Shadowstepper

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With the patch that hit test tonight, comms are now minions. Custom mobs all now get a base ranged attack

Wooot...exploits fixed.

Now..the secondary result of this is that now all the custom mobs are standardized based on difficulty setting. Pick your animation basically...so much for flavor.

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well, blame the mewomeowmeow crowd for ruining it for both creative farm creators and arc writers alike?

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Nope, saw it coming a mile away. As long as there is a significant difference between the way things function, people like myself will endeavor to find the ****** in the armor to provide better reward/time. Most of this patch I am in complete agreement with...

Ranged attacks in all sets so that there is no more safe hover..hoorah.
Comms...meh, no biggy. I used custom bosses personally. comms were such a pain to herd up.
Now instead of soloing dozens of bosses, I'll solo 30 or so Lt's at a time, or freaks, or council, or whatever else i determine dies faster for the better reward on my next couple days of speed trials.

The only thing I didn't like was the standardization of the sets...truely is nothing but pick your animation now.

yep...new patch notes, down with comms, up with freaks

With the patch that hit test tonight, comms are now minions. Custom mobs all now get a base ranged attack

Wooot...exploits fixed.

Now..the secondary result of this is that now all the custom mobs are standardized based on difficulty setting. Pick your animation basically...so much for flavor.

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FFS. The Dev should just change the damn Comm Officers already so that we may move on to another topic where people whine some more.

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I've been farming Comm Officers for about 3 hours the other day, and went from level 1 to level 37. That's not normal for any standards, but the truth is, you can do the same thing by making LT's with no defense power, or bosses that have no range combat.

Nerfing Com Officers won't draw the attention away from MA, it will just change because MA will still be the best option for farming xp. What will most likly happen is XP will be nerfed for all MA content, and may be the easiest solution.

Replacing the nerfed XP with more inf or more ticket drops might be a good way to balance that. Honestly, I'm not really interested in powerleveling any of my toons other than my dark/em tank I just started who is now level 37

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You must play blueside. Because 3 hrs with a good farmer on a Lib TV run will net you that as well. The difference is now it is available to everyone, and everyone can participate in the killing instead of sitting at the door.

Aye, but until a patch hits test/live, or a notice goes out to the populace. I consider them a viable mob. Espcially since they were changed to do specifically what they are currently doing by the Dev's in response to loosing exp from their spawns.

Heck, it isn't event that bosses are prefered farms. Bosses and higher are the only thing that provide any kind of challenge to my purped out brute. minions..lts...wheat before the sythe...most times they can't even do enough damage to me without herding up two or three groups to be able to overcome my defense and regeneration...and this is solo. God help them if I actually have something like a buffer/debuffer with me. Why should I be penalized for creating content to provide myself with a challenge. Do people farm minions, yes, LT's yes, bosses yes...that's the solution...we'll make it so you can only have all EB's or AV's inyour mission. Yeah, that will show those farmers a thing or two...

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Like other have said the issue with the Ritki comm officers is that they provide way more XP than a typical minion (between 2500-3500 XP per kill in a recent run for my level 48). The XP is set that way because the officer is supposed to be able to summon in help. Teams get around this by using AoE to mezz/knockout the group before the portal opens. Bug abuse? I wouldn't call it that, but I think it needs to go away.

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*humor on*

/e gasp

Stratagy....heaven forbid...must be an Exploit, you are here by banned.

*hummor off*

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I have a great SG and playgroup, with our own global. I'm lucky that way. Should those who don't be abandoned to the mercy of spam?

"Don't bother to clean up the environment; we'll all just form our own gated communities and pour our raw sewage over the walls. Problem solved!"

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Yes, like I said, the tools have been provided. If they can't or won't elect to use them, it is their choice to live in the muck instead of cleaning up their environment. And yes, I am all for living in my gated community, but my gated community isn't poluting over the wall either, we use the wall to keep other peep's garbage out. Very poor analogy.

