Nethergoat

Even by your low standards this thread is a brim-full bucket of lukewarm fail.

Less convenient (it really should be an option in the pull-down menu when you click their name), but much more effective at helping me pretend they don't exist.

You'd think nobody ever saw PAYING LOWBIE LFF spam in PI, the way they carry on about MA farms.

I16 won't do anything to curb farming. The most it'll do is shuffle the farmers around, which should make the shrinking violets who's game has been positively RUINED by MA broadcast spam in Atlas happy.

My stalkers seem to have given up.

I always knew they lacked the willpower to succeed in life!

I don't assign any moral value to playing efficiently.
If someone wants to zip through the levels by blasting through scanner missions, good for them. If they want to PL to 50 in MA, great. If they like running "real" content, great. If they like playing fun, original story arcs in MA, great.

A lot of players like efficiency and don't care that much about story. If you hand them a mechanism that delivers exp efficiently at the expense of plot and character, they're going to take it.

I don't buy scanner missions as some sort of "gateway drug" leading inevitably to OMG EXPLOITS.

Nonsense.
Players are what they are. They come pre-equipped with a love of efficiency and don't need to be 'led astray' by wantonly seductive content. On the contrary, they'll actively seek it out, and if it isn't on offer they'll fashion their own as best they can from whatever's lying around.

Players have been 'farming' here since the second the doors opened. The first 50 in the history of the game was an ar/dev farmer who street-swept his way to glory on the back of "exploits". Nothing leads them astray, they actively seek efficiency.


It'd be nice if they re-did the lower levels and made them more engaging.
Since they probably aren't going to, lovers of story can camp out in MA and drown themselves in it if they like. Or they can PL to the level of their choice if they like. It's all the same to MA.

And when GR hits we'll have another option for the low levels, which will have all the advantage of the past 5 years of advances in mission design.

I don't consider any levels a "chore" the way the game is currently set up.
My blaster only suffered through Kings and Skyway because I wanted to see if it was as bad as I remembered (yes, it was). If I were playing "normally" I'd have mixed together scanners, street sweeping, Safeguards and some teaming until I got past stamina. Or alternately I could have hit MA and either PL'ed or run lowbie friendly story arcs.

Tedium is now voluntary- the game provides many options to avoid it.

The game is the game. It's been around 5 years, it'll be around for at least another 5, and right now it has more and better content than it ever has, with a bunch more on the way.
I don't see what you're worrying about.

No, we won't.
The devs are largely content with the levelling speed at the upper levels, they weren't content with the speed at the lower levels.
You always progress faster at lower levels than at higher levels- players are used to it. They're not going to riot in the streets because the higher levels take longer to traverse.

Request away, nobody's saying you can't.

As noted, the tedium is now voluntary.
We have plenty of options, choose the one you like.
If you like story-driven advancement, MA awaits- there are a LOT of good lowbie friendly arcs waiting for you to play them.

MA is the ultimate 'playstyle-caterer'.
If you don't find what you want, make your own!

As I've said repetedly, it'd be great if they re-did the early levels top to bottom. Pointing out that it probably isn't going to happen because they'd rather make new stuff than fix old stuff is hardly saying the OP is "wrong" or trying to silence his brave call for reform.


Or I could have hit MA and run story arcs with engaging plots and interesting enemies.
Why do you consistently ignore that option?
If your point requires you to wear blinders, maybe you should reconsider its logical foundation.

The early levels could deliver a Half-Life quality storytelling experience, and if MA let them level faster everyone would still be in MA.

You aren't going to get farmers out of MA with great storytelling.
You get them out by improving the rewards available from 'regular' content.

MA *is* improved content- that's why so many people are in there.
The farming is tremendous, yes, but it also delivers great stories.

You're really reaching here.
The bulk of the "story" talent is obviously working on GR. They wanted to put *something* out, so we got TFs. And frankly the older TFs are mostly lamer than the old story arcs- more TFs that don't make you pass out from boredom should be welcomed with open arms (even if, like me, you lack the time to play them).

An interesting idea.


