of into other content. Farmers (goal-oriented people who have made personal evaluations of balancing their personal experience and time and invested in playing this way) can have all kinds of different motivations for what they do, but it tends to get treated like a nefarious attempt at homogenizing optimal gameplay and somehow forcing other players into it.

 

I multibox my 3 fire brutes on a team for a couple nights each month or two. I farm up my alts and kit them out with IO sets to prepare for family game night - a couple hours of low level play every two weeks. Veteran levels in AE only mattered much for those fire brutes, as it's been pointed out that leveling a farmer is difficult in normal content. When I really play, I play to exemp to my wife and in-laws who played during live, pre-IOs, several of whom have reached a point where they have trouble navigating the UI, can't adjust to using tab targeting instead of clicking, take long periods of time to vendor normal enhancements, etc. Things like typed defenses are nigh incomprehensible to folks who like playing but have trouble copying data to a specific flash drive when two are plugged in. They like to make new characters often, so me leveling alts and kitting them for set bonuses helps me take point and balance the odds in our missions without exclusively running white/grey enemies. They'll never get to 50. They'll never click with incarnates or IOs. That's okay, and we can still have fun arresting slews of ne'er-do-wells while my goofball father-in-law RPs team leader.

 

I know most folks' experience is formed around how easy the game has become... I think there's some bias on this forum, since people who love this game and are active enough to follow the forums at all tend to have a higher overall aptitude with the game - veterans who maintain veteran player skills and knowledge. When one of my alts does hit 50 and gets their kit is when I take them back through all the task forces, the accolades, the runs for incarnate salvage rolls, a few MSR or Hami runs for fun, and get some early vet levels on the road.

 

All that is really just to say I would never have the time to pull alts up to get full set bonuses and exemp back down if I was doing it the "normal" way. Nor would I have the interest in running all that pre-50 content for the god-knows-how-many-nth time. When MSR merits got nerfed, it didn't motivate me to find the merits elsewhere. I just started playing less. When AE gets nerfed, it won't impact me much (this time). I don't afk farm. In fact, I hard agree that afk farming shouldn't be possible. I can even understand the argument for AE being off-limits to accounts that don't have at least one level 50 character. Really, I think Peacebringers and Warshades used to be limited access for the same player skill/knowledge related reasons (as opposed to them being purely rewards). I don't necessarily feel strongly enough about those, though. Player choice is player choice.

 

I do like that farming, in its current measure, allows me to continue watching shows and talking with my wife in the evenings even though she's not playing. If I have to be significantly more active and choose (assuming the trend of making AE less desirable instead of making existing 1-50 content more rewarding continues), I just play less again. There might come a day when it's not worth it anymore. Probably game night lives on and we just go less, hunt less, and kill fewer Skuls. What won't ever happen is me magically finding more focus and time to reach my personal goals if those goals start requiring more focus and time than they currently do.

 

Unpopular opinion, but exemplar gameplay is my favorite part of the game.

Edited July 15, 2022 by GlacialGadgeteer

[golstat2003]

31 minutes ago, Andreah said:

If they're not farming for convenience or efficiency, then they won't mind farming at -1 level, x1 group size, and at reduced rewards, right? It's convenient for the mobs to be higher levels and still be easy to defeat; it's convenient for them to come in large groups. It's so convenient to get more rewards per hour than any other game activity. It's convenient to even be doing that while away from the keyboard.

 

They want to farm for the disproportionately high rewards it grants per unit time.  

 

Yes, many of them will move to other, activities, and I suspect, that is partly why this is being done.

they will move on to other farming maps. The folks who only log in to farm for whatever reason are not suddenly going to start doing TFs lol

 

i don’t think that was the goal or expectation for this change.

[Perma-Newbie]

1 minute ago, golstat2003 said:

i don’t think that was the goal or expectation for this change.

That's the million dollar question:  What was the goal/expectation for this change?

 

If it's to stop AFk farms, good on them.  I'm against afk farming. 

Regular farmers will still farm content which is farmable.  Nothing will change, including power leveling lowbies.

If the goal was to just normalize rewards, then AE is still the best way to make inf in the game, the only loss is vet levels.

 

So the question is:  What is the goal so we can know if the effects are intended?

