As a long term vet of this game (played since 06 i think). I came back yesterday to give this game a whirl until CO comes out. This was my favourite MMO until i resubbed yesterday. The mission AE system has BUTCHERED and ruined this game. I made a new char on freedom just for the heavy amount of people because i figure..hey lots of people lots of groups.

More like lots of people lots of AE groups.People in game tell me that plvlers can go from 0-50 in 3 days? C'mon...this game is a joke now. GG PlayNC.

It's more *City of AE* now, it's incredible how many more players are inside the AE building, spamming their "LFF" instead of going out and doing the serious super hero stuff.

AE = Excuse for Paragon Studios that they can't pull off any decent new content anymore.

AE = Excuse for players who can't play their toon in teams outside AE

Example:

One of the last times I tried grouping, I party'd up with some random players.

We've been on lv 40+ toons in Peregrine lsland, waiting for more, when someone did invite his buddy, a lv 30something Peacebringer. The PB seriouly had to ask how to get to PI. I was debating if I'd leave the group at that point, but decided to stay.

After 2 missions I took my leave, we've been up against Malta and Carnies and some other mobs on the streets which was something the PB never saw before after spending all the while in AE on that toon and the one before to unlock PB.

It's hard to say who to blame if new players get thrown into AE right off the bat and don't learn to play their toons by doing the content that was made by Cryptic/Paragon Studios.

I was joking with a SG mate whether they should add the option when you start a new toon and read *Skip Tutorial*, you could also say *Enter AE building*.

Heh, completely agree.... Its sad this game used to be sick and im sure it still is with the right crowd who chooses to "rebel" against the AE. I have found a few people so far in game so there is still hope. My goal now is to find a SG who doesnt waste 80% of their time in the AE building but instead doing actual TF's and other content.

Know anybody? :P

Originally posted by Mastermartz

Heh, completely agree.... Its sad this game used to be sick and im sure it still is with the right crowd who chooses to "rebel" against the AE. I have found a few people so far in game so there is still hope. My goal now is to find a SG who doesnt waste 80% of their time in the AE building but instead doing actual TF's and other content.

Know anybody? :P

Heh, intersting idea. Someone should start a "we don't do AE missions" guild for this game.

The only questions you would need to anwser are "What is the policy for recruiting new members?" and "what rules will be enforced to keep people out of the AE?"

Sadly I have to agree. This was my favourite game for nearly five years. Couple of months ago I did the unthinkable and cancelled my sub. It's not a patch on what it used to be a couple of years ago. Ok, we have more items in game and a few more bells and whistles but the quality of the gameplay and the community spirit have vanished.

It was obvious things were going wayward when they dumbed Hollows down. That was a great for new players to learn about aggro distances and get experience on difficult terrain. Now it's a playground. The AE was the final straw, a huge mistake in my opinion and I just can't see a reason to go back. Waiting for CO, if that's a flop as well then I'll probably be out of the MMO scene for years.

Originally posted by korat102

Sadly I have to agree. This was my favourite game for nearly five years. Couple of months ago I did the unthinkable and cancelled my sub. It's not a patch on what it used to be a couple of years ago. Ok, we have more items in game and a few more bells and whistles but the quality of the gameplay and the community spirit have vanished.

It was obvious things were going wayward when they dumbed Hollows down. That was a great for new players to learn about aggro distances and get experience on difficult terrain. Now it's a playground. The AE was the final straw, a huge mistake in my opinion and I just can't see a reason to go back. Waiting for CO, if that's a flop as well then I'll probably be out of the MMO scene for years.

This is how it feels to me, yes. The community that I used to play with has moved on. I also 'loved' (and hated) the old Hollows.

As for other viable MMOs, there are 'hidden gems' like for example Fallen Earth which I think could grow into a fantastic sandbox for action and RP players.

Well I'd be willing to go to any server if there is enough people to start one. lol

I recently came back, and immediately wondered why everyone was shouting over the broadcast, "Looking for AE."  Then I found the AE...or more importantly, it found me.

I usually post on my search info "Willing to do teams, blind invites okay."  And I would get teams who were in the AE, grinding away on pharm bosses.

At first, it wasn't so bad.  I got to see some custom characters and the teamplay was pretty decent.  The most interesting thing were the tickets.  With the number of tickets I was able to pharm out of there, I could replace all my enhancements with top level SO's and still have some left over.  And I needed to have those tickets, because I'd level up so fast in there that I was constantly replacing the SO's I just got a day before.

