The_Alt_oholic

I'm out there. I was on a team last night.
No telling what level I'll be, what side I'm on, or what server that will be, but I will be out there.

You are posting exploits.

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All games make a fatal Mistake,and this is one of those moments when a fatal mistake has been struck.AE will kill the game.Take it out like a splinter,and the game will start to go back to normal.none of the changes iv seen that have occurred in this game before AE,have had this huge of a impact.

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TAKE AE OUT OF THE GAME!!

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There has been an on rush of like threads. Here's one in regards to new player and lower level issues ::

https://boards.cityofheroes.com/show...4284&page=

My solution to resolve some of theses issues is posted here ::

https://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthre...SID=&fpart=

I'm virulently anti-farmer at this point and I think Farming needs to be stopped as quickly as possible and as much as possible. I agree that the quickest fix is to yank out the AE all together.

I think that the MA in conception is a great idea, but it has become primarily a Tool of Exploitation. As it is not working as designed, it's time to pull it until it can work as designed - so maybe have it on the Test Server only for a while and see how that effects game play. (Yes, I have a pretty good idea of what that will do. The Test Server will become :: https://boards.cityofheroes.com/show...page=&vc=1 ) But then, at least, we can see if they City can recover from the devastating effects of the AE.

Honestly, I'm at the point now that I'm seeing some pieces of a puzzle falling together that I don't want to see come to be.

I made an MA Arc based on what I've seen go on in the past -
DEV d'Arc [232506] - basically an evolution of the game.

But what is dawning on me now is an even more sinister conclusion to the time stream than that.

What if this really is the end of this game?
What if once Champions Online goes live, this game has a massive exodus because so many people are tired of farming here and want to play actually play a "super hero" game without farming and switch to Champions Online?
What if that exodus is so crippling that CoX comes to an end?
What if some of the DEVs from Paragon Studios are suddenly re-employed by Cryptic?

It's a paranoid conspiracy theory, but then so is DEV d'Arc - However, up to my re-editing of the first mission to add in "farming" as a critical part of the final down fall - all the rest of it is pretty much what has gone on, and that is pretty much a conspiracy by Cryptic to make a new superhero game to replace City of Heroes even before they left working to work on one.

I love this game and have invested a lot of time, energy, and creativity into playing this great game.
It is not the "perfect" super hero game. I do think that "Champions the RPG" Online with a "farm-free" mission interface would have had a chance at being that. Champions Online is not that by any far stretch of the meaning as it does not include the mechanics (Which some till call the "Hero Systems" but actually originated in Champions The RPG :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champio...-playing_game) ) which is exactly what made "Champions the RPG" the stand-out and excellent game that it was (I haven't seen the new versions so I won't say "is", but I know that it was up to the first hardbound ... at least). Instead Champions Online uses the archetype structure, plus some minor power purchasing system due to all the complaints about it not being true to the original RPG. Of course, their take on why it is "Champions" Online is because it has the "Champions the RPG" Signature Characters. Now they add micro transactions for an increasing level of greed. So it goes.
DCUO, of course, is also coming along to abduct citizens from the City. I for one find the only reason to play a DC Comics based game on the ability to play characters that are DC characters or to join DC super groups at the very least (JLA, Green Lantern Corps, JSA, Teen Titans, Legion of Super-heroes, etc.). I don't think this is the case. It appears that you can't start out as a Kryptonian or a Green Lantern let alone be part of a DC staple superhero group. So I have to say, is my dream of being a superhero really to be a lesser hero in a world of supers?
To some extent I have those complaints about these same things with City of Heroes. By and large, I do the same thing that I did when I was playing "Champions the RPG" - I act like the Signature characters never existed. It is about us. It isn't about the Signature characters. Why? Because WE aren't PLAYING the Signature Characters. If it was a platform game then we would be PLAYING the Signature Characters, and, therefore, it is obvious why they are in/part of the game.
So that's the flaw. It's a critical flaw for DCUO. It was a critical flail for Champions Online to keep the Signature Characters and throw out the system.
By and large, WE in the CITY no longer care about the Signature Characters. WE are what makes the CITY super. Or WE did.
Now the City is falling into ruins. Outside of the digital world of AE the streets run rampant with crimes. Farmers farm the digital world and become powerful digital heroes with no "real world" skills and come out brain-washed and not knowing how to get to a train or to travel to other zones in the City.

Yes. I will be here to the bitter end probably, but it does seem like the end times ... or at least a crippling blow that will allow at least Champions Online and maybe DCUO a good chance to lure a far greater percentage of players away to experience their games and possibly switch to them for good.

