Hidden AE nerfs

[Strife3]

So going over AE for two days I have found some intresting things out. Either the Devs changed it and forgot to let us know or hid it on us. Not going to assume but what I found is not in the patch notes and personally I would have liked a heads up.

 

First thing, XP: AE XP has been changed and as far as I can tell 65 to 75 percent less then it was before the patch.

Second thing, Money:  It's been cut as fas as I can tell the same as the XP.

Third thjing. incarnate powers: incarnates in AE seem to be alot weaker. I ran a fire farm and a fire Mission, both at +4, I died 12 times in the AE farm with things running it and none on the fire av mish.

 

 

While writing this i found a non ae change. Emp merits no longer can be turned into Reward Merits.

 

Devs need to tell us these things

[Major_Decoy]

Quote

Merit Rewards

• The Empyrean/Astral Merit to Reward Merit conversion has been removed from Reward Merit vendors.
• For Incarnate Trials we'll be adding a completion bonus reward of Reward Merits on-top of the current standard Empyrean/Astral Merit rewards valuing the total of what the standard conversion would've amounted to. Meaning you'll get the same number of Empyrean/Astral Merits as you were before Page 4 but also get the following on-top:
  • Behavioral Adjustment Facility Trial = 18 Reward Merits
  • Lambda Sector Trial = 20 Reward Merits
  • Keyes Island Reactor Trial = 18 Reward Merits
  • The Underground Trial = 40 Reward Merits
  • TPN Campus Trial= 30 Reward Merits
  • Minds of Mayhem Trial = 30 Reward Merits
  • Dilemma Diabolique Trial = 30 Reward Merits
  • The Magisterium Trial = 22 Reward Merits
• The Reward Merits listed above are subject to the standard 18 hour cooldown on the same character, per trial.
• The Astral Merit bonus reward that is granted to everyone in the League for each badge challenge completed in all Incarnate Trials now includes an added 2 Reward Merits.

Quote

Custom Enemy Changes

• Power point values for all Custom Enemy powers have been normalized. Some powersets in the same category were set below standard point values and some were set above.
• This means existing AE arcs may need adjusting if any custom enemies were using the bare-minimum power selection for max rewards with powersets that were above the standard values for that type.
• Primary sets now have lower recharge timers than secondary sets.
• Custom Enemy powers that require the target be grounded are no longer calculated as ranged attacks for point value purposes.
• All Custom Enemy ranged attacks have a minimum range of 80ft.

Advanced Enemy Power Customization

 BACK UP ANY OF YOUR ARCHITECT FILES BEFORE ATTEMPTING ADVANCED CUSTOMIZATION EDITS! 

• You can now manually assign extra powers to Architect Custom Enemies by using a text editor program (like Notepad) to edit their .critter files found in the Custom_Critter folder where your Homecoming install is located. This allows them to have up to 25 powers from any available custom enemy powersets.
• Be aware the AI is not any smarter for this, and it may completely ignore powers you give it depending on its attack chain. Expect to experiment some to get intended results.

 

• Any custom enemies that are using advanced power customization will give no rewards. This restriction was required in order to prevent farms from being created using only enemies with broken attack chains.

They did tell us these things. It's not the developer's fault if you don't read the patch notes.

[Coyotedancer]

Also, changes were made to aggro and damage type. Those are also listed in the patch notes and may affect your farmers. 

[Luminara]

I didn't even know there was a hidden AE, or that it had been nerfed.  They really hid it well!

[Major_Decoy]

51 minutes ago, Luminara said:

I didn't even know there was a hidden AE, or that it had been nerfed.  They really hid it well!

The only remaining AE is now in the Easter Egg room of Faultline and it's all Luminara's fault.

[Luminara]

4 minutes ago, Major_Decoy said:

The only remaining AE is now in the Easter Egg room of Faultline and it's all Luminara's fault.

[AlwaysAPrice]

 

10 hours ago, Strife3 said:

First thing, XP: AE XP has been changed and as far as I can tell 65 to 75 percent less then it was before the patch.