But then I said to myself, "shouldn't I be doing those story arcs I left?"  I did, and found that I had levelled out of many of them.  I'd up the difficulty, but found that there were few people out there that were grouping to do arcs.  Putting "no AE" on my search description just made it so nobody would send an /invite.  And why?  Because everybody who is grouping or leading groups is over at the AE.  And given the kinds of rewards you get from it, I really can't blame people for hanging out there.  But what about helping the Midnight Club?  What about the Rikti?  What about Arachnos or Longbow?  Leveling and enhancing is how we play the game, but these big overarching stories are what we play the game for, no?

So I've been doing a lot of stuff solo.  Thank goodness for double XP weekend, because levelling in the 40's can be slow going solo.  But seriously, with PvP borked, what is the use of grinding to top level so quickly anyway?

I still go into the AE from time to time, usually when I need to replace my redded-out enhancements.  There is simply no better way to replace enhancements on a massive scale.  But when I go, I look for short and interesting stories with creative characters I can do solo.  Maybe I'll even make my own someday.

I usually sign up for a month every now and then when I get back in the mood to play.  But if this AE-centered gameplay continues, I can't see myself coming back unless there are more things to do to balance it.

Originally posted by Beatnik59

I still go into the AE from time to time, usually when I need to replace my redded-out enhancements.  There is simply no better way to replace enhancements on a massive scale.  But when I go, I look for short and interesting stories with creative characters I can do solo.  Maybe I'll even make my own someday.

Yeah, I felt the same way about it when the AE first came out.

But I found out the hard way that the majority of players aren't interested in good story or original characters. So even if you make a decent story arc, it still will not get played unless it is farmable. I made a story arc that I put a lot of work into and I felt that I had it polished up pretty well. But even after being posted for several months nobody but me had played it. It seems that most players won't play a mission unless someone else has already played it and rated it with five stars. The only way to get a new mission any attention is to con your SG members into playing it first so it can get some ratings and move up the list a bit where it actually has a chance to get noticed.

But if you aren't in an SG (like I wasn't) then you are simply out of luck...

The AE system was done very well, it was something most of the players have wanted for a long time.  Turns out it's a perfect example of the saying "be cafefull of what you wish, you just might get it".  They should have had the missions give out a fraction of what regular missions give, and still have kept the regular xp debt.  As it is it really doesnt even belong in the city of heroes universe.

 Agreed. Even though I just signed up 2 weeks ago, I've already grown to hate the AE system. I couldn't figure the damn thing out even with the tutorials, and I ended up just blasting through, not reading them at all. Once that mission was over I left and didn't go back. Though reading an above post about buying enhancements makes me reconsider setting foot in one again. I doubt I'll ever even attempt to make an arc. It seems like a colossal waste of time. Time which could be used getting background, meeting new contacts, and completing story arcs that actually have substance.

I think the biggest mistake was putting an architect building in Atlas Park, one of the zones at least 50% of new players are automatically directed to by the last contact in the tutorial zone. That's the last thing new players need to be getting involved with but it's inevitable with all the AE spam that goes on over broadcast in that zone. Still, it's NC's game, they can do what they want with it, we can only vote with our wallets if we disagree strongly enough...

Guys It doesn't matter ... I think the Dev's are pretty smart to tell u the truth. They saw the writing on the wall (Champions Oline) and said well how can we wring a few more dollars out of a dieing mmo ... ? Just my opinion. Only reason I came back was to try the AE and it was fun to finally try all those alts @ higher levels and not having to grind my way through the same ol boring maps (sorry I just don't have that kind of time). At least AE grinds were quick and productive. Anyway now that I've tried out the PB, and Black Widow. I'm off to Champions Online and so far I like it ... spent 2 hours just designing my character. If you like CoH/V you;ll like Champions as well.

This is a second-hand sotry, but an illustrative one:

Someone told me that they were in the Atlas AE and ran into a player on a Kheldian. They were doing non-farm missions, and the player thoguht it was nice with the variety, but was still sad that the game was so limited. She said "well, the AE can be like that, and it dominates the zone. Sometimes it helps to get out of Atlas Park."

The guy on the Peacebringer says "What do you mean OUTSIDE of Atlas?"

He'd been playing for 4 days, been recruited onto a farm team within minutes of joining, and gone his entire 50 levels without even knowing there were other zones - let alone TFs, regular content, anything else.