It will be a bitter end when it comes, because MA is the mechanic that could have launched this game so far ahead that others couldn't have caught up.

It's really a shame. CoX was already King of the super MMORPGs. Apparently, some people didn't realize that.

You a "farmer" that I already have on ignore making a post about "gold farmers" is ironic.

When you are part of the problem is is hard to see what the solution has always been, but then again - I've been saying it for months now.

This is very common.
I've heard it called the "100th Monkey" Theory :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredth-monkey_effect

To me, it is no more or less than kicking down a wall into a new zone of the collective-unconscious or psychtronically connecting the dots of current social and media intake to come to the same or relatively same conclusions when trying to create in general.

You know, like Alexander Gram Bell and Marconi inventing the telephone at the same time, etc.

This is more common than many would think or want to believe is real.

I worked on an independent comic book years ago and, went I went to find a publisher, there was an author at the same convention that was selling a very similar story.
In fact he seemed shocked when I talked to him about the story I was working on and then showed me his. I immediately knew why he was shocked. I wasn't surprised myself as I have had this kind of thing happen before numerous times.
Both of our stories were picked up by different publishers. (This shows that even the publishers were in the same mindset in thinking that the idea would sell). They were by no means the exact same story, but they had many very similar traits and underlying themes.

I don't think it should upset anyone if something like this happens, because it happens all the time. I always take it to mean that you are in the right direction if other people are thinking the same thing.

This, of course, is completely different than seeing someone's work and thinking "I can do that idea better" ... which is something else entirely.

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When I explain it, they get it, but not until then. What all would people here suggest as ways to get other Dom players to better understand how the AT works?

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Well, first off, if you can still edit your original post, I would type out your explanation of how it works. That way if someone reads the thread they will have the explanation.

You said the explanation works, so why not explain it?

That includes posting it here, btw. Some players will read this trying to find out why you think that they don't know what's going on and you aren't say much other than they don't.

I know how I use Domination. I don't use it the same way some do. I definitely don't set it off as soon as it is charged. I save it until I am completely out of end and really need it. That is to say, even if I'm out of end if I can keep up with the battle with the recharge rate of my powers and the recovery rate of my end is keeping up, I don't set of my domination even if it is fully charged.

One thing that starter Doms should know is that they need to fire off primary powers rapidly to build up the dom bar, so using recharges, hasten, and using end redux to make sure you can use your primaries as quickly as possible is key to keep the domination charged as much as possible.

I definitely want my dom bar charged or at full end so that I can get the dom bar filled so I can set if off as quickly as possible when I'm fighting a boss.

The doms do play differently. I have Plant, Fire, and Cold doms (maybe some others, but that is all I can say for sure off-hand). And they do operate differently, but for the most part I use domination the same way. ... basically, as a "get out of jail free" card.

And Dom's are squish, so keep your range. May players just have to be up in the thick of it, but squishes have ranged attacks for a reason and that distance is defense. Melee attacks are more powerful than most ranged attacks versus a squishy so stay out of melee range. I fight at the full length of my range if at all possible, and that includes falling back if an enemy is trying to close with my character.

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Just imagine Atlas Park, already loaded with AE children, during an invasion. And the panic when some of them come out of AE into Atlas Park 2 and cant see thier buddies.

Woo Hoo! for chaos.

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Can you imagine the server lock if all the characters came out of the MA into all the Atlas instances at once for a raid on Freedom! Ha!

I only hope that they the drones go of line and the Rikti can raid the AE buildings!

***WARNING! Your AE mission has been terminated. Power is being diverted to the City shields. All heroes are urgently needed in the streets! You will be disconnected in 5 ... 4...3...2... 1.... ***

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Roll an alt or two on other servers and check them out. The farmers and AE babies are everywhere, not just on Freedom.


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Freedom and Virtue are the worst.

You will run into inexperience players PL'd on about any server, but for the flood of that kind of thing it is happening in higher percentages on the more populated servers (for obvious reasons), so the lower down the population level you go, the less there tends to be.
Most of the people that are trying to abuse the system want to get the most out of it, so if they are new they are looking for the most populated servers, and, therefore, being directed to and going to Freedom and Virtue.

If you play villain side, there tends to be even less of this kind of activity then what there tends to be on hero side.

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and quit complaining.

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No. I've played this game for long enough that I've earned the right to [censored] if I want to. If you don't like it use ignore. I don't like the direction this game is moving and I'll be damned if I keep my mouth shut about it.

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That's right.

That's a win for JDouble in my book.

Well said.