[Andreah]

7 minutes ago, MadCow99 said:

So the question is:  What is the goal so we can know if the effects are intended?

I imagine the devs are busily crafting a long explanatory post/diary entry!

[El D]

To make another curiosity post - I do not understand the reasoning behind 'This is the devs forcing a 'correct' way to play the game!' as a specific defense for farming

 

The game already tells people how to play at every turn. Want to make a melee damage character? Have to make a Scrapper/Brute/Stalker. Want to buff your allies? Have to make a Defender/Corruptor/Controller/Mastermind. Want to fight the Kraken? You've got to go to Perez Park or run a Sewer Trial. Want to get the PvP zone exploration badges? You're going to have to go into the PvP zones. Every aspect of this game requires making a choice in the boxes it has predefined for the player. 'You want X, you have to do Y' is the default setting. Heck, AE farms wouldn't even exist if the game's predefined boxes didn't allow for it.

 

The problem has arisen not from AE farms existing, but in the way the exist; compared to the rest of the game, they provide far too much reward far too easily for their level of investment. That anyone can multi-box multiple accounts of the exact same character, progress everything worthwhile about them faster than any other method in the game (including the specific methods expressly made for advancing those certain aspects, like Incarnate content), gather excessive amounts of supplies to fast-forward through yet more alts, all while not even having to actively play these characters or even having to leave a single zone - that's not a good thing.

 

I'll readily admit, not everyone uses AE to that degree or to skip the rest of the game, but the fact remains that while that option is there (and remains as readily accessible as it is), players will increasingly be drawn to doing that at the detriment of everything else. Not liking the change because it makes progression take longer than it did before - that's fine! That's exactly what the change does. However, saying 'Don't tell me how to play!' while simultaneously posting about preferring to play the exact archetype and powerset combination the game prompts you into playing because that specific combo is the best fit for one particular, repetitive scenario seems counterintuitive. Fire Farms don't require /Fire Brutes, but if you want to do it the best, the way the game tells you to, they are the correct way to play that content.

Edited July 15, 2022 by El D

[Abraxus]

Edit:  Had a long post here, but decided that it all boils down to this:

What we do harmed nobody.  We had this freedom for over three years, and now a significant part of it will be taken away.  No persuasion, no enticement offered to do things another way.  Explanation/reasoning to follow.

 

I've talked about it as much as I really care to, and I doubt that anything said here will end up changing anything.  So, I await this forthcoming information, to facilitate my decision on how I will play going forward.  People can feel about this change as they choose.  But, for some of us, it makes a great deal of difference on how we see our future here.

Edited July 15, 2022 by Abraxus

[Sovera]

1 hour ago, skoryy said:

 

Again, if they were, there'd be as many people in Portal Corp as there are in fire farms.  There's no Portal enemy that uses only one attack type, and there's no Portal map that matches the asteroid/moon for ease of accessing all the mobs.  

 

 

Any character can do any farm if they are built for general gameplay. All farmers do is build the cheapest and simplest focused character for a specific content. None of my brutes or tanks with Fire Armor falters (or even needs healing) in Market Crash if farming the first mission is desired. They don't care about Arachnos or CoT either. In fact other than -def factions they mow through things.

 

Build a character to handle all types, or just one type, and it can farm pretty much any of the easier factions. Will this be harder? Lol, like copying a build from the forums is hard. Will it be mroe expensive than the cheap farm builds? Yeah, but a farmer should not be hurting for money.

[ShardWarrior]

15 minutes ago, El D said:

The problem has arisen not from AE farms existing, but in the way the exist; compared to the rest of the game, they provide far too much reward far too easily for their level of investment. That anyone can multi-box multiple accounts of the exact same character, progress everything worthwhile about them faster than any other method in the game (including the specific methods expressly made for advancing those certain aspects, like Incarnate content), gather excessive amounts of supplies to fast-forward through yet more alts, all while not even having to actively play these characters or even having to leave a single zone - that's not a good thing.

 

As tiring as it is to keep saying this, I think it worthwhile.  Farming Infernal, Dreck, Council portal maps etc all existed long before there was an AE.  All of them allowed people to multi-box, progress everything worthwhile faster than any other method without ever having to leave a single zone.  All AE did was put it under a different roof and make it a little more convenient.   The net results are exactly the same.

