Whats everyone thoughts on AE?

[wnrsilver]

So I'm curious what's everyone's thoughts of AE after.. the uhh "Update"?

[TCUFROGS]

Hoping authors fix the issue and allow us to gather same amount of XP and INF from Arcs like before. Slow to gather INF and PL Toons.

[Spaghetti Betty]

I'm excited to try giving my custom mobs extra attacks. First order of business is to give all the minions Gang War.

[Coyotedancer]

I want to make myself a little custom zen-farm type thing on the big Circle zig map.

That silly sprawl is, bar none, my favorite map in the game.

 

Complication? Neither of my farmers are fliers.

I can just imagine suni missing a landing and yeeting herself right over the side! 😝 

[Spaggette2020]

Smashing Lethal farm is now killing my farmer. I used to afk farm and now i cant survive more than a few seconds. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

[cranebump]

From the SFMA perspective (bearing in mind I haven't yet done any new scripting with the update):

 

*New maps and additional enemies is always nice. 

*New usable powersets is GREAT. Access to some things within the sets (like sniper attacks) is also Tony the Tiger great.

*I do not plan on using the Advanced Custom Enemies function at the moment. First, players will not get XPs for these (for reasons explained in the patch notes). Now, I'm sure anyone running what I write isn't thinking about XP's, but, seeing as how I can't personally reward anyone in anyway, I'd rather not give them nothing.

 

What I'd still like is the ability to place objectives in specific locations, so that wonky spawns don't move things around. Feel like I spend a bit of time fiddling with #/objectives just to get consistency of placement. When it does happen, if feels like a miracle (esp. if it happens early in testing). All the above stuff is very nice to have. But fine control over where the stuff goes would make life a bit easier if you're doing something other than farm mishes.

[Ankylosaur]

Also from the SFMA standpoint - lots of opportunities to leverage the new stuff in existing stories 

 

Gold Brickers

I am both excited to have Gold Brickers at all levels since All that Glitters is a series where I had to create custom Gold Brickers, and sad that the right thing to do may be just to pull out all those customs I spent all that time making. 🙂 Still noodling one whether to lose mobs like Rocketeer, Rockette, Dirigible, Beamer, Strafer, or keep them and integrate them. May need some recoloring work (can't quite get that Boomer yellow right).

 

I also feel negligent if I don't figure out how to use the Gold Bricker maps in there...

 

Nictus

Also working on a story here so having some EBs for key characters is nice too.

 

Vanguard

Guess I can swap out Borea and Levantara too from Ninjas in the Wind.

[BurtHutt]

I don't really farm but will get into them once in a while. When AE was introduced, the Live Devs thought it'd be a great tool to add content. I disagreed then and I still do now. There are lots of good missions in there but they fall under the AE stigma and then also are lost in a MASSIVE pile of missions. How is one to tell?!

 

You never see any groups forming to do regular AE missions. A few friends have gathered to give it a go. I am always willing. 

 

I'm indifferent to the AE changes. I feel it's a powerful tool that can expand the game but it hasn't been used to do so. Maybe one day.

[Xcillion]

The update hurt and for farm maps to fix it the smash and the lethal had to be upped along with skills we would never have used before on custom enemies.

Mine works well now. @ skieth in AE to give it a whirl.

 

The issue now is how to make a build that max the smashing and lethal rez.

 

Even now I die if I take too many on.

Personally I think it was a gwad awful choice the devs made.

Why punish farmers or AE in general is beyond me.

memory serves wasn't that 1 of the many reason they had to pull the plug back in retail?

 

Still like with every good farm farmers will always find a way around it.

And if they insist on nerfing AE then farmers will go back to the old PI zone and do the farms there like the good old times.

 

It's a pointless battle.

 

I will say though that thanks to the devs interference on the AE the markets are now in my favor.

Prices are going up on nearly everything and I'm racking in over a billion a day now.

I spent 3 hours just leaching market gains because its so easy to just pump out influence....oddly enough more so then farming ever did for me.

 

what this also means is new players will slwoly shell out millions just for yellow enhancements vs the undercut of the original cost to make them.

Crusing Impact is selling for 1-5mil crafted but back before the patch it was 100-500k at most.