Make the escort and ally instead of an escort ...that's what I did at least.

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There's probably at least half a dozen to a dozen different ways you could build a vampire in this game.

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There have probably been a zillion threads on this as well!

Study your search-fu, grasshopper!

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MMOs are about balance and even if you take farming out of the equation, AE is not balanced.

-Regular missions have contacts you have to earn/find, then continually travel to until you get their cell. AE puts the contact right next to you.

-Regular missions have doors that can be on the other end of the zone or even in another zone entirely. AE always has the door right next to you.

-If you want to go to the hospital in a regular mission it could put you hundreds of yards away from the mission door, the AE hospital always puts you right next to the mission door.

-Random missions give you random salvage and recipe drops. AE tickets allow you to more selectively choose your drops.

-If you're having to buy enhancements with influence you will have to find a vendor selling your Origin, then you'll have to wade through the sometimes oddly named inventory list (curse you Magic Origin). If you use AE tickets you travel a few feet to a single person who offers not only every type of regular enhancement, they even have a nifty menu that lets you select the type of enhancement you're looking for.

These are just a few of the examples of how convenient AE is compared to regular content. Why does AE not have ANY downfalls to balance all of its amazing features that dwarf the regular content?

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In theory, this is all balanced by there being no "end of mission" reward in terms of XP/Influence/Prestige. In practice...not so much.

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Nice reply to a thread jack, but what about the OP's point?

I posted my fix quite a while ago ::

https://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthre...ue#Post13595973

What would your idea be to improve the new player experience that has been pretty much ruined by lower-level zone pollution caused by the AE?

This has already been talked about quite a bit.

Here's my main idea that will take care of this issue instantly if it is implemented.

https://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthre...ue#Post13595973

The first idea does nothing about the farming issues other driving characters out of lower level zones in order to use the AE -- which strikes directly to the point of your post.

The second idea adds to the first idea to reduce the speed that characters can be power leveled. This shouldn't be an issue as the DEVs have clearly state that they don't want the AE used as a farming or power-leveling tool.

My primary drive is H: as well and I don't have any issues with CoX or NVIDIA updates.

I checked out Virtue, Guardian, and Pinnacle (from the East Coast), I'm not seeing any issues.

How old is your hard drive?
Have you been having any overheating issues?

Did you try deleting cookies from internet browsers?
Check to see if you have anything else running that might be interacting with the internet while you are running CoX?

Maybe there is something that is traveling along the same access path as CoX is when you are connected to those servers that is slowing down communication along that pathway or maybe something else along that pathway is slowing down everything in route that passes through that hub.

Possibly there is someone here that is on the West Coast that would be good enough to confirm if they have had any issues on the servers that the OP has listed?

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Also, not to sidetrack my own thread, but the current TP team from teleporation needs to go. It is ridiculous and really serves no purpose at all. It should definetly be replaced with the version you get as a Vet reward called Assemble the team that actually TPs any teamate on your map to your location.

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Recall Team can do that, it just has to go one person at a time.
I'd rather it be able to Recall Team members from another zone - or better yet a Team Mission Teleporter that teleports the whole team to the active mission.

Team Teleport work best in conjunction with Group Fly, but it is still a crazy way to get around.

I have see some teams use Teleport Team efficiently; but then again, the first time I was exposed to Team Teleport, one of my Defenders was forcibly teleported to the feet and stomping range of a Winter Lord - and that has always left a bad taste in my mouth for that power.

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Back to the main thread - I have a scrapper in the 40's that doesn't have any travel pools and gets around fairly well. He's a natural origin character and relied on Swift, Hurtle, and Spirit to get round before the GvE Jump Pack, Kings Row - Atlas Park Raptor Pack, the Shadow Shard Day Job Traveler's Pack, and the Shadow Shard Raptor Pack vendor were available. He actually moves pretty fast and jump fairly high all considering the limitations of not having a "travel power".

Just say no.
There is a limit on what you can charge for something in game and there is a limit on how much one character can hold.
This is one way from keeping the game from being exploited even more by gold farmers.

If anything lower the caps on prices on the markets and the amount of inf that a character can hold.

I have my character slots full on all servers, so I would probably keep it that way. I don't have to go to Freedom if I don't want to (most of the time these days I don't)...and I'd not only need free transfers but free slots on the other servers as well if I was going to move them.

I do think that they should allow people that want to move all their characters off Freedom and offer to do so for free to the same destination server. And I do mean all and all at once to the same server for free.
Pick a new server and all your characters from Freedom are transferred to that other server.
Make it a one use one-shot in a limited time window announced what a short time frame before that limited time window begins.

