Homecoming Server Update (May 1st): Perfectly Balanced

[SuperDan]

While I understand the reasoning behind the AE changes, I am not a fan and hope devs reconsider in the future. Reason being....

 

I started playing CoH when i2 dropped. I played up until IO's came out, but quit shortly thereafter. I had begun to IO out my 50's, but wasn't around long enough to run incarnate trials.

 

Now that CoH is back, I do not desire to lvl my old 50's, toons and power combo's I've already played, the old fashioned way. I do not need to learn how to play the mechanics of the game and those AT's again. I just want my 50's back as quickly as possible so I can start some end-game goodness.

 

I hope devs will reconsider, and perhaps do so after the newness has died down a bit.

[Psych Devil]

AE XP reduction, if permanent, is moronic.

 

I can understand it if your servers are getting crushed. That makes sense. But the notion that you should be prescribing that people level through regular missions instead of the content that they want to do (AE or whatever) is how games get murdered by devs.

 

Some of us lost dozens of level 50's and have very little interest in the low-level content that we played for almost a decade. At this point we are playing catch up to get back to playing the good stuff (LRSF's, PVP, etc).

 

All of this^

 

I’m not happy to see AE getting a nerfed a bit but I definitely understand why it’s being done for the time being (and hopefully it is just temporary) ... especially since you all are doing this at your own expense.

[Pzn]

Please reconsider the AE nerf after the population settles down a bit.  I've played to 50 dozens of times and I'm just interested in getting heroes back to where they once were.

[pentium2man]

You're Nerfing AE so that people only interested in PVP are forced to run missions to 50? On a server *unofficially* designated for PVP? I've been a player since beta and have no interest in running sewer trials and door missions for the next month in hopes of getting my blaster to 50. The AE isn't hurting anyone and if you don't want to do AE, DONT DO AE. I was hoping for a boost to 50, or some free io's in the future to help get the ball rolling, but you seem to be discouraging the endgame. The PVP community was and is a big part of the game and NCSOFT made the same mistakes you seem to be doing. They shunned us continuously in the hopes of balance and to keep RP'ers happy. AE is a tool to get those of us not wanting to grind for months to get to max level without removing any other opportunities from normal PVE'ers. Please remove the nerf and allow us to continue on our journey.

[srmalloy]

This is AMAZING!!! You guys are killing it, AE was unhealthy for the game anyway! Now task forces will finally get done!

 

One of the things that always bothered me about AE was why you got influence doing the AE missions. Inf is -- at least, how it's rationalized -- as your public reputation for your actions, either positively (blueside) or negatively (redside) that made people willing to support you, either out of gratitude or fear. But I fail to see how crawling up your electronic navel in AE missions does anything for the public perception of you -- the missions are fully immersive, so getting XP is appropriate, and the ticket system is a reward for participating in the AE missions, but that's it. And since you're already buying rewards with the tickets you get, getting influence on top of that feels like getting double rewards.

 

Now, with the AE mission XP cut in half, that should cut inf rewards as well, which addresses the issue to some extent, but you're still getting reputation as a hero/villain for what is essentially playing video games, not being a hero/villain.

[_NOPE_]

This is AMAZING!!! You guys are killing it, AE was unhealthy for the game anyway! Now task forces will finally get done!

 

One of the things that always bothered me about AE was why you got influence doing the AE missions. Inf is -- at least, how it's rationalized -- as your public reputation for your actions, either positively (blueside) or negatively (redside) that made people willing to support you, either out of gratitude or fear. But I fail to see how crawling up your electronic navel in AE missions does anything for the public perception of you -- the missions are fully immersive, so getting XP is appropriate, and the ticket system is a reward for participating in the AE missions, but that's it. And since you're already buying rewards with the tickets you get, getting influence on top of that feels like getting double rewards.

 

Now, with the AE mission XP cut in half, that should cut inf rewards as well, which addresses the issue to some extent, but you're still getting reputation as a hero/villain for what is essentially playing video games, not being a hero/villain.

 

My headcanon was the AE was Paragon City's version of eSports. The heroes got to play, the rest of the populace got to watch. Hence, influence made sense to me.

[SuperDan]

Another thought....

 

There are actually people complaining now that they don't want the 250% xp bonus on certain shards. They want the grind and the slow and low.

 

Fix whatever server issues you're having with AE, put AE xp back where it was, and turn the +250% off those shards. Then the people that don't like to lvl quickly can go at their own pace, and the people that want to lvl quickly have the option to do so. Server population will naturally sort itself out.

 

This has actually created problems that didn't exist before. Unintended consequences and such.......

[Rroff]

Just want to say thanks for everything you are doing - never thought I'd be able to play this game again.

