MrCaptainMan

With one addition, this could be awesome.

Let this be the case for a month, and then when all the farmers are settled and easily identifiable by their tags, the GMs can have one weekend of mass account-banning.



Eco

Qr - do crutches come under legs?

Eco

Spats and spurs and proper wellies and big furry moinboots like the limahl from kajagoogoo wore and some glam metal silver boots like the blokes in KISS wore and Forrest hump style calipers too please.

Eco

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Please explain why and how this resolves farming.

I don't see this effecting farming other than making solo "standard" custom groups.
It still allows solo "custom" groups.

Part of the problem has to do with the construction of custom groups.

On the very basic level it should be clear that custom groups should have the same kind of make-up/characteristics of a "standard" group. It would be easy enough to create a standard "form" for groups that had to be filled-in in order for the custom group to be usable.

Obviously, groups must have at the very least;

<ul type="square">[*]minions, lts, and bosses[*]some creatures with ranged attacks[*]some creatures with flight (reflective or not)[*]Bosses, elite bosses, and AVs should have ranged attacks and/or flight (reflective or flight)[/list]
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Npt signed either.

I have a custom group in the arc Im currently working on that has just 5 critters in it, all bosses. The each appear just once. I don't farm, and I don't write farm arcs.

Stop advocating nerfs to my storytelling options, please.

Eco.

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My suggestion to simply cut down on the farming with MA, while not completely neutering MA is this.

Don't allow standard critters in custom groups.

sometimes it takes a simple solution. just think of the GARRRWARBL this could have reduced

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Not signed. I use standard mobs in my custom groups, and I don't farm or write farm arcs.

Eco.

Farmers use an MA mechanic to maximise their rewards with no thought for story, and said mechanic gets nerfed. Future storytellers cannot use said mechanic for storytelling purposes.

A possible solution might be to have a split at the 'creat a new arc' point in the MA.

You'd have two options.

'create new arc with rewards' - this would let you build an arc with the MA functionality we have now, and said fiuncionality would continue to be nerfed if and when required in response to farmers abuses.

'create new arc with expanded story options' - this would be the MA as at launch of I14 (updated of course by anything I15 brings) without any nerfs to ambushes, rikti comm officers allowed, etc, and with no future nerfs to MA mechanics (other than for things that make arcs unplayable such as the Crey hero map geometry bug etc), but with no rewards dropped by arcs made in this way.

The latter system I think would be used by a minority of players and authors, but would possibly produce better story-focused arcs.

And the rewards can still be gained through the 'normal' MA arcs.

Eco.





'create new arc with rewards' - this would be the MA as we have it now (or even backdated to the point it was at at I14 launch

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Would you get angry because, if it were to happen, all of your hard work learning the doors would be wasted?

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LMAO this made me chuckle.

I too would welcome sings or some other indicator. I didn't think they needed to move Flux, but this is different.

Eco.

Please have an 'are you sure?' popup activate after you click the 'exit and abandon changes' button on the MA. I just scrolled up to the top of a critter menu, clicked my choice, and the f&amp;&amp;*&amp;^ing MA exit button was underneath my damn cursor.

Eco.

QR - Any day now...hurry up, me. I wanna go back to the eighties and put a bet on 'hey Mickey' by Toni Basil getting to number 1 in the UK.

Eco.

What about catbats, then? And batcats.

We still haven't come to a satisfactory consensus on the question of:

Catbats vs Batcats - who would win?

Eco

What, er, extra bits do you suggest for the legs, Sam?

I can think of holsters with tie offs, kneepads, ww2-style flying pants (with those wide flaps at upper thigh sort of look) and more skirty things like tutus and ra-ra skirts etc.

In RL, are there more ways to decorate a torso than there are for legs?

Eco

QR - Cheers for the advice all. I've found a nice narrative workaround for most of them and settled on Tyrant, Mother Mayhem, Neuron and Chimera as the ones the Player will actually have to fight.

