The experience of a returning player having to re-learn the ropes.

[KC4800]

Farming to power level your lowbie weak character, I am assuming through dual boxing, is different from just making a Farming Brute or Tank and farming solo for influence.  I don't have any trouble with you doing either. However, some in the community do not like to play with a new 50 who made it to 50 by getting power leveled. They automatically think you do not know how to use your powers correctly.  When  I start a new character with powers I have never used or do not know their best use, I tend to solo that character and learn the powers, while feeding him influence my farming tank grinds for. It takes a while to get to that point.

 

Welcome back to the game. There is a whole lot of new content to enjoy that doesn't require a lvl 50. This is not a game that ever required you to get to max level to actually enjoy the content.

[Col. Kernel]

15 hours ago, InvaderStych said:

 

Don't ask. There's history there with that one. Don't worry, they'll put you on ignore in a few posts and brag about it for another 17 posts or so. It's their thing.

 

Welcome Home.

 

Play your game your way, player.

 

If he has a thousand faces does that mean he can only do 1,000 facepalms?

[Bionic_Flea]

3 hours ago, crimson72 said:

This was on Excelsior server as well.  It takes a lot of effort to find a decent team, far more so than it takes to just AE farm.

I play mainly on Excelsior as well.  I am self employed so I may be on at any time of the day but then have to leave suddenly and for varying lengths of time.  Because of that, I tend to solo a lot and join the occasional quick TF.

 

All that said, if you see anyone named "_ _ _ _ _ ic Flea" it is most likely to be me.  Hit me up and add me as a global friend.  I'd be happy to hang out for a bit.

[UltraAlt]

8 hours ago, Nemu said:

I can not say the same for the scores more that not only depend on, but demand the generosity of others.

 

First off, Yomo offered.

2nd, I rarely see players asking in game for influence.

3rd, if a player ask for some influence in game, I generally give them some. Other players do as well.

 

And, I will round that out with ...

 

When I first started, a player PUG-ed with me. We talked about playing before the sunset. They gave me 30M.

I invested that in the market rather than buying things. I started in the IO non-set crafting market. I made enough to start buying things with the profits.

Kept trading on the market. Advanced into set IO crafting. Passed wealth through emails to my new characters. Every character trading on the market.

 

I don't farm. I don't power-level.

I play the game. Not the end-game.

I'm pretty sure of myself that I have far more influence and stored enhances for supergroup use than most probably all farmers that don't trade on the Market.

Fact is that farmers are stuffing influence into my pockets as fast as they can.

 

I am not going to go on my anti-farming rant. I've done it plenty of times in detail.

You play how you want to play, but I'm against farming on all levels except for the influence that Farmers keep throwing at me by the bucket load.

 

 

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by UltraAlt

[UltraAlt]

1 hour ago, Col. Kernel said:

If he has a thousand faces does that mean he can only do 1,000 facepalms?

 

I only have around 150 characters at this point, so no where near 1000, but thanks for inquiring!

 

I guess I should also say that "he" is an assumption from your part. I figure I should add that. We tend to ignore the use of masculine in English due to the Germanic influence on the language. I understand that, but THE CITY has historically had a much larger percentage of female gamers than other MMORPGs.

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by UltraAlt

[UltraAlt]

3 hours ago, crimson72 said:

I logged in on 4 separate days looking for a team, and after 15 minutes I just logged out of the game.  Soloing is painful on a fresh start.  This was on Excelsior server as well.  It takes a lot of effort to find a decent team, far more so than it takes to just AE farm.  I'm not going back to spamming LFGs hoping for a group anymore.  Those days are completely behind me. 

 

I play on all the servers.

Most of the time, I game on Torchbearer or Everlasting.

 

If you are having a hard time finding a team on the most populated server - Excelsior - then there are probably more than 100 other players waiting from someone else to post that they are LFM for a team.

If you don't see a /lfg message looking for team members, then start your own team. There are most likely 100 other players out there waiting for someone else to do the recruiting.

Other players will join you. I lead teams all the time. I play the game and not the end-game. I intentionally look to see of there are players in a level range that aren't on teams and start teams for that character level. If more players did that, then there would be more /lfg activity, but, it seems, historically, that players are afraid of the star.

