Jack_NoMind

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I think removing the exploits is a better solution, that way people can level as fast as they want, and know they won't get banhammered for doing it.

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The way an exploit is dealt with is via experience reduction (if it wasn't intentional) or banning (if it was). Unless you mean, "remove the exploit before anyone uses it," in which case you're asking for perfect or precognitive developers.

You yourself point out that none of those methods level at speeds defined 'exploitative.' Clearly having a high cap would not be irrelevant. Especially if it's done as an asymptotic cap or quadratic reduction.

But won't there not be any problems as long as the cap is in place?

I never said farming or powerlevelling were the issue.

When Posi says "risk," you need to read it as "time." Because it's not like you're at risk of losing a finger or something -- what you're at risk for is getting delayed or slowed down.

So
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...people can level super-quickly without using an exploit...

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is kind of an oxymoron. How could a character possibly level super-quickly unless either a) they were substantially more powerful than the game was designed to accomodate (which means minimal or no risk inherent in their activities) or b) they were recieving rewards far out of scale with the toughness of the things they were defeating (again, no or minimal risk)?

This question isn't rhetorical.

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I have a question for you Dionon. The devs seem to want to keep the number of ATs available to each side balanced. What new AT do you propose Villains get to keep this balance if they do port Masterminds over?

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Well, we're doing an AT-trade, right?

They can have Controllers. I mean, I'd be happy to give redside a non-EAT with a 'set type' they don't already have, since blueside's getting a non-EAT with a 'set type' (pets) none of its other ATs have... but there aren't any. The only set type that isn't currently shared is, in fact, pets.

So Controllers are the closest thing to something they don't have already. It'll help 'em generate more redside inf, and it might push Doms into something a bit more unique.

I mean, there could be a vote, or something, so if people disagreed with me another AT could be picked for redside. But I hardly ever see any "Port X to Villains!" threads -- Controller is the one I've seen most frequently, by which I mean, like, twice. So... there you go!

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This is just another example of a solution that's only curing the symptoms, and not the disease. The real problem is that we were given the tools to make exploitable content. Remove those tools, and you don't have to do anything else.

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Er... huh?

The problem isn't that people can do whatever they want in MA. I mean, that's really the goal of the system. If I wanted to make a mission full of ridiculously easy enemies with lots of HP for some reason, I should be able to do that without it leading to an exploit. Ditto for a mission full of Comm officers or whatever the next exploit people stumble upon for the system is (and it's already on its way).

What you suggest really is addressing the symptom (that MArc specifically currently allows leveling at a rate fast enough that it destroys the statistical balance of the game), rather than the disease (the statistical balance of the game can be overcome). All future possible exploits would be addressed by introducing an xp rate cap, curing it with finality.

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You talk like something different is a bad thing.

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No. I talk like it's a difficult thing. Which it is.

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And it would not be too powerful because I just took ideas from my TA and Dark and Storm, and just mixed and matched.

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"Mix and match from three sets" isn't a good argument for "not too powerful." Those three sets are not only very different from one another, but the most borderline of the existing Defender primaries. In fact, the rest of your description for it,

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This would take something from every type, and roll it into one. It would be like a team balancing powerset. Say you had a 7 man team, but you would like a little extra damage, as well as a little more -regen, for a task force maybe.

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makes it sound even more unbalancing. Specialization being in so many sets isn't an 'oversight' or something that needs fixing -- it's an integral part of how sets are balanced. Cold is a powerful set, but it lacks a heal. Dark is a powerful set, but all of its effects -- even the heal -- are targeted (as opposed to, say, radiation) and mostly cost a lot of endurance.

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And while I don't necessarily believe

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Skepticism is a perfectly legitimate attitude to anything, but tact suggests that perhaps we give the developers a brief respite.

Thank you.

There are some fairly 'magical' looking weapon for customization, including the Dark Nictus sword and the Rularuu weapons. I'd also argue that the Talorsian weapons look fairly magical.

I mean, other than 'glowing' and/or 'rune-covered', what would make a weapon look magical to you?

As to the actual power sets proposed...

