Celestial_Fury

What id like to know is what this patch is fixing/changing. No patch notes

Thing is even if her story had been not humorous at all, it never should have been pulled away. It is a STORY. It does not tie to the reality. It is purely entertainment.

In the real world they are multiple books you would never like to hear about and yet they still exist and they can be read by those willing people. No one is FORCED to take part in a story arc they do not like. You do not like Westin Phipps? Then you stay away from him. But the contact does not vanish. If you change your mind or if other people actually like him then they can do his bidding.

Censoring story arcs like the one OP created is going way too far in the " It is hainous propaganda! " logic and like Frostweaver said, we might then as well remove half the stories and enemy groups from the game.

So what would be left? Bland stories only involving punching things, stealing things and abducting people for petty reasons.

Might as well turn most missions into "Get a Neural Scrambler" and turn every enemies into sexless, raceless, ageless, brainless unoriginal grey shadows.

When you read Stephen King books, Marquis de Sade books, Tolstoi books or whatever, the author takes you into whatever story HE decided to write about. If you do not like the book then you close it. Thats it! Censoring it is simply stupid.

Post deleted by Moderator 08

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There's a world of difference between supporting a civil rights movement and putting your profits on the line for a cause.

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What is funny is that NCSoft probably would not give a damn about the whole thing if servers were located in Japan or Korea ( where bdsm, fetichism, sexual orientation and stuff like that is usual business and openly talked about ). It only is a big deal because it is in America. It is pathetic.

Stupid americans teach their kids to handle a gun at 5 but you can be sure they would blindfold them before they get to see a nipple.

I want a Kinetic Scrapper!!!

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I'm working on a villainous arc where you end up with some nasty WMDs of some sort, and during the arc you show a general disregard for life, property, and human decency. Not sure when it'll be done though.

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Yeah im working on somethin like that too. I intend to create a totally amoral arc with [censored], child killing, people poisoning, animal torture and genocide ( textually since we cant do these things in game ). But there will be clues and glowies explaining what is going on and where it is going.

I'll name the arc "A day in the skin of a psycho. Business as usual. "

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Another less obvious exploit i hope Devs will deal with soon:

Invalid AE missions STILL being run by players who never completed them. They can reset these missions forever as long as they do not complete objective , log out and log back.

That explains why some players can still run fire imps or comm officers missions even after the patch.



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And the only way you would know about this is to have done it yourself.

There are people still running the pre-nerf dreck farm map too.

Those isolated instances are not the problem. It's only a problem when massive numbers of people do them. sooner or later these folks are going to hit 42 and no longer going to get any exp from the comm farms. They are going to have to quit them and move on, or stop playing the characters.

But, as a leading sadist in the fun police, I am sure that just 'leaving it be' rankles you to no end.

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Yup. You are totally right about that. ( Why do i even bother reply is beyond me )

Another less obvious exploit i hope Devs will deal with soon:

Invalid AE missions STILL being run by players who never completed them. They can reset these missions forever as long as they do not complete objective , log out and log back.

That explains why some players can still run fire imps or comm officers missions even after the patch.

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*sighs* The captured Energy Field FX was just perfect for one of my missions... (psychic) can't we have both animations? Btw, this current Enerhy Field looks basically the same as Floating Struggle (green energy)

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I'm still playing catch up on the animations available in the mission architect. There were a couple of things on that list that shouldn't have gone on there, and a number of things that don't appear to be working correctly. I've been spending quite a bit of time sorting out encounter animations and emote animations trying to get everything doing what it's supposed to be doing.

On a somewhat related note, I want to try and expand the list of available animations...once the ones that are there are playing correctly. There are a number of weapon based animations that use a generic weapon prop, and I want to make a version of those that will work with any custom weapons and/or shields that custom critters use. There are also a lot of player emotes that might be fairly quickly and easily be converted into encounter animations and made available for use in MA content.

