RemianenI

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I hope this is some sort of bug and not WAI. I fear the Devs gimped any allies because they were being abused in farms and have gone way overboard as usual and made them sucktacular.

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None of the more notorious farm methods used allies (they just got in the way) except for stationary ones (like a bubbler, "I'm staying right here!"). The problem seems to be on indoor maps. My solo arc has an OP ally (she's supposed to be a demigoddess, a handmaiden of Frigg) and she works fine on outdoor maps but put her indoors and she turns into basically a freed hostage. It's annoying but I just stick to outdoor maps if I want to use her.

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Then there's the kind of REALLY BAD I like to play, which I guess you could define as TOTALLY RUTHLESS. I am bad, I want to take over the world and rule it with an iron fist, and I will squish any insignificant peon who gets in my way. That's the kind of bad I want to see more of, because there is practically none in dev-created content.

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It's been done. I think the man's name is Nemesis?

I prefer the completely sociopathic kind of 'bad'. Jack the Ripper, Zodiac, even the intellectual, conniving type like a Kyle Craig (google it if you don't know), Patrick Bateman, Joker, Jigsaw, and the like. In my view, losing 'stuff' is meaningless since it can always be replaced. Taking the most precious commodity humans have (life, love, family) is true loss and that's what a really bad person does.

To that end, I don't think there are any arcs that are allowed to be truly evil.

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If they want to race to 50 only to discover that 50's just the same as 5, more power to them.

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Circuit_Boy, you seem to have a "Me & Mrs Jones"-esque relationship with the word 'specious'. Especially since the above quote reeks of speciousness. People like to say the game is the same at 50 as it is at 5 and it's always a lie. ALWAYS, without exception. Are there similarities? Yes. Just like there are similarities between tankers and brutes. Are tankers and brutes the same? I'll let you tell it.

Please point me to the new class unlocked by reaching level 5. Point me in the direction of the 50 who constantly has to deal with "miss spam". I have a level 5 controller. Why can't she summon her pet? Or get on ITF/STF/Hamidon teams? Then again, I was going to head over to the store and sell off all these useless recipe drops I got. Oh wait.

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Is it quantifiable, as the engineers and pseudo-lawyers around here want? No, but that's the very nature of qualitative words like "exploit" and "exploitation".

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Funny you try to say 'exploit' used in reference to this game's mechanics is not spin....but then try the old 'look over there!' PR trick. You seem to advocate a very liberal definition of the term. Problem is, we're talking rules for daily conduct here. ANYTHING the players create in MA can be labeled an exploit for any reason and with no explanation. That's a problem given the fact the system was meant to ENGAGE the playerbase, not instill paranoia in them.

If you want people to follow your rules, tell them what those rules are. If I make a mission ideally suited to fire tanks and/or brutes and then assemble a team of fire tanks or brutes, is that exploiting? YES, by the current prevailing (read: murky, vague, unsubstantiated) definition.

As for farming, are you kidding me? If that's the case, my accounts are in serious peril. I mean, I have one character that has done the FrostFire mission 8 times (once for everyone in the team). OH MY GOD, I'm going to hell, aren't I? And let's not even get into joining teams that ONLY do radio missions, one after another, for hours. I have no fewer than 5 characters who have seen (and beaten) T3h PwNxx0rz more than 4 times each.

Words like 'exploit' and 'torture' are self-serving. They only benefit the person (or persons) using them as weapons. I know people who would consider it torture (or rather, "cruel and unusual punishment") if they don't have access to certain retail outlets or food (the word 'porterhouse' is used a lot). They will tell you to your face with all the conviction in the world. Would I consider that torture? No. And neither would you or many other people. Does that mean it's not? No. It's just being used in an entirely self-serving manner. Gee, that sounds eerily like....

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Like I said, I knew the story was not for everybody, and am not really surprised that some people complained. But if the Lesbian Hellions joke can go on for several months on these boards, I didn't figure that a story depicting Lesbian Hellions would be "inappropriate" in the MA.