 

52 minutes ago, Andreah said:

I imagine the devs are busily crafting a long explanatory post/diary entry!

 

I am most likely in the minority here, but I do not see a reason for them to explain themselves here beyond "this is what we want to do, so take it or leave it."  It is just going to lead to endless debate that will not change anyone's mind or affect the outcome of their decision in any way, so it seems a pointless exercise to me.

[Sovera]

3 minutes ago, ShardWarrior said:

I am most likely in the minority here, but I do not see a reason for them to explain themselves here beyond "this is what we want to do, so take it or leave it."  It is just going to lead to endless debate that will not change anyone's mind or affect the outcome of their decision in any way, so it seems a pointless exercise to me.

 

And it's not going to change anything. People who only wanted to farm will still want to only farm, people who did not want to spare 30 minutes a day to do a Tinpex to slowly gear their characters between farming still won't want to do it even after the Devs come out and say 'this is City of Heroes, not City of AE'.

[Ironblade]

3 hours ago, Lot said:

After V99 there are no more EMs.

 

Do you mean someone might re-roll their farming character when V99 is reached?

No, they keep the farmer but cycle through characters on a second account, farming the door-sitter to vet levels in the range of 15-75.

Not claiming it's fun or the most efficient or some specific level is best - just saying I know people who currently do this.

[skoryy]

1 hour ago, El D said:

Want to make a melee damage character? Have to make a Scrapper/Brute/Stalker.

 

My blappers take offense to this.

[El D]

1 hour ago, ShardWarrior said:

 

As tiring as it is to keep saying this, I think it worthwhile.  Farming Infernal, Dreck, Council portal maps etc all existed long before there was an AE.  All of them allowed people to multi-box, progress everything worthwhile faster than any other method without ever having to leave a single zone.  All AE did was put it under a different roof and make it a little more convenient.   The net results are exactly the same.

 

 

None of those farms ever progressed Incarnate abilities (ironically, which they now can on Homecoming), nor offered the sheer amount of drops that AE is capable of. Beyond that, those farms had their capabilities lowered precisely because the sheer velocity they were capable of advancing players was deemed too excessive. Those cited examples are the reasons why Tankers lost the ability to herd entire maps and had aggro caps put in-place to begin with. Sure, it's still possible to run those missions and farm them, but they're remotely not the broken gravy-train they used to be in the dumpster diving days nor are they remotely the even more easily accessible broken gravy-train that AE currently is.

 

Another aspect that this comparison ignores is that AE is specifically player-made, and all those examples were Dev-made content. Players never actively manipulated the Freakshow missions so they only did one type of highly resisted damage or took away all but the least damaging ranged attack from Council mobs to hover-farm them with no threat. The effort from the player to find the mission that fit their character or playstyle best, while minimum (especially pre-ED), was still some active engagement with the game. They had to go out into what was the highest-level zone available and use only the content the game provided. Not purposefully manipulate it into the easiest form they could think of - or more likely, have it manipulated by someone else and then just thrown into their lap - right out of the starting zone.

 

The issue isn't 'they're both farms' - it's that the player-made farms are made solely for farming, because players didn't want to run the dev content for its lesser rewards and lesser convenience. Yes, it's possible to farm in dev-made content, but that's not its purpose nor what it was meticulously modified to do (and only do) in the easiest way possible.

 

26 minutes ago, skoryy said:

 

My blappers take offense to this.

 

Fair point! Blappers do count. My bad. xD

Edited July 15, 2022 by El D

[Gorgar]

Could not get custom powers to work.  The relevant part of the critter file:

PrimaryPower Mission_Maker_Attacks.Energy_Blast
Difficulty Custom
SelectedPowers 16
SecondaryPower Mission_Maker_Secondary.Invulnerability
Difficulty2 Custom
SelectedPowers2 255
TravelPower Mission_Maker_Movement.Flight
Designation Boss
Power Mission_Maker_Attacks.Energy_Blast.Sniper_Blast
Power Mission_Maker_Attacks.Dark_Blast.Moonbeam
Power Mission_Maker_Attacks.Fire_Blast.Blazing_Bolt
Power Mission_Maker_Attacks.Electrical_Blast.Zapp
Power Mission_Maker_Attacks.Radiation_Blast.Proton_Volley
Power Mission_Maker_Attacks.Psychic_Blast.Psionic_Lance
Power Mission_Maker_Attacks.Fire_Blast.Blaze
Power Mission_Maker_Attacks.Dark_Blast.Gloom
Ranged 1
Costume
{

 

Would it be possible to post some existing custom-powered critter files, so I can see examples that work?  This should be interesting stuff and I'd like to pursue it.

