RabidBadger

[ QUOTE ]
My biggest problem with the MA is that Peregrine and Grandville are now ghost towns. I can't find anyone to team with to do lvl 50 stuff except AE farmers. I don't mind soloing at lower levels, but at 50 I do mostly Trials and SF/TF, which takes more people. Guess it just shows that the majority of players are perfectly happy farming away rather than playing the game.

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't forget the other side of this coin. I've seen numerous broadcasts in AP to the effect of "Lvl 46 AE team lfm, no lowbies". Ironically, the person broadcasting this message is usually level 6. He doesn't want the team to carry YOU on their backs, that would detract from them carrying HIM.

Seriously, anything that makes AP less lowbie friendly is probably not a good idea.

This is lost on several of the people that have been playing for under two weeks yet have a Kheldian. The fact that a large portion of the player base seems to consider differences in level to be meaningless may be one of the more destructive aspects of AE.

The other day I'm on with my 50 fire/kin i get a blind invite. I've got my flag set to lft, so, even though it's not how I prefer to make contact, fair enough. I join up and start checking my teammates out. Sure enough, they're between level 6 and 10, lots of AE badges, no veteran badges.

Me: Uh guys, I'm more than 40 levels above most of you, whats the upside to me joining this team?

King n00b: Doesn't matter

Me: huh? How exactly is a level 8 gonna help me at all?

King n00b: It's auto-sk, we're all the same.

Me: Dude, you've got like 3 powers.

King n00b: I've got 6 powers

Me: Facepalm <quits team>

Trap of the Hunter

Thing is, there's really nothing to prosecute. RMT doesn't break any laws, only EULAs, so accounts could be banned, but thats about it. IIRC the blizzard suit wasn't really about gold trading per se, it was about spam. Keep in mind, that this was against a US firm, so US anti-spam laws would apply. i don't know that the same could be said of a foreign RMT outfit. Odds are they operate from a country with no laws concerning spam.

As far as comparisons with RIAA, MPAA, etc, keep in mind that there are international agreements governing intellectual property. I don't know that there are any such agreements that are related to the issues involved in RMT.

[ QUOTE ]
The complaint button is there for a good reason. Somepeople may put fowl language or offensive material (sex/race bashing etc) that should truely get reported.

[/ QUOTE ]

We're not allowed to talk about birds now?

[ QUOTE ]
<QR>

After reading this thread up to Phillygirl's response, I felt there was something that needed to be said...

If you feel a mission is exploitive, report it. If a GM feels the arc is exploitive they'll pull it. IF it isn't they won't. Pretty simple.

We as players cannot ban arcs. Only the GM's/devs can do that.

[/ QUOTE ] Problem is, I strongly suspect that not very much evaluation occurs. It seems that if a mish crosses a complaint threshold, it is auto-banned. Combined with the fact that some players think that everything beyond ERP is exploitative, and this is a fairly problematic solution. I have an idea, how about if you think a mission is exploitative, you don't play it!

Why is the first instinct of so many on this forum to go running to mommy?

[ QUOTE ]


Maybe I missed the email, but I thought we had been told that MA was as "good a place as the rest of the game" to level a toon to 50? You know, not in six hours or anything but.

[/ QUOTE ]

#1- Maybe you haven't been paying attention, but MA is a MUCH BETTER PLACE to level a toon 1-50 than anywhere else in the game.

#2 - People keep bringing up teh fact that the dev's said, in, like, one interview once, that MA would be an alternative to the regular content and you'd be able to go from 1-50 doing it. My question; "So what?"
It's obviously broken, unless the dev's meant to create legions of Kheldians who don't have a single veteran badge and who don't know what an SO is. Is it now legally binding that we have to be able to use MA to go from 1-50 FAST?

[ QUOTE ]
Okay, in that case, let me pose a second question.

Should custom MA critters give more xp/tickets if their difficulty is set higher? The idea seems to fit in well with the dev's idea of risk vs. reward. More powers to use means more risk to the player, so a larger reward seems logical.

[/ QUOTE ]

No. If anything, the reward they give is already too great.

[ QUOTE ]
If I wanted a story, I'd read a book.

[/ QUOTE ]

I suspect there is no danger of that happening.

[ QUOTE ]




Oh, you mean, like the entire game? The Dev's have stated on numerous occasions, that they are not targeting farming in the game as a whole, that they will nix exploits/exploitative farming, and that MA is not to be used for farming.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, and they've been doing a great job of stomping out farming in MA. Complete and total control there, I'll tell ya. MA is used for farming and will continue to be until they reduce the rewards. The lack of action taken by the devs shows that they understand what a bunch of brownnosing RP'ers don't; they can't or don't want to ban everyone.

The plural of "anecdote" is not "data".

Are you seriously suggesting that story driven MA content comes anywhere close to the number of mish's built for farming? Do you turn off broadcast when you step into AP?

Let's do a thought experiment. Do you think that if MA offered average rewards consistent with typical pay, but not rising to teh level of a good demon farm, that it would have even a fraction of the players that it does now using it? MA is for farming, no matter what teh dev's say.

I believe it was you that quoted the dev's saying that they'd never be able to get rid of ALL farming, which suggests that they'd like to get rid of farming, but realize their limitiations, or at least would like to get rid of some farming.

[ QUOTE ]

Why? They've said, even quite recently, that they'll never be able to get rid of all farms. However, they've also specifically said that the MA is not to be used for farming. As such, they can take whatever definition they have for farming, and apply rules to the MA system that they don't need to do to the rest of the game. What is allowed in the MA does not need to follow what is allowed outside the MA.

[/ QUOTE ]

On the face of things, this is patently absurd. MA is used for nothing BUT farming. No one cares about your fan fic.

