Actually... the majority of the community seems either excited or neutral about the changes. It's only a small minority that has convinced themselves that this is going to drastically slow down leveling that's against it.
Also... Smash XP alert would be easier for lowbies? ...not sure I get your reasoning on that... since that isn't the case now. Smash alerts are a lot easier the higher your level is.
You only need to take down one boss in most of the easier Smash Alerts rather than pull groups of mobs and take each down at a time. For the lowbies (levels 39 and below) it's better to focus on taking down one boss rather than groups of mobs at a time. Grabs take longer to finish with lowbies than a Smash alert with lowbies. I'm saying that in that comparison.
It is the majority of the community that is concerned. Are Smashes more played or Grabs? I don't remember many grabs that were left up there for 2 days unlike Smashes that were up there because they are constantly queued and kept up out of popularity. Gaining XP is more popular than gaining resources.
You only need to take down one boss in most of the easier Smash Alerts rather than pull groups of mobs and take each down at a time.
But you have to do it in given time, and low level toons very often don't have enough firepower. It almost always ends with higher levels carrying the whole alert.
Smashes are now more played that Grabs because of XP bonus. It will revert when Grabs will be XP alerts.
Resource alerts never will be popular given how it's more profitable to farm high level grounds and adventure packs. On Nemcon. Or anything.
No, Tangent's right. Looking for a group in CoX was a pain, but people generally understood what was expected of them. Most people actually understood their roles, and the higher you got, the better your teammates generally were since xp debt slowed their roll.
Forming teams here is no better than anywhere else I've been. However, LFG and the whole interface is horrid. You're more likely to be spamming zone instead of sending tells to players and asking if they're interested. In fact, the only time I bother to message players to team is if they're on my friends list.
Alerts makes forming teams even worse than before, as far as forming teams for anything that isn't an alert. I can only imagine a fraction of the newer populous has actually seen telios tower or the burial caves, or even doctor destroyer's factory.
I've done plenty of teaming, but anything I can do without a team, I typically will, whether it be general missions or something as extensive as Andrith Ruins. Solo I get to run at my pace and I don't have to worry about anyone else. When I team, I want capable teammates who all know how to work together without needing instruction.
Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of helpful people out there. Just the other day I asked in trade channel if anyone wouldn't mind sharing purple reign and multiple people volunteered to help.
But all in all, teaming here in CO has been far from perfect. Sure in pre-made teams of select individuals we breeze through everything CO can throw at us. But if I solo queue an alert I have to be prepared to tank regardless of my passive or role.
Thanks to borg10f9's post, I got curious about the actual, natural war between Oaks and Maples. With just a cursory glance at a Google search, I found this.
Oak forest is made up of species that do not tolerate deep shade, and consequently oak forest is called a "seral" forest community?one that gives way to more shade-tolerant species over time. For over 100 years, fires have been suppressed in the oak regions of Minnesota. This has made oak forest an increasingly rare type, especially on moister soils where maples and other shade-tolerant species easily invade.
If I understand it correctly, a Maple will do just fine in partial shade as it grows, in full sun it thrives all the better. But if/when the maple grow taller than the oak and cause the oak to lie in partial or almost full shade, the oak will suffer, perhaps even die since it needs a lot more sun to grow properly.
Like I said, it's not an in depth study of oaks vs maples, just a cursory look, so there's plenty of room for me to be wrong. Also, this report was written specifically for Minnesota. So... { shrug }
Interesting. I was always under the assumption the song was about Canadian politics anyway (Maples - Quebec and associates, Oaks - everyone else). There's a lot of naive political stuff in early Rush, but Neal grew out of it.
For the lowbies (levels 39 and below) it's better to focus on taking down one boss rather than groups of mobs at a time. Grabs take longer to finish with lowbies than a Smash alert with lowbies. I'm saying that in that comparison.
That's an interesting definition of lowbie.
Even ATs have most of their main kit by the time they get their block replacer at 21. By 30 they'll have their bread and butter powers and generally the stuff in the 30-40 is nice to have but not necessary.
And it's official. So, now all you folks who think the game is ruined can go ahead and quit*, and the rest of us will get back to having fun
* - or, more likely, you'll realize the changes actually made the game better
This is not making the game "better"...it is making it slower. If you like slow, then I guess it is "better" for you.
I will give it a shot, but as it is now, I rarely do grab alerts because they take too long, and when I do, I only do Day at the Mall or City Hall grabs because they are shorter. I can see getting very sick of spending 20 minutes in a grab to gain 1/8th of a level.
But hey, again...it is an MMO, and MMO games gain and lose players all the time. Let's just hope for your sake that this decision, along with a shockingly low amount of new content, doesn't cause more of the latter than the former.
But hey, again...it is an MMO, and MMO games gain and lose players all the time. Let's just hope for your sake that this decision, along with a shockingly low amount of new content, doesn't cause more of the latter than the former.
For my sake? Geez you really haven't been paying attention have you?
This is why I like the changes in general, but with the old 15% buff rather than something higher, and no new content, I was against it.
You can't both claim that you prefer missions and claim that you care about getting to max level as fast as possible s( u 3 u )z now if you'll excuse me, I'm on an "all cheesecake" diet, and it's time for second breakfast.
Again...general "you" (as in current subscribers/players) vs. specific "you" (you personally)
Best advice: Check your snide attitude, and the f*@k over yourself.
Again, you spend way too much time worrying about wether other people are enjoying the game. You don't own stock in cryptic, they don't write you a paycheck, you have no real stake in the future of the game. By all accounts, you'll have stopped playing it before it stops running. Keep it real brother! \( O 3 O )/
By all accounts, you'll have stopped playing it before it
Very likely.
That doesn't really speak to the longevity of the game itself though, does it?
I think somewhere in your quest to stroke your epeen, you have missed sight of the fact that if enough players quit, the game goes bye-bye. It is a business after all.
That does not mean that it is going to happen over this...or that it will happen in the near future, but it will happen eventually, and bone headed decisions like this one will likely only hasten that outcome.
That doesn't really speak to the longevity of the game itself though, does it?
I think somewhere in your quest to stroke your epeen, you have missed sight of the fact that if enough players quit, the game goes bye-bye. It is a business after all.
That does not mean that it is going to happen over this...or that it will happen in the near future, but it will happen eventually, and bone headed decisions like this one will likely only hasten that outcome.
Everything ends. Nothing goes on forever. I just enjoy things when they're here rather than stressing about when they might be gone... especially when it's clear that I'm ultimately powerless to affect their longevity... and super especially when it's a video game/tv show/other silly thing.
My question is, why are you so concerned that the game is going to end someday?
Another question is, why are you so concerned that I'm not concerned?
