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Re: Level requirements for storyline missions
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Transcendent

Joined: Apr 23, 2006
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I want to express my one major grievance with the new business model for MxO; level requirements for the new storyline missions. I feel that it is entirely unfair for there to be a level requirement to do story-related missions. I have been playing MxO for 3 years now, and my character is only level 41. This is because I chose to take my time with it and there was no real reason to rush it. Now, I feel as though I'm basically left out of it because I'm not high enough to finish the story arcs, and by the time I get that high, the story will have been spoiled for me by hearing others talk about it. This has taken what started as much excitement about MxO's new direction and turned it into so much frustration I'd have cancelled my account already if not for my factionmates talking me out of it and convincing me to bring it up to you instead.

If you want to add new level 50 content, there are plenty of ways to do so. But please, don't make the storyline missions inaccessable to the rest of us - those who don't want to just grind to 50 - in such fashion. It's sucked a lot of the fun out for me. I used to be excited about the new crits. Now, I'm just miserable that I can't experience them like I used to.

Sincerely,

Darsana

Vixens, Zion, Syntax


Message edited by M45T3RM1ND on 11/26/2008 00:14:16.



Encrypted Mind

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That is indeed a bit of a problem. Hmmm... What if the level requirement were just taken out of it? Would that be fine in your opinion?

 

A thought that occured was if the missions that dealt with the storyline content were just there to simply convey the story to whoever wanted to go through them with a non-tradeable (Or heck, tradeable) item that would fit that organization; or it could just give a mission completion token that you need to turn in for whatever items with your collector.

Then, if the current trend is kept up where you have to farm NPCs for items that spawn during the missions to get items, they could make it to where the NPCs for the "Story missions" don't really drop the all/any of the items needed to turn into the collector, and instead make mission tickets that focus on just having the NPCs spawn on you to attack you that perhaps like special holiday/anniversary mission tickets could give you a consumable that's helpful if you choose to complete them. Those NPC-spawn missions would hold no new information related to the story that you couldn't get from the Story missions, but would be used by higher levels to farm their higher level gear.

What do you think about that?



Transcendent

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eval wrote:

That is indeed a bit of a problem. Hmmm... What if the level requirement were just taken out of it? Would that be fine in your opinion?

 

A thought that occured was if the missions that dealt with the storyline content were just there to simply convey the story to whoever wanted to go through them with a non-tradeable (Or heck, tradeable) item that would fit that organization; or it could just give a mission completion token that you need to turn in for whatever items with your collector.

Then, if the current trend is kept up where you have to farm NPCs for items that spawn during the missions to get items, they could make it to where the NPCs for the "Story missions" don't really drop the all/any of the items needed to turn into the collector, and instead make mission tickets that focus on just having the NPCs spawn on you to attack you that perhaps like special holiday/anniversary mission tickets could give you a consumable that's helpful if you choose to complete them. Those NPC-spawn missions would hold no new information related to the story that you couldn't get from the Story missions, but would be used by higher levels to farm their higher level gear.

What do you think about that?

Taking the level requirement out would be the ideal solution, yes. If the REWARDS have a level requirement, that's okay. I can live with that. But I don't want to miss all of the story just because I'm not high enough level to continue. The story is the biggest reason why I play MxO..

We got so many awesome changes with the revamp that MxO just underwent, but this one issue has been so big for me, I've been one step away from cancelling my account for the better part of a week now.




Systemic Anomaly

Joined: Aug 22, 2005
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That's my biggest problem with the update by far.

Solution:  Make them dual-purpose critical missions.  If you just want the storyline, then provided you have enough rep (60 sounds fine by me), and you're willing to risk missions instanced Downtown (if that's the case), then you should be able to achieve that goal.  In fact I like the idea of missions instanced downtown, it gives it an added element of danger that's very Matrixy.

If you want the gear, then yeah you can go for them via farming the secondary spawns.  Keep those reward items level based, 30/40/50 whatever.

I just think its pretty ridiculous that my lvl 27 Zionite alt, who has been running all of the Zionite crits exclusively for almost 4 years now, who has Beta Clothes and Neo's Insight and Zion Hardware Requisition (not to mention the Zion Stronghold Key which he has access to via well over 100 rep points); is all of the sudden completely and arbitrarily shut out from anything to do whatsoever with the MxO storyline.

Same goes for my lvl 28 Mech alt.  (I have 2 Mero 50's already on 2 servers....silly me I was going for the server trifecta instead of the org trifecta!   Who'd a thunk it).

