So combined supple based armor is now 1b per piece

[blindio]

Yes, the problem is perception. If you ding AI 30 with 1k AI kills, no, you won't have a 300 CSS/CC suit yet. If you ding AI 30 with 60k kills, you might be close.

thats assuming people do city raids for aixp, i certainly dont on an ma that been ai 30 for some time i still do the odd city raid when i can find somone to help, my ma's not well enough equipped and im not competant enough to solo a raid which is fine im sorta happy about that as it gets me to team people, ill also randomly do sectors with raid bots or if im asked purerly to be socialble so the change in ai xp is meaningless to me the rate of bot drops however does make me not want to do raid very often and i certainly dont look for cru to enable me to raid every day

[aramsunat]

The problem is that all the carebears whined about AXP not being fast enough, so FC kept adding in better and better ways to get it. So now, you do some AI dailies, maybe some Arid, and bam you're AI30. Before, city raids were the only way to get AXP, which means more city generals, more teams going onto ships, etc. Now city raids are either only for lowbies or just for farming creds (or invaders killed)

Yes this migt also be a valid solution. It would require a once-again revamp of the axp system. Which would definitely bring about the killing of the solo AI daily. Problem is, solo ai daily was made to enable people to have a fair progress even if there is noone to team with at a certain level (which is fairly common is recent years).

It could be a powerful balancing force though if FC could make city raids (especially ship) to be one the most rewarding AXP sources. This means a nerfing of the solo daily rewards. (Increasing the team reward will just make AXP gain even more spoonfeed easy)

[Vanillashake]

thats assuming people do city raids for aixp, i certainly dont on an ma that been ai 30 for some time i still do the odd city raid when i can find somone to help, my ma's not well enough equipped and im not competant enough to solo a raid which is fine im sorta happy about that as it gets me to team people, ill also randomly do sectors with raid bots or if im asked purerly to be socialble so the change in ai xp is meaningless to me the rate of bot drops however does make me not want to do raid very often and i certainly dont look for cru to enable me to raid every day

You're missing what he's saying. He's got a valid point. Back before LE you had a very limited set of options to obtain AXP in the first place. Even moreso in that S13/28/35 were gated on a server-wide timer. City raids, and subsequently ship raids, were the way to go. 60k aliens from ships and APF ALONE was insane. Very few people had AI 30.

[Esssch]

You're missing what he's saying. He's got a valid point. Back before LE you had a very limited set of options to obtain AXP in the first place. Even moreso in that S13/28/35 were gated on a server-wide timer. City raids, and subsequently ship raids, were the way to go. 60k aliens from ships and APF ALONE was insane. Very few people had AI 30.

Not to mention that xp% didn't affect AXP, creating even more city/ship raids.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Actually, now that I think about it the way it was all set up before really made the game cooler.

Back in the old days, the yellow AI 30 ding was friggin epic. I remember on my MA when I dinged AI 30 I had about 40 tells from both factions, and everyone knew it was a substantial achievement.

It meant something more than just AI 30 too. It meant that you had put in the time to really go the distance. It meant commitment.

At TL5, it was the same thing. The guys who were good twinks were AI 19-20, the guys who wanted to be taken seriously were AI 21-23, and the real hardcore guys were AI 24.

My keeper has 26k kills. and that number alone, people %t you and think they are looking at a oldschool TL7. Hell naw. Those are TL5 RAID KILLS. because there was no LE, there was no AI solo mishes.

That AI 24 on a 170 doesn't come in a week or two of grinding; that's a year or two worth of dedicated raiding.

Nowadays, you got guys rolling up at 200 and having AI 30 and maxed LE research faster than it took a 170 to ding AI 24 back in 2008-2009.

This game made you love your first born, and twinking meant serious dedication. It took a good long time to build a real twink.

Something about catering to Gen Y in here that's making me want to take the hide off whoever came up with the dailies idea.

[Esssch]

I remember when Booooooooyaaaaaa (or however many o's and a's he had in his name) got the first AI30 ding in the entire game. It was put into the launcher that he was the first, think he ended up having something like 70k kills. I saw it, logged on, and just went "yup, and I'm still AI8"

[lainbr]

This seems a rather poor comparison. I'm not saying random aliens in S42 should drop supple bots, and I'm not suggesting FC add a new source for them. Rather, the opposite. Adding a guaranteed supple drop to the Artillery Commander's loot table changes the incentive structure to increase the frequency of AO's most prominent endgame raid.

When the game population is too weak or disorganized to regularly complete difficult content that used to be routinely raided, that's bad optics. Changing the incentives to make sure S42 raids run and observant based armors are a bit more obtainable for newish players just seems good for the health of the game to me.

Additional question: If this suggestion is implemented, who is harmed? It would case a bit of deflation in the value of supple armors, but the players who have supple armor now are also likely those most able to profit from an increase in expected value from an S42 raid.

I sorta agree with Justin here. One sure Supple bot on Artilery Commander would make things far smoother. When you get 3 Spiritual and 1 Enduring from it its kinda... desmotivational (I saw it happened like 10 times I think) Or that episode when we did 20+ s42 raids in a row w/o a single supple bot

[Lime]

The worst injustice ever performed regarding AIXP was the change after the first week or so. For example, AI1 requires 1500 AXP.. AI2 requires 9000, but you would already have 1500 towards it. I can't even imagine how much time that would have shaved off the last 5 levels alone.

So they changed it to the massive grind we saw from '04-'09 or whenever it was changed to let +xp% affect it.

[Gatester]

The worst injustice ever performed regarding AIXP was the change after the first week or so. For example, AI1 requires 1500 AXP.. AI2 requires 9000, but you would already have 1500 towards it. I can't even imagine how much time that would have shaved off the last 5 levels alone.