My question is, why are you so concerned that the game is going to end someday?
I am not concerned about that at all. Everyone with a fully functional brain knows that the game will end someday. What I am concerned about is when that end will arrive, either for me...or for the game, because it is obviously an experience I get enjoyment out of, otherwise I would not pay for it.
Another question is, why are you so concerned that I'm not concerned?
I really don't care one way or another what you do. And I am quite sure that the feeling is very mutual.
Has anyone who is concerned about a possible change in the length of time it will take to level taken the time to test out two things?
1) Just how long will it take you on average to run through a grab since that is what people seem to be keyed in on.
2) Are XP alerts really the fastest method to level in the game anyway?
A lot of the concern is coming from people who already level far slower than I do from what I gather so I'm trying to get some perspective on what other people are experiencing and why this is a thing.
All things considered, how long was it actually taking you folks to level a character 1-40 before today's patch?
I am not concerned about that at all. Everyone with a fully functional brain knows that the game will end someday. What I am concerned about is when that end will arrive, either for me...or for the game, because it is obviously an experience I get enjoyment out of, otherwise I would not pay for it.
Um... so you just said you're not concerned about the game ending... and then in the same paragraph you said that you are concerned about the game ending. Soooooo.... which is it? Being concerned about "when" the game is going to end, and being concerned "that" the game is going to end are really the same thing you know... so back to my question about why you're so concerned?
You have to realize that there is no guarantee on any investment in entertainment... you buy a video game, there is no guarantee that it will entertain you forever ( in fact nowadays you're shelling out sixty bucks for a few hours at best in most cases ). So if your concern comes from the money you put in... well, that's gonna be tough for you.
As far as "when", it's been openly stated that there are no plans to shut down the game anytime soon, and all the extra activity from devs recently should tell you that the end is further away than it ever has been.
Further, the idea that "if the population gets low enough they'll shut it down" is unsubstantiated. You just don't know that to be true. Yes, it's a business, but that's not always what the decision comes down to. You should see some of the games that are still being floated with a population of less than a hundred players.
I really don't care one way or another what you do. And I am quite sure that the feeling is very mutual. I just don't care for liars or a**holes, and you seem to be both.
I'm sensing some hostility... I'm gonna guess you're upset that the changes went live, so I won't bother pestering you for any justification for the whole "liar" thing... even though I easily could and would enjoy watching you struggle to come up with something (which is why I'm not going to bother asking you to justify the "a**hole claim)
But you have to do it in given time, and low level toons very often don't have enough firepower. It almost always ends with higher levels carrying the whole alert.
Smashes are now more played that Grabs because of XP bonus. It will revert when Grabs will be XP alerts.
Resource alerts never will be popular given how it's more profitable to farm high level grounds and adventure packs. On Nemcon. Or anything.
In that vein that means leave XP alerts the way it is because it is more popular than resource alerts. And for people that want resources this change is none of their concern.
All things considered, how long was it actually taking you folks to level a character 1-40 before today's patch?
I think this was my fastest. No double xp weekend, no outside xp bonuses, only doing smashes and the questionite daily while logged in. Took this pic the second I hit 40.
We can assume approximately 20-30 minutes added on this due to the new level gate, and increase the overall time by about 10-20% to account for having to kill trash mobs.
Which would still not put it at 2 days total leveling time.
In that vein that means leave XP alerts the way it is because it is more popular than resource alerts. And for people that want resources this change is none of their concern.
Yes, "XP Alerts" are more popular... and they will be no matter if they are Smashes or Grabs. That being the case, it then leaves the devs free to make "XP Alerts" be whichever of the two makes more sense for leveling players...and that's what they did by making Grabs be the "XP Alerts".
... so back to my question about why you're so concerned?
Are you dense or something?
I explained this already. I enjoy, or at least enjoyed, the game as it was. These changes are making it so I will enjoy it less. That is a concern for me. It is the same thing as when you enjoy a television show, and they change it by adding new characters, or killing off characters you enjoy (or in this case, they took a 30 min sitcom and turned it into 2 hour reality program).
I won't bother pestering you for any justification for the whole "liar" thing... even though I easily could and would enjoy watching you struggle to come up with something (which is why I'm not going to bother asking you to justify the "a**hole claim)
I retracted my statement, but if you want an explanation, pure and simple, you claimed this was going to make the game "better". That, to me, is a lie.
And I called you an a-hole because I don't care for your attitude.
I explained this already. I enjoy, or at least enjoyed, the game as it was. These changes are making it so I will enjoy it less. That is a concern for me. It is the same thing as when you enjoy a television show, and they change it by adding new characters, or killing off characters you enjoy (or in this case, they took a 30 min sitcom and turned it into 2 hour reality program).
You don't know that though... you haven't actually experienced the changes. For all you know you might enjoy this a whole lot more once you wrap your head around the idea that the journey to 40 will now consists of more than just standing there spamming powers on a stationary enemy. You might find that the journey isn't even significantly longer, and more importantly that it won't actually feel longer.
The sitcom/reality show reference just illustrates one thing I've been saying... you're overreacting. This is like if they took your 30 minute sitcom, and turned it into an hour long sitcom, and the second half hour fleshes out the lives and activities of the shows sub-characters.
I retracted my statement, but if you want an explanation, pure and simple, you claimed this was going to make the game "better". That, to me, is a lie.
And I called you an a-hole because I don't care for your attitude.
Pretty simple.
So in your mind if someone has a different opinion from you, that makes them a liar and an a***hole (and dense, lol)? That's interesting!
2) Are XP alerts really the fastest method to level in the game anyway?
A lot of the concern is coming from people who already level far slower than I do from what I gather so I'm trying to get some perspective on what other people are experiencing and why this is a thing.
All things considered, how long was it actually taking you folks to level a character 1-40 before today's patch?
I made a character to try leveling through just smashes, got to 34 last night. I'll /played at lunch. I got suckered into episode 4 of Aftershock and made a nemesis but other than those 10-34 have been smashes.
10-20 with the two bubbles per smash felt faster than missions even with the waits for smashes to come up. 20-30 felt a little faster with the one bubble per smash. The 3/4 bubble per smash is feeling slower and failed smashes really hurt. Before the patch I was considering just going to Vibora to avoid the 1/2 bubble per smash phase but I'll see if the less likely to fail always available Grab makes up for the longer mission time.
This is my Risian Corvette. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
You don't know that though... you haven't actually experienced the changes. For all you know you might enjoy this a whole lot more once you wrap your head around the idea that the journey to 40 will now consists of more than just standing there spamming powers on a stationary enemy. You might find that the journey isn't even significantly longer, and more importantly that it won't actually feel longer.
