3dent

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See now i call exploits getting under a map and shooting foes that cant shoot back.

Not this.

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And shooting comm-ofs from under 20-something forcefields (which pretty much ensures that they never hit) is different how? (And yes, it still could be done, even after Sky Raiders patch.)

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Delting toons that has been powerlvled by players using the tools the DEVS gave us is no exploit at all.

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Same logic would apply to that old respec bug that allowed to solo Hamidon. It was just use of dev-given tool in an unforeseen manner. Exploitable things are by definition added to the game by the devs. That doesn't make them any less exploitable.

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How can anything be an explote when the system was given to us by the devs, there is nothing stoping you from making a whole map full of EBS now this isnt moaned at as PL its just part of the MA sysem.

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That's pretty much THE definition of exploit, - you're able to do something so overpowered that there ought to be a mechanism for stopping you from doing that, but because of devs' oversight, there isn't.

What is unique about this meow issue is its scale (1-50 in less than a day) and number of users (most players, to an extent), not its nature.

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Im not saying i agreed with what was happening and if this is the stance they want to take then thats fine, but dont start talking about "back dating" punnishments.


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It's not back-dataing - there was a clear warning in the MA patch notes that exploiters would be in trouble.

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Technically it isn't. But it would feel that way to many. First Law of MMO: Devs are there to be hated. Second Law: No one reads legalese, esp. those "we reserve the right to do anything, anytime" clauses, unless that legalese is very visibly enforced from the get-go. (Putting farm-related terms into the filters apparently wasn't visible enough for many.)

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...aaah, but was it an exploit? Exploit suggests something that is a tad harder to find than a farming ARC mission. My main point still is that a development cockup and mistake should not be taken out on the players. I don't think the speed you get to 50 matters, what matters is if you can play the toon.

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As I said it's a bit difficuult to say how Draconian they are going to be in applying this, but, strictly speaking, taking away something that wasn't ever meant to be there in the first place is fair enough for me, even if it might touch a couple of my own characters. If it would be some sort of XP/inf rollback I'd probably hardly notice it even on those couple characters. It all depends on how NC/PS will go about it themselves, really. If they would handle it in "Die, thou filthy villain(*), DIE!" manner it would be one thing, if they will do businesslike "We're sorry, but it's necessary, you weren't meant to get this, we must rollback/suspend/delete this" it would be another one.

(*) From Latin "villa" - "country house, estate, farm"

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So...punishing the players for their mistake of not thinking the MA through well enough before release?

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Only players abusing the system.

I'm not getting punished

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The question is what they would count as "abuse"? If it's, say, "anyone ever gaining any rewards in a bannable (under the new rules) arc" it would be IMO too harsh. Or even somewhat milder "anyone gaining a 50 faster than X, retroactive indefinitely."

On the other hand, I don't want those ban threats to be just slaps on the wirst either. PLing got to ridiculous levels, whether it was dev's fault or not.

Well, it's interesting to see how (and if) they would implement PL ban... That said it's good to see that measures are taken, and new arc banning policy is good, although I'm a bit confused on how that "you can't unpublish, but CS can" thing would work.

And I'm VERY interested in how all the new players would react. <grabs popcorn>

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Ah the Hollows can make you or break you.

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Why I so like my rad/rad. He soloed the entire Hollows, (except for CoT trial, of course) Superpeeding through Atta cave and taking on insanely sized spawns around the guards felt so cool...

Wait, you mean it gets BETTER, not worse in the 20s? I thought it would be typical 1-10 uber, 10-20, - ok, 20-30 meh, 32-40 OK, 40-50, - uber curve. (at least that's how my 2 highest alts (claws/regen and rad/rad) felt.)

Yes, I know, 22 is SOs, but you usually are a bit short of powers at this point, b/c of Stamina (Rad/Rad) and/or the way powersets are (Claws/Reg, going staminaless. ADD 2: Hmm.. That's why it probably won't apply to khelds, - the only thing they aren't short of is pickable powers, and staminaless builds are viable for them...)

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If its not interesting why play it.

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Because some builds start off rather meh and bloom later on.

Warshades especially take this to ridiculous heights (going past "bloom" somewhere in the 20s and ending up at "dear-sweet-baby-jebus-this-is-fun" in the 30s). But a low level (pre-SO) WS really isn't much fun, especially solo. If the MA had been around when I was grinding my way through the teens by street hunting I'd have jumped at the chance to farm.

Sometimes it's also nice to skip sections of content (like the starting zones or stupid MinerStrike Island) by PLing past it too.

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??? As a player of a warshade in pre-20 level range I didn't notice anything "meh" about them. Squidform, and later hastened, mired squidform outblasts lowbie blaster, and humanform has Recall, which is useful in teams. And that's without YinOs in the AoE (which boost Rech for the WS. PB can Yin-slot everything and be even more uber for a while.)

(ADD: and if you don't like forms, why bother with Khelds in the first place?)

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Trial account limitations

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Yes, but OP mentioned unlocking stuff in the MA, which implies full access...

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(IIRC trial time counts,

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Oh yay!

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At least it seems to work that way for me, I get my awards a the day I started the trial, not the day I subscribed. YMMV. Plus, as I said anniv trial is special anyway.

Aren't trial restrictions lifted for anniv month? (MA is normally restricted to subscribed players, isn't it?)

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The Architect Cossie Unlockables are for your created Custom Critters only, not for your actual characters.