 

Tip: if you want to run a certain mission arc or task force, it is easier lead/recruit a team and run the arc/task force than it is to wait for someone else to decide to do that content that  you want to do - possible exception is the WTF (weekly task force).

[Ironblade]

3 hours ago, Bionic_Flea said:

All that said, if you see anyone named "_ _ _ _ _ ic Flea" it is most likely to be me.

ooo, themed names.  So many ideas: Necrotic Flea, Electric Flea, Sonic Flea, Robotic Flea . . .

[crimson72]

Unfortunately, I'm disappointed to see yet another game turned into a market simulator.  You know I really liked Path of Exile as well, but couldn't find a way to enjoy that one either because of "markets" and "trading".  And it seems like I'm in a similar position with this game.  I'm the type of player who'd rather find their own drops.  So I much prefer a system like Diablo 3's to Path of Exile's system, or games where you find or craft your own gear.  Diablo 4 is right around the corner, and I'll be playing that instead of this.  There will be minimal trading in that game too, but far less so than this game or PoE, but you won't be trading for the best equipment.  

 

I just can't say as a returning player from issue 7 or 8 that I approve a lot of the changes made in later issues.  

 

 

[crimson72]

5 hours ago, KC4800 said:

Farming to power level your lowbie weak character, I am assuming through dual boxing, is different from just making a Farming Brute or Tank and farming solo for influence.  I don't have any trouble with you doing either. However, some in the community do not like to play with a new 50 who made it to 50 by getting power leveled. They automatically think you do not know how to use your powers correctly.  When  I start a new character with powers I have never used or do not know their best use, I tend to solo that character and learn the powers, while feeding him influence my farming tank grinds for. It takes a while to get to that point.

 

Welcome back to the game. There is a whole lot of new content to enjoy that doesn't require a lvl 50. This is not a game that ever required you to get to max level to actually enjoy the content.

It doesn't take awhile to learn how to use a powerset.  There's no extraordinarily complex rotations that require full and complete focus in order to play in this game.  People said that about Mastermind, but I found it to be a pretty chill class to play, although it was extremely weak (at least Thugs/Poison was).  I copied some button binds off a topic I googled, and that made Mastermind a lot easier to manage.  

 

Also, as a returning player, I still remember how to use classes like controllers, tanks and blasters, the basic dos and don'ts.  Like don't just run up and use rain of fire on a pack and take a freaking alpha strike.  When the game was live, tanks really didn't like it when players put down CCs or moves that would scatter the packs.  So moves like rain of fire, or moves with AOE knockback effects (exception for nuclear AOEs that do massive damage), people didn't generally use them. 

[FFFF]

4 minutes ago, crimson72 said:

Unfortunately, I'm disappointed to see yet another game turned into a market simulator.  You know I really liked Path of Exile as well, but couldn't find a way to enjoy that one either because of "markets" and "trading".  And it seems like I'm in a similar position with this game.  I'm the type of player who'd rather find their own drops.  So I much prefer a system like Diablo 3's to Path of Exile's system, or games where you find or craft your own gear.  Diablo 4 is right around the corner, and I'll be playing that instead of this.  There will be minimal trading in that game too, but far less so than this game or PoE, but you won't be trading for the best equipment.  

 

I just can't say as a returning player from issue 7 or 8 that I approve a lot of the changes made in later issues.  

 

 

Nothing stops you from playing that way. The game still has merchant-purchasable SOs and DOs. Invention salvage actually makes it easier. Get 2-3 pieces of orange salvage and you’re pretty much set, since you can insta-sell them for 500k each. 
 

I have a character who runs on mostly common crafted IOs, a few SOs and crafting a few useful, found recipes. Once you get around 50-60% level 25-30 common IOs, you have no influence worries. The character is absolutely fine solo and quality of enhancements are largely irrelevant in team settings anyway since buffs and debuffs are so powerful.

[crimson72]

11 minutes ago, FFFF said:

Nothing stops you from playing that way. The game still has merchant-purchasable SOs and DOs. Invention salvage actually makes it easier. Get 2-3 pieces of orange salvage and you’re pretty much set, since you can insta-sell them for 500k each. 
 

