Circuit_Boy

Well, thanks for the run-through on the mission, but most of your criticisms were of things that were fully intended from the get-go, or are things that are well outside my control.

For example, if you're running on +0,x0, all Bosses spawn as Lieutenants. That's pretty much true of every mission in the game, not just AE missions, so it's something of a surprising criticism. If you had run the mission on a slightly higher difficulty, or with at least one other person, all of those boss-lieutenants would have been actual bosses.

Also, I did not run out of file space on the last mission. It was fully intended that there's no dialogue at all in that mission--it's a "silent" mission.

In addition, the Striga Isle President and the PCHS President aren't saying the eulogy. The eulogy is dropping as clues throughout the entire mission--the mission wrap-up makes it clear who's actually saying it, and when.

I think you're being much, much too literal about having the contact right there in front of you--plenty of missions in CoH imply the contact is on the cell phone or elsewhere in time or space, not literally there in front of you.

The clues at the end of every rescue in mission one are because I am well aware lots and lots of players simply don't read NPC dialogue. In fact, some have it specifically turned off.

I figured most players would figure out the Emancipator's identity pretty quickly. His "reveal" was designed so as not to insult players' intelligence.

Since all of the rescues in the first mission are uniquely named and unique MOBs, I'm not sure there's a way to lump them all into one mission objective. It's certainly possible if they were the same type of MOB lumped under the same mission objective, but they're not--they are, by necessity, separate mission objectives. That's a limitation of the AE system, outside my control.

Although players believe the Council are "watered-down mercenary types", but they are still clearly Nazis in their canonical CoH story arcs. They're the Center's schism group--the "mercenary types" in CoH are Sky Raiders and the Knives of Artemis. The Council still maintain the 5th Column's original objectives, including most (if not all) of their original story arcs. They just dress differently and have different names.

Toning down the dialogue defeats the purpose of the entire arc. These are the bad guys, and their racist ideology is one of the things that makes them the bad guys. There's no way to make something "hateful, but not so hurtful" without losing the punch-to-the-gut impact, and racists are rarely very subtle in their racism.

I'm not sure what to say about the "errand boy" criticism--that's pretty much valid about 99.9% of the missions in the entire game, due to the nature of the contact-mission system.

Regarding the multiple Presidents in Mission 4--again, that's intended. There's not just one. The Council's been busy recruiting.

Regarding the "jump", Hellions are specifically 1-16, and the Council are specifically 1-54 (as are the custom MOBs). I tweaked the latter missions to match the earlier ones.

In any event, thanks for the suggestions, and I'll see what I can do about some of them.

Thanks. To date, it's only had two reviews, and those were in an earlier form.

Arc Name: The Hero of Kings Row
Arc ID: # 230187
Faction: Hero
Creator: @Circuit Boy
Difficulty Level: Made to be soloed at any level. Specifically designed for 1-16. Custom enemy powers, there are certain bosses that may be tough if solo and they aren't lieutenants.
Faction: Hellions, Council, Custom.
Synopsis: Doug Frederick of Paragon City High has called because the Officers of Paragon City High School's Student Council have gone missing.
Estimated Time To Play: 60 minutes, 4 missions, varying maps.

At this point, I think I've got this one in more or less the final form I want it in. I could use feedback, particularly on the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of the final mission--I'm working with an experimental narrative structure there that may or may not have worked out.

Half of this arc is pre-Stamina and the bosses can be tough solo if they're not lieutenants.

Just a quick reply about Air Superiority vs. Hover:

Unless you plan to slot Air Superiority, there's not much of a point in taking it. Sure, it does -Fly, but that's not that necessary on a ranged AT* in PvE. Given its relatively low damage, compared to powers out of your primary and your secondary, you're not likely to want to slot it.

Hover is effective unslotted.

* "ranged AT" meant to be understood as "an AT that has an array of ranged powers available to it", not to say that "blappers are not a viable playstyle choice".

I have several who were already at 50:

Electric/Electric Blaster
Electric/Electric Brute
Ice/Cold Corruptor
Mind/Psi Dominator
Gravity/Force Field Controller
Illusion/Trick Arrow Controller
Plant/Storm Controller
Necromancy/Dark Miasma Mastermind

So I finally hit 50 with my Dual Blades / Ninjitsu Stalker today. Due to my chronic alt-itis and ADD (joke), it took me quite a while to get there. He started well before the Stalker changes, so I've experienced the game before and after the major shifts.