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Heraclea, you're no fool. I've seen much of your work here and I played this arc. You HAD to know that there are numbskulls who play this game that subtlety is a curse word to. That arc was awesome (I 5-starred it on both my accounts) but I knew the Puritans among us would scream, moan, and gnash their teeth.

My only problem with "The New MA Order" is the lack of parameters. If they just came out and said "All arcs must be able to pass 1950s era censors", that would be one thing. But using nebulous definitions of 'farming' and 'inappropriate' isn't going to turn out well.

I hope this works out for you. I would suggest changing the arc to be more along the lines of a watered down National Lampoon. That would probably be the safest way to go about it. Having mature themes is bad apparently. I'll let you guess the possible whys.

I have 6 arcs queued up that I won't publish (unless I'm playing them with friends) for this very reason. I think the story focused ones are too Bret Easton Ellis/Andrew Vachss/Frank Miller for public consumption.

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XP and level 50 used to have some value in the game.

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When?

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OP, a correction. Rikti Farming: Destroyed.

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Oh! Just got done with my first successful run with an easier minion group and nets more xp.

Thanks Posi!

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Really? So this new nerf was nerfed cancelling out the nerf to create a better MA with even more XP's? YAY for nerf nerfs..!

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Still making tweaks. Should be finalized soon.

However, since the ban hammer and report happy people are so abundant i'll just unpublish the arc while i'm offline and only publish it when I want to farm.

Genius!

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This is the part that the farming reporters don't get. There are at least half a dozen other mobs/mob types that work just as well as Rikti Comms did (maybe 15% less xp) and the resilient have already switched to those mobs. Heck, two people I know PLANNED this and set their missions last night. The difference is, these folks have learned not to open their pieholes and keep this stuff to themselves.

What's especially sad is how people who have been here 5 years, still don't realize that this is a speedbump. What happened after the purple patch? Did farming die then? How about when burn was nerfed? Anything? Or when rikti monkeys got nerfed? Or the original Rikti Comm Officer (and Death Shaman) nerf? Smoke Grenade nerf? Oh oh oh! I5! That musta killed farming!! WHAT?!? It didn't? XP range nerf (both 'dead xp' and the Brickstown tram-based one)?

Please! AE is only "destroyed" for the sheep. If you're a farmer and this is "the end" for you, guess what? You were never a farmer to begin with. Admittedly, neither am I, but I know more than enough of 'em. Over the years, I've watched them change their game and adapt to anything and everything the devs thought to do....and still grindin'. I don't hate farmers or badgers or RPers or newbies or casuals or PvPers or any other group. They're playstyles and just as valid as my own.

AE destroyed lol. Hot_Head, just wait for someone to publicize the next group to farm. You can then follow everyone and do this all over again!!!

Stark, is this the only MMO you've played? The "issue" you bring up has occurred in every MMO since Meridian59 opened. It's the same as "where's the best place to lvl at X?". It's the same issue MMO developers have to deal with when creating games. People want large worlds.....but zero travel time (to SEE the world). Most of the world in most MMOs goes ignored because it's not 'the best place to X' (where X can be solo, group, farm for X tradeskill materials, or what-have-you). And you're lamenting the fact that people aren't playing your arc from among the hundreds of thousands of arcs out there?

Anyway, the beef you have can be blamed as much on the newspaper/scanner as the MA. Your story arc isn't going to get played unless you (or others) promote it. Even if every farming mission in the MA were removed, that would be the case. Your arc is as unique as every other arc.

opprime, your count is off. Villains don't have influence and heroes don't have infamy. So your list is only THREE that are universal. Influence and infamy are the same currency, just exclusive to their sides.

Anyway, this just sounds like a 'woe is me' OP with farming as the villain. Like most examples of that mindset, it's wrong but never would the person admit that perhaps fault lies with them rather than some outside element.

