The Pretty Good AE Debate

[Killing Legacy]

You get rid of power leveling in AE and you’ll get rid of a lot of interest in playing.  
 

For some, their entire coh carrier is spent in AE.  Some like me are bored of the early levels (been there done that) and like power leveling to 50, gearing out and playing through all the endgame content.

 

I can’t stand early levels anymore, so I just skip the grind in AE then gear out my character regularly from there.  All my incarnates to t4 is all done legitimately.  As soon as I ding 50, I’m out of AE. I don’t grind out my incarnates in there as I do t actually enjoy AE farms, but I like them drastically more than early levels.

[Troo]

1 hour ago, battlewraith said:

Yeah no longer buying reward merits with emps would fucking blow. That has helped me set up new characters in the past and will make the entire thing more burdensome. But it will make the game much better because of....reasons.

 

Yep that is all I'm trying to point out is other player behavior can have an affect on our game play. Good, bad, other. There can be an affect.

 

I'm all for supporting folks playing how they want. It's a massive game with places for all sorts of activities.

I get zoning out crushing gobs of mobs, I get wanting to skip some levels, I get wanting to fund something, I get not wanting to run all over multiple zones. AE is super handy.

 

A whole stand alone game could be the character creator and an AE room.

 

1 hour ago, Excraft said:

The only people losing their shit over this are the people who hate farming to begin with and would like nothing more than to piss in the cheerios of anyone who sets foot in AE.  From what I can see, casual farmers don't care what the few exploiters are doing.  So yeah, the correct players are being blamed. 

 

The whole game is farming whether it is one door, street sweeping, task forces. The whole game is gathering resources and applying them to further our characters.

It makes little sense to argue with the 'how' a player chases those resources.

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by Troo

[ForeverLaxx]

3 hours ago, Coyotedancer said:

Kings Row AE a bit more of a madhouse

This reminded me that they lowered the threshold for a new instance of KR in order to bandaid fix the Paladin event. If KR becomes the new AE hotspot, there's gonna be a lot of KR instances on the trams.

[Troo]

1 hour ago, ivanhedgehog said:

tanks/scrappers/brutes all have defensive powers, making all content easier for them. should their rewards be nerfed?

 

ranged defense + hover for the win!!!!.... cough cough wheeze

 

53 minutes ago, battlewraith said:

Playing well in coh in general is about preparation.

 

+1

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by Troo

[Troo]

9 hours ago, Killing Legacy said:

You get rid of power leveling in AE and you’ll get rid of a lot of interest in playing.  
 

For some, their entire coh carrier is spent in AE.  Some like me are bored of the early levels (been there done that) and like power leveling to 50, gearing out and playing through all the endgame content.

 

I can’t stand early levels anymore, so I just skip the grind in AE then gear out my character regularly from there.  All my incarnates to t4 is all done legitimately.  As soon as I ding 50, I’m out of AE. I don’t grind out my incarnates in there as I do t actually enjoy AE farms, but I like them drastically more than early levels.

 

If interested, please support:

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by Troo

[ivanhedgehog]

1 hour ago, Bionic_Flea said:

No.

they have less risk. that isnt fair!

[Killing Legacy]

10 minutes ago, Troo said:

 

Please support:

 

Thing is, I don’t have a problem with other people using AE all the live long day if they want to.  I use it for whati want to use it for and couldn’t care less how other people use it.  If someone used it to get to vet level billion it has no affect on my play.

[Troo]

5 minutes ago, Killing Legacy said:

Thing is, I don’t have a problem with other people using AE all the live long day if they want to.  I use it for whati want to use it for and couldn’t care less how other people use it.  If someone used it to get to vet level billion it has no affect on my play.

 

Oh I was just pointing you to a discussion that proposed saving some of the PL time.

 

[roleki]

3 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:

And if you disagree that playing a farm that plays to your strength isn't less risky, I suggest you have a fire farmer run a smash/lethal farm or an S/L farmer in a fire farm.  Please record it and play it here as proof.  😜

 

Well, if you insist.
 

(Sorry for quality, YT assures me they've got their best hamsters working around the clock to process the HD version)

Edited July 28, 2022 by roleki

[Bionic_Flea]

Well done!  Except the second video is a fire farmer in a fire farm.  In fact, it looks like the exact same character.

Edited July 28, 2022 by Bionic_Flea

[roleki]

2 minutes ago, Bionic_Flea said:

Well done!  Except the second video is a fire farmer in a fire farm.

Is it though?

[Bionic_Flea]

15 minutes ago, roleki said:

Is it though?

It is.  Fire/Rad is one of the top tier fire farmers.  Do you dispute that?

[roleki]

3 minutes ago, Bionic_Flea said:

It is.  Fire/Rad is one of the top tier fire farmers.  Do you dispute that?

Of course not, just having a little fun with the assignment is all.  If I hadn't had to make dinner for floppy malnourished children, I was going to record a third video of the same character going into a Malta map or something, to give you what you were actually asking for.