[Thabo]

Brilliant, thanks fellas

 

Marxist Salutes to the Team

[Burnt Toast]

Please don't start nerfing things like AE. If you want to get people to continue playing you should give them more reasons to play... not less.

I played 8.5 years (May 2004 to Sunset) without any breaks. I had 20+ level 50+++ characters... I don't need to experience the content all over again.

I just think punishing those who want to get to 50 as quickly as possible to farm, pvp, do itrials etc is counter productive to the community and economy.

And before anyone says something - I don't have any 50s - my highest character is 29... I just think these changes are inane.

 

[Disruptor]

If Indom is the PvP server can you guys at least revert the AE XP on Indom and keep it nerfed on the other servers since it seems PvPers prefer to lvl as fast as possible while PvErs want a slow grind to enjoy the experience?

 

FYI none us chose Indom as the pvp server the GM/Devs of this server did when they made that statement, I was on TB before the announcement was made to make Indom the pvp server I've now switched but you see in order to PvP properly in this game you have to lvl up, you also need to get IO'd builds and at the end of the day the highest lvl of PvP you need to be 50.

 

 

Every level counts in zone pvp, even if you are cutoff at lvl30 in Siren's Call a person still gets access up to their lvl35 powers so a lvl35 has a significant advantage over a lvl20 in Siren's, this rule applies to every PvP zone. On top of that there are enhancement & slots...to take into account as well as Epic/Patron pools.

[Leandro]

If Indom is the PvP server can you guys at least revert the AE XP on Indom and keep it nerfed on the other servers since it seems PvPers prefer to lvl as fast as possible while PvErs want a slow grind to enjoy the experience?

 

Zone and mission maps for all servers run all together in the same hardware (the ones described as "mapserver hosts"); so there's no such thing as running AE for "just one server" without affecting the rest. The AE farms trigger a lot of ambushes or AI-enabled patrols which use a lot of CPU power and cause increase lag and instability for everyone.

 

The goal here is to get the servers to a point where they don't need a restart every few hours.

[Peerless Girl]

Are leveling pacts PERMANENTLY broken, or just broken for now? I have several characters that operate in a duo, and LP is extremely beneficial to them.

[Pzn]

If Indom is the PvP server can you guys at least revert the AE XP on Indom and keep it nerfed on the other servers since it seems PvPers prefer to lvl as fast as possible while PvErs want a slow grind to enjoy the experience?

 

Zone and mission maps for all servers run all together in the same hardware (the ones described as "mapserver hosts"); so there's no such thing as running AE for "just one server" without affecting the rest. The AE farms trigger a lot of ambushes or AI-enabled patrols which use a lot of CPU power and cause increase lag and instability for everyone.

 

The goal here is to get the servers to a point where they don't need a restart every few hours.

Will you consider reverting the change if the population stabilizes to a more manageable level? I think less people will be playing a few months out from now after the hype has worn off.

[purplejezusjuice]

Why is everyone so upset with the AE change, please read what they wrote.  It is causing server issues for everyone since all servers use the same mapserver.  This is not a nerf because they don't want people doing it.

 

Do you want servers down every 2 hours or less people doing AE?

 

Until they get the hardware to handle it, trust me you are happier at least playing rather than waiting for the servers to come back up.

[NinjaWeazel]

One of the things that always bothered me about AE was why you got influence doing the AE missions. Inf is -- at least, how it's rationalized -- as your public reputation for your actions, either positively (blueside) or negatively (redside) that made people willing to support you, either out of gratitude or fear. But I fail to see how crawling up your electronic navel in AE missions does anything for the public perception of you -- the missions are fully immersive, so getting XP is appropriate, and the ticket system is a reward for participating in the AE missions, but that's it. And since you're already buying rewards with the tickets you get, getting influence on top of that feels like getting double rewards.

 

Now, with the AE mission XP cut in half, that should cut inf rewards as well, which addresses the issue to some extent, but you're still getting reputation as a hero/villain for what is essentially playing video games, not being a hero/villain.

 

Now you can truly be the hero they NEET, not the hero they deserve...

[Leandro]

Are leveling pacts PERMANENTLY broken, or just broken for now? I have several characters that operate in a duo, and LP is extremely beneficial to them.

 

Leveling pacts are handled by the statserver, which is crashing pretty much constantly. They also have some database queries which need to be run in a specific order, but the order is not guaranteed; this is called a "race condition" and results in lots of errors, especially when the servers are as overloaded as they are right now.

 

So fix we need to figure out why the statserver keeps crashing, then we need to solve the race condition, then we can enable leveling pacts again. It's not intended to be permanent, but I can't give a time estimate because of everything else that's going on.

