Memphis_Bill

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between dark blue and violate)


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Sure that's a controller, not a dominator?

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Common topic : Email changes in response to RMT Spam

There are quite a few ideas floated typically for dealing with RMT spam. Trial account limitations were one thing tried by the devs, and worked reasonably well until lately (early 2009.) This is a common topic in the suggestion forum.

Since it is, a tip on searching.
1. Click on "Search" up at the top of the forum.
2. On the left, under "Forum(s) to search," select "Suggestions and ideas."
3. On the right, Keyword Search Terms. This is probably where your problem was if you did search. Try the following, exactly as typed:

+mail -"re: "

This will search for anything with "mail" in the title. Why not "email?" Because not everybody spells it the same. Some will call it email, others "e-mail" or "e mail," and still others may just call it the "mail system" or "Filters on Mail." This gives you a better chance of catching all of those. The -re: portion of it removes replies, so you'll see the root of every thread that comes up, letting you see just how many threads there are on this. (The last helps for other subjects, as well.)

4. Click the "In subject and body" radio button. Normally I say just in the subject, but this comes up in a few different ways, so for this search - both.

5. Leave Username Search blank.

6. Date range, Newer Than, change the 1 to a 3, and the time to Months.

7. Result format doesn't matter. Click on "Submit."

What do we see with this result? There are 34 returned threads as I type this (3/23/09.) My first page? Here's part of it.

Give me an option to block emails, Im sick of spam
Change email to mail system
We need another ignore list
Lock out e-mail until 15
Be able to disable or restrict e-mail
Maybe the worst idea ever, or maybe not.
Tired of RMT Emails?
Shared storage slots
Email link not turning red
In-game E-mail spamming

Going to just one month would have cut it down to just 13 results, in this case. Three months, though, is a decent search range. You can see already the reason for putting in "Mail" instead of "Email." And those without it in the title have it in the body somewhere.

Personal Opinion

I am, as always, strongly in favor of client-side filtering. Something like:
Accept email from:
o Friends
o Global Friends
0 Supergroup
o Teammates
0 Coalition
0 Any

with "Any," honestly, being the default - I use the system and help people I run across in PVP zones, for instance.

Why not keyword filtering (blacklisting?)

Well, say I'm spamming from www.infspammer.com (to make one up, I don't know that it exists.) I can tell you right now, just from *regular* email experience, that the second you block the entire name, it's going to get changed. www. infspammer. com is not the same. Block infspammer? 1nfspammer. i n f s pa a m m e r. in fs pa mm er. And if you finally manage to blow all that time and money setting up and testing the blocks for all the permutations of that - I spend five bucks and get buymyinf.com, and you get to start all over again. A blacklist is just more work for less gain. After all, years after the huge push from overseas, I still get the occasional creative spelling of "viagra" showing up in my own (whitelisted) junk mail filter.

"But blacklisting would cost them money!" And they care why? They're using stolen credit cards. They just charge Joe Sucker an extra $5 for the new domain. (If that, even.)

IP blocking

This also, really, wouldn't work. It's not hard to get a new IP address, and if you cast the net too wide, you'll block legitimate customers - or, rather, ex-customers. And I don't mean those using the service, who would be breaking the EULA/TOS anyway.

Are they doing anything at all?

Yes, NC/PS have taken measures in the past and continue to. Unfortunately, it takes time to (a) assess how well measures are working, (b) find how the spammers are getting around *current* measures, and (c) come up with, plan, implement and test new measures. They won't, for obvious reasons, tell us what they're planning, any more than a general would (or should) broadcast their plans for an attack on the ten o'clock news.

Prior measures are why we have the trial account restrictions (and believe me, it was MORE annoying when we had spam tells coming up every few minutes,) the /ignorespammer command and the "Spam" button on the email window. /ignorespammer and "Spam" both send a report to the administrators with details (and the spam button also happens to clear out email from the same global name, so you may well get rid of several with one click.) All those "Empty" ones? Dead spammer accounts.

What I'd like to see implemented

I'd like to see several things introduced at the same time (sub-points optional)

1. The clientside filter mentioned above.
2. A larger ignore list, or better yet a separate "Spammer ignore list."
2a. Allow me to mark people I purposely ignore (/gignore @somejerkingame) as "Permanent, do not remove"
3. Automatic deletion of emails (even "empty") when an account is deleted as a spammer. (Not just when it's "empty," as I have emails I'd actually like to keep from friends not in the game who are also, now, "Empty.")
3a. Subfolders for email - move stuff to "SG," "Friends," or whatever folders you want,
3b. Option to clear all email from a folder, with a warning ("Are you sure?")