I don't think it is likely we'll see mixed-damage sets quite like that. I can't think of any non-EAT set offhand that deals more than one damage type other than S/L, and I suspect that's intentional.

You might be able to get away with having a set that was, say, entirely Energy but had one power that was Fire/Energy or somesuch.

Intesentorqueo Acerbitas is very different from any existing in-game powers and I suspect it would require a prohibitive amount of work to create (especially with prompts).

The secondary set is probably too mixed, and requires some things that would be at best difficult to simulate in-game (eg, 'reverse repel').

It's been said before, but it's unlikely we'll get a power set that relies so heavily on a single origin. I think even a 'staff blast' set with generic names for the attacks would be a stretch, and that could pretty easily be Magic, Mutant, or Tech (and could probably even work for Sci or Natural)... and the existence of Bane spiders may preclude introducing another, similar set.

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Good heavens, why would anyone take another secondary, ever? It's got two holds, a heal, a +regen, enemy debuffs, an immobilize, and pet dragons.

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It's actually not that far off of Dark or Storm, but I do agree it's pretty complex. As written, the power strengths would probably end up being pretty weak to compensate for the versatility, which to me is a good argument for tightening up the theme a bit.

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The main issue was people using exploits for personal gain not how fast people were leveling. The speed of leveling was a result of the exploit. Not the other way around.

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Ehh... Sort of. The reason it was an exploit, rather than just 'something people did,' was because it allowed for fast levelling. (There are, after all, any number of decisions people can make about the difficulty and saturation level of their missions. Only certain ones are considered exploit-like.) So equally, anything else that allowed for levelling that quickly would also be an exploit.

I mean, as far as I know, base stacking was originally unintended behavior. But it didn't get 'exploit' status because it didn't interfere with gameplay.

It seems more productive to nip the issue in the bud by not allowing levelling at speeds that would cause whatever allows them to be defined as an exploit.

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50 hours is like 3 to 5 times the rate of the casual player who does not PL.

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I probably took more than 50 hours to level my first 50, but only because I spent a fair bit of that time doing nothing in particular.

With MArc -- not the hyper-farming missions, mind, just regular stuff equivalent to what's in the game already -- I could easily see myself getting a character to 40 in about 20 hours of playtime. I wouldn't spend the time I spent on my first 50 exploring, chasing badges, etc... and the MArc obviates the need to run from zone to zone chasing mission doors.

I'm not sure how long the last 10 levels would take, but I wouldn't be too surprised if it was only another 10 hours or so. I do about that well on high-level characters running 8-man ITFs, anyway.

I don't usually play like that. But I don't think that people who do are exploiting the system.

McNum's suggestion, even if it didn't apply to the first 10 levels (something I exempted because existing in-game methods can provide a level in under 5 minutes easily for any of those levels) would put the min at around 20 hours. That seems reasonable enough; and having a timer longer than 50 minutes for any level, even 49-50, seems too long.

Yeah, I would assume that this would be a mission-wide flag, Rach, not a spawn-specific one per mission. In general, that should be easier to code.

I might have to propose an SCR rule -- "Don't use the SCR if you don't understand the SC part."

It's trivially easy to generate as much low level salvage as you could want these days.

50 hours of playtime?

I think more people than you expect would notice.

I like McNum's suggestion. However, I would want it not to kick in until level 10.

I think enough people complain about it that I don't really see the profit in continuing to argue with them over it.

And anyway, come on. How realistic is not being able to walk slower?

Right, so... continuing on with the "Has Demon Summoning and Dual Pistols been confirmed for an issue, or is that still just speculation based on an off-the-cuff comment Posi made at the Anniversary Event?" line...

'cuz right now I'm having to go with, "Not in the Feature List, not coming for I15."

Agreed. I'd selectively trade most or all of the rewards available for being able to have full creative control.

I'm disagreeing as well, but I kind of like the idea.

I disagree because the free-50 player is unsustainable. They want a rapid sense of advancement; they'll quickly tire of the game when it fails to provide this, as it inevitably must. People like that won't hold onto the game for more than a few months... at most.