I can't say that, solo, there was a big difference. He was basically on "easy mode" the entire time. The rare times I got killed solo were due to lapses of attention or Elite Bosses who nullified my advantages (or both). I could count the number of deaths from 1-30 on the fingers of one hand. I ramped up to the equivalent of Invincible as soon as I had SOs, then scaled it down two notches when Heroes spawned rather than Elite Bosses in the 40-50 range. Solo, it's not that different from a Blaster: you have to use tactics to your advantage, but as long as you're intelligent about your fights, they should go like clockwork.

Teams were an issue before the changes, and they still are somewhat after, though less so. Being pure melee, I find I'm always a swing too late. I use Dual Blades's AOEs a lot on teams, but I'm usually at the mercy of spawns running in 15 different directions as to whether I hit much.

Although much ballyhooed as an issue, I never found "post-Assassin's Strike scrapping" when soloing to be much of a problem, either before or after the changes. Naturally, it was easier after, because everything can trigger a critical. Placate -> Vengeful Strike (Foe #1 being dead after the AS) usually dropped Foe #2 of a spawn. Solo, that typically left only Foe #3, and I always dropped Lieutenants with the AS, so Foe #3 is usually a minion. The slugfests were always with Bosses or Elite Bosses.

This makes my second melee character to hit 50, the first being an AOE-heavy melee/ranged Electric/Electric Brute.

All in all, I don't believe Stalkers every really had many issues solo--not the way Controllers and Dominators do. At least, I never did. Teamwise, however, they did and still do, in spite of the changes. I'm not sure how to address that problem, because the fundamental issue is the largely single-target and close-quarters nature of most Stalkers' damage (barring Spines and, to a lesser extent, Electric Melee).

Anyway, just some of my thoughts.

Well, the question really depends on your expectations. If you're solo or mostly small teams, I suppose it's skippable.

However, on larger to full-sized teams, you're just hamstringing yourself by skipping your 16-target AOE. Per target, it may not do that much damage, but it's doing a lot of damage overall--more than you can do with a series of single-target attacks. The last time I sat down and figured it out, as long as you hit 3 or more targets with the 16 target AOE, you're ahead in the damage-per-endurance ratio.

I can't see why you'd pick a set as heavy with AOEs as Radiation Blast and then hamstring it by not taking them.

As for the bit about cones, it's true they do more damage per target, but they hit six fewer targets, so the total damage output on a full team is subpar. As I see them on teams, Blasters should be damage specialists, not necessarily kill specialists.

As for being an "aggro magnet", my vast experience doing AOE Blasting suggests that it's the morons who don't understand how aggro works in the first place that that happens to. If you're smart, pause for a couple seconds (or simply hit Aim & Build-Up) while the tanker-effect is going into combat, you won't have any problems. It's like the AOE Immobilizes handed to Controllers and Dominators--you're an idiot if you're opening with them before your teamshield has aggro. The problem isn't with the power, but its user, at that point.

Using your own numbers:

Code:[/color]

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Elec Blast	Dam	Act	Rech	DPA	MaxTarg	DPA-Total

Ball Lightning	63.81	1.07	16	48.34	16	773.44		

Short Circuit	56.3	3	20	17.77	16	284.32	<<<<



Energy Blast	Dam	Act	Rech	DPA	MaxTarg	DPA-Total

Energy Torrent	60.06	1.07	12	45.50	10	455

Explosive Blast	56.31	1.67	16	30.47	16	487.52



Ice Blast	Dam	Act	Rech	DPA	MaxTarg	DPA-Total

Frost Breath	87.58	2.67	16	30.16	10	301.6	<<<<

Ice Storm	117	2.03	60	52.14	16	834.24

---

Which results in total AOE DPA's of...