And if the dev's were interested in getting rid of farming, wouldn't it make sense to start with the portion they have complete control over?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't really get how "You are not to use the MA for farming" is anything but clear.

[/ QUOTE ]

For one, the definition of farming is anything but clear.

[/ QUOTE ]

While the line may be fuzzy, "meows" very clearly took a flying leap over it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. And the dev's took the appropriate action by removing it, even if they were "forced" to let it go until exactly the moment that the reactivation week ended. That said, they never should have let that exploit go live to begin with, and they need to take responsibility instead of putting it on the players.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't really get how "You are not to use the MA for farming" is anything but clear.

[/ QUOTE ]

For one, the definition of farming is anything but clear.

[/ QUOTE ]

Only meaning is, doing something over and over and over when it comes to game terms. Thats it. That s farming in an MMO. No other meaning no matter what someone wants to believe.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats an incredibly stupid definition. How many times is too many to repeat something? If I made an all Sapper mish and repeated that (which I intend to do just as soon as I get done repeatedly slamming my testes in a car door) would I be farming?
By a strict reading of that rule, this game is nothing but farming, as I'm constantly repeating content. I think you've out-deved the devs here, as they certainly don't agree with this definition, or demon farms, warrior farms, etc would have been removed long ago.

[ QUOTE ]
I don't really get how "You are not to use the MA for farming" is anything but clear.

[/ QUOTE ]

For one, the definition of farming is anything but clear. Some people want to reduce it to a phenomenology, "If I repeat the mission because I enjoy it, it's not farming." Even the definition of "unintended statistical advantage" that the devs gave is too vague. Tell me how much is too much or I will decide for myself.

The bottom line is, if they don't want me doing something they need to put a technological control on it. Failing that they have to give crystal clear guidleines. If they leave an avenue open for me to generate fast XP, I'm going to take it. I pay for the game, and I'll do whatever the game lets me do if I so choose. If they want to boot me for playing their poorly designed game in the most efficient way that's fine, they just did their competition a favor.

That said, I do believe that excessively lucrative farming is destructive to the longterm health of the game, but thats the dev's problem, not the players. When it was available, the players voted with their actions, and they overwhelmingly chose MEOW. It's the devs job to make sure that this is under control, don't try to outsource your job to me (again, since they seemingly want us to create content for them) by doing through stupid dictates what you should have done through solid game design.
They obviously rushed MA out without thinking through the implications. They need to admit they were wrong, make some changes, and deal with all the butt-hurt.

[ QUOTE ]



But, more specifically, your thread is akin to this:

The police tell everybody that it's illegal to steal cars, but there are no laws specifically against it, and the laws that do exist are very hazy on the difference between buying a car and stealing one. People have been protesting that that should be allowed to do what might be considered stealing a car, or might be buying one, they're not sure. The police ignore it and arrest people stealing cars. People who have been arrested are very vocal about their arrests for stealing cars. The police AGAIN tell people that it's illegal to steal cars. At teh same time, they leave ton's of ownerless, brand new cars in teh streets with teh doors unlocked, the keys in the ignition, and a sign that says "Free cars, come get some!" Then you stand outside the police station, with police officers around, and ask a passerby if they think it's okay to steal a Ford instead of a Nissan. Also, the police are elected every month, and if you don't like teh laws that they enforce, you can kick them out of office

[/ QUOTE ]

Fixed it for you. Better analogies next time, plz.

[ QUOTE ]
I see no reason not to take Speed Boost.


[/ QUOTE ]

There are several, allow me to list some:

"SB plz"
"SB plz"
"SB"
"SB plz"
<sb already applied and nowhere near close to running out>"SB plz"
"No SB n00b, now I have to wait for it to wear off!"
"SB plz"
"SBplz"
"SB nao!"
"SB"
"SB plz"

you get the point. I respecced out of it on my fire/kin troller and never looked back.

I will reiterate one last time; this is not because of any inherent security feature, this is because no one uses them. If the market shares were reversed, there would be no PC viruses.

<and yes, I understand that the OS architectures and permission structures are different and the viruses would not be the same, but this does not change the point.>

No to throw credentials around, but I'm an information security professional (I know, I know "you must be a devil with the ladies"), and, while nothing is 100% risk free, I'd say that CoX is about as risk free as you can get. The forums actually would present more, although still very limited, risk than the game itself.

[ QUOTE ]
<qr>



The Devs cator to them, like this is a new form of PVP, as referenced several times above.

I use the Market to IO my toons because there is no other way to accomplish that task.

I have said, and will always say that the prices are extremely excessive, giving the rate people can earn Inf, and drops in the game.



[/ QUOTE ]

The market is teh new PvP, and I stay gankin' you.

[ QUOTE ]


Not true 100% of the time. I've petitioned clear infringement cases and have found them to not have been changed after months have passed. Conversely, I've petitioned other clear cases who got gen'd 2 days afterwards.

It depends entirely on the GM who gets the petition.

[/ QUOTE ]

^ Working towards Hall Monitor badge.

Angry poster is angry.

It's a clear clone, open and shut case. Stop the protest and let everyone get back to their ERP with that cute little cat"girl".

Does it suck that there are quislings that feel the need to report clones? Sure. But the player must have known that what he wqas doing was against the rules. A stupid rule? One that everyone breaks? Absolutely. You play, you pay. Time to man up and move on.

</worlds smallest violin>

The real question is "Why in the hell would you delete a lvl $50?"

Surely the time that you put into getting that is worth the $10 to buy a new slot or a server transfer.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
To all good things ...

*RIP*

[/ QUOTE ]

yes, well if you go to the dev's corner, and look at the AE thread That posi created there today, which is now over 200 pages, that he is planning on erasing toons that were powerleveled using the rikti comm officers.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll believe it when I see it. He might as well be handing out free subscriptions to CO if he does that.