 

If this is something you're noticing on sub-50s with XP Boosters going, or on 50s with Patrol XP since it was functioning the same way, the first set of beta patch notes for the new Page included this note:

 

Quote

Fixed a bug with Experience Boosters granting too much experience in non-Dev Choice AE missions. 1.5XP was giving double XP and 2XP was giving triple XP. These have been corrected to the intended 1.5x and 2x, respectively.

 

The note was removed in subsequent patch notes and isn't in the ones that accompanied the page launch, but at least on Beta it remained in effect after the note was removed. Haven't been on to play since the page went live to check for myself but if it remained in through to launch, it would probably explain the amount of XP reduction you're seeing better than the AE powerset reward changes.

Edit I was about to add after rereading what I quoted before my keyboard fell clean off the desk and managed to trigger posting: this would explain it if you meant you were seeing 75% of what you used to, anyway. 75% LESS would be something way beyond explaining through these changes.

Edited August 31, 2022 by AlwaysAPrice

[arcane]

My experience with AE in page 4 thus far has been that the XP booster bug fix admittedly makes leveling a slog, but after 50 things clear up a lot. The aggro changes don’t seem to be problematic if you respec’d your build to suit the changes. 

[Number Six]

4 hours ago, AlwaysAPrice said:

The note was removed in subsequent patch notes and isn't in the ones that accompanied the page launch, but at least on Beta it remained in effect after the note was removed. Haven't been on to play since the page went live to check for myself but if it remained in through to launch, it would probably explain the amount of XP reduction you're seeing better than the AE powerset reward changes.

 

Oops, looks like that line got inadvertently removed when the rest of the section was deleted after the vet XP change was reverted during beta, then the notes kept getting copied from build to build after that. Added it back in to the final patch notes.

[Bionic_Flea]

But Six, why do you hide these nuggets of important information from us?

[fitzsimmons]

3 minutes ago, Krimson said:

Two hours of farming becomes three hours of farming. I can't complain because it really was a bug. And I only ever went from Mids to 50 once just to see how fast I can do it. As for farming changes, remember that Inspirations exist. When I'm surrounded by four mobs lobbing fireworks at me, a single Good Luck is some good mitigation for two minutes. 

 

It does significantly impact AFK farming though which requires a rebuild in most cases.  Not the most horrible thing in the world but it's a pain in the butt.

[golstat2003]

1 hour ago, arcane said:

My experience with AE in page 4 thus far has been that the XP booster bug fix admittedly makes leveling a slog, but after 50 things clear up a lot. The aggro changes don’t seem to be problematic if you respec’d your build to suit the changes. 

 

Agreed. I also have some characters that farm where the aggro changes make it EASIER. Less chasing mobs. 🙂 

[fitzsimmons]

3 minutes ago, Krimson said:

That doesn't really affect me since I like to be present for my farms. My Fire/Rad Tanker can AFK farm and sometimes I do by accident when I have to suddenly run to check on the cat. But I usually run Dreck or Troll Caves. Dreck AFK is kind of impossible and Troll Farm is fine but... It's not happening. I like hitting things too much. 

 

Yep, me too but just pointing out that it affects different segments of folks depending on what they do and how they play.  Because of the XP cut / double xp fix it's now only 66% as affective so it'll take 33% longer to get a toon from 1-50.  Since I active farm anyway I decided to go old school and use an outside map.  Harvey Naylor in this case, the demon "farm".

 

But there's freakshow and batlte maiden, unai's council one, etc.

 

Lots of options but if you want to AFK, you need to stick to AE and potentially rework your build.

Edited August 31, 2022 by fitzsimmons

[Coyotedancer]

43 minutes ago, golstat2003 said:

 

Agreed. I also have some characters that farm where the aggro changes make it EASIER. Less chasing mobs. 🙂 

 

That's actually been my experience as well... But I'm an active-only type farmer. I think it's made things harder on the AFKs than it has on us. 