I have a character who runs on mostly common crafted IOs, a few SOs and crafting a few useful, found recipes. Once you get around 50-60% level 25-30 common IOs, you have no influence worries. The character is absolutely fine solo and quality of enhancements are largely irrelevant in team settings anyway since buffs and debuffs are so powerful.

I don't like it because I feel penalized for not engaging in the economy in a more robust way.  The more people talk about how effortless it is to just make billions on the market, the more I'm convinced this is the case.  Some people like market simulator, other's don't.  Taking a game that wasn't a market simulator and turning it into one is going to turn some people away, there's no way to make both sides happy when you add stuff like that.  Because the people who don't like it take issue with the fact that it exists in the game at all.  

 

SOs and DOs don't hack it.  I learned this first hand by playing a couple of characters.  In the original game, back when I played, hamidons were best in slot, and other than that you had SOs.  So a 50 fully kitted in SOs with a couple of hamis was quite strong compared to a similarly equipped character in the current game.  You'd need to be fully kitted in sets in this one.  This is extra stuff they added that I don't care for, and I either participate or run a gimped character, or stop playing.  

Edited May 31, 2023 by crimson72
more info

[Sanguinesun]

2 minutes ago, crimson72 said:

I don't like it because I feel penalized for not engaging in the economy in a more robust way.  The more people talk about how effortless it is to just make billions on the market, the more I'm convinced this is the case.  Some people like market simulator, other's don't.  Taking a game that wasn't a market simulator and turning it into one is going to turn some people away, there's no way to make both sides happy when you add stuff like that.  Because the people who don't like it take issue with the fact that it exists in the game at all.  

 

SOs and DOs don't hack it.  I learned this first hand by playing a couple of characters.  In the original game, back when I played, hamidons were best in slot, and other than that you had SOs.  So a 50 fully kitted in SOs with a couple of hamis was quite strong compared to a similarly equipped character in the current game.  You'd need to be fully kitted in sets in this one.  This is extra stuff they added that I don't care for, and I either participate or run a gimped character, or stop playing.  

 

Invention origin and set enhancers were implemented by the original game devs while the game was live,  If you became disinterested in playing before that, that was pretty early on.  It can be a complicated thing for the uninitiated to be sure but given years of content was implemented after IO's and sets were introduced, it was to give purpose for that content as well both in terms of challenge and reward.   It seems what you're mainly lamenting then is early issue nostalgia/homesickness for.  That's fine of course and up to you.

 

Regarding other things...

 

You can purchase enhancers, recipes salvage and more from the merit vendor.  You can best earn merits as mentioned before doing task forces and other content too up to and including gathering badges in zones. 

 

The game's auction house is also has seeding specific items automatically by the system and not sold specifically by players.  Winter and other packs, salvage and a few other minor things are seeded by the system and you can thus just consider that a vendor vs a player market.

 

All in all, again, you do not need to spend time playing the markets like some wow player or some such thing.  And you certainly do not need to go about feeling you need to make billions from it.   There are those that like doing that and that's another facet of the game for those folks. to earn cash and I outlined that before. This all really sounds like simply an information gap issue.   If its just a situation though that the mechanics of a market existing in the game as being the basis of your reticence, then that's perplexing given other games you're lauding/having interest in playing really.  But again that's fine as that's your interests/wants.

 

You can also opt if you wish to play on the beta server exclusively, There you can make instant 50's and get all the enhancers and influence you want to play around with as you please. not alot of players frequent it though unless there's a new issue being tested or the like.

 

And as well, you can also freely download the city of heroes set up yourself to play alone as you wish (or not). Someone had a thread on here about that before and maybe that may be of interest to you.

 

All in all, sorry that things arent working out for you as you would wish them to.  That's life really.

 

[crimson72]

I've already looked into merits, and it's not a good investment of time to grind merits, if you're gonna grind you might as well just run a farm tank.  I was looking at spending 50 merits on a luck of the gambler defense/recharge, and it turned out I could just buy it off the AH with money I got farming in less time that it would have taken to get 50 merits.  

