Novem

Different people may have different reasons for using respec.

Maybe just help the OP out by telling him where the respec person is located (like some of the other posters did) instead of telling him YOUR reasons for him not needing to respec. If he wants to respec at level 6, who are you to tell him he can't? It's HIS respec to burn.

I've spent some time lately back in good old Paragon City and nothing there flickers.

I've even tried running low everything with all Ultra off and I still get the flicker. I can only stand it for so long then I have to go back to PC just so I can give my eyes and brain a rest.

Any chance any Dev has something to say....please?

Created a new blaster two nights ago in Praetoria, got to the check out the Labs mission from Praetoria White. I think I was only level 3 or 4. Went into one of the rooms and did not look carefully enough around the corners and aggro two groups of 3 yellows. It was one of those o sh* moments. So I start backpedaling out the door, trying to take down one or two to even the odds. I think I was able to defeat one while backpedaling through the map with this horde of guys after me. All of a sudden two of them just decide to start running off. One actually ran PAST me, totally ignoring me and just took off down the hallway.

Now based on what Castle said, I have to conclude that something is off with the AI. I was definitely NOT doing enough damage to trigger the low morale, in fact I was getting massacred by all the ranged hits, as noted above I'd only succeeded in taking down one, while inflicted injuries on several others. The ONLY reason I survived was the fact that two of them decided they'd had enough of chasing me and took off (where a few seconds earlier they will landing ranged attacks on me left and right) and I had quite a few greenies in my insp slots.

So unless they get low morale because I'm running away and or get tired of chasing me, there seems to be something a bit hinky with the AI.

I have to say that with the stability patch last night, it seems my flickering has gotten worse =[

Yes it could be me just wigging out but at times last night Praetoria was almost constantly flickering while moving about. It also was flickering when I moved the mouse cursor around. The powers menu/screen was almost unbearable to look at.

Sigh.

Hmm that's really strange because I've never had someone complain to me about my energy blaster. I've never had a complaint about knock back, most likely because the mob is dead when I'm done with it so knockback is a non issue.

A little common sense in using your skills goes a long way I guess. =]

The problems are definitely not because the Devs don't care. The Paragon Studios Devs are among the most responsible and caring Devs I've ever seen when it comes to their player's contentment.

There are problems yes, there are always problems after a major expansion as this one is. While I have not had the crashing issue, really the only problem I've had is the flickering, and knowing how often the Devs watch and read the forums I think you can bet they are looking into the problem.

Guess I should be happy I'm at work with everything you all are reporting.

My sympathy to all of you trying to play on Virtue =/

So I played around with different settings last night and I never found any combination that removed the flickering problem completely.

I tried the advanced shadows suggestion, still flickered.

I toyed with the ambient occlusion, still flickered.

Anything to do with windows inside the game, like clicking open the map, looking at clues, doing anything with the powers/enhancement windows makes the whole screen flicker.

Also I did find that while flying around Praetoria when the lights are coming on or going off between daytime and nighttime is when the flickering is at it's worse.

Just to make one more note, I also get some flicker when I'm inside missions.

If this could be cleared up I would be so completely enjoying this expansion.

I have also been plagued by flickering screens. It's the worse when I'm doing something with the menus, like when I level up on the odd numbers and the game takes me into the enhancement slot screen, the whole thing will flicker when I place a new slot on a power. It will also flicker when I'm reading through the dialog for a new mission. These show up as a white screen flicker.

Now I also get a flicker when I'm out traveling around Praetoria. These come off as a black screen flicker.

I've tried playing around with the different settings, but I'm not sure if I tried the combination that some of you have done. I'm going to give those a try tonight.


Win 7 64 bit
Nvidia GTX470 1280 MB card
Latest drivers installed

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*Facepalm* Seems it really is gonna take the wrath of the devs to get it through people's heads rather than just threats.

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I don't envy their position. They can either allow MA to be abused horrendously or bring down the wrath of heaven on its misuse, progressively alienating more and more players with each exploitative loophole they close. I suppose I'd go with "stop the abuse and suffer the consequences" myself, and I think the devs will do the same, but that combined with all the other angst and threats to the game out there means the servers may be pretty quiet places a year from now.

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If those players you are referring to get so bent out of shape because they've been "caught" with their hands in the cookie jar than good riddance to them. This game will be better off without them.

While in the MA, you may see question marks beside each section. If you click on the one next to the ally behavior section it will give you a brief description of each one.

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Last but not least, people really need to learn how to give constructive feedback. Effective critiquing is an art, but it's not one that's difficult to learn.