[SwitchFade]

5 hours ago, Troo said:

Dear casual AE farmers,

 

As you may have noticed, there are some changes heading our way.

Some of the changes are to fix errors or oversights.

Some are to help in other areas and aren't intended to specifically target AE farms.

Only one change is specific to casual AE farms and that is the moving of AE Buildings from starting zones.

 

Other changes however are targeting extreme offenders and these end up affecting a lot more folks.

Why aren't more casual AE farmers angry about the actions of some bad actors? They are the ones to blame for your frustration. Not the person debating the value of 'playing' content.

 

No one is coming for normal AE farms. Seriously, go farm some exp, $$, or drops all you want if you feel it's fun and efficient.

 

It is the few AE Farmers abusing exploits or other tactics who are forcing changes.

Don't like the changes, at least blame the right players.

 

 

Sincerely,

Troo

 

Troo do true

 

Word to the mother

[Darmian]

2 hours ago, ForeverLaxx said:

This reminded me that they lowered the threshold for a new instance of KR in order to bandaid fix the Paladin event. If KR becomes the new AE hotspot, there's gonna be a lot of KR instances on the trams.

Gone again.  That was for the borked Shining Stars related version.  It was then reverted to the previous version.

[ForeverLaxx]

12 minutes ago, Darmian said:

Gone again.  That was for the borked Shining Stars related version.  It was then reverted to the previous version.

Fair enough

[Darmian]

9 minutes ago, ForeverLaxx said:

Fair enough

Yeah, I used to organize tours to get the Knight Errant badge, just get 20+ into KR then KR2 spawns and we all hop in.  Now it's the version where you have to prevent the build to get the badge.

[Ukase]

6 hours ago, Troo said:

Dear casual AE farmers,

 

As you may have noticed, there are some changes heading our way.

Some of the changes are to fix errors or oversights.

Some are to help in other areas and aren't intended to specifically target AE farms.

Only one change is specific to casual AE farms and that is the moving of AE Buildings from starting zones.

 

Other changes however are targeting extreme offenders and these end up affecting a lot more folks.

Why aren't more casual AE farmers angry about the actions of some bad actors? They are the ones to blame for your frustration. Not the person debating the value of 'playing' content.

 

No one is coming for normal AE farms. Seriously, go farm some exp, $$, or drops all you want if you feel it's fun and efficient.

 

It is the few AE Farmers abusing exploits or other tactics who are forcing changes.

Don't like the changes, at least blame the right players.

 

 

Sincerely,

Troo

This letter...I don't really know if it addresses me or not. I mean, I haven't farmed since I learned they were not going to remove emps from AE. And prior to that episode of farming, I hadn't actively or afk-farmed in...a month or so. I just don't feel like it. I've just been playing when there are specific SG events. 

But I still believe that some that express themselves here are in such a different frame of mind regarding this subject, I have to ask myself if I'm being obtuse. I may very well be. 

The way you frame this letter, "Other changes however are targeting extreme offenders...."
So, my question for you is ...what do you consider an extreme offender? And why are you using the term "offender"? To my knowledge, there is nothing against the rules about farming, afk or otherwise. So, I think this is probably the wrong word, or I'm missing something. 

If it is as you say, the "few AE farmers abusing exploits or other tactics" are forcing changes, then I think you must not think too highly of our HC dev team. I don't think they are specifically targeting folks who are abusing exploits. They have not stated what their reasoning is. Some suggest they want to bring the rewards for non-AE in line with AE. They seem to be doing this by offering additional reward merits for completion of various iTrials. They seem to want incarnate characters to participate in iTrials and level 50 TFs. They seem okay with folks farming if they want to, but they would prefer we did not. 

The only thing I can't fathom is why it matters in the first place. 

 

If they wanted to do something about folks who exploited something, first - they'd have to know it happened. And to know it happened, they'd probably know who did it. Warn, then ban. Problem solved. 

See, I don't view afk farming as an exploit or abuse. I view it as clever play. But, clearly, not all of you feel that way. Some of you are so vehemently opposed to the notion, you'd rather I stopped breathing and quit the game altogether. It's all good. I have felt that way about some folks I've run into in game, which is really why I spent a lot more time farming than playing. Some of our player base are truly mean-spirited and grossly immature. Overall, a nice enough bunch, but some truly mean people in the midst. 

I no longer care what they do. I'll do what I want to do, and with the network I do have, determine my best path with the information I have. 

Just know that I'm not motivated by rewards. I'm motivated by the path of least resistance. 

I just think the whole debate is getting tiresome and it's long past time for the HC devs to state what's on their mind with this change. What their goal is and why they think is necessary to implement it. We have a lot of clever people here that might have a better solution, if they specifically state the problem. 