 

For what it's worth, I also farm actively and afk, as well as run TF content weekly.  Not fond of the farming nerfs but if they don't like afk farming, I can't really argue with that.  It's kind of weird that the idea people do nothing but farm keeps coming up, not sure what the point would be.  All the farmers I know also play other content as regularly as they farm.  Farmers are people too.

[Griffyn]

On 7/14/2022 at 5:40 PM, America's Angel said:

 

Download the AFK build I put in the second post in this thread. Use that. It has more mitigation than whatever build you're currently using.

Duh!  I missed the Regen and Self-Heal components. Thanks.

[Sakura Tenshi]

Quote

Name invincible
Description "oh god why"
VillainGroup "Tough girl"
PrimaryPower Mission_Maker_Attacks.Brawling
Difficulty Custom
SelectedPowers 79
SecondaryPower Mission_Maker_Secondary.Willpower
Difficulty2 Custom
SelectedPowers2 383
TravelPower None
Power  Mission_Maker_Attacks.Super_Strength.Foot_Stomp,  Mission_Maker_Attacks.Super_Strength.Knockout_Blow,  Mission_Maker_Secondary.Shield_Defense.Battle_Agility,  Mission_Maker_Secondary.Shield_Defense.Deflection,  Mission_Maker_Secondary.Shield_Defense.True_Grit,  Mission_Maker_Secondary.Shield_Defense.Against_All_Odds
Designation ArchVillain
Costume

 

Here's a copy of my working AV that I've made using Wordpad. @Gorgar I don't know what's up with yours though, formatting seems right, I might say your critter has too many attacks and is ignoring some of its additional ones in favor of its primary. How many primary active powers did you give it?

[Coyotedancer]

5 hours ago, Oubliette_Red said:

 

Yay!  So glad to see this map back!!

 

Feedback:
Falling off island still does massive damage.

😆

Oh dear... 

Yeah...

 

Not a glorious way to go. 

 

I do love that map, though. I'm glad to see it added. It's been asked for for ages. (I have to admit I've never tried to navigate it with a non-flying character , though. That might just change my affection for the place. )

[golstat2003]

3 hours ago, Ironblade said:

No, they keep the farmer but cycle through characters on a second account, farming the door-sitter to vet levels in the range of 15-75.

Not claiming it's fun or the most efficient or some specific level is best - just saying I know people who currently do this.

that . . . That sounds mind numbingly, soul crushingly gouge my eyes out boring. But to each their own. I pray there are not a majority of players do this. I pray for their sanity. LOL

[Andreah]

15 minutes ago, golstat2003 said:

that . . . That sounds mind numbingly, soul crushingly gouge my eyes out boring. But to each their own. I pray there are not a majority of players do this. I pray for their sanity. LOL

It sounds crazy to me too, but there are all kinds of people. Some of them would probably look at how I spend my time in game and shake their heads in disbelief the same way I look at them when they spend 20 Merits on a Catalyst.

 

The best explanation I've given to myself for why people enjoy repetitive, and even AFK content, is that it has an ASMR-like effect on them.

 

When you get down to the basics, all computer gaming is about watching pixels flicker, listening to sound waves modulate, tapping the same hundred of so keyboard keys over and over, moving the mouse around, and clicking its clicker. 

[skoryy]

44 minutes ago, Andreah said:

When you get down to the basics, all computer gaming is about watching pixels flicker, listening to sound waves modulate, tapping the same hundred of so keyboard keys over and over, moving the mouse around, and clicking its clicker. 

 

That honestly sounds like Death describing the sun rising in a world without a Hogfather.