To summarize:  Keep the rep requirements.  Instance them wherever you please...in Stratford Campus and Creston Heights if you want.   Keep the level requirements for gear obtained by farming secondary spawns.  No one loses anything at all by eliminating the level caps this way.

If you character meets the requirements and/or is willing to dodge higher level mobs, by all means they should have at it!

 


Message edited by Villemar_MxO on 11/25/2008 18:26:50.



Transcendent

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Villemar_MxO wrote:

That's my biggest problem with the update by far.

Solution:  Make them dual-purpose critical missions.  If you just want the storyline, then provided you have enough rep (60 sounds fine by me), and you're willing to risk missions instanced Downtown (if that's the case), then you should be able to achieve that goal.  In fact I like the idea of missions instanced downtown, it gives it an added element of danger that's very Matrixy.

If you want the gear, then yeah you can go for them via farming the secondary spawns.  Keep those reward items level based, 30/40/50 whatever.

I just think its pretty ridiculous that my lvl 27 Zionite alt, who has been running all of the Zionite crits exclusively for almost 4 years now, who has Beta Clothes and Neo's Insight and Zion Hardware Requisition (not to mention the Zion Stronghold Key which he has access to via well over 100 rep points); is all of the sudden completely and arbitrarily shut out from anything to do whatsoever with the MxO storyline.

Same goes for my lvl 28 Mech alt.  (I have 2 Mero 50's already on 2 servers....silly me I was going for the server trifecta instead of the org trifecta!   Who'd a thunk it).

To summarize:  Keep the rep requirements.  Instance them wherever you please...in Stratford Campus and Creston Heights if you want.   Keep the level requirements for gear obtained by farming secondary spawns.  No one loses anything at all by eliminating the level caps this way.

If you character meets the requirements and/or is willing to dodge higher level mobs, by all means they should have at it!


This would actually be the perfect solution to the connundrum. Bravo!




MC Photographer

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A good idea to be sure, and this is also one of my biggest issues with this update.  Though it's more for the massive harm done to new players attracted by MxO's story, I can certainly see the issue from the vet side as well.  As Villemar made quite obvious, this new way of doing things isn't punishing those who aren't loyal to that individual characters org, it's punishing purely based upon XP level.  We have, and should have, content that is level specific but the story shouldn't be in that category too.

I think eval brings up a good suggestion too though.  By completely removing the forced spawns from the new critical quests, and by only putting spawns in when they make sense, you make it so that every org's missions don't have to follow the same basic pattern.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't look forward to every single org's quests following the exact same "meet someone for a little story, leave the building and get attacked, talk to someone.  Talk to someone, get attacked outside the building, talk to someone" pattern.  In the old system, while the crits weren't always great or even all that different as a whole, you still didn't do the exact same thing in each org with only the text boxes being different.


Message edited by Shinryu on 11/25/2008 18:51:43.



Femme Fatale

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Purely for the record; there are players who have characters affected/excluded the same way who aren't complaining about it. 




Transcendent

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Cadsuane wrote:

Purely for the record; there are players who have characters affected/excluded the same way who aren't complaining about it. 

Maybe so, but I personally live for the crits. They're my MxO bread and butter. The story is what attracted me and keeps me shelling out $15 each month. Without that, I don't have much reason to keep playing. And I'm obviously not alone in this. Seeing as we're paying to play MxO, don't we, as consumers, deserve to get to enjoy what we pay for?


Message edited by M45T3RM1ND on 11/25/2008 20:15:31.



Systemic Anomaly

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Cadsuane wrote:

Purely for the record; there are players who have characters affected/excluded the same way who aren't complaining about it.

Just because there are people not complaining about it doesn't mean this change isn't bad. No one seemed to mind before when crits were based off rep, so going back to that old system shouldn't ruffle that many feathers (If any at all). It is still an effort to get the 60 rep required to get all the missions, just not such a monumental effort as grinding to lvl 50.

Villemar's solution summed it up best though.




Femme Fatale

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Villemar_MxO wrote:

That's my biggest problem with the update by far.

Solution:  Make them dual-purpose critical missions.  If you just want the storyline, then provided you have enough rep (60 sounds fine by me), and you're willing to risk missions instanced Downtown (if that's the case), then you should be able to achieve that goal.  In fact I like the idea of missions instanced downtown, it gives it an added element of danger that's very Matrixy.

If you want the gear, then yeah you can go for them via farming the secondary spawns.  Keep those reward items level based, 30/40/50 whatever.

