Is any outdoor xp worth our time planned for the future?

[____________Alantria]

This has been mentioned many times before, and yet ignored.
Well i felt it was my turn to vent a bit.
To start, the design of the planet in places is absolutelly beatifull, whoever does that part of the game deserves a raise.
Hower there is little point of being outside, other than being social of course.
BS missions are just horrible by now, I have 2 140'sh chars and boredom set in at the same time, one reason why i started an alt that is almost equal to my main.
The combination of being capped at 125 , slower leveling and the same boring missions, with the same predictable rooms is just tedious.
Of course I like to lvl my chars like most other players, and I dont seem to be the only one that says, geez ill log Im not in the mood to do these missions.
Latelly i tried to hunt a bit, soloing cyborgs gives decent but slow xp. I tried the most boring of quests, the team grid nano fixer quest, it felt like watching paint dry(who got lazy with that design?).

The only things i remeber that gave me enjoyment were the unpredictable rush of team hunts, like in Lush, sometimes you got an add or a bleeder and team would just scatter and regroup, there was an element of unpredictability.

The other day i found what i thought was my new place of rediscovering the game, i had a team that went to fight guards at the secondary base in Avalon, the xp was finally comprable to indoor missions, 100-150k but slower kills.
I returned there today and found that Funcom nerfed the xp by half, Way to go! at least i had one enjoyable outdoor activity in 40 levels.

In all i trully belive that this is a game killer for many players that cancel their account, shear repetetive boredom.
Why not put some areas that have mobs that reflect the xp/time ratio of missions? Im not even asking for loot.
This has been asked for so many times before and what we got are boses that take 30 people to kill and xp not worth your time.

Maybe some of you know and visit spots that give xp/time similar to indoor missions, if you do please post them, id love to have somwhere new for me and my friends to visit.

[_________170patience]

I feel ya... at least you got a team though

half my gametime is sitting around in Mort going /shout LFG

[Londino]

alantria, maybe you could get an engie & a few more friends & go to the old aces camp. if you are careful you should be able to make very nice xp, tertius mobs give upwards of 100k if i remember, & it is certainly a very exciting & beautiful place to hunt. somehow i always die there after about 3 mill xp lol, but who cares, it's worth it to hear the primus' terrible one liners.

"primus techwrecker,time to die primus techwrecker!"

[____________Edvieira]

The reason people do misssions is because of the safety. Youre in, bada-bin bada-bam, youre out. People don't die unless for distraction in 125+ team BS missions. Recently a team I was in was considering going hunting, and one of the members was opposed, saying it was too risky.

My two cents is that high level dyna camps can be in a remote location (requiring a yalm to get there) but be relatively close by to an OP so that every 20 mobs or so the team yalms up, saves, and returns hunting.

[_____________Nalissa]

Same old same old.

only yellow mobs offer good xp/risk ratio. The moment an outdoor camp is placed that offers greater xp and correspondent risk the gamers flock to it. The designers see that and nerf the camp.

What they don't realize is that greater xp than fighting yellow mobs should be our birthright on rubi-ka. What is so wrong with earning more xp at level 190 than we did at level 140?

The primus camp is ok, but really no one takes it serious as a leveling tool. It's far too dangerous for the reward. Because of this it's not all that busy and it will escape the nerfstick

I'm sure that BS missions would be nerfed, except that you don't see all the players in one place at one time. They're all in different playfields once in-mission...

[FireC]

Originally posted by Londino
alantria, maybe you could get an engie & a few more friends & go to the old aces camp. if you are careful you should be able to make very nice xp, tertius mobs give upwards of 100k if i remember, & it is certainly a very exciting & beautiful place to hunt. somehow i always die there after about 3 mill xp lol, but who cares, it's worth it to hear the primus' terrible one liners.

"primus techwrecker,time to die primus techwrecker!"

That place is screwed up now as well. You can kill the other mobs but primuses are not worth the time it takes to kill them. Get them to around 1/3 health and they'll run, that's ok they did that before but now they stop fighting and will start to regenerate in mad speed. Also they now will warp you *away* from them to the other primuses which seriously hurts...

So yes, they broke the one good way for a high level person to get some xp besides missions. AO is getting less and less fun every patch.

[AkodoReign]

Yea they did this with the new Bases in avalon pre patch the mobs were worth 100k+ now less than 50... Come on if im to spend 20 minutes yalming to and from a Save point shouldn't the Reward be worth the risk...

Risk being
No close by save point..
Multiple mobs..
Random mobs spawning... Like the slayerdriods do there.
No tokens
No mission reward

But in exchange I get 1.5-2x the exp..
Bah.. I'm real close to canceling only my freinds keep me here now. I can not do another broken shores mission... It is to mind numbing

[speed15412]

The trouble is, team missions have too many obvious advantages. They only seem to lack in the areas of fun and socializing. I don’t like team missions because of the areas I find them lacking. It seems nearly impossible to convince people to hunt for fun instead of taking a team mission for that safe, fast XP and chance of some uber boss loot.