 

Specifically with markets, the real issue I take is that players manipulate markets for gains.  I don't take issue with a market existing for the purposes of bartering or trading on a base level.  For me with markets it's more about how to implement markets/trading in a game while also designing it in a way where players can't just play market simulator is a smarter way to do it IMO.  DIablo 4 is case and point for a way that this was addressed.  Also, launch Diablo 3 vs RoS where they totally killed the auction house.  I quit playing D3 at launch, that was really my first experience with a game that had a robust marketplace, and I didn't like it at all.  

 

Also even in WoW, there's trading on some things, but you can't just trade for best in slot equipment, you have to raid for that.  I found WoW's market to mostly be a sellers market for players like me, I rarely if ever purchased anything on it and only sold.  And after some time, I was at the point where I didn't interact with the market at all.  WoW's market would have been a serious issue for me if people could just drive the prices up on equipment by speculating the market, and items weren't soulbound and you could just trade whatever the hell you wanted to.  That would have made it more like this game's market.  

[Nemu]

35 minutes ago, crimson72 said:

Unfortunately, I'm disappointed to see yet another game turned into a market simulator.  You know I really liked Path of Exile as well, but couldn't find a way to enjoy that one either because of "markets" and "trading".  And it seems like I'm in a similar position with this game.  I'm the type of player who'd rather find their own drops.  So I much prefer a system like Diablo 3's to Path of Exile's system, or games where you find or craft your own gear. 

This game is nowhere near POE's level of complexity when it comes to itemization and builds. The IOs are defined and there's no variation in their parameters, so you don't need to develop currency generating workflows and spend hours on POE trade/crafting just to find the BIS gear. In addition it's much easier to attain end game goals with this game than POE where most builds just die off when they reach yellow/red maps because at that point itemization becomes so paramount it stymies progress for all but the most hardcore gamers.

 

And those people that claim they have amassed billions upon billions of inf are just flashing their wealth, it's absolute excess and you can kit out your builds with a budget of a few hundred mill which isn't tremendously difficult in this game. You don't need to game the market every waking moment playing this game and still be able to outfit your characters.

 

Compare to live when you still lived in the age of Hamis being Best in Slot, the game evolved beyond the power level that hamis offered with sets and set bonuses first and foremost, and incarnates second. There's really no other game that makes you feel as god-tier with a moderate decent build as this one and you can do so even on a budget without spending billions and billions of inf.

 

I think you are on the right track to improve your gaming experience from a currency standpoint, but I wouldn't get sucked into the idea that you need billions upon billions of influence to succeed and have fun.

 

FYI when I came back I won a few costume contests and then used that to fund my first character, then I ran a lot of speed TFs (more apex/tinmages than I care to admit) to generate a lot of reward merits and I actually used those merits to buy IO recipes from merit vendors to upgrade my build before I started selling drops on the market. Farming came much later and only because I learned about super packs and wanted to generate some extra capital to buy winterpacks during the winter event when they were discounted (that's no longer happening).

 

Bottom line is you don't need to go into the extremes of currency generation, you can still spend the majority of your time playing the game, supplement that with a modicum of selling stuff on the market/farming/speed run stuff for merits, and still generate enough inf to start funding your next alt.

[crimson72]

Anyone care to explain why a set that cost 20m in 2019 now costs 100m+?  I was looking at budget builds, and the builds people say they did for 20m in 2019-2020 are absolutely not possible to do anymore for anything close to that amount.  I think the only way to explain this is people playing market simulator and driving up the prices, as players amass more currency by doing nothing, they're more inclined to keep doing this and keep gradually driving the prices up as there's really not much of a currency sink for these players.  

Edited May 31, 2023 by crimson72
more info

[crimson72]

People sitting on 10s of billions got the currency to just buy up all of a certain recipe or enhancement posted on the market, let's say they just clean them all out for 1m a pop, and then proceed to just repost them all up at 3-5 million a pop?  There's zero measures in place to keep people from doing this, and that's really the core of the problem I have with markets is people manipulating them in this manner.  Putting more limits on selling could curve this somewhat, or at least discourage it.  

 

I've already seen cases just searching for specific enhancements, where there's only a few of a certain type for sale with 600+ people bidding and it's absolutely clear that the prices are being manipulated artificially here.  People with 10s of billions are controlling the supply and unilaterally deciding what the new price is.  So, it's not that I don't know how to do this, I very well could, I just find such activities to be unsavory.  