Also, regular old player emotes should also be working with combat modes very shortly, including shields.

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Also, regular old player emotes should also be working with combat modes very shortly, including shields.

Hey BaB! Are you saying that i will once again be able to raise my broadsword in the air when clicking the Victory emote?

Moderator 8 keeps locking threads saying that all the concerns should be posted in the right thread for it.

But Moderator 8, would you mind telling me WHERE that thread is? Everytime i think i hit the good thread it appears it is not. So where to? ( Before you place the lock again and shut up everyone. )

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Maybe to you, but not to everybody.
Maybe if the farmers went into some channel and tried not to actively change the feel of the game for those of us who have been here longer and do have roleplaying, character IMMERSION and choose to play heroes and villians not grinders and farmers.

Sure, we're being inconsiderate. But the farmers are being inconsiderate too. Why should we have to go out of our way to ignore you when you don't go out of your way not to change the way we play the game?

Will I have the ability to /ignore or opt out of the way the market is going to be shattered when people making absurd amounts of tickets destroy it?

Will I be able to pretend the MA mobs or loot or tickets haven't been nerfed once they become so? Will I be able to ignore this wonderful contribution you've made to my gameplay, a game I haven't touched because it's so full of Farmers that only appeared once they had to invest no effort?

You guys aren't going out of your way to avoid bothering me, so when I come to the forums or speak to a dev on test or whatever, I will not go out of the way to avoid voicing my dissaproval and hoping that Posi's "harsh action" is so severe some of you cancel your accounts.

Want to know how farming damages this game? I know of three canceled accounts due to it, and I wont think of inviting any of my gamer friends to City until it is handled. That's 45 bucks a month they aren't seeing, plus potential new boxes and their fees.

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Personnaly i think at this point Devs should create a server where the purpose would be Experiencing Content, Roleplay, Immersion, etc...

Do not tell me Virtue is that server because it is not anymore and since a long time already. Immersion broken by players having stupid names, talking l33t like morons, broadcasting, farming and pling their [censored] like if the game would stop existing tomorrow.

The game could use a real clean server with restricted entry, a unique EULA and terms/agreement for its players and heavily moderated to keep it immersive.

You would be surprised how popular such a server could be and willing players would be at last free of all the disturbances created by farmers, plers, morons and what not.

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Even if it is not a pure code exploit that does not mean it is normal or acceptable that a player in MA can easily have access to several pool C ( Golden Rolls ) for minimal risk/effort while players doing other content in game that is harder or more time-consuming ( TFs ) get less reward. I call that broken.

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I call that life. Seeing as the this is a game and what parts of it you play are entirely up to you its not a problem. People are playing for what they think is fun. Should base editing grant xp and merits ? Its time consuming and difficult to do well ?

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And how is building a base any risky? Yeah right...

And tell me about Katie TF? How come that thing gives crap reward ( not even a pool C recipe ) while farming in AE over less time gives better reward?

Broken. It is broken.

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i would strongly support the GMs severely reducing the amount of exp/prestige/tickets on all BUT Developers choice AE arcs. City of Farmers, with no one playing the actual game, is sadly what we have become....

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that is the 1 sure way to gut the MA. There are not enough people willing to wade through your pitiful rp arcs. You are not the great author you think you are. I see the people that get their sg to rate their mission all 5 star and then get a couple of 1 stars and complain. Maybe your stuff really is crap.

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You can bet than the MA is gonna be gut of rewards before long. Getting 7000 Tickets ( aka 2 Gold Rolls aka 2 Pool C recipes ) in less than 15 minutes of farming is simply broken.

Rewards are not balanced with the rest of the game. Any reason why MA should be more rewarding over time than any Task Forces or contact story arcs?

And about the XPs. Exploits will get fixed obviously. You really think it is normal that if i blow NPC explosives that wipe all a spawn i get full reward? It simply alot of little things like that, devs were not aware of or could not fix right away. But they will.