You are making the assumption that I have never made this "journey" from 1-40 before alerts. I did. About 10 or 11 times. I don't really care to do it again. And given the fact that basically despise grab alerts because they take so much longer than smash alerts, I think I can be relatively certain that I know how these changes are going to affect my experience.
The sitcom/reality show reference just illustrates one thing I've been saying... you're overreacting. This is like if they took your 30 minute sitcom, and turned it into an hour long sitcom, and the second half hour fleshes out the lives and activities of the shows sub-characters.
Perhaps, but if I don't care about the mundane details of what the sub-characters do...they why would I bother to watch. And unfortunately, the new footage of watching one of the main characters brother's cousin's former roommate fold socks is not something that you can skip, because it is woven into the fabric of the show.
Again...the appeal of smash alerts is that you get in, fight the boss, win or lose, and get out...2-4 minutes, tops. And with a level 6-7 character, one will pretty much moves you an entire level, or close to it. Instead, now you will have to schlep all over the map doing missions, then spend 20 minutes per grab alert to gain 1/8th of a level per alert.
It doesn't take any complex mathematics to understand that moving 4/5ths of a level in an average time of 3 minutes is faster than moving 1/8th of a level in 20 minutes.
And...what is really unfortunate is that the subscription management section of the site here seems to be down. I'd like to know when I am paid up through.
it went that long for me once, I was practically soloing Valerian Scarlet in Stitch in time, as there were only 2 lvl6-7 people left in the alert with me.
Then she Enraged. seriously. Enraged. like in therakiel's temple. I survived, and finished her, but that definitely made things a LOT harder.
Damn, so basically you did effectively end up with two people idling (dropped from map). That sucks.
20 minutes per grab? Wow, are two people just idling the entire time? I've never seen a grab go even a third that long...yet.
Museum Heist takes forever...at least 15 min, for sure. I haven't timed it, but I know that Bank Robbery and Museum Heist both take longer than City Hall and Day at the Mall.
All four take at least 4-5x what a 2 minute drill takes. And none of that even addresses what fails (where everyone leaves the map in frustration) in these grabs will be like. Instead of wasting 2 minutes on a fail, you will waste 15.
I'd have rather seen them level gate smash alerts to 20, leave them as they were, and add an XP reward to grab alerts, but not as much as smash alerts and not level gate them. At least then the snail's pace leveling of missions, or the 500% slower rate of grabs, would only be something you have to deal with through half the "journey".
Or even make bursts the XP alert. You can run through a Radiation Rumble pretty quickly, without anyone whining because of a fail.
Well. We always complain about content, and apparently there is a lot out there for people to see, but don't see.
Empty zones, people crying for new stuff, or new challenges, people waiting or having to head back to MC just to completely a 5 man dungeon in zones that used to be teaming with heroes.
Chrisis mission which no one does for example? Entire plot lines like Psi corp and Medusa, and all the other things that made Champs interesting in the beginning.
I mean, what do people do when they level an alt to 40...sit in the middle of the rec center dueling. Heck, people are not even grinding gear.
It's about alerts, only alerts, getting Q (That's the grind) Zen, etc. People who complain about the game being a micro transaction based lock box game are partially correct, but at the end of the day when you just see Millennium City all the time, get ported into an alert and level up in 3-4 days there is a lot to be missed.
Now this is not to say that the veterans of the game have not done this content, but new players coming in see a fast way of getting to 40, and then complain when the game gets dull and boring.
Overall, why would the dev team be stupid enough to spent time and resources putting new zones in the game, like the much beloved moon base or moon something or other if a huge percentage of player will just level through alerts and never see it.
I am an old time member. Left, Came back. Deleted my original toons, and as an example I felt into the trapping of...Oooooh alerts. Quick way to 40. Only my recent toon has been following the storyline...and wow...Monster Island and Lemuria are still there. Except I am the only one zoned half the time.
Yes, "XP Alerts" are more popular... and they will be no matter if they are Smashes or Grabs. That being the case, it then leaves the devs free to make "XP Alerts" be whichever of the two makes more sense for leveling players...and that's what they did by making Grabs be the "XP Alerts".
No... what makes sense is to what people want. And this is not what levelers want. An alert that lasts longer? No thanks.
Something about this entire thing reminds me of 'old money' people sitting around at their country clubs complaining about 'new money' types.
Basically, this change stems from two things:
1 - Mission levelers, usually long timers, who despise alerts and see them as a way around "playing the game" whined because they are jealous that people can get to 40 in about 1/20th the time it took them to do so.
2 - Alert levelers whining because their group failed and just happened to have someone lower than them in the group. These people are the funniest, because they have just cut off their noses to spite their faces! If you think failing a couple of 2 minute smash alerts was slowing you down, just wait until you have to spend 5x the time running grabs instead...and don't think for a minute that you won't get leechers and people who bail, causing you to either fail, or spend even more time completing the alert.
As for group 1, they are getting what they want...they are essentially, through their whining, forcing their preferred style of play onto others.
As for group 2, they just got screwed and don't even know it!
Museum Heist takes forever...at least 15 min, for sure. I haven't timed it, but I know that Bank Robbery and Museum Heist both take longer than City Hall and Day at the Mall.
All four take at least 4-5x what a 2 minute drill takes. And none of that even addresses what fails (where everyone leaves the map in frustration) in these grabs will be like. Instead of wasting 2 minutes on a fail, you will waste 15.
I'd have rather seen them level gate smash alerts to 20, leave them as they were, and add an XP reward to grab alerts, but not as much as smash alerts and not level gate them. At least then the snail's pace leveling of missions, or the 500% slower rate of grabs, would only be something you have to deal with through half the "journey".
Or even make bursts the XP alert. You can run through a Radiation Rumble pretty quickly, without anyone whining because of a fail.
You know Rad Rumble isn't the only Burst Alert, right? I've never been in a Pyramid Power alert that took less than fifteen minutes to complete. Ao'Q Rad Rumble and Pyramid Bursts would completely wreck your idea of Bursts being a better solution. inb4 someone mentions Trauma makes my point somehow less valid
As for group 1, they are getting what they want...they are essentially, through their whining, forcing their preferred style of play onto others.
I don't think that this is true at all. There hasn't been huge threads about how leveling is too quick or anything like that. The developers weren't pushed to make this change. I think it came as a surprise to all of us. Some of it just think it's a good idea.
Personally, I like my fast leveling. I have over 30 characters with 4 to 8 hours of double XP that I spend my time leveling in Smash alerts. Am I gonna run out of double XP faster? Yeah maybe. But hey, I get a change of scenery, run some alerts that I haven't run ad nauseum for years. I'm fine with it, and I never asked for Smash alerts to level people slower. I'm no "old money" type.