Eco.

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I could say "pff, you've still got 35 other letters
Eco.

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There you go, using Hexadecimal again..... :P


EDIT: Yes, I know Hex only uses 16... but it was all I could come up with....

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er. ah. 25. of course. haha lol.

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Hazard is probably a little-known marvel ip. I don't know of any obscene uses for it, and I pride myself on an extensive voxabulRu of dirty words lop

Eco

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LoL

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lmao thats what i get for typing on my iPhone on the tram!

Eco.

The creativity is far more important to me than the rewards gained through the MA. I'd happily see all MA rewards dropped to a level which would discourage farmers from using it. I write arcs for people who enjoy a story, and I play arcs purely for the story - any rewards my arcs give or I get from others arcs are secondary.

As for the normal game, I'm happy with the rate of rewards gained through normal play.

If all story was removed from the game apart from bare bones 'go to door' and 'kill boss' instructions, I'd quit playing immediately, even if the rewards were tripled.

I estimate that approx 70% of the playerbase views the game in the same way I do. This is a very rough estimate, of course, possibly even a guesstimate, and so the actual true figure might be lower, or higher.

Eco.

Hazard is probably a little-known marvel ip. I don't know of any obscene uses for it, and I pride myself on an extensive voxabulRu of dirty words lop

Eco

QR - Thanks for running my arc The Echo and for your review. I've sent you a response to your PM about the ending. 4 stars - thanks very much! I'm a little disappointed that you chose to play it on your Brute rather than on a hero as I requested, but thanks v much for taking the time to play, review and rate it.

Eco.

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MrCaptainMan, read my other posts, I mostly agree with you

I agree with you that too many words are on the list, but i still believe the list needs to exist, and the list needs to Err on the side of caution.

Your "letters starting with W" example is hyperbole and rhetoric, and you should know better than to put up a weak argument like that. Its about as strong as tissue paper outside after a thunderstorm.

I also understand the filter doesn't work, and that people can circumvent it.

Some of the words should not be on the list, Facial certainly doesn't need to be there. I agree with that and have stated it in other posts in this thread. many of the examples shouldn't be on there, but there are some words that should.

And while the people out there can get around any profanity filter by saying things like "Lets kill all the N8ggers", by banning those words NCSoft sends a statement that they are not ok to use in their game. And that's cool with me.

We shouldn't scrap the filter because people can get around it, or because YOU don't have a problem with those words. I agree the list needs to be updated and made less draconian however.

(Stalin in banned btw, which made my historical arc a right pain in the butt)

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Fair enough, we do seem to largely agree. I'm sorry i took umbrage at your advice to use synonyms.

I've half a mind to make an arc full of clues with text like 'Auntie Edna's eyes widen as she stares at Bob's pendulous sac, swaying, turgid with porridge, in the moonlight. "Ah'm a gonna beef off, Auntie Edna!", he drools, his johnson proud and glistening'.

I won't though. It would be pointless and peurile lol.

Eco.

My arcs meant for solo heroes to run at heroic. I'm wondering if it's going to be a wall-banger. I'll warn up fron in my descr, but, well, if sb doesnt read it and runs it at lvl 4...

Eco.

Im on a 50 en/en blaster. But its in one of my arcs, so Im wondering how other ATs will fare.

EDIT: I just tried some of them out, and I found the following to be fairly easy on my blaster with a full tray of inspirs:

Tyrant
Chimera
Neuron
Mother Mayhem

Not easy were:

Seige
Marauder
Dominatrix

and Diabolique was horrible. She was the only one who ran, btw.

Eco.

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Ive decided that if ever I invent a time machine, I'll come back in tine and give myself the schematics.

Any day now, I'm sure to turn up...

Eco

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Except that now you're just waiting for your future self to come back and hand it to you instead of figuring out how to invent it. Self-unfulfilling prophecy, as it were.