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Honestly I cant see why they'd fix tickets. they already fixed em once because a lot of people were angry that rewards in the MA got progressively more and more worthless as team size increased.

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If that is the case then, maybe devs should triple TF and story arc Merit rewards.

Mind explain why doing a Katie TF is not granting one single pool C recipe roll for beating 10 AV and doing more than 1 mission while doing 1 single AE farm gives about 2 pool C reward rolls, and that in less than 30 minutes of play?

Broken. It is broken.

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The problem is there is no set rule about farming. There is a rule against exploits, and we all agree they should be removed once identified and verified. No matter where you set the bar, people like me will ride that line as hard and as fast as humanly possible.

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Technically, there is one actual rule about farming: customer support (GMs) are allowed to remove missions believed to be farming missions from the architect system. So if you want to be very technical, the rule is farming is allowed if it's undetected and unreported.


One other point about rules. Our office's internet feed currently operates under a soft-cap. We pay for a specific level of bandwidth, but the circuit isn't capped to that level: we can use more temporarily. There is no specific set rule on how much we can exceed that level by, or for how long. And we burst over it all the time. But so long as our bursts aren't "excessive" we aren't required to purchase higher levels of bandwidth.

If I were to tell our provider "look, you tell me what my limit is, and I will ride that level right up to the limit: don't give me any of this 'reasonable' crap" they'd be happy to oblige by setting a hard cap for me and me alone.


I sometimes feel the same should be done in this case: everyone that explicitly asks for a hard cap defined by the devs should get one applied to them and them alone. Everyone else that can deal with reasonable judgement-defined limits should operate under those instead. It would seem to me this explicitly falls under the general principle of givng players what they want, within the limits of the game design. The people that want hard limits get them. The people that are ok with soft limits gets those instead.

That certainly satisfies every game-balance design rule I can think of.

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Actually, the first two report pulls are a function of reports vs positive rankings and are automatically done by computerized system, not actual customer service. If you want customer service you have to wait for further offences after republishing the mission or petition them.

This is why people who write stories about some pumpkinhead revolt on a farm map name Carnage on the Farm or something have their mission pulled. Why? Not because someone actually checked and pulled it, but because an idiot searched the word farm and blindly reported everything that came up. Both sides have extremists and I hope they both get banned.

But If i have a mission I am comfortable with running, run it repeatedly for my tickets, and enjoy doing it, so be it. I could give 2 shakes for it's artistic merit. I had fun playing it. My favorite mision on the AE at the moment is nothing but hordes and hordes of lvl 50 zombie bosses coming at me like something from night of the living dead. I run it atleast 2x a day. Like I have said many times. Until there is a rule, guideline, or mission statement somewhere, I'll keep my play like i have it. Posi himself says the Dev's are in mixed sentiments about farming and limits and the system in place is the solution. Wallah, I am within my limits to use said system to meet my gaming desires.

Bottom line, if no exploits are being used, it isn't illegal. Just like it isn't wrong to use the ITF over and over to level, it isn't wrong to speed run TF for maximised merits, and it isn't wrong to circle certain areas of certain maps hunting mobs for badges.

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I can understand all the fun you have being swarmed by zombie bosses and getting alot of tickets for them. That however does not mean that what you are doing is "acceptable" from the game/dev point of view. How much reward are you gathering over time by doing such a mission? And what threat/challenge are you facing to gather such rewards? It is all about balance.

Even if it is not a pure code exploit that does not mean it is normal or acceptable that a player in MA can easily have access to several pool C ( Golden Rolls ) for minimal risk/effort while players doing other content in game that is harder or more time-consuming ( TFs ) get less reward. I call that broken.

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Like seriously....there are OTHER Lieutenants out there that can be used with ease, to gain XP and what not.

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To the best of my knowledge, those other things have lieutenant-level HP and do lieutenant-level damage. That's the difference.

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Not much of a difference. Farmers will still blaze through them. Not that big of a deal.