As for group 2, they just got screwed and don't even know it!
Oh they know it plenty. People are complaining before they even know how much it will impact them.
You know Rad Rumble isn't the only Burst Alert, right? I've never been in a Pyramid Power alert that took less than fifteen minutes to complete. Ao'Q Rad Rumble and Pyramid Bursts would completely wreck your idea of Bursts being a better solution.
Yep, Pyramid bursts take a LONG time...way worse than Rad Rumble.
And, Ao'Q is in grabs, is he not?? So that pretty much is a wash. A Museum Heist with Ao'Q is going to take just as long as a Pyramid with him. Which is why it is a terrible idea to make grabs the leveling alerts. At least with bursts you could just wait for the Rad Rumbles. Either way, Smash made the most sense for leveling. Sucks that there are a very vocal subset of players that cannot ever fail at anything, ever, without whining like diaper babies.
lol seriously? That thread came out after they announced the change and is mostly just justifications for it.
Precisely. My point is that there was no "old money people" acting jealous at how quickly other people level in alerts. Sure, there have been some people who do think that alerts make leveling too easy, but those people are so few and far between that it's silly to think that they pushed the developers to slow down Smash leveling.
Something about this entire thing reminds me of 'old money' people sitting around at their country clubs complaining about 'new money' types.
Basically, this change stems from two things:
1 - Mission levelers, usually long timers, who despise alerts and see them as a way around "playing the game" whined because they are jealous that people can get to 40 in about 1/20th the time it took them to do so.
2 - Alert levelers whining because their group failed and just happened to have someone lower than them in the group. These people are the funniest, because they have just cut off their noses to spite their faces! If you think failing a couple of 2 minute smash alerts was slowing you down, just wait until you have to spend 5x the time running grabs instead...and don't think for a minute that you won't get leechers and people who bail, causing you to either fail, or spend even more time completing the alert.
As for group 1, they are getting what they want...they are essentially, through their whining, forcing their preferred style of play onto others.
As for group 2, they just got screwed and don't even know it!
And group 3. People like me genuinely trying to get some perspective and figure out what the big deal is either way.
Personal thoughts on why I don't quite grasp the big deal:
No one leveling solely or mainly through alerts has come close to any times I leveled either pre- or post- Shadow C farming fix among other things so I'm left wondering exactly what people consider slow. Example: Someone posted that they once leveled a toon to 40 in 19+ hours as an example of 'fast' and someone else posted recently they did it in 26 hours without noting what they thought of this time. I have a screencap of me doing it 9 hours and some change and my personal record is just over 4.5 hours back when my supergroup and some people on this forum were egging me on to see just how fast I could do it and keep trying to shave the time using every 'trick' that I knew.
The character I've been playing most recently hit level 35 last night. On Tuesday I was level 11 and /played says I'm just over 9 hours on the character so far. I don't have a double XP buff on this character and I didn't run alerts on them until after I hit 35 late last night just because I felt like bashing faces with people instead of running solo. I say all this to say, some people keep complaining that alert leveling is wrecking their fast leveling while I'm sitting here mildly amused that these same people think alert leveling is fast leveling in the first place. To me it's not, but people would have to play through the rest of the game to notice the several places they could make better time if that is what their main focus is.
Alert leveling is not, and never has been the fastest way to level here. It has always been a quick and efficient way to get a good chunk of XP and do some stuff with other people, but if you're really trying to get to level cap fast for whatever reason you have you're better off doing some things solo.
And group 3. People like me genuinely trying to get some perspective and figure out what the big deal is either way.
Personal thoughts on why I don't quite grasp the big deal:
No one leveling solely or mainly through alerts has come close to any times I leveled either pre- or post- Shadow C farming fix among other things so I'm left wondering exactly what people consider slow. Example: Someone posted that they once leveled a toon to 40 in 19+ hours as an example of 'fast' and someone else posted recently they did it in 26 hours without noting what they thought of this time. I have a screencap of me doing it 9 hours and some change and my personal record is just over 4.5 hours back when my supergroup and some people on this forum were egging me on to see just how fast I could do it and keep trying to shave the time using every 'trick' that I knew.
The character I've been playing most recently hit level 35 last night. On Tuesday I was level 11 and /played says I'm just over 9 hours on the character so far. I don't have a double XP buff on this character and I didn't run alerts on them until after I hit 35 late last night just because I felt like bashing faces with people instead of running solo. I say all this to say, some people keep complaining that alert leveling is wrecking their fast leveling while I'm sitting here mildly amused that these same people think alert leveling is fast leveling in the first place. To me it's not, but people would have to play through the rest of the game to notice the several places they could make better time if that is what their main focus is.
Alert leveling is not, and never has been the fastest way to level here. It has always been a quick and efficient way to get a good chunk of XP and do some stuff with other people, but if you're really trying to get to level cap fast for whatever reason you have you're better off doing some things solo.
So you're saying that the real person slowing down these peoples' leveling is actually... themselves?
I tried leveling a toon through Alerts only once. After about half an hour I had to go run missions - I was bored silly doing the same things over and over and over and over and over, every two minutes.
I still can't see how someone can complain about the "sameness" of missions, and in the same breath want to run Smash alerts from 6 to 40. It would drive me nuts. However, if that's your playstyle, well, as I say so often, de gustibus non est disputandem.
Since I do like getting that XP boost just before turning in a passel of missions, however, I'm looking forward to doing it with an Alert that isn't guaranteed to fail just because two or three people refuse to play with "lowbies" and quit out. They'll take longer when that happens now, but one can still win, because there's no real time limit.
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
I still can't see how someone can complain about the "sameness" of missions, and in the same breath want to run Smash alerts from 6 to 40.
I run alerts constantly while logged in... and I can tell you that I don't get it either.
I also don't get why these people think they're going to be running missions instead of alerts from today onward... if they hate them so much, why would they do them? .-.
That's like if Jon here started only running smash alerts while leveling but then complained about how much they suck. Wouldn't make sense :O
I'm not sure I really understand the reasons behind this change. Well, the level gating I can understand but changing the xp alert doesn't seem to make that much sense. Increasing the time it takes to level and getting people to level outside of alerts are the only two reasons I can think of.
It's great and all trying to make Champions Online a more "serious" game by making it take longer to level but at this post alert stage I'm not quite sure this change will have a net positive effect on the player base. CO has always been a very casually built game. You can easily level 1-40 with an energy builder, one combo, and a defensive passive. Given that nature of the game CO has drawn in a casual audience. Sure given the freeform system there is a min/maxer group but for the most part CO audience has been very casual.
Now casual could mean lots of things: doesn't have a lot of time, likes the easy to understand system, likes the ability to easily play with no understanding of the system, enjoys the almost non competitive nature of the game, etc.