 

Supply is there. but the influence to get it will diminish and when supply runs low again that also means prices as I've seen will start to skyrocket.

I wonder if PVP IOs will go back to 100m influence before the year is up.

 

My suggestion is stop trying to punish players for farming. Upsetting a farmer is just bad for the economy in game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MistressOhm]

Quote

wasn't that 1 of the many reason they had to pull the plug back in retail?

 

NCSoft needed the server hardware for Blade and Soul and didn't feel like ponying up the expense of building out a new datacenter.  Plus I believe they didn't take the formation of Paragon Studios (out of NCSoft West) well.   

 

CoX was making a steady profit, both on cash shop microtransactions and subscriptions (Freedom 'unlocked' the ability to play for free, but you could still subscribe).   It wasn't the new shiny, and it wasn't a runaway hit like WoW, but it was steady.  Couple that with the fact that the parent company never really understood the Western design/play philosophy as evidenced by how badly "City of Hero" went over in Korea (this is where the trainer NPC's Foreshadow and Mirror Spirit came from), and it was summarily shuttered for something more in line with the Korean game market.  

 

It isn't the first time NCSoft yanked the game out from under the devs or the players. Auto Assault was closed down within a year of release, and Tabula Rasa similarly shut down.  While fun to play, neither of them saw the success that City did.

 

Also, considering that Homecoming (along with other SCORE iterations of the game) is run completely free to play, the idea that 'one does not piss off the farmers' is hogwash.  No One Is Paying To Play This.  In fact, one could posit that LESS players would mean less of a server load (less instances to be spawned for game zones) so getting the farmers to bail would help considerably.  This IS why the AE buildings in Mercy and Atlas were blown up/repurposed, so that the game didn't have to spawn multiple instances of those game zones to accommodate all the players who showed up for AE only.  Pocket D, being a much smaller zone, can be instanced with less computational impact.  

 

So while you have a preference on how to play, you're not the demographic keeping the lights on, and thus, your wishes on what is prioritized and balanced do not have the leverage you think they do.

Edited September 19, 2022 by MistressOhm

[Seed22]

12 hours ago, MistressOhm said:

No One Is Paying To Play This.

Huh, well I better tell those guys making the donations then.

 

But yeah, pretty much spot on I think for CoH closing. Folks here as of late have been giving wildly inaccurate accounts of the closure, which is of course not great.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Seed22

[Xcillion]

As I do my fair share of farming I can say with certainty that the company wont get another dime from me when it comes to donations with the hate and pure disrespect towards farmers *so yes I have paid in the past*.

It's a free to play game sure but when I said that punishing the farmers is bad for the economy I meant just that.

Players will flock in and out as needed but those donations came in part from players many of which are farmers.

The issue isn't farming.

It's the RMT

People hear the word farmer and just assume it's a bad thing and so we get slapped for it that even google can't find the answer as to why.

I repeat this as much as needed but I will never support farmers who do RMT or sell runs for influence/infamy.

 

And regardless of how they got shut down before I'm sure they want players to remain. after all what would be the point in having the servers up if your just gonna punish players who bring in extra people. And AE brings in a multitude of players.

Atlas is booming with role play now since the Farmers had to move somewhere else. Which is fine.

But if you want to reduce instances of it then make AE a map in itself.

 

I may not be the one keeping the lights on for the servers but from a business perspective I'd want players to stay regardless of how they play as long as it wasn't cheating or RMT.

 

But hey if you think punishing players,  utterly degrading them in forums,  to remove AE buildings and Nerfing  the grind of xp/inf so low it'll draw them away from AE your sorely mistaken.

Farmers already found ways around the nerf. Sure rewards are garbage but we weren't in it for the influence. We were doing it for our play style.

The markets are horrible but for a farmer now is the best time to earn. Mainly because it'll cost everyone else who hasn't gotten a build.

 

I feel sorry for all those Atlas folks who gonna do content hit 50 and realize that they can't afford stuff at this rate.

So they stand around the globe waiting for a CC or asking for handouts. Like a WoW player in Org lol.

 

So ok lets say the devs hate this and decide to amp it furthermore. They toss AE out like with the SG Raids back in live.

Well unlike that being a dead end halt Farmers will now use Missions like the days in live before AE and the rewards are now on par as normal. Plus we get our rewards as well.