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Know why people ran Eden before merits? (And after issue 1, when we got to 50 instead of 40...)

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Do you mean "before recipes rewards" there? Before merits but after recipe rewards were introduced people ran it like crazy because it was the fastest recipe reward in the game by a substantial margin.

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I mean before any of that. Issue 4, 5, 6, 7....

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A cool, unique map and it's just *fun,* especially with hordes of crystal warriors attacking you. And it's *still* the reason some run it.

Oh, no, nobody wants to run it in 15 minutes? That's not a bad thing, to me. Eden's far from worthless if you're looking for, oh, *fun.* I know, crazy thing to expect from a game, huh.

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Bill, did you not see the point where I said that everyone wanting to run speed ITFs was a problem? I love running all kinds of TFs and Trials, not just the time-to-reward efficient ones. I was one of the people that ran the Eden trial numerous times back in the day before recipe rewards were added for the exact reasons you give. I ran the Shadow Shard TFs back then too because they were fun, even after I'd already gotten the souvenirs (before the badges were introduced). I wasn't espousing Speed running or lamenting the loss of KHTF and Speeden runs. I was pointing out that "Fast Katies" and "Speedens" aren't really done by people any more, they've been replaced by "Speed ITFs".

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Looks like the tone of the post came out wrong, as I'm saying much the same thing - I enjoy the TFs in general, though I admit (and lobby on the grounds that) some of the old ones need reworking.

Yeah, I intentionally joined a "fast katie" at one point. Found it interesting, but not fun, and tended to only run with people who were going to *fight.* Of course, then they set it so you couldn't' just fail the Mary mission and go on, which I thought was an improvement.

Conversely, one of the most fun TFs I had was due to a post on these very forums, as "fast ITFs" were already forming so soon after introduction - someone introduced a "Smell the roses ITF." Everyone gets to go through the story, read what's there without a team screaming at them for standing still for 5 seconds, enjoy the dialog and such. I'd say, advertise and form a channel/group/friends list just of people who enjoy THAT side of gameplay, and run the TFs with them.

(While I'm at it, I tend to think the TF merits should take the AE ticket model - you get a minimum for stealthing/speeding through, and additional merits at some rate for defeating enemies. You want the biggest reward, wipe stuff out. Admittedly someone would find a way to abuse *that* as well, but it'd make the "speed-whatevers" slightly less common, perhaps. Or at least reward those of us who like taking our time.)

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Personally, I've entirely given up on in-game e-mail. I just let it pile up. I'm currently playing a little game with it. Seeing how many I can accumulate.

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I once got email-bombed by someone back before the RMTs. Don't let your email fill up too much or you'll lag like hell trying to do anything. I forget the exact number of emails I ended up with after he bombed me, it was a lot though, think it may have been a couple thousand even but it was quite some time ago so I don't remember. Once I got it under 500 the lag got better. Getting it down to that 500 was a pain in the butt though, since every time I deleted an email, it reloaded the whole inbox and caused more lag. So yeah, just a word of warning to not collect too much.

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The nice thing about that, of course, is if you /gignore (or /spammer) them, *every email from their global* goes away at once.

I've had rarely-played characters go from "You have 31 emails" to "You have 18" with one click of the button.

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Dang Bill, you have one for Double XP Weekend too!


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Actually, JUST made that... thus the "Look like it's missing anything?" and the quote from Neuronia's post.

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I'll probably also change the lightning on my Elec blaster; I've never understood how purple/blue lightning came to be the MMO norm.


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I don't know, there are arguments for reddish-pink and a bluish tint, though it usually seems just "too bright for color/white." I think it's generally the surroundings or atmosphere that we pick up the hue from, so there's potential for other colors, too.

As for what I'll recolor.. potentially darkening the fire on my Dark/Thermal's shields and such. Probably taking a hint from my Warshade to a deep purpleish. Other than that, no plans just yet, though I'm curious how Gravity will look.

I may actually *make* a redside INV brute, too. I can't stand how it looks now.

So, seems this could use a quick cut-paste reply. See if this is missing anything:

So, you want to know when Double XP weekend is?

Quick reply:

For 2009 (as I'm writing this, end of June,) we did not get a calendar like we did for 2008. We do not know when, or if, any are planned for this year until we get an actual announcement. To see if we've had an announcement, check the Community Digest and Dev Digest threads over in the Developer's Corner.