I understand there are people who would consider themselves casual players and still would like a longer leveling experience. However, these individuals are a minority and we all know how bleak the future of the game looked pre-alerts. The population was slowly decreasing and since On Alert it had a burst of players and has since stayed pretty stable.
I see more people getting burnt out on the slower leveling speeds compared to what they are used to then people reading about the update and going "Hey, CO is making it arbitrarily harder to level. Time to give the game another shot!"
It would be a lot like an amusement park building three new roller coaster next to their old wooden one. Not liking how fast people can get on and off and only use the fastest of the four; the managers of the amusement park destroy the fastest one leaving the customers with the old wooden one and the new "fastest" one that's over two times slower then the old fastest. It just doesn't make sense.
Just like the fast roller coaster the fast leveling alerts have become a quality of life feature that the customers have gotten used to or have only known. I don't like channeling Dr. Doom and these changes don't really effect me personally as I like leveling from missions and I get burnt out by the time I reach alert 15, but I'm not seeing how this change will have any positive long term effect on the future of CO.
If, there's one very good reason to change which kind of Alert grants XP: It's the boost that is most useful to lower-level players. And a lot of high-level elitists refuse to even stay in the alert with lower-level players, and will quit. And the lowbies, even with sidekicking to 30, will still often lack the DPS to finish a Smash in two minutes when there are only two or three of them left. So, failed Smash, no rewards.
Now, if a couple of people quit a Grab, it just means it's going to take longer - no more guaranteed fails just because someone else doesn't like your face (or the number underneath your face).
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
If, there's one very good reason to change which kind of Alert grants XP: It's the boost that is most useful to lower-level players. And a lot of high-level elitists refuse to even stay in the alert with lower-level players, and will quit. And the lowbies, even with sidekicking to 30, will still often lack the DPS to finish a Smash in two minutes when there are only two or three of them left. So, failed Smash, no rewards.
Now, if a couple of people quit a Grab, it just means it's going to take longer - no more guaranteed fails just because someone else doesn't like your face (or the number underneath your face).
I don't think I've ever seen someone leave an alert because of someones level. I've had people leave because it's taking too long to complete and will more then likely lose. I've beaten 2 min alerts with no one above level 15 plenty of times. Also the Grab alert doesn't have a time limit, but if all the remaining people happen to be squishy dps types, even if they are high level, it will still be impossible to complete. I'm sure we have all seen groups wipe due to shotgun spam.
Even then it would still be smarter to leave group and retry the alert then take a lot longer to get the same amount of xp.
But like I said I've never seen this elitist mentality in game only on the forums. I know I'm not the best when it comes to grinding alerts, but if it was such a huge problem where the devs would have to incorporate in game changes to stop bullying, statistically I would have seen it in game on a regular basis.
If, there's one very good reason to change which kind of Alert grants XP: It's the boost that is most useful to lower-level players. And a lot of high-level elitists refuse to even stay in the alert with lower-level players, and will quit. And the lowbies, even with sidekicking to 30, will still often lack the DPS to finish a Smash in two minutes when there are only two or three of them left. So, failed Smash, no rewards.
Now, if a couple of people quit a Grab, it just means it's going to take longer - no more guaranteed fails just because someone else doesn't like your face (or the number underneath your face).
Let's look at both scenarios:
Scenario 1 - You are leveling using smash alerts. You queue up. The alert starts. Half the people are lower than lvl 15. The other bails. The alert fails. You queue up again. Same thing happens. You queue up again, you get a team of people over lvl 20 (and let us assume they are competent and not wasting the entire 2 min fighting minions, pulling things they shouldn't pull, using knock backs, running from the boss like the Benny Hill show, etc.), you complete the alert, and you gain X amount of experience. This scenario required roughly 6-7 minutes.
Scenario 2 - You are leveling under the new system and using grabs. The alert starts. Half the people are lower than lvl 15. The other bails. You and the other remain two people, who are level 10 and 11 complete the alert. You gain X amount of experience. This scenario required roughly 30 minutes.
Sure, you didn't fail the grab alert, but you just spent 5x the amount of time earning the exact same amount of XP.
Are you sure you didn't fail...because that has fail written all over it to me.
And group 3. People like me genuinely trying to get some perspective and figure out what the big deal is either way.
Personal thoughts on why I don't quite grasp the big deal:
No one leveling solely or mainly through alerts has come close to any times I leveled either pre- or post- Shadow C farming fix among other things so I'm left wondering exactly what people consider slow. Example: Someone posted that they once leveled a toon to 40 in 19+ hours as an example of 'fast' and someone else posted recently they did it in 26 hours without noting what they thought of this time. I have a screencap of me doing it 9 hours and some change and my personal record is just over 4.5 hours back when my supergroup and some people on this forum were egging me on to see just how fast I could do it and keep trying to shave the time using every 'trick' that I knew.
The character I've been playing most recently hit level 35 last night. On Tuesday I was level 11 and /played says I'm just over 9 hours on the character so far. I don't have a double XP buff on this character and I didn't run alerts on them until after I hit 35 late last night just because I felt like bashing faces with people instead of running solo. I say all this to say, some people keep complaining that alert leveling is wrecking their fast leveling while I'm sitting here mildly amused that these same people think alert leveling is fast leveling in the first place. To me it's not, but people would have to play through the rest of the game to notice the several places they could make better time if that is what their main focus is.
Alert leveling is not, and never has been the fastest way to level here. It has always been a quick and efficient way to get a good chunk of XP and do some stuff with other people, but if you're really trying to get to level cap fast for whatever reason you have you're better off doing some things solo.
Well Kenpo mind sharing how you do it so fast to us that want to speed level?
I'm not sure I really understand the reasons behind this change. Well, the level gating I can understand but changing the xp alert doesn't seem to make that much sense. Increasing the time it takes to level and getting people to level outside of alerts are the only two reasons I can think of.
Oddly enough, neither of those are the reason they did it. The devs have no interest in either of those things. If you check the announcements on the main page they explain why they did it.
Basically, grabs just work better for low level players than smashes.
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You only need to take down one boss in most of the easier Smash Alerts rather than pull groups of mobs and take each down at a time. For the lowbies (levels 39 and below) it's better to focus on taking down one boss rather than groups of mobs at a time. Grabs take longer to finish with lowbies than a Smash alert with lowbies. I'm saying that in that comparison.
It is the majority of the community that is concerned. Are Smashes more played or Grabs? I don't remember many grabs that were left up there for 2 days unlike Smashes that were up there because they are constantly queued and kept up out of popularity. Gaining XP is more popular than gaining resources.