Code:[/color]

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Electric Blast:	773.44 (Ball Lightning Total DPA) + 284.32 (Short Circuit Total DPA)	= 1057.76 Total AOE DPA

Energy Blast:	455 (Energy Torrent Total DPA) + 487.52 (Explosive Blast Total DPA)	= 942.52 Total AOE DPA

Ice Blast:	301.6 (Frost Breath Total DPA) + 834.24 (Ice Storm Total DPA)		= 1135.84 Total AOE DPA

---

As you can see, Electric Blast still substantially beats out Energy Blast in overall AOE DPA, even with "Arcanatime" factored in. It loses out to Ice Blast, but only because of server ticks (supposedly, anyway).

Please note that Short Circuit only does 17.28 less Total DPA than Frost Breath. Short Circuit's Total DPA is considerably more than "half of the next weakest AOE power". In actuality, Short Circuit does 94% of the Total DPA done by Frost Breath, the next weakest AOE power. Your claim that "Short Circuit's DPA is about half of the next weakest AoE power (and far less than most)" is verifiably incorrect, even using your own numbers, if you factor in the number of targets. Considering that these are AOEs, not single-target attacks, it'd be misleading not to factor in the number of targets hit.

This is the correct data, with the correct division:

Code:[/color]

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Elec Blast	Dam	Act	Rech	End	DPE	DPA

Ball Lightning	63.81	1.07	16	15.184	4.20 	59.64

Short Circuit	56.3	3	20	15.6	3.61 	18.77 



Energy Blast	Dam	Act	Rech	End	DPE	DPA

Energy Torrent	60.06	1.07	12	11.856	5.07 	56.13

Explosive Blast	56.31	1.67	16	15.184	3.71 	33.72



Fire Blast	Dam	Act	Rech	End	DPE	DPA

Fire Ball	78.782	1	16	15.184	5.19 	78.782

Rain of Fire	126.8	2.03	60	26	4.88 	62.46

Fire Breath	109.8	2.67	16	15.184	7.23 	41.12



Ice Blast	Dam	Act	Rech	End	DPE	DPA

Frost Breath	87.58	2.67	16	15.184	5.77 	32.80

Ice Storm	117	2.03	60	15.6	7.50 	57.64

---

I'm going to bracket off Fire. Everyone knows it's better than Electric, Ice, and Energy for AOE, so it's just not worth doing the calculations to prove it.

We have to take these numbers and not only figure out DPA-Total (that is, DPA * Max Targets), but also the DPS-Total (that is, DPS * Max Targets). For AOEs, which have Recharge Rates anywhere between 12 and 60 seconds, DPS becomes an actual factor in figuring out which ones are more potent than others.

So, without further ado, the DPA-Total, DPS, and DPS-Total figures:

Code:[/color]

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Elec Blast	Dam	Act	Rech	DPA	MaxTarg	DPA-Total	DPS	DPS-Total

Ball Lightning	63.81	1.07	16	59.64	16	954.24		3.74	59.84	

Short Circuit	56.3	3	20	18.77 	16	300.32		2.45	39.2



Energy Blast	Dam	Act	Rech	DPA	MaxTarg	DPA-Total	DPS	DPS-Total

Energy Torrent	60.06	1.07	12	56.13	10	561.3		4.60	46.0

Explosive Blast	56.31	1.67	16	33.72	16	539.52		3.19	51.04



Ice Blast	Dam	Act	Rech	DPA	MaxTarg	DPA-Total	DPS	DPS-Total

Frost Breath	87.58	2.67	16	32.80	10	328		4.69	46.9

Ice Storm	117	2.03	60	57.64	16	922.24		1.89	30.24

---

MaxTarg = Maximum Number of Targets
DPA = Damage / Activation Time
DPS = Damage / (Activation Time + Recharge Rate)
DPA-Total = [Damage / Activation] * Maximum Number of Targets
DPS-Total = [Damage / (Activation Time + Recharge Rate)] * Maximum Number of Targets

Now, let's add the DPA-Totals for each set--that represents the "burst" AOE potential. That is, it's the amount of damage, over an entire spawn, that the set can muster.

Code:[/color]

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Electric Blast:	954.24 (Ball Lightning Total DPA) + 300.32 (Short Circuit Total DPA)	= 1254.56 Total AOE DPA

Energy Blast: 	561.3 (Energy Torrent Total DPA) + 539.52 (Explosive Blast Total DPA)	= 1100.82 Total AOE DPA

Ice Blast: 	328 (Frost Breath Total DPA) + 922.24 (Ice Storm Total DPA)		= 1250.24 Total AOE DPA

---

Electric Blast is ahead of both Energy Blast and Ice Blast in terms of Total DPA, although Ice Blast is close. In terms of overall AOE DPA, Electric Blast is does approximately 14% more than Energy Blast does.

