Level Up! (yeah I stole it...) Double Xp Weekend

[Jimbo]

From the announcements on the official site:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=7442701

Another double experience weekend!  That will rock, too bad I'm taking my son to Universal Studios in Florida that whole weekend.  Maybe they will have a bonus weekend like they did last time (for those of us unable to play). 

[hal]

At what point do the players begin to get the fact that it is a half experience game?

[Trippy]

At what point do the players begin to get the fact that it is a half experience game?

Some people like it that way thanks the broken mission system (outlevelling contacts and trivializing storyline missions).

[Strazos]

I would probably be perma-subbed if the cut the grind by at least 50%. Just thought I'd throw that out there, again.

[UnSub]

At what point do the players begin to get the fact that it is a half experience game?

I'm glad we got this out of the way early.

[Murgos]

Nah, it will hang around because it's true.  The grind is limiting their player base not extending it's longevity.

[Sky]

At what point do the players begin to get the fact that it is a half experience game?

Some people like it that way thanks the broken mission system (outlevelling contacts and trivializing storyline missions).

I used to bitch about the grind, but the last time I played (to the highest level I've been thus far), I agreed with what Trippy said. Exp rate was just about perfect in the mid 20s, too fast at lower levels and I had to be a debtard to keep my stories going.

[tazelbain]

Never understood the level limits, just scale the freaking missions.  They already have the tech to do to, why not?

[Trippy]

Never understood the level limits, just scale the freaking missions.  They already have the tech to do to, why not?

One of the early explanations I heard was that they wanted each AV to be fought at a certain level range. So somebody like Dr. Vahzilok was meant to be fought early on and so on up the line as a progression. Sort of like how Kingpin would be a "lesser" AV compared to somebody like, say, Dr. Doom.

[Jimbo]

There used to be some ways to really get the exp going even if it wasn't a double exp weekend.  This was done on the villians side, we would go and get a full 8 person team, everyone would set their mission level to max, the leader would get a mission in Bloody Bay (it was allways the destroy the base one), he would go in alone, then add all of us after he was inside.  From what I understood, it would make the mission into a max difficulty for a 1 person villain, but all 8 of us would be inside and able to blow up the bad guys pretty quickly, plus we all got the mission completion bonus @ max level.  It is powerleveling...so it can be boring if you're not into blowing things up really fast.  The best part is that everyone was blasting, smashing, holding, buffing, debuffing, etc... something, not like most powerleveling in other games (I remember camping some damn trees in DAoC).

I would be happy if they did increase the leveling speed, too bad all the idiots back when CoH came out leveled to 40 in a month and bitched...so the purple nerf went into effect.

[rk47]

ah so that's what the PvP zone mission exploit is about.

[Glazius]

Never understood the level limits, just scale the freaking missions.  They already have the tech to do to, why not?

Well, because aside from wondering exactly _how_ Skulls could exist that were more powerful than, say, the Malta Group, lower-level enemies aren't just higher-level enemies with the stats dialed down. They generally have fewer attacks, lower resistances, and less potential to mess you up with status effects. The Vazhilok are terrifying low-level enemies mostly because their minion repertoire consists of a whopping _three_ attacks. Compare this to the five attacks plus self-buff that a high-level minion like an Ice Thorn Caster gets.

Yes, it's certainly possible to retrofit old enemy groups to present a challenge at higher levels by putting upgraded versions of them at certain level bands. Yes, this might well put a Skull boss off the streets of Kings Row on par with a top-of-the line Darkness Elite Paragon Protector. But it would take time to test and balance the "minion upgrades", and how many people would ever bother to take advantage of them?

Whereas if you just left them the way they were and let them spawn up at 50, I can think of a _lot_ of people who'd want to take advantage of that. And not in the good way.

--GF

[tkinnun0]

I would be happy if they did increase the leveling speed, too bad all the idiots back when CoH came out leveled to 40 in a month and bitched...so the purple nerf went into effect.

But you can't design with that group in mind.  ..Or you can, but then you'll get CoH numbers and not WoW numbers.

What I don't understand is, these guys are the masters of dynamically adjusted difficulty in the MMO space. They do sidekicking and mentoring like no other. So why then can you outlevel missions in the first place? And to add insult to injury, why are you denied the mission alltogether when you have outleveled it??

Here's a free idea: Flashbacks! You go to an agent you have outleveled and instead of nothing you get "Remember when..." followed by a cheesy flashback effect and then you're mentored down to the correct level, can do the mission and get exp for it.

[Glazius]

I would be happy if they did increase the leveling speed, too bad all the idiots back when CoH came out leveled to 40 in a month and bitched...so the purple nerf went into effect.

But you can't design with that group in mind.  ..Or you can, but then you'll get CoH numbers and not WoW numbers.

What I don't understand is, these guys are the masters of dynamically adjusted difficulty in the MMO space. They do sidekicking and mentoring like no other. So why then can you outlevel missions in the first place? And to add insult to injury, why are you denied the mission alltogether when you have outleveled it??