Trenchcoats are a Vetern Reward you get for 6 months of subscribing (I think it's 6 anyway). That's the only way to get them for your characters afaik.

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Just 3.

6 is Greek letters for chest symbols+free tailor token(s) to all _existing_ characters. (9 and 12 are much more interesting)

You unlock trenchcoats for your characters after 3 months of subscription (IIRC trial time counts, as does free month which you receive when you buy a box/activation code.) You need to wait those 3 months, though, even if your subscription is for longer than 3 months subscription time awards are not given until after the time actually passes. (If you're interested there's a list of what's awarded when somewhere in your account managemenmt screen on the plaync site as well as unofficial one here: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Veteran_Rewards )

MA allows to buy veteran content for tickets, but only for NPCs you create, not for your own characters.

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Ranged Mastermind minions running up to stand next to enemies. I simply cannot comprehend how this absurdly simple fix is entirely beyond the ability of anyone who has ever worked on City of Villains.

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I suspect PRAF68's explanation, - that the code is just that rotten is true, for AI at least. Look, it seems there is NOTHING, up to and including outright nerfs and rollbacks to previous code, that devs won't do instead of fixing the AI. (MM pets recharge, and Old MoG for Paragon Protectors being most notable.) Which pretty much means that they downright fear touching it.

And ignitable pets bugs.

P.S. for non-software-engineering types, - almost every project has that part that everyone is afraid to touch, which is constantly scheduled for total rewrite "sometimes later," but almost never gets it. You do your best to avoid these situations, but they happen nonetheles. In other words, I'm not bashing the devs, far from it. I just think that the AI may be problematic to fix.

Good luck with your pilot!

Thanks everyone, very helpful, especially the bit about seeker drones. Couldn't figure if they're of any use from the description alone.

Depends. Just have played an arc that was more difficult than most TFs (16 AVs, incl both LR and Statesman, some of them attacking simultaneously and you only have allies for the last 3.) Yes, it gave the team loads of XP, why shouldn't it?

farming as such isn't the problem. The problem is everyone and his dog can now PL, thanks to auto-SK. Disable auto-SK, and farming/PL would be not eradicated, but curbed back to roughly pre I-14 levels, and we won't get any Stalkers with Strealth pool.

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/unsigned that would only make TP worse.

[/ QUOTE ]Eh? How?

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It will be a problem if you are up in the air, - you press the wrong key and... Also I thought initially that the OP meant _any_ movement keys including "A" and "D"...

/unsigned that would only make TP worse. It's finicky enough as it is (although I have 2 TPers and plan a 3rd) Better solution would be to hive just the normal Hover for 2 seconds, even pre-buff one would do.

With TP as it is, - raptor helps there a bit, and it is buyable in SS, and one you've got in Kings might last long enough to get to lvl 40... Raptor, and (I think) any Flight-like power supersedes auto-hover and you can move freely as soon as you TPed, so that jetpack-giving Day Job might be worth looking at too.

I know, mercs=lol, but I really like lots of dakka-dakka, and while I very rarely play redside it still would be nice to know what I'm doing when I do... So is there any good guide/forum thread with builds, tactics, etc? If there isn't then some specific questions:

Are /traps powers beyond Poison Gas any good? (Acid Mortar, Force field and PGT themselves are superb. )
What the build would need most? Recharge?
Stamina. Is it needed? At early levels (currently 24) end bar barely moves, except when I summon/upgrade.
Mercs, - how to best slot Spec Ops?

Auto-LK does strange things to henchmen, actually (nver saw how it works with normal LK, so I might be wrong.) They may actually spawn at higher level than they ought to, for instance... (Auto-LKed to 41 but got LVL 42 tier 1...)

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Why not make AE buildings into a zone, that you enter by using the door? That way you could also allow people to meet inside, even if they enter from different zones.

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Hmm... Because that zone would be the single most laggy place in the whole game?

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2 Op, Welcome back
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I'm amazed that some people see MA as the best thing since sliced bread, whilst others see it as a potential game destroyer.

Go figure

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Tl;dr: Right now it's both.

I'm a big supporter of MA, although I expected most of the things that happened (except for that Atlas spam thing and way too generous rewards...), farmer arcs, bugs, people who are better at promoting their stories than at writing them, most of it is actually BETTER than I was afraid.

Why I'm still beliving in it? I believe this is THE future of MMOGs, that's that many, most even, people actually want to do online, - Look at CoX itself, - roleplay, cossie competitions, RWZ challenges, SGs, even markets - it's all stuff run by players for players. It exists in every MMOG, and always wins over prefab "endgame content" in the long run. PvP is in the same category, but, well... Let's not talk about that .

But MA could destroy the game if the dev team won't find a solution to a major problem no one was able to solve yet (fair ratings system.) and several technical issues, that just require enough man-hours thrown at them (search, exploitability, spam and lag) plus extend it in rather obvious way, - buyable story slots, better arc editor, more content.

P.S. This post was checked for absolute neutrality on the issue that shall not be talked about by me.

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The problem for me is that part of why I love this game - a huge part - is the storyline.


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Well, that's a valid objection, but frankly, MMOs are just not good medium for that type of storytelling anyway. 25 beaten Frostfires later you realize that there isn't any storyline that progresses, everuithing is reset back immediately after a contact gives you their souvenir. Individual stories may be cool, yes, but continuity is simply not there, and without continuity it may well be all a VR anyway...