Edited May 31, 2023 by crimson72

[Sanguinesun]

For the record, I've never in all these years earned "10's of billions" of influence.  I personally do not known anyone who has though Im sure there are some that will chime in on the forums here to say they do/have.  I would say they're not the typical player.  Your belief that you need to earn that is a bit over the top to be honest.  That's more how you perceive things that the actuality of what folks as a whole do, I believe.

 

With all that said then,  correct me if Im misunderstanding you at this point.

 

1. You feel you cant get teams on the most popular server and give up after 15 minute intervals. (btw I've leveled a toon to 32 today, 95 merits, one aether, and have through selling drops, the aether and more gotten over 6 million influence whilst doing so and had zero issues with finding teams throughout the day and this evening having started teaming at level 5 and just finished a task force to be said level 32.

 

2. You feel only grinding in the AE as a farmer is the only way you feel comfortable with playing to earn influence.

 

3. You dislike the Auction house and do not wish to use it in any capacity.

 

4. You dislike playing content in the game that earns merits and also feel its a grind.

 

5. You dislike invention enhancers, set enhancers.

 

6. You with the game was just SO and HO's from the early days.

 

7. You've been dismissive of every suggestion, recommendation, and ways to help you from people throughout the thread.

 

 

Would this all then accurately characterize your thoughts and feelings to this point?

 

If so, I've only one other question for you:

 

Due to seemingly most all facets of what comprises of playing this game are disliked by you and you're unhappy; because your wants do not match the reality of what homecoming servers are providing, what can we do otherwise to help you?     

 

Edited May 31, 2023 by Sanguinesun

[biostem]

If we, for the sake of argument, ignore a new player simply not knowing the basic game mechanics, as a cause for them "struggling" with things, any further issues can be boiled down to a more veteran player's expectations.  For instance, if you are used to the kind of performance you get from a character or AT with extra recovery, switching to one without can feel like a slog.  Similarly, if you are used to a high damage AT, trying to play something lacking that can take on the semblance of an insurmountable obstacle.  Farming and/or running high level content to fuel your alts is perfectly fine, but it is important to never lose perspective of all the things someone without the benefit of that, can still do to make the path to 50 less burdensome.

[Nemu]

1 hour ago, crimson72 said:

People sitting on 10s of billions got the currency to just buy up all of a certain recipe or enhancement posted on the market, let's say they just clean them all out for 1m a pop, and then proceed to just repost them all up at 3-5 million a pop?  There's zero measures in place to keep people from doing this, and that's really the core of the problem I have with markets is people manipulating them in this manner.  Putting more limits on selling could curve this somewhat, or at least discourage it.  

 

I've already seen cases just searching for specific enhancements, where there's only a few of a certain type for sale with 600+ people bidding and it's absolutely clear that the prices are being manipulated artificially here.  People with 10s of billions are controlling the supply and unilaterally deciding what the new price is.  So, it's not that I don't know how to do this, I very well could, I just find such activities to be unsavory.  

People like that exist but for the most part the price of most IOs have kept the same over the years. The average price of a regular IO from a regular set hovers around 2-4 mil, depending on how patient you are. That hasn't really changed since 2019. The existence of enhancement converters adds another dimension to getting the IOs you need but unlike vaal orbs you won't ever brick your IO. You really don't have to play the price gouger's game unless you are impatient. There are plenty of other ways to get what you need for your build.

 

Considering most IOs top off at 4 mil, with LOTGs 7.5s hovering around 6 mil, ATOs and a few of the quintessential PVP ios broach 8-10mil, it is very possible to get the core of what you need for a build for under 300 mil. Purples and winter IOs propel a build into the mid-high end spectrum. Most builds you see on the forums are in fact high end builds, people usually ask for "what's the best with an unlimited budget" (which by the way is a terrible way to ask for build advice). There's also the ability to craft your drops and use converters to convert undesirable crafts into more useful sets, keep the ones you can use and sell the others for a modest profit. Finally for those more expensive IOs like purples and winter sets you always have the option to trade for them via merit vendor if you don't want to wait. People will tell you it's not the best way to spend merits but if you get what you need why does that matter? Merits like any other commodity in this game is easy to acquire. You can run a speed Apex/tin in around 30-40 minutes, a speed ITF in another 20, and that'll net you 100+ merits for an hour's worth of playtime on top of influence/drops gained. And again, you don't need a top tier build to run those to start. There are plenty of people that get carried on those when they start and then they upgrade their builds as they accumulate more resources.

