So I'm Back. Ish.

[Saetos]

It's been awhile since I've posted anywhere on this board, though I've been popping in every now and then to skim new posts - and in the meanwhile I've gotten back into the game, leveling my Shade to 220 (finally) and starting a couple other new projects to keep myself occupied.

Unfortunately, I've come to realize that, in the intermediary time between coming back and leveling a baby Doctor to 200... the game has become, quite honestly, boring, and a shell of its former self.

This is most apparent after level 60; right at this threshold, without outside assistance or a solid ability to solo most wildlife in Elysium, leveling hits a brick wall, and you must now rely on teams to carry yourself forward any significant way (of course, disregarding dailies). That would normally be all well and good - this is a multiplayer game, and over time you're going to get more and more efficiency from teaming up with your fellow players. Except the problem inherent here is the fact that almost every team I have come across, from 60 onwards, is a pocket team.

My Doctor literally went from 56 to 150 without changing his equipment at all. He hadn't bought new nanos since 65. Even a couple of years ago, this wasn't a terribly uncommon occurance but still felt like an anomaly, a product of lucky happenstance that you were able to get into a daisy-chain of teams with 220 Enf and Doc pockets. But now it's become the norm, the only way to level until 160, when inevitably you've got to ride that Inferno Mission train all the way to 220, seeing the same hallways and mobs over and over again until your mind numbs from the experience.

I used to enjoy leveling new alts, fraternizing with team members and working together to kill mobs I had no hope of killing on my own. But that thought is fleeting now. The leveling content we have now, from sixty onwards, is sparse, boring, deserted, and constantly exploited to expediate the process as fast as possible, because as we've all realized for a long time now, the game truly starts at 220. Entire playfields are abandoned because there is always one singular best option, especially from 90-160, and it's just sad. One night I leveled an Engineer to 7, logged him off, and never touched him again, because the thought of having to reequip him and get him set up for yet /another/ ride on the conveyor belt of Nasc->TOTW->Ely->Ado->Inf->220 was not something I wanted to repeat again.

I love this game. I love the mechanics behind it. But the neglect is finally starting to reach a breaking point with me. A fresh coat of paint and new nanos and perks will mean nothing if the journey to use them will be fraught with tedium and almost all bypassed anyway. Give us something to do, for the love of Pete. Give us something fresh. I'm sick of the banality of it all.

[ultion]

Did someone make you level your doc to 160 this way? It is not the only option, it is the easy option and you took it so why complain? You are free to level via daily missions, solo whatever, or stick to your guns and find an actual team if you want. It will not be as fast as leaching for sure, but it also won't leave a bad taste in your mouth.

[Towerblock]

Pff. Levelling solo entirely on daily missions isn't all that fun either. There is barely any social left in this berg. Its just the same population doing the same easy-mode treadmill. If you are lucky enough to find the small groups that are doing the content the way it should be, or doing it the nostalgic way you can bet they are going to be rather skeptical of people who haven't changed their config since level 60. In short, there is little worth left in the multiplayer aspect of this game. Between the leechers, the cliques, and tired old vets that have no patience for noobs, you can expect a cold reception no matter where you go. Truth.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

daily missions suck ass. I've always said so.

They were one of the worst additions to the game I've ever encountered.

Sure they break up the grind, but damn, talk about setting yourself up for failure.

FC should have, LOOOOOOOOOONG ago:

1. made hecks run away from high level enforcers
2. made the taunt on CH/ICH/whatever 10x lower
3. never implemented dailies
4. fixed the geometry in scheol, ado and pen so doing content there would be reasonable
5. added similar content to dark ruins, only better.

Dark ruins was the best thing FC added in a long time in terms of content, but because it was the ONLY content like it, people are effin lazy and can't be arsed to deal with it, and because there's a crapload of other 'easier' ways to make dings.

i'm really annoyed by the direction FC has gone.

They are catering to the kids who have ridiculous entitlement expectations, while completely removing any need to interact with people with whom you might become friends with while levelling.

People get to 220 levelled on AXP dailies, and whatever other trash dailies, don't know a single person, never had to work with anyone to get anything done, and have not a single quest done.

It's so garbage.

Dark ruins was the ONLY step in the right direction, but here's where they should have taken it:

1. build small solo content that opens up significantly more advanced team content in every SL zone that's made to make people work together, and provide XP at a tremendous rate

2. the small solo content is exactly that: solo, gear up abit, not too difficult, but you should be in more than a medsuit and a newbie island weap, finish it, get a decent reward (oh, I dunno, say a choice between a prof locked nodrop weap or a piece of armour or something, say something like the stuff that drops in S7)

3. then build the team content to offer great XP, chances for loot that will ease the trip into the next SL area up to inferno, with useful bonuses for PVM activities, ie. goddess gear is great like that, similar stuff, with bosses that are mini collectors that drop only SL loots from that region (ie. in Ado you could maybe get lucky and the collector boss drops a spiritech thingy for notucomm cloak, or whatever those SL Dynas drop), this way, people levelling who actually NEED that stuff can actually have a chance at getting it.