Red_Zero, the method you use is awesome....if you only intend your arcs to be run by 50s. As has been said before, a level 25 auto-SK'd to 50 is still a level 25 (they have no tier 9 or most powers that a 50 would use regularly). A 50 auto-exemp'd to 25 is still a level 50 (just without access to those tier 9s and a few powers a 50 would use regularly).

The two arcs I've been working on are intended for 1-20 and 20-40. I haven't published them yet because they're not where I want them to be. I test them with both heroes and villains naturally in their intended range because, in my view, that's the only way to get an accurate accounting of how a mission performs with people of those levels.

I first test with a controller and defender. Then a tanker. Then a dom and corrupter. The last ATs I test them with are brutes, scrappers, and MMs (for obvious reasons). My arcs are story based and made for solo and small (less than 4 people) teams so that's what I test it with/for. If 8 man teams want to tackle it, they're welcome to but it's going to be easy for most (because it's not intended for them). It's like a 50 saying Dr. Vahzilok is too easy (he's level 20, he wasn't made for you).

Anyway, the #1 piece of sage advice I've ever seen on these boards relates to this. Several people have said, "I make my arcs for me. If other people like it, cool. If they don't, that's cool too" or something to that effect. That's what I've used as my mantra. If I like it and it works for me, that's all that really matters.

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I'm working on my first arc after being out-of-game for six months and have a million questions, but I'll keep my first question on topic.

What would be the best way to make a Custom enemy that isn't too powerful for low levels, but not too easy for high levels?

I want my arc to be friendly for all levels, but I really want to keep my custom group.

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What thePatriot said is very wise. I'll add my 2 quid.

Think big picture. Yes, your minion with a status effect attack isn't hard by himself. But put two or three or four of them together and it spells 'One to teleport' at the lowest levels. Also, I'd recommend testing your custom mobs with a defender or a controller or dominator, NOT a scrapper or brute (or MM). Keep in mind that at low levels you have the triple whammy of weak powers, few slots, and poor enhancements. Also, define your range of 'low level'. Some people think it's anything below 40 (it's true!) while others see it as 1-10 and still others define it as 'pre-SOs'. Figure out how YOU define it and then work from there. If you're going to put EBs/AVs in a mission, note in the description that a team is recommended.

I've run a lot of low level (and 1-54) arcs since I14 went live (probably upward of 400) mainly because I want my first two arcs to be 1-20 and 20-40 and I wanted to see what worked and what didn't (overall, not just for my own characters). So I'm trying to get a feel for what works and what may not, right now.

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I ran the Chillions one at level 2 or 3 on a blaster. It was easy (just as, or even easier, than the Origin mission arcs). I did have it on Heroic, but turning up the difficulty for lowbies is kind of silly. Were you playiing it on a defender? I'm not sure how bad that might have made it...

EDIT: Oh, wait, I always forget. I have both Sands of Mu and the Nemi Staff from my Vet Rewards. Could very easily be easing my personal pain a lot!

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Level 19 Inv/Mace tanker. 2 acc, 1 end redux in each attack. 1 end redux in every toggle. Sands of Mu & Blackwand (rarely used due to redraw). It was the character. I redid the arc and steamrolled it with a dom, a corr, and a defender (and I won't even mention what happened with the brutes, scrappers, and MMs I took through it). Probably why that character (my first tanker, rolled in '04) has been in the teens since I4. We'll see how she does with a pocket kin though.

My problem with the missions was endurance. She does crap for damage to begin with (in addition to doing the most heavily resisted damage type) so 'miss', 'avoided', and 'deflected' were just agonizing.

I have some questions for the creations posted after my last post.

Are these arcs 'team required' (or even 'recommended') or are they solo friendly (except where noted)? I know Speedy's is team recommended (you can't possibly be level 10 by the fourth mission running solo on Heroic). I've been running into several low level missions that seem designed for low level teams (with minions set as 'Hard' instead of Standard and such).