Now you could say the guy was a little dense not to notice the contact list, or the choice to start in Galaxy, or ever see all that stuff on the map like the Tram or the gateways. But to be honest, he probably never needed it! It would have taken me longer to learn stuff if I had an easy 50 levels shoved in my face too. And the guy was genuinely thrilled to find out how much more existed.

So I think the mistake was not having AE accessible from Atlas. If that's what people want, then fine. I think the mistake was having the AE actually IN the zone. Architect should have been a merged zone just like Pocket D is. That would make it easier for people to find each other, and would have kept the enticing broadcasts out of range of newbies.

But the real fault is how much of it was broken. (An issue ago) I tried to take a real team of high teens into the AE building for some interesting missions. I pick one and it doesn't start. And another, and another. Some look like they're way too high level, since 18s aren't slotted like 50s. I keep looking. Finally something that looks ok and lets us in. And it seems fine, until we eventually realize that the only way to win is to destroy a +17 destructible object.

Broken, stupid, and annoying. Meanwhile, had I wanted to farm I could pick that in seconds. You build a system that allows farming, then fine. If people want to do that, let them. But build one that discourages anything except farming, and you must be taking stupid pills.

That's the big mistake. The last issue cleared up a lot of that brokenness, but still any time I go into an issue I think it's a crap shoot if it will actually work.

1-50 in 3 days? Why so long?

Before I left this game (due to the Mission Architect), I used to powerlevel people on my SS/INV brute. When I did it, I had people in my group go from 1-25 in only 3 hours. 45-50 in the same amount of time as well.

If you dedicate yourself to this, you can probably hit 1-50 in a single day. I left this game about 1-2 weeks after Architect came out and I knew this was going to destroy the game....

Originally posted by Thunder_Head

1-50 in 3 days? Why so long?

Before I left this game (due to the Mission Architect), I used to powerlevel people on my SS/INV brute. When I did it, I had people in my group go from 1-25 in only 3 hours. 45-50 in the same amount of time as well.

If you dedicate yourself to this, you can probably hit 1-50 in a single day. I left this game about 1-2 weeks after Architect came out and I knew this was going to destroy the game....

1-50 in 3 days is long? Sure you can do it faster, but not everyone can play 10+ hours a day. When AE first came out I PL'ed toons from 1-50 in 3 hours with my Fire/Psi Dom.

I still don't understand why people say AE destroyed the game, I still play the game the same way as before AE came out. Now I just have more options of gameplay.

Though my account expired again yesterday, the disappointment for me actually started shortly after release.  Beta had been fun.  Had teamed with folks, ran missions, all sorts of things you might normally do and not think twice about.  Then they added boombox, lol - and I seriously canceled my account at that point for the first time.  Nobody was doing anything, it was as if everything stopped.  Sure, it passed; but at that point - folks were more interested in getting a port to the top of the globe for a dance party.

I have to agree that the AE thing pretty much was a way to grab some last minute dollars from folks and keep them going.  Go through and get all at/pts up to 50...um yeah.

But hey, only a few million years later - they are finally adding in tinting/shading for power colors - yay, I guess.

I avoid Atlas like the plague...when I create a new toon I sewer team to get to Kings.

Originally posted by Beatnik59

But seriously, with PvP borked, what is the use of grinding to top level so quickly anyway?

You got me there, especially when they ruined the real end-game content of this game by creating IO's better than Hami-Os. And even then, what's the point of maxing a character out with IO's if nothing in the game calls for them? Sure the set bonuses are nice, but the game could easily be played without IO's.

Originally posted by riceae02

Guys It doesn't matter ... I think the Dev's are pretty smart to tell u the truth. They saw the writing on the wall (Champions Oline) and said well how can we wring a few more dollars out of a dieing mmo ... ? Just my opinion. Only reason I came back was to try the AE and it was fun to finally try all those alts @ higher levels and not having to grind my way through the same ol boring maps (sorry I just don't have that kind of time). At least AE grinds were quick and productive. Anyway now that I've tried out the PB, and Black Widow. I'm off to Champions Online and so far I like it ... spent 2 hours just designing my character. If you like CoH/V you;ll like Champions as well.

I totally disagree with your last statement. I play CoH and have been for the past 2 years. Then I tried CO and hated it. Then most of my friends played CO and hated it. That's a game I won't waste my money on.