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Farmers would not blaze through them if Comm Officers were spawning within a REAL Rikti group composed of Headmen, Mesmerists and Chief Soldiers.

I do not think Comm Officers are the real issue here. The ability for MA creator to make spawn only one single type of minions ( or lieuts or bosses ) and fill a whole map of them is THE problem which open door to imbalances imho.

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i would strongly support the GMs severely reducing the amount of exp/prestige/tickets on all BUT Developers choice AE arcs. City of Farmers, with no one playing the actual game, is sadly what we have become....

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that is the 1 sure way to gut the MA. There are not enough people willing to wade through your pitiful rp arcs. You are not the great author you think you are. I see the people that get their sg to rate their mission all 5 star and then get a couple of 1 stars and complain. Maybe your stuff really is crap.

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You can bet than the MA is gonna be gut of rewards before long. Getting 7000 Tickets ( aka 2 Gold Rolls aka 2 Pool C recipes ) in less than 15 minutes of farming is simply broken.

Rewards are not balanced with the rest of the game. Any reason why MA should be more rewarding over time than any Task Forces or contact story arcs?

And about the XPs. Exploits will get fixed obviously. You really think it is normal that if i blow NPC explosives that wipe all a spawn i get full reward? It simply alot of little things like that, devs were not aware of or could not fix right away. But they will.

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It's pretty funny to call an adjustment to something that was OBVIOUSLY over-rewarding a 'nerf'.

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Heh! If Negotiator mission was over-rewarding with 4 Merits per 10 minutes then what to think about MA missions that reward 4000 tickets per 15 minutes?

As things are right now, you get ALOT more mileage with Tickets than with Merits. I doubt it was intended but that is how it is right now.

Yup... I finally could access my account and saw i had 2 new serial codes for Magic Pack.

I only wanted one. And i expect a complete refund for the other before my cred card charge me interests.

By the way, the NCStore could use some bandwidth or something. Even the most obscure pornsites i ever visited were more reliable

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So, I got through to the "Confirm Your Purchase" and clicked it ONCE (it greys out, preventing a second click). After 3 minutes of it 'confirming' I get a "Internet Explorer Can Not Display This Page". Sooo did I get charged?

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count on a yes. I got the same message three times, I'm the proud owner of 4 codes.

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Gah! Me too the page stopped displaying soon after i clicked Confirm Purchase.

I only clicked once thought... Hope all went well... I just cant get on my account to activate my code ( if it worked ).

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Your point is well-taken regarding logical consistency. But -- as Castle's pretty much come right out and said -- this is a workaround, not a particularly elegant solution. Given infinite time and resources, I'm sure they could come up with something much better. Given a more intelligently-written code base, I'm sure they could come up with something much better.

But it sounds like this is the best they can do with what they have. If they say "We don't like this change, but we don't have any alternatives," then I'm inclined to believe them.

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I believe that too. I'm sure that they have been working on this for a while and see no alternative. My only worry is why they felt they had to do this right now, rather than just leaving it how it is. Hopefully "soon" we'll get a better update. But in the meantime, we're exchanging one undesirable system for another undesirable system. We're taking out a nonsensical system to replace it with another nonsensical system. I figure "if it ain't broke" doesn't apply, but if I have to use a system that doesn't quite make sense, I'd rather it be one that I'm already used to.

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Heh, could have said the very same thing about pre-I13 PvP... At least we were used to it.

But it got changed anyway. It is incredible how more popular it has become. PvP zones and the Arena are crowded like never before

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It would make so much more sense if we simply were allowed to slot any power with any kind of enhancement.

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No, it actually wouldn't. Some powers would see no benefit from certain enhancements even if you could slot it. What do you imagine an end mod enhancements would do to improve Gun Drone? Oh wait...nothing!

Now I have jumped on the devs myself when they have done things that I don't agree with. Repeatedly.