The Chillions is just brutal at low level. Ice armor on mobs is ridiculously overpowered when you don't even have decent enhancements (or the slots to put them in).

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I decided to move to very long missions and just played one already mentioned here: #6017 Mercytown...

The context is villainous, but it is neutral if not heroic actions. First definite 5 I've played.

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Mercytown is awesome!

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"Sorry pal, your name aint on the list - w-wait" *URK*
Oh look at that, your name was on the list after all.

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Awesome!

Okay, I'm about to run several arcs in this thread. Will give feedback (as usual) on each. I tend to avoid arcs with customs in them since it's such a crapshoot (they're usually WAY OP) but I'll make an exception this time.

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Heh...I had an odd thought yesterday. You know those old school comics where the hero faces his "dark side"? I thought it would be cool if the mission could just copy the whole player character over as the final boss, and you'd have to face yourself.

Not that they'd probably put a lot of work (which it would likely be) in to make that possible, but it struck me as a cute bit.

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Whoa! You get Lincoln Logs and then you immediately start daydreaming about Robotix?

One step at a time, hoss. Let's get it so the logs don't splinter before we move on to plastic!

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Solution: Only the smart & talented people can give feedback. The rest of you GTFO my interwebs.

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I like this one.

When can we expect implementation?

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Soon™

And Whataguy, your WoW reference doesn't fit. No one here cares what WoW's community is like. Should people ignore what they perceive to be the erosion of civility in this game just because WoW is worse? Should your kids be allowed to be unruly because they're not nearly as bad as Samantha's inmates-in-waiting? Your dog should be allowed to pee all over the house because "at least he's not like Fred's poopmachine".

I've seen this in literally every MMO on the market. Someone complains about the community and someone else pipes up, "At least it's not like WoW's!!!". Seriously, give it a rest. It's old and tired, even if it does have somewhat of a ring of truth to it. Much of the same behavior people complain about in WoW exists here. Think I'm wrong? How many people avoid pickup groups here? Same in WoW (more people for obvious reasons). People beg for PLs there just like they do here (it's just that each CoH server doesn't have seemingly half the population of Uzbekistan on it).

Seriously, turn the page. Find a new poem to recite.

Honestly, I've rated well over 130 arcs since Friday and I haven't gotten any backlash from it. The only ones I've really hated have been some arcs that were victims of the system's limitations, I learned later (that being, every custom group is level 1-54). I even spent a few hours helping someone with their farming arc that was originally made for one powerset (fiery aura tanker, brute, or scrapper). I basically explain what I liked and didn't like, and make suggestions on improving it. I'd agree that if an argument was brewing, I'd just drop it. These things are extremely personal to some folks, after all.

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As much as self-promotion makes my skin crawl, you might want to try my arc #1472, Hearts on Fire. I actually got feedback from a level 4 Stalker complimenting me on how well balanced it was, which was probably the most valued feedback I've gotten so far.

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This is probably the best arc I've played in this game, ever. It infuriated me and then gratified me shortly thereafter. I just did this mission on a level 13 brute (missed the 'heroic' part on it) and man, I sure didn't want to fight at the end. I wanted to HELP the boss! Right after I made a grease stain of the dude at the beginning of the mission.

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I'll suggest my own Save the Spiderlings mission.

Any character should be able to complete it. I would say even at lvl 1 - though I didnt' test that....Hmm...should do that.

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I just did it at 19 and it rocks. Doing it now at 12 (and will go down from there). The only issue with it that I had was the abundance of end drain from the Mu mystics but that's not a big deal, really.

Devices.

Gives a minion Web Grenade (and that's IT) on Standard level. Bosses get Web Grenade....and Taser (and that's it).

Great guide. It's just kinda jarring to see you end it with a question you answered in the beginning.

Specifically:

[ QUOTE ][*]Sheesh, look at how many friends you got! Why do you need to two-box again?