.Double XP FAQ
1. What is Double XP?

It's typically a weekend (Fri-Sun) where all XP awards are doubled. See the Wiki article for more information.

2. Why Double XP?

There are a few reasons:
<ul type="square">[*]Publicity

People like Double XP - even if they get 1.5x XP with Patrol XP. Double XP doesn't get used up over the weekend. (Neither does patrol XP - it's essentially on hold, though you can lose it if you get debt, as debt is 'paid off' with Patrol XP to begin with.) If there's not an issue or an event for a while, it's possible they'll use Double XP weekend as an 'event.'
[*]Testing server load

People renew, or take time off of work, for Double XP weekends. Why? Fast leveling, and lots of folks around - which obviously puts more of a load on the servers. I, personally, don't buy this as a reason 80% of the time, but it's useful for it anyway.
[*]There's nothing else going on right then

As mentioned - it's there to keep peoples interest and attention on this game, instead of letting them play Subscription Roulette (play for a month, go to another game for a month, then another, then come back here for an issue or event.) Keeping people here and active is a *good* thing for a subscription based game like an MMO.
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3. How often is Double XP weekend?

Rule of thumb is "roughly every six months," but that is not a set in stone schedule or dev promise, just an observation from players. Copying a little info from a post from Neuronia:

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I took the time to look up the last 2XP weekends in Wiki, because the poster's question, while somewhat redundant, did have some legitimacy.

Double XP Weekends
21 July 2006 - 23 July 2006
26 January 2007- 28 January 2007
15 June 2007 - 17 June 2007
8 February 2008 - 10 February 2008
18 July 2008 - 20 July 2008
23 January 2009 - 25 January 2009

Generally the trend was to have one early in the year and one in the middle of the year.

There may be something fighting against that this year though. The massive multi-levelling brouhaha of Mission Architect, Issue 15 being launched "soon" and just generally faster levelling speeds altogether.


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4. When should I not expect Double XP weekend?

Looking at the list above, there are times that you probably shouldn't expect a double XP weekend. Has a new issue been released? They may have a reactivation weekend - but they probably won't want you to speed through the content at double XP speeds. De we have events? Note the list - none took place from October-December. We've got the Halloween and Winter events, though 2xp has taken place in January-February (a bit before the generally-valentines-themed Spring event.)

Not saying they WON'T happen, just that I tend to not expect them to at those times.

Mostly unrelated item!

For this and pretty much any question on the game, check the Paragon Wiki first! Head to search and type in what seems most likely or common to bring up an answer - Double XP, for instance, brings up a link to Double XP Weekends. And don't forget to search the boards!

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Don't forget the most important enhancement for Teleport: Hover.

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I've never needed hover on a teleporter. (And, in fact, can't get it (directly) on a Warshade.)

If it's a character that might be doing ranged attacks, I *might* do it for the sake of positioning (and even then - hello, jet pack, why waste a power?) - but "needed" or "most emportant?" I'd say it's roughly as needed as a pair of fuzzy dice in a Ferrari.

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YMMV, of course. Personally, I find Hover invaluable for Teleport when getting around amidst obstacles -- navigating around or between buildings near a destination, for instance. I don't have to pick an immediately convenient landing point, I can stay in the air and pick my direction in my own time. I never said it was needed, but I still consider it the most important. Maneuverability and time to stop and think are, for me, far more important than 20% range per enhancement or any reduction in endurance (after all... I can just Hover while Stamina works its magic).

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Not arguing it can't be useful. Just that that's hardly the same category as your "most important" statement.

(And this, btw, is coming from someone whose first 50 was a blaster, and loved teleporting... through Dark Astoria... before we had safeguards to get jetpacks, etc. back in I4.)

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Okay, I have a related "Player Question"... does the Spam button actually report spammers to anyone, or is it just an easy "delete + ignore" button? I always thought the latter, at which point I would suggest just using Delete if you're just going to unignore the spammers to make room for others. Does Spam actually do anything useful, or has the high turnover of RMT accounts rendered it useless?

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It puts them on your ignore list and auto-reports them.

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With everyone (almost) having begged for power customization.. any chance this will also be an all open test?


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I'd say there's roughly as much chance of that as there is of a Left4Dead movie coming out next week billed as a romantic, slapstick comedy.

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Don't forget the most important enhancement for Teleport: Hover.

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I've never needed hover on a teleporter. (And, in fact, can't get it (directly) on a Warshade.)