~Elizabeth

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People also need to learn how to take constructive feedback without flying off the handle or getting defensive.

It's a two way street.

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Both of these are very true. All I had wanted was people to give me solid feedback, whether good or bad. I see my arc through my eyes. What makes sense to me (since I know the story by heart) might be totally confusing to someone else.

You NEED other people's feedback in order to make your arc better for others. I've never understood why some people can't take criticism.

BUT on the flip side those that choose to give feedback need to be give it as maturely and responsibly as possible.

A big thanks to all who have played and gave feedback on my arc. I will most definitely take all your comments to heart and do some editing.

I will post back when I have it ready for more runs.

Again thanks so very much, all feedback so for much appreciated.

As I said early on, a majority of the players are willing to give good feedback and decent ratings, it's the few who get their thrills out of griefing others is what causes all the problems.

As Magnolia indicated, their arc was riding high on the front page and then was sucker punched by some zero griefers. Somehow the rating system needs to take into account that an arc has been sitting there with favorable ratings for a while then all of a sudden gets 0 or 1 stars. If there is a flood of them maybe they need to get tossed out.

Same for the flip side of the coin. Having a SG come along and play your arc a lot and rate it high just because they can, then that needs to be taken into consideration as well and most likely tossed out.

Almost like they way they set the scores in the Olympics, toss out the high and the low and you get your average.

Unfortunately I have no idea how they could go about doing this.

I feel that in the end they are going to have to unlink the tickets from the ratings. I'm not sure how they can go about doing that, but because they are directly linked that is why we have such issues with the ratings.

Also it's human nature to grief other people. A lot of us don't do it because we have respect for our fellow player but some people out there get their thrills from being mean. There is nothing you can do about it.

For those I was having dialog with earlier in this thread, my republished arc is now in my sig.

I will thank you ahead of time for honest feedback.

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Yes, because you are really Playing Mission architect to play the stories.

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No, I'm not.

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BillZBubba, you're missing the point of Mission Architect if this would make you want to quit...

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The point of the mission architect is to allow me the ability to create the content that the devs don't put into the game.

Missions that actually challenge the characters that the current build system allows for. Missions with 12 different types of bosses from 12 different factions and nothing else.

Missions with 25 ambushes of nothing but huge spawns of multi-faction LTs.

YOU may wish to see it as nothing but a story telling tool, and that's your right. It's also my right to use to to create content that my main characters won't be bored to tears with.

Or are you in the camp that thinks I should remove all my enhancements if I need a challenge?

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It is your right as long as it falls within the acceptable parameters that are currently being enforced in the game. If you just want the challenge of the fight then you need to ask the Devs to allow overloaded missions as long as you get no reward out of it except the fact you can defeat the mobs.

It does not take a rocket scientist to see the main purpose of the MA. It was so the customer could create their own content - STORIED content.

The limits for tickets being enforced now are no more restricting than the limits that WoW has for daily quests. You hit your daily limit, you can't do anymore until the next day. Shrug, seems fine to me.

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I don't see any indication that the current rating system has any sympathy for decent arcs that aren't pushed to the front. Novem, I would ASK people to play it and rate it, giving you feedback in the process. That is how most of the decent arcs got started is by getting people who might actually be interested play it. Otherwise it just gets lost in all the crud.

I would be more than happy to try your arc. There are others on this forum who do try, rate, and review just from people asking.

There's also the "try mine, I'll try yours" method. This seems pretty popular for getting arcs played and rated.

You don't have to go to the most popular reviewer, either. IMO some of them are a little full of themselves anyway. Just get people to play it. Ask. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

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I totally understand where you are coming from, honest I do. And I did just that. I had the arc in my sig here on the forums asking for people to play and critique, but all I was getting was plays, 2 star rating and no responses what so ever. Again, I can handle someone saying it sucks and here is 1 star AS LONG AS they tell me WHY.

My first and only published arc was by no means hard. I thought it had a nice variety of ranged and melee mobs. I didn't overwhelm anyone with huge groups, I even made it so the contact was available to help in the last two missions (vs the bosses)

I'm no great story teller but at least the story line made some sort of sense (at least to me). I guess what I'm saying is at least I made an attempt to make each mission mean something and each one had dialog that should have helped move the story along.

As I stated earlier I will test it out when I get home (to make sure it wasn't broken by the patches) and republish. I'll post here the new MA ID when I get it posted and I will welcome any and all honest critiquing.

edit: and I have to agree with dragon above as I think the published stories interface needs a huge facelift, for the reason stated.