Here's a free idea: Flashbacks! You go to an agent you have outleveled and instead of nothing you get "Remember when..." followed by a cheesy flashback effect and then you're mentored down to the correct level, can do the mission and get exp for it.

See above. Why would anybody bother with the Malta Group or the Carnival of Shadows when at 49 they could just Go Hunt Kill Skuls and get 50?

The justification floating around for why flashback can't happen is something like "we don't intend for one person to have seen everything". If there's a badge involved you can do somebody else's mission and get it, but some of the reason I keep playing alts is because I keep finding "new" mission on my contacts.

About the only thing I'd like to see is an option to have a contact assign you the team's active mission if you haven't already done it, to reduce the amount of overlap a single character sees.

--GF

[tazelbain]

Or put an xp penalty on over-inflated mobs, so people only who are interested in the story will continue.

Or a little more elaborate, you have storyline track what level the player was the last time they did a mission in it. As long as they are no more than 1 level ahead, let them continue. 

[rk47]

I have no qualms with flashback system for lvl 50s to explore missed content. Since they don't need the XP anyway. Influence can be cut in half or none at all.
But I really am not in the badge crowd but IMO this is their main gripe about 'outlevelling' their misisons, that is missing on badges.

Subscription ends today :/ I have mixed feelings. The first 2 weeks was great. After the first month, the world felt small and not enough stuff to explore and too many same looking instance. 

[Llava]

Or a little more elaborate, you have storyline track what level the player was the last time they did a mission in it. As long as they are no more than 1 level ahead, let them continue. 

I would exploit that by carrying a low level mission with me, preferably one just before a mission involving giant crowds of Hellions.  I'd save it for a tough level, then go in and wipe out the grays, run back to the contact and grab the properly scaled mission, then farm the living crap out of some level 41 Hellions.

[UnSub]

What I don't understand is, these guys are the masters of dynamically adjusted difficulty in the MMO space. They do sidekicking and mentoring like no other. So why then can you outlevel missions in the first place? And to add insult to injury, why are you denied the mission alltogether when you have outleveled it??

You don't get denied story arcs (now visible thanks to a little icon on your contacts) if you've spoken to that contact. Of course, some people hate this since they get left with story arcs full of greys to work through because they missed them the first time.

As said before, most villain groups are set to work between certain lvls. It was part of the initial game design and revising it at this point for all villain groups would probably not be worth the time or effort.

That said, the newer villain groups appear to span the whole lvl 1 to lvl 50 continuum (eg Red Caps, Snow Beasts).

Also I don't expect that Cryptic thought that players would hold onto missions for 5 lvls (or more) at a time.

[tazelbain]

Or a little more elaborate, you have storyline track what level the player was the last time they did a mission in it. As long as they are no more than 1 level ahead, let them continue. 

I would exploit that by carrying a low level mission with me, preferably one just before a mission involving giant crowds of Hellions.  I'd save it for a tough level, then go in and wipe out the grays, run back to the contact and grab the properly scaled mission, then farm the living crap out of some level 41 Hellions.

I wrote a long thing about how you didn't understand what I was saying. But you do, you are right.  I feel pked.  You'd have to track the mission level.

[Nevermore]

You don't get denied story arcs (now visible thanks to a little icon on your contacts) if you've spoken to that contact. Of course, some people hate this since they get left with story arcs full of greys to work through because they missed them the first time.

You DO get denied story arcs if you're a villain.  Most villain contacts have 2 arcs and while you'll never be denied the first arc if you've spoken to the contact, you'll be denied the second arc if you outlevel the contact, which pisses me off.

The problem of having an open story arc that you're unaware of was taken care of in I8, since now you'll have a little book icon next to contacts with open arcs.

[Glazius]

You don't get denied story arcs (now visible thanks to a little icon on your contacts) if you've spoken to that contact. Of course, some people hate this since they get left with story arcs full of greys to work through because they missed them the first time.

You DO get denied story arcs if you're a villain.  Most villain contacts have 2 arcs and while you'll never be denied the first arc if you've spoken to the contact, you'll be denied the second arc if you outlevel the contact, which pisses me off.

The problem of having an open story arc that you're unaware of was taken care of in I8, since now you'll have a little book icon next to contacts with open arcs.

Some villain contacts have arcs that'll still stick with you. They're the yellow book arcs. The red book arcs won't. On the other hand you can have an arbitrary number of red book arcs open at any one time. I don't know which is which, though, and I'm not sure there's any kind of consistency in which arcs are yellow-book.

--GF

[tkinnun0]

This still happen:

Contact A tells you to talk to contact B. On the way there, you do a mission for Contact Y and level up. Contact B tells you you're too high level and to talk to Contact C.

?

[Glazius]

This still happen:

Contact A tells you to talk to contact B. On the way there, you do a mission for Contact Y and level up. Contact B tells you you're too high level and to talk to Contact C.

?

Um, I'm trying to get the precise _problem_ here.

CoH contacts will pass you in two ways - to someone else in the tier once you have their number, and to someone in the next tier up, if you're either just at the end of their tier but with a full bar, or after you've passed their tier. CoV contacts tend to pass off only at a full bar.