Smashes are now more played that Grabs because of XP bonus. It will revert when Grabs will be XP alerts.
Resource alerts never will be popular given how it's more profitable to farm high level grounds and adventure packs. On Nemcon. Or anything.
No, Tangent's right. Looking for a group in CoX was a pain, but people generally understood what was expected of them. Most people actually understood their roles, and the higher you got, the better your teammates generally were since xp debt slowed their roll.
Forming teams here is no better than anywhere else I've been. However, LFG and the whole interface is horrid. You're more likely to be spamming zone instead of sending tells to players and asking if they're interested. In fact, the only time I bother to message players to team is if they're on my friends list.
Alerts makes forming teams even worse than before, as far as forming teams for anything that isn't an alert. I can only imagine a fraction of the newer populous has actually seen telios tower or the burial caves, or even doctor destroyer's factory.
I've done plenty of teaming, but anything I can do without a team, I typically will, whether it be general missions or something as extensive as Andrith Ruins. Solo I get to run at my pace and I don't have to worry about anyone else. When I team, I want capable teammates who all know how to work together without needing instruction.
Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of helpful people out there. Just the other day I asked in trade channel if anyone wouldn't mind sharing purple reign and multiple people volunteered to help.
But all in all, teaming here in CO has been far from perfect. Sure in pre-made teams of select individuals we breeze through everything CO can throw at us. But if I solo queue an alert I have to be prepared to tank regardless of my passive or role.
Interesting. I was always under the assumption the song was about Canadian politics anyway (Maples - Quebec and associates, Oaks - everyone else). There's a lot of naive political stuff in early Rush, but Neal grew out of it.
That's an interesting definition of lowbie.
Even ATs have most of their main kit by the time they get their block replacer at 21. By 30 they'll have their bread and butter powers and generally the stuff in the 30-40 is nice to have but not necessary.
Grabs will be giving the XP.
* - or, more likely, you'll realize the changes actually made the game better
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This is not making the game "better"...it is making it slower. If you like slow, then I guess it is "better" for you.
I will give it a shot, but as it is now, I rarely do grab alerts because they take too long, and when I do, I only do Day at the Mall or City Hall grabs because they are shorter. I can see getting very sick of spending 20 minutes in a grab to gain 1/8th of a level.
But hey, again...it is an MMO, and MMO games gain and lose players all the time. Let's just hope for your sake that this decision, along with a shockingly low amount of new content, doesn't cause more of the latter than the former.
For my sake? Geez you really haven't been paying attention have you?
You can't both claim that you prefer missions and claim that you care about getting to max level as fast as possible s( u 3 u )z now if you'll excuse me, I'm on an "all cheesecake" diet, and it's time for second breakfast.
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Again...general "you" (as in current subscribers/players) vs. specific "you" (you personally)
Best advice: Check your snide attitude, and the f*@k over yourself.
Again, you spend way too much time worrying about wether other people are enjoying the game. You don't own stock in cryptic, they don't write you a paycheck, you have no real stake in the future of the game. By all accounts, you'll have stopped playing it before it stops running. Keep it real brother! \( O 3 O )/
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Very likely.
That doesn't really speak to the longevity of the game itself though, does it?
I think somewhere in your quest to stroke your epeen, you have missed sight of the fact that if enough players quit, the game goes bye-bye. It is a business after all.
That does not mean that it is going to happen over this...or that it will happen in the near future, but it will happen eventually, and bone headed decisions like this one will likely only hasten that outcome.
Everything ends. Nothing goes on forever. I just enjoy things when they're here rather than stressing about when they might be gone... especially when it's clear that I'm ultimately powerless to affect their longevity... and super especially when it's a video game/tv show/other silly thing.
My question is, why are you so concerned that the game is going to end someday?
Another question is, why are you so concerned that I'm not concerned?
Your face is! :O
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I am not concerned about that at all. Everyone with a fully functional brain knows that the game will end someday. What I am concerned about is when that end will arrive, either for me...or for the game, because it is obviously an experience I get enjoyment out of, otherwise I would not pay for it.
I really don't care one way or another what you do. And I am quite sure that the feeling is very mutual.
1) Just how long will it take you on average to run through a grab since that is what people seem to be keyed in on.
2) Are XP alerts really the fastest method to level in the game anyway?
A lot of the concern is coming from people who already level far slower than I do from what I gather so I'm trying to get some perspective on what other people are experiencing and why this is a thing.
All things considered, how long was it actually taking you folks to level a character 1-40 before today's patch?
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Um... so you just said you're not concerned about the game ending... and then in the same paragraph you said that you are concerned about the game ending. Soooooo.... which is it? Being concerned about "when" the game is going to end, and being concerned "that" the game is going to end are really the same thing you know... so back to my question about why you're so concerned?
You have to realize that there is no guarantee on any investment in entertainment... you buy a video game, there is no guarantee that it will entertain you forever ( in fact nowadays you're shelling out sixty bucks for a few hours at best in most cases ). So if your concern comes from the money you put in... well, that's gonna be tough for you.
As far as "when", it's been openly stated that there are no plans to shut down the game anytime soon, and all the extra activity from devs recently should tell you that the end is further away than it ever has been.
Further, the idea that "if the population gets low enough they'll shut it down" is unsubstantiated. You just don't know that to be true. Yes, it's a business, but that's not always what the decision comes down to. You should see some of the games that are still being floated with a population of less than a hundred players.
I'm sensing some hostility... I'm gonna guess you're upset that the changes went live, so I won't bother pestering you for any justification for the whole "liar" thing... even though I easily could and would enjoy watching you struggle to come up with something (which is why I'm not going to bother asking you to justify the "a**hole claim)
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In that vein that means leave XP alerts the way it is because it is more popular than resource alerts. And for people that want resources this change is none of their concern.
I think this was my fastest. No double xp weekend, no outside xp bonuses, only doing smashes and the questionite daily while logged in. Took this pic the second I hit 40.
We can assume approximately 20-30 minutes added on this due to the new level gate, and increase the overall time by about 10-20% to account for having to kill trash mobs.
Which would still not put it at 2 days total leveling time.
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Yes, "XP Alerts" are more popular... and they will be no matter if they are Smashes or Grabs. That being the case, it then leaves the devs free to make "XP Alerts" be whichever of the two makes more sense for leveling players...and that's what they did by making Grabs be the "XP Alerts".
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Are you dense or something?
I explained this already. I enjoy, or at least enjoyed, the game as it was. These changes are making it so I will enjoy it less. That is a concern for me. It is the same thing as when you enjoy a television show, and they change it by adding new characters, or killing off characters you enjoy (or in this case, they took a 30 min sitcom and turned it into 2 hour reality program).