I know some have mentioned reward/time metric, but I just don't think that's it. I think the idea of someone like me farming a character to vl 45 to get 250 emp merits and then using them to get 7500 converters is the issue. They want the converters to be priced higher, for whatever reason. Not sure what price they have in mind, probably a lot more than they are now. And that's just conjecture on my part, but I do know that there aren't enough merits to feed me and everyone else on the AH if I'm farming. I just burn through too many in a day. That's really the only reason I started to do it. I looked to get some, and I was..there's only 4400 on the AH? I need 10X that! ( I don't like buying them in bits and pieces. If I have room for 180 bids, each one will go for 10 converters at a reasonable price.) 

I had to spend about 30 minutes opening winter packs just to get the reward merits. Thankfully, they're going to leave THAT conversion alone. For now, anyway. 

 

I know they have expressed concerns about afk farming in the past, as Flea was kind enough to use his might search-fu to find that post. And that could be it...a sentiment from over 2 years ago. I would just appreciate some confirmation from the powers that be. Not speculation by other players. 
 

[Nurvus]

17 minutes ago, Krimson said:

What if we just made a Shard with no AE buildings at all, and see who joins it? If it was popular, there could be more Shards like it, and then we could have proper Apartheid in the game. 

 

I think that's a good idea, it would have to be locked from transfers though. My main worry is it might cause a split in the RP community. I could see a push for the new server to be the new Everlasting with mixed reception. 

[Ukase]

6 hours ago, Ironblade said:

Not everyone has the luxury of arranging their life to accommodate uninterrupted gaming time.

And, of course, by their very nature 'emergencies' are unpredictable and can not be scheduled.

I'm not saying this applies to most players, but it irrefutably applies to some.

 

 

In fact, it does not.

Even though it uses the word 'Players' in the heading, it is actually showing how many ACCOUNTS are active.  Within the TOS, one PLAYER can be running three ACCOUNTS.  I personally have three accounts.  When I have all of them logged in simultaneously, the forums will show me as being three players because the game can not distinguish.

You are misinterpreting the TOS. It specifically states 3 accounts per shard. So, technically, a player could run 15 accounts, 3 per server. 

I promise you, any more than 4, unless you just delete most every drop, you're gonna be too busy crafting and converting to get any real fun out of that - but fun is subjective. To me, 4 is too much work. A lot of crafting/converting going on. It's a set up for carpal tunnel for sure.  

[SwitchFade]

6 hours ago, Without_Pause said:

AE giving the same rewards as other content would be a buff to AE content. You do realize that? I mean, what specific rewards are coming from AE which aren't coming from elsewhere? If I can blow through +4/x8 content in and out of AE, how is AE specifically giving me more rewards? Hell, I can do story arcs in regular content and get Merits for it as well.

You're welcome.

[Troo]

2 hours ago, Ukase said:

This letter...I don't really know if it addresses me or not.

nah.

it may touch on some of your outsized success but as far as I've read, you've never done anything out of bounds. (just larger scale than may have been considered)

 

2 hours ago, Ukase said:

So, my question for you is ...what do you consider an extreme offender? And why are you using the term "offender"?

 

my wording could almost always be better.

having participated in exploits and having been an offender in the past might make the terms less shocking to me. ¹

 

¹(spoiler used to conserve space)

Spoiler

most of the exploits I have participated in, we didn't really know they were exploits until after being told "hey that's not supposed to work that way". we just thought we found something we could.. use like crazy to our own benefit until someone noticed.. uh.. um..

• egg farms could be an example.
  • (i don't remember if they were AV or EB level but they were somewhat squishy, didn't fight back if we kept em from hatching and there was a whole room of them)

sometimes we knew it was probably not okay from the get go. a couple examples:

• being under the map affecting things on the map..
• teleporting into the hero pvp base
  • to 'defeat' some folks right in front of that pretty nurse OR
  • teleport unsuspecting foes out of the base into a pile of bombs OR
  • a waiting groups of ravenous villains.. "but we're villains being villainous!"

if you've read this far, you get the idea. thank you for indulging my long winded-ness.

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by Troo

[Nurvus]

25 minutes ago, Krimson said:

I'd let them transfer freely and see who wants to play in a Shard without AE of their own free will. Segregation should be voluntary.

 

But then you'd have people transferring in with Inf and stuff. I think it'd have to be segregated unless that isn't a big deal.

[Nurvus]

7 minutes ago, Krimson said:

The idea isn't to actually permanently divide the player base, since that might require new accounts and the like. I'd just like to see how many players who are against farming and AE would actually embrace a Shard without it, because I don't think the anti-farm crowd is the Legion they want you to think they are. 

 

Fair enough. I'm also interested in seeing how popular it'd be and share the same suspicion. 

[Astralock]

2 hours ago, Krimson said:

What if we just made a Shard with no AE buildings at all, and see who joins it? If it was popular, there could be more Shards like it, and then we could have proper Apartheid in the game. 

 

Remove Empyrean merits from veteran levels and the 50% and double XP boosters as well, and I would move over to that shard yesterday.

 

Never going to happen of course.  It would further split the community, and add work and expenditures to the Homecoming staff for little gain.  But it would be nice.