Too many people seem more interested in the destination than the journey and I think it’s killing the game. It’s all about getting to that next level, a new set of implants or the next big nano. Every one racing to level 200, then they arrive and must say to themselves, “now what do I do?”

In a way I am lucky, I have a couple of friends that still like to hunt. 3 of us isn’t a good hunting team, occasionally we find one or two more people but it’s still more fun for us than hitting a team mission. I cant beat the buzz of challenging our skill with some massive multi mob pull that at leaves us screaming “OMG I don’t believe we survived that!”

I don’t know what we as players can do about this situation, maybe form a hunter anonymous group. I for one would welcome any suggestions.

[Mercatura]

Ace camp sucks for xp, for various reasons.

People are there to kill boredom or get a chance at lewt...which is crap.

Doing the usual team BS missions feels like shoving peas/broccoli/brussel sprouts/(insert food you hate here) down your throat because you don't get any ice cream unless you do.

Ever wonder why lots of people are kindof antsy in missions? They want to get it the hell over with and waiting for the buff perfectionists or the afkers/slow runners to give you the decent buffs is annoying. The best way to eat your greens is to slop some butter on them and cram them down as fast as possible.

Going outdoors for xp is like leaving the dinner table and taking a night job at minimum wage to get money to buy the ice cream yourself.

Leveling at 50 is like 3 peas on your plate...or 10 cents a scoop. Leveling at 150+ is like 3 cans of them, or $30 a scoop.

I'm so glad I buy my own food...though I still eat most of that same crap I hate first otherwise I'd be a tub of lard by now

[__________AsclepIIus]

doh... well Funcom think they made us happy. Big whoop. The Subway. Holy *****, for the first two hours of playing, we can go to the second laggiest place on RK-1 and hunt some weak-asses for terrible xp and okay loot. Now make us a lv 25-50, a 50-100, a 100-175 and a 175+ dungeon like the subway. Only not a subway. Also get rid of most of the camps in the wild, make really cool camps with double the xp and half the loot. NO BOSS!!! Have every i dont know, 25 MoBs drop a token of something or other that acts as a Mission token, explaining its for our great killing. Toss a few solo-camps with no friendlies or aagros and triple the xp, barely any loot. This is coming from a bored customer whos account runs out in... 9 days methinks.

[Gearbox]

Originally posted by speedreal
The trouble is, team missions have too many obvious advantages. They only seem to lack in the areas of fun and socializing. I don’t like team missions because of the areas I find them lacking. It seems nearly impossible to convince people to hunt for fun instead of taking a team mission for that safe, fast XP and chance of some uber boss loot.

Too many people seem more interested in the destination than the journey and I think it’s killing the game. It’s all about getting to that next level, a new set of implants or the next big nano. Every one racing to level 200, then they arrive and must say to themselves, “now what do I do?”

In a way I am lucky, I have a couple of friends that still like to hunt. 3 of us isn’t a good hunting team, occasionally we find one or two more people but it’s still more fun for us than hitting a team mission. I cant beat the buzz of challenging our skill with some massive multi mob pull that at leaves us screaming “OMG I don’t believe we survived that!”

I don’t know what we as players can do about this situation, maybe form a hunter anonymous group. I for one would welcome any suggestions.

That's very true. The problem is largely one of players taking the path of least resistance, and then complaining about boredom. But you can't really blame them, either. Generally, you're focused on that next bit of cheese, and you do what you need to in order to get it.

In addition, a person who hunts outdoors not only levels slower- but he gimps himself as well. No tokens, sub standard loot (less money), more risk, less xp. There's literally no incentive to hunt outdoors. It offers nothing that can't be obtained much easier in missions. And it is a shame, because AO has the best looking outdoor zones I've ever seen.

I really think that xp is going to have to be boosted considerably to get people outdoors. The xp should be better than it is in a mission. Nerf mission xp and boost the hell out of outdoor mob xp. I'd honestly prefer that. Make missions the thing you do for money and tokens, and make the outdoors the place for xp.

I'd also like to see the outdoors utilized in other ways. One of the few things DAoC did well was "kill tasks". They let players gain xp by simply hunting down one specific mob, killing it, and returning to an NPC for the reward. That sort of thing could keep people entertained outdoors without changing mob xp at all.

[iloveposting]

From 1 - 150 ish

XP

Or

XP and Tokens

If your a neut stfu kindly

[Peckka]

Well one of the reasons may well be that by forcing people to do missions, they cut down the risk of or at least make it a lot less chance of disputes over camps. let's face it, someone finds a real good camp spot they will milk it, someone comes along and wants a piece of their pie, no way they wanna share. Of course FC could then do a VI and implement a PNP (play nice policy) lol

Face it you do missions, you alpha loot, kill boss, argue over whomever should get what or just pass because it's all junk. You start hunting outdoors, more adds, more chance of disputes over who shot what first and when and why, someone comes along and ninjas the boss etc etc etc. More disputes arise = more Arks tied up resolving disputes over the above.