So they changed it to the massive grind we saw from '04-'09 or whenever it was changed to let +xp% affect it.

That would explain why the required AXP is so massive, it was progressive leveling. Returning to this older system would be very nice, but they would have to adjust AI daily missions.

[Dreamer]

Anything that makes 42 run more often is a good thing.
Tnet tried to run it last night after about 2 months of no 42 action, and about 20 people joined up in the half hour we tried for.

The thing is, 42 isnt even hard for the reward you can get. All apf loot, 3 acdcs, potentially billions of creds worth of bots and the nodrop turn-ins is surely already enough reward for people.

[Psikie]

Returning to this older system would be very nice, but they would have to adjust AI daily missions.

Kinda jacked up to suggest making axp MORE of a grind for other players especially since most forum posters are already ai30.

What would that accomplish? Is it the theory that more bots would hit the market from more city raids?

Hate to be bearer of bad news, bot drops were never prolific enough even when AO had 5x the current population and city raids were the only source axp.

No one really wants that old system of axp grind. Yea it was a big accomplishment but no one really wants to grind inf for 220 which is by far... exponentially easier than grinding city raids for ai30!

/debump for bad game suggestion

[lainbr]

Hate to be bearer of bad news, bot drops were never prolific enough even when AO had 5x the current population and city raids were the only source axp.

Actually, they were. I bought my first CSS for 350m. Some time after LE launch the price went up to 450m. They were 550m for the time I went back ingame, 1 year and half after LoX launch. (Next fact is what I heard about, but while i cant confirm it myself it makes sense) And so it went 900m~1b a bit after German server was shutdown and they "merged" with RK1 - due market manipulator(s) and a credit exploit. With GMI and new RK2 bots it went back to 700m. And now it is back to 1b again.

Looking at the whole story, you can see that there was an 200m inflaction due lack of bots (since less and less people farmed their axp in city raids, therefore less city raids at all) and 450m came from shenanigans.

That said, there are a whole bad problem here. There is sure a need of more leadbots drop, since we have less ppl farming, and ever less ppl doing city raids. But it all will only drop prices for a while, since market manipulators will push the price back to 1b again. While we have such players and while ppl pays 1b for it, any change will only be temporary :x

[Opscuro]

Its little bit off topic but yea i cant agree more on axp now / before...

Don't know why FC keeps making AO easy mode game. We had something unique insanely hard and unique game, now its more like any other generic mmo out there...

Miss the days when seeing vindicator on someone made u feel respect and admiring. Tbh miss the days when u had to work hard for ur toon to be end game and that made the game last...
Miss the days when seeing Master title on someone ment he knows his way around not just grinding duels/kills like now with new system...Even tho it was buged, Miss the days when seeing leo pads or ssos on someone ment he is finest of the finest and his dedication is beyond real...miss the days when u had to do tons of raids to get ur pande/apf things and when putting top symbs ( not even intel ones ) was matter of intelligence/twink gear and hard work..

FC made so many steps backward in this game to pull more casual gamers to it an rise income and ruined one of the most awesome, unique and complex mmos ever...

[Gimpynoob]

Except they didnt make the game easier for new or casual players. They made it easier for those who can buy powerleveling services and loot rights.

[Opscuro]

Except they didnt make the game easier for new or casual players. They made it easier for those who can buy powerleveling services and loot rights.

Please tell me how powerlvling and loot rights trade has anything with what i said?

New plyers dont get easier AXP and XP trough dailys cause they cant afford powerlving/buy lootrights? Or cant get pande gear easier cause of instanced PF that u can do every 4h instead 8 h for entire server?

Ur statement make no sense...

If your just whining and AO is still too much for you, even now, then u should maybe consider playing some other more casual game.

[Gimpynoob]

What happens when you level twice as fast as before?

*Drumroll*

You farm half the gear.

Before it took a longer time to gain xp, axp etc. People did more city raids, more missions, more everything. A longer time leveling meant higher chances of finding valuable loot, more credits, better equipped toons in general. Now the devs increased xp/axp/whatever making leveling extremelly fast. Drop rates on loot however did not change.

Lets see if you are smart enough to figure it out by yourself who benefits and who looses from this change.

PS- The whining part of your post is hilarious, do you know why?

[Opscuro]

What happens when you level twice as fast as before?

*Drumroll*

You farm half the gear.

Before it took a longer time to gain xp, axp etc. People did more city raids, more missions, more everything. A longer time leveling meant higher chances of finding valuable loot, more credits, better equipped toons in general. Now the devs increased xp/axp/whatever making leveling extremelly fast. Drop rates on loot however did not change.

Lets see if you are smart enough to figure it out by yourself who benefits and who looses from this change.

PS- The whining part of your post is hilarious, do you know why?

No one keeps u from farming gear or makes u power lvl, that's completely up to u...ur statement is still invalid.

And no i don't know why, if u gonna say "because u whined about old school stuff" thats also invalid statement cause i didn't whine i was just saying i miss those days and that's my personal thing i never said i want them back and that i dislike whats we have now. That was ur part and thats whining.

[Ciex]

What happens when you level twice as fast as before?

*Drumroll*

You farm half the gear.

TBH i farm way more because if i dont spend so much time on my lveling characters i can farm more with finished ones.

[uMadBro]

things sudnt be easy to get if its endgame.. farm it if you cant buy it.

[Gimpynoob]

TBH i farm way more because if i dont spend so much time on my lveling characters i can farm more with finished ones.

See? The game became easier for people with endgame toons not for noobs. Something that some people cannot or dont want to figure out. Instead they whine how the game became dumbed down and easy. It became dumbed down and easy FOR THEM. This is the main reason why BS and S42 dont run. Because new players dont stay. All that is left of AOs population are a few whinny vets who cry how easy the game became in one thread and how bad research caps are in another.