If it's a character that might be doing ranged attacks, I *might* do it for the sake of positioning (and even then - hello, jet pack, why waste a power?) - but "needed" or "most emportant?" I'd say it's roughly as needed as a pair of fuzzy dice in a Ferrari.

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You won't really find many people running Speedens or KHTFs nowadays. The merit system made the Eden trial worthless except for the badge if you're not going to run it in 15 minutes, and, even then, you're still going to have a hard time finding a team because most people don't think that it's actually worth what little time it takes. The same applies for the KHTF, to a lesser degree.

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Know why people ran Eden before merits? (And after issue 1, when we got to 50 instead of 40...)

A cool, unique map and it's just *fun,* especially with hordes of crystal warriors attacking you. And it's *still* the reason some run it.

Oh, no, nobody wants to run it in 15 minutes? That's not a bad thing, to me. Eden's far from worthless if you're looking for, oh, *fun.* I know, crazy thing to expect from a game, huh.

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I replied to the reply. . . a bit more. . .vigorously. I got a supervisor reply saying the developers are working on new methods to handle RMT emailers. So the check is in the mail; no details on what the new methods are or a timeframe for deployment.


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Would you actually *expect* them to say what their plans are, giving the spammers more time to come up with new workarounds?

That said, I'm hoping they're working on player-side filtering, as has been asked for multiple times.

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Pretty weak interview.

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Well, when they ask about things he can't talk about yet, what do you expect?

Kind of reminds me of an interview during the first Gulf war where some of the reporters didn't get a clue (not saying that about the Boomtown person.)

"So, where are the troops going?"
"For security reasons, I can't talk about ongoing or planned operations."
"So how many troops are there?"
"For security reasons, I can't talk about ongoing or planned operations."
"So will you be attacking..."
*exasperated looking general, speaking more slowly*
"For security reasons, I can't talk about ongoing or planned operations."

Ice/Electric is shockingly cool. &gt;.&gt;

Only one can be set on auto.

It's the prestige power slide from COH's collectors edition. If you can still find a box (check best buy) and add it to your account, you get that and the Cape of Four Winds.

End, End and Range, and/or an End/Range IO... I don't tend to heavily slot it.

As mentioned - it used to be getting a *tell* from these guys every couple of minutes, sometimes several over the course of a minute. If you see the trial account restrictions, you can thank the RMT spammers for it.

Also, if you open your email and look at the buttons, you'll notice a new "spam" button, which puts the person on your global ignore list as well as flags the account for the GMs to look at. If you see a bunch of emails from "empty," well, those are from nuked spammer accounts.

Similarly, you have /ignorespammer as a command, and if you right click on someone in game (or, IIRC, click on their name in your chat box) you'll see an option to "Ignore as Spammer" which does the same thing - send a report.

So they've already taken some measures to deal with (and help us deal with and report) spammers. What are they doing right now and planning on implementing? We don't know, for what I'd *hope* would be obvious reasons.

Hmm... Year gone, I don't think there's a *lot* that'll be all that different to you. Bases got some attention, PVP got some attention (though whether the last is good or bad depends on if you like the changes or not - there were quite a few.)

Steam - not sure how it interacts with an existing account, TBH. I snagged the codes from PlayNC to upgrade.

Box/Disk edition - yes.

Best upgrade - though it costs 'more,' get the actual editions as opposed to the packs. Yes, they run $20 instead of $10, but you get a free month added anyway, so it's more like paying $20 for $25 worth of stuff (pack and month.)

Hmmm. I've got how many characters, and you want *one* name?

...

That's evil.

Though I suppose just for being able to tell people they're wrong about my spelling being wrong, Feliney Assault would have to be up there. (Right with Feliney Mischief.) Other possibilities would include Yvette Horizon (a Grav controller) or Rosy of the Ice (anagram of City of Heroes.)

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I vote for me and curse you all.

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Oh yeah? I vote for Kurse and me you all!

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QR

I'm confused... is Windows 7 just 64-bit ready no matter what? All the pre-order things I've been seeing on Newegg and Best Buy don't mention 32 or 64 bit, and I was wanting to move up to 64 bit so Windows will see all 4 GB of my ram. Can anyone help clarify this?

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As I recall, both versions are in the same package.

Have to admit Aprosath's made me grin.

There's no prize, it's all in fun, I'd say if someone blurs the lines a bit, cool, as long as they're generally doing whatever it is.

*shrug*