I agree completely and think that's a very fair solution to the issue. I really hope Rarebit revises this in the next update, otherwise a lot of people are going to remain needlessly disenfranchised, and wind up leaving. I don't want to see that happen, especially not Dars, who's been with this game longer than I have.

/as




MC Photographer

Joined: Nov 17, 2005
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Villemar_MxO wrote:

That's my biggest problem with the update by far.

Solution: Make them dual-purpose critical missions. If you just want the storyline, then provided you have enough rep (60 sounds fine by me), and you're willing to risk missions instanced Downtown (if that's the case), then you should be able to achieve that goal. In fact I like the idea of missions instanced downtown, it gives it an added element of danger that's very Matrixy.

If you want the gear, then yeah you can go for them via farming the secondary spawns. Keep those reward items level based, 30/40/50 whatever.

I just think its pretty ridiculous that my lvl 27 Zionite alt, who has been running all of the Zionite crits exclusively for almost 4 years now, who has Beta Clothes and Neo's Insight and Zion Hardware Requisition (not to mention the Zion Stronghold Key which he has access to via well over 100 rep points); is all of the sudden completely and arbitrarily shut out from anything to do whatsoever with the MxO storyline.

Same goes for my lvl 28 Mech alt. (I have 2 Mero 50's already on 2 servers....silly me I was going for the server trifecta instead of the org trifecta! Who'd a thunk it).

To summarize: Keep the rep requirements. Instance them wherever you please...in Stratford Campus and Creston Heights if you want. Keep the level requirements for gear obtained by farming secondary spawns. No one loses anything at all by eliminating the level caps this way.

If you character meets the requirements and/or is willing to dodge higher level mobs, by all means they should have at it!

 

Best solution I've seen so far, and I hope to see it implemented...




Femme Fatale

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I also agree, and this spells it out so well.  Lower level and newer player 'NEED' to be able to keep up with the story.  It's importnant enough to include everyone possible in my opinion.

 

 




Systemic Anomaly

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Cadsuane wrote:

Purely for the record; there are players who have characters affected/excluded the same way who aren't complaining about it. 

I can only think of two, and both of them have no rational defense for arbitrary level caps other than a vehicle to mock and deride other players on DN1, for no reason other than schadenfreude.*

 

 

(*Cool word btw and one that almost never comes up in any conversation...But I think its very apt here!)


 




Systemic Anomaly

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MatrixRefugee wrote:

Villemar_MxO wrote:

That's my biggest problem with the update by far.

Solution: Make them dual-purpose critical missions. If you just want the storyline, then provided you have enough rep (60 sounds fine by me), and you're willing to risk missions instanced Downtown (if that's the case), then you should be able to achieve that goal. In fact I like the idea of missions instanced downtown, it gives it an added element of danger that's very Matrixy.

If you want the gear, then yeah you can go for them via farming the secondary spawns. Keep those reward items level based, 30/40/50 whatever.

I just think its pretty ridiculous that my lvl 27 Zionite alt, who has been running all of the Zionite crits exclusively for almost 4 years now, who has Beta Clothes and Neo's Insight and Zion Hardware Requisition (not to mention the Zion Stronghold Key which he has access to via well over 100 rep points); is all of the sudden completely and arbitrarily shut out from anything to do whatsoever with the MxO storyline.

Same goes for my lvl 28 Mech alt. (I have 2 Mero 50's already on 2 servers....silly me I was going for the server trifecta instead of the org trifecta! Who'd a thunk it).

To summarize: Keep the rep requirements. Instance them wherever you please...in Stratford Campus and Creston Heights if you want. Keep the level requirements for gear obtained by farming secondary spawns. No one loses anything at all by eliminating the level caps this way.

If you character meets the requirements and/or is willing to dodge higher level mobs, by all means they should have at it!

 

Best solution I've seen so far, and I hope to see it implemented...

From your lips to Mr. R's ears!  And thanks to the others here who seem to like the idea.  With a good couple weeks to mull it over hopefully this solution is practical, dispassionate, and a win for everybody.


Message edited by Villemar_MxO on 11/25/2008 22:02:42.



Transcendent

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Villemar_MxO wrote:

Cadsuane wrote:

Purely for the record; there are players who have characters affected/excluded the same way who aren't complaining about it. 

I can only think of two, and both of them have no rational defense for arbitrary level caps other than a vehicle to mock and deride other players on DN1, for no reason other than schadenfreude.*

(*Cool word btw and one that almost never comes up in any conversation...But I think its very apt here!)

There's a lot of schadenfreude on MxO. Especially at Mara C.


 
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