 

The hardest journey is the first 50, everything after that will become a lot easier.

[crimson72]

1 hour ago, Sanguinesun said:

For the record, I've never in all these years earned "10's of billions" of influence.  I personally do not known anyone who has though Im sure there are some that will chime in on the forums here to say they do/have.  I would say they're not the typical player.  Your belief that you need to earn that is a bit over the top to be honest.  That's more how you perceive things that the actuality of what folks as a whole do, I believe.

 

With all that said then,  correct me if Im misunderstanding you at this point.

 

1. You feel you cant get teams on the most popular server and give up after 15 minute intervals. (btw I've leveled a toon to 32 today, 95 merits, one aether, and have through selling drops, the aether and more gotten over 6 million influence whilst doing so and had zero issues with finding teams throughout the day and this evening having started teaming at level 5 and just finished a task force to be said level 32.

 

2. You feel only grinding in the AE as a farmer is the only way you feel comfortable with playing to earn influence.

 

3. You dislike the Auction house and do not wish to use it in any capacity.

 

4. You dislike playing content in the game that earns merits and also feel its a grind.

 

5. You dislike invention enhancers, set enhancers.

 

6. You with the game was just SO and HO's from the early days.

 

7. You've been dismissive of every suggestion, recommendation, and ways to help you from people throughout the thread.

 

 

Would this all then accurately characterize your thoughts and feelings to this point?

 

If so, I've only one other question for you:

 

Due to seemingly most all facets of what comprises of playing this game are disliked by you and you're unhappy; because your wants do not match the reality of what homecoming servers are providing, what can we do otherwise to help you?     

 

 

1. What I said was true based on my experience, which I already said could vary wildly depending on if you have friends or know people who play this game.  And to be perfectly honest, this would have been the exact same in live had I not knew a network of people who also played the game.  Thugs/Poison mastermind could barely solo 0/1 radio missions, and it was quite slow, so I was desperate for a team, and couldn't reliably find one.  At some point you give up and find a way to solo with a stronger build that doesn't rely on whatever the whims of the day are, and how active other players are.  I could be the only person on the server, and my AE farm is running regardless.  

 

2. This is partly true, as the other methods don't really suit my style.  

 

3. This is NOT true, I have sold rare salvage on the AH and have used it to purchase things.  I've stated my issues with the AH very clearly.  

 

4. This is true, because it's seeming less efficient than simply AE farming and getting inf and drops to sell.  AE grinding vs grinding for merits is all the same to me, whichever provides the better gains is what I'd prefer.  Maybe you can provide a specific example of how grinding for merits is overall more efficient than grinding AE for drops?  

 

5. This is NOT true, I simply dislike some of the methods for acquiring them.  

 

6. Yes, when I played during live there were no IOs, and no AH.  If I was to state which I prefer more, SOs and hamis to the current system, I'd prefer earlier issue CoH to the current issue for sure, all things considered.  In fact if there was a server that ran a pre-ED version of CoH, I'd 100% be playing that version, and would abruptly abandon current issue.  

 

7. I wouldn't say every, but many of them yes.  Because they're recommendations that don't really suit my style of play.  I've already stated that I've given strong consideration to making an alt account to power level my main like one poster recommended in this topic.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2023 by crimson72

[crimson72]

Also, queing for content has never worked once for me.  That was one of the very first things I tried when I started this game looking for teams was to simply use the que, and hope that it worked like a traditional que function in MMORPGs.  Turns out that nobody really uses it.  It's frustrating that nobody seems to use such a convenient feature for teaming.  I tried to que for dfbs many times on several low level alts, and waited in ques for an excess of 30+ minutes before dropping them.  Why the community seems to insist on totally ignoring this as well as the game's traditional teaming feature (setting yourself as looking for group + a comment) is a complete mystery to me as a returning player.  Back when I played on live, people would have absolutely used that que if we had it.  It's an example of an actual good feature that was added since I last played that nobody seems to take advantage of.  