For the sake of completeness and full disclosure, Electric Blast's edge over Energy Blast in Total AOE DPA is only if there are 13 or more targets available. If there are 12 or fewer, Energy Blast has the edge. Similarly, Electric Blast's edge over Ice Blast in Total AOE DPA is only if there are 16 targets. If there are 15 or fewer, Ice Blast has the edge... if Ice Storm is available (see below).

If you look at overall AOE DPS, it tells a similar story:

Code:[/color]

---

Electric Blast:	59.84 (Ball Lightning Total DPS) + 39.2 (Short Circuit Total DPS)	= 99.04 Total AOE DPS

Energy Blast: 	46.0 (Energy Torrent Total DPS) + 51.04 (Explosive Blast Total DPS)	= 97.04 Total AOE DPS

Ice Blast: 	46.9 (Frost Breath Total DPS) + 30.24 (Ice Storm Total DPS)		= 77.14 Total AOE DPS

---

In this case, Ice Blast significantly lags behind both Electric Blast and Energy Blast. Electric Blast and Energy Blast are close--within a hair of one another.

Of course, this all assumes a couple of things that actually mitigate against both Ice Blast and Energy Blast:

1) Frost Breath's 30º cone will hit 10 targets. This has never been my experience, and I have a 50 Ice Blast / Cold Domination Corruptor who routinely uses Frost Breath. It's a great power, but hitting 10 targets is difficult, even with Range Enhancements boosting the length of the cone.

2) Energy Torrent's 45º cone will hit 10 targets. This is more likely because the cone is wider.

3) Explosive Blast and Energy Torrent don't knock each other's foes out of range of the follow up blast. This is not necessarily a given, because each power has a 50% or greater chance of knocking any given foe back, possibly out of range of the follow-up.

4) No time was lost lining up the cones to make sure they hit as many targets as possible.

Electric Blast does not suffer from any of these problems.

1) Ball Lightning and Short Circuit can be done on top of one another.

2) Neither power "spoils" the other in any way, shape, or form.

3) No time need be spent lining up either power. An Electric Blaster can hop in next to a Tank, fire Ball Lightning, then fire Short Circuit. I do it all the time (followed by Power Sink, for full drainage). It's completely safe.

Furthermore, Short Circuit's radius--20 feet--exceeds Ball Lightning's, Explosive Arrow's, Explosive Blast's, Fire Ball's, and M30 Grenade's by 5 feet. If those can hit their maximum 16 targets, Short Circuit's much larger AOE certainly can (and, in my experience, does).

And, for the record, I could use your figures, dave_p. In fact, I initially started to, before I realized there was a division problem. It'd prove exactly the same thing.

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dave_p:

Those numbers are very, very misleading. They're also incorrect--your division's wrong. I'm not sure why, but it is. For example, Ball Lightning's single-target DPA should be 59.64 (63.81 Damage / 1.07 Activation Time). There are division errors all the way through your data--you'll want to recheck them all.

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No, they're exactly as accurate as City of Data is and account for Arcanatime. Straight divisions are what's misleading. And I already said that if you manage to hit the AoE cap for SS, you catch up to the cone attacks or ranged AoEs, but again, if your starting point is 1/2 of those other attacks, you're still not catching all the way up, even if you happen to hit all 16 mobs, which, lets face it, rarely happens.

Elec might beat out Ice becaues Ice Storm recharges so slowly, but then IC has approx 3x the DPA or SS (yeah, yeah, it's a rain). Blizzard also far outdamages TB too--I'd call those two a wash. Elec absolutely does not beat out En (hardly an AoE powerhouse itself) for any practical purposes. Ball Lightning does a hair more damage than ET, but ET recharges faster, and EB outdamages & outrecharges SS. Yes, you could argue Elec does decent AoE damage (more than En or Ice) given absolutely perfect conditions, but for most practical situations, it's below average.

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Oh, I see. We're dealing with "fuzzy math" here. If straight division is supposedly "misleading", then exactly how are you making the division?