Nothing changed.

The only thing they did was ruin players creativity in AE and the experience of it all.

Lets go with another option,

Lets say Devs nerf the xp/inf to 0.5x of a regular mission. *which at this point is likly based on trends*

Well who needs to level up others when a bunch of farmer can join up, speedkill and rack up inf as they want.

 

What else will the devs do that wont hurt the company in the long run.

And when will the hate end.

 

A pointless battle will always result in a pointless outcome.

As the saying goes, Haters gonna Hate.

 

Now you can start the hating. Thumbs down and comments welcome lol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sanguinesun]

On 9/19/2022 at 11:55 AM, MistressOhm said:

 

NCSoft needed the server hardware for Blade and Soul and didn't feel like ponying up the expense of building out a new datacenter.  Plus I believe they didn't take the formation of Paragon Studios (out of NCSoft West) well.   

 

CoX was making a steady profit, both on cash shop microtransactions and subscriptions (Freedom 'unlocked' the ability to play for free, but you could still subscribe).   It wasn't the new shiny, and it wasn't a runaway hit like WoW, but it was steady.  Couple that with the fact that the parent company never really understood the Western design/play philosophy as evidenced by how badly "City of Hero" went over in Korea (this is where the trainer NPC's Foreshadow and Mirror Spirit came from), and it was summarily shuttered for something more in line with the Korean game market.  

 

It isn't the first time NCSoft yanked the game out from under the devs or the players. Auto Assault was closed down within a year of release, and Tabula Rasa similarly shut down.  While fun to play, neither of them saw the success that City did.

 

Also, considering that Homecoming (along with other SCORE iterations of the game) is run completely free to play, the idea that 'one does not piss off the farmers' is hogwash.  No One Is Paying To Play This.  In fact, one could posit that LESS players would mean less of a server load (less instances to be spawned for game zones) so getting the farmers to bail would help considerably.  This IS why the AE buildings in Mercy and Atlas were blown up/repurposed, so that the game didn't have to spawn multiple instances of those game zones to accommodate all the players who showed up for AE only.  Pocket D, being a much smaller zone, can be instanced with less computational impact.  

 

So while you have a preference on how to play, you're not the demographic keeping the lights on, and thus, your wishes on what is prioritized and balanced do not have the leverage you think they do.

 

 

Except citing mercy's AE removal, given the extremely small number of people who stick around in Mercy, means your narrative spin doesn't hold much in the way of compelling evidence to support what you, nor the devs actually claim. 

 

People who farm over the last 3 years as well I'm sure have been contributors of donations for the "keeping the lights on" too.   

 

However, your adamant and seemingly authoritative claim that the demographic and influence of donators is different sounds like you are saying you have some sort of information that is different that isn't transparent to the general player base concerning donations and said influence.  Please cite then your evidence in this regard.  It would of course be quite damning but you've made the claim and best for you to back it up.

 

Otherwise, all what you're really just doing is letting your elitism undergarments show.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by Sanguinesun

[lemming]

9 hours ago, Sanguinesun said:

Except citing mercy's AE removal, given the extremely small number of people who stick around in Mercy, means your narrative spin doesn't hold much in the way of compelling evidence to support what you, nor the devs actually claim.

Or they removed Mercy's to match blueside removal since they were also putting in the redside gathering spot.

[Cancrusher]

@Xcillion  

Quote

What else will the devs do that wont hurt the company in the long run.

 

I don't understand what you mean by this.  This game is not a for-profit enterprise.  It's a hobby project ran as a labor-of-love, by a small team of developers.  In that respect, there is no "company" to hurt.

 

Anyways, I've tried some farming since the changes.  Rewards are a bit less, but I didn't find it significantly harder to S/L or Fire Farm at +4/8 than it was before the change.  Maybe it only affects AFK farming, though (which I, admittedly, I don't do). 

 

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, of course, but personally, I don't really understand the complaints.  🤷‍♂️

[cranebump]

4 hours ago, lemming said:

Or they removed Mercy's to match blueside removal since they were also putting in the redside gathering spot.

Hmmm…might’ve been interesting to just leave Mercy AE. Imagine increased traffic if that somehow become ground zero for beginning PCs wanting to go straight to the farms. 
 