TL/DR:
MA is a viable story-based alternative to the crappy lower level game.
Players by nature seek efficiency, they aren't seduced to their doom by phat exp.
It'd be great if they re-did the whole low level game, but since they won't MA and eventually GR will have to do.

Are you referring to Positron's MA hissy fit?

If so, it wasn't pitched over PL'ing as an activity, it was pitched over using "exploits" to level at a tremendously supercharged rate.

Happily they seem to have figured out its counterproductive to threaten and bully paying customers- the bubble farm craze was met with the 'old school' response of patching the problem and moving on, minus the aggressive posturing and punitive response.

The 'interesting' levels are not fundamentally any better than the earlier ones- they still have pointless loads of travel, they still have meaningless fedex missions, they still have street hunts, the bulk of them do not venture beyond the generic goals go here, kill this, click that.

Your character is more interesting to play, with more and better powers. That has always been my motivation to PL alts, to reach the point in the game where playing my character generates the entertainment, regardless of what kind of content I'm running.

There is a notable difference in the quality of newer content compared to old content, but that's spread across many levels. I'm running my blaster alt through Faultline right now, and the contrast with the tedious garbage my Skyway contacts were shoveling my way could not be more striking.

IMHO anything that eases the passage through the levels where your character is more of a chore than a joy to play is going to improve the game experience.

Their character is more fun to play. Running content is less tedious, even if the content itself is basically the same. They have more gameplay options, and more choices about where to go for their fun.

Helping players get to a level where they have more options will generate its own rewards.

Players are entitled to find their fun wherever they like- if they prefer scanner missions to 'real' content, or MA to 'real' content, that's their deal.

But when I reach the 'tipping point' in the game where my character gets fun and I have options, I lose my motivation to PL. That won't be true for everyone, but I'd guess its true for a meaningful slice of players.

Reducing the tedium of the early game is a beneficial move, whether they choose to do it by speeding things up or re-doing the content. Since it's MUCH easier to speed up levelling than renovate a huge chunk of antique gameplay, that's what we're getting.

Having played through Kings and Skyway, none of the contacts I've run had anything to recommend them. There were two cool missions that were a lot of fun, but they could not by themselves balance out the tremendous # of street sweeps, fedex missions and pointless travel to other zones.
Objectively, I'd have been better off running MA or radios.

This is definitely an area that could be improved, although in my experience big teams are mostly in it for the XP and not so much the story/canon.

But it couldn't hurt to figure out a way for everybody to access the story content if they wanted.

XP smoothing has already greatly improved certain stretches of the higher levels. I see the upcoming improvement to the lower levels as just an extention of that process.

In the end, only the devs know how fast they want us to level. So far I've been happy with the direction they've been going, barring the explosion over MA "exploits". They're speeding up problem spots, GR will be adding what I expect to be a HUGE amount of content of the 'new, fun' type, and the future is looking pretty good. I'm willing to kick back and see what they have in store without worrying about it too much.

hah!

As a former CS junkie (beta 2 through retail release, ran a server, had a community, made maps, etc etc), I can say YES WE DO.


Or some of us, anyway. =P

When you're in a PvP zone you are inviting PvP. Read the contact word bubbles one of these days, they spell it out for you.

Entering a PvP zone and expecting other players to leave you be to fiteclub, or get badges, or run missions or whatever is ridiculous. It's like bathing in fish guts, jumping into the shark tank and expecting to be left in peace while you comb the sand for shells.

You can cry and moan about it all you want, but nobody's going to leave you alone. If you want a private match, stick to the arena.

Sure it is.
It's an unreasonable request which people are going to ignore.
The law of the land > your personal desires.

I will not stand for abuse of cartel members!

*scurries off to +rep Mac*

Sell those bad boys.

I had some sets in storage for the eventual respec of my fire/rad, which I pulled out, dusted off and sold for GROTESQUE profits.

I expect to be able to buy them back for a fraction of that once I16 hits.

Hear, hear!

Otherwise why bother.

This common forum tactic is akin to the cat who falls off a shelf, bounces up and pretends nothing happened.

"Oh that? I didn't really care about it, no big deal."

It's easier to pretend you don't care than admit you were wrong.