Did I waste my money?

[montag58]

The impression I'm getting from these threads and various websites is that since I don't have any high level toons, I'm pretty much SOL as far as AI points. Does that pretty well sum it up?

[Manicmouse]

You don't need high level toons to do AI. What level are your toons?

"AI points" - Do you mean Alien XP? You can host raids at any level for that.

[Tarondal]

The "peak time" for AI raiding seems to be either levels 100-150, or 200+. That said, you can run mothership missions at any level you want, and if your org has a city, you can probably run a raid for whatever level you want anytime you get the CRU and a team together. (Just be sure to have an "extra" ACRU for afters-- if you leave the city controller at two percent charge, the city advantages go away and people get all grumpy.)

[montag58]

I must be missing something; Last night I went to Borealis and signed on for the Battlestation. Imagine my excitement at being number 1 in the que; that was at 1:00.
At 4:30 I finally gave up and went to bed.
I really like AO, and SL...well SL was just magical. But so far AI seems to be somewhat like waiting for the bus, only more frustrating.

[Eseb]

Erm.. Battlestations are part of LE, not AI... AI has cities, city raids, APF, etc.

[montag58]

Erm.. Battlestations are part of LE, not AI... AI has cities, city raids, APF, etc.

Well....POOP!

Though this does, in a round-about way, bring me back to my original thesis; that having shelled out thirty bucks, I am now relegated to questing for the Darling-Syndrome Antidote, or questing for Absolutely Darling Outfits.
That the AI expansion is in fact designed for, at a bare minimum, 100lvl toons.
That while Funcom is perfectly willing to accept money from anyone whose pockets spontaneously combust due to the large wads of cash stuffed therein, the expansion is directed towards those who own their own cities or belong to 1000+ member orgs...and all others should beware a company with a strict no refund policy.
Does this seem an accurate summation of the facts?

[Tarondal]

Er, no. That's not accurate. I've said it before: you can run motherships at any level you want. Most of the people I've seen in full Ofab have been subway-size. Heck, make a froob account, level an alt on it to level 25, dual-log and team your paid toon with the froob, and go solo the missions-- you'll do great until the fishies devour your tender, low-level flesh.

AI city raids... I used to solo them on my fixer, when she was level 20, level 30. I ran raids with pickup teams all through TL3. I rarely got past the admiral, but that's because when you pick up random people off LFT, they frequently suck. Don't EVEN talk to me about "no AI content before level 100."

Battlestations, now... there you have a bit of a point. The BS scene is totally dead until you get up to 200+. I think that to get a station fight going at lower levels, you'd have to arrange something. Find some people of each faction, and agree to meet up with level 50s or whatever at a particular time. It'd be good fun, and it's actually what the battlestations were supposed to be for... that's why it clears buffs when you go in, so that you can get low-level battles without giving the win to whoever got the most uber outside buffs.

[Anamelle]

Well....POOP!

That the AI expansion is in fact designed for, at a bare minimum, 100lvl toons.
That while Funcom is perfectly willing to accept money from anyone whose pockets spontaneously combust due to the large wads of cash stuffed therein, the expansion is directed towards those who own their own cities or belong to 1000+ member orgs...and all others should beware a company with a strict no refund policy.
Does this seem an accurate summation of the facts?

You don't need to own a farm city, nor belong to a 1000 member org, nor be able to solo raids in order to have access to AI content

It is easier if you are a member of an org, yes. Sitting on /lft can be frustrating sometimes (I should know, I used to do it before my org managed to get a city.)

The best thing you can do is look for an org that hosts raids in your level range and either join them or befriend them. It doesn't have to be a large org. Medium and small orgs do have raids too, provided they own a city.

There even is an org on RK2 that has been started specifically to host low level raids for people.

[dracutza]

As others have already said, your setting determines your access to AI content more than your level does.

If AI points = AI XP, then you can either do mothership raids (LE content) or join an org with a city (provided they do low level AI raids,) or sit on LFT for AI raids.

Our org for example has a wide level range for players. While most raids happen to be TL6/TL7, there are still many times the lower TL ranges do AI raids.

[Phyxr]

I have a degree of sympathy for the original poster as I have long felt that the content of the AI expansion was inaccessible to players like myself who mostly solo. The same is largely true with LE. You do need access to an org with city for alien raids or to own a shop, you do need teams to get alien mothership missions and averagely financed toons can't solo them.
Whilst BattleStations are sided you don't explicitly have to team. But, of course, unless you have a high level toon you can wait for days to get a game, so effectively it is not an option.

I know people bang on about AO being a team oriented game but that is never made clear on the expansion pack box blurbs. It also doesn't take into account at all that a large proportion of online gamers prefer the lone wolf approach.