We use our sg community to clean up our chats. It isn't my desire to force anyone else to a number of post/min limit. If you find they are spaming...report it. It really is that simple. Just remember, you can be found to be guilty of frivolous reporting and have your chat rights revoked as well. Govern your own play and leave others to theirs.

5x reward is exagerating. But that's just it, The extra reward is for killing them after they get their portal going... They used to have minion level exp, but all their summond mobs gave exp too.

Your choices are basically have a significantly harder minion(if you don't get them before the portals open) that only gives minion exp...or you give them elevated EXP based ont he fact that they CAN cause several more higher damaging mobs to show up that you get absolutely 0 reward for. Personally I like the current path just to balance out the slightly higher challenge for the fight.

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We've added a TON more datamining hooks exclusively for Mission Architect as well, so we can easily see spikes in aberrant behavior. Spikes point us to exploits, which points us to log files, which reveal the identities of exploiters. So if you find a really big exploit in the system, I'd encourage you to PM me or another Dev and try to get your Bug Hunter badge, as the alternative is not pretty.

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How does it say to deal with missions you think are expoits...through a PM to a dev, NOT that report for content button. Leave that for real issues like language, sexual content, trademark, etc. A farm is not an exploit. Exploits should be reported via PM to a Dev.


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I'm pretty sure Positron meant you should PM the exploit before even publishing the mission.

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No duh, if you think it is an exploit and report it as such, you definately SHOULD NOT publish a mission using it.

But you are missing the point...It says specifically how to deal with exploits in the MA and they don't include that report button people favor so much for ANYTHING they think is a farm. There is a BIG difference between a farm and an exploit.

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It would be interesting to see how many people would call it an exploit if a mission has very effective rewards - and nothing else. No comm officers. No units that can't or don't fight back. Nothing specifically wrong with the mission - just really good xp/rewards with possibly a lame story. I wonder how many people would "report" such an ebil mission.

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That wouldn't be an exploit, but it would still be a mission whose only purpose was to support farming, and my understanding is that such missions should be reported. The fact that the GMs removed a whole slew of arcs with "farm" in the title a week or so ago supports that presumption, but I don't have a redname quote on hand for it. Maybe someone else does.

I wish the devs would just create a separate tab for farm arcs and be done with it. There's obviously a demand.

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As has been explained, the removal of a quest is an automatic function of number of reports vs number of total plays. It is done automatically by the system. Customer Service doesn't get a living envolvement until the 3rd such action on the same mission unless there is a petition by the party.

Once again it is people reporting things that aren't actually against the rules. If the mission contains an exploit, PM a Dev as per Posi's letter. If the mission has poor artistic content rate it low...that is what the stars are for, your precieved enjoyment. If the mission contains issues that are reportable ie trademark, profanity filter bypass, sexual content, etc...report it for content. Farms are not illegal. They are not encouraged, but your farm is another person's challenge mission.

There is an ignore spammer button for those who repeatedly broadcast the same message over and over. Yes your box will fill, but it is mainly full now of bs rmt accounts that get dumped after one day of email anyway.

However,

Johnny LFAEfarm
Billy Lf meow
Shawn Meow LF4m
Sam LF 50 Kin for Ticket farm
William Lf sewer team
Jack lowbie kin lft

There was no spamming there. Just people looking for what they want to do. If you don't want to deal with farmers, hit ignore, If they are spamming the channel, use the ignore as spammer command.

You have been given the tools to fix your problems. Honestly, I don't even have broadcast in my chat window unless I am having trouble filling a TF and need a pug...even then the pug is just to meet the min number to start. Why do I not have broadcast up you ask? Because I have an outstanding SG/Coalition that I have helped build that can always provide me with outstanding groups of people I want to play with, if that play is farming, TF, mission arcs, patron runs, whatever. I might suggest you find people like yourself, form a SG, and wallah, you never need broadcast again except to spam your chosen zone for recruitment......

But then wouldn't you be a spammer too?

Also, I decided to check your second letter from Positron you have listed. Again, we thank you for your creative selection to support your postion, but here is the bottom half of the second letter from Positron you posted.