[Sovera]

19 hours ago, Luminara said:

 

[Strife3]

I admit i missed some of the patch notes and yes I pl alts foto 24 and run from these. I use to use DFB but they nerfed that. I play alot of the content, I just like to get to the 20s fast. i dont pl to 50. But the XP/Inf loss im looking at actually comes from my 50, I dont pay much attention to xp on my leveling one but i noticed the lack on my 50. Now this isnt my pl mission. I should go and play my own after remaking it.

[Bionic_Flea]

Yes, and pay attention to each critters XP % when creating/fixing your AE arcs.  They will need more attacks/powers than they did before to give 100% XP.

[kelika2]

Atta firefarm with roamers

For a level 50 I wish to burn patrol exp on I do the following:

set the map without bosses

Go to the first major artery and set the left and right branches

Second artery with the burning trash bins and set the left and right branches

The third artery with the dumpster and just set the right branch

Invite alt and clear to there, bam, 10 bars of patrol.

 

After the patch I needed some of the left in the third artery, damn near a full clear.

 

Everyone is so gung-ho on nerfing AE to the ground while not addressing the other gigantic problem that makes AE farming needed in the first place.

 

Speed Task Forces.

[arcane]

9 hours ago, kelika2 said:

the other gigantic problem that makes AE farming needed in the first place.

 

Speed Task Forces.

I sincerely don’t understand the connection. Care to elaborate?

[Greycat]

9 hours ago, kelika2 said:

Everyone is so gung-ho on nerfing AE to the ground while not addressing the other gigantic problem that makes AE farming needed in the first place.

 

"Needed?" I've run across nothing that made AE farming "needed." Desired, yes - I don't care for low level MM play, for instance, and hate wasting 24 levels on VEATs 'til you get the forced respec, so I often farm myself up past that, but those aren't "needed." Helps that a lot of the content I like running is mid-range, from early-mid 20s to around the 40s.  And no, I wouldn't call speed TFs making AE farming "needed" either.  I see a fair number of kill-all TFs advertised as well (and now hardmode TFs,) so speed runs are hardly the only thing being run. And hey, if you don't want a speed run, you can always start a TF to run the way you want....

[kelika2]

1 hour ago, arcane said:

I sincerely don’t understand the connection. Care to elaborate?

In Speed Task forces its just one or two gigaepic motherfuckers just rushing to the end leaving the rest of the team behind.  Anything from getting to Epidural after popping a few purples to get through or watching someone nail the crystals in itf and moving on.  Watching someone do that while you are at or near the entrance is essentially a firefarm.  But instead of quick exp, its quick merits.  I have grown to hate the sound of ATT.  watching teams skip everything in game and go on the forums and watching people complain about AE skipping the game took its toll on me.

 

48 minutes ago, Greycat said:

I don't care for low level MM play, for instance, and hate wasting 24 levels on VEATs 'til you get the forced respec, so I often farm myself up past that

That little taste of wanting some quick levels can quickly grow.  Most of the time it hits me around level 40 when exp slows down.  We can all have our own little anecdotes but AE is needed at some time somewhere somehow

[Ukase]

I've been thinking a lot about this want/need for levels in AE. (or anywhere else that's as fast/easy) 
 

I've seen it requested - an instant-50. Whether it's from p2w as an inf sink, or just an option that's available. 

We know it's possible, as it can be done on Brainstorm. The question is - would it be good for the game? 

I can't definitively answer that question, because I'm just one guy with my own perspective, and my own preferred way to play. 
I've never cared how folks get to 50, as long as they're someone knowledgeable about playing their characters. I can run (barely) with the speedy folks, or I can chill out in a crawl/kill through team. All depends on my mood, I guess. 

But this is what I think: 
insta-50 would remove motivation for a fairly high percentage of players that are in AE for levels. I can think of 25 players off the top of my head who not only have no interest in sub-50 content, they would much prefer it if there were some way to run a positron at level 50, as well as the rest of the tfs. Not saying they should be easy - only that the mobs should scale up to 50, with all the extra hp/regen/debuffs/recharge/nifty powers/mechanics that would go with those NPCs. 