If you _really_ wanted to frustrate yourself, at least on the CoH end, you could deliberately keep one spot in each tier open and then trace a chain of "you're too much for me to handle" from your level 5 contacts to your level 45 contacts.

Heck, you could get your first tier 5 contact, then go to Peregrine Island and leech your way to 50, then talk to your level 5 contact and get passed up in a giant chain. of zone crossings.

I'm not sure what part of that constitutes a failing on the game's part.

--GF

[tkinnun0]

Um, I'm trying to get the precise _problem_ here.

The problem is that there could be an interesting choice there: do I want to follow the story or do I want to get exp? Instead of letting me choose they've chosen for me, and for some inexplicable reason they've chosen exp. Ironic choice given superheroes are all about stories instead of gaining levels and the kind of grind their game was/is.

[geldonyetich]

I might have gone for this if Vanguard wasn't getting released.  Like or hate the game, I'll take a full grind in a new experience over an old grind temporarily halved.

[Nebu]

I might have gone for this if Vanguard wasn't getting released.  Like or hate the game, I'll take a full grind in a new experience over an old grind temporarily halved.

I completely agree with this.  I've considered buying Vanguard just because it's new and nothing out really does anything for me.  I'm pretty sure I'll regret it as soon as I've played a night though.  I can't seem to get the MMO monkey off my back. 

[Signe]

I usually play everything, at least for a little while.  I am so totally not playing Vanguard.  It was complete ass.  Even the very little bits that should have been clever, weren't.  I think I'd go back to Lineage before I'd go back to Vanguard.  And Lineage REALLY sucks.

[Nebu]

I usually play everything, at least for a little while.  I am so totally not playing Vanguard.  It was complete ass.  Even the very little bits that should have been clever, weren't.  I think I'd go back to Lineage before I'd go back to Vanguard.  And Lineage REALLY sucks.

I think you just saved me $50.  Lineage was a nightmare of bad.

[Signe]

I got to level 49 in Lineage.  hehe.  I was so hardcore!  I really think I'm just sick of the same old thing over and over and, after EQ, EQ2, WoW, etc., Vanguard is sort of Same Old ++.  Of course, the fact that it added in grindy things that other MMOs are eliminating, doesn't endear it to me.  If you desperately miss old EQ, this might be your thing, though.  Isn't there still time to give the beta a go?  I reclaimed my 20 GBs a couple of weeks ago.

[Signe]

I miss Double Experience Weekend.  A lot.   

[Hutch]

I played my Ice/Storm controller a bit this weekend, and went from level 18 to 22.

I, too, miss double xp weekend. But, at least now I have Stamina and Hurricane  :-D

[CmdrSlack]

I managed to get my scrapper to 40, which is higher than I've ever had a character in CoX.  Now if only the levelling from 40 to 50 would be less grindy than the mid-30s, I wouldn't miss double xp weekend.

Something tells me that I'm going to miss it.  Tons.

At least double xp weekend taught me that pickup groups in CoH aren't horrible.  I only had one shitty group out of many many groups that I joined.

[Strazos]

I got Midnight Grasp and slotted the hell out of it once I hit 33. I'm still not sure how much I like it.

[CmdrSlack]

I got Midnight Grasp and slotted the hell out of it once I hit 33. I'm still not sure how much I like it.

It's by far one of the more useful powers in the dark melee set, IMO.  I have mine slotted up with three damamge SOs, two to-hit debuff SOs and one accuracy SO.  I use it about as much as I use shadow maul.  It is especially useful for fighting CoT mages -- and for some reason my mutie has tons of CoT-related contacts. 

At lv 40, it's one of my mainstays.

[Strazos]

I'm wondering, how do you slot the rest of you DM attacks? Mine are something like this:

Shadow Punch: Acc DO
Smite: Acc EndRedx2 Dmgx2 Recharge
Shadow Maul: Acc EndRed Dmgx3 Recharge
Dark Consumption: rechargex3 Acc (All DOs, I don't actually use the skill that much, perhaps I should respec a slot or two out?)
Soul Drain: Acc recharge EndRed(DO) +To-Hit
Siphon Life: Healthx2(1 DO) Acc
Midnight Grasp: Acc Dmgx2(1 DO) Recharge DO

If it helps, the rest of my stuff is slotted as such:

Super Reflexes:
Focused Fighting (melee +def toggle): +Defx4(1 DO)
Focused Senses (ranged +def toggle) +Defx3
Agile/Dodge (passive +def ranged/melee): 1 +def SO, 2 +def DO
Practiced brawler (resist status effects): Recharge SO
Quickness (+recharge, spd, resist slow): run speed So (I love to run fast)

Prestige power Quick: run speed DO (heh)

Fitness:
Swift: run spd DO
Health: health SO, 2x health DO
Stamina: +stamina SO

Speed:
Hasten: 3x Recharge SO
Super Speed: Run speed SO


If I did something wrong, please tell me. The reason I kept some DOs (I use to have a lot more) is that I wasn't sure if I could afford to go 100% SO.