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Re: Ticket System

This system is in place so that we can better control the non-XP, non-Inf. rewards that are handed out by the system. Since the Architect determines a lot of the details of the mission, this puts a great amount of control over drops into their hands. With tickets, we can set a threshold that is simply unsurpassable.

That said, we want the ticket system to mirror in quality and quantity of reward as compared to the bulk of the normal game as much as possible. The idea being that if you levelled a character from 1 to 50 exclusively in Mission Architect, you won't be gimped or OP as compared to a level 50 that never touched the system.

Re: Exploitive Behavior

Now, I am not going to say we've covered EVERY edge case, but we've covered every edge case we could think up. Suffice it to say that if you have read everything here and have a "great idea on how to break the system", chances are we've thought of it and made it impossible.

We've added a TON more datamining hooks exclusively for Mission Architect as well, so we can easily see spikes in aberrant behavior. Spikes point us to exploits, which points us to log files, which reveal the identities of exploiters. So if you find a really big exploit in the system, I'd encourage you to PM me or another Dev and try to get your Bug Hunter badge, as the alternative is not pretty.

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How does it say to deal with missions you think are expoits...through a PM to a dev, NOT that report for content button. Leave that for real issues like language, sexual content, trademark, etc. A farm is not an exploit. Exploits should be reported via PM to a Dev.

If you didn't like a mission, 1 star it. That simple. If you think there is an actual exploit, don't even rate it, just send a PM to the Dev and call it done.

And I point and laugh at that gripe too the identity just helps me keep them separate...especially when they give it to themselves.

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To quote someone else here on the forums:

"It's like stream of consciousness without the consciousness."

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and

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I read it as: Okay, devs' balls in your court

God I need to get my mind out of the gutter.

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LOL! (in real life)

'Course, it wouldn't hurt for the devs to interact with the playerbase and let them know that the devs know the difference between people and missions that pursue XP and those that break the rules. Because a lot of *players* and *posters* either don't think the devs see the difference or don't think that there *is* a difference.

C'mon devs, it's time to settle this simple matter with a few short words from you.

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Here you go, direct from Positron:

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I should probably take this moment to talk about what the Mission Architect is not meant for. It is not meant for “easy leveling” or “badging” or “farming”. Those are things that we specifically wanted the Mission Architect NOT to do. This may be a disappointment to some, I know. The goal was to give creative minds an outlet to tell the stories they have in their heads. We didn’t want the system clogged with Farm missions, so actually finding someone’s story that they lovingly crafted became more a chore than it was worth.

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This Mission Architect primary purpose is for telling stories. We do not want people to spend days making a great story only to find it shuffled into a list of missions with titles like "Get your Rikti Monkey badge here", "10 badges in 5 minutes", "Down on the AV Farm", etc. etc.

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Now, I went back and read that letter from Positron...lets look at what you left out....

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To that end, the Rewards in the Mission Architect are something we, ahem, discussed with raised voices time and time again. How much was too much? How little was too little? What limits needed to be put into place to stop farming? Should we even have such limits? Etc. In the end, we have a system that we believe is the best suited for what Mission Architect was made for, and is not abusable. Time and testing will tell if that is really the case though. Like the Invention System, there will be many iterations on the Mission Architect to make sure we get it right before it goes to the Live servers.

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So accordingly...There is nothing wrong with the way we have things until they are removed or changed due to testing. And while I do agree that mobs that can't hit certain people are an exploit..that is what we are stuck with if we want those sets of power combinations. I am a strong advocate of adding basic pistol/pistol whip attacks to all custom mobs.

Coke a Cola wasn't intended to be a consumer beverage, it was intended to be a headache medicine. Plans only work until they hit the first few seconds of the battlefield, then you adapt as you go.

Anything can be farmed if there is reason to do so...badges/inf/prestige/exp/merits/tickets. Are you going to nerf everything? Then why would anyone at all go see your story except your friends??? And if that is the case, why aren't your friends going to see your story already?