Or is that just an elaborate way of saying "I can throw any numbers out there I want, even if they're completely and utterly mathematically incorrect, but you have to believe me because I'm invoking Arcanaville's name in the middle"? Because that's what it looks like.

Also, you're assuming "SS" (Short Circuit? Shouldn't that be "SC") "rarely" hits all 16 mobs. In my five+ years of playing an Electric Blaster, on any full team, it's not a rarity at all--it's a certainty that it's going to hit all 16 targets.

dave_p:

Those numbers are very, very misleading. They're also incorrect--your division's wrong. I'm not sure why, but it is. For example, Ball Lightning's single-target DPA should be 59.64 (63.81 Damage / 1.07 Activation Time). There are division errors all the way through your data--you'll want to recheck them all.

For all AOEs, you need to multiply DPA (and DPS, which you ignored) over the number of potential targets.

If you don't do that, you come up with extraordinarily skewed data. The damage an AOE does to any single target is irrelevant--if you care about that, you might as well simply be using single-target attacks, because no AOE is going to match them in DPA or DPS.

I'll post the correct numbers, and also post them factored for total DPA and DPS, as soon as I've run them all (again--I did this years ago, but lost the sheet of paper they were written on). I can tell you now, however, that overall, Electric's going to beat out Energy and Ice for overall AOE damage.

Fulmens: Get a team for it. Really, it's a fun mission, and I'm 7 rates short of 100.

dave_p: Actually, Short Circuit is a damage power. It's a fairly significant one, too, since it can hit up to 16 foes, as opposed to most other sets' limit of 10 on their second AOE. Its radius of 20' nearly guarantees that, unless you're completely incompetent, you'll hit those 16 foes if they're available to be hit. If you slot it appropriately, you can do both significant drain and significant damage with the power.

schattenbolt: I did the Khan TF on my 50 elec/elec/elec last night on a team with a Tank, a */FF Controller, a FF/* Defender, a Peacebringer, and a Kinetics/* Defender. We did just fine. I've got the badge to prove it.

Frankly, I think people seriously contort, and in most cases gimp, their builds trying to get Set IO bonuses. I work to add those bonuses on top of an already strong build, but if getting +3% Recharge is going to force me to drop critical powers or critical slotting, the minor Set IO bonuses can go. Of course, on CB, I'm Hami-O'd to the gills...

Athletic Support.

Yeah, what Fulmens said, more or less.

Regarding the AOE thing--I've rarely been on teams where the Ball Lightning's full DOT doesn't go off--it's usually completed by the time my follow-up (Static Discharge) strikes. Sometimes, if I'm the only Blaster on the team, all of Short Circuit's DOT gets off, too.

Also, "Frankenslotting" Short Circuit was pretty cheap, all things considered, at least when I did it, and mine's a pretty darn good tool in my arsenal. You just have to be smart.

Fulmens is right that if you are expecting a Fire Blaster with sparks, you're going to be very, very disappointed. The set requires forethought on your part as a player. It requires that you understand the tools you've been given and leverage them.

You trade off some of Fire's damage for significantly greater control and, if you're smart, safety. That gives you a fairly significant margin of error, both solo and on teams.

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Hold-Lift-Hold is a great strategy for Mind Control, but since GD prevents knockback it doesn't work for Grav.

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You're right. My mistake.

I think your tactic of constantly flipping bosses would get really tedious really quickly, however. I prefer a perma-lock with holds.

In terms of both single-target damage and AOE damage, Electric/* is squarely in the middle of the road.

Electric gets a really bad rap--it's actually a pretty strong set because it has lots of survival tools other Blaster sets don't have, such as Short Circuit and Tesla Cage.

EndDrain is much maligned on these boards and in the game, mostly by people who don't know how to leverage it effectively. The real trick isn't in the drain--it's in the -Recovery effects Electric has. Both Short Circuit and Tesla Cage have guaranteed 100% -Recovery; make use of that. That means even a boss unheld by Tesla Cage will not be able to regenerate Endurance, period, as long as you continue to cycle the Cage on him or her. If you can manage to get the boss to 0, either through multiple uses of Short Circuit or by other means, he or she simply won't be able to get any Endurance back. There are a tiny handful of exceptions, but as an Electric/*, you'll learn who those are as you progress (mostly Carnies and Malta Mechs).