I say this for two reasons: <ul type="square">[*]I can see how players honestly don't want to be on Freedom any more because of the points that JDouble pointed out.[*]Giving free moves off Freedom one character at a time or for a long period of time is to exploitable.[/list]
I'd be tempted to exclude 50's from being moved off Freedom due to the exploit potential of doing so, but I don't want to gimp players that have honestly played their way to 50 because of the jerks that have been abusing the system and causing a need for a mass exodus of veteran players that aren't liking what is going on on their home server - also there is pretty much as much potential to use it as an exploit if they are allowed to or forced to stay as well.

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How fast is too fast?

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They won't say anything. MAYBE in a PM, definatly not in public forums though.

I've just kept toons logged in while I'm at work to rack up "play" hours... *shrug*

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Nice another exploit post in the forums.

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What i don't understand is..they say it is exploit however it was their mistake why should we get punished,

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Players were warned in advance that the MA/AE is/was not intended to be used as a farming or power-leveling tool and that players that exploited the system in this manner would be punished.

It was quite clear in the release notes. It has been repeated since then. The loopholes need to be sealed, but they are currently snares that might trap an exploiter at any moment. The holes are getting sealed. The fact that we were asked not to abuse the system would prompt the honest person not to abuse the system.

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What devs don't realize is you can't force players to play same content over and over again.

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They don't have to prompt many to do this. That is what farming is. The exact same mission over and over again. Not even a bunch of different missions - just the same one.

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Yes we have AE, so what? It is still same map, same NPCs, same powersets. After grinding at least 10 toons to 50 i got pretty much bored of game content :/

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Then you really haven't been playing the game. There is a lot to experience and, if you are creative with the AE, there is a whole lot more to experience.

If all you want to do is power-level to 50 and then farm your way to purple IO sets, then no wonder you are bored. I would have quit long before you did.

With 138 characters with 2527 combined levels, I still find new experiences in the game nearly every time I play.

With 10 characters you've experienced what? One of each kind of normal hero and villain archetype with one primary and one secondary for each archetype. I'm fairly sure you haven't tried out all the power pools either. What about the 4 epic archetypes (2 hero and 2 villain)?
It really doesn't seem that you have checked out that much of the game to me.

Maybe you need to PuG more often. I'm assuming that you team at least with a sg.

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With how fast people level up during double xp weekend, coupled with how fast people ALREADY level up during AE boss farms, even with PuG's........hmmm.....how in the world will that NOT make their "level too fast" alarms go off?

Maybe like half the toons in the game will get deleted from that weekend.

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Not the ones that aren't in the AE running exploit missions and powerleveling farms.
So all of mine are safe.

Maybe that's a good enough excuse to run "normal" content for a weekend?

I have to agree.

I think that having "Kill All" as an option in the MA was one of the worst ideas ever ... but even worse was promoting the use of "Kill All" as a mission goal in an MA training video.

I try to avoid "Kill All" missions in general.
If I get dragged into one I always give it one less star than I would otherwise. (I rate based on every mission being 5 star and taking one star off for issues, so arc with a "Kill All" will ever get any more than 4 stars from me ... if I even play it to rate it - Like I said, I try to avoid them...)

Try this one. Go to top of the highest building in Atlas. Make sure that there is a clean drop all the way to the ground (aka no ledges in the way to stop you on the way down). Now zoom into first person view. Turn around and face the building and then step backwards off the roof.

Keep your eye on the windows as they pass by.

I'd rather see the inherent changed to something like domination where you are able to charge something that can be activated to instantly refill your end bar.

It is a pain not being able to fight as much as you would like for fear of running down your end to far and not being able to heal/buff/debuff when things get really hairy all of a sudden.

This kind of "instant end bar refill" would solve that issue by allowing defenders to have a way to suddenly get end when they need it most.

If it is seen as too powerful, then just charge it half way or have heals/buffs/debuffs (just primaries) cost no end for a short period of time once the power is activated.

Another idea might be to increase defender base end recovery rate based on the number of members on their team. They more you have to buff and heal, the quicker you recover end. Kind of like the new Blaster inherent, but with end recovery instead of increased damage.

I'm still open to the old idea of changing the inherent to one that would divide some damage done to a Defender amongst the other members of the team. As Tanks are not as prone to take Taunt as often as they should, Squishes often take the brunt of attacks that they should be shielded from in a good team. Sending their damage to the other team members is one way for Defenders to get some kind of armor/defense that they are critically lacking and it counter balances their lack of powerful offenses.