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But if I invent it before i give it to myself, i'll create a paradox! I owe it to the timeline to NOT invent time travel!
Eco.

Does anyone have any opinion on which of the Praetorians are easiest to solo (as critters in the MA)?

Eco.

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At heart, all of you agree with me. A one time fee would be far better.

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False. Do NOT presume to speak for me.

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Nor me.

Eco.

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IMO the whole world has gone stark raving PC, and the last thing I want is it in my game.
People will find a way to say something offensive, and get around filters all the time.
The easiest way, is to report these same people, instead of stepping all over my creatism when I'm not being offensive.
To me this is as bad as having to put "Don't spray in eyes" on the back of hairspray.
I don't want to have to pay to have that put on there because I know better, and the ones that don't, will learn not to, quickly.....

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Yes yes, the minorities are out to oppress you and take away your "creatism" , whatever that is.


Better run up to your bunker and wait for the apocalypse.

OR

You could consider that not all "PC" stuff is bad, and sometimes your actions and words can hurt..... i'm sure Sesame Street and Elmo taught you that at least.



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Who exactly is being hurt by the sentence "The planet Mars can often be seen with the naked eye"?

Who is being hurt by the sentence "Our facial reconstruction software wil soon tell us who the victim was"?

Who is being hurt by the sentence "After our dinner, we had cheese and crackers followed by some coffee"?

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Remember, game is rated T for Teen after all, that probably why the filter is so harsh. And as a T for Teen game it is required to be a "safe space" as much as possible.

It can be annoying, especially some of these words that are banned. All I can say is, get more creative with your use of language. English is awesome for synonyms.

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yes, nobody is denying that English has a lot of synonyms. However, finding equivalent terms for fixed phrases like 'the naked eye' and 'a facial expression' is harder, and often the result looks forced. An additional point is that some of us writers feel that WE shouldn't be penalised because of the actions of racists, those who want to be obscene etc, when there is already a system to deal with offensive m,aterial ie the Reporting system. how would you like it if i told you you were free to post on the forums but you weren't allowed to use any words beginning with W? If you complained, I could say "pff, you've still got 35 other letters left to start your words-er, your letter-combinations forming sentence units - English is awesome for synonyms."

A writer knows full well how to search for other ways to say what he is forbidden to due to cencsrship. But that goes for the dickheads as well as for us who wish to write non-offensive stories. What you fail to understand is that the profanity filters harshness DOES NOT DO ITS JOB because English is awesome for synonyms. 'Manfat' is not censored. 'Gusset fudge' is fine. 'back passage' gets a free pass. 'Tool' is not banned. 'Hairy sac' is not prohibited by the filter.

The profanity filter needs to exist but it should have only actual swear words in its list, and possibly some words which only have one actual meaning, such as 'klan' or 'pedofile', for example. Common words which may be used by a minority in offensive ways should be exempt, and if they crop up in any offensive cases they should be dealt with by the reporting system.

Eco.

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You'd probably really enjoy the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars). It's pretty firmly grounded in believable technological advances (what some of my friends call "hard" sci-fi).

I quite enjoyed The Anubis Gates, not because it handled time travel particularly well - it probably didn't - but because it included time travel, cloning, and mind control all in the same plot, to the point where you had no idea whether a character you were viewing was really who or when they were supposed to be. It was so mind-bending sorting through all the details that any flaws it had in execution would have been Fridge Logic moments I never got to.

I think my favorite time travel story of all time is a quick one-off by Philip K. Dick, in which a time traveler goes back in time and ends up giving himself a pen... which he keeps until he invents time travel, goes back in time, and gives it to himself again. Pretty awesome mind screw IMHO though I've now forgotten the name. The technique is mirrored to some extent in the psychology of Timecrimes, a recent low-budget rig way better than its title would suggest.

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Ive decided that if ever I invent a time machine, I'll come back in tine and give myself the schematics.

Any day now, I'm sure to turn up...

Eco