So what would that mean for the game? 
I think it would be less stress on the servers. It's my understanding that AE farms put a stress on the servers. No idea why, I guess it's kind of like an MSR, A lot of npcs in a small area, with a large number of powers going off at the same time. 

I'm sure there would still be farmers who would keep farming for whatever their reasons. I'm also sure that an insta-50 would probably leave at least a few folks wanting to get to vet level 9 or so, to t-3 most of the incarnate powers. So, not real convinced it would be any real solution, unless the option to get some vet levels came with it. 

And that leaves me with this question of where should the line be drawn? Candidly, for me, if I could give a character those 9 vet levels just by spending some inf through p2w, I'm almost positive I would, on just about every character. And I do understand, that's just me. No idea what the rest would do. And...once I did that, what next? Just make characters to instantly get them to vet level 9, try it out and then roll another alt? So, just speaking for me, I don't think it would be good to have the option. I'd likely end up getting stuck trying to come up with the next name, and leaving most characters "incomplete" without their t-4s. 

I think having the option to skip a few levels in an AE farm is probably the easiest and simplest solution - at least until there's a ton of new content to do across all levels. 

I should also add that I think the post 50 crowd needs content as much or more than any other level range, but that's just my two cents. We all know opinions will vary. 
 

[The_Warpact]

3 minutes ago, Ukase said:

I've been thinking a lot about this want/need for levels in AE. (or anywhere else that's as fast/easy) 
 

I've seen it requested - an instant-50. Whether it's from p2w as an inf sink, or just an option that's available. 

We know it's possible, as it can be done on Brainstorm. The question is - would it be good for the game? 

I can't definitively answer that question, because I'm just one guy with my own perspective, and my own preferred way to play. 
I've never cared how folks get to 50, as long as they're someone knowledgeable about playing their characters. I can run (barely) with the speedy folks, or I can chill out in a crawl/kill through team. All depends on my mood, I guess. 

But this is what I think: 
insta-50 would remove motivation for a fairly high percentage of players that are in AE for levels. I can think of 25 players off the top of my head who not only have no interest in sub-50 content, they would much prefer it if there were some way to run a positron at level 50, as well as the rest of the tfs. Not saying they should be easy - only that the mobs should scale up to 50, with all the extra hp/regen/debuffs/recharge/nifty powers/mechanics that would go with those NPCs. 

So what would that mean for the game? 
I think it would be less stress on the servers. It's my understanding that AE farms put a stress on the servers. No idea why, I guess it's kind of like an MSR, A lot of npcs in a small area, with a large number of powers going off at the same time. 

I'm sure there would still be farmers who would keep farming for whatever their reasons. I'm also sure that an insta-50 would probably leave at least a few folks wanting to get to vet level 9 or so, to t-3 most of the incarnate powers. So, not real convinced it would be any real solution, unless the option to get some vet levels came with it. 

And that leaves me with this question of where should the line be drawn? Candidly, for me, if I could give a character those 9 vet levels just by spending some inf through p2w, I'm almost positive I would, on just about every character. And I do understand, that's just me. No idea what the rest would do. And...once I did that, what next? Just make characters to instantly get them to vet level 9, try it out and then roll another alt? So, just speaking for me, I don't think it would be good to have the option. I'd likely end up getting stuck trying to come up with the next name, and leaving most characters "incomplete" without their t-4s. 

I think having the option to skip a few levels in an AE farm is probably the easiest and simplest solution - at least until there's a ton of new content to do across all levels. 

I should also add that I think the post 50 crowd needs content as much or more than any other level range, but that's just my two cents. We all know opinions will vary. 
 

Having it at a high amount of inf would also negate abuse of just having the City of 50s. I would think 500 million would slow the roll  enough that people would still run content, farm, and/or play the market to aquire that inf.

But, would slow down the need for full teams of door sitters and requiring that amount for an insta 50 would mean people would play more. Or that's the hope.

[Songseven]

 

[Luminara]

36 minutes ago, The_Warpact said:

Having it at a high amount of inf would

 

Encourage RMT.  Devs have already laid down the law on that.  Not happening.