4. Finally, make each content area be themed to each zone appropriately, and offer small temp buffs at the end in the same line as 12m/DB2 buffs, only lower, and geared for levellers, ie. a small amount of add dmg, HP/nano, XP% and maybe a bit of AAO/AAD, this would keep people doing the content even if the loots aren't needed, and, it would encourage twinks to come out and help out newbies if they are struggling.

TL;DR

Solo content = retarded (this is an MMO)
Team content relevant to the SL zone with loot/buffs that help you carry on levelling = buck chow awesome.

[RedWatr]

tbh the only solo leveling fun to be had, even for paid toons, is on RK, not in SL. and that's usually only if you have froobs or sep accounts to support buf fthem with.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Just out of curiosity what on RK do you find fun?

Personally I like cyborgs - they fun, fast, and if you don't pay attention on the kite you pox in seconds, imo, that's the way levelling should be: run in circles, spamming dmg, and if you screw the pooch the mobs stomp you.

[Towerblock]

I'm also one of the crazy masochists that found the cyborgs fun to a degree. But, for me it was always doing high level team RK missions. Some were garbage, but some of them also seemed to totally hold me as I was levelling either of my two paid engis. A bit of a crap shoot depending on the boss mob, but I'd somehow learn something new about how pet mechanics work (and consequently how broken they are).

[RedWatr]

Just out of curiosity what on RK do you find fun?

Personally I like cyborgs - they fun, fast, and if you don't pay attention on the kite you pox in seconds, imo, that's the way levelling should be: run in circles, spamming dmg, and if you screw the pooch the mobs stomp you.

hehe exactly that. a well buffed NT can solo those things at amazingly low levels. there's a few other areas tho. if you're a fixer, you can hop around the globe killing dynas for decent xp, credits, and chance of decent loot. mort borgs then pw borgs is generally the most fun tho imo. there are a few camps that can be interesting at lower levels. over all I just think RK is less mind numbing for solo work.

[Mekh]

Just out of curiosity what on RK do you find fun?

Missions, allthough 200+ missions can be really annoying due to the massive HP increase on mobs that does not correspond to the little XP increase they provide.

Generally I like the larger diversity in RK mobs compared to SL mobs, when it comes to their offenses and defenses.

over all I just think RK is less mind numbing for solo work.

This...

[MachSchau]

I sort of agree with nooba in regards to leveling. If you aren't in an org you can literally not interact with anyone if you level the casual daily route (can level a 200 froob in 1-2 months just on dailies). The froob population is extremely sparse and doing dailies has become the only way to level for them.

What sucks about AO is that it is a game designed around teaming to leveling up the quickest and with a small population leveling becomes a really bad waiting game grind. Yeah doing back to back inf missions is boring but only being able to do 1-2 a day before the team dissolves or being unable to find a roller is even worse. It cuts in to what YOU want to do and when you want/have time to do it.

Because you dont have to interact with anyone leveling in whichever route you go (casual daily or getting a pocket to do all the work) you also have the choice to not raid for any gear ever and just buy loot rights. There are a select few players/groups that raid zones just to sell to others. I am not saying every person leveling buys all their gear, but the option is there if you dont feel like waiting for a particular piece. From a personal note, I have tried to look for people from lft to farm zones for phats and they are either afk, dont reply or dont want to do it. The few people I do find isn't enough to complete the zone because we need a healer or something. Org is hit and miss, sometimes they are preoccupied with other things or no one wants to (the infamous, "hey anyone wanna do XXX" and then crickets).

[Mekh]

From a personal note, I have tried to look for people from lft to farm zones for phats and they are either afk, dont reply or dont want to do it. The few people I do find isn't enough to complete the zone because we need a healer or something.

This... and one of the things (if not the thing) I used to enjoy the most was doing stuff with PUG's because you never really knew what you got into, it was more challenging and you got to meet new people... for good and for worse.

That kinda game play is close to impossible these days or at least very very rare. With the low(ish) population and all of the changes that have enhanced solo game play and so on, it does not seem to get any better unless we see a huge influx of new players at some point.

[Pafpuf]

Kinda ironic because I remember people begging for ways to level up solo for years.

[Trypha]

Dark ruins was the ONLY step in the right direction

This, this, this. I really hate that more people don't do DR. A couple more things would help:
1. Get rid of the 35% xp buff in 4holes, add it to the Goddess, nerf all other xp buffs.
2. Get rid of TL req on Goddess armor, and have her (and the trash mobs) drop other useful stuff that could keep leveling toons in fighting shape without dedicated camping.
3. Increase the number of quests that can be done inside the team instance for daily-style rewards. Without more people doing the instance, usually I can only do the cultist kills and delete the others; it takes too long to clear the zone solo even with a 200 twink who can solo the goddess; those last two rewards are not xp/hr efficient enough to bother. Maybe if there were other quests like kill 10 crawlers, kill 10 rafters, etc. it would be worth the time to complete the instance every day.

I know many people hate the suggestion of disabling pocket teams, so you need real alternatives in place first. But I think it would be best if they went away once people can level and acquire gear at roughly the same pace in the traditional way.

[Trypha]

Kinda ironic because I remember people begging for ways to level up solo for years.

