McBoo

It sounds like someone was having a joke at your friend's expense. In the five years that I have been playing the only server designation I have ever heard of is that the Virtue server is the unofficial role-play server. I suppose maybe you could call Freedom the unofficial flagship server since it was used during beta and after launch but I've never heard it referred to in that way.


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I prefer to call them Rikti Kittens in honor of the Rikti Lt missions that were popular XP farms back when AE first went live.


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Good word by the way!



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And good quality body armor...


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Agreed, if server traffic is going to bring down a server the developers will more than likely want it to be the test server. You never (or hardly ever) use your production environment as a test bed.


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I was going to say! Glad you came to your senses!


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Happened to me! I don't even remember which purples now but I got 150,000,000 for one and 75,000,000 for another. Who says there is no end game content? You give up the hero biz and become a multimillionaire like Ozymandias in "Watchmen"!

Has everybody added the new Crash MacTavish action figure with Super Ego action to their collection?


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I can't take 100% credit for the Critical Taunt idea but I do think that it would work out quite well. The extra mez effects shouldn't be unbalancing and the added endurance would definitely be a boon.


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Okay how about this variation on a theme?

Stick with the Critical Taunt idea that applies secondary effects from any single target attack to all mobs effected by Gauntlet for that attack but add in a small endurance drain that adds to the tanker's endurance. You would have to play with the numbers to make the endurance drain low enough that a single tanker cannot completely drain a mob and the +recovery from five mobs would be enough to be effective without being overpowered. Thematically it would simply be an indication of the mobs losing their nerve when they realize that they are outmatched and the tanker getting psyched up as he gains the advantage.

This would also make multiple tankers more attractive in teams as you stack the endurance drain effects. The AoE mez effects would just be there for flavor and to give the tanker a more powerful feel.


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I think we are about to see CoH head in a more competitive direction. Issue 16 will have power customization, more power proliferation, super side kicking and at least one new power set. Going Rogue will offer side switching, brand new content for all levels and two new powersets. Paragon Studios has shown that they now have the resources to expand the game and that they are not afraid to use them. Based on the current plans, looming competition and increased resources I think that we will see CoH continue to expand. Not that I expect it to become the WoW of the superhero genre but it will easily hold it's own up against the other MMOs within the genre.


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Uncle! Uncle! I give.....


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Since we both agree that farming and power leveling are acceptable play styles then you can't really call AE a trivialization of the leveling curve. The developers are still actively monitoring activity within AE and adjusting it where necessary. I have no doubt that as time goes by the AE system will continue to evolve to the point where it is no longer the farming tool that it is today. Super-Sidekicking is a step in the right direction. It will do nothing to change the non-AE game content. It just makes it easier to fund and form teams outside of AE which I believe has been another big seller for AE farms as most of them are auto-level.

This not an indication of a failure of the game content. It is merely an indication of the general laziness of the average person. It is human nature to follow the path of least resistance. If tomorrow they add an NPC that asks you a series of CoH lore trivia questions for huge XP rewards the AE buildings would empty fairly quickly in favor of standing around the NPC with teams of people working together to get all the questions correct. Not that the AE farms have changed but just that the trivia questions are easier and faster. Blaming the developers for the mass exploitation of AE is really just an evasion of personal responsibility. Just because someone puts something in front of you and says help yourself does not mean they are responsible for making sure that you do not over indulge.

That's a bit strong. It's unfortunate maybe but not inexcusable. What would be inexcusable is using up resources, money and time to attempt to hunt down and squash every possible exploit that could be ferreted out or dreamed up by roughly 100,000 people before releasing it and moving on to other projects. Ultimately the regular game content still exists for those who are not interested in or bored with AE farms. I was actually part of an 8 man team last night that was doing nothing but radio missions in Brickstown.


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You are truly evil......


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Gah! First I'm you people taunt me with Twitter now your yanking my chain with YouTube! Have I done something to upset you this morning?

Blast the network security department and their rules!


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I again have to point out that any mechanic that forces tankers to concentrate on a single target is counter productive to their current role in the game. IMO, if the point of the exercise is to address any perceived tanker issues without changing their current aggro management capability then single target suggestions need to be left out.


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You can't really blame him either simply because there's no blame to place. I doubt very seriously that AE was implemented with blinders on. Positron had to know that there would be a percentage of player base that would take advantage of the new system to power level their characters. He was probably also betting that there would be an equal or greater percentage that would use the Mission Architect to create new playable content, origin stories for their characters and any number of other narrative missions meant to be enjoyed solely on their merit rather than on their ticket or XP outlay.

What it comes down to in the final analysis is a numbers game. There are far too many people in the player base to effectively predict all of the ways that any new content or feature is going to be exploited so the developers do their best to plug obvious holes before release and then watch for new holes after the fact. Also realize that, despite individual opinions of it, power leveling is a valid play style within the MMO genre and as such the developers are not going to stamp out all the possible ways of doing so, only the most game breaking ones. This is not to say that I support power leveling, only that its continued existence is a form of validation and in some small way it is nurtured by game developers.



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I have to agree here. Repeatability is a major selling point for any MMO or any game for that matter. What's the attraction of end game content if you have to go through 49 levels of the same content over and over to get there? I think that is one of the reasons behind Super Sidekicking; to pull folks out of AE by making the regular content just as attractive as the AE farms without removing the option to power level yourself into a coma.


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Why would you bring up such painful memories? Have we offended you in some way?

I don't think that there would be any reason for any content to go away. Villains in comics don't really go away, their evil machinations are merely foiled by the hero. Heck death isn't even a really good deterrent in the pages of comic books so I would think that the content would remain but be level adjusted accordingly.


True, I neglected to factor in the lowest common denominator. Still it would be cool to decide on a villain group and fight them throughout your entire heroic career. *sigh* Back to brainstorming.....



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