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...because some days you just can't face another PUG. You might do it because it's nice to have a group that always goes at the pace you prefer.

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Couple things:

- Multiboxing, like many things, gets easier with practice. I've done up to 8 at once (mostly in 90/10 fashion) in other games and if the game is slower paced, running a full group of 6 wasn't very difficult (since only 2 would typically be active).

- Complementary powersets can often improve each character's build. This is a no brainer, really. A friend of mine, when he opened a second account, rolled a kin defender. Guess what his main is? That's right, a stone tanker. It allowed him to shake up his build somewhat, gaining effectiveness in one area, without losing effectiveness anywhere else (at least that's what he says). When I decided to try a stone tanker, I made sure to roll her on the other account from my kin defender. Just in case.

- If you 2box in a PUG, you deserve whatever happens to you. If you think PUGs are bad when you're playing ONE character, good Lord, you don't want to imagine how bad they are when you're on two (or three or four).

- Get a friend to help you start Positron's TF and duo it. As chaotic as it can be at times (depending on your duo), it is a blast. Doing this will either make you swear off 2boxing forever or it'll get you so addicted to it that a half decent PUG will frustrate you (GOOD PUGs will make you forget you even have a second account.....sometimes).

Nowadays, I only 2box for badges (like Spelunker), mayhems/safeguards, and support (fire tanker with perma ID, squishy with sonic dispersion's benefits or clear mind or fortitude, etc. Buffbot basically, in DAoC style). Prior to the AV->EB change, I did Dr Vahz with a 19 fire/dev blaster and 21 MA/regen scrapper then again with that scrapper and a 20 DM/regen. I've found playing two scrappers pretty much requires a particular setup (for me, it's two monitors/keyboards side by side in front of me) but that might differ by playstyle.

Great guide though!

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I play pretty much every AT, and as any of them I really dislike this attitude in a team, even as a scrapper. I'm sorry, but if you're going crazy all over the place and not sticking with the team, you're a liability, even if you're a good solo player. You're just going to stress out your teammates and get somebody killed eventually, especially if you actually nitpick about someone "stealing your prey." It's a team, kills are shared, get over it!

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With all due respect, there's a difference between playing a regen and being a regen. It's the same way as an Empathy defender with healing aura on auto. Are they really an empathy defender? The regen scrappers motto can be summed up in one word: "Go." In that respect, there's only one AT in Co* that can relate (Brute). I have yet to find another scrapper secondary that allows me to be Paragon City's very own Weapon of Mass Destruction. SR? Great...until your dice turn against you. Invuln? Meh, maybe at one time.

One reason why I cannot understand how a scrapper of all ATs could not like Speed Boost. A power that makes you 'Go' even better is BAD?!? So you ran into another group of baddies. So? Kill them and move on.

I'm not saying I agree with these regenisms in their totality. Personally, I adore kinetics and dark defenders (as well as rads) because they enable me to 'Go' without having to concern myself with anything but maximizing the fatality rate of my adversaries. Though sometimes I have to wonder if the villains are cowering in fear because they see me coming or if it's something the D3 did. *shrug* Six of one....

There, I replied!


Seriously, this is one heady bit of info to digest. Keep it comin'! All the various build threads help me to wrap my head around all the myriad possibilities of the system. Also keeps me from farkin' up.

Comicsluvr, I empathize with your viewpoint. I too spent days "raging against the machine" and trying to illustrate why this system would be more bad than good for CoH/V.

Of course, then I actually went to Test and tried it out. Shut me up good.

First off, the expectation that the tutorial is going to teach you "everything you need to know" about the invention system is misguided in the extreme. Just like powers descriptions don't teach you "everything you need to know" about powers. The tutorial teaches the basic information you need to know about the systems and how they work. That's all it NEEDS to do, and it accomplishes that very well. If you want in-depth information, there's a wealth of it available from the oft-misused thing called "the community". The tutorial isn't going to tell you what "the best" set bonus is for your character since that's highly subjective. It's not going to tell you that SOs are going to provide a higher bonus at 22 but will degrade over time thus possibly making IOs (or a mixture of IOs and SOs) a better value for your character.