Outdoor exp would be nice, sometimes just to get away from the hustle and bustle or the mad rush to get a token but a lot of people are of a certain mindset now so .. /shrug

[_______________wefix]

Speedreal knows what he is talking about:

*************
Too many people seem more interested in the destination than the journey and I think it’s killing the game. It’s all about getting to that next level, a new set of implants or the next big nano. Every one racing to level 200, then they arrive and must say to themselves, “now what do I do?”
*************

Listen to yourselves. In this topic there is repeated agreement that they LIKE outdor hunting, yet there is no reward for risk (xp/cash/tokens too low). But there is a reward, its FUN and you LIKE it, that IS the reward.

There seems to be an obsession with leveling. People create a char and the only thing they do is pound mission after mission after mission to level it. They admit its boring, but do it for 100s of hours just to get high level. Then they do complain that there is no high level content.

There is no need to be high level, there are missions and outdoor hunting for all levels. Instead, have fun playing, chatting, helping friends - and you will level slowly but surely. I am level 175, but I have played for over 55 days (and I never leave the char logged when I am afk, so this is actual time spent).

Maybe Funcom should do something to do something to force people to get out of the pound missions mode. And outdoor xp is not it, then they will just do the same thing out there. Maybe they should limit players to 4 levels per week - after that no xp for killing (or scale it so low player can get more per week). Then there would be no need to pound missions all day. Otherwise the players get bored and quit cause they don't like to do mission after mission after mission.

[Slicse]

Originally posted by wefix
Maybe they should limit players to 4 levels per week - after that no xp for killing (or scale it so low player can get more per week). Then there would be no need to pound missions all day. Otherwise the players get bored and quit cause they don't like to do mission after mission after mission.

That is the worst idea i've ever heard of. Why do you think people do missions in the first place? Then you want to go and limit them?

Please, if people wanted to get 4 levels a week, then they'd stop missioning after the 4th level

[____________Alantria]

"Make missions the thing you do for money and tokens, and make the outdoors the place for xp".

That is a great idea, it would create great variety and a different purpouse for each as well as both having a downside in that balancing them out.
If you need loot and tokens "work" for it, as thats what it feels like now trying to get xp.
If you want xp and lvl, have some fun doing it, seems to make alot of sense.
Also it would be nice if Funcom would make a Hunt week or weekend by boosting outdoor xp considerably for that amount of time, it would help the special events this game lacks. Can you imagine all those teams getting ready
Of course this would require many worthwhile areas to hunt and theres certainly enough empty space on Rubika to place them.

[_______________wefix]

DNG, the point is that people don't want to stop leveling so you must force them. I know they do missions to level, and I am saying they should do something else, and it is clear they are not going to do that on there own, if they can level instead.

[Peckka]

Why should they go do something else? Are you forgetting this is a lvl based game and like all such games there is a certain point you need to reach in order to be able to do certain things. Just like EQ, just like DAoC, lvl based systems all suffer from the same flaw. The really good content (ie challenges) comes in what is known as the end game, getting to the end game is generally the tedious part.

If people want to pursuue tradeskills they need ip to raise the skill, to gain ip they have to hunt and gain lvl's. If people want a real challenge then out door hunting is the way to go, however to hunt outdoors with any relative success you need to be a certain class or have a group make up of certain classes.

To see the so called cool MOBs or face the real challenging fights you have to be of a certain lvl. Would a lvl 30 walk into Kael Arena and start fighting lvl 60 Giants, would a lvl 30 walk into Emain and expect to not get their a** handed to them in quick time? No, because in order to take part in this so called end game you have to be a certain lvl. Therein lies the problem with all lvl based games or games with PvP as the focus.

You do pickup groups you have one objective, experience and lvl's. There is very little socialising, maybe some discussions on dmg, resists whatever but as a whole little more than that. When you want to do fun stuff, you would generally do this with your Org or a group of close friends.

What lvl based games need is variety, something which EQ is miles ahead of anyone else with with all their expansions, continually catering for the playerbase (even if it is more orientated towards the those 55+ or 60+ now) DAoC tried it with their Battlegrounds but you were there for such a short period and nothing past lvl 35 it was just a minor distraction. The whole concept of Notum Wars is to give players a feeling that they can achieve something, be it placing some towers and defending them or attacking opposing factions Towers. When the expansion comes out that will be more variety.

However as things stand in order to become better you have to lvl, to lvl in any sort of worthwhile way, you have to do missions. Saying you will force people to stop leveling, well you may as well say "this is AO, pay X amount per week for your 20hours of gameplay" just like the old MUDs used to be, you paid by the hour. It wont work and you would lose more people to that concept than you would to those bored of doing BS missions.

[_____________Nalissa]

Originally posted by wefix
DNG, the point is that people don't want to stop leveling so you must force them.

That's your point?

Force people not to level?

How about:
Force people to wear pink (they don't know the true glory of pink)
Force them to play for 3 hours per day - no more, no less.
Force them to all play nano-mages (hey it's for their own good)
Force them to place their IP's into certain skills (we don't want them to screw up)
Force them to post stupid comments on the boards..

Hmm..

[eyedee]

Good post..

I really hope funcom does something about the outdoor hunting xp.