Yeah, I have no idea what some people are complaining about, either.

This weekend, I moved my very first CoV character, a Mind/Psi Dominator, from 45 to 49. Before I15, leveling him was extraordinarily painful. Very slow. Safe, but slow. Even the "heavy-hitting" damage powers were, by my standards, weenies--this includes Psychic Shockwave. Its damage was... meh.

It's still meh, but Psychic Scream has become an obscenity of AOE damage. Everything else in my arsenal is unbelievably potent--nearly Blaster-y.

My Psionic Lance now nearly one-shots +1 minions (almost, but not quite: Psionic Lance -> Levitate does it, though).

Mind Probe -> Telekinetic Thrust also takes down a minion.

Before, I'd have to cycle attack chains over and over on the same foe--even minions, even in Domination.

Now I just open up with Mass Hypnosis and lay waste. It's SO. MUCH. BETTER.

[Edit: I did 989.65 damage using Psionic Lance to an ArchVillain in the Barracuda Task Force yesterday. With the right team buffs, Psi is not hurting for single-target damage, as long as people are willing to actually get over sneering about snipes.]

I haven't played a Gravity Dominator, but I have played a Gravity / Force Field Controller (talk about painful soloing) to 50.

For Dominators, Propel is probably a dud. Powers from your secondary are probably going to be better in terms of DPA, DPS, and up-front damage. I can't manage to get it to actually land when I'm on any team that's moderately effective--it's slow to act. For a Controller, it's a great solo tool, but that's really about it.

Even if Lift probably won't have as good damage as powers from your secondary, it's still perfectly timed to do Hold -> Lift -> Hold on a boss, for those situations when Domination is down. While your foe is flying in the air, they're denied all attacks. I'd take it even if you don't intend to use it in an attack chain.

Wormhole -> Crushing Field makes for a decent "ghetto hold". Learn to position Wormhole effectively, though. It can annoy others. Typically, I try to make sure to fling things at the Tank in my group (as I said, I know the set from the Controller side)--for a Dominator, I'd try to fling them to whomever is your aggro-magnet. Throw slightly short, because there's something of a "bounce". In 24 levels, I've never gotten a complaint about my use of Wormhole on a team.

I skipped Dimension Shift. I can see it'd be good for an "Oh, crap!" situation, but most of the time I've been in those kinds of situations, so many other things are going wrong that a Dimension Shift is unlikely to pull the team's fat out of the fire. YRMV, of course.

Gravity Distortion, Gravity Distortion Field, and Singularity are givens. They're pretty basic: Hold, AOE Hold, and pet.

Solo or on small teams, Singularity can be useful as a "shield"--stand inside it and let its Repulsion Field bounce melee foes away. Otherwise, it's kind of a "set-it-and-forget-it" pet. Its attacks are all single-target, and it cycles between Crush, Lift, and Gravity Distortion. I slotted mine for Damage, because ultimately dead foes tell no tales, and Damage SOs benefit all three of its powers.

On a Dominator, I can't really see any legitimate use for Crush, aside from its Immobilization. I use it for extra damage on my Controller, but your secondary set's going to wildly outperform any damage added by Crush.

Just a note, Player99:

The "zap dance" is merely a graphical effect. It's designed to trigger when a foe has no powers available to use because those powers are all recharging.

Impervium_Imp, you can slot Short Circuit for both damage and endurance drain with the right combination of set IOs.

FourSpeed, Ball Lightning only does as much Endurance Drain as Charged Bolts and Tesla Cage do: 7%. This is relatively unimpressive. Lightning Bolt drains 10%, and Short Circuit drains 35%. Sure, it'll add up, but it shouldn't be considered primarily a drain power.

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For an eight-man team against a one-man spawn that shouldn't be too hard.
*
For bonus points, send in a level 1 first, then bring in seven 50s.

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Well, even James T. Kirk had to cheat to beat this challenge, so I guess this can be considered acceptable...

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Absolutely acceptable.

Also, I think it would work.

BungeeBall:

I'll look at the $name text and add in text for the glowies.

Steele_Magnolia:

If it ever was copyrighted to begin with, it's not any more.