I am honestly having trouble though, with the 'huge number' of people who suddenly find that -recharge was the only thing making their pets worth a damn.

If pets NEED that type of boost to be effective, then there is something wrong with the pet...period. If Gun Drone is 'useless' without a -recharge to its attack and LS is laughable without a -recharge to its attack and VS is also similarly useless, then these things need a buff. Especially since that -recharge buff was a side effect of something introduced to the game that wasn't initially meant to happen.

When someone comes and posts about how they are shelving all their storm toons because suddenly, they are broken and worthless, its silly.

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What is really silly is that a tier 9 power is totally subpar to others when it is not properly enhanced, including -recharge among others.

While at the same time some other powers that are right out of the box awesome ( like MindLink ) can still get even better because they keep their "sneak -recharge IO slotting" untouched.

Silly indeed.

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ML will be changed, it is just a matter of time

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Well, at this point it should be, if only to normalize the game. Why would ML be an exception? Either that power can have increased recharge or it cant. Sneaking in recharge via Set IO has been judged a big NO NO when it comes to subpar pets. Why would it be any different when it comes to a power belonging to an AT which is certainly not underperforming?

What is making sense now anyway? Crappy Gun Drone gets shafted while overpowering Mind Link remains an exception? Way to go...

It would make so much more sense if we simply were allowed to slot any power with any kind of enhancement. We spend slots on these powers to make them better ( to enhance them literally ) and when we find creative ways to boost ourselve, we get the nerfbat. Taunt powers not accepting taunt enh.. Powers that are made unhenceable... Powers that cant recharge quicker... Always more exceptions being added... And now, your Slow powers cant even slow enemy pets. Great. That's perfect!

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Powers like Lightning Storm, Voltaic Sentinel and Auto Turret are precisely the powers that were targeted by this fix. Making exemptions for them would defeat the purpose, don't you think?

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Castle, if this is true, then the patch note is an outright lie. The patch note claims:
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This change was made to allow pets to correctly cycle through their attacks instead of getting locked on using the same attack over and over and neglecting to use other available powers.


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If this change was instead to correct LS, VS, and the turret becoming too powerful, it would have been much better if you had just come out and said so. It would also have been nice if we had been notified that this was a bug and that a fix would be implemented when it could. Instead we were lead to believe that this was intended behaviour and slotted accordingly.

I am extremely unhappy with the change. But appreciate your forthrightness. LS, VS, and the Turret became too powerful and now been nerfed. This happens to fix some other pet's AIs as well.

I feel as if we were intentionally mislead by the patch notes inorder to stealth in a nerf.

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Not an outright lie. The person who wrote the patch note wasn't aware of all the things this was intended to fix. That's one of the main reasons I'm having this discussion: Full disclosure.

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Fine. I guess all has been said then. LS will stay nerfed and we will wait a buff that might never happen ever since it is "judged" overpowered.

This would not be the first time that i abandon characters and move to something else. I just find it amusing that it is one of my character that i thought was not especially powerful that got the nerf bat this time. So, i will just go play with my scrappers and VEATS, quite happy of the good fortune i have in the end.

Double Xp has not even started yet and on Virtue i am experiencing with any of my characters ( blue and red side ):

1) Chat delay of about 2 seconds between typing and message showing in chat screen once sent.

2) Enemies are sometimes teleporting to me instead of running. Unusual lagspikes i only experienced during special events with full server.

3) Delay with powers showing recharged but still will not fire. Like good old Hami raids used to cause. But it happens now when i am alone in an instance mission. That is bad.

I am on cable modem and it is working just fine. Is anything wrong with the patch or your network?

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QR: Frankly, I'm surprised and grateful that they said anything at all. We've debated this to death in both the Badges forum as well as the Training Room forum, and now Ex has weighed in on the situation.

At this point, further debate should be laid to rest and this thread should be left to discussion of the rest of the patch.

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Nah. This matter should be brought to RL newspaper and they should put pressure. The truth will come out.