[ShardWarrior]

3 hours ago, El D said:

None of those farms ever progressed Incarnate abilities (ironically, which they now can on Homecoming), nor offered the sheer amount of drops that AE is capable of. Beyond that, those farms had their capabilities lowered precisely because the sheer velocity they were capable of advancing players was deemed too excessive. Those cited examples are the reasons why Tankers lost the ability to herd entire maps and had aggro caps put in-place to begin with. Sure, it's still possible to run those missions and farm them, but they're remotely not the broken gravy-train they used to be in the dumpster diving days nor are they remotely the even more easily accessible broken gravy-train that AE currently is.

 

Another aspect that this comparison ignores is that AE is specifically player-made, and all those examples were Dev-made content. Players never actively manipulated the Freakshow missions so they only did one type of highly resisted damage or took away all but the least damaging ranged attack from Council mobs to hover-farm them with no threat. The effort from the player to find the mission that fit their character or playstyle best, while minimum (especially pre-ED), was still some active engagement with the game. They had to go out into what was the highest-level zone available and use only the content the game provided. Not purposefully manipulate it into the easiest form they could think of - or more likely, have it manipulated by someone else and then just thrown into their lap - right out of the starting zone.

 

The issue isn't 'they're both farms' - it's that the player-made farms are made solely for farming, because players didn't want to run the dev content for its lesser rewards and lesser convenience. Yes, it's possible to farm in dev-made content, but that's not its purpose nor what it was meticulously modified to do (and only do) in the easiest way possible.

 

Incarnates did not exist when these maps were farmed prior to AE, so the comparison there is not an accurate one.  Players used them to dual box and level up alts then just as they do with AE now.  It just traded one venue for another.  Whether that content was developer made or player made, players could then and still do make builds that easily overcome anything that can be thrown at them, regardless of who made the mission.

 

New players can make a very simple hop into a public base from Atlas, spawn right at portal corp in PI and get into a portal mission farm and level to 50 with zero risk much like they can do with AE in Atlas.  It is just a tiny bit longer of a trip to get to PI, but not much.  That short trip really is not that much of an inconvenience.  It is a trivial one at best. 

 

Also, as I recall, post Issue 9 drops were not any different on these maps as they were elsewhere, so not sure what you are getting at there. 

[PorkTips]

This change smacks of judgement for BADWRONGFUN.

 

This change won't make me do other level 50 content, because in addition to farming, I already do the other level 50 content I want to do .... usually solo, sometimes with a real-life friend.

 

So all this will do is probably make me farm to 50 and then door-sit or auto-follow in the most bare minimum amount of "APPROVED NOT-BADWRONGFUN" content such that I get 1 vet level to unlock cardiac.

 

Why do this? I'm already playing the content I want to play. This change will only make me adjust to some other stuff I actually want to do, or just play less.

 

But you know, whatever I guess. Part of the fun of farming for me is the project aspect of it all, kind of like how we used to build customized rushers in Diablo 2, or etc. So maybe it will be entertaining to find another way to farm and another build that becomes the new meta. I find "purpose-built" projects more fun than teaming with people I dont otherwise want to team with just so that I can get an incarnate Ion Blast for giggles, or whatever.

 

Best wishes and no ill-intent. Just figured I'd add to the thread.

 

[Gorgar]

2 hours ago, Sakura Tenshi said:

 

Here's a copy of my working AV that I've made using Wordpad. @Gorgar I don't know what's up with yours though, formatting seems right, I might say your critter has too many attacks and is ignoring some of its additional ones in favor of its primary. How many primary active powers did you give it?

 

Thanks, I will give that a shot.  I gave him nine attacks, was attempting a blaster with nine snipes, just to see how bad it would be to fight.

[El D]

37 minutes ago, ShardWarrior said:

 

Incarnates did not exist when these maps were farmed prior to AE, so the comparison there is not an accurate one.  Players used them to dual box and level up alts then just as they do with AE now.  It just traded one venue for another.  Whether that content was developer made or player made, players could then and still do make builds that easily overcome anything that can be thrown at them, regardless of who made the mission.

 

New players can make a very simple hop into a public base from Atlas, spawn right at portal corp in PI and get into a portal mission farm and level to 50 with zero risk much like they can do with AE in Atlas.  It is just a tiny bit longer of a trip to get to PI, but not much.  That short trip really is not that much of an inconvenience.  It is a trivial one at best. 