SUNY's Maritime College uses the name in some of its Bridge Simulations. Duke Nukem 3D used the name for a ship, as well. It was also used as the name of a ship in the 1998 Godzilla film.

The Kobayashi Maru
ARC ID: 178718

Length: Short (1 timed mission).
Morality: Heroic
Genre: Simulation, Challenge
Difficulty: Difficult
Solo Friendly: No

Description: This is a Longbow training simulation. A merchant ship--the Kobayashi Maru--has sent a distress call to Paragon City, then went radio silent. Longbow Officers want you to find out what's happened to that ship.

Can you succeed?

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Exploits??? Getting XP is an Exploit? Completing a mission is “farming?” What exactly are these “Exploits?”

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I have yet to see a definition of "exploit" that isn't so vague as to include just about everything a player can possibly do in the game. "Statistical advantage?" Puh-lease. I know how to buff/debuff. You wouldn't believe the "statistical advantage" I enjoy over the non-forumgoing playerbase.

"Exploit" is a spin term, pure and simple, and just plain shouldn't be used. Comm officers are confusing and inconsistent, and that means poor design, pre-this patch and even moreso post-this patch. Maybe laying off the spin might help the devs refocus on improving rather than rationalizing design.

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This is specious, RK. It's not "spin", nor is the definition of exploitation particularly "vague".

Is it quantifiable, as the engineers and pseudo-lawyers around here want? No, but that's the very nature of qualitative words like "exploit" and "exploitation".

It's like the definition of "torture". If you want to specify which specific acts constitute "torture", you'll never do anything to stop it, because humanity is inventive and people will just do things that, for whatever reason, haven't been included in the list. That's why the Geneva Conventions and the UN Convention Against Torture don't specifically define it--in fact, their definitions are pretty broad, so as to cover a range of acts.

Bean-counting is often the defense of those who are knowingly violating the rules. How many waterboarding sessions are "torture"? One? Four? Two dozen? 182?

The fact is we all know what "exploit" actually means, just like we all know what "torture" really means. That we're unwilling to come to grips with our own behaviors--on both fronts--speaks more about the psychological mechanisms we use to defend our egos against the idea that we've done something wrong than anything else.

I don't care if people farm. If they want to race to 50 only to discover that 50's just the same as 5, more power to them.

However, the AE exploit farmers made absolute pests of themselves, at least on Virtue. Over the past three weeks, I was getting a constant stream of "will u fill for us?" tells. Not even a real team invite, but "join our team so we can spawn for a team of 8, then adios, muchacho--you don't even get to play with us". I'm sure I wasn't the only one fending off these non-team-invites.

On top of that, good missions that people were working hard on were getting bumped off the lists, buried in clone after clone after clone of the same map, with the same "custom" Rikti Communication Officer "group". If it were that there were just one of those, fine, but there were hundreds, if not thousands, of those. Since the exploit farmers were five-starring them, they were high on the lists.

As for the logic that these farmers would buy new character slots--feh, total crap. That logic's completely specious. I've been here since the very beginning of the game. I wasn't in Beta, but I was here on Day One. I've seen the way farmers in CoH actually operate (as opposed to how they claim to operate when they whine on the boards).

Here's what would really happen: they'd get their 50, and maybe a second. Possibly a third. Then they'd decide, in their heads, they'd "beat" the game and quit in a month, maybe two. Really, be honest with yourself. How long would you stay in a game, doing the same damn map, fighting the same challenge-less mobs, over and over and over? The answer is, you wouldn't.

So, no, NCSoft isn't about to lose any money out of this. Allowing the exploitative farming to continue would have lost them money.

The exemping down thing was, unfortunately, required if I wanted to use the Boss Wolf Spider Huntsman model for Jenkins. They're broken up by level ranges of 5 or 10. Same with the Council Mech Men. I think I had the highest-level range for any Wolf Spider Huntsmen for that mission. If I had it be a random Arachnos boss, Jenkins could show up as a Tarantula, or undergo a gender change and show up as a Widow, or something else. If I could change that so it's 1-54, I would, but I can't.

Scoob and the gang are just comic relief. Yes, they're unnecessary. That's the point. They're sort of out of place (though not entirely--Oranbega's full of ghosts). I was going to put an Indiana Jones and a Lara Croft down in there, too, but ran out of room in the file.