I retracted my statement, but if you want an explanation, pure and simple, you claimed this was going to make the game "better". That, to me, is a lie.
And I called you an a-hole because I don't care for your attitude.
Pretty simple.
You don't know that though... you haven't actually experienced the changes. For all you know you might enjoy this a whole lot more once you wrap your head around the idea that the journey to 40 will now consists of more than just standing there spamming powers on a stationary enemy. You might find that the journey isn't even significantly longer, and more importantly that it won't actually feel longer.
The sitcom/reality show reference just illustrates one thing I've been saying... you're overreacting. This is like if they took your 30 minute sitcom, and turned it into an hour long sitcom, and the second half hour fleshes out the lives and activities of the shows sub-characters.
So in your mind if someone has a different opinion from you, that makes them a liar and an a***hole (and dense, lol)? That's interesting!
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I made a character to try leveling through just smashes, got to 34 last night. I'll /played at lunch. I got suckered into episode 4 of Aftershock and made a nemesis but other than those 10-34 have been smashes.
10-20 with the two bubbles per smash felt faster than missions even with the waits for smashes to come up. 20-30 felt a little faster with the one bubble per smash. The 3/4 bubble per smash is feeling slower and failed smashes really hurt. Before the patch I was considering just going to Vibora to avoid the 1/2 bubble per smash phase but I'll see if the less likely to fail always available Grab makes up for the longer mission time.
You are making the assumption that I have never made this "journey" from 1-40 before alerts. I did. About 10 or 11 times. I don't really care to do it again. And given the fact that basically despise grab alerts because they take so much longer than smash alerts, I think I can be relatively certain that I know how these changes are going to affect my experience.
Perhaps, but if I don't care about the mundane details of what the sub-characters do...they why would I bother to watch. And unfortunately, the new footage of watching one of the main characters brother's cousin's former roommate fold socks is not something that you can skip, because it is woven into the fabric of the show.
Again...the appeal of smash alerts is that you get in, fight the boss, win or lose, and get out...2-4 minutes, tops. And with a level 6-7 character, one will pretty much moves you an entire level, or close to it. Instead, now you will have to schlep all over the map doing missions, then spend 20 minutes per grab alert to gain 1/8th of a level per alert.
It doesn't take any complex mathematics to understand that moving 4/5ths of a level in an average time of 3 minutes is faster than moving 1/8th of a level in 20 minutes.
And...what is really unfortunate is that the subscription management section of the site here seems to be down. I'd like to know when I am paid up through.
20 minutes per grab? Wow, are two people just idling the entire time? I've never seen a grab go even a third that long...yet.
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Damn, so basically you did effectively end up with two people idling (dropped from map). That sucks.
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Museum Heist takes forever...at least 15 min, for sure. I haven't timed it, but I know that Bank Robbery and Museum Heist both take longer than City Hall and Day at the Mall.
All four take at least 4-5x what a 2 minute drill takes. And none of that even addresses what fails (where everyone leaves the map in frustration) in these grabs will be like. Instead of wasting 2 minutes on a fail, you will waste 15.
I'd have rather seen them level gate smash alerts to 20, leave them as they were, and add an XP reward to grab alerts, but not as much as smash alerts and not level gate them. At least then the snail's pace leveling of missions, or the 500% slower rate of grabs, would only be something you have to deal with through half the "journey".
Or even make bursts the XP alert. You can run through a Radiation Rumble pretty quickly, without anyone whining because of a fail.
Empty zones, people crying for new stuff, or new challenges, people waiting or having to head back to MC just to completely a 5 man dungeon in zones that used to be teaming with heroes.
Chrisis mission which no one does for example? Entire plot lines like Psi corp and Medusa, and all the other things that made Champs interesting in the beginning.
I mean, what do people do when they level an alt to 40...sit in the middle of the rec center dueling. Heck, people are not even grinding gear.
It's about alerts, only alerts, getting Q (That's the grind) Zen, etc. People who complain about the game being a micro transaction based lock box game are partially correct, but at the end of the day when you just see Millennium City all the time, get ported into an alert and level up in 3-4 days there is a lot to be missed.
Now this is not to say that the veterans of the game have not done this content, but new players coming in see a fast way of getting to 40, and then complain when the game gets dull and boring.
Overall, why would the dev team be stupid enough to spent time and resources putting new zones in the game, like the much beloved moon base or moon something or other if a huge percentage of player will just level through alerts and never see it.
I am an old time member. Left, Came back. Deleted my original toons, and as an example I felt into the trapping of...Oooooh alerts. Quick way to 40. Only my recent toon has been following the storyline...and wow...Monster Island and Lemuria are still there. Except I am the only one zoned half the time.
There is your problem as I see it.
Old time member. I miss NERF :eek:
No... what makes sense is to what people want. And this is not what levelers want. An alert that lasts longer? No thanks.
Basically, this change stems from two things:
1 - Mission levelers, usually long timers, who despise alerts and see them as a way around "playing the game" whined because they are jealous that people can get to 40 in about 1/20th the time it took them to do so.
2 - Alert levelers whining because their group failed and just happened to have someone lower than them in the group. These people are the funniest, because they have just cut off their noses to spite their faces! If you think failing a couple of 2 minute smash alerts was slowing you down, just wait until you have to spend 5x the time running grabs instead...and don't think for a minute that you won't get leechers and people who bail, causing you to either fail, or spend even more time completing the alert.
As for group 1, they are getting what they want...they are essentially, through their whining, forcing their preferred style of play onto others.
As for group 2, they just got screwed and don't even know it!
You know Rad Rumble isn't the only Burst Alert, right? I've never been in a Pyramid Power alert that took less than fifteen minutes to complete. Ao'Q Rad Rumble and Pyramid Bursts would completely wreck your idea of Bursts being a better solution.
inb4 someone mentions Trauma makes my point somehow less valid
I don't think that this is true at all. There hasn't been huge threads about how leveling is too quick or anything like that. The developers weren't pushed to make this change. I think it came as a surprise to all of us. Some of it just think it's a good idea.
Personally, I like my fast leveling. I have over 30 characters with 4 to 8 hours of double XP that I spend my time leveling in Smash alerts. Am I gonna run out of double XP faster? Yeah maybe. But hey, I get a change of scenery, run some alerts that I haven't run ad nauseum for years. I'm fine with it, and I never asked for Smash alerts to level people slower. I'm no "old money" type.
Oh they know it plenty. People are complaining before they even know how much it will impact them.
Yep, Pyramid bursts take a LONG time...way worse than Rad Rumble.