[Boltgun]

1. shift+f
2. "axp/le mish"
3. check looking for team
4. ???
5. profit

That said in that another game I bought an expansion and had to wait to be level 58/70 to get any access.

[spanky]

Kevin if you buy LE you can get alien xp by doing AI mish, it is handy as it gives you xp, ai xp and also victory points to buy ofab armor. To get the victory points you right click the green thingys you get as loot. I got tired of the AI raid wait and now I can go get AI xp anytime, it is worth it.

[Daylanee]

Er, no. That's not accurate. I've said it before: you can run motherships at any level you want. Most of the people I've seen in full Ofab have been subway-size. Heck, make a froob account, level an alt on it to level 25, dual-log and team your paid toon with the froob, and go solo the missions-- you'll do great until the fishies devour your tender, low-level flesh.

....

Can a fr00b even get to the alien playfields? Never tried, but seriously doubt that!

[Midianita]

Can a fr00b even get to the alien playfields? Never tried, but seriously doubt that!

and You'd be right... yet only thing that counts, is that You have to be in team in order to "pull" LE mishes.

Froob acc. works just fine in this case

[Berael]

Froobs can get into the Unicorn Staging area but they cannot get down into the areas where the APF gates are.

[Dr_Cheeks]

Froobs can get into the Unicorn Staging area but they cannot get down into the areas where the APF gates are.

how are you getting them into the staging area? a froob alt of mine wont zone on the landing beacon , despite standing there for over an hour (paying alts zoned up fine during the same time)

[Manicmouse]

The point is you just put your froob on lft, and then team with your le toon. Doesn't matter where your froob is, can be in the depths of CoH for all it matters

[Spankmeister]

Er, no. That's not accurate. I've said it before: you can run motherships at any level you want. Most of the people I've seen in full Ofab have been subway-size. Heck, make a froob account, level an alt on it to level 25, dual-log and team your paid toon with the froob, and go solo the missions-- you'll do great until the fishies devour your tender, low-level flesh.

He is talking about AI.., LE doesnt allow you to do the Mothership missions....

[Clamdigger]

1. shift+f
2. "axp/le mish"
3. check looking for team
4. ???
5. profit

That said in that another game I bought an expansion and had to wait to be level 58/70 to get any access.

Nice Southpark reference.

Check my sig for my opinion of Battlestations.

@Kevin, original poster:

Our org does AI raids in our city if you're Omni, Kevin, and I'm sure our leader will happily bring his various twinks on a lowbie raid. Send me a /tell for more info.

[Kaitlain]

A fairer analysis of the OP's question is:

AI is heavily dependent on org / prof. If your org has a city, you can always run raids. If it doesn't (or you have no org), this isn't an option. Then you're left searching for AXP off lft and OOC. OOC (clan OA anyhow) is often a good place to see people advertising - don't just sit on LFT and pray!

Secondly, your prof matters a *lot* in getting AXP. Tank classes (enf, keeper), docs and above all soldiers get the most invites. Crats, traders... less so. If ever. This is also dependent on level ~ mid level MPs will often get invites as their pets are usually level 200 by level 110 or so, but later on you can kind of forget it. On my soldier toon, I twinked heavily into having RRFE very early, and advertising this meant I had AI 10 by level 100. e.g. OS/RRFE AXP only please. Knowing what you're doing & teaming well often leads to more invites from that org, as you're known as a good person to have - this is important as a lot of randoms from LFT just... aren't. Good manners & no ninja looting (CRU holder gets bots, and decides what is rolled) are essential.

As for LE - I share a lot of your concerns. APF is filled with either a) lowbie toons 10-20 (where getting a couple of missions worth of VP means ofab gear) or b) level 165's rolling missions for the high levels. Anything in between is a pain, and does require a wait. Also, VP rewards for these missions are low (about 50-120 in a mission) meaning that I need to do 80ish for any ofab piece I would like. However, you do also get tokens and AXP - meaning I'm ok with crunching through them, as it improves your token board / AI level as well. However, getting teams is the problem: but be aware, soloing Broken shores missions will get you tokens faster, and AI raids will give you more AXP, and BS (if it ever happened) would give more VP. Its a trade off.

Bear in mind also that the APF missions are incredibly hard for their difficulty. Even if you've spent 100's millions on a char, and have the highest end gear... you'll still wipe if you're unlucky. Level 130 easy missions give mobs that hit for 1k+ a time - even at level 140ish, you'll be lucky to have 6k hp. You do the math - its simply not feasible for a new player without substantial credit investment to do well at these missions.

As for BS. Its a total joke. Forget it till level 150 ~ it simply just doesn't happen. (72+ hrs waiting, 1 instance that ended within 5 mins).