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sorry. Infinity has roleplayers too. :P. We just dont advertise on other servers like the virtue catgurl brigades. And don't get me wrong, I like smashing things too, i just wonder why people seem to always treat roleplayers like theyre a disease that needs to be erased from roleplaying games

I have nothing against you if you don't want to rp, I just dislike when roleplayers get treated like some sort of virus for having the gall to exist.

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My gripe is the complaining that someone else's playstyle/enjoyment interferes with their enjoyment of the game. I RP, on weekends, with my friends, in a D&D campaign that has been going on for almost 15 years. However, you don't see me yelling at the guys next door to stop practicing their band because we want to RP. It is the same principle. The main response was to the post earlier that didn't understand why non roleplayers were even playing a "roleplaying game". I'm telling you that I am not playing a role playing game, I am playing an action adventure game.

A farm is not an exploit. Period. A farm is nothing more than running the same mission over and over. Tell ya what...I'm gonna go farm the ITF. Sure I will get reduced merits but the amount of exp/inf/drops you get from all those juice EB's and bosses is outstanding. Prior to I14, I leveled from 35 to 50 in there constantly. Now I level in the Architect. Why? because now I don't have to find 6 to start, I can get the same effect solo if i want or with a full team.

Exploits like rikti dolls, vamp chambers, snake eggs...take them out. I'm happy the are out. But to try to say any farming is an exploit is just foolishness. I can farm anything. EXP INF Merits Tickets Prestige....anything can be farmed. All farming is, is finding the most effective means of achieving it.

I am one of the people who gets TF rewards reduced. Why? Because my friends and I love to speed run the things to max exp per hour. If i wanted a story I would read a book. I'm here to play, and when I play, I want the most for my time.

So what is the difference between me soloing through a set of rikti com officers collecting prestige/inf/tickets and mowing through a spawn on the wall for prestige/inf/drops? Niether of these provide any challenge to my brute, neither have me in any danger of death, both can be done at a high rate of speed, both can be fought at will since the wall spawns fast enough to do so and the AE can be reset at will. If anything the comms are harder for the reward as they all shoot me instead of rushing into the range of my footstomps.

The ae is fine, the exp is fine. If they would just give all custom mobs a generic pistol/pistolwhip ranged/melee attack so they would be able to hit anyone from any position, I would be perfectly happy and I am a farmer

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I really dont get the reference. the only Witnesses I can find any references to is a french film about people with aids. And if you're honestly comparing roleplayers to that in an rpg, you're an idiot. :P

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You must lead a very sheltered life if you haven't had someone try to give you copy of the watchtower in the early hours of the morning.

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nope, cant say i have. Had a jehovah's handing out minibibles at the college once though.

Besides, no offense, but I never got why people would wanna play a role playing game if they have no intention of role playing. :P

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To you this may be a RPG, to me it is a multiplayer arcade game smashfest. Roleplay requires an active participation I am not willing to give to something I am paying to play. I want entertainment, simple smashtastic hacknslash entertainment. Virtue is that way----->

The only exploit I currently see in the missions are the no basic ranged attack for most sets. I think all mobs should have a basic pistol attack or soemthing just to keep you from being able to hover above without being in danger.

Comm officer EXP is the lesser of two evils....basically you either get harder than normal minions for crap exp or better exp for a harder challenge. They took the exp away from the summond mobs already. That is why they have better than normal exp anyway. Now if they all summoned portals as a priority in the attack chain instead of one or two of them....I think it would be a different ballgame.

I stll read most of these arguements as

DEVS...Make them play like I want them to play.

I used to be a task force runner. I would run TF back to back to back, loaded for 4, collecting merits. I was one of the guys who would pull the average run time down, decreasing the merit values because I wanted to maximize my merits/hr not kill all that crap if it wasn't needed. Even then I was limited by a limited number of TF available. Now I have the AE. I can run missions for tickets for the same rewards I would have gotten from a TF...only now I can assist my SGmates level while I do it as well as rake in the prestige. SGmate is level 1...no problem....sg mate has some screwy build he is experimenting with, NP, SGmate screwed up and needs to respec bad...np. It is no problem because these missions everyone rants agains doesn't require a SEAL team to go in. I dont' have to worry about a PERFECT group to go in and fight the freedom phalanx. I don't have to worry about finding mentors for lowbies, I don't have to worry about lackies falling behind in a speed run to be eaten by ambushes. All these things are now available to me, and all for the same rewards I used to run with only 3 or 4 other people. 3 or 4 other people because those are the guys who I trusted to be able to do these speed runs and were available to do so on a regular basis. Now I just ask if anyone from my SG wants to tag along. This is my playstyle.