The point I like is that returning players sometimes want to speed to 50 on a particular character or two... maybe they're trying to fill out something their SG lacks for TFs, or what-have-you. I can think of plenty of legitimate reasons to do this, and it wasn't ever experienced players PLing an alt or two (or, hey, even one on each server -- something I considered myself) to 50 in the MA that bothered me. They're not sabotaging anyone's play experience with that exploit, so long as they're only PLing themselves.

I think the tacit permission of PLable farms via contacts that we've recieved is likely to be the most we're going to get in this area. But I would not at all mind, say, an in-game L45+ Trial that, when completed, awarded your account with a 'XP+ token' that gave one character on the account full patrol xp or something similar. It would add high level content and provide a means for experienced players to quickly level up an alt they wanted.

Now would be an atrocious time to do this. I mean, truly abysmal. But I'm generally in favor of letting experienced players level at whatever speed they want for whatever character they want. If you want to hit 50 in a day so you can Oro back and do the badge arcs you missed -- hey, more power to ya'. And I can see wanting to do that, too, if your SG has a MSTF planned for the weekend and no Stone Tank.

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See you admit

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Why is it that posts or paragraphs that begin this way are (when not intended humorously) of such universally low quality?

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It should be something that I'd hope they would look into for demographics, though. Maybe you should send this to Niv or Amatea and have them pass it along to the Marketing guy? They'd know best.

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specifically, this.

By the numbers, it seems like a pretty simple parity issue -- enough people in North America speak primarily French and Spanish that they should warrant their own NA servers. Factor in South America, and those numbers only grow (plus possibly adding Portuguese into the mix). But of the people actually buying computers new enough to run CoH and in the targeted age/interest demographics, there may be a massive domination of people who speak primarily English or speak English as a second language fluently enough not to need a seperate server from a marketing perspective.

I wouldn't mind having dedicated-language (and/or officially cross-language) servers, though. So, hey, give it a shot and see what happens.

I dunno about you, but I've noticed a pretty substantial decrease in in-game mentions of Statesman since Jack left...

Heck, he's barely relevant to his own Task Force. Although I guess it's that way for all the Signatures.

In some cases, eg, diminishing rewards on MArc repetition, I'm not sure why they don't work that way.

What I am sure about is that the developers are aware of that tool (and the others you mention) to prevent farming. So unless they clarify why they didn't do it that way already, I doubt the suggestion will have much penetration.

I think Moder8r would be a perfectly legitimate name for a super -- Controller if blueside, Dominator if redside (Mod 8 doesn't really have many minions).

M08 and Mod 8 would also work, but Moder8r was my favorite so far.

...Making characters under the age of 18 does not violate the ToS. Nor is there any way in the game to depict a character with drugs, alcohol, or in a convincing sexual position. Aside from all that, teenage superheroes are a genre staple. I'm pretty sure that's not the reason.

Plus, that wouldn't explain the lack of bestial or robotic voices. I'm going to go with the much simpler, "They haven't gotten around to it yet" explanation.

-do and -jutsu cannotate pretty much as mistformsquirrel said, but some martial artists prefer to describe what they do as "iaido" anyway -- it makes it sound more... hm. More spiritual, in a way. This is why some martial arts are 'officially' suffixed with -do (Akido) and others with -jutsu (Ninjustsu). Iaido/iaijutsu can go either way, as a general term, but masters/instructors are likely to have their own specific preference.

I'd like to see a Charm/Charisma Defense set for melee, a staff set available as a Blaster secondary and melee primary (I mean, geez, of all the weapons that can be used in a superhero game, this one actually shows up in comic books quite a bit!), most of the existing weapons (at least katana/ninja blade and claws) adapted to Blasters and Corruptors in one way or another, and several of the shape-altering and animal control sets already described.

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But then again, I think it would be a better to simply balance all of the Tanker primaries so that they would scale more accurately to the scalar. When a Tanker primary gets modified by the Scrapper scalar and completely obliterates any existing set that should set off some alarms immediately, especially since that's kind of the point of scalars.

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Agreed here. The solution isn't as simple as nerfing SS (even if it were only nerfed in its Scrapper version).