Personally, I don't see what the big deal is with lots of excess inf floating around the game prior to the consignment house's rollout. There was little to nothing to DO with the inf prior to this. If you weren't an Icon junkie or altaholic, it would be easy to accumulate hundreds of millions from regular gameplay. God forbid you actually exemplared ever, it'd get even worse. But then, I have over a dozen characters on 5 servers who have 1 or more million influence and they can't even choose travel powers yet. They benefited from that excess influence when it was handed out in the form of costume/bio contests (which don't seem quite as lucrative now as they once were).

My suggestion to you is, log in to Test and look around. It'll give you your own educated perspective on the system, rather than having you form a misguided, largely incorrect viewpoint based on bits and pieces of information with no context. Protea's findings mirror my own and have helped me form a battle plan of sorts so I'll hit the ground running, so to speak, when this goes live. For the first month or so, I see my low level characters becoming very wealthy, very fast (relative to what they could expect during i8) and thus, being able to fund their own enhancements much sooner. But, I see a major discrepancy between the performance (in this respect) of my heroes as opposed to my villains (who might have quite a tough row to hoe).

This guide is great. I hope to God that millions of people read this (at least until I7 comes out) and take it to heart, though I doubt it.

One more thing:

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If you are doing TF/SF/trials, make sure that you know the level range. For respec trials, the level range is big. If you want a person to be exemplared/malefactored, you should inform the person when asking.

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Also, PLEASE know the approximate length of the TF/SF or trial. There are few things worse in this game than putting together a TF team and having it fall apart after 2 missions because 6 of the 8 people in the team only had an hour or so to play. Team leaders should be straight forward with this information but people joining teams should also know that a TASK FORCE or TRIAL is not a 15 minute, pop on and log off kind of deal. It can go very fast but I always prefer to hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Great guide!

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In a free society you cannot convict someone on intentions, only on actions.

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This is incorrect. Tell me what an 'accessory' really does? Depending on jurisdiction, that term can have a pretty wide definition. In some, if you know of a crime being committed (or being planned to be committed) and don't report it, you are an accessory. If you are in a group of people just hanging out and one of those people commits a crime, you ALL get rounded up and arrested (the charges probably won't stick but that's of small consolation when you're in jail and supposed to be at work, is it?

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Check again. Thought-treason is not a US crime. Treasanous ACTS are. And you cannot convict someone just because they associate with someone else who has provably comitted a crime.

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Again, this is an example of idealistic, "on paper" thinking. Anyone who has lived as a minority in a major urban area can relate stories to you about how this happens more than you'd like to admit. Here's a question for you: Let's say you pick up a friend to carpool to work. Now let's also say you're a minority in what might be considered a vehicle that's "too nice" for someone of your race and/or age range to have access to (in this instance, it was a Cadillac Allante) and thus, you get pulled over. What happens if your friend has a dime bag of weed on his person? You BOTH go to jail, don't you? Whether you knew he had it or not. How's the saying go? "Possession is 9/10ths of the law"? Would you get convicted? That would depend on the quality of your legal team (and/or any political influence you might have).

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It is **illegal** for a police officer to beatt someone senseless. Thats called undue force. Furthermore what a police officer may do in cases where they have a suspect withotu evidence is *very* limited. Finally, a polcie officer may NOT arrest anyone for a crime they have not yet comitted.

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Not touching this one. As a black man born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, I can dispute this one from experience. I've seen more than a few friends beaten to within inches of their lives and not have anything particularly harsh happen to the officers involved (sorry, a week's suspension with pay isn't my idea of a stiff punishment. That's a freakin' VACATION). I'll just say that from my experience and point of view, the above quoted is idealistic at best and doesn't jibe with reality (at least not reality in NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston, Detroit, or 'Frisco/Oakland). I'll ask you to google 'Abner Louima' and 'Amadou Diallo' and lemme know if the punishment fit the crime(s) in those cases (on both sides).