[Tekno2099]

If Indom is the PvP server can you guys at least revert the AE XP on Indom and keep it nerfed on the other servers since it seems PvPers prefer to lvl as fast as possible while PvErs want a slow grind to enjoy the experience?

 

Zone and mission maps for all servers run all together in the same hardware (the ones described as "mapserver hosts"); so there's no such thing as running AE for "just one server" without affecting the rest. The AE farms trigger a lot of ambushes or AI-enabled patrols which use a lot of CPU power and cause increase lag and instability for everyone.

 

The goal here is to get the servers to a point where they don't need a restart every few hours.

Leandro thx and thx for your hard work but i want tell you my opinion on the AE nerf,is bad.I have read many people in game blaming the nerf because AE is a great part of this amazing game so i hope do you will find if possible another solution for resolve the server issue.

[PrismAlmidu]

For those concerned about AE nerfs making it more difficult to restore your old characters to where they were, I do sympathize, but please consider this: LFG is filled with AE group requests, to the point thatradio and story mission group requests are routinely buried in chat, and completely new players see that. If most of the group content they see is AE, and not stories that you all have seen a bunch, but they never have, I feel like there's less of a chance of retaining these new players who have heard stories of the varied content this game has if the only thing they're exposed to in the first chance they have to play the game is AE farms. Side note: do the AH prices really need to be inflated this high so soon?

[barrier]

If Indom is the PvP server can you guys at least revert the AE XP on Indom and keep it nerfed on the other servers since it seems PvPers prefer to lvl as fast as possible while PvErs want a slow grind to enjoy the experience?

 

Zone and mission maps for all servers run all together in the same hardware (the ones described as "mapserver hosts"); so there's no such thing as running AE for "just one server" without affecting the rest. The AE farms trigger a lot of ambushes or AI-enabled patrols which use a lot of CPU power and cause increase lag and instability for everyone.

 

The goal here is to get the servers to a point where they don't need a restart every few hours.

 

Wait, so I'm confused. Is the AE server a separate piece of software/hardware? Wouldn't it make sense that given when the AE code was done, it may just be the sort of thing that doesn't require a bare metal server?

[barrier]

For those concerned about AE nerfs making it more difficult to restore your old characters to where they were, I do sympathize, but please consider this: LFG is filled with AE group requests, to the point thatradio and story mission group requests are routinely buried in chat, and completely new players see that. If most of the group content they see is AE, and not stories that you all have seen a bunch, but they never have, I feel like there's less of a chance of retaining these new players who have heard stories of the varied content this game has if the only thing they're exposed to in the first chance they have to play the game is AE farms. Side note: do the AH prices really need to be inflated this high so soon?

 

1. I'm market pvping hard. Why? Because I like it. I'm sitting on about 50 times more inf today than yesterday (not kidding) and I haven't killed more than a mob on this toon since I parked at the AH. Welcome to City of Heroes. I'll be starting my hedge fund soon, you're welcome to park your money with me.

 

2. Stop telling me how to play. I don't really care what LFG is filled with. Some people play COH for the stories (I find this somewhat laughable), but others play it for the raw mechanics. It's not up to you to coddle new players by assuming they want to play storylines and not just level fast and then pvp/do high-end content.

[BadMinotaur]

Guys, calm down. The devs haven't taken any kind of moralistic stand against AE farms; they're just disincentivizing it because it's causing a lot of server stability issues. They're trying to get things running smoothly for us. They could've just turned it off entirely and accomplished the same thing.

 

In the OP, they talk about making some missions Dev Choice and having those grant full XP. Who is to say they would not grant Dev Choice to specific farm missions that don't overload the server? They're crowd pleasers and so far they seem like they've just been trying to make the game work, rather than taking a stand on any kind of playstyle. Give them some credit, I'm sure the AE farms aren't permanently going away.

[PrismAlmidu]

I'm not telling you how to play, my point is merely that filling chat with only AE group requests makes it seem like that's the only content available, which in effect lessens the visible choices new players have to team up, especially those without the experience in the game to know what else is available.

[barrier]

I'm not telling you how to play, my point is merely that filling chat with only AE group requests makes it seem like that's the only content available, which in effect lessens the visible choices new players have to team up, especially those without the experience in the game to know what else is available.

 

You're still taking a moral stand against AE content in that statement. You're telling me that it would somehow be better if both options crowded the LFG chat. I'm saying that if you think that's better, then you're telling me how to play.

[BlueKnight]

There may not be a lot of support for this, but I'd appreciate it if there was at least one shard that didn't have all this accelerated XP, or at least had a mechanism to opt out. And no, turning off XP gain isn't the same thing. I want to level my character, I just hate outleveling contacts and content. Laughable or not, some of us do want to experience or re-experience that, even some that played for 8 years. I'd love to be able to level at the intended rate.