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TLDR version

WAHHH SOMEONE DIDNT LIKE MY ARC. WHATS WORSE HE HAD A WHOLE LOT OF REASONS

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It would have been nice if this is what happened to mine. I could have handled it.

BUT, I received ZERO feedback on what was wrong with my arc. And I will repeat ZERO feedback. All I got were 2 star ratings and not ONE SINGLE person gave me any indication as to what was wrong with it.

How is someone suppose to improved their arc if no one leaves feedback?????

So I just unpublished it and gave up.

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Republish it. I'll give it a try and I'll give you honest feedback that's not nitpicky, pompous, or self-important. And if you put some amount of effort into writing text, filling in details, and/or some semblance of a story I'll never give you one star either.

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All I ever wanted was some honest feedback to tell me how to improve it. Maybe the people that played it didn't like the custom groups I created, shrug who knows.

To Another_Fan - I asked to have Venture review it, his queue was overflowing full.

As to republishing it, it will have to wait til I get home from work.

Thanks for the offer anachrodragon.

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TLDR version

WAHHH SOMEONE DIDNT LIKE MY ARC. WHATS WORSE HE HAD A WHOLE LOT OF REASONS

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It would have been nice if this is what happened to mine. I could have handled it.

BUT, I received ZERO feedback on what was wrong with my arc. And I will repeat ZERO feedback. All I got were 2 star ratings and not ONE SINGLE person gave me any indication as to what was wrong with it.

How is someone suppose to improved their arc if no one leaves feedback?????

So I just unpublished it and gave up.

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Are you playing on a laptop when you can't hear the sound? I saw it commented on in here that laptop speakers don't handle that particular sound very well. When I switched to a laptop, the glowie sound became very muted.

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THIS--------^

I have found this to be very true. I have both a DELL laptop and Desktop and on many occasion I find myself passing some time playing COX on the Laptop. It is most definitely hard to hear the glowie sound on my Laptop. As stated above it is very very muted on my laptop.

I have taken to turning the volume up extremely high when I have a glowie type mission and if I reach the end of the map and have not "found" all the glowies. It does make it frustrating sometimes.

I did however play around with the sound settings and was able to get the glowie sound a bit louder, not a lot but a little.

I don't see this topic staying around any longer than it takes Mod 8 to have their first cup of coffee but to the last few posts all I can say is you love your DOOOOOM spreading don't you?

I played most of the day yesterday and saw nothing of what you portend. There were players everywhere, on Virtue, many calls for MA teams, people lining up at WWs and people flowing in and out of the MA buildings.

What I find sadly funny is the following fact:

Simply put, people are crying because they got caught doing something they were not suppose to and are indignant that someone actually had the audacity to do something about it. All this well it's the Dev's fault for leaving in the exploits - hogwash.

It's called common sense and the understanding of right and wrong.

I do think the OPs idea is a solid one, and maybe the Devs will implement something like it soon. Nothing is ever too late and the changes they have put in place now are quick stopgap measures and may change in the future.

So to the rest of you, get over your righteous indignation, it's really wearing thin.

I finally unpublished mine for the sole reason I was getting people to play it but they would rank it but not give any feedback. Kind of hard to see it getting 2 stars but then no one tells you what the problems were so I could fix em. =[

So I just unpublished and let it sit.

OP is just another DOOOOOM spreader, trying to stir things back up.

The Broadcast in AP on Virtue scrolls by so fast with requests for MA teams, anyone trying to read it would have a tough time.

The only people that got hurt were those that were exploiting and good riddance to them anyway.

Edited because I can't spell

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Q) “If I powerlevelled a character, am I going to lose them?”
A) Probably not. Only the worst of the worst, exploitive, powerlevelled characters will be removed from the game. We don’t take retroactive punishments lightly, but some offenses are so egregious that no one would question their intent and those ill-gotten gains should be dealt with. I just want to emphasize that no one is looking to ‘punish’ anyone here, but rather remove the rewards of exploitive behavior.



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This is going to hurt....

It's unfortunate that you feel you have to do this.

But essentially you have not cleared anything up here, you have simply explained why you are therefore going to do it anyway in the face of the cancellations.

You are committing an injustice by doing this. Perhaps I shouldn't care, but any step taken that will severely reduce the population of the service directly affects ME.

At any rate, good luck Matt.

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O come on Wepps, he states clearly the worst of the worst. If you have truly believed all this time that people have not been banned for breaking rules in the game of COX then you need to come out from under that rock you've been hiding under.