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Are you suggesting that violence outside of the law is sometiems justified? If so, then how do you seperate the violence of your heroes from their opponents by anything other then arbitrary POV?

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I'll take this and agree wholeheartedly with it. Violence outside the law is often justified, I'd say. Especially when the law plays favorites. Justice can be bought and sold every day. I'm sure everyone can name off an example of justice being foiled due to outside influences (hi O.J.!). Also, punishments are often not nearly as severe as the crimes they're set for. Plea bargains are also commonplace so those penalties get watered down even further. Ask any man what the penalty should be for someone who rapes his wife or his daughter. Ask a mother what the penalty should be for someone who murders their child. I assure you those penalties won't quite jibe with how justice is meted out in reality. Here's something I can guarantee you. The person who can afford a high-end legal team with their hands in the pockets of the folks in power will grant you far more leeway in what you can do and get away with than the dude with the public defender. So yeah, sometimes "frontier justice" is the way justice is served best.

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I DO think however that art emerges from a societal context and that what we see in-game is at least somewhat reflective of the political times we are in.

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No doubt. Though I suppose there are folks who think the tremendous surge in popularity of shooter type games (many of which are set in the very place where much of the world's oil comes from) over the last 15 years is purely coincidental.

I will say this, while it is all great to talk about things in a "best case scenario" tense, human behavior often doesn't adhere to that line of thought. A person's experiences will determine their views on various subjects like this. I can tell that my experiences differentiate me from many of the "mainstream thinkers" of my generation. I remember when the size of my lips was considered a BAD thing. Now people (okay, women of a particular racial group) are paying thousands of dollars to make their lips the size of mine.

This country has ALWAYS had a double standard applied in every day life. I've benefitted, in some cases, from that double standard (being the godson of an 8-term Congressman has its advantages). Despite the hours and money I spent to seat this administration the first time (come on, I lived in Texas when Jr was governor. WHO KNEW? ), I will admit that they've been pumpin' the pooch for quite some time now. But it's not any different than some past administrations. Worse, perhaps but they've all had low points and moronic moments. Although, I often get a good chuckle out of those people who wanted to impeach Bubba just because he got a hummer in the Oval Office. Doesn't look so bad now, does it?

The changes that would be necessary to make the current system conform to the idealist perspective would be extremely costly in both money and man hours, though it would offer tremendous benefit. But I think the idealistic views expressed in the original post just don't jibe with the reality I've lived in for 33 years. Just like how I'm treated differently when I walk into a high end store based on how I'm dressed (and I'm sure women can note similar examples elsewhere), the idea that somehow this and similar situations are a recent occurance is just laughable to me. And the provision that "forced" Afghan nationals to register was one of the precursors to the Patriot Act, if I remember correctly.

Good point, Bio_Haz. While I don't agree with it, I can understand someone feeling a bit put off by the change. It's fairly drastic (but in a good way IMO). Look at it this way. You had it the way you liked it for two years. Now others get a turn to have it the way they want.

I kinda know how you feel since, to a certain extent, I've been in your shoes. I loved the old style, Chun Li-esque Storm Kick in the MA set. When it was changed, I was like "Aw man, what the hell is this/". Now? Love it to death, but for far different reasons. Before, I loved it for conceptual reasons (it just looked cool and Chun Li was always my favorite Street Fighter character. Well, Chun Li and Guile ). Post-change, I loved it for effectiveness reasons.

I think the new claws with regen can do without Stamina but I'm still getting it. I'll just push it back into the 30s. Since I'm skipping Revive and MoG (unless they revamp those too....what? it could happe...okay, nm ), it'll fall somewhere in that range. More of an embarrassment of riches than a necessity, I think.