 

Also, as I recall, post Issue 9 drops were not any different on these maps as they were elsewhere, so not sure what you are getting at there. 

 

I didn't bring them up as an example, and the fact remains that even after Incarnates were introduced players couldn't farm any end game materials with portal missions on Live. They can now on Homecoming. Which leads into the common comment of 'There's no difference between farming in PI and farming in AE ' - if there is no difference, where is the discontent coming from? That is an explicit admission that there's other farms just as good as AE that only take slightly longer to access.

 

If the difference between PI farms and AE farms is so trivial as to be next to nonexistent, what's stopping everyone currently saying this makes AE 'not worth the effort' from going to other farms that still are? With this change, that makes PI farms better than AE farms, at least in that single respect of 'post-50 progression.' So, what's the issue with switching from AE at 50 to other missions that keep Veteran XP progression - or just leveling in PI to begin with? If all it takes is 'move to another zone' for these players to continue getting exactly what they say they want, yet instead they say they'll just stop playing entirely and that the game is doomed rather than go through the hassle of a single extra loading screen... What's the hang up?

 

If the venue is that easily traded, why aren't people just trading it back?

Edited July 16, 2022 by El D

[KanadeVix]

18 minutes ago, PorkTips said:

This change smacks of judgement for BADWRONGFUN.

 

This change won't make me do other level 50 content, because in addition to farming, I already do the other level 50 content I want to do .... usually solo, sometimes with a real-life friend.

 

So all this will do is probably make me farm to 50 and then door-sit or auto-follow in the most bare minimum amount of "APPROVED NOT-BADWRONGFUN" content such that I get 1 vet level to unlock cardiac.

 

Why do this? I'm already playing the content I want to play. This change will only make me adjust to some other stuff I actually want to do, or just play less.

 

But you know, whatever I guess. Part of the fun of farming for me is the project aspect of it all, kind of like how we used to build customized rushers in Diablo 2, or etc. So maybe it will be entertaining to find another way to farm and another build that becomes the new meta. I find "purpose-built" projects more fun than teaming with people I dont otherwise want to team with just so that I can get an incarnate Ion Blast for giggles, or whatever.

 

Best wishes and no ill-intent. Just figured I'd add to the thread.

 

This is the first time I have ever posted on this forum. I am annoyed just by reading some of these posts. 
I don't see how what I am doing for fun should be policed by other players? I never teamed with them to begin with, not now, not when City of Heroes was live. 
I had a group of friends, and I always played with those friends, and that's it. If I ever randomly teamed with someone, it was because I was in the mood. (I usually just invited them to my farm.)

All I will do now is spend more time farming as making alts and builds is the majority of what I enjoy in this game. Farming allows me to achieve that goal, end of discussion.
I don't see how forcing me to play content with another player by nerfing AE will get me to do other content with other players? If I did other content all I do is invite my friend that I know. I am not the teen I was when I played CoH late into the school night. I am an adult, I have a career job, and in my free time I like to relive something I enjoyed as a kid. 

I don't care to make that many friends, I have made those and am happy with that. it's never been a goal of mine to begin with when I log into this game. I probably won't like what you like and that's okay. We all have what we enjoy, can we just leave the fact that we all enjoy this game at the door and stop trying to decide on how people have fun on once they are in the game?

I mean I could argue that having a chat in the game breaks the RP element as each time a player talks in chat it's like the 4th wall is being broken tearing me away from the game and the reality of the world I am in. So please delete chat for my own personal fun and enjoyment because I say so. That or I could just remove chat from my tab and avoid people.

Some people want to monopolize and control what other people do because they have no power, control, or fun in their own lives so they go after yours.
This is why we have have Home Owner Associations who want to make sure your lawn is exactly the same length as every lawn... they have no life and just want to be controlling, Managers who has one purpose, to make all employees suffer and micro manage every element of their workday so they have no room to be creative. The list goes on...and it just comes down to one word. "Karen" These are the Karen's that can't stand that you enjoy things they don't. They won't stop, this is their purpose. 

I agree with what you said though, I do mean some ill-intent to those who have the need to control what other people do in their lives. This will change nothing other than me farming longer meaning less time to do content after 50, or me just playing less. Either option, I won't team up with random people just because they have tried to strangle my idea of fun. 

Best wishes to you though.