[UltraAlt]

4 hours ago, crimson72 said:

Unfortunately, I'm disappointed to see yet another game turned into a market simulator.

 

wow. you get that from me /e facepalming farming and powerleveling?

Nothing is forcing you to market it you don't want to.

 

To me, I was first against powerleveling.

Some missions that were routinely farmed had timers put on them to stop farming

Then the AE came out ... The AE farms are power-leveling on steroids. What was to be a creative tools for players to create and share content was turned into a farming-fest and power-leveling tool.

 

If anything, CoH was turned into a power-leveling farming game and not a marketing simulator.

Players join and don't want to bother playing the actual game because they can get power-leveled to 50 in a couple of hours.

 

I'm going to hold back saying any more.

[crimson72]

7 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

wow. you get that from me /e facepalming farming and powerleveling?

Nothing is forcing you to market it you don't want to.

 

To me, I was first against powerleveling.

Some missions that were routinely farmed had timers put on them to stop farming

Then the AE came out ... The AE farms are power-leveling on steroids. What was to be a creative tools for players to create and share content was turned into a farming-fest and power-leveling tool.

 

If anything, CoH was turned into a power-leveling farming game and not a marketing simulator.

Players join and don't want to bother playing the actual game because they can get power-leveled to 50 in a couple of hours.

 

I'm going to hold back saying any more.

 

If you think CoH is a power leveling simulator now, then you haven't seen nothing.  CoH was always a power leveling simulator.  I still remember the time when tanks had no aggro limits, and cones/aoes would hit as many targets that were in range, and tanks could quite literally herd an entire AE meteor map worth of enemies into an ice patch and burn the whole stack down.  Ask anyone who played back then, they can attest to the almighty fire/ice tank.  The pwnage was so hardcore, that even factoring in double exp at current rates, the exp/hr is still overall lower than it was back then.  You could also sidekick people with a level 46, so level 1s were sidekicked at 45, and while the tank was burning down massive stacks of 53s, and the sidekicks got full exp gains.  

Edited May 31, 2023 by crimson72

[crimson72]

Nobody has to like people power leveling, that's their personal opinion, but absolutely nobody can deny that power leveling hasn't always been a part of CoH gameplay at every single point during the game's life.  If one method was nerfed, another area/map/build became meta for whatever the new method was.  This is and always has been a thing.  

 

Anyone who remembers the old game can attest to all the farm groups running portals in PI.  Virtually every single team entering and exiting portals were farming groups power leveling.  Pretty much every SG (the ones worth joining at least) had dedicated farm tanks who helped the group level up alts.  

 

Even lower level teams, the tanks would herd up massive swarms on the overworld, or in missions, and buffers/healers/blasters would do their roles to keep the tank alive and eliminate the packs.  It was fun.  

Edited May 31, 2023 by crimson72

[Wobegone]

4 hours ago, crimson72 said:

SOs and DOs don't hack it.  I learned this first hand by playing a couple of characters.  In the original game, back when I played, hamidons were best in slot, and other than that you had SOs.  So a 50 fully kitted in SOs with a couple of hamis was quite strong compared to a similarly equipped character in the current game.  You'd need to be fully kitted in sets in this one.  This is extra stuff they added that I don't care for, and I either participate or run a gimped character, or stop playing.  

 

This simply isn't true.  The game certainly isn't more difficult that it was on live.  Toons run perfectly fine on SOs....although I'd buy generic IOs starting at level 22 rather than use SOs.  Sure you should be 'fully kitted in sets' for Hard Mode stuff, but nearly everything else absolutely doesn't require it.  

 

There are a variety of ways to make money.  All of them take a bit of time and a bit of effort.  My advice?  I'd follow Yomo's advice and solo a melee character to 50 running solo story arcs and Task Forces.  You'll accumulate over 1000 Merits doing so, along with a bunch of recipes, which you can craft, convert and either sell or use.  I'm a big fan of newer players frankenslotting their first few toons.  

 

If you want some specific advice on making money using the Market with little time investment, head on over to the Market forum.  Put those Merits to use!