This was true when inferno hecklers were the only way to level, because you really needed a doc to do them safely and docs made up less than 1/6th of the population, so many people had to sit around and wait for a doc to be available to gain sk at any rational rate. This was more or less true of BS missions before that (though not to the same degree).

Inf missions may be maddeningly boring, but they hit a really nice balance in terms of multiplayer - you really need a full team for them to be efficient, but you don't need any particular balance of professions; in theory you can assemble 6 whatevers and get decent SK. What is needed is more content that strikes that nice balance without being so boring.

[Pafpuf]

It was true until dailies were implemented and quest rewards brought up to scale. No matter what period solo leveling in AO was way too tedious. Inferno hecks and whatever else had nothing to do with it, but the fact that regular mob hp scaling is ridiculous, quests were few and rewards sucked etc.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

I think the reason why people like borgs is that they are high risk, high reward (relatively speaking of course).

They have low HP, so any decent hit removes a big chunk of HP, you have to stay awake to fight, and when they die they give a nice big chunk of XP.

It's the same reason why hecks are (were) so popular: high risk, high reward.

But, Hecks suffer from the obvious annoyance of either having too much HP, too much AC's (meaning big hits are much smaller) or both, meaning a team that's equipped with nearly good enough but not quite weapons will take far too long to make a kill and thus the big hits of XP that come nice and quickly (like with borgs) are too few and far between.

Enter DR.

DR, on the other hand, retains the nice big XP hits you get from borgs, the mobs are tough, but not too tough, have higher offense than other mobs in the area, and your damage against them really matters.

I agree with trypha, that DR could be enhanced. But what Trypha didn't comment on is my suggestion that there could be more DR (type) areas in each of the SL zones.

Dark ruins was a shot in the dark, and it hit the target, but because there wasn't really much drive to flesh out the idea and integrate levelling areas throughout SL, it became a bit of an anomaly.

There are some surrogate DR's scattered around, however:

1. Nascence has the crippler cave, where you get big xp for having good offense (spending 40 minutes to twink on a weap will net you a great levelling zone for 20 levels)

2. Nascense has within the crip cave, two dungeons of higher level mobs: the ONLY problem (imo) is overpopulation in those dungeons, and the mobs are spread out too far. (but also, no dailies here, no extra XP hits, no mission rewards)

3. Elysium has the tiigs area - a fantastic area to bash the hell out of some mobs, and do some great XP grinding, IF you've twinked on a decent weapon (again, no dailies, no mission rewards)

4. Elysium has tinker tower - a relatively unknown zone, but fantastic for grinding out some levels, IF you've got a decent weapon on, and/or have a decent team. (this is the first place that actually starts looking like an improved DR, because here you can get lucky and find a weird looking nano in a chest, and even start collecting nanos your prof will need that aren't offered in stores. (make this instanced, add some dailies to it and you'll get a lot more level appropriate visitors)

5. Scheol has nothing really except relatively unknown dungeons, and none that are really convenient enough to gardens/throroughfares to really offer a good levelling area.

6. Ado has DR - dailies, good mobs, armour drops, pretty good overall, but weapons don't drop here

7. Penumbra - has alappa, that really could be upgraded significantly. The mobs are good now, but increase the drop rates on armour parts, make dailies, and make it so you can complete it by a team of 180-200's so you don't need a 220 enfo to hold agg on the 10 dragons and stuff (wtf?) so it's actually appropriate content for the level of toon that goes there and needs the pads. (basically all you need to do is lower the HP on the mobs, and reduce the number of spawns on dragons and panthers I think and it probably would be fine.)

8. Inferno has missions that people actually do. but again, you could make a continuous levelling zone so you just keep killing mobs with mini missions to kill 10 of x and 10 of y etc for mini boosts along the way, and as I suggested before, mini collector bosses that have all SL loots from the zone with chances of drops for all parts.

I'm sure it's been said before, but people actually want to PLAY the game. If levelling was fun, and not stupid heck killing for 150 levels, it acutally would be fun and exciting. Especially if the mini collectors dropped useful stuff for levelling weaps/armour/utils/and symbs from the zone.

[Zeephonz]

A large number of profession-based story quests that will adequately xp & gear you (not over the top), from level 10 to 210... all the existing quest lines become side missions that fill in the xp gaps between zones.

[Gimpynoob]

DR's problem is the loot. In my opinion the solo part should be repeatable and moved to Scheol with mobs toned down for level 100 to 130 toons and with the existing goddess armor added to the loot table. The team part should be put in Pen for level 160 to 200 toons and with assorted gear good for all professions at those levels.
As it is now DR-team is only good for level 170+ toons to farm DOJAs or level 200 twinks to solo for profit. DR-solo is a a chore that needs to be done to give access to the team instance.

[Wakizaka]

DR-solo is a a chore that needs to be done to give access to the team instance.

I've always found it fun, albeit to easy at times, even on lvl150 chars.

[Gimpynoob]

I've always found it fun, albeit to easy at times, even on lvl150 chars.

Im sure it is if you have all the "cheap" symbs, combined armor, weird nanos, GOCs and other assorted loot needed for a "proper" level 150 toon.