And, Ao'Q is in grabs, is he not?? So that pretty much is a wash. A Museum Heist with Ao'Q is going to take just as long as a Pyramid with him. Which is why it is a terrible idea to make grabs the leveling alerts. At least with bursts you could just wait for the Rad Rumbles. Either way, Smash made the most sense for leveling. Sucks that there are a very vocal subset of players that cannot ever fail at anything, ever, without whining like diaper babies.
http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=246161
lol seriously? That thread came out after they announced the change and is mostly just justifications for it.
Precisely. My point is that there was no "old money people" acting jealous at how quickly other people level in alerts. Sure, there have been some people who do think that alerts make leveling too easy, but those people are so few and far between that it's silly to think that they pushed the developers to slow down Smash leveling.
And group 3. People like me genuinely trying to get some perspective and figure out what the big deal is either way.
Personal thoughts on why I don't quite grasp the big deal:
No one leveling solely or mainly through alerts has come close to any times I leveled either pre- or post- Shadow C farming fix among other things so I'm left wondering exactly what people consider slow. Example: Someone posted that they once leveled a toon to 40 in 19+ hours as an example of 'fast' and someone else posted recently they did it in 26 hours without noting what they thought of this time. I have a screencap of me doing it 9 hours and some change and my personal record is just over 4.5 hours back when my supergroup and some people on this forum were egging me on to see just how fast I could do it and keep trying to shave the time using every 'trick' that I knew.
The character I've been playing most recently hit level 35 last night. On Tuesday I was level 11 and /played says I'm just over 9 hours on the character so far. I don't have a double XP buff on this character and I didn't run alerts on them until after I hit 35 late last night just because I felt like bashing faces with people instead of running solo. I say all this to say, some people keep complaining that alert leveling is wrecking their fast leveling while I'm sitting here mildly amused that these same people think alert leveling is fast leveling in the first place. To me it's not, but people would have to play through the rest of the game to notice the several places they could make better time if that is what their main focus is.
Alert leveling is not, and never has been the fastest way to level here. It has always been a quick and efficient way to get a good chunk of XP and do some stuff with other people, but if you're really trying to get to level cap fast for whatever reason you have you're better off doing some things solo.
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So you're saying that the real person slowing down these peoples' leveling is actually... themselves?
That's Kenpojujitsu. s( o 3 o)=b
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I still can't see how someone can complain about the "sameness" of missions, and in the same breath want to run Smash alerts from 6 to 40. It would drive me nuts. However, if that's your playstyle, well, as I say so often, de gustibus non est disputandem.
Since I do like getting that XP boost just before turning in a passel of missions, however, I'm looking forward to doing it with an Alert that isn't guaranteed to fail just because two or three people refuse to play with "lowbies" and quit out. They'll take longer when that happens now, but one can still win, because there's no real time limit.
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I run alerts constantly while logged in... and I can tell you that I don't get it either.
I also don't get why these people think they're going to be running missions instead of alerts from today onward... if they hate them so much, why would they do them? .-.
That's like if Jon here started only running smash alerts while leveling but then complained about how much they suck. Wouldn't make sense :O
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It's great and all trying to make Champions Online a more "serious" game by making it take longer to level but at this post alert stage I'm not quite sure this change will have a net positive effect on the player base. CO has always been a very casually built game. You can easily level 1-40 with an energy builder, one combo, and a defensive passive. Given that nature of the game CO has drawn in a casual audience. Sure given the freeform system there is a min/maxer group but for the most part CO audience has been very casual.
Now casual could mean lots of things: doesn't have a lot of time, likes the easy to understand system, likes the ability to easily play with no understanding of the system, enjoys the almost non competitive nature of the game, etc.
I understand there are people who would consider themselves casual players and still would like a longer leveling experience. However, these individuals are a minority and we all know how bleak the future of the game looked pre-alerts. The population was slowly decreasing and since On Alert it had a burst of players and has since stayed pretty stable.
I see more people getting burnt out on the slower leveling speeds compared to what they are used to then people reading about the update and going "Hey, CO is making it arbitrarily harder to level. Time to give the game another shot!"
It would be a lot like an amusement park building three new roller coaster next to their old wooden one. Not liking how fast people can get on and off and only use the fastest of the four; the managers of the amusement park destroy the fastest one leaving the customers with the old wooden one and the new "fastest" one that's over two times slower then the old fastest. It just doesn't make sense.
Just like the fast roller coaster the fast leveling alerts have become a quality of life feature that the customers have gotten used to or have only known. I don't like channeling Dr. Doom and these changes don't really effect me personally as I like leveling from missions and I get burnt out by the time I reach alert 15, but I'm not seeing how this change will have any positive long term effect on the future of CO.
Now, if a couple of people quit a Grab, it just means it's going to take longer - no more guaranteed fails just because someone else doesn't like your face (or the number underneath your face).
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I don't think I've ever seen someone leave an alert because of someones level. I've had people leave because it's taking too long to complete and will more then likely lose. I've beaten 2 min alerts with no one above level 15 plenty of times. Also the Grab alert doesn't have a time limit, but if all the remaining people happen to be squishy dps types, even if they are high level, it will still be impossible to complete. I'm sure we have all seen groups wipe due to shotgun spam.
Even then it would still be smarter to leave group and retry the alert then take a lot longer to get the same amount of xp.
But like I said I've never seen this elitist mentality in game only on the forums. I know I'm not the best when it comes to grinding alerts, but if it was such a huge problem where the devs would have to incorporate in game changes to stop bullying, statistically I would have seen it in game on a regular basis.
Let's look at both scenarios:
Scenario 1 - You are leveling using smash alerts. You queue up. The alert starts. Half the people are lower than lvl 15. The other bails. The alert fails. You queue up again. Same thing happens. You queue up again, you get a team of people over lvl 20 (and let us assume they are competent and not wasting the entire 2 min fighting minions, pulling things they shouldn't pull, using knock backs, running from the boss like the Benny Hill show, etc.), you complete the alert, and you gain X amount of experience. This scenario required roughly 6-7 minutes.
Scenario 2 - You are leveling under the new system and using grabs. The alert starts. Half the people are lower than lvl 15. The other bails. You and the other remain two people, who are level 10 and 11 complete the alert. You gain X amount of experience. This scenario required roughly 30 minutes.
Sure, you didn't fail the grab alert, but you just spent 5x the amount of time earning the exact same amount of XP.
Are you sure you didn't fail...because that has fail written all over it to me.
19 hours to level 34 through smashes. Knock off an hour for setting up the nemesis and an hour for Aftershock ep. 4 so 17 hours in smashes for 34.
Well Kenpo mind sharing how you do it so fast to us that want to speed level?
Oddly enough, neither of those are the reason they did it. The devs have no interest in either of those things. If you check the announcements on the main page they explain why they did it.
Basically, grabs just work better for low level players than smashes.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.