Redside revival!:-)

 

P.S yeah…that wouldn’t happen, would it? (sniff)

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by cranebump

[Darmian]

On 8/24/2022 at 1:03 PM, cranebump said:

*I do not plan on using the Advanced Custom Enemies function at the moment. First, players will not get XPs for these (for reasons explained in the patch notes). Now, I'm sure anyone running what I write isn't thinking about XP's, but, seeing as how I can't personally reward anyone in anyway, I'd rather not give them nothing

Not using it either for same reasons...HOWEVER...maybe that boss needs a badass bodyguard lieutenant.  So the boss drops loot but the 2ic doesn't.  We'll see.

 

Other than that?  I still love AE! Then again as an SFMA writer and player any changes never affected me.

[Darmian]

On 9/20/2022 at 3:06 AM, Xcillion said:

So ok lets say the devs hate this and decide to amp it furthermore. They toss AE out like with the SG Raids back in live.

This is never going to happen.

 

 

[TerroirNoir]

On 8/31/2022 at 6:34 PM, BurtHutt said:

You never see any groups forming to do regular AE missions.

I've done it a few times.  Some successes, though a lot of people, even when you explain to them what you're at, still just have to SPEED through stuff for some reason.  

[TerroirNoir]

I'm an advocate of SFMA story missions, and I don't think the AE changes affected how I use it at all.  In fact the only thing that annoyed me in the recent "debates" about the AE was a lot of farmer types (not all, definitely not all) posting as if AE was theirs and theirs alone, and so on.  It isn't.  I know my lot are apparently a minority but we're still in there somewhere!

 

Note: Not actually an attack on most farmers, they do their thing and I do mine, sometimes they join me even though I don't farm myself, and we all have fun.

[Darmian]

4 minutes ago, Krimson said:

The best part of Frostbrand was that it had THREE Ambushes during the Elite Boss fight, and the Ambushes all made bee lines to the sitters. So of course I always invite sitters when I run it. 

😄

[Ankylosaur]

On 8/24/2022 at 8:03 AM, cranebump said:

I do not plan on using the Advanced Custom Enemies function at the moment. First, players will not get XPs for these (for reasons explained in the patch notes). Now, I'm sure anyone running what I write isn't thinking about XP's, but, seeing as how I can't personally reward anyone in anyway, I'd rather not give them nothing.

 

I had the same thought, but then realized it could make for some interesting allies! So many options!

• Supertough - Give $him/her all the non toggle armors like stone skin and all the Invulnerability ones + fast healing to make your ally much less squishy but without a bunch of visible powers.
• Volcanic man - Give him fire/stone attacks with earth's fire resist armor and regular fire armor.
• Emcee - some illusion and symphony controls and pets to set the stage
• Rain of terror - all the rains all on one toon with both the ice control and storm fog toggles.

I actually explored it for a human form Kheldian ally, but sadly the powers that are available to pull from are no different than the powers in AE, which is too bad. I had hoped they were there because once on a doppelgänger I created that had random powers it did use peace bringer attacks. Somewhere there must be a list that can be pulled from... 😉 

Edited September 25, 2022 by Ankylosaur

[UltraAlt]

On 9/19/2022 at 10:06 PM, Xcillion said:

The only thing they did was ruin players creativity in AE and the experience of it all.

 

Yep. That's exactly what Farming did to the AE.

[MistressOhm]

Some folks enjoy creating a good story, others just want an action setpiece or a target range.  That's fine.  

 

But, let's not get all up in arms about 'creativity' when the end product is Yet Another Fire Farm with all the powers tweaked just so.  It's another form of min-maxing, only this time you're doing it to the opponents, to get as much XP and rewards for the least amount of effort from the players.  That's "Spreadsheet Creativity", all math and probability.   I'm sure someone had to work out the precise formulas, but let's not kid ourselves here, this stuff is shared as widely as any Internet meme.    Yowling about "Stifling Creativity" is a false narrative.  What is REALLY being protested here is the ability to earn Architect tickets, because people won't play farming arcs that don't net rewards.  Get back into the spreadsheet, find the new sweet spot, tune the arc to hit it, and you're back in biz, yeah?