So...If my activities never see a pug, never hit a broadcast, am I still so bad? I stay out of Mercy and Cap. I don't enjoy that lag either. Why can't you join SG's that meet your intrest? Or create one?

actually....you can have several more than 3 defendable objects on a map....I know the carni commercial map can have 30

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If you read back you will see that it wasn't a blind invite and I was actually looking for an AE team when the newbs invited me....the mission they already had loaded was a Meow Farm that auto levels everyone up to the max level. I was just sharing my story of why this is a problem. You don't need to think all us are in the wrong because we are expressing our dislike for the farms that are causing problems.

If you don't think it is damaging the game, then you should check the drastic price drops on some items like Chronal Skip.

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So let me get this straight.....the increased quantity of recipies available as well as rare salvage has caused these prices to plummet, allowing more players to create tricked out endgame builds....even the casual players. So now...only the ultra rare "purps" are truely "hard" to get.

This is a bad thing how???

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Ok, honestly...what difference is there between this:

Lvl 5 troller lfsewers

and

Lvl 5 troller lf AE

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The difference is that the broadcast isn't "Lvl 5 troller lf AE" It's "Lvl 5 troller looking for AE farm."

The fact that the word farm features prominently in 90 percent of the looking for AE team broadcasts shows that most those people aren't looking for a team to adventure with. They aren't looking for mission content. They are just looking to get maximum exp and tickets per minute.

Personally I don't care about them farming. If that's what they enjoy then let them enjoy it. What bothers me about it is that I put work into creating a mission arc that is meant to be entertaining in every aspect and I get to watch that mission pushed rapidly down the list and get virtually no players. Meanwhile a farm mission, that is advertised as a farm mission, is getting 5 starred and tons of repeat plays.

As I said, I'm not against the farmers. I just kind of feel like I wrote The Wrestler and I'm looking at a box office take of 43 million after 18 weeks. Meanwhile Yes Man is at 229 million after 15 weeks.

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All I saw there was I'm mad because more people like farms than the artistic content I worked so hard for...

Bad news, books work the same way. You may write a great, moving, piercing piece of literature for the ages. That doesn't mean it is gonna make the best seller list where books tend to follow a standard goodguy/badguy/romance formula. You may be hailed by critics as the best thing since sliced bread, but you may only be read by college students forced to do so for the class and those same critics. I suppose then everyone else needs to be forced to buy the book too....

My point is, that is nothing but jealousy because people like playing those arcs more than yours. Either cater to the mob and get your ratings or be content in that your story arcs ratings come from those who care about such things.

My next thing is what exactly is wrong with trying to maximize your inf/prestige/merit/ticket/exp (whatever gets your goat)

If anything, since the ticket change, I farm people less and less since I get the same rewards as running with the 8 man as I do solo...

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Speaking of which, one can get in trouble for abusing the report system, so I suppose one could report as much as one wanted, if one wants to get in trouble oneself.

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[And I certainly hope that those who wish to abuse the system to harass folks for pursuing XP instead of RP will reap such rewards.

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Amen

So what's the difference between my running an arc that gives me 9999 tickets per run and speed running TF's for merits? Tickets give me 1 to 2 gold rolls an hour....TF I can do 80 merits for 4 rolls in the same time frame with my sg team. The mobs I fight in the MA most definately can hit me. They are all bosses.

Why do I fight in the AE instead of the TF runs? Because I enjoy the challenge of going toe to toe with dozens of bosses at once. The reward is better in the Task Forces, but the challenge just isn't there.

FYI these are redside numbers.